Even Atlas Needs A Hug

Chapter 1: Even Atlas Needs A Hug

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It was a beautiful stretch of country, but neither of the visitors were looking down the valley at the lake below. The woman shivered a little as she stared at the hole, a mixture of memories and the early winter chill getting to her, despite her coat.

She took a few steps forward, then, before spitting into the hole. The hole that had once held the basement to a house. Before various government agencies had torn through every millimetre of it, wanting to make sure Dr. Fairbanks hadn’t left any of her experiments hidden in a dark alcove.

“Did you want to head back now?” the man with her asked.

Despite the cold, he was wearing fairly minimal clothing. A tight suit designed with the latest fabrics to handle both flight and combat. A minimalistic wrecking ball emblazoned the suit’s chest, a symbol that most Canadians would recognise. In part because it was a very direct reminder of his superhero name: Captain Wrecking Ball.

“Just a couple more moments,” the woman replied.

Her winter gear certainly didn’t scream ‘superhero’ the way his did, but her height and build would have led most to at least suspect it. Which was correct. Though she was still new to the business.

She was still new to a lot of things about her life.

“She… Mu—Dr. Fairbanks was really off the deep end those last few months,” she said. “That’s why she came out here. She couldn’t even pretend to be a superhero anymore. Well, that and I was… it was getting hard to cover up what she was doing to me.”

The man crossed the short distance between them, pulling her into a hug.

“It’s good to get closure,” she whispered. “I’m still here while the stupid cottage is long gone. I win.”

The last bit was said with a glare towards the pit next to them. She kept glaring for a few more moments as her breathing slowly returned to normal.

“Thanks for bringing me out here, Ilya,” she said.

“No worries,” he replied.

He was about to offer to head back to Calgary again when his phone began to buzz. Pulling it out of the pouch he saw the number was the CSCS (the Canadian Supers Coordination Service).

“Hello, Captain Wrecking Ball and Thief here,” he said.

“Captain, we know you’re on vacation, but something just came up and you’re the only asset nearby,” a male voice said on the other end.

“Understood. What’s wrong?” Ilya asked.

“The Americans need help, down in Montana, actually,” the man said. “Some wingnut calling himself ‘The New Firestorm’ torched a few city blocks in Missoula before making a break for it in a stolen car down the I-90, heading East. They’re giving you full border clearance to intervene.”

“And Thief?” he asked.

“Thi—oh, right. You think you need the support?” the man replied.

“I don’t know, but we’re halfway up a mountain and I flew her here, so…” he left off the rest of the comment, hoping it was clear while not wanting to waste too much time.

“Understood. I doubt they’ll complain about getting two supers,” the man replied.

Thief adjusted her backpack and the pair put on their headsets. Her hands were going to be full holding on to Ilya as she clung to his back, while his would be used for easier steering. Sure, technically he could fly in any position, not really requiring lift in the traditional sense. Drag, however, still mattered. Especially when pushing into the transonic range. Which he was going to be doing if he wanted to catch a speeding car with a 300 km lead on him.

So she pulled over a few yards away and got out of her pickup.

A young police officer spotted her walking over and seemed rather nervous.

“Ma’am, this is a dangerous situation. You should probably turn around,” he said.

He looked like he was basically still a kid, now that she was a bit closer. Though, she supposed her standards for ‘kid’ had expanded over the years. All the same…

“I’m not planning to get involved. Just wondering what all this is about,” she said.

“Some Numan nutjob,” a slightly older cop said, keeping his eye on the highway. “Went on a rampage in Missoula, and he’s headed this way.”

Claire nodded, wondering about what the best response was.

“I just hope that guy from Canada gets here in time,” the young cop said, as she realised he was shaking a little.

“Canada?” she asked.

“One of their heavy hitters was apparently right on the border. Since we’re in the middle of nowhere he was the closest help,” the young cop explained.

“He’s cutting it close,” the older officer said, the comment drawing Claire’s eyes down the highway.

She could just barely make out a single dark SUV being chased by what had to be a half dozen police cars. The crack of gunfire reached down the valley a few moments later, to make sure attention was on the approaching chase.

Claire tensed, seeing how nervous the police were, when another source of movement caught her up. Glancing up, she saw a dark shape approaching from the sky. A shape that very quickly grew into a discernible view: a muscular man carrying a woman on his back.

The man was wearing a dark blue and silver outfit, a symbol on his chest. She couldn’t see the woman very well until the pair landed just in front of the blockade. Which also gave her a sense of scale on the pair. One that left her impressed.

The woman was taller than almost all of the cops present, and, despite her winter coat, Claire could tell she was solidly built underneath.

The man, however… he had to be pushing seven feet tall and he was built like a linebacker.

Claire found herself understanding what people meant when they talked about the awe of being around a heavy hitting Numan. Especially as the human tank in front of her floated back into the air.

“Sorry it took so long, I’m not used to the air patterns around mountains,” the large man said, a nervous smile on his face that humanized him in contrast to his herculean proportions.

“Cap, you were still pushing 900 km/h,” the woman who came with him said, in something akin to a stage whisper.

“Well, we’re just glad you made it in time,” the local sheriff said, though Claire could hear the stress in the man’s voice.

The Numan, ‘Cap’, gave a nod, before turning towards the approaching convoy of vehicles. He then shot forward, accelerating to well above highway speeds in just a few seconds. The next moment there was a crash, as the Canadian man’s fist slammed into the front of the SUV.

The driver was thrown out, though managed to cushion his blow with a burst of flames from his hands. Despite the cushioning, the suspect still rolled a few times after hitting the asphalt.

“I would like to offer you the chance to surrender now, before anyone gets hurt,” the Canadian man said.

He got a burst of flames to the face for his troubles, the perp scrambling towards the police line. With the perp looking their way, Claire saw the way the man’s eyes burned. She shivered as she found herself reminded of someone having a bad trip. Only… only with flame added to it.

The police opened fire, only to have their bullets blocked by a wall of flame. Before the flames settled, the perp burst out of them, tackling the woman who’d arrived with ‘Cap’.

While the perp seemed frantic about the fact the woman he’d decided to grab as a hostage was a fair bit taller than him, he clearly didn’t see an alternative, so pressed a hand against her neck.

“No one come any closer, or she gets it!” he hissed, sounding as wired as he looked.

The police began backing away, giving the man space. The woman, however, smiled. When the perp tried to push her forward, she didn’t move.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” the man hissed.

“I’m just curious,” she said, her voice perfectly calm. “What is it that I’ll ‘get’?”

“What is… my flames!” the man replied, eyes twitching.

However, while they looked manic, Claire swore there was something missing from them.

“Oh... These flames?” the woman asked, lifting a hand and causing a small fire to burst up in her palm.

The man stared in fear, before pulling his hand away from her neck and trying to start a fire on his own. Only for nothing to happen.

The woman slipped out of the perp’s grip, twisting to pin him on the ground. “Sorry, pal, but you picked a super to take hostage. The name’s Thief, and… well, I’m sure you can figure out my power.”

“Y-you took his power?” the sheriff asked.

“Temporarily. I can only hold someone’s powers for so long. So, stick him in something fireproof while you can,” Thief replied.

The police nodded, pulling the perp (now screaming threats) into a nearby van, covering his hands and mouth in some sort of fabric. There were so many new materials these days that Claire could barely keep up with all of them.

Her focus wasn’t on the fabric, though. It was on this Thief woman. And how… if she’d been there, then… though she’d have probably been barely a child at the time.

“I could have handled him, you know,” Cap said, floating over and looking embarrassed.

“Oh, I’m sure you could have, sweetie,” Thief replied with a smile, before her face shifted.

She looked like she was going to be sick, and ran over to the side of the road. Only, instead of vomit, she threw up a burst of flames. The woman fell to her knees, spasming slightly.

Instinct as a mother kicking in, Claire rushed to her side, grabbing a shoulder to steady her. Cap grabbed the other one, having been slower to react, but faster to travel.

“Are you ok, dear?” Claire asked.

“I—th—eurgh,” Thief gagged as the flames slowly subsided. “I’ve felt gross holding powers too long, but… not like this…”

“Come on, we’re going to have you give those back right now,” Cap said, picking her up.

The pair were beside the police wagon a moment later, Cap’s acceleration being quite impressive.

Claire rushed over to her pickup, digging in to find some crackers and antacids. She knew that throwing up fire wasn’t the same as throwing up regularly, but… well, she suspected it wasn’t too different.

By the time she had everything the pair were sitting on a guard rail, talking with the sheriff.

“—a couple days, maximum,” the sheriff was saying. “It’s a pretty open and shut case. I do want to thank you again for your help, Captain Wrecking Ball and Ms. Thief.”

Ah, so that was the man’s name. Claire supposed she could have guessed it from the symbol on his shirt, but it was a bit of a mouthful as a superhero name. She focused on offering the crackers and antacids to help settle Thief’s stomach.

“Ah, right. Mrs. Rose-Schaefer… would you be willing to give a witness’ statement as well? I doubt we’ll need it, but more evidence always helps the trial go smoother,” the sheriff asked.

“I can, yes,” she replied.

She preferred to avoid showing up in too many documents, even now, but saying no would have been a bit suspicious.

“Why do they call supers ‘numen’ here anyway?” she muttered. “I don’t want to be called ‘Newman’.”

“I think it’s cute and clever as a name,” Ilya replied, while adjusting the jacket he’d changed into.

He hadn’t wanted to walk around the city in his costume, and she couldn’t really blame him. He got enough stares just being 208 cm tall. Heck, she was getting enough stares for being 190 cm.

“Let’s just find something to eat and then a motel,” she said, knowing she was being a bit grumpy due to her hunger.

“I think I saw a steakhouse and grill on the way over?” Ilya offered.

“Oooh. Obviously that’s where you eat when you’re in Montana,” Thief replied with a grin.

Sure, she hadn’t really eaten at the Canadian restaurant chain named after the state much, but still. It felt like going to France without getting a croissant. Or Denmark without getting a danish. You had to.

Luckily it wasn’t much of a walk, and the pair were led to a table soon enough. She let out a sigh of joy as she sat down, finding the restaurant was finally warm enough to take her jacket off, after spending too long in the just too cold police station.

She then grabbed a menu, wondering what the best options were. She was about to ask Ilya what he was thinking, when she realised she was being watched.

Looking up, she saw there were, in fact, several eyes on her. Or, more accurately, on her change collar. The device that gave her the body she wanted. The body that fit.

It was wonderful in every way except the fact that it was so distinctive.

“Small towns,” she muttered under her breath, trying to ignore them.

That effort proved rather more difficult, however, when whispers started spreading. Well, barely whispers. She could make out plenty of the things people were saying, especially the closer tables. Hammering home that she wasn’t in Canada. This wasn’t a country raised on English two-faced politeness standards to the same degree.

There were definitely ways that honesty had advantages, but, right now, it was spoiling her ability to focus on her—

“Hey there!”

Thief blinked at the cheerful tone, looking up to see the woman from the highway. The one with blonde hair starting to turn white. She was smiling away, yet Thief could tell from her body language she was also challenging the other patrons of the restaurant.

“Oh, h-hello,” Ilya said, offering a nervous smile.

“I was just in to grab a bite to eat myself, and I thought I’d check on how you’re feeling. Are you doing better now, dear?” the blonde woman asked.

“Ah. Yes. I’m feeling much better,” Thief replied.

“Do you mind if I join you two? Eating alone has never been my favourite thing, and I figured I could give you two some tips about what to do while you’re stuck in town twiddling your thumbs,” she, Claire (that was her name), asked.

“Sure, sure. And maybe you can help us figure out what to choose,” Thief said. “Since you probably know the restaurant better.”

Claire lit up. Sitting down she went over the menu with them, advising them to both go for the steak, since they were no doubt starving. The other patrons were quieter with Claire there, while the blonde seemed to be an endless source of advice on the town and surrounding country.

The meal had gone quite delightfully, Ilya waiting for some brownies and ice cream for dessert when Claire’s cell phone rang.

“Ah, sorry. Sorry. It’s probably my wife. I’m kind of behind schedule with the whole police statement,” she said, pulling it out to answer.

Claire hadn’t gotten up, no doubt expecting it to be a call of only a few seconds. However, with the slightly loud nature of her older model of phone, both Thief and Ilya made out the words ‘tree… on the barn’.

As Claire said she’d be right home, Thief and Ilya exchanged looks. Ilya’s being a questioning ‘should I offer?’ while Thief’s was a firm ‘yes, you should’.

“I could help with that,” Ilya said, once Claire had hung up. “Uh, we didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but…”

“Oh, I really couldn’t bother you with it,” the blonde woman replied.

“It’s really no bother,” Thief said. “Like you said earlier, we’ve got a few days to burn doing nothing while we wait for the trial. And it’s not much effort for Cap to move a single tree.”

“Mhm, plus I could fly back,” Ilya added. “So—”

He was then slightly distracted by the arrival of his brownies, thanking the waitress and letting Thief do the talking.

“You’ve been very kind to us each time we’ve run into each other, we’re more than happy to return the favour,” Thief said.

“I—” Claire began, looking like she was still going to say no.

Only to have something click in her head. Thief wasn’t sure what had clicked. That look didn’t quite fit with giving in after polite refusal, though. Which put Thief a little on edge.

Was Claire secretly some sort of supervillain? The mountains were a good place to hide out in that case. Thief had learned that as a teenager with her… with Dr. Fairbanks.

Maybe it was Clairre remembering her tractor was waiting for spare parts. Or… something like that.

Thief didn’t want to think the other woman was a villain. Not off something so small, at least.

“I suppose it really wouldn’t be that big of a deal for a Numan like Cap here, and it would be a big help,” Claire said with a smile. “Alright. But you’ll have to promise to accept a thank you casserole from me some time, got it?”

“Food is always good payment in my books,” Ilya said, putting down his utensils after finishing his brownies.

“There is one little issue, though,” Claire said.

Thief and Cap both stared at Claire’s truck. The back was completely full with farm supplies. The rear seats were… not completely full, but even a kid would find it cramped back there. Neither Thief nor Cap had any hope of fitting in there.

Which left only the passenger seat at the front. It was pulled forward enough she was pretty sure Cap would never fit. Thief might find the leg room a bit lacking, honestly.

“Ah. That is a bit unfortunate,” Thief said. “Still, I think there’s an obvious solution.”

“Mhm,” Cap replied, nodding. “Just give me one second.”

Thief blinked, turning to him, however the herculean man had already taken off into the air.

After a moment, the tall woman let out a sigh, seeming to realise what was up. Claire remained quite lost, and was about to ask what was going on, when she noticed someone flying in to land.

Only, the figure that landed was not the towering adonis that left, but a short (though generously built) redheaded woman… wearing a change collar.

“Problem solved. Now I can sit on Thief’s lap,” the newly arrived woman said.

“You could have also flown along behind the truck,” Thief said.

“But cars move so slowly, it’s boring to fly behind one,” the petite redhead said.

“I… you’re… I didn’t realise change collars could do that,” Claire said, mentally comparing Cap’s former height to this new one.

“Mhm, you can imagine how surprised I was when I first saw him in his other form,” Thief replied.

“So you—wait, which pronouns should I be using, then?” Claire asked, suddenly worrying she’d been misgendering her new acquaintance all day.

“Hm? Oh, I’m chill with whatever, but I’m a guy,” the transformed Cap said. “I just… being stuck as the ‘mighty Captain Wrecking Ball’ all the time is… I like spending time like this and not having those expectations on me.”

Claire found herself staring. There was a hint of a loneliness that she couldn’t help but find familiar in his eyes. Though it did fade away when Thief stepped over to hug him.

She found herself glad to see that. It was good to have someone.

“Only issue I have is that I’m not sure the seatbelt’ll fit about both of you,” she said as she walked over to the driver’s side.

“Ehh, I don’t really need a seatbelt,” Cap said with a shrug.

“I—yeah, I guess that’s true.”

Tonia hurried over, ready to help Claire in any way she could. Only to be left doing a double take as two other women climbed out of the large truck.

One woman was a bit intimidating, a good chunk over 6 foot, and looking like she might be a rugby player (even if it was a bit tricky to tell under the winter jacket).

The other one, though, was tiny and kind of adorable. She probably looked smaller than she was due to the combination of standing beside the tall brunette and the fact her mane of red hair had some seriously impressive volume to it.

They were also both pretty young looking, probably in their mid twenties?

“So, is that the barn?” the short redhead asked.

“Mhm,” Claire said, climbing out of her side of the truck.

“Who’s all this then, dear?” Tonia asked.

Now, she had learned to be a bit cautious about terms of affection for her wife around strangers out here in Montana. But… well, she saw the short haircut on the taller woman, and the way said taller woman was looking at her companion. So Tonia felt pretty safe they weren’t going to be homophobic.

“These are… what should I call you again?” Claire said, calling out to the redhead.

“Well I’m… wait. Right. I kind of flubbed hiding this side of me,” the redhead muttered.

“How good are you two with secrets?” the taller one asked, seeming more amused than concerned.

Tonia blinked, looking over at Claire. She was good with secrets, but she did have to wonder what her wife was dragging her into.

As a response Claire indicated to her neck. Which didn’t seem like much of an answer. Until Tonia realised there was a faint red glow around the necks of both new arrivals.

Change collars.

She was quite familiar with those. Jenny and Morgan’s little collaboration to try to make up for the limited number of clients Morgan could see.

They weren’t exactly a common sight in the back forty of Montana, however. So she was still a little surprised. Though, also, understood why Claire had brought them up.

“We’re pretty good with secrets,” Tonia said.

“Ah, good. I didn’t mess up, then,” the small redhead said with a grin.

“Eh, I figured we had plausible deniability anyhow. It’s not like anyone would have believed them if they said you were Captain Wrecking Ball,” the brunette replied.

Tonia blinked, looking at the petite redhead wandering over to the barn. “Wait… the Captain Wrecking Ball? The strongest hero in Canada? One of the top active heavy hitters worldwide?”

“Really? He’s that high on the rankings?” Claire asked, blinking. “I guess I should pay more attention to the news.”

“I get why you don’t, but—wait, he?” Tonia said. “But the collar?”

“Escapism,” the brunette said. “He always says it’s nice to escape from having the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

Tonia nodded, eyes drifting to her wife again… before a crashing noise drew her attention to the barn. Sure, she’d seen Numan strength in action before, but that much strength from so small a figure still felt unreal.

“Is there anywhere you want me to put it?” Cap asked, carrying the fallen elm as sh—he walked back over to them.

“Just in the field should do,” Claire replied. “We can use it for firewood.”

“Gotcha!”

Tonia nodded, before turning to the brunette, who’s name she still didn’t know. “And what has you two here in Montana?”

“Ah, well, I grew up in Alberta, so we were visiting… then the authorities put out a call, and we were the closest supe—‘Numans’. At least Cap was the closest heavy hitter with flight. And I tagged along so I wouldn’t be stuck up a mountain in the back end of nowhere,” she explained.

“Don’t sell yourself short, Ms. Thief. You helped take down the wigged out pyro,” Claire said. “That power leaching ability of yours is very impressive.”

“Ah, thank you. Though the use of it really scales with who my opponent is. Send me against a random guy with a gun and I’m not much use,” Thief replied, putting on a bit of a strained grin.

Tonia nodded, before looking over at the thin band of light on the horizon. “I’m not sure the guest room is ready for anyone to stay over, though. I put some of the stuff from the barn in there.”

“Oh, we’re not staying,” Cap said, walking back and wiping his small hands against the thermal leggings he was wearing.

“But it’s too late to—oh. Right. You can fly back,” Tonia said, shaking her head. She was really getting out of practice at her reporting savvy out here.

“We’re stuck in the county for a few days, though. Until the trial for that pyromaniac happens,” Thief replied. “So, if you two need any other heavy lifting, just let us know.”

Tonia nodded. Right. Accelerated trials for Numans were pretty common now. At least if the crimes were powers driven. It was usually pretty hard to get reasonable doubt that someone did a crime when the crime needed laser vision and there was only one person in the state with any.

She wasn’t sure she liked the faster turn around and lower threshold of evidence, but it was popular with the general public.

Claire assured the duo that they’d be happy to ask if they found anything that needed doing, while Tonia still found herself wondering about the odds of it all. She put on a pleasant face as she waved the pair off, however.

Which, interestingly, proved to be Thief carrying Captain Wrecking Ball, the former using her leaching abilities to power the flight and strength of her… boyfriend?

Once the duo were over the nearest hill, Tonia turned to her wife.

“Why did you bring them back?”

The younger woman blushed a little. “They heard you mention the tree and Cap wanted to help.”

“We didn’t need any help, though,” Tonya said.

“Yeah, but, well… we should’ve,” Claire replied. “I couldn’t figure out a way to say no that wouldn’t be suspicious.”

“Mhm.”

Tonya didn’t like it. The odds that Captain Wrecking Ball came here. To the back end of Montana. The man who’d been called ‘Canada’s Powerjack’… running into Claire in pure coincidence…

She had to dig.

You are reading story Even Atlas Needs A Hug at novel35.com

Once more, Jenny had proven a life saver. It had taken her only a few hours to transfer Tonia files on the two new arrivals. There were redactions on both, but what was there was… interesting.

Thief had two previous identities. The more recent one, set up by the government, wasn’t all that interesting. A computer science major, worked for a fairly significant Canadian firm. The firm did turn out to be run by a supervillain, but she’d only been with the company a few months when that happened and had stayed in the position after the owner had been brought to justice.

The older identity, however… she was apparently the daughter of a Canadian Numan who’d gone rogue. Most of what her mother had done was blacked out, but it was clearly serious.

While it was interesting, it wasn’t grounds to suspect anything from Thief. Reports showed that her mother had been abusive and had been in prison for about ten years. Ignoring a brief escape. Where, yes, Thief had met her again, but the contact had been minimal and she’d helped send Dr. Fairbanks to prison.

And then there was Captain Wrecking Ball. His real given name was Ilya and… records were spotty at best. There was no last name listed. He’d probably been born in some place called Zelenogorsk. He’d been brought to Canada as a child (age 11 or 12) by a woman who DNA testing proved was not related to him. Between the blacked out lines Tonia could tell he’d also ended up a ward of the state, raised somewhat collectively by a number of Canadian Numans.

Sure, the mysterious background in Russia was odd, but lots of Numans came from shady backgrounds, rescued from gangs and the like. It was also over ten years ago, and he’d been raised to be a boy scout ever since.

Really, the biggest thing that stood out to Tonia was how young both of them were. They’d both been born after 2000… which did mean Thief was twenty six and Ilya was twenty four. Numbers that felt deeply wrong to her.

That was just her getting old, though.

“Those look like some very official documents,” Claire said, making Tonia jump a little.

“I thought you were still out with the cows?” she asked.

“No, no. After all the stress with the tree they weren’t really making much milk,” Claire replied, before leaning in to look over the documents. “So, what are you reading?”

“Can you forgive an old reporter for being paranoid?” Tonia asked.

“You’re not old.”

“I’m turning fifty this year. That’s pretty old,” Tonia countered.

“Middle aged, at most,” Claire replied, before picking up one of the pages. “Ilya… these are files on Captain Wrecking Ball?”

“Reporters don’t trust coincidences, alright? I just wanted to check them out,” Tonia offered in a weak defense.

“How many laws did Jenny break sending you…”

“Who said Jenny sent—are you ok, dear?” Tonia asked.

“This town name. Zelenogorsk. I… I swear I know it…” Claire said, barely more than a whisper.

“I looked it up. It’s in Siberia, and it’s apparently a closed city still,” Tonia replied.

“Huh… it does kind of sound like the name of an evil villain in a sci-fi movie,” Claire replied. “Anyway… apparently the defence attorney called me in to testify. I figure you should come into town with Abby, since she’ll be upset if I go into town twice without bringing her.”

“Deer Lodge barely counts as ‘town’,” Tonia muttered. “Our daughter needs higher standards.”

The vending machine in the courthouse hallway wasn’t giving Ilya many options to choose from. It was one of those ones that had twelve buttons, but each choice took up at least three of them.

“Sorry about dragging the case out with my testimony,” Claire was saying, somewhere behind her.

No name cola was always a disappointment, so Ilya didn’t want to pick that. Not unless the other options were worse.

“It’s true that he looked like he was on something. And whatever was up with him did make me sick,” Thief replied. “It’s just weird that the bloodwork didn’t show any drugs.”

He wasn’t sure if he trusted ‘Dr. Bort’. It was barely even trying to fake the copyright it was pretending to be, which didn’t lend to confidence in the flavour. So, probably not that.

“I heard there was a similar case in Idaho a couple weeks ago. Another Numan who went on a rampage, and then said he was drugged,” Tonia added. “They were probably just on something and it got out of their systems before they were tested. Numans do tend to have faster metabolisms.”

It was all down to ‘Orange Fluzz’ or ‘Vita Drink’. He wasn’t really that big on orange pops, and the Vita Drink had a little ‘new’ tag that looked less faded than the other labels. So he decided to gamble on it being mildly less likely to be expired and made his choice.

Thankfully he had enough American coins in his wallet to get a can.

Cracking it open, he had to admit it smelled a bit like cleaning supplies, but the side insisted it contained actual vitamins, so he took a sip before turning to rejoin the conversation.

“Our accommodations are being paid for by… someone. So I don’t mind a couple extra days enjoying high quality beef and the massaging beds at the motel,” Thief said with a grin. “Just wish the pizza place was better.”

“Yeah, you need to bake your own pizza if you want anything decent around here,” Tonia replied.

Ilya nodded, taking another sip. Only… he was starting to feel a little…

Why was Claire looking at him like… that?

Also, he swore he heard the police officers down the hall saying his name…

They were…

His head was hurting. The room seemed a little off kilter.

He tried to keep his balance, but it was getting hard.

Claire was lunging for him!

He pulled away, stumbling into the air as instincts told him to fly.

“What are you doing!?” he asked, confused by the sudden betrayal.

“Il—Cap, are you ok?” Thief asked, looking up at him with concer—no. No.

She was looking at him with disgust, wasn’t she?

Why was she betraying him?

She—oh no. Oh no. They found out, hadn’t they? That he…

He realised the police were pulling out their pistols. Surely they knew that those couldn—spacium. They had to have spacium bullets.

This had all been a plan to lure him out, so they could—could… well, he didn’t know. But it had to be.

He had to run.

He had no choice.

Ilya launched himself into the air, smashing through the ceiling. He kept climbing, trying to reach the clouds. He hoped he could hide there. To buy some time to think.

To work out where to run to. If they knew here then they knew back at the Keep. He couldn’t go back to Northford. Or any Canadian city, really. Which meant… which meant… not there. Not back there.

The three of them stared up at the hole in the ceiling. One moment Cap had seemed fine. And then the next…

“What just happened?” Thief asked.

“His eyes… they were like the defendant's were,” Claire added.

The others nodded. Tonia hadn’t seen what the defendant had looked like, but it was still pretty clear that something had been very wrong with him.

“If Captain Wrecking Ball goes on a rampage,” Tonia all but whispered, shivering at the thought. “He’d be pretty close to unstoppable.”

“Worse,” Thief said. “Unstoppable can’t fly, so Cap can cover more ground.”

Right. Claire had heard of Unstoppable. He was American, and had been active for over a decade. So news about him had managed to get under even the rock where she lived.

“How fast can he fly?” Claire found herself asking.

“He pushes into the transonic range. Properly panicked, he might crack Mach one?” Thief replied. “Definitely can do somewhere a little shy of a thousand kilometres an hour. I… I’m not sure what that is in miles.”

Claire nodded, turning to her wife.

“It’s worth it,” Tonia replied, her voice soft, before Claire could ask.

With that, Claire hurried into the nearest bathroom. A moment later she’d shoved the window open, and launched herself out of it. She didn’t usually fly anywhere near as quickly as this, so there was a bit of a thrill to it.

She tried not to get distracted by the pure euphoria of letting loose and flying at full speed, however. She had to find where Cap had gone.

After reaching a rather significant altitude, she stopped to look around, hoping she could still see him somewhere. Unfortunately there was a lot of sky.

Letting out a sigh, she pulled out her phone, knowing there was only one person she could ask for help right now. The person who’d upgraded her phone so that it could work at twenty thousand feet like this.

A robotic voice answered. “Hello, you’ve reached—”

“Jeeves, this is an emergency,” she replied. “Unless you can give me radar readouts for Montana, I need to talk to Jenny.”

“She’s in a meeting right now… I think the boys could help though, Miss Claire?” Jeeves said.

“The… right. The computers. If they can manage it on their own,” Claire replied, continuing to scan the sky with her eyes.

There were some whistling noises, Jeeves talking to the other computers in Jenny’s apartment. After a few moments the robotic butler switched back to English. “There are two objects that could be Captain Wrecking Ball. One is staying still over Deer Lodge.”

“… that would be me,” Claire said.

“Ah. The other is travelling at roughly nine hundred and fifty seven kilometres per hour in a north north easterly direction a few kilometres south of Great Falls.”

Right. Jeeves was ‘British’, so of course he was also using kilometres. Well, she knew roughly what it meant, and didn’t need to be overly precise just yet.

“Thank you,” Claire replied. “I’ll call back if I need an update.”

“Understood, though I must warn you he seems to be heading towards Canada, which has rather patchier radar,” Jeeves said, before hanging up.

Claire shot off in the direction given. She knew she was making a sonic boom, but, right now, she had bigger concerns. Captain Wrecking Ball was erratic and unpredictable. Which had the potential to be as bad as… no, she wasn’t going to think about that as an option.

She wouldn’t allow something like that to happen again.

It took her a few minutes to get to Great Falls, which she knew meant Cap was likely well past it. Since she didn’t see any fire or smoke rising from the city. She decided to take a slight gamble and keep heading in the same direction, not thinking there was any major reason for Cap to turn.

A few more minutes and a few dozen miles later, she spotted a speck on the horizon. Too high and fast to be a bird. Too small to be an airplane.

It had to be Cap.

She sped forward, focusing on the target and ignoring the biting cold of the air. Flat grassland and farms, covered in a light dusting of snow, zipped past below as her target slowly got larger.

His grey-blue costume wasn’t the easiest to pick out against the early winter sky, but there wasn’t much else up here to distract her.

Getting closer she slowed down, trying to move closer to his speeds.

“Cap!” she called out.

His head turned to her. While she couldn’t make out his expression very well, she could tell he was still out of it.

“I don’t want trouble!” he shouted.

She had to blink, having not expected that. “I don’t want trouble either!”

“I’m just trying to leave! Please! J-just let me leave!” Cap shouted.

“Why? Where are you going!?” Claire asked, slowly moving closer to him. (Well, relatively slowly, since they were both flying at hundreds of miles per hour.)

“I—I… I don’t know. But I’m not—they’re going too—please! Just let me leave!” he shouted, his tone sounding less and less grounded.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you need to calm down!” Claire called out. “You’re not making any sense!”

“GO AWAY!” Cap roared, before diving towards the ground.

Claire followed him. She didn’t know if he was actually going to be violent, but he was definitely irrational right now. She pushed herself forward, catching up and tackling him. She did her best to hold on, trying to slow them both down as Cap flailed and resisted.

For the first time since she’d done it, she found herself half wishing she hadn’t had herself made so small. She could barely get her arms around Cap’s larger than life frame. He was really something of a living colossus, so, even if she was pretty sure she was stronger with her abilities working at full power, he still had advantages with leverage. Plus, he was younger. She wasn’t that old, just yet, but it was still obvious he had more energy than her.

Reasoning she had to get through to him, she decided she needed to try a different approach.

“Please! Just talk to me!” she begged, having slowed them to a relative halt a few hundred feet in the air. “Please… Ilya.”

He froze, his struggles subsiding. “How did you… right. Right… NO!”

Before she could respond, Ilya threw his entire weight into driving them into the ground.

The soil was frozen and hard. Not that it made much of a difference. She could handle hitting solid rock at a faster speed. She had.

It did break her grip on him, though. And left her slightly winded as she stood back up.

Ilya was shaking as well, his eyes bouncing around without focus.

“I—I don’t want to have to fight. Please. Please. I’ll just go,” he said.

“Why? Why do you think we have to fight?” Claire asked, rubbing her shoulder.

Apparently that ‘landing’ had hurt more than she’d expected. Either she’d gotten soft or old age was getting to her.

“You’ve found out what I am… the US wants to make me an experiment again, don’t they? I’ve been sold out… I thought I’d managed…” he said, trailing off as he shook his head. “Haven’t I proven I’m a hero? Does it really matter that the Bratva…”

“What… no.” Claire said, a realisation hitting her. “No… in Zelenogorsk… th-they hadn’t managed to… I remember. There weren’t any children yet. It was just labs.”.

It had been creepy, she remembered that much. Interpol calling her in, with several of the other global top heroes… she’d still been so new to the business, too. Seeing those labs, set up by the Russian Mob for Numan cloning…

“There were three of us,” Ilya mumbled. “We were taken away from the compound for safety… Inessa was always sick, but… it was training. Constant training… until Nadia got me out. To be with her cousin in Northford… I don’t… I just want to help people. Please…”

Claire blinked, not sure what to say. Not sure what to do with the fact Ilya had begun crying. Especially because his eyes were still manic. Still jittering.

Though, she didn’t really need to fear. Whatever he did, she would be fine. At least reasonably.

So she walked over, arms out in a gesture to show she wanted to give him a hug. His eye twitched, visibly unsure how to respond. The hesitation served her needs, and she walked forward to give him a hug.

The large man then melted into her, going limp in a way that likely would have thrown any regular woman her size off balance.

“It’s ok. No one wants to do anything to you,” Claire offered, trying to reassure him.

And Thief had been left standing there, wondering just what had happened to Ilya.

At least until her eyes had noticed the spilled can of… whatever it was. Looking at it, she wasn’t sure if it was an energy drink or a sports drink. But…

She turned, walking over to the vending machine he’d gotten it from. She put in her money and pressed for another can of Vita Drink.

“Well, here goes nothing,” she said as she popped it open.

“What are you doing?” Tonia asked as she took a drink.

Thief held up a finger, asking for a moment as she made sure to empty about half the can. “Wah… yeah… that tastes severely unnatural… anway, I’m testing a theo—hypothesis. Really just a hypothesis at this stage.”

“A hypothesis?” Abby, Claire and Tonia’s seven year old daughter, asked, saying the word carefully.

“As to what got Cap so… so… ooh,” she said, as the room began to spin.

Tonia blinked, then leaned forward, heading her way. She was going to—Thief shook her head.

“Oh yeah. That’s what did it,” Thief said, wagging her finger, making sure to move to try to keep grounded. “My brain is telling me you… and… and everyone else is plotting against me. Woooof.”

“You… I’m sorry?” Tonia asked.

“There’s something in this that’s got me wired. Nice to see I was right and Cap didn’t just snap,” Thief said.

“And you decided to test on yourself!?” Tonia asked, staring at her.

“Don’t worry. This is nostalgic for me,” Thief said, forcing a smile and thumbs up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if throwing up helps get this out of my system faster.”

Ilya had, slowly, calmed down in Claire’s arms. Slowly talking to her about his life. His childhood.

And what he said tore at her heart. The way he’d never really had a childhood. Never really had someone be a parent to him. A few kind caretakers, yes. But they were more teachers or temporary guardians. Never really the bond he’d needed.

So she’d kept holding him. Letting him curl up and let out the pain.

Even as it started getting darker and colder.

Until a light shone on them. Causing them both to blink and look up. There was a woman who looked a few years younger than herself.

“Shifter?” Ilya asked.

“Captain Wrecking Ball. And… I’m a bit unclear as to who you are, miss, but Moonshine and Thief both asked me to handle your little cross border incursion personally,” the woman, Shifter, said.

“Uh, the name’s Claire,” she replied. “Claire Rose-Schaefer.”

“I was told your name. I’m a bit more concerned about the fact you apparently caught Captain Wrecking Ball in flight and seem nearly as durable as he is… yet I’ve never heard of you before,” Shifter said, walking down into the crater where they were both standing.

“I… I’m someone who wasn’t cut out to be a hero,” Claire replied, shivering as memories whispered in her head. “I tried, but…I wasn’t… but, with my powers… Moonshine has helped me stay off the radar. To avoid trouble.”

Shifter let out a sigh, before directing them out of the crater they’d left in an empty section of what Claire would later learn was Saskatchewan. There was a hovercopter waiting nearby. It was a bit slower than the Association’s aircraft, but comfortable and quick enough as it flew them back towards Montana.

Claire could tell Shifter wanted to ask a million questions, but was professional enough not to.

To fill the silence, instead Shifter brought up what she’d learned about Ilya’s little freak out. There was something in the drink he’d gotten. They weren’t sure what, just yet, but interviews with a string of other Numans in prison for recent rampages had shown several remembered drinking the product. As such American Federal authorities were working to get warrants in place to secure the company’s offices and bottling facilities.

With the length of the flight, Claire had also used some of the time to look up Ilya’s accomplishments. She felt she wanted to know more about him, to try to be someone to offer him encouragement.

A bit after they crossed the border, Claire had phoned Tonia to check on her, and had been told they’d all gone back to the farm. Thief included. The cows had needed tending to, and Thief had thought physical labour would clear her head.

So that was where the hovercopter had gone, landing in the driveway.

Ilya had gotten out first, hurrying over to hug Thief. The tall woman did a better job than she could of getting her arms around to hug him back.

Claire started to get out as well when she got a look from Shifter. One she couldn’t quite read.

“Is there something you wanted to ask?” Claire offered.

“Ah, no. No. I’ll find out soon enough, I think,” the other woman replied.

Leaving Claire confused as she stepped out of the hovercopter.

While Claire and Tonia had cooked up a hearty country dinner Ilya had snuck off to change. With his collar on he’d curled up against Thief as she’d kept Abby busy playing a racing game.

Dinner itself had then been peaceful enough. Apart from three starving supers making short work of the generous servings. Both Claire and Ilya had pushed themselves to the limits, while Thief had had to recover from physically not handling the drink quite as well as Ilya.

Afterwards, however, once the dishes were done and Abby had headed off upstairs, Ilya had shot Thief a nervous look.

“I… I explained something to Claire today that… that I think you should know too,” he said, in the soft voice of his feminine form.

“Oh?” she asked.

“That… I was… about twenty five years ago the Bratva… the Russian Mafia—they got their hands on the DNA of several of the world's top supers at the time,” Ilya said, in a soft voice.

“They did?” Tonia asked, looking up from her own reading across the living room.

“It was kept hidden. Russia didn’t want to admit they’d needed foreign help to clean it up. Most other countries just didn’t want other criminal groups to get ideas,” Ilya replied. “But… before Interpol stopped them… they’d managed to make three clones. Or… sort of clones. The DNA samples they had were imperfect, so they patched in other genes. Genes they hoped would make us stronger.”

Thief took a moment to process that. “‘Us’… you mean…”

“Yes,” Ilya said with a soft nod, his now small form curling up, practically on Thief’s lap. “I was one of them. One of the two that were actually ‘viable’ for a childhood that was nothing but drills... I don’t know what happened to Fyodor, but… but, well… I thought you should know about me.”

Thief nodded, holding his now small frame in her arms. They really were quite the pair, barely a happy childhood memory between the pair of them.

“I was thinking,” Claire said. “Do you know who you’re a—who your ‘parent’ is? We could probably get someone to do a DNA test for you? I’m sure any hero would be proud of you if they found out.”

“Mhm. You’re one of the world’s most successful heroes,” Tonia offered.

“Oh… I know who he was,” Ilya replied in a soft voice. “The drill master always said I wasn’t as strong as him. I wasn’t as fast as him. I was never going to be as good as him… it doesn’t matter, though. He’s gone now.”

“He died?” Claire asked, her voice gentle.

“Probably,” Ilya replid, before his voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. “No one’s seen him in twenty years… not since what happened in Dallas…”

Thief took a moment to do the math. To remember that it had indeed been twenty years since… that. And who had been involved.

She realised that Tonia and Claire seemed rather more shocked by the words than she was, but, well… they were American. It was a domestic story for them. They’d been adults when it had happened, too. Not some half whispered thing for grown-ups that she hadn’t understood as a child. But a memory of a day.

“Are you…” Tonia began. “Are you saying that you’re… your DNA came from Powerjack?”

Ilya looked up at her, and then gave a small nod. A nod that led to a gasp from the older woman.

Before she realised what had happened, Thief found herself caught up in a hug from Claire. It was clearly mainly aimed at Ilya, Thief had just gotten caught in it due to her partner’s currently small frame.

Thief was also surprised to see the blonde woman was crying as she hugged them both. She found Ilya seemed just as confused as she was.

“Oh gosh,” Claire mumbled as she finally broke the hug. “Oh gosh… I… Oh. I wonder what Abby will think when she finds out she has a big si—sibling.”

Thief and Ilya both exchanged a glance.

“P-pardon?” Ilya asked.

Claire wiped a few tears from her eyes before smiling. “Well, I’m Claire Rose-Schaefer now, but… before I transitioned, I… I used to be Powerjack.”

Vita Drink had turned out to be innocent. The chemical setting off paranoia attacks in Numans had been designed as an energy booster. One which had had no effects on baseline humans.

After several public inquiries the company had agreed to pay several million dollars to cover damages to both bystanders and Numans affected by it, while various world governments had put forward the need to test new food and drugs on Numan subjects in future. To avoid another Vita Drink incident.

Thankfully, however, the Rose-Shaeffer family thanksgiving table was not going to be a place to find any mysterious new food compounds. Pretty well everything was from local farms in their corner of Montana. Something everyone present appreciated.

“It still feels too early to have more turkey,” Shifter said as she helped peel some of the potatoes.

“You didn’t have to come if you didn’t want our cooking,” Claire replied with a playful tone.

“As Thief’s declared adoptive maternal figure, I felt it was my duty to judge the in-laws’ family recipes at least once,” Shifter protested.

“I can’t believe you’re both being such dorks,” Tonia mumbled as she hunted for some nutmeg.

“You’re the one who agreed to having three trans women in the kitchen with you. You have to expect this,” Thief replied from her station as the other potato peeler.

Tonia let out a sigh, especially as she realised what was going on outside. Her sister Jenny and her daughter Abby being busy recording the dramatic change Ilya had with the collar. It was fair for Jenny to be proud of how well her invention worked, but she was a bit concerned about the strength impact tests she’d talked about doing earlier…

Still, it was nice to have so much life on the farm for the holidays. As long as the farm was still standing at the end of it.

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Chapter 1 Even Atlas Needs A Hug. A link to  (on Scribblehub)

Two figures stood next to a large hole in the ground. The hole was rather unremarkable, yet it was also quite out of the way. Which meant the pair had a reason for being out here. Here, halfway up Mount Alderson, in a corner of Alberta most people didn’t remember existed. Not exactly a place many people ended up accidentally.
It was a beautiful stretch of country, but neither of the visitors were looking down the valley at the lake below. The woman shivered a little as she stared at the hole, a mixture of memories and the early winter chill getting to her, despite her coat. 
She took a few steps forward, then, before spitting into the hole. The hole that had once held the basement to a house. Before various government agencies had torn through every millimetre of it, wanting to make sure Dr. Fairbanks hadn’t left any of her experiments hidden in a dark alcove.
“Did you want to head back now?” the man with her asked.
Despite the cold, he was wearing fairly minimal clothing. A tight suit designed with the latest fabrics to handle both flight and combat. A minimalistic wrecking ball emblazoned the suit’s chest, a symbol that most Canadians would recognise. In part because it was a very direct reminder of his superhero name: Captain Wrecking Ball.
“Just a couple more moments,” the woman replied.
Her winter gear certainly didn’t scream ‘superhero’ the way his did, but her height and build would have led most to at least suspect it. Which was correct. Though she was still new to the business.
She was still new to a lot of things about her life.
“She… Mu—Dr. Fairbanks was really off the deep end those last few months,” she said. “That’s why she came out here. She couldn’t even pretend to be a superhero anymore. Well, that and I was… it was getting hard to cover up what she was doing to me.”
The man crossed the short distance between them, pulling her into a hug. 
“It’s good to get closure,” she whispered. “I’m still here while the stupid cottage is long gone. I win.”
The last bit was said with a glare towards the pit next to them. She kept glaring for a few more moments as her breathing slowly returned to normal. 
“Thanks for bringing me out here, Ilya,” she said.
“No worries,” he replied.
He was about to offer to head back to Calgary again when his phone began to buzz. Pulling it out of the pouch he saw the number was the CSCS (the Canadian Supers Coordination Service). 
“Hello, Captain Wrecking Ball and Thief here,” he said.
“Captain, we know you’re on vacation, but something just came up and you’re the only asset nearby,” a male voice said on the other end.
“Understood. What’s wrong?” Ilya asked.
“The Americans need help, down in Montana, actually,” the man said. “Some wingnut calling himself ‘The New Firestorm’ torched a few city blocks in Missoula before making a break for it in a stolen car down the I-90, heading East. They’re giving you full border clearance to intervene.”
“And Thief?” he asked.
“Thi—oh, right. You think you need the support?” the man replied.
“I don’t know, but we’re halfway up a mountain and I flew her here, so…” he left off the rest of the comment, hoping it was clear while not wanting to waste too much time.
“Understood. I doubt they’ll complain about getting two supers,” the man replied. 
Thief adjusted her backpack and the pair put on their headsets. Her hands were going to be full holding on to Ilya as she clung to his back, while his would be used for easier steering. Sure, technically he could fly in any position, not really requiring lift in the traditional sense. Drag, however, still mattered. Especially when pushing into the transonic range. Which he was going to be doing if he wanted to catch a speeding car with a 300 km lead on him.

Claire Rose-Schaefer blinked as she saw a line of police cars covering the junction near Garrison. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen this many police together in Montana. She wasn’t planning to cross the blockade, so she probably could have gone around, but, well, she was curious. And she could waste a little bit of time on her supply run down to Deer Lodge.
So she pulled over a few yards away and got out of her pickup. 
A young police officer spotted her walking over and seemed rather nervous.
“Ma’am, this is a dangerous situation. You should probably turn around,” he said.
He looked like he was basically still a kid, now that she was a bit closer. Though, she supposed her standards for ‘kid’ had expanded over the years. All the same…
“I’m not planning to get involved. Just wondering what all this is about,” she said.
“Some Numan nutjob,” a slightly older cop said, keeping his eye on the highway. “Went on a rampage in Missoula, and he’s headed this way.”
Claire nodded, wondering about what the best response was. 
“I just hope that guy from Canada gets here in time,” the young cop said, as she realised he was shaking a little. 
“Canada?” she asked.
“One of their heavy hitters was apparently right on the border. Since we’re in the middle of nowhere he was the closest help,” the young cop explained.
“He’s cutting it close,” the older officer said, the comment drawing Claire’s eyes down the highway.
She could just barely make out a single dark SUV being chased by what had to be a half dozen police cars. The crack of gunfire reached down the valley a few moments later, to make sure attention was on the approaching chase.
Claire tensed, seeing how nervous the police were, when another source of movement caught her up. Glancing up, she saw a dark shape approaching from the sky. A shape that very quickly grew into a discernible view: a muscular man carrying a woman on his back.
The man was wearing a dark blue and silver outfit, a symbol on his chest. She couldn’t see the woman very well until the pair landed just in front of the blockade. Which also gave her a sense of scale on the pair. One that left her impressed.
The woman was taller than almost all of the cops present, and, despite her winter coat, Claire could tell she was solidly built underneath.
The man, however… he had to be pushing seven feet tall and he was built like a linebacker. 
Claire found herself understanding what people meant when they talked about the awe of being around a heavy hitting Numan. Especially as the human tank in front of her floated back into the air.
“Sorry it took so long, I’m not used to the air patterns around mountains,” the large man said, a nervous smile on his face that humanized him in contrast to his herculean proportions.
“Cap, you were still pushing 900 km/h,” the woman who came with him said, in something akin to a stage whisper.
“Well, we’re just glad you made it in time,” the local sheriff said, though Claire could hear the stress in the man’s voice.
The Numan, ‘Cap’, gave a nod, before turning towards the approaching convoy of vehicles. He then shot forward, accelerating to well above highway speeds in just a few seconds. The next moment there was a crash, as the Canadian man’s fist slammed into the front of the SUV. 
The driver was thrown out, though managed to cushion his blow with a burst of flames from his hands. Despite the cushioning, the suspect still rolled a few times after hitting the asphalt.
“I would like to offer you the chance to surrender now, before anyone gets hurt,” the Canadian man said.
He got a burst of flames to the face for his troubles, the perp scrambling towards the police line. With the perp looking their way, Claire saw the way the man’s eyes burned. She shivered as she found herself reminded of someone having a bad trip. Only… only with flame added to it. 
The police opened fire, only to have their bullets blocked by a wall of flame. Before the flames settled, the perp burst out of them, tackling the woman who’d arrived with ‘Cap’. 
While the perp seemed frantic about the fact the woman he’d decided to grab as a hostage was a fair bit taller than him, he clearly didn’t see an alternative, so pressed a hand against her neck.
“No one come any closer, or she gets it!” he hissed, sounding as wired as he looked.
The police began backing away, giving the man space. The woman, however, smiled. When the perp tried to push her forward, she didn’t move.
“What do you think you’re doing!?” the man hissed.
“I’m just curious,” she said, her voice perfectly calm. “What is it that I’ll ‘get’?”
“What is… my flames!” the man replied, eyes twitching.
However, while they looked manic, Claire swore there was something missing from them.
“Oh... These flames?” the woman asked, lifting a hand and causing a small fire to burst up in her palm.
The man stared in fear, before pulling his hand away from her neck and trying to start a fire on his own. Only for nothing to happen.
The woman slipped out of the perp’s grip, twisting to pin him on the ground. “Sorry, pal, but you picked a super to take hostage. The name’s Thief, and… well, I’m sure you can figure out my power.”
“Y-you took his power?” the sheriff asked.
“Temporarily. I can only hold someone’s powers for so long. So, stick him in something fireproof while you can,” Thief replied.
The police nodded, pulling the perp (now screaming threats) into a nearby van, covering his hands and mouth in some sort of fabric. There were so many new materials these days that Claire could barely keep up with all of them. 
Her focus wasn’t on the fabric, though. It was on this Thief woman. And how… if she’d been there, then… though she’d have probably been barely a child at the time.
“I could have handled him, you know,” Cap said, floating over and looking embarrassed.
“Oh, I’m sure you could have, sweetie,” Thief replied with a smile, before her face shifted.
She looked like she was going to be sick, and ran over to the side of the road. Only, instead of vomit, she threw up a burst of flames. The woman fell to her knees, spasming slightly.
Instinct as a mother kicking in, Claire rushed to her side, grabbing a shoulder to steady her. Cap grabbed the other one, having been slower to react, but faster to travel. 
“Are you ok, dear?” Claire asked.
“I—th—eurgh,” Thief gagged as the flames slowly subsided. “I’ve felt gross holding powers too long, but… not like this…”
“Come on, we’re going to have you give those back right now,” Cap said, picking her up.
The pair were beside the police wagon a moment later, Cap’s acceleration being quite impressive.
Claire rushed over to her pickup, digging in to find some crackers and antacids. She knew that throwing up fire wasn’t the same as throwing up regularly, but… well, she suspected it wasn’t too different. 
By the time she had everything the pair were sitting on a guard rail, talking with the sheriff.
“—a couple days, maximum,” the sheriff was saying. “It’s a pretty open and shut case. I do want to thank you again for your help, Captain Wrecking Ball and Ms. Thief.”
Ah, so that was the man’s name. Claire supposed she could have guessed it from the symbol on his shirt, but it was a bit of a mouthful as a superhero name. She focused on offering the crackers and antacids to help settle Thief’s stomach.
“Ah, right. Mrs. Rose-Schaefer… would you be willing to give a witness’ statement as well? I doubt we’ll need it, but more evidence always helps the trial go smoother,” the sheriff asked.
“I can, yes,” she replied.
She preferred to avoid showing up in too many documents, even now, but saying no would have been a bit suspicious.

Thief’s stomach grumbled as she and Ilya left the police station. It had been even more annoying than dealing with Northford police. So many forms to fill out due to it being a crossborder action. Plus the differing legal terms between the States and Canada. 
“Why do they call supers ‘numen’ here anyway?” she muttered. “I don’t want to be called ‘Newman’.”
“I think it’s cute and clever as a name,” Ilya replied, while adjusting the jacket he’d changed into. 
He hadn’t wanted to walk around the city in his costume, and she couldn’t really blame him. He got enough stares just being 208 cm tall. Heck, she was getting enough stares for being 190 cm.
“Let’s just find something to eat and then a motel,” she said, knowing she was being a bit grumpy due to her hunger.
“I think I saw a steakhouse and grill on the way over?” Ilya offered.
“Oooh. Obviously that’s where you eat when you’re in Montana,” Thief replied with a grin.
Sure, she hadn’t really eaten at the Canadian restaurant chain named after the state much, but still. It felt like going to France without getting a croissant. Or Denmark without getting a danish. You had to.
Luckily it wasn’t much of a walk, and the pair were led to a table soon enough. She let out a sigh of joy as she sat down, finding the restaurant was finally warm enough to take her jacket off, after spending too long in the just too cold police station.
She then grabbed a menu, wondering what the best options were. She was about to ask Ilya what he was thinking, when she realised she was being watched.
Looking up, she saw there were, in fact, several eyes on her. Or, more accurately, on her change collar. The device that gave her the body she wanted. The body that fit.
It was wonderful in every way except the fact that it was so distinctive.
“Small towns,” she muttered under her breath, trying to ignore them.
That effort proved rather more difficult, however, when whispers started spreading. Well, barely whispers. She could make out plenty of the things people were saying, especially the closer tables. Hammering home that she wasn’t in Canada. This wasn’t a country raised on English two-faced politeness standards to the same degree.
There were definitely ways that honesty had advantages, but, right now, it was spoiling her ability to focus on her—
“Hey there!”
Thief blinked at the cheerful tone, looking up to see the woman from the highway. The one with blonde hair starting to turn white. She was smiling away, yet Thief could tell from her body language she was also challenging the other patrons of the restaurant.
“Oh, h-hello,” Ilya said, offering a nervous smile. 
“I was just in to grab a bite to eat myself, and I thought I’d check on how you’re feeling. Are you doing better now, dear?” the blonde woman asked.
“Ah. Yes. I’m feeling much better,” Thief replied.
“Do you mind if I join you two? Eating alone has never been my favourite thing, and I figured I could give you two some tips about what to do while you’re stuck in town twiddling your thumbs,” she, Claire (that was her name), asked.
“Sure, sure. And maybe you can help us figure out what to choose,” Thief said. “Since you probably know the restaurant better.”
Claire lit up. Sitting down she went over the menu with them, advising them to both go for the steak, since they were no doubt starving. The other patrons were quieter with Claire there, while the blonde seemed to be an endless source of advice on the town and surrounding country.
The meal had gone quite delightfully, Ilya waiting for some brownies and ice cream for dessert when Claire’s cell phone rang. 
“Ah, sorry. Sorry. It’s probably my wife. I’m kind of behind schedule with the whole police statement,” she said, pulling it out to answer.
Claire hadn’t gotten up, no doubt expecting it to be a call of only a few seconds. However, with the slightly loud nature of her older model of phone, both Thief and Ilya made out the words ‘tree… on the barn’. 
As Claire said she’d be right home, Thief and Ilya exchanged looks. Ilya’s being a questioning ‘should I offer?’ while Thief’s was a firm ‘yes, you should’.
“I could help with that,” Ilya said, once Claire had hung up. “Uh, we didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but…”
“Oh, I really couldn’t bother you with it,” the blonde woman replied.
“It’s really no bother,” Thief said. “Like you said earlier, we’ve got a few days to burn doing nothing while we wait for the trial. And it’s not much effort for Cap to move a single tree.”
“Mhm, plus I could fly back,” Ilya added. “So—”
He was then slightly distracted by the arrival of his brownies, thanking the waitress and letting Thief do the talking.
“You’ve been very kind to us each time we’ve run into each other, we’re more than happy to return the favour,” Thief said.
“I—” Claire began, looking like she was still going to say no.
Only to have something click in her head. Thief wasn’t sure what had clicked. That look didn’t quite fit with giving in after polite refusal, though. Which put Thief a little on edge. 
Was Claire secretly some sort of supervillain? The mountains were a good place to hide out in that case. Thief had learned that as a teenager with her… with Dr. Fairbanks.
Maybe it was Clairre remembering her tractor was waiting for spare parts. Or… something like that. 
Thief didn’t want to think the other woman was a villain. Not off something so small, at least.
“I suppose it really wouldn’t be that big of a deal for a Numan like Cap here, and it would be a big help,” Claire said with a smile. “Alright. But you’ll have to promise to accept a thank you casserole from me some time, got it?”
“Food is always good payment in my books,” Ilya said, putting down his utensils after finishing his brownies.
“There is one little issue, though,” Claire said.

Thief and Cap both stared at Claire’s truck. The back was completely full with farm supplies. The rear seats were… not completely full, but even a kid would find it cramped back there. Neither Thief nor Cap had any hope of fitting in there. 
Which left only the passenger seat at the front. It was pulled forward enough she was pretty sure Cap would never fit. Thief might find the leg room a bit lacking, honestly.
“Ah. That is a bit unfortunate,” Thief said. “Still, I think there’s an obvious solution.”
“Mhm,” Cap replied, nodding. “Just give me one second.”
Thief blinked, turning to him, however the herculean man had already taken off into the air. 
After a moment, the tall woman let out a sigh, seeming to realise what was up. Claire remained quite lost, and was about to ask what was going on, when she noticed someone flying in to land. 
Only, the figure that landed was not the towering adonis that left, but a short (though generously built) redheaded woman… wearing a change collar.
“Problem solved. Now I can sit on Thief’s lap,” the newly arrived woman said.
“You could have also flown along behind the truck,” Thief said.
“But cars move so slowly, it’s boring to fly behind one,” the petite redhead said.
“I… you’re… I didn’t realise change collars could do that,” Claire said, mentally comparing Cap’s former height to this new one.
“Mhm, you can imagine how surprised I was when I first saw him in his other form,” Thief replied.
“So you—wait, which pronouns should I be using, then?” Claire asked, suddenly worrying she’d been misgendering her new acquaintance all day.
“Hm? Oh, I’m chill with whatever, but I’m a guy,” the transformed Cap said. “I just… being stuck as the ‘mighty Captain Wrecking Ball’ all the time is… I like spending time like this and not having those expectations on me.”
Claire found herself staring. There was a hint of a loneliness that she couldn’t help but find familiar in his eyes. Though it did fade away when Thief stepped over to hug him.
She found herself glad to see that. It was good to have someone.
“Only issue I have is that I’m not sure the seatbelt’ll fit about both of you,” she said as she walked over to the driver’s side.
“Ehh, I don’t really need a seatbelt,” Cap said with a shrug.
“I—yeah, I guess that’s true.”

The sound of an approaching truck drew Tonia’s attention away from the barn. Which she was glad for. At this point they’d gotten the cows out. Abby was also a bit bored of it by now, so there was no major risk of her young daughter getting too close.
Tonia hurried over, ready to help Claire in any way she could. Only to be left doing a double take as two other women climbed out of the large truck.
One woman was a bit intimidating, a good chunk over 6 foot, and looking like she might be a rugby player (even if it was a bit tricky to tell under the winter jacket).
The other one, though, was tiny and kind of adorable. She probably looked smaller than she was due to the combination of standing beside the tall brunette and the fact her mane of red hair had some seriously impressive volume to it.
They were also both pretty young looking, probably in their mid twenties?
“So, is that the barn?” the short redhead asked.
“Mhm,” Claire said, climbing out of her side of the truck.
“Who’s all this then, dear?” Tonia asked.
Now, she had learned to be a bit cautious about terms of affection for her wife around strangers out here in Montana. But… well, she saw the short haircut on the taller woman, and the way said taller woman was looking at her companion. So Tonia felt pretty safe they weren’t going to be homophobic.
“These are… what should I call you again?” Claire said, calling out to the redhead.
“Well I’m… wait. Right. I kind of flubbed hiding this side of me,” the redhead muttered.
“How good are you two with secrets?” the taller one asked, seeming more amused than concerned.
Tonia blinked, looking over at Claire. She was good with secrets, but she did have to wonder what her wife was dragging her into. 
As a response Claire indicated to her neck. Which didn’t seem like much of an answer. Until Tonia realised there was a faint red glow around the necks of both new arrivals. 
Change collars.
She was quite familiar with those. Jenny and Morgan’s little collaboration to try to make up for the limited number of clients Morgan could see. 
They weren’t exactly a common sight in the back forty of Montana, however. So she was still a little surprised. Though, also, understood why Claire had brought them up.
“We’re pretty good with secrets,” Tonia said.
“Ah, good. I didn’t mess up, then,” the small redhead said with a grin.
“Eh, I figured we had plausible deniability anyhow. It’s not like anyone would have believed them if they said you were Captain Wrecking Ball,” the brunette replied.
Tonia blinked, looking at the petite redhead wandering over to the barn. “Wait… the Captain Wrecking Ball? The strongest hero in Canada? One of the top active heavy hitters worldwide?”
“Really? He’s that high on the rankings?” Claire asked, blinking. “I guess I should pay more attention to the news.”
“I get why you don’t, but—wait, he?” Tonia said. “But the collar?”
“Escapism,” the brunette said. “He always says it’s nice to escape from having the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
Tonia nodded, eyes drifting to her wife again… before a crashing noise drew her attention to the barn. Sure, she’d seen Numan strength in action before, but that much strength from so small a figure still felt unreal.
“Is there anywhere you want me to put it?” Cap asked, carrying the fallen elm as sh—he walked back over to them.
“Just in the field should do,” Claire replied. “We can use it for firewood.”
“Gotcha!”
Tonia nodded, before turning to the brunette, who’s name she still didn’t know. “And what has you two here in Montana?”
“Ah, well, I grew up in Alberta, so we were visiting… then the authorities put out a call, and we were the closest supe—‘Numans’. At least Cap was the closest heavy hitter with flight. And I tagged along so I wouldn’t be stuck up a mountain in the back end of nowhere,” she explained.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Ms. Thief. You helped take down the wigged out pyro,” Claire said. “That power leaching ability of yours is very impressive.”
“Ah, thank you. Though the use of it really scales with who my opponent is. Send me against a random guy with a gun and I’m not much use,” Thief replied, putting on a bit of a strained grin.
Tonia nodded, before looking over at the thin band of light on the horizon. “I’m not sure the guest room is ready for anyone to stay over, though. I put some of the stuff from the barn in there.”
“Oh, we’re not staying,” Cap said, walking back and wiping his small hands against the thermal leggings he was wearing. 
“But it’s too late to—oh. Right. You can fly back,” Tonia said, shaking her head. She was really getting out of practice at her reporting savvy out here.
“We’re stuck in the county for a few days, though. Until the trial for that pyromaniac happens,” Thief replied. “So, if you two need any other heavy lifting, just let us know.”
Tonia nodded. Right. Accelerated trials for Numans were pretty common now. At least if the crimes were powers driven. It was usually pretty hard to get reasonable doubt that someone did a crime when the crime needed laser vision and there was only one person in the state with any.
She wasn’t sure she liked the faster turn around and lower threshold of evidence, but it was popular with the general public.
Claire assured the duo that they’d be happy to ask if they found anything that needed doing, while Tonia still found herself wondering about the odds of it all. She put on a pleasant face as she waved the pair off, however. 
Which, interestingly, proved to be Thief carrying Captain Wrecking Ball, the former using her leaching abilities to power the flight and strength of her… boyfriend? 
Once the duo were over the nearest hill, Tonia turned to her wife.
“Why did you bring them back?”
The younger woman blushed a little. “They heard you mention the tree and Cap wanted to help.”
“We didn’t need any help, though,” Tonya said.
“Yeah, but, well… we should’ve,” Claire replied. “I couldn’t figure out a way to say no that wouldn’t be suspicious.”
“Mhm.”
Tonya didn’t like it. The odds that Captain Wrecking Ball came here. To the back end of Montana. The man who’d been called ‘Canada’s Powerjack’… running into Claire in pure coincidence…
She had to dig.

Once more, Jenny had proven a life saver. It had taken her only a few hours to transfer Tonia files on the two new arrivals. There were redactions on both, but what was there was… interesting.
Thief had two previous identities. The more recent one, set up by the government, wasn’t all that interesting. A computer science major, worked for a fairly significant Canadian firm. The firm did turn out to be run by a supervillain, but she’d only been with the company a few months when that happened and had stayed in the position after the owner had been brought to justice.
The older identity, however… she was apparently the daughter of a Canadian Numan who’d gone rogue. Most of what her mother had done was blacked out, but it was clearly serious. 
While it was interesting, it wasn’t grounds to suspect anything from Thief. Reports showed that her mother had been abusive and had been in prison for about ten years. Ignoring a brief escape. Where, yes, Thief had met her again, but the contact had been minimal and she’d helped send Dr. Fairbanks to prison.
And then there was Captain Wrecking Ball. His real given name was Ilya and… records were spotty at best. There was no last name listed. He’d probably been born in some place called Zelenogorsk. He’d been brought to Canada as a child (age 11 or 12) by a woman who DNA testing proved was not related to him. Between the blacked out lines Tonia could tell he’d also ended up a ward of the state, raised somewhat collectively by a number of Canadian Numans.
Sure, the mysterious background in Russia was odd, but lots of Numans came from shady backgrounds, rescued from gangs and the like. It was also over ten years ago, and he’d been raised to be a boy scout ever since.
Really, the biggest thing that stood out to Tonia was how young both of them were. They’d both been born after 2000… which did mean Thief was twenty six and Ilya was twenty four. Numbers that felt deeply wrong to her.
That was just her getting old, though.
“Those look like some very official documents,” Claire said, making Tonia jump a little.
“I thought you were still out with the cows?” she asked.
“No, no. After all the stress with the tree they weren’t really making much milk,” Claire replied, before leaning in to look over the documents. “So, what are you reading?”
“Can you forgive an old reporter for being paranoid?” Tonia asked.
“You’re not old.”
“I’m turning fifty this year. That’s pretty old,” Tonia countered.
“Middle aged, at most,” Claire replied, before picking up one of the pages. “Ilya… these are files on Captain Wrecking Ball?”
“Reporters don’t trust coincidences, alright? I just wanted to check them out,” Tonia offered in a weak defense.
“How many laws did Jenny break sending you…”
“Who said Jenny sent—are you ok, dear?” Tonia asked.
“This town name. Zelenogorsk. I… I swear I know it…” Claire said, barely more than a whisper.
“I looked it up. It’s in Siberia, and it’s apparently a closed city still,” Tonia replied.
“Huh… it does kind of sound like the name of an evil villain in a sci-fi movie,” Claire replied. “Anyway… apparently the defence attorney called me in to testify. I figure you should come into town with Abby, since she’ll be upset if I go into town twice without bringing her.”
“Deer Lodge barely counts as ‘town’,” Tonia muttered. “Our daughter needs higher standards.”

The vending machine in the courthouse hallway wasn’t giving Ilya many options to choose from. It was one of those ones that had twelve buttons, but each choice took up at least three of them.
“Sorry about dragging the case out with my testimony,” Claire was saying, somewhere behind her. 
No name cola was always a disappointment, so Ilya didn’t want to pick that. Not unless the other options were worse.
“It’s true that he looked like he was on something. And whatever was up with him did make me sick,” Thief replied. “It’s just weird that the bloodwork didn’t show any drugs.”
He wasn’t sure if he trusted ‘Dr. Bort’. It was barely even trying to fake the copyright it was pretending to be, which didn’t lend to confidence in the flavour. So, probably not that.
“I heard there was a similar case in Idaho a couple weeks ago. Another Numan who went on a rampage, and then said he was drugged,” Tonia added. “They were probably just on something and it got out of their systems before they were tested. Numans do tend to have faster metabolisms.”
It was all down to ‘Orange Fluzz’ or ‘Vita Drink’. He wasn’t really that big on orange pops, and the Vita Drink had a little ‘new’ tag that looked less faded than the other labels. So he decided to gamble on it being mildly less likely to be expired and made his choice. 
Thankfully he had enough American coins in his wallet to get a can. 
Cracking it open, he had to admit it smelled a bit like cleaning supplies, but the side insisted it contained actual vitamins, so he took a sip before turning to rejoin the conversation.
“Our accommodations are being paid for by… someone. So I don’t mind a couple extra days enjoying high quality beef and the massaging beds at the motel,” Thief said with a grin. “Just wish the pizza place was better.”
“Yeah, you need to bake your own pizza if you want anything decent around here,” Tonia replied.
Ilya nodded, taking another sip. Only… he was starting to feel a little… 
Why was Claire looking at him like… that? 
Also, he swore he heard the police officers down the hall saying his name…
They were…
His head was hurting. The room seemed a little off kilter.
He tried to keep his balance, but it was getting hard.
Claire was lunging for him!
He pulled away, stumbling into the air as instincts told him to fly.
“What are you doing!?” he asked, confused by the sudden betrayal.
“Il—Cap, are you ok?” Thief asked, looking up at him with concer—no. No. 
She was looking at him with disgust, wasn’t she?
Why was she betraying him?
She—oh no. Oh no. They found out, hadn’t they? That he…
He realised the police were pulling out their pistols. Surely they knew that those couldn—spacium. They had to have spacium bullets.
This had all been a plan to lure him out, so they could—could… well, he didn’t know. But it had to be. 
He had to run. 
He had no choice. 
Ilya launched himself into the air, smashing through the ceiling. He kept climbing, trying to reach the clouds. He hoped he could hide there. To buy some time to think.
To work out where to run to. If they knew here then they knew back at the Keep. He couldn’t go back to Northford. Or any Canadian city, really. Which meant… which meant… not there. Not back there.

The three of them stared up at the hole in the ceiling. One moment Cap had seemed fine. And then the next…
“What just happened?” Thief asked.
“His eyes… they were like the defendant's were,” Claire added. 
The others nodded. Tonia hadn’t seen what the defendant had looked like, but it was still pretty clear that something had been very wrong with him.
“If Captain Wrecking Ball goes on a rampage,” Tonia all but whispered, shivering at the thought. “He’d be pretty close to unstoppable.”
“Worse,” Thief said. “Unstoppable can’t fly, so Cap can cover more ground.”
Right. Claire had heard of Unstoppable. He was American, and had been active for over a decade. So news about him had managed to get under even the rock where she lived.
“How fast can he fly?” Claire found herself asking. 
“He pushes into the transonic range. Properly panicked, he might crack Mach one?” Thief replied. “Definitely can do somewhere a little shy of a thousand kilometres an hour. I… I’m not sure what that is in miles.”
Claire nodded, turning to her wife. 
“It’s worth it,” Tonia replied, her voice soft, before Claire could ask.
With that, Claire hurried into the nearest bathroom. A moment later she’d shoved the window open, and launched herself out of it. She didn’t usually fly anywhere near as quickly as this, so there was a bit of a thrill to it. 
She tried not to get distracted by the pure euphoria of letting loose and flying at full speed, however. She had to find where Cap had gone.
After reaching a rather significant altitude, she stopped to look around, hoping she could still see him somewhere. Unfortunately there was a lot of sky. 
Letting out a sigh, she pulled out her phone, knowing there was only one person she could ask for help right now. The person who’d upgraded her phone so that it could work at twenty thousand feet like this.
A robotic voice answered. “Hello, you’ve reached—”
“Jeeves, this is an emergency,” she replied. “Unless you can give me radar readouts for Montana, I need to talk to Jenny.”
“She’s in a meeting right now… I think the boys could help though, Miss Claire?” Jeeves said.
“The… right. The computers. If they can manage it on their own,” Claire replied, continuing to scan the sky with her eyes.
There were some whistling noises, Jeeves talking to the other computers in Jenny’s apartment. After a few moments the robotic butler switched back to English. “There are two objects that could be Captain Wrecking Ball. One is staying still over Deer Lodge.”
“… that would be me,” Claire said.
“Ah. The other is travelling at roughly nine hundred and fifty seven kilometres per hour in a north north easterly direction a few kilometres south of Great Falls.”
Right. Jeeves was ‘British’, so of course he was also using kilometres. Well, she knew roughly what it meant, and didn’t need to be overly precise just yet.
“Thank you,” Claire replied. “I’ll call back if I need an update.”
“Understood, though I must warn you he seems to be heading towards Canada, which has rather patchier radar,” Jeeves said, before hanging up.
Claire shot off in the direction given. She knew she was making a sonic boom, but, right now, she had bigger concerns. Captain Wrecking Ball was erratic and unpredictable. Which had the potential to be as bad as… no, she wasn’t going to think about that as an option. 
She wouldn’t allow something like that to happen again. 
It took her a few minutes to get to Great Falls, which she knew meant Cap was likely well past it. Since she didn’t see any fire or smoke rising from the city. She decided to take a slight gamble and keep heading in the same direction, not thinking there was any major reason for Cap to turn. 
A few more minutes and a few dozen miles later, she spotted a speck on the horizon. Too high and fast to be a bird. Too small to be an airplane. 
It had to be Cap.
She sped forward, focusing on the target and ignoring the biting cold of the air. Flat grassland and farms, covered in a light dusting of snow, zipped past below as her target slowly got larger. 
His grey-blue costume wasn’t the easiest to pick out against the early winter sky, but there wasn’t much else up here to distract her.
Getting closer she slowed down, trying to move closer to his speeds. 
“Cap!” she called out.
His head turned to her. While she couldn’t make out his expression very well, she could tell he was still out of it. 
“I don’t want trouble!” he shouted.
She had to blink, having not expected that. “I don’t want trouble either!”
“I’m just trying to leave! Please! J-just let me leave!” Cap shouted.
“Why? Where are you going!?” Claire asked, slowly moving closer to him. (Well, relatively slowly, since they were both flying at hundreds of miles per hour.)
“I—I… I don’t know. But I’m not—they’re going too—please! Just let me leave!” he shouted, his tone sounding less and less grounded.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you need to calm down!” Claire called out. “You’re not making any sense!”
“GO AWAY!” Cap roared, before diving towards the ground.
Claire followed him. She didn’t know if he was actually going to be violent, but he was definitely irrational right now. She pushed herself forward, catching up and tackling him. She did her best to hold on, trying to slow them both down as Cap flailed and resisted.
For the first time since she’d done it, she found herself half wishing she hadn’t had herself made so small. She could barely get her arms around Cap’s larger than life frame. He was really something of a living colossus, so, even if she was pretty sure she was stronger with her abilities working at full power, he still had advantages with leverage. Plus, he was younger. She wasn’t that old, just yet, but it was still obvious he had more energy than her.
Reasoning she had to get through to him, she decided she needed to try a different approach.
“Please! Just talk to me!” she begged, having slowed them to a relative halt a few hundred feet in the air. “Please… Ilya.”
He froze, his struggles subsiding. “How did you… right. Right… NO!”
Before she could respond, Ilya threw his entire weight into driving them into the ground. 
The soil was frozen and hard. Not that it made much of a difference. She could handle hitting solid rock at a faster speed. She had.
It did break her grip on him, though. And left her slightly winded as she stood back up.
Ilya was shaking as well, his eyes bouncing around without focus.
“I—I don’t want to have to fight. Please. Please. I’ll just go,” he said.
“Why? Why do you think we have to fight?” Claire asked, rubbing her shoulder.
Apparently that ‘landing’ had hurt more than she’d expected. Either she’d gotten soft or old age was getting to her.
“You’ve found out what I am… the US wants to make me an experiment again, don’t they? I’ve been sold out… I thought I’d managed…” he said, trailing off as he shook his head. “Haven’t I proven I’m a hero? Does it really matter that the Bratva…”
“What… no.” Claire said, a realisation hitting her. “No… in Zelenogorsk… th-they hadn’t managed to… I remember. There weren’t any children yet. It was just labs.”.
It had been creepy, she remembered that much. Interpol calling her in, with several of the other global top heroes… she’d still been so new to the business, too. Seeing those labs, set up by the Russian Mob for Numan cloning…
“There were three of us,” Ilya mumbled. “We were taken away from the compound for safety… Inessa was always sick, but… it was training. Constant training… until Nadia got me out. To be with her cousin in Northford… I don’t… I just want to help people. Please…”
Claire blinked, not sure what to say. Not sure what to do with the fact Ilya had begun crying. Especially because his eyes were still manic. Still jittering. 
Though, she didn’t really need to fear. Whatever he did, she would be fine. At least reasonably. 
So she walked over, arms out in a gesture to show she wanted to give him a hug. His eye twitched, visibly unsure how to respond. The hesitation served her needs, and she walked forward to give him a hug. 
The large man then melted into her, going limp in a way that likely would have thrown any regular woman her size off balance.
“It’s ok. No one wants to do anything to you,” Claire offered, trying to reassure him.

The courthouse was still in chaos. Police were calling state and federal authorities. Someone was on the line with the Association. Tonia was comforting her daughter, who’d been frightened by the loud noises and all the chaos that followed.
And Thief had been left standing there, wondering just what had happened to Ilya.
At least until her eyes had noticed the spilled can of… whatever it was. Looking at it, she wasn’t sure if it was an energy drink or a sports drink. But…
She turned, walking over to the vending machine he’d gotten it from. She put in her money and pressed for another can of Vita Drink. 
“Well, here goes nothing,” she said as she popped it open.
“What are you doing?” Tonia asked as she took a drink.
Thief held up a finger, asking for a moment as she made sure to empty about half the can. “Wah… yeah… that tastes severely unnatural… anway, I’m testing a theo—hypothesis. Really just a hypothesis at this stage.”
“A hypothesis?” Abby, Claire and Tonia’s seven year old daughter, asked, saying the word carefully.
“As to what got Cap so… so… ooh,” she said, as the room began to spin.
Tonia blinked, then leaned forward, heading her way. She was going to—Thief shook her head. 
“Oh yeah. That’s what did it,” Thief said, wagging her finger, making sure to move to try to keep grounded. “My brain is telling me you… and… and everyone else is plotting against me. Woooof.”
“You… I’m sorry?” Tonia asked.
“There’s something in this that’s got me wired. Nice to see I was right and Cap didn’t just snap,” Thief said.
“And you decided to test on yourself!?” Tonia asked, staring at her.
“Don’t worry. This is nostalgic for me,” Thief said, forcing a smile and thumbs up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if throwing up helps get this out of my system faster.”

Ilya had, slowly, calmed down in Claire’s arms. Slowly talking to her about his life. His childhood.
And what he said tore at her heart. The way he’d never really had a childhood. Never really had someone be a parent to him. A few kind caretakers, yes. But they were more teachers or temporary guardians. Never really the bond he’d needed. 
So she’d kept holding him. Letting him curl up and let out the pain.
Even as it started getting darker and colder.
Until a light shone on them. Causing them both to blink and look up. There was a woman who looked a few years younger than herself.
“Shifter?” Ilya asked.
“Captain Wrecking Ball. And… I’m a bit unclear as to who you are, miss, but Moonshine and Thief both asked me to handle your little cross border incursion personally,” the woman, Shifter, said.
“Uh, the name’s Claire,” she replied. “Claire Rose-Schaefer.”
“I was told your name. I’m a bit more concerned about the fact you apparently caught Captain Wrecking Ball in flight and seem nearly as durable as he is… yet I’ve never heard of you before,” Shifter said, walking down into the crater where they were both standing.
“I… I’m someone who wasn’t cut out to be a hero,” Claire replied, shivering as memories whispered in her head. “I tried, but…I wasn’t… but, with my powers… Moonshine has helped me stay off the radar. To avoid trouble.”
Shifter let out a sigh, before directing them out of the crater they’d left in an empty section of what Claire would later learn was Saskatchewan. There was a hovercopter waiting nearby. It was a bit slower than the Association’s aircraft, but comfortable and quick enough as it flew them back towards Montana.
Claire could tell Shifter wanted to ask a million questions, but was professional enough not to. 
To fill the silence, instead Shifter brought up what she’d learned about Ilya’s little freak out. There was something in the drink he’d gotten. They weren’t sure what, just yet, but interviews with a string of other Numans in prison for recent rampages had shown several remembered drinking the product. As such American Federal authorities were working to get warrants in place to secure the company’s offices and bottling facilities. 
With the length of the flight, Claire had also used some of the time to look up Ilya’s accomplishments. She felt she wanted to know more about him, to try to be someone to offer him encouragement. 
A bit after they crossed the border, Claire had phoned Tonia to check on her, and had been told they’d all gone back to the farm. Thief included. The cows had needed tending to, and Thief had thought physical labour would clear her head.
So that was where the hovercopter had gone, landing in the driveway.
Ilya had gotten out first, hurrying over to hug Thief. The tall woman did a better job than she could of getting her arms around to hug him back. 
Claire started to get out as well when she got a look from Shifter. One she couldn’t quite read.
“Is there something you wanted to ask?” Claire offered.
“Ah, no. No. I’ll find out soon enough, I think,” the other woman replied.
Leaving Claire confused as she stepped out of the hovercopter.

While Claire and Tonia had cooked up a hearty country dinner Ilya had snuck off to change. With his collar on he’d curled up against Thief as she’d kept Abby busy playing a racing game. 
Dinner itself had then been peaceful enough. Apart from three starving supers making short work of the generous servings. Both Claire and Ilya had pushed themselves to the limits, while Thief had had to recover from physically not handling the drink quite as well as Ilya.
Afterwards, however, once the dishes were done and Abby had headed off upstairs, Ilya had shot Thief a nervous look.
“I… I explained something to Claire today that… that I think you should know too,” he said, in the soft voice of his feminine form. 
“Oh?” she asked.
“That… I was… about twenty five years ago the Bratva… the Russian Mafia—they got their hands on the DNA of several of the world's top supers at the time,” Ilya said, in a soft voice.
“They did?” Tonia asked, looking up from her own reading across the living room. 
“It was kept hidden. Russia didn’t want to admit they’d needed foreign help to clean it up. Most other countries just didn’t want other criminal groups to get ideas,” Ilya replied. “But… before Interpol stopped them… they’d managed to make three clones. Or… sort of clones. The DNA samples they had were imperfect, so they patched in other genes. Genes they hoped would make us stronger.”
Thief took a moment to process that. “‘Us’… you mean…”
“Yes,” Ilya said with a soft nod, his now small form curling up, practically on Thief’s lap. “I was one of them. One of the two that were actually ‘viable’ for a childhood that was nothing but drills... I don’t know what happened to Fyodor, but… but, well… I thought you should know about me.”
Thief nodded, holding his now small frame in her arms. They really were quite the pair, barely a happy childhood memory between the pair of them.
“I was thinking,” Claire said. “Do you know who you’re a—who your ‘parent’ is? We could probably get someone to do a DNA test for you? I’m sure any hero would be proud of you if they found out.”
“Mhm. You’re one of the world’s most successful heroes,” Tonia offered.
“Oh… I know who he was,” Ilya replied in a soft voice. “The drill master always said I wasn’t as strong as him. I wasn’t as fast as him. I was never going to be as good as him… it doesn’t matter, though. He’s gone now.”
“He died?” Claire asked, her voice gentle.
“Probably,” Ilya replid, before his voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. “No one’s seen him in twenty years… not since what happened in Dallas…”
Thief took a moment to do the math. To remember that it had indeed been twenty years since… that. And who had been involved.
She realised that Tonia and Claire seemed rather more shocked by the words than she was, but, well… they were American. It was a domestic story for them. They’d been adults when it had happened, too. Not some half whispered thing for grown-ups that she hadn’t understood as a child. But a memory of a day.
“Are you…” Tonia began. “Are you saying that you’re… your DNA came from Powerjack?”
Ilya looked up at her, and then gave a small nod. A nod that led to a gasp from the older woman.
Before she realised what had happened, Thief found herself caught up in a hug from Claire. It was clearly mainly aimed at Ilya, Thief had just gotten caught in it due to her partner’s currently small frame. 
Thief was also surprised to see the blonde woman was crying as she hugged them both. She found Ilya seemed just as confused as she was.
“Oh gosh,” Claire mumbled as she finally broke the hug. “Oh gosh… I… Oh. I wonder what Abby will think when she finds out she has a big si—sibling.”
Thief and Ilya both exchanged a glance.
“P-pardon?” Ilya asked.
Claire wiped a few tears from her eyes before smiling. “Well, I’m Claire Rose-Schaefer now, but… before I transitioned, I… I used to be Powerjack.”

Vita Drink had turned out to be innocent. The chemical setting off paranoia attacks in Numans had been designed as an energy booster. One which had had no effects on baseline humans.
After several public inquiries the company had agreed to pay several million dollars to cover damages to both bystanders and Numans affected by it, while various world governments had put forward the need to test new food and drugs on Numan subjects in future. To avoid another Vita Drink incident.
Thankfully, however, the Rose-Shaeffer family thanksgiving table was not going to be a place to find any mysterious new food compounds. Pretty well everything was from local farms in their corner of Montana. Something everyone present appreciated.
“It still feels too early to have more turkey,” Shifter said as she helped peel some of the potatoes.
“You didn’t have to come if you didn’t want our cooking,” Claire replied with a playful tone.
“As Thief’s declared adoptive maternal figure, I felt it was my duty to judge the in-laws’ family recipes at least once,” Shifter protested.
“I can’t believe you’re both being such dorks,” Tonia mumbled as she hunted for some nutmeg.
“You’re the one who agreed to having three trans women in the kitchen with you. You have to expect this,” Thief replied from her station as the other potato peeler.
Tonia let out a sigh, especially as she realised what was going on outside. Her sister Jenny and her daughter Abby being busy recording the dramatic change Ilya had with the collar. It was fair for Jenny to be proud of how well her invention worked, but she was a bit concerned about the strength impact tests she’d talked about doing earlier…
Still, it was nice to have so much life on the farm for the holidays. As long as the farm was still standing at the end of it.
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