When having no powers at all is a power all its own
The world was full of Supers. Capes. Special powers. Skin-tight costumes. Fantastic abs. And, in the case of the ladies, zero-gravity boobs and super-flexible spines.
They didn’t bother with secret identities. They all had super fortresses and leagues of allies. Some sworn to protect the ordinary citizen. Some working on their own agendas…
But most of them, to a cape, performing politics with their fists.
There were hardly any Normals, any more. Weeks could go by before she even saw another one.
And the Supers needed someone to rescue.
Back in the days of almost equal populations, it kind-of worked out. Each Normal had a Super who was sworn to protect them. And each Super, alas, had enemies who would use the Normals against the Supers.
And one by one, they failed.
Then there were teams dedicated to protecting the Ordinaries. And teams of the opposite, too.
And one by one, those failed, too.
And then there was now. Mere Mortals who trained themselves up or carried gadgets to make them almost-equal to their super-powered contemporaries.
Or those like her, who cowered in a protected bunker and ran the systems that the Supers used to train.
It was no less risky than going out there and fighting with the Supers.
Cassandra often wondered what the Supers would do when there were no more mere mortals left. Hell, some of them were growing secret creches of mere mortals to guarantee a supply of the helpless to protect.
It wasn’t any fun if they were all Super.
While her mansion full of heroes were out, the place was guarded by the junior Supers, still growing into their powers and, like ordinary teenagers everywhere, used the lack of adult Super-supervision to have a crazy party.
It was Cassandra’s job to stop the inevitable disasters.
And it was the Opposition’s job, apparently, to wreck the mansion, capture the kids, and threaten her good self.
Their leader called himself Technomancy. He did weird and wonderful things with machines and, had he been sane, could have easily made a fortune from any machine he made.
Cassandra made a modest living out of black-boxing some of his creations for the mutual benefit of all. Not that she had the freedom to go shopping with any of it…
He’d nullified the electric devices in the mansion, which meant that she had to go out in regular kevlar, rather than her technosuit. She loaded up on weapons, just in case, and began climbing the stairs.
Technomancy had got quite the rant on by the time she reached the main level. He was cackling at all of the suddenly distraught Junior Supers. Many of whom were prone and moaning.
“Helpless! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! My new Ultra-nullifier has rendered everyone within a five-mile radius as helpless as a Normal! HAHAHAHAHAA!”
O God, someone shut him up. Wait. “Everyone?” she asked.
“Yes of course everyone. I was thinking of calling it the Equaliser, too, but it didn’t have the same zing.” He spared her a contempt-filled glance. “Go away, mortal. I have gloating to do.”
“So everyone’s powers are gone? Even being bullet-proof?” which was, for Supers, about as normal as having teeth.
“Yes! Yes! Everyone is puny and weak.”
Cassandra reached for her gun. These idiots had no concept of forward planning. “Even you?”
He had just enough time to say, “Oh shit,” before she blew his brains out. Then she calmly picked the Equaliser out of his cooling fingers and turned it off.
“I’m calling the authorities,” she told the shaken Junior Supers. “This was clearly self-defence and the defence of others.” She opened the little hidden cupboard to the old-style tethered landline that she’d installed for just-in-case. “And FYI, this little darling is going to become part of the Naughty Room. Understood?”
“How did you even–?” one of the teens managed. Tears were still streaming down his cheeks. “Everyone was helpless…”
“Kid. You just experienced maybe twenty minutes of my entire life. If I sat around crying about it I’d never get anything done.”
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