*comment x
[b]THE YOUPOWER PROJECT[/b]

Atmos burned as he fell. The graphene arcs of the tower's gyro-scoping counterweight system split the harsh flicker of blue flames into a thousand shards of piercing light. A handful of melon-sized camera orbs trailed the falling Hero like a school of parasitic fish diving after a sinking host. 

He tore at his arms and legs, desperately trying to free the burning sub-dermal YouPower components that cooked him from the inside. The faster he fell, the more the rushing air fed the flames. With a sickening scream, Atmos ripped a component loose, taking a sizable portion of his forearm with it. He flung it aside and the smoking mass of flesh and melting electronics smashed against a spinning graphene arc and exploded in a shower of sparks and ash.

Two other Heroes rose from the darkness below, ignoring the burning man tumbling past them as they continued their race to the top of the tower. They dodged the spinning arcs of graphene, creating a vortex behind them that pulled the rising smoke from the plummeting Hero into a tiny cyclone that rose in their wake. Atmos was now nothing more than a blur of indigo light lost in a death spiral. He flailed, spinning and grasping and screaming. One of his legs lashed out and the world suddenly turned to static.  

Kendrick looked away from the screen. His hands began to shake, nearly causing him to drop the cardboard tray of coffee cups he was holding. Atmos had kicked one of the camera orbs so violently that its lens had dislodged. But it had continued to record audio. Though Kendrick could no longer see the man's burning descent into the bowels of Olympus Tower, he could still hear his howls of agony piped through the speakers. His screams were so loud, so powerful, they had ruptured the orb's surround sensor, so that his agonizing wails were only coming through in mono.  

Atmos's screams filled the darkened screening room like water, making it difficult for Kendrick to catch his breath. He needed the video to come back, to see the horror creating such terrible sounds. Without it, his mind painted the picture for him. A picture he didn't want to see. 

A picture he didn't want to remember. 

Lyra stood with her arms folded, eyes focused on the pixels swirling before her. The glow of light from the screen reflected off a single bead of sweat tracing its way down the hollow of her cheek. She pulled at the neck of her black turtleneck and said, "It comes back in a second." Then she noticed Kendrick. "Oh, thank God. Coffee."	

Kendrick offered a weak smile as he offered the tray, but Lyra didn't notice his distress. Neither did Bastion or Cora as they took their own drinks from the tray. "Did they say what happened to his tech?" Bastion asked.

Cora's eyes flicked back and forth as she read the retinal holo-display of her MeChip embedded in her wrist and said, "YouPower said it was Atmos's sub-dermal mods that made it react that way to the graphene in the tower's counterweights. This, folks," she indicated Atmos's screams with a delicate finger, "is exactly why you never void your warranty."
Bastion licked the last remnants of a jelly donut from his fingers. "Who won the Olympic Tower Run, anyway?" 

"Force Ray, I think," said Cora. 

Lyra pulled the lid off her coffee and blew, sending wisps of steam to mingle with the static. "No, she got the panel's honorable mention. Ten-Blade Annie won."

"Oh, yeah."

They talked over Atmos's screams like they were trying to be heard over the din of a raucous dinner party. Kendrick felt a terrible urge to grab Cora's coffee and scald every square inch of her perfect face with it. He was furious with her, with all of them, though he didn't know why. Atmos survived his fall. Everyone knew that. It even afforded him a bit of added celebrity following the race. So why did their ambivalence to Crosswind's suffering gall him so badly? 

No, Atmos. Atmos's suffering. It was Atmos screaming, not Crosswind. Kendrick told himself over and over again that it was Atmos, as if that would somehow lessen the horror of listening to someone else's impossible agony. But no matter how much he tried to convince himself, there was no escaping the memory those screams pulled to the surface. Crosswind's blackened skin, his perfect mouth frozen in a rictus sneer, the smell, good God, the smell….And his three colleagues were more concerned with who won a silly race to the top of the world's first spacescraper.   

Kendrick needed to sit down. His anger wasn't fair and he knew it. Cora was a sweetheart and Bastion was, well, Bastion. As for Lyra, she was as kind as a person with her drive could be, he supposed. Kendrick hadn't been her assistant for very long, but he already understood that When Lyra decided something, reality followed. It had taken Kendrick a couple weeks to convince Lyra that his name wasn't actually Rick, and that no, he hadn't recently changed it.  

"Okay, here we go," Lyra said as the snowy pixels on the screen finally coalesced back into video. 

Atmos was there; now the open flames were gone, but embers still glowed as they drank in the rushing air. His howls of pain merged into a single ghostly moan. 

"Now, watch this," Lyra said.

The light around Atmos bent in a strange way. The air beneath him rippled as it compressed, slowing his descent. One of the camera orbs circled above Atmos, showing the black abyss yawning below. A light emerged from the darkness. Within just a few seconds, a man rose into view and caught Atmos in his arms. Though he was wearing a nearly full suit of YouPower equipment, Kendrick could easily see a bright red caduceus on his arm, indicating that he was an EMT. 

"I got you, buddy."

Atmos only moaned in response. The EMT carried Atmos to an exposed girder and lay him down. There was another ripple as the EMT moved his hand over Atmos's body, only instead of compressing the air, he created a vacuum that extinguished the smoldering embers. He then pulled a syringe from a pouch at his hip and plunged it into Atmos's arm. Atmos let out a long breath and his eyes fluttered closed.

"I've got him. Bringing him down now," the EMT said into the microphone patch at his throat. 

Lyra sipped her coffee then said, "I get chills every time I see it. Most people use the Atmonipulator to breathe underwater, fly above ten thousand feet, the usual kind of thing. But this guy…"

Bastion slurped his latte then said, "Gotta admit, it's impressive. But why are you showing us B-roll from a race a few weeks ago?"

Lyra touched the wall and the overhead lights came on. "This is why we don't usually let tech support sit in on casting, Bastion. You know we're doing a spin-off. And not just a Hero Project clone. Something different, something grittier, more street-level. Something documentary style instead of the bright lights of the main competition. Think about it. YouPower is the preferred toy of the Haves and the Have Mores. But with their new line of affordable tech coming out, everyone will have access to Power. It's going to shake up the world in a way we haven't seen since natural Powers first emerged. I want to explore that. Powered, unPowered, YouPowereds, living together right here in the heart of Triton. Experienced YouPowereds aren't exactly easy to find yet, so I want to cast people like [i]him[/i]." She pointed at the screen where the EMT had Atmos cradled in his arms, the two of them slowly sinking into the darkness below. 

"Hey, techies know stuff, too. Like, doesn't the network usually sit in on casting?" Bastion asked.

"I already have all the DRPR approvals we need, and the network is giving me a long leash on this. They just want a sizzle reel finished by the end of the week. Quick, dirty, to the point."

"Is GG joining us?" Cora asked.

"He's busy staying on top of The Hero Project follow-up special on The American Protectorate. I left Weaver behind to keep an eye on him. Part of how I got the network to sign off on this little passion project was the promise of a razor-thin budget, so it's just going to be us in this room. Can we do it?"

Bastion nodded. "If Cora can stop being a perfectionist for once in her life, should be easy."

Cora pulled a curl of thick black hair away from her eyes and said, "Being a perfectionist is the very reason Lyra hired me. But yes, it should be easy."

"Good." Lyra turned to Kendrick and said, "Get us set up with a studio in the Tonaka district and…Kendrick, are you feeling okay? You look terrible."

"What? Oh, I, uh…didn't eat any breakfast," Kendrick lied.

"Bastion, give him a donut."

"Thanks, but I don't want a donut."

"Eat a slugging donut before you pass out. Let's get moving, people. We've got a lot of work to do."

Bastion tossed a stale donut at Kendrick. He begrudgingly shoved the flavorless dough into his mouth and waited for his hands to stop shaking before he searched for available studios on his MeChip.



*page_break

The island city of Triton glimmered outside the hotel's vacuum-tempered windows. Its three spacescrapers rose up from the waters of the Pacific Ocean like the great trident of the city's namesake. The city was the brainchild of YouPower's CEO, who had designed every square inch of the fabricated island and the urban utopia which sat upon it with a single goal in mind: to celebrate the technical wonders of YouPower. The intricate details of the spacescrapers, the meandering yet efficient sidewalk system that catered to city's core pedestrian population, the elegant skyline of the smaller buildings (still impressively tall in their own right), and the chaotic dance of YouPowered people moving about a landscape designed for three-dimensional travel all worked to make the city a showcase of how grand it could be for someone living a YouPowered life.     

Kendrick noticed a few Powered people milling about below, using their natural gifts to move about the city. The rest, however, relied on YouPower technology. Half a dozen teenagers geared up with bespoke YouPower ion drives flanked a jet approaching for landing and waved at the people inside before a woman decked in the standard YouPower truncheon suit all Triton law enforcement wore chased them away.

Kendrick had always thought his hometown, Millennia City, was the shiniest beacon of twenty-second century progress, but his first visit in Triton was forcing him to reconsider that notion. Triton might only be a few hours away from MC, but Kendrick couldn't help but feel worlds away in this brand-new, tech-laced utopia. He could feel the city humming underneath him and something about it just felt like home—and that scared Kendrick more than he'd have liked to admit.

The rush to prepare for the show had kept Kendrick's mind from dwelling too much on the events of the morning. Seeing Atmos burn had brought up too many painful memories and it had taken Kendrick the better part of an hour just to stop his hands from shaking. He was grateful for the distraction the job provided and the calming effect the stellar view of Triton below had on him. 	

Bastion tapped Kendrick on the shoulder. "Jason asked about you again."

Kendrick knew he was lying. He was sure it was Bastion's wife, Tyressa, who had really asked about him. She had cornered Kendrick at a wrap party and somehow convinced him to meet with her brother, Jason. He was pleasant enough, but had confided early in their date that he was only there to get Tyressa off his back. Jason was actually dating someone else whom Tyressa simply could not stand and the only way to keep the peace in the family was to claim he was single. Which meant pretending to date. Jason had then launched into an evening-long monologue regaling Kendrick with tales about the wonder that was his boyfriend, all while MeMessaging said wonder under the table throughout dinner. So Kendrick had spent that time politely smiling and using his own MeChip to silently compose his Yelp review on the restaurant's website. He hadn't spoken to Jason since.

"Oh? What did he say?"

"Just wanted to know how you were doing, what you've been up to. You know, if you're seeing anyone."

[i]Your studio reservation has been confirmed[/i], Kendrick's MeChip personality, Butler Julian, intoned inside his head. [i]Would you like me to give you the details or shall we see if you've developed any telepathic abilities since breakfast?[/i] 

Kendrick held up his MeChipped wrist toward Bastion and said, "I'm a bit busy dating my work right now." Which wasn't a lie. But he had to admit it was an excuse. Dating was never his strong suit, and having a busy work schedule seemed like an easy way to explain why. 

"Yeah, that's what I told her."

"Her?"

"My wife. She was asking for Jason."

And there it was.

"Oh, hey, also…" Bastion leaned in close and lowered his voice. "When we get set up, you mind giving me a hand with the i/o interface? The anti-aliasing isn't lining up right."

Kendrick nodded. "Yeah, sure." Bastion was Lyra's tech support. He operated every piece of technical equipment they needed to run a show, from camera orbs to the MeChip mixing interface to the final sub-corneal editing suite. It was a poorly kept secret, though, that Bastion had Kendrick fix the trickier technological hiccups he encountered. He didn't want Lyra thinking he wasn't up to doing his job, but Kendrick just had a knack for fixing electronics. Quickly. And in this business, time was very much money. 

Lyra sauntered up and asked, "How we doing, Kendrick?"

"Studio's confirmed. B-1 at the Conclave. Right off Tonaka Square."

"Don't forget we'll need accommodations for Jury and Summit when they get here next week. They have a short window to act as Mentors between American Protectorate missions, so we'll have to make the best use of their time." 

Kendrick had MeChip Julian make a note for him to book Jury's room close to Lyra's, since Kendrick had been one of the select few to discover that Lyra had also been making the most of Jury's time after hours, as of late.

Cora leaned her head over the back of her chair on the far side of the room and said, "I've booked a few possibilities for tomorrow. Core Chaser, HammerCleave9000—" Cora raised her hand, stopping Lyra before she could speak. "Don't worry, if we cast her I'll get her to change the name. And I also lined up that EMT from the Olympus Tower Run. He calls himself Emergent."

"Oooh, then see if you can get Atmos to come in for some B-roll. We can use him for added human interest. Emergent, a Hero's Hero."

"I'll have him booked by the time room service arrives," Cora said, disappearing back into her chair.

Ten seconds later, there was a knock at the door.

Eleven seconds later, Cora held up her wrist and said, "Done." 

"Show-off," Kendrick said.

A picture of an animated Kawaii doll with a glittering smile flashed into Kendrick's MeChip from Cora's account. A tiny saccharine voice squeaked, "すごい！" inside his head.

Kendrick couldn't help but smile too. 



*page_break

Morning sunlight poured through the vaulted windows of Studio B-1. The naked brick walls and walnut flooring reflected the light so well that it was perfect for shooting video. Lyra and Cora stood in the corner of the studio chatting on their MeChips with a couple of faceless studio execs while Bastion programmed the camera orbs for the upcoming interviews with a small LED console he held on his lap.

Kendrick prepared a small station of coffee, tea, and an assortment of fruit and vegan pastries for everyone. He was already on his third cup of coffee, since he hadn't slept very well the night before. Sleeping in a strange bed always made for a difficult night's sleep, but he had been plagued by bad dreams as well. More so than usual. Seeing the footage of Atmos had unlocked memories that Kendrick had spent years trying to suppress. At least he'd be able to blame his jittery hands on the excess amount of coffee.

Bastion peered over at Lyra and Cora to make sure they were busy. "Hey, Kendrick, got a sec?"

Kendrick swallowed another mouthful of bitter coffee before trundling over. "This what you wanted me to look at?" he asked. 

"It's not syncing up with my MeChip and I don't have time to recode the interface," Bastion said.
Kendrick took the console from Bastion and began to examine it. "Did you reboot it?"

"What am I, a slugging idiot?"

"That's why I asked."

"Yeah, funny. Of course I did."

Kendrick synced his own MeChip and scrolled through the interface. "Looks like there's some junk code from a previous software version that's hanging it up. I'll have it fixed in a minute."

"Thanks. Tech genius to the rescue," Bastion said as he walked over to pour himself a cup of coffee. 

Kendrick didn't like it when Bastion called him a tech genius. It made him feel guilty, and he already had more than enough guilt for one lifetime. Yes, he could fix their gear any time Bastion was in over his head, but it wasn't because Kendrick was a genius, tech or otherwise. 

It was because he was Powered.

Kendrick waited until Bastion was in mid-pour before letting a small trickle of energy drain from the tip of his finger into the console. He felt the familiar thrum of electricity, read the minuscule whir of data coursing over synthetic veins like braille, he could even taste the myriad colors of the programming. Once the console was functioning properly, he quickly handed it off to Bastion.

"All done."

"Damn, that was quick."

Kendrick only smiled and walked off. He hated how good it felt to use his Power. There was a part of him that wanted nothing more than to bask in his abilities, to run with them and see just how far his Power could take him. But he couldn't. He wouldn't. His Power was dangerous. It could bring destruction. It could bring pain. Most of all, it could bring fire. 

"Kendrick!"

He turned at Lyra's voice and saw her waving him over.

"Permits?" she asked.

"Filed and approved before we even got on the plane," he said.

"Damn, Kendrick. You're almost as good as Cora."

Cora, still chatting on her MeChip, held her fingers close together and mouthed the word [i]Almost[/i]. 

[i]Kendrick[/i], MeChip Julian intoned inside his head, [i]Your nine o'clock has arrived. Thirty-eight seconds late, I might add. I can have security escort him from the building for his blatant disregard of your carefully crafted schedule.[/i]

"Yes, do that. And when you're done, update my resume, since Lyra's going to fire me. Or you could just send him up to Studio B-1." 

[i]Oh, very well. Sending him up now.[/i]

Kendrick looked at Lyra and said, "Emergent is here."


*page_break

Emergent shook hands with Lyra and smiled. The heroic EMT was easily seven feet tall and had the most perfect smile Kendrick had ever seen. The man's YouPower body suit followed the contours of his swimmer's build while the thin halo of YouPower tech that encircled his bald head projected a matrix of orange hexagons that moved across his espresso skin with the slow undulating rhythm of seaweed in a gentle current. It was hypnotizing just to look at him. 

"Please, have a seat," Lyra said, motioning to a small stool in the center of the studio. As Emergent sat, several paneled light diffusers angled down from the ceiling while a handful of camera orbs quietly floated into place around him. Bastion studied the layout and tweaked a few parameters on his MeChip while Cora was furiously taking notes. Kendrick found a shadow in the far corner and waited for Lyra to tell him if she needed anything. 

"Thank you so much for coming in," she said. "Can I have Kendrick get you anything? Water, coffee…"

"No, thank you." He glanced at Kendrick in the shadows and gave him a polite nod of recognition.  

"How long have you lived here in Triton?"

"I moved in not long after the Starlance spacescraper went up. So, about three weeks after they opened the city to the public."

Lyra kept the conversation simple, asking him easy, personal questions. Kendrick knew that it was an approach she often used when dealing with Heroes on a show. It not only helped to relax the Heroes, but it also gave her a good indication of how they would perform on the show. Lyra wanted people who could make the mundane interesting. Any Hero could perform for the camera and make it mildly entertaining. But Lyra wanted more. She wanted Heroes who could talk about their laundry and make it compelling. And the way Emergent presented himself—even getting a genuine laugh from Lyra and Cora both—Kendrick had no doubt that he had what she was looking for. 

As Kendrick watched Emergent charm his way onto Lyra's show, he saw Bastion out of the corner of his eye, motioning for Kendrick to come over. 

"This guy is great," Kendrick whispered when he reached him. 

"Fantastic, yeah. Look at this." Bastion tapped his wrist and a small hologram of the console's data feed hovered before them. 

"Incoming feed looks a bit slow," Kendrick said, "but that's normal with that kind of digital cross-traffic." 

"That's just it. Where's the cross-traffic coming from?"

Kendrick squinted, pretending to get a better look at Bastion's holo-display. As his eyes narrowed, he reached out with his Power, feeling the tendrils of this digital city wash over him. It was exhilarating, almost overwhelming. But there was something about the flow of electrical impulses inside the studio that wasn't quite right. It was a strange sensation, one Kendrick had never experienced before. He hesitated to probe further for fear of what his Power might do, but curiosity got the better of him. For Kendrick, it felt like flowers of energy blooming from inside all of the electrical components around him, but when he focused on Emergent and his YouPower suit, he felt those energy blooms being pulled back every time they grew, over and over again, reshaping them, warping them. 

"What made you think of using the Atmonipulator that way during the Olympus Tower Run?" Lyra asked.

"It was just something I played with while training for the Olympic swim team. You always have to find your limits if you want to get past them. I felt the same way about my YouPowered abilities. I needed to know how far I could push them, how I could use them in ways other people haven't. It's what gives me an edge."

Kendrick stepped forward. The pulsing battle radiating from Emergent made him feel queasy, unsteady on his feet. Lyra opened her mouth to ask another question but froze when Emergent's matrix of light flickered for just a moment before returning to its slow wave.   

"Everything all right?" Emergent asked.

"I was about to ask you. Your light web winked out for a second there. Does that happen often?"

Emergent looked at his outstretched hand, where the light danced over his exposed fingers. Orange hexagons continued to slowly move over his skin. "Hmm. I don't think so. This is a brand-new suit. I'm still learning about all that it can do. It's top-of-the-line, so there shouldn't be any problems with it."

"It looks great."

"Thank you. The sub-filament exoskeleton gives me the strength of an AniPowered gorilla without adding any bulk to—"

Kendrick was hit with another wave of nausea just as the light flickered again. This time, Emergent saw it as well.

"Huh," he said. "That [i]is[/i] a little odd."

"I hope you kept the receipt," Lyra said through a chuckle, but it was cut short when Emergent stood up faster than Kendrick could visually track him and pulled Lyra tight to his chest.

"Hey! What are you doing?" she shouted.

"I…I don't know." Emergent's face twisted in confusion. He pulled Lyra close with his left arm while he tried to wrench her free with his right. "It's the suit. The suit is—" Suddenly, his right arm wrapped around Lyra's broad shoulders. He was now crushing her in a YouPowered bear hug.

Bastion ran past Kendrick and tried to pry Emergent's arms open. "Let her go!"

"I'm trying! I'm trying!" 

The fear in Emergent's eyes mirrored the fear that Kendrick felt. Something was terribly wrong. The energy from his suit wasn't simply being corrupted. It was being manipulated.

Emergent let go with one arm and backhanded Bastion across the room. He careened into Cora and the two of them fell to the floor in an awkward slump. Neither one got up.

Lyra tried to speak but Emergent was squeezing so hard she wasn't able to breathe. 

"Oh God I'm sorry I'm so sorry please I don't know what's happening!"

Kendrick knew he needed to do something, to help in some way, but he was frozen. He didn't have the physical strength to free Lyra. All he had was his Power….

No, he couldn't. Using his Power to fix a misfiring data line or to feel the flow of energy from a faulty camera orb was one thing. This was another. This would require him to fully embrace his Power, to use it in a way that had once cost a man his life. Kendrick wasn't going to be responsible for another death. But if he didn't do something, Lyra was going to die anyway.

Lyra's head rolled back, her blue lips silently opening and then puckering like a fish out of water. Kendrick ran forward as if he was watching himself from outside his own body. He didn't know what he was doing—he was simply reacting. The vast reserve of Power he kept locked away inside burst open. He let it surge through him, channeled it into his fingertips. He slammed the palm of his hand to the base of Emergent's skull and unleashed a stream of energy into the halo around the man's head. Kendrick could feel the suit's programming struggle to overcome the malicious puppet strings that pulled at it. But whatever—[i]whoever[/i]—was pulling the strings had complete control over the suit.

Kendrick could sense Emergent about to hit him the same way he had hit Bastion, but Kendrick was able to interfere with the signal and slow the incoming blow enough that even he could dodge it.

"What are you doing?" Emergent's silky voice was now strained to the point of breaking. "She's passing out!"

"I'm trying to cut your halo's primary interface link! If I can—"

Emergent spun, pulling Lyra and Kendrick with him. Kendrick wrapped his arm around the man's neck to keep himself from being thrown across the room. Emergent extended a hand and the light along the length of his arm distorted as the air rolled and compressed. Kendrick felt the air being pulled from his lungs and into the sphere of compressed air roiling at Emergent's fingertips. The air shot out and shattered the windows. Wind coming in from the sea below instantly chilled the room. Emergent dove out the window, taking Lyra and Kendrick with him.

Instead of falling, the Hero's suit used its ion pulse to propel them all straight up alongside the building. Kendrick's heart sank and his stomach twisted into a knot when he saw the sprawling island city of Triton hundreds of feet below. He quickly wrapped both arms around Emergent's neck, wedging one hand deep between the Hero's chest and arm to keep from slipping off. Faster and faster they rose, until only the three spacescrapers still towered above them.

"Why is it doing this?" Emergent squealed. 

Kendrick didn't bother with an answer. He pressed his forehead to the back of Emergent's neck and searched with his mind, let his Power flow through the YouPower suit to find a way to bring back control. Something cold and dark wormed its way through the YouPower system. Every time the suit's native defense software isolated the foreign energy, three more corrupted nodes took its place. 

They raced higher up the outside of the spacescraper. Triton was now just a small glow under the clouds beneath them. The air was frigid, the biting winds faster, and Kendrick was struggling to breathe in the thinning atmosphere. Lyra was already passed out and even Emergent was struggling to remain conscious. 

Kendrick's thoughts jumbled incoherently. He wasn't getting enough oxygen. He and Lyra would die if he didn't do something now. But even with his Power, he couldn't wrest control of the suit from the thing that hijacked it. There was only one thing left to do. The last time he had done it, Crosswind had burned to death. Yet if he didn't do something, they all would die now. 

His vision blackened around the edges; the roar of the wind deafened him. His grip loosened around Emergent's neck. Kendrick worked his fingers up to Emergent's halo and sent a burst of energy coursing through its entire system. With one final push of his Power, he unleashed every ounce of his abilities to overload the system. Blue light crackled and sparked over them and tiny bolts of lighting flashed between the suit and the spacescraper.

The YouPower suit shut down. The fierce grip it had on Lyra relaxed. They all drifted upward for another few seconds before slowing. They then hovered for moment in front of one of the spacescraper's many observation decks, to the bewilderment of a gathered throng of people inside, before tumbling back toward earth.

Kendrick was momentarily relieved. The suit didn't explode or burst into flames as he had feared. But now they were falling to certain death. Both Emergent and Lyra were unconscious and, without anyone controlling the suit, they began to drift apart. Kendrick carefully reached back in with his Power. Emergent's suit flickered to life, but Kendrick didn't feel any of the malignant energy from before. Probably because most of the suit's systems had been fried.

As brilliant blue light crept from Kendrick's fingertips and snaked around Emergent's halo, he was able to coerce the suit to gently grab Lyra and safely pull her close once again. Kendrick then used the suit's Atmonipulator to compress a small sphere of air around them, giving them a needed rush of oxygen to breathe as well as control their descent. It took all of his concentration to manipulate the damaged suit, but by the time he had them all safely back in the studio, color was returning to Lyra's face and Emergent was coming to.

Kendrick had used his Power as a Hero, something he told himself he would never do again. But by doing so, he saved them. So why wasn't he happy? Why did he still feel guilty? Ashamed? Because he had succeeded where he had once failed?

He came out of his thoughts when he heard Emergent's halo clatter across the floor. The man was pulling off his suit as if it were on fire, a thought that turned Kendrick's stomach. Emergent tossed the suit to the far side of the studio, where it sat in a harmless pile. He then collapsed to the floor and covered his eyes with the back of his arm. 

Kendrick called ambulatory services on his MeChip.   




*page_break

A nurse was taking Lyra's blood pressure when Kendrick stepped into the hospital room. His boss smiled at him in a way he had never seen before. Like she was smiling at a friend. An [i]equal[/i].

Kendrick had to admit it was a bit unsettling.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Bruised ribs, but other than that, all right, considering. What about Cora and Bastion?"

"Concussions. They'll be here overnight, but back to work tomorrow morning, I suspect."

Lyra quietly nodded and waited for the nurse to finish. Once he had left the room, she asked, "How about you, Kendrick?"

He shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the small stool nearby. "Doctor gave me a clean bill of health."

"I'm glad." There was that smile again. "And Emergent?"

"I think his pride is more wounded than anything," Kendrick said. "We're not using him on the show, are we?"

Lyra snorted a laugh. "Hell no." She sat quietly for a moment, her stern, confident gaze slowly dissolving into one of confusion. 

"Kendrick," she said. "What exactly happened up there?"

Kendrick stared at his hands. He didn't know what to say or how much he should tell her. But now, here in this room, he felt like he needed to tell someone something. So he gave her the quick version of how he had stopped Emergent, hoping she wouldn't think too much about the casual mention of his Powers.

"You're [i]Powered[/i]? Slugging hell, Kendrick, why didn't you tell me? Why aren't you out there playing the Hero yourself instead of fetching me coffee every morning?"

"I'm not a Hero," he murmured. [i]I'm a killer[/i].

But how could he explain that to Lyra? He could barely explain it to himself. The confusion, the conflict, the utter disgust for the joy he felt whenever he used his Power. It was the thing that made him feel whole, feel alive. But it was the very thing that had killed his Mentor.

No, Crosswind had been more than just a Mentor. He had been a friend.

He had been…incredible. The real deal. Crosswind didn't want to be noticed or appreciated. He genuinely wanted to help people. Kendrick most of all. He saw something in him that no one else ever did: potential. So he took Kendrick under his wing and showed him what it was like to be a true Hero. Together, they made their city safer.

But for every Hero, there's a villain. And for them, it was Maphestos. She ran an extortion racket on some of the local businesses and wasn't afraid to break legs to make them pay. 

They had chased her for months until they had finally trapped her inside an old city bunker the government had built during the Cold War. Its doors were thick enough to stop even her, so Kendrick thought to use his Power to overload the system and automatically close the blast doors, trapping her inside.

But Crosswind insisted on bringing her in to face justice for the crimes she had committed. He had gone inside the bunker to bring her out, but Maphestos had gotten the better of him. When Kendrick overloaded the system to bring the doors down, she slipped past and escaped.

It was Crosswind Kendrick had trapped instead. 

It should have been nothing more than an unfortunate setback, but Kendrick's Powers had started an electrical fire that swept through the bunker as quickly as Atmos had tumbled down Olympus Tower. No matter how hard he tried, Kendrick couldn't get the doors back open. He could hear Crosswind screaming. Even through those thick, impenetrable doors, he could still hear him burning inside. 

Now, every time he closed his eyes, he saw the charred husk of his friend. Every time the world grew quiet, Crosswind's screams came to fill the void. 

Lyra stood up and said, "Well, whether you think you're a Hero or not, I can't have you as an assistant any more. Not after you risked your life to save mine."

It took a moment for Kendrick to come back from his dark thoughts. "You're firing me?" he asked.

"I'm promoting you. Assistant producer."

"Is that even a real thing?"

"It is if I say it is." Lyra sat back down on the bed. "You'll get a raise, be able to contribute directly to the show, and I get to have someone around who can sense whenever YouPower tech about to go haywire."  

Kendrick nodded. "It wasn't a faulty suit, Lyra."

"What do you mean?"

"The suit was hacked. Someone else was controlling it."

"YouPower gear can't be hacked." Lyra leaned back, her smile now gone. "Can it? Wouldn't we have heard of something by now?"

"I think we already have. Atmos. I don't buy the story about his sub-dermal tech reacting to the graphene in the tower. I think it was the hacker's first attempt at controlling someone else's YouPower, and it failed. Emergent was his next, and unfortunately, more successful test." 

Lyra sat forward, her voice barely loud enough for Kendrick to hear. 

"If that's true, we need to keep that between us, Kendrick. YouPower built this city. Hell, they own half the network. If we come out and say they're being hacked, we'll be out of a job. Or worse."

"You want to just forget about it?"

"Of course not. The whole point of this spin-off show, as far as I'm concerned, is to examine the truth about how YouPower might affect us all, ugly or beautiful. If we're being honest here, I haven't decided where I fall on that issue yet. But if there is something ugly to uncover, I don't want to paint a bull's-eye on our backs by telegraphing it. For now, let's just keep our eyes and ears open and not give YouPower a reason to come after us. At least not yet." 

Kendrick knew the truth of it. YouPower was not a company to trifle with. He stood and patted Lyra's shoulder. "I'm glad you're all right."

"Where are you going?"

"To the hotel. I'm exhausted."

"Bring me a coffee before you go."

"I'm not your assistant anymore." 

"Bring it to me as a colleague, then."

"See you in the morning, Lyra."

"Hey, Kendrick?" Kendrick stopped in the doorway. "You may not see yourself as a Hero, but I do. And if this hacker is just getting started, you very well may be the kind of Hero this city will need."

He knew Lyra was trying to motivate him, but Kendrick could only picture himself standing atop a pile of smoking rubble. "For Triton's sake, let's hope not."

Without another word, he turned and walked away.


*page_break

*text_image serial-box.png right

[i]The YouPower Project[/i] was originally developed in partnership with Serial Box. Serial Box brings everything that's awesome about TV (easily digestible episodes, team written, new content every week) to what was already cool about books (well-crafted stories, talented authors, enjoyable anywhere).

*link_button https://www.serialbox.com/ Check Out Serial Box

*if named = "Undecided"
	[i]A note from the author of The Hero Project:[/i]

	Hero Risers, here we go again!

	For all you returning readers, thanks so much for sticking with us on this new Heroes Rise journey. And for all you new readers, welcome to the club! I'm so thrilled to be able to explore a new corner of the Heroes Rise universe with you, one that means a great deal to me given all the challenges we face in the world today.

	This new Heroes Rise series exists for one reason and one reason only: because all you Hero Risers out there read the novels and spread the word. Seriously, we've got no marketing machine here at Heroes Rise—just a few interactive novels and some seriously awesome fans.

	If you want to keep adventuring in Millennia City, keep doing what you're doing: read, leave those good reviews, tell your friends, post, share, like, tweet, and keep on supporting Heroes Rise. Our projects rely almost entirely on word of mouth and the support of our fans, so five-star reviews mean everything!

	*link_button https://www.facebook.com/HeroesRise Heroes Rise Facebook
	*link_button https://twitter.com/TheHeroesRise Heroes Rise Twitter
	*page_break Restart The Game
	*restart
*goto_scene rs_nine youpowerskip