Deadweight

The Starlite Bank robbery came three weeks later.

By the time Luminova and Captain Glorious arrived, the vault was already wide open.

The reinforced door had been torn from its housing and suspended twenty feet above the lobby, hanging in midair alongside shattered furniture, currency cases, marble debris, and two terrified security guards.

At the center of it all stood the man responsible.

Deadweight.

A metahuman capable of manipulating gravity within a limited radius.

He wore scavenged armor beneath a charcoal coat, four illegal gravitic amplifiers mounted along his spine to extend the reach of his natural ability. Around him, the lobby had become a slow-moving orbit of destruction.

Forty-three civilians were trapped inside.

Aurelia landed first.

Blake touched down beside her a second later, gold thrusters firing briefly from his boots before cutting out.

His visor illuminated.

CIVILIANS: 43

HOSTILES: 1

STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 61%

GRAVITIC DISTORTION DETECTED

Deadweight took them in.

Then he grinned.

Big. Mean.

“Finally.”

Blake straightened.

“That’s usually not the response.”

Deadweight rolled one massive shoulder.

“I was getting bored.”

Aurelia swept the lobby.

Two guards pinned near the vault.

Twenty civilians crouched behind overturned counters.

More clustered near the eastern security doors.

A woman held a crying child against her chest.

“Forty-three civilians,” Aurelia said quietly.

“I counted.”

“Two injured.”

“I counted those too.”

“West support column is compromised.”

Blake’s visor tagged the cracked marble pillar.

STRUCTURAL FAILURE PROBABILITY: 38%

He sighed.

“You really know how to ruin the dramatic entrance.”

Deadweight cracked his neck.

“You two done talking?”

Aurelia faced him.

“No.”

Deadweight raised one hand.

“Then talk from the floor.”

The room slammed downward.

Aurelia hit the marble on one knee.

The floor fractured beneath her boot.

Civilians cried out.

Blake’s suit reacted instantly.

Gold-white stabilizers flared along his calves and spine as the armor fought the crushing pull.

GRAVITIC LOAD: 312%

FLIGHT ASSIST COMPENSATING

POWER DRAW: HIGH

Blake grunted.

“Okay.”

Aurelia forced herself upright.

“Problem?”

“A little.”

Deadweight laughed.

“That suit doing all the work for you, pretty boy?”

Blake looked up.

“It helps.”

Deadweight flicked his wrist.

The vault door shot across the lobby.

“Blake!”

Captain Glorious threw up one arm.

A curved force field snapped into existence.

The door struck it like a train.

Gold light erupted across the lobby.

Blake skidded backward, boots carving trenches through the marble.

The shield held.

Barely.

Deadweight gave an approving grunt.

“I hate when you capes break too fast.”

Aurelia launched.

Deadweight twisted his hand.

The world jerked sideways.

Aurelia missed him completely and crashed through a teller station.

Wood and glass burst around her.

“That all?”

She rose from the wreckage, dust sliding from her shoulders.

“Not even close.”

“Good.”

Blake lowered his shield.

“Please stop encouraging him.”

A marble bench ripped free from the floor.

Blake fired a concussive blast from his gauntlet.

The bench shattered in midair.

Debris sprayed toward the hostages.

Aurelia moved.

White-gold light streaked across the lobby as she placed herself between them and the civilians.

Heat flashed from her raised hand.

Stone glowed.

Glass softened.

The debris fell around her in a shower of molten fragments and harmless glowing grit.

A child stared up at her.

Aurelia smiled.

“Stay behind the counter.”

Deadweight’s expression soured.

“Always gotta play hero.”

Aurelia turned toward him.

“Occupational hazard.”

His fist closed.

Half the lobby tore free.

Blake fired his thrusters and launched across the room.

Deadweight caught him in midair.

Blake stopped hard.

His suit whined as it fought the invisible pressure compressing around him.

THRUSTER OUTPUT: 88%

FIELD RESISTANCE CRITICAL

Deadweight walked toward him.

Slowly.

“You know what you are?”

Blake strained against the field.

“Charming?”

“A man in a costume.”

The pressure increased.

Blake dropped another foot.

Metal groaned around his shoulders.

“Take the armor away—”

Another crushing pulse.

“—you ain’t shit.”

Blake lifted one gauntlet.

Energy gathered across the emitter.

Deadweight snorted.

“That little toy gonna save you?”

Blake fired.

The concussive bolt struck Deadweight square in the chest.

He flew backward into the vault frame.

The pressure vanished.

Blake dropped hard to the marble.

“So far?”

He pushed himself upright.

“Pretty helpful.”

Then everything above them fell.

Aurelia looked up.

“Oh, hell.”

The vault door.

Furniture.

Marble.

Metal.

All of it came down at once.

She exploded upward.

Light flooded the lobby.

Aurelia caught the vault door first.

Then the collapsing section of mezzanine behind it.

Twenty tons of steel and stone settled across her shoulders.

The impact drove her down.

Her boots stopped inches above the floor.

“Everybody out!”

The civilians stared.

“MOVE!”

They ran.

Blake’s visor mapped the evacuation route.

EAST EXIT — CLEAR

CIVILIANS REMAINING: 31

He ran toward them.

The civilians.

Aurelia saw it.

Not Deadweight.

Not the cameras beginning to crowd beyond the shattered windows.

Them.

Blake hauled one injured guard from the floor and dragged him toward the eastern doors.

“Come on! Move!”

A woman stumbled.

He caught her.

A little boy stopped in the middle of the lobby, screaming for his father.

Behind them, Deadweight pushed himself out of the wreckage.

Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

He wiped it away with one thumb.

His eyes brightened.

“Now we’re having fun.”

One hand came up toward Blake.

“Sterling!”

Blake turned.

The hit came like an invisible truck.

His force field snapped into existence a fraction of a second before impact.

Gold light buckled around him.

SHIELD CAPACITY: 47%

Deadweight advanced.

One heavy step at a time.

“You running from me?”

Blake dropped to one knee.

The little boy was still behind him.

He widened the shield.

Covered them both.

SHIELD CAPACITY: 29%

“Busy!”

Deadweight pushed harder.

“Coward.”

Blake glanced back at the child.

Then planted both boots.

“No.”

His jaw tightened.

“Hero.”

The shield nearly collapsed.

Aurelia’s arms shook beneath the mezzanine.

“Blake!”

“I know!”

“Get him out!”

“I am!”

Blake grabbed the child and fired his thrusters.

They shot across the lobby just as the force field shattered behind them.

He landed beside a frantic man near the east doors.

“Yours?”

The man nodded.

Blake handed the boy over.

“Go.”

CIVILIANS REMAINING: 18

Deadweight watched the family disappear through the exit.

“Always the same.”

Blake faced him.

“What?”

“You capes.”

Deadweight lifted both hands.

The bank groaned around them.

“Could win the fight.”

The mezzanine suddenly became twice as heavy.

Aurelia dropped several feet.

Steel screamed above her.

“But you keep stopping to save people.”

Aurelia gritted her teeth.

“That’s generally the job.”

“Then let’s see how many you can carry.”

The weight increased again.

Her arms buckled.

“Blake.”

CIVILIANS REMAINING: 11

He saw her sinking.

Slowly.

His visor magnified the equipment mounted along Deadweight’s spine.

Four amplifiers.

Linked power conduits.

One synchronized network.

TARGET ANALYSIS COMPLETE

PRIMARY WEAKNESS: SYNCHRONIZATION

Blake smiled.

Deadweight caught it.

“What are you smiling at?”

“Your tailoring.”

Deadweight glanced down.

Blake launched.

A crushing force swatted him toward the floor.

His suit corrected.

Left thruster.

Right stabilizer.

A flare of shielding.

Blake twisted through it and fired three concussive blasts.

Deadweight knocked two aside.

The third struck one of the amplifiers.

It exploded.

Deadweight staggered.

“You little—”

The load on Aurelia eased.

She shifted the mezzanine onto one shoulder.

Freed her right hand.

Her eyes ignited.

Blake saw it.

“Oh.”

Deadweight followed his attention.

Aurelia smiled.

“Hi.”

A needle-thin beam of white-gold heat crossed the lobby.

The second amplifier burst apart.

Deadweight roared.

“You think that stops me?”

Blake fired.

The third unit blew.

Aurelia took the fourth.

The artificial pressure vanished.

Deadweight stumbled as the ruined rig sparked against his back.

For the first time, uncertainty crossed his face.

Then fury swallowed it.

He tore the amplifiers loose and hurled them aside.

“Fine.”

Aurelia surged upward.

The mezzanine rose with her.

“Move!”

The last civilians scrambled beneath it.

Blake’s visor flashed.

CIVILIANS REMAINING: 0

“All clear!”

Aurelia dropped the mezzanine into the evacuated half of the lobby.

The impact shook the bank.

Dust swallowed everything.

Deadweight emerged through it.

He spat blood onto the marble.

“No more people in the way.”

Blake redirected power through the suit.

Deadweight rolled his shoulders.

“You got one shot, gold boy.”

Blake raised his fists.

“That feels unnecessarily generous.”

Deadweight charged.

Every step cracked marble.

Blake fired.

The concussive blast broke across Deadweight’s chest.

He drove through it.

Blake’s grin disappeared.

“Oh.”

Deadweight swung.

Blake ducked.

The marble column behind him exploded.

Aurelia came in from the side.

Deadweight caught her by the cape and hurled her through a security partition.

Blake winced.

“Luminova?”

Her voice came through the dust.

“I’m fine!”

Deadweight cracked his knuckles.

“Your turn.”

Blake’s visor flickered.

SUIT POWER: 19%

He exhaled.

“Sure.”

Deadweight charged again.

Blake waited.

Ten feet.

Five.

Two.

Then fired both thrusters.

Straight forward.

The suit dumped everything it had left into his right gauntlet.

GAUNTLET OUTPUT: MAXIMUM

IMPACT ASSIST ENGAGED

Deadweight saw the punch coming.

He smiled.

So did Blake.

They hit each other.

The shockwave cracked across the lobby.

Every remaining pane of glass shattered.

Blake flew backward through what remained of a teller counter.

Deadweight staggered.

Once.

Twice.

Then toppled backward into the ruined vault.

Currency notes drifted down around him.

Silence.

Blake lay motionless in the wreckage.

Aurelia pushed herself out of the broken security partition.

“Blake?”

One gold-gloved hand rose above the counter.

A thumbs-up.

Aurelia closed her eyes.

“Idiot.”

Inside the vault, Deadweight tried to sit up.

Failed.

Then laughed.

Low.

Ragged.

Almost pleased.

“Good hit.”

Blake lifted his head from the rubble.

“Thanks.”

Deadweight collapsed.

This time, he stayed down.

Blake stared at him.

Then at Aurelia.

“Is it weird that I kind of like him?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Sirens screamed outside.

Aurelia floated over the broken marble and landed beside Blake.

“Can you stand?”

“Absolutely.”

He tried.

His knees folded.

She caught him beneath the arm.

Blake grimaced.

“Temporary systems issue.”

“Of course.”

“Very expensive systems issue.”

Aurelia laughed despite herself.

Together, they picked their way through the wreckage.

A camera drone floated through the shattered windows.

Its lens focused on Deadweight.

Then on Blake.

Blake saw it.

So did Aurelia.

For a second, she expected the pose.

The lifted fist.

That signature Captain Glorious smile over the defeated villain.

Instead, Blake lowered his hand.

Turned his back on the camera.

“Medics!” he shouted toward the doors. “Two guards need immediate treatment.”

Aurelia stopped.

Blake caught her staring.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“That looked suspiciously like something.”

She smiled at him.

“You did good.”

Blake went very still.

Then something in his expression softened.

“Careful.”

“Why?”

“I might start thinking you like me.”

“Don’t ruin it.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Emergency crews flooded the lobby.

H.E.L.P. agents swarmed the vault and secured Deadweight in suppression restraints.

The moment disappeared into noise.