Chương 14: Testing

And I thought May was giving me an earful before.

"What kind of harebrained disaster magnet are you to think you could just go running in and slugging it out with shit you don't even understand!?" Tancred's voice bellowed out past his mustache, echoing off the walls of the common area in the New Sentinels team base.

"Well?" he called out, tilting his body the same way I usually tilted my head. Good, get infected with my plague. I shook my head.

"I saw people in danger and I went to help them." I answered plainly. Glancing off to my side, I noticed May practically shaking like a leaf. Being yelled at must have been an uncommon issue to her. My focus returned to the spook who was already back to trying to run me verbally ragged.

"And you call us for goddamn help, Holt! They're clearly magical given they were talking about hooey-wooey nature bullshit, magic is completely unpredictable! They could've been magically immune to fire and made May useless, they could've magically shoved enough roots down your throat to turn you into a tree stump with three-quarters of a shirt on!" There had to be some kind of pattern of logic both May and Tancred went by where they just assumed her powers would stop working, but I would in fact die horribly.

I needed to work on that. But I had a more pressing response.

"There was a chance they did and a chance they didn't; I bet on the chance they didn't. Sometimes you just have to let it come down to a coin flip." It was true, I just wanted to rely on the chance that I saw possible. Tancred was driven to a halt by that, somehow that was what killed his momentum. He just stared for a few seconds, before letting out a sigh like he just finished moving a couch the size of a bus.

Then he continued, far less angry-looking but audibly still exasperated, "At the bare minimum for future threats, tap your damn earpiece and say you two are gonna hold 'em off while I mobilize Chris and Jairo." Glancing past him, I saw the two named ones just awkwardly sitting near the TV, watching us like they were at a public execution. No Dr. Way. She must not come out of her lab much. I shook my head.

"It wasn't my first thought-" "I could tell!" He interrupted, keeping up the rant." I can tell that wasn't your first thought because it's what you didn't fucking do! I'm trying to keep your wanna-be tough-guy ass here in Virginia, saving lives. I can't do that if you're running off unlicensed and dismembering what might be considered foreign nationals, even if in self-defense! That's the kind of misunderstanding that puts me in Nuremberg and you into a concrete ball out in the Mojave." That threat again.

"I get it, you want to save the day, but we're representing the American people and acting on the government's behalf. You know what the government's behalf means?" I said nothing, lacking an answer. He reached into his suit's jacket, pulling out his pistol. I could feel a tension in my sternum strong enough to crack glass. He simply brandished it, not pointing it at any of us in particular."' At gun point.' Anything the government does, it's at gun point.

The trust and power of the American government is based entirely on it being done at gun point, and I can tell you right now, Uncle Sam isn't the one looking down the barrel. People don't like it when the people holding them at gun point aren't labeled, aren't named, and appear out of fucking nowhere a hundred feet from their house. If they find out that was you when the team goes public, there's just as much chance that distrust is sown as there is they get excited.

You've produced a variable we didn't need and were actively preventing." He slipped his service weapon back into his jacket.

"Are you understanding my point now or do I need to come up with another allegory that involves brandishing firearms around teenagers?" Realizing it was best to not rock the boat further, I shook my head.

"No, sir," I deferred. At this point I just wanted him to shut his mouth more than anything. He nodded.

"Good. Now I'm going to tell you the good news because you made the right decision of not turning this into a stupid fight. We already were looking into the criminal element in Charlottesville for about two years now, and it was becoming clear there was some kind of activity from what we legally define as a cult but in practice is more of an ecoterrorist splinter cell." What an exciting sentence.

"What we gathered was they were in contact with some sort of other place, we're not sure whether it's located on Earth or not, related to nature.

'Arboreal Senate' sounds pretty damn nature-y. Though it confuses me since that's for things that live IN the trees." His guess was as good as mine.

"Whatever. This is probably an accidental early raid attempt, or what could be the first in a series of attacks. Very straightforward supervillain group threat to fight, and the fact we immediately have a clear weakness with breaking them open and igniting them is really good. You and May were smart for getting that established early." My head had tilted, and at this point I was just used to doing it. He seemed to have picked up on my confusion and elaborated." As much as I dislike insubordination I like results.

You've produced results, intentionally or not. The fact we have a clear threat of likely variable scale is going to be a good foray for you all into the superhuman ecosystem. The long time it took for them to set up one attack indicates they're sit-and-wait predators who prefer small targets. And yes, an entire park is small in superhuman ecosystems." The question came quick.

"So we're going to take the fight to them?" He shook his head.

"Not necessarily. Key rule of engagement is no escalation. This isn't meant to punish your sense of initiative, the issue is escalation always has a reaction. In a close fight, the one always stuck reacting will lose, but in terms of greater strategy the man who gets the reaction play is the man who stands over the other." Bouncing his hand along, he seemed to use that as a physical marker as he listed the next statements.

"You patrol, you respond to alerts, you investigate within legal limits, and you help build a case on them. When a case is appropriately built, we can work on things like arrests and raids. And if you're worried that's a bit too soft in the mitts, I'm certain that's not the last time they'll have a pack of angry Redwood knock-offs running around." His arm lowered unceremoniously.

"But now we're on an expedited timeline given this is all happening. I've put in the requests for your suits to be fully made and to replace your old trial alter egos in the case of our three vets, and you're going to be getting your own suit in the same go, Leo." I nodded, knowing it wasn't worth my time to argue about having to wear clown colors. I then spoke up in return.

"May mentioned a public demo," I mentioned, nodding to her. She flinched from the motion, the first movement I'd seen from her besides shuddering. Probably assumed Tancred's vision worked by eyesight.

"Are we still going to do that now?" This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Tancred hummed in thought." Maybe. If we can get a case built early for some arrests, it'd make for a good demonstration and press event. But it means you guys will need to be on top of your game.

No screw-ups, follow the rules of engagement provided by both Perry and the Super Commission, and for crying out loud, just use your earpieces when The Giving Tree decides to start giving people heart attacks." He swung a hand up flippantly.

"I've got reports to file because of this, no leaving the base until further notice," he said as he turned and went for the door leading upstairs. He stopped at the door, leveling a finger at me.

"And Leo," he started.

"Don't you ever fucking test me like that again." He then swung the door open and marched through without a word. The tension in the air deflated rapidly after that, as Christian and Jairo got up to approach May and me.

"Dude!" They both called out, followed by Christian further speaking." I'm gonna be honest with you, that was actually a crazy move to pull. But don't let Agent Tank get to you, alright? In my opinion you did the right thing. Honestly I think you two were the best choices for dealing with that anyway," he explained, only for Jairo to jump in.

"What, what about me? I could've helped!" Christian shook his head.

"I dunno if you could. You're probably as strong as Leo but you can't see normally at the same time when you're using your full strength, and we dunno if those guys would've been visible when you do that. We'd have to be coordinating you the whole time. Not that I'd be able to do much myself, I haven't gotten into wrestling matches with trees before and I wouldn't know where to start." The snipe had just shot out of me; I didn't even have time to parse it.

"With the legs, I've found." Jairo snorted, and Christian actually got a chuckle out of that. May could be heard exhaling loudly through her nose, which brought his attention to her.

"Oh good, you're breathing. You holding up okay?" May shook her head.

"Not really, that's the most I've ever heard Agent Tank talk and most of it was insulting us." I shrugged.

"Welcome to my world," I called out. May rolled her eyes and continued.

"I just don't try to cause trouble. I've gotten into maybe one argument in my entire life and I cried all day after it. And I've never been in a superhero fight, it was crazy. A little fun but now that the shock and adrenaline have worn off I keep thinking about how wrong it could have gone. I'm just hoping no one saw Leo and me without our face coverings on." Jairo shook his head.

"I've been looking all over and there are some videos but none of them really show you guys in any detail, you're both just smudgy blobs. That kind of made me mad because someone said you guys looked like ninjas and that's stealing my costume idea!" Christian and I both gave Jairo a look, which worried me. I don't like sharing a wavelength with him.

"You asked for a ninja costume?" Chris asked. Jairo nodded.

"I thought it'd look cool! You have a Japanese outfit anyway so I thought it was fine." The redhead then shook his head.

"It's a hakama, and it was purpose-made for the costume because it fits my martial arts style. You're a boxer, why not something that looks boxer-y?" Jairo shrugged.

"I wanted to be a teenage mutant ninja." I pursed my lips for a moment, but the comment couldn't be held back.

"You'd only have three years of that." Jairo waved it off.

"I'll think of something else later." I conceded with a shrug.

"So what, you're just gonna call yourself Teenage Mutant Ninja and run around like that?" He laughed and shook his head, his mohawk waving with the moment.

"Hell no, that's a dumb name to go by. My hero name is Teiú." Head tilt, typical.

"What's that mean?" He shrugged.

"Just a word in Brazil for lizards. I think in English they use it for tegus. They're like monitor lizards." I slowly nodded, before glancing over to May.

"I never got your hero name either. I know Chris'-" dumb "-hero name." May waved her hands and wiggled her fingers, putting on a light show with her fingernails as she spoke.

"I'm gonna go by Sp ec t r o m a." Her voice was quite unenthusiastic. I just nodded along.

"And what, is your costume gonna be Japanese too?" She shook her head.

"Oh no, I dunno why they both made a thing out of that. My suit's gonna have a bunch of multicolored lenses on it so I can have better focus points. I actually got the idea from a clown costume I saw, with the polka dots." And I thought I had the carnie costume. This entire outfit was a fucking circus.

"I think you all have a lot more of a motif than I do. Mine's just a suit and a mask. Not that I really wanted one." Christian gave me a shrug.

"I wouldn't complain about that. Means if you ever get to go solo you can just spray-paint it or something and it'll work with whatever new name you use. Mine can't be spray-painted because it's all cloth. And May can't because hers is lenses. I dunno if Jairo's can't." Jairo answered swiftly: "I can if I want to. But it's cloth too so it might get very stiff." Christian then let out a big exhale.

"We're dancing around the fact we're gonna get to start real superhero stuff soon. I think we should discuss some planning for it outside of whatever Agent Tank puts together for us, like I think we should recognize what kind of compositions there could be for missions, patrols, all that. Dr. Way should be involved too but she's busy because she got her hands on the tree thing parts. But I think she won't complain too much if we have some preliminary ideas." We all nodded to him, at different paces.

I crossed my arms, waiting for him to continue." So we all have different skillsets and knowledge, like May's a law student-""Was," she piped in. Chris nodded.

"Still know more on it than I bet the rest of us do. Jairo's charisma is pretty magnetic. Leo and I are pretty good at just watching things." Just how much was in my damn file? And he's saying he's observant like me. I wondered what observations he was making compared to mine. I considered doing an audit of all my tells tonight, the ones I was familiar with." Dr. Way is the smartest person I've ever seen. All sorts of little things like that. Some of these things go together well.

Like May and either Leo or me would be great for investigating places for criminal activity. Jairo and I would be good at talking to people. Jairo and Leo in a room could probably deal with anything short of a tank. I bet Dr. Way and Leo would be great at recon. Would anyone mind if I drew up some group compositions? It'd be cool to come up with team names. Like uh..." He pointed two fingers, one at me and one at May.

"You two together are Hard Light." He then aimed a thumb at himself and one at Jairo.

"Jairo and I are Jungle Flow." Jairo shot a look at Christian.

"Why Jungle?" Chris raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't tegus from the jungle?" The boy pursed his lips.

"I guess. But why not something like Dojo Stormers?" The redhead snapped his fingers.

"I like that. I'm using that." He then looked to me after his gaze was on Jairo.

"You and Leo could be like Force of Nature or something." I frowned a little in reluctance, before speaking.

"Isn't that the super team?" He shook his head.

"That's Force s of Nature. Plural. And these are just internal names, like we say 'Okay, we'll have Wavelength-'" He pointed to himself and May.

"'-stop by this place while Force of Nature deal with the arms deal down by the warehouse district and we can investigate while the criminals are busy sending backup.' You get me?" I nodded, still uncertain, but he seemed dead set.

"I guess." Jairo nodded as well.

"I think that's super fun." May also nodded.

"I could doodle some pictures to go with each of the compositions too. That way we could like, pin them onto maps and stuff. I think that'd really help with coordinating on our own without leaving it all in the government's hands. We'll need to be able to do it ourselves anyway, right? The Wave of Hope got to move on from working for the government, we might be able to as well." I doubted it. As it stood, from what I knew, any superhumans the government hired were pretty private.

The Patriot Project bordered on secret police with how little people knew about them, and if you saw them something bad was going down. We were clearly meant to make it look like the government wasn't always the scary bad guys. They weren't giving that up any time soon. Ever, most likely. But I knew there was no point beating down this enthusiasm. It was better to let them live with the hope we were going to get off the government leash.

If it kept them complacent and friendly and off my back, it was the best odds I had of getting the Hell away on my own. Not that I had any idea how to, at this point.