Chương 50: R&R Ch. 50 — Waves End

Seven on one was much better odds. Some would cry that it was unfair, but so was bullying children. Which punching down two plus some fraction of ranks, Jasmine wasn't willing to figure out in the moment definitely counted as. They were going to win, especially now that everyone was here, so Jasmine poured everything she had into doing what she had been before. Hitting her opponent as hard as possible and stopping the thing from doing anything that could hurt her friends.

Nicholas stopped the Beyonder by being the pinnacle of defensive power and boosting all of them. She would do it by having an overwhelming offense; their opponent wouldn't be able to look at anyone besides her.

"Releasing rain to you, Toxin is handling the fog now," Nicholas thought to her as her quicksilver came back under her control. Jasmine really didn't have the mental energy to keep up with all of it." Bind," she commanded, and the rain flew to their opponent, restricting him as she continued to harry him. Stargirl, Sparky, and herself were the melee team. Toxin and Nicholas kept everyone safe with their defensive prowess.

And Pierce and Voodoo handled range support, harrying their opponent, though Jasmine wasn't sure what Voodoo was providing.

Nothing against her fellow super, but they didn't seem to do that much in this situation since they were making constant minor attacks to try and break through the defenses instead of going all in. Fog blasted Jasmine across the helmet, and her head was spinning nearly as much as she was as she soared through the sky, reorienting. Right. She had a fight.

Circles of emerald runes formed around her as Jasmine rocketed back into the fight, a sigil of power forming between their opponent and Sparky to give him the second he needed to dodge. Green light exploded from her armor as she slammed into the fog Beyonder hammer first, and she forced even more of her gravity power into him. She was approaching the limit of what she could execute on, so she had to be sure to keep pushing in other directions.

Jasmine feinted with the hammer as Stargirl, Pierce, and her spear attacked their opponents back. Senses that weren't her own screamed at her, and Jasmine dropped, dodging an attack from Sparky that raced through their opponent. Darlene would kill her for what she had done, attaching herself to someone. But Jasmine wasn't her grandma, and her path was the right one to walk, no matter what anyone else told her.

Jasmine banked wide, flying around a swipe of fog as she formed multiple circles of power in front of Pierce.

"Should help."

"Switch!" Stargirl cried. Jasmine rushed between their opponent and her teammate, throwing up every barrier of force she could as edifices of stone superimposed themselves between the attack. They held, and Stargirl raced away, gathering more power. Just a little bit more, that's all they had to do. Jasmine kept telling herself as she went blow for blow with her opponent.

With all the boosts she had from force and gravity being on her side and not on her opponent, she was the closest they had to a peer for the beast. She brought up her hammer to block an attack from one of his least injured arms, and Jasmine winced as she felt the cracks spiral through the hammer and armor. They were one item as much as they were separate ones; they would have both broken if the quicksilver hadn't been there. She couldn't block another direct attack. That was okay.

If she wanted to fight, there would be no more blocking.

"Armor and weapon cracking will rely on you," Jasmine sent to Nicholas. She felt his annoyance, but more than that she felt his determination to do even better pushing him farther. She let that fire burn inside her, pushing her own abilities higher. Attacks stopped landing nearly so close and Jasmine decided to enjoy a part of her power she didn't love. A soul artifact was already breaking, which meant its soul was more accessible.

Both for her to use it to burn up the item to reach greater heights and for her to keep pouring her own existence in. From the hairline fractures in the hammer and armor, emerald light blazed as Jasmine forced herself to push harder. She would be sad if this set broke, because even if she made one with an identical appearance and power, it would never be the same, and this was her first set. It was who she wanted to be as a hero, the vanguard able to defend everyone and make sure that they're going to be okay.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. And this was where that resolve belonged. She would break her armor defending her friends and all the civilians who were counting on her. Jasmine let out a guttural scream as her hammer slammed down in the same moment others' attacks landed, battering their opponent. Voodoo struck red and black energy, circling their opponent as one of the remaining four arms fell off with a sickening sound.

They just had to keep fighting for a little bit longer. Jasmine could last a little bit longer. She could last as many little bit longers as they needed.

"Everyone, which would you rather me drop? The boost? Or the playroom? I have a plan." Nicholas said as he blocked another attack. Jasmine knew instantly which one she was okay losing. The boost was nice. She loved the boost, but if she had to lose Nicholas defending her, things were going to go bad fast.

"Boost." Jasmine hadn't been able to tell who all had said it at the same time as her, but enough that the decision was easy.

"Got it. Three seconds. You'll have the opening." Jasmine wasn't sure just what kind of opening he could offer, it could be hesitate she guessed? Or would it be something else? But from their bond she knew he was going to burn up his soul again for it, which was going to be his limit. And really she should have stopped him from even thinking about it. But she needed all the help she could take.

Instead, she firmed up her will, taking back the silver rain and forming it once again as an add-on to the hammer as the power shifted back to the same as her current set. Their defensive ability dropped, but Nicholas managed, and her offensive power was hopefully going to be enough. She wasn't near running on empty; she still had power to burn, enough she probably could have maximized herself if she really wanted to, but she wasn't going to.

This was Nicholas's power, and she was going to honor his method of doing things in one blowout attack that would break through everything her opponent could throw at her. All at once, like a star on its last breath, she would push beyond and release all of her power in a single moment. Her moment would come. She trusted Nicholas with her very soul, trusting him to get her a chance to win was easy. Agony ripped through their bond, and Jasmine screamed in pain."

Lullaby" A haunting song echoed across the battlefield and their opponent's eyes drifted shut. Still screaming, Jasmine brought her hammer up before bringing it down with the weight of a city and the force of a meteor." Impact!" she bellowed, chanting the command and pouring everything into the single attack. They all released their final attacks.

Stargirl screamed her defiance, too blasting light, Pierce with an arrow the size of a motorcycle, Voodoo stabbed her own heart, crimson and black light ripping through the Beyonder. Sparky was lightning incarnate, blasting through their opponent. Even with a literal lightning bolt, and someone channeling the power of a star, Jasmine was the one that glowed the brightest. Viscera fell to the ground as the seven of them marveled at what they had just done. A peak rank five at the earliest.

And they had done it without issue. A wall didn't break. Something bad didn't happen. They had just done it cleanly. Jasmine plummeted out of the sky, her armor and hammer spitting out green sparks as parts of them dissolved.

"I got you," Nicholas said, catching her.

"Running on empty?" Jasmine laughed while nodding.

"So you two were fighting him on your own for a while?" Pierce asked, genuine shock in his voice.

"Don't look at me. Retribution's the one that was soloing him for a while," Nicholas said, pointing at his partner with his chin as he did his best to support her back to the wall.

"I'm going to make so much money off of this one," Voodoo said, collapsing to the ground atop the wall. And she was right. Those who had to do damage to themselves to use their powers that volunteered to help with a wave were paid handsomely. Jasmine wouldn't be getting paid that extra. She technically didn't have to hurt herself to use her powers and, according to the superheroes at the top, having a moral code to not harm people wasn't a good enough reason.

"You guys should head back," Nicholas said once the two of them were back on the wall.

"You two can barely hold it together. We can help out till your shift is up," Stargirl said, taking back off into the sky and raining starbolts down on their opponents. The wave was disjointed without their leader; it would have made them easy prey, but Nicholas and Jasmine were both running on empty. Still, they probably could have led their shift to victory if they had to, but neither of them were going to complain about the help.

It was three days later when the end of the wave was confirmed. There would be increased Beyonder activity for the next few months, but that wasn't important to the rookies who had spent the last week and a half fighting for their lives to keep the monsters at bay. They had won, and now they could celebrate. More than that, in conjunction with the wave ending, meant that the videos of their deeds would finally start coming out.

Both Nicholas and Jasmine were relishing the chance to finally power up, though both of them had decided to take a break from that first. As much as both of them wanted to advance and push beyond their limits for all of the standard hero reasons, doing so before their souls and bodies had stabilized would be paramount to shooting themselves in the foot. They could keep going, but it would never be as good. Besides, a few extra weeks to adjust would be nice for both of them.

Lupine's existence still hung over both of them, but they wouldn't get a say in dealing with him anytime soon. Supers with various psychic and information-based abilities were going to research the situation before any actual decisions would be made. Once that was done, he would be turned over to them; probably, they had been his commanders. But right now, the two of them were just relishing the chance to go home. At least after the party, all the rookies had once everyone had gotten a full day to laze about.

They were all still strangers to one another, but Nicholas was closer to them than anyone else besides Jasmine. They had fought together, and that bond meant something to him. Even if he wasn't going to enjoy the group chats that they were suddenly being swarmed in.

"How you feeling?" Nicholas asked, bumping his shoulder against Jasmine's as they stared at what had been their temporary home. He knew how she was feeling. And vice versa, but she was glad that he had asked instead of commenting.

"Bittersweet."

"Ready to see what Rend has to say about how bad we did?" Nicholas joked. Jasmine groaned because she knew that was actually true.

"He's going to work us like dogs while we're trying to heal stress is good for healing the soul or something."

"Probably."