Binding Oaths – Chapter 5 | Arc-1 Aeneas 4

Shane briefly considered hiding his feelings, but quickly found that he had no logical reason to; it was a surprisingly pleasant realization. The years he had spent keeping himself reserved and hiding the exact mechanics of his powers while growing up, except with his Grandfather of course, and the competitive nature of the HCP program had taken its toll. So, to finally be able to put complete trust in others without having to worry about competition too much was a welcome change.

With that brief rationalization; Shane let a wide smile stretch across his face and started clapping at the genuinely impressive display. After a moment of hesitation, Amy, Greg, and the Hero’s joined in on the congratulatory gesture. Vanessa visibly stiffened in the face of the sudden enthusiasm but recovered quickly. With a quick bow she floated towards the changing room and entered, with Amy following close behind.

The two young interns returned not even a minute later, Vanessa back in her regular clothes and Amy in her costume. Her suit was a maroon-red with silver outlines and stylized blood-red sword on her chest, the small black cape that barely covered her back completing the image. The large grey baton fixed to her waist did seem a bit out of place though; It was situated in such a way that it wouldn’t impede movement.

“I’ll try to make this quick, my power can be easy to over complicate If I don’t take things one at a time. First off; I’m a shifter.”, she said as soon as she stopped in the middle of the ring. “But unlike most, my proportions don’t change at all. So, my costume doesn’t need to be made out of the same special materials that Hugh’s and Elizabeth’s are.”, and with that said, she shifted.

Amy suddenly became a blank slate, her facial features blurring into smooth skin, and then all of her visible skin shifted into an unnatural white-like porcelain.

And then she started to glow.

Even from up on the bleachers everyone could see the soft light and little arcs of electricity that seemed to come directly from her body, going through her costume without any apparent effect. *None asked her why she bothered with a mask if her shifted form had no face—all knew that being knocked unconscious or having one’s power nullified were very real threats in the field.

All told, it was quite the impressive display and only took around six seconds. “Let’s start from the top then. My main power is super-speed”, Jack nodded in acknowledgement just as Amy promptly disappeared in a blur of motion. It was immediately evident that she had more raw speed than Vanessa. Most notably, she moved in an actual blur due to how fast she was running along the ground, walls, and even dashing across the ceiling for a few brief moments.

Jack knew from experience that, contrary to popular belief and depictions in movies, it was nigh impossible for any speedster to move faster than the naked-eye could see. Though the same could not be said for moving faster than any human’s normal reaction time.

‘Although’, Jack thought, ‘If she can get faster from training, or it just happens overtime, then she’ll get pretty damn close.’

Amy finally stopped after bouncing from each corner of the room. Halting once again in the middle of the room… while floating a good five feet in the air.

“You can fly too? Is this going to be a theme with your group?”, Jack asked with more than a bit of curiosity. “I won’t bother asking exactly how much speed you have since you’re clearly faster than anyone else on the team. Which means you’ll be filling the role of a Speedster while out in the field.”

“No no,”, Amy chuckled, “We only have the speed and flight in common, that’s where the similarities end between us.” She turned her now featureless face toward Shane, “Can’t speak for Shane though.”

“Fair enough. Two fliers with additional abilities is still a good haul. But do you have anything else aside from just mobility?”, Jack asked.

“Yep.”, she said simply before her smooth face lit up with two orange spots where eyes should have been. Amy startles slightly at first, looking around distractedly before collecting herself. “Sorry about that. So basically; I can ‘see’ energy.”, she explained. “This place was just a little distracting for me because of all the electricity running through it.”. She flies a couple more feet in the air before stopping and looking over all the others sitting in the bleachers, “I can only see heat sources, strong enough electrical currents, and unnatural or Super-made energies; such as constructs, summons, energy blasts. The best way I can describe it is that it works similar to infrared vision.”

“Alright, that one is pretty self-explanatory at least.”, Jack says before leaning back. “Okay, last question; Anything particularly special about that baton of yours?”.

With a flick of her wrist Amy unclasped the long and thick looking baton from her waist, twirling it through the air with little effort. “Nothing much to say here actually. It’s made of denser material than regular stun batons, has a higher voltage, annnd…”, she stretched the last word before pressing a barely noticeable button on the non-pronged end and a two-foot long blade slid out from the tip in a flash of gleaming metal. “And yes, before you ask, the blade can be electrified as well. Although it’s more dangerous for obvious reasons.”

Jack simply nodded in response, not having any questions about the slightly modified weapon. It looked like Hero-grade gear and complimented her skills nicely; Though it would still require some testing before she was let out into the field with it. “I can see why your interning under Crusader, you’ll be excellent at suppressing groups of Supers just like she is. Especially after we train you to fight injunction with her.”, He gestured for her to go back toward the changing room and turned his head to Greg. “I think it’s about time Hugh’s Intern put on a showing for us; and it better be good with how often he’s been bragging about you these past few months.”

Hugh only chuckles in response and gives Greg a pat on the back as he heads down to the center of the training facility.

Greg made his way down the bleachers and across the room with the same swagger to his step, eager grin plastered across his face all the way. He couldn’t physically change shape and wouldn’t be doing any superhuman feats of strength or speed, so he wouldn’t need to squeeze into his costume for this. No, Gregory Austin was planning to dazzle these old-farts in nothing but his old hand-me-downs.