“I apologize, Starlight. I should have asked them to be a little more careful.”
I snorted as I walked into the training room.
There were six of these rooms in total, and that was just in Vought Tower.
The room had training dummies and pretty much everything needed for physical training.
It wasn’t as though any of it was particularly necessary for Supes, but it made for a decent demonstration area.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were all reinforced with metal.
There were even targets made from thick metal plates.
I had absolutely no idea what kind of metal or alloys had been used, and neither did Homelander.
Whatever they were made of, though, they were clearly strong enough to keep the rest of the building safe.
The entire room belonged to the Seven.
Judging by how pristine everything was, they rarely came here.
Probably only when the place needed cleaning.
Vought had most likely expected the Seven to conduct combat training here.
They had simply failed to account for one thing: Supes had enormous egos.
“Wow,” Starlight breathed as she looked around the empty room.
“You train here?”
“We have five more rooms like this. That way, we can use another one whenever one needs repairs. As we’ve learned, these places don’t exactly last very long.”
And that was the absolute truth.
Homelander alone had destroyed two of them by sweeping his eye lasers across the entire room.
The other members of the team had been less destructive, but it hadn’t taken long for these training rooms to become practically useless.
The reason was obvious.
Supes didn’t lose their abilities just because they stopped training.
Black Noir wouldn’t become weaker or slower without exercise.
Neither would The Deep.
So the outcome was inevitable.
“Where do we start?” Starlight asked enthusiastically, apparently realizing she didn’t have to worry about breaking anything.
“What can you do? Aside from your powers.”
“Taekwondo. I have a red belt,” she answered proudly.
Her confidence only made me more skeptical.
“Want to show me what you’ve got? I swear I’ll only defend myself.”
I smiled and raised one hand as if I were taking an oath on the Bible.
Considering I was an agnostic, the gesture was somewhat ironic.
“But it’s obvious I’m weaker than you,” Starlight protested uncertainly.
“So?”
I smirked and stepped onto the ordinary-looking ring.
“Your goal is to show me what you can do, not beat me. And this isn’t an exam.”
The ring looked fairly traditional, except that the usual ropes had been replaced with metal ones.
The floor was made from metal plates as well.
It should survive a couple of sparring sessions at half strength, and replacing anything that broke wouldn’t be difficult.
“All right,” the blonde sighed before joining me.
“We don’t need a referee. Start.”
I immediately shifted to the right, narrowly avoiding a sharp kick.
“Not bad.”
Her kicks were actually very good.
Against an ordinary human moving at her speed, one of them could probably have gone straight through them.
Against me, however, her techniques were completely ineffective.
My speed and reaction time were comparable to those of the speedsters.
A-Train was obviously faster, but I wasn’t that far behind.
To me, every one of Starlight’s attacks looked like something thrown by a five-year-old.
Predictable and almost laughably clumsy.
When one of her kicks nearly caught me in the head, I grabbed her leg, swept her other foot out from under her, and sent her crashing onto the floor.
“Get up,” I said with a smile, looking down at her.
“Or is that all you’ve got?”
Her eyes suddenly lit up with a yellow glow, and she sprang back to her feet.
This time, she came at me with much more aggression, using her fists as well.
The result didn’t change.
If anything, she started making even more mistakes.
Her growing frustration made her careless, and eventually she left herself wide open.
A split second later, my hands were around her hips.
I lifted her effortlessly and slammed her onto the floor.
I immediately moved over her and caught both her wrists, preventing her from moving.
Starlight was breathing heavily.
The glow in her eyes had grown even brighter, and the lights overhead began flickering uneasily.
“You promised you’d only defend yourself,” she breathed.
There wasn’t any real anger in her voice.
“Offense is the best form of defense,” I replied with a smirk, feeling her attempts to break free finally stop.
Her heartbeat quickened.
Her gaze became far too intense.
My eyes drifted down to her slightly parted, enticing lips.
“You certainly know how to attack.”
The ironic voice came from nearby.
“Maeve.”
I forced a smile onto my face, annoyed at being interrupted at such an interesting moment.
I stood up and looked toward the heroine who was watching us with obvious interest.
Starlight quickly got to her feet as well, smoothing down her skirt.
She was definitely feeling at least a little awkward.
“In the flesh,” Maeve snorted, looking between the two of us.
“Decided to relive your younger days?”
“I was testing what Starlight could do… in combat.”
“And?”
She raised an eyebrow.
“She did pretty well. Actually, I’d say she did great.”
I assured the redhead.
“Really?” Maeve smirked and glanced at Starlight again.
“Because you don’t exactly seem objective here.”
She looked back at me.
“It would be much fairer if she sparred with me. Don’t you think?”
“I have no objections.”
I smiled as she effortlessly vaulted over the ropes and landed inside the ring.
“Excellent.”
“All right, both of you, to the center.”
I decided to play referee.
Neither woman objected, and soon they were standing opposite each other.
“I hope you both understand that this is just a friendly match. So try not to get carried away.”
“We understand,” Maeve said with a smirk, throwing me a glance.
“Begin.”
I stepped back to give them room to fight.
No miracle occurred.
The match turned out almost exactly like the previous one.
Starlight went all out at the beginning, desperately trying to land a hit on Maeve.
Maeve didn’t let her touch her even once.
A minute later, after seeing everything she needed to see, she simply put Starlight on the floor.
Exactly as expected.
“She’s actually pretty good,” Maeve declared, extending a hand to the girl lying on the floor.
“You’d definitely tear The Deep apart. Nice job.”
“Thanks.”
The blonde accepted her help and got back on her feet.
“All right, I’m off. I’ve got things to do.”
Maeve smirked, gave me one last look, vaulted over the ropes, and headed for the exit.
“What got into her?”
I muttered, unable to understand her behavior.
“You two…”
“Oh, no. It’s nothing like that. We’re just friends.”
I immediately dismissed her assumption.
“She’s probably just looking for a little entertainment.”
Homelander’s relationship with Maeve had always been far from normal.
When they first met, they’d had a passionate relationship.
After that, they’d broken up and gotten back together more times than I cared to count.
Six years ago, however, they had finally decided to remain friends.
Maeve had been the one to make that decision.
It had annoyed Homelander.
It didn’t annoy me.
“I see,” Annie said uncertainly.
“Now it’s time to test the power of your ability.”
I decided to change the subject.
“By the way, what exactly does it do?”
“Well, it’s kind of like a laser, only slower. It can push things away, and with prolonged contact, it can burn them.”
Starlight began explaining.
“And you get your energy from electrical appliances.”
I nodded as I stepped down from the ring.
“You read my file?”
“No. I just guessed.”
I lied effortlessly.
“I noticed the lights flickering whenever your eyes started glowing. I only know the basics about your powers.”
I already knew every detail about them.
“So?”
“Yes, that’s exactly right. I store energy that way. I’m strongest in cities.”
“How long can you hold that energy inside you?”
“A couple of days. If I keep it stored for too long, it becomes uncomfortable.”
She grimaced, clearly remembering the unpleasant sensation.
“Got it. Fire at the target with everything you’ve got.”
She raised a hand.
Energy gathered in her palm, and less than a second later, she fired.
The results were acceptable.
A perfectly round hole had appeared in the metal target.
There was just one problem.
“Can you only release that energy through your hands, or can you release it from your entire body?”
“My entire body.”
“Then why use your hands?”
“It’s convenient?”
She answered uncertainly, as though she’d never really thought about the question before.
“Your eyes emit light. During stressful situations, they’re the first part of your body to glow. That means they’re probably the easiest channel through which to release your energy.”
I watched her face as realization slowly dawned.
“I… wait.”
She focused again.
This time, however, she lowered her hands.
Her eyes began glowing.
The light grew brighter and brighter until a beam suddenly shot from them.
Another hole appeared in the second target.
This one was about half the size of the first.
“It worked!”
Starlight shouted happily, practically bouncing in place.
She didn’t seem to be experiencing any discomfort at all.
“Yeah. It worked.”
I nodded, watching her delighted expression with interest.
I wonder how many other Supes are out there who have never even tried to understand their own abilities?
Vought clearly didn’t bother teaching them how to properly control their powers.
That said a lot about the company.
The same could be said about tactics, hand-to-hand combat, and operating equipment.
Take Homelander, for example.
He couldn’t even drive a car, let alone fly a plane or helicopter.
In many ways, he was completely incompetent.
Even his first mission had ended in disaster because he’d decided to fire his eye lasers at a gun.
The inevitable result had been life-threatening injuries to both the hostages and the criminals.
Definitely something worth thinking about.
We spent another two hours in the training room testing Starlight’s abilities.
By the end, she’d become fairly competent at firing beams from her eyes.
They were also much safer than my lasers.
Instead of burning straight through whatever they hit, hers primarily pushed things away.
After returning to my apartment, I flew outside again and began accelerating to an incredible speed.
I couldn’t see myself getting tired of this anytime soon.
At least not for the next few weeks.
The sensation was simply too intoxicating.
Alcohol couldn’t compare.
Even drugs had nothing on it.
And it was in precisely that state that I landed on the balcony again, running a hand through my damp hair.
Who knew flying through clouds would leave you soaking wet?
I snorted at the ridiculous thought and walked over to the refrigerator.
I took out a bottle of milk, poured myself a glass, and quickly emptied it.
The refreshing liquid disappeared into my empty stomach almost as quickly as I’d poured it.
I should probably order something to eat.
I wiped the milk from my lips and glanced around.
“What’s the occasion, Madelyn?”
I asked without turning around.
The woman was sitting on the couch, watching me.
Looks like today I’ll finally find out what they’ve been hiding from Homelander.
And I was certain Stillwell wasn’t acting alone.
Stan Edgar was definitely involved.
“We need to talk.”
“I’m all ears.”
I smiled and finally turned to face her.