A ping through the HoloLens felt sufficient to alert the authorities of where Danny had just fought. The soldiers had fled while he fought the knights, but he worried they’d return for the still manacled civilians. If the government’s relief corps and rescue heroes hadn’t arrived already, they would at any moment. The British department kept them on standby for large-scale villain attacks and rift outbreaks. Danny wondered why the League didn’t have teams for such purposes, too, and guessed there wasn’t enough money in the endeavour.

Danny was confident he made the right choice with his latest essence ability. It would take a significant amount of time to get used to it and even longer to master the power. However, Danny relished the new bodily control. Instead of picturing contracting and expanding muscles, Danny imagined a rubber band.

Working in kitchens, cooks dealt with ever-growing supplies of rubber bands. On slow evenings, while waiting for orders to come in, Danny would play with them. He liked to twist or coil the bands, building up potential energy and then let them unravel, spinning rapidly. Smacking his fingers with a loose rubber band hurt significantly less than one he’d coiled.

There was no telling whether his altered muscles functioned the same way, but the mental picture gave him something clear to work with. When Danny imagined his leg muscles coiling, they felt tighter. His range of motion felt limited as well. However, Danny understood that it meant now their potential energy was greater than normal. Relaxing the muscles gave him a momentary boost, but Danny was sure he could do significantly better with timing.

Instead of just uncoiling the rubber band mid-stride, Danny did so while kicking off the ground. The uncoiling muscles launched him several metres into the air, but also into an uncontrolled spin. The jump carried him in a diagonal and into the alley wall. Danny expected intense pain, and a fractured bone as his shoulder struck red brick. His muscles relaxed around the point of collision. Surrounding tissue appeared to stretch, providing extra padding. It compacted under the force like a squeezed a piece of rubber, reducing the stress on the bone.

Danny slid down the wall more winded than hurt.

Wow. It’s almost like flying.

After taking a moment to regain his breath, Danny continued towards the ongoing fight. He continued experimenting with the ability, but didn’t coil the muscles as tightly. Instead, he only did enough to almost triple the length of his stride. Even when he didn’t go in a straight line, Danny successfully maintained his balance, and his speed steadily increased.

By the time Danny reached the main street, he had reduced the size of his stride, minimising air-time but increasing speed. It no longer felt like flying, yet he felt ecstatic. His mobility had increased significantly. With practice, Danny was sure he’d significantly increase his striking power, too. For the time being, he focused on the scene in front of him.

A rift as tall as a double-decker bus floated in front of Holloway Road station. It wasn’t a sphere like the rest. Instead, it looked like a monstrous tear in space. Beyond, Danny saw an orange sky tinted with red, purple, and blue. The vegetation appeared curly and had odd striped patterns to them. It looked like an image out of a Doctor Seuss book.

“Do not fear! Mindpunch is here!”

“I’ll fist you to death!”

The young villain and teenaged asset worked in tandem, fighting a fat, bald giant. The creature would’ve looked human if not for the heart-shaped head and no neck. As both supers struck it, the many fat rolls on its lamp-post rippled. The attack’s knocked the monster off its feet and onto its bottom, but it rose moments later appearing mostly unharmed.

Similar fights lined the road. The rest of the Freaks, Fenrir, and Druid were only a fraction of the supers present. Danny spotted Vowron, a member of the Thirteen, and his entourage of junior heroes. Supers wearing the secretive Ministry of Domestic Security fought, too. Danny had only read about them, and knew little of their activities. Apparently the League occasionally teamed up with the government organisation, but the two didn’t get along.

There was a time when Danny had considered investigating the MoDS further and applying, but the rumours regarding them concerned Danny. The media rarely reported on the tales. However, threads often appeared in super forums regarding war crimes or the organisation’s clandestine activities. The posts and the accounts behind them rarely stayed active for more than an hour, but all sources agreed that national security was their primary and only priority. The MoDS apparently cared little for the cost, repercussions, or morality while pursuing their goals.

Pushing idle thoughts out of his mind, Danny picked a target and rushed towards it. Despite their combined power, Mindpunch and Mista Fista appeared to have made the least progress with their opponent. They fought closest to the rift, and Danny could feel aether flowing out of it. Besides the portal’s unique presence, he detected something else trying to come through and the fighting, blobby behemoths fed on the leaking energy.

A lazy swing caught Mindpunch mid-jump and sent him flying into Mista Fista. The giant gauntlet’s lights flickered when colliding with the telekinetic barriers. They both fell like a sack of bricks, landing in a heap. The behemoth raised a foot, preparing to stomp on them. Given Mindpunch’s power set, Danny guessed he’d survived the attack but doubted Mista Fista would enjoy the same benefits.

Danny coiled the muscles in both of his legs and leapt, releasing the potential energy in both simultaneously. The force propelled him forwards faster than he’d ever moved before. If not for the goggles, Danny was sure he’d have trouble keeping his eyes open. He barrelled into the monster’s chest. It had no clothes besides a loin cloth and no chest hair to grab. The gloves proved their usefulness once again. Danny triggered the mechanisms using his pinkies and the hooked extensions popped out of his fingertips. The behemoth swiped at him, but Danny unleashed the tasers. It wasn’t strong enough to knock the beast out, but forced him to falter, winning him valuable seconds.

The gloves dug into the creature’s skin, leaving gouges as he clawed his way up past the collarbone and onto the shoulder. By the time Danny had climbed onto the shoulder, the behemoth had recovered. It roared and a giant hand came for him. Danny jumped using a light coiling and leap-frogged over the monster’s head. Once on the opposite shoulder he grabbed the giant earlobe with his right hand, thrust the left into the ear cavity and unleashed a sonic blast.

A throat-ripping scream burst from the behemoth’s throat. Danny leapt off the creature as both of the monster’s hands leapt to its ears. It staggered backwards towards the rift and the aether flowing out of it intensified.

“Don’t let it recover!” Mista Fista yelled.

Before Danny could react, Mindpunch flew past him into the monster. His fists didn’t pulse, instead a translucent barrier materialised around it. Instead of a sphere, it appeared to mould around the arm, adopting its shape. He drove his first into the behemoth’s face. Nothing rippled. Instead, bones audibly cracked and the creature’s face caved in. It staggered backwards several steps before falling into the rift and disappearing.

The aether coming through the tear in space pulsed, growing in power and coming closer. Danny knew he needed to do something before the creature on the other side came through. However, Danny didn’t know how. The only solution he could imagine involved eliminating all nearby creatures or at least the powerful specimens keeping it open.

Danny was considering sending the eye through the portal when Mindpunch fell to his knees and screamed. He clutched his head and the surrounding air rippled. The energy radiating from him staggered Danny. The asphalt under Mindpunch cracked. It cratered, forming ripples under him.

A soft explosion next to Danny alerted him of Nyx’s arrival. Purple smoke surrounded Danny as she placed a hand on his shoulder and he sensed the distance between himself and the remaining floating eye increase. It still fed him information, keeping him in the know regarding the growing telekinetic storm around Mindpunch, but his hand-mouths detected no disturbance. When the smoke cleared, Danny stood on a roof on the opposite side of the street.