The door crumpled inwards under the strength of my fist.

Miss Malaise flanked me, and her little monsters descended upon the normal workers in the entryway. Within seconds most were slumped on the floor, pleading for help, as they were assaulted with deep emotional pain.

Breaker was ahead of us, in combat with a hero on guard duty, a woman called Mudshot. Poor lady. Her powers and name were really unfortunate.

It wasn’t much of a fight. I’d chosen Breaker to join us since I knew his powers were super effective against pretty much all heroes, and villains too.

Mudshot’s sludge projectiles turned into iridescent bubbles when they touched Breaker’s skin, and he kept advancing forward. While he closed in on her, her attacks grew increasingly erratic. When she realized she couldn’t stop him, she tried to run.

Breaker lunged forward, and his hand brushed her goopy hair.

As he touched her, just like his name, her powers...broke. Instead of being a grime flinging, toxin secreting nightmare, her hair shivered with sudden static and then poofed out and coiled into the shiniest mane of hair I’d ever seen. All traces of gunk vanished. Mudshot gaped at Breaker and tried to run again. Breaker caught her with ease, and used a length of rope to keep her from meddling any further. Mudshot was out of the picture.

Meanwhile, Miss Malaise and I teamed up against a newer hero, Skewer, who was a metahuman with reptile characteristics. Skewer’s long tail slammed into my side. The hit would’ve easily broken the ribs of a normal person, perhaps even caused internal hemorrhaging. I caught his tail and held onto it. In a move that surprised myself, I grabbed the base of Skewer’s tail and pulled.

Skewer screamed, and then, like tearing off a band aid, his tail disconnected from his body. The severed limb thrashed in my grip.

“What the,” Skewer screamed again, and his eyes rolled, “You tore off my tail?!?”

“Get out of our way,” I said, “or you might lose something else important to you.”

With a dark chuckle, Miss Malaise cast one of her monsters at him, and with the combined anguish of what I’d done, Skewer was done for.

We continued forward.

Miss Malaise stayed close behind me as I brute forced every door we came upon on our way to the suppression chambers.

The suppression chambers were sturdy enough that it took more than one hit for them to give in. Considering it was a jail, the white of the walls and the cavernous ceiling heights made quite a creepy impression.

“Thanks for coming to get us!” Leonine jumped up from sitting cross legged on the floor, “this place is awful!” He couldn’t get out of the room fast enough, and practically ran out.

When he passed the threshold of the door his arms lit up with flame, “It’s good to be back to normal,” he let out a breath of relief.

Metality nodded at me as he exited, “Thank you,” he said in his deep voice.

As the others left, they too, activated their powers. Leaving the suppression chambers was like having a limb unbound.

“We need to move fast,” I said, “reinforcements could be here any moment.”

We hurried out of the prison and towards the waiting van. The back doors were open and Mr. Blue caught the hands of the villains to pull them in, and then flung them onto the telestation platform.

“Come, we’ve gotta go!” he hollered.

One by one the villains were teleported back to the safety of the Corp.

I was the second last to go. As I stepped on the platform, I could hear the calls of arriving heroes, while the telestations’s detonator beeped it’s ominous last counts.

Once I’d arrived on the other side of the telestation, I quickly moved off the platform. Mr. Blue appeared seconds after, safe.

We’d all made it back.

Then there was another flash, and an unwanted visitor arrived.

When I saw who it was I grinned.

This pesky hero thought she was being brave, chasing after us.

But all she’d landed herself in was a den of villains, with no backup to save her.