Out of the dimness, Shadow appeared next to Morgan, looking smug as a cat.

"I'm sure many of you recognise this star of the Super team? And, of course, her most courageous other half, Cobalt?" Another spotlight gleamed down onto Greg, standing there in his kit. I let out a sharp hiss, wondering if he had betrayed us too, until I noticed the faintest hint of green outlining him. Electron had to be lurking somewhere nearby.

Confusion welled within me as I tried to figure out what Morgan could possibly be up to with this level of deception. Luckily for me, he was never one to resist the villain's soliloquy.

"Aren't they marvellous, working so hard to keep you all safe? You worship them, trust them implicitly, don't you? After all, they've earned it, proven themselves to you, haven't they?" He looked into the television camera with wicked delight, pausing a beat as the excited murmurs that had accompanied Cobalt's appearance petered out uncertainly. "But are you sure, really sure, that they're on your side?"

He stepped aside as a third spotlight beamed down beside Cobalt, and this time I hissed loudly and venomously.

Electron had finally appeared, and holding one arm around Lexa, and the other hand firmly over her mouth.

"This is one of tonight's lovely and very talented designers." Morgan explained to the now fully hushed crowd, who might still have been wondering if this was part of the show. "Alexis, I believe?" He turned to look at her inquiringly, then let out a very staged laugh that made my blood boil. "Oh of course, you're a little tied up at the moment. Electron, if you'd be so kind."

Electron moved off the hand, but kept one around her waist. This must have been entirely for show, since I knew he had her in the forcefield or she'd be fighting like a tiger.

She growled like one, at any rate. "Oh you asshole, I'm going to rip you a new one," she snarled.

The crowd began to murmur again. "Charming," Morgan said politely, then motioned at Electron, who covered her mouth once again.

I couldn't take this anymore, with or without my kit, and I made to stand up. Ewan grabbed my arm, however, and kept me from rising.

"Not yet," he whispered. "5 more minutes." I'd been too distracted to even think of texting the real Gareth, which I now realised was a rookie move.

"Now would you like to see what we're going to do with little Alexis here, how we really feel about you, proud citizens of Sapphire City?" There was the wolfish look again, and Morgan snapped his fingers.

Poison appeared on Lexa's other side.

I heard myself shout, "no!" as Poison blew a long, slow, glittering toxic cloud over Lexa's face. Morgan looked me dead in the eyes and smiled wider, as Lexa went limp in the forcefield, her head lolling horribly like a ragdoll.

Then, all the lights went out again. Morgan's disembodied voice floated menacingly from the dark.

"The days of safety are over, Sapphire. It's time to be afraid."

There was a moment of silence before people began to scream.

"I'm going to rip him apart," I snarled, finally getting out of my chair. The only fear I felt at that moment was for Lexa's safety.

"In a moment," Ewan said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me over towards the exit. The weirdness that washed over my body told me we were phasing.

Suddenly, it was bright, and I blinked wildly as my eyes adjusted. We'd made our way into the empty front hall of the venue, and were heading now to a more secluded alcove.

Waiting there was Priya, already kitted out as Gaia.

"Hi guys. Kenna, I brought your kit." She pushed a bag into my arms and nodded her head towards a nearby door. "That's a closet."

I ducked in and changed with, well, Super speed, before emerging for the first time as Tempest, ready for real action.

Ewan had simply rippled into his second skin, so to speak, and was already Enigma.

"Is it just us?" I asked, puzzled by the lack of Supers besides abductees. "Where is everyone?"

"I couldn't get ahold of Gareth, and he has the master list for communicating with the team," Ewan said, looking worried. "But I did have Gaia's number, from our days of 'Kenna Squad.'"

"And I texted Wasp," Gaia added. "She's around somewhere. This isn't like Gareth."

"Morgan must have done something to him, in order to take his place here," I mused. "That's next on the list after getting everyone out of here safely. I have to get to Lexa."

A noise in the hall behind us turned out to be Seb, already dressed.

"Hey guys. Always come prepared," he said to my raised eyebrow. "If we're all set, let's get back in there and kick some Villain ass. Kenna, have you seen Ewan? I'm worried about him. We need to find him and make sure he's okay."

Ewan and I exchanged a weighty look. I think at that moment, we both realised that we couldn't in good conscience keep it from him any longer.

"Gaia, could we have a moment?" I asked, feeling a bit awkward.

"Sure, I'll go find Wasp."

When she'd disappeared, I took a deep breath. "Seb, Ewan's here."

"Yeah duh, but where?" He looked impatient.

"He's right here."

Seb's eyes flicked between Enigma and me, settling on him. "You're joking."

"We are not," Ewan said quietly.

Looking between us again, another light flicked on in Seb's brain. "Oh my god, does this mean that you're the one who likes Kenna?"

"More than anything," Ewan smiled a little at me.

"What the hell, man!" Seb exploded, giving Ewan a shove.

"Excuse me!" I bellowed, throwing Seb away from Ewan. "We are not doing this right now! In case you've forgotten, there's a whole bunch of people, including Lexa, at the mercy of Morgan right now and we are going to help them first. Then you can be mad, but you will not touch him again," I glared at Seb pointedly before spinning on my heel and marching back towards the auditorium.

"This isn't over," I heard Seb mutter at Ewan.

"Shut up!" I yelled, and then promptly walked into the door. I cursed, pushing it again, and found that it absolutely would not budge. "Guys," I called back, worry creeping in, "I think they've barred the doors."

"That's not going to stop us," Ewan reminded me.

"Yeah, but what's he planning that he needs to lock everyone in?"

Just then the ear splitting banshee shriek that could only be Sonic knocked us backwards a little. Luckily for us, the walls were soundproofed enough to keep us on our feet but we took that opportunity to put in our protective equipment before Ewan took us both through the solid doors, family feuds forgotten for now.

Inside, the lights were brightening just a little, and we could see the entire audience lying on the floor, looking shellshocked.

"Oh, Supers, are you here to help us?" Morgan called out to us jovially. "Please, do join in the fun!"

Quicker than we could react, Jumper and Poison appeared in the middle of the crowd, some distance from us. Poison lent down to one of the women who was just attempting to pick herself up off the floor.

"Aren't you pretty?" she cooed. "You'll do nicely." She spat out her cloud, and the woman collapsed. Beside her, another woman cried out and grabbed her friend's arm, trying to yank her away from the duo, but Poison laughed as Jumper teleported them all away, cutting off the conscious woman's wail abruptly.

Just as suddenly, Poison and Jumper reappeared. "Over here," she taunted for our benefit. "Who's next?"

And then, true to Morgan's word, chaos erupted.

Screams peppered the air as people started to push themselves to their feet and scramble as far from the Villains as possible.

"We're locked in!" someone shouted, and the confusion and hysteria grew.

My mind reeled as I tried to figure out what to do first. I spotted Lexa, still limp on the stage in Electron's hold and made my decision.

"If you two work on getting people out of here, I'll retrieve Lexa before he can do something horrible to her. Where are Gaia and Wasp?"

Ewan frowned, then pulled out his phone. "Shit, they're locked out. I'll go find them."

"Seb?" I looked at him.

"I'll figure something out," he was already looking between the Villains and the blocked doors.

"Right." I dashed off in the direction of the stage, using the confusion as cover from Morgan's watchful eye.

Lexa hadn't woken up yet, so she still dangled limply like an eerie marionette, encased in Electron's alien glow. He didn't have much to do besides play bodyguard, but Morgan ought to have known that he'd be no match for me.

The problem was how to do it. I could easily peel off the web from where I stood, but without anyone to grab her, Electron could easily trap her again or, worse, she could be snatched up and kidnapped with the others.

I looked around the room and couldn't spot any of my friends. I guessed that Ewan hadn't come back with Gaia or Wasp yet, and Seb was busy trying to save everybody else in the room. It was me or nothing.

This would be interesting.

I decided on a sneak attack and began picking away at the forcefield from where I stood. As it pulled off, I watched it closely until the moment before Lexa would freefall out of her bonds. Taking a deep breath, I pushed off the last threads as I simultaneously yanked myself toward the space Lexa occupied.

She fell heavily into my arms a split second later, and I held her tightly to me, balancing my weight on the springy wood of the stage.

"Who the hell are you?" Electron demanded from beside me, sounding frustrated.

I bared my teeth at him. "Surprise, bitch," I said mockingly.

His eyes widened, and he managed, "Kenna?" before I threw him 10 feet away down the stage. As I made to get Lexa out of there, I heard him groan out, "Viper! Shadow!"

I had a split second to wonder why that summons sounded so familiar, before a lump of iron slammed into my back and a vise-like pair of arms encircled my neck. At almost the same time, something I couldn't see started to try and rip Lexa from my arms.

"Not you again," I choked out, trying to keep my grip tight and air flowing to my brain.

"Always trying to be funny," Shadow's disembodied voice griped in front of me.

I pushed out with my powers, but the short burst was only enough to force Shadow away, judging by her yelp of anger.

My recent fight training sprung to mind, and I sent Maskless Mark a thousand silent apologies as I pulled my foot up and then kicked it diagonally into the side of Viper's knee, destabilising him and wobbling us sideways. As he grunted in surprise, I let go of Lexa with one arm and drove my elbow as hard as I could into his ribs.

He hissed in pain and released the pressure on my neck enough for me to slip out and whirl to face him. This time, I could put more energy into knocking him back and sliding him along the stage floor towards where Electron had fallen. The latter was now on his feet, eyeing me like a wary animal.

"Don't just stand there like an idiot, do something!" Viper growled, a little out of breath from his fall.

"What am I supposed to do, my stuff doesn't work on her?" Electron asked testily.

"You're a good distraction," Shadow purred from way too close, and then she punched me in the face.

At least, I figured she did, as a blinding pain about the size of a fist shot through my eye socket, and I reeled backwards.

"Ugh, you're the worst!" I groaned, touching my face gingerly. I felt out for her malice reeking energy, and when I'd centred on her, grabbed a chair from about 20 feet into the audience and flung it into the area.

It connected with a thud and it was her turn to yelp before she reappeared on the ground.

"Knocked the invisible paint right off of you, did I?" I taunted, feeling my eye still smarting.

At this point I took a realistic stock of my situation. I had unconscious dead weight in my arms, had been choked and punched, and still had two strong, sneaky and furious Villains after me, plus whoever else was lurking around. This wasn't ideal.

The karmic gods must have been watching out for their poor little rookie, for at that moment Ewan, flanked by Gaia and Wasp, appeared suddenly beside me.

"Kicking some ass?" Ewan smiled, and my racing heart fluttered. "We'd love to get in on that."

"Please do," I hoisted Lexa up a little higher. "I've got to get her out of here. But I could use you down on the floor helping Seb too."

"We've got this," Wasp grinned, looking a little sadistically at the Villains.

Gaia let her vines start to creep out. "On it."

I saluted them both, and then Ewan wrapped his arms around both Lexa and me, and we melted away.

When we finally rematerialised, we were in a closet under the stairs of the main hall. I laid Lexa as gently as I could in the cramped space, which was otherwise occupied by a variety of janitorial implements.

"God, she's been out for a long time, do you think they gave her an extra dose?" I asked worriedly.

"It probably affects regular humans more severely," Ewan guessed peering down at her.

"That does seem likely." I smoothed her brow and noticed that her skin felt a little clammy but mostly normal, and her pulse beat shallow but steadily. "What do you think we should do?"

Ewan thought for a moment, feeling the pulse in her wrist as well. "I'll grab some water. You know Lexa, she's a tough cookie. She's okay, Kens." He wrapped a hand over my shoulder briefly and then disappeared, leaving me alone with my thoughts for several minutes.

When he returned with a bottle of water, I grabbed it and started dabbing Lexa's face gently. "I just realised something while you were gone. Did you see Cobalt on the stage?"

"No, I didn't," he said after a pause. "I guess they were holding him hostage too?"

"Yeah, Electron had the forcefield on him too. But now that I've thought about it, he definitely wasn't there when I got Lexa. I was so focussed on her that I forgot him, but despite him being a raging jerkface, we really can't leave him behind." We were interrupted just then by Lexa beginning to stir, and we watched anxiously as her eyes finally fluttered open.

She frowned immediately and wrinkled her nose. "Why does it smell so gross and musty in here?"

Ewan and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Yep," I chuckled, "she's okay."

"Am I dead?" Lexa patted her face. "I feel like hell."

"That would be Poison's poison, a specialty experience that we've both been through. We think it hit you harder, though." I squeezed her hand. "Shouldn't be any lasting effects."

"Puny human," Ewan joked, nudging her.

"I will slap your pretty face, SuperFly," Lexa threatened.

"Seems like a good time to go fight some villains then."

"He's right," I interjected. "We'd better get you out of here and then jump back in. There's a whole crowd being mysteriously abducted by Morgan's minions, plus my stupid ex-boyfriend is missing and somehow it's become my problem."

"Though it's tempting to leave him to Morgan," Ewan muttered.

Lexa nodded, pointing to Ewan in agreement.

"Bigger person, bigger person," I chanted like a mantra. "Lex, are you okay to get moving now? I think we should drop you a little ways outside and then you ought to be safe to get home."

"I can text Grant and ask him to come get you," Ewan offered.

Lexa sat up, grimacing as she held her head. "Yeah, let's get the hell out of Dodge."

We got her up and out quickly and quietly, folding space until we were a respectably safe distance from the venue. After hugs and promises that she'd be extra alert and call us if anything went wrong, Ewan and I grimly headed back to the building.

I'd love to hear all your thoughts on Kenna getting into her first real fisticuffs! What's Morgan's endgame here?

Morgan's over here all

And Kenna's like

Meanwhile Seb and Ewan are doing their best to keep up. Who thinks Seb was justified with his rage?

Big big big thank you everyone who reads, comments and presses that little gold star! You are the real heroes of this story!