Chapter 8

It was the vulture who acted first as he charged at me. I placed a barrier around myself just as he made a flyby with the sharp edges of his wingsuit aimed at me. The barrier managed to absorb the attack but just after the vulture left, I was bombarded by Shocker and Electro which quickly weakened the barrier. In addition to that, the hobgoblin was attempted to fly to my flank in an effort to take off guard.

With some quick thinking, I formulated a plan in my head. I waited until shocker attacked as his attack's rate of fire were slower compared to Electro. The moment the shock wave was absorbed by my barrier, I swiftly moved laterally. However Electro was able to fire another electrical blast at me before I was completely out of his range. Unfortunately for him though, I managed to absorb his attack via the ring before I shot the blast at Shocker sending him crashing into a building.

I then shot a barrage of attacks at the Hobgoblin, hampering his advance and forcing him to retreat backwards. After dodging a slab of concrete courtesy of Rhino, I got out of sight before enter cloak mode before circling around, intercepting the Hobgoblin. I exited cloak just a few meters away from him before constructing a large sledgehammer and bringing it down on his head. "Order in the court." I quipped as the hammer collided with the villains head causing him to go spinning through the air.

And then I got assaulted by Electros lightning making me scream out in pain before collapsed onto the ground. I manged to recover just in time to see Rhino charging at me. I poured my willpower into the ring and created a large hardlight fist which I swang at Rhino.

Despite the size of the villain, Rhino's entire body was caught in the first and he was comically flung onto a poor man's car. I got up holding my side and looked around just as something fell next to my foot. I looked down to see one of Hobgoblin bombs and I immediately erected a barrier just as it exploded. I didn't get hurt thanks to the barrier but the force of the explosion was enough to send me flying.

And before I could recover, I was hit with once more with Electros Lightning followed by the Shockers shock waves before I hit another building. I quickly put up a barrier just as more attacks hit me damaging the buildings further, covering that spot with smoke. This allowed me to slip back into cloak before I made my way towards Electro and Shocker.

I charged up a concussive blast and shot it at Electro before tackling Shocker who was surprised by my sudden appearance. And before he could react, I conjured a pair of power gloves on both of my hands before crushing Shockers gauntlets. He screamed in pain at my action but I knew that it wasn't going to leave any lasting damages as I only applied enough force to break the gauntlets not his hands.

I then heard rumbling behind me and I turned to see Rhino attempting charge at me once more. Personally, I think he should have simply just thrown something at me. Didnt he remember what happened when he tried that the first time? Instead of just punting him away like last time, I instead faced his attack head on. The strength boost by the power gloves was enough to match his strength. I then began punching him. Most of it was aimed at his exposed face but I also targeted his ribs. He tried to swipe at me a couple of times but unlike the speed he displayed when he was charging, he was significantly less dexterous when at close range. Every punch, swipe and grabs were easily avoided by me before I countered them. Like a game of punch out.

Rhino, now obviously on his last legs, sent another punch at me which I dodged before grabbing onto the offending arm, twisting it before I threw him over my shoulders and onto the ground. The surroundings trembled as he made contact with the ground.

I then turned towards Electro who was on the verge of standing up. As his eyes fell on me, he began shooting a stream of electricity. I in turn used the ring to absorb his attack. Seeing this, he got even more angry and put his back into his attack, increasing the size and intensity of the electricity. This continued on for several minutes before the attack subsided.

Electro was on his knees, panting heavily and on the verge of unconsciousness. "What.... the... hell..." he tried to speak before falling face first onto the asphalt unconscious.

"What the hell? Where are Gargan and Toomes." I heard the Shocker groan.

I immediately became alert as I pondered his words. It was true, both Vulture and Scorpion has been missing. Vulture after his initial attack and Scorpion who hadn't entered the fray yet.

I flew up into the air and began looking around to make sure all the villains were accounted for. Yet so far, I could only find Hobgoblin, Electro, Rhino and Shocker. By this point, the police had more or less incapacitated the rest of the escapees. I bound the villains in several hardlight chains which would automatically be disabled by the time the authorities manage to take them to the Raft.

I then flew towards the officer in charge, who was barking orders at the rest of the officers as they loaded the escapees into another armoured car. He then turned towards me with a condescending smirk.

"Well, well, well. If it ain't the hero of the hour herself. Must be your lucky. 6 villains at once. Probably acing the local leader boards right now." I frowned at his words. The 'leaderboards' was a system implemented after the Sqadron came into power. It basically recorded the progress of the heroes belonging to their organisations. The higher your rank, the higher the rewards you receive from the organisation and the higher your fame will rise. By implementing this system, they have essentially turned superheroing into a competition. No wonder the officer was being somewhat hostile. He must have thought that I was one of them. After all, the fact that officers like him were risking their lives to uphold the law while 'heroes' like the Robro treat it like a game would leave a bitter taste in their mouth.

As such I chose to ignore his words and inside inform him about the missing villains. "Shocker, Rhino, Electro and Hobgoblin have been captured. But there is no sign of Vulture and Scorpion. I escaped right after the fighting began."

The officer turned serious at my words. "You're sure?" he asked.

"Yes. I have scanned the area and haven't seen any of them. Are all the prisoners accounted for?"

The officer looked reluctant to before pulling me aside and whispered. "I took a look at the prisoner manifest. It said there were 15 prisoners inside that transport. But when I interviewed one of the guards, he claimed that he counted 16. My guess is that someone altered the records so that we waste time trying to determine who it was."

"Or maybe one of your higher ups were trying to transport a VIP discretely."

The officer scoffed. "Maybe."

We then heard a low hum from behind and turned around to see several superheroes belonging to the Squadron flying towards us.

"Listen kid. The fact that you are actually reporting to me tells me that you are not one of them. So heed my advice and leave before they get here. You did a good job but the fact that two of the villains managed to escape gives them enough ammunition to paint you as incompetent and try to force you to join them. Lay low for a while, while we investigate this case. Give me a call after a few days. I believe we can help each other. " he said before shooing me away.

I followed his advice as I flew away from the approaching heroes. One of them attempted to pursue me before I increased my speed to Mach 2 and flew faster, leaving sonic boom where I had been.

All in all, it was a good day. I took down 4 supervillains, helped the police, made a potential friend amongst the boys in blue and landed my first major case of my career as a hero.