SteelStar lay on his back on a rooftop, staring at the clouds in his organic form.  Things seemed to have quieted down in the city, but that was a relief by now.  He was getting tired.  It had been a long day, but he’d done some good.  People were starting to notice him too, and he was quickly getting followers online.  So far, this was set to be a great day.

            Then he got an alert on his smartwatch.  Something was destroying everything around it in the forest outside Partition City, some sort of red cyclone.  It was first spotted by the crater sight, but it was making its way towards the city.  SteelStar took a deep breath.  This was a big one.

            Wasting no time, SteelStar transformed into metal, levitated off the roof, and flew away, speeding towards the area.

***

The Silent Wraith stood in the forest with binoculars, his bodysuit blending in with the environment, making him nearly invisible.  He was currently scoping out a building, specifically an E.H.O.D. facility a few miles from partition city.  Facilities like this were placed near every city, as it was the E.H.O.D. that made holding cells for supervillains.  This building would have chambers designed to keep power users sedated until a permanent prison could be constructed for their specific powers at New Tartarus Prison, the official supervillain jail.  The Silent Wraith knew they at least did that for the world, but he also knew that the higher ups at the E.H.O.D. were as corrupt as they came.

            Paramount didn’t know he was here, not that Silent had lied to him earlier.  Silent fully intended to go to his lab later to inspect his samples from the crater site, but this place was on the way.  Not telling Paramount was for his protection.  As corrupt as they were, the E.H.O.D. was still an official government organization, and investigating it incurred no small risk, even to superheroes.

            Suddenly, Silent got a message.  Tapping a button in his mask, his view showed a head’s up display, revealing an alert about something glowing red destroying the forest as it headed towards Partition City.

            “Oh no,” he said.

***

Paramount flew forward with his fist pulled back and then punched the giant bull in the side with all his might.  The gigantic creature flew backward, tumbling over and ripping apart the grassy plain until it came to a stop.  Around that same plain, six other gigantic bulls lay on their side, panting.  Finally, the last one stayed down as well.

            With that bull incapacitated, Paramount drifted downward until he reached the ground.  He fell backward, laying in the grass as he took deep breaths.  That battle had taken a lot longer than it should have.  These mutants were pretty strong.  He’d thrown everything he had at them, from punches to blasts of kinetic energy, but no matter how many times they went down, they seemed to get right back up.  It was only now that they seemed to stay down.  That was good.  By now, Paramount was frighteningly low on energy.

            A few minutes later, cargo helicopters from the E.H.O.D. arrived to take the bulls away.  These helicopters were specially designed with massive tanks on their sides filled with a sedative.  These could be hooked up to the bull's bloodstreams to keep them sedated until they could be taken to one of the few mutant reserves in the world.  Paramount helped by rolling the bulls onto giant tarps tied to ropes so that the bulls could be carried away by the helicopters.

            After taking a few minutes to rest, Paramount found himself flying back to the Redwell City crater site.  He’d been gone far longer than he’d intended and hoped to make up for lost time.  As he was flying back, he got an alert on his smartwatch.  Realizing what time it was, he prayed silently that it wasn’t what he thought it was.

            Unfortunately, it was exactly what he feared, and he pushed himself to fly as fast as he possibly could, though his low energy level meant that he couldn’t push himself at his normal top speed.

            He could only hope that he wouldn’t be too late.

***

SteelStar flew as fast as he could over Partition City.  He could see the edge of the city in the distance, forests stretching out beyond that.  He couldn’t see any red light yet, but the alert was still ongoing.

            Suddenly, SteelStar got a message on his smartwatch, a request for a video call.  The sender was listed as “Paramount.”  SteelStar saw that and had to look closer to make sure he’d read that right.  It couldn’t be the real Paramount, could it?  Only if the situation with the red cyclone was more serious than he’d thought.

            SteelStar accepted the call, and his watch showed an image of Paramount himself, his hair whipping in the wind as he flew forward quickly.  SteelStar, feeling like Andy again, suddenly felt overwhelmed.

            “It’s you,” said SteelStar, a big smile breaking out on his metal face. “It’s really you.  Sir, it’s…”

            SteelStar stopped himself.  He was about to say how much of an honor it was, but this wasn't the right time.

            SteelStar cleared his throat, “Sir, is this about the situation outside Partition City?”

            “That’s right,” said Paramount, his voice strong and serious. “You’re the only available superhero who’s anywhere close to him.  Your profile says you have metal transformation, some magnetic abilities, and electricity generation.  Is that correct?”

            “That’s right,” said SteelStar.

            “Can you do a nonlethal takedown with your electricity?”

            “Yes, absolutely!  Why do you ask?”

            “Because the thing approaching your city is Spectramancer.”

            “The superhero?  What’s he doing?”

            “His ability is powered by emotion, and right now, he’s stuck in a state of pure, unbridled rage.  If you can disable him with a nonlethal shock, it should snap him out of it.”

            “Okay,” said SteelStar, nodding and taking a deep breath. “Okay.  I can do that.”

            Paramount didn’t say anything for a moment and then said, “SteelStar, right?”

“That’s me.”

“I’ve never heard of you before, and you sound young.  How long have you been a superhero?”

            SteelStar said sheepishly, “A few hours.”

            A moment later, Paramount said, “Oh, dear.”

***

Soon SteelStar saw the red glow for himself, shining from trees in the distance and dangerously close to the edge of the city as the last of the buildings passed under him.  Flying closer, SteelStar saw a line of destruction trailing the red light with trees knocked over and fires everywhere.  For a moment, SteelStar wondered how Spectramancer had gotten out here so fast.  The original alert placed him near the crater site.

            SteelStar got this answer the next moment.  He saw Spectramancer flying through the air, traveling in an arc over the trees as two blasts trailed behind him and red energy spiraled around him.  He used two blasts to slow his descent, but what alarmed SteelStar most was that it wouldn’t take long for Spectramancer to reach the city if he kept doing that.  The red cyclone tore up any trees it came near, setting them on fire and blasting pieces of them away until they fell over, crashing to the forest floor.

            “Morphic Man!” cried Spectramancer, preparing another leap.  “Morphic Man!”

            As the spinning aura blew away some more trees, SteelStar flew as close as he dared and hovered, raising his voice.

            “Spectramancer!” he cried. “You need to stop!”      

            “Morphic Man!” cried Spectramancer, flying into the air.

            “Why are you looking for Morphic Man?!” cried SteelStar.

            “Morphic Man!”

            The enraged man wasn’t listening, so SteelStar said, “I’m sorry about this.” And as Spectramancer landed, SteelStar threw out his hands to unleash a nonlethal takedown.

            The lightning was deflected by the spinning red aura, scattering in the direction it spun.  Spectramancer noticed the blast and threw a red wave of his own that struck SteelStar head on.  SteelStar covered his smartwatch with his metal hand as the red energy washed over his entire body, knocking him back a little bit but otherwise not harming him.

            SteelStar looked down and shouted, “I don’t want to hurt you, but you need to stop this.”

            “Stay out of my way!” cried Spectramancer.

            Spectramancer raised his hand and unleashed a narrow, concentrated beam that glowed brighter than the wave.  This struck SteelStar right in the chest, making him grunt in pain as he was blasted backward.  SteelStar smashed through a few trees before bouncing off the ground and rolling to a stop, kicking up dirt as he did.  As the trees he smashed through crashed to the ground, SteelStar grabbed his stomach and groaned in pain.  As he lay there, hugging himself, each of SteelStar’s breaths caused a wave of pain, making him breathe slowly.  Clearly, Spectramancer had been holding back the first time.

            “Morphic Man!”

            Hearing him scream like that, SteelStar knew he couldn’t just stay there.  Doing his best to ignore the pain, SteelStar stood, knowing he couldn’t give up now.  SteelStar took a moment to get his breath back and flew into the air again.  He then saw Spectramancer making another blast powered jump.  He’d reach the city before long.

            SteelStar brought up his smartwatch and contacted Paramount.

            “Mr. Paramount…sir…uh…”

            “Just Paramount is fine,” said Paramount. “What happened?”

            “His power deflected my electricity,” said SteelStar.

            “You’ll have to up the voltage so enough can get through.”

            “How much do I use?”

            It took Paramount a moment to answer, “I don’t know.  He’s only lost it like this once, and we haven’t measured his full output in this state.  You’ll have to ramp it up by degrees.”

            “He’s getting close to the city,” said SteelStar, panic edging into his voice. “What if it takes too long to find the right voltage?  What if I use too much and kill him?”

            “Stay calm,” said Paramount. “You have to stay calm.  I’m on my way.  I’ll be there as soon as I can, but you have to try and stop him.  Knock him out without hurting him if you can, but Spectramancer would rather you hurt him than let him hurt someone else.  I can promise you that.  You’ll have to use your own judgment for how much force to use.”

            “Okay,” said SteelStar, and when he ended the call, he said again, this time with fear in his voice, “Okay.”

            SteelStar flew after Spectramancer just as he landed.  SteelStar shot more lightning, raising the voltage slightly.  It seemed to penetrate the red cyclone, though not by much.  Spectramancer rounded on him, his eyes glowing with red energy.

            “You again?!”

            Spectramancer’s spinning red aura grew as he stood there, knocking down a few more trees as it did.  SteelStar was forced to dodge as Spectramancer threw more blasts at him, and SteelStar responded with another high voltage blast that still didn’t penetrate that aura.  He dodged and weaved as Spectramancer threw red blasts everywhere, the blasts leaving burning holes in nearby trees and even slicing a few of them in half, making them fall to the ground with a crash.

            SteelStar managed to shoot a lightning bolt big enough to penetrate a little further, but he didn’t feel like he was making any progress.  Spectramancer was just unleashing too much energy, and the radius of that energy was getting bigger.  Getting desperate, SteelStar tried to dive straight at him, dodging a few lasers and getting close as he pushed himself as hard as he could.  If he could touch Spectramancer’s skin, he could transmit the nonlethal shock directly.  He aimed himself at an angle, hoping to fly with the cyclone rather than fight against it.

            He impacted the aura, and it was like being blasted with the strongest wind he’d ever face combined with sheering heat.  SteelStar was blasted around Spectramancer, missing him completely before being ejected from the cyclone.  Steelstar tumbled through the forest again, and when SteelStar finally stopped, he lay there for a moment, his head swimming.

            SteelStar forced himself to stand, though he nearly fell a few times from dizziness.  He looked at his metal hand when he stood, temporarily transforming his face back to his metal form.  The reflection on the back of his hand revealed a few bruises on the side of his grey face.  Lifting his costume and dismissing the metal there, SteelStar could see a bruise on his abs.  Seeing the state he was in, SteelStar suddenly realized just how powerful Spectramancer was.

            He took deep breaths, his body trembling until he closed his eyes and shook his head.

            “Get it together, Andy,” he told himself. “You can’t let him hurt anyone.  You can’t let him hurt anyone.  You can’t let him hurt anyone!”

            He was almost screaming by the third time he said it.