It was a lovely day in the city of Candlelight Cove, if one ignored the fact that half of the electricity grid had been knocked out, a skyscraper was shooting lightning into the sky, and five police cars were stuck to said skyscraper. Then again, Nathan supposed, there weren’t any confirmed fatalities after ten hours, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. On the other hand, he hadn’t heard a word about his teammates. Bodycams and radios weren’t working due to the EMPs of the area. The news footage he was watching had the same problem, only catching things from afar. His teammates were nothing more than colorful blobs.

Nathan’s earpiece buzzed. “Enmachina,” Angelica said, “please report to my office ASAP.”

“Understood,” he replied. If she was calling for Enmachina, she wanted him suited up. But why? Was the situation so bad that she was willing to send even him out for an electromagnetic crisis? He hastily put on his suit, powered up the components, and practically ran to the captain’s office.

“What’s the situation?” Enmachina asked, opening the door and then stopping dead. Angelica was there, sitting behind her desk, but there was another person there. A very colorful one, in fact: the costume was a dress and cape with a bright rainbow gradient down to the knees, as well as a rainbow domino mask.

“The rest of the team has cornered the villain responsible,” Angelica said. “It’s Flashstrike, of course, except this time he decided to play Frankenstein.” She picked up the remote on her desk and pressed a button.

“Flashstrike’s barricaded himself in the top floor with some sort of shield,” came Stethoscope’s voice. Enmachina relaxed. Raph was all right. “From what we saw on the initial sweep, there’s nothing else in there for him to defend himself with. We just need to get through and then it’s all over.” Judging by Scope’s voice, he was definitely ready for it to be over.

Angelica set the remote down. “That’s from about ten minutes ago. I would have called you sooner, but I was distracted by our new arrival.”

“Thank you for the update,” Enmachina said. “So, who’s this?”

“Rainbright,” the new hero said, holding out a hand.

“She transferred over from Micropolis,” Angelica said. “Too many heroes, not enough crime.”

“Doesn’t sound like a problem to me,” Enmachina said, barely remembering to pitch his voice modulator higher to keep it light. His suit’s monotone filters really got to people sometimes. Didn’t want to scare off the newbie.

“It’s certainly not a problem for us,” Angelica said. “Rainbright, I’d like you to go on patrol with Enmachina and learn the ropes. We’ll introduce you to the rest this evening, assuming the crisis is over by then. Understood?”

Rainbright nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

Angelica smiled. “Off you go, then. I’ll call you when they’re back.”

Enmachina nodded and left, walking slowly until he was sure Rainbright was following. “So,” Rainbright asked, “is this sort of thing normal here?”

“The skyscraper lightning rod? Not really. We only have something big like that every few months.” He glanced at her costume. “Can I guess your powerset?” he asked.

“Sure,” Rainbright said, looking at the hallways. It was very modern, with large internal windows looking into each room and plants growing in between. Enmachina guessed that the Micropolis Corps, one of the older and smaller branches of Power Corps, didn’t have a building like this. Though he’d ever been to Micropolis, so he couldn’t say. “Hit me with your best guess,” she continued. She was definitely a lot perkier once she was away from Angelica. The wings were pretty intimidating.

“Flyer, maybe a Flying Brick, with light-based powers.”

Rainbright squeaked. “How’d you know?”

“Well, you’re out on patrol with me. I usually do flying patrols, so you’d have to fly in order to work with me,” Enmachina said. “And for the light powers, that’s usually why heroes wear rainbows. That or they’re extremely gay. Or both.”

“Well… I’m not a Brick. I don’t have strength or invulnerability. But other than that, you’re right.” Rainbright bit her lip. “I make hard light, actually. Up to six things. All different colors. And I can make really bright lights to blind people.”

“Can you show me?” Enmachina asked. “The hard light, I mean. Please don’t blind me.”

Rainbright nodded and struck a heroic pose. Six translucent clones of her appeared, making the same pose. All of them were in a different color from red to purple. Enmachina poked the red one, which was closest. It tipped back like a statue, rather than swaying like a human would. Rainbright relaxed her arms and so did the clones. “I can control them, too,” she said.

“Very useful,” Enmachina said.