“It tastes like eggplant,” Justice said with his eyes close as he chewed the food. Amira stood in front of him holding a spoon. “I also taste some onions and tomatoes.”Amira leaned back biting her lip as she anticipated his reaction. “So what do you think?”“It’s good, damn good, really,” Justice replied emphasizing his enjoyment of the food by licking his lips. “I’m half Italian and I could see my mom’s family cooking something like this. What did you call it?”The Arab girl smiled when Justice opened his eyes and looked at her. “Most people call it baba ghanoush....

The Harris armor provided no protection for the mundane soldier as the Nanoblade penetrated the chest armor and slid effortlessly across the torso. The soldier screamed for a few seconds as he collapsed from massive shock and blood loss. Maze knew Metall’s soldier would be dead in a minute, but so would he if he did not roll to the right. As he did, another soldier released a stream of bullets from his M4 rifle. The bullets bounced off the asphalt sending up sparks and rocks. Maze retracted the Nanoblade and pulled it back under the cloak. To the soldiers, he simply vanished into thin air.“Switching...

“No!” yelled Eagle as she finished her dive-bomb and landed on Terrorvolt, knocking him backwards and forcing the minigun to fire wildly in the air. Eagle used her claws to camp down on the armor, her Enhanced strength digging in the steel plates.“Get off me, you stupid bird bitch!” Terrrorvolt demanded as he tried to hammer punch Eagle off the shoulder area of his armor. “He’s getting away.”“Metall wants him alive, Terrorvolt,” Eagle said as she struggled to stay on as the metal armor bucked underneath her. “He’ll kill you for betraying him. He’ll kill all of us if we let that...

The car slowed as several hundred lumens of light mounted on the Harris armor helmet, lit up the street. Each man also held a rifle which encouraged the driver to slow down and finally stop in front of the makeshift roadblock. The lead soldier held up his hand in the universal symbol to stop before walking around the front of the car to the driver side window. The driver kept his hands on the wheel as the remaining three agents fanned around the front of the car to create a perimeter.“Please, turn off your car and step outside,” the soldier nearest the car ordered in a firm voice. The driver...

“Hot Rod to Eagle, I got our squirrel,” squawked the radio in Screaming Eagle’s ear.“Copy,” she replied to the speedster as she positioned her body vertically to hover. “Maybe you’re not as useless as I thought. Wrap him up and get him ready for transport back to Chicago.”“Yeah, I’ll bring him back for pickup. You just remember who did all the real work, babe.”Screaming Eagle focused her vision, far superior to any mundane and almost as powerful as the optics in Terrorvolt’s suit, on twin beams of light racing up the two lane road that split the forest. The forest...

Michael glanced up to the nearest hovering helicopter as he sprinted away from his hiding location. He noticed several dark figures rappelling from the helicopter that Terrorvolt just exited. More were likely coming from the other helicopter that moved into a position out of view. All of the departing figures carried weapons slung over their shoulder and appeared wearing customized Harris armor. Somehow, the criminals had their own version of the JTF’s best mundane protection. The Enhanced birdman still circled the site and another Enhanced raced through the forest. By the noise he made and the various...

Michael could hear the helicopters before he saw them. A quick flick of the wrist and a thought created a portal on top of a nearby tree and its mate in front of him. His powers had increased exponentially during his time in the JTF, he finally had control over the portals and could move them around at-will. The portal on the treetop spun around slowly, like a periscope, until he spotted the approaching aircraft far off against the horizon.The whup whup whup of the rotor blades echoed through the forest when he noticed the black-silhouetted helicopters, two of them, against the brighter moonlit...

“Five minutes, everyone,” Screaming Eagle shouted over the headset for Enhanced riding in both helicopters and the mundane pilots. She barked the orders sharply to remind the others that Herr Metall placed her in charge of the mission due to her power set and command ability. Most of the Enhanced riding in the helicopters had long criminal histories of violence and rarely worked with others, but the money Herr Metall offered for the capture of this Michael Larson was too much for anyone to decline.Herr Metall must have a powerful psychic on his payroll, Eagle decided, there was no other way he could...

As his car raced up I-69, the lights of Indianapolis and the suburban fortresses behind him, Maze glanced at his watch. The JTF just realized that Michael had disappeared. He imagined all hell was breaking loose at Butler and he would need to restudy the JTF patterns when he returned, but now he needed to focus all his power north where the most powerful being on the planet wandered around in a Michigan forest.Maze’s phone buzzed with a new notification. The phone was custom-made and designed to work off the normal phone grid to prevent the government from tracking him down using nearby phone...

“Let me through,” shouted Director Thorton as he pushed his way into the high-security block. “Get out of the way.”The Director wore grey sweatpants with a white undershirt and maroon jacket, completely mismatched and obvious alerted while in bed. He made good time to the JTF jail beating out everyone else who was not assigned to the night watch.“Someone better have some answer as to why this jail cell is empty,” Director Thorton shouted at the JTF staff, some armored, some not. “Where the hell is my prisoner?”Thorton stared at the weapon pointed at the bed in the cell. Several...