Super #10 - Western Frontier

                The warning sirens blared throughout the complex of the superhero team known as the Western Frontier. Since the construction’s finish two weeks ago, the public’s interest in the new superhero team had waned due to a lack of action. The complex held the six members of the west coast branch of Frontier, and was situated on the bay of West City. A pirate ship was seen anchored at its docks, as well as a private plane, two single seat fighter jets, and various land vehicles. The GMA spared no expense for this team, even having two experienced GMA agents act as liaisons for the team. However in the two weeks, not a single threat reared its head that demanded the team’s attention. With the increased number of licensed superheroes in West City, many people wondered why Frontier would open a branch here. That’s why the team members, who had grown restless with waiting, were just as surprised by the siren as any normal bystander walking by.

                Rock Davidson, codename Brick, nearly dropped the weights on himself. He sat up, wiped the sweat from his face, and hurried off towards the command center. He wanted to be the first there to assess the situation. Rock had been appointed team leader, and he knew he had much to prove to the other superheroes before they trusted his judgment.

                Kristen Bower, codename Poof, looked up from her shot at the pool table. “Is this for real?” she asked excitedly, looking over at Brian.

Brian Smith, codename Heater, had nearly dropped his lit cigarette on the brand new wooden floor when the siren went off. “I don’t know, Poof. It might be just a drill, to break up the monotony.”

But Kristen wasn’t listening. She was already rushing out of the rec. room towards the command center. Brian rushed out after her, not wanting to be caught slacking if this really was an emergency.

The shower water stopped abruptly and Kate groaned. Of course it goes off now, right in the middle of my special time.

Kate Snyder, codename Nightcat, wrapped one towel around her trim body and one around her brown hair before walking down to the command center. On the way, another team member, known only by his codename Dingo, exited his room.

“This probably isn’t even real,” she muttered as she stormed by.

Dingo just shook his head in disapproval of Kate’s attitude and followed to the command center.

Clawman sat in the cool waters of the bay, relaxing as the salt water cleansed his body. He heard the sirens coming from the building, but wasn’t interested in helping out at the moment.

“It’s just a drill,” he told himself as he drank a beer. “No need to get all worked up.” He stared off into the waters, mesmerized and completely relaxed. “They’ll come find me if they really need me.”

Rock put the phone down after his brief phone call with Dylan Holland, one of Western Frontier’s GMA liaisons. As he turned around, the others were finally arriving. “Where’s Clawman?” he asked, and was answered by shrugs.

“Dammit, this isn’t a drill, but we’ll find him later. Alright everyone listen up, here’s what’s going down. Two metahumans have attacked a nearby bank. There’s no other superheroes in the vicinity, so we’re going in. All we know about their abilities is one can…”

“You know we can read, right?” Kate broke in, pointing to the digital screen they were all standing around. “One is Quake. I’ve taken him out before by myself. This is nothing.” Kate turned to leave, “I’m going back to my shower.”

“Kate!” Rock called, his voice rising. “This is what we’re here to do. We take these two guys down as a team. If you can’t be a team player, then you can leave.”

Kate stopped, her sigh audible to everyone. “Fine. Can I at least put on my uniform? Or do you want me to fight him in my towel?” Kate shrugged smugly, “Would be a good distraction.”

Rock glared at her, but nodded. “Let’s get going people. Uniforms on and in the cars in one minute.” As they all ran out, Rock called after them, “And can someone please find out where the hell Clawman is?”

As the wall of the bank crumbled, Quake stepped out laughing and carrying bags of money. In the blink of an eye, his partner in crime, Port, appeared next to him. “This was too easy, Quake. Let’s get what we have out of here before something goes wrong.”

“Relax Port, there’s no heroes coming. They’d already be here if there were. Your intel on this place was spot on. Lots of money and no nearby heroes.”

“Actually, that intel’s a little old.”

Both criminals jumped at the voice, which came from the air in front of them. Port vanished with a bag of money and Quake quickly slammed his hand to the ground, sending out a tremor towards the voice.

“You missed,” the female voice said, “but you were so close! Too bad he won’t miss.”

Quake took a look behind him just as a rocky fist punched him in the face. Quake staggered back and went to one knee, clutching his nose. With his adrenaline starting to surge, Quake started punching the ground, sending waves of tremors around him to stop his enemies, all the while wondering where Port was hiding.

Trying to reach Quake, Brick ran through the tremors, tripping and stumbling as the ground shifted beneath his feet. His entire body was coated with a rocky layer, and Rock knew he was the most capable of knocking Quake out. Poof had done her job distracting the enemies, and Nightcat and Dingo were supposed to be tracking down the teleporter at the moment. That left him and Heater to subdue the big guy, since Clawman was still missing.

Opposite of Brick and behind Quake, Heater was also trying to reach Quake through the tremors. Realizing he couldn’t, Heater switched tactics and started heating up the air around Quake. With the sudden increase in temperature, Quake began to slow down, enough for Brick to reach him. The two collided, and Quake went down easier than Brick expected.

As Brick bent down to examine Quake, the villain punched him in the chest. The resulting tremor broke apart Brick’s protective layer and sent him to the ground in pain. As Brick writhed in agony, Quake hit him with another tremor. As Heater rushed in to help, a shadow leapt from a rooftop and smashed into Quake’s back, knocking him down and out. Brick looked up and saw Nightcat standing proudly over Quake.

“Told you he was easy,” Nightcat said smugly as she stepped off Quake’s unconscious body.

“Where’s his partner?” Brick asked, groaning and trying to recover from the attack.

“Eh, who knows. How the hell am I supposed to find a teleporter?” Nightcat shrugged and starting walking back to the car. “We’re done here. I’m heading back to the complex.”

“Nightcat wait!” Brick called, but in a flash Nightcat was knocked to the ground. Brick turned when he heard Heater groan and saw the young man knocked down as well.

“It’s the teleporter!” Brick called out, but he had no time to react before Port appeared and kicked him in the head, knocking him out cold.

When Rock woke up he was laying on a stretcher in the shade of an ambulance. The sun was setting, signaling he had been out for quite some time. “What happened?” he asked the person next to him. To his surprise, Lin Valentine, the other GMA liaison, turned around and responded.

“You guys got your asses kicked.” She pointed back towards what remained of the block. “And Quake ended up leveling two whole blocks.”

Rock was still dazed and confused. “But Quake was knocked out.”

“Yeah, for a moment. Port woke him up and he nearly buried you, Kate, and Brian. Luckily Dingo was able to cloud his mind long enough for Kristen to hit him over the head. Same with his little buddy.”

“So we got them?” Rock asked weakly.

“Yeah, but that’s not the point. Your team messed up and caused a lot of collateral damage.”

Rock tried to sit up but felt far too woozy. “But Clawman…”

“No buts,” Lin said pointing her finger at him. “You’re the team leader. If the team fails, it’s on you. Besides it’s never just one person’s fault.”

Rock laid back down, too tired to keep defending himself. As the ambulance took the injured members of the Western Frontier away, Dylan walked up to Lin. “They need some help.”

“You better believe it,” Lin sighed. “I really didn’t wanna do this, especially after what just happened in Hopling, but we might have to make that call.”

Dylan nodded. “This doesn’t look good for us either, but you’re right. They need some tutorage, and I don’t know anyone better qualified to help pull a team together then the mighty Fist.”