Frontier #6 - Power to the People pt. 1

                Natalie stood on the building’s roof, the gentle breeze blowing her brown ponytail around. She had one foot up on the ledge while she kept an eye and ear out for anything suspicious. Patrol duty was never very fun; besides for the occasional store robbery or mugging, the city of Hopling was a relatively safe place to live in most parts. It helped to have a strong police force, plus a GMA headquarters within the city limits. What happened with Volt two weeks ago was a freak incident; the first of what she hoped was the last for a while. For as strong as her abilities made her, Natalie did not revel in the superheroism like the others. She used her gifts to protect innocents because that was the right thing to do, in her mind. She didn’t particularly like the limelight, though, and was always dreaming of the day when Steve and she could retire away to a little cottage and live out their lives in peace, knowing they did their part in making the world a better place.

                A siren from a police car woke Natalie out of her dream. She flipped on the police scanner attached to her belt and listened for the news. A gang fight had opened up a few blocks away; that was not too alarming, and although gangs weren’t prevalent in the city there were still a few. What got her attention was that the police were calling in GMA agents for back-up. None of the gangs were made up of metas. At least, none to her knowledge.

                “Marathon this is Teleka, do you copy?”

                “Loud and clear, Teleka. This about the gang fight? I’m a little far from that, but I can make it there if you need me.”

                “I’m just going to check it out and see if the good guys need help. No need to rush over here. Teleka out.”

                She clicked off the radio and checked to make sure everything was secure. The last thing she needed was to drop one of the team’s radios or scanners. Natalie stepped up on the ledge and jumped off, feeling the rush of the fall and the adrenaline it brought. Halfway through the drop, she kicked on her telekinesis and took off through the air. Tony might be able to run fast, but she was the only team member who could take to the skies.

                Natalie made it to the scene in no time, and was greeted by a huge brawl between the police and the gang members spilling out of the alleyway and into the streets. A few GMA agents were there as well, doing what they could to help, but she noticed they were mainly low-leveled agents with little experience. West City had all the mid to high level agents, seeing as that city had a much higher population of metahuman criminals than Hopling. She was about to rush in when she noticed something odd about the gangsters. While most were the usual humans wielding guns, knives, and blunt objects, there were a few, three to be exact, that were doing exceptionally well against the forces of good.

                Those look like metas, Natalie thought as she descended into the fight, I have to take them out first.

                It wasn’t extraordinary to have low-leveled metas in Hopling gangs, but it certainly wasn’t common. Natalie made a mental note to talk to Steve about it afterwards. She ran up to the first metahuman gangster, still unnoticed by everyone in the brawl, and grabbed the back of his shirt. Using her telekinesis, she lifted him up and threw him into a brick wall, knocking him out cold. She wasn’t afraid to rough up the criminals; she knew that even if you didn’t go hard on them, they had no qualms about going hard on you.

                The second meta saw her attack and rushed her, screeching a war cry and bearing his sharpened teeth. Natalie played along, letting him take a few swipes with his clawed hands before punching him in the face with a telekinetically boosted fist. The attack floored him, and Natalie looked around for the third meta. The last one was climbing up the walls like a spider, and it took little effort for Natalie to pull the female gangster down and toss her around like a real insect.

                “They might be metas, but they are amateurs,” Natalie muttered as she went about helping the police finish off the remaining few gang members. Suddenly something hard and fast crashed into her side, sending her rolling on the ground in pain and shock. She struggled to her feet while a few officers opened fire on a fourth meta she failed to see originally. He was charging at her like a bull, and from what she could tell he had an extremely dense skull.

                The Tasers and riot bullets were basically useless against his tough skin, and Natalie just managed to roll to the side and avoid his charge. His head went right through the brick siding of the building behind her, and he stood up as if it was nothing.

                “Hey I know you!” he pointed at Natalie, his words hard and short, revealing a character of brawn instead of brains. “Can’t believe I get to bash in a girly from Frontier!”

                “Not today, jackass,” Natalie hissed. Using her powers, she pulled a portion of the break wall down on top of him, burying him under a pile of rubble. She sighed, standing up and rubbing a hand along her side. “I’m really going to feel this tomorrow.”

                As she turned to talk to the officers behind her, the pile of rubble was knocked apart, and the metahuman gangster crawled out of it, laughing all the way.

                “I hope that’s the best you can do! Cuz I’m feeling really strong right now if it is!” He brushed dirt and dust off his tattered shirt and cracked his neck. “You might wanna call in some back-up if you wanna beat the Basher today!”

                “Back-up’s here!” The words were shouted from above.

                Marian landed hard on Basher’s shoulders, having jumped from the roof of the building over him. The two fell straight to the ground, with Basher uttering a loud moan before going silent. Marian staggered off the limp body and gave Natalie a smile.

                “You didn’t need to rush here, Marathon.”

                “I know, but I got tired of looking at clouds where I was and wanted a piece of the action.”

                Natalie was going to reply, but a shiny object caught her attention. She walked over to Basher’s body and picked up a vial that fell out of his pocket when Marian landed on him. The vial was only two inches long and had a tiny broken needle, but it still contained a bit of off-green colored liquid in it.

                “What is it?” Marian asked as Natalie examined it.

                “I have no idea,” Natalie lied. She had a couple guesses as to what was in this vial, but she didn’t want any rumors to spread until they knew for sure.

                Natalie stuck the vial in a pouch before any of the officers could ask her about it. The two ladies of Frontier then began helping the police force with the cleanup and arrests. The four metas were handled with extra caution, and shipped out in their own separate transport to the Metalock. Steve would want their paperwork though, and Natalie had a feeling he would want to go talk with them personally, especially after seeing the vial they possessed. Something like this wasn’t an isolated event, and it would be up to Frontier to stop whatever was coming.