Firmament Blast 1

We'd hit them where it hurt all of them.

And in the doing, we'd thrown our own powers for a loop.

I could feel my powers stirring, struggling to find their way back to even footing. I didn't push the Fragile One to perform.

*****

GETTING FIRST REPORTS IN: POWERS ARE DIFFERENT.

"Different how?" I asked the night air.

SUBTLE CHANGES TO A LOT OF CAPES. WITHIN TTSE, WHATEVER THAT MEANS. MORE INFO TO COME. BE SAFE LOVE YOU.

I knew what it meant, but I wasn't in a position to address the team.

TTSE was power testing terminology. Training, Tolerances, Sechen, Evolution. Capricorn would know it. Powers were weird, powers changed over time. They could be trained with meditation or practice, certain uses pulled out, they could be strained to certain limits, and those limits weren't just raw power, but included duration and range. They changed as our mood did, as we got closer to certain triggers. And some were just meant to change by certain metrics.

***

I reached out with the Fragile One.

I couldn't tell, but I still had the control.

Still with me?

I could feel the Stranger getting closer. A little nervous now, I flew down to the ground, to the gun that I'd left there. I knelt atop it, and unfurled the Fragile One.

Hands didn't reach handholds.

Are you weaker? Smaller? What happened to you?

The Stranger drew ever closer, and I felt a bit of panic. I didn't want to leave my gun behind, but if I gave him another twenty seconds, he'd be on top of me or my gun, and I wouldn't be able to turn my attention or reaching hands toward my weapon.

Forcefield fingernails dug into the gun's housing, The hands that needed to be in certain places to pull triggers and hold the thing found those places.

Sorry, Gun, I thought.

I lifted it, and metal creaked. I didn't trust myself to fire it like this.

But I brought it with me, and I scrammed, flying into the shallowest parts of the crack for visual cover from the Stranger Titan.

- Infared 19.2