I wasn’t told how long the flight would be and it was still only late afternoon, but as soon as we were air born I curled up in my seat, closed my eyes, and fell asleep. Besides the flight crew I was the only one on board the plane. I woke up as the plane was landing, my stomach turning slightly from the descent. It was dark outside my window so we must have been flying for a number hours at least. I resisted the urge to stretch since that was a sure fire way to break my chair and instead focused on some muscle isolations.

As soon as we’d taxied and I was off the plane, a jeep pulled up. Introductions were brief and I set my bag into the back before climbing up into the passenger seat. My driver, Private Jeppsen, was the same rank as me and yet he was treating me with a certain amount of respect that I wasn’t accustomed to.

“Welcome to France,” he said. “Ever been here before?”

“No,” I said, a bit confused as to why we were in France. “Am I getting on another plane?”

“Nope, this is your destination,” came the reply. “I’m excited to be working with you.”

“What are we doing in France?” I asked, still confused.

“That’s better left until we arrive at the briefing,” he said, and then added with a bit of excitement, “is it true you’re the strongest super in the world?”

“That’s what they tell me,” I replied, “but I don’t think it’s ever been confirmed.”

“I heard the only one who comes close is that Chinese guy who lives up in a mountain because he’s so afraid of hurting people.”

“I don’t blame him,” I said. “I hurt a lot of people during training. It’s not a pretty sight.”

“Well soon you’ll be able to put that strength to use,” he grinned at me. “The french won’t know what hit them.”

“I”m sorry but did I miss something?” I asked. “Are we at war with the French? I thought we were allies.”

The Private shifted uncomfortably as he realized he’d said too much.

“We are allies,” he said unconvincingly, “it’s just that everyone’s trying to get all the supers they can and sometimes that means poaching a little.”

“That wasn’t just a little poaching that happened at the Cain Center,” I retorted.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “From what I’ve heard we weren’t too happy about that but so far everything’s been kept quiet. I think everyone’s trying to avoid an all out war.”

“How long have you had your powers?” He asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

“A few months,” I said. “You?”

“Year and a half. I’m one of three speedsters that can fly in the world.”

He seemed eager to tell me about his powers.

“How fast can you go?” I asked since I knew he was going to tell me eventually anyway.

“Mach two without a suit.”

“How fast with a suit?”

“That’s classified,” he grinned.

I stifled a yawn even though I’d just woken up from my nap on the plane and looked out at the distant city as we drove out of the airport and towards the rest of the military base. I could tell he was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t pressing him for more about his powers. In truth it was incredible he could fly so fast without a suit to protect him from the air resistance. Practically everything became super heated at those speeds, not to mention being torn apart. He must be able to form a protective bubble or something around himself.

The rest of the drive was silent and when we arrived at our destination, a large nondescript building, I hopped out, grabbed my bag, and followed Jeppsen inside. We passed a number of offices, all closed for the evening and dark, until we arrived at a small room with the light on and a dozen or so people inside. A quick glance was enough to confirm that Jeppsen and I were the lowest ranking people here. A Captain stood at the front of the room and nodded as Jeppsen and I walked in.

I put my bag down and saluted.

“Private Nayak, reporting for duty,” I said.

The Captain returned my salute and gestured for me to take a seat.

“Private Nayak, I’m Captain Collins. Welcome to France and your first official mission. I understand you have some prior history with the group we’re going to rescue.”

“Yes sir,” I replied. “I was at the Cain Center when they were taken.”

“I read the report,” he nodded. “Impressive work considering you hadn’t had much training with your powers yet. I look forward to putting you to work.”

“Thank you sir,” I replied.

“Alright, now that Nayak and Jeppsen are here we can begin,” Captain Collins said, addressing the room as a whole.

He picked up a remote and turned on a projector. An aerial image of a city block appeared. The middle of the block was dominated by a singular building.

“The supers are being held here,” he said, “in what used to be a hotel in Paris. To the outside it’s closed for repairs. Our intelligence says that most of the supers are kept unconscious most of the time while only a handful are awake while the French operatives try to persuade them to shift allegiances. We’re not sure what methods they’re using to keep the supers unconscious, or the techniques they’re using to work on them in turning them to their side. We expect there will be a myriad of mental supers present and they will be our primary targets to eliminate. We will fly in and breach through the roof here and then work our way down floor by floor.” As he spoke, the projector displayed the layout of the building, floor by floor as Captain Collins detailed the path we would take. “Once the building is secure we will call in our ground team who will pull up and help load in the rescued supers. We are to make as little noise as possible with the goal of going unnoticed to the outside. We want to get our people back without escalating the situation. With that in mind, you are to eliminate any enemy supers we come across without concern about their being able to be revived. They tried to permanently kill our people and so will we. That means we’ll be torching the building on our way out. Questions?”

I waited a moment, unsure whether I should ask my questions or not since they weren’t about the mission, strictly speaking, but eventually I decided on asking rather than staying silent. I raised my hand.

“Yes, Nayak,” Captain Collins said.

“Sorry if I’m out of the loop here, Captain, but why is France stealing our supers?”

“Everyone’s stealing supers from everyone else,” he stated. “It’s a bit of a shadow war going on right now. Supers have upset the traditional status quo so there’s a scramble to secure the most powerful force of supers. It isn’t that France stole our supers, it’s that the European Union stole them. Maybe if we’d had better relations with them they wouldn’t have felt the need to do it, but this is where we are. To everyone else we’re all still smiles and handshakes but behind the scenes…”

He shrugged and gestured to those of us gathered here.

“Anyone else?” He waited a moment before continuing. “Alright then, let’s get geared up and get out there.”