For all I expected us to be rushing out of the base to rescue the captive supers, it still took us well over an hour to get fully kitted out. Body armor for everyone except me, rifles, pistols, and extra ammo for everyone except for me. I did get a headset radio like everyone else, along with the dark jumpsuit, boots, and helmet with attached flashlight and night vision goggles. I was given pouches full of ball bearings to store along my belt. They would serve in place of any firearm for me. We were each given a small backpack that carried some other essential tools we might need. I knew what was in mine without having to look and hoped I wouldn’t need it. Last came harnesses. More than half our team were fliers and they would be carrying the rest of us to our destination.

We flew out from the base just after midnight. We climbed until we were high enough that we all needed to strap on breathing masks. Wind wasn’t an issue thanks to one of the supers putting a force bubble around us, allowing us to talk freely to one another.

“We’re at altitude,” Captain Collins said over the radio. “Begin moving towards the target.”

Paris was easy to spot from up here. We were only a few miles away from it and I wondered at why they would keep the supers so close to one of our military bases. Were they wanting us to do this? Was this a trap? Surely Captain Collins and the other higher ups had considered all of this so I didn’t put too much thought into it, but I still couldn’t help but wonder.

Within a few minutes we were above the city, well above the few clouds that streaked the sky.

“Begin the dive,” Captain Collins said.

The fliers dipped and we began to accelerate towards the ground. Thanks to my training I’d lost my fear of heights and falling. I’d jumped out of airplanes without a parachute dozens of times now and the excitement of the event was now dulled. It was more novel for some of the others and they whooped as we dove. As we neared the last hundred feet or so, the fliers pulled out of their dive, slowing us down and we landed softly on the roof of the building. Immediately, one of the supers began glowing faintly.

“Security cameras are blind to us,” they said, “and I’ve deactivated the door and window alarms.”

“Nayak, the door,” Captain Collins instructed, pointing to the roof access door.

I unclipped from the harness holding me to the flier and stepped quickly over to the door. I gripped the handle and in one fluid motion broke it off the door. Then I reached my fingers through the exposed hole and broke the door latch. It wasn’t a silent affair but it wasn’t so loud that anyone on the street level would hear. With that done, I pulled the door open and stepped aside for the supers behind me to move in and secure the room.

Those of us at the front were most resistant to physical damage and some of us had a decent amount of resistance to mental powers as well. I hoped we wouldn’t run into any mental supers since their powers tended to give me pounding headaches.

The faint sound of tazers zapping surprised me since I wasn’t aware of any of our supers carrying them. At first I thought it was from the French forces but Captain Collins just nodded and waved the rest of us forward. Inside we found a handful of French supers on the ground, twitching but conscious. I saw the faint outline of electrical energy sparking, hovering near them and realized we had an invisible super with us.

“Crush their heads, Nayak,” Captain Collins ordered.

“Sir?” I asked, shocked.

“Crush their heads,” he repeated. “We need them dead and it’s the quietest way to ensure they can’t be revived. So far we’re unnoticed and I want to keep it that way.”

There were a few ways to prevent someone from being revived and I hadn’t been taught all of them but burning the body and destroying the head were ones I knew well. Only the most powerful supers could revive you from that, and even then they had to get to you soon.

I wanted to say no but we were here and the stunned soldiers wouldn’t stay down for long. I’d been trained to do this as well, though we’d used synthetic models for that training. Even then it had been gut wrenching. In my pack was a tool for just such an even and I gritted my teeth as I pulled it out. A chainmail square with two gloves built into it and a rubberized coating on one side was tucked neatly on top. I pulled it out and draped it over the first super’s head. I closed my eyes as I put my hands into the gloves, around his head, and put my hands together.. It was an easy thing to do, like a slow clap. With my eyes shut I barely felt any resistance. The noise and spray were unavoidable though, hence the drape and gloves, and I had to clench my jaw to keep from throwing up. Each one was like that and when I finished I shook off the covering and put it back in my bag. No one spoke while I worked or said anything afterwards other than to signal us forward.

We moved throughout the floor, securing each room as we went. The main security room was up here and with them dealt with we were free to move down. The glowing super remained behind to keep an eye on the security feeds and give us details about what we were coming up to next. It was almost too easy and the doubt in my mind that this was a set up continued to play in my mind.

The next floor down was where we began to find our supers. Door after door, I broke us in and our healers revived whoever was inside. There was no opportunity to see if I recognized anyone. There would be time enough for that later on. As each one was brought out of their stupor, they were taken back to the top floor to wait until we had cleared the building. We didn’t run into any further resistance until we hit the third floor where a number of supers were stationed. This time there were too many for the invisible super to stun so it would have to be a straight fight.

“Nayak, in front,” Captain Collins said. “It doesn’t look like they’re armed with anything that can hurt you.”

I nodded and pulled out a couple handfuls of ball bearings. The supers were stationed around a sort of lobby, though why it was on the third floor I didn’t know. The stairs down to that floor emptied into the lobby so as soon as I walked down and into view I threw both handfuls of ball bearings in a wide spray. The supers were caught completely by surprise and half of them went down to the initial attack. I threw myself forward, cracking the steps as I pushed off of them, and tore my way through the remaining supers as quickly as I could. The rest of my team followed behind at once and helped clear up any supers that I had missed. Again I had to crush their heads.

“Sir,” I said to Captain Collins, “I’m afraid I’m going to be sick if I have to do much more of this.”

“Then be sick,” he replied. “We leave no one alive.”

“Yes sir,” I said and carried on with my task.

“There’s movement on the streets, ten miles out,” a voice said over the radio. “Looks like a convoy headed your way. Seems like someone got a call for help out.”

“Time to hurry,” Captain Collins said. “Bring the rescued supers down and keep them one floor above us. We’re moving fast now.”

“The rest of the French forces are concentrating on the ground floor,” the super watching the security cameras said. “They’ve got a few barricades but mostly they’re just setting up firing lanes.”

“Understood,” Captain Collins replied. “Nayak, you’re up again. Head to first floor and begin clearing it while we gather the rest of our people.”

“Yes sir,” I said and headed down the stairs while the rest of them began breaking down doors on the third floor.

As I hit the first floor landing the first wave of bullets began to pop around me. They didn’t hurt but were distracting like walking into a swarm of flies. I threw more ball bearings, clearing the exposed soldiers as best I could and then reached down, scooped up a chunk of the marble flooring and tossed it across the lobby. It crashed into the nearest barricade and smashed it to pieces, scattering the soldiers who’d been hiding behind it.

My head began to pound as a super tried to influence my mind in some way.

“Encountering mental supers,” I said into my radio, gritting my teeth against the pain and searching for the source of it.

I threw a few more pieces of marble flooring at the other barricades, breaking them apart as well and as the third barricade fell the pain in my head subsided. I charged that group first since mental powers were my main weakness since if they went on long enough they could knock me out from the pain. I had no time for the chainmail drape so I just punched them each in the head. It was messy work but with so much going on around me I was sufficiently distracted for the moment.

In all the noise I didn’t notice the grenade land behind me but I certainly felt it as it went off. The friendly fire took out the rest of the supers in my immediate area and tore up my jumpsuit. It didn’t hurt me, though, beyond a slight sting. I charged the grenadier next. There was a lot of noise going on and I wondered how successful we’d be at getting away without the general populace noticing. Too late to worry about that now.

A bolt of electricity struck me in the side. That actually hurt and I grunted as my suit caught fire. I patted it out, looking around for the source when another bolt of electricity struck me in the face. I turned away, catching the bolt with my left arm so I could look for where it was coming from.

There, behind the check-in desk was a super holding a high voltage wire in one hand and pointing at me with the other. They hesitated when I didn’t go down. As much as it hurt, I kept my arm where it was, directing the electricity away from my face, and dashed towards the counter. They tried to duck behind it but I just ran right through it, picked them up, and slammed them against the wall. They didn’t get back up.

I was just finishing with the supers down here when several members of my team came rushing down, guns out.

“Nayak, report?”

“Clear,” I said, dropping the last super.

“Captain’s been trying to reach you,” they said.

I reached up and pulled my radio headset off. It was fried from the electrical attacks.

“Super hit me with some electricity,” I explained. “Fried my gear.”

They relayed that information and soon everyone else was coming down the stairs including the rescued supers.

“Good work,” Captain Collins said, moving to pat me on the shoulder and then stopping a few inches away.

Confused, I looked down and realized my suit had been completely burned off on that arm and the skin was black with ash and charred skin.

“You injured?” he asked.

“Electrical burn,” I explained. “Already healing.”

“It looks painful.”

“Heal it when we get back,” I said. “I just want to get out of here.”

Captain Collins nodded and we moved to the front doors. Heavy steel plates, eight feet tall and four feet wide, were bolted over the doors.

“Is our ride here?” I asked.

“They’re just outside,” Captain Collins nodded.

I grabbed the first steel plate and wrenched it off the wall, exposing the door. I tossed the plate back and over everyone’s heads and then ripped another one off the wall to clear a second door.

“Go,” Captain Collins ordered and we all poured out into the night.

Vans, SUVs, and a few cars, lined the street outside. We climbed in while a few supers held back, lighting the hotel on fire. It wasn’t until I was in the back of one of the vans, calming down from the adrenaline rush, that I realized just how covered in gore I was. Perhaps my burns weren’t the only reason Captain Collins had hesitated earlier. There were a few groans from the supers on either side of me as they also noticed my current state but they didn’t say more than that.

As we drove, the pain in my arm, side, and head returned from where I’d been hit by the electricity. It was dark in the car so I couldn’t see the extent of the injuries. I tried the flashlight on my helmet but that was fried just like my radio.

“Can I borrow your flashlight?” I asked the super next to me.

They popped it off their helmet and handed it over.

“Click it on for me?” I asked. “I don’t think I can be delicate right now.”

“Sure,” they said and clicked it on.

Bright red glistened all over me and I had to look away for a moment. Finally, I turned the light onto my side where a spiderweb of burns and red flesh shone through the grime of combat. I poked at it but it didn’t seem very deep. Then I inspected my arm. It had been hit the longest and the burns ran from my forearm, to my elbow, up to my shoulder, and then down a little along my ribs. That was when I realized my whole side of my jumpsuit was burned away. Only a strip of cloth along my shoulder was holding it up.

“That was close,” I commented and the supers on either side of me looked over. Immediately I covered up my side and turned the light away. “No peaking,” I stated and they looked away at once.

“Sorry,” they both chimed in.

There was an awkward moment of silence before one of them spoke up.

“Your whole backside’s kinda hanging out too,” he said. “Explosion?”

Well that was embarrassing. The grenade from before must have torn off the lower portion of my jumpsuit. Great. I pulled my backpack out and withdrew the towel that I knew was in there. It was difficult to do while in the car but I managed to wrap it around myself without tearing it or breaking the seat. In all I felt like that was a victory in and of itself.

“Easy breezy, huh?” teased one of the supers.

“Don’t make me hit you,” I warned, crushing their flashlight in my hand and putting us all back into darkness. They shut up about it.

The rest of the ride back to base was in silence, my face burning with embarrassment and wishing there was stronger materials out there that I could wear.