It took over an hour to get back to base. The driver wanted to make sure we weren’t being followed so they drove us quite a ways out of the way before eventually heading to the base. Some of the others had already arrived and were unloading. They were going directly from their vehicles onto a plane.

“Nayak,” Captain Collins called over to me.

I’d been on my way to find a private room where I could change into a fresh outfit but instead stopped and saluted Captain Collins.

“Yes sir?”

“On the plane, we’re pulling out.”

“Yes sir,” I replied and went to the plane instead.

I got changed in the lavatory on the plane, made difficult by the cramped space, and I cracked the wall on accident. Thankfully it wasn’t the hull side wall so I was pretty certain it wouldn’t be a major issue. I wadded the torn and bloodied outfit into a bag and stuffed it into my pack. Then I washed my hands and face as best I could in the little sink before exiting the lavatory and looking out over the rescued supers. It had been a few months since I’d last seen any of them, and I’d only been at the Cain Center for a short while before we were attacked, but I still hoped to recognize a few of them.

“Find a seat, Nayak,” Captain Collins said from behind and I realized I was blocking the walkway.

“Sorry, sir,” I said and moved down the aisle.

As a rule I wasn’t allowed to sit by the window since it was too dangerous if I accidentally breached the hull so I picked a seat beside one of the rescued supers. They still looked a bit dazed but smiled as I sat down.

“How you doing?” I asked.

“I’m good, thanks,” they said and offered their hand to shake.

“Sorry, I can’t shake hands,” I said, “I might break it.”

The super looked confused for a moment and then comprehension dawned on their face.

“You’re that really strong super, aren’t you,” they said. “I saw you charging Cain Hall when we were first under attack. You took, like, five rockets to the face and kept on coming. It was incredible.”

“Thanks,” I said, a bit uncomfortably. “Wish I’d been able to stop them back then.”

“It was pretty scary at first,” the super said, “but they treated us pretty good. Offered us lots of money if we’d work for them. Some took the deal but most of us refused. Then they tried to set us up with relationships with their own supers. Had us all in that hotel together to try and get us to hook up so we wouldn’t want to leave. What’s the plan for them?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The french supers,” they replied, pointing. “You grabbed them all too so I assumed there was a plan.”

That was when I noticed the accented voices and I felt like a pit had opened up in my stomach. We’d kidnapped french supers along with our own. I looked around and spotted Captain Collins near the front of the plane. We hadn’t begun to taxi yet but it looked as though the supers had finished boarding.

“Be right back,” I said and got up from my seat.

I made my way back up to Captain Collins and he looked up as I approached.

“Nayak,” he said. “Did you get healed?”

“What? No, but –

“Heal her up,” he cut me off and addressed a super standing beside him.

“Hold still,” they said and moved to place a hand on my face.

I blocked their hand with my own.

“No, Captain, we accidentally grabbed french supers along with our own. They were mixed together in the hotel.”

Captain Collins gave me a strange look, a sort of mixed confusion and pity.

“I know,” he said after a pause. “I’ll take care of it but for now you need to get healed and sit down.”

The healer gripped my wrist and I felt my wounds begin to heal.

“Sir,” I said, pulling my hand free, “we can’t take these supers. They have to be let go.”

“Nayak, you need to sit back down,” Captain Collins was losing his patience with me.

It was then that I began to realize he intended to keep the french supers.

“Everyone’s stealing from everyone else,” I said, repeating the words I’d heard from multiple people now. “Is that what’s going on here?”

“We’re just doing to them what they did to us.”

“You know, an eye for an eye just makes everyone blind in the end,” I stated.

“Take your seat, Private,” there was a warning tone in his voice now.

“I killed those supers for you today,” I said, clenching my fists into balls, “but I’m not helping you kidnap these ones.”

“That’s fine, you don’t have to, just go take your seat. That’s an order.”

“Let the french supers go,” I held my ground, “or this plane doesn’t leave the ground.”

“I gave you an order, Private,” Captain Collins began to glow faintly and the air around him started heating up.

“Sir, I will not take part in kidnapping.”

“They’re prisoners of war.”

“Last I checked we’re not at war with France.”

“Sit down!”

“There’s nothing you or anyone else here can do to stop me from grounding this plane, sir. Let the french supers go.”

Captain Collins glared daggers at me, the muscles on the sides of his face clenching and I could tell he was weighing the odds of stopping me before I broke the plane.

“You’ll be court marshaled for this.”

“I’m allowed to disobey orders when they’re illegal and last I checked, kidnapping is illegal.”

“We need every super we can get,” he tried to reason with me. “The status quo of the world is out of balance and we need to reassert our dominance.”

I leaned to one side and placed my hand against the hull. It gave a faint whine.

“Release the french supers,” I said. “I won’t ask again.”

There was a tense moment where I was unsure which way this would go but finally Captain Collins relaxed and waved his hand.

“Fine,” he muttered and then turned to the healer beside him. “Get them off the plane.”

The healer nodded and I felt a slight buzzing in my brain as a wave of mental influence went out from her. As one, about half of the supers on the plane stood up, blank expressions on their faces, and they marched towards the front of the plane and disembarked. Once the last of them were off the plane, Captain Collins turned back to me.

“Satisfied?” he asked.

I nodded and went back to my seat without needing to be told. Then, outside the plane, a red glow suddenly flashed. I looked out the window and was horrified to see the french supers being burned alive by Captain Collins and a number of other supers who were throwing flame at them. The french supers were still under the control of the healer and so didn’t fight back or even cry out. They just stood there as they burned.

“What are they doing?” I screamed, leaping up from my seat.

Before I could take more than a couple of steps, however, I was hit with an intense pain in my head. I fought it, struggling to keep my vision clear as I tried to make my way back to the front of the plane.

“Stay in your seat,” someone said.

“He’s murdering them!” I cried, tears streaming down my face.

I grabbed the floor and began tearing. Metal screeched as it tore under my hands. Something struck me from behind. It was strong enough that my head jerked but still I ripped at the plane.

“The french forces are on their way,” the voice said. “We can’t stay here and we can’t leave any witnesses.”

“That’s no excuse for murdering them,” I replied.

I was through the floor and beneath me was the storage bay. I dropped through the hole I’d opened up and began pulling at the hull down here. The pain in my head intensified even further and my vision blanked. I could still move, however and I groped around ripping at everything I could reach. I was shaking from both the mental assault as well as at the shock of seeing those supers being burned alive. It was far worse than I thought possible. We were better than this, weren’t we? I didn’t want to be part of the Protection Force and they were forcing me to stay, but I never imagined they would go this far with their atrocities.

“Stop!” a new voice ordered and a heavy hand landed on my neck.

A hot surge coursed through me and I succumbed, falling into unconsciousness.