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CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

"You really stepped up against that thing, by the way."

That comment caught Henry off guard, because in a way it was true. He had stepped up against it, hadn't he? In the moment it just seemed right, there were people around and it was causing damage and they all had lives and loved ones and businesses that their families depended on, and he had been trapped in Saturday Comics, so there hadn't been much thought to it. Initially it had been just 'get outside, get away'. When it took the light post and swung it on him, the only thing that went through his mind was 'I can take it'. But when it stopped trying to crush him and turned away, he kept fighting. He held the golem's attention until it was stopped, so that everyone else could focus on stopping it. He could-

"I could take it." Henry said, simply. Despite his previous showboating there was no pride to his tone. He wasn't saying he could take the golem, rather that he could take the punishment. He was almost embarrassed as he said it. He unconsciously rubbed the stress-fractures-now-bruises on his forearms from blocking the light post and continued. "If it had hit one of you, I'd have never slept again. So I took it."

Truth was, on some sort of basal instinctual level, it was better him than any of them.

His attention was thankfully shifted off of his own thoughts when he caught Willow round the corner of the stairs and take off running. It was enough that despite his ear plugs he could catch the last of what Dexter said before Helen was airborne: "And we have the only sewer gator north of the Mason-Dixon line available to us. I'll work on him."

Henry looked down to Elle and snorted at how good her timing was. "Seems we're in a good position to find out." he said, motioning with his head to the group that had been spectating. He pivoted and took a single step forwards to join the group, but left space for Elle if she was keen on joining the growing circle. It sounded like they were going to be visiting the underbelly of the city and were counting on him if they needed him. He could do that. He might be a bit big, clumsy, and he may not always have good ideas, but he did have his strength. The speederster had managed to scoot to the right just enough to avoid Helen getting a face full of his lap in her jump and was continuing. "It appeared below Saturday comics, so whatever it was, it had to have originated there. We might find some signs or a way to track it if we can navigate to that location underground. Unfortunately we can't break down some of the drainage access points, and we cant pull a manhole lid off in broad daylight."

"I might be able to help with that."

Dexter's eyes darted up to the lizard, who was looking mighty sure of himself in this moment. "That's... actually very helpful, Henry." the blur said, giving him the thumbs up in recognition. Maybe they could bust an iron gate or pull a manhole lid open now. A hundred pounds of manhole lid would be hell on anyone else, but that was cake for Henry. And of course Henry would go with them- his eyes scanned the growing group and he decided then and there that if it came down to it, for them, he would take the hit. He would be their shield.

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

“I don’t know what it is, but I really want to find out, I’ve been thinking about searching the sewers for it. But… I don’t know what I would do if I even found it. What do you think?"

"It sounds like a job that would take local law enforcement a short eternity." Dexter said, offhandedly. He looked to the table pensively, sorting the pros and cons. On one hand it'd be exciting and, well, the golem seemed a lot more interested in destroying things than it did in hurting people. If it was a CoL, it was a person, and if it was a person, it could probably be reasoned with. Or at least, it'd be a lot less inclined to attack on sight. Hopefully.

Dexter's mind went back to when the Golem attacked. Henry had felt it coming before it struck, and was able to resist it alone. Perhaps he'd be able to buy them time if they really needed it. He could hold his breath for a long time, so if Henry got cocooned again helping them get out, he'd be able to make a mad dash for the ASA. There was nowhere in this town that he couldn't reach within twenty minutes if he really needed to.

"It'll probably be dangerous, so if you go, I'll go with you." Dexter said. He threw a hand over his shoulder to point at Henry, who was too busy laughing at his prank on Elle to notice. "And we have the only sewer gator north of the Mason-Dixon line available to us. I'll work on him, is there anyone else you have in mind? I can probably get a hold of them. If we find anything down there, we probably dont want it to be just the two of us."

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

"You're impossible to keep up with."

This brought a hearty laugh from the reptile, who maintained his lead in sheer volume of beverage consumed over his competitor throughout the game even if he easily lost the match itself. While neither were particularly good at cup-pong, Henry was bad at cup pong and it showed as Elle maintained her lead throughout the game. It was a long one, with Henry eventually conceding his loss after his fifth missed throw in a row with Elle three in the lead. She was beaming and it was everything he wanted.

It had never been about winning, after all.

He was content to share in her victory, though. A part of him thought of lifting Elle onto a shoulder, but he also didn't know quite how much leeway he had with Chad's roof and wasn't looking to send her head through the ceiling on accident. Instead, he dropped his hand to the cooler and searched for something in particular. Upon finding it he moved over to her side of the table and lowered a fist for her to fist bump. Maybe it was the amount of drink he'd had in a short period of time that had taken the edge off in combination with the thought that she was probably a good deal drunk herself, maybe it was Evelyn's aura affecting him even when he didn't know about it, but he was feeling pretty brazen. More so than usual, at least. Time for his final trick.

As she reached out to fist bump him, he turned his hand over before she could meet his scales, revealing a red Smirnoff Ice. His hands were large enough to conceal an entire bottle. "Congratulations cutie, you're cold as ice."

---

Dexter watched Mateo wobble away and sighed. He'd probably forget that even happened, and now he had a stain on his pants that he'd have to explain to mom, but overall it was a wash. Which was actually one of the better outcomes given the situation. He'd rather Mateo flail a bit and be mostly okay over get pissed and start swinging.

He hears some commotion from the game room and decides that kitchens are for losers anyways. Dexter takes a step to move forward and as always it feels like an eternity getting there even if it takes him a second. He cuts like water through the crowd, moving no more than a walking pace yet avoiding any spilling drinks or waving limbs. He sees them coming after all. He always sees them coming, at least if he can see them. Said reminder delivering itself to him as someone he had previously walked past accidentally hip checked him as he slid onto the couch. He managed to right himself just in time to avoid spilling his bottle on Willow, of whom he basically had just fallen all over, but she'd probably laugh it off. Hopefully.

"Shit, sorry Wil." he said offhandedly as he secure the bottle, trying to ensure that wouldnt happen again. He was pleased she actually showed up- generally this sort of place wasn't much of her scene, but after the golem's defeat, perhaps she too had decided it was time for a little celebration after his invite. Then it clicked. She had been one that street. He had seen her while running. He had seen her go underground, and the golem was attached to the earth. He sorted himself and turned to her, playing with his drink to busy his hands- he'd always had a bit too much energy. "Hey uh, did you see anything while you were down there? On Friday?"

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

“Looks like you don’t have to shotgun another, but don’t forget that the bitch cup doesn’t count on the first throw. Nice toss though, toss me one of those while you're at it?"

Henry hissed dramatically at Elle's snipe, raising his arm up and resting the back of his palm against his head, leaning back as if he had been struck by some mortal wound. "Elle, you wound me!" he bellowed, his voice deep enough to just about vibrate those in close proximity to him. He dropped his pose with a cheeky smile and whistled as Elle took her drink and threw at the same time, his size and bravado raising the some energy from the slowly gathering crowd around them to cheer her on. While Elle had missed, more than a few people in the crowd were now chanting for Daniella to slay the Goliath. Miss or not, to him hitting the table was something in itself. The fact that she was making a show of it was just a turn on.

"Dude honestly, I'm just glad I made it. I'm terrible at beer pong. And darts. Just seemed like you were itching for a game." he replied, his eyes moving away from Elle's and to the beers for two reasons: He didn't really want to catch her gaze, afraid of whatever response she might have. Elle would almost certainly know what he meant since they locked eyes. She could get out of almost any situation she wanted to, they both knew that, so the last thing he wanted to insinuate was that she couldn't take care of herself. It wasn't what he meant, but he realized not a moment after the words left his mouth that they could come off wrong. Elle was as savvy as she was capable as _{she was clever as she was attractive as-}

Henry caught himself lacking, and quickly reined himself in. She had asked for a beer and she would receive, mark his words. He leaned down to reach the cooler and fish out two more beers- one for himself and the other for Elle-, catching Willow's ghostly appearance as she materialized close to them. He smiled and waved to her as he stood up again in acknowledgement but did not grab a third for her, as far as he knew Willow didn't drink. Nevertheless he was a hero tonight, so there was no shame in not showing off a tad. He focused on his arm as he curled the his arm up, producing an impressive bicep for the crowd as he did so. This rioted more of the young meatheaded men spectating than it did anyone else, but he'd take what he could get. Henry released one of the beers from his hand, lowering his forearm as the beer began rolling down the length of his arm, and straightened it suddenly as it reached the crook. The sudden jolt sprung the beer across the table in a neat arc to Elle with surprising dexterity- she had said toss after all! Beers were a lot easier for him to work with than ping pong balls- they were much larger and had a little weight to them which made them easier to manipulate. That and he'd been around them a lot more.

Henry punched a hole into his own beer's hull at two different points with his thumb and index claw and quickly drank it's contents. To anyone else he'd be going... maybe a bit fast, but whenever he hosted a party he basically carried a keg-backpack around for himself. He weighed as much as a horse, a twelve-pack in ten minutes was going to buzz him on his worst day. He crumpled the metal and leaned away to toss it in a conveniently placed trash can. He looked back to the table expectantly, waiting for Elle to take her turn, then realized she just had.

"Oh, fuck." He strummed, his head whipping around to wherever to ball had been rolled off to. He took a step back and felt the tiny pop what could be nothing else but the ball itself under his foot. _{"Fuuuuuuuuuuuck."}, he lamented, realizing the he had just crushed the damn game under his goofy booted foot. They had slapped it down on him the day after the golem to take the weight off the fracture so it'd heal quicker, but damnit all it was inconvenient at times like this. "Hey can we get another b-" he called out, his sentence cut short by someone throwing a sack of ping-pong balls that Chad had no doubt pre-purchased before the party knowing full well some would probably be crushed, or burnt up, or eaten, or... something. One could never tell in this town. "Thanks!" he called out, fishing out a single ball with his claws and attempting to throw it. Unfortunately, his thumb claw slipped off the rounded edge at the last minute. Normally the pressure would just puncture it or something, but no, this was so much worse. The ball was released halfway through the throw, resulting in a distinct lack of power and a single ball falling into one of his own two cups right in front of him.

Henry marveled at his failure for but a second, and then wheezed with laughter, bringing his hand up to cover his eyes as he did. He fished out another beer and cave-man'd it, and then rolled the ball over to Elle, lest he sink another of his own cups again. At least it was funny.

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

Dexter winced at Mateo's snipe, realizing his folly and feeling second hand embarrassment for Mateo. He had been there at one point in his life, too. The threat fell flat, even if it was weighty. The Pig probably hit like a bus compared to the average strike but, well, Dexter doubted he'd have the speed to actually hit him, let alone catch him. Sure, he might not be able to take the guy in a fight but Dexter had never really been one to instigate to begin with. Everyone in this town that was his age had their aces, and if he was being honest while he might be the fastest kid in town he wasn't going to be outrunning anyone's heat vision at close range.

Dexter's mom had always gotten onto him about that. He was always a little bit stronger than most people in town due to the increased muscle and bone density that supported the forces he put his body through, but compared to someone who could throw you with their mind or something? He could think ten times faster than they could, but they could still think faster than he could move. "Just be nice to people. We've lost enough in this house. Please don't let me lose you too."

Dexter didnt understand the confidence people like Titus or Mateo or Henry had in their abilities to go toe to toe with other Children of Lee with the gusto they did. The first two seemed to be a lot more aggressive about it, but Titus could bounce back from almost anything. At least he had an excuse to be ballsy. Mateo was the smallest of the three aforementioned giants and would probably be flattened by either. Henry had been much more reserved about his strength until recently- holding back the golem had been something that he'd have thought only Titus could've done until recently. All this was for naught though, because both had been served up a cold harsh reality. Sometimes the CoL's had abilities one couldn't fist fight and win. Titus and Henry had been almost enveloped and all their might meant nothing until they were saved.

Maybe that's what Mateo was doing right now- being just like Henry and Titus or any other brute in town being faced with a situation they couldn't muscle out of: Flail. Sitting there with what looked like a piss stain, in a puddle of yellow liquid, caught with his pants basically down. Maybe Dexter should take his own advice and not try to think of everything as something to be solved with muscle.

"You alright?" Dexter said, his voice as genuine as it could be. He knew Mateo was as likely to try and punch him as he was to accept his help up. He side eyed a few of the onlookers, who seemed to make themselves scarce under his gaze, and nonchalantly poured some of his own drink onto the generalized area of his own pants. Dexter was no Chad, but he had some sway, and what were they going to do? Make fun of the dude with half a family for being nice? Dexter took a step forward and offered Mateo his hand to help him up. "It's just lemonade, hey?" he offered.

---

Henry sort of craned his neck back like a bird reacting to something unpleasant at Titus' reaction as he stomped off, and from somewhere within the house he heard the boom of the man's frustrated voice. Elle brought him out of it, though. He'd have to remember to talk to Titus later about it. That probably stung a little bit.

He drifted his gaze back down to Elle, who had just tossed the ball and missed- and it occurred to Henry that he hadn't heard her rules for the game yet, and that for him to drink every time he missed rather than every time the opponent sank a cup meant that he was going to be in for a long game. He was bad at Beer pong, not for lack of dexterity for his size. But simply because of his size. He knelt down to pick up the ball- this tiny thing between his index and thumb claw, and realized that he had only managed to sink two cups last time he played because he was a giant trying to aim a pebble. Henry looked up at Elle and set the ball down on the table. He held his finger out in a 'one moment' motion, and stepped away to the kitchen area. There were several coolers available with various lite beers in each so he grabbed the closest. There seemed to be some sort of commotion in the kitchen and it looked like War Pig and that Dexter kid had wet themselves- but that was just how it went sometimes at a party. He was a man on a mission.

With one hand he palmed the cooler like a basketball, and strode away and back to the ping pong table. People made way for the drake on his way back, and he set it down in a surprisingly ginger way. He flicked the lid open with a claw and selected a Coors from the container. His movements must have attracted some attention, because he heard a cheer or two from the small crowd around him as soon as he stood back to full height. Henry leaned back and pointed to the crowd, following his ear to that kid Chris and Letitia. He brought his hand back to beat his chest once and with his other hand's index and thumb claw, pierced the Coors can in the hull and where the container was supposed to open, and placed his mouth expertly around the opening in the hull as he shotgunned the comparatively comedically tiny beer to a chorus of hoots and hollers. Henry crushed the can effortlessly in his hand and knelt down to retrieve two one (placing the crushed can neatly by the cooler for later collection). He underhand tossed the one into the crowd to Chris, winked, and placed his own unopened beer on the table.

"Gotta keep it fair!" he bellowed, swiping the ball off the table and putting his offhand over his eyes as if he was going to blind shoot it. He feinted, fake tossing the ball, and then split his fingers so he could see through them- very obviously trying to get a laugh out of Elle and give a good show to the onlookers. This time he tossed it. It was a little wobbly, and woefully under powered as he had misjudged how much strength he'd need to toss it without risking turning it into a missile, but it bounced and seemed to be in line to land in the bitch cup if Elle didn't swat it away. With his previous throw to sunk cup ratio, he was starting off hot!

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

Henry watched Titus with a sort of fascination that he hadn't felt much for in a very long time. This was unlike him.

Titus had always been a big kid and was the strongest around for as long as anyone could remember. When they were younger, that strength and size made him the biggest threat on the playground, and for good reason. Of course, that amount of power had gone straight to his head. Titus had been a bully and had absolutely remained a bully until everyone else started realizing that social influence was a lot more important than raw power. In that time he had lashed out a good deal due to his waning social status and Henry had always been small and weak and generally an easy target so of course he found himself on the receiving end of Titus' popularity death throws a few times. When he disappeared for home school and eventually returned Titus was far lower on the social ladder than he had been at the start of middle school and had certainly tried his hand again at what he was once good at.

That was, until Henry punched him for it. Maybe it was him being tired of being the only one without an ability and just happy that he had one now. Or maybe it was his own hotheaded mind addled by hunger and falling blood sugar- he and Titus were about the same size them. But Henry never forgot the look Titus had given him. Titus had been floored by the punch, likely unused to taking a hit from anything close to his own size, and his nose and teeth had been absolutely ruined. Henry remembered momentarily freaking out before remembering what Titus' ability was and braced himself for the incoming retribution. Retribution that never came. Henry would never forget the look of joy on Titus' face. Not from being punched- nah, that had been a temporary setback for the redheaded oaf. Something that was gone within a few hours. But his look of joy at being challenged by something. Anything.

He and Titus had been pretty alright after that.

They were both older now. Stronger, wiser, and in Henry's case about five times the size he had been even then. Maybe he didn't see it when combating the golem because he had been so focused on not dying himself, but he certainly saw it now. It was that same air about him as it had been all those years ago. For the first time in a long time, Titus wasn't just another of the school's brutes. No, he was a hero.

So was he, Henry supposed within his own head. He found himself staring at Titus and Elle out of the corner of his eye as he sorted the table out for another round of cup pong with surprising dexterity for someone without proper fingers. The difference between them is that Titus had the chance to get the girl and Henry had always left Chad's parties with a few friends or alone. Not that he could blame any of the girls- the other options weren't so big they could step on them and not covered in scales, but in this moment Henry felt something he hadn't felt in a very long time: Small. And powerless.

He looked around the room and realized that he and Titus had flipped again. Titus' reign had ended a long time ago and this whole high school experience had been nothing but a cresendo into moving on to something else. Henry on the other hand had spent so much time relishing his popularity that he had been unwilling to let himself think much about what could come after when he was the weird new kid again. Except this time he was in a furry costume that he couldn't take off. He'd be alone again, as he always had been deep down, but alone socially. He was jealous of Titus. Jealous that he had everything Henry had- incredible strength, size, could heal and be a hero... and he was human. He looked at Elle and realized that Titus could get the girl if he played his cards right. Henry would probably never be dealt in.

Henry sighed, and reminded himself to speak to a therapist sometime between now and the end of the school year to sort out these intrusive thoughts, and decided to remain close by. Elle had always been nice to him, even when he was small and weird and weak. She'd invited him to things even if he had been more of a pity vote than much else (not that he could blame her). Titus usually meant well, but if she rejected him and he was too high on his horse to take it well he was probably the only one that could drag his ass outside to cool off without bringing the house down. He couldn't imagine being hit on by someone three times his size and twenty times his strength. As he rose up from under the table with the previously dropped pong ball, he caught Elle's eyes.

Dont worry. I'm not going anywhere. He hoped she understood. Hoped that she felt some sort of safety in a room full of giants that one had her back. It was a fraction of a second, and he was likely nothing but a fool for banking on it, but he'd be here all the same.

That's what heroes do, he supposed. "Alright, who's looking to kick my ass?" Henry bellowed.

He was terrible at beer pong.

---

Dexter had always enjoyed parties for the music. The normal day to day was so slow it was unbearable. Especially in Calc, but parties were so much fun- and not for the reasons one may think. Sure, the drinking and the smoking was a blast but after his dad, alcohol put a bad taste in his mouth and he had never been a happy drunk. No- it was the music. People like Henry could detect it in different ways but Dexter could perceive it. It was so small, and even he could never see it if he wasnt paying attention to it, but during particularly thumpy or good songs, he could see the air dance. It was like a mirage on a hot road, but softer and in time with the beat. Every festival, every party, was an audio-visual experience beyond the flashing lights and dancing.

And the best part about it was that it was all his. Nobody else seemed to ever see it- they probably couldn't, when a second feels like five minutes, one has the time to become impossibly perceptive. He saw Chad reach a hand out and Dexter grabbed a Smirnoff ice- Strawberry Lemonade- he had seen Chad pilfer through a pack for that flavor pretty consistently at the events they had been at together and it had been confirmed to him at last years bonfire. Dexter squinted, his mind calculating the toss more than a few times over and as soon as the line was clear, underhand tossed the drink to Chad who caught it without even looking. A feat in itself.

He continued moving through the house, likely appearing as if he was dodging around someone sneezing and narrowly ducking and weaving around extremities when to him he was just moving out of the way because he wasn't a huge fan of being touched. Dexter found himself in the kitchen with the War Pig, who was in the process of pulling up his pants- which had a curiously large wet mark on them. Dexter opened his mouth and spoke without thinking.

"Mateo, dude, that's a sink. Not a toilet. Are you okay?"

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

Driving to Chad's party was basically second nature to Dexter at this point- he'd been more than a few times since freshman year and had received an invite to various parties of his over the years. Chad was the king of the school and with his progressive growth in popularity, he fancied himself capable of having a shot at the title next year. Sure, passing out on the street had been awkward, but it was nothing that a few minutes of coaxing couldn't fix from a medical professional. He had helped rock that golem's shit. That and only Evelyn had seen him crumple but well, she'd been pretty fucked up too.

A few hearty meals and some daily carb loading and he was good as new, and excited to have something to celebrate that wasn't just a long weekend. There was a long line of cars near Chad's driveway and the novices were parking close by, but the well practiced were parking a street or two away with a pretty good distance. It kept cops from getting your car's tags easily if they came by and busted the place and made it even harder for them to catch you- if you could escape out the back or the sides of the house before they locked it down. That and he had the speed to cover that sort of distance in a very short period of time compared to anyone else.

Dexter could feel the music before he even opened the door, but despite the rhythmic thumps of Ridin' Solo it was the powerful thumps of heavy weight against the ground behind him that caught his attention. He whirled around, half knowing what it would be but on edge regardless. Up until recently there had only been one person in town with that kind of weight, and with the golem's sudden appearance it wasn't worth the assumption.

Luckily, he was right.

Henry ducked underneath a high up tree and Dexter, despite being at the top of the stairs, found himself seeing eye to eye with the man. Henry broke out to a smile but made no immediate moves to greet Dexter, both due to his size and the rather ungainly boot that had been placed around his foot by the doctor for the next week while the fracture mends.

"Dexter!" Henry greeted, taking a few ungainly steps up the stairs and stood alongside Dexter, opening the door for the younger man with dramatic flair. "After you, try not to drink too fast this time." he said teasingly. Dexter huffed in indignation and was almost instantly off into the sea of people. Henry, meanwhile ducked under the door and into the house. That sea of people parted for him. He made his way to the pool table just in time to hear Mateo's taunt, and grabbed a Smirnoff ice on his way over. "Hey Mateo, catch!" he boomed, tossing the bottle to him at reasonable speed. Mateo instinctually fumbled but caught the bottle. "Fast enough for you man? ICED!"

This was the King's party. The Prince and the Dragon had arrived.

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

"Looked like you could use a hand!"

Henry didn't immediately reply, but managed to cough out a snarl in recognition to his now brother in arms. Between the two of them, Titus definitely had the higher towing power, but Titus weighed far less than both himself and their assailant. Henry could handle one arm on his own, and with his weight and Titus' strength they might have a chance at stalemating the golem. Henry shifted, ducking his shoulder down and into the golem's armpit, allowing the golem to sink towards the ground under their combined weight and Titus' strength. He did his best to ignore the road rash against his scales as they were ground away by the golem's concrete and earthen skin, and with his immense size and the golem's lowered position, pivoted the creature's arm upwards. Against a human, struggling against such a position could lead to a dislocated shoulder. A golem however had no such biological hangups and likely lacked the necessary attributes to feel pain- but it did position the creature's arm like a lever of which Henry could drive.

And then it all went tits up. He managed to shriek in alarm, but with his body quite literally positioned against the golem he was the first to be enveloped. Henry struggled, as anyone in his position would. Outside he heard shouting, followed by the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. He wasn't in much of a position to perceive what exactly was happening, but his concrete prison very quickly crumbled around him. He was unceremoniously dropped, and upon hitting the ground felt the unmistakable and likely audible crunch of all his weight coming down on the metacarpal on the side of his foot. The pain didn't hit him at first- but he fell in a heap on the ground, thankfully not on top of Titus, but certainly did hit him as soon as he moved his leg.

Henry's legs were, for lack of better terminology, built a little bit differently than the regular humans. Well, they weren't, but they did function differently. When his powers manifested one of the (excruciating) changes was the lengthening and repositioning of his feet. When the process was completed and he had been evaluated and xrayed and whatever else'd by the doctors, the scans had revealed that he now walked on his toes for lack of better terminology. At least, that's how the doctor put it. Since then he had fractured bones in his feet before in many odd ways, and he knew the feeling. They healed quick, but because his entire mass was on two points it always hurt like hell for a few days afterwards. He'd be paying for getting physical with the golem in one way or another.

"THIS IS THE ASA. WE ARE SEARCHING THE AREA FOR SIGNS OF HOSTILITY AND WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN THE COAST IS CLEAR. IF YOU ARE IN HIDING, REMAIN THERE UNTIL WE HAVE CLEARED THE AREA. IF YOU ARE EXPOSED OR IN NEED OF MEDICAL ATTENTION, COME TO OUR PERIMETER AND WE WILL PROVIDE ASSISTANCE. AND SOMEBODY PLEASE TURN OFF THAT RACKET I'M GETTING A HEADACHE."

Henry coughed, spitting dust but otherwise okay. He had managed to close his eyes and mouth before getting pulled in. "I did need a hand.", he managed to cough out. "Thank you for the help. I was in over my head." A small part of Henry was amused at his own joke- because he was so tall that he was never in over his- A lightning bolt of pain shot up his leg as he shifted his foot and his mind was swiftly set back on track. "Are you okay, Titus?"

Henry pulled himself into a sitting position but otherwise remained where he was at. Unlike the vast majority of his generation in Leesburg, his relationship with the ASA was... more sensitive to put it lightly. There had been quite a few conversations with his mother and father and sisters on what exactly should happen if something were to go wrong. After visiting his physician and getting their insight compared to other CoL's like himself, a decision was made. His superpower can be temporarily reversed, just like anyone else's. However due to the size and severity of his mutation, it would be a long and extremely painful process that could permanently disfigure or damage his body and brain. As a result, the ASA received a signed and written agreement with his family that Henry himself also consented to when he turned 18 that, in the event that something happens, power nullification is not to be attempted. Lethal force is more humane.

A shot had already been fired, and given the ASA's presence here it was already a severe enough situation that itchy trigger fingers were likely present. Henry had received several long talks with his family and knew that any movement in a critical time like this was undue risk. Not that it took all that much convincing- with a fractured foot he wasn't feeling like going anywhere fast right now anyways, but he'd wait until they came to him. Henry turned to survey the damage. His shirt was shredded where his body was against the golem and caked in concrete dust- ruined. Several of his scales were either sanded down or completely gone- revealing the slightly pink and bleeding flesh underneath. He snorted, knowing he'd be right as rain in a couple days but bemused in that he couldn't remember the last time something had actually gotten through his scales. His work was also fucked, which meant his evenings and weekends were going to be very open for the foreseeable future. That wasn't the best thing. But it meant he could go to the party no questions asked this weekend. Little victories.

---

All things considered, Dexter had gotten off light compared to seemingly everyone else. He had positioned himself clear of where the golem had been after setting off the cars and had more than enough time to ensure his safety when the ASA had arrived. He had swatted some debris away from his face as the cars came through. He was hungry as hell now, and had a bit of a runners high, but all things considered it was nothing that an extra dinner and a night's rest wouldn't fix.

He heard a loud 'Fuck!' not too far away from him, and despite direction to either remain where he is or to make it to the perimeter he elected to investigate. Dexter dragged himself to his feet with a huff and soldiered after the voice, turning off some of the car radios as he tailed it. He was fast, but he was walking slow. There was too much potential debris scattered on the road now and he wasn't looking to take a tumble or dig a nail out of his feet. He still needed to get a new tinnitus shot. The owner of the voice was none other than Evelyn, who appeared to have made it to Agent Hopkins safely. "Get me to an ambulance before anyone sees me or I swear to Christ I'll say one of those bullets grazed me."

Dexter's tired mind, normally sharp as a tack, didn't completely process the words or the implications of reacting to them (or making his presence known at all) when his eyes darted down to Evelyn's side. She had a nasty gash that she was trying her best to conceal- but her hand couldn't completely stop the slow oozing of dark red blood down her clothing. "Oh shit, you're bleeding." He said, without fully realizing that he said it. Just like that though, it was real. The world around him seemed to fade slightly as he fixated on Evelyn's wound. He heard the shouting and the wail of the sirens but it was distant now. His eyes darted away from Evelyn to the damage and the destroyed cars and fell upon a Ford Explorer from 2005. The car was mostly fine but Dexter wasn't. His mind was alight and for one searing moment Dexter was in sixth grade and his mother received a call. She didn't tell him yet but he heard it in her responses- close enough to hear the voice on the other end of the phone.

His father was dead, killed in a car crash. He remembered the vacuum pop of the air, the shattering of the windows closest to the door as he ran faster than he had ever run in his life. He knew his father's route by heart- he had been driven home that almost exact same route hundreds of times in his life. He ran until he saw the shattered wreckage of what remained of the two vehicles. Their occupants- his father, had been wheeled away but the crimson stain in the road had yet to be washed away. He remembered someone grabbing him and trying to force him away from the scene- the crime scene. But the damage had been done. Dexter perceived the world a hundred times faster than the normal person. Every inch of that stretch of road had been burnt into his memory.

Then he was back, surrounded by those same sirens, the smell and sight of blood, trashed vehicles... All of that thought and trauma re-experienced faster than a normal person could even think. Dexter paled quickly and took a step back. "Evelyn are you okay? You don't look so good." He said, his voice distant and hollower than usual. His stomach turned but he couldnt take his eyes off the wound. "I dont feel so good." Dexter managed to cough out. His vision tunneled- and then the world went dark.

Dexter fainted.

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

"Try to find any cars you can and crank the bass way up or rumble the engine or something. It's all I got. Oh - and if there's people in the cars we should probably get them, too. Run!"

Dexter nodded wordlessly, twisted on his heel, and was gone as soon as Evelyn turned around. The idea that it had a tremorsense was unsubstantiated but as good of an idea as any. Dexter covered ground with ease compared to the rest- the smell of sewage and gasoline being a fart in the wind at his speed and simply moving around any obstacles as he came upon them. Was was a second to most people felt like ten to him, far more time to react accordingly. He skidded to a stop by Henry, who had taken a knee where he was. Thankfully the golem had let up and seemed disinterested in hurting people and far more inclined to damage structures more than a few dozen feet away at this point. The giant heaved, obviously catching his breath from exertion, but seemed relatively okay. "YougoodHenry?"

"Yeah. Yeah I'm alright." the reptile just about coughed out. "Need something? You should run."

"Alreadyon- On it." Dexter said, slowing himself down. "Evelyn thinks it might see through tremorsense."

"Like DnD?"

"What?"

"Nevermind."

"Just- what's the worst radio station you can think of?"

Henry looked at Dexter strangely, trying to understand what the hell Dexter was getting at, but was distracted by the golem's screech and the sound of more breaking glass. Then the godawful sound of 104.9 came on, with their shrieky show host and their horrid guests. They were bad, but the music they played was flat. It didn't have punch to it most of the time, and they took far many commercial breaks. If this was Evelyn's idea the execution was terrible, which was probably to be expected- Evelyn probably only listened to the top 100 and probably thought that radio tuning was some sort of algebra. No- you had to have good taste to know where to find bad music.

"Dexter, tune every radio to AM radio. Station 96.7. We need something thumpy." Henry instructed, "But keep the volume down. Go to the car settings if they have them and pump the bass up, and then try to turn them all up at around the same time." The boy nodded, and was a blur again. Henry groaned, because this was going to be a bad time for a lot of reasons. He shoved his hands into his pockets and pulled out his trusty earplugs, and roughly shoved them into his ear holes. At least he wasn't going to deafen himself in the process. He turned his attention to the vehicle that had been sent into the golem, which was crumpled at the front and with a smashed windshield... but still in one piece. It had long since lost interest in the scrap heap and turned its attention elsewhere to the local Subway, so Henry got to work. With a mighty swing, he dug his claws into the trunk of the car and pulled it backwards and closer to him. With his other enormous hand, his talons punched into the side wall, puncturing the doors and the floor of the vehicle as he flipped it over. Henry breathed a few times, and readying his body for more exertion, and then grabbed the vehicle by its front and rear axles. He heaved, and stifled a roar in exertion as he dead lifted the car high above his head.

The position in which the car had hit the golem previously was too low to the ground, but basic physics told him that applying that amount of mass with about the same amount of speed at a higher point meant that the base, which was in this was was a brittle and inflexible substance, would experience significantly more torque the higher up on the golem's body that it impacted. While this thing was big, Henry could definitely impact the chest if he threw it right.

Meanwhile, Dexter was racing through the street. Most of the vehicles had been abandoned at this point, and those that weren't had windows that were easily dealt with using a rock and some ludicrous acceleration. He tuned various cars to Henry's instructed frequency, adjusted the bass in the few vehicles he could figure it out on, and cranked the volume low. Dexter was no music whiz, but he knew what Henry was getting at. Bass was high energy, low frequency sound that one could feel from a distance if it was powerful enough. He had been to enough concerts to know this first hand. With enough cars playing it at once, it would no doubt register on the Richter scale. He with his speed, Dexter had managed to cover enough ground to set up fourteen cars. He heard a roar and turned in time to see Henry dead lift an SUV, and figured that was as good of a signal as any.

Dexter knelt down into a sprinters crouch, and bolted. He skidded to a halt fourteen times and returned to speed just as often, and by the time he came to a stop he could feel how hot his shoes were. And how much he needed to sit down. He heaved for air and managed to muster just enough to dash away from the vehicles and to the sidewalk to rest as the radio host began talking. It was obnoxiously loud since he had cranked the volume.

"Hey guys, thanks for tuning into Garage radio. For our next track, I've remixed my own music for your listening pleasure. Here's Machine Gun by Noisia, but with my own personal flare."

Music began playing out of the vehicles. It was loud, but not nearly what Henry had suggested it would be. Unbeknownst to Dexter, Garage radio was a locally produced AM radio station that was technically facilitated by the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. it changed what genre it played every three hours as it cycled hosts, and right now it was Dubstep with self described DJ Driftwood.

All at once the drop came, and if Dexter could hear his own thoughts over the cacophony, they would have been an eloquent 'oh.' Music exploded from the vehicles, with the cranked bass in each car it was nothing if not vibrating as the whole street was suddenly introduced to an unholy church of reverb in some sort of sacrilegious affront to music. Dexter covered his ears in pain. Henry roared.

The car was thrown.

CHILDREN OF LEE - THE FIRST GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES

When Henry was a small boy, he was signed up for a children’s Judo class with his sister. It never was his thing, he had never been much of a fighter and he only lasted for a few sessions before losing interest. All he really remembers was being thrown, hard by the instructor.

He remembered that the world spun in that way that was impossible to keep up with, and he remembers his stomach lurching as he was twisted through the air. He doesn’t remember hitting the ground.

This felt like that, although it was much more alien since there was almost no force on earth that could move him if he didn’t want to go somewhere. He remembers hitting the ground this time, but the dull ache of his massive body hitting the ground was very quickly drowned out by a sharp, stabbing pain in his back. He heaved, coughing up a mouthful of blood, and did his best to roll over, instantly regretting it when the pain intensified. He looked to his scattered glass and was very happy that he had, well, armor for skin. That would have been terrible to land on otherwise.

Henry managed to force himself up onto his elbows, which was accompanied by a sharp snap and something shifting very uncomfortably back into place into his body. It felt like a rib? He couldn’t really tell, but the pain was a dull throb now rather than a crippling stab. Progress?

He managed to get up and briefly surveyed his surroundings- there was a golem outside that was easily as tall as a two story building. Right. He wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than an earthquake. He had also taken out a couple comic book stands on his way down. He briefly thought about how his boss was going to fucking kill him, but then he remembered, oh right, there’s a god damn rock monster outside and it probably was not here to buy comics.

He was trapped between a rock and a hard place, because the only way out was blocked by what threw him in, but it didn’t seem to have legs, so it probably couldn’t chase him. He had to fight, at least until he had enough space to get away, so he steeled hims nerves, tried to ignore his pounding heart, and forced himself to stand. It was wielding a light post now, and as soon as he stepped back into the sidewalk, it turned on its stalk and swung for him. It swung low, and Henry just managed to lift his foot up and out of the way to avoid the head of the light post as it cratered space on the street where his foot had been less that a moment before.

It was big, but because it was big it was slow. It had a lot of mass behind it’s body, and so Henry was able to regain his footing and recover before it could follow up fully with another attack. Unfortunately, he was also big, and it was halfway through a back swing now, and all Henry could do was circle outwards to the left and cross his arms over his torso and head to defend against the incoming blow. It came hard, and fast, but the light post was hollow and metal. Its collision with the street had bent it slightly, and as soon as it met Henry’s forearms and weight it buckled and bent, unable to sustain the forces it was subject to, into a horribly contorted piece of scrap. Fortunately, also unusable as a weapon. Henry bit back a cry as it impacted- but remained unmoved, and was thankful that the light pole had been destroyed. He wasn’t sure how much more he could do that.

He lowered his arms and looked at his assailant, only for his eyes to widen and raise his arms again. The golem discarded the light pole, dropping it as it raised its arms high in the air to slam Henry. They came down relatively slowly, the golem was no blitz fighter, but it had so much mass behind its strikes that as soon as they impacted Henry he was immediately forced down to a knee.

But he was. Not. Smashed.

He breathed, ragged and heavy as the golem attempted to bear its entire weight on him. It started off as a low rumble in his chest that escalated into a roar as he forced his legs to work. He slowly and shakily rose back to a standing position, forcing the golem up and back despite its strength and weight. He heard Evelyn yell something about metal, and he momentarily tried to focus enough on his tail to grab the ruined light pole, but almost instantly lost ground against the herculean weight he was sustaining. “I’m-“ Henry snarled with exertion, “BUSY. HELP.” He couldn’t stop- if he did he’d be crushed.

Fortunately he didn’t have to.

It sounded almost like a buzzing sound, but as it got closer and louder, it was actually feet against pavement. Dexter weaved through the street faster than most people could even react, and basically materialized beside Henry and the behemoth he was contesting, skidding to a stop almost right underneath them. Dexter grabbed the light pole and pulled. For most people it would have been quite a weight to drag and it still was even if Dexter was stronger than the average person, but he managed to pull it out of the line of fire and after a few initial labored steps managed to pick up some decent speed as he dragged a spark trail across the street to where Evelyn was taking cover.

“Ifeltthevibrationsandcamerunning-“ Dexter said, speaking far too fast since his body was working overtime. He gasped, taking a deep breath, trying to force himself to slow down for just a moment. “Iheardme-. I heard you say metal. Before he started roaring.” He explained, throwing his thumb over his shoulder to Henry who was still sustaining the golem, but barely. “What else do you need? I’ll get it.”