It was nice to be alone. To drift among the stars.

  Dauntless hovered high above the Earth’s exosphere, peering down on the planet as it slowly rotated. The world he loved, the world he had sworn to protect. Yet he spent so many hours of every day taking on problems, fighting bad guys and quelling disasters... it was nice to be away from it all, for just a moment, to alleviate the psychic pressure of the world.

  His ivory cape fanned behind him, adrift in zero gravity. The coldness of the void surrounded him, but the faint aura of white light around his body kept him from feeling most of it. His invulnerability was a hell of a thing.

  The void of space, the deepest trenches of the ocean, the inside of roiling volcanoes... he’d yet to find any environment that actually made him uncomfortable.

  His eyes drifted as he watched the electromagnetism encircle the planet, observed the dancing beams of radio waves as they danced endlessly across the globe, even witnessed the dance of the solar wind as it undulated about the distant sun. Spacewatching was always so soothing. He sometimes found it hard to believe he had once feared space, at least until he’d found out by complete accident that his invulnerability extended even to here.

  Dauntless turned from the planet, focusing on the distant form of the Moon. Nice as it was to take a break, he did have business to take care of.

  His aura burned brighter and then he was off, a white and black comet streaking toward the Moon. Within seconds he had drawn closer to the great grey sphere, orbiting around it until he found the right cluster of craters on the northern hemisphere.

  The Fortress, current headquarters of the Vanguard, stood distinct on the sea of grey soil. A structure of navy metal plates built like an ironclad cathedral, with communication spires and satellite dishes blinking along the roof plates.

  Slowly, carefully, Dauntless floated down toward one of the airlocks. The outer door was yawning open, metal teeth only irising shut behind him after him. Once sealed the walls of the airlock began to stream clouds of gas, the atmosphere and gravity gradually adjusting to a close approximation of the Earth’s atmosphere.

  Then the inner door opened, revealing a well lit walkway that led deeper into the Fortress. Dauntless pressed inside, his cape falling comfortably across his shoulders. Light from the lamps overhead glinted on the blue glass of his V-shaped visor.

  Vitruvian Man was already waiting for him in the command center, the large central chamber of the Fortress dominated by a long table and a sea of monitors on one wall. “Ah, Christopher,” the android greeted in his usual crisp monotone, each syllable coming out as if they were being assembled on a conveyor belt. “Punctual As Ever.”

  He was a tall figure, just over seven feet in height, chrome-plated but distinctly humanoid in his proportions. Woven cords of titanium thread, like dreadlocks, ran down from the top of his head to between the plates of his shoulder blades. He watched Dauntless with gleaming emerald eyes.

  “I try,” he said, smiling and shrugging his broad shoulders. “So, what’s the crisis today?”

  “Potentially Nothing Too Serious. Certainly It Will Not Be Anything As Grim As A Death Row Attack.”

  Dauntless grimaced. It was always a nightmare when those bastards were out and about. They’d gotten lucky, intercepting Death Row before they could kill anyone. But the creeps had gotten away, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that the Society had let them off their leash to serve as a distraction for something else.

  A flash of crackling blue light shone at the far end of the command center, rousing Dauntless to attention. He turned as Lady Knight emerged from the sphere with her biometric teleport node clutched in her armoured fingers. “Gentlemen,” she greeted, flicking the golden plume atop her helmet in a jaunty salute.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Bridget,” Dauntless greeted, smiling and nodding.

  “Did we have to meet on the Moon? We have other meeting spots that are more... terrestrial,”she said, gesturing airily at the ceiling above them.

  “Ask him,” Dauntless said. “He’s the one who insisted.”

  One by one the others arrived in flashes of crackling blue light. Raptor in his sleek black coat and glassy black faceplate. Azure Warlock in his swirling blue cloak and baggy black clothing, his head covered by an ornate silver helmet. Black Blur, living up to her namesake as she vanished from the room and reappeared a split second later, holding a turkey-on-rye sandwich in her hands. “Thanks for keepin’ the fridge stocked, Vitty,” she said, mid-chew. Light gleamed on the golden bands on her forearms.

  “Of Course. I Would Not Want My Friends To Go Hungry.”

  “Alright,” Dauntless said, watching as Blur sped into her seat at the table. “So we’re only missing-”

  The last flash lit up the chamber, heralding the arrival of a slim older gentleman in a finely tailored white suit that contrasted his light brown skin. “There was an incident at the Institute that held me up.”

  “Of course. We appreciate you making time for us all the same, Dr Ikeman,” said Lady Knight. While Joshua Ikeman’s days of fighting in the field were in the past, and much of his time was focused on aiding underprivileged and disfigured Apex youths at his special school, he was still an official member of the Vanguard and one of the strongest Psions on the planet. His aid and input was always welcome.

  They took their seats around the table, exchanging glances for several quiet moments.

  “We May Have An Issue,” Vitruvian eventually said.

  Black Blur snorted, lifting her cowl to reveal a crop of raven hair. The Korean Speedster was perhaps the youngest member of the Vanguard, but she didn’t let that impact her confidence. “Shit, I could have guessed that.”

  “Let him speak,” Warlock said, making a lazy gesture with a gloved hand.

  “With The Instruments In The Fortress, And My Own Sensors, I Am Able To Scan Energy On A Global Scale. That Means That Anomalies Can Stick Out To Me. Like A... Sore Thumb.”

  The other members of the Vanguard exchanged uncertain glances. “And... what have you seen in your scans?” Ikeman asked.

  “Spikes Of E-Radiation.”

  The silence in the chamber grew so intense that one could hear a pin drop. Dauntless grimaced. “That’s... certainly uncommon outside of the Anomalous Zones.”

  “The amount of people who could even access the Outer Void could be counted on both hands,” Raptor growled. “At least, as far as we know. Have these... spikes led to any mutations in the area?”

  “The Concentration Has Not Been Sufficient For that, Fortunately. But These... Flickers Are Concerning.”

  “No doubt.” Warlock leaned forward, folding his fingers together on the surface of the table. “And possibly not a random event. Though... it’s possible we might see a return of the Visitor.”

  “Shit,” Blur said, eyes widening. “That’d be a first. The big bastard never showed up after the Encounter, right?”

  “No recorded sightings. And a creature that large... it would be hard not to notice.” Dauntless had seen the archive footage plenty of times, saw the slackjawed crowds as they drank in the immense... mass of the Visitor in the skies above the planet.

  And with it came the waves of alien radiation that created Apexes and the Anomalous Zones in the first place.

  “I’m not opposed to being cautious, but... it might be nothing?” Lady Knight suggested, shrugging her pauldroned shoulders. “Weird shit happens in the world every day.”

  “My. You like to live in hope, don’t you,” Blur said, taking another bite of her sandwich.

  “It’s a curse.”

  Raptor slowly shook his head. “Something like this wouldn’t happen for no reason. Vitruvian, where are these... spikes occurring?”

  Vitruvian Man’s eyes changed from green to blue, projecting out twin streams of light that shaped into a 3D model of the Earth. Flickers of red light danced across the continents, over the seas. Barely lasted for more than seconds at a time.

  Dauntless watched closely. Those thin beams of light played out in slow motion to his augmented vision, and he tried his best to discern any pattern in how they moved. He saw none.

  “I Have Passed This Information Along To ANVIL, And To Other Groups With Monitoring Tools. The Triad, Lady Sarasvati of India, The Guardian Rangers Of Japan, Eurosquad, And The Canada Guard. Ideally We Can Pool Our Resources To Understand This.”

  “I still maintain that this is likely nothing, but I suppose caution isn’t a bad thing,” Lady Knight said, though she didn’t sound so certain.

  “We’re... rarely so fortunate,” Dauntless said. “Thank you, Vitruvian, for telling us this. If anything does come from these radiation spikes, call us immediately.”

  Vitruvian Man’s eyes flickered, the hologram fading away. “I Believe This Is A Prelude To Something,” the android said, his luminous gaze sweeping the long table. And in those eye, Dauntless could almost feel the synthetic being’s faint anxiety. “An Incoming Crisis.”