The San Francisco night air made my cloak billow as I walked the industrial docks, my footsteps silent on corrugated metal warehouses.
I told the Titans I would go for a walk. At some point during my walk, I felt it. A weird energy from up above. A faint pulse thrumming through the city like a second heartbeat. I only managed to feel it because I was outside and close to it.
The warehouse district was empty at this hour, save for the occasional security guard and the rats that scattered at my approach.
I moved through the shadows with ease, my senses cutting through the darkness like a blade through silk.
There, a shimmer in the air, residual psionic energy clinging to the concrete like morning dew.
I knelt and found it half-buried in the earth. A meteor fragment no larger than my fist, its surface suggests that it was part of a bigger body.
"Well, well" a voice drawled from above. "Looks like we found it"
I stood slowly, the fragment secure in my palm. Three shadows detached themselves from the roofline. No, more. Eight total, descending from the warehouses like spiders on invisible threads.
They were armed with standard ballistic weapons and something else. Resonance disruptors, designed specifically to interfere with psionic fields. Expensive, dangerous and professional.
"Who sent you" I asked, not bothering to hide the shimmer of psionic energy that began to gather around my form.
The lead operative, a man with a scarred face and cold eyes, smiled. "Doesn't matter. Hand over the rock, and we walk away."
I didn't hand it over.
"That's not how this works." I said.
The first operative moved with surprising speed, closing the distance in a sprint while his teammates fanned out to cut off my angles. Standard tactical formation. I respected the discipline even as I prepared to break it.
Psionic energy coalesced at my fingertips the signature of a High Templar, crackling with barely restrained power.
The operative nearest me fired a burst from his rifle. I didn't dodge. Instead, I threw my free hand forward and manifested a psionic barrier, a shimmering wall of pure force that caught the rounds mid-flight and sent them spinning into the night.
"My control seems to be returning." I thought.
The operative's eyes widened in surprise, but he was trained well enough to adapt. He switched tactics, triggering the resonance disruptor at his hip.
Pain flared through my neural pathways as the device activated, momentarily disrupting my connection to the force. But only momentarily. I'd trained long enough do endure this kind of pain. More importantly, I understood adaptation.
I let the High Templar energy fade and reached for something deeper, the cold, precise energy of the Dark Templar. Where psionic power was a symphony, void energy was a blade in the dark.
Shadows twisted around my form as I moved, becoming less a physical presence and more a suggestion of movement. The world seemed to slow as I stepped through their fire, my form phasing between their bullets like smoke.
The scarred operative saw what was happening and barked an order. The team shifted, two of them moving to flank my position while the others established a perimeter.
They were trying to box me in, to limit my maneuverability. Smart. It wouldn't work, but I appreciated the attempt.
I allowed myself to materialize directly in front of the nearest operative and struck him with a psionic pulse, not lethal, not even close to lethal, but enough to send him sprawling backward with his breath knocked from his lungs.
His teammate tried to capitalize on the opening, but I was already moving, my powers shifting between the High Templar shimmer and the Dark Templar shadow.
A pulse of psionic energy detonated outward, rippling across the concrete. It caught three operatives at once, lifting them off their feet and slamming them against the warehouse wall. The impact knocked them unconscious.
Five remained.
They were regrouping, their formation tightening. I had to admit, they were disciplined. Whoever trained them had done good work. But discipline meant nothing against superior firepower and psionic power, channeled by someone who'd wielded it and trained with it for so long. Even if I had to work on my control recently.
I wove High Templar and Dark Templar energy together, something I've been doing more frequently in my time with the Titans. The two disciplines were meant to be opposites, but in the right hands, they could complement each other. Light and shadow, not fighting but dancing.
Just like my hero.
"En taro Tassadar!" I shouted. A feeling of invigoration spread through me.
It's been a long while since Protoss language left my lips.
The scarred operative understood he was losing. He pulled a thermal detonator from his belt, military grade, expensive and threw it toward the warehouse's support structure.
"Fall back!" he shouted to his remaining team.
I could have let the warehouse collapse. Part of me, the part that remembered Cynthia and Lorelei and the blood on my hands, wanted to. But I was trying to be better than that.
I anchored myself and raised both hands, manifesting a barrier strong enough to catch the detonation. The explosion bloomed against my shields like a flower of fire, and I felt the strain through every fiber of my being, but I held.Barely.
When the smoke cleared, the operatives were gone. They'd used the chaos of the explosion to scatter, vanishing into the industrial sprawl of San Francisco's night.
I lowered my hands, breathing heavily. The meteor fragment was still in my grip, undamaged. I examined it again, turning it over in my palm. The surface seemed to glisten with its own faint light, responding to my touch.
Whoever sent those operatives had known exactly what they were looking for. And they were willing to spend considerable resources to acquire it.
By the time I reached Titans Tower, the sun was starting to rise. Starfire was in the common room, reviewing training protocols. She looked up as I entered, her expression brightening before shifting to concern as she took in my appearance. Singed armor, dust in my hair.
"Voranis! Your walk seemed eventful."
"I found something" I said simply, and opened my hand to reveal the fragment. "I don't know what it is. I thought we should examine it together."
Starfire's eyes widened as the fragment's surface caught the morning light.