The Hot Shot meets Overlay

Seamus Sato entered the M.C. Aikikai Dojo ("the Dojo") on Saturday for his teaching shift, following an exhausting cleanup of the Dojo after Spencer, Lucas, and Ed Rupertman had “trashed” Kobayashi Sensei and Overlay/Seamus while tracking street dirt all over the tatami mats. Fortunately for the Dojo and its students, Destroyer Command ordered the three away to go harass some other unfortunate souls before they had caused real injury.
 
Kobayashi Sensei had sent out feelers to other Aikido senseis to see if they’d be interested in putting on a show for the three Destroyer Agents before the next time the three came around, but it had been less than two days. Seamus was using industrial amounts of elbow grease to try once more to clean a stubborn stain Ed Rupertman’s dirty boots had left behind, when he heard a commotion outside. Seamus could have tapped an insect outside for a closeup view, but old habits die hard and he stood straight, still holding the sopping-west mop, and turned to face the sounds. Seamus visibly winced when he saw that it was The Three again, only this time they were hassling the students outside the Dojo.
 
Seamus took a moment to put on his best retail sales face, set the mop and pail against a nearby wall, and began walking towards the front door, signaling Kobayashi Sensei with a hand signal. Sensei shakes his head, but, perhaps still bruised from two days ago, does nothing to stop Seamus from going outside. The Three recognize Seamus and begin to prepare for another beatdown, turning towards Seamus. Providentially, their cell phones began to ring, they checked their phones, read for a moment, and Rupertman said, “eh… you’ll get your beating later. We have more important things to do, right boyos?” Ed Rupertman had apparently cheered on the Dreadnoks in G.I. Joe one too many times as a youth, bobbling and dropping a failed attempt at a “tough Australian accent.”
 
Seamus, sighed inwardly and quickly guided the Dojo’s students inside and away from The Three. Seamus sees The Three pause their march to huddle, and with a glance, picks a nearby insect and Taps its sight and hearing, unaware of the exact way his Vanishing-derived abilities create quantum entanglement between his optic and auditory nerves and those of the housefly’s, cloning the signals and making them appear as picture-in-picture within Overlay’s normal vision and the words of the Three received within Overlay’s ears as if he were looking over their shoulders himself. “Ok guys, we’re joining a team of twelve, at that location, and then we’re all gonna rush those resistance losers in their own apartments.” Overlay’s housefly transmits back an annoying mix of compound vision videos of The Three’s cell phones, but with great focus and strain Overlay reads and memorizes the address. Then The Three march away, laughing loudly and obnoxiously, like the bad guy animals in an old Disney film…
 
Kobayashi Sensei arrives at Seamus just as Seamus ends the Tap. “Oh, hey Sensei. Whew, they left, and I didn’t have to get beat up again,” Seamus grinned sheepishly. Seamus’ grin fell away in an instant, and he said, “…but I overheard them talking… they’re going to meet up with their friends and kill innocents…” Seamus then looked paler than Sensei had ever seen, despondent, even. Sensei considered, and replied, “It is a pity we do not have a connection with this Resistance that they mock so much.” Sensei, lacking in superpowers, nevertheless finishes his sentence by staring into Seamus’ eyes, almost mystically, the camera, if there was one, alternating back and forth between Sensei and Seamus as if to show the invisible point-to-point laser-focused communication between their optic nerves, putting the famous “staring speeches” of the Twilight vampire movies to shame. When Sensei was done, he said, “I can handle the students that are here,” and with that, Kobayashi Sensei turned 180 degrees and strode back into the Dojo.
 
Seamus looked puzzled for a moment… surely Sensei didn’t think he had any connections with the Resistance, or… powers? Seamus pulled out his car keys to his I’m-not-buying-you-a-new-car-son car that lacked a keyfob, unlocked the driver’s side door, got in, turned the ignition, and began a slow-speed pursuit, shadowing The Three to their apartment building destination. Along the way, Overlay Tapped a random rooftop insect every several seconds, looking for hidden Resistance soldiers, the New Champions, anyone who might be able to help, but despite sweat on his forehead for minutes at a time, Seamus had no luck, despite his ancestry.
 
The Three eventually turned onto the street with the apartment building, and Seamus took that opportunity to find a nearby parking space out of sight, and then began making his way down a parallel street. Seamus had removed some outer clothing in the car, replacing it with body armor, a trenchcoat, a hat, and Giffen Shadows over his face, and began running down the street towards a woman with some strangely huge rifle who was aiming in the general direction of the apartment building and yelling for the Destroyer Soldiers to pay attention to her!!! Overlay didn’t know if he should trust her or not, but, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” playing in his mind from a youth misspent, or maybe well-spent, watching OLD movies with his Dad, who, as a first-generation Japanese immigrant, impressed upon Seamus the importance of knowing American culture well enough to ingratiate oneself with those in power. Seamus of course had banged his head against college math just long enough to get an associate’s degree and went to work for a first-generation Japanese immigrant running an Aikido Dojo, but at least his father had tried!
 
The brisk wind whipping by his face as he ran brought Seamus out of his daydream and Overlay pressed on, emptying his calves of the energy from the doughnut he ate on the way to work, and he made it to just behind a lamppost, with the woman with the rifle… the… G.I. Joe laser rifle (?) on the other side. Seamus took a couple of seconds to wheeze and catch his breath (occasional sprints were in his fitness routine, but Seamus had truly pushed himself in this run and would likely pay for it later.), gasping out, “I’m here to help!” Jasmine (The Hot Shot) stole another glance at Overlay, having noticed his run up, but he was unarmed, and Destroyer’s Troops were advancing on her siblings inside the apartment building! Jasmine aimed The Heater at one of the approaching Destroyer Agents, flipped some switches (and made the activation roll!), put a soldier in her sights, and squeezed the trigger. Two gouts of heat and light burst forth in rapid succession, ZORCHING across the intervening space and KOs her target with a quick one-two zorch!
 
Seamus gains his bearings, and more of the distance duel plays out, with a soldier shooting Jasmine to no apparent effect, and Jasmine missing her next target. Overlay said, “Ma’am, I can help, if you’re willing to trust me.” The Hot Shot turned again, looking the armored and unarmed man behind her up and down again, and said, “yeah, whatever, I could use some help. Hope you can fly or shoot laser beams out of your hands or something” and turned back to the oncoming soldiers, taking aim again. Overlay said, “I will help you see your foes even when they are hiding. You’ll feel some static electricity…” and with that, Overlay stepped directly behind her, leaning to one side enough to see the barest angle of the front of her face, catching her eyes at that angle and… quantum entanglement! At the speed of thought, Seamus’ overclocked reflexes compared his view of the enemies to her, as a group of electrical signals visualized… Overlay picked out the signals that corresponded to the soldiers in his view and hers, “drew” red circles around the soldiers, and copied it onto her optic nerves, all in a fraction of a second!
 
Jasmine felt… supercharged! The armored man said there would be static electricity, but… and those red circles! She had almost lost track of one of the soldiers ducking down behind a car, but now he was outlined as clear as a player running a route on TV Sports! It was almost too easy, as now she saw where they were aiming, and then she jerked aside just as the red mini-circle around the soldier’s trigger finger glowed with urgency. Red circles appeared, disappeared, and moved within her vision faster than she could react, it was like working with Lil’ Rocket again! When she took her shots, however, they always hit home and hit hard!
 
Overlay had moved ahead of The Hot Shot and to the side slightly, playing goalie, attracting and Matrix-Aikido-ing out of the way of every incoming shot. Finally three more soldiers came around a corner and charged at them. Seamus recognized them as Spencer, Lucas, and Ed Rupertman. When they were meters away, it was Overlay who strode forward and used Aikido to slam Spencer into Lucas and the pile of the two into the wall! They were hardly hurt, but now were prone. Next, Overlay channeled his inner Bruce Li and, moving faster than a hypothetical film camera could track, stepped and reached in the next 1 second to redirect Ed Rupertman’s velocity, and Rupertman, into the growing pile of embarrassed soldiers on the ground! Jasmine got a big grin on her face, and The Hot Shot adjusted the focuser on The Heater, squeezed the trigger and roasted the three of them, their screams brief as the intense heat and light dehydrated them and they fainted into unconsciousness. Less than twelve seconds after Jasmine’s first Hot Shot, almost all the soldiers were down and she yelled to the survivors to run and tell Destroyer not to mess with the Resistance! The remaining soldiers dropped whatever gear they had in their hands and ran far far away!
 
The Hot Shot and Overlay fist-bumped in victory, and Jasmine invited the stranger to meet up later tonight to discuss how he might be of further use to the Resistance. Seamus, still masked, thanked The Hot Shot for the opportunity, and suggested a particular park tonight at a particular time (which Overlay knew was exactly the time and place he was to meet up with Cypher about joining the team). The heroes said their goodbyes and Overlay took a circuitous route, taking his time before surreptitiously sneaking back into his car and driving away, helmet off and eyes constantly jumping between all the mirrors, and Tapping random insects all along the way to ensure that he was not being followed…