I had to be given a hand in joining everyone inside the super-tank since they didn't want to watch me struggle. It felt like climbing into a death trap, and it smelt like dirty socks and metal fumes, but the worst part was how cramped together we all were. Torque had barely managed to design the tank to have enough internal space for his own pilot's seat and the monitors in front of it. The small amount of leftover cargo-room behind him could fit us all, but it left Stumblebum, Zephyr, and I sitting in one another’s laps. Not the most comfortable position for anyone involved.

Trying to distract myself, I kept an eye on the monitors. As we started to move, I could see my little red bike go underneath the vehicle and then appear out the back, crushed to a pulp. Although I knew I could always find another one, it still hurt to see.

Belatedly I realized, Torque was driving without any controls. That explained why this whole thing was so low-tech and yet so impressively huge and powerful. It lacked an engine entirely; I was willing to bet. Instead, he had to be making the wheels turn with his power, hence the name. To be able to move this much weight merely with the ability to turn a wheel was impressive, to be sure, and to see what he'd done with it was creative to say the least.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our intel puts the target just a few minutes out at top speeds. Try not to sustain any concussions while we are on the move. My apologies for the lack of seatbelts," he said, strapping himself in.

Stumblebum was on top of me, with Zephyr on top of him. He hooked his legs beneath the pilot's seat, taking hold of a latch behind our heads with one hand to brace, and wrapping his free arm around the heroine's waist with the other. "Hit the throttle, chief. I got 'em all safe and snug."

Zephyr protested. "Get your arm off of me."

"Have you ever ridden in this thing before, maybe?" Stumblebum chuckled loudly. "You better hang on for dear life, because it’s about to get bumpy."

"That's my cue!" the villain exclaimed.

I saw his fists clench, and the supertank started forward with instant acceleration. We went from zero to sixty in a matter of just a few seconds, flattening all of us in the back down into the battery-packs that were stabbing my poor spine. With Stumblebum's arm in my way, I couldn't see a thing, but I could smell his rank pits, and I was starting to get motion sick. I could feel the tank occasionally plowing through cars and rubble that had fallen in its way, slowing down for a second before getting right back up to speed. Inertia was all I had to go by, and the only time we braked without an impact sounding, I suspected, was when Torque wanted to avoid mounting a small hill and taking flight.

The fact this thing was moving fast enough to go airborne was a terrifying thought to consider.

With my eyes closed, I got flashes of minds in the dark via my power. Mostly fear came through, with some spoken thoughts being distinct enough to be audible for me to hear as well.

I hope they're okay!

Morgan had better answer her damn phone!

I'm sure the heroes have got him by now!

What's going on out there, dammit?!

God, please look after my family.

They were a series of random worries and prayers. Normally people didn't exactly know what they were thinking, which made their internal monologue vague and scattered, barely above a jumble of whispers; but in times of panic, they came through loud and clear. Prayers especially. I'd been hearing people's prayers now for years, which always gave me a strange sense of guilt. As if my hearing them meant they would automatically go unanswered.

My teammates’ minds here were as silent as the grave. Too focused to be thinking.

We were slowing to a stop now. After the banging and crunching subsided, Torque pointed back to the exit door and told us, "It's time to get out! Quickly!" An enormous explosion shook through the cabin, which could mean only one thing. "We're right in the thick of it! No time to waste!"

He willed the vault door to open, and muted sunlight poured in. Zephyr went first in a whirlwind of air, as if she'd been lifted on a gust at her back, and the rest of us followed suite. Stumblebum and I jumped down at the same time to land amongst the haze of destruction. I was very glad I'd put an impromptu mask on, then, as the dust and rubble were thicker here than it had been in the middle of the city. Much more was on fire, rather than simply crushed all to pieces.

"He's taken to lighting up the buildings that he doesn’t level," Stumblebum noticed at the same time. He was unfazed by the smoke, though, unlike me.

"Seems like he's trying to cause as much damage as possible," I said. My initial idea about him having any kind of target at all was clearly wrong. He didn’t care about the city hall, and he wasn’t here to kill a single person. He was taking his time at every large building and power station to bring them down, straight to the ground. His path was a zigzag of bored carnage and mayhem, with hardly a thought as to end-goals. It was a pure rampage, and nothing else.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Hey, Adrian, friendo. Can you see him? I don't see him!"

Using my second sight, I could indeed tell where the rampager was. He was standing still about two hundred yards ahead on the road, looking right at Torque's supertank and tilting his head in curiosity. I was already moving for the sidewalk, trying to find cover when I projected, "He's spotted the car."

Torque either didn't know or wasn't afraid of this, however, as he began to roll forward. Since all his passengers had offloaded, he was apparently going right for the middle of the fight. Stumblebum unclipped a tiny pocketknife and went to follow. "I'm just gonna get a closer look. Hang here for a second Adrian, I'll be right back!"

Cowering where I was behind a planter, I looked for Zephyr in the sky, but to no avail. Bombardment was definitely on the scene though, as a blast wave of artillery fire went off just beyond the supertank. It lit up the silhouette of the rampager in an explosion, but all I could tell about him was that he appeared to be a thin, gangly man, standing much taller than average. The series of missiles that hit his back failed to move him a single inch, or even gain his attention.

So, they were hitting him, but they really weren't affecting him, just as Zephyr said.

He had started walking forward to meet the tank now, slowly and confidently. Stumblebum spread his arms in a defiant gesture, while the tank sped up to get there first.

I stuck out my hand and prepared to blast the monster with a bolt of pure psychic energy at a distance. It was agonizing to summon that much pain. Keeping it built up in my nerves but not allowing the signal to take hold required intense focus, and lances of searing electricity would occasionally escape their confines to rocket up my limb. If I lost control now, this might be enough to put a normal person in the hospital.

Or make an unstoppable psychopath really, really mad. That was also an option!

What if it just pisses him off? I thought. What if he comes for me next? All of my planning was built around the idea that I was the only one who could hurt him, and if I end up being right, well, he could turn and kill me in an instant.

Jesus Christ. I haven't thought this through!

My hesitation lasted only a moment, but that was all the time the rampager needed.

In one swift motion, they leapt forward and took a swipe through Stumblebum's skull, turning it instantly into a fine red mist. In the process, Torque’s tank overshot its mark and skid out on the concrete. Torque had to swerve around wildly in order to put himself back into position and cover the ground of the rampager's single step. Once he did though, he was able to clamp down with the pincers of his vehicle. The same amount of force that could send his tank ripping through the air brought itself to bear against the rampager's pale grey flesh, but that was merely to hold it in place.

What came next was louder than anything that came before.

A piston fired out of the tank's front end at point-blank-range, slamming itself into the rampager's back with enough force that the kickback alone brought the wheels of the tank to head-height off the ground. It launched the freak out of its pincers at Mach speed, like a bullet out of a gun. Unfortunately, sending him right in my direction.

I dodged away as the grey body went speeding through the building beside me, then three other ones beyond that. Wherever he landed, he wasn't making a sound, but I doubted he was dead. With my belly on the street, my eyes were glued to Stumblebum's headless, bleeding corpse that lay motionless just up ahead.

The fight was far from over now, and my regret was beginning to set in.

No taking it back now, I thought. You’re in this to the death.

The psychic bolt I was charging must have gone off when I jumped to the side, and I could only hope it dispersed harmlessly in the air. The damage it had done to me was beginning to be felt. When I tried to stand, my whole body refused to respond, instead it twitched and jerked in a semblance of my intentions. This was what I got for trying to go all out in my first and only attempt at such a move. I was already experiencing a backlash of the worst kind. Signal echoes were amplifying through my nervous system, causing seizes of pain.

Yet, I still had to scrape myself off the concrete and get moving. I limped over the street towards the nearest alleyway; anything to get me further from the fight so that I could regain my strength. My leg was hurting an awful lot, and something told me it was being caused by more than simply my power, but there was no time to check that now. The rampager was re-emerging.

I took one glance back, long enough to see that his interest was in the tank and not me, and I hurried on with panicked relief. Behind the righthand row of shops and restaurants, surrounded by smoke, there would be nowhere left to go if trouble came for me, but it was good enough to hide here. Little by little, I could come up with a better plan, though I still couldn’t believe that Stumblebum had died so quickly. If supers really were dropping left and right as Zephyr had said, it was hard to see what I could possibly do about it.

Amid all my frantic thinking, I didn’t detect the person that was sneaking up on me. I felt a hand come down on my shoulder, and my reaction was to fall over and cover my face with both hands. The yell I let loose was incoherent. I prepared for the worst.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Cool your jets there, headcase!”

When I looked up, it was none other than Stumblebum that was standing over me, and there wasn’t a scratch on him. He had his hands on his hips, impatiently waiting for me to shut the hell up.

My thoughts went out, “What? How are you here right now?”

“I told you I’d be back in just a minute! Geez! Now I’m back. Nothing more to it.”

“But… you died?”

“I promised to look after you, new guy. You think a little bit of death can stop me? I mean, come on, are we gonna kill this guy already or what? Look alive!”

He pulled me to my feet and got me moving back into the fight. I might not have had a single solitary clue as to what had just happened, but with my legs under me once again, I did know one thing.

I wanted to see what kind of damage I could do.