Adam didn’t even give me the chance to reason with him, which was fair, because I doubt I would have. I was on the floor in a second, slamming into thick concrete with his knee digging between my shoulder blades and enough force to make the glass cages rattle. Gods, the bastard hits hard. I swallowed spit and blood, tried to move, to get him off my spinal column, but he was on me with more than just his weight, but his flight, too, pinning me right underneath Cassis’s stunned eyes.

She stared down at me, neither a smile or a frown on her face, but a look of slight anger, and maybe a little bit of frustration that I was smearing my sweat all over her floor. “Olympia?” Cassie said, as if testing out my name, seeing if it really was me at her feet. I struggled underneath Adam. Mom was watching me, standing just a few feet away. Couldn’t tell where she was looking, or what emotion was on her face—Adam had his hand against the back of my head, keeping me where he wanted. “My God, you actually had the nerve to break into my building.”

“You left the backdoor open,” I grunted. Adam pushed my face harder against the concrete, so hard it cracked underneath me, making me wince. “Wanted to check out your basement, Cass.”

Her eyes sharepend briefly, then calmed. “Adam,” she said. “Let her stand up.”

We both paused, then he said, “She’s a threat. A murderer. You know what she’d do—”

“Get off the girl,” she ordered, her voice not any louder or more emotional, just plain, harsh, stating something he needed to listen to, “and stand behind her. Don’t wait. Now, Adam.”

He didn’t move. I curled my hand into a fist, figuring that if Adam did want to show me who he thought he was again, it would probably be right now. I caught him looking at mom in the reflection of one of the glass cages, but she wasn’t looking at him or me, but at Cassie instead. Adam’s grip only tightened around my wrist, making the skin under my suit burn. He was a vice, a weight that was making the floor splinter the longer we stayed together. I’d never heard of this freaking guy before the boardwalk, but he looked like dad and had the strength flowing in his hand and arms. Fuck, it was the way he crouched on top of me, pinning me, forcing the air out of my lungs. Everything screamed fake. Fraud. Liar. He said what they wanted him to say on tv, and he made waves on socials because of course he would, he looked just like the guy with the statue.

Adam fought, however, the same way a training dummy would fight. Boring. Predictable. He’d been taught these things by people who’d never had the guts in them to actually fight him.

There was one thing he wouldn’t have done if he was actually my brother, too.

Or a clone, or whatever it is that he was.

And that was listening to orders, ‘cause we’re usually stubborn like that.

When Cassie tilted her head, waiting for him to release me, his grip shifted, maybe not to let me go, maybe to keep arguing his point, but it didn’t matter; his balance was off his center, and soon enough, I shoved my weight upward, forcing him to the right of me. He held on tighter, tried to get a better handle on me, but he was so stiff, so…trained, that he didn’t expect when I swung my legs around, propelled by my flight, to spin myself upward into the air from the feet up. I tore free from his hands, floating above him, massaging my wrists as I watched him stand, fists tight, and his eyes still not glowing. For a moment, it felt like the world was holding its breath. Two Damage Control soldiers had taken position in front of mom, and the rest had their rifles on me.

I knew those weren’t normal rifles, and knew they’d pack a hell of a punch.

But, for once, I figured that antagonizing Adam for the hell of it wasn’t worth my time, because, well, I’d already beaten him once as Tempest. I’d kill him as Olympia. At least, that’s what I wanted to convince myself of, just so my throat wouldn’t be so dry and my stomach so tight. What, not good enough for your all? No glowing eyes, no flashes of golden light around his body. Just a spitting image of my father with murder in his eyes staring up at me, silent, ready.

Just to get one on him, I said, “Listen to her next time. Maybe she’ll give you a treat.”

He didn’t take to it. Perfectly still, his heart slow, his blood even slower in my ears. The Admiral would have loved him; loved how he hadn’t blinked in nearly two minutes, and how he kept his feet planted firmly onto the floor with his flight, making it dent with his weight, too. I tried to keep my heart beat calm as well, because I knew he could hear it, and could probably smell the first droplet of fear that would leak from any pore. I wasn’t going to fight him, because he was a superhero, even if just in the legal sense, but I had no business screwing with the Olympiad. I waited for him to stop staring, to unclench his hands so he didn’t have blood seeping from them.

Adam trained me like he really was just some dog on a leash, waiting to attack.

“Ma’am,” Rett said to Cassie. “I’d advise you to step back, and leave through—”

“And miss the opportunity to watch them try to kill each other?” she said incredulously, not even looking at him, but at me. “I was in Olympus West when Zeus died, and only saw it on my phone. This, however, is history, Rett. Two pure-blooded superheroes in my building, glaring daggers at each other, and my God the air is just buzzing with this…this energy, this feeling, Rett, and I wouldn’t ever forgive myself for missing this.” She smiled up at me. “Now come down here, and do what you usually do to people like me. Hit me. Kill me. I’ve got people in cages that die every other day, and have dozens more superhumans in my prisons that my own mother sends me to hunt down. Heck, I don’t even know if they’re good or not! I just do it because it means my mother can say she’s doing something about the crime here. So, Olympia, sneeze and blow my intestines right out. Flick my ear and blow half my face clean off.” Cassie stepped past Adam, now just underneath me, spreading her arms as she said, “Do as I say, and do your thing, superhero.”

My saliva turned bitter as I stared into her green eyes. My skin crawled the longer she stared at me, like something vile was running through my blood. “I’d rather not,” I said quietly.

“Oh?” she said, sounding just a little hurt. “Do I not fit your criteria?”

“I just got a new suit, and I’d hate to cover it in you, of all people.”

Cassie’s arms dropped to her sides, but she kept staring at me, kept looking right through me. Gods, I hate her eyes. “I’ll admit, I’m only a little disappointed. What really constitutes a supervillain, then? You only kill the bad people, that’s what we’ve all figured out, but the rich people who take advantage of the poor are a stretch too far? Does someone like Gladiator have to own a few orphanages and charities to rule himself off your list?” She put her hands on her hips, shaking her head. “You’re a mess of morals that just don’t make sense to me. I could blow up one of my factories at clock-in, and use the rubble to build an orphanage for all those lonely children.”

“What’s your point here?” I said, heat in my voice.

“Those.” Cassie pointed at the cages, at the monsters. “What do you think we’re doing?”

“Hurting innocent people,” I said. “Experimenting and killing them for your own gain.”

She spoke over her shoulder. “V, explain to Olympia what we’re doing.”

“Cassie—”

“For fuck sake, Veronica. Just follow orders for once.”

And now I looked at my mom, standing behind two soldiers who had their guns on me, and the same person who’d ruffle my hair and kiss my forehead goodnight. I couldn’t handle those thoughts right now, so I shelved them, and pretended to be who was wearing the suit right now.

“We…” Ronnie’s voice faltered, and I felt my face soften. “We’re solving a problem.”

“We’re solving a problem!” Cassie said to me. “We’re doing something you can’t.”

My brows furrowed. “The media are gonna have a field day hearing about this.”

“The same media that are part of my corporate umbrella?” she asked. My stomach sank, and she saw it, because the smile was soon back on her face, along with a shake of her head. “Wow, you’ve got no idea how any of this works, do you? Well, let me break it down for you. You break into my facility, you damage my property, and you leak confidential files that cannot be verified as ours, and then what? You save the day? How? I mean, heck, take one of these cages if you’d like, show it off to everyone, but you’re gonna have to kill dozens of my people to even get it to the first access point, and oh, boy, that’s a hell of a lot of guts to get through. And then you have an unstable monster on your hands, and you’re gonna go drop it off, where, the SDU? FBI? CIA? Some goddamn off-shore laboratory that won’t even know what they’re looking at until it kills them? And that’s even if the thing survives that long without dying for no reason at all.”

“You’re keeping these people locked in cages so you can experiment on them,” I spat.

Mom flinched, but Cassie only laughed a little. “Yeah, and? You can’t help them without having to do that, Olympia. My God, it’s like talking to a child. You know what? I can see it on your face, so let me clue you in on something: you’re a novelty. A thing that people want to point at when you stop a bank robbery, a murder, or a terrorist attack, because you’re the collection of pretty colors and a flashy smile, grit and good old American determination. Hell, you even got a cape! Look at you, you’re an advertisement. The public hates you, but they want to love you. Why? Simple. You make them feel good, but only when you’re not going around being a problem, and suddenly you’re the thing that my people have to be briefed about, and citizens have rallies planned against you.” Her smile softened, but her eyes still sparkled. “You want to be the new big thing, but in reality, Olympia—you’re a girl who just doesn’t have a single purpose in this world.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I’m a superhero,” I said. “I’ve got plenty of fucking purpose.”

“Yes, I’m sure all the cats dangling from tree branches just can’t wait to be saved.”

“Listen,” I growled, floating a little lower, closer to her eye level. “You can vomit up as much nonsense as you want, but whatever the case, there’s a problem in my city right now—”

“Oh my God!” Cassie said, then laughed in my face. My eyes narrowed when she slapped my shoulder. “You came all the way here, because you thought you were going to help them?” She kept laughing, kept holding her stomach, bending over. Adam stared at her, and so did Rett. Mom was finally looking at me, her face a mask as Cassie straightened back up. “You never plan a single thing in your life, do you? Just gut instinct and those two meat sacks at the end of your arms. Look, O, let’s be real with each other for a second. What was your goal, breaking in here tonight, really?”

The silence lasted, hanging like fumes between us. She had my heart going, my stomach turning, and my blood whining past my ears, but she wanted me to act out, wanted me to do what she so badly wanted me to do (and what I so deeply wanted to do) to her and kill her on the spot.

“Amy,” I said to Cassie. “There was a girl named Amy who died just a few hours ago because she turned into one of those things next to me, and I’ve got reason to believe that—”

“I’m the one behind it, right? That’s what you’re gonna say?”

I remained silent, biting my tongue.

Cassie patted my shoulder again, squeezed. “You’re here because you want to make yourself feel better, and that’s perfectly fine, because you’re a terrible superhero. You seem to be always working, but nothing ever gets any better. So why don’t you leave the real work to the grown ups, and you can…go and cause a catastrophe by failing to stop thugs from stealing gold.” She shook her head, turning her back to me and walking away. “She wants to save the entire city, and wants to start by saving the monsters. Go find some teenager to impress. Exit’s behind you.”

“Then why talk so much about me on the news if you hate me this much?” I whispered.

She paused, shrugged, and said, “Because it’s a shame that you are Zeus’ daughter. I don’t much like you superhumans, but let’s face the facts: you could be great, but you’re just…you.”

I stared at her, able to see the veins in her eyes, the faintest haze of sweat just under her jaw. Right about then, several people in that room knew what I wanted to do. One stood behind me, his presence alone telling me to relax my shoulders and unclench my hands. The other was the woman with the glasses, the one with the blonde hair and tired eyes that were whispering no to me from the reflection in the monsters’ cages. Twice, that’s how many times I’d come across someone who sounded just like Cassie this summer alone. Someone who thought they knew better, someone who figured they could tell me how bad I was at my job, but who the hell were they to tell me about it?

One of them was a supervillain’s daughter.

And the other kept Kaiju in her basement.

Angry? Sure. Wanted to see how those eyes would look on my palm? Maybe.

But the SDU was getting all of this, or at least some of it from my suit. My stomach wanted me to fight. The blood I inherited from the people in the stars made me want to kill her right here.

I slowly breathed in, though, and sighed. “You’re full of shit. I can hear your heartbeat.”

It hadn’t slowed for a second ever since Adam had put me at her feet. Humans sweat varied in smell once you learnt the difference, and her excitement was turning into something else the longer I hovered just high enough for Cassie to look up at me. Villains smelt the same when I found them. Human criminals bled the stuff in gallons. I didn’t give a damn what words she regurgitated, because she was holding these things captive to take them apart, to experiment on them. If she had to learn anything about them, then she should have told people what she was doing. So far, that little security breach conversation had just been talk of someone learning about this, not about these things escaping. Cassie said she wanted to help these people, to cure them.

That didn’t explain why she was hiding this info from the SDU and the government.

And why she was more afraid of anyone finding out than them escaping. Bluff.

I was in front of Cassie the second it took for her to blink and then gasp when she saw me inches away, getting shoved back by the gust. The hum of rifles filled the air behind me. Adam’s faster heartbeat drummed in my ears. He shifted a few steps, widening his stance a little bit more.

“Killing you would be like stepping on an ant,” I said. “Pointless. What we’re going to do is talk very, very high up in the atmosphere, and if you’re stubborn, fine. Your dog will save you.” I shrugged. “Or whatever’s left of you. It’s a long way down, and the Earth is pretty damn hard.”

“You’re threatening to kill me?” she asked. “Don’t you know the chaos you’d start?”

“Who cares about any of that?” I said, leaning closer. “You stink of fear, Cassandra.”

She didn’t want to die, it was as simple as that. She wasn’t Ava. She wasn’t a Super.

Cassie Blackwood didn’t want to die by the hands of someone she hated, and I only knew that because hell, would anyone? She knew that, and I knew that—I could see it on her face.

When I grabbed her arm, I made the mistake of turning my back on her so I could shoot my way out of the tunnel. Adam’s fist appeared inches from my face just as I started forward. He hit me square in the jaw, cracking me across the face so hard blood gushed into my mouth as my teeth slammed into my tongue. I stumbled, my head whining. Hot iron flowing down my throat. Fuck. I shook my head, spat out a loose canine that skittered onto the floor, stopping next to his feet. He stared at me, and all I could do was stare back, my left hand still gripping Cassie’s arm, my right hand a fist. The Damage Control soldiers watched us intensely. Adam was too close to Cassie for them to fire off their humming golden beams of light; they didn’t want to turn their boss into paste.

Adam didn’t care.

He launched forward. I expected another hook, so I ducked, then found his knee arching upward and crashing into my jaw, violently snapping my head back. He continued upward, then came down hard with his heel, connecting it to the back of my head and slamming me face-first into the floor. Concrete. Grit in my mouth. Bitter saliva. Blinked, shook the rubble and jumbled thoughts loose from my head, got on all fours, and couldn’t help but rocket toward his legs, tackling him, sending us both skidding along the floor and smashing through one, two, three desks and research benches until he flipped himself over and shot into the air. I didn’t follow. I watched, eyeing Cassie, who now had Rett in front of her, nearing the elevators. Mom was already there, but only through force as the soldiers clutched onto her wrists and dragged her away, barking orders.

But I wanted Cassie. I needed her now. This close to finally understanding something, and she was just a few bodies away from where I was standing, panting, bleeding from her right now.

I’d let Ava prance around the city for too long, and look where that had gotten me.

Cassie would break if I squeezed her. She couldn’t put herself back together. Didn’t have the ability to stuff her goodies back inside. I wouldn’t kill her—I just wanted to make her talk.

I made it two dozen feet before Adam grabbed my ankle, swung me around, and slammed me into the side of a support pillar. Concrete dust rained down from above as the column shuddered. He grabbed my cape and threw me over his shoulder, not letting go as he made a noose around my throat with it and began yanking, pulling, twisting so hard that my face and lungs began to burn red and hot. I clawed at the fabric, frantic, rushed, then at his hands, his fingers, until I got a good hold of his index and snapped it, tugging it so hard that the skin tore and blood gushed. He screamed and let go. I gasped and coughed, wheezing as saliva dribbled out of my mouth. On my hands and knees, dazed, dizzy, spluttering—Cassie closer to the elevator, inside of it. No, not so easily. This time, I made it to her, and this time, Adam wasn’t fast enough to stop me from ripping her free from Rett and throwing her against an upturned research desk, leaving her limp and weak.

“Olympia!” mom said. I snapped around, her voice like a gust of wind clearing the fog. I’d forgotten she was here, forgotten she’d just seen me snap someone’s finger around so terribly it hung from loose skin. I stared at her, at her wide eyes, and how she was looking at her boss.

She wasn’t dead, knew she wasn’t. Not even out cold. She was groaning, trying to pick herself up, now halfway between Adam and myself. I was panting, and so was he. My face burned, and his cheeks were a scalding scarlet color, making his stark, tousled white hair bright.

“Wait!” mom shouted, getting between us. She turned to me. “I can…I can give you what you want, okay? But you’ve got to leave and never come back here. Just no more fighting.”

“Veronica,” Adam shouted across the vast space. “You can’t reason with her.”

“I don’t want you,” I said bitterly. “I want Cassie Blackwood.”

“I know more than she does about this program. Please, just listen to me before—”

“What the fuck does a lapdog involved in this know?” I spat. She blinked, took half a step back as I began to hover. “You’re complacent to this mess. I want the one who bankrolls this.”

Then, quietly, she whispered, “You’ll get yourself killed fighting him. Listen for once.”

Golden sparks flickered around my hands as I stared dead at Adam. “Get the fuck out of the way, because if you want all this fighting to stop, tell the superhero to do the smart thing.”

“I already have,” she said softly.

My brows furrowed. I looked down at her. You still don’t believe in me at all, do you?

She believed in that thing in front of me more. The thing that looked like her husband, the thing that looked like my dad—the same fucking thing that was stopping me from doing good.

Adam knew my mom, and she did, too. She’d lied to me about him for my entire life. How long had she known? Had my dad known about this? Gods, what the fuck was her problem? What did she want me to do right now? Leave this all behind, fly out of the tunnel and just forget about it? Maybe it was the bitter taste of blood in my mouth, or the blood whining past my ears, raging in my heart, but what kind of person was I going to be if I just let this happen? I used to defeat villains every other day. Then Ava came along, and I’d done nothing but make stupid mistakes, and hadn’t done a lick of good for anyone in weeks. I had an opportunity stumbling onto her feet tonight to change all of that. Just like Cassie had said to me, I would just be solving a problem.

And I’d had enough of people getting in the way of that.

I ignored Adam, mom, and went for Cassie. The white-haired bastard drove right into my ribs, smashing us both into the wall. I shoved him off, slammed my fist into his gut, his jaw, he grabbed both my wrists, and I slammed my forehead against his nose, making blood spit through the air. He stumbled. I swung my fist and dug my knuckles into his throat. Grabbed his hair, swung him, and paid him the fucking favor and drove his face into the same dent I made in the concrete. Again. And again. Until there was blood on the stone and on my suit, on his white shirt and my golden lightning bolt. I let go of his hair, but he didn’t fall, didn’t crumple—he landed on one knee, breathing deeply, blood streaming from his nose and mouth. Still no flash of golden light. Still no yellow electricity. Mom was staring at us, wide-eyed. Didn’t matter. Cassie was staring right at me.

Adam swore, his words and voice garbled by the tide of blood he spat.

I put my heel to his spine, forcing him hard onto the floor, making him groan.

Then I walked two steps forward, and one of the soldiers, someone young, someone who’s finger had been twitching on the trigger, ran forward, stopped suddenly, let out a shrieking cry and pulled the trigger, making the gun roar a dull and agonizing thunderous sound. I shot one step out of the way, the yellow beam of energy burning the air right beside me so dry that my throat ached. I watched it slam into the far, far end of the underground laboratory somewhere behind me, melting the concrete into white-hot sludge, chewing away most of it until it burst into small violent flames.

I glared at the soldier, watched as he took a step back, the gun rattling in his hands.

“Should’ve hit me the first time.”