The buzz of a phone startled Levi awake. He snatched it up, lifting it to his ear. “Hello?”

“Levi, was that you?”

“Was what me?” he asked, suppressing a yawn.

Kella sighed. “The five hundred dollars or so cash that showed up on Mom’s doorstep. That was you, wasn’t it?”

“Huh? No idea what you’re talking about,” Levi lied playfully.

“Levi, come on,” Kella said, but there was a giggle in her voice. After a moment, it turned serious. “You’re keeping enough for yourself, right?”

“Of course I am. Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, waving his hand.

“Alright. I don’t want you to show up all emaciated and collapse on our front porch again.”

“Don’t worry. I’m doing so well it’s ridiculous. This is but a small fraction of my immense paycheck.”

There was a pause. “And that impounded vehicle, did you get that back?”

Levi hesitated. “Yeah…?”

“Levi…”

Levi waved his hand. “It’s fine! It was a shitty old scooter, anyways. I bought a shiny new sportscar to replace it. I’m doing great.”

“I’m sending the money back.”

“Kella, don’t. I got that money for you, okay? It’s for you. I’m handling me. Don’t worry about me. Just focus on you, and getting better. And hey, use that money to go have a little fun this weekend, okay? Celebrate the surgery succeeding. I’ve got my end allllll figured out.”

She sighed. “Are you sure? Levi, I worry about you.”

“Worry about you, not me! I’m young, I’m healthy, I’m living my best life. Okay? You take that money and have a good time.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Yeah. I’m sure. And I’ll see if I can get you some more money soon, okay? I want to do whatever I can to help.”

“Levi, you don’t—”

Levi hung up. He turned his eyes upward. “Can I help you?”

Fira stood over him, her arms crossed. She smiled a little and shook her head. “No. I was just thinking that you really do have a heart, under that badass veneer.”

“What badass veneer? I’m badass all the way through.” Levi jumped to his feet.

“Sure, sure.” She frowned, giving him a funny look.

“What?”

Pointing at his phone, she asked, “Is it okay to use that?”

“Why…?”

“I mean, it was at the scene of a crime, right? Can’t it be tracked? You even made a call from Jet Engine’s apartment…”

Levi stared at her, then laughed. He shook his head. “Right, right. I forgot that you just showed up yesterday. No. My phone was on airplane mode the whole time. As far as it’s concerned, I just shut off the network for a few suspicious hours. It’s not the best look, but well, let’s just say I’m not that concerned about the justice system, and very concerned about… you know. People who can immediately track me down and kill me. And as far as they know, I didn’t get close.”

“But you called her in the apartment. I saw you do it. So how was your phone on airplane mode?” Fira said, her brows furrowing.

“My skill,” Maury grunted, thumping out from behind the other curtains. She crossed her arms and nodded at Fira. “I can connect my mind to any mechanical or electronic device and control it mentally. Back in my heyday, I made a whole personal phone network, all powered by my connection skill. Nowadays, I just tell the people who call in to fuck off… most of the time, anyways.” Her gaze lingered on Levi.

Levi nodded. “I wasn’t using the phone network. I was using Maury’s mental network.”

“And that’s okay? They can’t track it?” Fira asked, looking from Levi to Maury.

Maury chuckled. “If they could, I’d be dead ages ago.”

“Wait… I thought your skill was Extraction,” Fira said, squinting at Maury.

“It is. One of ‘em, anyways,” Maury said.

“But… huh?”

Levi jumped up. “You’re a high-class super, right? All your skills mesh together and make sense as one coherent whole. I’m guessing you have, what, Flame Manipulation, Fly, Firey Body, Flame Absorption, maybe Burn Heal, right? Or something like that. A bunch of flame skills that all work together to allow you to set yourself on fire and toss fire around without damaging yourself.”

Fira nodded. “Something like that.”

“But lower-grade supers… well, basically, there’s two categories. Total skrubs like Jet Engine who got a low ability point roll and kind of shit skills, and even though they all work together, all he can really do is fly around and hit people.” Levi glanced at the garbage compacted. “All he could do, anyways.”

Fira flinched.

“The other category is the one Maury falls into. She has a super-op Mental Mechanical Manipulation skill—”

“Technomechanical Telekinesis, or Technokinesis. Technesis if you’re being really lazy,” Maury corrected him.

Levi nodded. “I knew it was alliterative. Where was I? Right. Super-op skill, but then a smattering of other skills that don’t make sense, like Extraction and Builder. Skills better suited to the kind of side-workers we saw breaking down monster bodies back on Slaughter Street, or support supers. Despite having one god-tier skill, she’s only considered a D- or C-rank super, thanks to the rest of her skills not cooperating.”

“There’s exceptions, but that’s the general rule,” Maury said, nodding.

Fira looked at Levi. “And what about you?”

“Me? I’m the kind of F-ranker who got a stat sheet for my awakening, and that’s it,” Levi said, grinning.

“Healing factor,” Maury coughed.

“Right, and a healing factor.”

Eyes widening, Fira nodded. “So that was you on that balcony that Jet Engine threw me into. I was wondering. You looked so similar, but there was no way you could survive having a building dropped on you without skills… healing factor. That makes sense.”

“More importantly, what about you?” Levi asked.

Fira frowned. “You basically guessed all my skills already. What else do you want?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I want to know if you know how rare your brother’s skill is. You told someone as shady as me so easily—”

“You threatened my life!” Fira protested.

“I mean yes, and I would have killed you, so that was a great call, but still. Do you know how valuable Precognition is? Especially if it’s True Precognition.”

“Or Oracle, or Future Sight, or any of those other equivalent skills,” Maury chimed in.

Levi squinted at her. “Are there that many precog skills?”

“Well, I’ve seen the lower versions of them a lot. Future Glimpses, False Oracle…” Maury shrugged. “A lot of idiots get precog and think they’re going to destroy the gambling industry. The gambling industry has something to say about that, and then, well, you know. They come running to me in the hopes I help them.”

“You’re that big?” Fira asked, startled.

“No. Not anymore,” Maury said. “Back when I was playing switchboard for the entire underworld’s telephone network? Nonstop.”

“So? The skill?” Levi prompted.

Fira looked at her feet. “I… I know it’s very rare. I’m not dumb enough to just tell anyone about it. If you hadn’t threatened to kill me, I wouldn’t have told you.”

“Okay. Good. The next time someone threatens your life, do not tell them about your brother’s skill, okay? That’s a line straight to Alpha’s office in the worst way. You’re incredibly fortunate that I hate Alpha a lot.” Levi paused. “Well, okay. I did just kill one of Alpha’s ability hunters right in front of you. You probably had an idea that I wasn’t on Alpha’s side.”

She nodded. “Yeah. I’m not dumb enough to tell anyone associated with Alpha about my brother. That’s what I’m trying to avoid, after all.”

“Good, good.” Levi nodded. “Now don’t tell anyone else we run into about it. None of them. On pain of death.”

Maury nodded. “Seriously, kiddo. You probably picked the two idiots in all of Central City that hate Alpha more than death itself.”

“Especially me,” Levi chimed in.

“Especially that one. There’s other Alpha haters out there, don’t get me wrong. A whole Alpha Resistance League, even.”

Levi’s nose wrinkled. “Fucking ARL.”

“But they aren’t all as committed as me and Levi. We’ve both got skin in the game.” Maury thumped her leg meaningfully and met Fira’s eyes.

“Oh,” Fira murmured.

Levi grinned. “Upside! Your brother’s fifteen. It’s rare to awaken that early. Most ability hunters will overlook him! So what I said about him probably being safe still stands. Downside! If anyone finds out about him, that immediately ends. Loose lips get little brothers ability hunted, and all that. If you want your brother to live, protect this secret with your own life.”

Fira nodded. “I understand.”

“Let’s get moving, then,” Levi said, nodding toward the staircase.

“Wait.”

Levi turned back. “What now?”

“Ability hunting… does it… do you…” She glanced at the table.

Levi snorted. He and Maury exchanged a glance. “Yeah. I guess you aren’t from Central, right?”

Fira shook her head, nervous.

Maury shifted her weight onto her good leg, swinging the metal one around to test its motion. “What Alpha has is the skill ‘Ability Absorb.’ It isn’t like Extraction. With Extraction, there’s only a small chance of successfully removing the skill from the body. Even then, the skill is likely to be weakened or corrupted, and yes, the subject has to be dead for extraction to occur. Extracted skills are almost always incompatible with the user’s build, and wear off over time.”

She nodded at Levi. “If I gave Levi Jet Engine’s Fly skill yesterday, for example, he could probably fly for about a week before it corrupted too much to be used. The System has its own self-corrective properties, after all. People can’t use skills willy-nilly, or randomly absorb skills too far from their build and just… keep them forever. For most people, that’s not how it works. For most people.”

Levi raised his hand. “If you absorb an Extracted skill closer to your System-given skills, it’ll stick around for longer. If you absorbed a fire skill, Fira, it would last for weeks—maybe even stick around for a year or two, if you were super lucky. Whereas if you absorbed Teleport or, I don’t know, Icicle Skin, you’d be lucky to keep that skill for more than a few days.”

Maury nodded. “Ability Absorb, on the other hand, requires a living target, has a hundred percent success chance, and if the skill corrupts, we haven’t seen it happen yet. And Alpha’s been ruling Central City with an iron fist for over fifty years.”

Maury put her metal leg back down and stomped it a few times. The gears whirred, readjusting. “No one knows for sure, but our best bet is that Alpha has a corresponding skill that allows him to learn any skill and prevents corruption of absorbed skills. Maybe two corresponding skills.”

“It’s like how Maury’s a D-rank hero because her skills don’t line up, for everyone who’s absorbing skills and isn’t Alpha. First up, we don’t have Alpha’s OP god-tier Ability Absorb, and secondly, we don’t have whatever his secondary skills are that allow him to keep skills forever. Extractors can’t even be compared to Alpha,” Levi said, nodding.

Maury sniffed and nodded. “That’s why most people go to Extractors to bump up their Ability Points instead of going to us to gain new skills. Ability Points tend to stick around. Skills up and leave.”

Fira frowned. “That… I don’t really understand, either. Why not just level up? Levelling up is hard, but it’s not that hard. Not… kill a man hard.”

“For now,” Levi said ominously.

Fira squinted at him. “What does that mean?”

Maury cleared her throat. “Low levels are easy to gain. High levels are harder. You need more EXP, you need to fight tougher monsters, tougher supers. Put your life on the line. Hell, sometimes, monsters that tough don’t spawn for years, even decades, and you might need to kill five of them to hit the next level… and of course, the same thing applies to super-tough supers. After a point, a little criminal activity starts looking mighty tasty. It’s why Extractors like me have a job.”

Levi chimed in. “Level caps, too. It’s uncommon, but sometimes people hit the highest level they can. Depending on how many ability points you get per level, you can end up level-capped at a pitifully low stat total. At that point, if you want to make a living hunting monsters, playing lap-dog to Alpha, or just want to muscle around with the big boys, the only way up is to rely on an Extractor, or something similar.”

Fira nodded slowly, absorbing it all. After a moment, she looked up. “What about Alpha? When he uses Ability Absorb, does it kill the victim?”

Maury and Levi exchanged a look. They both shrugged.

“Dunno,” Levi said. “Probably. His victims aren’t seen again. I always assumed he killed them or they died in the process. You know. Occam’s razor and all that.”

“Plus, even our glorious leader isn’t bold enough to crow about all the casual murder of the innocents he’s doing… if he’s killing the people he ability hunts, anyways,” Maury said with a shrug. “Ability hunting openly is status quo, but the victims just vanish. They aren’t officially dead.”

“Everyone knows he’s probably killing them, but there’s a difference between disappearing people and openly killing them. Classic dictator, really. Happens all the time when one man controls all the power in a country. Or city. Or micro-country that is coincidentally also a city,” Levi agreed, nodding.

“Right. I understand that,” Fira said. She took a deep breath. “So we have to find my brother before Alpha finds him.”

Levi stared at her, his jaw dropped.

“…What?” Fira asked.

“That’s what you got from that? You—I’m the crazy one, and that’s what you learned from—fucking hell. Yes, Fira. If Alpha gets your brother, it’s game over. Yes. That…” Levi spluttered, unable to go on.

“What? It was an earnest question.”

Maury glanced at him, then stepped forward. “Fira, Alpha is… you might as well think of him as a superboss. If your brother gets taken by him… even if Alpha treats his victims like movie stars for the rest of their life, you can say farewell to ever seeing him again. Not to mention the repercussions of Alpha having precognition in any form…”

Fira nodded. “Right. I get that you guys hate Alpha and want him dead. It makes a lot of sense, and I sympathize with it. But all I want is my brother back home, safe and sound.”

Levi’s face turned stormy. His hands balled into fists.

Maury glanced in his direction. “Levi…”

The anger vanished. Levi laughed. “Yeah, what did I expect? Everyone’s selfish. Hey, why would a country girl like you care about Central City or the fuckers who live in it? Makes sense, makes sense! Come on. Let’s go find your brother, okay?”

Without any more hesitation, he whipped around and marched up the stairs.

Maury pressed her lips together. She shook her head slowly. “Whooo boy. You be careful, Miss Fira. You be careful.”

“What? He knew that,” Fira said.

Maury took a deep breath. She cut a look at Fira. “Levi’s basically living on a razor’s edge. His only goal in life is to kill Alpha. That’s it. Full stop.”

“What about that Kella girl? He sounds—”

“Full. Stop. He loves Kella, don’t get me wrong. Loves her like his own daughter. But don’t imagine she means anything compared to what Alpha does to Levi. I understand that you don’t give a shit about Alpha. So does Levi.” Maury looked Fira in the eye. “Don’t remind him of that. In fact, care like you do give a shit about Alpha. Things will go easier that way.”

Fira frowned. She looked at the floor, then looked at Maury. “You’re telling me to lie.”

“You pick up on things fast. No wonder Levi can tolerate you.”

“But… wait. Telling me this… do you care about Alpha?” Fira asked, quietly.

Maury snorted. “What do you think?”

“You’re lying to him? But wait, your leg… huh?”

Maury stomped away, into the back of the lab. “Take my advice or don’t, but get your ass out of my lab.”

Fira stared after her, even as the plastic sheeting fell behind Maury, slowly obscuring her form. She hesitated one more moment, then followed Levi up the stairs.

All alone in the lab, Maury snorted. “Are you kidding, kiddo? I want Alpha dead. I just don’t want him dead as much as Levi does. It isn’t my reason for living.”

She paused a moment, then shrugged. “She’ll learn sooner or later. Not my problem. Well. I’ll miss her if Levi kills her.”

“Ha… I’m getting too old for this shit.” Shaking her head, Maury stomped by a photo. A version of herself in her twenties in a spic-and-span lab coat stood next to a bright, smiling Levi, and beside him, a broad-chested boy of Levi’s age with a perfect wave of brown hair. For just a moment, she glanced at the photo, and another sigh escaped her lips. “Levi, honey. I’m so sorry, but I might be leaving this grudge of ours in your hands alone sooner rather than later.”

“I just hope you can find someone else to confide in, before I go.”