Pressure looked down at Afterimage, and her smile faded. She moved to his side and dipped like she was about to kneel beside him but stopped with a flinch. Instead, she turned to Nora. “Is he alright?”

Her questions shattered the moment for Nora, prompting another flurry of visions, all of them bad if they didn’t act immediately. There was another rocket launcher up on the mezzanine that she hadn’t accounted for, and the gunmen around them were recovering from Nora and Pressure’s initial assault.

Putting an arm under Afterimage’s shoulder, Nora pulled him to his feet. “I think so, but we need to go right now.”

“I can fly us…” Pressure started, but Nora cut her off.

“No, you can’t. We’ll die. Trust me.”

Rather than argue, Pressure took the hint. Taking Afterimage’s other shoulder, she helped to carry him out of the courtyard.

Unfortunately, Pressure being so short, Nora bore the brunt of his weight. He wasn’t large, but he was all deadweight as the two of them dragged him beneath the mezzanine and out of the line of fire of the rocket launcher. “There’s a staff door to the back hallways over here.” Nora told Pressure, huffing with the effort of carrying the unconscious man.

Pressure frowned. “I’m not being much help, am I?” she asked. She must have been talking to herself. Before Nora could respond, Afterimage’s weight eased and her ears popped as if she was ascending in an airplane. Pressure looked taller, her feet hovering more than a foot above the floor to take on more of her friend’s weight.

“Wow…” Nora started, but knew there was no time to stop and admire Pressure’s handiwork. Nora guided them toward the nearby door.

The unassuming metal door lay between two shops, marked only by a keypad on the wall beside it. Nora quickly tapped in the six-digit code. The lock clicked open. Cynthia may have taken her store key, but she couldn’t take away what was in her head. There hadn’t been enough time to remove her code from the system. Once they were through, she closed the door behind them.

Her visions were silent here, meaning they had a few moments to rest. With the primary lighting turned off, the hallway was dim with only the emergency lights casting a faint glow at regular intervals down the starkly empty, concrete hallway.

“We’re ok here for a little bit,” she told Pressure. Still exhausted from carrying Afterimage, she added “I could use a rest.”

With a nod, Pressure helped Nora slide Afterimage down to the floor. Nora joined him, deciding to use the time to give him a more thorough inspection. Pressure joined her after a brief hesitation, grunting as she went down on both knees.

“Are you alright?” Nora asked, concerned that Pressure had been injured during the firefight.

“I’m fine.” Pressure dismissed her concern with a wave of her hand. “How’s he doing?”

Checking his head again, Nora could see no sign of blood, but the bruise on his face was spreading. Prying his eyes open with her fingers, Nora checked his pupils. Both were as wide as coke cans. A light slap on the cheek elicited a groan and a head shake.

She was no doctor, but between injuries in Aikido classes, lectures from doctors letting her know the difference between a seizure and a concussion, and a few wild college parties, she knew enough to say that Afterimage should go to a hospital.

“He’s probably got a concussion, but he’s high as a kite from whatever was in that dart. I doubt he’s feeling anything right now.”

Nora sat back on her heels and watched the steady rise and fall of Afterimage’s chest. His breaths were deep and regular. Remembering her vision of Pressure’s death, she added “but I don’t think whatever was in the dart was dangerous. They wanted him alive. Unlike you,” she added with a shudder.

Pressure brought a hand down to caress Afterimage’s shoulder. “Dammit, Tom. You warned me this could happen someday. I hope you can shake it off.” The way the small hero touched her partner made Nora feel uncomfortable with her own attraction to Pressure. The two clearly had a deeper connection than just co-workers.

Sighing aloud, Pressure brought her hand up and slipped the glasses off her face. She let them dangle around her neck by its strap. “I know it looks bad, but we need to avoid doctors if possible. They will ask too many questions.”

Nora was startled to finally see Pressure’s face. The skin around the superhero’s eyes and the bridge of her nose were pale from long days wearing those glasses in the sun, bringing out a depth in the brown of her eyes that Nora could get lost in. She was beautiful.

She caught herself holding her breath and forced an exhale. “Aren’t you, you know, not supposed to show me your face?”

Pressure shrugged. “I saw what you did out there. That was amazing. You’re powered too, aren’t you?”

Nora grudgingly nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, you helped me. If I can’t trust you now, I’m screwed. I can trust you, right?”

“Oh, yes,” said Nora, nodding vigorously. “Your secrets are safe with me.”

“Then we’re in this together.” Pressure took another deep breath. “If we can get him to use his power, I’m pretty sure his injuries will heal on their own. He should be fine.”

“What do you mean?”

Pressure examined her curiously. “You don’t know? Using our powers accelerates healing. At least is does for me. I’ve been covered in worse bruises than this and healed overnight. Tom’s power, on the other hand, makes him immune to nearly everything. The more punch in the attack the better he does, so I’ve never actually seen him get hurt. That dart, though. Pretty clever.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Nora shrugged. “I don’t use my powers much if I can help it. I wouldn’t know.”

“We need to get out of here. So tell me, why couldn’t we fly out?”

“Another rocket launcher on the upper floor. They would have shot us out of the sky.”

“How do you know?”

Nora looked down at Afterimage, feeling embarrassed. She had never told anyone about her abilities, not even Sandra. But she couldn’t hold back, not with those soulful eyes looking at her. “My power. I could see it.”

“You mean like see things from far away?”

“No.” Nora shook her head. “I saw what might happen. In the future.”

Pressure stared at her for a few moments, unblinking and expressionless. Nora could only imagine what she was thinking. Who was this crazy girl? Was she nuts or just deluded?

“So you can see the future and change it? You saw us die?”

Nora nodded, trying not to dwell on the memory.

“I’m so sorry.”

That was not what Nora expected to hear. “For what?”

“I’m so sorry you had to see that. It must have been horrible.”

Nora always held a wall around herself. It was not so much to keep others away as it was to keep her problems from spilling out. It was always easier to say she was fine than tell anyone how she really felt. To tell the truth invited judgement or pity, and Nora couldn’t stand either. But Pressure gave her neither. She saw into the heart of Nora’s power and spoke to it, cracking the wall enough to bring up tears.

“Sorry,” said Nora, wiping her eyes. “I just thought you’d think I was a freak or crazy.”

“It’s ok,” Pressure said, touching Nora’s shoulder to comfort her. “You’re not a freak, and you’re not crazy. At least, no more than I am.” Then Pressure winced in pain. She took her hand back and cradled it against herself.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

Pressure gave a half smile. “I’m fine. Well, as fine as I can be.” She held her hands up stiffly in front of her. “Arthritis. These things are pretty much useless.”

The wall cracked again. She’s sick too, Nora thought to herself. I’m not the only one.

“How long?” Pressure asked. “Have you had your powers, that is.”

“A couple years. At least, that’s when I realized I had them. But like I said, I rarely use them. The cost is too high. I’m really going to suffer for this tomorrow.” In fact, Nora could already see the lights returning to dance about her head. At least her visions had taken the edge off.

Pressure put her hand back on Afterimage’s chest. In a positive sign of recovery, Afterimage stirred, bringing up a hand to touch hers in return. “Yeah, we know all about that.”

“Oh,” said Nora in response. The crack in Nora’s wall widened into a crevasse, and the pedestal upon which she had put superheroes, perched precariously upon that wall, fell and shattered. They are just like me, she thought.

A bang on the door startled them both. This was followed by a rapid tink, tink, tink sound, like pebbles thrown against a window.

Both Pressure and Nora looked at the door. Nora wished she had the power to see what was happening on the other side.

“Gunfire,” said Pressure as she put her glasses back up over her eyes. They gave her an authority that made Nora perk up and pay attention.

The white noise that had been playing over the mall speakers suddenly went silent. Then the voice of the leader crackled from overhead.

“Hello, Pressure. It’s good to see you again. It’s a shame your new friend had to ruin the reunion.”

Pressure listened with a questioning expression on her face. Then recollection hit. “Damn, I do know that voice. His name is Brecht Dermout. He’s a mercenary for hire. I’d only discovered I had powers a couple days before he first tried to kill me. Needless to say, it didn’t go well for him.”

“Wow,” blurted Nora, trying to imagine what Pressure had to have done to have earned a nemesis so quickly.

Dermout continued. “I was afraid you had escaped, but it’s good to see you’re all still in the mall with us. I do hope Afterimage isn’t seriously hurt.”

Nora and Pressure looked at each other in confusion, but then Nora noticed the blink of a light down the hallway. It was a surveillance camera mounted on the wall like a lurking spider. The red indicator light showed it was active. They were being watched. “I have a proposal for you,” Dermout continued. “Leave Afterimage behind and I’ll let you and your friend go.”

“Yeah, right,” said Pressure, leaning protectively over her partner.

“Because if you don’t,” he continued cheerily, “Your friend Nora might have a few problems of her own to deal with.”

Nora eyes went wide. How did he know her name?

“You’re Nora?” Pressure whispered. Nora nodded in acknowledgement.

“I can see I got it right. Nora Whitaker, lives at 6037 Southeast Tolman street. I love the picture on your lock screen, by the way. Is this your girlfriend? She’s beautiful. I might have to pay her a visit when all this is done.”

Shit, Nora thought to herself. Her backpack. She had left it on the bench in the mall courtyard. It had her wallet and her cellphone. He must have seen her with it before the fight. He had everything he needed to track her down.

“You have thirty seconds to indicate your acceptance to the camera. If you do I throw this wallet and phone in a trashcan and forget about it. Otherwise, I make plans to destroy everything Nora cares about, starting with her lovely girlfriend.”

Pressure shook her head in negation. “I’m sorry,” she said to Nora. “I can’t give him up. I hope you understand.”

“I do,” Nora answered. Pressure didn’t know her. She wasn’t worth the trade. Besides, scared as she was for Sandra and herself, giving in did not make them safe. That terrorist had seen what she did in the courtyard. He had to know she had powers. She was now a target for him to collect at a later time.

“Your powers. Can they help? Can you see how this ends?” asked Pressure hopefully.

It was strange having a superhero look to her for answers. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any. With only a few moments lead time, her visions told her nothing. But it did give her an idea.

She turned away from the camera. They did not have microphones, but she had no idea what their enemy could glean from watching her lips. “I can’t see that far. But he must be in the mall’s security room. I could get to him and stop this.” She had been taken to that room to get her mall badge when she was first hired. She remembered enough to blink there.

“I can help,” Pressure offered. Nora shook her head again.

“This is my problem now, not yours. Get Afterimage out of the mall.” Nora turned to the camera and flipped it off.

Suddenly the streams of light around Nora’s head coalesced into a vision of her death. “Shield up!” she cried out to Pressure. “Shield up!”

The shimmer of Pressure’s bubble rose up just as the metal doors before them burst inward in a flash of fire and thunder. Torn off their hinges, the metal doors bounced off the shield and fell onto the concrete floor in a deafening clatter. Following quickly after were men outside shooting through smoke into the hallway. Nora could see a rain of bullets dropping to the ground just outside the bubble.

“I’ll hold them!” shouted Pressure over the cacophony of noise, bringing up a hand as if her arthritis-stricken fingers could ward off the bombardment. “Take Afterimage and go.”

But there was nowhere to go. Her visions showed yet more gunmen coming down the hallway from the other direction. There was no way from where they were to get to the loading docks and escape.

“Shit, how many of them are there?” she muttered to herself. She thought about staying put and taking their chances inside Pressure’s bubble, but they were just one hand launched rocket away from dying in an oven of their own making. That left only one solution.

She put one hand on Afterimage’s chest and the other on Pressure’s shoulder. Looking to her visions, she found the best possible outcome, and with a deep breath closed her eyes and blinked.