=== KARI ===

"'Smash Gal, fuck' is right," I proclaimed proudly, puffing out my chest. I heard the alarm as I had been helping escort victims of a burst pipe a few blocks away. I got a lot of people out of the way and let Professor Mind take care of the rest. He didn't need my help. I was kind of getting in the way. So I sped off and found a way in and to the sound of the alarm. Esvanir stood up, and I held out my hand. "I said stop right there."

  He didn't respond. I took a step forward, watching his eyes twitch. He didn't move back as I came within arm's reach of him. When I was that close, he blinked and seemed to return to himself. He snapped his finger, and I reached out and grabbed him by the collar of his coat. The world changed, and I felt the ground under my feet shift, and suddenly I met the floor on my stomach, which had been set to the spin cycle. There were a pair of feet that were running away. I shook my head as my vision cleared. We were very far from the EnGin building. At least five miles away. In the blink of an eye. Esvanir was no ordinary thief; he was good and had to be stopped. I pushed myself up and looked around. Esvanir jumped from the roof, and I heard him land on the fire escape below. I sped off towards him and caught him just as he snapped. I reached out my hand, but he disappeared the instant before I could lay my hands on it.

  "Damn it!" I screamed, stomping my foot. I could still find him. I just had to concentrate. I closed my eyes and let all of the sounds wash over me. Cars rumbling, people talking, televisions blaring, the sound of buzzing lights and electricity, people moaning and screaming, and their hearts beating. All of the sounds of the city rushed in. Typically, I just ignored everything. Only paying attention to certain stimuli. It was the only way I could function. Otherwise, I'd never be able to focus on anything. There was a shifting of air somewhere. It stood out because it was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. It's. . . He only teleported a few blocks away?

  I blasted off the roof we had come to and made my way to where I heard the disturbance. I scanned the street and saw a man wearing his jacket. I charged forward and landed in front of him. He was still wearing the mask, but I saw his blue eyes widen.

  "Boo," I said with a grin, reaching out to grab him again.

  "Super speed, super strength, super senses. Aren't we a Renaissance Woman," he said, taking a step back, snapping at the same time to appear fifty feet in front of me. I growled and threw myself into the air, flying towards him. Other pedestrians threw themselves out of the way as I passed. A millisecond before I got to him, he snapped, and a portal opened in front of him, and I flew right through it. And crashed into a tree. Well, several trees before stopping. He baited me! That bastard! I looked around my new surroundings; it was a forest. I didn't recognize it. Wherever it was, it was still night. So, probably the same time zone. I blasted off through the canopy of trees and looked around. Off in the distance, there was the twinkling of city lights. I growled and threw myself in that direction, coming in hot. When I got back to the spot, he was still there. He summoned a small portal to his side and dropped the stolen item from EnGin down it, and it disappeared. His teleports have a recharge time. That's got to be it.

  "Nice trick. Bet it won't work a second time," I said, flying towards Esvanir. When I got within reach of him, I pulled back a fist. I'm pretty sure he can't do his little trick if he's knocked out. I punched forward, and my hand was enveloped in another small portal, barely wide enough for it. And I felt my fist slam into the back of my head, and I went forward. He side-stepped and grabbed my arm, and threw me into a car. I'm not too heavy and didn't really resist; the car wasn't even dented. He just wasn't strong enough to do anything to me. I grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket and flew him up. He was just a regular human with a trick. But I bet he needed to breathe. I could knock him out and turn him in.

=== CURT ===

I had managed a few cheap shots, but I was fighting well outside my weight class. There was no contest between us. Smash Gal grabbed me and quickly took me to the atmosphere's edge. I'd pass out. She was breathing heavily, too, though. I think she needed air as much as I did. I had one more cheap shot up my sleeve. I didn't know how it would pan out, but I had to do something. I calculated our velocity. Just under Mach 2. Fuck. This is going to be rough. I queued a portal to open in about ten seconds. We continued flying faster than I could believe. I thought the wind sheer alone might carve the flesh from my bones. It hurt to go this fast. But my portal opened up. It was the size of a hose head, and that's basically exactly what it was. It sprayed water down onto both of us violently. It hit her like a brick, and she stumbled and let go of me. Perfect. Now all I have to do is survive the fall.

  I was tumbling in the space, and my glasses were plastered against my forehead. This was worse than teleporting blind. I didn't even have my program to help me predict where I needed to be. Just instinct. I snapped my fingers and slammed hard into the ground, knocking all the wind out of me. I rolled over, coughing, reaching up, and pulling down my glasses. They were broken. And I'm pretty sure a few of my ribs were, too.

  This isn't good. It won't take her long to find me. I stashed the item away, though. One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, I counted in my head. She was charging forward. I could hear the sonic booms. I could see a dot quickly becoming more and more detailed as it charged down. I had cracked her face mask. I snapped when I could see my distorted, shattered reflection in it. I disappeared, and she probably crashed through that building. I landed on my bed and groaned in pain, hunching over, then fell on my back, groaning in more pain. Then I gritted my teeth. I didn't know how far her senses extended. She might hear me. I calmed my breathing and sat completely still. Which was hard. I was going to need to call Des. My ribs were definitely broken. And so was my rig. It would be such a pain in the ass to rebuild those glasses. Fuck.

=== KARI ===

I managed to stop just before slamming into the building. Esvanir was gone! He was gone again, and he had slapped me with water. Really, really cold water! It had cracked my mask and then broke it worse as it froze and I flew down. "Damn it! He's not even that strong. Just quick on his feet!"

  "Problem?" There was a voice from behind me. I turned, and the powder blue PM insignia was in my face. I stood tall, then realized that the Professor was taller than I was. And I was pretty tall.

  "Oh, hey, PM. Nice to see you. No, not a problem, really. Just . . . Esvanir got away again."

  "I don't need to be a telepath to know you're upset about it," he said gently. He floated down and sat on the lip of the building. I sat next to him.

  "I can fly at Mach 8 and lift an entire building, but I can't stop one guy who snaps like he's a freaking extra from Grease!"

  "Yeah, criminals are clever, sometimes. Looks like you did give him a run for his money, though," PM responded, nodding to the small crater. "Did you slam him into the building?"

  "No, he fell. From terminal velocity."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Ouch. He must've been pretty desperate."

  "Yeah, I guess."

  "And you're not even winded."

  "Well, it's not like he can hurt me."

  "But you can hurt him," PM responded, turning to me.

  "Alright. What are you getting at?"

  "Smash, I like having an extra hand around, but you are scary. Esvanir seems to be a cat burglar, and you come in with your ability to fly faster than most military jets and the ability to throw them. I might be able to stop them. But I also saw that punch you threw at him."

  "Yeah, so? He's a criminal. I was trying to stop him."

  "And if he hadn't deflected the way he did, it could have killed him."

  "Oh, come on! It was a love tap!" I protested.

  "I watched the video of you against that concrete guy. When you hit him, it cracked his exoskeleton of stone," The Professor observed. "Those punches seemed pretty close to me."

  “I . . . No . . . I didn't. . ." I stammered, thinking back. I was furious when I was throwing that punch. And when I grabbed him and decided to take him on a tour of the stratosphere. "I am not used to combat."

  "Yeah, I noticed." There was another explosion nearby; I turned to it. This time, so did the Professor. I sped off to see what was going on. People were screaming, and a giant lizard person crawled out of the sewers that were exposed to the entire street. He stood up and let out a loud, hissing screech.

  "Hello, misplaced aggression," I said with a grin. I charged forward and wound up a punch.

  "Smash Gal! Remember! Control your strength!" PM shouted. I eased my punch down on him. The Lizard Man took the hit with ease. It laughed. Well, I think it was a laugh. Then it batted me with its tail, and I went flying. Into a car. Which crunched under the force of my landing.

  "Hey, Prof," I called out. "Love taps ain't cutting it."

  "Okay. Then do a little more than a love tap," he said, carrying people out of the way of the fight. I launched myself off the car, crunching it further, and slammed my fist into the lizard man. He caught my fist, and the ground crunched underneath him. Asphalt cracked. So did the concrete beneath it. He then spun me and slammed me into a building.

  "Okay," I said, dusting myself off after digging myself out of a crater. He grabbed a civilian that the Professor missed, reared back, and I charged. But I wasn't fast enough. I could have been, but I was still holding back. I didn't want to shatter all of the glass around me. I didn't want to burst everyone's eardrums with a sonic boom on the ground. But I got there just in time to see this lizard monster crunch down on some poor man's skull and upper chest and bite down, tearing away from the body. Blood leaked out, and one of the man's arms fell to the side. I had never seen so much blood. Pouring down the man's shirt. Down the lizard man's maw. I froze. And the lizard man took this as an excuse to grab and slam me to the ground. I kicked him. I was angry and in shock and hadn't controlled my strength entirely. He went flying but clawed into a building. Through the stone and scraping through the metal underneath. The lizard man landed heavily on the ground, crumpling it underneath. He walked forward and hissed more. "Uh . . . Professor?"

  PM looked over and sighed. "Okay, okay. This guy can take it. Go nuts."

  He sounded resigned. I let out a breath of relief. Combat is so much different than just doing tests. I charged forward and threw a punch. I could see the air around us ripple as I made contact. He flinched. He finally moved and felt it. Some of his scales had broken, and sickly, green blood leaked onto my fist. He recovered and slashed forward with a claw, which I tried to get out of the way of, but it caught me. His talons slashed through a part of my costume and sunk into my abdomen. The force of the blow knocked the breath out of me, but I didn't go flying. Because his hand was stuck on the inside, he pulled me down, slammed me to the asphalt, and prepared to stomp on me. Then something hit him, and both went flying. I sat up and gripped my ribs, feeling blood leak out. I glanced up. A woman in a small, hovering bumper car with a rocket on the back, wheeling herself out of a crater. People cheered.

  "Thank you, thank you."

  "Ah, Cannoneer. Good to see you," PM called out.

  "You, too, Mind. Who's the fish?"

  "Smash Gal. She's a little green, but she's got the spirit."

  "Uh-huh," The Cannoneer responded, looking me up and down. My face heated up, and I felt something well in my chest. There was a rumbling behind her, and the lizard man charged forward, holding a steel beam. She wouldn't get out of the way in time. I flew towards the lizardman and interceded between them before he could bring down the shaft on her. I caught it, and it bent. I pushed back up against it. Then I switched the leverage on it, and he stumbled. I tore it from his grip with a tug and then used it as a softball bat to slam it into him. He went flying, and the beam shattered. Just like old times, I thought, as I charged after him. I caught up with him in a blink and started punching him, shockwaves spreading out with every meeting of flesh. He tried to respond, but he was loopy after a couple of hits. And after five, he was barely conscious. I caught him and flew back, throwing him on the ground and landing before the Cannoneer.

  "Well, maybe she's got her uses." I looked at my reflection in a pane of glass; the wounds were still leaking down my stomach; my shirt was torn; my mask was shattered. But I was still standing. The media started circling us and asking a million questions. PM landed and stood in between the woman in her specialized and me. . . wheelchair. Her legs were skinny. But that hadn't stopped her. Cool, I thought.

  "Cannoneer, over here. What do you think that thing is?"

  "Defeated thanks to yours truly. Oh, and Professor Mind." I felt a rush of heat in my face again. "And Smash Gal. We hadn't been acquainted yet, but she's a real firecracker, eh?"

  I looked down at the woman, and she was smiling up at me. Her teeth were painfully white; she didn't wear a mask. I was just now realizing this. "Smash Gal, Smash Gal. What do you think of working with the Cannoneer? You just joined the scene. Do you think you can keep up with someone who saved the world?"

  "I, uh, well," I stammered, unable to keep up with the implications of the question. Of course, I could.

  "Of course, she can," PM said, grinning for the camera. "I've saved the world a time or two, and she can keep up with me. Give her a little practice, and she'll be saving the world all the time. Well, actually, I hope not. Not that she can't. I just hope it isn't necessary."

  "Yeah, she'll be great. I look forward to working with her in the future." The Cannoneer nodded. We answered some more questions, but the woman in the wheelchair eventually turned around and started off. PM nodded and kindly told them we had to go and turned, nodding for me to follow. I did so a little hesitantly; they were all still asking questions. I met up with my two peers a little while later.

  "So, you're Smash Gal, huh?" the woman in the wheelchair asked. She was small. Really small. Thin. But when I looked into her eyes, I didn't see any fear or reticence. "I saw a bit about you. I'm Jenny."

  She extended her hand. I reached out and stammered. "I'm, um, well."

  "You're Smash Gal," PM cut in. "That's a trick that Jenny does to try and get people to reveal their secret identities. She doesn't think they're necessary."

  "They're not. And stop ruining my fun. Just because it worked on you, Chu-"

  "Now, you know. But I don't want the whole world to know," PM smiled. Jenny shook her head and wheeled herself around me, taking me in again. I resisted the urge to pull my cape around myself.

  "Hmm. Nice costume. A little classic, but still good," Jenny said with a grin. "Could stand to show a little more skin."

  "You think that of every costume but your own."

  "That's because you all could. You're all so strong and good-looking. I'd love to see more of you," the woman said in a much huskier voice than before. I was very grateful for my mask, even if it was broken because I'm pretty sure my face was just as red as my costume.