“There’s still five of us and only one of him.” Alex whispered. He stepped in front of Lori while I shifted Rebecca behind me. I needed to protect her at all costs. Protect her, help my friends get out, and get to my sister and Megan. I was not going to lose any of them, no matter what.
“I guarantee you that’s not true.” Val walked in front of both of us, sword at the ready. Barely perceptible, her hands were shaking. “He always brings a few people so we can show off our strength.”
McLeod, looking pretty jovial for a man facing five people with superpowers, pointed right toward her. “Ah, you know me so well, Val. Are they treating you well here? I see that you haven’t gotten new armor.”
“They didn’t lie to me to use me as a weapon!” She took a step forward, readying her sword. McLeod didn’t flinch. “How many innocent people died because of me?”
“As thorough as I am, not even I have that exact answer.” He had a knowing grin on his face. His confidence hadn’t gone anywhere, but without the cameras, his self-presentation wasn’t as grand. “You know how much work we’ve done. Before we went public, we still had plenty of work to do in the dark. Work that you were eager to help me with, my daughter.”
“I am not your daughter!” Val’s voice was thick with pain and anguish. I knew what it was like to lose your parents, and it was agonizing. I had no idea what it was like to be used by one to help murder innocents. “A real father wouldn’t have made me do all those terrible things.”
“Oh?” McLeod did seem confused on the surface. I was beyond knowing what was a carefully fabricated act or what might be a genuine reaction. “And yet, you carried out my commands each time with such outstanding results. You’re twenty-four now, more than capable of making your own decisions. Tell me, as an adult, how many chances have you had to decline doing those tasks?”
“No one can just decline what you ask of them.” Val gritted her teeth, looking conflicted. “I’ve watched you kill people for just wanting out.”
“None of those people have been my daughter.”
“I told you, I am not your daughter.” Her voice lacked the conviction it had when she first told him that. I was worried she was going to go back to him for a few seconds, hoping that Lori would give us some kind of warning if she sensed betrayal. “The people you tricked me into hating have been kinder to me than you ever have.”
“I doubt that.” McLeod seemed to be losing interest in the conversation. It was weird to see him look bored. “You killed one of their own and you really expect me to believe that they’ve treated you better than I have? I taught you everything you know about fighting. I gave you food and shelter when you had no one. I could have left you to die in that frozen, nothing village. No one would have batted an eye. No one would have missed you. You were nothing when I took you under my wing. I brought out the best of your powers. Without my guidance, you would still be a crying little girl, mourning the loss of the world’s most insignificant.”
“Yeah, I guess I would be.” She took off flying for McLeod, leaving behind any signs of the woman who was on the verge of a breakdown only minutes prior. Returning again was the terrifying presence of a capable warrior. The only difference was she wasn’t trying to kill us the second time around.
McLeod pulled his own sword free from its sheath, bringing his terrible blue flames to the little space I’d begun to think of as home. He was about fifty feet away, a distance that Val closed in a couple seconds. Being so close, the heat from the flames that wrapped around his sword was nearly unbearable. It brought a new wave of sympathy to run through me, remembering the people that had to feel that nightmarish burning on their skin before they died. I couldn’t help but shiver despite the heat.
Their blades clashed and I was impressed that Val wasn’t immediately burned by the proximity to the flames, given that I was already sweating from them. Val was quick, alternating between two-handed and one-handed sword attacks, aiming for any opening she could get. If she brought that toward her match with Alex, it would have been awesome. It still was, I just wish it didn’t have to come with McLeod being bundled in.
No matter which angle Val tried to attack from, McLeod was ready. He was slowly being pushed backward, her offense being enough he had to take her seriously. She never got an actual hit on him, despite her strength advantage. I got the similar impression from Val. It was more of a feeling out process than a proper fight. Maybe that was how they would spar when Val was still part of Dii Consentes.
“Move, Val!” Lori shouted, taking aim with her handgun. Her aim shifted and wavered. She was hunting for any opening around Val to get a shot in on McLeod. I was proud that Lori didn’t gun down Val with her back turned, even though the girl was quickly losing patience. “Dammit, Val, you need to move!”
“I can’t believe you’ve already gone against the most important thing I instilled in you.” McLeod’s blade caught Val’s attack and he pushed her back with a calm parry. She did a flip through the air and came to a rest a few feet above the ground. “How many times have I said it? Using numbers is nothing but weakness. The strength we exude alone is what sets us apart from the rest.”
That’s when I got what Val meant when she said that McLeod’s pride was his biggest weakness. I could see and feel the power coming off him, especially with him a short sprint away. The man scared me. He really was like a walking nightmare with power that didn’t seem to have any limits. But not using numbers was just stupid, no matter how strong he was. If he could get all these people with strong powers under him, it was foolish not to use that to his advantage. There was strength in numbers and there was strength in having a team that you could trust.
No one responded to McLeod. Engaging verbally with him did no good. Val shifted to her left and took off for another attack. McLeod kept his eyes trained on his former disciple, and I must’ve been too, because I wasn’t expecting the familiar explosion of a gunshot. I was grateful that the sound wasn’t something that upset me and sent me into a panic. It was just so damn loud. That took me a second to shake off.
When I whipped my head to McLeod to see if Lori’s shot connected, I could barely even see the man. Val was there, swinging her sword, so I knew he had to be there somewhere. In front of him was...something with its hand out. I was pretty sure it was a man. It mostly had the shape of one, from what I could discern through the blur around his body. An annoying buzzing sound was coming from where he was standing.
At the same time that I realized what his power was, blue sparks popped off his shoulders, and he was next to me with his fist out again, and Lori was flat on her back. I barely had time to register her hitting the back of her head on the ground. Instinctively, I threw a shield above her body, and that was a good call. The guy—someone I decided to name Blurring Man—threw something at the shield, where it bounced off hard enough to hit the ceiling and embed itself there. My shield had cracks running through it and I could feel how strong that throw was. Actually, not how strong, but how fast.
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Blurring Man had superspeed, and that power might have made him more dangerous than McLeod.
I pulled Rebecca away from him and kept her behind me. My plan was to try and put something else between him and her, but the motion got his attention. That happened to be enough for Alex to clock the guy right in the face, sending him closer toward McLeod and Val’s battle. I felt like I had seventy different things that I needed to watch and that made my brain feel like it was being pulled in seventy different directions. Flames from McLeod, yells from Val, solid pops from the already-recovering speeder taking on Alex, my own girlfriend behind me, and then Lori on the ground.
I had to trust Alex and Val to be able to hold back their two opponents, at least for the time being. McLeod was fully focused on his fight with Val, thankfully, so I wasn’t going to worry about him taking my head off. Their swords continued to clash, metal clanging echoing in the tight, heated hallway. Val’s sword must have been made from something fierce to withstand the heat.
I had zero intel on Blurring Man except that he was fast. A quick glance his way told me that he was trading blows equally with Alex. Strength against speed. I trusted Alex to hold his own. He was capable and generally levelheaded. I wasn’t sure how much those would matter if the fight went on for too long. If he couldn’t get a proper finishing blow in, speed would beat out strength in a drawn-out fight.
“Lori, are you okay?” I hissed through gritted teeth. I didn’t want McLeod or Blurring Man to hear me. I took down my shield and kneeled next to her, moving some hair out of her face. Above her, the thing Blurring Man threw fell, landing as a speck next to her head. After picking it up, I saw it was the bullet she shot. Blurring Man had really tried to throw the bullet into my friend at monstrous speeds, emulating his own gunshot. The pride I felt at saving her was overshadowed by a sickness of his actions.
Her eyes fluttered open and she looked panicked. She felt around her chest, maybe for the bullet that she thought should have been lodged in her. I helped her sit up and she grabbed the back of her head. “I saw him right over me before I hit my head and blacked out. Ugh, my head is killing me. What happened?”
“Don’t worry about it. Are you okay?” I risked another glance toward Alex. There was blood on the ground and splattered against the metal walls. I was really hoping that all of it or most of it belonged to the Blurring Man, trying to ignore the bad feeling I had.
“Probably concussed and I think he broke my orbital bone.” Lori held her hand up to her swelling left eye gingerly, like she was afraid it might fall out if she was any more forceful with it. On cue, some blood started to trickle out of her nose. She squinted toward her boyfriend. “I think my vision is blurring. Definitely a concussion. Fuck me.”
“I think that’s just the guy with superspeed.” I helped her to her feet, but she wobbled and shook her head. She seemed lucid for someone with a brain injury.
“No, everything’s blurry.” Her voice had an edge to it. “That guy is strong if he could do this much that fast.”
“Lori, powers or not, it’s hard to stop a concussion.” I tried to help her forward, but she grabbed at her head and made a retching sound. “We need to get you to a doctor.”
“There’s no way we can get out of here.” She gasped when she watched Alex take a good shot to the midsection. Dude barely even budged. “That guy will be all over us before we can even get our backs turned.”
I went back to watching their fight and I tried to think of anything that would get them out. Lori had a concussion, so I couldn’t trust her to make the best leader decisions. Val and McLeod were still in a stalemate, a fact that was to our benefit. Val keeping him at bay for the time being let me put all my attention on Alex and the Blurring Man. They were in a stalemate too. A stalemate with a much tighter time crunch.
I felt Rebecca’s hand move up my back. “I have an idea, Shimmer. Make one of your spears and watch that man. You need to be ready, okay? You’ll know what to do.”
As the words were leaving her mouth, I manifested a Shimmer-Spear above my left shoulder. He was moving too fast for me to even dream of throwing it, a tornado of lightning flickers and harsh punches, so I had to trust her. But hey, it was my girlfriend, so trust was the name of the game. If there had been anyone in that hallway who I thought would absolutely have my back, it was her.
I didn’t have the best feeling, so I turned and gave Lori a quick hug. Just in case it was the last chance I would have to do something like that. Still feeling rocky after our fight wasn’t an excuse for me to miss out on giving my friend a hug.
“Enough! Fall back!” It was McLeod’s deep, booming voice, carrying down the hallway, only it came from my girlfriend’s mouth. It was enough to startle me for half a second. When I looked at her in surprise, I saw what Rebecca was going for.
The Blurring Man came to a halt in an instant and shifted his gaze to Rebecca. At least I thought he was looking at her. I couldn’t see his eyes very well on account of his vibration camouflage blurring everything. With his Anomaly, I knew that taking even a moment to focus on that would waste the chance. With his attention off me and his body at a standstill, I hurled my Shimmer-Spear through the air at him. His head turned toward it, and I imagined a stunned look taking over his face. He either wasn’t fast enough to avoid it, or it took him completely by surprise. It buried itself deep into his right shoulder and I could feel the tip come out through his back. I heard him yell and it sounded like his vocal cords had the same vibration effect that the rest of his body did.
I wasn’t sure if I had wanted to kill him. Well, I certainly didn’t want to. I wasn’t sure if I felt like I needed to. With the chance I had, I could have put the spear through his head or his heart if my aim had been good enough. Maybe I’d hesitated, not wanting a repeat scenario of killing Eric. I thought he deserved a chance to surrender.
When Alex looked at me, I jerked my head toward Lori, and I saw his eyes go wide. He had some bruising on his face too. I felt bad that my brain immediately wanted me to point out that the two matched, just like a true couple. If we lived long enough, maybe I’d tell them about the wildly inappropriate timing of it all later. But that was still a big if.
“She’s concussed and has some broken face bone,” I said to Alex, probably sounding like a complete idiot. I had already forgotten which bone she said was broken. “You take her and you run, okay?”
“You can’t fight him, Ethan. You’re not there yet.” Even as he said it, he scooped Lori up in his arms. Her dazed glare told me that she was thinking the same thing. I appreciated that she looked too close to getting sick to vocalize it. “We can’t leave you. We’re a team.”
“Alex, you look like hell. You’ve left him pretty beaten and I’m in great shape.” No chance I was going to tell him that I was still sore just about everywhere from the day with Braden. That’d only make it harder for them to leave. “I promise, we have this. Go. Now. Okay?”
He pursed his lips and stared at me hard, his brown eyes searching my face. I thought for a second that he’d fight me more on it. We didn’t have that kind of time to waste. When I was positive he was going to make a huge stink about it, he nodded wordlessly. He held Lori close to his chest and turned to leave.
“But if I don’t come back,” I said, stopping him, “tell my sister and Megan that I loved them, please.”
“You’ll tell them yourself.” Then he was off, hopefully taking Lori to safety. It was such a lame and cliché thing to say that it almost made me forget about the dire situation we were in. I just wanted to stop and laugh. Another inappropriately timed thing to tell him about later.
Turning back to the Blurring Man, I realized that my conversation with Alex came at the worst time. He was still struggling with the Shimmer-Spear that I left in his shoulder. I assumed he tried to pull it out the normal way and that he tried to push it all the way through his back. Neither worked, so he used his free hand to vibrate through it and destroy it. I felt how fast his hand was moving from my connection to my weapon. Even if I couldn’t have felt it, the lightning sparking off his hand would have clued me in.
“You missed your chance,” he told me, echoing my concern about killing him earlier. His voice was even more distorted than I thought it would be. As much as I didn’t want to gush about a villain, it did sound awesome. I wondered if Rebecca could emulate that. “That was the only time you’ll be able to touch me.”
“Think so?” I wrapped myself in Shimmer-Armor, once again trying to put myself between Rebecca and anything I thought would threaten her. “I wouldn’t count on it. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, so how about we see how fast you really are.”