I blinked and gasped for air, pain tearing through my back.

Comet, in her panic, had thrown us with more strength than she likely intended. There was a brief feeling of weightlessness as I flew backward and a jarring shock as I crashed through machinery.

I had no idea where Alice had landed but Anomaly seemed to recover quickly. I caught glimpses of his form contouring and warring against drones that swarmed him. I barely had a chance to process this before I also found myself a victim of the attack.

They scurried at me from all sides, little spider robots the size of mice. They started pelting me with something, small needles from the looks of it. They broke against my armor, leaving shards of metal scattered around me. Once that failed, it seemed like they weren’t interested in sitting at range and closed the distance before I could get to my feet. They were upon me, and trying to cut through my suit.

They had small spinning blades where their mandibles would be and my suit sparked as they tried to cut through and dig into my flesh.

I kicked and thrashed, lashing out with every limb to try and get them off of me. For every one that I kicked off, three would take its place. I was starting to believe that this would be the end of me until my hands found purchase on the cabinet I had been thrown into. I managed to pull myself to my feet with two dozen drones clinging to me, trying to pull me back to the floor.

As I kicked away the drones that got close to my feet, I ripped the ones I could reach off my back, throwing them back into the crowd that was swarming around me. My heart thundered in my ears as I reached for my pistol and blindly fired all around me. Light ripped through the drones causing many to explode and coat the nearby drones in flames.

Seconds later, my pistol blared an ammunition warning at me. I vehemently cursed the weak battery and promised I’d improve it if I made it out of this situation alive. Sadly, the chances of that didn’t seem very likely.

More drones jumped at me and continuously tried to swarm my feet and climb up my legs.

I caught and threw away the ones that tried to jump while kicking and stomping the ones that skittered around my feet.

I tried to back away but I quickly realized it was pointless because they were all around me. In the chaos, I couldn’t find Alice, but Anomaly was clearly visible. He had Mia cocooned inside him to protect her and from the thousands of needles sticking out of his skin, his strategy seemed to be working.

“Little help over here!” I called out to him.

Anomaly stretched upward and curved before coming down right on top of me. I had to step to the side as he landed and swept the drones away in one swift motion.

His aid gave me a moment to breathe and I managed to catch sight of Alice. Her back was against a wall, her arms covering her face as the drones continued to fire needles at her. Her costume was riddled with them, but it didn’t look like any managed to penetrate it. Her arms were a different story. She looked like the world’s least satisfied acupuncture customer.

Seeing as she was still standing, I had to assume she was keeping herself upright with Red. Still, she wasn’t in a good position. I needed to help her.

My foot knocked a piece of machinery that I had broken when I landed. I reached down and snatched it off the ground.

[Charges: 9/25]

[Type]

* Extendable Heavy Duty Surgical Blade

[Durability 0/100 - Repair Unavailable. [Main Body] Missing]

The blade itself wasn’t broken but my power recognized it as being a piece of a larger machine. That was fine, that’s not what I wanted it for. I placed it against the top of my forearm hoping that my power would recognize what I intended to do with it.

[Integration Status: Available - Cost 5]

I paid the charges and the blade rippled, turning to liquid and flowing across the surface of my arm like water. It took shape and reformed quickly. A weight settled on my right arm as my power finalized its work. The blade sat comfortably inside a slim deployable sheath that went all the way up to my elbow.

My fingers curled and I felt a new small button at the base of the base of my right hand, just far enough that my fingers could reach. I pressed it and the blade hissed and extended to its full length in the blink of an eye. I pressed the button again and it retracted.

I can work with this.

I extended the blade once more and went about carving a path to Alice.

I slashed wildly, cleaving some of the drones that were unfortunate enough to get in my way in half. However, the more I swung, the more it became abundantly clear that I was both not skilled enough to use the weapon efficiently, nor did I possess the physique to keep this up for more than a couple of minutes. I must have cleaved and cut through about two dozen of the little things before my arm started to cramp.

Regardless, I pushed on, kicking and cutting my way to my partner in crime.

“Alice!” I cleared a small path and made it to her. She was rooted in place, arms covering her face to protect her more vulnerable features. “Here, I got you!”

I shielded her with my body. The needles being fired at her bounced harmlessly off my back as I started to move her. The drones followed us, launching volley after volley. When I looked over my shoulder, it was like staring up at the sky when it was raining. It all bounced harmlessly off me but Alice unfortunately took a few seconds of abuse before switching to Red.

“Anomaly! Over here!” I called out as we made it to cover. I kicked over a table and pushed Alice down behind it. The cosmic horror stretched once again and came down next to us and acted as a barrier between us and the rest of the chaos. “We need a moment, Alice is hurt.”

He made another wailing sound that sent shivers up my spine, but I assume his response was somewhere along the lines of “hurry the fuck up!”

Alice dropped her arms, switching from Red back to Blue.

“Not hurt. Stings a little,” she groaned. “The tips are laced with a paralytic toxin. Red managed to prevent any further damage but they got their licks in before I knew what was happening. I can barely move.”

Her chest heaved like she was struggling to breathe and I just shook my head, unsure of what to do.

“I can carry you out of here.”

“Won’t be quick enough. You need to pull out all the needles. I can burn out all the crap with Pink but you need to go fast.”

That’s going to hurt.

Then again, she already knew that and we didn’t exactly have another option. I reached down and started plucking the tiny metal that was stuck in her. I started with her face, seeing as it had the fewest needles. Alice was quick to defend her most vital area but the rest of her that was unprotected looked like she had transformed into a porcupine.

Alice groaned as the tips came out red and bloody with a small chunk of flesh on the end, the bastard who designed these put barbed tips on them. The wounds left behind were deep enough to bleed and Alice really didn’t look like she was holding up all that well.

After about a minute, I managed to remove all the needles from her face, shoulders, and chest, but her arms were still covered. I moved to work on them but an oozing black appendage wrapped around my waist and hoisted me into the air. For a second, I struggled before I realized it was Anomaly. I looked down to see he had grabbed Alice as well.

Without warning, he made a break for the exit, taking us with him. Ahead of us, there was a clear path. Comet and Prosperity were warring with an army of drones while Ionizer disintegrated anything that came even remotely close to him with arcs of lightning. They were divided and distracted, the perfect opportunity to slip out.

“H-Hey!” Comet roared over the chaos. “They’re getting aw— ah!”

Despite her glowing telekinetic field, she was getting pushed from all sides which forced her to concentrate and hold a defensive perimeter to protect herself. Her aura was strong, but not infinite. There was only so much force she could exert and she couldn’t reach us without compromising her bubble.

“Forget them!” Ionizer ordered. “Clear the room and prioritize the victims.”

“But–!”

“That’s an order Comet!”

Anomaly bounced from floor to ceiling, before shooting between the gap. We passed through the upgrading door and landed in the stairwell, but Anomaly was not interested in stopping there. He surged upward, carrying us all up the stairs.

“Wait,” Alice wheezed out. “Anomaly, the ECU are up here.”

He didn’t wait.

He continued on full steam ahead as we made it back to ground level. I saw the flashing lights of the authorities reflected in the broken windows as we emerged into the building’s main room. Dozens of ECU personnel, all dressed and armed to the teeth, were securing the Cains we had incapacitated beforehand. I saw Nemesis and Gold Rush, unconscious and contained in hovering transparent blue spheres.

The moment they saw us, they were on full alert.

“Contact!”

“It’s Anomaly!”

Without slowing down, he barreled right through them toward the large open industrial door. We emerged onto the main street where we were greeted with two armored ECU transports and at least a dozen more soldiers.

This time, they were ready for us.

There were a series of pops and Anomaly slowed to a crawl. There was an icy mist that fogged up my visor and eventually, our momentum was brought to a grinding halt. Anomaly made a sound that shook every bone in my body and seemed to throw everyone off balance. Despite this, he still couldn’t manage to move.

The limb that was wrapped around me froze solid and I suddenly found it difficult to breathe.

“Surround them!”

They moved with masterful swiftness, surrounding us as Anomaly’s form continued to harden. They must have hit him with some kind of freeze grenade. It wasn’t the most common way I had heard of the ECU capturing supers, but it certainly wasn’t unheard of. I could remember a few cases on the news where I had seen images of villains frozen solid. I even joked about it with Jackson and Chris.

I laughed then.

I wasn’t laughing now.

“God damn it,” Alice muttered. “Just great. This is just fan-fucking-tastic.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Anomaly shattered into thousands of pieces and dropped us to the tarmac. I landed on my side right before I found myself hauled back into the air. It was disorientating, and by the time I managed to gather my bearings, I was being held in the same transparent bubble that Gold Rush and Nemesis were trapped in. A quick glance to my right informed me that Alice shared my fate. Mia was lying unconscious on the ground and the frozen remnants of Anomaly were reforming but also contained.

They were prepared and it had paid off. They had caught us. Any moment now, Comet, Ionizer, and Prosperity would emerge from the bunker and I’d be subjected to more gloating from Abby. I tried reaching out toward the bubble but it avoided my touch. I couldn’t move my center of gravity either; it was like being in zero gravity.

I looked over toward Alice who was struggling to move her arms. Her fingers were twitching, but other than that she was incapable of pulling out the rest of the pins with her hands and so resorted to using her teeth. The process was slow and we’d be back at the ECU’s HQ before she even managed to finish a single arm. Regardless, she was determined.

Purple could probably escape. Her teleportation worked with line of sight and the bubbles were transparent. The only question was if she could switch to Pink quick enough to get away, assuming she could move well enough. It also meant that she’d be abandoning me, Anomaly, and Mia. Honestly, I wouldn’t blame her if she did. I’d be upset, but I couldn’t find it in me to fault her for it.

Is this really how it’s going to end?

I looked around, ignoring the chatter amongst the ECU soldiers. There had to be some weakness I could exploit. The transparent bubble seemed to keep me suspended in zero gravity and I couldn’t reach the edges of the bubble. I looked down and realized there was a small piece of Mechatech emitting light that the field seemed to emerge from. That was probably where the zero gravity was coming from as well. If I could just reach it…

No good.

I was truly stuck.

Maybe if my laser pistol wasn’t out of ammunition I might’ve been able to shoot it. There was always my sniper rifle but if the ECU saw me reaching for it, they’d probably gun me down. I already had a bunch of guys keeping an eye on me and there’s no way they missed the large caliber weapon magnetized to my back.

Maybe they’ll be lenient? We did just bust a massively illegal and inhumane operation run by the Cains. That’s gotta count for something, right?

Not if they took all the credit.

They could just lump us in with The Cains and claim we were complicit. They could spin the narrative however they wanted and there wouldn’t be any way to stop them. As Alex had told me, they had rewritten history before with Scrubber.

Would they do that here? To a bunch of teenagers?

“Citadel, this is Response Team A1 and A2. Five Evohuman’s in custody,” one of the soldiers said. He looked a little bit different than the rest. He had white accents to his power armor and his helmet design stood was a bit bulkier. “Affirmative; we have positive IDs. Gold Rush and Nemesis of The Cains. The other three are previously encountered independents; Anomaly, Alice, and Upgrade.”

A shudder ran down my spine. They knew who I was. I had hoped Alex was wrong.

“Negative, no contact with Ionizer. Coms are blocked. Permission to investigate?” The captain asked. He waited a moment and I caught the slight disappointed shake of his head. “Understood. We’ll hold the line.”

“Sir, we have a civilian over here,” one of the soldiers called out. I managed to turn my head and I saw two subordinates examining Mia’s unconscious form. “Irregular breathing. Dilated pupils. Pulse is… fine for now. I can’t tell what she’s been hit with. No signs of physical trauma.”

“Check her vitals,” The Captain ordered.

The soldier flicked something on his helmet. “Everything seems normal sir. Possible Mentalist induced coma?”

“Prep her for transport. Our Jane Doe can be examined by specialists back at HQ,” The Captain ordered.

I watched as one of the soldiers holstered his weapons and scooped her up into his arms. I felt myself scowl as they moved toward one of the armored transports and realized that if we didn’t act quickly, we were going to lose her. Anomaly would be furious and a quick glance to the side showed that he was still trying to put himself back together. It was slow, but I could see the gradual shift as the ice melted.

I needed to do something. Alice was still picking the needles out of her arms with her teeth which left only me. I had escaped being bound before, I could do it again.

“Wait!” I called out, drawing the Captain’s attention to me. The soldier carrying the girl slowed, his head turning to me curiously. “We don’t know if she’s dangerous. You guys don’t know what we saw down there. It’s a fucking shitshow.”

The Captain exchanged glances with the rest of his subordinates before finalizing his focus on me. “Elaborate.”

“The Cains have this big laboratory under the building, it’s filled with people in vats. They’re going through some kind of Artificial Awakening. The whole place is wired with crazy high-tech stuff.”

“Impossible,” The Captain denied. “The Cain’s don’t have access to that kind of Mechatech.”

The realization slapped me in the face. They had no idea that The Cains were in league with Masquerade. I felt like kicking myself. How could they have known? We’d only found out earlier in the week which led to this whole operation in the first place.

“They’re working with Masquerade!”

I might as well have dropped a thermonuclear warhead on them. I saw no reason to keep it a secret and a quick glance at Alice showed that she appreciated the distraction. They would find out regardless, but this way, I’d buy time for… something to happen. Anything, really; I was banking on Alice getting out and causing some chaos. Maybe Anomaly would reform and break out.

All I could do was run my mouth for a moment.

“You’ve seen him, Masquerade?” The Captain’s full attention was on me. “Do you understand who you’re talking about? Perhaps you saw someone else.”

I shook my head. “I saw him at Poseidon’s Vault down by the harbor earlier in the week. He was talking to someone we couldn’t make out – he’s probably the guy responsible for the Mechatech bunker underneath this place.”

“Masquerade,” The Captain said again. “Are you sure that’s who you saw?”

“Without a doubt. A Mentalist confirmed it.”

The Captain turned away from me and went silent, contemplating my words. It was obvious I had thrown him off balance and he was struggling to decide whether to take me seriously. Someone like Masquerade wasn’t to be taken lightly and even the mention of his involvement was enough to give anyone pause.

“Sir?” The soldier carrying Mia waited. “What’re your orders?”

An annoyed grunt came from the Captain.

“Get her inside. We’ll process these kids and command can discuss Masquerade’s involvement.”

“Roger that.”

“No! Damn it!” I cursed as the soldier entered the armored transport with Mia.

Ionizer, Comet, and Prosperity had yet to emerge from the building and I was starting to wonder about how things were finishing up down there.

I jolted as my prison started moving. I looked over to see Alice and the remnants of Anomaly moving alongside me. Alice picked up the pace and was really trying to get the needles out of her arms. I could tell that she was starting to panic. We were losing our opportunity to escape – assuming we even had a chance in the first place.

Come on, there’s gotta be something I can do.

I checked my security breaching software. Nothing but more red connections, impenetrable security I wouldn’t be able to break through. My laser pistol was out of ammo. My new extendable blade didn’t seem to do anything against the bubble and drawing my sniper rifle would only make this worse.

I couldn’t even buy more time.

All my cards had been laid out on the table and I had nothing more to give; so unless Alice could pull something off in the next twenty seconds, this was going to be it.

I looked around for anything – anything that I could use. I didn’t want to give up till the doors of the armored transport closed behind me. There had to be something that could save us. At this point, I’d take anything.

Someone shouted and my prison came to a stop.

I turned my head to see where the voice had come from and my heart leaped into my throat. A tide of darkness rolled into view at the end of the street. Like a tidal wave, it rolled down the street toward us, devouring everything in its wake.

“INCOMING!”

This is not what I had in mind for a rescue!

The Captain sprinted past me. “SHIELDS UP, NOW!”

I watched, bewildered as the squadron of soldiers all lined up in formation and threw down devices at their feet. A wall of light erupted just in time for the darkness to slam into it. Barely a second later I noticed the light dimming. It was holding the monster back but we all had seconds before the reaper claimed our souls.

I screamed my throat raw in a panic.

“ALICE!”

Alice shuddered and switched to Purple, teleporting out of her bubble and appearing right in front of mine. Another shudder and she shifted to Red. She kicked the device keeping me imprisoned so hard it exploded into shrapnel.

“Get the girl!” Red ordered, running to free Anomaly.

I bolted for the armored transport and haphazardly scooped the girl into my arms. When I turned, I saw that Alice had freed Anomaly but his remains were still pooling back together. I saw her try to grab the solid bits but she had only managed to regain control of one of her arms. When we heard the screaming of the ECU soldiers, Alice twitched and Pink blitzed to my side, abandoning Anomaly.

“UPPIES RUN!”

I wasn’t the fastest runner; even on a good day, I was aggressively mediocre. Weighed down by a person in my arms, I found myself even slower than normal. Regardless, I pushed harder than I ever had. Even as my lungs and legs burned, I kept going. Slowing down would be a death sentence.

I wasn’t even sure where I was running to, all I knew is that it was away from the shadow behind me. Pink had disappeared from my sight which left me to hobble down the street by myself. I told myself I wouldn’t look over my shoulder but my morbid curiosity got the better of me.

The darkness moved like water, pooling around them and continuing to flow down the street. The ECU soldiers caught in the thick of it were sinking like they were stuck in quicksand. But if they weren’t actually sinking, they were melting.

If I stopped, I’d die.

Pink suddenly zipped to my side.

“No time! He’s gonna catch ya!”

I wanted to scream at her but I couldn’t spare the air. Instead, she matched my pace, twitched, grabbed my shoulder, and then a violent whirlwind of vertigo hit me as we teleported.

I tripped and fell, dropping Mia onto the cold concrete. Alice had teleported us to the top of a building. I rolled, just as Alice did. With adrenaline still coursing through my system, I scrambled back to my feet and dashed for Mia. She was in my arms in seconds and I was looking around for somewhere to run. When I saw no exit off the roof, I felt a sense of hopelessness.

“Relax…” Purple groaned, slowly pushing herself to her feet. “I got us out of there. Gold’s sayin’ Grim isn’t going to get us up here. Somethin’ about his senses bein’ bad when he’s like that, I dunno.”

“You don’t know? YOU DON’T KNOW!? ALICE—”

“Chill!” Purple cut me off. “Just take a breath. We’re good now, see?” She slumped against the edge of the roof and peered over. “Like I said. He doesn’t know where we went.”

Cautiously, I walked back to the edge and looked over. The darkness in the street below was receding back toward the meatworks. We had escaped but from the looks of it, the soldiers hadn’t. Nothing remained from the ECU’s reinforcement. No armored transports, no soldiers. Nothing. Just an empty street that looked like it had aged a hundred years.

“Anomaly… he—”

“Look,” Purple murmured, pointing to where his remains had been. Sure enough, there was a small inky puddle of darkness that was beginning to reform. “Guy’s really invincible—” Alice twitched as she switched back to Blue. “—fuck me that was close! Way too close, fucking hell…”

Looks like every part of Alice dealt with stress differently.

I turned my attention back to the street. The inky darkness rose out of the ground and reshaped itself back into the cosmic horror that I was familiar with. Anomaly looked around and it wasn’t until Alice gave a short whistle that he was clued into our location. He lumbered down the street before coiling and springing up to us.

Landing, he reverted to his human form and fell to his knees.

“Shit, that was weird.”

Weird? That’s all he can say?

“You survived Grim’s shadow,” Alice breathed. “Nobody’s done that before.”

“I did what?” Anomaly’s eyes widened. “I don’t even know what happened. Those guys hit me with that freezing thing and then I couldn’t tell what was going on. Then it felt like something was trying to eat me alive. It couldn’t quite get a hold of me though.”

“Eat… you?” Alice tilted her head before looking away, eyes wide. “Oh God…”

“Mia!” Anomaly closed the distance between us to check on the girl in my arms. “She’s okay. I thought for sure I’d…” he shook his head and stepped away. “I almost fucked everything up, didn’t I?”

Our silence said it all. He had carried us right into the heart of the ECU reinforcements. If we had gone out the back, we might’ve been able to slip out undetected. His haste had almost ruined everything.

I didn’t need to say anything and judging from how Alice looked, she agreed with me. He already knew.

“We need to go,” Alice said, her voice low. “This whole area is about to get quarantined and we don’t want to be here when that happens.”

My gaze drifted to the meatworks.

Abby was still in there. There was the compulsion to run back in there to try and help, but that would be suicide. As long as they saw him coming, she should be able to move faster than Grim.

She’ll be fine. She always is.

I turned back and found Alice staring at me. Her eyes were Gold but she said nothing. All she did was nod.

“Your place then?” Anomaly asked.

I nodded. “Let’s go.”