I had no more chances to escape my captors while being escorted out of their bunker than I’d had the whole time in it. Less, actually, considering they put a bag over my head and cinched it in place. Now I was blind and handcuffed, and being guided down the hall by Cup while her brother (whom she apparently enjoyed making out with?!) and Fork trailed behind. There was no way I was going to get away from them just then. We passed through several hallways and, given the way the sound changed, also a few larger rooms. I could hear other voices now and then, some laughing or congratulating their boss, others muttering insults and threats at me.

It was… it was terrifying. Yeah, I was supposed to be brave. I was supposed to be a Star-Touched, some bright symbol or whatever, who didn’t let this kind of thing scare them. But… I was. I was scared. My body was shaking enough as we walked that I knew they could see it. I had to fight not to let my terrified tears leak too much and blind me. How pathetic was that? How pathetic would it be to have to ask the psychotic supervillain monsters to let me please wipe the baby tears out of my eyes? Damn it, damn it, what the fuck was wrong with me? I was supposed to be brave. I was supposed to be… I was supposed to be better than this.

But I wasn’t, and I couldn’t find a way out. I was forced to just stumble along blindly while I was led to what was apparently an underground garage of some kind. I felt myself brush past a few different cars before being pulled to a stop. One of the doors was opened, and I was not-so-gently pushed inside. As I fell in, Cup shoved my legs the rest of the way. Then the bag was pulled off my head to reveal the fact that I was now in the back seat of an SUV, on the floor. From my prone position, I could see a couple random guys step up into the middle seat. They weren’t wearing masks or anything, but honestly, I probably couldn’t have picked them out of a lineup later anyway. They just looked like random, average guys I would have passed on the street without a second thought. They could’ve been clerks at the corner gas station or accountants. Anything, really. Which made the fact that they clearly worked for Pencil and worshiped the Abyssal Typhon even more disturbing. These guys weren’t polite enough to tattoo ‘sick freak obsessed with literal monsters’ across their foreheads, unfortunately.

Cup hopped up in the back with me, stepping on my leg in the process before her heel went back to kick me in the side. Then she plopped down on the seat, a pistol held idly in one hand. “Try anything,” she informed me, “and I’ll shoot the next five people we pass on the street.”

“You can’t go anywhere with the cuffs on,” Pencil reminded me. “So don’t try to get cute.” Then he shut the door before moving around to the driver’s side. Fork was apparently not coming. It was just the three of us heading out on this particular trip. Well, the three of us and the two random guys in the middle seat. But no Fork or other Fell-Touched, apparently. How lucky for me. Now I only had to find a way to escape my stay-down cuffs and deal with two of the worst supervillains in the city, along with a couple of their cannon fodder. Where was the challenge?

Yeah, I wasn’t even convincing myself. I was in really deep shit. Really deep. Marianas trench deep. And I had no idea what I could possibly do to get out of it. None. I was in worse trouble than… yeah, this was the worst trouble I’d ever been in. Because I was pretty sure this time wasn’t going to end with these guys just trading my freedom for a favor, like Deicide. Laying there on the floor of the car, with Cup sitting just above me, I was genuinely afraid that… that I wouldn’t get out of this in one piece, or at all. And if I didn’t, what would happen to my parents, my family? Would they just keep being evil and… and hurting people? What would happen to Wren, or Izzy? Especially Izzy. She was stuck in that house with my evil family. And if I wasn’t there, if I couldn’t be there to help if she got in trouble, what would happen to her then? What if Izzy found out what I had and she had no one to help her, just like I had no one right now?

I was scared. And everything running through my mind about what could happen to the people I cared about if I didn’t come back made that fear even worse. It was all I could do not to cry like a pathetic little baby as I lay there, frozen in terror as the vehicle started up, the engine coming to life with a steady rumble. And from the brief look that Cup gave me, I could tell she heard the very slight noise that I made while holding back those tears and was pretty amused by it.

Okay, Cassidy, I told myself. Yes, this is bad. This is… this is really bad. But here’s the thing, if you do nothing, these people will kill you. They will torture and kill you, probably in the worst way possible. Either that or they’ll try to use that torture to turn you to their side, to break you. So what are you going to do? Lay there and cry about how unfair all this is, about how scared you are? Or are you going to get it together and start thinking of a way out of this? Stop sniffling and start thinking of actual solutions. Because nobody is out there. Nobody is coming for you.

The problem was, easy as it might’ve been to think that to myself, it didn’t actually solve anything more than crying about it would have. I was still stuck here, trapped by a group of psychopaths with no apparent way out of it. My powers couldn’t get me out with these cuffs on. I still had them, but the paint wouldn’t be able to launch me out of this car and away from the Scions. If I got too far away from Cup, I’d be yanked down to the ground by too much force for the red, purple, or blue paints to counter. Besides, even if I could get away, Cup had promised she would shoot several people in retaliation. Could I really condemn them to die like that?

No. I couldn’t just escape. I had to stop them… somehow. Think. I just had to think. And ignore the fact that Cup was staring at me with what I could only imagine was open and contemptuous amusement behind that mask of hers. She knew. She knew I was trying to think of a way out of this, and she found it funny. Of course she did. She and Pencil were like psychotic little kids tormenting a bug they had found by the side of the road. She clearly wanted me to pay, not only for helping to stop them from doing too much damage to that children’s hospital before, but also because I had physically hurt her. She wanted me to suffer, which meant dragging this out.

The sound of the Monster Mash song interrupted my thoughts. It was coming from Cup, who took a phone from her pocket and answered with, “What’s up, buttercup?” There was a brief pause as she listened for a moment before murmuring a few acknowledgments. Then she looked toward the front. “Shovel says a couple Touched showed up at the old bitch’s house. Looked like that Compasscunt from the Little League Of Charity Scouts or whatever the fuck they call themselves, and Blackjack’s newest girls, Soundwave and the one with the lizards.”

That-A-Way, Pack, and… um… the sound girl. I hadn’t actually met or seen her in person yet, and I couldn’t remember her name just then. What were they doing? It was obvious that the ‘old bitch’s house’ was the one I’d been captured at. And clearly just as obvious what those guys were doing. They were looking for me. Pack had obviously found a way to contact That-A-Way, found out I’d lied, and they’d gone there themselves, only to be too late.

“Well, obviously our friend in the back there kept up with his old buddies from the hospital. How sweet. Shovel have any trouble with them?” Pencil asked idly from the front, his attention clearly more on other things.

“Hold on.” Cup listened for a second before muttering a curse. Then she answered. “Nope, he took off when the annoying invincible cunt from Ten Towers showed up. Skipper or whatever.”

“Skip,” Pencil corrected, sounding slightly more interested. “You’re saying there were people from three different groups, villains and heroes alike, all just… together at that house? The Minority girl and the one with the lizards are one thing, they worked together before. Maybe even this Broadway, assuming she’s partners or friends with the Lizard. But what was someone from Ten Towers doing there?” From his tone, I could tell that the next words were directed at me. “You been making even more friends there, buddy?”

I didn’t respond, of course. What was I going to say to the asshole? Besides, I was still trying to figure out why Skip was there myself. I’d run into her earlier, of course. But so what? Why would she be at the house? It didn’t make sense. Maybe she was friends with That-A-Way? But even that was weird and didn’t seem right. I couldn’t figure it out, even if I had wanted to answer.

“Playing the strong, silent type, huh?” There was a chuckle in Pencil’s voice. “Well, just keep in mind, they won’t find you. The toy we used to kill the signal in your phone and anything else you’ve got on you isn’t a half-measure. See, we’ve found over the years that people keep trying to make it harder and harder for a good kidnapper to make a living. You’ve got duplicate phones, tracking devices in the clothes, embedded in the shoes, under the skin… some people are just really fucking averse to being abducted for some reason, you know? Anyway, short of full-body exploratory surgery every goddamn time we want to hold someone for awhile, the best choice is our signal killer. Your phone and any other tracking device you might have on you just in case of… well, in case of something like this, are all permanently offline. But hey, I bet you could still play Candy Crush on that thing. That’s something, huh? Am I a nice guy or what? I mean, until I cut your thumbs off. Hey, what do you think would be worse, losing both thumbs or one eye?”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Yeah, I wasn’t going to rise to that bait. I just stayed silent and looked at Cup. She looked back at me, shoulders shaking just a little with silent laughter. It was clear that she was endlessly amused by her brother’s antics. Which made precisely one of us. Or three, I supposed, given the two other guys who were apparently just fine and dandy working for fucking psychopaths.

When I refused to respond, Pencil just continued. “No opinion? Eh, I guess I’ll take it as it comes. Honestly, I’m leaning toward the eye thing. All that jumping and running around you keep doing, how hard do you think it’d be with shitty depth perception? Honestly, that seriously might be worth letting you go afterward, just to see you hopping around slamming into things, falling off buildings, shit like that. Fucking great. But see, that gets to my whole deal with this. Killing you? That’s amateur hour. There’s no point. Some guy catches you off-guard with a fucking pistol can kill you. No. No, that’s too easy. That’s too… boring. What someone like you needs, what you deserve, is to be broken. And you mark my words, Mr. Paintball, when we’re through this little road trip, I’ll be able to turn my full and undivided attention to you.

“And you will be broken when I’m done.”

Once her brother was done talking, Cup stared at me intently for a few seconds. Whatever she was looking for she must have found, because she looked toward the front where I assumed Pencil was watching and gave him a slight nod. Without my helmet, she could probably see the genuine fear in my eyes through the simple ski mask. Try as I might, I couldn’t suppress it. I couldn’t entirely shove down the terror of what might happen, what would happen if I didn’t find a way out of this. I’d seen the news reports. I’d read the articles, heard… heard witnesses that the Scions had intentionally released to carry their stories to the public. Pencil was right, there was no one to help me. I was on my own. And if I didn’t escape, if I didn’t get out of this on my own, then I was going to suffer and probably die on my own. Or suffer so much I gave up my friends and family. Wren. If I told them about Wren, how they could find and twist her…

No. No, no, no. I had to get out of this. I had to get out of this. I wouldn’t let that happen. Please.

Okay, think. I had to think. Laying on my back there on the floor, I closed my eyes, hoping Cup would assume I was consumed with terror and leave me alone. I just had to think.

It was late. I had no idea how long I’d been knocked out before, because I’d stupidly not paid attention to the time when I tried to call for help only to find no signal. So it could be ten at night, two in the morning, or anything else. All I knew was that it was dark through the windows of the SUV, save for the glimpses of passing headlights and streetlamps. And because I couldn’t check my phone, I had no idea if my parents were in the middle of a full-scale meltdown about me being missing, or if they hadn’t even noticed yet. Mark that as something to deal with if the time came. That was, if I got out of this alive.

Which led to the whole escaping part. Yeah. Okay, so what did I have? I could use my powers, but that wouldn’t help much. Purple paint couldn’t make me strong enough to break cuffs that had been designed to hold much stronger Touched than me. Green paint could make me fast, but the second I got too far away from Cup, I’d just be yanked to the ground. Same for red pulling me away from them, or blue launching me. Whatever I did, a second later I’d be yanked down and my ‘escape’ would be over and done with. So… so what the fuck could I do?

I knew where Lake Victoria was. It was about an hour and a half or so from Detroit. I had that long to think of a plan, a way to get out of this and not end up under Pencil’s undivided attention.

So stop panicking, stop being a sniveling little baby, and think. Focus. I could get out of this. I had to get out of this. Hour and a half, brain. You’ve got an hour and a half to think of a genius escape plan.

Please don’t let me down.

*****

When the SUV pulled to a stop along a gravel road, it was still dark outside. My eyes turned slightly to look at the window next to Cup’s head, as I listened to Pencil telling the two men in the middle seat to get out and look around. Once they did so, he addressed my babysitter. “Baby sis, you ready for a little hike?”

“Can’t we just drive up there?” the girl retorted, her foot idly kicking against my stomach. “Look, the road keeps going up through that gate. How far do we have to walk?”

“Couple miles, according to the map,” came the response. “And we can’t drive it. Knowing the old man, he’ll hear the car engine and see the lights. After all we’ve gone through to find this cocksucker, you really wanna give him a chance to escape? We’ll hoof it in through the forest.”

From her reaction, I could tell that Cup wasn’t happy about that. But she didn’t argue. Instead, she just gave me a harder kick, practically stomping on my stomach before opening the door. Her hand grabbed my ankle and yanked, while I scrambled to push myself up awkwardly. I basically half-fell out of the vehicle, then completely fell as she gave me a kick in the back of the leg.

We were in the middle of nowhere. To the left, I could see water in the far distance. Lake Victoria, I assumed. To the right was a forested area. The gravel road we were on stretched back into the darkness and continued up through a simple metal gate that stretched across it.

Cup was standing over me, while the two random thugs were spread out. One was examining the gate while the other ran some kind of scanner over the fence before calling back that it was electrified. Pencil was just getting out, adjusting the mask that I was pretty sure he’d had off the whole time we were driving.

It was now or never. These guys wouldn’t be this distracted again. In a second, they’d remember to pay more attention to me. It was time to enact my genius plan.

So, I kicked Cup in the leg. More to the point, I activated the purple paint I’d prepared earlier on the inside of my costume leg, powered it, and lashed out with as hard of a kick as I could manage. At the same time, I turned a bit so that the hands behind my back were pointed at her, and shot a bit of silencing black at her chest, to muffle her scream as she started to fall. And to stop the bitch from using her power, of course.

As Cup fell, I continued my roll so that my cuffed hands were pointed back toward the truck and the gate that one of the men was still inspecting. A shot of red at each sent the SUV flying that way, narrowly missing Pencil, who dropped into a roll to avoid it.

Meanwhile, that one bit of purple was far from the only paint I’d prepared for this. I had a whole fucking art gallery going on inside my costume, and in that moment, I used green to speed myself up and orange for the defense. I was on my feet, standing over the fallen Cup with my back to her as she held her leg and screamed silently.

Pencil was coming back to his feet, already out of his roll with his pistol raised. He fired twice, both shots hitting my chest. They stung, but otherwise I was fine. Fine enough to pivot, lashing out with my still-enhanced strength to kick Cup right in the face while she was still on the ground. My foot hit her hard enough to knock the bitch onto her back.

I kept pivoting. Pencil had fired three more times while running toward me. One shot missed, the other two hit me. Again, they stung without actually damaging me too much. But it was definitely starting to hurt. Time to go!

Standing over the prone Cup while facing the incoming Pencil, I shot red down at her, matching it with my gloved hand. She was jerked upward, and I caught her arm.

Pencil knew. He bellowed a threat, a warning, a promise, all three. I ignored him. Using my free hand, I shot blue paint at the ground between us and lunged at it while hauling the dazed and barely conscious Cup along for the ride. My feet hit the paint as I activated it, launching me and Cup high into the air, my momentum carrying us forward.

We flew over the fence, joined together by the red paint as we came crashing down in the middle of a group of trees some distance beyond. It wasn’t a pretty landing. We fell together, rolling along the ground in a tangled jumble. I took one of Cup’s elbows to the face and I was pretty sure she wasn’t even trying.

In the end, when the dust settled, the two of us were lying in the dirt next to a bush. I could hear Pencil screaming after me, promising everything he was going to do if I didn’t let his sister go.

So there I was, barely out of Pencil’s sight, in the middle of nowhere. My hands were still cuffed behind my back, and the only way I could keep moving was by dragging Cup along with me. Because that was the secret. I couldn’t run away from Cup without being yanked to the ground, but as long as she was with me when I escaped, willingly or not, the cuffs wouldn’t activate. And thanks to the black paint, she couldn’t use the command word to activate them manually.

Now all I had to do was stay away from a totally enraged Pencil and his goons, find my way through this completely dark forest in the middle of nowhere, and stop the bad guys from killing Robert Parsons, all while dragging Queen Psycho along with my hands literally tied behind my back.

Genius plan indeed.