“Look, I did my part, okay? I disconnected the alarm. So you guys do your parts and get your asses in there so you can carry out all the shit!” The dark-skinned man with red sunglasses snapped those words while impatiently gesturing for his three disgruntled companions to go in the back door of the electronics shop he had just helped them break into. The van they had arrived in was idling nearby with the driver listening to music, while two more guys stood at the end of either side of the alley behind the store, keeping watch for any approaching flashing lights.
“What, so just cause you're a fucking nerd means you don't gotta lift shit?” one of the designated movers complained while the three of them headed for the open door.
Red sunglasses guy gave a three-fingered salute, followed by raising his middle finger alone. “You're damn right that's what it means. Now get busy. The cops and Stars may be distracted, but let's not push our luck. I don't like being out in the open like this.”
“Relax, dude.” The driver of the van drawled those words before taking a long hit off a joint. He was leaning back in his seat, his posture actually relaxed while nodding his head to the music. “With all the shit they've got to deal with after that bio-attack, there's no way we'll have any trouble. We’ll be in and out of here in ten minutes, fucking hours before they’ll have anyone to spare to check what’s going on. I bet we didn't even need to disconnect that alarm in the first place.”
A sudden, heavy boom filled the air as I landed on top of the van in a crouch. While everyone in the area suddenly spun my way, including the three guys who were carrying the start of their stolen goods out of the store, I spoke brightly. “Really should’ve taken that bet, guys.” My tone turned conspiratorial, a stage-whisper. “You could’ve cleaned up.” Even as I said that, guns were coming out. I launched myself forward off the side of the van with a tiny bit of blue paint on my shoes, flipping over in the air while extending both hands outward to shoot a double spray of yellow across the three guys who had dropped their stolen boxes to reach for their weapons. Not only did the paint slow down their motions, giving me a second to hit the ground, but it also made the boxes they had just dropped fall slower so the contents hopefully wouldn’t end up broken.
Popping back to my feet after rolling across the pavement, I activated a purple lion symbol across my back, as well as a pair of green wings along either arm. The lion quadrupled my strength, so instead of being able to lift about fifty pounds, I could’ve done two hundred. Between that, plus my roughly twenty-percent speed boost versus their fifty percent speed loss, the three guys in front of me didn’t stand much of a chance. I caught one of their wrists, yanking him forward and off balance to drive my other hand into his face, feeling his nose break under the impact. Then I was sidestepping, letting the stumbling man trip over my extended leg before pivoting around his falling body.
By that point, the four guys on lookout, two at either end of the alley, had decided that actually shooting those guns of theirs at me when their companions were right on the other side was probably a bad idea. They started to run in closer to get a better shot. Noticing that as I put my back against the chest of the second guy to have come out of the store while stomping down hard on his foot, I called out, “Hey, the fight’s gonna be over by the time you get over here! Lemme help with that!”
And just like that, I activated the red paint I had secretly hit all four of them with before announcing myself. They were all yanked off their feet and pulled inward to slam into one another in a tangled pile of limbs and curses.
Meanwhile, the guy whose foot I had just stomped on staggered on that side, allowing me to slam my helmet backwards into his chin. He recoiled, while I threw myself into a sideways roll and shot two more quick bursts of red paint. One hit the man’s face, while the other struck the nightstick that the third man had been trying to hit me with at that moment. Its course was corrected, and even though the man was slowed down so it didn’t hit with full force, the blow to the second man’s face right after I had just headbutted him with my helmet was still enough to make him fall backwards onto his ass in the doorway of the store as I canceled the red paint linking his face to the weapon.
My dive away from those two carried me just past the guy in the red sunglasses at the very second that he managed to get his own gun out of its holster on his belt. He was already pivoting, starting to bring the pistol in line with my form as I hit the ground and rolled. Before he could finish aiming and pull the trigger, however, the man’s left foot hit a circle I had left there. A blue-red circle. Instantly, he was treated to the effect we had recently found out would happen when my pull paint was mixed with my push paint. Namely, whatever it was connected to became incredibly slippery. His foot went right out from under him, and he bellowed a curse while falling hard onto his side.
“Oooh, gotta watch that form, dude,” I blithely informed the man as both of us lay on our sides. “The judges are gonna--” Rolling backward, I planted my foot in his face with all the force my boosted strength could manage. “--dock you!”
While he was reeling, the guy whose nose I had broken before tripping him managed to fall onto his side and lift his gun to point my way. At the same time, the one I had headbutted and forced to take the hit from that baton groggily did the same from the doorway he had fallen into. In that instant, I activated the orange and blue design I had already prepared on the underside of my costume, where they couldn't see it. The men opened fire, three of their bullets hitting the ground around me before a couple struck my chest. It felt like having rocks thrown at me, which wasn't the most pleasant experience, but it was worse for the two of them. They immediately recoiled with a pair of sharp cries as part of the damage was rebounded back onto them. They obviously hadn't been expecting it, dropping the guns in surprised pain. I had intentionally made sure the orange and blue paint was out of sight, trying to teach the people I went up against that they could never be absolutely certain what paint I had available and active. Making the people who fought me be reluctant to actually shoot at any given point from fear that I might have that particular combination ready would really help in the long run. Especially when that particular lesson was reinforced with pain.
Of course, the guy who had attacked with the nightstick in the first place hadn't been taught any particular lesson just yet. He stumbled off balance for a moment, but now he had righted himself and spun to face me just as the yellow paint wore off. He started to come after me, which was the moment that I activated the paint I had quickly and surreptitiously hit his shoes with while he was standing around complaining about having to carry the stolen items. As with the red paint with those other guys, I’d done that before ever showing myself. Like the spot on the ground, his shoes were blue and red, making them incredibly slippery. Or rather, making everywhere he stepped slippery. He immediately went flailing out of control, slipping and sliding wildly before falling hard on his back with a pained curse.
Reactivating purple and green on myself, I popped to my feet and pivoted to put my foot into the face of the guy with the sunglasses once more even as he tried to sit up, knocking him back down.
Throughout that whole bit, the man in the van had been trying to get out to help his buddies. But he couldn't get the door open, thanks to the red paint I’d shot into it while crouched there. For ten full seconds, his door had been practically welded shut, and he’d been too frantic and freaked out to think about climbing out the window or one of the other doors. He just kept yanking at the handle while shouting. Finally, the paint faded, and he managed to shove the door open. But, seeing his buddies all on the ground, the man apparently thought better of it and immediately shut the door again before hitting the gas to send the van screeching out of the alley.
Meanwhile, the four guys who had been tangled with one another managed to separate themselves. They took one look my way, before running to dive into the back of the van, since the doors were still hanging open. Well, three of them did anyway. The fourth leapt, but I managed to hit his back and the ground with red paint, yanking him back down.
“Calvin, Hobbes, take these guys!” I shouted, already starting to sprint that way as the van peeled out. Behind me, I saw the two in question drop into view, Touched-Tech guns raised and pointed at the men who had been left behind. They might’ve still tried to fight even then, but a quick shot from both of Wren’s special guns sent orange beams around two of the men by the doorway, and slammed them into the other two. After that, none of them seemed to feel like arguing with the orders to lay there so the two could quickly start zip-tying their hands and feet.
Of course, I only saw enough of that to be certain things were going okay. On my way out of the alley, I hit every bad guy gun I could see with red paint and sent them all flying into the nearby dumpster, just in case. With their Wren-provided weapons and suits, Murphy and Roald could take it from there with those five.
Which left me to catch that van with the four remaining men in it. Pointing toward the edge of the nearby roof with both hands, I sent a red and green shot that way, while simultaneously activating the green-blue mix on my feet. I was positively launched off the ground as though I had been shot out of a cannon. I deactivated the red green paint halfway there, allowing the momentum to simply shoot me up and over the rooftop.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The van had just, in that very moment, managed to reach the end of this first street. I caught a glimpse of the men slamming the rear door while screaming for the driver to go faster. They hit a pothole and the van bounced violently.
Before I could come down or lose any momentum, I sent two shots of red paint right at a certain object waiting for me on the roof of a building on the opposite side of the street, where I had left it to avoid announcing myself to these guys before I was ready. It was the dirt bike I had borrowed from Paige before. The paint pulled me that way, allowing me to land right on the seat before kicking the bike into gear.
The engine roared, at least as much as a dirtbike could, as I sent it flying right at the edge of the roof, hitting the spot just ahead of me with blue paint to launch it up and out over the street.
The men in the van hadn't noticed me just yet, but that would end quickly, as I used red paint on the wheels and the side of the nearby building to pull it that way before driving along that wall. I was driving along the side of a building! And thanks to a bit of experimentation earlier, I’d found that with Wren’s gravity boots on, it didn’t matter which way the bike was facing. It could be upside down and I could still sit on it just fine without having to use red paint to keep myself there. The boots treated the bike the same way they did a ceiling and wall. Which was convenient.
The guys in the van were trying to watch for me, but they were looking straight behind them instead of to the side where I had moved by that point. Still, the hum of the engine and sound of the wheels running along brick made the one who had clambered up into the front passenger seat glance my way before his eyes widened. He started to shout, but I hit him with a shot of black paint, then a red one. An instant later, he was yanked right through that open window and sent flying into the wall behind me, where I had left another bit of red.
Of course, the men couldn't help but notice their buddy suddenly vanishing through the window. But I had already activated blue paint on the tires of the bike, bouncing me sideways off of that wall. With a hit of purple strength, I managed to straighten the bike properly in midair and twist it around so that the thing landed on the far side of the van, facing the opposite direction. I came down near the driver's door, while the man himself was looking the other way, right at the spot where his buddy had just been, so he still hadn't seen me.
As I drove past the van on that side, I hit it with yellow paint, but didn't activate it just yet. I just sprayed it all along that side before activating the green dragon images I had already put along the sides of my own bike to speed it up even more. That allowed me to spin my ride around and catch up with the van before it could completely get away from me.
The three guys remaining in the van, the driver and his two friends, had finally noticed me in the rearview by that point. The two in the back shoved the rear door open and tried to take aim with their guns, but I had already pulled past them, driving up along the passenger side of the van before sending a spray of yellow that way as well. Now both sides had been largely covered with that paint. I was running low, but that was okay. This was almost over.
With that in mind, I braked hard, letting the bike fall behind me as I threw myself off of it with help from blue paint I had already put on the seat. It ejected me upward, and I flipped in the air before using just a little bit of red to yank myself down onto the roof of the van.
Leaning over near the front driver's side, I hit the steering wheel and a spot on the edge of the dash right by the window with red paint, even as the man shouted about me being on the roof. Activating that made the steering wheel yank hard to the left, sending the van sideways, straight off the side of the steep embankment they have been driving past. It led down into a long, deep cement canal meant to safely carry overflow flood waters when it stormed. The van might have crashed down too hard, but I activated the yellow paint I had already put on it while flinging myself up and off the roof. Finally, I activated the orange paint I already had on my legs, coming down in a crouch right on the edge of that embankment while the van crashed into the canal. I had slowed it down enough for the men wouldn't die, but they were still jostled pretty hard, and the van itself wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.
I recovered before they did, of course, making it down there before pulling open the back doors of the crumpled vehicle. The men were still dazed as I took their weapons away and pulled them out. “Don't look so down, guys,” I informed them in as cheerful of a voice as I could manage in that moment. “You might've failed at robbing that electronics store, and arguably failed at life in general for being such useless fucking assholes that you'd take advantage of a situation like this to get rich, but you helped me pull off a completely awesome stunt. And I really think you should be proud to be a part of that.
“So, who wants to take a picture to commemorate the occasion?”
********
In the end, it turned out the party poopers wanted nothing to do with any pictures. They grumbled and cursed the whole time the cops, who took an inordinately long time to show up, were putting them in the back of their cars.
Finally, once they and the group I had left back with the other two were safely taken away, I stood next to the dirtbike I had propped up next to my two companions and let myself breathe for a moment. It had been a long few days after everything went down at the Conservators’ place.
A few days after my parents had been poisoned. Not to mention Paige and Sierra’s sister, and plenty of others. I was still reeling from that, even if the doctors insisted those who hadn’t died yet would recover eventually. Of course they were saying that, they didn’t want people to panic.
The city had been locked down. No more people in or out, enforced by national guard troops from out of town putting up guard stations along the streets leading away, police boats on the water, and a complete freeze on any planes coming or going from the airports. It wasn’t perfect, of course. But it was the best they could do under the circumstances. Until they found out for certain if anyone else had been infected by whatever it was that Pittman had hit the Conservators building with, and how to deal with it, they weren’t going to take any chances.
Of course, that also meant it wouldn’t be easy for Paige and Sierra to get out of the city in order to go down to Utah and find the device Pittman had been talking about. If it was even still there. But that was our best lead, so we had to try. Wren was working on that little problem, while we tried to keep the city itself from burning down.
Thankfully, things weren’t as bad as they could have been, considering most of the Fell-Touched seemed to be organizing or making big plans. Or maybe the Ministry was actually doing some good. Either way, the situation still wasn’t great. While powered people might have been laying low so far, there was plenty of nonpowered crime. More than we could handle, honestly. Most of my weekend had been spent trying to help keep things at least somewhat together. There had been several close calls already, as the violence kept escalating. The other Star teams, or at least everyone who was left, were being run ragged as well. I had no idea who was still in charge of the Ministry at this point or what they were doing, but it was clear that if they were responsible for the Fell-Touched laying low, that was all they could do. And something told me it wouldn’t last forever. Sooner or later, there was going to be another big clash of the people with powers. Which would make the past couple days spent dealing with ordinary people seem like a cakewalk.
Of course, Paige had been busy as well. The authorities had grilled her for most of a day about what she might know about her adopted parents’ disappearance. She kept up the same story about Mr. Banners being paranoid that one of his business rivals was after him, and how she had convinced him to let her come back to school after weeks of hiding out. She had no idea what happened to them after that. Thankfully, the people in charge didn’t push too much harder, probably not wanting to attack a girl whose parents had just died and whose sister was still in a coma. Besides, Paige was very convincing.
By Monday, I had assumed school would be canceled, but it wasn’t. Probably because they were trying to keep everything as normal-seeming as possible. Not that we had done much in class anyway. No one could pay attention to any lectures, so it had mostly been a day of talking about what was going on. Which didn’t exactly help my barely-contained fear and anxiety. There was no news about any of those who had been infected. Or at least none that the doctors were sharing with us. Simon was almost never home, which was fine with me since I had my own stuff to do. He did call repeatedly to make sure I was okay, and I told him I was hanging out with friends.
Finally, now it was Monday night. The attack had happened Friday evening, so it had been three days. It felt like an eternity. I wasn’t sleeping enough, I knew that much. But every time I closed my eyes, I kept having nightmares about my parents… not recovering.
Whatever, all that mattered was finding that teleportation device and letting Wren do what she needed to do with it so we could get to Pittman and pry answers out of him. Of course there was a lot more to that whole situation, but I wasn’t thinking about any of it at the moment.
Shaking those lingering thoughts out of my head, I addressed my companions. “So, that worked out well. Good job, guys.” The two of them had heard those men talking about this ‘job’ in the stairwell of the apartment building they lived in that morning,
“Thanks, PB,” Murphy murmured. “What about the others, did they finish their thing yet?” Sierra, Paige, and Peyton had been dealing with another problem we’d heard about. Again, everyone was being stretched thin.
I started to answer, before the phone in my pocket buzzed. Tugging it out, I glanced at the screen before nodding. “Guess so, one way or another. Wren wants us back at the shop ASAP. Sounds like she’s got a way to get Sierra and Paige out of the city so they can go to Utah.
“And hopefully get what we need to end this mess and cure everyone while there’s still a city left to put back together.”