I paced around the warehouse as I considered the ramifications of my discovery. While gang wars were nothing new to the south side, the hollow points were big enough that most of the local gangs left them well alone.

The boss had manpower before I had showed up, and with my powers, he'd finally gotten the money to cement his position in the local scene, truly becoming the kingpin of the south side.

The money had allowed him to hire the remnants of the mercenary force that had come here to with deal with Burning Halloween. He'd made them his personal army, allowing him to amass territory at a frightening pace.

Who was left that warranted such a panicked response?

I wrapped the black roll of fabric Leo had given me around my head. It covered everything except my eyes and hair, and had the gang's symbol of a single spent round stamped on it on regular intervals.

I usually went without the face wraps because it was pointless role-play when Leo knew where I lived, but tonight seemed like a good time to start being cautious. After making sure I had wrapped the fabric around my head as tight as it would go without making my face go numb, I slung the drug-filled backpack over my shoulder.

The dropoff point tonight was-surprise, surprise-another abandoned warehouse. I entered the warehouse to find twice as many people there, along with a man in a suit flanked by an imposing figure in a blazer and a red face wrap similar to mine.

I recognized the man as one of Leo's lieutenants, and approached him. Leo's absence further fueled my suspicions that the entire gang was in a state of panic. Leo was the one of the most cunning and perceptive people I knew. If he was shirking his duties to stay off the streets, then it was a sign of terrible tidings.

The man made was no attempt at small talk. He nodded, and the meta human wearing the red mask walked over. I shrugged the backpack over my shoulders and handed it to him as he tapped his feet on the floor impatiently.

Leo's lieutenant nodded again and turned to leave.

"Wait!" I yelled, causing him to turn around.

My heartbeat picked up again, but I had to put my doubts to rest.

"What are you preparing for?"

The man opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was drowned out by a resounding crash as a single figure landed on the warehouse floor through the roof.

Moonlight streamed through the hole she had made, illuminating her features perfectly. She wore a form-fitting black suit with segmented plates of silver armor layered over each other, shielding everything that was a vital area.

A black hood trimmed with silver covered her head, and her mask was made of black, unpolished metal, covering her face entirely, with a small inverted triangle made of reflective glass to see out of.

The leader of the wards, Dauntless, was here.

She stood up, and the men around her didn't wait for her to compose herself. Leo's lieutenant opened fire, and all the men followed suit.

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The sound of gunfire in the enclosed warehouse tore through my eardrums and rattled my bones. I put my hands over my ears, though it didn't help much. Dauntless stood there, unmoving and unperturbed by the bullets, with all the confidence of someone who was invincible.

The meta human in red thrust his hands forward after the opening salvo of gunfire, and red-hot flames cascaded out of his outstretched palms.

Dauntless dodged the flames with unnatural grace, and then darted into the middle of the group her attackers had formed, and began to violently take men out of the fight.

The other meta cut off his flames to prevent them from cooking his own allies. I turned to run, and most of the gangsters seemed to follow my lead, coming to the same conclusion I had.

This fight had already been lost.

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, but before I made it to the door, something heavy slammed into me. I hit the floor hard, and the man who had been thrown at me slumped to the floor.

Dauntless walked over to me, a man slung over her shoulder to prevent the flame wielder from attacking her.

She picked me up with one hand in the most casual way possible, her fingers digging into my shirt and into my chest. Before I had any time to think about how to free myself, she threw me at the warehouse wall.

My head slammed into the wall, nearly causing me to black out. The pain pulsed from the back of my head, growing stronger and stronger. My vision was starting to fade, taking my sense of reason along with it.

I couldn't be caught here. While I didn't particularly like my life, prison would certainly be even worse. The Trench was what waited for metas who were found breaking the law.

A maximum security prison thousands of feet under the ground in the middle of the ocean filled with the most horrible people alive was no place for someone like me, who wouldn't even stand up to his mess of an uncle.

My head swam, and my brain pleaded for me to pass out. I needed a way to stay awake, to stay in the fight. As I tried to fight my own body, a single thought came into my mind.

Smelling salts.

I focused on my power and felt the drain as ammonium carbonate powder appeared in my hands, and reacted with the sweat dripping down from my forehead.

I painstakingly brought the mixture close to my nose, and banged my head on the wall again as the arid smell filled my nostrils.

Most of the pain dissolved into a dull throbbing, and a wave of energy flooded into my system. I began to cough before I shoved my other hand into my mouth.

I tried to distract myself from the burnt smell that permeated my nostrils by forcing myself to focus on the fight happening in the center of the warehouse.

Flashes of bright light illuminated the combatants in the center of the dark warehouse. The man in red was keeping Dauntless at bay by abandoning restraint and blasting the entire area with flames.

Dauntless was still darting around, playing the long game and waiting for Red to tire himself out. Despite being invincible, she still needed to breathe, and getting blasted in the face with flames for longer than a second would probably cause her to black out.

Another idea hit me, and I knew how to win the fight.

She still needed to breathe.

I could run away, but in my state, Dauntless would probably catch me after she had taken care of Red.

I shakily got up to my feet and loosened the covering around my mouth. Not knowing how to get Red's attention, I waved my hands around. He glanced for a split second before continuing his assault.

Step one was complete.

I removed the coverings altogether and mouthed the words "distract her". Red gave a slight nod.

While I bound the lower half of my face with the fabric, Red stopped shooting flames. The warehouse became dark again and then lit up with a brilliant, blinding light.

A pillar of flame as thick as a tree trunk erupted from Red's hands, hotter and faster than his previous blasts. Dauntless jumped back to avoid this one, getting his out of range and closer to me.

I seized the opportunity and sprinted towards her. I leaped on her back and placed my hands in front of her mask and used my legs to cling to her.

She trashed around and tried to dislodge me from her back, but I held on. She slammed me against the wall of the warehouse, but I held still, even as I felt my ribs crack.

Eventually, her movements got more and more sluggish, and she finally collapsed as she inhaled enough of the gas.

I slowly removed myself from under her, and saw Red running toward me before I collapsed as well.