Victor watched the gang of villains as they lounged around in a park. They weren’t doing much, just waiting. The teleporter and the flier were using spray paint to color a statue, but that was the extent of their vandalism. The technopath dropped a wrapper. The leader yelled at them to pick it up.
Victor flew to where the teams were waiting. “They aren’t doing anything,” he reported. “No plotting or scheming, just… hanging out.”
Paul frowned. “No,” he said. “They’re waiting.”
“Waiting?” Sally asked. “For what?”
“What else?” Alex asked. “Us.”
Inez peered through the bushes. “What does everyone do? Have we fought all of them?”
Paul moved next to her, motioning to the people they’d fought. Inez pulled out her phone, making a list so they could plan. Finally they moved back to the group, holding it out for everyone to see.
There were twelve people on the list, including the sparker that broke everyone out of jail. The teams crowded around, reading carefully.
Suddenly Victor noticed a girl he didn’t recognize peering over the list, too.
“You forgot Jerry,” she said, stepping back.
Everyone turned and stared at her.
She smiled sweetly. “Where’s your cute little speedster? I was waiting for her.”
Before anyone could react, she put a Darth Vader helmet on and vanished.
“Hell,” Paul sighed, then stood up straight. “Ethan: go deafen everyone. Nick: smoke bombs please. Victor and I will watch the perimeter. Everyone else: get in and start punching.”
The teams nodded, running to obey his orders. Victor flew up, not bothering to hide as he centered himself over the statue. Nick tossed a canister into the group of villains. Before it could go off, the speedster grabbed it and threw it back at him. Sally jumped over, punching the canister into the air. It burst open ten feet above the ground, doing nothing helpful.
Inez shouted for everyone to close their eyes, and sent out a blinding flash of light. The speedster dashed up to Inez, covering her hands in duct tape. At the same time, Ethan screamed, directing almost visible sound waves at the villains. Unfortunately, their screamer sent the sound waves back, aimed at Victor. With his eyes still closed, the blast hit him straight-on, knocking him to the ground with ringing ears.
Alex and Sally ran for the villains, weapons ready. The flier shot up, and Victor had to follow. He caught the other flier by the ankle, forcing him to stop. The flier dropped hard, pulling a gun off his belt. Victor spun, hurling him into a tree. Quickly following, Victor wrestled the gun away. He scanned the ground for Nick, wanting to hand it off, and saw him trying to club the technopath.
He shot over, leaving the other flier cursing in the tree. Shouting an apology, he punched the technopath in the back of their head. They dropped, unconscious.
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Nick grinned. “I had ‘em.”
“Take this,” Victor said, shoving the gun at Nick.
Suddenly a bolt of electricity shot through Victor. He dropped to the ground, heart racing as he tried to breathe. Nick fired the gun, shouting.
Somewhere very nearby, Ethan screamed. Combined with the gunshots, Victor felt his ears break. A flash of light bled through his closed eyes. The smell of lavender washed over him, the scent so strong he could taste it.
It was too much. Victor passed out.
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Inez held her breath, punching the odormancer in the stomach then jaw. His eyes rolled back as he collapsed, unconscious. She smiled, turning to find her next target.
Suddenly the teleporter was next to her. The kid grinned, grabbed her, and looked up. Instantly they were miles high.
The teleporter let go as gravity caught up, leaning back to put her hands behind her head as they fell.
Inez screamed, grabbing her as they passed through a cloud.
“Hey, your boyfriend is the flier, right?” the teleporter asked, watching Inez. “Think he’ll come save you?”
“Get me down!” Inez snapped. “Get me down get me down!”
“Why?” the kid asked. “Just close your eyes and relax. We’ve got a minute or two before we hit the ground.”
Inez… screamed again.
“Yeah, that’s like the opposite of relaxing.”
“I swear, if you don’t put me on the ground this instant-“
“What’ll you do?” she asked excitedly. “Blind me so I can’t see the ground? Punch me out? Ground me and send me to my room?”
Inez snarled, closing her eyes.
A few seconds passed by in silence. When Inez opened her eyes, the teleporter was trying to unlock her phone.
“How- Give that back!” Inez yelled, grabbing for it.
The kid grinned, holding it out to take a selfie of them. “Wait, that was blurry. Would you stop moving?”
“Give me my phone!”
“Yeah, sure, just let me take a picture!”
Inez stopped moving, glaring at the camera. The teleporter took a picture, checked it, and nodded.
“Epic. And here you go,” she said, passing Inez the phone.
Inez shoved it back into her pocket. “Thank you. Now can we go back down?”
“We are going down,” the kid answered. “That’s how gravity works.”
Inez took a deep breath.
“Ok, ok, fine,” she said, adjusting her position. “Here we go.” She looked down.
Suddenly they were half a foot above the ground. Inez landed hard, falling over. The teleporter landed perfectly, laughing at her. Inez grabbed her, shoving her hand over the kid’s face. She sent out a blast of light, enough to temporarily blind her.
The teleporter screamed, kicking and flailing as her eyes watered. She dropped to her knees, clutching her face.
“Sorry,” Inez muttered.
A pink and brown blur sped by, catching her attention. She watched it, wondering why Emmy was here. Inez didn’t notice the canisters she dropped until they went off.
There must have been thirty of them, filled with sleeping gas. Emmy had spread them out, covering half the park. Inez spun around as gas filled the air, looking for the enemy flier and speedster. She didn’t see them before the gas covered her, filling her lungs.
Inez collapsed over the teleporter, falling asleep.