I was flying around the city, orbiting from high above in the early hours of the morning. On patrol, while other members of our coalition snatched precious hours of sleep and rest. I had an open connection with Dragon active on my phone, and she was keeping me company while providing me with randomized search patterns to follow.

  I was flying at a moderate to fast pace, varying my speeds as I went, hopefully to make it hard to intercept me or lay ambush traps. As far as I was aware, Shatterbird was the only member of the Nine that could fly, and it would be exceedingly risky for her to try to engage with me on her own. Still, precautions needed to be taken, so I was doing what I could.

  With my head hanging a bit low and angled downward as I flew, I was able to engage all of my eyes, each one independently scanning, identifying, and tracking movement and shapes across a wide swathe of the city as I passed overhead. The darkness was no obstacle at all for me; I was seeing in a level of detail and clarity, and across a far wider spectrum than the old me could have ever dreamed of. Being able to see in the infrared spectrum was practically cheating when it came to situations like this. Or hell, most any situation, really. It didn’t even register to me anymore how strange my vision was.

  “Delta eight is quiet. A couple of people moving around, but nobody matching the description of our BOLO targets,” I spoke quietly into the phone coiled up in my hair.

  Dragon’s voice echoed back: “Sounds good. Head over to Bravo two next. Sending you the details now.”

  My phone chirped in my hair, and I glanced at the screen with one eye. A new flight path. I adjusted my heading and started moving.

  “Dragon?”

  “Mm, yes?”

  “I ah–really appreciate your assistance and keeping me a little company here tonight.”

  “Of course, Apex. But?” Her tone was warm, as it normally was, and lightly teasing.

  I sighed. Of course, she knew I was getting at something else. “But I’m worried about you not taking care of yourself. I know you were helping out Eclipse, and then Glory Girl before me. I don’t want the world’s greatest tinker making mistakes because she’s over-tired or half out of her mind on stims.”

  Dragon laughed, carefree and jovial. “You don’t need to worry about that at all, but thank you, Apex.”

  Oh.

  “You’re a noctis cape as well?”

  “In effect, yes. I’m capable of sleeping if I want to, but I rarely do. You know how things go when it comes to downtime and availability. If you can skip sleep without any downsides, it can be hard to justify taking the time for yourself when you could be relieving people who do need sleep.”

  “Yeah, it’s true. I’m happy to give my team and my friends the coverage. I want them rested and on top of things, and not strung out and half-awake.”

  “Hmm,” Dragon’s tone shifted.

  “What’s up?” I asked her.

  “A drone went offline in Echo four. I’m trying to reconnect.”

  I banked and changed directions to head over to that part of the city. “Moving to see if I can catch anything going on,” I told her.

  “I just lost another, this one in Delta six. There one moment, gone the next. No error codes, faults, or alarms.” Concern was edging into her voice.

  “Possible we have some action? I don’t want to ring alarm bells and wake everyone on a false positive.”

  “Mm, possible. Could also be one of the existing players in the city who isn’t appreciating the additional attention and scrutiny the Nine are causing in the city,” Dragon replied.

  “Alright, I can see Echo four now. Not seeing anyone out and moving, I’m going to circle around to get different angles, might be people hiding in the shadows.”

  “One moment, Apex. Colin is requesting my attention at PHQ.”

  “Sure, I’m just keeping an eye out in the meantime,” I told her.

  I heard the line click as she switched over. Circling in a several-city-block-wide arc overhead, I tried to spot any malcontents. I spotted Dragon’s drone; the heat signature was very distinctive: one oblong hot box, surrounded by eight equidistant hot spots. Her octo-copter drones were about a meter across, so a respectable size. It had crashed on a three-story rooftop, with several of the arms snapped off. The central body was smoking, but didn’t seem to be actively on fire, so I ignored it. Fire hazards were a major problem in the city right now, but with the suspicion of foul play going on, I had other priorities.

  My phone rang, startling the shit out of me. Vicky was calling. She should be at the station currently.

  I answered.

  “Morgan, I just woke up, and I can’t find Amy.” Vicky’s voice was tense.

  “Any signs of things going on?” I tried to project calmness and steadiness to her through the phone.

  “No, and that’s why I’m freaking out–she should be here right now.”

  “Have you checked in her workshop in the basement maintenance area?”

  “Oh! No! Hang on.” I heard the sound of the phone being shifted around.

  “Maybe she was just restless and decided to work on her suit some. It would be good to know if it’s there or not, too.”

  “True, I might lose signal down there. I’ll call you right back if I do,” she said.

  “No worries, Vicky. She’s probably just working, and if she isn’t, then we’ll figure it out.”

  I heard her yawn while shuffling around in the background. “How’s patrols going?”

  “Quiet for the most part, but I’m investigating some potential action here. Dragon’s lost two drones in the past five minutes. I’m out here on the east side of town, near the boardwalk, right now.”

  “Be careful, please. It’s after one in the morning; anyone responding is going to be slow to arrive.”

  I saw motion, a group of three people, looking fairly rough. Likely natives. They were moving to check out the drone and glancing up at the sky in my direction. They wouldn’t be able to see me, but they could clearly hear me. Many of the people of Brockton Bay recognized the distinctive sound of me flying around at this point, which was both a blessing and a curse. Mobility mattered more than stealth did in most circumstances I’d faced so far.

  My phone made the beep-beep-beep sound to signify the call had dropped. To be expected when you're putting that much concrete and rebar over your head.

  I kept an eye on the three from several hundred feet up while I waited for Victoria to call me back. Amy disappearing from her room now had me worrying. I didn’t like it.

  My phone rang again, and I picked it up right away.

  “Is she in her workshop?” I asked right away.

  I heard muffled whimpering in the background.

  “Hey,” Brian’s deep voice came through, although it was slightly staticky. He sounded like he was wheezing. “We just got attacked. The Slaughterhouse Nine.”

  “Fuck! Who, and where?” I shot back quickly.

  “Jack Slash, Cherish, Burnscar. Downtown area. Tattle’s hurt bad.” He was huffing and speaking in short bursts.

  “Fuck. Get her to the station right away, and we can treat her. The faster you get her there, the better.”

  “Not going to, know you’re out… Make arrests,” He panted.

  “Grue, Brian, shut the fuck up and get her there. I don’t care about your warrants. I don’t want her to die, and more importantly, we have the S-Nine to deal with than to beef over the bullshit earlier this week,” I said, exasperated that he’d risk his teammates’ lives rather than risk getting arrested. Maybe he had another doctor or surgeon available, but he didn’t have Amy Dallon.

  “Need…Your word…”

  “Yes, you have my word, just fucking get over there, steal a car or something if you have to! Now, where the fuck did you see the Nine? I might be able to intercept them if they’re on foot!” I was straining to avoid shouting, and I’d already peeled off from the drone crash site near the Boardwalk and was heading towards Downtown.

  “No time, call everyone. Shatterbird singing… Ten minutes.”

  “Fuck! Okay, I’ll let everyone know that I can. Where!?”

  “Morrison Street, near parking deck,” he replied while juggling his phone.

  “Okay, coming as fast as I can. Did you see what way they went?!”

  “North.” The phone went dead. That was fine, I had to alert the others. I pulled out my second phone, and I called both Director Piggot with my PRT phone and Melody with my personal phone.

  Piggot picked up on the third ring. “What?” was the first thing out of her mouth. I couldn’t tell if I’d just woke her up or if she was awake already.

  “Undersiders scuffled with three of the Nine, and have wounded. Slash, Cherish, and Burnscar are leaving central downtown, heading North. I’m moving to get eyes on them and intercept if possible. Undersiders reported Shatterbird is going to sing in…”

  I checked the time on my phone. It’d been a minute, and I took another off for safety’s sake. “Eight minutes.”

  My other phone went to voicemail. I hung up and dialed again.

  “Got it,” Piggot said, all business. “Try to see if you can locate them and call back if she hasn’t sung already. Use your best judgment on whether or not to engage.”

  I heard blaring sirens start wailing in the background of Piggot’s line. “I’ve just been informed, Mannequin is in HQ and attacked Armsmaster.”

  “Fuck! I got a call that Panacea is missing from the station, and now I’m not getting a response from Eclipse. I think they’ve spread out and are attacking multiple locations,” I said, my voice grating and growling like someone tossing bricks into a wood chipper.

  Melody’s voicemail picked up again. I hung up and dialed Carol instead.

  “No alerts or alarms from the Dockyards. We’ve got people here who can respond to Mannequin. I leave it in your hands to decide if you want to pursue those three you’re after, or if you want to make sure your home is safe.”

  “Good luck, Director.” I clicked the line closed and dialed Dragon.

  Carol picked up the call on my other phone.

  “Brandish, are you at base right now?”

  I heard an insane racket in the background, parahuman combat, or a demolition derby.

  “No, we’re northside right now, and all hell is breaking loose! Siberian and Shatterbird are both up here, near the railyards, as is Hellhound and one or two of the Merchants!”

  I glanced toward the Northern part of the city, and there was a flash of light, followed by an enormous ball of fire slowly rising up from the ground. Garbled static came through the phone line, and a moment later, the booming thunder of a massive explosion passed over me.

  “Brandish! Brandish!” I yelled at my phone.

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  My other phone went to a default voicemail recording. “The user you are attempting to call has not set up their voicemail inbox. You can leave a message after the beep.”

  I was flying zig-zag patterns at aggressive speeds over the northern part of Downtown. I still wasn’t seeing any sign of the three, but people were coming out into the streets, poking out of windowsills, and climbing onto fire escapes to try and get an idea of what was going on.

  I left an extremely to-the-point and only verified information voicemail update for Dragon, then hung up. Carol’s line was still open and static-laden, but I could hear sounds of combat in the background. I tried to make out the sounds to try and get an idea of who else was up at the railyards. I heard loud explosions, but loud in a localized way. That was probably Flashbang, assuming it wasn’t gunfire. There were also whooshing roars and staccato snaps and cracks. That was Laserdream, Lady Photon, or both, no doubt about it. Their lasers had a very telltale sound.

  There! What sounded like crackling, arcing electricity. That was Brandish’s energy weapons.

  Thank fuck, she’s alive. What the fuck was that explosion!? Did Piggot call in an airstrike?

  Okay, Apex, focus! Mark, Carol, Crystal, and Sarah are at the rail yards. Dockyards are quiet. Two of the Nine with New Wave. Three of the Nine I’m hunting after, that leaves four unaccounted for. No, wait. Mannequin is at HQ. But who the hell is Cherish? Do they have a tenth? Three, maybe four unaccounted for. Eclipse isn’t answering, Vicky isn’t answering, or is out of signal. Amy is missing. Who else is at the Station tonight?

  Oh, Lily!

  I dialed Flechette with my PRT phone. She picked up right away. “What’s going on, Apex!? We’re hearing explosions. Is that the Air Force?”

  “Flechette, are you at the station right now?” I fought to keep my voice level. They needed me to be the cool-headed one right now.

  A warbling wail came from behind me, growing rapidly in intensity until it was an insanely loud screaming siren. It waned over the course of a few seconds.

  “Y-yes,” she stammered. “Apex, I’m–”

  I could hear it in her voice; she was disjointed, bewildered, and scared.

  “Lily, listen to me.” Using her name silenced her mid-sentence. “I need you to stop whatever you’re doing, grab a bullhorn from ops, and get on the roof right this very instant. Sprint.”

  “I’m in my underwear, I’m trying to get my gear–”

  “Lily.” I heard the scrabbling around in the background pause, while the wailing cycled and started to pick up again. This time, multiple sirens were going around the city, the station being one of them. Most of the city was dark, but emergency alert systems ran on big battery backup systems. I hoped they still had charge after these past weeks.

  “Shatterbird is going to sing. Remember our briefings?”

  “I, yeah, I do,” she shouted over the siren.

  “Get your boots, put your helmet on if the visor isn’t glass to protect your eyes, and wrap up in a couple of blankets. You don’t have time to get suited up! Get to Operations, get a bullhorn, go to the roof, and get everyone in the station underground and away from all glass. Now repeat it back to me.”

  “Uh, boots and eye pro, blanket, bullhorn, get everyone underground,” she rattled off rapid-fire.

  “Good. Now go, there’s only a few minutes left, get everyone safe in case she hits the station with a sandstorm.”

  “I’m going, are you coming over here?! There’s hardly anyone, any capes here!”

  No wonder she’s panicking. That’s a lot of people to try and keep safe solo.

  “I’m on my way, but I don’t know if I’m going to make it in time. I’ve been chasing some of the Nine. I have to go, get everyone safe, and tell them nothing but their clothing!”

  “Okay!”

  I hung up.

  I’d better try to get to the station. We’ll have other chances to hit them.

  “Brandish, can you hear me?!” I called out into my phone. I heard a scratching sound, then Crystal’s voice, “A bit busy at the moment!”

  “Crystal! Take shelter right now, Shatterbird!”

  Oh, shit. Faultline!

  I wanted to blast as much speed as I could to traverse the skies, but it could be a horrendous tactical mistake. I’d arrive sooner, but I’d arrive overheated. Should I find myself in a situation where I had to face the Nine, in full or in part, I couldn’t afford to go in scorching hot and running at half power.

  “What!?” Crystal shouted over what sounded like a trainwreck and a hundred windows being smashed all at the same time.

  “Shatterbird! Song! Take cover, retreat, shelter!” Hopefully, she’d be able to make out some of what I was saying.

  Faultline picked up the phone.

  “Mom! Apex said we need to take cover–” the call cut out momentarily. “...Song!”

  Good enough, message relayed.

  I switched phones.

  “Apex?” Faultline sounded like she’d just been woken up moments ago.

  “Shatterbird. Two minutes or less, get everyone safe.”

  “FUCK!” I was almost certain it was the first time I’d heard her swear. “Thanks, bye!” A door slammed, then the call ended.

  Another bright flash, followed by an enormous ball of fire, trailed by a thunderclap I could feel. Again, from the northern outer reaches of the city.

  Seriously, what the fuck is that?! God damn it, I want to go to the station, but I don’t hear or see signs of battle from here, while the northside looks like a fucking battlefield or something.

  I made a judgment call, even though it made my heart wrench. I shifted my heading, cutting more directly north for the railyards and diverting from the station. As much as I wanted to keep home safe and secure, I couldn’t leave New Wave to face two of the worst members of the Nine, along with who-knows-how-many other hostiles.

  I pushed a bit more speed into my flight and did what I could to streamline myself, tucking and straightening my arms and legs. Meanwhile, I pushed my power, which was quite excited with all the activity.

  Vivian on the left arm. Vivian can kill people, right? And I might need to stabilize or do medical on New Wave. Quills on the right arm, a lot of quills, more than normal. Give me like 25% non-lethal, like usual, and make the rest the absolute deadliest poisons you can come up with. Give me smoke, pain whips, and my arc tail. What about fire? Can you make a flamethrower, or something?

  The response was… weird. Like a celebratory typhoon? Joyous hurricane? Whatever it was, it was very energetic. I let the changes through as they became available. The tail was first, and I set to charging it in a way that wasn’t going to leave me feeling like a half-inflated balloon afterwards. The change I hadn’t tried before, the so-called flamethrower, manifested as a wriggling, worming sensation up my chest and into my mouth. I could feel a hard ring under my tongue, along with a bunch of nodules surrounding it. As each change was completed, I felt an increasing weight bearing down on my psyche. This was the most amount of stuff I’d tried to push myself into doing simultaneously, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to maintain it for very long.

  That’s fine. I doubt it’ll take too long. Parahuman battles tend to be fairly short-duration affairs.

  Another explosion, and this time I was close enough to make out some details. There was debris flying everywhere, lit by the ball of fire. Some of it looked structural, some of it was mechanical in nature.

  I hope people remember what their emergency warning system sounds are. I know they’re repeated on television and radio fairly often, but if people recognize that siren as the ‘shelter in place’ siren and not a random fire siren, that’d be for the best. I can only hope that Piggot and the rest of the staff at HQ have been blowing up all the radio channels for different city locations and services.

  I heard a low hum, with a slow vibrato to it, between the crests and valleys of the emergency warning sirens.

  Oh no, is it time already!?

  I checked my phone. It was. I held the power button on each of them down and turned them off. I wasn’t sure if it would have any effect at all, but I didn’t have a ton of options available to me at the moment. Trying to do something was better than sitting and doing nothing.

  Both the pitch and volume of the hum rose. I put both of my phones into my big hands so they wouldn’t be right next to my head. I didn’t think that they could harm me either way. I could see distortions forming on panes of glass on the sides of buildings and windows as I passed. Circular patterns and rippling waves were catching the little amount of moonlight and warping the flat surface of the glass panes.

  The intensity of the hum spiked dramatically in intensity, and then everywhere I was looking that had glass simultaneously exploded in clouds of crystalline shrapnel. I felt my phone pop in my palms. With a sigh, I transferred the now glass-free shells of the phones back to my hair. Maybe they could be fixed, but I had to keep them secure, regardless.

  I was approaching the railyards now. There were a number of buildings and warehouses that were in various stages of either catching on fire or being fully ablaze. The fires were casting long visible light shadows, and both the burning buildings and smoke were blindingly bright to my IR vision. I stopped flapping and started gliding while I scanned from the skies, trying to get a picture of just what the hell was going on down there.

  I saw at least three corpses. I could tell they were corpses because all of them were in pieces, and both their body parts and their blood were splattered and sprayed all over and glowing a different shade than the ground. One was Mush, who I could tell apart by his strange anatomy. Another body was strewn about, both in and around chunks of a large mechanical suit that was still radiating heat.

  Mush. Trainwreck also deceased.

  The third was in a ditch and looked to be missing part of their lower leg and one arm from the elbow down. I was attempting to ID them, looking closer with additional eyes, when I saw that they weren’t dead. At least, not dead yet. There was quite hot blood oozing and spraying from the stumps of their limbs. They’d be dead in a matter of minutes, or less.

  I scanned around. Bitch was nowhere to be seen; both she and her dogs were gone. I was looking for the two members of the Nine, as well as New Wave. Possible, maybe even likely they were in the area of the damaged and burning buildings. I heard a shrieking screech, and a bunch of smoke got blown out of the column shape it had been in, parting as a mass of opaque stuff flew through the air, looping around like a snake and striking from another angle.

  It’s glass. Okay, I know where at least some of New Wave are. I can’t let whoever that is just die in a ditch like that.

  I tucked my wings and entered a steep dive. Time was of the essence, not only for this person, but for the rest of my friends as well. I flared at the last moment and shot out several intense down-blasts of air, angled to the sides of the ditch person to bleed speed off. I dropped the remaining thirty or so feet, my paws sinking deep into the soft, sending clumps of mud and grass splattering everywhere.

  I picked up my rescue. It was Squeaker, or most of her, at least. I didn’t see where her leg or arm was on my descent. I suspected that the Siberian was responsible for her condition, so chances were they could be anywhere. The woman was out cold, her skin was a sickly color, she was sweating and clammy, and her chest was jerking in rapid, shallow breaths. She’d be dead without immediate attention. I sprouted a dozen tentacles around my right flank and strapped her in tight.

  I set Vivian to the task of stabilizing her, and she opened up fully, reaching across my midriff to treat my patient. I could feel the numerous tendrils piercing Squealer and transferring what I presumed to be blood or something similar. Meanwhile, my hand and Vivian’s nastier-looking appendages went to work on Squealer’s amputation sites.

  I climbed out of the mud and was preparing to take off when motion caught my eye. Something was approaching me from the dark at a very rapid pace.

  Oh shit!

  I spread my paws and splayed my toes, digging my claws into the pavement. I reached out with my arms and extended my tail just in time to catch an entire flatbed train car flying at me. It was far too big and too heavy to stop without risking Squealer’s life. I spotted the gleaming teeth and glowing yellow eyes of the Siberian.

  I shifted to the side and snatched the train car by one end, and started to pivot. I felt the joints in my arms creak and pop, and I leaned back hard while pivoting around, digging my feet into the pavement deep and using my tail to assist with the rotation. I could feel the metal buckling and tearing as I brought it around.

  Just a little more… there!

  I hurled the car straight back at her like a sixty-foot-long discus. She apparently thought that was just grand, judging by the gleeful expression on her face right up until it collided with her. The damn thing crumpled and blew into giant shrapnel chunks with a horrible screech. Thousands of pounds of steel flowed around her slim frame like she was parting water. Meanwhile, she didn’t even flinch.

  I couldn’t beat the Siberian. I couldn’t even harm the Siberian. She was maybe about fifty or sixty yards away from me. It was time to go, right now.

  I blasted a huge wad of smoke out of my back, which burst outwards in all directions, and I threw my voice toward a partially collapsed warehouse, imitating metal buckling. I heard a loud crunch of pavement being pulverized–another sound I knew too well–followed by a bang near the warehouse.

  Thank fuck, she can’t see me through the smoke.

  I cut and run at the highest speed that I could maintain while being nearly silent on dry, hard ground, which was quite fast. I kept the smoke up, hitting it hard while I made a beeline for New Wave’s last known location. I heard laser fire and more of the uncanny roar that was Shatterbird’s snaking glass blasts. I tucked my wings up as hard as I could as I tore through the streets.

  Seal my wings up so she can’t sandblast them off my back. Go ahead and seal up the druggie bitch on my side, too, if she’s stable. Please make sure she’s not going to suffocate or something.

  What felt like a hundred tentacles slid out of my back and wrapped up my wings, tugging them flush against my back and knitting together into a protective envelope. More piled on top of the ones already holding Squealer to my side and cocooned her. Vivian withdrew, seemingly satisfied for the moment.

  I don’t know why here, why now, but I was struck with a sudden urge. Ever since becoming Apex, my relationship with my ability had been steadily shifting. Talking to Taylor, Amy, Hannah, Dennis, and Vista, I’d come to learn that this relationship I had with my ability wasn’t typical, or at least, wasn’t similar to their experiences. My power and I… We were a team all on our own, and we had become steadily and dramatically more effective together over the past couple of months.

  I’ve never really felt this way before, but thank you, power. If it weren’t for you… Arguing with me, for lack of a better term, I’d never be able to help my friends in the ways I can right now.

  I couldn’t tell if it responded at all. It was still extremely active, like a gale whipping me around on the surface of the ocean. Maybe I was just slowly and steadily losing my mind.

  I rounded a corner, tearing asphalt out in chunks with my loping gait on all fours. New Wave was putting up a fight against Shatterbird, who was hovering like a glittering, raven-haired doll over an intersection. New Wave had taken shelter in a self-storage place at one point. Flimsy building construction, but glass-free, so smart as a quick solution, but bad as a fortified position to fight in.

  Manpower was up front, a barely visible, glowing, elliptical shield wrapped tightly around his form. His shield was more easily visible due to the coating of dust clinging to it. Laserdream was kneeling over a supine Flashbang. He looked bad, like he had pretty severe road rash on one arm and part of his chest. She had a shield up over herself and her uncle, and looked to be cauterizing some parts that shouldn’t be visible.

  Fuck. They need to get him out of here ASAP.

  Brandish and Lady Photon were assaulting Shatterbird, Brandish wielding a tower shield of the same golden, bound electricity of her energy weapons in one hand, and a spear in the other. She was primarily providing defense for her sister, who was trying to blast Shatterbird with her lasers. Brandish was able to block the sand and glass with her shield, which vaporized it, and was manipulating clouds of what looked like fine glass shards or maybe dust. The clouds were refracting and diffusing the lasers aimed at her with ease.

  Manpower was providing additional cover for Laserdream and Mark.

  The part that concerned me the most about this situation was the fact that my sister was poised directly between Brandish and Lady Photon. She was close enough to touch them, and was.

  It’s a stalemate, but they’re stuck. Why isn’t the Siberian here, though? Why was she off fucking around with the Merchants? Boredom?

  I saw Shatterbird’s head turn as she noticed my headlong approach. Her eyes widened just a bit.

  Good. You should be afraid, you piece of shit.

  She darted to the side as I skidded to a stop, plowing straight through the space she’d occupied only a second before. She withdrew all her sand and glass into loops rotating around her on different axes. A good defensive posture, no doubt.

  “New Wave, Eclipse. You’re retreating. I’ll cover you, and I have a plus one for you to transport,” I growled out loudly enough for everyone to hear me clearly in the sudden quiet.

  “And you think I’m just going to let them slink away to lick their wounds?” Shatterbird had a rich mezzo-soprano voice with a melodic Arabic accent.

  I unwrapped Squealer and took her in my tail claws, transporting her over and dropping her in Manpower’s arms. Brandish looked like she wanted to argue with me, but a glance back at her other family members changed her mind.

  I addressed Shatterbird, speaking with a certainty I hope wasn’t all just projection on my part. “Shatterbird. You can leave here right now, alive and intact, with the knowledge of all the pain, misery, and death you’ve already caused tonight to tide you over, or you can try and fight me on your own. I don’t give you very good chances of surviving that fight.”

  The woman threw her head back and cackled like a straight-up Aleph film villainess.

  “Eclipse, go with them, make sure they arrive safely, and keep the place safe until we get everyone back. The Nine have attacked all over the city and are still on the move.”

  Like Brandish, I expected her to argue with me. Instead, she nodded once, her helmet and visor obscuring most of her face.

  Manpower laid Squealer over one of his massive shoulders, then picked up Flashbang and draped him over his other shoulder. Eclipse stepped over to Lady Photon and pulled a coiled-up strap from her utility belt. Lady Photo slung it over one shoulder like a bandolier, and Eclipse clipped herself onto the belt. Lady Photon wrapped her arms around my sister, and Laserdream did a similar maneuver with her aunt. The three of them and their passengers took off, with Manpower running and leaping across rooftops on the way back.

  I turned ever-so-slowly back towards Shatterbird. My muscles were tensed, and I was ready to spring into action at the drop of a pin.

  “Make your decision, Shatterbird. I’m a busy lady.”

  I saw her upper lip curl into a sneer. “Did a fancy title blow up your ego, or have you always been this way?”

  “You’re virtually zero threat to me. I doubt you could harm me, much less kill me. I’m speaking for your benefit, not mine. I’m nice like that.”

  I saw her eyes widen and her nostrils flare when I called her harmless.

  So she’s an egomaniac. Very good to know.

  She let out an inarticulate, enraged scream and attacked me with all of her amassed weaponry. I took a deep inhale and snapped the vents along my jaw shut a moment before the flying blender-slash-sandblaster hit me. I felt winding patterns of sand and glass wiggling and slithering all over me, searching for weak spots, entrances, and exits. As I’d expected, she wasn’t able to do a thing to my skin or my carapace, and outside of waiting me out on the off chance I’d have to come up for air eventually, she couldn’t really harm me without open wounds.

  So while she was blasting the hell out of me, I just padded toward her. I couldn’t really see outside the tiny glimpses where gaps formed in the mass attacking me, but she was lit up clear as day, hovering in the air as she was, so it wasn’t hard to find her. She darted around several times, and I turned and kept following her. She flew above a rooftop. The building looked pretty sturdy. I performed a sprightly little hop up from street level to the third-floor roof.

  Back down to just above street level, she went, and I followed. I was waiting for her to disperse her swarm, and the moment she did, I’d strike. I wanted to buy New Wave breathing room to retreat. I’d put her down if I saw the opportunity, but just doing this cat-and-mouse game was favoring my agenda heavily. I had a plan ready.

  She was holding a position about thirty feet from me and about ten feet off the pavement. Her mass of silica pulled off me and flew back towards her. I dug my upper right hand into the pavement and side-slung a fat handful of asphalt and gravel at her with all the strength I could muster without overly telegraphing the attack.

  It streaked at her like grapeshot fired from a cannon. There was enough mass there that I was pretty sure she couldn’t have her swarm soak all of it up, and it was going plenty fast enough to perforate her. She could gamble on blocking it, she could dodge it, or she could die. I really didn’t care which she chose, but I expected she was going to block and dodge.

  She did. Her glass and sand fell into a more solid mass, and most of the rocks and pavement were stopped, but not all of it. She darted up and to the left. I was already mid-swing and lashed out with a whole cluster of pain whips, the long, jellyfish-like transparent tendrils barely visible in the poor lighting. She sent out a chunk of her stained-glass ‘clothing’ to sever and block the thin tentacles. I had to give it to her; her aim and reaction times were incredible. She managed to sever all of the tentacles.

  Unfortunately for her, just like jellyfish tentacles, the pain whip didn’t need to be attached to still work. Flopping through the air towards her like several strands of overcooked pasta, one slapped into her lower leg, and another wrapped around her hand with a juicy smack . There was about half a second of pure revulsion plastered on her face before all the pain receptors on her leg and hand around the strands decided to inform her that she was being incinerated.

  It was just as bad as I’d remembered it being when I’d used them against members of the ABB. She let out a blood-curdling scream, dropped about three feet, and her formerly tightly formed shield grew fuzzy and crumbled.

  If she can’t concentrate, she can’t control her ability very well. Also good to know.

  I sucked in a lungful of air, dropped into a crouch, then pounced straight at her, all in one smooth motion. Despite the agony she was in, she was still managing to pay some level of attention to me. She started to take off vertically as I flew towards her. I cracked my jaw open and tried my best to aim my head above her. I squeezed with my chest and felt, as much as I heard, crackling snaps under my tongue. A jetting stream of sparkling, glowing goop sprayed out of my mouth, and I waggled my head back and forth, trying to cover as much space as I could.

  It ignited into a solid stream of blue flame a few feet from my face.

  My aim was atrocious; the liquid was viscous and stringy. I’d never once even tried to use this before right now, and I was aiming at a fast-moving flying target while also flying. I missed with nearly all of it. But a few strands had webbed out, and a handful more droplets separated from the stream, and those had hit her. She managed to intensify her screaming as I flew by, well under her. She coated herself with sand, but each time she took the sand away, the stuff instantly re-ignited. On, then off, then on again, then off. Finally, she packed it around herself like she was wearing a snow suit, and flew off into the night.

  I started unpacking my wings right away. I had to get back to the station as quickly as possible to find out what the status there was. I had a terrible feeling that this night was just getting started.