Jack opened his eyes.
He was paralyzed, as if held by some invisible force inside him. Only his eyes could move, darting around, taking stock. He could feel the wooden arms of the chair pressing up against his hands, its stiff frame digging into his back. His knees were set right up against the wall.
The wallpaper was milquetoast, sky-blue with generic white flowers patterning up and down, across his vision. As he stared, Jack felt like his eyes were rolling out as the petals and stalks started flowing around each other. He strained to the left and right, testing the invisible restraints. Nothing gave way.
"Do you like it? I spent a long time deciding on that shade of blue."
Taylor came up behind him. Her hand ghosted around his neck, drifting lightly over his collarbone and down his chest where she ran a finger along the curve of his new bosom.
"Also, I hope you like the little dress I got for you. It's a nice yellow, very homely."
Irritation grew in him, simmering in his chest. Jack strained against his unmoving body, pulling his muscles taut. He tried to look down, to look away from the maddening blue wall, to turn around with a knife and stab it into Taylor—
He breathed out, slowly, calmly. The rush of air felt hot and heavy in his ears. Jack stretched his attention to the peripheral edges of his vision, trying to make out any other detail around him.
What else was Taylor planning? Turning him into a woman was too mild.
His chair jerked backwards. The room tilted, the ceiling swinging into view. It was white, simple with a round lamp in the middle. The floor was wood; Jack could hear the chair sliding over it noisily, the legs bumping loudly against the gaps.
The house was small and cozy. There was an orange cushion couch against the wall, a red and white throw slung over it. Magazines strewed across a small coffee table, next to a blocky plastic phone. Jack could make out the kitchen through an open doorway. There was a light teal fridge near the entrance, its corners rounded retro style.
Then Taylor turned him around, right before a mirror. He stared at the woman in the pane. She seemed younger, at least 20 years off his age. Her face still resembled himself, just softer from some angles and sharper in others with the right amounts to emphasize his new femininity. The dress was bright yellow, thick shoulder straps with a pleated skirt.
"Your fashion sense is atrocious," Jack suddenly said aloud. He looked at Taylor stiffly, one eyebrow raised. "I see you've deigned to let me speak."
Taylor stared back, her face impassive. "I did consider not to."
Jack's smile was wide, full of teeth. "Why, so wary of little o' me?"
"You're dangerous."
"But that danger is what makes it worth it." Jack strained forward in his chair, his eyes locking with Taylor. "Otherwise how could you have really beaten me? Otherwise how can your revenge really be complete? But I'm sure you already know that, don't you?"
Taylor leaned against the wall, folding her arms. She didn't reply, but she didn't look away either.
Jack chuckled, breaking away first. He settled back languidly. "Besides, I don't see why you need to be so afraid. You can undo your mistake at any time. That puts you at quite an advantage over me."
"Is it?" Taylor asked. "An advantage?"
"Isn't it? Infinite retries. Unlimited shots at the penalty line." Puzzlement seemed to cross Jack's face. "You'll have all the time in the world to plan for your ultimate revenge."
"You forgot the 'if'." Taylor shifted, bracing her head against the wall. Her eyes were glittering and clear. "If the ultimate revenge even exists."
Jack gave a bark of laughter, as if baffled. "Of course it exists. It's just a matter of finding the right combination."
"And maybe the right combination doesn't end with killing you? At least not yet, not now?"
A small tendril of uneasiness curled around Jack. Keenly, he could feel his heart thumping in his chest, the ordinary rhythm suddenly loud to his ears.
Outwardly, he put on another smile. "If you think I'm trying to trick you, then kill me. I'm in no position to stop you."
Taylor shook her head. "You know I won't. I can't." She sighed, puffing her cheeks with a long exhale. "I need this revenge. I'm trapped by it. I can see that, so I'm sure you can too.
"In fact, I'm sure you're betting on it. How else are you going to control me, like you do the rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine? Your mouth says one thing, but your heart says another. You're Jack Slash. You don't plan to die. You always win. How could you not, when the rest of us are just fools, mired in ourselves, our leashes just waiting for someone to pick up and pull."
"A charming description. I'm blushing," Jack said, his voice flat. The smile on his face was gone. He looked calm and measured, but his eyes betrayed him; they drifted around the house, trying to find any other clue or detail he could use.
Inside, something cold inched down his spine. His skin prickled with adrenaline.
"You don't seem too happy about the compliment. Why? Was I too honest?"
He knew he missed something. Something he saw briefly, as he was moved. Strewn on the coffee table, a splash of colour.
"Should I have pretended a little better to fall for your plan?"
The magazines. Jack strained as he turned around, looking back to the magazines in front of the blocky phone. MACLEAN'S, the top one read. PORTRAIT OF TWO NATIONS.
A small, innocuous text was printed along its top border.
July 1989.
Jack breathed out slowly, hissing. She brought him to the past, to Canada. His mind whirred as he tried to remember what happened then, if there was anything notable then. Were they here for the Birdcage? Newfoundland? What was dangerous here?
No.
He blinked as the sudden realization set in.
The doorbell rang.
Taylor straightened up. She patted herself down, plucking at the invisible lint. "It seems our time together has come to an end. Not as long as you hoped it to be, I know."
"Do you really think this will work?" Jack growled. "I'll cut his head off the moment you leave. Or are you planning to stay by his side for the next 20 years as well?"
"C'mon Jack, you underestimate him. Last I checked, Vasil has survived for as long as you."
The doorbell rang again, this time followed by a sharp, impatient rap on the door. Jack snarled as his body suddenly stood up.
Taylor was beside him. She wiggled her fingers, forcing him forward. Each step felt heavy, ponderous. He strained, trying to stop his feet, to slow down.
"20 years to play around in the past, a master by my side. Imagine the chaos. Are you that confident? Do you really think you can control the outcome?"
"Him by your side or you by his?" Taylor looked at him through her lashes. "Are you that confident you can win?" She smiled sweetly as they reached the door. "Do you think Vasil even lets his victims speak without permission?"
"So, this is your revenge? Outsourcing it. Running away like a coward. You don't even dare to see it through," Jack bit out as his hand wrapped around the doorknob. He felt like a taut rope, pulling tighter and tighter as he raged in his body. His fingers twisted, turned; he could only look ahead. Only his mouth was under his control.
"You're working with a rapist! Helping him! Is that what you are now? Is this your idea of a perfect revenge?!"
Taylor raised a finger, stopping time right before he pulled the door open. The air turned stiff as the world shuttered to a stop.
She breathed out, slowly and carefully as she turned to him. "Before I found you in Texas, I went to Canada first."
Jack snorted. "You think because you've killed him in the future, therefore you're absolved from abetting him now?"
Taylor shrugged. "Not really. It's something I have to live with." She met his eyes, her gaze stark and piercing. "As will you."
"TAYLOR!" Jack snarled. The veins on his neck popped as blood rushed to his head. His vision turned fuzzy as he fought against his body, black and white dots swarming like the tune of a fading signal. "I'll find you! This isn't over! You, your family, everyone you love! I'll hunt them all down and save you for the last!"
Taylor only turned her hand, clenching it into a fist. The world spun as Jack was forced to face the door. A docile look of puzzlement settled on him as his body prepared to twist the knob.
"No, Jack," he heard her say, "when the time comes, I'll find you."
Time resumed, and the door pulled open. Sunlight flooded in, carrying the shadow of a tall, lanky stranger.
Abruptly, the invisible vise that gripped and controlled Jack disappeared. A part of him flinched, surprised at the sudden lightness of his body, but the other part was already trying to lunge forward, to grab Heartbreaker by the neck and snap it. He only had one chance. A moment between heartbeats to—
"Stop. Don't move. Don't think. Shut up and do only what I say." Jack's hand only made it halfway up before Nikos Vasil spoke. He stepped into the house, pushing Jack aside impatiently as he looked around. "No TV? You'll fix that later."
Vasil turned back, seemingly ignorant of what Jack was trying to do. Instead, he looked her up and down lazily, dispassionately, his gaze like slime sliding over his skin. Jack bristled. He wanted to roar, to cut this idiot wastrel down and start his hunt but he just—
Couldn't—
Bear—
—to move.
His skin flushed hot. The hairs on his neck prickled as a passionate heat danced tremulously through his veins. He blinked, trying to shove aside the fake emotions as he seared the image of Taylor into his mind. He focused on his hate, his anger, holding on to it like a life rope in a storm of pink.
Where was she? Hidden in the room? This was the past; he could work that. Twenty years, more than enough time to escape, to track her down, to find her and beat her and burn down everything she ever liked. He wanted to move his head. Was she still here? Was she still watching?!
"You'll do. Close the door," Heartbreaker said as he turned towards the couch. "Take off your clothes."
Jack pushed the door shut.
Lisa followed Sage into a dim, dusty room. A large workbench dominated the side, various half-assembled things and tools scattered across its surface. The bed was unmade, the blanket partly kicked onto the floor.
"Looks like it's been a while," she said, breaking the suffocating silence in the room. She folded her arms, unconsciously rubbing them.
Sage picked up the blanket, rolled it up and threw it back onto the bed. She glanced around, a tinge of wistfulness around her eyes. "It has. I'm surprised it's still working."
Lisa followed her gaze up. Lights dotted the ceiling, sparkling like tiny gems against an inky back. A second later, it clicked — it was a mural of a night sky, the different constellations twinkling in the dark. The deep black background made it look like it was floating on nothing, drifting ever so slightly in a spiral swirl.
Infinity, her power remarked simply.
She blinked. "It's beautiful."
"It is." Sage agreed simply, abruptly. Her lips twitched, a flash of something bittersweet, but she shook her head and threw over a dark bodysuit. "Try this, see if it fits. It should offer better protection than what you have now."
Lisa caught it automatically. The material felt tough but the insides were supple and comfortable. Sage already turned away.
"Is there really any better protection?" she asked, half-serious as she started to undo the buckles on her clothes. The air felt like a cool balm on her skin as she peeled the leathers off.
"Well, as long as you don't get hit."
"Ha ha ha," Lisa replied drily. She pulled Taylor's bodysuit up, sliding her arms into the sleeves and wiggling her fingers into the ends. It felt a little tight, but still easy enough to move around in. She pulled the suit over her shoulders before zipping it up. "What's this made of, anyway? It's not the best fit but still feels pretty good."
"It's our own invention, patent pending. A synthetic fibre inspired by spider silk, combining the best of toughness and comfiness," Sage replied, smirking as she turned around. She stepped closer, grabbing Lisa's hand. There was a small knob on her forearm. Sage thumbed over it for a second before twisting; a quick shimmer flashed over Lisa, covering her like a second skin.
"What—?"
"An in-built protective layer. It'll block one attack from Scion."
Lisa gave her a look. "Only one," she repeated. Her voice shook slightly as she forced a chuckle. "I feel so much better now."
Sage turned solemn. "You know, I can drop you off anywhere else instead. You don't have to come with us."
Lisa giggled, a strangled, nervous sound as she craned her neck up and ran her hands through her hair. "I'm really, really tempted to say yes to that." She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to work the words out. She shook her head instead. "Give it to me straight. What are our chances?"
Sage met her eyes unblinkingly. "We'll win."
Lisa held her gaze for a long second. She looked away first, biting her lips. "I can't tell if you're serious or not."
"I am serious. Your power should help you confirm that."
"Honestly, my power has been wonky around you Taylors," Lisa snapped back, her tone half-accusing. She raised her hands up and exhaled. "Sorry. It's been a little frustrating trying to sort out all the strange tangents I'm getting."
Sage seemed to consider her words. "Just say whatever's on your mind then," she said. "It helps if I answer, right?"
Lisa walked over to the workbench silently. She picked up a compass, closing the legs and twirling it between her fingers.
"The mural on the ceiling," she finally said. "Your mind is on it. You're... worrying about it, about something." She set the compass down and glanced back. "You're sad."
Sage looked up. The stars there twinkled in and out of view, adding to the illusion of the moving constellations.
"I..." she started, before pausing heavily. The expression on her face was tender, but it belied a simmering undercurrent in her eyes; before Lisa could read further into it, Sage blinked, and it was gone.
"I painted this with another Taylor. A break between the tedium of research." Sage joined Lisa at the workbench. "Her name was Infinite. I suppose seeing Cardinal again, and this, brought up some strange memories for me."
"What has this got to do with Scion?"
"It doesn't," Sage replied simply. She rapped on the table lightly. "Listen. You made it here, remember? Someone managed to lead you here."
"You mean another Taylor. One we never met." Lisa narrowed her eyes. "You know which Taylor it is, don't you?"
"I have a good guess."
"You're actually banking on it," Lisa said, almost incredulously. Her mouth worked as she tried to form her next sentence. "You're— Do you even know what her plan is? If there's even a plan? She might be crazy like Cardinal."
Sage only smiled. "Scion can't kill us instantly. You just focus on getting everyone out. We'll keep him busy."
"I— Alright." Lisa conceded, her lips pressed into a thin line. She couldn't read anything but conviction from Sage. The strange moments of regrets and doubts before were gone. Was she just lying? Lisa felt like she was flailing in the dark, groping at a vague truth as her power sputtered unreliably.
She had to trust her anyway. "I have to trust you on that anyway," she added, repeating her thoughts. Lisa wanted to feel more bitter about it but she could only muster up resignation. The day was just too exhausting.
Sage seemed to read her mood. She reached out, clasping her shoulder firmly for a moment. "C'mon," she said. "The others are probably waiting for us."
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Missy asked, kicking her legs idly with one arm outstretched on the table. On it was a half-assembled device, chunky and oversized compared to her.
Franklin didn't look up. She was bowed over Missy's arm, staring intently as she pinned down a wire and soldered it shut on the circuit board. "Stop moving your legs. I need to start doing the calibrations."
Victoria walked out from behind the broken screen. She was out of her ragged clothes, wrapped in one of Taylor's sleek bodysuits. Franklin glanced over, setting down her tools as she finished the last connection. "How's the size? Is it comfortable?"
Victoria ignored her question. "Not done yet? That looks like a mess," she said to Missy, her face full of doubt.
"It's the next best thing I can do without making a whole new outfit for Vista to wear," Franklin replied gently, bypassing the slight awkwardness. Lights flashed amongst the circuitry as she tapped on her bracer; an oval barrier popped over Vista with a shimmering hum.
She double-checked the figures on her screen before switching it off. "Power output looks stable. Everything seems wired up properly." She set her tools down, tucking the wires in and closing the device up on Missy's arm.
The blonde lifted her arm gingerly. When nothing happened, she waved it around slightly with more confidence. "At least it's not heavy," Missy said. "So this will block one shot from Scion?"
"Why just one?" Victoria asked. "Isn't that kinda useless?"
Franklin gave a half-shrug. "It fries the internal circuitry. There's just no material that actually can withstand that. Besides, we could reverse time to fix it, so it wasn't much of a problem when we designed it."
Missy set her arm down, trying to find a comfortable spot for it on her lap. "Now what?"
"We wait for Sage and Tattletale, then it's Shining Top." Franklin leaned back, cracking her neck. Her blue hair fluttered airily behind her as if caught in an invisible updraft.
Victoria settled down next to Missy. She was frowning. "Shouldn't we discuss more about that? Like, what's the plan against Scion? How are we gonna handle him?"
"Leave Scion to us." Franklin shifted forward, her face turning serious. "I mean it. The shields on you are one-time use only. It's a backup plan, not a means to fight against him. You just need to focus on convincing Miss Militia and the PRT to leave."
Missy suppressed a shudder. "Scion's all yours, believe me, but what about Cardinal? We all saw that video-memory thing."
"Cardinal..." Franklin started hesitantly, her brows furrowed. "She shouldn't be a problem. Newton managed to get her away, so she's not completely out of control."
Victoria straightened. "What if she's teamed up with Scion? Maybe she's faked her retreat to lure you guys out into the open for him."
"No." Franklin laughed. "Did you forget she tried to save us? Besides, no Taylor would ever ally with Scion, no matter how far they're gone."
"What happened to her, exactly?" Missy asked curiously. "Was it some attack from Scion?"
The lightness on Franklin's face dimmed. She hung silent for a moment, lips parted. "It wasn't Scion. Cardinal was held and tortured by the Slaughterhouse Nine for months. Before today, we thought she was dead."
"The S9?" Missy sucked in a breath. "But how? You have time travel powers."
Victoria felt a sudden chill jolt through her as she remembered the pink notebook she found.
"We don't know how." Franklin shook her head. "Cardinal went missing with two other Taylors right before Scion attacked."
"Two others?" Victoria interrupted. She tried to remember the notes in the notebook again. There wasn't any mention of other Taylors.
"Infinite and Rook. Everything was a mess then. Scion was suddenly here. We were barely holding on. No one knew what was happening. At the time, we thought they got ambushed and killed. By the time Newton managed to trace her to Shining Top, we arrived too late. The town was already ashes."
"There's a notebook. Over there," Victoria spoke up, pointing near the orb machine. "I only scanned through it briefly but maybe you might want to look at them."
A blink and a flash — Franklin was suddenly on her feet, shuffling through the crumpled notes. She had the pink notebook split open; the frown on her face twisted darker as she read.
"I don't think she mentioned more than one Taylor," Victoria added delicately. Missy glanced between the both of them, clearly curious, but she didn't prod.
Franklin snapped the book shut. She exhaled slowly, pressing the notes flat on a console as she sat back down heavily. "You're right. There was only one subject. Bonesaw didn't go into any detail about the capture."
She looked away as she continued, her words turning inwards as she rambled more to herself. "They could have been surprised by Scion. Maybe Rook and Infinite were killed and Cardinal heavily injured. Then she had the bad luck of landing at the wrong place."
"Um, question," Missy ventured cautiously, waving her hand. "Couldn't you just look into the past and see how it happened? Also, I don't understand the thing about Shining Top. That's where we're heading now, right? How does that work?"
"It's a different Shining Top," Franklin replied, almost distractedly before jerking up slightly. She blinked and refocused on Missy. "Sorry, bad explanation. Let me try again."
She took a moment to recollect herself. "Do you remember the tinker, Haywire?"
"Professor Haywire. He discovered the other dimensions like Aleph and Gimel," Missy said, nodding. "Oh. This was a Shining Top in another dimension? The S9 attacked them there too?"
"If Jack is in charge of the S9, Shining Top always gets attacked. It's a little bit of a grim destiny for them."
"But if you managed to reach there, why couldn't you go into the past?"
Franklin shook her head. "We go into our past. That world, or any others, isn't ours. We have no connection to it." She stretched a leg out, toeing a line through the dust on the ground. "Here's the easier analogy to wrap your head around: a dimension is like a train track. On your native world, it's easy to go backwards to whenever you like. One, because you're already on the track. Two, and more importantly, because your train is built for it. The width, the size, everything fits naturally."
She made a second line parallel to the first. "But in a different world... well, everything is just slightly different, right? The tracks are just that bit larger or smaller. You teleport your train over but it can't move because the wheels don't fit the track. It's stuck on that point you reach."
"So if you want to go into the past in another world then..." Missy started to ask, her brows furrowed.
"Then you have to try again." Franklin finished. She shrugged helplessly to emphasize her point. "Everything you did to find the first point, you do it again and you hope that you get it right this time."
"Can't you narrow it down somehow?" Victoria sounded confused. "You already found the right dimension, it's just the wrong time."
"Dimensional travel is extremely complex. Our tech is really only meant for time travel; we just hacked a workaround for jumping dimensions. Maybe if we had more time, we could have researched and built entirely new tools but..." Franklin sighed, drifting off. Her eyes dropped to the floor, where pieces of crystals glittered. The other two fell silent as well.
Victoria stared at the golden crystals, chewing her lips in thought. "The multiverse," she started, her voice barely a whisper. "So there's really other versions of us out there? In other worlds?"
"There were rumours that Haywire worked with other versions of himself," Missy added, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Those rumours are true." Franklin glanced up at them with a wan smile. "Why, curious about the multiverse?"
"Just wondering about the other selves, I guess."
"You shouldn't," said Sage as she strode in with Tattletale. She peered down at the blonde, eyes unblinkingly wide behind her green glasses. "It's not good to know too much about the other paths not taken in your life."
Victoria stood up, her eyes narrowed at the strange statement. There was a question on the tip of her tongue, but she pressed her lips shut instead, swallowing it back. "Are we heading in directly?" she asked. Sage was already typing something into her bracer.
"Yes," the tinker replied. Her fingers paused midair as she glanced up. "Remember," she continued slowly, stressing every word, "don't engage with Scion. Just get as many as you can out."
"Don't worry. We're not suicidal," Victoria replied.
Tattletale glanced furtively at her, arms folded and shoulders slightly hunched forward. She remained quiet.
Missy slid her helmet back on and nodded curtly. "Let's do it."
Sage pressed on her bracer, activating it. A white light suffused them, filling the room so bright and blinding that it felt like thunder in their ears. Then, after one roaring moment, they disappeared.
Motes of light drifted in the air in their wake, sparkling as they tumbled down. Slowly, as the lights twinkled fainter and fainter, thudding footsteps echoed through the empty room.
"We're here."
A white-haired Taylor stepped out from the dim corridor. Dragon followed in behind her, her suit clanking heavily against the floor.
"Ah, it's been a while," Taylor said, almost as a sigh to herself as she looked around with a soft smile. She turned back to Dragon, one hand outstretched in a show of hospitality. "Welcome to my humble base."
Evening was creeping in from the horizon. Twilight had settled between the rocks, falling purple on the bone-white sand.
Alexandria watched from her perch in the sky. From above, it was easier to see the barrier stretching over the town; the orange glow of fading daylight enveloped the edge like a false eclipse.
"Check in." Alexandria let the chatter flow over her. They had been waiting for a couple of hours now. The volunteer heroes were split into teams with PRT troopers, spaced along the perimeter of the town. How long more was this going to take? Was Cardinal having problems taking down the S9? Alexandria cracked her neck as she continued to watch, her eyes darting to every buzzing imperfection that blinked in and out across the image.
Suddenly, a large shockwave rippled across the surface soundlessly. Alexandria stiffened, jolting back into alertness.
"Report," she said sharply into the radio
"I think it's from our side." It took a second for Alexandria to place the voice: Bitters, a hero stationed near the south side.
"Anything else after that?" Alexandria was already moving off. Her cape slapped against the wind as she banked around.
"No, I—"
It was a flash, a silent thunderclap that shook their insides as the world turned black and white, then back again. Alexandria faltered in her flight in that stark second, gasping as she tumbled to a stop midair. The barrier over the town was gone — as if a clear gauze had been lifted off — and all the roads and buildings stood out in sharp relief.
"—the hell is that?!" "Check in, check—" "—the barrier is down. I repeat, the barrier—"
A golden pillar burst out from the south side. It sprang into the sky like a sprouting stalk, a swirl of mottled lights. Iridescent petals bloomed wide against the cloudless dusk, scattering like starlight in the breeze.
Alexandria whirled around. "Activate the devices! Now!" she barked forcefully over the chaos in the comms, before cutting the line and shooting forward to the south with a massive boom.
The pillar of light had dissipated slightly, its structure collapsing into a fiery, whip-like flame that licked the sky. Even from a distance, Alexandria could feel the energy spilling out, an inaudible howl in the air.
Bitters and the PRT troops were a few blocks away, advancing cautiously with their weapons high up and ready. Alexandria rocketed over them, eyes focused on a dark silhouette at the base of the towering glow. Sprites of golden energy flowed over it like a rippling heat. Something buzzed in her ears, prickling her skin as it passed over. Did the devices activate? Alexandria had no time to check; she pulled up in the air and dropped straight down.
"Taylor Hebert," she said loudly, calmly. The shattered asphalt fell off her boots as she stepped forward. "Or do you prefer Cardinal?"
"The S9 are dead. I don't want to fight you," Cardinal replied, not turning around. Slowly, the blaze of energy was fading away. Only a pale ember still flickered around the bald girl.
"Let's talk then." Alexandria moved closer. She watched the tinker carefully, wary about sudden moves. "I don't want to fight either."
"Oh?" Cardinal tilted her head back slightly. The last bits of flame dissipated, retreating backwards to the sky. She turned as she stretched a hand out to catch it, but her fingers only closed around air.
On her wrist, her bracer was flashing red with a bright, bold word: 'OFFLINE'. Cardinal glanced up, her eyes dark and unfathomable. "What do you call this?"
The devices worked. Alexandria met her stare calmly. She spread her palms out. "A simple precaution."
"No." Cardinal shook her head. She seemed hollowed. Drained. Her shoulders hunched just a fraction inward. "There's nothing simple about this. You're working for her."
Her words were quiet, guttural, dripping with poison. A black tension drew the air between them taut. Alexandria tensed at the sudden change. She shifted one foot back, bracing against the balls of her feet.
"Calm down. No one is working for anyone."
Cardinal laughed. It was a mirthless bark, full of flashing teeth. A knife flickered into her hand. "You're already lost. You just don't know it yet."
Then Alexandria was grappling with her, their arms locked against each other as Cardinal flipped her knife upside down to point straight down at her face. The blade carved jaggedly across her visor as Alexandria forced her hands down, pulling Cardinal away. She stepped backwards; Cardinal followed, not giving an inch as she continued to push against her, slowly forcing her knife back into Alexandria's face.
Suddenly an ice stalagmite shot out from the ground between them, forcing them apart. Bitters stood behind them, a layer of frost dusting his fists while the other PRT troopers stepped forward around him and fired.
Cardinal reacted first, darting out to grab Alexandria's hands. She pulled her through the ice and spun around, flinging her through the bullets at her men.
The troopers yelled as Alexandria shot past them, smashing through one building and the next. They rolled onto their knees, whipping their rifles up as they desperately tried to regain their target. It was too late. Taylor was already there. She flashed through the crowd, her blade a silver ribbon cutting through their weapons. Bitters raised his hands again, trying to block her way with more stalagmites but then she appeared in front of him, knife sheathed in his thigh. He stifled a shriek, doubling forward. Instinctively, he reached for it; Taylor pulled it out and slammed the butt of the hilt into his face.
Bitters collapsed backwards, groaning. Around her, the PRT troopers dropped their broken rifles and retreated. Some pulled out pistols. Their hands shook as they held it, not quite aiming, but also not quite ready to give up.
Cardinal looked at them with a blank expression. "Leave," she said flatly.
At the same time: "Step back."
Legend floated in the sky, hands glowing. "I appreciate you not killing anyone," he shouted down. The light on his fingertips burned brighter. "Why don't you put your weapon down? Let's talk."
Cardinal spread her mouth in a wide grin. She licked her lips, tongue dancing over her teeth. "Sure," she shouted back. "Come down then! Easier to chat."
Legend's eyes shifted sideways, almost imperceptibly to look at his men as they backed up. Behind her, Cardinal could hear Bitters scrabbling against the road as he retreated. Slowly, as she watched his hands, she slid one foot back.
One of his fingers twitched.
Taylor whirled around instantly, lunging out. Bitters tried to scramble away but she grabbed him by his ankle and swung him backwards, straight up at Legend.
Legend flicked his wrist; the lasers parted around Bitters and followed Cardinal, stabbing into the ground as they trailed her steps. He swept around with his other hand as she ran up a building. Cardinal twisted out of the way without looking back, avoiding the thick beam that sliced past her.
A corner of the building crumpled as it slid off to the ground. Cardinal skidded hard on the rooftop gravel, stones flying everywhere. She spun around, knives in hand to meet the trailing lasers.
She danced. Her blades were like a hundred flowing mirrors as she struck the lasers, parrying them away into the night, or into the roof. Legend pressed forward with more beams, circling them around her from all sides but she only shifted back a step. She moved like a glimmering mirage, ten paces at a time on a single spot between the blistering lights. Plasma sizzled wildly into the roof, scribbling molten gouges through the flooring.
The building shuddered as a stray shot cut through it. Legend swooped closer, hands blazing—
—at the same time, Taylor moved. She shot forward, ducking low under a beam of light. She dug her knives into the roof, beneath the loose stones. In the neon, her eyes shone bright.
She flicked her blades.
The stones flicked upwards, into the lasers, and exploded in a cloud of dust. Legend frowned. He drifted low, looking around the periphery of the cloud for Cardinal.
She burst out from the top instead. Smoke streamed around her as she leaped straight up, her face cold and blank. Legend reared back instinctively but he was a step too late.
Cardinal stabbed a knife through his shin. She twisted it in and yanked, pulling them closer together. Her second blade slid into his thigh perpendicularly. Legend roared, flicking a light at her but she simply took the blast, pulling herself up again. Fire curled through her suit, charring, sintering, an iridescent splash as she shimmered up unabated. Blood gushed over her hands, smearing her face. Legend slammed a knee into her; she stabbed him again, this time wrenching the knife through his stomach.
She ripped her other knife out from his thigh and raised it high. She met his eyes, her gaze like diamonds.
Then she fell through the light.
Legend flashed into his breaker form. Cardinal phased through him, plunging through the air. She twisted around to make sure he was incapacitated, and slammed back-first into the ground. She groaned as she turned over, pushing herself up. Pain pierced through her shoulder. Her skin felt stretched, sticky, stinging hot and cold as against her frayed suit.
A building across the street crumbled into dust. Cardinal glanced up just to see Alexandria bursting through the billowing wreck, rocketing towards her. She barely got her arms up before she was bricked; they both went tumbling into another building.
In the dark, Cardinal gasped as Alexandria gripped her neck, squeezing. On the visor gleam, Cardinal's eyes were wide and uneven, cut by the jagged line. She kicked up; Alexandria barely reacted. She grabbed her arms, trying to pry them off; Alexandria lunged forward with Cardinal in hand, smashing her through the wall into the evening air.
Cardinal heaved. Her face was turning hot. She wiggled her hand frantically, grasping for a knife. A hard hilt fell into her palm; she gripped it and thrust forward.
The knife pierced through armour and stopped. It felt as if the tip was scratching an unyielding wall. Alexandria brushed her off, snapping the blade easily, and whirled around, smashing Cardinal into the ground.
The hard asphalt announced its presence through her spine. Cardinal choked out a moan, bloody spittle dripping from her lips. The broken knife fell out of her hand. She looked up at the lights in the sky, still dancing, still drifting; when her fingers wrapped around a new knife it felt far away, floating, bobbing up and down on a shrinking edge of darkness.
Then Alexandria straightened up. The pressure lifted for one breath — cool, blessed air filled her lungs as her vision buzzed black and white — before returning harder and tougher: an angular, jagged boot that pressed slowly down on her neck, deliberately careful to not crush her.
Cardinal wheezed, her face turning red. She swiped wildly, trying to stab the leg on her. Alexandria pivoted around, nearly wrenching Cardinal's arm out of her shoulders as she kicked the knife away. She stomped down on Cardinal's wrist, finally pinning the tinker to the ground.
She kicked out, trying to hit Alexandria, but her legs felt heavy and weak. The moon was up, pale and wobbly on a purple dusk, Cardinal noticed idly, as she scrabbled desperately against the tightening noose around her neck. Everything was splitting double, fading in and out.
In and out.
In—
A car slammed into Alexandria, ripping her off and sending her through the brick facade of the nearest building. Cardinal turned onto her stomach, heaving and wheezing as she scratched at the gravel and tried to catch all the air back into her lungs. She looked up, half-disbelieving as a glowing angel descended from the sky with half a dozen cars hovering over her.
"Run!" Newton yelled as she surged forward.
Alexandria leapt out of the wreck before smashing heavily into the ground. The road splintered and sank as she dropped to one knee, a yellow shine wrapped around her. A shadow came over her; Alexandria looked up as Newton waved her hand and hurled the cars into her.
She raised her arms, batting away the first car and punching through the second before the third car slammed her down flat. Alexandria gritted her teeth, grinding a fist into the ground as she tried to fight against Newton's gravity. Her cape was shredded, pieces of metal falling over her back. The road underneath her crumbled as she pressed down, as she tried to push herself up, and then two more cars came banking in from the sides to catch her in between.
Metal snapped and burst and flew as the cars came apart in a cacophonous clap. Newton narrowed her eyes when the dust settled — was that ice?
Crystal clear stalagmites overlapped over Alexandria in a perfect enclosure. Newton whirled around to see Bitters on a nearby roof. He stared back at her, wide-eyed, his fists thrust out.
Then — the faint smell of ozone on the wind — Newton shifted her last car to the side just as Legend's laser struck her. The car exploded instead, and Newton found herself flung to the ground.
She rolled to the side immediately as several ice shards shot through where she was previously. She waved an arm out carelessly; Bitters yelped as the roof around him glowed yellow and shook violently, coming apart to wrap around him in a cocoon of metal and brick.
Newton stood up, before rearing back as a thick beam of light nearly bisected her. She threw a hand out, fingers splayed, to the buildings underneath Legend.
His eyes widened as the entire block was immediately flattened; not even dust escaped the sudden grip of gravity. Then Newton flung her arms up, and Legend drew a flaming line with a laser through the debris as they all started flying up towards him.
Explosions cut through the middle but a hundred more pieces burst out of the conflagration, trailing with a yellow shine as they spun and turned and rocketed towards him. Legend breathed in deeply; for a moment everything felt still as he scanned the field in his mind's eye, tagging every piece in the air and every piece coming through the fire still.
He fired.
Ten lasers from ten fingertips, splitting into twenty, then forty. They turned in the air, a dozen beautiful spirals, before looping down to smash into the debris flying up. The ballet of lights lit the evening sky as they threaded through the debris and zig-zagged between the pieces, igniting everything in their wake.
One laser peeled off and arced back to Legend; it cut down a rock that managed to sneak by, bursting it into smithereens before swinging down again. Legend glanced back, just in time to see a massive ball burst through the soot, hurtling towards him. He jerked his fingers up and five lasers turned obliquely to follow.
Then he heard someone screaming. Legend flinched, pulling the lasers off right before they could carve into the ball. It slammed into him instead. He gripped the craggy surface as they continued to spin up into the sky and peeked through the surface; Bitters was huddled inside, screaming.
Legend shifted into his breaker state and shifted into the interior. "CLOSE YOUR EYES!" he shouted as he materialized; he grabbed Bitters' vest and slapped a palm down to blast a hole through the side. They tumbled out into the air. Legend wrenched the other man up, staggering with their weight as he tried to slow their descent.
Newton let the ball go when she saw Legend and Bitters clear it. She gulped a deep breath, trying to calm her shaking muscles as she whirled around. Where was Cardinal? She had to find her, they had to go before—
Something sharp smashed into her back and slammed her into the ground. She barely managed to get an arm up to cushion her face; shock rattled through her spine while someone grounded their knee into her back.
Alexandria. Newton snarled. She twisted around instinctively, trying to throw the older woman off but she barely moved. Instead, Alexandria pressed down harder, making sure her weight was entirely pinned onto Newton.
"Are you ready?" she heard Alexandria say. Newton exhaled. She ignored the pain growing in her back, pressing a finger onto the asphalt and closing her eyes. She started drawing a circle on the road.
"It's done." Alexandria almost sagged in relief when she heard Kurt's reply through their secret channel. She shifted, about to call for a portal when a bout of weightlessness suddenly hit her.
Her eyes darted up. The horizon had turned perpendicular.
Alexandria lunged for Newton a split second too late as she careened to the side, plunging through the side of a building. She tried to fly, but her armour glowed yellow and she sank into the smooth parquet, splintering it as she rolled to a sudden stop.
Alexandria gritted her teeth as she strained to lift her head. Newton was standing, looking around distractedly. She had to do something before the girl escaped. Her fingers inched around, scrabbling for something, anything, in the crumbling brick debris.
Her muscles were burning. Newton staggered forward slightly. She wanted to float, but she had to conserve her remaining strength; holding Alexandria down was hard enough as it was. Even now the heroine was pushing against Newton's power, struggling to move her arm, trying to... flick her wrist?
Newton realized it right before a brick smashed into the back of her head, nearly throwing her forward. She yelped, losing concentration for a second as white-hot pain lanced through her skull; then Alexandria was back, her hand slamming into her neck and lifting her up effortlessly into the air.
They were flying. Newton grappled with the older woman, rasping as she pulled against the fingers wrapped around her. Something warm was dribbling down her face; her eardrums were ringing incessantly and she couldn't focus on her power.
Alexandria whirled, cape billowing in the wind. She jerked Newton around and flung her straight down; the ground loomed large in an instant as Newton cratered into it, sending a massive plume of dirt and gravel into the air.
She groaned and coughed. Her body felt shattered; she wanted to wave away the dust in the face but her arms felt like iron. Her body was covered in splinters, glowing yellow cracks that spread and grew and skittered up and down over her. They brimmed and buzzed for a long moment before fracturing again, this time dissipating permanently.
Spent in just one shot, Newton thought, almost wry. Shouldn't have skimped on the shield.
She looked up blearily. Alexandria was hovering over her, mouthing something, but Newton ignored her. Instead, she looked past into the open sky, to a faraway point between atmosphere and space where she was holding eleven metal rods.
Time for Plan B, she supposed.
She applied gravity to them all a thousandfold and let go.