For a single awful moment, my mind instantly turned to the only Pyrokinetic I knew of in the city.
Lung.
That idea fell apart when I saw the figure tear a chunk of himself off and hurl it into the air. What started as a small ball of fire rapidly grew, a flaming conflagration the size of a boulder reaching the apex of its arc… and beginning to fall towards us.
Vicky shot off like a rocket, a metal chain coiled around one of her hands, the boat's anchor trailing behind her. Spinning it around her like a flail, it slammed into the ball of fire and caused it to explode. Smaller balls of fire shot out in every other direction. My heart leaped into my chest as she had to dodge them, the anchor glowing red hot.
"We got company!" Stalker yelled at me, forcing my eyes away from where Vicky intercepted another ball of fire.
Someone was running at us across the water. An arrow raced towards them, Stalker having taken the chance to line up a shot. A swirling pink vortex flashed into existence ahead of the cape, the arrow bouncing off of it before it disappeared.
I formed an arrow and nocked it to aim when the figure punched towards me. The space between us blurred, and the blow connected with my breastplate. It didn't hurt, the actual physical force didn't even kill any cells.
The fire that suddenly started was a problem.
Staggering back as flames licked at my face, it was panicked instinct to shed the cells that caught fire. They slid off the breastplate, a smoldering mass as the fire died. Stalker flickered into her shadow state beside me as something blurred through her.
They reached the boat and leaped onboard, a woman dressed in a glittering red and blue bodysuit, a harlequin mask on their face. As they jumped they spun, their legs outstretched, and another blur filled the air and hit my shoulder.
The force made me stagger to the side, a fire suddenly igniting the wood on my shoulder. The ignited cells sloughed off my shoulder. They weren't hurting me but what the hell was their power?
Stalker ran forward, coming out of her shadow state as she swung her bow at the harlequin like a bat. They ducked under the blow, landing on their hands and kicking up with the same motion. It shouldn't have been able to hit Stalker, but she was forced to flick back into her shadow state to avoid the blur that extended out from her foot.
Forming another arrow, I nocked it and aimed. She couldn't dodge both of us. Swirling pink filled my vision as the vortex reappeared in front of me. What felt like wind slammed into me, sending me tumbling backward.
I scrabbled to find something to grab. My hand managed to find a rope attached to the boat's deck. It was getting sucked towards the vortex, flailing like it was caught in a windstorm. Picking my head up, I watched as every loose object nearby was sucked into it.
It didn't suck in my bow though.
The vortex vanished and I couldn't see where Stalker or the harlequin had gone. The other boat was getting close though, by the sound of its motor. Peeking over the railing, I watched it pull up alongside ours.
The flaming figure at the front of the boat looked like something out of a nightmare. A skeleton coated in multi-color flames. He cackled loudly as he ripped chunks of fire off himself and hurled them into the air. My eyes snapped to Vicky, tanking a fireball as she tried to get close.
That pink vortex opened between them and she was sent flying backwards head over heels in the air, righting herself just in time to dodge another ball of fire. The anchor was nowhere to be seen.
Another woman was at the wheel, wearing a fluffy dress the same shade of pink as the portal. A wide hat sat on her head, and only the top half of her face was hidden behind a domino mask.
"Fiesta, you have the little miss handled?" She had a very noticeable French accent.
"Don't worry Jubilee, she won't be breaking our boat." The skeleton, Fiesta apparently, responded as he hurled another fireball into the sky at Vicky.
"Excellent." Jubilee stepped away from the wheel, a small glowing pink ball forming in each hand. She flung them at our boat, and I scrambled away from the one heading my direction. It struck the side of the cabin and just stuck there.
A sheet was flung across the distance between the two boats, freezing in mid-air. Transforming my bow into a spear, I stood up just as Jubilee crossed over her makeshift bridge. She was already looking in my direction.
"I must admit, I was not expecting such a welcome party." Stepping down onto the deck, she curtsied at me. "You probably overheard, but I am Jubilee. May I know your name, madame?"
"Sequoia." The sheer whiplash between the fighting and a polite agreement left me stunned.
"Sequoia, interesting name considering how far away from the Redwoods we are." She hummed for a moment, before shrugging. I could hear the crackle of fire in the background. "I don't suppose you're willing to gather your friends and retreat so that we may go about our business?"
"No, we're not gonna stand by and let you kidnap two girls!" I yelled, jabbing the spear in her direction. Wendy was not going with this bitch. "How about you and your friends surrender?"
"Ah," She clapped her hands together and smiled. "I appreciate the confidence, but you don't understand how outmatched you are here. Carnival will defeat whoever she is facing, Fiesta will be able to keep the little miss in the air, and I have no doubts that I will beat you. So in the end, there were only two options."
She brought her hand up to her lips and I charged at her. Mimming the action of blowing a kiss, pink sparks scattered from her hand to hang in the air as a cloud between us. Rather than try to stop or dodge, I ran right through it.
Cells across my armor died as the sparks clung to me, burning slowly through it. Material flaked off me as I removed the sparks and tried to stab her. She spun out of the way, her skirt flaring out. A vortex opened, its force catching me in the side even as it sucked in the sparks, sending me tumbling back through them and causing more to stick onto my armor.
I got up, losing more material, just in time to see her drag something out of the portal. It was another sheet, a smile on her face as she held it across her arm like a matador.
"Ole!" She flapped it, and I slowly started forward. That made her frown, and her eyes flicked behind me momentarily.
That familiar force hit me in the back and sent me staggering forward, as she rushed towards me. I went to stab her but she let go of the sheet and stepped aside. It hung there in the air until I stumbled into it. It collapsed around me, my spear stabbing through it and getting tangled in it.
I felt through my power more than saw more sparks coat the sheet, light it up like kindling. Flailing in a panic, the wood of the spear flowed into a sword. The burning sheet fell into tatters and I whirled around, only to get shoved backward by a vortex.
My back hit the edge of the boat and I went tumbling over. As the world spun around me I stabbed out with the sword. Metal squealed and my fall stopped. I was hanging from the side of the boat, the sword having carved a line through the metal, my legs up to my knees in the cold bay water.
"Tenacious." Jubilee's looked over the edge at me. "But fruitless. You will lose, and we will take the girls. You'd be better off getting the money for our employer, rather than this."
"Fuck you." I glared up at her.
"I get the feeling you're a little too young for my tastes Sequoia," She grinned at me. "but I appreciate the sentiment. However, you need to take a swim."
She raised a hand above me as I tried to figure out what to do. Neither of us got the chance, as there was a loud boom behind me. Debris rained on my back and shoulders, metal shards bouncing off the opposite ship's hull. Next to her, Fiesta appeared, throwing a fireball at what I could only assume was Vicky.
"She destroyed the boat." He spoke in a monotone as Jubilee whirled to stare at him.
"I told you not to let that happen!" She practically shrieked at him, and he shrugged.
"She went underwater and broke it from below, what I was supposed to do, lob a fireball into the bay?" He kept his eyes fixed on the skies, both ignoring me for the moment.
"How are we supposed to get out of here if the boat's gone?" She pressed a hand to her face and let out a low groan. Letting go of the handle with one hand, I used what was left of my reserve to form a grenade. A transparent film formed over the eye sockets of my helmet, as well as filters for the mouth and nose.
"Don't you have a hero of your own to fight?" He commented as I used all of my strength to pull myself up. She turned just in time for me to slam the grenade down onto the ship's railing, a cloud of capsaicin shooting outwards as the shell cracked.
As I fell back down over the railing, it hit Fiesta's fire and exploded. A small wave of fire surged out, Jubilee letting out a scream and Fiesta a shout. The explosion was an accident but I'd take whatever I could get.
Grabbing the edge and hauling myself up, I saw Jubilee desperately trying to put herself out. Fiesta had his attention torn, and Vicky almost slammed into him. He vanished with a flicker, reappearing alongside her. I scrambled back onto the deck just as a Carnival reappeared, doing a backflip through the air as an arrow whizzed past. Stalker landed on the cabin's roof, flickering back out of her shadow state.
"You good?" Vicky offered me a hand as Carnival helped Jubilee put her costume out. Her aura was on, and despite being soaking wet, she looked all the part of an avenging goddess.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I gave her a smile behind the mask as Stalker glided over to us in her shadow state. Jubilee and her crew retreated away from us at the same time.
There were a couple of spots where her hoodie and jeans had been burned, at least one hole showing angry red flesh. Glancing back at Carnival, I could see where her costume had been sliced open, blood dripping out.
"Bitch always knows where I'm at," Stalker grumbled as she landed beside us. "Couldn't sneak up on her."
"Fire guy definitely could see me in the sky," Vicky added, reaching up to move a strand of wet hair from her face. "Even when I thought he shouldn't have."
"Jubilee knew where I was despite hiding." I glared at her and she glared at me, our two groups staring each other down across the length of the ship.
"Great, you're on a name basis." Stalker snarked and tossed her bow aside, pulling out the knives. Her quiver was empty. "Gotta fucking love grab-bags."
"Okay!" Jubilee yelled across the boat at us, half her dress burnt from the fire. Carnival and Fiesta took positions on either side of her. "I was trying to be nice, but you all had to make this difficult."
"You can still surrender." Vicky floated closer to them, arms crossed as she glared at them. Her aura flared, and a wave of awe surged through me. Stalker flickered into shadows for a moment before reforming. It affected Jubilee, her frustrated expression cracking into nervousness.
"One's reputation cannot be mishandled." She regained her composure, crossing her arms and glaring back. "Even if you three have made this far more difficult than it should be. Surrendering to three upstart young heroes would be awful."
"Losing to us would be worse!" Stalker shouted, and Carnival shifted in her stance. My eyes flicked between her, Jubilee, and Fiesta. In the back of my head, an idea formed. Maybe we were all fighting the wrong people.
"Stalker, go for Jubilee," I muttered under my breath. "Vicky, go for Carnival. I'll handle Fiesta."
There wasn't much material to work with, but I wasn't making anything new. Carnival and Jubilee's attacks showed me how the armor reacted to fire and heat. Cells shifted, the focus being turned from normal durability to what I hoped would be heat resistance.
"Got it." Stalker didn't argue.
"If you're sure," Vicky mumbled at me.
"If you're done planning." Jubilee sighed and raised her hand. "Let's get this over with."
It all started back up at once.
Jubilee flung her hand out, pink sparks flying from her fingers and filling the area between us. Carnival ran around the outside of it, aiming to rush straight towards Stalker. Vicky swung wide around the cloud to intercept Carnival, while Stalker leapt upwards, planting her foot on Vicky's back to get enough height to go over the cloud of sparks. Fiesta grabbed a chunk of himself and hurled it towards where Vicky was going.
I swung the sword out and hit the fireball like a baseball. The thing explodes against the reinforced wood, a wave of heat rolling over me and baking the outermost layer of cells. They didn't catch fire though.
Leaving my trust in Stalker and Vicky, I charged towards Fiesta. He stepped back and hurled more fire at me. Catching it with the blade made it explode again, another layer of cells dying from the heat. The hot air burned as I breathed in, but I didn't stop charging at him.
A blade turned into a bat as we got close together. I swung it at him with no technique, just trying to do some damage. He flickered out and vanished. Heat slammed into my back, setting the vine hair alight and killing more cells.
Letting the vines drop from my scalp, I whirled around just in time to catch another fireball with the bat. He hadn't teleported far away, just out of my reach. Fucking grab-bags indeed. He didn't teleport far and didn't teleport up or down. The bat transformed under my power.
I crossed the few steps between us needed to get within reach and feinted a swing. He flickered out. Spinning around, my arm swung out as I let go of the bat. He had teleported where I guessed he would, right behind me again. One of his skeletal hands snapped up and grabbed the bat out of the air.
The fire ate through the outer layer and lit the capsaicin inside on fire.
It exploded in his hand, a scream of pain echoing out as he staggered back. The fire flickered, before going out, revealing a man in a bright red shirt. I charged at him, ramming into him at full speed as he clutched his hand.
We both hit the deck hard, and my hand found his neck. His biology flooded my awareness, and I flooded it with hormones to put him to sleep. He had several bones in his hand broken by the explosion, but he'd live.
There was a scream of rage from my left, and I turned to spot Stalker dancing with Jubilee. Blood splattered the deck as she swiped out and cut through the dress. The vortex appeared, and Stalker phased through it, doing the same thing with the sparks and the random stuff she pulled out of the portals.
Carnival was desperately trying to keep away from Vicky. Space blurred around her as she tried to land a solid hit, but Vicky had three dimensions of movement to work with and was faster. The way Carnival moved was weird, jagged zig-zagging movements through the air that Vicky capitalized on.
As I watched, Vicky managed to dive in under a spinning kick from Carnival. Wrapping her arms around in a flying tackle, they should have gone flying. They didn't, it was like Vicky had hit a wall. Carnival let out a choked grasp and went limp in her arms. That couldn't be good.
Jubilee screamed in pain as Stalker finally got close enough to stab one of the knives into her thigh. She fell to one knee, trying to fling more burning sparks onto Stalker. Phasing through them and past her, she flipped her remaining knife around and smacked the hilt into Jubilee's head. The villainess collapsed forward, groaning on the deck.
Just like that, the fight was over. I ran over to Stalker's side, as she collapsed backward to sit on one of the boat's lockers. Jubilee had a mild concussion, but the knife hadn't hit the artery. She got a dose of tranqs to knock her out properly.
Vicky flew over carrying Carnival, looking terrified at the unconscious villain in her arms. Without waiting, I reached for her exposed jaw and winced at what I saw.
"Stomach and intestinal ruptures, severe internal bleeding. She passed out from the pain." Working as quickly as possible, I let out a sigh. "She'll live though. That tackle shouldn't have done that to her."
"Think her power affects her movement. Doesn't move in a direction if she doesn't want to." Vicky laid her down beside Jubilee as I kept working. "So instead of that force dissipating, it was like I tackled her into a wall."
"I'd call it a shitty power if I didn't see how annoying it could be," Stalker grumbled from where she sat down, poking one of her burns with a wince.
Finishing off with Carnival, I stepped over and offered her a hand. She looked up at me. It took her a second to realize the silent offer, and she rolled her eyes behind her mask. She took my hand. I ignored the adrenaline running through her system and focused on repairing the burn.
"Thanks." She sighed the words out as I quickly finished, and let go. We all went quiet, staring at the trio of villains we'd just defeated. Who the hell they were, I had no real idea. Jubilee, Carnival, and Fiesta weren't names I'd ever heard. Out of towners for sure. Hired by whoever was demanding money from the Barnes and McHarlins. Which raised a question.
"Where the hell are Wendy and Emma?" As I asked that question, we looked at each other. Vicky shrugged and Stalker sighed.
"We're gonna have to either wake one of them up and get the info from them, or search this who-AH!" She yelped, jumping off the locker as the lid shook with a loud 'thump'.
We stared at the locker as the lid shook again, and then stared at each other. That locker was big enough to fit two teenage girls inside. We rushed at it all at once, Stalker and I bumping into each other as we tried to undo the latch. Vicky just tore the whole lid off and tossed it to the side.
Mouths gagged, hands bound, side by side, were Wendy and Emma. They'd been kicking the lid. Stalker and I lunged in to grab our respective friends, dragging them up and out. As I did so I had my mask pulled back, so Wendy could see it was me.
The thumb on my gauntlet was turned into a claw, and I used it to slice through the gag in Wendy's mouth. She spat the gag out as I started on the bindings on her hands.
"Amy…" Her voice wavered for a moment, and the instant I got the bindings off her hands, she was wrapped around me. Sobs, fat ugly sobs, wracked through her as she clutched me tight. I sagged in relief, rubbing her back.
Off to the side, I could hear Emma giving Sophia the same treatment.
"I'm here Wendy."
"Vicky! Amy!" A pair of voices called out, sirens in the distance acting as a backdrop. Carol and Mark, in full costume, sprinted up on the dock. They slowed down as they saw the scene. Carol's eyes took everything in, then locked onto me, confusion turning to realization in her eyes.
At any other moment, I would have thought that'd be the end of my life. Her finding out my secret would have been that. Part of me was still freaked out at the conversation that would happen later.
That didn't matter right now. Wendy sobbed into my neck and I hugged her tight, meeting Carol's stare with one of my own. Whatever she had to say could wait. My punishment could wait.
Right now Wendy needed me, and that was that.