You would think that a few near-death experiences would desensitize a person to the risk. That the prospect of being killed wouldn’t make my knees tremble, and my stomach twist in a looming threat to make me puke my guts out. But that wasn’t true, not at all.

  Truth was that being shot at by STING soldiers, being mauled by Wares’ overgrown bodyguard, or nearly being killed by Knuckle... those things all felt paltry to the living tempest who fixed her attention onto me.

  That bitch wanted me dead, and I didn’t doubt she wanted to make it as painful as she could.

  “Chesh,” I mumbled, “get back to the others. Get Foresight to hit her dead on.”

  “But he can’t break thro-”

  “I know. But I don’t need him to break through. I just need him to launch him my way.” A bright flash lit up the distance, and Dynamo threw herself at Impact as she made her way toward us. Impact jerked back on a reflex, dodging a punch from the bruised giantess. Something swept into Dynamo from below, and I saw her being flung from the underground to the street outside, smashing several cars into scrap and flinging them high into the air.

  That brief opening gave me enough time to reach out, searching for any toy soldiers I had left. Only the one, sole survivor of his platoon after the rest got cut down in that last salvo. I moved him into position, his plastic rifle aimed squarely at the water pipe above me. Meanwhile I tossed a flurry of marbles onto the ground, unleashing a great cloud of smoke. I inched back into the alcove, water splashing under the rubber soles of my boots.

  “Think you can run from me you little bitch?”

  I raised the knuckledusters ahead of me, the air humming faintly to produce a barrier of kinetic energy. It might, if I was lucky, take the brunt of an attack if she hit me here.

  God, I hoped.

  “Not running!” I shouted, trying to keep my voice from cracking. “You want me? Get off your lardy ass and get me.” Well... I’d certainly had smarter ideas.

  But, clearly, I’d succeeded in getting her full attention. The ground rumbled ahead of me, the smoke shifting and churning. I inched back, pressing myself to the smooth expanse of the cavern wall.

  Something struck at me, ramming into the barrier the knuckledusters were putting up. Sure enough they took the worst of it, but... well it was still a hell of a kick, shaking the entire alcove around me. My back slammed into the wall and all the air was shunted from my lungs in a ragged wheeze, the pain sliding me slowly to one knee. I dropped my trembling arms, reaching out tentatively to the rippling pool of water before me.

  The back of my head had struck the wall behind me, so hard that the surrounding rock had fractured and crumbled. The plating of the helmet was sturdy, and the impact gel within had dispersed the vast majority of force. Even so, my skull ached, and blackness fuzzed around my eyes.

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  Don’t black out, don’t black out...

  I’d never felt an ache like that, and hoped never to again.

  “Dead already?” Impact shouted through the shifting smoke. I didn’t respond, wanting her to draw nearer. She’d want to double tap, surely. “Come on! No more tricks up your sleeve? You stupid-”

  A flash of crimson glowed through the blossoming smoke, something I only saw for a split second before the ground rocked violently beneath me. Just enough to rouse me to attention. Foresight had gotten his shot off, and the force behind it sent Impact careening my way. At that exact moment, entirely on reflex, I directed my soldier to open fire on the pipe in a spray of gunfire.

  I did have one trick up my sleeve, as it happened, something that I’d originally intended as a last means of self defence.

  A joy buzzer.

  Impact was shoved through the opening, the last wisps of smoke coiling around the shell of her barrier. I pressed my palm to the pool, the water pipe exploding open in a powerful spray as my soldier’s energy bullets tore through it.

  The bright blue lightning flash of my joy buzzer lit the cavern, conducting in the water that surrounded us. A vicious crackling flash that left Impact shrieking as the current struck her. As I’d hoped, her telekinesis couldn’t ward off electricity.

  She jerked and writhed, black smoke hissing off of her. Then, as my buzzer ran out of power, she jerked back and landed harshly on the ground in a hissing heap that stank of scorched hair.

  I groaned, heaving and wobbling on my feet, before my body sagged into the nearest wall. The insulation in my costume had held firm, but I’d be lying if I said my blood pressure hadn’t spiked.

  “Holy shit.” Cheshire appeared above, Impact, swaying on her feet as she crouched to check her pulse. “Still alive, but... crispy. Shit, Toys, how did you know that would work?”

  “I didn’t,” I grumbled, slumping over and splashing into the pool. “Just a guess... but it paid off.”

  Hands gripped both of my wrists, and I felt myself being pulled bonelessly from the alcove by Cheshire and Dynamo. The latter was back to normal, but earnestly trying to lift me. The knuckledusters slid off my hand, clattering noisily to the ground. They set me down by a clump of fallen stone, and Cheshire fished some zipties from her belt and used them to bitch Impact’s wrists and then her ankles.

  It was probably dumb to try and cuff a person with telekinesis, but it seemed doubtful she’d be getting back up again.

  Rover approached me with an uneasy gait, still marked with cuts and bruises that were gradually healing. His arm, broken by Impact’s blow, was winding itself back together. “Hyou... nghooood,” he rasped.

  “I’m... fine,” I murmured. “Just feel like an elephant sat on me is all.”

  “Nnghe. Kheep... shaaayfe.”

  “We better... get moving,” Foresight said, lifting Stretch’s unconscious body, pulling her while her limbs trailed behind her like spaghetti noodles. “Shit, I dunno how nobody’s come looking for us yet, but we’re damn lucky they haven’t. None of us are built for a fight right now.”

  And so we set off, Rover hoisting me onto his back, and made a mad dash for the surface. Frankly, I wouldn’t be shocked if the whole place caved in under a little more stress.

  We left Knuckle and Zirconium behind. After all, Impact was the one Jupiter wanted. And the van only had so much room...

  We emerged onto street level, portions of the asphalt and sidewalk above rent asunder by our little underground rumble. But as I looked up (which took a whole hell of a lot of effort with how my neck ached) I could see columns of smoke rising up many blocks away from us.

  Sirens rang out, but none of them were drawing closer to us.

  “The hell?”

  Cheshire let out a small chuckle. “I may have told Furnace that we were doing our hit this evening. And he may have set a distraction in motion with Six-Shooter. Some... fancy gala the mayor is throwing, you now how it is.”

  “Huh.” I smiled tiredly behind my mask. “Imagine that.”