Rakeesh opens up the door of a cafe that’s been closed for hours near Madison Park like it’s nothing. I expect some kind of an alarm or for him to be darting around doing infiltration stuff, but apparently he’s taken care of it already. He’s loaded down with bags and equipment.

  “Take this and put on,” says Rakeesh, and hands one of the bags. “I need it back afterward. You’re not supposed to have this tech.”

  I look inside and see some kind of upper body harness, so I pull it out and slip it over my head then adjust it so it’s snug but not restrictive. Rakeesh has some very fancy armor that’s darker than his skin and probably has a million gadgets built into it already. The non-combat equivalent of a PowerSuit. I think. Maybe it does combat too.

  “Take these as well. If anyone asks, you didn’t get them from me. They jam all electrical equipment and communications within about a thirty meter range.”

  Inside the second bag are half a dozen electronic devices. It’s not hard to see how to activate them, just unlatch and flip up a cover, then depress the button. Since he hasn’t said anything about equipping them or giving them back after we’re done, I pop them in my Inventory. When I look to see if Rakeesh has anything else to give me, he’s staring at me.

  “What?” I ask.

  “What the hell was that?” he asks back.

  “What?”

  “The disappearing trick.”

  “Ah,” I say, understanding. “Interdimensional Inventory.”

  Rakeesh raises his eyebrows, considering, then shrugs and returns to his preparations. I’m sure he’d like an Inventory, but then again I’d like his Power. I wait patiently while he gets everything ready and it’s clear he still has plenty to do when he starts giving me a mission briefing.

  “I managed to get a decent amount of intelligence on Eddie. He’s moving up in the world, Calrik. It’s good you came to me instead of just charging in like a drunk teenager.”

  I don’t tell him I thought about doing just that for the longest time. It’s how I imagined I’d take my revenge - until I really thought about what would happen if I tried it that way. Maybe if I was A or S Ranked…

  “Classic Supervillain and minion stuff. The Barrister is rewarding Eddie with bigger cases and more clients. More Oathbound associates at his disposal. More money. He moved into a new place just a few weeks ago. High security, on 43rd Avenue near the beach.”

  Another reason it’s good I got in touch. Breaking and entering at the wrong house would have been a slight misstep.

  “Here’s a floor plan of the place from the real estate agent,” he says, and hands me a glossy sales brochure that I study with intensity.

  “Guards?” I ask him. He’ll be the one taking out the security systems, and the rest is up to me. Rakeesh pulls out another case and opens it up, then starts to assemble a weapon resembling a high powered sniper rifle, only shorter and more compact.

  “There’s a home office and he usually has two or three associates there. Nothing you have to worry about anymore, so don’t waste any time taking them out or trying to avoid them. He’s almost always got a primary bodyguard and a secondary one. My information says the primary is high D Rank with physical combat and protection Powers, and the secondary is C Rank with a movement oriented Power. That’s a metric fuckton of protection for a crook like Eddie. You’ll have ten minutes with the security systems down and no messages coming in and out. I’ll cover anyone who tries to leave. The rest is up to you, buddy - Eddie’s all yours.”

  I crack my knuckles, just imagining them crashing into Eddie’s face. I’ve got a lot of pent up anger to unleash. “And the harness you gave me?” I ask.

  “Secondary EMP, just in case Sentinels or reinforcements show up. Use it first and ask questions later because even if it works on them, it might not for long.”

  Sentinels - fuck. I didn’t even think of that. Even though I’d give them a tougher time now that I’m a lot stronger, the right deployed Sentinel team could take me out.

  “Ready?” I ask when it looks like he’s pretty much done. What I’m really saying is that I’m keen to get started. Rakeesh nods and puts everything he’s assembled in one bigger duffel bag that he slings over his shoulder. I follow him out and north on 42nd Avenue and then cut diagonally across East Madison Street to 43rd. We move rapidly down the deserted tree-lined streets, our movements partially shielded by the thick branches. As we approach a right hand turn Rakeesh slinks silently behind a cream colored house with two chimneys and brown trimming with several ‘For Rent’ signs out front on the lawn, each advertising a different person to call. With a leap, he rockets up and lands silently on the flat roof of the two story house and I follow him, but not quite as silently. When I touch down on the rooftop I can’t help but look down and feel amazed that I can do stuff like this now.

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  Rakeesh moves low across the roof and then sits with his back to one of the chimneys. I follow close behind and take note of the angles he’s using to make sure he can’t be seen.

  “See the fortified house five down on the far side?” he asks, handing me a small pair of binoculars and pointing. I look using my Perception and wave them away.

  “Yeah. A couple lights on but all curtains and blinds closed. High walls, electronic gate. Looks like a semi-disguised pair of gun turrets on the northeast and southwest corners of the roof. Can’t tell but it looks like maybe a shield generator on the top of the chimney?”

  “Power?” he asks, and I nod.

  “You’d be pretty useful in the field.”

  He grunts and then peers around the bricks and has a good look, then pulls out a high tech slingshot and a grapefruit sized black ball with neon running lights and a control panel on it. He sets the slingshot down on the roof and his fingers flash across the controls.

  “This is going to cause enough confusion to their long range sensors that we should be able to get close enough for me to bring out the big guns and cripple their security. When I fire this, we move down the street. Three houses via rooftop and I’ll let loose, then your clock starts. Remember, ten minutes. I’ll keep them as busy as I can while making sure nobody leaves.”

  “Got it,” I say. Adrenaline dumps into my bloodstream in anticipation of getting my hands around Eddie’s neck.

  Rakeesh picks up the slingshot and puts the device he’s been working on into it, then without any fanfare pulls back and fires it silently in a high arc across and down the street. At the end of that rainbow is Eddie’s house and the device explodes in a billion sparkling pieces a few meters above it. I can feel the blast of Mana even from where we are. Rakeesh is off like a shot, but I’m not caught watching the show and I’m right behind him in his shadow.

  Bounding across three rooftops, even ones spaced far apart, is no longer any issue and I follow Rakeesh as he lands, crouched, on the side sloped away from Eddie’s house. Without any hesitation he opens his duffel bag and shuffles up the roof on his stomach, then pulls out a short bazooka with a sizable piece of tech on the end that he’s clearly going to deliver to Eddie in the best way possible. Before he fires, he pulls out his sniper rifle and sets it on the roof beside him against his leg so it doesn’t go anywhere.

  Set and ready, Rakeesh looks over at me. I dial up my Perception and nod at him. In slow motion I see him press the trigger of the bazooka and hear the click, then the ignition of the missile as it rockets out toward the house. By the time it explodes against the side of the house I’m halfway there. Lights up and down the street go off and as I eat up the ground and leap over the walls past the automated defences. I don’t hesitate when my foot hits the hard pathway - I launch myself up high through the air to my right over the balcony and grab the down pipe with my left hand as I call a massive sledgehammer from my Inventory. It’s like Thor’s hammer but five times as big and made of solid steel.

  The metal downpipe creaks and breaks away from the house, but I’ve gotten all the redirection I need and I grab the haft of my hammer with both hands then give a massive baseball swing with all my Strength to slam it into the side of the house. The walls are reinforced, but without the additional strength of a force field the impact shatters the heavy bricks and blasts a hole into what the plans said is the master bedroom.

  My senses are on high alert as I follow through and hook the end of my sledgehammer on the wall that’s remaining and yank myself through the hole head first into the room. I catch a glimpse of something leaving through the door and hear more than one set of footsteps outside in the hall. I don’t sense anyone in the bathroom and my Danger Sense is only pushing on me from the direction of the door to the hallway, so I take a chance of leaving someone behind me and go for it. As I dart at full speed through the shattered room,I pull a tower shield from my Inventory and surge through the door and turn right. A door slams ahead of me in the hallway to my right and my Danger Sense flares as a hail of bullets smashes into my shield, denting and shaking it. It’s not nearly enough to stop me.

  Once I get to the door I throw my heavy shield down the hallway with all my Strength. It rockets down the hall and I smash myself into the door to break it down. It buckles and resists me for a second, but then crashes in, bending around the locking mechanism as it’s torn off its hinges. I power through the gap into a heavily fortified construction site and see Eddie fucking Midlane cowering in the corner beside materials that are obviously meant to be used to complete this safe room.

  “Should have been quicker to fix up your new digs, Eddie,” I growl, anger rising high within me as I see his scumbag face scared as hell. Here’s an outlet for all my rage. I take a menacing step, then stop as my Danger Sense pushes hard on me from behind. I pivot to the side as Eddie’s goon rushes through the broken door. I grab him and continue my pivot, throwing him hard against the concrete and steel wall and into a set of computer screens mounted on the wall. They shatter in a cloud of glass and the goon grunts. I rush forward and kick his legs out from under him, then slam my hand down toward his head at high speed. He manages to get his hand up to block my blow, but I’ve called a hardened iron spike to my hand and it stabs deep into his neck. I twist and pivot again; this time before he can even react I’ve straddled the iron spike and used all my Strength and both hands to drive it down and twist it like a crowbar, ruining his neck and almost tearing his head from his body.

  Low calibre gunfire bounces off my back as Eddie unloads some kind of revolver at me. I turn and snarl at him, then sense something moving extremely fast, at the edge of what I can perceive, through the door. Before Eddie’s other Powered guard can get to him I’ve launched myself forward and tackled him, cracking his head against the reinforced concrete wall with a sickening sound. Soul Sparks form from deep within both the bodies and I Reclaim them, pulling them into me.

  Breathing hard from the emotion rather than the exertion, I stand and look Eddie straight in the eye. He’s trembling with his gun out in front of him, knowing it won’t make a bit of difference in this fight. Eddie’s the focus for all the hurt and betrayal I’ve felt in my whole life.

  And I realize I don’t just want to kill him. I want to break him.