Chapter 20

NUTCRACKER

Flashpoint was steaming. Literally. The heat rolling off him boiled the rain before it could touch him, bursting droplets into vapor. And inside, his emotions boiled much the same.

Finding the fugitives hadn’t been hard. He still had loyal fans in every corner of the city, and one had posted about seeing Sheridan exit a nearby subway. From there it was just a matter of looking for anything suspicious.

He hovered above The Hollowed Die, some crappy dive bar, scanning the fight through an improvised, powered heat vision. He’d watched Talia Kim enter ten minutes earlier and beat someone bloody. He assumed it was the Redacted. A third signature, smaller and tucked in a back room, was likely Sheridan.

When Sheridan joined the fight, he’d considered crashing through the roof and ending it. But he couldn’t bring himself to care about the AEGIS officer. Besides, she’d handled both of them easily enough.

Then things got weird. They stopped fighting and started talking or something.

The longer he watched, the angrier he became. Steam whipped off him in sheets as air and water flash-evaporated around him.

Come to think of it, those two might have humiliated me by escaping, but it was that AEGIS bitch that started it all.

He let out a long, harsh breath.

“Fuck ‘em.”

Flame sparked to life in his palm. He compressed it, then did it again. Aiming his hand at the rooftop below, he reduced the heat pulsing from his feet just enough to drift downward through the steam.

Through his heat vision he saw the Redacted react to his presence, dragging Sheridan beneath cover.

Again?! The rage within him surged, worse after watching Talia Kim rolling to safety after them.

Then he unleashed the attack. The compressed ball of fire whistled through the air, trailing vapor. The roof burst apart as the projectile punched through and detonated against a heavy table below.

The explosion ripped the ceiling open. Debris rained down in every direction.

Flashpoint descended through the rain into the ruined room with a malicious grin and a mad chuckle.

The beautiful custom-built table with hidden compartments and integrated screens snapped down the middle across its width, separating Alexander and Annie from Talia.

The air cracked and whipped. Flames leapt across walls and furniture, igniting rulebooks and plastic miniatures. For a moment unbearable heat washed over them, even under the table, before cooler air rushed in to fill the void.

“It’s Flashpoint!” Alexander shouted over the destruction.

Annie nodded, clawing at her collar. “Get this thing off, Alex.”

He pulsed his Technopathy. The familiar design bent instantly to his will. This was the first device he’d ever broken, and now it was an effortless thought.

“It’s disabled. But don’t let them know until the right moment.”

She nodded again and rolled out from under the wreckage. Alexander stood, surveying the destruction. Shelves and keepsakes burned. The room was ruined.

Such pointless destruction…

Talia staggered clear of the smoke as Flashpoint landed through the hole above. She glared at him. “Hero Flashpoint! This is an AEGIS operation and completely under control. Your actions—”

Flashpoint cackled. Steam distorted the air around him as he landed between the ruined halves of the table.

To Alexander, he sounded insane. A shiver crawled down his spine, and he stepped back instinctively when Flashpoint briefly swept his gaze across him and Annie.

Flashpoint dismissed them as threats, turning back to Talia. “This is a three-for-one special. I was going to let you bring them in, but then I saw you chatting like best buds. Collaborating, to my eyes.” His grin widened. “Had to step in.”

“I already captured and collared them. This interference—”

“I looked you up,” he cut in. “After you reported me for questioning that store owner—”

Alexander’s fists clenched. Frank.

“—and I got put on review…” Flashpoint’s voice rose with anger, then slid into a taunt. “Guess what I learned?”

Annie slowly circled the room, repositioning herself.

When Talia didn’t answer, Flashpoint continued. “You were a wanted vigilante! How’s that for a joke? And your powers? You’re basically a Mundane, aren’t you?”

Talia’s knuckles whitened around her katana. She knew what came next. “You won’t get away with this,” she whispered. “They won’t believe you.”

“They will if all that’s left is a charred corpse.” Flashpoint’s grin was feral. “Come on. At least make it interesting for me.”

Talia glanced at Alexander. He was already calculating. She saw Annie edging into position. Both were still collared. She slipped a remote from her uniform, thumb on the release—

“Hey, Prickpoint,” Alexander said.

Flashpoint froze, then turned slowly. “What did you just call me?”

Alexander smiled and snapped his fingers. The sound echoed loudly throughout what remained of the room. Two clicks followed as the collars clattered free.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Flashpoint’s gaze tracked the falling collar until it hit the floor, confusion turning to fury.

Annie lunged, her arms reshaping into long spikes. Talia leaped from the other direction, katana whistling through the air.

Flashpoint blasted backward, sliding to the far wall. Heat rippled outward in his wake, searing the air and scorching Alexander’s throat when he inhaled.

Talia darted between Alexander and Annie, whispering hurriedly. “Don’t let him fly.”

Annie paled, then gritted her teeth and nodded. She dashed after Talia, closing on Flashpoint.

If he gets airborne, we have no way of stopping him from raining literal fire down on us.

Flashpoint was grinning and beckoning the two charging ladies, taunting them.

They spread out. Talia struck high, feinting. Fire flared from Flashpoint’s hand, the explosion hurling her across the room.

Using that brief distraction, Annie closed the distance. She scooped ash and burning debris, flinging it into Flashpoint’s face.

He roared in outrage, one hand shielding his face. The other aimed in Annie’s direction.

Alexander pulsed Technopathy, sharp and focused, faking a message to Flashpoint’s implant:

—This is a galactic-level emergency alert from the United Earth Government!

Flashpoint froze. Just long enough.

Annie slid in low, fist tripling in size the same way it had when she punched Iron Nadya. Only, this time, she wasn’t aiming for the face.

“NUTCRACKER,” she shouted, driving it between his legs.

Alexander winced.

The blow lifted Flashpoint from the floor and smashed him into the wall with a scream of raw agony. Heat flared out, cracking plaster and burning everything in reach. Alexander shielded his eyes from the heat, feeling skin burning.

Annie braced against the floor, metal fingers digging in. The heat didn’t affect her nearly as much as it did the others.

Talia hefted a broken beam of wood and hurled it at Flashpoint. Her aim was true, the blow slammed Flashpoint back into the wall.

And then Alexander noticed it: a white line slowly etching itself into a circle between the shattered halves of the table. Silent, steady, as though the world itself were drafting a design. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of it.

Nope, that’s really happening.

Flashpoint bellowed. Alexander looked back, seeing that in the brief moment he was distracted, Annie had somehow climbed onto his back. She was stabbing him repeatedly with bladed fingers, but they were barely piercing his skin.

“Tier 2!” Talia gasped.

Flashpoint giggled through the pain. “That’s right, you’re all dead!”

Alexander’s thoughts raced. Does that mean he’s ascended already? Need something bigger, then.

Casting his mind out, he found a parked hovercar just down the street. The idea amused him that somehow cars were becoming his most versatile weapon. He felt it rise into the air at his command, and turned back to the fight.

Talia had been forced to keep her distance ever since Flashpoint started burning the very air around him. Improvising, she hefted the katana and hurled it like a spear. The tip barely penetrated, steel already turning red as the blade slipped free and clattered to the ground.

I wonder if his eyes are as durable as the rest of him.

“Annie!”

She met his gaze, not even pausing in her stabbing efforts. He pointed two V-shaped fingers at his eyes with a grin.

Annie grinned back.

Flashpoint ripped her arm from around his throat, yanking her over his shoulder and trying to throw her across the room.

Annie leaned into it and thrust two bladed fingers at his eyes. He got a hand up in time to shield one, but the other twisted and stretched, puncturing his right eye.

Flashpoint shrieked, explosions rocking the room. Annie hurtled across the room, slamming into one broken half of the table, before ricocheting off and into the far wall with a crash.

To Alexander’s relief, she staggered to her feet immediately.

Flashpoint clutched at his ruined eye. He turned the remaining one on Alexander, panting with rage.

Alexander pointed up at the sky with a grin.

Flashpoint’s head snapped up just as the hovercar crashed through what remained of the roof and collided with him. The vehicle crumpled, tore across the ground, and smashed into the opposite wall with a crunch before coming to a stop.

Everyone was silent for a few moments. The sound of rain, wind, and the crackle of several fires kept them company.

Then the hovercar started vibrating, lines of paint flaking off tracing from the front. With a guttural scream, Flashpoint blasted the car away from him with such force that the building shook from the impact.

He staggered to his feet, blood pouring down his face. His left arm was a mangled mess, twisted and useless.

What’s it going to take to kill this guy?

“You…” Flashpoint growled, aiming his good hand at Alexander. “You die first.”

Fire ripped across the intervening space.

Oh, shit!

A small opaque circle appeared in front of Alexander’s face. Alexander, already frozen by the impending fiery death, froze a little harder.

The flaming projectile impacted the circle, and there was a sudden explosion from the end of the room where Flashpoint was standing.

Alexander looked just in time to see Flashpoint’s face explode, his own attack somehow redirected and striking him in the side of the head. The blast sent him hurtling across the room, where he collided with the wall again. Plaster cracked, damage running up and down the wall as the wall began to give.

From where he was, Alexander could see a tiny wand sticking through, held in a very big hand, attached to an arm. Shifting for a better angle on the strange circle, he saw Augustus's face also peeking out of it.

The rest of Augustus came through, stepping out of what could only be a portal. Which as far as Alexander was concerned, could only be literal magic.

Despite how strange the portal was, Augustus was stranger still. Dressed head to toe in royal purple fluffy pajamas, sleeves rolled up to reveal glowing blue tattoos that ran up muscular arms. Rounding out the look were luxurious bunny slippers, and a genuine nightcap with a fuzzy gold tassel dangling from it.

“Auggy!” Annie called out, relieved.

But Augustus’s eyes locked on the wreckage of his throne. “No…”

Flashpoint staggered up, blood still pouring from his eye. His face was partially blistered, the damage nowhere close to what it should be after the explosion.

“Doesn’t matter how many—” He stopped as Talia grabbed his good arm, her skin already reddening from proximity. Flashpoint’s eyes had glazed over.

“Run!” she screamed. “Get out!”

“Through the portal!” Augustus barked, shaking off grief.

Alexander started to run, but slowed. Annie was already dashing from the other end of the room toward the portal. Talia wouldn’t make it once he and Annie escaped, and she was forced to let him go, releasing him from whatever was holding him. His thoughts raced, trying to find a solution.

Sliding to a stop by the portal, he saw Augustus was still waiting on the other side. He met Annie’s gaze; he knew her well enough by now to know that he didn’t even have to ask for what came next.

Alexander pointed at Flashpoint and called out the play.

“Nutcracker to the face!”

Annie blurred past him, grinning like a maniac. Metal flowed down her right arm as she leaped the remaining distance, fist growing to the size of a small boulder.

“NUTCRACKER.”

Her punch smashed into Flashpoint’s face, crushing his nose and firing him straight through the cracked wall behind him in a shower of plaster.

Talia staggered through the portal, Augustus following behind her. Annie sprinted after, vanishing into the glowing circle.

Flashpoint burst back through the wall in a spray of debris, only to scream as Alexander hopped backward through the portal, middle finger raised.

It snapped shut behind him.