It’ll be different this time. I just have to keep telling myself that.

  Though it doesn’t really feel different as I get to the top of my tower. Asher’s not waiting for me. I’m still feeling alone and afraid.

  Ignoring the sensation of loss, I quickly strip out of my ordinary clothes and put on my suit, a sense of resolve washing over me.

  Clothes really do make a difference.

  Once I’m fully ready, I turn on the communicator. “Miracle, you ready?” I ask, moving to the wall, picking where I’m going to jump too.

  “Yeah, I’m in position, getting everything set up now.” He says, breathing hard, and I think I can make out the sounds of him moving something heavy around as he sets up.

  “You sure they won’t be able to find your hiding spot?” I ask, still not particularly liking this part of the plan.

  “Of course I am if they found this spot before we’re done I’ll eat my left shoe.”

  “I think you’ll have bigger worries than eating your left shoe.” I grumble.

  “Quit whining and get over here if you want your gear for this.”

  “On it.”

  With no more time to wait, I leap through the glass; the wind whips through me as I fall through the sky.

  Landing with a roll, I dash across the rooftops, trusting in my memorization to keep me on track.

  With just my feet solid, I must look like a shadow arcing across the sky.

  It’s a pretty cool image.

  Within three minutes, I land next to Asher’s van, fully letting my momentum dissipate before standing up and going solid.

  “Are you getting faster or just better at directions?” he says as he pulls out what looks to be a modified backpack.

  “I’m not sure if my physical ability is increasing or not,” I shrug, grabbing the backpack and narrowing my focus so I can make out everything inside.

  “What I wouldn’t give to get some actual testing done,” he says wistfully.

  “When we take over the lab and clear it out, I’m sure you can set up a testing facility.” I say as I add the container filled with the power enhancement patches into the one empty pocket.

  “Between the surprises I have ready for fighting the other supers, the spy gear, and the trojan it’ll be around twenty additional pounds,” Asher warns me.

  “That’s fine. It’ll be more than enough for me, I’m sure.” I say, slinging the pack over my shoulder and fastening the buckles to make sure it won’t fall off.

  “If you need to choose between keeping the gear and saving another kid, save another kid,” Asher says, grabbing my arm. “You have to promise that getting a step ahead of them isn’t worth throwing away the future of one.”

  I pull my arm away, trying to think through that promise. “I promise I’ll do everything I can to save them.”

  “I want you to do more than try.” He laughs.

  “So do I.” I agree. “So walk me through it. What about all the toys you made for yourself to tag along?”

  Asher rubs his hands together as he pulls out two suitcases, flipping them open to reveal two drones.

  “So?”

  “You’re lame.” Asher grumbles, fiddling with the drones. “Both of them are custom combat drones. They’ll be able to take out the regular guys non-lethally and have some scouting ability. Which is kind of moot with you around, but I still need to see to aim the weapons.”

  “Are they light enough for me to phase?” I ask, trying to figure out how I’m supposed to bring them down into the tunnels with me.

  “If you phase them one at a time, yeah,” Asher admits. “So once they’re down there, you won’t be able to move them around unless you have the time and space to just move them. And I don’t know what happens to my connection if they’re phased.”

  “So I’ll just drop them and you take them back over?”

  Asher nods before climbing back into his car to play watchtower for me.

  I wait for the drones to blaze to life, their fans whirring as I run to our designated drop location. Now that I know he’s bringing these guys, it makes a lot more sense of why he picked one so far away comparatively speaking.

  “Which drone am I dropping first?” I ask, looking between them.

  “The one landing.”

  Before my eyes, one of the drones lands on the ground gently, the fans no longer spinning.

  While now safe to drop it, I do sweep the area with my power, making sure that there’s nobody around that will see it.

  The drones themselves are decently quiet, so hopefully it can catch itself without falling to the ground in a heap.

  Once I’m positive nobody is there, I steady my breathing. “Showtime.” I whisper.

  Gently placing a gloved hand on the device, I let my power bubble out of me, enveloping the drone in my power before letting it activate.

  The drone becomes dark as the abyss before it falls through the ground.

  Right before it hits the floor of the tunnel, it whirs back to life, hovering in the air for a second before moving back, giving both me and the next drone space to drop.

  Drone two lands on the ground, the blades stopping, and I follow the unsaid instructions, letting my power ripple through it before dropping it through the floor.

  It’s way easier to drop myself through it.

  Though I can tell between my armor and the backpack I’m pushing against my weight limit more than I normally do outside of training.

  Before training, I wouldn’t have even been able to do it. The proof of growth is intoxicating.

  “Ready?” I say quietly, hoping he can pick up on it.

  “Yes. Are you at full detection range, scouting range, or combat vision range?” Asher asks also in a whisper.

  Not sure why he’s whispering. I’m pretty sure the helmet would block out his voice, that he can speak normally.

  “Combat range. I figure fine detail is more important right now.” I explain, hoping I’m not making the wrong decision.

  I could switch between them, but it’s slow and takes time. Time ?I’m not necessarily sure we have.

  “Then wait for a moment while I check my various sensors.” Asher says, and the lights on the drone flash different colors for a moment.

  “Nobody seems to be near at the moment. You know the way to the easy entrance, right?” Asher asks despite knowing full well that I do.

  But sometimes, a reminder is all we need. I’m not feeling all great about the plan either.

  “Yeah, follow me.” I say, getting in front of the drones and beginning to move forward, the three of us moving in a loose V formation.

  “Remember, this operation isn’t about stealth; it’s about speed.” Asher reminds me as we close the distance.

  “Wait.” I say, pressing myself against the wall as I feel someone enter my range.

  “Person at least one. Not the Lizard and not wearing Horrorfrost’s armor.” I get out quickly, relaying the information.

  “I’m on it. I have better silent takedown options.”

  “Then I’ll start moving forward.” I say before phasing and stepping into the wall, only using the barest tips of my fingers and toes to occasionally protrude to keep me anchored to this plane.

  As I move forward, I watch both drones move into position, waiting at a corner for the guard to pass.

  As they pass me, I poke my head out through the wall and let my eyes go solid so I can see.

  They’re carrying a light, but it’s in front of them, so I’m only getting some ambient backlighting.

  But from what I can tell, they seem to be someone from the lab, not someone from the city patrolling this place.

  Which doesn’t surprise me. Despite our fight being conveniently located nearby, the city has been only looking in directions away from the lab.

  Slipping back into the wall, I keep moving forward, trusting Asher to take care of it before the trio leave my detection range.

  And as predicted, right as the man rounds the corner, the drones do something and the man falls to the ground.

  It looks like several projectiles are sticking out of him, so probably some type of dart if I had to guess.

  Though I don’t want to know what kind of super-chemical cocktail you need to instantly make people pass out.

  Stepping out of the wall, I return to the normal world.

  “Got em.” Asher says.

  “Do we want to change the plan since we met someone early?” I ask, crouching down for really no reason beyond that it feels more stealthy.

  “Let’s try and pick out a few more. It’ll help draw people out so that you can get in.” Asher agrees.

  Retracing our steps, I rifle through the guard's pockets looking for anything I can use, but beyond a regular gun and his armor, there’s nothing of use.

  As I’m about to say that there are no communicators on him, I feel a trio of people enter my detection range, moving slowly, weapons raised.

  “Failsafe.” I whisper.

  One of the drones turns to me camera aimed at my helmet.

  “You think they knew when this guy went down and they sent a team in?” Asher says as both drones whir and I can feel them ready different weapons.

  I nod.

  “You said you wanted to go in loud.” I shrug, stand up and move to a corner, preparing to take down the first person we see.

  “It’ll make it easier for you to escape.” Asher reminds me. “Distractions and all of that.”

  Before I can respond, the trio of armed guards round the corner, weapons first.

  With a silent roar, I slam my fist into the face of one before rounding on the other two.

  There’s a hiss of air as the drones do something.

  As a gun is aimed at my chest, I phase my body, dropping through the floor, catching myself with my hands before swinging up, tripping one of them on my way up.

  In seconds, the fight is over, with the three guards in various states of disarray.

  “Are more coming?”

  “Not sure yet; they need to get closer to be in range.”

  “Doesn’t matter, let’s get going to the entrance.” Asher says, his drones leading the way.

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  It sets my teeth on edge as we get closer that nobody has entered my detection range.

  We’re not at the entrance yet, but they should have sent out somebody to respond if I had taken out three of their men, right?

  They’re going to be ready for us.

  That’s fine. It’s expected. We planned ?for this.

  When someone finally enters my range, I freeze, doing my best to expand my senses without screwing up the detail. “Miracle, pull back slightly, I feel people.”

  The drones hover in place.

  Right there guarding the entryway from a frontal assault is a quintet of guards, though there should be a lot more.

  “Zebra, I know you want to stay at combat sense range, but would you be good canvassing the place? I want to make sure they’re moving as predicted.” Asher asks, his voice low.

  “On it.”

  My awareness ripples outward, blanketing the area with my perception. The farther it goes out, the more blurred it all begins to become, but I don’t need fine detail at the moment.

  Just the general bodies of folks moving around.

  I can feel the drones touch down, their fans no longer spinning as Asher reduces the amount of things I’m trying to keep track of with my mind.

  Besides the five people waiting for us, there are a few nearby guards, but I can feel the large, lumbering form of the lizard deeper in the lab.

  While some of them have prepared for a full frontal assault, they know me a bit too well to be expecting me to not come at them sideways.

  “As predicted.” I relay as soon as my perception is dialed back to its normal.

  “Alright, operation front door is a go. You have the charge?” Asher asks, a mad giggle escaping his lips.

  I wonder if all super geniuses have the problem of wanting to play with incredibly destructive tech?

  Slipping my hand into the bag, I pull out a small box before looking at the drones. “Are you sure this won’t damage anything?” I accuse hoping Asher can at least imagine the glare that’s on my face.

  “The explosion won’t harm anything. You toss it, and the drones fight here while you run around not getting caught.” He says.

  “Stay safe.”

  My piece said I activate my power before dashing around the corner.

  The moment I’ve cleared the tunnel wall, my arm whips forward, throwing the blast charge out, aiming at the ground beneath their feet.

  My foot once more solid pushes off of the ground sending me behind the wall as I trigger the detonator.

  A woomph rushes around the corner, and I pull out the laser pistol, poking it around the corner and firing thrice, aiming for the people who are still standing after the explosion.

  My ears and mouth go solid. “Ten people, right?” I ask between shots.

  “Yeah, ten once that many is coming this way. I’ll kite them backwards and keep them engaged. Hopefully, I can take them out as fast as new guards show up.” Asher agrees the drones positioning just behind me, preparing to take over the vanguard position.

  I phase as much as I can and go back to firing, aiming to cripple and wound them. Mostly to keep them here without making them able to get closer.

  As soon as ten guards show up, I move behind the drones.

  If all goes according to plan, the guards will be occupied with the drones, while I slip inside undetected.

  Once my weapons are back in place and my pack is situated, I run towards a tunnel wall and push through it and downwards, aiming to fall into the bottom section of the lab where I currently don’t feel anyone.

  Without all ?my experience jumping off buildings, I don’t think I could take such a long diagonal jump without feeling terrified.

  My boots land with a thud as I scan the area with my eyes. This is just another testing room, though not any of the ones I’ve been in so far.

  Unfortunately, there aren't any computers.

  I flick my communicator on and off three times to signal that I am inside the building.

  None of the supers feel like they’re on the floor besides Lizardman, and they should be easy enough to avoid as long as I’m quiet.

  No use trying to track the Andromedas since she’ll be everywhere she pleases.

  Kurt seems like their main enforcer, so he’s hopefully tied up with Asher.

  That leaves the green lady and Horrorfrost as my primary problems to deal with.

  Easy enough.

  I have three Trojans to try and implant somewhere within the servers here. As long as I make one of them loud and obvious, hopefully they won’t look too hard for the other one.

  I don’t really get the tech jargon, but supposedly they’re all supposed to be different, so even if you catch one doesn’t mean you’ll catch them all.

  The hallway outside this room doesn’t have anyone in it, and neither does the room above me.

  That’s the main floor of the complex, so it’s probably also my best choice to find something worth using against them.

  Before I move, I pull in the mind map further until I can perceive better with it than I could if I had my actual eyes open in every direction.

  Gently scaling the wall, I slip through the ceiling, arriving at the new floor, finding the room mostly empty.

  There’s a few boxes, a desk with a large set of desktops on it and several monitors.

  Not sure what this room is for. It’s not the security room, but it seems important enough?

  Gently moving one of the desk towers, I slip a USB out of my bag and plug it into the back of the computer before putting everything back in its place.

  Thankfully, this room is used often enough that there’s no sign of me disturbing dust or anything like that.

  I spin around as I feel someone coming in my direction. There’s a smaller-built person moving towards this room.

  I can escape easily; they wouldn’t see me.

  This lab room is still empty, so I can go here without much worry.

  Two more Trojans, and I promised Asher I would check to see if there are any other kids trapped in this place, so three things to do.

  The pack on my back feels heavy, all of our planned countermeasures currently not needing to be used.

  I pause to check on Asher, and a bunch of people are still clumped up at the entrance, seemingly in a firefight, so I’m going to take that as a good sign.

  If he needed to alert me, he would use one of our contingencies.

  Everything is going fine.

  Using my perception to make sure there’s nobody in the hallway, I push through the door, letting it swing shut behind me as I move closer to the center of the facility.

  The only people I can feel on this floor with me are people currently trapped. Though nobody seems to be in the middle of an active experiment, which is good.

  I improve my pace to a jog and begin moving faster.

  Everything seems like it’s going great until I feel something fly through my phased torso.

  Fuck.

  Spinning around, I get my eyes on the green goblin for the first time since my initial visit to this place.

  I’m a moron.

  She’s still standing outside ?my spatial awareness. Even though I can see her and maybe even hear her if I was fully solid, I can’t sense her.

  Putting my head down, I go fully solid, charging forward with as much force as I can.

  Something collides with my armor, making loud pings.

  “We’ve been expecting you.” She says, her voice nauseating to the ear.

  No time for quipping, not against someone like her.

  Not wanting to risk anything as soon as she’s in detection range, I phase my head and helmet as I grab my contingency out of my bag, throwing it at her feet.

  The next instant, she’s clutching her hands to her eyes and stumbling backwards.

  I grab the second contingency for her as I close the distance between the two of us. The needle feels weird in my hands, but so does any other weapon.

  Next second she’s ?tackled to the ground, and I slam the prepared needle into her thigh.

  We struggle for a few more seconds before I feel her go limp in my arms.

  Whatever knockout juice Asher made is brilliant, and we should definitely use it more. However, I want a better way than carrying a bunch of syringes looking like some sort of cursed doctor.

  I let my mind snap back to its normal distance.?

  She almost certainly called for help, or her screaming was heard, or something, so I need to get moving fast.

  Despite my thoughts about it, I don’t take her with me as a hostage.

  For one, I don’t think I can use my powers with her in my arms.

  Two that’s not really the type of person I want to be.

  Discarding the idea for stealth, I run to where Bianca’s room here was planning on jumping from there to the security room.

  Whoever’s in there, I’ll kick the shit out of and then I’ll be able to plug another Trojan in there, and I’ll do something else?

  Forcibly wrenching my attention away from the rotting corpse in the room, I take a running jump, throwing my hands onto the ceiling before muscling myself up.

  Like a phantom coming out of the floor, I pull myself to standing before leveling my helmeted eyes at the guard staring at me slack-jawed.

  Since he’s giving me the opportunity, I slam my fist into his gut before driving my knee into the same spot, dropping him to the ground where he writhes in pain.

  As I mess with the computers here, I can feel something odd in the next room over.

  The woman at the computer stares at the wall between the two of us, tilting her head to the side.

  The realization of who’s looking at me comes just as there are now two of her.

  Andromeda is coming to see me.

  Jamming the second Trojan in, I move towards the door, walking out at the same time as a trio of Andromeda’s leave her room.

  I go fully solid for a moment trying to conserve power.

  “I’ll be going, don’t mind me.” I say, grabbing another box from my bag.

  We had very few ideas of how to stop Andromeda specifically, but there’s tons of ways to stop groups of people.

  Especially when we don’t have to worry about myself blowing out my eardrums.

  I flick the lever, arming the device, before dropping it to the ground, phasing my head as I turn on a dime and charge away as fast as I can.

  The sound of it all shouldn’t hurt me, but the force of it might have something to do with me.

  As I run, more Andromedas appear in front of me, barely a blip on my radar as I phase through her, running hard.

  That confirms the theory, I suppose, that any of her clones have at least some kind of ability to conjure more.

  If Kurt is above me, Andromedas all around me, Goblin taken out below me and the Lizard accounted for, where the heck is Horrofrost?

  The wave of sound is nearly physical as it passes through me, and I see all the Andromedas collapse to the ground clutching their ears as they writhe in pain.

  Even the ones that should be out of the blast radius.

  Maybe they’re all mentally linked?

  Asher’s fight isn’t going so well. I can feel them getting further into the tunnels.

  More than that, some of them are turning around to come back inside.

  What do I do?

  Run?

  Help the drones?

  Try to save some captives?

  A smile plays on my lips as I run to one of the storage rooms, passing through the door before turning fully solid.

  I pull out some more of the explosives Asher had given me, attaching them to as many of the things in here as I can.

  While it might not be the research, I need to get. Or, the scouting we want to have? will slow them down.

  It shouldn’t hurt anything too badly?

  Detonating all the blast charges, the room quakes as force tears apart most of the devices in here, leaving me gloriously unscathed.

  Because I was intangible, but that’s beside the point.

  Multiple middle fingers to the lab given I dart out of the room looking for an exit for me that doesn’t have a ton of armed soldiers looking to ruin my day.

  With my net cast wide, I find the two potential spots.

  Exit one fighting through all the guards who have returned to be my problem. Less than ideal.

  Exit two is my original one from all that time ago.

  The problem with that is the person waiting for me in that tunnel.

  Though I don’t feel any breaks in the wall.

  Did they send Horrorfrost there, so that she was manning it by herself to cut off my escape route?

  Clenching my fists and setting my jaw, I charge in her direction.

  I owe her a rematch.

  Once in the room where I was buried alive, I drop through the floor and run towards Horrorfrost, gathering up every scrap of focus I can while I run.

  Unfortunately, any of the countermeasures for her were too heavy for me to carry, which means all I have are my skills.

  Maybe one of the knockout needles, but she’ll probably just freeze the liquid inside, making it so it won’t release.

  One last breath to steady myself, I plunge through the wall, solidifying the moment I’m at the other side.

  The moment I’m solid, Horrorfrost tackles me, the two of us crashing into the wall before falling to the ground with her mostly on top of me.

  I’m a significantly worse grappler than all other kinds of fighting. Worse than that, the ice immediately begins to crawl across my armor.

  What little heating devices Asher had installed in this armor do their best to fight it off, but it’s already on a time limit.

  I go to phase before finding my brain slammed back to me right at the same time as a javelin of ice pierces my right bicep.

  Roaring in pain, I try to shove her off of me to find that when I do that, I’m pulled along too.

  She froze herself to my armor.

  And because I’m trying to phase my armor with me, I’m mentally bringing the ice and her along too.

  “I’m really starting to find you annoying.” I complain, trying to garner the concentration to phase the ice off of me.

  I could ditch my armor, but I would rather not run away naked.

  That would be incredibly awkward if anyone saw me.

  My second desire is that I could finally learn that magical phase-cutting trick I’ve seen other phasers do.

  Instead, I draw my mind closer in.

  Even as more ice perforates me, anchoring the bond between me, the ice, and her, I draw my attention closer.

  One hundred pounds, give or take.

  That’s going to be enough.

  Part of me is tempted to try to finally get a good look at who the poor girl behind the Horrorfrost mask could be, but I can’t do that, not right now.

  The ice needs to be taken care of.

  Come at them sideways, right? That’s how I should think about.

  I scream in rage in pain as I flood all the ice with my power, phasing it and making it fall between the two of us.

  Before she can react, I drive my head forward, slamming it into the visor of Horrorfrost's face and sending her away from me.

  Leaping to my feet, I hold my hands up.

  Mentally, I curse myself for doing that. I should just run away. I have the space I could just run.

  But there’s something holding me here.

  Every time I see Horrorfrost, something intangible feels off. And I need to figure out why, even if it’s a bad idea.

  Horrorfrost mechanically gets to her feet, not showing a single inclination that she’s in pain in the slightest. Though I broke her visor. Points for me for finally doing something ruffle her feathers.

  As Horrorfrost meets my eyes, I finally get a chance to see an eye through the broken visor. Azure blue, like the sky. And crying.

  No, it can’t be.

  “Zebra, you've gotten space, so you need to run away.”

  “Fuck off.” I grow darting forward.

  Horrorfrost raises a hand to block me, but my hand passes through it before returning to solid once again as it collides with the helmet.

  In that instant I flood it with power, sending the helmet flying away as it’s no longer held in place by anything that can hold it.

  One eye might be a different color, and there are scars I don’t recognize, but it’s unmistakable.

  The supervillain standing before me is my best friend.

  They turned her into Horrorfrost and have been making her fight people against her will. All she’s capable of is watching.

  Amelia mouths the word run to me.

  All I see is red.

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