Sami swallowed hard as he pulled on a high-vis vest, glancing up and down the road before cars arrived.

  “Nervous?” Rudy asked. His vest was draped over his shoulder, and he waved off the workman. Still there after collecting his cones, the worker seemed intent on observing HUE's performance and reporting back. Sami shifted in place.

  “I’ve never done something like this before. I don’t wanna mess it up,” Sami answered quietly.

  “Sami, I heard you were the first to run in during an ambush. This is like Baby’s First Mission in comparison,” Rudy said.

  “Still, I just want to do it right.”

  “That’s not gonna be a problem. Traffic control is easy. You’ve driven a car before, right?”

  “No.”

  “No!?” Rudy gave him a double take. “You never snuck out with your old man’s car or drove your friend’s car?”

  “Never.”

  Rudy took a moment to process, then shifted gears.

  “No problem, it’s still easy. Just do it like this. Let people go straight, then let them make a left turn. Then tell them to stop and tell the others to go straight and turn left. Repeat. That’s basically all a traffic light does. If one side is empty, then let the other side keep going. Make sense?”

  “I think so.”

  “Great, take this. I’ll show you once and then you can take it from there,” Rudy said, checking his watch with a quick whip of his wrist while passing Sami a stop sign.

  It didn’t take long for cars to arrive and Rudy waved them by immediately, not even waiting for them to slow down. Sami watched closely to how he waved, wondering if the shape of his hands was important to indicate passage. Cars came from the perpendicular end of the road and Rudy pushed his arms out for them to stop, which they did immediately.

  “You’re up,” Rudy said, patting him on the shoulder.

  “Already?”

  “Seriously, I already showed you everything there is to learn.”

  Nodding with false confidence, Sami held up the stop sign with his Shadow Hand and waved cars through with his other two hands. Drivers watched him with wide eyes as they passed by, slowing down and twisting necks to get a good look at his power. To Sami’s relief, nothing went wrong. People drove by without incident. Imbued with confidence, Sami flipped the stop sign to one end and waved to the other side to pass through.

  “See that? You already got it,” Rudy said.

  “Thanks.” Sami grinned.

  “Hey, kid! I read your article!” A middle-aged man rolled down the window to his truck as he approached the center of the intersection. “They shoulda taken a picture of your black hand there! It’s much less grotesque than they made it out to be.”

  “Thank you… Sir!” Sami replied graciously.

  The man nodded and rolled up his window as he continued along. Others slowed down in the same manner to talk to Rudy or Sami about HUE. A wave of Shadow Hand ushered the especially slow ones through. Whenever it seemed appropriate, Sami did a trick with his Shadow Hand, spinning the stop sign in the air or high-fiving a passerby. Despite traffic control being menial work, Sami found a certain beauty in interacting with the city residents. Like he was reminding himself why Hammerton was worth protecting.

  “Few minutes to closing time,” Rudy said. He had directed no traffic after the first few seconds, but never left Sami’s side. Like he granted Sami a leadership position without ever abandoning him. “You did good. Probably made a small buzz online with your showmanship.”

  “I thought I would be a lot more bored,” Sami admitted.

  “I gotta say, you got a lot of energy in you. Helped the time fly by.” Rudy tapped his watch. “Oh, hey, I just thought of something. You can drive on the way back.”

  “I don’t have my license.”

  “I really couldn’t care less. It’d be good experience for you. I’ll teach you,” Rudy suggested.

  In less than two hours, Sami felt a fondness for Rudy that no one else in HUE elicited, like a student under a legendary teacher.

  “Yeah, that sounds really cool,” Sami said, feeling a thrill at the idea.

  A nondescript van moving toward the intersection caught his attention, even as Sami signaled it to wait. Waving his stop sign more urgently, Sami stepped slightly toward the vehicle, which was slowly rolling into the intersection.

  The driver was eyeing Sami closely. Sami drove his Shadow Hand forward and placed the stop sign right on the passenger side of the windshield. The van kept crawling forward. Sighing, Sami waved for every side of the intersection to stop so no one would run into the obstinate van.

  “Stop!” Rudy demanded the van, authority strong in his voice. “Wait your turn!”

  “You with HUE? Either of you the pizza guy?” the driver asked, poking his head out the window.

  “We’re HUE. Stop your vehicle. You’ll get a signal to move just like anyone else!” For some reason, Rudy instinctively held an arm defensively out in front of Sami. Sami looked down at Rudy’s arm, then back to the van with more wariness. It had several passengers. Or were they several opponents?

  “Close enough. Let’s go.” Finally stopping the car, the driver flicked his head and all the doors opened immediately.

  Sami felt a chill crawl up his spine as four figures emerged from the car. Three men and one woman, all their gazes sharp and unwavering. Once on the pavement, they simultaneously pulled down black goggles over their eyes.

  The three men were all different heights, the tallest a head taller than the van they emerged from. Bracing himself, Sami activated Power Sense and saw every one of them were Awakened. The woman had a wisp of steam crawling up from her hand, and Sami saw her red Power Sense bubble sparkle slightly, indicating she was either preparing an attack or already using one. Thinking quickly, he waved to the other cars with arms and sign.

  “Turn back! Get out of here! Go!”

  Something slapped into the stop sign, and he heard a sickening sizzle bubble from the metal. Lowering it, Sami saw a substance melt through the thin sign and leave a fist-sized hole. One of the Awakened had attacked with some acidic ability.

  “Does everything have to be an ambush?” Sami grumbled.

  “Give me the sign, quick,” Rudy said, holding out his hand. Sami tossed it over, and a portal immediately appeared in its center. Like a window, Sami could see into an infinite pink swirl, he had no idea where the portal would come out from. It was surreal to feel air come out from the sign as a passing breeze wafted through.

  “What do you guys want?” Rudy asked.

  “The pizza creator! He turned Joe into pizza! Send him with us and no one gets hurt!” the woman declared.

  “Who?” Sami asked, looking at Rudy, who shrugged.

  “Pizza Man!” one man said. “He turns things into pizza.”

  “Save it,” the woman said. “They’re playing dumb. We’ll have to beat it out of them.”

  “No, really! We don’t know who that is!” Sami insisted.

  “Who are you with?” Rudy asked.

  “The Underground!” another man said boldly.

  “Who?”

  “This conversation is feeling a little circuitous.” The woman rubbed her eyes. “Kill the kid, and we’ll torture the business man. He probably knows more.”

  “Hear that? They’re gonna target you with intent to kill,” Rudy said, taking a full step in front of Sami. “You should get out of here.”

  “I can help!” Sami said immediately, his Shadow Hand balling into a fist.

  Rudy scoffed and looked at Sami over his shoulder.

  “You’re really something, Sami.” He grinned.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Look out!” Sami pointed with three hands.

  Rudy snapped back just in time to see a ball of acid coming at his legs. Swinging the stop sign like a tennis racket, Rudy swallowed the ball into the sign. To Sami’s surprise, it launched back out from Rudy’s hip, flying across the road and lightly slapping the man on the left. Howling in pain, he fell to the floor gripping his arm as it spilled a mix of acid and blood.

  “Jerome!” one assailant called to his downed companion.

  “Quick, Shineburst, blind him!” the woman called, throwing up a spray of acid in the air.

  The man to her right stomped forward and blasted yellow and blue paint from his hands. The last man glowed brightly, angling himself to point the light directly in Rudy’s eyes. Must’ve been Shineburst.

  Sami ripped his high-vis jacket off, tossing it high into the air with a grunt. His Shadow Hand snagged it, and the jacket shielded Sami and Rudy from the falling acid spray. The melting plastic stench filled the scene, burning Sami’s eyes.

  Rudy twisted his body to catch all the paint into the stop sign, and it spewed back out from his hip. This time, Sami saw it was coming from a second portal that was placed on the plate on Rudy’s hip that used to display his Rank.

  Detaching the plate from its cord, Rudy threw it like a Frisbee over the three attackers. The paint stopped flowing out of it as it flew just above the glowing man. In a confusing display, Rudy thrust his fist into the stop sign, half of his arm appearing from the other portal and punching the shining man in the back of his head with enough force that he fell face first and smashed the pavement. Two down, two left.

  The portal plate landed face down, and Sami saw the window to the other side of the portal go black.

  “Good thinking with the vest above us,” Rudy complimented.

  Sami looked down at the vest with several holes in it, like it had just gone through a firing squad.

  “I don’t know what we’re supposed to do if she throws another one of those,” he muttered.

  Turning his neck, he checked to see if they could run. The cars were backed up in the intersection, some having crashed into each other to escape the battle. Too many civilians, they couldn’t abandon them.

  “Close in, they’re getting cheap shots from distance,” the woman told her last companion.

  “I got it,” Rudy said smartly, sticking his hand into his pocket.

  Pulling out a deck of cards, he flipped through them, each card shimmering with an arcane energy as a small portal appeared on every single one. As though he’d practiced this exact scenario hundreds of times, Rudy started throwing the cards sideways like a dealer on a lengthy table and scattered portals at the feet of the assailants.

  While the spreading cards distracted him, a new blob of acid flew at Sami. Eyes wide, Sami realized it a moment too late. Shadow Hand was too far and he couldn’t bend to protect him. Pure pain was on its way.

  Closing his eyes before impact, the acid smacked into something. When he opened his eyes, Sami was shocked to see the acid had exploded into a wall of feathers, falling around him like he was in a cartoon pillow fight.

  Acid to feathers? Was that his third mysterious power finally revealing itself? He couldn’t be certain. He didn’t feel like he was emitting any power. Maybe it was a trick done with the acid to throw him off? He couldn’t make sense of it.

  The approaching enemies stopped short, fearful of what could come from the portals in the cards spread all around them. Or perhaps more fearful of what would happen if they accidentally stepped into one. Rudy cracked his knuckles confidently, looking down at a portal at his feet.

  Suddenly, a loud beep went off next to Sami and his Shadow Hand snapped out to try and catch what he assumed was a bomb. Rudy looked at his watch in surprise and tapped it quiet.

  “Neat. Work’s done! Let’s go. Sami, you wanna drive?” Rudy asked, tossing the high-vis jacket over his shoulder to the floor.

  “What? Huh?” Sami asked, not understanding the joke.

  “It’s after hours. We’re not required to work. They don’t even pay us. Let’s roll.” Rudy flicked his head toward his car, which was sitting far behind the attackers.

  Sami blinked, looking between Rudy and the two assailants, who looked equally baffled.

  “Are you joking right now? We can’t leave!” Sami said.

  “What, because of these guys? That’s no sweat. Hop through here.” Rudy dragged his foot across the ground and a fresh portal appeared, revealing the interior of his car.

  “The civilians will be stuck here with them! Who knows what they’ll do!”

  “We’ll kill them!” the paint villain assured quickly. “You should stay and tell us where Pizza Man is!”

  “I’m good.” Rudy leaped into his portal and disappeared from view, except for Sami who could see into the car from the portal that remained. Rudy looked up through the portal as he turned the car on. “You coming? The people will be fine.”

  “I can’t leave these people stuck in their cars!” Sami exclaimed.

  “Suit yourself. You can do whatever you want in your free time,” Rudy said. The portal closed, leaving Sami staring at the blank pavement as Rudy’s car peeled out and sped off.

  Trembling in a mix of adrenaline and confusion, Sami looked back up at the man and woman who looked between one another confused. Another second passed, and the portals on all the cards on the floor disappeared, leaving harmless pieces of paper. The woman grinned.

  “All right, no more killing the kid. But break his legs. Make sure he can’t get away,” she declared.

  Sami’s heart blasted as his eyes scanned the scene. Two standing enemies, who he had already created nicknames for. Two more incapacitated, but they weren’t dead. Eyes focusing on the people on the ground, he made sure not to underestimate their ability to rise again.

  Painter and Acid Gal were approaching him, hands trembling with power. A dozen scenarios went through his head, but most of them ended with him running to draw them away, if that was even possible. Even in the worst-case scenario, he wouldn’t abandon the civilians in the area.

  Easing his posture, he looked over the shoulders of his enemies, smiling gratefully.

  “I knew you’d come back!”

  Painter and Acid Gal turned to look and Sami dashed, amazed that his bluff worked. Powered by his momentum, he slammed into Painter’s stomach with a powerful punch while his Shadow Hand swooped around and poked into Acid Gal’s eyes. Jumping, Sami looped an arm around Painter’s throat and brought him down in a headlock while Acid Gal shot acid at his Shadow Hand.

  As Sami grappled him to the ground, Painter blasted Sami’s head with a powerful burst of acrylic paint, like a waterhose going off at point blank. Sami was forced to close his eyes, but didn’t let go of Painter as he hit the floor. The dull grunt and crack was enough for Sami to know he did serious damage to his opponent. The man stopped struggling, his head loopy as blood spilled from an open wound in his skull. Wiping away paint from his face, Sami caught the moment Acid Gal shot acid right at his Shadow Hand.

  Spiraling, the hand was just able to avoid the attack, then go back for another poke at her eyes. She screamed in rage and pain, pointing her hand toward Sami and Painter even as her eyes remained closed. Painter struggled weakly under Sami’s grip on his neck, and Sami shifted himself behind the wounded man.

  “Let him go, or my next hit is for your face,” Acid Gal said, eyes stark red.

  Sami ran through more scenarios. Acid Gal wanted Sami alive, otherwise she would have already sent a flurry of acid the moment Rudy sped off. Either that, or she cared about her partner. On top of that, with raw, irritated skin and stinging eyes, she could barely see. He tried to stack those facts together for something useful. Heart pumping rapidly, the bulk of his frame remained hidden behind Painter as he held him in a full nelson.

  “If you try to hit me, you’re gonna hit him first!” Sami said. “And if you hit me, you’ll never get Pizza Dude!”

  Acid Gal hesitated just enough that Sami felt he played it right. She rubbed her eyes rapidly and Shadow Hand hovered close to her face, waiting for another opportunity. When she regained her vision, she glared at Sami, looking concerned for her comrade.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Sami hesitated, not sure what she was expecting. Was he supposed to punch with Shadow Hand again? Or maybe she was expecting information.

  “I’m not telling you about Pizza Dude.”

  “Fine, then let him go,” Acid Gal said.

  “No.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  “I want you all to get out of here and leave these people alone?”

  “How am I supposed to do that if you don’t let him go?”

  Sami stopped to think. It was an embarrassing impasse. Sirens wailed in the distance, but Sami had no guarantees that they were coming for his area. Still, it was good leverage.

  “You go. And I keep him until the police arrive.”

  She frowned at him. “How about I burn all three of your arms off?”

  “You put your guys back in the van. Then you take Painter last, and then you can go free,” Sami negotiated.

  “Painter?”

  Sami wiggled him enough that he groaned slightly. “This guy. The artist. Paint shooter!”

  Acid Gal considered the proposal. The sirens grew closer.

  “Fine. Don’t make any sudden moves.”

  “Yeah, you neither.”

  Acid Gal quickly rushed to drag the two men into the van, then approached to take Painter. A cold sweat slicked Sami’s palms as he held on tight, the palpable sense of impending attack hovering between himself and Acid Gal. Working his mouth in thought, he waved her away with Shadow Hand.

  “Get back in the van. Turn it on and I’ll put him in myself. Then you go.”

  She rolled her eyes, but complied, returning to the vehicle and turning on the engine. Looking at him pointedly, she leaned over and unlocked the passenger side door. Sami heaved as he dragged the bloody, half-conscious man through the mess of paint on the ground. When he reached the door, Sami positioned himself so that Painter would always remain between himself and Acid Gal. Struggling to open the door, he pushed with all his might to get Painter inside. He couldn’t get him all the way in the seat. His legs flopped out of the open door, though his body remained in the seat.

  “Close enough. Now get out of here,” Sami said, rushing out of view.

  Hitting the gas, Acid Gal spun the van in a tight circle until the driver’s side could see Sami. The window was already rolled down. Sami’s heart dunked into his stomach as he saw Acid Gal reach out and blast a baseball sized sphere of acid right at his face as she slammed on the pedal and peeled out.

  His Shadow Hand raced toward the ball and intercepted it before it could touch him. In shock, Sami saw that the hand didn’t immediately disintegrate, instead sizzling loudly as it gripped the ball of burning death. Unsure what to do with it, Sami chucked it at the van as hard as he could. The burning attack clipped the back of the bumper, sniping through the hull of the van and sinking straight into the street below, leaving a deep hole in the ground.

  “Oops,” Sami muttered, turning around to see if any civilians saw his embarrassing throw.

  The air crackled with the sound of clicking cameras and hushed murmurs as several phones pointed his way, dozens of faces peering from open car doors. As soon as the damaged van turned the corner, the crowd erupted in cheers.

  “You saved us! I thought I was gonna burn for sure!”

  “I always thought the Awakened would be the death of me. But clearly, they just saved my life.”

  “Thank you!”

  Sami grinned at the reception, trying to wave to everyone with his Shadow Hand. The dark arm was badly damaged and slumped as it tried to make motion. He allowed the hand to fade away and rest itself while he basked in the congratulations of a job well done.

  “It was a pleasure. Just what we do at HUE!” Sami said loud enough for them to hear.

  The next day, the Slattery Network published a new article: Fowl Play? HUE Amateur Allows Criminals to Escape. Causes Needless Property Damage. Kills Bird.