There was never a future I could imagine where my daughter would be victim to a spear in her chest, and yet the image before my eyes proved that wrong completely. I wanted to step forward—maybe to hold her, shield her from an attack that had already come and gone. A warm-no, a searing hot bloom unfurled in my own chest desperate to detonate and incinerate everything around me.

  That agonizing sensation only ceased once her voice broke through the mess that was my mind in that instant.

  “Dad, I’m fine!” I looked at Sunshine who was obviously trying her best to smile through the pain. “Despite how it looks, the attack isn’t actually going through me. Look—there’s no blood and my hands pass right through it. It hurts, but I’ll be fine!”

  Even though everything in my body was screaming at me to move and fight like a rabid maniac, I knew my kid was right. I chose to believe she was right and to trust her at that moment.

  The man in the shades sucked his teeth. “Roddy, don’t you hate when your opponent finds out your ability’s weakness? That’s like a serious pet peeve of mine.”

  “Ricky, you idiot!” yelled who I assumed was named Roddy. “You asking that question basically confirms that it’s a weakness!”

  “Well, you getting all mad about it doesn’t exactly help your situation,” said Ricky, pointing his gun directly at me this time. There was this metal bracelet around the gun’s tip that looked similar to the ones around his arms and neck. Though, I didn’t think too much of it. Must’ve just been poor fashion sense. “Besides, it won’t matter once I use my ability on this. He absolutely won’t remember a thing.”

  “Do you really think you can hurt me with a bullet?” I asked condescendingly. While I wasn’t intending to dodge, I did find it weird how I was unable to move my body. It wasn't obvious until I focused my attention on it, but I felt a faint energy beneath my feet, taking the shape of my shadow.

  Was this one of their Radius Abilities? Even if it wasn’t, I planned to absorb it just subtly enough for no one to notice.

  “Before I answer that question, I’m gonna ask you a question.” He pointed to Moonlight with his other hand. The guy didn't seem to notice what I was doing behind him. Considering he didn't want to give me any eye contact, it was understandable why. “What’s your relation with this freak?”

  “I heard my daughter call that girl her friend, so any friend of my daughter is family to me.”

  Ricky’s finger slowly pressed the trigger further. “Is that so? In that case, my gun will absolutely hurt you. However, that's not because the bullet’s intended for you.”

  The gun fired. Ever since I became a Type Two Radion, I noticed that gunshots had become much slower–slow enough for me to compare their speed to a dodgeball thrown by some regular dude. It was likely a result of my growing power. This gunshot, however, was blatantly moving in slow motion. This must've been how Consequences saw attacks like these.

  I had to ask myself, once again, what made this idiot think a bullet would hurt me. It was in those moments where I recalled Ricky’s last sentence before he pulled the trigger. If the bullet wasn't intended for me, then why did he fire the gun in the first place?

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  The bullet curved right before it could touch my chin, switching its target from me to Moonlight. That was the answer, and it set every fiber of my being ablaze. What kind of bastard attempts to kill a defenseless child they already rendered unconscious!? If he thought I wouldn't notice the way his lips curled into a smile, then he was dead wrong. That smile? Erased–courtesy of my punch. The loud pop of his jaw coming loose was further confirmation of it.

  As the prick’s head hit the concrete, I grabbed the bullet that barely moved from its original spot and flung it at the rodhead’s shoulder.

  “What the hell!?” screamed Roddy, clutching his wound as he dropped to a knee. Luckily for Sunshine, the damage from my attack must've caused the man’s shadow spear to disappear, allowing her to fall back down safely.

  Ricky squirmed beneath me, his hands hovering over his mouth. “My aaw! Thi uuer oh I aaw!”

  I picked up the man by his curly hair and said, “No, no, no. It’s pronounced ‘My jaw. This fucker broke my jaw.’ C’mon, you're a big boy, aren't you? Use that mouth of yours. The same mouth you used to threaten those two girls.”

  “That speed…” I looked at Roddy. “That power. It reminds me of… Conny! What happened to Consequences? I know for a fact you would've encountered him, but there’s no way you’d ever beat him.”

  “If I couldn’t beat him, then why am I standing here right now?”

  Roddy gritted his teeth, the rods in his skull twitching. “Ricky, I thought you said he was only as strong as me! But I’ve only seen Conny have a punch like that…”

  I inched closer to Roddy, charging an energy blast in my hand, each step causing his green eyes to widen more and more. “And here I was worried you two were just as strong as him. It’s good to know that y’all are just his lackeys.”

  “Lackeys!?”

  Despite their initial fears, that single word was somehow able to erase that. Even Ricky, who struggled saying a single sentence, pushed through the pain to pronounce it correctly. Although, what really caught my attention was the black ball of energy forming between Roddy’s hands. The rods were encased in the same energy and extended out, seeping into sections of the concrete in every direction.

  “No one in the Corleone Family are lackeys. Every single one of us are e-”

  I couldn’t even pretend to care about the nonsense spewing from Roddy’s mouth. That was exactly why I opted to appear right before his eyes and strike his gut with a Hammer formed from my energy. His tummy jiggled like jello as the Hammer exploded in both of our faces. My body remained still. I couldn’t say the same thing for my two opponents—one was blasted into the sky and the other flew out of my grip.

  The last time I used the Hammer, I seemingly erased the Chainsaw Shark’s body. So you could imagine my surprise when Roddy lived long enough to shout what sounded like…

  “Shadowverse!”

  *****

  No matter where I turned, where I looked, and how far I moved, there was only darkness in the new world I was in. I couldn’t feel anything either nor was I standing on anything. It was similar to floating or hovering. It reminded me of the time I fought Rosalina’s daughter in that pool of flames, except this time the experience was actually real.

  Was I teleported here or did that asshole change the landscape somehow?

  I took out the status board from my pocket and pressed the red button. It was the same method I used to teleport to Sunshine once I figured it out, but it wasn’t working this time. Since that plan didn’t work, this must’ve been another kind of Radius Ability. But what?

  “Hey! Is anyone out there!?” I screamed repeatedly, hoping I’d get some kind of response back.

  After a couple more minutes of borderline begging, a voice from above finally decided to grace my presence. Above me was… a bird?

  More specifically, it was a crow wearing a white bowtie, peeking from the darkness as thought it was a shower curtain.

  “Pipe down, will you!?”

  A talking crow… with a British accent too?