Sunshine had been in plenty of malls before, so she was confident navigating Newport Centre mall wouldn’t have been any different. It was the Corleone Family tainting it that worried her the most.

  Gunmen in suits were lined up in front of the mall, hands on their rifles, ready to shoot whoever looked suspicious. Left, right, and forward were the only directions they looked. However, they were blind to the fact that looking up should’ve been their main priority. Sunshine, Kofi, Garlic, and Salty were crouching down on the roof of the building across from Newport Centre.

  Raiding the mall would’ve been simple if it was only guarded and managed by unpowered survivors. According to Kofi, that wasn’t the case.

  “Two Radius Ability users in one building is very problematic,” said Sunshine. Considering her Mind Trick hasn’t worked in days, she was nowhere near the right condition to engage in an actual fight. Add in her injury, and she was the biggest liability on the team. Not even aura could defend against certain abilities.

  “Problematic is just another way of saying fun,” Kofi replied, doing a horrible job at hiding his excitement. Obviously, someone with his strength would find the potential dangers irrelevant. It’d be difficult to explain to someone like him that moving stealthily was the better option, but Sunshine still had to try.

  “Kofi, I get that you’re strong as heck, but please be mindful of the guys who aren’t on your level.” She wasn’t just thinking about herself. Given Garlic’s personality and experience, he’d probably be fine. Salty was the real problem here. Sunshine’s been dropped into the pits of cowardice before, so she knew when someone else was emitting it.

  “Calm yourself. I’m not gonna go in lightning blazing,” he reassured them, though his lax tone didn’t ease her heart. “I could burn that whole place to the ground if I wanted, but that wouldn’t be interesting. So let’s go with one of your guys’ ideas.”

  Sunshine envied the level of confidence Kofi had in himself. Maybe if she was the same way, Jerome wouldn’t be in his current situation.

  “I think it would serve us well if the weakest members of the team act as legitimate buyers,” Garlic suggested. It was a plan that Sunshine thought of herself, but she was curious who he thought the weakest were. “Naturally, Salty and I will play those roles. Kingston, you and Sunshine can sneak in through those cracked windows once we properly distract the guards.”

  She was about to ask “what cracked windows” when he pointed to the ones above the red sign “Poundcake Factory”. Those windows were a couple feet above the ground — an easy feat to achieve if it weren’t for her wound.

  “I can’t do that,” Sunshine blurted out, regretting it soon after. “I can’t even sit down without feeling some pain. You guys expect me to jump in and fight?”

  “Hey, aren’t you a Mole?” Kofi asked. “Just stitch your cut and boom: you’re back in the game.”

  While Molecular Energy users could stitch wounds, Sunshine wasn’t one of them. Last time she tried it, all she got was some unnecessary trauma.

  “I’m not good at healing injuries,” she admitted. “So I think it’ll be better if you and Garlic sneak inside while Salty and I act like customers instead. Besides, they might let their guard down if they see an injured kid in front of them. Is that cool with everyone?”

  Kofi and Garlic nodded.

  Salty didn’t. “There’s no way I’m gonna be paired up with this ticking time bomb. What if she bites me while I’m not looking?”

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  How was he more worried about sneak attacks from me than stealing from the Corleone Family?

  “Then you’ll get the chance to kill her before any of us,” Garlic said dryly.

  The rookie rubbed his chin, and then his lips crept up into a smirk. “Well… when you say it like that, it doesn’t sound too bad.” Even if the reasoning for their partnership was flawed, at least Salty was fully on board.

  With the plans decided, Kofi scooped up the three and zipped down the building like a bolt of lightning, dropping them off behind it. Garlic and his RA partner shook hands, while Sunshine and the dreadhead bumped fists.

  One blink and the two were nowhere to be found. “Dang, he’s fast.”

  “Don’t chit chat with me. Let’s keep this professional,” Salty said sneeringly. “The injured kid bit is a good idea, but we gotta do more than that. We don’t wanna look like buyers who know what they’re saying. We gotta play the role of two gullible fucks who can be easily manipulated.”

  “Um, alright.” If acting was just lying fancily, then she’d be a pro.

  They walked to the front Newport Centre. It didn’t take long for the gunmen to aim their weapons at them. They had the advanced kind you probably couldn’t find anywhere else — the ones that flashed red lights at you.

  The sound of chattering came from Sunshine’s right. She glanced in that direction and realized Salty was even more scared than she thought he was.

  The man in front cautiously approached them. “Don’t piss your pants now. We’re just doing a simple body check.”

  “Y-Yes, sir!” Salty stuttered, body stiffening like a startled animal.

  He checked both of their bodies carefully, confiscating anything that looked like a weapon in his eyes. Thankfully, the status board wasn’t included as Kofi took that long before they arrived here.

  “Alright, y’all are good.” The gunman gestured to his team to lower their guns and they did. “No funny business while you’re here. Our bosses inside won’t appreciate that. Then again…” He glanced at Sunshine and then chuckled. “You two don’t seem that stupid.”

  Salty laughed nervously. “Believe me, sir, we know messing with your family would be a grave mistake.”

  “Good response.” He pointed at the woman to his right. “That’s Carly. She’ll be escorting you. Think of her as a GPS and an executioner.”

  Carly had smiled the second “executioner” was said, so Sunshine knew she’d be trouble.

  “Follow me,” the woman said, walking toward the entrance door. Just like every other building with automatic doors, these ones had the glass broken.

  Once they all stepped inside, Sunshine decided to make their intentions clear. “We’re just looking to buy guns. Can you show us where that is? We have money.”

  “The hell would you two need guns for? You know how much these cost nowadays?” Carly asked.

  “I’m a Resource Adventurer,” answered Salty. “Trust me — we can afford it. As for the reason, we had this animal break out last week. We gotta take down any we see in the area before it hurts anyone.”

  The rookie looked at Sunshine, repeatedly raising his eyebrows. Did he want her to continue the lie?

  “They, uh, got me real good,” Sunshine added, trying to make her fake anger sound convincing. “Not letting those, uh, monkeys get away with it.”

  They began walking up the broken escalator as Carly turned back to them. “Monkeys? What other animals been causing trouble out there?”

  “The usual annoying ones. Dogs, cats, birds,” Salty answered. “But we’re looking out for some more exotic ones since our base is near an abandoned zoo. Monkeys, like she mentioned, and even bears.”

  “Oh shit!” Carly exclaimed. “Radioactive bears are trouble. They’re thick, so you’re gonna need bullets that pierce nice.”

  Salty smiled. “Thanks for the suggestion. If you have it, we’ll buy it.”

  The second floor opened into a dim hallway of shattered storefronts, signs hanging by threads. After a short walk, they reached a store packed wall-to-wall with guns — shelves, counters, even the floor cluttered with firepower.

  Trying not to accidentally knock something down was a little difficult, though they made it to the counter anyway. Sunshine and Salty weren’t able to settle in before being bombarded with cool-looking firearms they definitely weren’t gonna buy.

  However, through the painted guns, bullets hardened with mutated rock, silencers, and all the other nice enhancements, Sunshine was still confused about one thing.

  “Is this the… only gun shop in this mall?” the girl asked, sidestepping away from the rifle pointing at her face.

  “Yeah.” Carly’s brows wrinkled. “Oh, I see what you’re trying to do. You want to see if other shops have cheaper prices compared to this one, right? Good luck with that.

  “Look, we just want to buy enough for a decent number of my base,” Salty said.

  “Buying a bulk of guns doesn’t matter when they’re not strong enough to hurt a bear or fast enough to catch a monkey,” Carly responded. “How about this? You buy ten of what we got in stock, and you get two free.”

  With the two adults negotiating horrible deals, Sunshine stepped away, thinking about where Kofi was and why he and his partner weren’t here yet. If there were two bosses inside, then those two could’ve been caught up with one of them. Or maybe both.

  If we’re the distraction so that those two could get rid of the guns, then why is the shop still full of them?

  A stream of electricity bolted through the air, zapping away all of her questions. No one noticed at first. A bolt of lightning changed that, ripping through the ceiling.

  The blast missed Salty. Carly wasn’t so lucky. She was vaporized, and it didn’t register to the rookie what happened until her ashy remains splattered on his face.

  “Wh-What the fuck!?” Salty screamed, running to the corner. If there wasn’t a giant, steaming hole in the middle of the shop, he definitely would’ve left by now.

  There was a second hole above them, and descending through it were Kofi, laughing maniacally, and a blonde woman in yellow armor. Amazed by how he could mess up such a simple plan, Sunshine ran to watch the fight unfold.

  That was when yelling from above caught her attention. It was a falling Garlic — another victim of Kofi’s failure to stay quiet.