The streets outside were devoid of life, though the sounds of Argent City were never too far away. We hurried to the chain-link fence that bordered the factory. “Stretch, you mind?”

  “Eyup,” she replied, grinning. She stretched her right arm forward, fingers elongating and coiling around a portion of the fence. Then with a single hard tug she tore the steel from its moorings. She whipped the gate aside and sauntered in, an exaggerated swagger making her bounce like an old timey cartoon character. “Come along kiddos, field trip is just getting started!”

  I wondered how strong Stretch actually was. She’d done that with seemingly little effort, after all.

  Well, I suppose this was the perfect chance to see more of her in action.

  “They’re probably aware of us by now,” I said, fishing in one pouch and pulling out a small handful of jacks. Energy hummed faintly through the metal, jumping toward my shoulder. Lassie padded at my side, limbs elongating and armour darkening. She’d hang back until we had thinned their numbers a bit. She was fast, decently strong, but she wouldn’t be able to take direct hits from STING weaponry.

  “Probably. Foreight, do a check for us,” said Cheshire.

  “On it.” He seemed mercifully sober as he pressed two hands to his temples, a faint glow shining from his visor. “Yeah. I could five moving into the first room, must’ve heard the noise. They’re taking aim at that shutter.”

  Cheshire chuckled and raised her hands. “Fan out. I’ll make some openings.”

  “How’re you gonna-” I was cut off as two streams of purple smoke shot from her palms, striking the two metal shutters. To my shock the steel began to warp and flake away, seemingly turning to ash on contact with the smoke. I narrowed my eyes, focusing intently on the shutters.

  No, not dissolving. Disappearing, bit by bit. As if the smoke was teleporting tiny chunks away in a continuous stream.

  I knew Cheshire could teleport, but her being able to teleport other objects with that smoke of hers... wondered at the implications and limitations of it. Could she shred organic matter like that? Would it bypass an invulnerability gradient?

  “Contact!” a voice shouted from within, and a flurry of laser bolts shot through the smoke.

  “Shit!” I backed toward the brick wall between the two shredded gates. The smoke was already hissing away, giving a glimpse at the STING agents inside. I threw the jacks through one open doorway, and they... hung in the air. Electricity danced between them, an aura of electromagnetism that absorbed the bolts of laser fire.

  The jacks were a toy my father had taught me about some time ago. A deployable forcefield that could stay up for a few seconds at a time before it needed to be redeployed. The makeshift shield blocked a salvo of shots and it gave enough time for me, Foresight, and Dynamo to slip around one door.

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  Stretch enlarged her body, her chest like a tarp, blocking several shots as she and Cheshire entered through the other door. I glimpsed Cheshire as she kicked into gear, vanishing and reappearing in a flurry of black clouds. She appeared behind one STING soldier, clocking him on the back of the head and knocking him flat. She was behind another soldier as he turned toward her, bringing him down with another blow.

  I directed my soldiers to flank around as my jacks lost their charge, and their salvo of laser fire struck at two of the STING soldiers. Their army was sturdy, too tough for the laser bullets to punch through. Yet the shots chipped the armour, driving them into cover.

  “More of ‘em coming in! Four!” shouted Foresight. He poked out of cover, visor flashing as he fired off a bolt of force from his helmet. It struck one soldier like a mule’s kick, smashing him into a wall hard enough to fracture of the surrounding concrete.

  But two of the other men were larger than their fellows, their armour more like mech suits that made them large enough to fill the bays of the shuttles. “Shit,” I hissed, fishing some marbles from my belt. I hurled them from cover, each one exploding into a cloud of grey smoke. It would buy us some time, the STING troops firing blindly through the haze.

  “I don’t think Chesh’s batons will do much against those huge guys, neither will my soldiers.” I glanced to Dynamo, who paled under my gaze. “Whatever your power is, use it now.”’

  “I-”

  “Do it or we are fucked,” I hissed.

  He hesitated then slowly nodded. “Just... don’t laugh, or-”

  “I WON’T FUCKING LAUGH, JUST DO IT!”

  He slammed his fists together and there was a blinding flash that forced Foresight and myself to recoil. When the spots cleared from my vision, Dynamo had been replaced entirely. Where he had been kneeling there was now a tall and muscular woman in a dark leotard, truly amazonian in stature and physique. She rose to her feet, smoke hissing off her muscles.

  I stared, somewhat slackjawed under my helmet. The woman rose to her full height, ignorant of the bolts of laser light that struck her skin.

  “Dynamo...?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Quantum body,” she said, turning toward our attackers. Her boots scraped noisily on the concrete.

  “Wha-”

  “Dynamo has a quantum body. Can swap places with his normal body and that one when he punches his fists together, his consciousness jumping into the new body,” Foresight explained.

  I watched, dumbstruck, as Dynamo vaulted over cover and sprinted towar the giant mecha-soldiers. She (he?) crackled with electricity as she closed the gap, punching one of the giants and smashing him clean through the nearest wall. The whole building shuddered in protest.

  “But Dynamo can only use that power on a time limit. An hour, tops, recharging whenever he’s back in his usual form.”

  I stared, watching as an ironclad fist smashed into Dynamo. She didn’t budge, the metal furrowing and collapsing around her. “Why... is the body...”

  “A hot woman?” Foresight shrugged. “How the hell should I know?”

  I sighed, deciding just to roll with it for now. But at least I understood Dynamo’s apprehension now.

  All the STING agents were focused on Dynamo, firing on her as she calmly dismantled the larger mecha troops. I closed the gap on one, flanked by Lassie, and launched my yo-yo at him. It smashed into his face, fracturing his visor, and sent him skidding across the ground, while Lassie pounced on another and roughly trampled him to the ground.

  She wouldn’t kill unless I gave the command. But those metal limbs of hers could fuck a man up.

  Another blast from Foresight drove a STING soldier into a distant wall, and I glimpsed Stretch pulling her arm back, elongating it until it had stretched beyond the yawning doorway behind her. “I saw this in an anime once,” she said, grinning.

  Her arm whipped back around, tenfold faster, caught a soldier in the chest and sent him tumbling in a heap into the distant corner of the room.

  Dynamo dropped both mech suits to the floor, looking more like hunks of junk than bleeding ede power armour. Then, punching her fists together, she reverted to her original, scrawny body.

  The factory was silent now, save for the pained groans of the downed soldiers.

  “When you tell folks who beat your asses? Tell them it was the Devils that did it.” Cheshire chuckled, pressing a foot to one downed man. “And remember to stay the fuck out of Jupiter’s territory.”