“So this is the spot huh?” Trailblazer asked, scanning the exterior of the factory. “Well, someone definitely forced their entry. But why break into some abandoned old factory?” He was a lanky and skinny man, his mask leaving his mouth and jawline exposed.

  Visionary floated slowly above him, his spheres scanning their surroundings. “Knowing this city, any abandoned building eventually becomes a refuge for the homeless or supervillains. My spheres are picking up on laser burns on the ground. If I had to guess? STING had an outpost here.”

  “Shit, really? I thought they were like... banned from the city. Didn’t Jupiter wipe ‘em out of some big base a while back?”

  Visionary hummed and glanced up, as if reading something on the inside of his rounded helmet. I didn’t doubt he had some kind of fancy HUD in there “Online sources say yes,” he replied, shrugging his broad shoulders.

  We pulled deeper into cover, and I gave Cheshire an uneasy look. “What the hell do we do now?”

  She hesitated, gripping her batons tight. The leather in her gloves strained audibly. “Didn’t expect this. Guess some rube on the streets heard the fighting and called it in.”

  “You guys ever fought a superhero before?” I asked, hoping vainly for some good news.

  They stared silently at me. “First... time for everything, yeah?” Stretch forced a smile.

  The creature breathed behind me, some membranes in his throat adding an odd rattling effect to the noise. I doubted he knew much that could help.

  I closed my eyes, well aware of the footsteps coming their way. What did I know about Trailblazer and Visionary? What had I seen online about them?

  They had hit the scene about five years ago, debuting together. The former, obviously, was a Speedster, recorded as being able to go marginally faster than sound. But, unlike some Speedsters, he lacked fine turning speeds when he went too fast. We could use that, if the rumours were right. Beyond that he had limited pyrokinetic abilities when he started using his speed.

  Visionary was an Artisan. But his only known tech were the spheres, and the platform he flew around on. Still, those little orbs were pretty potent. They generated shields, produced energy beams that could slice through metal or weld it together. Or, in a pinch, they could rocket into targets like a cannon ball.

  When they fought criminals, Trailblazer was known to rush them and pummel them with his speed. Visionary hung back, taking shots with his spheres. His suit had some plating on it, but I doubted he could take much damage.

  “I might have an idea,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Some of us can keep Trailblazer busy, while Dynamo and Cheshire go to try and knock Visionary out of the sky. I think he’s the weaker of the two. Then we can focus on speedy boy. Keeping them apart, that’s our best bet.”

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  “Good call,” Foresight whispered, “then I guess-”

  “I can see you in there!” Visionary shouted. “My Vision Spheres have you tagged. Come out easy and we won’t hurt you.” He sounded bored, almost, and that just sent a spike of annoyance through my whole body.

  I gripped some marbles in my utility belt and held them tight. Only four left, but they’d give us a smoke screen. It would slow trailblazer at least, even if Visionary could track our heat signatures.

  Cheshire gave me a nod and I hurled the marbles outside. They exploded in unison, erupting into swirling clouds of smoke. We rushed out, even the big creep followed behind me. A blinding flash came from behind us as Dynamo activated his quantum body.

  “Come on,” Visionary huffed, “you really think we can’t-”

  Dynamo broke through the cloud at a sprint, arms raised to shield herself from the sudden flashes of laser fire that slammed into her. Visionary cursed and wheeled his platform back through the air. Cheshire appeared above him in a flash of twinkling purple smoke, swinging her batons his way.

  His helmet glowed, a pulse of energy erupting around it and slamming into Cheshire like a brick wall. I watched as she was shunted back, teleporting away in another puff of smoke.

  I focused back on Trailblazer, who had broken into a sprint, zigzagging around us and leaving trails of fire in the yard. I realised quickly he was trying to cut off our retreat, the blaze rising up to nearly waist-height. The man was such a blur that it was a challenge to try and see where he was going.

  My heart was beating in my chest, my breath rasping. I hadn’t been afraid to fight a bunch of stooges from STING, but this... this was another matter entirely. This was real, fighting an actual Apex with powers of his own, a bonafide experienced superhero who knew what he was doing. I clenched my fist tight, my right hand gripping my yo-yo.

  My knees shook, my mouth was dryer than a sand dune.

  Foresight was taking potshots with his eye beams, but each shot went wide and carved a chunk from the outer walls. “Hold... still... you son of a...”

  Stretch whipped an arm out, tried to trip him, but Trailblazer caught her wrist and yanked the rubber girl off her feet easily. Foresight and I jumped back as he whipped her around, becoming like a tornado of fire, Stretch letting out a doppler scream as she was whirled about and then launched harshly into the wall. It cracked behind her, kicking up chunks of broken bricks, and she slid groaning to the asphalt.

  Her elongated arm slithered down and landed in a heap before her, like a length of rope.

  My soldiers opened fire, but Trailblazer danced and weaved through the hail of gunfire. The shots didn’t even get close to the mark. I only saw snippets of his body in motion, a blur of black and orange. One of his hands rapidly whirled around, forging a fireball that he promptly whipped at the soldiers. I winced, felt as they died in a surge of heat that left only streams of molten plastic behind.

  In that brief moment, where he stopped to throw the fireball, I launched my yo-yo at him. It shot through the air, near as fast as a bullet, but Trailblazer simply jerked his chest back to avoid it. The guy didn’t even look at the yo-yo in passing.

  “Too slow.”

  His elbow slammed into me a fraction of a second later and I felt the air being pushed from my lungs. The breastplate soaked up the worst of it, but it still felt like my whole body was shuddering in protest. My fall was only stopped when my back hit the chest of our strange mutant friend. He caught me, to my shock, meaty hands gripping my shoulders.

  Lassie and I peered up at him. His lips hard curled back to reveal rows of pointed white teeth, a horrid growl rising in his throat. He was... mad? It was the first emotion I’d seen from the creature, but his eyes blazed with some kind of... malice. He moved around me in two great strides, now putting himself between me and Trailblazer.

  The Speedster wrinkled his nose, taking a step back. “Ugh. Didn’t get a good look at that big bastard until just now. What kind of weird frea-”

  The creature snarled and sprang forward, far faster than I thought possible. Trailblazer jerked back, barely avoiding a swipe from the a set of hooked claws. But the beast pressed on, charging and lunging at the Speedster, who picked up the pace to dodge those attacks.

  “Huh,” I murmured, pressing a hand to my stomach. “Like an overeager pet. I can work with that.” Lassie gave me a silent glare. “Oh don’t look at me like that. Come on... this might be the only chance we have to take this guy out.”