Summus Proelium

On the way over here, the boy, Facs, had told (and shown) me what he was capable of, making solid-energy duplicates of things he touched. Which included air itself, turning it into forcefields, ramps, and so on. We had used that a couple times to cross distances that were a bit too far for me to do with my powers alone while Yeet was still charging up her eggs, so we wouldn’t have to slow down at all.

Well, technically I could go further using paint combinations, but I had been trying to save as much as possible for when we got here. Not to mention avoiding running out during the actual trip. With all three of us working together, we’d made it across what felt like half the city in record time, without me showing up here and having to wait a minute for my paint to recharge.

So I knew what my two companions could do. But I also knew they were really new to all this. I was absolutely certain that if they'd had much experience, I would have heard of them. There was something about the pair that was familiar, but I was too distracted to put my finger on it. Instead, all I could do in those couple seconds, as my eyes stared at Box heading into the building, was scream in the back of my head. I had to do something right now. I couldn't wait for reinforcements. I couldn't wait to have any more help than these two kids I barely knew. They were going to kill Izzy and Pack!

I couldn't let that happen. I wouldn't let it happen. Instead, I shoved every bit of panic, terror, and self-doubt into a bag and pushed it deep down. I locked it away and forgot about it for the moment. That was the only thing I could do if we were going to get through this. Now wasn't the time for any of it. It was the time to act.

All of that ran through my head in what felt like several minutes, but somehow, only a second or two had passed since Box made that announcement. He hadn't even made it to the door yet, standing there laughing with the guy in the lime-green coat about what they were about to do. Either my adrenaline had launched into the stratosphere, or I had somehow manifested some version of Rubi’s time stop.

If only.

“I’ll get their attention on me,” I started quickly while pushing myself up from the lying position I had been in as we peered over the roof. “You guys wait until you see part of one of those walls in the storage place down there turn pink. As soon as it does, that’ll be where the others are. Get through the pink wall so you can free them.” I was talking as quickly as I could think, already taking a couple steps back to get some room to run while hitting that spot of the roof with a mix of blue and green. I needed distance and speed for this.

“What?” Facs gave a double-take. I could see the sudden fear in the eyes through his ski mask. “You can’t go down there by yourself! There’s like a half dozen Fells down there, at least!”

“Then I guess we better even up the odds,” I retorted. “By you guys freeing the others. And I’m gonna need a distraction. Yeet, you see that car Box came in with? I think it’s time you lived up to your name.” Even as I said that, I painted an image of a sword on my back made of a purple blade with an orange hilt that was held by a green hand. I had other images all across my costume and body too, having put them there on the way here, as well as on the other two so I could activate them at any point. All three of us were basically covered in my paint. I just had to hope it was enough.

I was terrified, sick to my stomach, ready to drop to my knees and cry over the very thought of losing Izzy if I screwed this up. But just like every other piece of doubt and fear, I shoved it down in that bag and kept going, pretending I knew what I was doing.

“Don’t worry, guys. I’m a professional.”

Then I took a running start, hit that green-blue spot and rocketed myself off the building, telling myself to trust that the girl would do her part.

She did. Even as I went sailing over the edge of the roof, I saw one of her eggs go flying down to hit the car below. Instantly, it transformed into energy and flew forward through the solid gate without damaging it. What it did damage, however, was the dumpster it crashed into after shifting back to its solid shape. And it did so loudly and dramatically. Which surprised the people down there, to say the least. I heard a couple shouts, one of them from Box as they all whirled that way. Maybe knowing they were under attack would make him decide to give the order to kill everyone in there. But they were going to kill them anyway. I had to hope that doing this would buy the few seconds I needed to figure out where the others were so I could mark the wall for those two. My attempt to sound confident aside, there were multiple Fell-Touched down there, most of whom had completely unknown powers and one of whom had been part of the Minority for like a year. I absolutely could not do this all by myself. Not for long.

My guess was that the others were being held in the main building, not one of the other storage structures spaced throughout the property. After all, Box had been heading for that door when he said they were going to kill them. So, that was the building I aimed for first. Seeing the roof looming under me as my forward momentum stalled and the downward momentum picked up, I pointed my hands down and shot black and pink paint that way to create a circle. As I dropped, I activated the green-orange-purple sword image. Then I hit the pink circle with enough force to crash straight down through it. Silently, of course, thanks to the black paint. The building was three stories tall, and now I was on the top floor, landing right in the middle of a hallway full of doors with padlocks on them. More storage rooms. I hit the floor there in a crouch, having reacted quickly enough after crashing through the ceiling to hit the floor under me with another shot of black to silence my actual landing. Outside, I could hear another shout. They were still reacting to the whole thing with the car.

The second I landed, my head snapped to the right, then to the left. The hallway was empty, no one was here. Which had to mean the others weren’t being held in any of these storage rooms. Grimacing to myself, I shot pink paint straight ahead, at one of the padlocked doors themselves. It created a circle that I was able to throw myself through, diving forward. The combination of the fragility created by the pink paint, and my own purple-boosted strength, meant I could tear right through it like it was paper.

I didn't pay any attention to the contents of the storage room. Instead, I simply vaulted over a couple boxes that were in my way, hit the back wall with another bit of pink and tore through that as well. That put me in the next hallway over, in front of another line of padlocked rooms. But this time, there was something else. I saw a man with his back to me about fifteen feet away to the left. He stood about an inch over six feet tall, with what looked like dark orange chainmail, black leather pants, and a dark motorcycle helmet not too unlike my own. He held a long chain in one hand that trailed along the floor, making loud metallic sounds as it went. He was walking away from me. At least until he seemed to process the sound of my arrival and started to turn.

I didn't give him time to finish pivoting. My left hand snapped out to send a shot of red paint at his back, while the right sent a corresponding shot the opposite way. Then I activated both and sent him flying toward me. Before he could sail past, my arm went up and out. I still had a second or two of purple and orange from the sword image, literally clotheslining the man. The impact still smacked my arm out of the way, but it hurt him far worse, knocking the man to the floor. And he was still being yanked by the red paint, so his body slid that way. As he kept going, I hit him with a shot of black and purple so he couldn’t shout for help. The purple part expanded the silencing effect so the wall didn’t make any noise when he hit it either.

Unfortunately, even as he crashed into the wall I had sent him flying toward, the man lashed out with that chain. It extended, going out several times its normal length before wrapping around my arm. The next thing I knew, he was yanking me off the floor as the chain retracted and pulled me rapidly down the hall toward him. I managed to activate a couple spots of orange to renew my defenses just as his fist slammed into my shoulder. Even with that, he was strong enough that I felt the pain from it. It hurt more than a bullet would have. This guy had super strength and the ability to make his chain longer? Yeah, I wasn’t sure about the specifics, and didn’t have time to dwell.

Instead, even as his fist collided with my shoulder, I was flipping myself backwards, managing to rip my wrist away from his chain. Falling toward the floor, I lashed out with my foot, kicking the man in the chin. It hit the helmet, but his head was still knocked backward against the wall he was pinned to.

Instead of landing hard on my back from the fall, I turned the maneuver into a backward roll. On the way, I made a green-blue circle on the floor while simultaneously canceling the red paint that was holding the man against the wall. He dropped forward, stumbling to catch himself. Which positioned him right on that circle just as I activated it so he was launched hard into the ceiling. But he still had that black-purple paint, so no one could hear it.

There wasn't time for this. It had only taken a couple of seconds, but that felt like forever. Even as the man slammed into the ceiling, I created a quick pink square on the floor where the blue-purple circle had been before I canceled it. He rebounded and fell, crashing straight down into the pink. The impact was enough to stick him partway through it with his elbows, knees, and part of his right torso embedded in the pink square. Before he could recover, I canceled the paint early. That would have made the surface bouncy, but he was already partially inside it, so he couldn’t rebound off. Instead, the once-pink floor suddenly turned solid, trapping him there. Not that I trusted him to stay that way considering the strength I’d already felt, but it was enough to slow him down so I could produce a set of stay-down cuffs from the pocket of my suit. The next thing the guy knew, I had attached them to his wrists while he was still trying to sort out what had just happened. He’d dropped his chain when he hit the ceiling, and it was lying nearby, looking completely ordinary.

Without wasting another second, I pushed myself to my feet more and jumped over him. Time, time, there wasn’t fucking time! All of this, everything since the moment Box had said he was there to kill Izzy and Pack, had taken maybe a minute and a half. That included the instructions I had given the others. But it felt like an eternity. It felt like I was wasting time, like my slowness and incompetence was going to get my little sister killed!

Panic. It was panic, and I shoved it aside angrily. None of that was useful. None of it would help. Instead, I made another pink circle and stomped down on it. Some part of me thought I should ask the chain guy where the hostages were, but I didn't trust him to be honest. And I definitely didn't trust how long it would take, even if I could convince him. This was a guy who had signed up for Club Serial Killers. He wasn't going to tell me anything useful.

Making a hole in the floor, I jumped down, even as the sound of a shotgun blast from outside sent a shock of fear through me. Please, please just be Box trying to get the other two to show themselves. If they had jumped in already and were being attacked--fuck! No, don’t think about that! Focus, focus, focus!

Even as I landed on the second floor, I knew I was in the right place. Mostly because there were two guards standing outside one of the storage rooms, which had some sort of device on a tripod set up sending a beam of energy at the door that spread out across it like some sort of shield. Was that how they were keeping everyone contained? It did look somewhat similar to the shield that was around that apartment building, though on a smaller scale. Maybe this was a prototype. Either way, what I did know for certain was that I needed to knock down that machine.

Unfortunately, the two people standing guard weren’t about to make that easy. One of them, the nearest to me, was wearing a long army coat that reached past his knees as well as black body armor, and what looked like a bear mask with actual fur. As he whirled my way, the figure let out a loud roar that actually made me stagger backwards from the volume. That roar was followed by a blast of concussive energy that collided with my chest and sent me flying against the wall. And that was followed by a bolt of lightning-like energy that flickered on its way to me. I managed to dive out of the way at the last second, letting the energy collide with the wall I had just hit. Everywhere it struck, the energy left what looked like mushroom spores which promptly popped and filled the air with red-gold dust. Which--yeah I wasn’t going anywhere near that stuff. I wasn’t sure what it did, but it definitely wasn't anything positive for me.

Meanwhile, the other guy was reacting too. Or rather, other girl, I realized a second later as I was rolling back to my feet. She was a woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties, wearing what was clearly meant to be royal clothes, like a Medieval queen or princess costume complete with a tiara and purple and gold cloak. The moment her eyes fell on me, a hazy image of a knight in armor appeared in front of her. No, not a knight. There were five of them, all armed with various weapons including a one-handed sword, a much larger broadsword, a flail, a spear, and a heavy hammer. All five looked semi-translucent and were made of some sort of purple energy. And all of them were coming at me, already swinging those weapons.

In that moment, I stopped thinking and reacted. Activating wings of green paint that ran all the way down my sides, including my legs, I launched myself forward. The first ghost-figure was swinging his massive sword straight at my side in a wide arc. I gave my feet a tiny bit of blue to launch myself up and over the blade in a flip, coming down on the shaft of the spear that the second ghost was stabbing toward me. Sure enough it felt solid as I landed on it. The spear was shoved down by the impact, carrying the ghost forward into me. Or it would have, if I hadn’t dropped into a roll while coming off the edge of the spear shaft, allowing the figure to stumble past behind me. The third ghost was slamming his hammer down onto the spot where I was rolling, but I activated the purple-yellow parachute image on my stomach while simultaneously canceling the green speed boost, abruptly slowing myself dramatically so that the hammer struck the floor harmlessly about a foot away from me.

Just as suddenly, I canceled the yellow slow and reactivated my speed using the image of a pair of green sneakers and socks that were literally painted over my feet on the inside of my shoes. I was up in an instant, pivoting sideways around that ghost, which put me directly in front of the one with the shorter sword. He tried stabbing that blade into me as I appeared, but I wasn’t just standing up. I was coming out of my crouch into a leap, using a mix of blue on the bottom of my shoes and purple along the inside of my legs for a strength boost to hurl myself up and over the ghost and his swinging sword.

Finally, the ghost with the flail stood directly in front of their creator, swinging his weapon at my form as I leapt up and over his last partner. The flail went right through me, literally cutting me in half… because I had immediately painted my torso pink. It felt weird, to say the least. That chain flail thing just sort of chopped through my pink costume and body with a weird, gross schlooping sound. As soon as the chain tore through me, my pink-painted form just sort of… reattached properly, coming back together.

Yeah, it was weird. But hey, it worked. My momentum carried me all the way past the surprised flail-wielding ghost so I could collide with his creator. Slamming into her, I carried both of us to the floor. As soon as we were down, my fist collided with her face, as I was still boosted by the purple paint I’d used for the jump. Her head rocked backward with a yelp, and all those ghosts vanished.

Twisting as I rolled off her, my hand shot a spray of pink paint at the nearby wall. I had to hope those other two would see it. More importantly, I needed to clear the way. So, I hit the floor with a bit more pink paint, right past the man in the bear mask as he pivoted back to find me once more, making a wide square along the floor. Before he could scream again, I had already hit him and the regal woman with red paint, sending her flying into him. Then, while both were stumbling backward from the impact, I launched myself that way as well. My body collided with theirs, making all of us fall onto and through the pink-painted floor. On the way down, I managed one last red paint shot toward the machine, activating a corresponding bit on my own body so that it was yanked after us.

We landed hard on the first level, as I barely managed to throw myself out of the way before bear-guy’s scream would have torn through me. Just like before, it came in three stages, an audio portion that was deafeningly loud, followed immediately by a concussive blast and then lightning that left dust-producing mushroom spores.

With some effort, I managed to roll sideways, coming back to my feet in time to realize that I was in trouble. To my left, the bear guy and regal woman were picking themselves up. They had been joined by a much-more familiar figure… Whamline.

Meanwhile, to my right, Box and the guy in the lime-green coat had appeared.

Well, I definitely had their attention. Now I just had to hope I could survive long enough for Facs and Yeet to free the others.