“A little help, please!” Hermit called out. “He’s too heavy for me!”

Mr. Sage reached into the cloud and helped drag Angel free of the fumes. I got to my feet, wobbling back and forth like a newborn fawn. The others weren’t in much better shape. Something smacked against the front of the building. The windows that weren’t already busted out shattered with H o t M a m a

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a collective roar. The factory quivered and trembled like a feather floating on the breeze.

“Intelligal’s firing explodium missiles at the factory! The whole place is going to come down on top of you! Get out!

Get out now!” Lulu screamed in my ear.

I took another breath. My head cleared, and most of my strength returned. I put my arm under Johnny Angel’s shoulder, and my knees threatened to buckle. Hermit was right. He was heavier than he looked. The other superhero and I half carried, half dragged Angel toward the back of the factory.

“Back there!” Hermit shouted, pointing toward a door a couple of hundred feet away.

Mr. Sage stopped long enough to grab some of Intelligal’s weird schematics and drawings, then followed us. A hundred feet to go. More explosions ripped through the building. Pipes creaked and snapped like dry twigs, while the floor ripped and bucked like water.

Fifty feet. Fire shot through the air above our heads. Smoke seared my lungs.

Twenty, ten, five . . .

We stumbled out the door and down some steps. The night air, still reeking of garbage, revived me the rest of the way, and the fire inside me flared back to life. Behind us, the building moaned and creaked. The front section collapsed with a long low groan, and the resulting shockwave threw us fifteen feet forward. We scrambled up and kept hobbling along, trying to get clear of the dust and debris. About a quarter mile away, we lunged out into the street and stopped. Angel slumped against the side of a nearby building. Hermit put one knee on the ground, while Mr. Sage rested a hand on his shoulder. I put my hands on my hips, trying to get my breath back. Superstrong exoskeleton indeed. Superheavy was more like it. The four of us stood there, gulping down air.

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J e n n i f e r E s t e p

After a few minutes, Johnny Angel straightened. His eyes swept over us. Then, he turned and started to walk away.

“Hey! Come back here!” I grabbed his arm.

“Let go of me!” he snapped.

He tried to shake me off, but I tightened my grip. It was like trying to squeeze a cement block, but I held on. Superstrength came in handy sometimes.

“Who are you? What happened to the old Johnny Angel?”

“None of your damn business.”

I pointed a smoking finger at his chest. His skin felt like solid steel through the thin fabric of his ripped blackened T-shirt. “When you waltz in when I’m trying to apprehend two ubervillains and almost get my friends and me blown to smithereens, then you make it my business. What the hell did you think you were doing in there?”