Newton’s second law: force equals mass times acceleration. Our mass was unchanged, but our velocity and acceleration had increased enough to inflict unimaginable damage to others, and to ourselves if we weren’t careful.

I slowly pulled the door out of its frame and slipped inside. I circled past armed guards and other New Millennium personnel, being careful to stay out of range of those with magic-dampers. I reached the stairwell and destroyed that door as well.

Moving at this speed was the next best thing to having superpowers. I wondered if you could really run across water like speedsters did in the comics, but that experiment would have to wait. ‹I’m inside Admin. How are you doing, Talulah?›

‹Just got to Franklin Tower. Once I get to my office and jack in, I’ll have to wait for this potion to wear off. I can’t interface with the system at this speed.›

‹Understood.›

I reached the fourth floor, where two men in military uniforms stood outside the outer door to Babs’ office. Both wore magic-dampeners.

I pulled a straw from my back pocket, along with one of the sand-pebbles I’d gathered outside. It had expanded along with me and my clothes, caught up in the wake when I stripped away my shrinking magic.

I approached the first guard and dropped to one knee, careful to stay out of range of those damn pearls. After tucking the pebble into the straw, I lined the end up with the M4 assault rifle gripped in his hands.

This was going to be so cool.

A puff of breath launched the pebble. It shot out, struck the center of the rifle . . . and stopped, suspended in relativistically slow time.

Friction had melted half the straw. I trimmed off the end with a pocketknife and repeated the shot on the next guard’s rifle. I used a second straw to fire pebbles at their holstered sidearms. Once time sped up, the kinetic energy in those tiny pebbles should make a wreck of their weapons. I could already see cracks starting to spread through the metal of the first M4.

As for getting in, I picked a spot on the wall about four feet to the left of the door, away from the guards and their magic-dampers, and kicked.

Cinder blocks crumbled inward. I continued to kick, widening the hole until it was large enough for me to squeeze through. I had to shift a little to the left to avoid one of the steel studs.

I pushed broken cinder blocks and drywall out of the way and crawled through the wall. The outer office—Kiyoko’s office—was empty. The inner door was cracked open.

‹Isaac, I’m in position, ready to plug in and raise hell. Would it be wrong to draw a Sharpie doodle on Charles while I’m waiting for this to wear off?›