But she wasn’t one to follow or obey. She’d run away from—she couldn’t remember the word—her creators. She was doing a shitty job here with this new group. Hurting a child.

Hurting cute boys, but that was the drug talking.

The drug was an insulator. A thing she could put between herself and the ownership of her being here.

The first step in a hundred thousand, all undertaken in a frame of completely different time.

She stood on the edge of that pit, and the power was there for the taking.

She stepped away from it, even in her desperation.

Into the real world, where the ground beneath her hands was cold.

She had a power, but just as she’d refused the greater body of power, she fought the urge to take hold of this. To do so threatened to pull her into that pit.

For the time being, she stood, shaky. Others had staggered, hands to their heads. Powers had gone limp.

The scattered henchmen Love Lost had brought were here, hurrying forward. Roman, the boy with black hair, was clubbed across the head with a baton.

Two of them were still close to Colt. As soon as she grasped the fact, saw the decisive action on the part of the mercenaries, she pulled herself to her feet and kicked—catching the younger girl right in the midsection with her boot.

And Imp—

She wheeled around, saw Imp stagger forward, and struck out with the gun. One blow to the throat, hard, leaving the woman sputtering.

It was only when they were down that she could reach for her power.

When she did, she felt herself teeter. On the cusp of falling. She swayed.

The so-called ‘ground’ solidified.

The fight resumed, hesitant at first, as people were still recovering. But the actions of the unpowered henchmen were forcing the Undersiders and Breakthrough to react.

She had a power. She drew in a deep breath, and she used it.

⊙

Now

Bags over their heads, hands bound behind their backs, several with poles attached to the bindings at the hands, so they could be managed from a distance.

Her nose was bloody, her hand and knee scraped, and the drugs were leaving her with a strangely disappointed feeling, out of tune with the reality before her—that she had a strong power. Just the moods swinging in the opposite direction.

Her feelings jerked this way and that as she took it in. Disjoint gave her a reassuring smile. Love Lost, though, didn’t seem happy in the slightest.

Weird, considering they had this contingent captive. Two of Breakthrough, one Undersider, three Heartbroken. Two of those had been shot, one lacerated so badly by Love Lost’s whips that she couldn’t walk, and all three of those were now on the way to hospitals Love Lost had worked with before. The medical care would be held hostage, as necessary. Otherwise, they were all hostages now.