I didn’t want to drop the field, not when I needed it, not when it had been damaged before and taken a minute to come back up, after being hit with Rain’s silver blade. When Cradle had hit it and knocked it out for a bit of time. I threw myself into the ceiling tiles, into lighting and wiring, carving a furrow.

The others must have seen an opportunity, because they went for it. Into the ceiling, then down, to appear on the far side.

Emboldened, I changed course, driving myself further up into the ceiling until the field finally died. The shaker’s wall passed beneath me.

He’d baited us in close with an effect that was apparently easy to dodge, only to drop the full effect when I was so close I shouldn’t have been able to escape. Maybe there was a buildup, or he’d been conservative and tricky because he didn’t know what powers we had. Fast-moving capes weren’t likely to be capes with the ability to handle a death wall coming at them like a train down a tunnel.

I caught up to the others, and found them amid the downed group. Love Lost had blood dripping from the claws of one hand, while Withdrawal crouched like a frog ready to leap on another injured molten gunner.

The shaker had one arm out in front of him, a harpoon impaling his forearm, a meaty cord trailing to Harpoon’s abdomen. In his other hand, he managed his power.

Sveta didn’t have to bend down to grab one of the chunky magma guns, tendrils in her leg dissolving to grab it, lift it up, and pass it to her hand.

The shaker, like most of our group, panted for breath.

Love Lost moved first. Ready to scream. The shaker responded, using his power. Not at us, but sending the power rippling down the hallway as another pillar, behind him. Opposite direction.

A signal?

Didn’t matter. Love Lost screamed at the same time Sveta whipped the gun at the guy. Stricken with the scream’s effect, he didn’t have the ability to dodge. The gun clocked him.

That was this squad. Still small, still tinkers with low-grade equipment, but now they were supporting the occasional cape.

I was too nervous about why this guy would throw his power the other way, when he could’ve at least maimed one of us with a good toss here. Too hard for all of us to dodge something that fast-moving and shakery at point blank range.

He’d had other priorities.

“You’ve got this?”

“Yeah,” Sveta said. “I hope the others are okay.”

“Me too. I’m going to fly ahead.”

“Be safe.”