There were some faster capes in the air now, and some tinkers with jetpacks. They buzzed past our guys on the ground, one flier with a beam power was flying around Chastity, focusing the beam in her direction, while she struggled to keep cover between them. I went after him.

Another tinker with a jetpack zipped out of the dust cloud around us, passing within two feet of me. She was engaged in a bombing run, flying over Rachel’s group, lobbing what might have been grenades. Yips, growing by the second, went bounding over to Rachel, and put himself directly into the way of the grenade that Rachel was guiding the other dogs away from. He flew ten feet, only missing Rachel because she ducked, tried to stand for a second, then crumpled.

Couldn’t chase. It’d be starting from square one, and this tinker was favoring the dust clouds.

Rachel spun on her heel, turning her full focus toward Yips. He began growing faster, regenerating, the wound closing.

The flier with the beam turned his focus my way. The beam hit the Wretch, and I brought my buckler up, putting it in the way while I closed the distance. When the Wretch failed, the beam hit the little shield, warming it enough I could feel it radiating through another layer of metal and a padding of bandages.

I got in close enough to hit him. I crashed into him, shield pressed against his chest, and he lurched, flying awkwardly to get out of the way of the heated metal. He didn’t react like he was in pain, but wore an expression like, ‘yeah, this white hot bit of metal is a concern’.

He tried to dive, and the metal stuck to the burned skin, which made him flounder in the air.

I took advantage of it, catching him while he didn’t have his spatial orientation one hundred percent, then whipping him around. He flipped head over ass, arms and legs spread-eagled, into the dust. I chased him, diving to kick him before he had his full bearings.

He fired the beam again, and I twisted in the air, bringing knees to chest and shield up to make myself a smaller target. My leg-guards caught the beam.

I found him in the dust, because I could chase the beam to its origin point. I caught him, only I was upside-down as a result of my earlier aerial acrobatics. He fought to get free, using his own flight and the propulsion it generated in the air to try to separate us. Seeing the way he was going, I let him.

Within the cloud of dust from the fallen section of building, still yet to fully settle, he flew up and away from me. Except I was upside-down and at an angle, so his ‘up’ was really down. He flew up and sideways into a pile of rubble, crushing his own shoulder and ribs at high velocity.