The bat came down in an overhead swing. Hit her ribs at her back.

Her cry was strangled. Spots flashed behind her eyes.

“Fume!”

Withdrawal. She could hear his limbs rattle in places as he made the approach.

The other two were coming too.

The big guy backed off as the three Major Malfunctions drew close to Fume Hood.

“Pow—ow, fuck—powers?” she asked.

“No,” the masked man said.

“Pretty sharp,” she grunted.

“Outrage, disgust,” he said. “Pushes you.”

She nodded. That, at least, was her language. Or it was her birth language. The kind of thinking that she had always gone back to. If the other guy hated you and you hated yourself… losing was a pretty sure bet, no matter how strong you were.

And for a long, long time, she hadn’t liked anything about herself.

Blame, from all directions, including her own blame turned inward. Resentment, same thing. Frustration.

Wearing her down.

“You win,” she said. “Got your licks in. This is going to hurt like hell for a long, long while.”

“I’m not done,” the man said.

“You’re done,” Withdrawal replied.

The man drew his gun, still holding his bat in the other hand. He pointed it at Withdrawal.

“No!” Fume Hood grunted. The shout elicited a blinding pain. She tried to stand and instead landed on her elbows and knees. She created an orb, holding it in her hand. She couldn’t bring herself to throw it, or to focus enough to use her power to fling it. “Shoot me. Just me. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine, you idiot!” Finale said. “I could—”

The gun went off.

Fume Hood twisted to try and look up and see what had happened. The pain in her back made her see only darkness and stars for long seconds instead.

“Shhhh,” the man in the gas mask said. “That was a warning shot. I know how you work. I know you could try to disarm me. If you make another sound, Finale, I shoot before you can do anything.”

In her breaker form, Caryatid reached over for Finale’s hand, holding it. Finale nodded, lips pursed shut.

“What’s the point?” Caryatid asked, as she turned human.

“Don’t—keep using your form,” Fume Hood grunted.

“The point?”

“What’s the point of this, what do you gain? You get to gun down one of us?”

The man shrugged. “She took a life, we take hers.”

“No! There has to be more to it!”

“Reasserting some control? You’ve been holding Endbringers over our heads for years and now there’s rumors they were manufactured. Then you held the end of the world over our heads. Now this… supposed reason for evacuation, conveniently after the mayor gets exposed? You have powers but you keep clutching for more.”

“What happens? You shoot her and you win? This changes the outcome?”