Getting closer had its advantages. My cousin Eric had had the range but his beams were weak. My Aunt Sarah had been middle of the road. Crystal had the strongest beams of the three, the strongest top speed and carrying ability to her flight. So why did she get in close?

It made it easier to aim. I aimed for weak points, damage done while capes had been swarming Titan Skadi.

It made it easier to use other powers. Crystal was more of a flier, and she could create forcefields in mid-air. Part of the reason she liked to get in close was that she created forcefields at mid-to-short range. It was easier to shoot someone when you could create a wall in their way, put them up against the wall, and blast them.

I didn’t have forcefields in that same sense. I saw a damaged section of her armor, blasted it, and continued blasting as I plummeted. In the last few seconds of my descent, I twisted in the air to get to where I could kick my laser cannon up and away, and carried on down without reorienting myself. I could only dive while shooting because the weapon had no appreciable recoil. No real Newton’s Law of Motion at play here. No bullet being fired forward, gun kicking back in response.

I crashed into the same site I’d been blasting, as fast as I could dive, forcefield hands drawn together into a point. Hot, cracked armor caved in, cracked further, and shifted position beneath me, like I’d driven a boat into the middle of a bridge. Immediately, she twisted around, swinging for me.

This? This was more familiar ground. I kicked off and away from the impact site, flying around the axe that was coming for me, and over her head, blasting with my aura while no capes were close enough to be collateral damage.

I’d hoped it would prompt her to come for me, seizing her attention. I’d really hoped it would hit that mental button that made her teleport, so I could exploit it. No such luck. It did seem to get her attention and provoke a follow-up swing, which forced me to evade and delayed me in my chase of my falling gun. I caught my weapon maybe twenty feet off the ground, grabbing a handhold with one actual hand, and flew hard, helping it rotate so it would be in the optimal position as I landed.

My forcefield came back up, and I landed with a force that cracked ice and made fluids gush around the cracks, multiple hands grabbing multiple handholds, the entire laser cannon’s body creaking and protesting at the force of its landing, distributed across my forcefield.