I heard the chugging of the bus, the battered engine protesting as the vehicle started to reverse, pulling away.

At the edge of my Blindside-limited field of vision, Snag’s metal, long-fingered hand lifted from the ground. He leaped toward the bus without making the movements necessary to jump. I didn’t want to move my head and risk being seen just to see him land, but I heard the metal-on-metal sound, the impact of a heavy body on the hood.

Every set of eyes, mine excepted, had to be on him and the retreating bus. It was an opening, and it was an opening our side opted to use. The side door of the building opened without a sound. Fume Hood and Crystalclear were in the doorway.

Crystalclear threw a chunk of crystal at the ground, and the chunk passed through without sound or apparent impact. Fume Hood had six green orbs with her, all around her hand. She sent one out in the direction of the bus, then, a moment later, sent a second. Both exploded, off to one side.

Crystalclear’s shot passed through walls. Tempera had let me know that. Apparently, it needed to pass through walls, or the ground in this case. He’d thrown it into the ground, and a moment after Fume had released her two shots, both landing, Crystalclear’s shot emerged from the ground, an explosion of vapor, glass splinters, and fragments of road.

One of the villains, the brute, only laughed.

Fume Hood paused, her four orbs around her hand. Her head was turned so she could only see me with one eye—Blindside’s power was limiting them there.

Through the hair that had fallen over my face, I could see Fume Hood look at me. Making eye contact.

I couldn’t see the villains, so I knew the action was risky. I had to hope they were more focused on her than on me.

I raised my head up and motioned for her to go, moving one hand, swiping my fingers toward her.

The pattern was much the same as with her first shot. One shot, then firing the remaining three all at once. One to gauge how it would fly, then the rest to deliver the hit.

They slammed the door shut, just before the three near-simultaneous explosions. The detonations were small and sharp, and produced a wind that blew my hair away from my face. I held my breath.

The brute laughed again.

I really didn’t want to pick a fight with four capes at once. The bus was gone, the door was shut.

“This is going to slow us down,” the brute said.

“You don’t have to sound so happy about it,” Blindside said.