I had the bird’s eye view as I stood on top of the wall. Damsel began shooting at the wall, putting holes in it, while Moose stepped back, assessing the situation.

I flew down to the wall, close enough to Nailbiter that I was pretty sure Moose wouldn’t come tearing through the wall and trample me.

My back to the wall, hands out and pressed to the uneven surface, I waited until I felt the vibrations of Moose’s running footsteps. It was hardly necessary, because Nailbiter kicked with her legs and screeched something at him, loud enough that Advance Guard and the therapy team could be aware of what was happening.

I pushed out with my aura, hard, extending it through the wall.

The thudding footsteps stopped.

On the other side, I heard Moose’s voice, then a laugh.

Yeah.

Gave him pause, at least.

He didn’t charge the wall, but he did punch one gauntleted fist through it. A moment later, another fist came through. He grabbed the intervening bit of stone and hauled on it, pulling out a chunk.

I backed away, facing the wall and Nailbiter’s rear end.

Moose peered through the hole.

“We meet again,” he said.

“Sorry about the face,” I said.

He moved his metal mask a bit to one side, showing me the three grooves that ran from the corner of his jaw to his cheekbone.

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry.”

“I got a compliment from a girl, she thought it was gnarly,” he said. “It’s not all bad.”

“Stop fucking flirting and get us through, Moose!” someone called out, on the other side of the wall. Velvet, I was guessing.

“My mom would cry if she saw it, though,” Moose said. He lurched forward, shouldering his way through the hole he’d made, leaving a Moose-shaped hole behind him.

On the other side, I could see Prancer’s entire group backed away as segments of the stone came crashing down behind Moose. More time, more delay for our side.

Delay that would be needed, it seemed. Moose was fast on his feet, more than super strength and good form might have suggested—each footstep seemed to produce a focused blast where his feet landed, a geyser of dust behind the ball of each foot, blasting out to five feet behind him. There was Prancer in his breaker state.

Just behind Prancer, Velvet drove a truck through the hole Moose had made, the side view mirror on one side scraping off on the wall’s edge. Capes were in the vehicle and perched on top.

They’d been smugglers, suppliers, and getaway drivers, in another life. It made sense they could move when they needed to. Normally it meant them getting away, but here it applied to the chase.

I couldn’t catch Prancer, and I wasn’t going to throw myself headlong at a truck filled with what had to be a half dozen people with powers.