I could have gone for Moose, but I didn’t want to make his mom cry any more than she might, and he was moving fast enough and hard enough I wasn’t sure I could stop him without causing reams of property damage.

Better to go back to the others. They’d rounded a corner, and were heading northward, toward the main highway and the train tracks. I flew direct to them, putting myself ahead of Prancer and his entourage.

I flew alongside the others. Looksee was keeping up, inexplicably, and it was Rain who was lagging. Capricorn had one hand at his shoulder.

Mayday, just to Capricorn’s right, wasn’t the fastest either. Prong was gone, and Mayday and Signal Fire were the only ones left in Advance Guard who didn’t have mover abilities.

Spright had the benefit of both Flapper’s power and the lingering effect of Nailbiter’s transformation. That put him well ahead of the rest.

That seemed to be his thing. Always staying ahead, always with just a bit of an edge in mobility.

“They’re coming. Moose and Prancer are charging in. Velvet has a car,” I reported.

“Got it,” Capricorn said.

I saw the orange lines moving across the road. I could see the pattern and the logic. Rush jobs, but they snapped into being as Rain and Mayday passed over them. Rows of spiky growth across the road.

“I could use my power, but I’d rather keep it under wraps,” Rain said.

“Do,” Tristan said. “Have your gun ready.”

Gun? Erin’s?

The villains rounded the corner behind us, and they started catching up. Moose saw the spikes and bent low while running, tearing his hands through them, scattering whole chunks of them in passing, not even slowing in stride.

Moose broke more of the spike strips. Prancer ran up one of the horn-ridden poles while it was still moving through the air, the butt end slamming against the ground as he put his feet on the ridged spikes. He planted a foot on the end as the pole tilted toward the ground, pointing in our general direction, and leaped, hard.

I pushed out with my aura, hard, and flew to intercept, forcefield down.

He was quick, and determined enough the aura didn’t give him much pause. I drove an elbow in his direction, normal human strength, and his fingers found the crook of that elbow. He leveraged that into half-pulling, then half-kicking himself over my arm and shoulder. Lighter than he looked, and he’d used me as a stepping stone, closing the distance further.

Sveta’s hand caught him before he could grab Rain from behind. She pulled herself to him and possibly by dint of him being as light as he was, him to her. They met halfway, and crashed in a heap. The breaker form dissipated.