The first of them hit the edge of the dirt road Beast of Burden was on, using it as a ramp to go airborne. Others followed suit. They sailed to either side of Beast of Burden’s group, landed in fields and skidded around so they were behind the group, facing Damsel.

Nailbiter reached out. Her fingers struck one of the last bikers to jump. They collided with the thin bars and she drew her fingers back to normal size. The withdrawing and the motion against the biker’s front created slashes at the face, collarbone, chest, and lower stomach. The last looked deep.

Sidepiece, too, clawed her navel away from her midsection in an effort that took a second tug to separate some strings of still-connected skin, and then hurled that flesh to strike the ground a moment before the biker landed. It detonated, and the biker bounced to the ground ten feet from their vehicle.

Our side joined the fight. Sveta yanked another one off of their bike. Blue lights began appearing around the larger group as Capricorn started using Byron’s power.

I took to the sky, trying to get a better sense of the battlefield.

Prancer wasn’t that far away. I could see people I was pretty sure were Speedrunners. Prancer’s crew had guns, and they were shooting blind, because a power was obscuring their view of the street and things beyond. Fallen were moving to flank.

On the very far side of the confrontation where Prancer was involved, I could see the distortion of Vista’s power.

We’d help this group first. I looked for a good place to dive. I could drop down by lightning-eyes, but I wasn’t sure about the hooded girl.

Besides, it seemed like he was keeping Beast of Burden tied down.

Fallen dirt-bikers first.

Beast of Burden’s group second.

I dropped down at a point more or less between one dirt-biking Fallen and Nailbiter, standing so I could see both.

The Fallen in front of me raised a hand. A deep black ellipse appeared at his fingertips, above his head.

I could feel what he was doing, as the air seemed to leave the ‘room’.

A black hole? No. Nothing non-gaseous seemed to be getting drawn in. But my intake of breath felt thin, as if it supplied far too little.

“Whoooooo!” he called out, and the cry was distorted and magnified by the dark blob he held overhead. He revved his bike and charged me.

I moved to meet him, holding my breath so I wouldn’t lose any. The blob had an effect like my aura, but it was physical, changing the rules of the area around him, not anything emotional, and he seemed to have nuanced control. His buddies weren’t suffering.

I met his ambient effect with my own. As he drew nearer, I pushed out with my aura, hard.