I hit the ground hard enough to crack it. I’d pay the neighborhood back for that. But the impact was enough to upset his footing, and as his frame of reference changed, so did the angle and flow of the phantom images. He tipped back, and there was a clearance of a few feet off the ground in front of him where the images weren’t.

I dove, flying, and slid through that clearance. It was a maneuver that put me within a few feet of him. I reached out, striking with my good arm, and I felt the impact. No strength, but a smash to the nose.

A phantom’s nose. He’d projected one out from his face as I’d swung.

I followed up, hitting, kicking, and then doing the same thing but with the wretch, for the extra force and the ability to tear right past them. I could see him press back, until his jackasses were right behind him. Sveta yanked on the jackasses, hauling them away, and the Crowley brother tipped backward onto his back.

“Stretcher or surrender?” I asked, amping up the aura in a subtle way. Too big of a push could scare, but it also was a thing. Something people could push back against.

I could use it here to play it subtle, drive the moment home.

“Fine then,” he said. He smiled, and he dismissed the images. The transparent detritus, trash, objects and figures faded out.

I remained tense. What was the catch?

“Bro,” one jackass said.

“We’ll surrender if you give us a seat to enjoy the show,” he said.

I didn’t respond, only glancing at Sveta.

She was as lost as I was.

“I’m not that faithful a man, that’s not a secret,” he said, still smiling with those too-white teeth amid the wiry goatee. “But I do believe this is going to be a hell of a thing, tonight.”

Pitch 6.9

“Looksee,” I said. “Are you there?”

“Always,” came the reply.

“I have someone with me that I’m pretty sure is one of the Crowley brothers,” I said. I noted the slight nod, and the almost satisfied expression from the man. It wasn’t him faking me out, I was pretty sure. Instead, he seemed to like the recognition, even to the point that he was willing to give up information to bask in it. “He says something bad is up.”

“Capricorn and Sveta are dealing with people with guns. That’s bad.”

“Something big,” I said.

“I’ll call everyone.”

“Please. Start with authorities. Wardens. Then the team.”

The Crowley brother still had his hands up in surrender. It didn’t really mean a lot, a lot of the time. There was no position or way of being that would make a parahuman a non-threat.