Damsel turned to leave, and saw another. A woman with an orange symbol at her breast and a glowing energy weapon clasped in both hands. The energy formed a wedge shape toward the top, almost but not quite an axe.

Damsel slowed down, wary.

“Brandish!” the laser woman shouted. “She’s dangerous! Her power goes right through forcefields!”

Brandish didn’t flinch. “We’re all dangerous, aren’t we?”

Her voice wasn’t of sufficient volume to be heard by her companions. Only by Damsel.

“Yeah,” Damsel said.

“You’re done. Your underlings are scattered, they abandoned their car. You get nothing today.”

“Maybe,” Damsel said.

“This isn’t ambiguous,” Brandish said. “You’re done. You had your fun, now we’re bringing you in.”

Damsel looked back at the other heroes. They were drawing in closer.

“You said I get nothing today. I thought I’d get something this time.”

“Damsel of Distress,” Brandish said. “This thing? You and I talking, trying to find something profound to say? Mutual therapy during the pause in the battlefield? We’re not going to do that.”

“Thinking aloud,” Damsel said.

“That’s how it always is. Sorry, but I had my fill of talking about my problems a long, long time ago, and I’m not going to talk about or shoulder yours.”

Damsel nodded. The laser burns hurt like a motherfucker, and her shoulder was throbbing.

She could go after Brandish. One person to get past.

But that weapon had reach. She couldn’t blast it like she’d blasted the orbs, without hitting her opponent.

“Some people want to talk to you. You’re not necessarily in trouble.”

Damsel snorted. “We’re all in trouble, aren’t we? We’re all dangerous and we’re all in trouble. Just… sometimes more obvious.”

Brandish didn’t respond.

A car was coming down the road. Traffic must have been cut off for the area to have so few cars and people around. Still, this old sedan had slipped that perimeter. Not J’s car. Not Bar’s.

“Go around!” the big guy shouted. “Situation in progress, there’s danger!”

The car started its halting, three-point turn.

Was it the distraction she needed?

Brandish wasn’t taking her eyes off of Damsel. It meant Damsel couldn’t run past. Running to the sides didn’t give her any immediate escape routes, and it would see laser fire, exploding energy flowers and slow moving energy balls hurtling her way.

But, by the flip side of that same coin, it meant that when an object was cast out the window, Brandish was the last person to react. Her focus was on Ashley.

Damsel twisted her head around, eyes shut, her arm going up to her ear to shield it.

At the same time she turned away, she ran toward.

Not a flashbang, but a flash. The light was blinding.