I’m quickly closing the distance between the group and I, which tells me either the teleporter is somewhere else or that there’s another large group of people carrying weapons through the city’s underground.

  As I run, I try to ignore the feelings of loneliness, but it can be a tad bit hard. With Amelia now in the other voice channel with the recently dubbed name Team Surface Saviours, that leaves me by myself unless I drag Asher over to switch.

  And at least at the moment, with this being my guess, it makes it so that my tracking skills are better than his.

  Though on the bright side with this run I’ve been able to clear my head a bit and recover enough energy that I am confident enough that I can start burning power again to kick someone’s ass.

  I have half of an idea on how to properly beat Bandages.

  Still no clue on Andromeda.

  And I’ll just out bludgeon the Lizard if I need to.

  What was their name, Vortex? The portal user? I don’t have a clue on how I’m supposed to do that, but I can figure that out eventually.

  I focus on controlling my speed. A sprint is great, but I really don’t want to burn myself out, so I keep my pace measured. Though, a measured pace for me is still faster than any human can go without assistance.

  If I were on the surface, I could say the world was blurring as I flew by, but since the world really hasn’t changed in appearance, all being underground tunnels, there’s nothing for me to say. It all looks the same.

  The only positive thing is that I’m getting closer.

  As I get closer, the group I’m following seems to get bigger, meaning it’s either slowing down, I’m catching up. Or a certain horrifying duplicator has increased the size of the group as I get closer for the inevitable legendary battle or something like that.

  Until proven otherwise, I’m going to presume it’s the duplicator and plan accordingly.

  “About to encounter their group in a few minutes as I’m closing the distance. Though I think they’re going to be ready for me.”

  “Do you think they’re tracking you?” Asher asks practically scoffing at the idea.

  Not sure how they would track me in the first place, but I guess it’s possible. I’ve phased off everything I could notice wasn’t just the normal suit, but they could deal with the tech in it, I guess?

  “Probably not; it just isn’t a hard guess to figure out what’s going on. They’ll know I’m chasing.” I say.

  “They’ll have a good idea on what you can do now, so they’ll have a clearer picture of what countermeasures they should use against you,” Asher warns.

  “And how would you deal with me having had the opportunity to actually study my powers?” I point out.

  “Dose up enough people with super power juice to get a gravity manipulator or someone who can counter you.” Asher answers. “You have a point there. Do you need me for anything else or am I good to switch?”

  “Help them out; what they’re dealing with is substantially more important to be dealt with.” I say, already mentally disconnecting from the conversation.

  While the full group feels like they’re in my mental map, I don’t retract it just in case they use the teleporter again. I don’t want to miss anything. Once they’re actually within my sight, I’ll change that.

  When I hear the sounds of other people running, I almost fall over in surprise. For the entire run, it was just me and so much easier to pretend there was nothing going on in the world.

  Skidding to a stop, I hide behind a corner and retract the mind map to polish my vision.

  “Forty-three, it’s kinda useless for you to stop running now we know you’re there!” Andromeda catcalls as several people in the group raise their hands, waving.

  Sticking my hands into the wall, I scale it. This method is much quieter than just jumping up.

  “Hurry up and come out and play with me. You already took away Kurt and Vertiga, so it would do for you to play with me until some more toys are made.” She blathers on incessantly.

  Thankfully, I can’t hear her anymore once my head is in the roof.

  With a bit of effort, I’m on the empty street, though the sound of sirens blaring in the distance tells me more than I would like to know about what’s going on.

  Focusing my attention beneath me, it’s easy to pick out at least some Andromedas beneath me. Those who aren’t in bulky gear or carrying large crates being the easiest people to guess.

  Bouncing on my feet once to psyche myself up, I arc through the air, cannon balling through the street and crashing down right in the center of the group. It would have been substantially more disgusting if it had been people beneath me.

  Instead, splinters and blue lights fly out.

  “That’s not a fun game to play!” the nearest clone complains.

  “Sure it is.” I say, burying my fist through the clone, causing it to scatter in blue light. “Tag, you're it.” I say, instantly regretting the words and wishing I had the power to rewind time so that I could undo that statement, but unfortunately I’m unable to use such a gift.

  Several people in the group draw weapons, but they all hesitate, not wanting to open fire on their friends, and I take that chance to strike back.

  There are too many regular folk nearby for me to treat them like the clones, but I’m not gentle in my efforts to bring as many of them down as possible.

  Unfortunately, between my own interests and theirs, I’m slowly being pushed farther back in the group.

  The bigger problem is the fact that I’m not destroying Andromeda clones faster than she’s spitting them out, making this a losing battle as the people I can take down are getting farther away from me.

  “You have a choice number forty-three!” All the Andromedas shout their collective voice nearly enough to make me wince in annoyance at the sound.

  “I’m pretty sure my choice was pretty clear, wasn’t it? Not joining you, and I’m going to kick your ass.” I remind her, thrusting a finger at the nearest Andromeda. “How about you make the choice of surrendering or not?”

  A mad cackle runs through the group, and I remember that despite being an absolute nut-job of a human being, Andromeda is still a genius of sorts, able to help run the lab. And either more important than Vertiga or at least sees herself as it though I can’t fault that claim.

  Duplication, at least on the scale she’s been doing it, seems like an incredible ability.

  “My projections indicate you can see the world around you, so why don’t you look up, doll?” she chants, finger aimed at the sky.

  There doesn’t seem to be anything important going on in the street above us, so I punch out another Andromeda clone, causing it to dissolve into a shower of blue light.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “That was the signal!” One of the Andromeda screeches.

  Whipping my arm forward, I throw a stone at that one on the off chance that’s the real Andromeda so that I can take them all out at once.

  While the explosion of blue sparks is quite satisfying, that is again not the real one since none of the others vanished.

  “Hurry up!” She calls, and at those words something happens above us.

  Strands of something almost tentacle-like unravel from a lamppost as an increasingly irritating and familiar form reveals itself.

  Hiding himself in a streetlight is pretty clever, along with wrapping the bandages so tightly that I hadn't noticed.

  “Is that the game? I have to choose between fighting you here, chasing after your subordinates, or fighting him in the middle of the street?” I ask, eyes flicking between various opponents as I calculate a plan.

  Near the back of the group, a man holding several weapons hands them to the Andromeda at the back surveying the battlefield.

  Gotcha.

  “Yup.” She cheers as several guns are conjured out of blue light, arming her army of hers.

  Pushing off hard enough that the concrete cracks beneath my feet, I nearly fly, phasing through multiple Andromeda my fist slamming into the commander and peon who had supplied the weapons.

  When multiple people fire on me from behind, I realize I’ve been duped.

  Phasing, I drop through the ground, catching it with my fingers before swinging myself forward towards the group trying to run.

  If fighting Andromeda is a pointless endeavor, then the only thing I can do is ignore her and make a difference somewhere else.

  As I join the running group, I don’t fight, at least with the effort to take them down. Restrain and slow are the name of the game, and few things work better than tripping the massive horde, causing them to topple over each other.

  My plan works flawlessly until the movement above me catches my attention.

  Bandages isn’t attacking the concrete in an attempt to get down to me; he’s attacking a nearby building. Someone's home.

  One of the soldiers I just tripped takes off their mask, revealing Andromeda smiling at me with bloody teeth. “Did you finally notice, doll?”

  Before I can attack, someone slams into my back, knocking me to the ground.

  “Quick, while he’s down, bust his armor so we can knock him out.” Someone orders a blade is pressed into the elbow joint of my suit.

  Above me, Bandages pulls someone out of a nearby apartment building.

  I throw the people off of me and leap into the air, phasing as I pass through the overhead, coming out at the top of the street just in time to see Bandages pull another small child out of the apartment building.

  Wordlessly, I rocket forward, leaping into the air and rescuing both kids with a quick bit of phasing.

  “You two go run. I’ll keep you safe.” I say quietly as I set them down. “Trust me to take care of the bad guys.”

  Standing up, I mentally take stock of my current condition.

  Irritated but mostly fine, there’s nothing about me that makes me think I need to stop now.

  “You know, maybe it’s fate.” I say with a sigh as I look over at the floating green orb. “I let you go once to do the right thing to save people. I am pushed back the second time, leaving you out of my clutches. And you show up to fight me again?”

  “Of course.” He rattles. “Until my revenge is complete, I’ll always chase after you.”

  “I’m still going to try not to kill you, so if you shout your surrender, that’ll be enough. Though if I break your orb, I don’t know if that would make you struggle to speak.”

  Before Bandages can respond, I close the distance, slamming a knee into the bandages where a groin would be.

  He doesn’t double over in unimaginable pain, so I doubt he has anything down there for me to strike.

  Just the orb.

  Oddly enough, I can’t sense it, which irritates me a little bit, but it’ll be fine.

  As the two of us fight, I notice something odd: the bandages aren’t corroding my armor. Is that a feature only included when they’re outside of the mummy form?

  I don’t use my powers as our fight dissolves into a mundane fight. At least as mundane of a fight as it can get between a living mummy and a guy in a super suit.

  The problem is that he's winning. I can’t actually harm the bandages, and they’re protecting that green orb, making it so that I can’t do anything to him.

  Phased fist flashing through his torso in an uppercut, I try to solidify any part of my hand the moment it reaches empty space so that I can punch him from the inside.

  Whether it’s my own skill at performing that skill failing me or him layering fabric after strip of fabric making it nearly impossible to pull it off, the strike fails, my fist flying through his head as he slams a ball of ribbon into my stomach.

  “Is that all you got?” I ask, spiking my gloves and hands immutable just to see if having something harder to hit with works.

  The moment my hands go black, a trio of tendrils snake out from his back to try to attack me, but I bat them away.

  “You’re the one who pulled out an ability first.” He taunts the three tendrils hanging behind him like scorpion tails. I’m sure all of them could corrode me without a second thought.

  Breathing slowly, I dodge the tendrils and rely on phasing to give me the surprise I need.

  When a tendril retreats a little bit too slowly, I grasp it in my right hand, pulsing my power through it to phase the jerk. With the tunnels beneath us, I don’t have any issues dropping him down there.

  Though that’s going to be another street that needs repairing if he corrodes his way out.

  Dropping the fabric, I realize that he’s not sinking through the ground.

  He’s already solid, and more than that, he’s landing lightly on the ground, a dark laugh echoing through the space.

  Not willing to call a plan a wash just after one attempt, I dart forward, focusing my meager skills on grappling, all on getting a single hand on this guy.

  And every time he leaps into the air before my power is done phasing all of him.

  Come on, Jason, think.

  Think.

  I catch a trio of bandages, and he immediately jumps into the air, so I only phase the part I’m touching to render the corrosion nonexistent for a moment.

  Think.

  That I’m holding something phased is what gives me the idea.

  I release the bandages and race forward, getting close.

  Ducking under a clumsy hook, I slam my fist into his torso once, twice, thrice before pulling back.

  Every time he tries to get distance from me or restrain me, I phase or surge forward, making sure there’s never more than an arm's length between us.

  Now, to pull off my master plan.

  As I bring my right fist back, tendrils wrap around it as he tries to leap back. Akin to a river, power flows out of me, the bandages turning abyssal black as his power to control them vanishes.

  Bandages laughs as the black crawls up, cloaking his entire form. “You moron, if you give me your strongest advantage, what can you do?”

  My fist slams into the collarbone of the mummy, the bandages warping around my fist as I come into contact with something that isn’t bandages.

  Presumably, the floating green orb.

  Still holding onto the strands with my right hand to keep my power flowing, I stomp on the green orb, glad that he can’t speak now that he’s fully immutable.

  I release my power, letting go and walking away from the pile of bandages and the now I can tell pale flickering orb.

  “I’ve beaten you.”

  The orb pulses three times. “Yes.”

  “Is this where you pretend to be honorable and tell me where all of your friends are running off too or no?” I ask, crossing my arms.

  “Are you going to let me go?”

  “No.”

  “Then no.”

  “Miracle, I have a corrosion mummy held captive. I need someone to pick him up.”

  Asher stays quiet for a long moment. Be it that he’s talking to the others, or he’s digesting the implications of what I said, I’m not sure.

  “Did you capture him accidentally while chasing the others?” He asks quietly, deciding to force to confirm his suspicion instead of letting himself figure it out.

  “No, they forced me to make a choice. Chase them and let him run rampage. Or let them run and begin setting up their second base while capturing him.” I say, keeping my voice controlled.

  “But the lab!”

  “It was the right choice.” I say coldly. “Attacking the lab is all well and good when there’s nothing else going on. But who could have been sent to deal with this asshat? I know which way they’re running, and they hadn’t portaled out by the time they left my sensory range. It’ll be fine.” I say, doing my best to not growl or grind my teeth.

  “We’ll send a detainment unit to you. Could you help out elsewhere while carrying him along? It could be easier if you meet up with the others. They’ve set up some sort of criminal drop box.” Asher says, changing his directions halfway through.

  “Yeah, I can do that.”

  “I’ll send you the directions.”

  I walk over to Bandages and stare down at the pale flickering orb. “Are you going to be a problem for me to carry or are you going to be a good captive?”

  The orb flickers faster for a moment, and I watch the bandages quiver in anticipation. “Good.”

  I lift the bundle of bandages up and begin running off, plotting my course.

  I phase my helmet and head for no reason other than to give myself a moment of privacy where the world can’t hear me when I speak my thoughts.

  “Time to save the day.”

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