“You ready for this?” Cheshire asked, her gaze fixed to the two fighters in the pit below. A woman with red scales and a ridge of spines along her back, squaring off against a shorter woman with hooked blades protruding from her forearms.

  “As I’ll ever be,” I murmured in response. My army men were already in the shadows at the far end of the room, moving behind the stands and covertly carrying their payload of cherry bombs toward Impact’s dais. “I know the plan at least.”

  Assuming we didn’t get very lucky, knocking all three villains out in a single blast (and that would be damn lucky indeed), we had agreed to split up on who we would fight. We had arrived at the arena just before sunset, but I’d been anxious all day long. Here and now, my gut felt like a lead weight.

  Foresight and Dynamo would go for Impact. Knuckle would be left to Cheshire and myself Stretch and Rover would have to keep Zirconium at bay.

  Not that we learned much about the guy in the interim. He’d apparently fought Superfly a handful of times before he found himself in Warlord’s employ. From there, by the sound of things, he’d liked to operate behind the scenes. Whatever the full extent of his powers were, we could only guess.

  The main thing was that we had to take our enemies out quickly so we could compound our efforts on whoever was left.

  We’d have the element of surprise at least, but Impact was still a damn powerhouse.

  Rover loomed a few behind me, silent as ever, our other allies spread about and in strategic positions. I swallowed hard. “You figure those bitches in the pit will keep out of this?”

  “They’ll run if they know what’s good for them,” said Cheshire, folding her arms. “That’s how I’d be, in their shoes. But... Rover’s whooped a few of them anyway, not like they’re that much of a threat.”

  I heaved a small sigh. “I’d rather they not get involved, all the same. We don’t need anyone making more work for us.” Numbers were our main advantage here, after all.

  I cast my mind out, sending the location of my soldiers. Seven of them were lurking in the shadows under the dais. They carefully bunched my cherry bombs into a neat pile, right under where Impact’s gaudy throne sat.

  “Okay,” I huffed as my soldiers scurried to safely, moving with impressive speed for their tiny stature. “Now or never, then,” I said. My grip was locked tight to the railing, my heart hammering in my ears.

  Do it for Dad, I told myself. No matter what.

  Cheshire nodded firmly at me.

  My gaze flicked to Impact on her throne as I forced myself to pull a remote detonator, shaped like a pen, from my belt. Then, summoning my nerve, I clicked it.

  It was brief, something I only barely glimpsed in the half second before the signal hit the trigger of the bombs. But Impact suddenly sat to attention, the eyes of her mask widening, as if she somehow... sensed what was coming.

  “Shi-” I hissed before my words were drowned by the roar of the blast.

  The crowd tended to give Impact’s dais a wide berth, but the blast wave still bowled over those closest to it, others being flung into the broader crowd. Screams and shouts tore through the underground, the fight in the pit coming to a jerking halt.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Pavel and a few of the armed men were rushing in from the far end of the room, forcing their way through the crowd as the spectators surged to flee.

  But Stretch was already waiting for them, her rubbery arms snaking upward and spearing forth, knocking each gunman out in a swift flurry of strikes, flinging them outside the rim of the entryway.

  Smoke billowed and rose in waves from the dais, or the scorched remains of it, and as it parted I could see that the cherry bombs had blasted a hemisphere of what must have been two meters deep into the earth.

  Then the smoke gradually parted, coils of it rippling around... a dome. Impact was panting for breath, the glove of her outstretched arm scorched and torn.

  Zirconium and Knuckle had been knocked on their asses but were largely unharmed. “What the HECK!” Zirconium shouted, sounding a touch deafened by the blast.

  Impact’s glare fixed on me.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered, mentally reachng out to my soldiers.

  “Oh you little bitch. I should known there was something off about y-”

  The familiar RAT-TAT-TAT of my soldiers filled the air, five troopers unleashing hails of laser fire to distract her. Zirconium seemed to see the blasts coming, sweeping an arm out and kicking up a crystalline wall. Each shot punched a chunk from the surface but it would take sustained fire to get through. I motioned my soldiers back into the shadows, hoping to reposition them.

  Knuckle was already making his way toward us, sprinting with purpose. Light shone from his gauntlets, leaving twin trails of golden light in the air. “Alright you little shits,” he said, his voice deep and bassy from the filter in his helmet. “You wanna play with the big boys? You’re gonna learn what that-”

  Cheshire flashed into existence beside him, already swinging her baton. Knuckle jerked around with inhuman quickness, throwing a punch that unleashed a sudden golden burst of kinetic energy that uprooted a chunk of the ground.

  But Cheshire was already behind him, vanishing and reappearing in another flash as she cracked him harshly on his armoured leg. He grunted, stumbled, and my yo-yo rocketed into his chest and flung him clean across the rapidly-clearing area.

  Even the fighters in the pit were making a break for it. They weren’t getting paid to run security, after all. Made life a little easier, at least.

  Zirconium was rushing our way, spirited along on a moving column of crystal, while Foresight and my soldiers took pot shots to keep Foresight on the defensive.

  Rover lunged at him, snarling with trails of slobber flying from his jaws. A hard swing carved a chunk from his crystals, sending him tumbling through the air. But he seemed undaunted, even as Stretch whipped one of her arms his way to catch him.

  Two great block of crystal flew from each of his hands, each one as big as a car, rocketing toward the two at impressive speed. One shattered against Rover, making him hiss as he was flung violently through the air. Stretch yelped, flinging herself to one side to avoid the column as it blasted through one wall of the pit.

  So long a we kept them separated, particularly Impact, we had a chance. At least, that was my hope.

  Cheshire yelped as an explosion of force flung her across the underground, and Knuckle was quick to return his attention to me. I braced, legs trembling a bit as he hurled a punch my way. There must have been at least 15 meters between us, yet I knew that meant little.

  I’d seen enough videos of Knuckle in action to have a rough approximation of how far the blasts of his gauntlets could travel. A direct it, at this range, wouldn’t hurt too bad... but it could still knock me over, or smash me with a wave of debris.

  I jumped as soon as I saw his fist move, hear the roar of energy as a wave of pressure came rushing my way like a speeding car. I landed harshly on my side, trying my best to quickly get to my feet, but Knuckle was faster. Another wave hit me, and I could only scream as the wave crashed into me and launched me away.

  “Fuck!” It was a hard blow, I felt my damn teeth rattle in my skull as I was flung like a dodgeball. My body struck some of the seating, noisily uprooting the plastic chairs from their moorings, all the air in my lungs leaving me in a protracted wheeze. Binder did damn good work, the hyrdrapolymer and impact gel keeping my spine in tact.

  But fuck did it hurt.

  “You like that?!” Knuckle barked. “I don’t know who you think you are, but if you think you can take a shot at me-”

  A flurry of laser fire came his way from the shadows, striking at Knuckle’s side and scoring the plates of his armour. He cursed and reeled away, firing blinding into the shadows and forcing my troopers to scatter for their own safety.

  Cheshire appeared at my side, helping me uneasily to my feet.

  “You good?” she asked.

  “Hell no,” I croaked, pressing a hand to my gut. Knuckle was already pressing toward us, ducking and dodging from the fire of my soldiers. “Can’t afford... to take too many hits from him. Gotta end this fast.” My hand was trembling as I lifted the boxing glove from the back of my belt, quickly checking for any damage to the mechanisms.

  “Get me in close,” I huffed, “and I can get you a good opening.”