The Vigilante's Handbook (Misfits #1)

Forty One: The Impact

"What the heck is happening out there Diana?" My language was a bit more colorful in the moment.

I could only count on Diana hearing me over the static and shouts of fighting on the comm channel.

Thankfully she responded. Her voice was tight with stress. Not a good sign. This was the girl who could handle a whole dining room of tourists without dropping her smile. Audible panic meant bad news for my Misfits. "The others must have known you were coming somehow. On Lucia's go each group got ambushed." She took precious seconds to take a deep breath in and slowly let it out. "Are you and Valentine okay?"

I looked at my teammate slumped on the floor with Foster and Julien. "She's down for the fight. So are Julien and Foster." I imagined her crossing them off of our master list of threats and allies. Two down, six to go. And I only had one Nothing syringe left. "Where's the nearest fight?"

There was a moment of silence. As silent as it could get with the violent ambient noise coming from everyone else's headphones. It worried me that none of them were responding, not even Diana now. I checked Val's ear for her earpiece, but found it on the floor a foot from her unconscious body. Maybe everyone's had fallen out and the static was a flaw in Diana's system.

"Elliot, Freyson, and Lucia's entry point is closest to you. I don't know if they're still there." I hurdled back out the window. Although I knew where Team One was supposed to clear a small outbuilding, I made my way there more by sound than sight.

People were yelling. Specifically Lucia was yelling.

They were on the far side of the outbuilding. Stitch and Freyson were on the ground. Either they enjoyed the snow or Malee got them in a pressure point that left them mostly useless. Occasionally a ripple of lightning cut through the sky to reveal a winged man above the power lines.

The main action was Lucia throwing punches and wearing herself out like an idiot. Malee was avoiding almost every attack. She could dodge, deflect, and duck as well as she could fight. The few punches that made contact must have hurt, but they didn't break bones like usual.

Lucia may have been a one hit wonder in a fight three months ago, but right now she was as useless as Freyson and Elliot.

"Malee, think fast," I shouted to draw her attention away from Lucia. It worked long enough for Lucia to get a killer right hook in and for me to drag Malee to the ground in ice handcuffs. That would have been the end of the fight if I had kept my feet on the ground.

I was in the air flailing and screaming before Lucia could knock Malee out.

I had only flown with Diego once, and it had been a brief ride since I was mostly unconscious for the flight. This time was worse. He skyrocketed up thirty feet in the air without a word and dropped me like a dead weight.

The sensation of falling was instant. It sent my stomach up my intestines through my esophagus. Would it ruin my superhero persona to say that midair I threw up? Let's just pretend I didn't.

As I reached terminal velocity, I managed to--unintentionally--flip midair. Above me was the cloudless night, a billion stars, and one very rude, bat-winged boy. To teach him a lesson, I let frost immobilize one wing. His flapping faltered, and he began to spiral like an airplane with a blown engine.

He grasped for the frozen wing, saw the ice, and did his best to set his course toward me.

The force of his impact sent both of us into one of the tall metal towers that littered the power plant. Years ago they might have had more electricity than Elliot coursing through them. Today, I was glad they were dormant. Even without getting electrocuted the hit hurt.