Hero Stalker

Part Fifty-Eight

Cypher pressed a coin-sized piece of metal coin into my hands. "Magnetic interference chip. Pulse will throw you up there. Stick it on Harpy's armor somewhere his helmet won't let him see it."

"What? Why?"

The wail of sirens filled the air. Sweat dripped out from under Cypher's mask. "Theoretically, it'll help me break through his encryption and take control of his armor."

"Theoretically?" A glance at the sky confirmed it: Harpy was flying back for Round Two. "He's shooting innocent people! How long will it take to get control?"

"A minute or two?"

I stared at him. His billowing yellow cape made him appear twice as muscular as he really was. Intelligence operative. Harpy could shoot far too many people in a minute or two. Only one more person needed to die today.

I tossed the chip at Cypher's feet. He looked like I'd just punched a baby. "Throw me," I told Pulse.

"But—" Pulse started.

I extended my blades. "Throw me!"

Pulse stepped backwards. I wished I read his expression, but his orange and purple mask enclosed his whole head. "Inhale."

I did. The world warped like I was looking through Jell-o. My feet rose off the pavement. Harpy grew closer and closer. Stick your blades in his chest, Slasher had told me. The screams I'd heard in the cancer lab echoed in my memory. Femme had warned me I'd have to make this choice one day. Now that the time had come, it was downright easy.

The bubble vanished. Just my momentum carried me forward, my blades pointed at Harpy's chest. He raised his gun towards a random floor. I braced for impact.

But Harpy darted sideways. Pulse's power seized me and whipped me around, slamming my knees into Harpy's chest. It felt like kicking a fridge. I lashed out, trying to slice his gun in half, but gravity sucked me out of range.

"Grab him, Pulse!" I shouted into my headset as I plummeted.

"I can't move two living bodies at the same time! Biology's hard to manipulate!"

"Alternate bodies! Give me an opening!"

At last, Pulse listened and flung me at Harpy. The supervillain shot sideways again and fired. One bullet hit my knee and bounced off. Shockwaves ran up my leg. I gasped in pain. A bubble tossed me upwards like I was a kid on a trampoline. Pulse grabbed Harpy just as I started to fall. Harpy struggled against the immaterial strength of the telekinetic field. His metal-encased limbs jerked like a fly caught in molasses. Could he actually escape Pulse's power?

"Slasher!" I shouted into my headset. "How long—"

My air cut off as Pulse tossed me back upwards. Slasher's answer came out garbled. Harpy used his momentary freedom to fire through a random window. My stomach twisted. Pulse switched from holding me to holding Harpy.

As I fell, I briefly glimpsed a blue streak on the roof. Slasher tore into the back of Femme's jet. "Got it!" he yelled over the radio. "Keep up the good work. We're only evacuating the top four floors. Almost ready."

The window Harpy had just fired into hadn't been on the top four. No. Please no. "I can't get in a lethal hit! He keeps flying away!"

Slasher chuckled, deep and dark. "Leave the lethal business to me, sweetheart."

No. This needed to end now. "Pulse!" His power gave me another jolt of upward momentum. Sky and pavement flip-flopped before my eyes. Harpy fired through another window. I wanted to scream in frustration. "Bring him to me!"

"Fine," he grunted, sounding for all the word like a bored Vicky.

A bubble seized Harpy and dragged him underneath me. His jets hissed as they fought the tug of Pulse's power. I arched my falling body like a diver.

And then I struck Harpy at full speed. The blades on my right hand dug into the side of the suit with a sharp, hollow thud and stuck fast. Harpy bucked like a mechanical bull and threw me off towards the hospital.

Hitting the walls knocked the air from my lungs. I sank my blades deep into the concrete and climbed to the roof. My shoulders burned from the impacts they'd taken. My chest ached from lack of oxygen. Be a hero, Shadowcat. Do what heroes do. My feet found the roof. I sprinted across it, pivoted, and slingshotted at Harpy.

This time, I landed on his back. The flames coming out of the jetpack washed over my legs. I only had seconds before they'd melt through my costume. Harpy bucked. "Bitch!" he shouted in his computerized voice. I dug my blades into his jetpack and cut it free. Hope Pulse knows who to grab.

I shoved myself off the supervillain and let myself fall. "Catch me!"

"God, I'm busy," Pulse said, and then the world exploded.

A tide of fire pushed the top floors of the hospital outwards. Concrete chunks the size of cars plummeted out of the blaze and slammed into Harpy. Femme's jet dropped down into the inferno. Pulse's wavering bubbles flew across the sky, flinging beds, desks, and chairs at Harpy. His armor cracked. A shadow dropped out

Good, I thought. And then I hit the tree.

.