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Chapter 34
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Even though he wasn’t the best at flying, Saelum Blaster flew like the wind to the hills north of Steel Canyon. A villain chased him here, thinking he was trying to fly away from the fight or something. Saelum Blaster ignored the flying villain for now.

The undead creatures had to be coming from somewhere like a bunch of ants. That somewhere happened to be one of these hills.

He vaguely heard the idiot taunting him and attacking him verbally while Saelum Blaster scanned the dark hills below. It was difficult to see anything, let alone an army of undead abominations with bombs strapped to their backs.

“Excuse me,” Saelum said to the villain, his cheerful enthusiasm emulated much the same way as when he spoke with most people with his heroic persona. “Would you happen to have a ranged attack in your power set?”

“What’s it to you?” the so-far nameless villain asked. “Is the cowardly hero afraid a little ranged attack going to kill him?”

“Nonsense. I was wondering if you’d be interested in helping me by lighting up that hill down there so we could see where those zombified time bombs are coming from?”

“That’s your problem, man.”

“If you insist. I guess I’ll just have to do this myself, not that that will be a problem.” Saelum Blaster struck a pose with his knuckles at his hips.

With hardly a huff, Saelum shot a car-wide beam at the ground. He counted the seconds, knowing an attack this big couldn’t last very long, or that it would leave him vulnerable to an attack. Then the beam fizzled in his hands.

He coughed.

At least he found the hole those things were coming out of, even if his beam was mere feet away from closing it off. At least a number of those atrocious things were removed from action as well.

The smalltime villain’s snicker was barely audible between the growls below and the winds surrounding the pair of metahumans.

“Let me show you how it’s done, man,” the villain jeered.

The next instant, the villain unleashed a flurry of sonic waves from his mouth, and they crashed against the dark hill. Saelum had to brace his ears even though the assault was not aimed at him. He was grateful that it wasn’t. He could neither see nor hear what was happening to the ground. Saelum could have illuminated the area again, but that would have required more of his own power.

“Ha!” the villain barked, “How ‘bout that, old ma—?”

Saelum Blaster figured that boasting was going to be in this guy’s nature. He launched himself forward and winded the villain with a punch to the stomach. No, Saelum wasn’t tired at all.

“Sorry for the trickery,” Saelum said, “but I need to get you somewhere safe. Thank you for your help.”

His would-be adversary passed out in his arms. He sought out a safe spot before flying back into Paragon City. The search took him a while, but he trusted that the woods north of the hills were safe for putting the young man down, and that he had plenty of time to help out more with saving the city.

On his way back into town, Saelum looked at the thinning numbers of walking time-bombs and zombie-like foot soldiers. He hadn’t been gone for long since the hill to the north was collapsed, which went to show how quickly the heroes—as tired as they were—were dealing with those things.

He was about to lend a hand on one front that seemed to need it when he heard a woman cry out: “No!”

Saelum flew toward that direction with good haste, and saw a few people in a clearing where a building once stood. One was a bulky man with what was left of his neck spilling into a hole in the ground where his head should have been. Another was a woman on her knees wearing a hero’s uniform.

The third person was a woman who looked familiar, too familiar, and she was raising her hand at the heroine’s direction. The heroine just froze. Literally. A sheet of ice covered her in a way Saelum knew too well.

Instinct took over. Saelum shot a blast toward the apparent villain, but it only landed at her feet. He shot another, but the cursed woman jumped back.

Saelum landed next to the woman encased in ice armor. “Are you alright?”

The heroine said, “She . . . she killed my . . . Oh, God!” Her voice wasn’t too far off from Mary’s. It was possible that they were related.

“Just my luck, a ranged hero, huh?” said the villainess.

“Ah, Hell,” Saelum swore under his breath. He finally recognized the villainess, Needlepoint. “This one’s one of the worst; keep your distance.” He kept one eye on Needlepoint with her twisted grin growing as he spoke to the ice-clad heroine at his side.

“Oh, yes, one of the worst. What did they call me before trying to lock me up for good in the deepest, darkest depths of that island? A nine? If I cared I would have been a ten. Of course, if I cared about anything, I’d have torn holes through this city on my way out.”

“Are you always so talkative?”

“Why? Do I scare you, oh poor little hero?”

“Because I see at least one hole that needs closing.”

Saelum Blaster clenched and stretched his fingers. Needlepoint stood smiling, twitching a hand every so often. All they needed now was a tumbleweed to roll on by, or for a clock tower to strike Noon. If only such time still existed.

He leapt left and shot right from the hip. His concern was more in getting the frozen heroine somewhere safer than this shootout spot, than it was hitting the equally agile villainess.

A high-pitched screech rang through the air behind him, and with it there was the sound of tile and pavement crumbling at a high rate.

Somewhere else in the world, all of that solid material was dumping out of thin air. That was how Needlepoint’s power was supposed to work, Saelum once heard. As long as he and the heroine could keep their distance, none of their limbs could be torn away and sucked into the thin, long line shooting out of Needlepoint’s finger.

The thin line vanished from one finger, and appeared beyond another, taking anything it hit for a short, painful ride, even if the object could not feel it. Anyone who watched it could feel it, or imagine that they did.

Likewise, Saelum shot another blast at the villainess’s way, and missed. Both he and Needlepoint were moving around too much for him to hit her, at least while shooting behind him, without striking it lucky.

He set the ice-clad heroine down. “Can you run? I need you to get away. It’s too dangerous here. Go.”

He shot his beam towards the general area of the villainess, who was somewhere behind the crumbling walls of the building they were in. Saelum hoped it would keep Needlepoint from hitting him and the heroine while they were sitting here, but, more than that, he hoped to contain this threat before Steel Canyon looked indistinguishable from Faultline.

Saelum Blaster flew low, but fast, into the clearing where he first saw Needlepoint. He ducked down, hitting the ground with a rolling motion, when he barely caught a glimpse of Needlepoint pointing in his direction. She was to his side, he realized, and he leapt forward when the screeching sound behind him came down. The ground cracked and twisted and broke off into practically nothing in a line that cut across where his body just rolled.

Keep your distance. Shoot from the hip until there’s opportunity to aim properly. Hope she makes a mistake. Take her down. Easy. The lack of belief he had in winning this fight showed itself in the end of that. Protect everyone. Take her down. Get out before the city gets sucked into the unknown. Piece of cake.

“It took me small group of powerful, ranged heroes to take me down, years ago,” Needlepoint gloated. “They were lucky.”

She shot at him again, and he at her. As he dodged, Saelum witnessed his beam get sucked into the thin line before both dissipated in a crackling flash.

“Lady,” Saelum said, “try teaching a foreign language to a bunch of kids who don’t care, and get back to me when half of them earn As, if you want to talk about lucky.”

He hid behind a wall and waited. One sound from her, and he’d fire in her direction at full power. His was an ability to chisel the hardest of rocks and concrete, but he wasn’t sure he cared if one of his beams punched a hole through the woman’s body.

“I don’t need to,” her voice called back. Before Saelum could get a shot off, that wretched line appeared, piercing the wall just above him.

It was a good thing he was crouching down, preparing his shot, because the line missed him. He threw his body at the wall, and grabbed at whatever he could with either hand. His hands were slipping too easily. The line of every color at once screeched at him, pulled up at him. The hole it made in the wall was getting bigger. He needed to shoot at her fast, and make it good, or his head was going to end up in a swamp in Florida, or somewhere else at random. Just one shot. If only he could focus or make it without losing his head in the process.

So much of what she learned in life contradicted this moment at every possible angle, Diamond Grace thought. So many teachings conflicted one another and gave her no answer.

It was time instead to trust in her brother . . . her sister’s work, and everything Mary stood for. Heroes risked their lives and beliefs almost every day here in Paragon. That was why it fought so well, so hard, and so long against the crimes that ruled other places like Empire City.

There was no armor that could shield her from what she needed to do. Teachings be damned, there was only one answer. Amidst the noise of battle, Diamond Grace sneaked behind the woman who killed her lover, hoping the bitch wouldn’t look her way.

Once she was close enough—and Diamond Grace was ready to break down crying because of the fear and anguish that wreaked her—she pounced onto the villainess’s back and grabbed her wrists.

She followed advice from her sister, and grew a new suit of ice armor. This time, encasing the villainess as well. The villainess screamed while Diamond Grace held her arms out at their sides.

While the ice grew thicker around them and the villainess swore at her, Diamond Grace said, “Eye for an eye makes the world go blind, but you? No more!”

Diamond Grace squeezed the other woman’s wrists with her enhanced strength. The sensation of bones breaking did not escape her, nor did the villainess’s screams before the ice covered her mouth as well.

She heaved and stepped back away, breaking off from the majority of the new suit of ice armor. Diamond Grace wanted to do so much more, so much worse, but this was enough. It had to be. The other woman collapsed backward onto the ground, and the pity Diamond Grace should have felt for her was replaced still with only the vilest of feelings.

There was a sound of shuffling in the near distance. Diamond Grace gasped, and she saw the hero catching his breath and looking at her.

“I probably went too far, didn’t I?” Diamond Grace asked.

“No, you didn’t,” the hero said.

“So that’s it? Are we doing away with the no kill rule?”

“No, we’re not. Is she alive? Then leave her. We have people to save. I know you probably need time,” he nodded to her fallen lover, “but we don’t have long. I don’t think Adamast will be too happy with me if I let a hero get swallowed into whatever it is Mortar has planned, either, so say a few words if you need to. We need to get going in a few minutes.”

“You know my sister pretty well.”

“Sister?”

Of course there was a group of these things here. Adamast and her small team met with a bunch of the masked foot soldiers on their way to their destination. She nodded to the others to move onward while she dealt with these things.

She struck a combat stance, and Adamast used her ice armor to skate and intercept the one foot soldier that tried to attack Dock and Bucht as they passed.

“Don’t get greedy,” she said. “I’ve got plenty of kickass for the lot of you.”