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“Practice,” Pyro Storm said, and Nick didnotswoon.
He looked back over Pyro Storm’s shoulder to see Ice and Smoke chasing after them, ignoring the people on the street. Horns honked as Pyro Storm deftly weaved between stopped cars, riding the rail of fire. Faces pressed against windows as they flew by, quick flashes of wide eyes and open mouths.
They had half a block’s distance on Smoke and Ice when a taxicab’s door flew open right in front of them. “Oh shit,” Pyro Storm had time to breathe, but it was already too late. Pyro Storm spun around in an apparent attempt to lessen the impact, but it did little as they crashed into the door. The breath was knocked from Nick’s chest as Pyro Storm grunted painfully, the door snapping off in a metallic shriek, the cab spinning and colliding with another car. The cab driver managed to pull his legs back in at the last second, and his sneakers were the last thing Nick saw before he was flying.
He hit the ground hard, rolling until he crashed into a parked delivery truck. He blinked slowly, his body coming back online and cataloguing the scrapes on his knees and arms. Nothing seemed broken or dislocated, and he groaned as he lifted his head in a daze.
Pyro Storm was a few feet away, already climbing to his feet. He looked toward Nick, shouting something that Nick couldn’t hear above the thick buzzing in his ears. Waving him off, Nick pushed himself up, grimacing at the bits of road embedded in his skin. His hood managed to stay up on his head, but his jeans were torn, and his Chucks were scuffed beyond recognition. All in all, Nick wasn’t having the bestHoly Crap, I’m An Extraordinary!day.
Fire burst near him, and he looked up in time to see Ice descending on Pyro Storm, glittering spikes hitting a wall of flame, causing them to melt instantly. Pyro Stormpushedthe fire toward Ice, who backflipped off the top of a car, the fire slicing the air underneath him. He landed on the ground, eyes narrowed as people screamed around them but made no move to leave, their phones up and recording.
God, people could be so damn stupid. Why weren’t theyrunning? Nick rushed toward the closest crowd, waving his hands above his head, shouting at them to get back. He was almost to the sidewalk when a black cloud bloomed in front of him, and Smoke stepped out of its center. Nick skidded to a stop.
“You,” Smoke said. “I don’t like you.”
“Feeling’s mutual,” Nick snapped, sounding braver than he felt. He froze when Smoke brought her right arm up against her chest before snapping it back down to her side. A thin column of black coiled from her hand, almost like a whip, the end curling on the ground at her feet.
“Well, shit,” Nick said weakly.
“Indeed,” Smoke said, and then she snapped the whip directly at Nick’s head.
He yelped and ducked, hearing the whip carving the air, missing the top of his head by inches. Nick panted as he stood upright. “Is that all you’ve got? Who do you think you’re messing with? Goddamn amateurs. You don’t come intoourcity and—”
Smoke swung the whip above her head before lashing out again. This time, Nick wasn’t quick enough. The whip struck him in the chest, knocking him back against a parked car. The whip slithered around him before he could recover, pinning his arms at his sides.He struggled to break free, but it was too strong. It was like shadows. Like Owen. Like Nick was on a bridge, his father screaming from below in terror, Shadow Star cackling as he lifted large sections of Nick’s fanfiction wholesale.
Nick bellowed as the smoke band tightened around his chest, his ribs creaking. He was barely able to turn his head toward Pyro Storm, only to see Ice standing with a terrified man in his grasp, Pyro Storm’s cape billowing as he pulled himself to his full height.
And Nick knew, then, what this would mean. He found himself in a position Seth Gray had nightmares about. A choice. Pyro Storm had to make a choice about who to save.
“Please,” the man pleaded, struggling against Ice’s grip around him. “Help me.”
Pyro Storm looked back at Nick, Smoke’s cloud making it hard for Nick to breathe.
“No,” Nick gasped. “Save him. Save him, you hear me? Don’t worry about—” He gagged as the pressure in his chest increased tenfold.
Pyro Storm made his decision. He came for Nick, leaving the man trapped in Ice’s hold.
Smoke didn’t see him coming. In a burst of fire, Pyro Storm charged, shoulder dropped low as he collided with Smoke, knocking her down. Before she hit the ground, her body evaporated into a black cloud, and when the smoke cleared, she was gone.
Nick stumbled forward, falling to his knees against the sidewalk.
“Nicky. Nicky!” Pyro Storm was there, crouching next to Nick, helping him to his feet. “Are you all right?”
But Nick never got the chance to answer. The man in Ice’s grasp tried to break free, elbowing Ice in the stomach. Ice repaid him in kind by backhanding him across the face. The man fell to the ground and landed on his arm, which broke with an audiblesnap. Ice raised his hand toward Pyro Storm and Nick. But instead of blasting them with ice, he wiggled his fingers in a sick approximation of a wave. Then he turned and ran, people scattering in fear as he reached the sidewalk and disappeared down an alley.
Others rushed forward toward the injured man, helping him to his feet, his broken arm clutched against his chest.
Sirens in the distance, though already far too late.
Nick grabbed Pyro Storm’s hand. “We have to get out of here. We gotta gonow.”
Pyro Storm didn’t move.
“Seth.”
Pyro Storm turned his head. Nick couldn’t see his eyes, but his bottom lip was trembling. “We’ll figure it out,” Nick muttered. “Come on. We need to leave.”
And so they went, leaving the destruction in the streets behind them.
