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“Jasmine!” Miles roared.
Nick lifted his head in time to see a column of black smoke hurtling toward them. He didn’t have time to react when Jazz shoved them both with surprising strength, causing him and Gibby tostumble back, Gibby grunting as the smoke sliced through the air where they’d just stood, Jazz on the other side, a ferocious snarl on her lips. Before Nick could recover, the smoke snapped back and swung against his chest, knocking him off his feet. He slammed into a wall, the back of his head causing the plaster to crack. He gasped, dazed, lights flashing before his eyes. The smoke spread to his arms and legs, lifting him up off the floor, holding him in place. He tried to push against it, but it was too heavy.
Smoke appeared in front of him, a thin smile on her face. She wasn’t corporeal, more smoke than human, and she collapsed and re-formed in front of him until her face was inches from Nick’s own.
“Hello,” she whispered. “You’re so much stronger than he expects. Good. He will need you. And you will let him have you. But first—you hurt my brother. And now I will hurt you.”
Nick tensed as he waited for the smoke to tighten around him, to crush his bones, but the moment never came.
Smoke laughed at the expression on his face. “Not you.” She spun slowly, raising her head upward. “Him.”
Dad cried out as the smoke constricted around him. His head rocked back, the cords in his neck sticking out. His eyes were bulging, and Nick screamed.
Then a voice rang out, fierce and strong. “Bitch, I’m trying toworkhere, and you think you can come in and stop me from getting paid? You’re in for the shock of your whole damnlife. And yes, that’s a catchphrase, so kiss my fantastic ass.”
Smoke’s entire body began to seize as bright blue electricity slammed into her, arcing over her arms and legs and chest. The smoke holding Nick collapsed, causing him to slide to the floor. He landed on his feet, looking up to see the smoke holding Dad beginning to dissipate. Nick took off at a run, tearing toward his father, passing by Mateo, the only thing hiding his identity being the mask around his eyes. He snarled as electricity snapped around Smoke, her limbs extended, fingers flexed and trembling.
The smoke holding Dad lessened even more, and he fell a few feet before stopping, still far above the ground. If he fell all theway down, at the very least he’d be seriously hurt, but if he landed wrong, he could die.
He passed Pyro Storm, the heat from his fire blowing over Nick’s skin. Pyro Storm was locked in battle with Ice, the villain moving quickly, blocking the fireballs with walls of white. Nick heard Pyro Storm shout his name, but he ignored it, lost in a wave of panic bowling over him as more of the smoke holding Dad disappeared, causing him to plummet toward the ground.
“No!” Nick shouted, and the pressure in his head increased to the point where he thought it was about to explode. Hepushedand felt the spark grow as bright as the sun. He raised his hands, hoping against hope that his powers wouldn’t fail him, that he’d be the hero his father needed.
Except he never made it.
A column of ice exploded from the ground. He couldn’t stop in time and skidded into it, the impact jarring, pain igniting in his shoulder. The spark dimmed, and he cried out in horror as the last of the smoke disappeared.
Dad fell. He didn’t make a sound.
But Trey and Miles and Bob did, with Trey shouting, “I’ve got him!”; Miles bellowing, “You better not be as heavy as you look!”; and Bob muttering, “I’m too old for this shit.” They appeared underneath Dad and he landed on top of them, causing them all to hit the floor. Bob pushed himself onto his hands and knees as Ice sent a wave of hundreds of tiny spikes toward Pyro Storm, causing him to flip away to avoid being impaled. Ice turned toward the fallen men, hovering above them. Rebecca Firestone stood in a corner, hunched low over her camera, pointing it toward the dazed men.
“Foolish,” Ice said mildly. “And now you will suffer because of it.”
He raised his hands.
His fingers trembled.
“You’ll have to go through us first,” a voice said, and then Martha appeared, hands on her hips. Next to her stood Aysha and Joanna, both holding what looked like butter knives from the tables. In front of them were Gibby and Jazz, Gibby’s hands curled into fists, Jazzbarefoot, her high heels in her hands, wielding them like weapons. All in all, not the best-outfitted group, but if Nick was facing them, he’d be terrified. If looks could kill, Ice would already be straight-up murdered.
But since he apparently didn’t know who he was dealing with, he said, “You are nothing. I will go through you. Right throughallof—”
A high heel bounced off his forehead with an audiblethunk, the skin splitting, blood dribbling down to the bridge of his nose. He reached up and touched his face, his hand coming away wet with a red smear.
Jazz squinted up at him. “Are you serious? No wonder the patriarchy failed. You always underestimate what women are capable of. Sucks to be you.” She raised her arm, the other shoe gripped tight in her hand. Ice reared back. Nick didn’t blame him; he’d never seen Jazz look so hardcore before.
But it was all an act, the distraction they needed. Ice, his attention so focused on the group of women and the men they shielded, didn’t see Pyro Storm rising behind him. Fire bloomed around Pyro Storm, the air crackling. Raising his hands, Pyro Storm gathered the fire in a swirling ball before he hurled it at Ice. At the last second, Ice turned his head, eyes widening.
Nick was about to throw his hands up in victory when Icecaughtthe fireball. The flames froze in a blue sheen of frozen particles between his hands.
“Oh shit,” Pyro Storm breathed, and then Ice hurled the ballbackat him. Pyro Storm managed to dodge just in time, the ball exploding on the ground, ice sliding along the floor. A piece bounced against Nick’s shoe, and he looked down at it as the other people still trapped in the cafeteria screamed. He glanced toward the closest group, stunned to see Rebecca Firestone standing in front of them. For a moment, he thought he’d gotten her all wrong and that she was protecting them. But then he saw her pointing the camera in their faces, going for extreme close-ups of their fear, and Nick knew—even now, as he was fighting literal villains—she was the most terrible human being in existence.
A cry came from behind him. He whirled around to see a column of smoke slamming into Mateo, an arc of electricity shooting up toward the ceiling, striking the lights. The bulbs shattered, glass and sparks raining down everywhere. A section of the ceiling holding up prom banners—thin metal struts that crisscrossed—broke off. Nick covered his head with his hands and bent over, trying to make himself as small as possible. He closed his eyes, sure he was about to be crushed, and he felt his mindtwist, the sensation filled with a mix of pain and pleasure at the same time, and he loved it, he loved the way it made him feel, the way it warmed him from the inside out, the way it—
He opened one eye.
He wasn’t dead.
He opened the other and looked up.
