Amnesia Angel’s wings faded away, replaced by nothing—no glowing wings, no feathered wings, just holes for wings in the back of their costume where the wings had emerged.

The holes inadvertently answered another question I’d had, revealing a bit of bra strap. That didn’t necessarily reveal the person’s internal sense of their gender, but statistically speaking, it would most of the time.

Anyway, I didn’t have time to ask pronouns at that moment because she (?) was more than 50 feet in the air, powerless, and either dead or unconscious.

Hoping her state wasn’t fake unconsciousness, I reached out, diving to grab her leg, missing the first time, and succeeding the second.

Grabbing one limb didn’t make for a graceful save. Her other leg flopped downward, dangling like her arms as she swung around.

Despite a vague worry that this might appear on YouTube under a title like, “Ten Worst Superhero Saves,” it still went better than finding out she was awake, having her powers (and sword) reactivate, and stabbing me in the air.

I turned, aiming myself at the tower, wondering what I’d missed when concentrating on my fight.

It turned out to be a lot, and most of it was bad. My implant flashed information from spots in my HUD that I hadn’t actively been watching.

Izzy had been fighting Power Burst. Up to the power-up, the fight had been even. After that, their fight had gone from the two of them punching each other backwards in the air or smashing each other into the ground to a fight where Izzy ducked and weaved, throwing blows that sometimes missed. When they didn’t, Power Burst still flew backward, but not for long. He shot back into the melee with no hesitation or noticeable injury.

As for Izzy, she was still fast, still strong, and still fighting, but even if it was no more than a microsecond’s hesitation, she hesitated. I couldn’t put into words how I knew, but she was tired or hurt or both.

In the moment the implant caught me up, Power Burst caught her legs as he flew below her, changed direction, flying upward, flipping, and throwing her into the ground—which exploded the way it might have if he’d thrown a bomb.

Then he dived after her to finish the job.

It would have been obvious where to go next, except that updates to the other fights came all at once.

Not far from where Izzy hit, Jaclyn fought Artemis. From what my implant showed me, they’d been fighting on the ground ever since the power-up. Artemis had foregone her normal style of fighting—teleport away and fire arrows—for the direct approach.

She and Jaclyn traded blows that moved faster than the speed of sound, creating audible sonic booms with each blow, miss, or hit.

Jaclyn fought smart, using jumps to move ten or twenty feet away and charge in from another angle—except that’s when Artemis would teleport, landing behind Jaclyn, directly in front, or far above and loosing an arrow at her.

Jaclyn had learned after the second time that it wasn’t worth moving more than a few feet at once. More than that gave Artemis enough time to teleport. From my implant’s calculations, Jaclyn moved faster, but not by much, and Jaclyn’s blows appeared to be absorbed by the golden glow around Artemis which rippled with each hit.

Though I couldn’t put my finger on why, I had more confidence that Jaclyn was still in better shape than Izzy. If I managed to change the terms of either Jaclyn’s or Izzy’s fights, we’d all be free to help everyone in the tower.

It seemed like the best choice except…

In the time I’d fought Amnesia Angel, Scream Eagle had pushed himself through Camille’s gravity control by sheer force of will, the power-up having enhanced whatever powers he had. None of the superhero/villain databases that I read had listed him as having any powers at all. Judging from how he’d taken control of some of Sean’s metal balls along with the shattered remains of others, I guessed his latent or hard-to-notice abilities were electromagnetic.

If the guy could control electronics, an Artificer power-up might lead him to the next step in his powers’ evolution—Pokémon style.

Unfortunately, the next step also led him to the top of the tower, where he’d used his new powers to fight Sean, Vaughn, and Camille, helped by Art and Zola, who’d made it up the tower themselves and were fighting hand to hand.

I could hear shouted orders from Haley over the comm, and see flashes of lightning from inside the tower’s conference room. I felt a pulse of fear from Daniel, but didn’t have time to figure out what he was afraid of.

I needed to help everyone all at once.

Figuring out what I’d missed took less than a second or two. I didn’t waste the time, hurtling forward toward Jaclyn and Artemis as they fought on the ground.

If I could change that fight, Jaclyn could help Izzy, and I could help everyone in the tower.