Art had all of Haley’s power plus Magnus’ power-up, but he was carrying Jody. Haley didn’t have anything extra beyond her costume and now an implant.

Art had landed first and was already beginning to run across the lawn toward the street—probably trying to get far enough from the tower that the Nine could teleport him out.

Using my implant’s connection to Haley’s suit, I fired off a series of bots. I’d put a handful into other people’s armor, thinking that it would be better to have a few available for clutch moments.

A boombot shot past Art and exploded far enough ahead that Jody and he wouldn’t be caught in the blast, but close enough to scare.

It worked. Art jumped sideways, still carrying Jody, but landing on his feet. I’d also released two goobots. They twisted and changed direction when Art jumped, exploding into threads of goo as they closed with him.

Despite carrying Jody, Art had the reaction speed to jump sideways to avoid the first one. The second adjusted, turned, and exploded as he landed.

I’d have expected him to end up surrounded by goo, but he dove, still carrying Jody and rolling under the blast even though it meant rolling over Jody a few times to do it.

They weren’t slow rolls either. Art might have Marcus’ stony skin, but Jody was lucky to be in an armored costume.

They came out on the other side of the goo cloud, and Art rolled to his feet, still carrying Jody. Haley had been running the whole time, though, throwing up clods of grass.

I hadn’t been standing in the tower watching. The moment the bots fired off, I’d leaped out of the tower with the rockets pushing me toward the fight.

Haley reached him first, slashing at his arm with open claws. Still powered up, Art leaned backward, escaping the slash by less than an inch, unable to back away because the grass behind him was now covered with gooey threads.

Around that point, I swept in, aiming my fist at his head without bothering to land. He ducked, and I shot past and flipped over in the air, aiming myself at him again, but this time from behind.

I’d passed him by then, making it to the street thanks to my inertial dampers being down along with the anti-gravity and everything else.

Haley, though, hadn’t stopped attacking, and she wasn’t alone. Rachel was floating down from the tower, halfway to invisible, clearly hoping to intimidate because she probably couldn’t catch Art.

It must have worked on some level because as Rachel pointed her pistol at Art from above, Haley punched Art in the stomach. Bending and balancing to avoid being thrown into the mass of threads around him, he dropped Jody into a mass of gray, gooey strands.

Staring down at Jody, he shouted a few words, but took another punch from Haley. This one knocked him backward, sliding his back leg into Jody and with him, gray goo.

He shouted something else.

Free of Jody’s body, he had both hands free to counterattack Haley and started a series of slashing attacks. Haley, who wasn’t stuck in goo, backed up, dodging the first shot, but Art leaned forward with the second, sticking his claws through her armor into her ribs.

She twisted away, raking her claws across his face hard enough that despite his skin she drew blood. Maybe he would have slashed her again, but that’s the point where I made it back to the fight and punched him in the kidney.

His armored skin took most of it, but there was enough force behind the punch for him to swing out like a tetherball. Held in place by the goo, he swung around, landing facedown in the goo next to Jody.

As I passed over him again, Rachel fired a goobot from her gun, which hit Art and exploded into more strands that joined up with the mass on the ground.

I flipped over again, this time landing as close to Haley as possible. While the goo shouldn’t stick to the Rocket suit, the suit’s self-repairing ability helped with that.

Walking across the grass, I asked, “Are you okay?”

Haley glanced back at me, “It hurts, but it didn’t make it that far in. I’ll be fine by tomorrow. Are you okay?”

She gestured toward the sword and spoke through her implant, “Are you getting tired?”

“I’m fine,” I thought back. “It doesn’t seem to draw much from me right now.”

Rachel floated past both of us and stuck her hand into Art’s back, twisting it and yanking out a golden skeleton of pulsing energy that burst into sparks and then disappeared when the last bit of it had been pulled away.

I needed to ask her about this, but outside wasn’t the right place. People had already begun gathering around the edges of the block, their phones pointed in our direction. Besides, I didn’t need to ask her to guess that it was a Cosmic Ghost skill.

Haley turned to look up at the tower. “We’re going to have to decide whether we think the police can handle them. If Magnus powers them up again, I don’t think the police can keep them in custody.”

I nodded, “Not to mention that the Nine will order them released as soon as they can activate their best placed asset.”

She frowned. “I wonder if the Midwest Defenders have anything?”

As she spoke, a purple glow appeared around Art and Jody. “Crap,” I said, “Victor’s back with Magnus.”

Jody and Art disappeared in a flash of purple sparks. From up in the tower, I heard Sydney shout. I assumed that meant that all of Magnus’ people up there had disappeared as well.