Justin’s night had already been going downhill even before he ran into that annoying girl and her far more rational AI drone.

  It should have been simple. Infiltrate the Destiny Corporation manufacturing plant, discover if the source of the Anomaly was in there, and get out, ideally without being seen or noticed. Even more ideally, Justin hoped to actually capture an Anomaly and bring it back to his dad to study.

  Things had started off well enough. With aid from his personal AI, Valerie, Justin had managed to infiltrate the plant without being spotted by guards or alerted by security systems. He’d even made it a fair bit of the way into the building, not quite finding the proof he needed but getting close.

  Unfortunately, Justin then had the bad luck of running into one of those very Anomalies, and a particularly angry one at that. He supposed that he should have been happy to find an Anomaly here, as it provided evidence that the Destiny Corporation was, in fact, connected to the Anomalies in some way.

  But it was hard to feel happy about having to come face to face with merciless monsters that didn’t even appear to belong in this reality, who very presence seemed to warp the fabric of the universe itself.

  And now I have a civilian to protect, too, thought Justin as he cracked his knuckles and his neck, which was stiff from the crash. How could tonight get any harder?

  The only good thing about tonight was that the Red Gate—which had flight, the ability to generate red electricity from one’s body, and super strength and durability—had worked wonders. If Justin hadn’t been wearing the Gate System on this mission, he probably would have been killed when the bat-like Anomaly knocked him out of the building and definitely would have died when he crashed onto the ground outside the plant’s fence.

  As it was, Justin felt bruised and tired, but he didn’t feel any broken bones or major injuries.

  Of course, if Justin didn’t have the Gate System at all, then he wouldn’t have even come here. He wasn’t a superhero. Not really.

  Even if that was what he’d told Alanna.

  A cool female voice in his right ear said, “Body scans are complete. No major injuries or fractures have been identified.”

  “Thanks, Val,” Justin said under his breath as he cracked his neck. “How much time do I have before the Red Gate runs out of power?”

  “Approximately fifteen minutes, depending on power usage,” said Valerie, the AI powering his costume, said. “Fourteen if you use the Red Gate’s red electricity abilities.”

  Justin scowled. Fifteen minutes didn’t seem like nearly enough time to take out the Anomaly and get home before his dad found out that Justin had decided to, ah, ‘borrow’ the Gate System without asking.

  And Justin wasn’t sure what was scarier: The murderous, bat-like Anomaly that didn’t even know the meaning of the word ‘mercy’ or his dad when Justin did something that he definitely wasn’t allowed to do.

  Unless I can get home before Dad does, it looks like I’ll be dying tonight either way, thought Justin. The only question is, would Dad or the Anomaly be more merciful in their killing?

  “Look, viewers!” said the teenage girl, her excited voice breaking through Justin’s thoughts. She pointed at the bat-like Anomaly. “It’s a real Anomaly at the Destiny Corporation manufacturing plant! Isn’t that the scariest thing you’ve ever seen?”

  Justin glared at the girl. “Wait, are you streaming this? How many viewers do you have now?”

  The girl gave Justin a rather unimpressed look, as if he was an annoying little kid asking her a bunch of dumb questions. “Relax, Mr. Superhero. It’s just twenty—”

  “Thousand,” the AI drone, who Justin recalled hearing the girl refer to as Nancy, said. “Twenty-thousand people are currently watching the stream, Miss Lane.”

  “Yeah,” said the girl, whose name was apparently Miss Lane, in a smug tone. “Just twenty-thousand—wait, Nancy, what the f—”

  Miss Lane’s expletive was interrupted by an ear-piercing screech from the Anomaly. The screech forced Miss Lane to slap her hands over her ears and even made Justin cringe, though the earcoms in both of his ears, which were equipped with sound-dampeners, made it hurt his ears a whole lot less.

  The Anomaly, seemingly bored of their squabbling, rushed toward them, flapping its massive wings rapidly, growling like a beast.

  Justin shot Miss Lane a warning look. “Lady, you need to stop streaming to your twenty or twenty-thousand viewers and get the heck out of here. Now!”

  “No, Nancy, don’t listen to him!” said Miss Lane urgently. She was now looking at her phone, because of course she was. “Keep streaming! Keep those numbers going up, up, up—”

  Justin took off without looking at her again. He didn’t have time to take care of someone who clearly had no sense of self-preservation.

  He just flew, without any visible means of propulsion, into the air straight toward the Anomaly, which was still heading directly toward them. In the back of his mind, Justin was still amazed by how the Red Gate gave him the power to fly like this.

  If he hadn’t been in a battle for his life, Justin might have even taken a moment to relax and enjoy the sensation of the cold winter air on his exposed chin, the sensation of his body moving through the air as naturally as a fish through water.

  But right now, Justin had an Anomaly to take care of.

  Furrowing his brow Justin charged red electricity through his fist, which sparked and crackled like electricity from a live wire, and threw his fist directly at the Anomaly’s mouth—

  Crunch.

  Justin’s electric fist connected and sent the Anomaly flying off to the side uncontrollably. The Anomaly crashed through the fencing surrounding the manufacturing plant, smashing it to pieces underneath its weight. The Anomaly rolled onto its back, growling and gasping, but it was, frustratingly enough, still alive.

  Justin fully intended to fix that problem.

  “Justin,” said Val, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking, “wasn’t the original plan to capture an Anomaly alive so your father could study it later?”

  Justin grimaced. Val was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. “Yeah, but this thing is starting to piss me off. And if it decides to go after that girl streamer, then I’ll have to kill it.”

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  Justin didn’t think he was wrong. That girl streamer, Miss Lane, was still where he’d left her. Her AI drone’s camera was focused mostly on him now, which was certainly a problem because this whole mission was supposed to be a secret.

  Now the whole world is going to know about me, thought Justin. And Dad will, too, once he sees the chatter on social media.

  But that was a problem for later. A growl below reminded Justin of a much more pertinent problem:

  The Anomaly.

  It had nearly recovered from its crash and was back on its feet already. Its body appeared to have stabilized, too, as it was no longer constantly shifting and glitching. That wasn’t good. A stable Anomaly was a strong Anomaly and the last thing Justin needed was for this already powerful Anomaly, which Val had rated as a Level Two on the Anomaly Threat Evaluation Scale, to become even more powerful.

  Maybe I won’t be able to kill it after all, thought Justin, furrowing his brow.

  Aloud, Justin said, “All right, Val, which Gate has the best powers for capturing an enemy with the least likelihood of killing it?”

  “The Blue Gate,” said Val promptly. “With its access to a vast array of ice-related powers, it should have a power you can use to capture the Anomaly without lethally injuring it.”

  Justin nodded. “Blue Gate. Gotcha. What will do to my power supply?”

  “Surprisingly little,” replied Val. “It might take another thirty seconds off your Super Energy supply, but the Blue Gate is actually more energy efficient than the Red Gate by about thirty percent. It is slightly weaker, however, so be careful when fighting an enemy directly while using it.”

  That didn’t sound like a problem to Justin. He reached down toward his belt to change the dial to the Blue Gate, only to hear a scream below. He whipped his head in the direction of the high-pitched scream and cursed.

  What looked like another Anomaly—where had that one come from?—was cornering Miss Lane and her drone against the remainder of the fence. This Anomaly resembled a two-headed snake, with one of its heads looking like a horned snake, while the other resembled a purple wolf. Justin hadn’t even sensed that Anomaly.

  That was bad because Justin was usually good at sensing them before they appeared. It was his ‘gift,’ so to speak, and one of the reasons he’d made it his mission to solve the Anomaly problem that no one else seemed capable of solving.

  Justin didn’t have time to ask Val to analyze this particular Anomaly. He turned and flew toward the snake Anomaly, pushing himself to fly faster than ever.

  Miss Lane was screaming and kicking wildly at the Anomaly, but none of her efforts to fight off the Anomaly seemed to do anything to stop it. Nancy floated uselessly beside her, recording the encounter but clearly lacking the means to fight back or protect her owner. Both of its heads hissed and growled as the Anomaly drew closer and closer to Miss Lane, acidic spit leaking out of the corners of its mouth.

  Perhaps that was why it didn't notice Justin until he slammed both of his fists down on each of its heads. Its heads crashed into the pavement with a couple of loud cracks as Justin landed on its body, pinning its necks to the ground with his feet.

  Justin shot Miss Lane another warning glare. “Miss, what did I tell you about leaving the area? This place is way too dangerous for mere civilians like you.”

  Justin was fully aware that Miss Lane was probably no older than he was, but because he needed to keep his identity a secret, he decided to play up the superhero angle and pretend like he was a lot older than her. It helped that he felt like his costume made him look older than he was, too.

  To her credit, Miss Lane did look very frightened. Her eyes were on the Anomaly under Justin's feet as if she could not believe she had come this close to death.

  That wasn't surprising; most people never got this close to an Anomaly without getting killed or seriously injured. Justin was actually surprised that she didn't seem as scared as she should have been. Either she didn't quite comprehend just how dangerous the situation was, or she was a lot braver than he thought.

  But then Miss Lane shook her head and looked at Justin again defiantly. “No way, Mr. Superhero! My viewers—the people of New Gold City—deserve to know the truth about the Anomalies, and I am going to do my darnedest to give it to them, no matter what. You'll just have to deal with that.”

  Justin had to admit that, despite his frustrations with the girl, she did look rather cute when she glared at him and defiantly declared that she wanted the truth behind the Anomalies as well. It made him think of her a little better, as he had thought that she was just another attention-seeking streamer looking to gain clout on the Internet by doing stupid stuff.

  But Justin's thoughts were interrupted by the loud flapping of wings behind him, and he looked over his shoulder in time to see the first Anomaly—the one that resembled a bat—hurtling toward him with its claws outstretched. Justin immediately whirled around and caught its claws, but then, with one flap of its wings, the bat-like Anomaly flew into the air with Justin still hanging on tightly to its feet.

  Crying out in surprise, Justin immediately let go of the Anomaly, only for it to slash at his chest with its claws. One of its claws slashed through his chest and ripped through the spandex covering it, digging into the flesh underneath and making his chest bleed. Justin cried out again as the chest wound opened up, spilling blood all over his costume.

  But the Level Two Anomaly wasn't done yet. It opened its mouth and unleashed a sonic scream on Justin, which smashed into his body and sent him flying toward the ground again. He smashed into the pavement harder than the last time, lying on his back, his head spinning from the impact of the crash.

  Nonetheless, Justin could hear Val's voice in his right ear saying, “Analysis of your body complete. The chest wound opened by the Level Two Anomaly is the only major injury that my systems detect. To expedite the healing process, I recommend switching to the White Gate, which has a healing factor that should heal your chest wound in a reasonable time frame.”

  Justin groaned. He felt his chest, which was sticky and slick with his own blood, and grimaced. “Thanks, Val, but I can't worry about myself right now. The streamer girl—she is still in—”

  Justin was interrupted yet again by another shriek from above, and he looked up to see the Level Two Anomaly hurtling toward him again. He heard another growl nearby and looked to the right to see that the two-headed snake Anomaly he had defeated already was also slithering toward him, both of its heads snapping and snarling at him. Val instantly identified that Anomaly as a Level One Anomaly, but that didn't make the situation any better.

  Justin tried to rise to his feet, but between his chest wound and the beating he had already taken from the Level Two Anomaly, he could barely stand on his own two feet. He realized that he was going to need to switch Gates to deal with both of the Anomalies, but he would have to do it fast before they got upon him.

  Then Justin heard footsteps rushing toward him, and that girl, Miss Lane, appeared between him and the Level Two Anomaly. She held her arms out to either side, staring down the oncoming Level Two Anomaly with a mixture of fear and determination in her body language. She was shaking, but it clearly had nothing to do with the cold.

  Justin stared at her back in disbelief. “What are you doing? You are going to get yourself killed!”

  Miss Lane looked over her shoulder at Justin defiantly. “You saved me, so I am going to save you. Now do something, Mr. Superhero! Or are you just going to sit there like a little kid and pout?”

  Justin didn't know if he should be infuriated by the girl for putting herself in danger for no good reason, or if he should admire her for her bravery despite the fact that she clearly had no powers or fighting skills at all herself.

  Nonetheless, Justin reached down and switched the dial on his belt to the Blue Gate.

  Justin's utility belt glowed blue like ice, and Justin stood up. As he rose to his feet, the belt split in two. One half went down to his legs, while the other half moved up over the upper half of his body, including his torso, arms, and head. The Super Energy generated by the Gate System crackled blue along Justin's body. It didn’t feel hot like when he used the Red Gate, but rather ice-cold.

  A second later, both halves of his utility belt connected again at his waist, but Justin wasn't in his red-and-black costume anymore. Instead, he was in a blue-and-white costume with a snowflake design on the chest. He felt cold power rushing through his body that was remarkably different from the electrical energy that the Red Gate had given him. The cold seemed to dampen the pain from his chest wound, too, although it didn't actually heal it.

  That was fine by Justin. He would get it looked at later.

  A gasp from Miss Lane brought Justin back to reality, and he saw her staring at him with big eyes. “Whoa! Did your costume just change color? And what's with the snowflake design?”

  Justin didn't have time to answer her questions because both of the Anomalies were nearly upon them now. The Level Two Anomaly was just half a yard ahead of them, while the Level One Anomaly was even closer.

  But time seemed to slow around Justin as his body filled with the Super Energy to activate the powers of the Blue Gate. And he knew exactly what to do.

  Shoving Miss Lane behind him, Justin held out his hands toward the two Anomalies and caught them by their necks, stopping them in their tracks. He even managed to grab the twin necks of the two-headed snake, making both of the Anomalies cry out in surprise.

  Then Justin glared at the Anomalies and said:

  “Freeze.”