Grace had time to register the phrase ‘I wish’ before two hundred odd pounds of fireman knocked her sprawling behind the nearest cover, the remains of a corner newsstand. By the time she recovered, pushed his shivering body off of her, and peeked over the thin plywood wall, the world already bent and twisted in on itself, centered on a white enamel crown hovering over Widget’s head. Widget stood on tiptoe below it, arms flung back to let her lab coat slide to the ground.

  The moment the coat fluttered free, the crown unfolded, each piece slapping into place against Widget’s unitard. Within a second thin strips of white enamel bracketed each of her limbs, with slightly thicker strips across her torso connecting them all. A set of thinner enamel lines extended outward from each of the strips, leaving Widget encased in a form fitting grid of white. Just before she settled back to the ground, a thin monocle extended down from the crown to bracket her left eye.

  A tiny mutter sounded from the helmet, too quiet for Grace to make out the words. Widget replied with “You come with weapons, too? Neat!” A long, thin carbine shape folded out from one arm, only slipping free when Widget grabbed it with her other hand. “Midnight! Look! I got a new gun!”

  A thin whistling filled the air. A few moments later, Jack screamed “Incoming!” and dove for cover. The world dissolved into a chaotic hurricane of fire.

  ***

  “This is Walker calling Jack Hammer. Jack Hammer, do you read? Jack Hammer, what is your condition? Over.” For the third time in as many minutes, Walker repeated his call. A surface to air missile arrowed up from one of the rooftops below, and without thinking he slid to the side to dodge it. Without a strong heat signature or any large metallic objects to track, it kept going. Part of John worried about where it would eventually land, but most of him focused on the inferno below.

  The glare from the incendiary mortar rounds still lit the night from below, turning the former city streets into a horrifying hellscape. Again, he brought his wings in, dropping to get a closer look, and once more the updraft pushed him away. He contemplated just furling them entirely and seeing if he could survive a landing from a few hundred feet, but even if he could, nothing said he would survive the firestorm on the ground.

  “Mr. Walker? Are you there?”

  The childlike tone coming over the radio told him who had finally responded to his call. Forcing himself to ignore years of training, he softened his normally crisp tones. “I’m here, Widget. Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay, and Gr… Frostfire is okay, and Midnight is really mad and a little woozy and kinda naked again, but Jack and Angel and Siren are burned. Flex is crisp around the edges and littler, but she says she’s okay. I don’t know where Axeman…” She petered off with a sob.

  “I understand. Where are you?”

  “We’re all in a subway station. Mr. Walker?”

  “Yes, Widget?”

  “What should we do?”

  Walker shook his head. While he was new to the team, the chain of command was clear. “Can you put Midnight on the radio?”

  “Uh… sure. Midnight?”

  “What do you want?” Even through the radio, the brunette’s sultry contralto reached out and grabbed Walker’s attention.

  “Could you…?” Static rustled through the connection.

  “Midnight here. Who is this?”

  “This is Walker. I’ve identified the launchers that hit you with those incendiary rounds.” Another surface to air missile zoomed up from the top of a building. Instinctively he batted it away with one of his wings. It spun wildly, finally detonating when it hit the surface of the lake in the middle of the park.

  “Where are they?”

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Times Square. They’re burning down Harlem. They’ve started two blocks around your last known location burning already, and they’re working on a third.”

  “The hell?”

  “I’m not sure, but my guess would be they decided the area was lost anyhow, so they might as well take the Blue Bloods and Chessmen out of the picture by saturation bombardment.”

  “Why would the National Guard even have incendiary rounds?”

  Walker shrugged, despite knowing Midnight couldn’t see him. “I don’t think they do. They shouldn't have surface to air missiles either. There’s no telling what they’ve been able to jury rig”

  “What about the people in the buildings?”

  He blinked, stunned at his own oversight. He’d paid so much attention to the tactical situation he hadn’t even thought about the human cost. “I… I’m not sure. I think I can get close to the blocks that are on fire, but I don’t know if I can do much there.”

  “Okay. Here’s the plan; Jack, Angel, and Siren will work their way underground to the basements of the buildings. If you can get the people to evacuate to the basements, they’ll guide them through to Yankee Stadium. The structure’s still mostly intact after the Rain, even if the seats and field were trashed. Flex, Widget, Frostfire and I will head south via the subway to Times Square. If that’s where they’ve got their big guns, that’s where the leaders will be.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Jack Hammer, Angel, Siren and I will evacuate the buildings which are on fire via an underground route while you engage the enemy command.”

  “Arrest the perpetrators. Not engage the enemy. Other than that, that’s the plan. Everyone on your team is a little rattled, and you’ve got the best view, so I’m putting you in charge.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. Good Hunting.”

  “Good Luck, Walker. See you at Yankee Stadium.”

  “I look forward to it, Ma’am.”

  ***

  “Why not just punch through here? Based on the map, it’s the closest point.”

  Jack shook his head. “There’s a structural member here. We need to go around it, or the building is gonna collapse.”

  “The building’s on fire, and the fire departments have mostly evacuated. Isn’t it coming down anyway?”

  He looked at Siren, raised an eyebrow. “Probably, but I think we want to get the people inside out first, right?”

  “Oh. Right. Sorry.”

  Angel stepped up beside her, one arm going around her shoulders. “So, what do we do?”

  Jack paced off three long strides down the subway tunnel, then scratched two lines on the wall. “This spot is a little thicker, but if we go through here, it shouldn’t bring the building down.”

  He took one last look around for any tools. He didn’t expect to find anything, but he really didn’t want to do too much collateral damage. Finding nothing, he squared his shoulders, balled up his fist, and set himself. Before he could swing, Angel laid a hand on his shoulder.

  “Let me.”

  Jack shrugged and stepped back, putting himself between the excavation and Siren.

  The first thing he noticed was a dim blue glow just inside the lines he’d drawn. A soft scratching echoed through the tunnel. The light grew slowly brighter, and the scratching became a continuous scraping. Dust drifted out from the blue glow, thicker by the moment. In seconds, he could no longer see Angel, and the ongoing screech of tortured stone filled the corridor with a wall of sound.

  “Angel! Can you breathe in there?”

  He barely heard the words inside his own head. A fist-sized chunk of rock shot out of the cloud, only to be caught at the last minute by a glowing tendril of blue. Despite himself he took half a step back, arms to his sides in a protective gesture he knew already would be useless if another chunk of rock flew out.

  Petite hands slipped over his ears, and the cacophony of the tunnel disappeared. “Angel’s fine, Jack. He’s keeping an area around himself clear. We might want to step back though.”

  Careful to keep himself between Siren and the ongoing demolition, Jack backed away. After a few minutes, Siren spoke again, her voice clear and crisp despite the ongoing chaos around Angel. “If he moves that whole section out, is it gonna hurt anything?”

  “It shouldn’t.” Aware of the ongoing construction noise he could no longer hear, he shook his head.

  “Let’s go up. Anybody on the far side is going to be shocky.”

  They walked forward, Jack still in front of Siren. She slipped her hands off of his ears; other than an ongoing low screech of stone against stone, the noise had died down. Siren shouted a single word, “Clear!” and the dust rolled away from them.

  “How do you do that, miss?”

  “No idea, really. Stuff just moves when I shout at it. Sort of like Angel’s telekinesis, only I have to speak.”

  The clearing dust revealed Angel walking backward, a huge stone plug nearly half the width of the tunnel coming along behind him. As the back end of it cleared the opening he’d created, a figure in blue stepped out of the gap.

  “Took you guys long enough. Are the tunnels clear to the stadium?”

  “Axe! How did you get in there?”

  Steve shrugged. “Charlie grabbed me when the artillery hit. Dragged me into the building and got me organizing the evacuation from inside.”

  “Charlie’s here? I thought he was still down for the count.” At another shrug from Steve, Jack continued, “Good to have him back in charge. Where is he?”

  Steve threw his hands up into the air in histrionic frustration. “How the fuck should I know? I got a couple basements packed with civilians who need to get the hell out of here before the air runs out. Is the tunnel clear or not?”

  Two impacts of stone on stone rattled the hallway once more. Angel hefted the remains of the massive stone plug, one end now hacked into a blunt chisel. “If it’s not, it will be.”