He’s telling us exactly where he’s going to attack next.

Yeah, but why. So that they can put up defenses that will backfire? Or because he doesn’t actually want to hurt the Wards too much?

Kid Win looked up, saw Sundancer with her orb hovering a good fifteen feet off the ground, keeping it away from the walls of the building and the corpses that were hung above them.  

Yeah, you can turn up the heat, but let’s try not to desecrate the corpses even more.

Even though it was fifteen feet up and thirty feet away, he could feel the heat of it prickle his exposed skin.  He knew from the Endbringer fight that she could make it bigger, move it faster.

Huh, nice.

As the burning sphere drifted forward, staying at roughly the same height, Flechette and Glory Girl were forced to scramble away.  Shadow Stalker leaped off of the top of the wall and into the alleyway next to the building to get away from the heat.

The Wards are scurrying away like mice.

Only Vista remained where she was, caught under debris that she was striving to shrink down and push away.

Uh-oh. Try not to melt the space kid, Sunny.

“Hey!” Ballistic bellowed, “Little girl!”

What do you want with Vista?

Kid Win saw Ballistic pointing at Vista.  The villain, between his build and armor, had the frame of a football player, a dramatic contrast to the young heroine.  He pointed at her, paused long enough for her to bend the ground into a semblance of cover, then launched a chunk of concrete at her.

…is Ballistic serving as a distraction? I see just about no other reason for him to act like this.

The concrete flew at an angle that wouldn’t have hit the girl anyways, struck the barrier and shattered, sending debris careening onto and into the girl.

Huh. Well, that backfired for Vista.

Vista screamed and fell backwards, part of her barrier crumbling to land on top of her.

Hard.

I’m a tinker.  I’m supposed to be smart.

Sounds like I was on the right track!

So how can I have been so stupid?

What’s wrong?

…are you blaming yourself for something that happened during the Leviathan fight, or later?

Ballistic raised one hand and pointed at Kid Win.  He waited until Kid Win moved before kicking at the uneven, rubble-strewn ground, sending a spray of concrete and wood fragments flying like a hail of bullets.

Oh, okay, we’re back in the battle. Guess we’re seeing the rest of it after all.

It only grazed the teenage hero mid-leap, lacerating the side of his stomach, hip and thigh, chipping his armor.

Ow.

It still hit hard enough that it twisted him in midair.  He landed on his back atop the rubble that covered the ground, grunted.

Thump. Ugh.

Hey, someone’s gotta provide the sound effects.

This is what I’m here for.

😀

He felt oddly calm as his group squared off against the villains with some of the highest power ratings in Brockton Bay, beneath the grim display of the three hanging corpses.

Heavy hitters indeed.

He reached into the slot of the armor at his side and withdrew two sheaves of paper.  Moving his thumbs in one direction, he fanned out the papers, holding them like anyone else might hold a pair of knives.

Hm. Now what’s this? Gonna rip them up and freeze the shrapnel or something?

He realized what it was, this calm.  Whatever else it was, this fight was a refuge from that feeling that had plagued him since the fight with Leviathan ended.

I see.

The feeling that he was always in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, in the face of a city in crisis and a dying father.  This, right here, was where he was needed.

Ah, yeah…

Weld staggered as Genesis lunged forward, and Clockblocker ducked low under Weld’s arm, planted a hand against the plywood.  He felt his power snap out to encompass the material, and he fixed it in place, cutting it off from the flow of time.

Why? I mean, it’s a more effective shield against this one attack, but now it’s stuck in that one spot for a while.

A second later, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.  Weld, standing over him, gave him a quick smile and an offered hand.  He returned it with the briefest of nods and took Weld’s hand to stand straight.  Together, the pair of them stepped back and away,

Nice. Good to see that they can work together even if they have their differences. And hey, Clocky did admit he should go easier on Weld.

to see Genesis rising into the air with heavy flaps of her bat-like wings, inhaling to prepare another blast of the noxious smoke.

Okay I kinda think I should go back and reread Tattletale’s explanation of Genesis’ powers.

…remotely controlled, solid projections. Right. Genesis probably isn’t actually there.

I can’t keep track of this guy.

He’s rather… tricksy.

Clockblocker looked around to survey the situation.  His group was sandwiched between the Travelers, now.

Welp. That’s probably something Trickster’s been deliberately arranging.

On one side, Sundancer and Ballistic crouched in the far corner of the building.  Trickster and Genesis stood on the other side, atop the rubble that spilled across the building’s entrance and onto the flooded street. 

Genesis inhaled, chest expanding, and Weld was the first to react, stomping one foot hard into the rubble underfoot, using his foot to raise a large, ragged piece of plywood.

Hm.

With his hands, he forced the large wooden board into a standing position, placing it between himself and Genesis.  Kid Win, Flechette and Vista wheeled on Ballistic and Sundancer.

So does that mean he’s using the board as a shield…?

Weld’s piece of plywood served to block the worst of whatever it was that Genesis exhaled.  From what Clockblocker could see around the plywood, it was a dark, gray-black vapor.

So wait, wasn’t Genesis’ ability a sort of illusion? In other words, is there even something real there to block?

Wisps billowed around the edge of the board and drifted their way – it had a bitter smell and taste, like ashes mixed with something foul.  Even inhaling a trace of it through the air holes of his mask forced barking coughs from his lungs.

Real enough to cause a reaction, I guess.

His teammates seemed to be in rougher shape, Vista falling to her hands and knees.  The changer’s exhalation hadn’t even reached them directly.

Hm, strange. Did Genesis get ahead of herself in stimulating reactions to match the visuals?

So, that’s what a changer nine brings to the table.  Different forms, each with their own powers.

That’s a reasonable assumption.

Weld, for his part, staggered back, his hand glowing white-hot.  He flexed his glowing hand, and it moved slowly, stiffly.  Even as far down as his elbow, the metal of his arm was an orange-red.

Ah, maybe I spoke too soon.

At least we know he can melt parts of his body in the first place, and does so regularly to absorb metal that got stuck to him.

Clockblocker didn’t get a chance to see if Weld was okay.  He charged around his team leader, using the metal boy’s broader body to put himself in Trickster’s blind spot.  From this position, he tried to charge and tag the villain.

Ooh, good luck.

An instant before his hand could brush against Trickster, the villain was gone, and Weld was in front of him.

Dang it. 

His hand touched the metal of Weld’s back.

Welp, guess we’ve got both molten and frozen metal at once.

He breathed a sigh of relief when Weld turned around.

Wait, really? Is he immune to Clocky’s power too? I know Weld was immune to most powers affected by the Manton effect, but as far as I’ve gathered, that’s not actually the case with Clockblocker’s.

Only the fact that he’d expected something along these lines had allowed him to turn his power off in time.

Ah, okay.

Spinning around, Clockblocker reached for the space Weld had just vacated, but Trickster was already swapping places with Glory Girl to place himself as far away from the thick of the fighting as he could get.

Glory Girl’s power might actually be among the more useful ones here. Intimidating Trickster might be distracting enough for Clocky to get his hands on the guy.