The night before:

  It was a narrow one-way street close to the helicopter crash in the city, which drew almost every civilian near there and away from the small corner store near the sight of where the Groundhogs had rescued Skinner earlier. The door to the store was kicked off its hinges, a Dark Blue Collar stepping out, glaring and chewing hard on some gum.

  “Swear to God!” Jacklyn said, “It’s like that bitch’s trying to kill us! Oh great idea; let’s hide in the fucking building that’s closest to where these known anarchist love to blow stuff up! Brilliant idea, felid leader, brilliant!”

  Andre followed. He eyed a small crater while walking around the street and looking through cars that were either blown up, charred, or full of slashes and handprints. He saw a few armored officers’ burnt bodies and shook his head. Then, another one caught his eye; an officer was lying face down on the curb. Carefully raising his head, he saw his eyes were white while his mouth overflowed with saliva. He grimaced.

  “Jackie,” he said, “You seein’ this?”

  The brunette went over, her face gawking at the sight, “Um, wtf? Who the hell did this?”

  “I don’t know,” he answered. “Hey, think you can gum him?”

  “It won’t do any good,” she said, “Knowing his Talent, it’ll just be spicy.”

  “But you can taste trace residues of Gi, right?”

  She sighed, “Fine, fine, scoot over.”

  A ball of pink quickly went over the cop’s body, popping and covering him, being quickly sucked back up by the young woman, tracing her lips with her tongue. “Mm, hmm interesting…” she said.

  Andre looked over, “Interesting?”

  “Usually unless something tangible is left I can’t taste it, but in this case I can and it’s the same as before when we first arrived…sour.” She looked over, “Andre.”

  “I know,” he replied, “but Alastor would want us to confirm this with our superior first.” He let out a sigh and shook his head, “Speaking of which, where is her ass anyways?” he asked.

  “Beats me,” Jacklyn shrugged. She blew a bubble, “Funny how she’s never around when it comes to these homeless. Ta, almost like she’s scared of them or something!”

  “It’s a miracle all of that fighting somehow managed to drown you two out.”

  Jacklyn nearly choked, spinning around to see Anastasia walking up to the two, her hand clenching something. “Otherwise my plan would’ve been a bust.”

  “All this,” Andre said, his arms gesturing out his sides, “was your plan?”

  “Yes.”

  Jacklyn glanced at Andre, snorting a laugh, “I think she’s finally gone off the deep end!”

  Anastasia folded her arms behind her, pacing from left and right between the two, “You did witness the Groundhogs escape with the druggie, correct?”

  Jacklyn shrugged, “I mean, duh. You told us to make sure they got away in the first place for whatever reason.”

  “Good,” she replied inspecting her nails on her free hand, “Did you observe any peculiar Talent in use?”

  The two looked at each other. She glanced back, “What is it?”

  “We saw something,” Andre said, “At first I thought it was one of their Talents, when they yanked the transport van into the air.”

  “Then we found him,” Jacklyn said, pointing to the officer’s body, “The only survivor, yet when I tasted him something caught my tongue, something Spiritual.”

  “…” The woman stared at the two, unblinking. She then went back to her nails, “The addict. He’s Spiritually Talented.”

  “What?!” the two said.

  “Yes, I had my suspicions and did some digging on my own, which proceed to be correct.” She turned her back to them, looking off to the distant sight of the crash, “Thanks to all the evidence we’ve gathered, we’re now able to launch a full assault once we locate their base of operations.”

  The Blue Collars shared a confused glance.

  “By letting them get away?” Andre said, “Especially someone with Talent that rare?!”

  “I did tell you that someone would lead us right back to their so-called, Haven.” Anastasia said, turning around. She raised her clenched hand, showing the two a twitching rat, “I’ve placed trackers on just a few of his rodents, which should wrap up our investigation once they’ve constellated in the same place.”

  “That was your scheme?!” Jacklyn said, “A few flimsy trackers that will probably get found out?!”

  “It’s not going to get found out.” She said, “The bandage we found earlier—”

  The two groaned.

  “—I never understood why a group so secretive would leave something so crucial behind.” She looked at the terrified creature, “Until I realized it was on purpose.”

  “You gotta be kidding!” Andre said, “You’re saying they or one of them want to be found?”

  The woman didn’t say anything, instead turning to leave, “That depends on if we find them or not.”

  The three disappeared down the street, leaving the dying officer alone once again.

  _________________________________________________________________________

  Now:

  A purple blur of death exploded from the broken walkway above and downwards into the Groundhogs in a violent, ‘boom’. From the smoke, Anastasia saw her arms were locked with large man’s, whose body was surging with more Gi than before, practically steaming from his pores. Her eyes went below to the minor Gi spike and shot herself backwards as the area she was just standing exploded. Her eyes shot around, seeing a running figure from the right.

  ‘That must be their explosive guy,’ she thought, ‘I’m taking him out first.’

  Turning, she reached in her pockets for her small handgun, only to feel someone else’s hand clamp on hers. Her eye caught the sight of the spitting man, who was cocking his head back while crouching. Above him cast a shadow where was the masked woman’s, extended arms swung her blades for Anastasia’s neck. The air on her back quickly grew hot, the light of flames within the corner of her eye. In an instant—she shot her other hand to the spitting man’s mouth, and her foot into the woman’s stomach, stabbing deep and swinging her over her shoulder to the oncoming streak of flames, much to the fire breather’s surprise.

  “Shit!” he yelled.

  ‘WHOOSH!’

  Watching her body engulfed, the spitting man’s feet stuttered backwards, forcing himself back as far as his Gi could take him—but she was quicker, shadowing him until…

  ‘SLICE!’

  “Gah!!” he cried, staggering as his raised forearms flew from his elbows. She went for another strike when it hit her,

  ‘Where’s the next explosive?’

  ‘S-S-SQ-SQEEEEEEAK!’

  The floor as she knew it was no more, instead a sea of red eyed rats, all shooting towards her like giant bullets, forcing her off the ground and above when—

  ‘BOOM!’

  The overhead explosion blew away the nearby merchant stands and even the rats—but the woman shot to the side, her gun aimed at the younger explosives expert.

  ‘Got you,’

  She froze. Her eye shot over her left shoulder to Xole, who had his own arms outstretched.

  “Now guys!” he cried.

  The large man was already there, his fist readied over his head, shooting towards her like a rocket, but the woman simply clenched her thumb over her index and middle fingers.

  ‘FWOOOOM!’

  The sudden surge of the woman’s own Inner-Gi sent both the man and Xole flying and the woman landed atop a juice stand, looking at the Groundhogs. Her eye caught the woman and the fire-breather regrouping with the others—except for the spitting man and the doctor.

  ‘P-TOO!’ ‘P-TOO!’

  Her body spun and arm flung to her rear pouch, then front, her clay expanding and catching the explosive mucus. From the side of the clay, she saw the man run up to her and reel his arm back, throwing it for her to catch it in surprise—realizing she was holding his fist. The man grinned, “Remember this?”

  Just then, the poncho woman bolted for Anastasia’s side, forcing her to clash with her other hand. Anastasia ducked, dashing under the woman and severing her leg below the knee. Spinning to continue, her eyes widened to see bandages wrap around her severed limb, and then proceeded to be kicked by said limb into a wave of squeaking rodents.

  ‘S-SQ-EEEEEEK!’

  ‘BLAM!’ ‘B-B-B-B-B-BLAM!!!’

  Her dual pistols unloaded on the rodents, watching their bodies fly apart—only for more to take their place. They circled her, the juice stand nearby was devoured in seconds. With annoyed grunt, she stuck her tongue to her back molars and spat one before her.

  ‘BOOM!’

  She dashed out of the hole she made, eyeing the group. The spitting man and the woman’s limbs were back on their bodies, the white coated doctor glaring at her and stuffing a handful of bandages back in his coat—the poncho woman without even a first degree burn. Her eyes narrowed to the group. ‘She and the fire-breather share a Gi-Immunity, annoying. Not to mention that doctor’s the only reason she and the spitter aren’t yet cripples…’

  Xole panted hard, “The—that hand thing again! What’s she doing? I can’t hold her!”

  Spit-Take kept his eyes on the Collared woman, “Ya ever heard of a ‘Mudra’ before?”

  His head shook quickly.

  “The quick and dirty is she can manipulate her body to force a surge of Gi. That’s probably how she got out of your little ‘spirit hold’ or whatever.”

  Xole shuddered. He thought a second, “Like you guys with enhancers?”

  “No,” Abbas said, “Strip-Lash adds to our Gi. What she did was a technique and by the feel of it, seemed to have taken a bit out of her.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Patchwork said, “She doesn’t seem all that Gi deficient.”

  Salamander spat, “Dat’s da government for ya!”

  Separated by a good fifty feet, they continued to watch her stand there like statue, their bodies tensed, but hers relaxed. Xole felt sweat run down his face, “Dang it! What’s she doing now?”

  “Planning her next move,” Trix replied.

  Staying close, the Groundhogs watched the woman began to pace slowly around them from a distance, slightly bending her knees with each step, her eyes focused more than ever.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Why’s she circling us like a freakin’ shark?!” Snap’s voice cracked, his head jerking from her to them.

  “Relax, would ya,” Salamander said. He quickly lit another cigar, “She can do whateva dance she wants, it ain’t gonna stop us!”

  “…OH!” Skinner said, making him and Snap jump a little, “Now I see. My friends told me all about this type of thing.”

  “Now would be a great time for elaboration, Skinner,” Trix said.

  “Those nails, agility, and those non-blinking satanic eyes…she’s like a cat!”

  Everyone was puzzled.

  “Yeah, they told me about how cats are always moving before you even think. They natural hunters, quick, and worst of all unpredicta—”

  The woman vanished.

  Snap’s head shot upwards, “Look out!!!” he cried.

  From above them, the woman threw two small silver objects down at them. Abba’s gaze widened at the devices, “Everyone, mov—!!”

  ‘B-BANG!’

  A blinding light erupted from them, the Groundhogs sheilding themselves. Snap jumped back from the circle, reaching for a few sticks of dynamite from his pocket.

  “Snap!!” Trix yelled, still blinded “Get back to the group—!”

  ‘SHUCK!’

  Snap hollered as a knife was plunged into his stomach, the woman twisting it and bringing another to his head. But Xole could feel it—both the weapon and the two—and was already kicking off his feet, his legs filling with Gi, vibrating down to his ankles until his feet stuttered—rocketing himself towards the woman and hitting her in the side with his shoulder. The young man’s eyes went to him.

  “You…you did—”

  “Just take it easy,” Xole said, his hands shaking, “You we’re stabbed and—”

  ‘CRACK!’

  The woman’s knee collided with Xole’s head, cracking against his skull and sending him spiraling through a booth. Snap grunted and tried to throw a red flaming stick—but her foot pinned his wrist, hearing it crack under her heel and the young man cry out in pain. Abbas then came from behind her, slamming his hand down, but she spun, slicing his arm with her knife in one hand and slapping it with another set of clay with her other. Abbas’s limb went limp.

  ‘What is this—?’

  Jumping in the air, the woman tucked her knees to her chest, shooting both feet into the man’s, sending him sliding across the Zone. Right before she landed, she caught herself on one hand, seeing a glop of spit just inches from her head.

  ‘BOOM!’

  “Hold still ya little devil!” Spit-Take yelled. He began firing off more shots of spit at her before the first one even finished. Explosion after explosion rocked the Zone until his mouth was dry and panting, tongue hanging out.

  “You’re accuracy was much better earlier.”

  The man whirled to the woman, trying to spit but found nothing—instead her fist smashing into his jaw, the momentum slamming him into the ground and impaling her foot into his thigh. Skinner began to flow rats toward her, but this time the woman bolted towards him first, stabbing him in the gut with her blade and violently tearing it out, his bloody body falling to the ground and the sound of squeaking dying down with him.

  “No!” Trix yelled, running in on the destroyed walkway. “Patchwork, my brother, Spit, and Snap are in bad shape and Xole’s down! Abbas, Salamander, we need—”

  “Just follow my lead!” Salamander said. He ran opposite from Trix, throwing his chest back with a giant breath, his eyes on the woman. “Getting’ real tired of you Collard folk!”

  “Likewise,” she replied. She flicked her nails at the smoker, two hitting his throat and three hitting his stomach. The man shouted out, choking on his flames as his stomach screamed with pain. Trix ran to him as fast as she could—but the Collar was faster. She took Salamander by the ankles, “Those are going to be stuck in you for some time. The more you struggle, the more you’ll suffer on the way out.”

  With that, she hurled him into Trix, the two falling through a stand hard. Trix looked up, wearily only to see another tooth land next to them.

  ‘BOOM!’

  Abbas made his way back, watching the explosion from a couple dozen feet away. He glared, watching the Collard woman emerge from the smoke, unharmed.

  “You’re rather resistant,” he said to her.

  “Same,” she retorted, “You’ve been manipulating the police and manufacturing Strip-Lash. Which would you like to elaborate on? Depending on your answer I may not kill you.”

  The large man just chuckled and shook his head. “You must take me for some type of fool…”

  In that instant, his body stuttered and shot towards her, his hand tearing into the ground as it made its way up to her face. The woman threw her head back, watching the hand fly over her face while throwing dirt in her eyes.

  ‘Child’s play,’ she thought, blinking the dirt off. The man threw his other massive palm at her—to which she side stepped and swung her heel into his arm, twisting her body and tearing it out. However, Abbas continued to throw his hands at her, one after the other, all moving in rapid succession faster and faster, until she saw what looked like thousands of hands shooting from his body.

  “Enhanced.” he said, “Ten Thousands Slaps!”

  The Zone reverberated, each strike sounding like a sonic boom. Tensing, the woman began punching and kicking, matching each slap with her own strikes—much to Abbas’s surprise. Then, she feinted, allowing one strike to barely brush the side of her face, only to spin around it from the outside of his arm and reattach her elongated nails, shoving them into the side of his stomach. Abbas grunted, bringing is other arm down on her again, but the woman caught it with her leg, slicing his limb with her heel and swirling a step back in a spray of blood, watching him stagger a few steps—then drop to his knees. She took him by the face and aimed her gun at his head.

  “Unfortunately for you, it appears your enhancers ran dry earlier than you anticipated.” She said, her tone almost mocking. She coked her gun, “Not that it would’ve saved you.”

  “WAIT!” Patchwork yelled running in, “Wait, wait stop!”

  She began to squeeze the trigger, “We don’t negotiate with terrorists—”

  “I’ll tell you! The enhancers, the police, how we did it! Whatever you want—but you can’t have it if you kill him!”

  “Patchwork…” Abbas said in a low voice.

  Now the woman seemed intrigued. Keeping her gun on Abbas’s head, she looked at the doctor, “Tell me more.”

  He sighed, shaking his head. “D-do you promise to spare these people—?”

  “What did I just tell you? Speak. Now.”

  He looked at Abbas, who stared at him. The doctor gritted his teeth, feeling his fist clench. He muttered something.

  “Use your speaking voice,” the Collared woman said, sounding more annoyed, “Now, what was that again?”

  “I said my briefcase is open!” he yelled. “It’s all yours Skinner!!”

  “What?” The woman felt a sudden surge of Inner-Gi flood the room, its immense pressure making everyone but her fall to the ground. Abbas began to laugh.

  “Now we’re all in for a reckoning!” he said.

  The woman tried to shoot him but her gun was gone—and if she hadn’t thrown the swarm of rats off her wrist—so would’ve been her hand. Leaping for one of the higher walkways, she witnessed the ground, walls, shadows, and anything black all surround a single point below her, curling it like a deathly whirlpool. Suddenly, as if time stopped, everything went quiet.

  Skinner then took a single breath. He threw his head back.

  “WHOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOO!!!”

  His aura exploded with yellow, backed by the earsplitting squeaking of what sounded like nearly a million rats. The air itself shook the entire area around them so much the walkway the woman was on began to crumble, forcing her to another, though the sound alone nearly caused her to fall. She watched as the rats began piling on top of each other, instantly creating a tall platform where Skinner’s foot stepped onto, eyeing her from a hundred feet away. His bloodshot eyes wide and completely awake with a huge smile plastered on his face.

  “Oh, so you’re a Collard worker, huh? That makes total sense now!”

  Anastasia grimaced at the horrid sight. ‘He’s completely high. So this is what real Spiritual Talent looks like,’ she thought. She reached for her pouches around her waist, ‘One set of Talent restriction clay, flash bangs, molars, and marbles…plus the back pouch. That should be enough,’

  Then, his body stuttered.

  Anastasia’s eyes went wide, ‘Where’d he g—’

  ‘POP!’

  His fist burst under her chin, shooting the woman so high her back slammed through several platforms. Angered, she looked up only to see him looking right at her, grabbing her by her hair and hurling her back to the rat infested ground.

  ‘SQEA—BOOOOOM!’

  Anastasia immediately rotated upon impact, twirling back to her feet while slicing apart the nearby ravenous rodents with her heels. She shot off the ground only for the man’s knee to slam into her head mid-air, nearly knocking her out. Before completely falling back, she wrapped her legs around his and began furiously slashing into his stomach—only to be in awe as she swore she saw rats fly from his wound rather than flesh and blood. Her eyes lit up.

  ‘My poison’s not working?’

  ‘SQ-SQUEEEEAK!!!’

  The man’s face glared, “You’re hurting…” he grabbed the side of her face and used it to flip himself over her, “…my…” he threw her to the ground hard—quickly falling after her with his knees tucked and his arms up, “…FRIENDS!!!”

  ‘BWOOOOOOOM!’

  Abbas and Patchwork watched a large part of Zone 3 collapse near its front, unleashing a massive dust cloud everywhere, nearly knocking the doctor over. Trix staggered to them, “Was that…Skinner?”

  “Trix,” Patchwork said, “I—”

  “It was my decision,” Abbas interjected, “If we didn’t, Rivers would be dead.”

  “That’s the thing,” Trix said, looking at the numerous booms going off on the other side of the Zone, “If he doesn’t stop, we’re all dead…”

  Anastasia sat propped against the wall near the entrance of Zone 3. A few strands of hair fell over her bloodied face as she watched the lunatic look around with his arms shooting at his sides and yelling to his rats about personal safety or something. Cursing, she stood up and fixed her hair, taking out her hand knife and gun, ‘I think I’ve got the hang of his Talent now.’ She thought.

  Catching the crackhead’s attention, she watched him amass the rodents again, crashing at her like an enormous tidal wave, encompassing her entire field of view. This time, she crouched inches from ground, handgun in her left behind her and knife in her right, her focus in the oncoming wave. ‘This time, rodent, I’m going to exterminate you.’

  Andre flicked four chains, zipping through the hall, bouncing off the walls towards Mr. Holdover. Ignoring the oncoming attack, the older man instead ran down towards the Blue Collar directly and struck him across the head with is fist with a hard ‘crack’ sending him into the side of the wall hard. The young man angrily yanked his arms back to hit Mr. Holdover from behind, but this time the man quickly hit him with a heavy right hook, knocking him and his returning chains to the side and staggering him to where his body met Mr. Holdover’s extended leg.

  “Gyuh!!” Andre grunted hard, feeling the air leave his stomach, but before he could recover, the man was already throwing his left fist at his face—this time even faster. Jacklyn’s body stuttered over Mr. Holdover’s right side, twisting and snapping her knee onto his head with a ‘thowck!’ Grinning, she looked downward only to see the man had blocker her strike, giving her with an annoyed look.

  “Grr!” She growled, attempting to maneuver her body the other way to follow up but Mr. Holdover caught her oncoming leg, spinning her around to Andre. Andre caught her by her wrist, and using her momentum, spun her back with practice ease to the older man. Andre watched her flip over and drawing her dual handguns as he spun his metal chains while dashing towards the older man, becoming a blur of sparks violently trashing along the cave walls. Jacklyn fired her weapons from behind Mr. Holdover while Andre blitzed towards him with his chains spinning in a razor-like swill.

  ‘V-WHOOSH!’

  “Got’ em!” Andre said, blowing past.

  But no one was there.

  Andre gawked, ‘was that was his…stutter step?!’

  ‘POW!’

  Andre coughed hard has Mr. Holdover’s fist plunged itself into his stomach, shooting him back so fast he disappeared from Jacklyn’s vision. Seeing that, the woman shot her head back at him in anger, only to be yanked by her ponytail sideways and kneed hard in her stomach.

  “ACK! Fuck you!” she snarled and blew a bubble near his leg, forcing Mr. Holdover to kicker her again down the hall near Andre. Mr. Holdover shook his leg out, cursing to himself,

  “Nasty shit!”

  Andre groaned, quickly climbing back to his feet as Jacklyn lay on the ground, holding her stomach, moaning.

  “A9,” she said, “Does he have to come back alive?”

  “At this point I don’t care,” he replied, rubbing his shoulder, “I just want him gone. Reminds me too much of to that damn teacher again.”

  “Oh yeah, Mr. Singh!” she laughed, “Ow!” She rolled back to her feet, tracing her thumb across her lips. She noticed him shaking is leg out, “Say, maybe it’s time we stop dicking around.”

  “That reminds me,” he caught a glance of the older man himself, “what did he taste like to you? Cause he don’t seem all that affected by your Talent.”

  “Ooh, where do I start? His flavor was strong—way stronger than the crackhead at the precinct! But, it didn’t taste like it should’ve.”

  The young man looked confused, “What’re you talking about?”

  Before she could respond, Mr. Holdover had ran past them and jumped off the drop at the end of the hall, disappearing from their sight. The woman’s eyes filled with rage.

  “Did he just do that?!!” she screeched.

  Andre’s back shuttered in anger, “On second thought, that question can wait…”

  ‘Finally got away from those two,’ Mr. Holdover thought, running down another empty hall, ‘all these Collard pricks just love to fucking talk and talk. Jesus. Anyways, where the hell is their ring leader?’

  Spying a door ahead, Mr. Holdover ran through it, bursting into a familiar room, only for his face to drop. It was the archive room—covered in gum. Bookshelves, tables, walls, ceilings, and on those surfaces, people who were going about their day, faces pale and drained of life. Mr. Holdover carefully stepped inside; the sugary smell filling his nose and making his head hurt. He walked to the pink coated desk and saw gray hair on the floor behind it. Looking over he saw the archive master frozen on her side, her hand inches away from a gun on the floor with the bullets in her other hand. Mr. Holdover saw her mouth open, her eyes still on the weapon as if she were to grab it at any moment.

  “Like what I’ve done with the place?” a voice said from the second floor railing above him. Jacklyn sat, legs crossed, looking down at him while chewing. “I thought it could use some color y’know? Not the biggest fan of dulls.”

  “…”

  “Nothing to say, smart ass?” she cocked her head to the side and popped a bubble, “Ok.”

  ‘FWISH!’

  A thin chain shot from the desk at Mr. Holdover’s head in a blur, faster than the other ones—but the man simply caught it. Surprised, Andre tried to yank it back but he wouldn’t let go.

  “How many…” he said. He finally turned his attention back to Jacklyn, “How many people did you fucks kill?”

  “I dunno. Like anyone who tried to run.”

  Mr. Holdover was silent again.

  Andre finally forced his chain back into his sleeve. “Don’t act like you’re all upset. You know this place was full of folks on the run from the law with criminal records and histories of violent activity against the public! You ask how many of them we killed. We gave them a chance to surrender! Did they give the folks at the head precinct the same?!”

  “Ta! Not to mention we don’t even get rewarded for handling these guys,” She added, “It’s just fall under ‘collateral’ meaning we’ll get a payment cut next check. So thanks a lot!”

  “So you’re gonna justify it by dropping more bodies, eh?” He said.

  Veins budged on Andre’s head, “Justify?! Screw you! You think we just love to go around and do this?! Get off your damn high horse, old-ass, I’m not some kind of monster! This is my job, my responsibility! Don’t you dare stand there and put me under some kind of label just cause it’s easier for you!!”

  “Yeah,” Mr. Holdover replied, nearly chuckling, “keep telling yourself that!”

  Andre began to close in on the man. Jacklyn quickly stood up, “Easy there, A9, if we’re gonna take turns getting pissed off at this privileged fuck then I want next.” She smirked down at Mr. Holdover, “Not like he’s gonna kill us anyways.”

  Mr. Holdover’s eyebrow rose, “You sure about that?”

  Jacklyn’s face shared the same expression, “Oh, so you’re still not taking us seriously?!” She lifted her arms to her sides, “Fine then!!”

  She chewed faster. Mr. Holdover suddenly noticed dozens of hair-thin strands hanging from the corners of her lips. Some of the splattered gum began to rise, morphing into spheres of varying sizes, from as small as a basketball to being large enough to hold the people who were still trapped in some. Andre let his arms droop, releasing two long shiny chains; one, silver, with a blade at the end and the other, black, with a heavy square at its ends. Both piled next to him. He began to spin them, the weapons whipped and stretched across the entire lower half of the room, ripping through shelves and walls, tearing into anything they touched in a terrifying whirl. From the air, dozens of balls of gum hovered before him on the upper half. The woman raised her arms.

  “Gonna stop all of these?”

  Mr. Holdover glanced back and forth between the two, craning his neck and adjusting his sleeves.

  “Yep.”