“But how will I know what to do to help, then?” Sally asked.
“You’ll know in your gut. You always have, Sally,” said Juice. “That’s why we chose you.”
The buildings went from brown stone to gray as Sally continued her trek northward. She skipped off of FDR to run along a bike path right alongside the river. “Sally, Control,” said the voice in her ear.
“Go ahead, Control.”
“We’ve got some unusual activity on social network monitoring. Your name has popped up tied to Central Park and we don’t show that you’re anywhere near there yet.”
Sally skidded to a halt, startling several joggers. “What do you mean, my name has popped up?”
“We’re seeing images tagged with your name. It looks like someone has burned letters spelling out your name into the grass on the southern end of Central Park. We’re seeing multiple mentions of it as well as pictures.”
“I’m heading there to investigate it now, Control. Is the fire out?”
“We have no information on it at this time.”
“Copy that.” Sally launched into motion once again, blowing well past a hundred fifty until even in her accelerated perceptions, the buildings and cars blurred past. She spotted an exit ramp and turned down it to head inland, towards Central Park. She had to be very careful on the narrow and congested road, and there were a lot more pedestrians milling about. She zigged and zagged around them, outrunning the confused and typical-New-Yorker angry shouts in her wake. She realized she’d turned the wrong way up a one-way street but it didn’t matter; she was moving fast enough that the cars seemed like they were standing still.
She slipped between a bus and a panel truck and then she was crossing a plaza into Central Park. “Control, I’m at Central Park. Where’s this fire?”
“Roughly a hundred yards from the southeast corner,” said the voice in her ear.
Sally slowed her headlong rush and lowered her rebreather. The chill air made her skin prickle and sting. The trees that would be so lush and green by the spring were still mostly bare black and gray trunks with branches like skeletal fingers. She sniffed at the air and there was indeed a tang of smoke present, which she recognized as the burning of dry grass, a common enough scent in Colorado during fire season. She raised her tinted goggles and tried to pick smoke out against the cloudy sky, but with no success.
“Hey, Mustang Sally!” someone called. She looked to see a young man waving at her. “Somebody wrote your name on the ground.”
She moved beside him in a flash. “Where?”
He jumped at her sudden appearance. “Whoa!”
“Sir, please.”
“Oh, sorry. Right over there, behind those trees.” He licked his lips. “You, uh, you seeing anyone?”
She smiled at him. “I’m married.”
“Yeah, but is it working out?”
She didn’t dignify his query with a response. Instead, she zipped past him, through the trees, to confront whoever had called her out.
A woman in a tight-fitting turquoise and black bodysuit similar to Sally’s in cut and design stood there, arms crossed, looking impatient. She was several inches taller than Sally—no real feat there, given Sally was barely over five feet tall herself—but with a much more muscular build. She wore a blue helmet with a gold-tinted visor and a rudder emerging from the back. Her boots were much more stylized in design than Sally’s high-tech utilitarian clunkers. Instead of matching the blue-and-black color scheme, the other woman’s boots were orange and red with a flame design upon them that reminded Sally of hot rod paint jobs.
“About time you showed up,” she sneered at Sally. “For a speedster, you’re pretty slow upstairs.”
Sally felt her ears burn. She’d faced down some of the world’s most dangerous supervillains and not only lived to tell about it, but in many cases been triumphant. How could this unknown woman get to her with such a simple insult? She made herself shake it off. The snide statement demanded a response, and although Sally wasn’t the wittiest conversationalist in the world, she could at least hold her own. “If you were in that much of a hurry, why didn’t you just call? I had to wait for social media to catch up.” She folded her own arms. “Who are you and what do you want?”
The woman smiled behind her visor. Sally didn’t recognize her face. It occurred to her that she ought to have cameras built into her goggles so she didn’t have to take time to use her phone to snap a picture. She could take a picture faster than anyone could move, but she invariably moved too fast and the camera would only ever show a blur. “I’m Afterburner,” said the woman. “And I’m here to take you down, Mustang Sally.”
Sally snorted. “Just like that? You show up out of the blue, set some grass on fire, and now you’re going to . . . to fight me like some kind of stupid archenemy? Who writes your dialogue, George Lucas?”
“Who’s that? I don’t . . . oh.” Sally got the distinct impression that the woman was speaking to someone else. And then in a flash of motion the woman was in front of her. Sally’s accelerated perceptions kicked in a fraction of a second too late—a side effect of never dealing with anyone whose speed could approach her own—and the woman shoved her backwards. Sally stumbled and fell onto her ass, bruising her tail bone on the hard-packed dirt with its layer of dead grass. “I’m not afraid of you. You ain’t jack shit. Get up, or are you gonna just let me kick your ass laying down?”
Sally sprang to her feet, her heart hammering behind her ribs. In her life she’d encountered only two other parahumans with what she’d categorize as extreme examples of enhanced speed. Carousel was an advanced android who’d been a member of the Lucky Seven team where Sally had trained before joining Just Cause. Johnny Go was a good friend who’d gone through the Hero Academy and now one of the trainers for Champions. Neither of them had even come close to approaching Sally’s level of speed; they were like thoroughbred racing horses trying to compete against a Formula I car.
This woman, Afterburner, was dangerously fast. Maybe even as fast as Sally. She was also bigger, stronger, and knew how to fight by the way she carried herself. Smoke leaked from beneath her feet and Sally realized she had another, even more sinister power. She could ignite the ground where she stood. Hence the name, Sally thought. Sally hadn’t ever trained in physical combat very hard; with her speed, standing and fighting an opponent was a poor use of her abilities.
Afterburner leaped and spun, her right foot arcing around in a devastating roundhouse kick. Flames trailed off her heel, making a whooshing noise. Sally just barely ducked out of the way as Afterburner’s foot flashed through the air where Sally’s head had been a moment before. Sally tried to remember all her basic combat training, which she’d had in her very first year at the Hero Academy. She hadn’t paid attention then, trusting her speed to get her out of a dangerous situation.
She hadn’t ever planned for this. She threw a punch the way she’d seen Jason do it when he sparred with other bricks.
Afterburner laughed, slapped aside Sally’s ineffectual blow, and smashed her helmet against Sally’s face. Sally felt her nose break and her mouth filled with blood. She staggered back, tears of pain blinding her. Her foot caught against something and she fell. Afterburner leaped into a forward tuck. She extended her right foot as she came up and around, lashing downward with an axe kick that could have broken any bone it struck. Sally rolled aside to avoid the strike and kicked at Afterburner’s ankle. Afterburner turned her foot enough that Sally’s kick only glanced off the edge. “That’s more like it. Ain’t no fun when they don’t have any spirit.”
She stomped down on Sally’s leg but Sally’s heavy boot absorbed the worst of the blow. Sally tried to fight back by grabbing at the woman’s foot, but it was like grabbing a pan out of the oven without a hot pad. Sally yelped as she burned her fingers through her gloves. Blood ran down the side of her face and dribbled onto her logo.
Afterburner lunged and grabbed Sally’s neck. “There’s a new s
heriff in town, bitch.”
Sally felt her lungs burning and she struggled against the woman’s grip. Afterburner lifted her off the ground. Sally tried to kick but she had no strength left as the life was being choked out of her. As a last-ditch effort, she let go of Afterburner’s wrists, grabbed the woman’s helmet, and twisted it hard to one side. The helmet turned faster than Afterburner’s head did and the edge of the visor opening cracked hard across Afterburner’s nose, breaking it much like she’d broken Sally’s. Afterburner dropped her and struggled with her helmet, cursing and spitting out blood.
Sally ran. She couldn’t stand and trade punches with Afterburner; the woman fought like a martial artist, and Sally barely had basic brawling skills. Afterburner was after her in a flash and they raced across the park, a red streak pursued by a blue one. Sally’s head cleared as she ran, but she had to keep spitting out blood so she wouldn’t swallow it, and she couldn’t breathe through her shattered nose so her breath mask was out of the question.
They raced through the trees, whipping up a storm of dry grass, dead leaves, and twigs in their wake. Sally realized that not only was Afterburner a much better fighter, but the blue-garbed woman was keeping pace with her. Sally put her head down and poured on the speed. She’d broken the speed of sound once; she could outrun Afterburner. Everywhere her pursuer set a foot down, the ground was left smoldering. Sally quickly discovered her best bet to get away, or at least to gain an advantage, was to turn and change directions much faster than Afterburner.
She doubled back twice, forcing Afterburner to skid to a stop, cursing each time. “I know, I know,” she yelled at whoever was on the other end of her radio.
That gave Sally an idea. She headed across the gigantic meadow where she could really unleash the speed. With her attention no longer needed to keep her from smashing into a tree trunk, she called in to headquarters. “Control, Sally. I’m engaged with an unknown parahuman assailant,” she gasped out between breaths. “Enhanced speed at my level. Scramble backup.”
“Roger that, Sally,” said the voice in her ear. “The Dorothy will be airborne in five minutes. ETA to your location in thirteen minutes, plus or minus two minutes.”
Sally wasn’t sure she’d last five minutes against Afterburner. Her backup might arrive to find themselves claiming her body. “Sooner would be better, Control. Also, she’s in radio communication with someone. Try to locate and track that signal.”
“That may be difficult given your speed and altitude, but we’ll work on it. You could shave five minutes off the response time if you came to the southern tip of the island.”
“Negative,” said Sally. “Central Park is the safest place for this. Sally out.” Being late winter, the park wasn’t nearly as crowded as it might have been had the weather been warmer. She dashed across a bridge and around a rocky outcropping, trying to outmaneuver her pursuer.
“You won’t get away like that,” hissed Afterburner. She sounded winded to Sally, which suggested that perhaps she didn’t have Sally’s stamina for long sprints.
“I don’t have to get away,” said Sally. “I just have to outlast you.” She grabbed hold of a sign pole and swung, letting her momentum carry her around it like a tether ball. Her feet flashed over a sliding Afterburner’s head, just missing a double kick that might have decapitated her assailant, or broken every bone in Sally’s legs, or both.
Afterburner rolled into a combat crouch to face Sally as Sally dropped down beside the sign pole, her sides heaving. Behind her visor, Afterburner’s face was crimson and evaporating sweat rose off her body like steam in the chilly air. “That was dirty,” she said. Smoke curled upward from around her feet as the grass beneath them ignited.
“You want to call this off now, before one of us gets really hurt?” asked Sally. “Come on, I’ll buy you a beer and you can tell me what I did to earn your wrath.” She held out a hand. “What’s your name?”
“Martina,” said Afterburner. “What? I know, I know!”
“Who are you talking to?” Sally asked. “Sounds like they’re being a real pain in your ass. Somebody putting you up to this?”
“Shut up, I got this.”
Sally couldn’t tell if Afterburner was talking to her or to whoever was on the other end of her radio. “Look, if you’re in trouble, let me help you. You might have heard that me and my people are pretty good at this sort of thing.”
“I know!” screamed Afterburner, and she charged at Sally.
“Shit.” Sally found herself engaged before she had a chance to flee. She danced backward, ducking underneath Afterburner’s punches and jumping to avoid her kicks. The flurry of limbs seemed to come at her from every direction. A hard roundhouse kick caught her hip and made her right leg go numb. Afterburner followed up with a hard punch straight to Sally’s face. Blood splattered up Afterburner’s hand from Sally’s already-broken nose, and she yelped from the pain. Her hands found her horseshoes where they were still clamped to her belt. Over the years she’d used them as brass knuckles when she needed a little more heft to her super-speedy punches, and if there was ever a moment where that was required, this was it.
Afterburner punched at her again and Sally dropped her chin so Afterburner’s fist smashed against her forehead, breaking her goggles. Sally responded by driving the twin forks of the horseshoe clutched in her right hand hard into Afterburner’s visor. The yellow-tinted faceplate cracked and the sharp plastic ends lacerated Afterburner’s face.
She staggered back, shrieking incoherently. Sally knew she should have pressed the advantage while she had it, but her entire face hurt, and her nose and lips were swelling like an allergic reaction. Her vision was growing blurry but she didn’t know whether it was because of swelling around her eyes or something worse. She’d suffered concussions before and knew she was high risk for them.
She hooked the horseshoes back on her belt and ran again, hoping that she could outrun Afterburner. With her goggles destroyed, she couldn’t get up much faster than two hundred or so before the stream of icy air against her tender face became too much to bear. She skirted the edge of the large lake. When she looked back over her shoulder, she didn’t see any sign of Afterburner, and thought perhaps she’d escaped the mysterious speedster at last. But then she glanced back across the lake and got the shock of her life.
Afterburner was crossing straight over the surface of the water, racing toward Sally like a speed skater. Her feet kicked up steamy rooster tails of water vapor with every step.
“No. No way,” said Sally. That wasn’t fair. Not only was Afterburner fast, setting fires with every step, and a superior hand-to-hand fighter, but she could run on water too? Sally slid to a halt among the loose rocks along the lake shore as Afterburner tore towards her. She gathered up a handful of suitably flat rocks and hurled them at Afterburner, using her speed to accelerate the stones like bullets.
Afterburner stepped around the first couple of skipping stones but then one caught her in the knee and another followed immediately after, striking the top of her foot. With her accelerated perceptions, Sally saw the blood splatter from each wound. Afterburner yelped and lost her balance. She fell sideways, kicking up a tremendous wave as she plowed into the water. At Sally’s speed, the water seemed to move like molasses, and she saw Afterburner tumble into it in a jumble of twisting limbs. Sally didn’t like the way Afterburner’s head snapped back when it hit the water, and she slowed her racing senses to get a better feel for time passing. Seconds ticked away and still Afterburner didn’t emerge from the water.
At some point, Sally realized that the other speedster wasn’t going to come up. “Shit,” she said, and raced to unlace her tall boots. “Control. ETA to my location.” Speaking hurt her face, she discovered, and so did wincing at the pain.
“Less than four minutes,” said Control.
Sally shook her head. “Not fast enough. Tell them to prepare for a water rescue, and get some paramedics out here stat!” She yanked off her thick s
ocks, cringing at the cold on her bare feet, and charged into the water.
She still couldn’t run across the water, but years of trying had necessitated her becoming a good swimmer, and she struck out toward the area where she’d seen Afterburner go under. The icy water seeped into her uniform and made her hands and feet go numb instantly. At least the cold would help with the swelling in her face, although the broken nose made it impossible for her to swim in any way but a dog paddle.
It was a speedy dog paddle, though, and she found Afterburner after only a few seconds. The waterlogged woman was a few feet below the surface, unmoving. Sally took a deep breath and dove down beneath Afterburner, moving her legs in a blur to push the woman back to the surface. Their heads broke water and Sally grabbed Afterburner beneath her arms and kicked backward, pushing for the shoreline.
She was so cold that she barely felt her feet brush against the soft bottom, and a moment later she was dragging Afterburner up onto the sand at the water’s edge. Both women choked, coughing up lake water. Sally’s shivers seemed to take over her entire body. As the water drained from her ears, she heard the distant roar of the approaching Dorothy, loud enough to drown out the much closer howls of emergency vehicles. “Y-you all r-right?” she managed through chattering teeth.
Afterburner gagged and spit up a lungful of water onto the sand, so weak that she couldn’t even raise her head. Steam rose from her feet as the heat they produced evaporated the lake water. Sally could feel the radiance from them and wondered if it would be too weird to use them to warm herself back up. “W-why?” asked Afterburner. “I t-tried to . . . You still s-saved me.”
“I’m a hero,” said Sally. “That’s what we d-do.” Her chattering teeth made her broken nose throb.
The Good Fight Page 9