"Are you crazy? Don't you see a difference between killing a guy because he's trying to kill you, and killing him when he's practically dead?"

Sean reddened.

"He was a killer, and I stopped him. You weren't going to. I did what had to be done. What were you going to do, hand him over to the cops? He'd only escape again."

"I don't know what I was going to do. All I know is that you didn't kill him because you think the system doesn't work. You were going for revenge."

"Yeah, well. I don't see why you weren't. He was holding a gun to your mom's head. If you cared what happened to her--"

I clenched my fists, and stepped toward him.

I don't know what I planned to do next, but it was probably for the best that I didn't. For one thing, we'd have been fighting near the downed power line Ray broke.

For another, Sean didn't have any powers that stopped physical damage that I knew about, and the stealth suit didn't use any metal that was easily affected by a magnetic field.

In short, I could have really hurt him, and the only thing that stopped me from trying was hearing a crash behind me, followed by more crashes, and a screeching of metal that only grew closer.

I turned around, discovering that the truck Sean had hit Gina with was tumbling down the road toward the two of us.

Well, the two of us plus Ray's body.

In some universe, Sean knocked the truck out of the way, and between the two of us, we defeated Gina together, laying the groundwork for mutual respect and future friendship.

In my actual universe, a universe that doesn't work like a Disney movie, I didn't even have time to jump out of the way before the question of how to avoid the truck became irrelevant.

A brown and purple blur passed me. I felt the wind. Instants later (I didn't see how it happened), the truck turned, rolling off the road, and hitting a tree.

Only then did Jaclyn slow down enough that I could see her. She stopped in front of Gina, who stood in the middle of the road a couple hundred feet away from us.

I didn't hear what they said, but I saw Gina throw a punch. Jaclyn dodged it easily, and punched her, knocking Gina backwards.

Then Jaclyn blurred again, moving fast enough to get behind Gina before she fell into the street, hitting her hard enough to knock her back in the other direction.

It went on like that.

By the time they were done, Gina lay on the road, unmoving, and Jaclyn stood next to her, clearly ready to continue if she had to.

"I'm glad that's over," Rachel said.

She had floated down to us during the fight.

I turned my head toward her. "Is it over?"

"Completely," she said. "Once you got away, Gunter told Haley to smash through the floor next to the circle. It didn't take much to take out the rest of them. And everyone else took out the mechs Syndicate L sent, and they're on their way here. That's why Jaclyn came. Now all we have to look out for are the cops and the press."

"What about Mom?"

"Shaken up, but unhurt."

"What about..."

"Her powers? The block?"

"Both."

"I don't think she's got much for powers. It took a lot of effort just to make her hands and feet intangible. The block's gone though. All of it."

I thought about that for a moment. "Wow."

"I know."

Half-forgotten, Sean's voice surprised me. "You guys had your telepath mess with your mom's head? That's messed up. I thought it was sick when he went into my head, but that's beyond sick."

Rachel said, "Shut up, Sean. You don't know what you're talking about."

He opened his mouth to say something, but then he stopped. I assumed he'd just remembered my grandma's reputation.

Rachel's eyes drifted toward the "Deer Crossing" sign sticking out of Ray's chest.

"Were you making some kind of joke with that sign? If you were, it's not that funny. You know what would have been better," she said. "Dead end."