Jonah licked his lips while doing his best to ignore the sounds coming from the parked van behind him. Beside him, the prick Theodore shook his head and tsked. “We ought to put a stop to the things he does to that Twelve guy.” For someone who dressed like a fancy TV lawyer, Theodore was dumb.

“You really want to be Thirteen, that’s your ticket.” Jonah cracked a smile while he rubbed at his scraggly goatee. Fuck Theodore. Guy thought he was some upright citizen. More like uptight dickhead.

“You’re a real specimen,” Theodore said. “Did you even have a job before Nallit came along?”

“Had plenty of jobs.” Not recently, and none for long. Jonah was no sucker to sacrifice all his time and his life for The Man. Especially not when he could make some nice cash with his little side hustle. “What about you, Mr. Suit?”

“I sold insurance,” Theodore mumbled.

The man probably wished he still worked at his old job. Jonah’s smile faded as Twelve’s screams rose to desperate shrieks. Any action that might anger Nallit was off the table, so no going back to their old lives. They were Nallit’s boys now.

As if the thought had summoned him, the door to the van rolled open to let their master climb out. Nallit blew a kiss to the whimpering occupant before slamming the door closed. “Are you turd lickers ready for a test? It’s a measure of your commitment to little ole me.”

“You say ‘jump’, I say ‘how high’.” Jonah shifted uncomfortably at the dead expression that greeted his words.

“You are such a pathetic creature, Jonah. I had such high hopes when I saw you smacking around a kid in public, but your spine only functions when you ain't scared." Nallit steepled his fingers. "Now, onto the challenge. We're going to walk through a hospital ward and you two are gonna kill some folk. Here's the ironic wrinkle. You're not killin' the patients, you're killing staff. Ten points per doctor. Two points per nurse. One point for any other hospital staff."

Theodore groaned. "This is too much . . . ."

"I know! Too much is totes my favorite amount." Nallit looked back and forth between the two of them. "At the end of twenty minutes, the winner gets nothing. The loser . . . drum roll, please . . . gets neutered!" Nallit cackled as if he had made a joke.

Theodore put a hand to his face as if to stop vomit. Jonah licked his lips some more.

Nallit pulled a cell phone from his pocket. "I'm gonna time you twits on this. The hospital is that way. You are going to track your own points, then I will verify them by news reports. You don't want to lie to me. Let me reiterate that. You really, really, really do not want to lie to me. Testicular removal is not the worst punishment I can come up with. Get your timer apps ready so we can synchronize our countdown."

As Jonah took out his phone, he extended his corona to feel around him. He didn't have the other two talents, so he was at a bit of a disadvantage compared to Theodore, who had both kinetic and noetic. When Nallit yelled for them to start their twenty minute timers, Jonah used his corona to seize Theodore's stomach and squeeze it in a harsh twisting motion. The man, already on the verge of being sick, collapsed to his knees as he projectile vomited onto the parking lot surface. Jonah launched himself into the air before any retaliatory strike could be readied and flew towards the hospital.

This would have to be done in spectacular fashion. Lots of bodies. All of them obviously murdered by him. Jonah might not be the bravest person or the smartest person, but he was no fool. Nallit would not be taking his manhood or turning him into a torture victim. No sir. Not if he had to murder a thousand people and get named America's most wanted.