“Who’s here?” Piotr asked with a perplexed tone in his voice, confused by Thomas’s interjection.

“Cyrille!” Thomas shouted, trying to keep quiet while also conveying the gravity of the situation.

“He’s been held in a huge maximum-security cell for the past few weeks. They’re preparing to ship him out to the Dark Star Horizon prison while he awaits trial.”

“What? When are they shipping him?”

“Tomorrow morning . . .” Thomas paused, staring at the ground in reflection. “Welp, we did it! The Krokodil Crime Family is defeated!” Thomas smiled as he held up his hand for a high-five. One that was not reciprocated.

“We did not do anything! He’ll still be alive!” Piotr exclaimed.

“Yeah, but he’ll be in space. Everyone knows that once you’re in space, you’re basically dead.”

“Nobody knows that! Because it isn’t true. Thomas, if he gets away on that ship tomorrow, he can run the gang from prison! And that means that not only is the gang operating in effectively the same capacity as it was prior to his arrest, but he’s also invincible. We have to act now!”

“But we’re surrounded by guards! How do you propose we actually get to Cyrille? And how do we kill him? Because the last time I fought him, he fucked with reality and almost crushed my head like a watermelon.”

“This is true, I did see it . . . very humiliating, in all honesty. As for his Civ, I don’t know how it works. He never uses it, aside from when creating Chorus.”

“So, you want us to go into a big dark room and fight a guy whose abilities we don’t understand while surrounded by guards?”

“Well, the guards are easy.”

“How?”

“We sneak.” Piotr smiled, parting his beard as he felt immense pride in a suggestion that Thomas thought was lacking key details. And one that was now impossible as the solitary cell filled with light and the figures of several guards stood in the doorway.

* * *

User: Celine, The Oldest Krokodil

Civ: Breaking Point

The user is able to stop time for multiple points in space. Anything that is attached to those points is unable to move without ripping off the point it’s attached to, as though something is pinching it. Anything that moves through these points at high speeds is ripped apart as though they had been shot. This can be used to stop bullets in midair, rip apart objects moving quickly, hold a person in place, or rip apart their body if they try to run. The user needs to maintain a line of sight with these points, and they disappear upon the user blinking.

Blair was lying face-first on the cold, hard metal of the train station platform. She had just witnessed a sociopathic murderer kill a father of two, and then she had an interrogation contest with her before having her joints ripped apart by a Civ she could neither see nor understand. Overall, not her day.

“Don’t try to get up. It will be a lot more painful overall. My Civ, Breaking Point, is unbeatable.”

Blair felt blood spurt out her many bullet hole-sized wounds as she attempted to lift her face out of her own pool of blood. Her blood was all over the place, even on Celine’s jacket and in her hair.

“You do realize that everybody who says that gets their Civ beaten, right?” Blair struggled to get the words out but found that knocking down this bastard’s ego was worth it.

Celine responded to this by slamming Blair’s face into the metal floor with her long black hair. She felt as though her hands were tied to the ground by some unseen force, and her feet were stuck pointing in one direction no matter how much she moved her legs.

“God, this whole thing has given me a headache,” Celine said, standing up and taking a step back, rubbing her temples with her forefingers. Blair felt the points disappear as Celine turned away to deal with her migraine. She stood up slowly, partially because she wanted to sneak up on her and partially because she couldn’t move any faster. “I told you not to try getting up,” Celine shouted, whipping around, sending her piercing gaze directly into Blair’s soul.

She couldn’t move anymore. Any time she tried to move anything, she felt that part of her rip and tear slightly, folding in on itself or stretching away from her. Then, Celine kicked her in the ribs.

“I.” Kick. “Told.” Kick. “You.” Kick. “Not to fucking get up.” Her voice stayed constant as she broke all of Blair’s left ribs. And she didn’t blink once, either. When she did, Blair fell to the ground, screaming in agony, clutching her side. “Nobody is going to hear you. You’re a Civ user, aren’t you? Are you a friend of that Engels man?”

Blair didn’t—couldn’t—respond to Celine. The two heard the next train about to come around the corner. “No, you aren’t. You’re just some common bitch who thinks she’s special because her mommy bought her a computer chip.” Celine leaned down as she said that last part. “The next train’s coming. I can’t have you around for them to see, as much as I loved chatting with you. Goodbye,” Celine whispered, nudging Blair off the edge of the platform and onto the middle of the train track.

She was barely moving as Celine looked away and started walking up the stairs. A second later, the train had pulled up, no doubt crushing the young woman. And as it pulled away, Celine’s heart was filled with relief as she looked onto the tracks and saw nothing.