Whoever these two freaks were, they apparently weren't exactly impressed when Arleigh showed herself. Which, well, okay maybe that made sense. After all, she wasn't in her actual costume. They clearly didn't know who she was any more than she knew who they were.

  But hey, on the other hand, she had used her power. The big guy was still trapped in one of her bubbles, being battered by heavy winds, and she had just started pelting him with large hailstones. It really shouldn't have been hard for them to figure out she was Clime, even if she wasn't exactly dressed like she normally would be. So maybe they were just that stupid, or they were so new to town they didn't know how dangerous she could be if they really pissed her off.

  The hairy man caught in her weather bubble smacked the sides a few times, not that it did him any good. As long as she was still focused on the bubble, it would stay nearly impenetrable.

  Of course, the downside of that was that if she got distracted, the bubble would become very fragile and easily broken. And the strong woman was already walking toward her. She didn't seem to be in any sort of rush, simply casually strolling that way as though coming over to introduce herself. But Arleigh wasn't fooled, especially considering the way the woman reached out to rip a metal bus stop sign out of the ground. A chunk of concrete came up with it. She snapped the sign in half without any apparent effort, dropping the bit with the piece of sidewalk still attached.

  She finally spoke, her voice slightly accented in a way that made her sound Chinese or something. “Aww, xiǎo kě ài, there’s no need for such rude language. You don’t need to speak with such filth to make your point. Now, you seem like a fun girl to warm up with. Let’s hear what noises you can make before this is over, shall we?”

  With that, she abruptly threw the metal sign post like a spear. As soon as she saw the woman start to throw the thing, Arleigh focused on creating a new bubble around it. She could make more than one at a time, but taking her attention off the one that was holding the hairy man made it weak enough that he easily punched his way out.

  Unfortunately, Arleigh had bigger problems. Her bubble, the one that was supposed to be almost unbreakable as long as she was focused on it, had only just appeared around the flying, impromptu metal spear before immediately shattering as the thing passed right through it.

  It was just that quick. The woman had thrown the post hard enough that it simply broke the forcefield bubble like it wasn't even there. Before Arleigh even realized what was going on, before she could process how easily her bubble broke, the jagged metal cut through her arm, drawing a deep and bloody gash before breaking as it hit a lamp post. Most continued onward to embed itself in the brick wall behind her, while a smaller part went sideways and hit a nearby car.

  A shock of sharp pain went through the girl as she looked at her bleeding arm. There was no doubt in her mind that the woman could easily have thrown that thing through her chest or neck without even trying. She could have killed her in one move. But she chose not to. She had very deliberately aimed to cut her arm instead, simply to show her how dangerous she was. She was just playing with Arleigh.

  Intimidation, that was what the woman was going for. That much was obvious. She was trying to intimidate the girl, trying to scare her by showing off how strong she was. The bitch thought she didn't need to kill Arleigh immediately, because she didn't see her as any sort of threat.

  Well fuck that. These cocksuckers were going to regret not taking her seriously. They were going to find out what a terrible mistake they had made by not killing her when they had the chance. Arleigh wasn't just some pathetic amateur who had just Touched. She was one of the most dangerous and badass Fells in the city for a reason, and she damn sure wasn't going to be intimidated by a couple losers who had simply gotten a bit lucky with a strong power or two.

  The arrogant woman was still casually walking toward her with that uncaring body language. Meanwhile, the hairy man had completely dismissed her as anything that was even worth paying attention to. He turned his back to her and returned his attention to those cowering kids. Clearly, he had decided that his partner would deal with her just fine by herself. He didn't even need to watch. It was like the fucking bastard had simply put her out of his mind just like that.

  Okay, that really pissed her off. It was long past time to show these two how stupid they really were. Which started with putting a bubble around the woman. She had a good idea of how strong the bitch was, so she needed to call up something good. Lightning. She could make every weather effect possible in those bubbles. She was… iffy on lightning. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Lightning was difficult. But now it came easily. The bubble encased the woman, a bolt of lightning filled the thing with a blinding flash and a terrifying boom, and…

  And the woman was just there, completely unaffected, completely uncaring. Arleigh had just hit her with what amounted to her big punch, lightning bolt in a bubble, and she might as well have thrown dirt at her. With one sharp tap of her knuckles against the bubble, she shattered the thing from the inside. Arleigh was focused on it, it should have been almost unbreakable.

  But almost wasn’t totally unbreakable. This one collapsed at what amounted to a casual knock from the woman. She barely even broke stride, either for the bubble itself or the lightning. They didn’t stop her, they didn’t affect her. She hardly noticed either thing.

  As that fucking cunt kept walking toward her, Arleigh summoned a brand new bubble. This one was smaller, centered just around the woman's head as she was walking that way so casually. She didn't bother to focus on it any longer than it took to create the thing. The woman could break through it even if she did focus on maintaining it, so there was no point. This wasn't about keeping the bubble in place or actually stopping that bitch. It was about putting the bubble there very briefly, just long enough to fill it with an incredibly thick, dark fog. Even after the bubble broke, the fog was still there, just starting to expand out of the space it had been trapped in. That meant even as this arrogant cunt strolled forward, some of that thick fog was still screwing up her vision. She couldn't see what Arleigh was actually doing.

  And what the girl was doing was running right at her. Well, sort of. On the way, she created several smaller bubbles arranged like stepping stones leading up and over the woman. Arleigh focused on each one just as her foot came down on it so the bubble wouldn't break under her weight. She used the small forcefield balls like stairs, running up and over this bitch.

  Once she was directly over the woman's head, balancing on top of a five-foot wide bubble, Arleigh filled that bubble with very thick muddy water. Few people knew that she had that much control over the weather effects she created. She could make what amounted to a dark sludge that was barely liquid. The stuff amounted to very wet, tar-like mud. And just like that, as she flung herself off that bubble, Arleigh disabled the thing and left that mud to drop right onto the cunt’s face. No sooner would she step out of that fog, than her vision would be blocked all over again. And this time, it wouldn't be as easy as just walking forward to get out of it. The mud completely covered her mask, getting right into her eyes. That'd keep her busy for a second.

  Dropping down behind the woman, and well out of reach just in case she tried flailing around, Arleigh focused on the man who was reaching for those kids again. He obviously had something of a one-track mind, and she didn't want to think about what he intended to do to them. Yeah, she was a Fell, and proud of it. But those were little kids, damn it. This fucker absolutely needed to go down, with extreme prejudice and as hard and painfully as possible.

  Already rising to her feet after landing in a crouch, Arleigh ignored the pain from the cut in her arm. It didn't matter. She was going to make these cocksuckers feel so much worse before this shit was over. They were going to regret showing up here in the first place, let alone pissing her off. The sharp throbbing in her bicep that came whenever she moved it only made Arleigh more focused on making them pay. When this was done, both of these fucks would remember her name forever.

  Just as the hairy guy was about to grab one of those kids, Arleigh encased him in another bubble. This one immediately became as hot as she could make it, a sweltering rush of heat filling it like the Sahara desert on a particularly warm and dry day. No sooner was the man trapped in that hot bubble than she was already making it fly and backward, dragging him away from those kids before sending it flying as hard as she could at a wall. Her voice was sharp as she snapped, “How about you pay attention to me and keep your disgusting fucking mitts off--”

  Something slammed into her from the side. She couldn't even see what it was. It came so fast, and was practically invisible. It was like the thing was made out of glass, some sort of small creature not even half her size. It was running on all fours, a glass creature that crashed into the girl and knocked her sideways. The impact sent renewed pain through her as the cut in her arm was jostled. But it soon got worse, as the glass creature, whatever it was, bit into the same arm that had already been cut. The fucking thing had incredibly sharp teeth, easily piercing her skin and drawing a strangled curse of pain from the girl.

  Wait, what the hell was this? This glass thing, it almost seemed like Fragile’s power. But why would that kid be attacking her instead of these cunts? Was the kid really that stupid? And where the hell was she? Could she not see what was going on here? What the actual fuck!?

  That confusing and angry thought passed quickly through her mind even as she was reeling sideways while flinging her arm out with a cry of pain, trying to get the glass creature to let go. But it just held on tighter. Worse, two more came running up. One bit into her leg while the other jumped to slam into her stomach, making her stumble backward with a heavy wheeze.

  Then those glass creatures fell away from her. But it wasn't an improvement. They fell away because she was suddenly by the back of her neck and one arm before being bodily yanked up into the air. That Chinese woman had turned around while Arleigh was distracted and reached out to catch her with an easy chuckle. “You really are such a delightful little girl,” she announced, just before twisting her grip on the girl’s arm. It wasn't much, barely the equivalent effort that one might put into snapping a pretzel in half. Maybe not even that much. But Arleigh’s arm broke just like that. The woman had barely tried at all, and still managed to simply snap her arm just that easily, breaking it in a couple places while making a slight tutting noise.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The shock of that pain had only just barely started to fill Arleigh’s conscious mind before the woman casually threw her into a nearby car. It was the same car that piece of metal had hit, and the thing clattered to the ground nearby, knocked loose from the force of her hitting the car. All of which only made the pain worse. Her right arm was very thoroughly broken, while her left arm still had that bleeding gash in it from the cut and those deep teeth marks where that glass creature had bitten her. She hadn't even recovered from the second creature slamming into her stomach moments earlier. Oh, and there was the other bite from that third creature in her leg. And now she had been unceremoniously thrown into that goddamn car with such force she could feel the bruises forming already. She might have broken something else too with that.

  She was, in a word, hurt. Her mind was spinning, the pain overwhelming. Who the fuck were these people!? What the hell was going on? She was upside down, slumped on the ground while the agonizing pain washed over her, leaving it almost impossible to focus on anything. Everything hurt, every motion she made sent blinding agony through her body. Oww, oww, fuck!

  Before she could even start to orient herself, the woman grabbed her ankle. A cry escaped Arleigh, but the woman didn’t squeeze. She just gave a gentle pull, dragging Arleigh off the side of the car before leaving her flat on her back, staring up that way. It was so hard to focus through the pain, but after a moment she finally managed to hear the words that strong bitch was saying.

  “You are a delightful girl, as I said,” she repeated. “Stay down, remain where you are, and we will maybe come back to play with you another time, when you have more experience. You need practice before you’ll be ready to go up against us. Stay here, leave us to our work. You don’t need to be hurt anymore today. You certainly don’t need to die. Stay put. I’m certain you have a loved one or two who wouldn’t want to see you get any more harmed than you already are. You will be safe now, I will not make another move against you unless you leave me no choice.”

  With that flat order, she turned away from the crumpled girl and called out to her partner. “Are you quite well? That impact looked like it might have left a booboo or two. Now now, leave the girl, she’ll make quite the sparring partner at some point, but she’s just too weak and untrained for the moment. Call off your pets and let’s move on. You can grab one of the children to take with you to have fun with later, but only one. Choose wisely, you know you break your toys easily, and if you kill them too fast, you won’t have one to play with when you get bored again.”

  Through all that, Arleigh just continued to lay there, flat on her back. It hurt too much to try to move. Every part of her body seemed to be swimming in agony. Every breath she took sent another rush of pain through her, drawing a weak series of whimpers while she struggled to process what the woman was saying. Why was it so hard to think straight right now?

  By the time Arleigh lifted her head, the woman was gone. She had simply walked away after all that. Arleigh caught a glimpse of her casually turning a corner at the end of the street, apparently having completely dismissed the girl who tried to stop her from her mind. She just walked away, off to do whatever it was she had come here to do, to accomplish the next bit of damage on her list.

  But the man, he wasn’t leaving yet. Arleigh could see several of his glass-like animals lined up around her, watching her carefully. They looked like dogs, like glass dogs of various breeds. Arleigh could still feel the pain from their bites, and now they were just standing there, staring at her as though waiting for her to make the first move.

  As for the guy himself, their master apparently, he had turned to focus on the kids. His hand was moving back and forth between the two cowering children, and she belatedly realized he was doing the eenie meenie thing to choose which one to take with him.

  The thought made Arleigh shudder, which sent a jolt of pain running through her. The arm that cunt had so casually broken hurt so much. Her eyes closed and she let her head fall back against the pavement beside the wheel of that car. The sound of the man tauntingly using a children’s rhyme to choose which of the kids to subject to horrific things, and the soft, terrified cries from those kids themselves, hurt worse than her arm. But what was she supposed to do? The strong bitch had walked away, but this guy still had his nearly-invisible glass dogs surrounding her. To say nothing of the fact that every motion she made sent waves of agony through her.

  Stay down. Stay there. She didn’t have to move. She didn’t have to do anything. No one knew who she was. She didn’t know those girls, they meant nothing to her. They were nobodies, nothing. She could stay where she was, recover from this, and make both those cunts pay for underestimating her.

  The hairy man’s long black claw, extending from his index finger, touched one of the children’s chin. Then he was, yet again, interrupted. This time by a new forcefield bubble. But this one didn’t appear around the man himself. Instead, it surrounded the two girls, before flying up into the air. With a pair of surprised, confused squeals, the kids were flown as far away down the street as Arleigh could manage. She sent the bubble around the corner before losing sight of it. The thing would pop, letting them out.

  There she stood. Shakily, but she did stand. She was back on her feet with the angry, snarling glass dogs arrayed in a semicircle around her. But Arleigh’s focus was on the man himself. “I thought… I told you… to leave them alone.”

  Slowly, the man turned to stare over his shoulder at her. She saw his eyes through the ski mask, and they sent a renewed shudder through the girl. Then he chuckled, a distorted, twisted sound. “You think this changes anything? You think they matter?”

  As he said that, one of his glass dogs leapt at Arleigh. She was ready, quickly creating a bubble around the thing before sending it flying off with a thrust from the hand that wasn’t attached to a broken arm. Even as that bubble popped from the force of the dog colliding with the side of it when it was thrown down the street, Arleigh was creating a second bubble around two more dogs before sending them flying in the opposite direction.

  That was when the man himself came at her. He was quick, suddenly going from standing with his back to Arleigh and just looking over his shoulder at her, to crossing half the distance toward her. And he didn’t run at her like a man. He loped like an animal, twisting around to face the girl before scrambling toward her, hands slapping against the ground as he bounded that way like some sort of ape. Except he was moving so much faster than he should’ve been able to like that. His form was a blur of motion.

  In that last second, just before he could cross the remaining distance between them in one lunge, Arleigh caught him in a bubble. Okay, time to be done with this guy. Strong bitch might’ve been unaffected by the lightning, but this guy didn’t have any such protect--

  Something-- another one of those fucking dogs suddenly bit her leg hard. A fifth leapt in from behind Arleigh, teeth tearing into her side. She cried out, staggering as she lost focus. The attempted lightning bolt fizzled, and the bubble popped.

  The man slammed into her, knocking the wind out of Arleigh as he put her on the ground. A blinding shock of pain ran through the girl. Her broken arm lay twisted, even more damaged now. She was bleeding in multiple spots, and her ears were ringing from the force of her head colliding with the concrete when she was knocked down.

  “I asked you a question,” the man snarled, his foul breath reeking of rotting meat. “Do you think this changes anything? It doesn’t. It changes nothing. Those girls can leave, who cares? There’s thousands more just like them. I’ll just pick another one at random. Then another, then another. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find those two again, I’ve got their scent. But even if I don’t, it’s not like they’re important. They’re just meat, and I can always find more of that. But you?” His head tilted, and she could tell he was smiling down at her from behind that mask. “I would kill you, but she wants you alive. So stay down. Cuz you try me one more time and I won’t care what she wants. I’ll take your fucking throat out.”

  She tried to make a bubble, but it was so hard to focus. It was so hard to do anything at all, even think. The man’s words bounced through her head, bringing even more pain than the collision with the concrete had. Everything in her hurt. Pain was the only thing she knew. All while he simply chuckled and began to stand up.

  Her head turned, slumped sideways against the pavement. She could feel her blood dripping onto the concrete from multiple wounds. In the distance, she saw the overturned bus. She saw through the shattered windows, and looked straight at the pristine box with the model plane in it. Her eyes blinked, and she saw the first version of that model she’d had, burning in the trash can while she screamed and flailed against her brother’s iron grip.

  She blinked again, and saw the pristine model. The flames. The bus. The box. The trashcan. Her brother’s voice, the snarling of the glass dogs. The sound of this man standing up to leave her. He could leave. He would leave. After all that, he would walk away and leave her to get better.

  He would walk away to hurt other children.

  “Do you know what my dad told me?”

  Arleigh’s words made the man pause in the midst of standing. His eyes blinked at her. “What?”

  Still lying there, arm broken, bleeding in more places than she could count, dazed and only conscious through sheer will, the girl continued with a voice that was only barely audible. “I wanted to join the Minority. Not just this time. The first time. When I got my powers. I wanted to join the Minority then. He told me I wasn’t that kind of person. He told me I was selfish, that I wouldn’t fit, that I wasn’t what they were looking for. He told me my job was to be a good soldier for him, to be part of the family. He told me I wasn’t a good person.”

  She went silent then, long enough for the man to almost think she was done talking, before giving a weak little shudder as she continued. “And this time, when I told him I could join them just to spy on them, he said the same thing. He said I could never stand to live as a hero, that it’s not who I am.”

  The masked figure straightened a little, starting to respond. Then he seemed to realize that she wasn’t looking at him. Her head was still turned a bit, yet she wasn’t looking at the bus anymore either. Instead, her focus was on something just above and to the left of where she was laying. His own gaze rose, landing on the damage that piece of metal that had ricocheted off the lamppost had done to this car, the same one she had been thrown into. Before it was knocked loose by the impact of Arleigh’s body with the car, that jagged chunk of metal spear that had embedded itself partway through the small door to the gas cap, and into the cap itself. When it fell out, the thing left a hole, an opening leading right into the gas tank.

  An opening with a small bubble right in front of it. A bubble that flickered and faltered with each passing second. It was all she could do just to keep the bubble there. Focusing was so hard. Thinking was so hard. It was almost done now. It was almost enough.

  “Dad was right,” she murmured softly. “I couldn’t stand to live as a hero. It’s not who I am. But… I think I could stand to d--”

  The vile man started to pivot, started to throw himself away from her, and the time for words was over. That tiny bubble solidified for just a moment, long enough for Arleigh to summon a miniature lightning bolt before immediately disabling the bubble itself. The bolt shot through it and onward, down into the gas tank.

  It wasn’t the biggest explosion in the world.

  But it was enough to make sure that man would never fulfill his promise to harm another living child.

  Joke Tags: And Before Anything Else I Must Confirm That Arleigh Did Indeed Sacrifice Herself In This Moment To Kill Watchdog. It Is Not A Trick Or a Fakeout? She Has Died