Summus Proelium

One of Jerry’s coils immediately lashed out toward Amber in an attempt to catch her as she leapt that way, only to pass harmlessly through open air as she teleported herself forward to a spot behind him. He had been anticipating that, and had two coils there ready to grab her. But just as moving north allowed her to teleport, pivoting around to face south once she arrived gave the girl access to her intangibility power. Once again, the coils passed right through her without any effect, while she swung her left fist out toward the side of his head. That, of course, would have done nothing if she stayed intangible. But she didn’t. Instead, the girl not only disabled her power in the middle of that swing, but pivoted on one foot to face east right before impact. That allowed her to become invulnerable so she could slam her fist into the side of his head as hard as possible without injuring herself, or even feeling anything from it.

Nor did she feel anything as one of his coils snatched hold of her extended arm while he was reeling. Amber was yanked off her feet and slammed down hard into the roof, then flung forward past the boy and straight into one of the nearby air conditioning units. She slammed into the thing hard enough to dent the metal box, but felt nothing given Jerry had kept her moving east that whole time. Probably because he was still stumbling back from that punch and wasn’t thinking about her power. Or maybe he just knew that two of her other three powers would’ve allowed her to escape more easily. And unlike Amber, he didn’t have a built-in compass constantly telling him which direction he was facing. That was one of her biggest advantages in any fight. Well, besides the actual powers themselves. Sure, the people she went up against might have known that she had four different abilities based on which direction she was moving, but actually keeping track of which was which, and how they should position her to benefit the most from it wasn’t easy. Especially not when you had just been clocked in the side of the head by an invulnerable (and incredibly angry) fist. All Jerry was trying to do in that moment was get her away from himself long enough to recover.

Well, he was going to be disappointed on that front too. After being flung to the east and bouncing off the partially-collapsed metal box (which was now making very high-pitched protesting sounds as the fan within grinded up against the sides), Amber had to move west to get back to where Jerry was. Which meant her superspeed was in play. At top speed, her body was a barely-noticeable blur. He tried to compensate by sending four different coils her way, blocking as many angles as he could. And at the very instant that he thought they were near the space she was about to run through, he detonated all of them, filling the air with a massive blast of concussive energy that blew away some of the nearby bricks lining the edge of the roof, sending dust out over the what turned out to be the edge of a construction site below.

What the explosions did not do, however, was harm Amber. Having superspeed meant she could see and react to things faster than almost anyone. She saw the coils coming toward her, and even noticed them start to expand as the energy contained within was transformed into concussive force. At the very last instant, the girl pivoted back the opposite way (east), once more shifting her power from super speed to invulnerability. The explosion filled the air all around her, but she was completely unharmed.

Jerry was already trying to follow up that opening by grabbing her around the waist with another coil, but Amber had been pivoting all the way through the explosion. Even as it was fading and the new coil attempted to wrap around her, she went from facing east to south. That shifted her power from invulnerability to intangibility, making the coil pass right through her like she wasn’t even there.

And still, she continued pivoting, going from originally facing east, to south, then west once more as soon as the coil was past. Which brought her super speed back into play. She used that immediately, sprinting off straight toward Jerry while he was still reacting to the one coil passing through her and the others completely missing with their explosions. Before he could recover, Amber sent herself just barely past the boy before spinning back that way. Midway through the turn, her power changed first to teleportation (which she didn’t use) then to invulnerability as she finished her one hundred and eighty degree turn. But she still had her momentum, so when her fist collided with his shoulder, it did so with much more force than she normally would have been capable of. She was fine, thanks to her power. But she felt the bone in his arm break under the blow, and heard him scream a loud curse as he was knocked down. “Gaaaaaah you fucking cunt!”

Amber didn't let up for a second, however. Even as the boy landed on his back, cradling his arm, she landed on top of him. One of his coils reflexively lashed out to slam into her from the side, but she was still invulnerable. Her left fist slammed into his face, then her right. “You son of a bitch!” Her scream filled the air while she punched his face for a third time in rapid succession. “You motherfucker!” She reared back before slamming down to drive her elbow into his face that time, knocking his head back against the roof. “He was my dad! You fucking killed my dad, you bastard!”

Finally, the boy managed to wrap a coil around her raised arm and yank her off him, sending her off to the north. Just before it could explode, she teleported away from the thing, landing right on the edge of the roof as she barely caught herself from falling.

Jerry was back on his feet, though staggering a bit with his arm hanging uselessly while he spat blood and sent four more coils at her back with his own inarticulate scream of rage. Amber, however, threw herself backwards. She was still facing north, but moving south so her intangibility kicked in, allowing the coils to pass through her, along with the boy himself as she kept going to plant herself directly behind him.

Even as a couple more coils appeared, Amber grabbed him by the shoulders, taking particular satisfaction in gripping his injured arm. An instant later, she teleported them forward until they were past the roof. They appeared in midair above the construction site as she shoved him down and drove her feet into his back to kick off the boy. He went falling toward the dirt below while she teleported forward and down once more. Her own teleportation took her straight to ground instantly, allowing her to appear just inside the construction site, near a table full of power tools and a port-a-potty.

As she’d expected, Jerry managed to catch himself on extended coils rather than hitting the ground directly. He towered several feet over her that way. His expression was partially obscured by the blood, but she could see the rage there, and knew it was reflected right back at him on her face. He spat once more before screaming, “Yeah, I fucking killed your dad! It was a fucking accident, you psycho cunt! I didn't mean to hit him, it just happened!” As he bellowed those words, the boy kept his body upright on two coils while sending three more lashing out toward her. “You really think that should ruin my life?!”

Amber, in turn, was already pivoting toward the west where the table was. Her super speed kicked in as she raced that way, allowing the coils to repeatedly slam into the ground behind her. She managed to jump over the table, grab a power sander on her way past, and twisted in the air to fling it toward his face. She missed that specific target in her hurry, but the thing still rebounded off his chest and made him fall against the partially-constructed building behind him. His coils faltered as he crashed down onto what would be the second story of the building once it was complete. Right now, it was still mostly open air, with a half-finished floor that still had a lot of work ahead of it.

After flinging herself over the table and twisting to throw that sander, Amber would have hit the ground. But her midair pivot had left her facing north, and she used that to teleport up to the same partially-completed second floor of the office structure.

“It ruined my life!” She finally screamed her answer back at Jerry, while grabbing a nearby two-by-four to hurl at him in the process. “My dad is dead, you evil fuck!”

One of Jerry's coils knocked the piece of wood aside and he snapped back at her while scrambling back to his feet, “Oh yeah, your life is so fucking ruined! You have super powers you stupid privileged cunt! You’re a fancy fucking superhero now! Your life is set! You’ll never have to worry about a job, or what to do with your life! Good, bad, whatever you wanna be, you can do it! You wouldn’t have any of that without me! You wouldn’t be anything without me! Do you have any idea how many people would push both parents off a bridge if they could get the powers you have, you ungrateful bitch?!”

Amber's response was a completely undecipherable scream as she launched herself that way. One of his coils appeared in front of her, already exploding. But Amber was already intangible, and she passed through it without issue before turning herself solid once more so she could grab his arms and yank them up. That made the boy’s scream of pain match her own more emotion-driven one as his broken limb was so roughly jostled, but Amber was already driving her knee into his stomach. As he doubled over, she pivoted around him and used her grip on his injured arm to fling him onto his back.

At least, that was the goal. But Jerry managed to get a coil back that way to catch himself while another grabbed her arm and sent the girl flying sideways into one of the support beams. She couldn't react quickly enough in that moment, and hit the metal beam hard enough to be briefly stunned while a shock of pain went through her side. Not that it was anything compared to the pain she had been feeling every time she thought about her father over all this time. And now his murderer was right there. Worse, she had been working alongside him, she had laughed with him, played games with him, ate with him! She went to the movies with the piece of fucking filth who killed her dad!

That anger, that rage, drove the girl to push herself up without paying any attention to the pain in her side. Even as Jerry used the coil he had caught himself on to straighten up, Amber was already leaping that way. She slammed into his back and took the boy down face-first against the floor. She felt his coil try to grab her, but twisted so she could be intangible, making the coil smack against his own back instead. Before he recovered from that, Amber’s motion carried her off his back and she returned to her solid form in time to bring her foot slamming into the side of his face. She paid for that, however, the coil that she had avoided by turning intangible exploded just then. The concussive force slammed into her, knocking the girl’s head back and sending her skidding over the floor. She went right off the edge and nearly fell to the hard ground below before managing to catch hold of a piece of metal attached to the nearby support pillar. It cut into her hand, but halted her momentum. It also twisted her around so she was hanging there, legs dangling while her upper half stayed partially on the open floor there. Not only was the ground itself twenty feet down, but in that particular spot a deep trench had been dug for various utilities and pipes to be put into the building, doubling the length of the drop. Her ears were ringing from the explosion. It seemed like Jerry could pack a bit more of a punch into his coils than he’d revealed to any of them until now.

Hanging like that, facing the same floor she had gone sliding off of, positioned Amber toward the south. So, as two more coils came straight for her, she turned intangible and dropped. Through the fall, she managed to swing herself forward a bit to land on the cement of the unfinished first floor rather than continuing on into the pit. Turning herself solid at the end of the drop, Amber had just enough time to look up before two coils slammed through the floor above. Jerry, making his entrance. Debris and dust went flying everywhere, while the boy flung one of his glowing energy coils that way.

Amber was already twisting herself to the left, activating her invulnerability as the coil exploded around her. In the next instant, she lunged to grab two flying bits of broken floor as they went flying past. Grabbing one in each hand, she pivoted the opposite direction to face west. That put her super speed into play, which she instantly used to go from one side of the lower floor to the opposite too quickly for Jerry to track. Reaching that corner, she hurled one of the bits of debris at the side of his head while simultaneously throwing herself up and backwards. That meant she was moving north, allowing her teleportation to kick in. Which she used to send herself toward the ceiling and as far back to the east as she could manage. There was a half-finished wall in that spot, which she planted her feet against to run sideways along, toward the west once more for her superspeed. There was only a short length of wall there for her to use, but it was enough. She brought herself up to speed before hurling the other piece of flooring she had been holding.

At that very moment, Jerry had just used a coil to smack the first incoming bit of debris away from his face. But he didn't see the second one coming from above. That one slammed into the side of his head and knocked him staggering sideways. Blood gushed from the wound and he bellowed in pain. Before he could recover, Amber launched herself backwards off the wall she had been running along. She had been moving west, so moving the opposite way as she flung herself off of it sent her toward the east. That turned her invulnerable, just as she sent herself flying straight at the boy. So he would feel the full impact, but she wouldn’t.

Or rather, he would've felt the impact, if he hadn't managed to catch her with a coil at the last possible second, flinging the girl past himself with a scream of frustration. She went flying hard into the nearest support pillar. The whole partially-finished building seemed to shake from the force of her impact, which would have killed her instantly if she hadn’t been invulnerable in that moment.

Jerry yanked her backwards, then slammed her into the support pillar again, and again, and yet another time. She was invulnerable moving in that direction, but the pillar wasn't. It began to break under the repeated impacts, while bits of metal and concrete flew off. At the same time, the boy was slamming his coils into other support pillars that were keeping the floor above in place, almost like he was having a temper tantrum. Before they snapped completely and brought the ceiling down on them, he used those same coils to keep the supports upright. Then he spun Amber around to face him, to face west so she had superspeed. But that didn't matter as several more coils caught hold of every limb as well as her head. She was held spreadeagle like that in midair, forced to look straight at the filth who had run over her father and hid it for so long.

Jerry was panting, and snarling from the effort of holding so many coils at once. “There… we go…” He smirked that way. “Can’t make yourself move in any other direction, and the one you’re facing doesn’t help when you can’t move, huh? Be as fast as you want while staying completely still in the air. So fucking useful.”

Amber said nothing. She simply hung there from the coils and glared at him, mouth tightly closed.

“I didn’t fucking mean to kill your dad, like I said,” Jerry insisted. “But fuck, it was pretty fun to see you freak out about it so much. Wah, I’m so sad cuz my daddy died. I’m gonna do everything I can to find the person who did it. Oh hey Whamline, wanna get a drink? Fucking hilarious.”

Amber said nothing.

Jerry scowled that way, trembling from the effort he was exerting. He had eleven whole coils in play at the same time, six of which were bracing the surrounding support pillars. “It wasn’t personal when I killed your dad, and killing you isn’t gonna be personal either. He was an accident, and you’re just a means to an end. You’re my way to get into the Scions. Or, you know, into Cup’s pants. Have you seen the way she fills those things out? You’re a dyke, right? You get it.”

Amber said nothing.

“You’re gonna die right here,” Jerry informed her. “My little friends there are gonna hold you just like that while I step out of the way, then I’ll let those support pillars go and watch that whole ceiling cave in right on top of you. The coils can hold you there, but they won’t protect you from that. You’ll be crushed. Won’t that be amazing? The girl whose entire schtick is movement powers dies as something heavy falls on top of her. I think Cup’ll like it. You know, as soon as she’s better.”

Amber said nothing.

“Goddamnit, fucking answer me, you self-righteous cunt!” Jerry took a step that way, his frustration evident. “You think you’re better than me? You think you’re smarter than me?!”

Amber… smiled. And then she spat out the piece of concrete she had caught with her mouth while he was slamming her repeatedly into the pillar. The small, almost inconsequential bit of debris went right into Jerry’s eye. He, in turn, staggered backward with a yelp. Which loosened his grip on Amber just enough for her to twist herself to the left. South, intangibility. She dropped out of his grip entirely, but turned tangible so he would feel the full effect of her foot colliding with his groin as hard as she could manage.

The boy collapsed with a strangled cry, losing control over his coils. They all exploded at once, doing irrevocable damage to the pillars they were propping up. Immediately, the ceiling above began to collapse, creaking and breaking under the pressure without the supports in place.

Even in as much pain as he was, Jerry recognized the threat. As cracks rapidly spread throughout the ceiling over their heads, he saw Amber there. His agony and exhaustion made it impossible to focus on creating any more coils. Instead, he tried to scramble forward on his hands and knees. He reached out toward her, his fingers barely inches away from the girl as he wheezed out a desperate, panicked, “I’m sorry, okay!? I’m sorry!”

Amber’s hands caught his as he reached for her. She held on tightly, meeting his gaze while speaking in a soft, flat tone. “Don’t tell me you’re sorry.

“Tell my dad.”

And with that, she released his hands, saw the look in his eyes, and teleported away from the collapsing ceiling… without him. As several tons worth of debris rained down on that spot from the entire unfinished second story collapsing, she sent herself northward just beyond the building. She heard his scream of rage, disbelief, terror, and finally nothing at all as he was buried under all of that.

As the dust settled, Amber turned to look that way. She stared at the rubble until her gaze found a limp, extended hand. It was still reaching out toward her as though pleading for help that would never come. The rest of the body was buried.

Staring at that hand for a long moment, Amber briefly thought it was rising. But no, she was falling, collapsing to her knees. Her vision blurred, then faded completely into tears as she doubled over.

That was how Dani found her. The other girl came sprinting up, stopping short at the sight in front of her as she interpreted it. Then she went down to her own knees in front of Amber and wrapped her arms around the other girl, hugging her tightly.

As soon as she felt Dani there, Amber returned the embrace. Her face was pressed into the girl’s shoulder, soaking her costume through with tears. “He’s gone… he’s gone…”

Dani opened her mouth, glancing toward the extended hand that was sticking out of the debris. But at that moment, she knew Amber wasn’t talking about him. Swallowing, she whispered, “I’m sorry about your dad. I wish I could have known him.”

Her words brought more tears, while Amber clung to her even tighter. A dam had broken, shattering apart as more than a year’s worth of grief came pouring out all at once.

Amber finally had the answer she had been looking for so desperately. Her father’s killer was gone. Jerry would never hurt or kill anyone else. Maybe someday that would be enough. Maybe she would eventually find some measure of satisfaction in his death.

But right now, she just wanted her dad. And that was something she would never have.