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    Revolution's Rise
    Revolution's Rise
    Revolution's Rise
    Ebook433 pages6 hours

    Revolution's Rise

    By A.R. Knight

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The bomb did more than shatter a stadium: it shook the world. As the smoke settles, Celice heads off to Europe on the bomber's tail, vengeance hot on her mind. She has the tools and the tortured soul to make sure her target suffers. It's a no-holds-barred hunt, one that might carry a price higher than Celice is willing to pay.

    Back in Chicago, Wexley takes the helm with vicious speed. The revolution's been kick-started, and he means to carry it out, no matter the consequences. How to defeat a world-conquering super-powered team? The answer drifts by outside his office window, and Wexley puts a plan into motion.

    That plan sends new Paragon Calvin into a fight for his life as he and Kat are targeted from multiple sides. Friends turn enemies as a strange disappearance tugs the Paragon and the tracker in over their heads. Always a loner, Calvin's finding that he might care more for another than himself for the first time ever . . . right when he might lose her.

    REVOLUTION'S RISE continues the sci-fi superhero saga started with PARAGON'S FALL. Suffused with fast-paced action, fantastic abilities, and fresh characters that'll keep you turning the pages, REVOLUTION'S RISE is a globe-spanning adventure worth taking.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherA.R. Knight
    Release dateApr 19, 2022
    ISBN9781946554772
    Author

    A.R. Knight

    A.R. Knight spins stories in a frosty house in Madison, WI, primarily owned by a pair of cats. After getting sucked into the working grind in the economic crash of the 2008, he found himself spending boring meetings soaring through space and going on grand adventures.Eventually, spending time with podcasting, screenplays, short stories and other novels, he found a story he could fall into and a cast of characters both entertaining and full of heart.Thanks, as always, for reading!

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      Book preview

      Revolution's Rise - A.R. Knight

      CHAPTER 1

      THE GNAT AND THE ELEPHANT

      A world free for the taking, and the faces around Wexley worried about stocks. Blown up and projected across the fine windows watching Chicago’s blooming skyline, the visage collective pooled their vast industrial, technological, and people powers to whine about how detonating a stadium filled with Paragons was bad for business.

      You signed up for this, Wexley spoke over a rant he hadn’t been listening to. Every one of you knew what Zhan-Yo wanted. Now it’s here and you’re looking at the opportunity like it’s going to kill you.

      Apparently it might! said Akash Reddy, worldwide provisioners purveyor, his grocery chain all too annoyed by Paragon price regulations.

      A few weeks ago, Akash had been right there calling for a revolution. Now the man had sweat on his brow and eyes darting around the camera, reading about one disruption after another to his precious perishable cargo.

      Stability isn’t a common trait in revolutions, Akash, said the man’s opposite, Adriana, a spit and vinegar woman, some fashion magnate Wexley had ignored up until today’s meeting, when she’d decided to stand on the right side. We know what comes at the end of all this.

      Do we? Akash countered. I thought we wanted a negotiation, a chance for equity between all of us. How is that possible now?

      It was never possible, Wexley said, projecting from his desk. A small line in the surface near his elbow reminded him of the time, how much he’d rather be anywhere else. He stood, a signal this dull affair would be brought to a close. We do, however, have a chance at something greater. Why share what we can have for ourselves?

      Not his best ending, but Wexley didn’t give the assembled heads a chance to dispute it. With a wave, Wexley sent the call into the digital dustbin, giving him back his skyline. One marred in seconds with a new ring.

      Allow it, Wexley said, moving to the room’s center. The coming power play demanded something more than a desk and a chair. Adriana, where have you been hiding?

      The most interesting person on the meeting fuzzed back in, though her straight lips and frozen eyes showed she had zero interest in playful banter. Fine then. Wexley could do without.

      He had for a very long time.

      Don’t excuse what happened on that call for patience, Adriana said. I’m not defending you for my health, or for yours. The stadium was a disaster.

      It was not my idea, Wexley said, grimacing as he did so.

      Leaders shouldn’t grovel, shouldn’t make excuses.

      And?

      I don’t know where he is, Wexley answered. If he’s still alive, Zhan-Yo hasn’t tried to contact me. His accounts are frozen, his cards tracked. Either he’s dumped every connection he has, or the man’s a victim of his own success.

      Which leaves a very important company without a leader.

      Wexley strode towards Adriana’s head, the projection making her neck-up picture as large as Wexley’s body. Nevertheless, he took on the huge stare without a flinch.

      There isn’t a vacuum here. Our plan continues. When Adriana didn’t interrupt, Wexley allowed himself to move on. No major test of wills today. As the Paragons regroup, we will approach them with an offer to share power.

      A return to democracy, as Zhan-Yo wanted?

      A return to proper leadership, as we all deserve. When the Paragons refuse, we’ll be left with no other choice than to ratchet up the conflict.

      Outside, the shimmering spring sun flickered as a dark oval crossed by the windows. Bigger than a pod and kept aloft by humming jets, the machine didn’t notice Wexley’s scowl, didn’t feel his urge to reach out and slap it from the sky.

      How will you do that? Adriana asked. Another bomb? More innocent lives fed to your campaign?

      Wexley followed the drone, walking along his windows as it floated by, Zhan-Yo went for bombast. I prefer results. Which presents a problem, Adriana.

      What?

      Results are expensive.

      As if you need the reps.

      Wexley gave the woman a nod, Too much from any one company’s accounts would be noticed. The Paragons might be in trouble, but they are not dead. Not yet.

      If Wexley’s mordant words bothered Adriana, she didn’t show it. Instead, she continued her trademarked stare, making Wexley wonder just what she was looking for.

      Tell me what you need and you will get it, Adriana said. I can work on the others too. But Wexley, we gave Zhan-Yo a long leash because we knew him. You, we don’t. Damage us, and you will get no second chance.

      Again, Wexley went with the humble nod.

      If this doesn’t work, Adriana, I doubt I’ll be alive to ask forgiveness.

      Wexley canceled his afternoon, sweeping from the office in a rush after the call. He stood at the elevator’s front, seeing everyone who had to slide around him as the lift took its journey down to the first floor and beyond. All those people giving him nods, smiles, believing their toils would give them their paychecks, would give them satisfaction. They depended on Wexley, and while he didn’t depend on them, he would save them anyway.

      In the not too distant future, these people carrying their files, checking their Tamas to see what new regulation the Paragons deployed today, would find themselves freed from their genetic chains. Opportunity would once more live within their efforts, not with DNA’s random luck.

      The elevator reached the parking deck’s lowest level, well beneath the streets and deserted. The designers had built the structure for a society that no longer existed, with cars dominating the streets. Now everyone took trains, buses, pods as the Paragons limited traffic in the city. The empty concrete rows nagged, efficiencies lost as buzzing lights left a ghostly glow on the gray.

      One space sat occupied, however. Backed into a corner, a black van bedecked with corporate logos. Its tires were flat, but Wexley made sure the van sat ignored nonetheless. If anyone asked him, Wexley declared the vehicle Zhan-Yo’s, entrusted to the garage for safe-keeping while the fugitive leader fought for his dreams.

      Nobody dared ask why Zhan-Yo’s van had its locks tied to Wexley’s Tama, why the van’s charge cable stayed plugged in if it wasn’t going to be moved. Taking one last look around the garage and confirming its emptiness—rumbles came from above as those few drivers made their lunchtime exodus—Wexley swiped and tapped a particular code on a particular program. Cameras dotting the garage would blink into a preset roll, one showing a lonely van with zero humans, zero activity.

      Anyone watching, anyone wondering why Wexley had disappeared from the tape, would know better than to ask. If they didn’t, then Rhimes would solve the problem in a permanent fashion.

      His invisibility attained, Wexley popped the van’s rear doors. There, cleaned and pressed, polished and perfected, sat an array Wexley had left alone for several days. Ever since that tracker, Kat, had attacked him on some rooftops not all that far from here. Wexley had adopted a discretionary stance, had waited to see if his enemy might make some mistake.

      Enemy.

      Wexley laughed, a low chuckle as he traded his business suit for its more lethal partner. Kat Collins, a famed tracker in Chicago but nowhere else, had about as much to do with Wexley as a gnat did with the elephant it landed on. She’d disrupted his game, had clued in the Elementals to their true threat.

      And when he’d made her an offer any sane human, any normal human would take, Kat had rejected the overture and put a fatal end to a whole strike team in the process.

      The woman wasn’t a threat to Wexley’s operation. No, definitely not. But she annoyed him nonetheless, had brought Wexley near his own demise on that roof, Paragon drone approaching. Insults like that couldn’t be left standing, or they would expand like a gas, taking up all the air in Wexley’s head until nothing remained but boiling vengeance.

      The bullies in grade school had felt the same. His first manager, delivering workplace edicts like some half-assed dictator, had felt the same. Countless bad dates, frustrated dealmakers, and unfortunate passers-by had pushed Wexley the wrong way and, as a result, had to be cleansed.

      Not always dead, though the weapons Wexley slotted into the suit’s belt and thigh holsters were capable of such an outcome, just repaid. Wrongs righted, scales evened, whatever term you chose. Once Wexley had done that, once he’d put Kat in the same way she’d put him, then that pressure would be gone and he would be able to focus once again.

      Focus on Adriana, and the plan whispering in his mind.

      What’s her status? Wexley spoke into the mic as he walked Chicago’s streets heading west. Cloaked in a thick ankle-length trench, head covered by a deep blue knit, Wexley looked like somebody to avoid. When eyes caught a flickered hilt, the long gun’s barrel showing from its back strap, people swerved far away. I’m curious.

      The words hit with vague precision, meaning everything to their target and nothing to the listeners. And there were always listeners.

      Off the board, Rhimes replied instantly, though Wexley hadn’t scheduled a call, hadn’t done anything except flip his Tama to a certain channel and started talking. There’s a meeting going on now, something’s pulled them all off the streets.

      We don’t know what?

      Feed’s been dark lately.

      Wexley took in a deep breath, feeling the chill air lace his lungs. Around him, a growing crowd waited for a light to change and offer a chance to cross to the other side. Chicago’s early spring had black snow clinging to life along the streets, muddy puddles like genetic soup that’d give way to new life in a month. Water dripped from the raised train lines up above, mingling with the steady whoosh as tires melded with wet asphalt.

      Blocks away, a particular sound bounced between the buildings. One that would’ve made Wexley smile if he cared to. The protests at the Paragon’s Chicago headquarters continued apace, a rage against the violence in the city, violence Wexley himself played no small part in perpetrating. Disorganized and decimated by Mynx, the North America’s lone remaining Champion, Chicago’s own Paragons lacked a strong leader, lacked organization.

      Another shadow floated by above, the drone washing its scanners over the crowd as the light changed and feet began their shivering shuffle. Without heroes on the streets, the drones filled the space. Unlike a Paragon, with their powers and their personality, the drones operated on a brutal scale. They offered little understanding and harsh results, giving the protestors more ammo for their fights.

      Such a tragedy.

      What other options do we have? Wexley asked. I’m near Michigan now.

      Early for you, isn’t it?

      I pay you for your competence, not your opinions.

      If you want my competence, you’ll value my opinions.

      Wexley grinned now. Ah, how novel it was for anyone to stand up to him. Rhimes had earned the right, though. Had powered Wexley from one scheme to the next, even if the man had failed to bring Kat to heel.

      Then what would you recommend? Wexley said, feeling a breeze and turning north.

      While Michigan Avenue itself felt too clogged with visitors, the streets alongside the famed way offered up enough buzz. Life happened here: people, ordinary people grinding out a living without pretensions. They sold their gadgets, fitted their suits, or cooked up the salivating smells now embracing the air. None needed a Paragon’s protection, none needed some super-powered monster to demand their loyalty.

      Chicago had thrived for centuries without their interference, and it would again.

      "I’m assuming no isn’t an option?" Rhimes said, doing nothing to hide a sigh.

      I’m already out. Calendar’s cleared.

      Then there’s a loner. Looks new too.

      Perfect.

      Rhimes beamed the coordinates, the construction site popping up on Wexley’s Tama and, fifteen minutes later, at his feet. The building looked like a new condo structure, advertising an urban farm as a central core. Fresh produce every day, all year long for buyers. Wexley snapped a picture, figuring he might look into a move if the building delivered on its promise.

      A fence girded the site, with a sole entry gated by a Tama lock. Rhimes delivered again, sending the right codes to Wexley’s device and letting him scan in. He left the door ajar behind him, stepping into the shell. Outside walls paneled over with protective plastic served to cut Wexley off from the street, from any prying eyes.

      No insulation would mean nothing to hide any noise. This would have to be a quiet affair.

      Not a problem.

      I put out the alert, Rhimes said. You want back-up?

      Will I need it?

      No.

      Then you have my answer.

      Wexley watched as the Paragon picked his way into the building. The young man sported the Paragon’s trademark blue and white outfit, built up to provide winter warmth. Going by the clean shave, the close cut, this one had bought into his job. The Paragon even stopped at the sight of Wexley’s hulking coat, curled up over his long gun in a reasonable fake for a sleeping person, and reported the find.

      Looks like it might be homeless, the Paragon said, loud. The gate was open. Construction crew might’ve left it that way.

      Hoping, maybe, to wake up the vagabond. Spark a conversation and get the person out from the site, enroll them in some plan to turn them from a ruffian into a Paragon-produced person. How nice.

      Wexley relaxed into the moment, letting Adriana, the countless to-dos clogging his productivity apps fade away. They would be waiting for him after. Now, now was about nature. The predator and prey instinct driving the Earth’s primal species into combat with themselves.

      The Paragon received his marching orders and went towards the coat. Any hesitance vanished with the perceived solution, the certainty that came with a clear objective. Wexley moved too, rolling his feet as he stepped from behind his chosen wall.

      He made no sound, and the Paragon took no notice.

      Hey, sir, you hear me? The Paragon said to the coiled coat as he approached. You alive under there?

      Wexley slipped the small baton from its holster. Thumbed the switch activating a nub on the weapon’s end. Step after step took him closer. The Paragon kneeled over the coat, reached to move it away. Wexley could dash forward now, hit the Paragon from behind and end the struggle before it even began.

      But why ruin the fun?

      Instead, Wexley watched as the Paragon shoved the coat aside and took a long look at the rifle beneath. The Paragon brought his hand to his chin tapped twice. Wexley waited, wanted the turnaround, that sweet moment when the Paragon realized he’d been set up.

      A hand landed on Wexley’s shoulder, spun the man around. The Paragon, somehow, stood behind him, wagging a finger.

      Damn powers. Turning a good fight into a random grab bag.

      Wexley swung the baton, blinked as the weapon swiped right on through the Paragon’s form as if Wexley had attacked some colored fog. When the baton came out the Paragon’s right side, Wexley stumbling when his swing hit zero resistance, a kick took out Wexley’s right knee.

      Wexley fell forward, pulling into a roll to buy himself some distance. The move let him feel out his knee, judge that no tendons had ruptured, no caps dislocated. Healthy enough, Wexley pushed himself up, sweeping the baton around behind him as he rose.

      What’re you doing, man? The Paragon, all two of him, asked from a safe meter away.

      What’s it look like? Wexley stared at the two copies.

      He’d seen powers like this before. Paragons that could duplicate themselves, or make images. But the copy had put a real hand on Wexley’s shoulder, had been solid for a moment and like air the next. So what were the rules for this one?

      The gun on his thigh called to him. Wexley pushed the urge away. Any gunshot would bring drones, and while Wexley didn’t fear a single Paragon, those metal monsters would tear him apart without much effort.

      No, this battle would be close, soft.

      I’m telling you now, you should drop that thing and give it up, the Paragon said. I know you’re dressed like you’re some big shot, but the squeeze is on. My friends are coming, and they will not like it if you’re not listening to me.

      Five minutes, Rhimes said in Wexley’s ear, listening in on the conversation. The protest is slowing down Paragon dispatch.

      More than enough time, then, so long as Wexley didn’t play the banter game.

      Taking two quick lunges, Wexley stabbed the baton at the Paragon on the right. Like before, the tip went in and found nothing, though the Paragon recoiled away. His mirror image took the opportunity to swing in a punch, a blow Wexley blocked with his left forearm. The hit felt solid, so Wexley whipped the baton left, trying to score a shocking tap on the Paragon’s shoulder.

      Again the baton struck nothing, and the blocked blow on Wexley’s forearm vanished too. Wexley caught his own stumble as the Paragon backed away, the right image ducking low for a gut shot. Rolling the baton in his right hand, Wexley jabbed it back down, hitting the right image’s shoulder just as the Paragon’s punch hit Wexley’s stomach.

      Nothing, no ripple, no ache from a socked spleen. The right Paragon flashed to nothing as soon as Wexley nailed a hit. The two sides danced back a step, the Paragon holding a frown, hands up and ready on both bodies. No longer the cocky fighter but a wary adversary.

      Wexley took the clue and advanced, the running clock ticking in his head. He feinted with the baton, darting towards the right image but sliding his right foot in the process, ready to lunge left. The Paragon fell into the same response, leading in with the left form. Betting that he’d solved the Paragon’s riddle, Wexley turned the baton and stuck the left body.

      This time, the baton bit in, its flash lighting up the shock on the Paragon’s face. Those wide eyes mingled with twitching muscles as the Paragon collapsed to the ground, the image on the right disappearing as if someone had turned it off.

      One trick, Wexley said, flipping off the baton. That’s all you had. He knelt down, reached for the Paragon’s neck. A hold, a twist, and this one would be dealt with. At least yours will be quick.

      No time, Rhimes voice cut in. They’ll be on you. Leave.

      Lucky kid.

      Wexley broke to his feet fast, dashing towards his jacket, the long gun, and slipping them on, returning to his disguise. As he slipped on the knitted cap, Wexley left the building, sparing no look, no word for the Paragon lying, breathing and beaten, on the concrete floor.

      CHAPTER 2

      GIN AND TRACKING

      Shorts, a doubled-up t-shirt to fight the London chill, and new sneakers etching a blister into her heels as she pounded pavement through Hyde Park’s stately greens. Celice caught idle glances as she ran, late afternoon urbanites heading for a pub, a restaurant, or just home. Water splashed with every contact, doing Celice a favor by making people clear from her path.

      And letting the man, also jogging, as he did every day around this time, stay in sight.

      Celice had left Mynx’s meeting room in LA, ditched the sob-fest and went to work. If the Champions wanted to play the PR game while the man responsible for detonating a stadium went free, that was their choice. She made a different one.

      Her Paragon access let Celice yank the footage from the prison break, where a goon squad busted Zhan-Yo from Mynx’s supposedly secure facility. That fancy floor-wide elevator and Mynx’s drones hadn’t done crap, but at least the Champion had top notch surveillance. Celice absorbed the recording on the flight from LA to New York, then, back at Bastion, she pulled the data on every face she could find on Mynx’s cameras.

      Zhan-Yo’s adopted crew didn’t comprise criminals, up until the break-in anyway, but instead people with large holes in their past. Paragon records, compiled with ruthless thoroughness, broke down their lives into nuggets Celice devoured while surfing the sky from New York to London.

      She’d picked the European city because damn near every one of Zhan-Yo’s group had bought tickets and departed that way in the weeks since the explosion. The flights had come at different times, from different starting points—these people weren’t total novices to spy-craft—but the same destination made it easy to trace.

      Easy, at least, for a super-powered group covering the planet with its all-seeing enterprise.

      The man took his usual left, heading towards the park’s east exit. Celice followed, maintaining distance and taking the occasional cross-cut along a muddy detour to throw off any ideas. Her zigs and zags moved her parallel to the man, kept him within eyeshot. He hadn’t deviated yet, and Celice had no reason to think he would.

      Another workday, another routine.

      Reaching the park’s end, the man did a double-check for traffic. London played the same game as other Paragon-controlled cities—meaning, every city—and held back cars for broader transit, giving way to mag-lev rail, buses, and vans. Nonetheless, this deep in London’s heart, randomness abounded, with wealthier citizens taking their cleared pods for jaunts or specialty transports delivering their desires. Enough, anyway, that the man had to wait several long heartbeats for a truck to roll on by, batteries whirring and misty water spraying.

      Celice caught up, hung a few meters back. She paced, feet pounding the walk without moving, trying to seem every bit the impatient runner not wanting to stop. Her Tama, tied to her left wrist, vibrated. Another call, another message, another request from Mynx’s Paragon peddlers trying to find where Celice had gone, what she was up to.

      As if the Champion didn’t have better things to do with her time.

      An older gentleman standing to her left shifted his umbrella to block the now-drizzle from landing on Celice’s already sweaty, short hair. Beneath his cloth cap, the man gave her the slightest nod. Celice returned a tight smile, kept her feet going. The truck motored on by and the group shuffled forward.

      If any one place had surveillance capacity matching the Paragons, London was it. Cameras littered street corners, giving a person with the right permissions access to scan the city from a desk. Celice, holed up in a rented apartment, called in favors and digitally scoured London’s streets for a match.

      And now that match ran along ahead, passed stores shutting for the evening and others opening. Shifts changed, laughter mingled with shouted conversations, and Hyde Park’s nature lost its scents to kitchens warming up for dinner. The park’s simple clarity likewise fell to ad banners and brighter city lights, a sensory shift Celice tried to ignore as she treaded after her target.

      Too close.

      Her father’s words whispered in Celice’s mind. Aegis had it right. Those meters splitting Celice from her objective weren’t enough. If the man bothered to look behind, if he felt Celice’s eyes crawling his back, searching out any possible weapons hidden in his baggy track pants and loose jacket, he’d catch her out against the shambling, coat-covered crowds.

      But her father didn’t know everything. He’d preach one stealth lesson after another only to fall back on his fists the minute something didn’t work quite right. An easy instinct when Aegis could take a thousand hits and not feel a one.

      Celice, though, couldn’t fall back. Not here, when intersections and alleyways split off every other second. If the man’s route through Hyde Park remained static, he took different options off this street every day. Celice suspected he always circled back to the same destination, but she never found the evidence, not for so many long hours watching fuzzy footage.

      Celice bit back a laugh as she worked around a soggy tour group: Aegis wouldn’t have spent a minute on the recordings. He would’ve hit the streets, pulling rank to get what he wanted or smashing through enough walls until he found it.

      The man broke right, a casual turn onto a thin alley marked by dumpsters and dripping fire escapes. Celice approached, slowing into a walk, hands on her hips as if her jog had caught up with her little lady lungs.

      You’re unarmed.

      The shorts, the t-shirts, the shoes left little space to hide a weapon. Celice had left the apartment without planning to get in a fight. Look like a runner, figure out where the man went whenever he ditched the streets for London’s alleys and then retreat back home to prep the next stage. Now that she’d come this far, however . . .

      Turning the corner, Celice spotted the man halfway down the alley. He leaned on a drain pipe, one leg lifted up into a stretch. People shifted along behind her, one bumping Celice forward into the alley’s mouth. The man didn’t turn around at the scuffle, hadn’t seen Celice at all, but she had nowhere to hide if he did.

      No way to act casual.

      Aegis would like this part. Celice could retreat, could dip back into the crowded press and make her way home, regroup and try again. If she’d been running this like all the Paragon ops she’d supervised over the years, Celice would’ve pulled the plug. She had time then, she had time and super-powered fighters on her side.

      Another night spent without progress in that apartment, with its bare walls and sparse furniture and gin bottles washed down with lime and little else . . .

      Celice picked up the jog, heading down the alley with a smile spreading, a harmless someone who knew they’d be seen.

      Sorry, Celice said when the man heard her footsteps and turned her way. The streets are so crowded, saw you came this way and thought maybe it’s a good route.

      It serves, the man said, holding his stretch and waiting for Celice to go on by.

      Make the first move.

      Waiting let the enemy take control. Celice ground her left heel, turning in the alleyway and delivering a sharp kick to the man’s stomach. The sneaker connected, air blowing out as the man’s eyes bugged and his lungs evacuated their contents. The stretch and his single-legged stand meant the man should’ve fallen to the ground, should’ve given Celice an easy avenue to a pin and interrogation.

      Instead, the man kept his hand on the pipe. The hold let him drop the stretching leg, his feet getting their grip as Celice stepped into a follow-up jab right where she’d kicked. Another wave at the man’s stomach and she might get him nauseous, might bruise a kidney and take him out quick.

      But Zhan-Yo didn’t hire scrubs.

      The man knocked away the attack, coughing as he did so, trying to suck in air. He back-pedaled, looking to buy space, give his longer reach a chance. Celice couldn’t let him, so she pressed ahead, using the man’s bulk as a big target. This time, she varied her strikes, blinking hands and elbows high and low, looking for a vulnerability.

      Her opponent took the hits when they came, blocked the ones he could, still recovering from the kick. His stance, growing straighter and more settled by the second, showed Celice’s hits to his shoulders, to his knees, and one good nail gouge to the cheek, weren’t doing enough.

      The swing came off a block, the man slamming down his left elbow to deflect a jab then thrusting the fist right at Celice’s eyes. She jerked aside, but not far enough, the blow catching her right temple and sending her back two steps. A bruise there, for sure.

      And more to come, going by the man’s brawler posture. He had his hands up, feet on their toes and bouncing. Worse, a gleam played on a face ready and eager for the fight.

      Don’t know who you are, where you came from, but you picked the wrong alley today, the man said, accent placing him as a Canadian Northwoods product.

      Keep him off balance.

      Nope, you’re the man I’m looking for, Celice sprang the words with a spirited smile, an earnest look that threw the man for a fractional second.

      Long enough.

      Kicking through a puddle, Celice sent dirty drops raining at the man, following behind them with a sidestep to the right. Her rival pushed through the trick, trying for a long-reach hit that depended on Celice sticking to the ground, like a normal fighter might.

      But Celice, daughter of the world’s foremost Paragon, wasn’t a normal fighter.

      She planted her left foot and jumped, heading at a hard angle towards the alley wall. The leap brought her so far right that the man’s swing fell short, his follow-through bringing him right into Celice’s rebound. Her right foot touched the wall a half-meter up and Celice kicked off, reversing direction and punching forward with the added momentum.

      The man couldn’t get his own swing back in time to block, taking Celice’s shot right on the chin. His turn to stumble. Celice kept on forward, staying on her own feet after the wall jump and using the chaos to grab the man’s left leg, twisting it as he recoiled. An undignified plop followed, the tracksuit hitting sopping ground. The man’s head came next, cracking on the cobblestones.

      Celice leaned over, ready to lay an elbow on the man’s neck if he tried to rise. His eyes, though, were clouded and closed, and no longer read reality. Instead, Celice planted two fingers on the man’s neck and watched his chest. A pulse beat, the lungs worked their magic. Not dead, unconscious for who knew how long.

      Hey! A woman shouted at the alley’s head, and Celice looked back to see an older couple standing there, watching the evening’s improvised entertainment. What’s going on here then?

      Who knew how much they’d seen, how much they’d believe, but a simple excuse would work for most people: The average person wouldn’t want their daily comforts disrupted by Paragon business or bloody street fights.

      He slipped while we were practicing, Celice called back. Get an ambulance!

      She turned back to the man, running her hands through his jacket, looking for something, anything. Getting a Tama off a wrist would take time and tools she didn’t have here, and the sheer stillness on his face seemed

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