The warehouse in Red Hook was starting to look less like a storage unit and more like a clubhouse for the world’s strangest outcasts. Artie (Human Rock) was sitting in the corner, his heavy granite form cracking the concrete floor. Leo (Human Bug) was vibrating at a medium-speed hum while eating his tenth sandwich. Victor (Human Metal) stood near the door, a silent, chrome sentinel.
"It’s not enough," Sloane said, pacing the floor. Her body was restless, her arms growing and shrinking an inch every few seconds from the stress. "Desmond has the Clone and the Ice. He has the police on the run. And we still haven't found the eighth survivor."
"I have," Rebecca said, her eyes glued to a laptop screen that was streaming a news feed from a high-altitude drone. "And he’s not hiding. He’s currently melting the asphalt on the FDR Drive."
Human Fire: Dante Cruz.
FDR Drive: 1:30 AM
The highway was a river of flame. Cars were abandoned, their tires melted into the road. In the center of the chaos was a young man who looked like he was made of burning magnesium. Every breath he took sent a gout of white-hot fire into the air.
Dante wasn't attacking anyone; he was screaming. He was a human supernova, unable to contain the energy pouring out of his skin.
"Sloane, stay back!" Rebecca’s voice crackled through the comms. "Heat is your ultimate weakness! If you get too close, your molecular bonds will liquefy. You’ll turn into a puddle of black goo!"
"I don't have a choice, Becca! If I don't get to him, Desmond will!"
Sloane launched herself from an overpass. She didn't use her usual suit. She had spent the last hour in the warehouse "visualizing" something new. The obsidian material had thickened, layering itself like the scales of a lizard to create a heat-resistant "Ablative Shield."
She landed twenty feet from Dante. The heat was staggering. Even with the shielded suit, Sloane felt her skin starting to soften.
"Dante! Look at me!" Sloane shouted, her voice echoing through her organic mask.
Dante turned. His eyes were white-hot coals. "It... it won't stop! I’m burning up! Everything is too cold!"
"I can help you!" Sloane stretched her arms, but they started to droop the moment they got near him. She was literally losing her shape.
"So can I," a voice purred.
Desmond Thorne stepped out from the smoke of a burning van. Beside him stood the Human Ice and the Human Clone. But there was someone else now. A new figure—Human Sound—his eyes rolled back, his mouth open in a silent, high-frequency vibration that made the flames dance.
"The set is complete," Desmond said, his eyes gleaming with a terrifying hunger. "The Fire to my Ice. The Sound to my Silence. Dante, my boy... give me your pain. Give me your heat. And I will make you a god."
Desmond reached out. Dante, exhausted and desperate for the burning to stop, began to crawl toward him.
"No!" Sloane screamed.
She did something she had never tried before. She didn't stretch outward; she stretched inward. She expanded her chest and lungs, pulling in a massive amount of air, and then slammed her hands into the ground.
Using her body as a giant, rubbery bellows, she created a localized vacuum, sucking the oxygen away from Dante for just a split second. The flames died down.
"Victor! Artie! Now!" Sloane signaled.
From the shadows of the highway, the Human Metal and Human Rock charged. Victor slammed into the Ice-Woman, his chrome skin resisting her frost-breath. Artie grabbed the Clones, his massive granite hands pinning them to the ground.
Desmond recoiled. "You brought the others? You'd risk their lives for a boy who's burning?"
"We're a team, Desmond!" Sloane yelled.
She used the distraction to lunge at Dante. She didn't touch him with her hands—she would have melted. Instead, she used her "Imagination Suit" to grow a long, thick whip made of a special, non-conductive version of her symbiote. She wrapped it around Dante's waist and yanked him toward the edge of the highway, toward the East River.
"Jump!" Sloane commanded.
They hit the water together. The steam was blinding as Dante’s fire was suppressed by the cold river. Sloane felt herself becoming brittle from the sudden temperature drop, but she held on.
The Warehouse: 4:00 AM
Dante was wrapped in a specialized thermal blanket, his fire reduced to a gentle, warm glow. He looked around at the others—the Rock, the Metal, the Bug, and the Girl who Bends.
"You saved me," Dante whispered. "Why?"
"Because we're the only family you've got now," Artie said, his stone hand resting gently on the boy's shoulder.
Sloane stood by the window, looking at the sunrise. Her suit was scarred and dull, her body aching with the "Snap-Back" lag of a dozen fights.
"He's still out there," Sloane said. "And he still has the Ice, the Clone, and the Sound. He’s going to come for us. All of us."
Rebecca walked up, her laptop showing a map of the city. "Then we make sure we're ready. We have the Fire now. And with Fire and Ice, and Rock and Metal... we don't just have a team, Sloane."
She looked at her best friend and smiled.
"We have a Rebellion."
Sloane adjusted her glasses. They were cracked, and the frame was bent, but she had never seen the world more clearly.
"Let him come," Sloane said. "We're not stretching anymore. We're snapping back."
49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0HOP9UEzdZ
49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxMIWQ0q2Vu
49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtswtMicxqI
and then Add to home screen.