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The next day, late in the evening Simon opens the door to my room, where I was hoping for a sudden inspiration for my plans.

"New job for ya. Cyclops thinks one of our depots has been compromised so we're in a rush to get everything moved out. It's the one down by that kebab place." Is all Simon says before turning around and leaving.

Mentally I sigh but physically I just get up and leave the room. My comfortable clothes are replaced by a tracksuit with a hoodie on top via a quick flex of my power, at the same time a pair of running shoes that I didn't pay for appear on my feet.

Fully dressed, I head out the front door and start jogging.

It must not be too urgent if I'm being sent by myself. I mean, we have cars right?

Surely someone could drive me?

It's only a five minute jog, but if it is as urgent as Simon made it out to be, then surely giving me a lift wouldn't be criminal?

...Poor choice of words.

A short jog later and I am in front of a closed down shop on the edge of the industrial estate.

Around these parts, every other building is abandoned so there isn't anybody around to question why a lone child is walking into a closed down shop.

I don't bother admiring the view and instead simply walk into the building without knocking.

As I open the door, I hear the sound of movement and the first thing I see inside is the barrels of four guns pointing at me.

I won't lie, having so many guns pointed at me does make my heart beat a little faster.

I've gotten used to seeing them, I have even seen a few people get shot, but rarely does anyone point them at me and I don't want to die.

But even with those thoughts, I keep my face neutral and stand in the doorway until someone recognises me.

"Ah, it's just Runner, stop pointing ya guns at him and let him go clear the back." I think the one who just spoke is called Frank.

At Franks words, the others all lower their arms and I walk in, closing the door behind me.

When I get to the back, I see another few guys guarding the inventory.

I recognise a couple of the goons, but only one of them sticks out.

Sitting on top of a closed box is a middle aged man with slightly greying hair. His face is covered by a smooth black motorcycle helmet and he has a thick bike chain hanging over his shoulders on top of his old leather jacket.

He goes by Rider. Apparently it's supposed to be a reference to something, but I don't get it.

When he sees me he hops off of the box and gestures for me to get started.

So I obediently do as told and start storing away all of the boxes. Some of them are left open, showing me that what I am putting away is box after box of guns and ammunition.

Even if they were all closed, I would still know what I am storing. After all, I have full knowledge of everything in my inventory.

As I am storing away the final box, the tense silence is broken by a muffled knock coming from the front room.

The only reason we could even hear it is because no one was saying anything and that the door between our rooms was left open.

We all strain our ears to listen to what is going on in the other room and it takes everything I have not to roll my eyes at the distant voices.

"Pizza delivery!" A muffled shout comes from outside.

"Who the fuck ordered a pizza?" One of the goons whispers to the other.

"Nobody ordered a pizza you fucking dumbass!" Another goon shout whispers back.

"Oh yeah? If you're so smart then why is there a pizza delivery at the door?" Goon number one retorts with a level of smugness only available to the chronically stupid.

In the back room, Rider facepalms his mask after having to listen to the morons out front and turns to the rest of us and speaks in a low voice, "Out the back."

Following his orders we head out the back, the arguing voices in the front getting quieter as we go.

"Obviously there isn't a delivery guy! It's a fucking trap you dumb motherfu-"

The idiots' argument is cut of by a loud crashing sound that is swiftly followed by the cracks of gunshots.

Hearing that, we all stop walking and start running instead, out the back door and through the dark alleyways.

As we are running away, I wonder to myself, who is it that is attacking us?

It's probably not the police, which means it's either the 'Heroes' or it's another gang.

Personally, I hope it's the heroes, since they are less likely to kill me.

But the next moment my hopes are dashed as the wall beside us is shattered, sending fragments of brick flying into our backs.

As the dust settles, I look to our front and see the silhouette of a man standing in the middle of the street that our alley leads to, his form outlined by the moon and dim streetlights.

Due to the lighting, his form isn't clear, but I can at least see the most damning part, which is the green scarf he has that covers his neck up to his nose, hiding his face.

"Top of the mornin' to ya Rider, fancy meeting you here." He greets with false friendliness.

Rider responds by moving to the front of our group, taking his chain into his hands as he does so.

"So it's you. I didn't think you'd come for such a simple operation Path." Rider all but growls back at Path.

Once Rider finishes speaking, the chain in his hands ignites into white hot flames that cause the temperature of the whole street to rise and the asphalt that the chain rests on to start melting.

Path only responds by crossing his arms and speaking in a voice where you can just 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 the smirk.

"Well, when I heard that you were probably standing watch, how could I not come and say hi?"

The moment he finishes speaking, Rider moves, whipping his flaming chain straight at Path. However, Path isn't phased and starts moving forward.

Only, he doesn't move his body, instead he stays still like a statue while his body moves forward by itself.

This is Path's power.

The way it works is that he draws a 'Path' out in the world and then once he has finished 'drawing', his body becomes an unstoppable force that follows the path to the end.

Since he is invulnerable whilst following a path, his only weakness is the moment between the end of one path and the start of another.

Rider's chain wraps around Path as his body moves towards us and forces us all to jump out of the way.

Despite having a flaming chain wrapped around his body, Path remains still, as if he is frozen in time and after passing us his body flies up into the sky until Rider's chain runs out of length and drops back down to the ground.

I believe this is the basis of their rivalry.

After all, so long as Rider's chain is still attached to Path once his path ends then he is basically dead, so he is a good counter.

Personally however, I don't want to have anything to do with a fight between these two people, so I quickly scramble to the edge of the alley and break off running.

Behind me I hear the crashing sound of a building coming down and I see my shadow extend in front of me thanks to the growing fire behind me but I pay it no mind and just keep running.

This is exactly why I focus on cardio.

As I take another turn I get an idea.

Although I have picked a lot of pockets, I have never actually robbed a store, since I don't want to risk getting caught and have never had a reason to be out alone at night.

However, with the situation being as chaotic as it is, I have a window of opportunity where no one is watching or expecting me.

With that in mind, I keep an eye on the buildings around me as I keep running until finally see a corner store.

Not bothering with subtlety, not that there are a lot of cameras around here, I don't slow down and instead charge shoulder first into the door to break in.

*Bang*

Unfortunately, I don't break the door open, instead I just bounce off of it and straight to the floor.

Ow.

Rubbing my hurt shoulder, I get back to my feet and walk up to the door this time. A hammer appears in my hand and I break the glass on the door, setting off an alarm as I reach in and unlock it from the inside.

With that out of the way, I rush inside and get what I came for, which is all of the sweets and chocolate inside.

Once I am done and about to leave I pause.

This might be a bit too obvious.

I go back and return some of the sweets and then touch the cash register, making it disappear, then I make it reappear, only without any money inside of it this time.

That done, I don't waste anymore time and run out the door only to freeze as I lock eyes with a man wearing black with a green bandana covering his face.

Shit.

I don't waste any time and turn to run away.

Only, I find myself running towards the guy instead so I halt my steps and turn around again, only to end up facing him again.

What the fuck is going on.

Thankfully he doesn't have a sense of urgency like me and is only walking after me, giving me time to figure out what his power is doing to me.

I try to raise my arm and end up standing on one leg.

Ok then.

I turn to my left and find myself facing my right.

Ok, I think I get it. Everything is backwards.

With that in mind, I turn to the guy and run straight at him and find myself finally gaining some distance.

Fuck this is so confusing.

I barely make it five steps before I suddenly find myself running back to him.

God motherfucking damn, what is going on.

Fuck it, a lot of powers are line of sight based, so with that in mind, I release a cloud of smoke around me and turn around to run again.

Apparently the smoke was wishful thinking though because as soon as I can see again, I am within arms reach of this confusing asshole.

Clearly I am not going to get away, so I just run harder and summon a metal bat and take a swing. My bat flies clear through the smoke cloud I just left and before I can even make sense of the change in orientation I feel a harsh kick on my back that sends me to the ground.

This is such a confusing ass power.

Rolling over onto my back, I look up to the face of my assailant and shamelessly surrender, raising my hands in the universal gesture.

"Ya give up so soon? Well, that's unfortunate see, I was told ta kill any o' ya Karma bastards that I see. Fact 'at your a kid don't change that."

That's not good.

I feel my heartbeat quicken and my breath come in short bursts and panic set in as the guy who's name I don't even know pulls out a gun and puts it to my head, in between my wide, terrified eyes.

"Any last words?" He offers.

Shakily I nod my head, just wanting to extend the moment because I don't want to die, but then, as I feel the barrel of the gun impacting my head from my nods I come up with a plan and execute it immediately.

My head comes into contact with the gun one more time, only this time, the gun disappears when it does so and the next moment I flinch from the loud bang of the gun that is now in my hand going off.

I wasn't prepared for the recoil which sends the gun flying out of my hand, but I don't focus on that.

Instead, my eyes can't leave the guy's chest, where a small red circle is slowly expanding.

Neither of us say anything, just frozen in time, staring at one another.

Then the moment passes and he falls forward, breaking me out of my reverie as he falls on top of me.

Fuck.

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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Ok. this chap was shit. I wrote like, 500 words, then another few hundred the next day then didn't write anything then wrote another 700 and then I finished it now.

Advanced chapters with the links below!

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