AS CAREFULLY AS she could, Renata dragged the unconscious woman across the debris-strewn floor, and through the doorway to the boys' department. She cast a brief look around, but there was no sign of her mother.
A motorcycle courier with his helmet tucked under one arm rushed up to Renata. "I'll carry her. Hold this." He thrust the helmet into Renata's hands, then crouched down and lifted the woman in his arms. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Renata said. "What's going on?"
"Superhumans beating the crap out of each other. You expect this sort of thing in New York, not Cleveland. That psychopath Terrain is out there. Energy is trying to stop him, but she's not having much luck." He glanced back at Renata. "What are you doing, for God's sake! We have to get out of here!"
Renata looked down at the helmet in her hands. "You go. I just want to make sure that there's no one else back there."
She turned and ran back through the doorway, and stopped next to the truck. She stared out through the ruined window.
Outside, hundreds of panicking people were streaming through the streets, screaming as they tried to dodge the football-sized chunks of sidewalk that were raining down on them.
That's got to be Terrain's work, Renata thought. All she really knew about the supervillain was that he had the ability to mentally control inanimate objects, particularly rocks, stones and dirt.
I swore I was never going to do anything like this.
She lowered the motorcycle helmet onto her head, and stepped out. I guess sometimes fate doesn't give you any choice.
A block away, she could see an ordinary-looking man standing in the street, close to the unmoving body of a grey-clad woman. Renata recognised her as Energy, one of the most powerful of the superhumans.
But the man didn't seem familiar at all, and Renata assumed that he was a civilian - until he suddenly strode over to Energy and launched a vicious kick at her stomach.
That's Terrain! My God, he's beaten her!
Renata ran.
Terrain gestured with his fists towards an apartment block, and the entire side of the building suddenly cracked and shattered. But the huge slab of concrete didn't fall: instead, it rose high into the air, swooping across the street to stop directly over Energy.
Terrain opened his fists, and the slab began to drop.
Renata knew she didn't have time to pull Energy out of the way. She did the only thing she could: she leapt forward, and stood over the woman, in the path of the concrete slab. She concentrated, and her skin rippled, glistened. Her entire body turned completely transparent and unmoving.
Eight tonnes of reinforced concrete slammed down on Renata, shattering into millions of fragments.
Unable to move or even hear when in her solid form, Renata could do nothing but watch as the dust settled around them.
After a moment, when she was sure that nothing else was falling, she willed herself to become human once more. Almost instantly, she could move again, she could hear the police sirens and the terrified screams of fleeing people.
Terrain was nowhere to be seen.
Beneath her feet, Energy began to move. Renata reached down and helped her up.
The woman spat out a mouthful of concrete dust. "Who are you?" She stepped back and looked at Renata.
"Um... I don't really want to..."
Energy nodded. "You don't want anyone to know you're a superhuman. That explains the motorcycle helmet." She looked around. "Did you see which way he went?"
"No, sorry."
"I'm going to need your help stopping him. Can you fly?"
Renata shook her head.
"Apart from turning yourself into a glass statue, what can you do?"
Renata picked up a chunk of concrete, and crushed it to powder in her fist.
Energy smiled. "That's good enough. Take my hand."
"Look, I'm not sure I should get involved," Renata said, stepping back.
"You're already involved," Energy said. "Now take my hand."
Renata reached out and grabbed Energy's hand. Electrical sparks began to crackle over the woman's body, and suddenly they were soaring into the air.