The young man closed in. Still smiling. **** me, was that smug smile irritating. I felt a moment’s sympathy for people who’d had to face down Tattletale. I sicced my swarm on him.
He moved through the incoming insects, eyes open and unblinking as he closed the distance to me. Only a few landed, and they landed in spots where they couldn’t target more vulnerable areas.
That he wasn’t closing his eyes was telling. I used my bugs to try and blind him, to keep him from seeing how I was moving, and I reached behind my back, going for the pepper spray.
He blocked my wrist with his palm, keeping me from aiming at him. Not just sight. Or his sight was more acute than I’d realized. Hearing? Something else?
Be unpredictable.
Pepper spray killed bugs. I didn’t aim for him, but for the pair of us, spraying into open air, into my swarm.
I’d hoped to make him back off, but he didn’t. He ducked low, simultaneously bringing one foot up, catching me in the chest. In the same movement, he rolled to one side, getting away from the mist of pepper spray that was still hanging in the air and simultaneously avoiding Golem’s reaching hand of concrete.
For just an instant, my feet left the ground. I landed, but I landed with one foot on Rachel’s calf. I fell.
Too much like fighting Contessa. Everything winding up positioned just right. Damn it.
On my back, I was vulnerable, but Golem was covering me. This kid with the dress clothes was slippery, efficient, but the way his movements played out… maybe not quite on Contessa’s level. Contessa would have found a way to attack and defend at the same time, instead of being stuck evading Golem’s power.
I tried to haul air into my lungs and coughed instead. If they killed us before we got far enough…
Stupid, all of this, so stupid.
“Stop,” I spoke through my swarm.
The kid drew knives from his pockets. Small knives, with blades no longer than a finger.
Still confident, still sure of his victory.
[...]
No, couldn’t get distracted. I was up against a kid with an analysis power that was off the charts, he’d dodge whatever I threw at him.