Across the street, Asad threw Sho into a cascade of office desks. Wood splintered. Glass shattered. Metal frames twisted under impact. Dust bloomed through the thirteenth floor like a small explosion, obscuring everything in grey-brown haze.
The dust settled slowly, revealing Sho sprawled among the rubble. He was grimacing, but conscious. That was something.
"Stop messing around and get him down here." Lucius pressed the comm tighter to his ear. "We already have the case, but taking Asad alive could get us valuable intel."
"Fine," Sho's voice crackled back, strained. "But how do you expect me to get him down? We're pretty high up."
"Jump out the window. I'll catch you."
Silence. Then:
"Oh no. Last time you said that, you didn't. And guess who ended up with broken bones?"
Lucius allowed himself a small smirk. "Yeah, because you pissed me off."
Through the comm, he heard Sho moving, debris crunching under boots. The kid was positioning himself. Good.
Across the way, Lucius caught glimpses through the broken windows—Sho rising to his feet in his regular clothes, clearly not dressed for this kind of chaos. And Asad. The man was massive now, damn near Hulk-sized, his shirtless torso straining with enhanced muscle. His suit trousers were torn short, shredded by the transformation into something that barely qualified as shorts anymore.
"Fuck it." Sho's voice came through sharp. "You'd better catch me."
Movement. Fast.
Sho bolted at Asad, closing the distance in two strides. The big man swung—a haymaker that would've pulverized concrete. Sho weaved under it, dropped low, and grabbed Asad around the waist in a tackle that had no business working.
But momentum was a funny thing. Sho drove forward, legs pumping, using Asad's own bulk against him. The big man stumbled backward, toward the shattered window.
Asad brought both fists down in a hammer strike aimed at Sho's spine. Sho held firm, muscles screaming, pushing harder.
They went through the window together.
Thirteen floors up.
Lucius moved fast, hand gesturing toward the nearby fire hydrant. Water exploded outward under molecular pressure, the hydrant cap spinning off as the jet shot skyward. He pulled the water up higher, shaping it mid-air into a massive sphere just as both bodies hit it—impact absorbed, momentum killed.
Inside the sphere, Lucius split the water. Two separate bubbles now, one holding Sho, the other containing a thrashing Asad.
He shot Asad's sphere toward the building entrance across the street—hard enough to stun, not hard enough to kill. The water sphere slammed into the concrete, splashing across the entrance and depositing its angry cargo.
Lucius descended with Sho's sphere, bringing it down gently to the wet pavement. The bubble popped. Water cascaded across the street.
Sho landed on his feet, rolled his shoulders, cracked his back. "First-class travel."
"Shut up." Lucius's eyes were on Asad, already rising at the building entrance. "Let's take this guy in."
Asad stepped out, water dripping from his torn suit trousers-turned-shorts. His shirtless torso was a mass of swollen muscle, veins dark against skin. His jaw worked, throat moving.
He spat something into his palm—a brick-like block, wrapped in clear plastic. Cocaine. High-grade by the look of it.
Asad crushed the brick in one hand. Powder exploded between his fingers.
He inhaled deeply through his nose, head tilting back.
His eyes ignited—burning red, bright enough to cast shadows. His body swelled further, muscles expanding, already massive frame growing even larger. The dosage was insane. Probably lethal for anyone without his particular biology.
"Here he comes," Lucius said.
They both moved.
The street was empty—cleared by Jasmine, probably. Good. This was about to get messy. Water from the broken hydrant pooled everywhere, debris scattered across cracked asphalt, a few smashed cars pushed to the sides.
Asad leaped, impossibly high for someone his size. He came down with both fists, a meteor strike aimed at the ground between them.
Impact. Shockwave. Asphalt cracked in a spiderweb pattern.
Lucius dodged right, pulling water with him. It splashed across Asad's face, and Lucius flash-froze it—not enough to trap him, just enough to blind.
Sho dodged left, leaped, and drove a kick into the ice mask. It shattered, shards spraying.
Sho didn't stop. He was already inside Asad's guard, fists blurring in a combination—ribs, liver, jaw, temple. Weaving between the massive retaliatory swings that would've taken his head off.
Lucius supported from range. Water splashed across Asad's legs, slowing him, creating ice patches that messed with his footing. Nothing major. Just enough to give Sho openings.
Asad caught one of Sho's kicks mid-strike. His hand closed around Sho's ankle like a vice.
He slammed Sho into the wet asphalt. Once. Twice. Three times. Each impact left cracks.
Then he swung Sho by the leg and hurled him back toward the building entrance he'd thrown him out of minutes ago.
Sho hit hard, disappeared into the darkness of the lobby.
Asad turned. Locked eyes with Lucius.
Just the two of them now.
Lucius raised his hand. Ice formed in the air on either side of Asad's head—two compact palms of solid ice materializing from water on the pavement. They shot inward simultaneously, clapping against both of Asad's ears with brutal precision.
The big man dropped to one knee, stunned. Equilibrium shot.
Lucius didn't wait. He dashed forward, leaped high, spun mid-air, and grabbed a fistful of Asad's hair. Using the momentum, he pulled himself up, twisted, and formed a solid hammer of ice in his free hand.
He slammed Asad's head down.
The big man crashed face-first into the street.
Lucius landed, already pulling more water. It wrapped around the small hammer, growing it, expanding into a sledgehammer that would've taken two people to lift.
He swung. The hammer connected with Asad's skull. Solid hit.
More water. The hammer grew again, massive now, ridiculously oversized.
Lucius raised it high, muscles straining under the weight even with his enhancements, preparing to bring it down for a knockout blow—
Sizzling. Heat signature from his right.
Lasers tore through the air.
---
TO BE CONTINUED