Chapter 199 Bus.

Chapter 199: 199 Bus.

Him.

"You!" Rick barked, his massive hands bunching into shaking fists. The air around him actually hummed, vibrating the dust off the pavement. "Look at what you’ve done! You’ve ruined my life’s work!"

"Well, maybe. But really, I did you a favor," I said while surreptitiously reaching out with my powers.

I didn’t let him see my hands move. I just let my magnetic field seep into the surrounding block, locking onto every remaining parked car, flipped cruiser, and abandoned delivery van in the vicinity.

I silently lifted them, gathering them into a massive, groaning ball of compressed metal hovering high in the darkness above his blind spot.

"I mean, holographic globes? Giant glass windows? Sooooo 1960," I taunted. "Mid-century modern is out, Micheal."

His flawless, square-jawed face twisted with ugly, uncharacteristic fury.

Good. Get mad, you bastard. Because if you weren’t blind with rage, I was in serious trouble.

Because this was Mister Invincible. Gods at the absolute height of their mythologies had less raw stopping power than him.

He was the man who’d taken down The Dreadnaught when it was revived by those Neo-Nazis in the late eighties, snapping its titanium chassis over his knee.

He was the hero who’d thwarted nearly every single member of the Guild’s Council of Nine without breaking a sweat.

Who’d led the frontline defense of Earth against the Meegron invasion of 2005, literally punching an alien flagship back into orbit.

On a physical level some people compared him with Extraordinary but that was more like fan fic.

He was not a hero to be fucked with. But that ship had most assuredly sailed, caught fire, and sank.

Mister Invincible gave a guttural, earth-shaking roar and shot at me like a golden thunderbolt. The sonic boom of his launch shattered the few remaining panes of glass on the street.

I tensed, tracking his trajectory, waiting for him to close the distance...

Now!

I slammed my hand down. The massive ball of compressed cars hovering above him responded to my magnetic command, dropping through the freezing air like a ten-ton anvil.

"Owh!" I strained him hands, dropping to a knee as a trickle of blood hit the floor.

Mister Invincible never even looked up. The cars slammed directly into his broad shoulders, arresting his forward momentum and carrying him straight down to the ruined pavement below.

The ball of metal smashed him into the cratered ground with a deafening, metallic crunch. Car alarms began to scream and whirr, belatedly activated by the catastrophic impact as airbags deployed in the crushed chassis.

I exhaled dragging myself back to my feet, floating backward to put some distance between us.

But I knew better than to think it was over. You don’t kill the golden boy with a traffic jam.

The junkpile groaned. There was a sudden, thunderous crash as the hero violently heaved the entire pile of cars off his back.

Half-crushed vehicles were sent flying in every direction like discarded toys. A crumpled yellow taxi spun through the air, hurtling right at my head.

At this point I was just as exhausted as the next guy was just buying time.

I threw both hands up, creating a sharp, magnetic wedge. The taxi split in half around my invisible shield, the two halves screeching past me and crashing into the brickwork of the adjacent buildings.

Rick rocketed out of the crater, completely unscathed. There wasn’t a scratch on his skin, though his cape was torn.

"You think you can bury me with scrap metal?!" Rick bellowed, his booming voice distorting with Micheal’s cold, psychotic edge.

He didn’t charge this time. He simply drew his arm back and punched the empty air.

The shockwave hit me like a bus for an isekai. I was violently knocked out of the air, tumbling backward and hitting the pavement hard.

My shoulder screamed in pain as the asphalt tore away the last clean shreds of my suit jacket.

I rolled desperately to the right, barely dodging as Rick landed exactly where my chest had been a microsecond prior. His golden boots cratered the concrete, sending shards of shrapnel flying into my face.

I couldn’t fight him head-on. If he landed a single actual punch, my head would pop like a water balloon. I had to get close, but I had to be smart.

I scrambled backward on my hands and knees, throwing up my arms—silently begging my powers not to give up on me.

Every piece of loose rebar, every manhole cover, and every shard of shrapnel in the plaza ripped out of the ground and swarmed him like a metallic hurricane.

Rick just walked right through it.

Steel girders bent uselessly against his chest. Heavy iron manhole covers shattered into dust against his jaw. He didn’t even blink.

He was a terminator in a golden cape, slowly, methodically closing the distance, reveling in the sheer, unadulterated invulnerability of his host body.

"You’re out of tricks, Polaris," Micheal gloated through Rick’s mouth, his voice echoing across the courtyard. "You’re out of metal. And you are out of time."

"Maybe," I grunted, dragging myself to my feet.

I reached into my pocket, my fingers closing around the crinkled edges of the tinfoil hat I’d prepared back at the chalet.

I needed him right in front of me. I needed him reaching for me.

I dropped the shrapnel storm, feigning total exhaustion. I let my shoulders slump, my magnetic field dying out with a pathetic, whining fizzle.

I swayed on my feet, looking exactly like a man who had entirely emptied his tank.

Rick grinned. It was a terrifying, predatory expression that absolutely did not belong on the golden boy’s face. He lunged, moving faster than the human eye could track.

His massive hand clamped around my throat, lifting me off the ground like a helpless ragdoll.

My vision instantly blurred as his grip tightened, crushing my windpipe. He held me up, his face mere inches from mine.

The red furiously in his irises—he was down to kill me for sure.

"I’m going to rip you in half," Micheal whispered through him.

Now!

I didn’t try to pull his hand away. I couldn’t have even if I tried.

Instead, I channeled every last drop of magnetic resonance I had left into the heavy golden belt buckle at his waist pumping through his bloodstream.

I didn’t try to lift him—I just pulsed a violent, repulsive magnetic shockwave directly between our chests.

The push didn’t hurt him, but it knocked his balance off for a fraction of a millisecond. His grip loosened just enough for me to slip my bruised neck a single inch to the side.

With a desperate, gasping lunge, I whipped my arm up and slapped the crumpled foil hat directly down onto his perfectly coiffed hair.

I forcefully engaged my magnetism one last time, instantly crumpling the foil tight around his scalp and the base of his skull so he couldn’t just shake it off.

There was a moment of utter, terrifying stillness.

I dangled from his weakened grip, my lungs burning, waiting to see if I was about to get my spine snapped in two.

And then, like a switch being flicked in a dark room, the crimson flickered out in his eyes.

Rick’s grip went entirely slack. I dropped to the pavement, coughing violently and clutching my bruised throat, gasping for the freezing night air.

Above me, Rick’s face sagged. The murderous, robotic tension melted completely out of his jaw.

A dull, soft smile of pure, unadulterated relief took shape on his lips, and I wondered if it was the man who’d once owned that body was Mister Invincible at all.

Then, Mister Invincible’s eyes rolled back in his head, one of the most powerful heroes on Earth toppled forward, hitting the concrete.

I exhaled heavily, my arms flopping down to my sides as I lay flat on the ruined street.

Holy fuck.

Holy fuck, it actually worked.

I’d hoped it would. When Psyren told me that her telepathic powers were blocked by something as simple as tinfoil, I had prayed it would be the exact same for Micheal’s telekinetic neural-link. And dear heavens, was I glad I’d been right.

I forced myself to sit up, my whole body aching, and looked around the plaza.

The remaining heroes were completely out of the fight. The courtyard was a silent graveyard of rubble, ice, and groaning capes.

I hastily crouched down beside Mister Invincible and pressed two fingers against his thick neck. His pulse was strong and steady, but his eyes were rolled back and glassy.

No surprise. Hopefully, he’d be alright, eventually. But right now, he was out cold.

"Miles?" Rhea’s voice crackled urgently in my ear. "We’re running out of time. That satellite crash got noticed by the feds. I’m tracking emergency services, military choppers, and a whole lot of angry people converging on the Metropolis Police Department."

I groaned, dragging myself back to my feet.

"How long we got?"