There was a loud pop and a flash then the door swung open. Ranger tossed a flash grenade through the threshold into the upper Manhattan apartment. A moment later there was a much louder pop as the small explosive went off creating a loud noise and a small flash of light.

Ranger immediately passed through the doorway into the nearly empty apartment. He caught a glimpse of someone moving into a connecting room and raised his pistol, ”Game’s over, Sam. Don’t make me break y’.”

Ranger had been tasked with finding Sam Travis, former NYPD and MRC detective. The man had broken bad and used some kind of mystic power on Iris, the kid of a couple at the mansion. Iris power had been locked away or sealed in some way.

It had taken a week of work and dedicating a sizeable number of resources to, but Ranger had found the target. His gut instinct had proven correct. Sam had been near the mansion. The break in the case had come from a contact of Ranger’s finding a single frame in the camera footage at One Police Plaza. A single frame of Sam looking almost directly at the camera through a window.

One more week had allowed Ranger to narrow down where Sam was staying and what his patterns were. It seemed he would take a disguise then head into the city. After a few hours he would journey near the mansion before heading back. From there he would stay until the next day.

Ranger opted to hit the apartment early in the day. Before Sam went about his errands.

Null sat at his desk, slowly etching away at a knife. He had noticed some out of place characters the past week and out of an abundance of caution had begun work on a new weapon. A faster way to seal away powers was proving difficult to manage, so Sam was working on something to damage a power. Take a mystical spike and drive it directly into the X-gene. If he couldn’t remove it, maybe he could render it unable to work or make it dangerous to the user. Keep them from using it out of self preservation.

There was a soft sound at the door. Sam set down his tools and got up. He walked into the main room of the apartment just in time for a pop that blew the doorknob off. His eyes went wide. He had been found. He turned to head for his work bench as the door opened and a grenade was thrown in. He had just enough time to cover his eyes before the flash. The bang still hit him like a wall of force. Rattling his teeth and filling his ears with ringing.

Sam hurried out of the room as someone entered the apartment behind him. Sam grabbed his pistol in one hand and an engraving tool in the other. He pointed the pistol at the door frame and touched the tool to the knife. A muffled voice could be heard calling out to him. Difficult to understand through the ringing and cotton that Null felt like he had in his ears.

Ranger moved to the door to the room Sam had retreated to. When he looked inside he saw Sam standing there, a pistol in hand. Ranger slid back away from the door just in time to avoid a bullet. A bullet that seemed to create a flash where it struck, leaving no bullet hole.

Magic bullets.

The file Ranger received from Sveta had a reference to Sam likely using magic bullets that did something to powers.

”C’mon, Sam. Don’ do this the hard way. Y’ know y’r caught.”

”My work isn’t done, friend. The world has a curse and I have a way to lift it.”

Ranger slowly pulled another flash grenade from his load bearing vest. He could move fast and would use that to move on Sam.

”That why y’ attacked a toddler?”

Sam kept looking between the door and the knife. He needed to finish his work quickly. It was only a matter of time before the man came through the door, or sent another stun grenade into the room.

”I helped that kid! She was cursing all those around her, putting spots on their skin like some mark of evil. I cured her of that, now she can live life as a normal child.” Sam said as he focused on pouring power into the knife as his left hand etched. Sam’s split focus kept him from noticing the knife was heating as the power was forced into it. More than it was ready for.

That was it. Sam was a new level of low. It was one thing to act on despicable religious beliefs, it was another to involve children.

”Standby, I’m goin’ in. On flash, close net.” Ranger said into his radio beforehe pulled the pin on the stun grenade and tossed it into the room. A moment later there was the flash and bang and Ranger charged into the room.

There was another flash of light, a rainbow and power wreathing a knife before it was sliced across Ranger’s chest.

Sam covered his eyes when he saw the stun grenade bounce into the room. He kept his left hand on the key and poured his anger, frustration, and pain into the knife as the grenade went off.

The knife flared as it took in too much power and light poured out of the engravings, the left hand scrawled sigils creating a rainbow of colors. Sam grasped it tightly, dropping the tool he had been using, and brought the blade up to bear as the man who had invaded Sam’s space came through the doorway.

Sam slashed, expecting to have more time before the man was on him. He was much much faster than Sam anticipated but the blade still made contact. A brilliant flash of light filled the room, blinding both men. Then a ripple of power followed by an explosion which drove both men from each other.

Glass shattered, fires started, and the air was filled with the smell of ozone. The knife blade had melted. Sam crawled up to his knees as the world seemed to spiral around him. Unsteadily Sam made his way to his feet and reached for his diagram book when someone entered the room through the window.

The knife bit in… and Ranger’s world exploded.

Light and sound filled Ranger’s existence only to be replaced by discomfort and pain. Darkness crept into and then filled his vision as his body seemed to convulse. Ranger had known this was a possibility but it was so much worse.

A seizure was one thing, but what Ranger felt was an entirely different animal. It was as if his muscles were trying to reorient themselves while his bones and skin felt like they were on waves on the ocean.

---

Jonas Gerhart, aka Whirlwind, repelled from the roof of the building and after a jump off the wall, came sailing into the room where Ranger and Sam were. There had just been a bright explosion and Sam was back on his feet while Ranger was down. And his body seemed to be rippling.

”Undo what you did to him and surrender.” Whirlwind demanded as electricity arced between his hands.

There was a crash at the front door and then the sounds of heavy footfalls before a large ox of a man stood in the doorway to the room. A gun in one hand and a blade sliding out of the other arm. ”It’s over.”

Sam swore to himself. He had managed to handle one paramilitary attired assailant but now there were two more.One with electricity and another with blades. Not to mention the guns they had.

”Come now. Let’s not be hasty. That didn’t work out for him.” Null hooked a finger to Ranger’s warping form on the ground. ”I can see that I’ve been beat.” Null raised his hands.

”Put down the gun. Slowly.” Whirlwind moved his hands further apart, the electricity continuing to arc across the gap filling the room with a painful, shifting light.

”Of course, of course.” Null said as he lowered his arms before quickly firing a spray of three rounds toward Whirlwind who tried to move out of the way. One of the three still made contact.

”Mistake!” called the man with the blades behind Null.

Null turned just in time to catch the blade in his side and then with one arm hold the blade in place. Null fired another round into that man and the blade broke off the man’s arm. Null let it drop and then drew a knife which he sliced on both men’s paramilitary outfits. Immediately they began to flail before wrenching the men’s arms around

Rangers’s body continued to flex and shift. It was as if the body itself was fighting on what it should be. All the while flames were spreading through the apartment. Ranger’s backup were hamstrung by their own gear.One of them was inching toward the doorframe to press the button on his radio.

”This is Lumberjack. The hostile is in the wind. AO on fire. Contact EMS/Fire.”

Sam reached for his designs on the desk, but the book was aflame. He threw it to the ground and stamped it out before taking it and heading for the door. It wss clear several pages were lost but the bulk was still intact.

His fingers clasped a key with a few strands of his hair tied to it as he walked down the stairs and out the front door. Smiling to himself.

Null stood outside the apartment building as a crowd of people marched out in a less orderly fashion than they should. A building on fire, people’s lives being upended due to people’s addictions to their mutations.

Opening the book of diagrams, Null looked over how much damage had been done. His use of magic was a precise art. Every symbol, sigil, and rune had a meaning as did its placement. Every page lost was months to years of experimentation and effort wasted. Several of his more recent works were lost or damaged. Null swore to himself.

It was a setback but he would recover and help save the world from their curse. Every person deserves a life free from mutation.

Sam was snapped back to where he was by the sound of fire engines approaching. It was time to leave. He closed his book and held his key. He just needed to slip away and return to hiding.