No One Looks Up

Adaptive Evolution did not give him a clean copy of an enemy's power. It gave him a splinter, a cruel little grammar rule, and demanded that his nerves translate it while the fight continued. The shooter's weapon bent air through compressed heat. Kieran tasted copper, understood the angle, and twisted. The second shot curved away from a civilian chest and punched a crater into a delivery van that still smelled faintly of basil and garlic. Selene spoke rarely, moved like a closed door opening only when violence became necessary, and watched Kieran with the suspicion of someone who had once been paid to end mercy. Selene Voss became the difference between survival and disaster.