Blood stained my foot, although it wasn’t mine.

  It belonged to the guy beneath me, facing the wrath of my consecutive stomps that grew more wrathful by the second. You could say my anger was unjustified considering I didn’t know who he was until five minutes ago, but he had the audacity to bump into me and say “sorry”. The only apology I wanted was for him to kiss my shoes, and he couldn’t even do that.

  So, I made him kiss it. Unfortunately for the dude, it cost him his head.

  The only thing that stopped me was the pink-crimson chunk that splashed on my beautiful turquoise hair. I rushed to the mirror, and my body trembled at the sight of the mush that used to be his small brain.

  I grimaced, turned the water faucet on, and scrubbed my hair vigorously. The cold wetness covered my clear, almond skin as the disgusting gunk left my face. I sucked my cheeks in and patted down my face with a paper towel, accidentally knocking down the cup of coffee next to me.

  “Now that that’s dealt with-” I glanced at the corpse behind me. “Time to get rid of you. I can’t have you lying around here.”

  I approached it, raising my hand to my chest.

  “Venus.”

  A gray ball materialized in my palm, sweat seeping from my body. Heat licked the dead guy’s body until he was nothing more than ash. It would’ve been a hassle if that bastard Phoenix Korrect saw the corpse. Without any visible evidence, all he’d have left was speculation and suspicions.

  Just then, as if he read my mind, Phoenix walked into the bathroom. That Victorian Era suit and coat combo he always wore never failed to make the veins pop in my forehead — which was bad if I wanted to retain my youthful look. But it couldn't be helped. The bastard had this aura of pretentiousness around him.

  His eyes traced the room until it stopped at the spilled coffee near my feet. “That cup originated from our office. I asked one of my interns to get me coffee eight minutes ago, meaning he went to the bathroom before he could bring it to me. This specific bathroom.” He then looked at me sternly. “The kid’s name was Bruce.”

  “I don’t know a ‘Bruce’,” I assured him casually with a smug smile. “I only came here to wash my face. This was here when I walked inside.”

  Phoenix sniffed, placing his hands in his pockets. “The smell of ash clings to the air as a bead of sweat drips down my forehead. The temperature in the room increased recently. Flamazing isn’t in the building, so the only one with a heat based ability right now-” He pointed at me dramatically. “-is you, Pluto. Specifically, with Venus, that is.”

  I fanned my face with my hand, chuckling. “I guess I’m not the only one who noticed someone turned the AC off.”

  “I can sense residual traces of your aura in the room, which would explain the sweating. You would need to up your defensive aura to withstand your own heat — the heat you used to destroy the evidence.”

  I scoffed, placing my hands in the pockets of my light blue hoodie. “Don’t interrogate me like I’m one of those bummy criminals in that penitentiary. Speaking of that place, how are you going to deal with the ones who escaped to the surface world? It would be a shame if you went down in the rankings because of that fuck up.”

  “That will be handled soon enough,” Phoenix replied calmly. “I’m not worried about my ranking, but you should be more concerned about yours, Pluto.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “And why is that?” I asked, walking towards the door.

  “Because you’re nothing to be desired in the eyes of the Radius.” I stopped right next to him. “You have little to no care for human life, and your Radius Ability has infinite potential that you won’t work to fulfill. Not to mention, I’m just better than you.”

  I smirked, eyes widening a little. “And yet, you’ve completely misjudged what went on in this bathroom. Like I’d ever allow my time to be wasted on some irrelevant intern.”

  My hand gripped the doorknob, but before I could leave with my head held high, Phoenix decided to hit me with something.

  “You’ve got a little something on your shoe there.”

  I froze, and then looked down at my feet. I hadn’t even accounted for the remaining blood, and now there were footprints leading straight to me. “Why did you take so long to call that out? That should’ve been the first thing you noticed.”

  “Because I wanted to show you that even if you removed the obvious evidence, I’d still be able to catch you.” His eyes flashed blue for a second. “Nothing can escape my eyes.”

  I gritted my teeth and was forced to go back and wash the blood off my shoes. Bending down each time to scrub my shoe was the worst. I knew he was looking down on me, like I was some circus freak dwarf.

  Nothing could escape his eyes? How about my fingers, you overconfident fuck?

  After finishing up, I walked back to the door.

  “Enjoy your lieutenant position, Phoenix. I’ll be taking one of those empty spots tonight,” I declared, opening the door. “Even if I have to resort to something… drastic.”

  I slammed the door shut behind me, aura raging through my hands. It took a while for my twitching fingers to calm down. The only reason they did was because Lyra Williams was walking toward me, eyes forward, intending to walk past.

  I didn’t let her.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the city’s second biggest celebrity,” I said with a smile. “I’ll be looking forward to working with you once I join Radius A.”

  Lyra didn’t respond. Instead, she had the nerve to stand in front of the elevator, pushing the button. But that wasn’t the only button she pushed.

  I went to stand next to her. “Ly, don’t act like I’m one of your crazy fans. You’ve known me since before that rack of yours popped out. Don’t forget how I embarrassed your pathetic twin in front of your-”

  “Beating up a teenager as a man in your thirties isn’t the flex you think it is, Pluto,” she cut off, eyes narrowing. “I seem to recall you and him were actually friends.”

  The hoodie, gray sweatpants and tired voice were clear indicators that Ly wasn’t in the mood for a conversation. It was the perfect chance to lower her confidence and show the bitch how far away she was from me.

  “The only company I find worthwhile are those whose strength I find worthy. That way, destroying them feels the most satisfying. Besides, Dante’s now a traitor. It’ll be bad if I further associate with him, no?”

  The elevator doors opened, and we walked inside. I typed in the number “100” on the small keyboard in the wall, and the ascent began.

  “And don’t forget, Ly, I was trained by the legendary Jesus Hernandez. I can’t be compared to the other lieutenants and greenhorn RA users.” I smirked. “I’m one of the strongest.”

  “Being trained by a lieutenant who could never ascend to one of the top seven spots isn’t the flex you think it is. And what happened to not associating with traitors?”

  Lyra had every right to call that man a traitor, and yet I still hated that she did.

  Apparently, Jesus hasn’t made a report back to Radius A in nearly two weeks. That only meant two things: he was dead, or he was in the middle of betraying us. And since he’d never die, the latter had to be true.

  “Jesus might not have been in the Seven, but you and I both know that if pure strength was the only thing needed to join, then he’d be number three. That’s why Zoorhees was allowed in, no?” I paused as the number on the screen read “95”. “I’ll be the anomaly. I’ll show you people that power is all you need to control the dumb schmucks in society.”

  The female sighed. “Good luck. You’re one of the seven candidates today who probably already think that.”

  In other words, I wasn’t special? What a goddamn hypocrite.

  “If it wasn’t for who your father was and your body, anyone could easily take your spot without any effort. Including me, you little nepo baby.”

  Lyra looked at the ceiling, and then back at the number screen. “Who created this elevator?”

  “You did.”

  “And who created the Radius Skyscraper?”

  “You did.”

  “And who created this entire city?”

  I squinted. “You did.”

  The doors opened, but before the nepo bitch left, she told me one last thing. “I hope you can finally understand the difference between a lieutenant and someone like me.”

  I stayed behind, letting her saunter out with that verbal win. However, it didn’t matter if I lost that exchange.

  The Seven was a dying group, and their incompetence was corrupting them, turning what was once a wall of titanium into shattered glass. Zoorhees left of his own volition. Kofi got fired. Jesus had vanished. Zandalf was murdered. What used to be seven members was now only four, and one of them was some B Team slut who only got added because her body was immune to zombie bites.

  Someone with the power to crush earth was forgotten in favor of someone who could create water? Bullshit. Absolute bullshit.

  Ever since the rise of the Corleone Family and other rogue factions, survivors realized Daemon Williams’ idea of a return to normalcy was absolutely stupid. That man could destroy the entire world if he wanted, and yet he wanted to reverse the effects of the apocalypse? To bring us back to the dumpster fire that was the Old World?

  No!

  The bombs dropping were a blessing. It gave losers like me who wasted their lives away at a 9-5 true freedom and ultimate power. And once I joined the Seven, I was going to make sure everyone knew that.

  Daemon, his bitch daughter, and that old hag Teresa we’re all going to bow down to me. Containing my excitement at the thought of that image was getting increasingly hard, but I liked every second of it.