"What's wrong?" I ask, alarmed. Immediately, I slow my breathing down in spite of my heart beating rapidly, gripping his shoulders. "Why do you need--"

"I'll tell you." Burner slams his knuckles against the graffiti and gets us to a parking bunker faster than you can blink. I've been manhandled before, but Burner has already broken into a run towards his car. Like a torpedo ready for launch, Burner practically tosses me on the other end, barely even stopping to check if I've landed before he opens his car door. "Get in first."

I yelp, tripping, scraping palms against the pavement, but scramble in quickly. I barely jump in. Burner peels the car out of the parking lot with an urgency that barely gives me time to close the door. I slap on a seatbelt first so I don't hurtle through the window. "Burner!" The car zooms forward, and skirts around another backing up. "What the hell, Burner!" I manage to slam the door closed. "What's going on?"

Burner gets us on the highway, still flooring it. "All Supers Emergency at East park," he says, as he merges and then proceeds to cut almost everyone off. I read a quick swipe from his hand to his phone--we're now taking a new route opening up for us that goes aboveground. "Take my phone. Text everyone in that groupchat. Say I'm on my way to their location and ask what it's about."

I do. My fingers are as sweaty as my palm, all at once too slow and too stiff, before I remember I can do it with my mind. Almost right away, to my surprise, the first one to call back is Lockdown.

"Terrance," he growls when I pick up, and I can hear grunting. Shouts in the background. "You'd better--goddammit! Better not be driving and texting, or so help me, you are-- Shit!" His voice distorts, goes far away. "You damn piece of--" His voice returns with a vengeance. "Terrance, if you're texting and driving, you're sleeping on the fucking floor tonight!"

"It's River Ng--Sir," I say, heart-stammering with my voice. "Burner's driving. What's the situation? The threat? What is--"

"Rogue android detonation," Lockdown thunders, and hangs up.

"What?" I say, flabbergasted, to the dial tone.

"That's telling me bad news," Burner says, on my other end, as he neatly cuts off. "What do I need to know?"

"'Android...detonation'?"

"Oh good," Burner growls, and speeds faster. I'm practically pressed back into my seat by the speed. "Just what we need when Tech and all his people are out on that goddamn conference."

Tech--my brain grasps onto that one name. I vaguely remember a rat-faced young man who'd shook my hand and congratulated me when I'd crossed the stage to receive my license. Tech's one of the League officers in charge of anything to do with--

We arrive faster than I can think. Burner skids us to a stop, and the wheels actually scrape hard against the concrete. I'm dizzy, breath choked out of me by the momentum.

"Oh my god," I wheeze, as Burner opens his car door. "I'm never riding with you again."

Everywhere around us is chaos suspended. There's signs of fights, broken down and smashed roads. Chunks of debris from expulsion blasts lies crumbled around. Halves of three building might collapse from where someone flew through them. This isn't any worse than the fight with Burner and Lockdown in the other part of the city; but they've already moved fast. There's no civilians around. Even when I send a wave out, I get nothing but a bunch of graphene signals returning back to me.

We climb out of the car. A team of supervillains are in the middle of dispersing, black face masks over the lower halves of their face, and logos on their jackets in the Doctor's insignia: a white syringe with laurels over a black shield. I shrink back, but none of them say anything to me.

Burner's paying more attention to the superheroes approaching to notice my reaction. "What's the situation?"

"Sentinel's negotiating with them right now under League observation, but we're not sure how long we have before it gets too risky and we need to move in." The Guardian is the first to recognize me, which is just as well, because she's not the first I recognize. "River Ng--" she says, before she cuts herself off sharply. Then, her gaze is on Lockdown who is finishing up another phone call. "This was who you were talking to?"

"I'm sorry, are my private calls any of your business?" Lockdown snaps pointedly, lowering his hand from his helmet. Without even glancing at me, he looks at Burner. "Burner, why are either of you here?"

"Didn't want to text and drive," Burner says, without blinking. He only does that when he's annoyed. "The League's the one that'll want me here, anyway."

Lockdown turns to me. "Since you're here, you might as well answer me this: If we rip out a backed up, plugged up power source from an android, how bad would the explosion be? Can it be contained realistically to a three block radius?"

I draw back. "Sorry?"

Burner puts a hand on my shoulder. It's grounding against the whip-fast lash of Lockdown's impatient questions. "Just do a scan and tell us what to expect," he says, and I don't know why he isn't noticing how sharp Lockdown's gaze is on that very gesture. "Take your time."

Under the gaze of these superheroes and the pressure, I send a shaky wave out, but don't find anything. "I don't--"

"Useless," Lockdown snarls. "It's already been five minutes. We're moving in. Guardian, with me. Burner," he says, and the way he says that name makes Burner's expression, "take your friend home. This isn't your jurisdiction, no matter what the League says."

"Lockdown, this is a reminder neither of us work directly under you," the Guardian replies, but then looks at me again. "Good to see you, River Ng," she tells me, before she leaves to fall in step with Lockdown. "We'll go ahead, Burner."

"Burner--" I say.

"Sorry," Burner says. He's breathing through his nose right now, mouth pressed into a thin line. "I'll reimburse you for your ride home later."

He leaves me standing in the empty intersection, feeling like I'm in over my head.