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“How fast--” He paused to slide his mask off his face. “--Exactly how fast am I, anyway?” As he stood still, he could feel his own heart pounding faster than it ever had in his entire life.

Garovel shrugged. ‘How fast can your body run without tearing itself apart?’

He scratched his head and returned with a wet hand. He wiped the sweat on his shirt, but it was similarly soaked. He wiped it on his pants instead.

‘Officer Mallory is in his house. You should keep your distance until--’ Garovel stopped when they both saw a black van pull up in front of the house. Five men stepped out. Two started for the front door, three circled around back. ‘You’d better put your mask back on.’

‘Right.’

Dashing up to the house, he saw them knocking on the door.

‘Deal with the ones in the back first.’

‘Okay.’

He snuck along the neighbor’s fence and leapt over into the backyard. The three of them noticed him immediately and stiffened their postures, hands in their coats.

“Who the fuck are you?” said the nearest one, square-jawed and younger than the others. “What’s with the fucking mask?”

“Uh... I-I heard you had some leaky pipes?”

“Get outta here before we--”

‘You don’t have time to chat.’ Garovel touched his shoulder, and that familiar pain flashed through his body. ‘Go.’

He rushed the youngest guy, who pulled a gun, but Hector flattened him before he could fire. The man stayed down. The other two pulled, and Hector took two in the chest before reaching the next man, slugging him in the face, and kicking his gun away from him. The last one fired five more times, three of which missed Hector completely, and went down with a kick to the testicles and an elbow to the forehead.

Gunfire erupted from inside the house.