Adventure of Dean MacDonald 2

Across the street, the bank’s windows burst outward as masked robbers, adult men and women in bulky dark street clothes and mismatched helmets hurl cars aside with superhuman force. Sirens knot through the avenue below.

A young boy in an oversized green hoodie clings to the satellite array’s central dish, brown curls whipping around his frightened face. Blue-white energy crawls over his arms.

Beside him, Akihiko Gushiken, a lean young adult man with pale skin and straight black hair, works through an exposed control panel. Thin red lines coil around his fingers.

The dish groans and rotates toward the bank. Its targeting lights turn crimson, bathing rooftop concrete, the boy, and Akihiko in pulsing red.

Dean plants his feet beneath the dish as it strains toward the bank. Kinetic force surges through his arms, catching the rotating array and locking its frame in place.

The boy slips from the dish rim. Dean catches him against his chest, then shields the child beneath one arm while the other holds the array steady.

Crimson targeting lights crawl across Dean’s shoulders, but the dish no longer turns. The energy whipping over the boy’s arms dims to a nervous blue flicker.