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.The guy was wearing a lot of gold, and a black cape.So their attacker’s identity seemed pretty certain, but Graham was missing him by a fairly wide margin.The question was: Did Lincoln need to hide, or was he tough enough to stand up to laser? Before he could resolve these issues, Graham took a break, and Lincoln completely lost sight of him."Did I get him?" Graham asked."Not even close.""What the hell do you know?""Stand up and find out."Graham grumbled, but not loud enough for Lincoln to catch the words.Then Lincoln caught a whiff of the now-familiar acidic fumes."Edmond, what are you doing?" he whispered."I’m burning into the floor," Edmond answered."Making us a dugout.We’ll be able to drop in and wait for him to give away his position.Since he can’t see us any better than we can see him—""I wouldn’t be too sure of that."Regardless of his paranormal protection, the sudden new voice nearly caused Lincoln to jump out of his skin.He was so close! The guy was fast! He felt a slight breeze go past his left arm, and Edmond grunted as though struck.Then Lincoln heard him moan as he slumped into the very hole he’d just begun making."Got you!" Graham roared, firing a lightning bolt from each hand, heedless of whether or not he might hit either of his companions.In the flash of light, Lincoln saw the costumed man — Vortex — standing right next to him.He could have taken a swing at him then and there, but he hesitated.Graham missed Vortex, but he did accomplish one thing.One of his bolts struck a large pile of computer printouts on a different table, which instantly caught fire.The flames spread quickly to the table itself, and suddenly it wasn’t so dark.But Vortex was on the move.Putting space between himself and Lincoln, he faced Graham.The air between them rippled — Waid was correct about this paranormal having multiple abilities — and suddenly Graham was hurled backward as though Lincoln himself had picked him up and thrown him.The redhead was airborne for several seconds before he crashed back to the floor, moaning, groaning, and cursing the whole way.Then Vortex said something that Lincoln heard very clearly.It was just one word, "Lightning," but it was spat with venomous conviction.He moved towards Graham, leaping over the bench with impressive grace.Lincoln glanced down at Edmond and realized the man was lying face-first in the loosened rumble of the warehouse floor.Turning him over, he found Edmond was gushing blood from a broken nose, and the uneven flickering of the firelight was still enough to reveal that both his eyes were blackening.Vortex must have hit the man dead-center in the face with perfect accuracy.So much for his not being able to see in the dark.The warehouse echoed with more of Graham’s lightning bolts, and Lincoln figured that he should return his attention to the fight.If Graham were to report back to McLane that he could have taken a swing at Vortex and didn’t.Standing, Lincoln was just in time to see Vortex reach Graham.All of the redhead’s bolts had apparently missed their target, although Vortex’s cape was smoking near one end-corner.He elbowed Graham in the left temple, staggering the lightning man.Graham took a clumsy swing at him, which proved to be a big mistake — Vortex blocked it easily, then rolled his arm around Graham’s and pivoted at the waist, hyper-extending Graham’s elbow.Graham cried out as he was then spun and flipped by the very same arm, landing flat on his back on the concrete floor — his breath fled his body like a rat from a sinking ship."Son of a bitch!" Vortex bellowed, kicking Graham in the face."You killed them all!" He threw himself down onto the man, pommeling him.Lincoln realized that he’d just been watching all of this, slack-jawed and immobile.He had no idea what Vortex was talking about, but one thing was clear: Although he was taking out a lot of emotional frustration on Graham, it seemed doubtful that he was out to kill the lightning man — after all, one blast of those lasers of his would accomplish that task at the speed of light.God only knows what Graham’s done to deserve this, Lincoln thought.But.I have to think about Tommy and Sarah.Lincoln stepped forward and kicked the bench.It split in half but still did what he’d wanted — a portion of it flew across the hanger and slammed into Vortex’s back, knocking him off Graham.Lincoln expected that to be the end of it — the force he’d put into that kick could easily have shoved the bench halfway through a normal man’s body — but Vortex, though clearly shaken, managed to roll with it and end up on his feet.Invulnerability, too? This guy has more paranormal tricks than Khalkha!Striding forward, flexing his muscles, and trying to sound as rough and intimidating as possible, Lincoln demanded, "Listen, why don’t you just stand down, Mister? I don’t want to hurt you—"He’d half-expected twin beams of light to shoot forward and try to burn through him, but something else happened.When the guy had.thrown Graham backward, or whatever it was he’d done, the air had rippled like a heat wave.Now, however, as Vortex turned that same power onto him, he found that being on the receiving end was a different experience.Instead of a mere ripple, a tunnel seemed to appear between himself and the vigilante — it reminded him, of all things, like the opening title sequence on the old "Doctor Who" television series
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