Free Just Cause: Revised & Expanded Edition by Ian Thomas Healy

quick glance at the particle showed the glow around it was almost gone and its trajectory headed toward where Juice had stood a second ago. Sally turned and covered several hundred feet in an instant as the containment field collapsed. A powerful explosion tore through the air. Juice tumbled to the ground clear of the blast radius.
    Sally dashed up to him, and made herself slow down enough that she could speak to him. “Are you all right, sir?”
    “Yes. Ow.” He shook his head to clear it. “That was antimatter, I presume?”
    “I think so. We don’t dare break the containment field.”
    “Jack, no shooting at it,” Juice called.
    “Don’t worry.” Jack sounded disgusted. He tossed away his rifle, the barrel twisted and smoldering. His clothing was singed but he seemed otherwise unharmed.
    “Juice?” Doublecharge’s voice came from overhead.
    “I’m all right,” he said. “Thanks to Sally. Negotiations are over. Wrap it up, Eric.”
    Forcestar gathered his reserves of power and Doublecharge did the same. He cast another cylindrical field around the creature. Doublecharge sent crackling bolt after bolt of lightning into the cylinder. “More power,” said Forcestar.
    “How will you know when it’s enough?” Doublecharge called as more and more electricity coursed from her.
    “It won’t be able to get out,” said Forcestar. The creature raised its arms to the field. “It’s working,” he said. “Pour it on, Stacey. I can feel it changing.”
    The creature swung an arm at the field, which crackled, sparked, and rebounded like gelatin. Another subsonic roar emerged from the creature. It released another particle, which bounced off the inside of the field wall and detonated within the enclosed space of Forcestar’s field.
    “I got it!” Forcestar lifted the creature off the ground. It struggled within the blue field, but couldn’t push its way out.
    “How long can you hold it like that?” Juice signaled Ace to bring the Bettie back around.
    “I have no idea. It’s not very heavy, but the energy is making it tricky.”
    Doublecharge slumped to the ground and yanked off her mask. Blood ran from her nose and she looked pale against the snow. Sally rushed over to help support her. A sharp smell of ozone permeated her skin and costume. She had released a tremendous amount of electrical energy, like hundreds of lightning bolts all going off at once, and Doublecharge seemed to have come close to overloading herself.
    The Bettie roared in to stand on her jets. Sally and Jack helped get Doublecharge on board. Juice secured Forcestar in the airlock, since his powers wouldn’t function through the walls or windows of the aircraft; he would have to ride exposed to the cold and altitude. He strapped an oxygen mask over Forcestar’s face and wrapped him up in a thermal blanket, plugged into the side of the airlock.
    “You need anything? Ace says it’s about thirty minutes to Deep Six.”
    “How about a couple of chicken tacos and a mocha espresso?”
    “Oh, sure, I’ll have Ace hit a couple drive-throughs in Butte,” said Juice as he closed the airlock door behind him. “Ace, we’re clear.”
    The Bettie’s engines responded with a new whine as Ace tapped emergency reserves of power to coax just a little more speed from the craft. Sally wrapped a blanket around Doublecharge while Jack administered a sedative through an inhaler.
    Juice came up from the airlock and knelt down in front of his second-in-command. “You did good, partner.”
    In spite of her exhaustion, shock, and the onrushing effects of the drugs Jack had administered, Doublecharge managed a slight smile before her head lolled back.
    The Bettie left sound behind her as she tore up the miles on course for Deep Six. Sally knew the parahuman prison facility in Montana would have the best chance of holding a creature made of antimatter until they could figure out what to do with it. She was disappointed that there wouldn’t be time for