...It was funny. Heroes supposedly faced down death every day. There had been a least a few times when she'd been in serious danger of dying herself. Yet Barbara couldn't remember actually seeing someone die before. Maybe a rare corpse or two. But always after the fact. Never like this.

Alive. Dying. Dead. Dead saving Barbara. Dropping to the ground like so much meat... she'd never felt fear like that, before, when he turned toward her. She didn't see a human there, or a villain at that moment. She saw a killing machine that had picked her as its next target. She saw herself mismatched and useless.

She didn't remember deciding to run. But she was already twisting away. She had to think, but it was hard to - with her heart pounding in her ears. She had to get up somewhere high...