THE BATTLE OF ENGELBERG
ENGELBERG, SWITZERLAND
NIGEL COULDN’T EXPLAIN WHY HE DID IT. HE hated Einar. The bastard had dredged up some of the worst memories of his life, used them to make Nigel feel weak and helpless, nearly killed him.
But Nigel’s family had been making him feel weak and helpless all his life.
As Bea pulled the trigger a second time, Nigel used his telekinesis to rip her gun away.
Einar groped at his throat, his eyebrows raised in surprise. Blood poured in a fountain down his shirtfront. He opened his mouth to speak and a bubble of dark crimson came out.
He clamped a hand over the wound and fell down.
“Am I . . . ?” he managed to say. “Am I dying?”
Even at this distance, Isabela could feel the heat rolling off the wreckage of Sydal’s spacecraft. One of those Blackstone mercenaries must have shot it down. What kind of game was Nigel’s mother playing?
She didn’t have time to think about that. Melanie was wailing at the sight of the explosion, Daniela was trying to console her and Caleb was breathing laboriously through his smashed face.
But that wasn’t what drew Isabela’s attention.
Although still suspended by Daniela’s rocky protrusion, Five had shaken off the effects of Melanie’s vicious blow to his head. His breathing now came in quick rasps that reminded Isabela of a bull penned up before release. As she watched, a bit of froth fell from his lips.
Five dangled directly above the contents of Sydal’s briefcase.
“This . . . ,” Five spoke through his teeth. “This is what they’re selling? This? THIS?”
In a blur of motion, Five pulled himself up and bashed his way free of Daniela’s stone bond. Floating now, he let out a roar and plummeted straight down at Daniela. She barely had time to turn around before Five was on her, hitting her in the sternum with both fists. He slammed her to the ground with enough force that Isabela heard the girl’s ribs break.
“Daniela!” Melanie shouted. There were tears on her cheeks, but she still managed to lunge at Five.
Five took to the air, floating over Melanie’s outstretched arms. As she stumbled past, he spun and slammed his knees into her back, running her towards Daniela’s wall of stone. Melanie had time to scream before Five slammed her head first into the rock and she went limp.
Breathing raggedly, Five floated above them all. He grabbed the vials of black goop that had set him off—Isabela noticed how the empty obsidian color matched the splotches of dead skin on Five’s body. The vials spun around him, under his control. He glared down at Isabela, fire in his single eye.
“This stuff is evil,” he snarled. “Pure evil.”
“Okay,” Isabela replied, holding up both hands. “Now relax.”
“They should die for this,” Five replied. Isabela followed his eye—it was wide enough that she could see the white—as Five scanned the field and located Nigel’s mom. “Starting with her.”
Before Isabela could try to talk him down, Five flew towards the others.
After Nigel ripped his mother’s gun away, Duanphen acted quickly while Nigel was still trying to figure out what to do. She charged Bea and struck her under the chin with a flying knee. The older woman screamed and fell onto her back. Nigel noticed Duanphen wince when she landed—one of her legs was injured.
Instinctively, Nigel grabbed Duanphen around the waist and tried to drag her away from Bea. She shucked him off, though, grabbing his wrist and twisting until he flipped onto the ground. She let a brief jolt flow into him, then released him.
“You still defend this woman?” Duanphen asked. “Even after you’ve seen what she’s capable of?”
“She’s—she’s my mom, for shit’s sake,” Nigel said. “Just stop fighting and I promise she’ll pay for—”
“She will pay now,” Duanphen replied.
Of course, Nigel had a feeling that Duanphen wasn’t going to just stand down. That’s why he focused on the sound of flames crackling behind her from where Sydal’s ship had gone down. He amplified the noise so it sounded like a wall of fire was rushing towards her back. Duanphen flinched and turned, and that’s when Nigel kicked her in her bad knee.
Before she could recover, Nigel grabbed a nearby stone with his telekinesis and smacked Duanphen across the face. He stood up, rubbing his wrist where she’d twisted it.
“Now, let’s take a deep breath and—”
Five swooped down and grabbed Nigel by the throat. His grip was literally iron, his fingers digging into the side of Nigel’s neck. Five lifted him up, floating them above the scene. Nigel couldn’t get a breath in to scream.
Five saw Einar then. He was still clutching his throat, clinging to life, but there was an impossible amount of blood pouring over his fingers.
“He wouldn’t want me to kill you,” Five said to Nigel, his voice shaky with rage. “But you are a traitor to your own kind. Working with the Foundation. You deserve this.”
His grip tightened. Nigel couldn’t get a word out. He saw spots.
And then, a chunk of blue stone the size of a refrigerator struck Five. The impact sent him cartwheeling through the air and knocked Nigel free. He hit the ground next to the mysterious mass of Loralite, hacking and gasping for breath.
The stone had come from the direction of the road. Only telekinesis could propel something that large that fast. He squinted in that direction and was able to make out a few vague shapes and another glint of azure light. Who had saved him?
And could they please do it again?
Nigel rolled over and saw that Five had righted himself in the air and now loomed over him. Instead of pressing the attack, he stared confusedly at the Loralite.
In a flash of light, two figures burst forth from the stone. Nigel’s eyes filled with tears at the sight of them.
Ran and Kopano.
They put themselves between Nigel and Five, Ran’s fists glowing with stored energy.
“You stay the hell away from him,” Ran snarled.
By that time, the Blackstone mercenaries that Taylor had taken out were beginning to stir. With all their weapons broken and dismantled and many of them hurt, there was no way they were going back into the fray. Not with so many Garde running around. They intended to beat a hasty retreat.
Until Karen Walker pointed her gun at them.
“All you bastards back on your bellies,” she said. “No one moves until this is sorted out.”
The mercenaries could have rushed Walker, maybe taken her, but some of them noted the teenager wearing a hijab at Walker’s side. No way that she wasn’t another Garde. They did as Walker said.
Not worth it.
From their vantage point near the edge of the clearing, Walker and Rabiya had a clear view of the carnage. Bodies both dead and injured, discarded weapons of human and alien origin, a broken-down Skimmer, a random wall of stone, a burning spaceship—and just a few Garde left standing.
“Shouldn’t we help them?” Rabiya asked.
“I know that guy out there,” Walker replied. “That’s Number Five. If Ran and Kopano can’t stop him, our best chance is to just hope he doesn’t notice us.”
Kopano recognized the monstrous one-eyed guy with steel-plated skin as Number Five. How many times had he watched that video of Five battling Professor Nine in New York City? It was literally the coolest thing Kopano had ever seen.
Oh man. He was about to fight a full-fledged Loric.
Why were they fighting? What the hell had gone down here?
Kopano didn’t know. He didn’t care. Five was going after Nigel. That made him an enemy.
With an unhinged scream, Five charged at them—flying, not on foot. Kopano and Ran spread out, trying to flank him. Ran launched two charged projectiles in Five’s direction, but he grabbed them with his telekinesis and redirected them at Kopano.
The two stones exploded right in front of Kopano’s face. He tightened his molecules so there wasn’t any pain, but the flash of light momentarily disoriented him.
“Kopano!” Ran shouted. “Ghost!”
Just as his vision cleared, Kopano saw Five flying right for him. Thanks to Ran, he was able to go transparent and avoid catching two of Five’s metal-plated fists to his chest. Hopefully, that would put Five off balance enough for them to counterattack.
Except Five kept going. Kopano wasn’t even his target.
It was the woman behind him. Kopano had barely registered her. Middle-aged, blond, a bloody nose. She’d just gotten back to her feet when Five loomed over her.
“Mom!” Nigel shouted.
Mom? Oh, damn.
“I brought this back for you!” Five snarled down at Nigel’s mom.
Then, he smashed a vial of black ooze across her face.
The trampled snow was cold against Taylor’s cheek. What had she been doing? Running towards something. But then she’d flipped up in the air, landed on her head, and . . .
It felt so, so good to rest after these last few days.
“Taylor! Taylor! Oh, you lazy shit, get up! Get up!”
Hands on her shoulders, shaking her. She blinked her eyes open and dazedly looked up.
“Isabela . . . ,” she said. “Hey.”
Her roommate slapped Taylor sharply on the cheek and the sting was enough to wake her up. She could still hear fighting, shouting, screaming.
So the battle hadn’t ended without her.
“He’ll kill them,” Isabela said quickly. “He’s crazy!”
Taylor scrambled to sit up. She looked across the field, saw Five soaring down to punch someone across the face.
Not someone. Kopano. Oh my God. Kopano and Ran.
“I have to help . . . ,” Taylor said, getting to her feet, intent to do whatever she could against the mad Loric.
“You have to heal him!” Isabela said, pointing towards where the snow was dark from an expanding pool of blood. “He can calm Five down!”
Taylor swallowed hard when she saw who Isabela was pointing at.
Einar.
Bea screamed and collapsed, clutching at her face. The black ooze seemed to be writhing of its own volition, worming its way into the tiny cuts caused when Five smashed the vial.
Ran grabbed Five with her telekinesis and yanked him away from Bea. He spun to face her, breathing hard, eyes wide. She recognized the look in his eyes.
Bloodlust.
He flew towards her, but she pushed at him with her telekinesis. Ran put up a wall of pure force. Five had to struggle to gain even an inch in her direction. She watched veins pop to life on his forehead, sweat beading on his face. He was coming.
Ran couldn’t hold him alone.
She didn’t have to.
A few yards away, Kopano pressed on Five with his own telekinesis. Nigel joined in, too. Together, the three of them had Five trapped in a box of telekinetic pressure. His every muscle was flexed and straining as he tried to move, flares of his own telekinesis causing the dirt and snow around his feet to churn.
Nigel took his eyes off Five for a moment, glancing at his mom, who was sitting on the ground, wiping that muck off her face and trembling. Gritting his teeth, he put a little extra force behind his telekinesis, hoping to break a few ribs.
Five still fought. Ran felt him pushing back against all of them, straining to be free. Out of the corner of her eye, she sensed movement. Taylor and Isabela. Doing something.
“What . . . ?” Kopano panted. “What do we do with him?”
“Hold him,” Ran said, through gritted teeth. “Until—”
An arm looped around Ran’s neck from behind, snuck under her chin, and cut off her air.
“Hell!” Nigel shouted, seeing Duanphen too late. “Ran! Watch out!”
Ran’s whole body arched as Duanphen sent electricity coursing through her.
Without Ran, Nigel and Kopano couldn’t maintain their grip on Five. He burst free and launched himself towards Nigel.
Taylor knelt over Einar. There was so much blood. The hole in the side of his neck was dark, the bullet having gone straight through. Einar’s eyes were glassy and empty. He stared up at the sky, unseeing.
She hesitated. Would it be so bad if he were dead? He was so pale. Taylor wasn’t sure there was even a spark left in him to rekindle.
Isabela touched Taylor’s shoulder. “Try,” she said. “We’ll need him.”
“Can’t believe I’m doing this,” Taylor muttered.
She placed her hand on Einar’s neck. His skin was deathly cold already.
Still, Taylor let her healing energy flow.
A strange memory returned to Ran as Duanphen’s electricity crackled through her.
She’d lost control of her Legacy once in Dr. Chen’s seminar. Accidentally, she had charged her desk to explode and then been forced to suck the concussive energy back in. That was the same technique she’d used to shock Nigel back to life in Iceland. Moving volatile energy from place to place, sparking molecules to life. Absorption, release, destruction.
She felt pain as Duanphen’s voltage streamed into her—pins and needles in her every nerve, spasms, blood in her mouth.
But she could take it, Ran realized. She could let the energy fill her.
“What . . . ?” Duanphen murmured in Ran’s ear, her grip loosening. “What are you doing?”
Ran didn’t exactly know. It was instinct. Duanphen’s shocking touch no longer hurt. Ran was feeding off it, soaking up the energy, letting it gather inside her.
Duanphen broke away from Ran and stumbled backwards. Ripples of currents still frolicked across Duanphen’s skin, but she wasn’t nearly as charged as she was a second ago. Ran had taken that from her.
Ran turned to face Duanphen, her fist crackling with electricity.
“This is yours,” Ran said.
She opened her palm and a bolt of lightning shot forth, all that electricity Duanphen had pumped into her let loose at once. The jagged streak hit Duanphen in the chest and left her a smoking heap, breathing but unconscious.
Ran had little time to celebrate her discovery. There was a sharp, sizzling pain in her temple. She went down to one knee and grabbed her head. The pain was coming from beneath the little scar where Walker’s people had inserted their Inhibitor chip.
It felt like something inside Ran had just burst.
Five’s hand wrapped tight around Nigel’s throat. Nigel looked up at the Loric boy, at his one eye and blemished face, and saw nothing but unfettered rage. He’d snapped. There was no reason in there.
With a mighty bellow, Kopano shoulder-blocked Five away from Nigel. The two of them got tangled up and rolled to the ground, punching each other, steel fists hitting unbreakable skin.
Kopano. God bless ’im. Always saving Nigel’s ass.
As they fought on the ground, Kopano snaked one of his hands up to press against the side of Five’s head. For the briefest of moments, it went transparent, Kopano’s fingers disappearing beneath Five’s steel carapace.
Five reeled backwards with a howl of pain, clutching at his face. “What did you do to me?”
Kopano, still on the ground, turned his head to yell towards the road. “Walker! Use my Inhibitor! WALKER! USE MY INHIBITOR!”
The second time Kopano screamed out his nonsense order to his mysterious ally, Nigel used his Legacy to augment the sound, make it carry. He couldn’t do much—beaten up and breathless—but he could do that.
Suddenly, Five’s whole body jerked. He lost control of his Legacy, the steel skin turning back to soft, pink flesh. He fell to his hands and knees.
Kopano scrambled to his feet with a triumphant cheer. “It worked! I—”
Five stood back up. His head twitched back and forth, shaking off the debilitating shock from the Inhibitor that Kopano had snuck inside of him. Smoke rolled out of his mouth when he spoke, but the Beast was still standing.
“Always against me . . . always . . . even when I’m on the right side . . . ,” Five murmured, his words slurred. “Let me show you . . . show you what they . . . what they did to me.”
Kopano took a frightened step away. Nigel crab-walked backwards to put some distance between him and Five.
His skin changed. Not back to metal like before. The dark blemishes that covered his skin grew wet and expanded, spreading out to cover Five’s entire body, every inch of him now the same writhing black oil that he had smashed into Bea’s face.
Five held out one of his arms and tendrils snaked forth, writhing and snapping, towards Kopano’s face.
“ENOUGH!”
The needle-sharp tentacles stopped just in front of Kopano’s eye. Five froze.
Einar stood at the edge of the fray, pale as a ghost, his shirt soaked through with blood. Taylor and Isabela watched from a few steps behind him.
“Not that, Five,” Einar said, his voice hoarse, exhausted, like that yell had drained his last bit of energy. “Never that.”
Slowly, Five pulled back the oozing mass that was his arm. With an agonized groan, he changed his skin back to normal. Five looked as if he had to fight to do it, like his Legacy wasn’t working properly, like he needed to physically contract the dark patches back to their former size.
Einar focused on Five until his breathing slowed, until he unclenched his fists, until he fell to his knees.
“Calm . . . ,” Einar said. “You’re calm. It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry,” Five said, looking first at Kopano and then at Nigel. A tear streaked down his blood-crusted cheek. “I’m so sorry.”