I dispersed the plasma ball. It tore a gaping hole in the Jumpsuit about to slice me in half and burned through the transparency just below the sea monster. It was enough to widen a crack through the web, the whole thing making a deep groaning sound so terrifying it paralyzed the Jumpsuits where they stood. The only part of them that moved was their eyes as they looked up at what promised impending death.

  Quasar was the only one I could reach. I wrapped my arms around her, quickly replicating the air bubble I had used earlier to get us from Head Case to the shore. My eyes met Emerald's through the transparency of the bubble, hers wide with fear, and then betrayal and grief as I flattened my hand against the inside of the bubble. My emotions tearing at me, I wished more than anything I could have reached her in time or that she'd been close enough for me to pull her in.

  The long crack from the original impact to the plasma-weakened damage branched out into dozens of ruptures. Finally, the weakened transparency failed beneath the weight of the seawater. Shouting in fear, the Jumpsuits tried too late to run for their lives. Emerald and Shaq, now free to rush toward the bubble, were too late too.

  Emerald reached me in time to place her palm to mine on the outside of the bubble. I wanted nothing more than to reach through it and haul her in, but there was no way I could help her if I didn’t survive the next few seconds.

  Our eyes locked an instant before the transparency lost its entire integrity and the wave of flood water yanked Emerald away from the bubble. Competing undertows tossed her and everyone else around in the room. Suddenly, the surrounding wall lost its integrity too, creating a new leak in the structure that probably saved the lives of everyone in the room.

  I pushed my submerged hamster ball toward where I had last seen Emerald, adjusting course as a couple of the Jumpsuits saw that Zar and I had air inside our bubble and tried to swim toward us. The absorbed water created a dense wall, but I wasn’t sure it was completely impenetrable. If they broke through it, the water would flood in behind them and effectively kill us all.

  One of them angled toward the bubble with surprising agility, obviously an expert swimmer. I tried to maneuver away, cursing under my breath as he reached out, touching the edge of the ball. Pressing his hand into the outer layers of compacted water, he used it to get a better grip to start pulling himself in. For a moment, I was sure he would make it, but then a large tentacle snapped out from behind him, wrapping around his legs and pulling him back. I watched in surprised horror as the sea creature guided him to its beak, ready to devour the man. The creature’s other tentacles had already collected three more of the Jumpsuits.

  One of the creature's appendages also held Emerald. She didn’t move, conserving energy and air, eyes open and tracking us as we skirted toward the tunnel. It was also flooded, though I didn’t know how far the water level might have risen inside the elevator shaft.

  “Zar, I need to drop the ball,” I said, quickly scanning the area for Shaq. My heart dropped when I didn’t see him anywhere. Had I just killed one of my closest, most loyal friends? “I’ll give you a push toward the tunnel, but you need to swim free.”

  “Copy that,” she replied before prepping for the swim by filling her lungs with air. I did the same, uncertain if this would work or we would both die. There was no other choice if I wanted to save Emerald and hopefully Shaq.

  I gave her a thumbs up as a signal and then dispersed the absorbed water. It effectively pushed it out in a wave that cleared the area around us and allowed the water to fill our air bubble without crushing us under the pressure. The water was freezing, and I nearly made the mistake of exhaling in response to the cold. It was all I could do to hold my breath as I pushed Zar relatively hard toward the tunnel. She cut through the water like a torpedo, but I didn’t wait to see that she reached her destination. I launched myself at the tentacle gripping Emerald, the creature ignoring me, too busy enjoying its meal as I eased in closer to her.

  She smiled as I swam up face-to-face with her. and tried pulling the creature's arm away from her. Even with enhanced strength, I couldn't loosen its grip. I glanced at my wrist to check my remaining level of chaos energy and silently cursed the giant squid's stubborn nature. Hitting its tentacle with calmed-to-death, the appendage instantly went limp.

  Unfortunately, the effect didn’t extend to the rest of the creature. It let out a cry that threatened to burst my eardrums and let go of the Jumpsuits in its grip, all of its tentacles swinging toward me. Desperately turning toward the tunnel with my arm around Emerald, I pushed us away, just barely escaping the reach of the first appendage. The creature gave chase, launching toward us with unbelievable speed. I felt the reach of another of its tentacles as it tapped my magboot, falling a few inches shy of wrapping around my ankle. Still pushing, I shot into the tunnel.

  The creature’s body didn’t fit, but that didn’t stop it from reaching for me one last time. It would have had me if Emerald hadn't dug my blaster out of my pocket and opened up on it with the charged balls of energy. The tentacle remained intact, but the energy was just enough to convince the creature to retreat.

  We might have escaped the beast, but we hadn’t escaped. Not yet.

  I was running out of breath, and Emerald’s scrunched face suggested she was suffocating already, desperately trying to keep her mouth closed. We traveled the tunnel quickly, reaching the elevator. The doors had been pried open, the water filling the inside, the cab nowhere to be seen. I swam through and looked up, spotting the waterline about twenty feet above where Quasar was treading water. I pushed us rapidly upward.

  When we broke through the surface, my only thought was of Shaq. “I lost Shaq,” I gasped between huge gulps of air, my eyes tearing up. “

  “You did?” Shaq buzzed.

  I looked at Quasar, finding him perched on top of her. Heaving a sigh of relief, I smiled and shook my head. “Cats have nine lives. How many do jaggers have?”

  “As many as we need,” he answered. “Not one less. Not one more.”

  “Em, are you okay?” I asked, turning her around in my arms and bringing her to my chest so I could see her face.

  “You almost killed me,” she groused, pouting as she softly slapped my shoulder. "But then you saved my life." Her expression morphed into a playful simper. "My hero.” She leaned in and kissed me.

  I was tempted to kiss her back in relief that I had managed to save her, but this wasn't the time or place to open up that can of worms. Fortunately, she either hadn’t noticed my reticence or didn’t care.

  She pushed herself out of my arms and started laughing. “That was incredible! We should do it again.”

  “The kissing or the nearly drowning?” Quasar asked.

  “Both!”

  “Hard pass,” she replied.

  “Ditto,” I added.

  “You’re both no fun,” Emerald complained. “How about you, Shaqadoodle?”

  “Nope,” he answered.

  “Whatever.”

  I glanced up at the cab hanging suspended high above us, probably at ground level. Rungs led up the wall of the shaft, creating a ladder from top to bottom. I looked over at Quasar. “What’s Head Case’s status?”

  “Hold on,” she replied, using Gia as a relay. “It’s out of the water and on the way to pick us up, but she says to hurry. PD’s already on their tail.”

  “Then we’d better start climbing.”

  CHAPTER 29

  I was too low on chaos energy to push us up the elevator shaft. I didn’t even want to risk using enough to enhance my own strength and make the climb easier. Instead, we made it back to ground level the old-fashioned way, by climbing the ladder and exiting onto the floor of the adjacent shaft where the majority of elevators were located. We slipped out of an access door into a maintenance area adjacent to the lobby. I was concerned we would stumble into more Jumpsuits, or at least a cadre of PD as soon as we tried to circle to the elevators, but those fears thankfully went unrealized.

  Not that PD wasn’t around. Flashing lights attacked my eyes when we stepped out of the Employees Only section. Police tape had been stretched across the front of the building, barring entrance that was now only accessible through a sigiltech-blasted hole in the glass face. Obviously, Sedaya’s goons had managed to coordinate with Planetary Defense, probably through the Royal Guard. While the Jumpsuits continued inside, they had the good guys rope off the area to keep anyone from witnessing the shitshow down below. I wondered if Mushari’s executives, if they tried, would even be able to get into the building. Did they even know something was wrong? While the destruction had left the mainframe fully submerged, it had still been running the last I’d seen of it.

  The only thing that mattered now was for us to get our asses to the roof for pickup. Now that we were back at ground level, I pulled my phone from my pocket as we slipped into one of the elevator cabs. Or at least, I tried to. “Shit,” I cursed. “I lost my phone down below.”

  “Do you want to go back to get it?” Emerald asked, her expression and tone of voice way too heartfelt, as if I'd just lost my best friend.

  “Weirdo,” Shaq commented from my shoulder.

  “No, forget it,” I replied. “It’s gone.”

  The cab doors slid closed. Passing the system the employee identifier on the Mushari slab, Quasar tapped the controls to take us to the top floor. The screen flashed red, denying the request.

  “Oh, give me a break,” she growled, trying again. Same result.

  “Here,” Emerald said, holding her phone out for identification. Access remained denied.

  “I guess they caught up to us,” I said. “Please tell me we don’t have to take the stairs.”

  “No. I already let Gia into the mainframe. She has root permissions now.” The control panel flashed green and we began to ascend. “She says Matt’s circling overhead. He’s got half a dozen PD starfighters trying to goose him, and a dozen more incoming from orbit.”

  “Shit. We need to hurry.” If I hadn’t lost my phone, I could remote Head Case to help him fly. I wanted to believe he could handle it on his own, but he was still a novice with zero actual air combat experience, and this whole mission wasn’t going anywhere close to how we’d planned it. “Can Gia make this thing go faster?”

  “Actually,” Quasar replied. “She can.”

  I felt the pressure on my body as the elevator accelerated, rising more quickly toward the roof. We covered nearly two miles in just over twenty seconds, our feet almost leaving the floor of the cab and our heads slamming into the ceiling when it slowed aggressively at the top.

  The doors slid open, and we rushed out onto the rooftop. It didn’t take long to find Head Case in the night sky. All I had to do was follow the flashes of plasma bolts and energy blasts to where they were intercepted by my starship’s shields.

  “Come on, Matt,” I said, rooting for him as he swung Head Case away from the trailing starfighters, ducking low and out of sight.

  “Gia just told him we’re on the rooftop,” Quasar said. “He said for us to get to the highest flat ground we can.”

  My eyes swept across the rooftop. The highest ground was on top of the largest of the HVAC units nearby. I sprinted for it with Quasar and Emerald right behind me.

  A sharp thudding echoed from behind us. Looking back, I watched a rotary PD transport crest the side of the rooftop facing away from us, its back end lowering to reveal a squad inside, dressed in metal exosuits. They looked like Iron Man clones. “Crap,” I whined as they ran to the edge of the transport and leaped onto the building, huge rifles swinging in our direction.

  I didn’t have enough energy to end their assault. The only thing I could do was pick up the pace. A better plan than I could execute. With my legs feeling like rubber, every step was a sheer force of will. I didn’t have much confidence left that we could make it to Head Case, even if Matt could land before being shot down.

  Rapid-fire plasma bolts poured in on us, sizzling past my ears and hitting the back of my coat, its protection only lasting long enough to absorb the first few hits. They weren’t bothering to aim, just spraying hell all over the rooftop, knowing we would succumb to the barrage. “Whatever happens next,” I said, “get back on Head Case. Find Hiro.”

  “Ben?” Quasar said, understanding those were the words of someone who was about to sacrifice themselves. I tried to pull to a stop and turn around, ready to use up the last of my remaining energy to put a barrier between PD and us. She didn’t let me. She grabbed my waist and practically threw me into the ladder on the side of the HVAC unit, using the momentum to help slow hers. “You’d better climb. There’s no reason for all of us to die here today.”

  She spun around, drawing her measly pistol and returning fire. The rounds were ineffective against the Exo squad’s armor. The same couldn’t be said for their rifles.

  “Noooooo!” I screamed, refusing to let her die. I lashed out, pushing the Exos, my construct burning like wildfire as I knocked them backward over the edge of the roof. Quasar spun around again, eyes wide, her suicidal sacrifice interrupted.

  “Ben, climb,” Emerald growled, putting her head between my legs and pushing me upward on her shoulders. I tried to move my arms, unable to even sense the ability to control them at all. My legs remained numb as well. Only for a brief moment. I lost my grip on the ladder, beginning to fall back, my body nothing more than a lead weight.

  I had saved Quasar, but at what cost?

  “Ben!” Shaq chirped with concern.

  Emerald grabbed me before I could tumble off the ladder, holding me with both hands as Quasar climbed past her, turning to add her strength to Emerald’s. Together, they lifted me to the top, Shaq jumping from my shoulder as they rolled me up over the edge.

  “That was so stupid!” she shouted at me, grabbing my collar and shaking it. “Why did you do that? Damn it, Ben. Why?”

  I couldn’t answer. My lips wouldn’t move either.

  She lifted me up, holding me against her chest as Head Case came into view. I wasn’t sure I believed what I was seeing. The mouth hung wide open, a thick line of drool spilling out of it and down its chin, hanging free in the air. Not drool. A web. Ixy perched in the center of it, ready to catch her prey.

  Or in this case…us.

  “Whoo-hoo!” Emerald shouted. “This is going to be a fun ride.” She threw her arms out as Head Case streaked toward us.

  “You’re going to be okay,” Quasar said. "You’d better be, damn it!” She had tears in her eyes.

  As Head Case rocketed toward us, the web dangling at just the right height, the sticky substance stretched as it hit us, wrapping around us and holding us tight. Then we were flying two miles over North Lapul, plasma fire lancing past us on either side, Head Case’s ion cannons half-heartedly returning fire to keep the PD starfighters honest. Ixy scrambled down the web to me, quickly using her legs to simultaneously release me from the web and hold me tight so I wouldn’t fall. She carried me up the web and into the hangar with ease, dropping me near the stairs and racing back down the web to collect the others.

  “Ben, are you okay?” Meg asked, dropping to her knees at my side and hoisting my head onto her lap. She grew more concerned when I didn’t respond. “Ben?”

  Ixy returned with Emerald, dropping her on her knees next to us and going back for Zar and Shaq. “He’s hurt,” she said. “Paralyzed or something.”

  “Oh, no,” Meg exclaimed, face paling. “Ben, you didn’t.”

  “He did,” Quasar said, before Ixy could release her. “We need to get him to medical.”

  I tried to open my mouth to complain, finding it shifted slowly in response. It was a good sign. “No,” I managed to eek out as Ixy let go of Quasar and went back for Shaq. “Flight…deck.”

  “Are you kidding?” Quasar replied. “Not a—”

  “Flight deck,” I said again, a little stronger this time. Restore burned my chest, working to fix the damage I had just done. With what energy? I remembered sucking down the cotton candy foam in the Dare Devil. Had all that sugar just saved my life?

  “Ben—”

  “Flight deck,” I said a third time.

  Ixy returned with Shaq before quickly releasing her web from the ship. The hangar doors slid closed, immediately bathing me in an eerie silence.

  “Flight deck, damn it,” I insisted. “That’s an…order.”

  “You heard the Chief,” Emerald said. “If we’re all going to die, we might as well have good seats for it."

  Quasar leaned over me to look me in the eyes. “Are you going to be okay?” I managed to nod. Fresh tears fell onto my chest. “Don’t you ever do that again.”

  “No promises,” I replied, one side of my mouth kicking up slightly in half a grin.

  She laughed and looked at the others. “Let’s get this stubborn fool to the flight deck.”

  CHAPTER 30

  Quasar carried me to the flight deck, rushing to the sofa behind the pilot station as Matt did his best to avoid the PD starfighters still giving chase. He didn’t have a spare moment to look back at me as she plopped me down on the empty couch, leaning over and grabbing the harness to strap me in. Shaq settled on the arm beside me, his concern obvious by the curl of his short muzzle.

  “Ben’s here,” she announced, sitting beside me. “How are we looking?”

  “Maybe you should take over, man,” Matt said, guiding Head Case away as one of the defenders swooped down in front of the ship and launched a missile. The projectile only made it a hundred feet before one of the ion cannons blasted it.

  “I don’t think so!” Leo shouted at the incoming missile, obviously controlling at least one of the guns.

  “You’ve got this, Matt,” I replied weakly, still slurring my words.

  He finally risked a worried glance back at me. “Shit. What the hell happened?” he asked, able to tell from my slumped posture that I couldn’t move.

  “My hero here decided to risk killing himself to save my life,” Quasar answered. “After I decided to give mine to save his.”