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My heart raced as Commander Kita shoved us into a nearby room. “Stay in here,” he ordered, “and out of the way. The base is under attack.” He wiped sweat from his forehead and sprinted out the door, slamming it shut behind him.
So much for a simple tour.
Dad wrapped his arms around Mom protectively. “Inese, is this normal?”
Inese shook her head and her black ponytail slapped her shoulders. “The Camaraderie doesn’t normally target the main bases. They’re too hard to maintain control of.”
“So why are air raid sirens going off?” Lily crossed her arms and scowled. “Obviously something’s attacking. But you know, I might stick around you guys. You seem to attract adventure.”
“More like trouble,” Inese said, drawing her gun.
I took a deep breath and rubbed the face of the flower charm. If I was careful, I could get through this without any attacks or using the charm, and we could get my parents to safety.
Quin peered out the doorway. “They’re heading outside. We should see if we can help.” Passing students wore vests of ammunition and toted large, black assault rifles. Some of them wore protective helmets with visors, while others donned headsets and headed the opposite direction—the mechs.
I turned to Inese. “I can find out what’s going on.”
“But he told us to stay here,” Mom protested.
Inese flinched as a distant explosion rocked the base, raining ceiling tile dust down on us. “No—we need to get out of here before it arrives.”
“Before what arrives?” Was she using her insight power?
“I don’t know, but whatever it is...” She took a deep breath. “Whatever it is, it’s in a lot of pain, and it’s not going to be friendly.”
Pain—
Human and beasts cried for help as their bones merged with steel, merged with flesh, the sound of screams worming through my brain like sirens—
“Jenna!” Dad snapped his fingers in front of my face.
I winced at the dull throb in the back of my skull. “I’m fine,” I lied. I took several quick breaths to steady myself. “Whatever is coming, we need to know what’s going on.”
“Jenna, don’t you dare—”
Before Dad could finish his protest, I yanked on my speed power and chased after the students who were carrying ammunition. Dad’s voice disappeared in the sirens and the frantic clamor. The student’s screams egged on the memory seed, but I focused on the blur of colors around me, on what was real. I darted to a large garage door two corridors down, one which had opened to allow smaller vehicles in and out.
Outside, I froze along the wall. A huge, purple portal swirled above the trees. Flying beasties swarmed through, their bodies dark blotches against the afternoon sky. Behind them, a sleek back airship with a crimson Lady of the Cog painted on its side skimmed through the swirling, purple mass of a portal that hung from the sky. Golden sunlight glinted off its hull and flashed from horizontal rotors that were embedded in the extended wings, wings that made it look like a beetle.
Artillery burst from the mechs in quick succession, pounding the ground like giant fireworks. Four students in vests stood beside me. They aimed rocket launchers at the ship. They shouted in Japanese, and their words were lost in the confusion.
A missile launched into the air. Thick smoke settled around us as the missile careened through the flock of flight beasts and slammed into the ship. Smoke billowed from the airship’s upper section. A thumping, whirring noise interrupted the clamor as three helicopters approached the airship from the opposite direction. They were the silver of OA aircraft, with a red dragonfly on a white field painted on their sides. The airship fully emerged from the portal, close enough to cast a shadow over the complex and block out the sun.
Then a large mass of something, a terrifying amalgamation of squiggly, reddish-brown tentacles with a bulbous, gassy membrane for an air sac floated through the portal. Dozens of eyes peered from its fleshy body, shifting, blinking, and disappearing again, all amassed together in a vessel slightly smaller than our airship.
Panic rose in my throat. My hands shook. I felt too hot, too cold, even just looking at it.
Community, what was that thing?
A helicopter fired at the monstrous contraption, but the missile exploded halfway to its target.
Everything went silent.
The sirens stopped. The normal thrum of the ventilation system whirred to a halt. The mechs went limp, their mechanical limbs dangling uselessly from their glass pods. A young woman climbed out from a mech, staring at the sky. She screamed something in Japanese, pointed wildly behind us, and then dropped from the pod and ran.
The OA helicopters spiraled out of control, one careening straight for us.
My eyes widened, fear setting in. I needed to warn my team. I sprinted back inside with the full force of my speed power, hoping the base was reinforced or that the helicopter landed somewhere in the trees. My ears rang from the earlier explosion. The rooms were dark as I dashed through them, only a sliver of light passing through the doors. Students slumped against their computer stations, unconscious. The compound shook as the helicopter slammed into the ground outside. I stumbled as the shockwave passed through the base, and then I charged into the room where my team waited. The moment I was inside, Mom grabbed me in a giant hug, her eyes wide.
“Thank the Community you’re safe! How could you run off like that? You scared me—”
I gulped for air, trying to catch my breath and not quite catching Inese’s furious rant about me leaving. Lily gently pried Mom off me. “Well? What’s the report?”
“We need to get out of here,” I said, breathless. I took Mom’s hand, drawing comfort from its warmth. “The Camaraderie has an airship and flight beasts and... something else.” It felt wrong, like something out of a nightmare. Something out of my nightmares. I swallowed hard. “One of the OA helicopters just crashed.”
Lily pursed her lips. “So they dropped an EMP on the base.”
Mom shook her head. “No. See that person’s watch?” She pointed to a tiny green glow of a digital clock. “It would be dead.”
“If they knocked out a helicopter, then it can’t be a normal power outage. They probably aren’t on lockdown, either, which means we shouldn’t have to worry about the lasers at the front door.” Inese led us through the hall and made her way to the entrance. I grabbed my parents’ hands and dragged them along as fast as my speed allowed them.
Outside again, this time on the opposite side of the base, more students fired at the sky with what weapons that still worked. I tightened my fingers around my parents’ hands. “We should help.” After the Community riot, I couldn’t stand back and watch the base be destroyed.
Mom bit her cheek. “Jenna—”
“We’ve got to get to the car somehow. That’s our only way out, and once we get to it, we can go invisible. Regardless, we’re going to have to cross an open clearing with no working mechs. We might as well do something.”
“Fine—I want a weapon.” Lily vanished into the darkness and appeared a moment later carrying a pistol in each hand and two at her side. “I don’t think they’ll need these for a while.”
I stared at her. “Where’d you get those?”
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “The unconscious techies. Want one?” She offered one to Quin, who shook his head, and then she offered the guns to my parents.
“I’ll use my powers to heal the wounded,” Dad said quietly.
Mom shook her head. “I’m not trained.”
“Well, take one anyways.” Lily pressed two into Mom’s hands. “You can trade them off to us when the ammunition runs out.” Mom started to protest, but Lily barged out the door, gun in hand. Inese drew her own pistol and followed. We ducked behind a stack of large supply crates beside the door that were marked in Japanese.
Overhead, flight beasts circled the compound, dark against the shadow of multiple COE airships, each as metallic and black as the first. The thrumming of their rotors filled the air. I swallowed hard. At least I couldn’t see that other... thing from here.
An OA student who was partially hidden by a metal overhang fired at a swooping beast. His shot missed. The beast slammed against him. His scream cut short as the beast slashed its wings across the man’s throat. The red emergency lights glinted off long, curved blades strapped to the edge of the beast’s wings. Fresh blood spotted the creature’s body.
“What in the Community?” I whispered. The Camaraderie had attached weapons to the beasts?
“Not Community,” Lily retorted, taking aim. The creature lunged toward us. She fired. It collapsed with a hole in its cheek. “Got it!”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, Lance.”
She placed one hand on her hip. “Stop being such a pacifist, Jen. That thing was going to try to kill you—and worse, me. Surely you’ve killed something before.”
I glared at her, my vines growing prickly with thorns. They wouldn’t be much help against flight beasts in the air, but if the creatures got too close, my vines would offer some protection. “Yes, but I’m not proud of it.”
“Which is why you’re the good guy.” Lily fired her weapon at the same time as Inese. My chest clenched as the air cracked with the sound of gunfire. I crouched further behind the boxes. As much as I wanted to help, there wasn’t a lot I could do while everything was airborne.
Mom huddled beside Dad and Quin. Dad looked around, then spotted a student with a large gash in his side. The man took ragged breaths, but he was still alive. Dad closed his eyes, his breathing steady. The man gasped. His eyes snapped open and he murmured a stream of Japanese. He pressed his hand against his wound, his fingers coming away with blood, but he looked more surprised than pained. He pushed himself to his feet and darted inside the building.
Dad relaxed his breath and smiled. “Good to see I can make my powers useful.”
“Good for you, but can we please get back to the car?” Mom swallowed hard, glancing at what little we could see on this side of the crate—a concrete wall of the base and an open street beside us. Not much in the way of cover.
Lily pointed to a black helicopter coming in low. A vested, shadowy figure raised a rifle to its shoulder while another stood nearby, eyes glowing a faint red. “Heads down!” She and Quin dropped to their knees behind the boxes. Mom shrieked, covering her head with her arms while Dad threw himself over her. Inese ducked, but a blast of red light smacked her in the chest, sending her sprawling.
“Inese!” I crawled after her, but Quin grabbed my foot and yanked me back. A bullet ricocheted off the concrete where I would’ve been.
“Special Forces agents work together,” Quin said simply. “So should we.”
I stared at the chipped concrete, numb. “Thanks.”
Dad motioned to Inese. “She’s alive, but we need to get her to safety.”
I rubbed my forehead. “On it.” I grew my vines, focusing on the cell walls between the thorns and the vine until the thorns fell to the ground, harmless.
There was a gunshot, and then another and another. Students scrambled for the door, but they each fell, one by one, a wound in the back of their heads. My breathing came out ragged, the noise too loud in my ears as I slid my vines underneath Inese and lifted her so the ground wouldn’t scrape her.
The Special Forces helicopter remained in position above us as the sniper fired again, removing each student with horrific accuracy.
I held my breath, urging the vines to pull Inese to the shadow of the crates.
Another beastie flew toward us before crumpling midflight.
I paused. No sound, no sign of blood...
Dad cracked his knuckles. “It’s unconscious, I think.”
“Good.” I nodded quickly and finished moving Inese to safety, and then released my breath.
“I wonder if I can hit those guys, too...” Lily inched her pistol above the crates and fired. The sniper fell from the side of the helicopter. “Ha!” She grinned and pumped her fist in the air. The air popped and she tumbled backward, grasping her shoulder. Blood gathered around her fingers. She gasped for breath.
Dad glanced at her wound, puzzled. “That’s barely a scrape.”
She gritted her teeth. “You try getting hit by a bullet.”
“I’d rather he didn’t,” I snapped. She hissed through her teeth, and then let out her breath as Dad did the honors and healed her so she could go back to protecting us. He then leaned over Inese, his hand above the burn mark on her chest. She coughed and groaned, her eyelids fluttering as she tried to open them. The skin puckered, cauterized, and the hole scabbed over, slowly turning to fresh, pink skin.
“There,” he whispered. “How’s that feel?”
Inese coughed. “What happened?”
“Laser eyes,” Lily said.
Inese pushed herself up with painstaking slowness. “Let’s not do that again.” She felt at the former hole and whistled. “It’s nice having a healer on the team.”
“No kidding.” Lily eyed her bloodied shoulder. She glanced to the other side of the crates, and then cursed as she dropped under cover. “We’ve got company.”
Quin peered through a gap between the crates. “We need to get to the car without Special Forces seeing us. Inese, you can turn invisible, right?”
She nodded.
I peeked around the corner. Five Special Forces agents walked toward us, arm-in-arm with each other. Three carried oddly-shaped rifles, and the two standing between the snipers held batons.
Dad frowned. “I don’t sense anyone.” He looked to me for confirmation, but I shook my head.
“There’s five of them. They’re probably shielded.” I wrapped my vines around my arms and secured the plants. At least they’d be out of my way if I had to run.
“They must not want anyone knowing they’re here,” Lily agreed.
“Or they don’t want their life drained and minds tampered with,” Quin suggested.
Inese grimaced. “Everyone, hold hands. We’re going for the car.”
Mom took Inese and Dad’s hand. Inese turned us invisible, no sign of our forms hiding against the boxes. For a weird moment we were nothing, though I felt Dad’s existence in his tight, worried grip. He gave a quick tug on my hand and I hurried in the same direction, firmly holding Quin’s calloused hand behind me.
One of the Special Forces agents peered over the box and cursed. “They’re gone!”
The man on the end broke away from the group. He turned toward us. “No, they’re invisible.” He raised his rifle and pointed, though I couldn’t be sure which of us he was pointing at. The other two raised their rifles, breaking their link with the two carrying batons.
I picked up my pace. We were fifty meters from the car. If we could get there—
A gunshot fired. I flinched as Dad’s grip constricted on my hand, but it was the Special Forces man who dropped with a bullet through his neck.
The Special Forces agents exchanged wary glances. One fired. There was a soft puff of air and Dad’s hand dragged me to the ground. My heart skipped a beat.
Everyone but Mom and Inese went visible.
