War refused to let Ryn’s team join him on the assault.

“You’re kids! Leave this to me and the drones,” he said solemnly, earning scowls from the “kids” in question.

“They’re good fighters. They’re the best we have to support you,” replied Bob.

“They’re the only group we have in support because all the portal zones are glowing with radiation!” snapped War. “We don’t need them though. I’ll cut through these bots and then we can work on fixing Liberty.”

“You might need us,” offered Simon. “I can bypass defences, throw up shields and dig tunnels nearly as fast as an earth mover.”

“I’m going alone,” ground out War before he turned and walked to the edge of the open hangar. The BFO was hanging in the sky a mile above Belisarius’ main base which was being swarmed by Bob’s combat drones. The drones were taking a beating from automated defence turrets and from above it looked like Bob was playing Command and Conquer badly, driving swarms of units into the tunnels he’d secured to face the defensive positions entrenched below ground.

War leapt off the lip of the hangar and fell to earth with a thump that threw up a cloud of dust before he rushed into the nearest tunnel entrance.

“What a prick,” muttered Jane.

“Let’s go anyway. We can use him as a diversion!” said Armand.

“How so?” asked Bad.

“Let him and Bob draw all the fire while I cut a tunnel straight to the Throne. Then we zip in and take Bell End out,” Simon said with a grin. Armand conjured a swarm of small birds that shot out of the hangar and circled down quickly to zoom into the secure entrance to Belisarius’ bunker. He shrugged as the rest turned to look at him.

“Might as well sell it properly, non?” he smirked.

“I really don’t think this is the way to go here, guys,” said Bob carefully. “Why don’t we just take a minute and see how War does on his own?” All eyes turned to Ryn who shrugged. The team was wrapped in fire and appeared on the ground below. She sent out a wisp of flame to trail behind the main attack but then she turned to Simon.

“Ok then. Dig!” she laughed almost maniacally as she pointed at the dirt between them all.

Simon grinned and pulled out a bunch of shiny metallic devices that he scattered across the ground. They sprouted tiny legs and shuffled around based on some information Ryn wasn’t privy to before extending silvery thread between them. For a moment nothing happened then they began to rotate along the threads and quickly dug down into the ground.

A light flared out causing the kids to step back and the soil and rock within the circle glowed and then vanished as a tunnel rapidly descended into the darkness. Once it was ten metres or so below the ground the team moved forward and glanced down into the glowing maw falling through the earth. Bad leaned forward and spat down into the hole.

“What?” he asked as he received dirty looks from most of the team.

“How long until it reaches the-” began Sally before the light increased in intensity forcing them all to back away as a wash of heat emerged from the new tunnel.

“Until it reaches the armour?” asked Simon. “About that long. He’ll know we’re opening a second front now but we’ll be fine unless he can tunnel really, really quickly. How’s the fat man getting on?”

“He’s slaughtering the bots but there are loads for them. They aren’t stopping him but the sheer weight of the damn things is slowing him and Bob’s drones down,” Ryn replied, checking on the sphere of perception her wisp was providing. “This place is as bad as the Bunker!”

“I always wondered why we never ran trials of assaulting the Bunker. Maybe Bob was worried we’d build the wrong skillset?” asked Bolf.

“No. Sure, I didn’t want to create templates to beat my own defences but it was just too much hassle to replicate them. The hive was the best option seeing as we were meant to be training you up to fight the Void.” Bob’s voice ground out in their comm links. “War and I are pulling a lot of his forces away but some of the energy signatures are shifting to reinforce where the Throne should be. You won’t be unopposed when you swan in.”

“We’ll be fine!” laughed Jane as she hovered over the hole like a diver on a board waiting for the sign to dive.

“We’re halfway there if the schematics were right,” said Simon. “Now we’re through the outer armour layers it should speed up.”

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“What about other tunnels?” asked Andrea. “If we cut through other tunnels he will be able to flank us?”

“The cutter is melting them closed. Besides we can teleport,” said Simon, shooting a smile at Ryn who nodded.

“We might as well just send a wisp down there once we hit the Throne room. I can blip him out to the BFO and then Bob can collar him,” Ryn suggested.

“I want his head!” snarled Sally.

“Me too but we need to know what other shit he’s got lurking around. Maybe he’s mind controlled and he’ll blow the base as soon as his physical body is threatened,” Ryn replied gently. Sally snorted and looked away.

“Almost there… and boom.” The light from the tunnel dimmed leaving a faint red glow from the molten walls in place of the actinic white light. “Send in a wisp!”

Ryn opened a hand and another of her little fire-wisps took off and headed down into the tunnel. The armoured layers were obvious, molten metal dripping down the glowing walls and gradually cooling, losing the red glow and becoming a scalding hot grey colour.

Sally leapt forward and vanished into the hole, tucking her arms in close to keep her limbs away from the worst of the heat. Her hair began to sizzle and smoke as it burned away in the latent temperature before her helmet sealed over her head.

Bad leapt after her with a curse, unbothered by the heat he didn’t close his helmet and his yelling at Sally for being a damn fool echoed up to the rest of the team. Jane shot down after them.

Sally was completely focussed on her revenge and hadn’t stopped to check that the tunnel had broken through into the control room. If she had taken the time to ask Simon would have pointed out he had left three inches of uncut rock between the end of the tunnel and Belisarius’ Throne room. As a result she slammed feet first into the thin layer of stone before her momentum shattered it and she fell through.

A shower of glowing stone fell around her as she slammed feet first into something that made a very expensive noise as it was crushed. Sally pulled herself out of the wreckage and strode towards a metal sarcophagus. She pulled back a fist and slammed it into the surface leaving a large dent.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” came a male voice from all around her.

“Fuck you. You killed my family.” Her fist blurred and struck the metal coffin like a jackhammer, filling the room with a constant ringing noise.

“Sally!” yelled Bad as he reduced another expensive looking piece of technology to rubble as he landed. He staggered upright and rushed over to catch her fist as it blurred back behind her head. “Stop!”

“Too late, children. This was a mistake,” came the monotone voice from all around them.

“Get them out!” snarled Bob to Ryn over the comm link. “It’s going to blow!” Bob had noticed the massive energy spike as soon as Sally had slammed into Belisarius’ lair. The BFO had begun moving away from what he assumed was going to be a massive blast zone. “Get them out NOW!”

Ryn didn’t pause. She snatched the team mates she could see around the entrance to the tunnel up in lukewarm fire and blipped them back to the entrance to the offworld portals deep in Bob’s Bunker. She willed her wisp to fall faster, turning it into a streak of orange as it shot down to allow her to get a lock on Bad and Sally.

“Go now!” snarled Bob.

“Two seconds! Got them!” Ryn snatched away her last two friends and disappeared herself. They appeared in the Bunker and Sally’s fist flailed forwards, throwing her off balance and causing her to land in a heap. She sprang back to her feet in an instant and lunged at Ryn.

“I had him!” she screamed as her fist collided with Ryn’s helmet, knocking the sense out of her head before Bad and Andrea dragged her away from the stunned girl.

“Look,” said Bob from the walls. He opened a video stream to their implants.

The view was from orbit, being relayed from the Necklace, and it showed North America blossoming with bright white flowers. The flowers covered a huge proportion of the continent.

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Ryn as Jane settled to the ground her flames grew dim. They were all absorbed by the feed from Bob.

The scene switched and it showed Europe suffering the same fate. It switched again and again. Every continent was erupting in fiery flowers that spanned the world.

“He had the damn planet rigged to blow,” said Bob. Sally had gone pale as her mask flipped back and she vomited down Ryn’s chest. She ignored it.

“Holy shit. Holy Shit. Holy fucking shit,” muttered Bad as he began rocking back and forth.

“Belisarius just blew up himself and as a parting shot he took out the planet,” snarled Armand.

“War is gone,” came a voice from behind them. Life stepped through from the entrance leading to the upper levels of the Bunker. “He died in the blast. As did Liberty. I assume the ship she was on got caught in a blast and as she was collared she wasn’t protected.” His voice was flat.

“We need to start running people through the portals to get them off world. We can send them to Mars or the colony. Hell, even the stations or the Necklace. Screw the rads. We’ll get healers set up down here to treat them as they run through,” said Bob.

“I’ll wait here for them to arrive. You-” Life narrowed his eyes at Ryn’s team, “-should get out of my sight.”

“It’s not our-” began Simon but Sally raised a hand and waved him to silence. She turned and moved through the portal back to Mars.

“I’ll stay here and help treat the survivors,” offered Claire, receiving a nod of acquiescence from Life.

“I can’t do portals but I can blip people about.” Ryn summoned a wisp that floated up towards the stone ceiling above them. “Tell me where I need to go?”

“We’re looking at nuclear winter and a ruined world. I’ve put out an override message on the Bob-net. Everyone with a Bphone or an implant left alive is getting directed to run for Wayfaire. Unfortunately most of the portal sites got nuked so they’re now floating over craters and can’t be reached easily. I’ve got bots working on bridges. I’ll send you a list of locations. Don’t stop and ask for permission, get there, blip them here and move on.” Bob’s voice was breaking as he reviewed the latest data. “We’ve lost something like eighty percent of the population. Belisarius chose his bomb sites well,” Bob finished bitterly.

“Magic is going to help. He’ll rescue the survivors in Africa with his flying Island and pocket dimension,” said Life in a dead voice. “If you could focus your efforts across Europe and the Americas, that would be the most efficient use of your time.”

“We could really use John right about now,” muttered Bob from the wall speakers. Ryn grimaced. She wished her Dad was here as well.