“Come on, guys.” Lacy waved the team forward. “You heard the man. We gotta stall for as long as we can.”

She started to head for the nearest barricade when a familiar face at the top of the stairs caught her eye. Nikki was tentatively poking her head out of the building, scanning around with furtive glances. When she locked eyes on Lacy and the others, she waved and set over toward them.

Lacy met her halfway up the stairs.

“Nikki! What are you doing? Head back inside, honey.”

Her eyes tracked over the horde of demons in the distance, a panicked look in her eye. Then, she set her lips and shook her head.

“I…I need to be here. Hiding in there with the useless politicians just makes me feel…weak. Powerless.” She clung to Lacy’s arm desperately. “You understand…don’t you?”

She should have sent the woman back inside. With no skills and no experience, she was nothing more than a liability.

And yet…she did understand. She’d felt powerless most of her life and never was going back. How could she force Nikki to face a reality she herself wasn’t willing to face?

Lacy sighed, reaching up to grab the woman’s hand in both of hers. She stared into Nikki’s eyes, her tone leaving no room for argument.

“You do everything I say, you got it?”

Nikki nodded quickly.

Pursing her lips, Lacy opened her Inventory and sorted through her weapons. She took out a pistol and eyed Nikki critically.

“Can you shoot?”

The woman nodded again. “Grew up shooting.”

Lacy handed it over. “Conserve ammo. Only fire if they break past the others. Clear?”

“Got it!”

They ran back to the team, who were talking to the last line of soldiers. Lacy noticed Jerome in a tense standoff with a handful of the men and hurried to intervene.

“Whoa, everyone relax!” she called out. “We’re all on the same side!”

“Get back into the building, ma’am, or I’ll have you all escorted in handcuffs!” one of the soldiers barked.

“Calm down,” she said, putting a hand on Jerome’s shoulder before he could fire back. “We’re here to help.”

One of the other soldiers growled and took a step forward. Jerome stepped up until they were chest-to-chest.

“Sarge, what is it with these civvies?” a third soldier asked, moving to support his buddy. “Do you want to go through the meatgrinder?”

“Not no civvies,” Jerome grunted. “We the fuckin’ A-side. Y’all the fodder.”

Lacy interposed herself between the soldiers and Jerome, while Byron, Frank, and Amos looked on uncomfortably.

Turning to face the Sergeant, she held her hands up in a placating gesture.

“We’re Climbers, Sergeant. We’ve been working with soldiers like yo—”

“Fuck is a Climber?” It was the same soldier who had been escalating with Jerome.

The Sergeant reached out and indicated Lacy and the team with a wave of his hand.

“Ain’t got time to debate. Cuff ‘em and we’ll figure it out if we live.”

“Fuck you is.” Jerome’s helmet appeared on his head and a dense wave of power echoed out from him.

The soldiers stopped in their tracks, eyes going wide. The nearby soldiers not embroiled in the argument saw something going on and began running over.

Before Lacy could call Jerome off, Michelle Waterstone came running down the stairs, her face beet red as she yelled.

“Stand the fuck down! Those are the governor’s assets and worth more than any bullet.”

Lacy wasn’t quite sure about that, but she did appreciate the confidence.

“Ma’am…” The Sergeant eyed each of them, his gaze lingering over Frank and Amos in particular. “Are…are you sure?”

She was face-to-face with the soldier now, staring up at him with fire in her eyes. “Sergeant, don’t make me repeat myself. Far as I’m concerned, they’re our only shot of surviving this day.” She glanced over, tilting her head. “Wait, where’s Dirk?”

Lacy’s stomach flipped as she wondered that very thing. Would he be able to figure out how to neutralize Craig in time? Would they be able to hold the line until then? But there was no room for doubt or second guessing—the die were cast.

“He’s working on neutralizing Craig,” Lacy answered, pointing over the barricades where the Brute was wading toward them with a humvee shield still wielded in its hands. “That fucker is turning the demons on us to get at the president.”

Michelle’s face darkened. “Motherfuck,” she muttered. “Okay, whatever you need, you have it.” She turned to the Sergeant. “Is that clear?”

“Ma’am, you can’t be—”

She stepped into his space, glaring up at him from her tippy-toes.

“Is that clear?” she growled, her eyes boring into him like she was twice his size.

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied reluctantly.

She scanned him a moment longer, then nodded.

“The governor needs me, but I’ll be back in five minutes to check on the situation.”

If we’re still here in five minutes, Lacy thought darkly.

“Got it. Thanks Michelle.”

She nodded and turned to run back up the stairs.

The Sergeant side-eyed Lacy when Michelle was gone, then shook his head.

“Fuck it, we’re probably dead anyway. Let’s see what you can do.”

Lacy sprang into action.

“Byron, can you start buffing the soldiers?” He nodded and popped a tape into his boombox. “Jerome, Frank. We’ll move up to the front line. Frank’ll call out any red threads, while Jerome will focus on pulling the attention of any demons that break past the soldiers. Amos is on aerial support duty with Lex already. And I’ll work on distracting the demons with my illusions.”

“What about me?” Nikki asked quietly, her shoulders pulled up tight. A Flier fell nearby from the sky, crashing into the ground with a loud thump, causing the woman to jump.

Lacy sighed, surveying the battleground to find a task that wouldn’t get the woman killed. Her eye caught on a soldier wearing a red cross patch dragging an injured soldier back from the front line. It wasn’t exactly safe, but as far as she could tell, there wasn’t anything approaching safe within a hundred yards.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Link up with those medics and see how you can help.”

Nikki’s gaze followed her finger, sighting the medical tent erected at the bottom of the stairs. Her eyes set and she nodded.

“Got it, Lacy.” She sprinted away, covering the ground in record time.

Lacy turned back to the others, meeting each of their eyes.

“Frank, we don’t know Craig’s range, but try to stay back as far as you can while still spotting his powers. Byron, you keep buffing these guys—I don’t want you anywhere near the front line.”

“Got it, Lace,” he said, as he swapped another tape into his boombox.

“Amos, hang back here.”

“Don’t needa tell me twice, love.”

She nodded, then looked at Jerome, his red visor peering eerily back at her.

“Ready?”

He grunted, the sound echoing through his helmet. His head-sized robot whirled around him in a lazy arc.

“Then let’s go.”

***

When I burst into the training room, Kurian materialized a hundred feet across the space, his gaze still anchored to his tablet.

“Kurian!” I shouted, racing over in two seconds flat. “I need your help!”

The giant blue-skinned alien lazily looked up, his face placid despite my clearly panicked voice.

“Isn’t that what I’ve been doing?” he asked casually.

“It’s Craig! He’s invading one of our capitols, heading straight for our leadership. And he’s got an entire demon army under his control!”

A single brow arched and he deposited his tablet into his Inventory.

“A second wave incursion shouldn’t be too much trouble for you.”

I growled in annoyance. “Dammit, Kurian, there’s no time. It’s been augmented by the Integration Guide. I barely escaped with my life.” Taking a breath, I tried to calm my nerves. “Listen, you said something the other day. That there was a way to beat Craig by, I don’t know…sacrificing a piece of myself? Can you tell me what you meant? Please!”

He sighed heavily, regarding me in silence for multiple seconds. I bounced from foot to foot, knowing that every second we wasted could mean one of my team dying.

“You know his strength, the answer should be simple.”

My eyes went wide at his casual tone. I wanted to reach over and shake the giant Class Guide by his neck. But I knew that wouldn’t get me anything but a beating. I closed my eyes and took in two deep breaths, forcing myself to think critically.

Craig’s strength…Obviously, his mind control ability—both of them—were insidious and nearly undetectable. Frank was our only spotter and only Jerome, Lacy, and I had a way to fight it off.

A memory of his Status Sheet flashed in my mind. The standout had obviously been his Charisma, which had been over 200 despite the Nascent stat cap. But how could I…

I’d have to sacrifice a piece of myself, is what Kurian had said. Everything slotted into place in my mind, the terrible truth practically slapping me in the face.

“Is there no other way?” I asked softly.

He tilted his head and shrugged one shoulder.

“Life is a meandering path with an infinite number of decision branches. There are many paths that lead to death and many that lead to life. There is never a single path forward. And the sad reality of the universe, is that you shall never know if you’ve chosen a dead end until after the course is set.”

Then, he pulled out his tablet and returned to watching his drama, as if he had given me all the tools I needed to end Craig. I supposed he had, I just didn’t like the solution.

With far less determined steps, I left Kurian. Not for the amber forcefield heading back out to the fight, but my Personal Space door.

***

“Red thread!”

Lacy whirled toward the sound, casting her [Fortify] ability on Frank. His back stiffened, his posture straightening, but the panic behind his eyes didn’t clear.

“Not me!” he shouted. “Him!”

She tracked his finger, following it to the front line where the demons were throwing themselves at the soldiers’ bullets like mindless drones. Jerome stood directly behind them, ready to draw the demons’ attention if there were a breach of the line.

Squinting, she called back over to Frank.

“Jerome? He’s protected.”

Frank was shaking his head emphatically. “No, not him—”

Shouts beyond the current din of the battle rang up as one of the soldiers turned ninety degrees and laid gunfire into his brothers. Realization hit Lacy a moment too late and she struggled to stretch her ability over the man’s mind. But his rifle was chewing into the unsuspecting soldiers, and half a dozen were down before Jerome could tackle the man to the ground.

Her ability encompassed the man’s mind a moment later, but Frank was already calling out a new target.

She whirled to find Craig’s next target, barely covering the man in her ability before he could pull the trigger on his neighbor.

Then, Frank called out another, who she covered. Then another. And another.

She could barely keep up, the constant shifting of her ability taxing her mind to the breaking point. Her eyes tracked past the latest soldier she had covered, finding Craig standing on that giant demon’s shoulder with his eyes closed. The demon had let his car-shield dip in its hands now that the sniper shots had stopped coming for Craig and she was able to get a clear view of the man and his demon army.

The giant demon was obviously the largest of the wave and was growling in what appeared to be a language. Its voice echoed out so loud, that the din of gunfire and tramping feet didn’t prevent the wave from following its directions at all.

Then, a realization occurred to her. Craig wasn’t controlling the thousands of demons charging for the State Capitol building. From her limited understanding of their abilities, even a supercharged Craig wouldn’t have the mental capacity to manage that number.

He’s controlling the Alpha and maybe the other brutes…the rest are just falling in line.

She ignored Frank’s next target, knowing that she was killing a certain number of soldiers in doing so. But she had to take the risk to potentially end this siege.

Reaching out with her ability, she focused on the Alpha, sensing its mind with her own. It felt…heavy to her senses, like ten men at once. She pushed her ability out, attempting to wrap it around the Alpha’s mind to cut off Craig’s influence. It was like trying to wrap a plastic bag around a watermelon with one hand. And the bag was too small. And the watermelon was fighting back, trying to spear into her mind as she struggled.

What felt like minutes, but was probably only a few seconds, passed and she had made progress, patching her ability together to form an imperfect seal. But when her eyes opened, she could see the effect.

The Alpha had stopped in its tracks, its jaw working up and down as if it were trying to speak. The ripple effect of its hesitation cast out among the wave and the other Brutes shook their heads as if waking up from a fugue state.

It was working! Craig’s control was being stripped away!

Something suddenly stabbed at her ability, the pain echoing back through the connection to her mind.

“Ah!” She cried out, clutching at her head. It felt like needles stabbing through the ability, piercing behind her eyes. Her control over the ability was being chipped away and the Alpha begin taking halting steps forward.

With a sudden, final push, her ability shattered like a dropped vase, and a whip of energy snapped back across the bond, hitting her like a cross to the nose. She fell backward, feeling her head crack against the road.

“Lacy!” a voice called out, but her vision was tunneling in around her.

Sorry, Dirk, she thought. I wasn’t strong enough…

***

My hand hesitated on the door handle for a split-second before pulling it open. I went to step into my Personal Space, when Red spread out wide, pinning herself in the door threshold. I tugged at the cape with a growl.

“You think I want to do this!” I shouted. “If there was any other way! Any other way! Don’t you think I’d be doing that.”

I yanked on the cape again, trying to force it past the doorway. But she had morphed until her entire shape was wedged on either side of the frame. Pushing with my mind, I tried to force her to relax her shape. She lashed out at me through our bond, pushing me out of the cape entirely and canceling my attempt to use the [Morph] ability.

Sighing, I stopped trying to manipulate the cloth—both mentally and physically.

“Dammit, Red. They could be dying right now,” I said softly. “Every second we waste could be a Flier tearing through Lex. A hound demon leaping toward Lacy. Those are our friends, Red. Would you leave them out there to die?”

Red faltered, losing her grip on the ability. I felt that I could take control in that moment, wrestle it from her while she was conflicted. But what Kurian had said before was painfully accurate; Red was a part of me. I couldn’t force her into this anymore than I could force Lex to fly to his death.

But the magical cloth didn’t fight any longer. She softened, falling limp at my back. An image appeared in my mind of Red, detached from my neck and splayed out on the ground…lifeless. Fear and anxiety accompanied the image and I felt her question through the sending.

“I don’t know what’ll happen to you, girl. I…I’m sorry. But…it’s better to go out a hero than to live on as a coward.”

I could feel the cape’s acceptance, a hardening of her determination as she came to terms with what we needed to do. A series of images flashed in my mind. All of Red’s feats: flying through the air, strangling her first golden mob, throwing the bastards to their deaths on the bluffs, and many more. She was proud of what we’d done and though she was afraid, it had only taken a moment to steel herself for what was to come.

“Come on, Red. Let’s go save the world.”

We strode through my Personal Space and into the connecting hallway. Staring at us from fifty feet away was the Hall of Heroes door. So many times, I’d faced off with that door, knowing I was about to enter a life-or-death duel. But I had always had a redo in my back pocket, the consequences amorphous and intangible. But now, I was entering that hall with no safeguards. As we crossed the distance, my hesitation spiked. There was no guarantee this would work. There were so many unknowns when it came to the System and the mechanics of the Tower. But Kurian had turned us down this road and though his casual manner sometimes made me wonder if he had our best interests at heart, I had to admit, he had never led us astray.

With a heavy sigh, I pulled the door open and strode into the Hall of Heroes. Across the room, past the sunken arena where I’d fought Kneer a half-dozen times, stood a startled Co’xatl—Umndirop’s liaison that we were meant to pass messages through. But today, he was going to serve a much different purpose.

Never taking my eyes off the large crocodile-looking alien, I crossed the room in a handful of breaths.

“Listen, you smelly crocodile.” Its beady eyes narrowed. “I challenge you to a duel…”