Edson directed them to different seats. In the eye-level cockpit, Sadie and Jiyu positioned themselves on either side of Edson who manned the main controls.

Her station consisted only of hand readers that provided additional balance and movement boosting. Like the VR gear, it worked by willing your intention into the control, except it didn’t require a brain neural connection like the VR gear. It somehow did it through your hands. Which shouldn’t be possible, but she also shouldn’t be inside cyberspace. So it evened out.

Fawkes’ voice called through the speakers. “This stinks. I can’t believe you put me in the butt!” A chuckle came through before he cut off his speakers.

Jiyu made a stank face but a few laughs escaped.

“You’re the one full of hot air.” Sadie covered her mouth to suppress her own laugh. “Maybe you’ll help let it out the Mech’s butt instead of your mouth.”

“Don’t worry.” Edson adjusted his station a few inches to his height. “You’re our most important asset in case anything comes through the tear. Just wait for my signal.”

Sadie couldn’t stop her laughter now. “Ass-et.” She felt guilty for laughing and joking around when the world was crumbling around her, but it eased the tension that had been collecting in her neck and shoulders.

The mech suit powered up, and Edson moved them out of the garage to join several other mechs fighting the tendrils of the tear to prevent further spread.

Sadie placed her hands on the controls to join, and a wave of nausea overcame her. She shook off the dizziness and tried again. But the prickles of nausea radiated through her once more.

“Sorry,” Edson said. He grabbed her shoulder to help her steady. “That’s why I said it wasn’t ready. The pathway controls are still off. My friend was supposed to help me fix it, but…” He looked away when he mentioned his friend. “Just hold on for a few seconds, and it should pass.”

Sadie placed her palm down gripping the edge until her knuckles went white as she tried to find balance. Splotches of a purple and black skirted across the edge of her vision, but as they faded, so did her need to throw up.

“Lontra, to the rear right,” a voice over the intercom called. Edson moved the mech suit to the raider’s orders. The teeth hooks on the end of each tendril dug into the sky preventing the tendril from being blown back. They were shaped like a dual scythe, and when one end hooked in, the other circled to pull the tendril further out. Mechs lined up to take turns firing at it to prey it loose, or at least prevent it from advancing. Any time a mech tried to touch one, they were blown back.

The word Lontra bounced around in her head for a second as it translated, like the Pidgeon app wasn’t sure if it was a proper name or not. “Otter?” Sadie laughed. “You named a giant mech suit ‘Otter’?”

“Have you seen otters in Brazil? The ariranha are terrifying!” He steadied the mech and nodded to Jiyu. “Activate swords. Sadie, be ready with boosters and stabilizers. Fawkes, be ready for my signal”

They joined the right flank trying to push back the tear with orders to swing the sword at the tendril hooks. Another mech attacked at the edge and was blown back.

“And how exactly does us possibly getting blown up help?” Sadie asked.

“Theoretically,” Edson said, “the tear expends its energy on us instead of opening further.”

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“Theoretically?”

“The deterioration event’s never gotten this far before.” They moved forward in line. “Apparently there’s only ever been one tear with tendrils like this before, and it was a fraction of the size.”

Sadie swallowed guilt as Edson surged forward. Every step forward provided a better look into the tear. At first glance, the inside of the tear looked like a white void, but as they moved closer, she glimpsed fractal images of the inside. It sucked off a bolt from another mech suit, and as the bolt crossed the boundary, it broke apart into exobits and reconfigured on the other side. But it looked wrong and misconfigured.

Is that what happened to anyone who crossed tears? Was mom taken across one? Was Ravi even still alive?

The sinking guilt started again. Her dad caused this by taking that key and not giving it to BRINK. Why? He must have had a reason because Ravi didn’t report it either. They wouldn’t just knowingly cause this to happen. But she also contributed, by following Ben’s order and not telling anyone about his message straight away.

When they attacked the edge avoiding the open mouths, Sadie urged the mech’s hands to hold on tight to the sword but within seconds a searing prickle ran up her arms to the edges of her brain causing her to lose all focus and sense of direction.

When she reoriented herself, the mech lay flat on its back, and she thanked the gravity stabilizer in the pit for not putting her in the same position.

The edge of the tear crept along in the seconds a mech wasn’t attacking it.

“Keep at it,” someone yelled over the comms. “Don’t give it time to expand.”

“I don’t think this is working,” Sadie said.

“What else are we supposed to do?” Fawkes asked. “If we tried to attack other parts of the tendril, we might hit teeth and end up with more than a sword blasted to dust.”

Sadie didn’t have an answer, so at their turn, they attacked the tear with the sword and again were blasted back. The tear moved more slowly than when it first appeared, so the theory of the guild leaders seemed to have some basis.

“What if we tried to cut off the end of the tendril instead of just going at the hook?” Jiyu said.

“Absolutely not,” Edson said. “We can’t do that without endangering ourselves. The tendril could attack us instead.”

“No, I think she has a point.” Sadie let go of the control to pace as Edson worked the mech off the ground. “If they’re right that the tear can choose to divert energy to protect itself, then causing real damage instead of just annoying it might actually slow it down, or deplete its energy entirely. We’re using tactics that worked on that smaller tear you mentioned, but our attacks aren’t doing anything. It’s still advancing.”

The bottom edge of their side neared the seats of the Colosseum.

“Even if I agreed with you,” Edson said. He pursed his lips in thought like he was at least considering the option, “They’ll never approve a bigger attack. It’s reckless with how aggressive that thing is. It could blow the energy back at us ten-fold for all we know.”

Jiyu rolled her eyes. “Live a little.”

“This isn’t a game!” Edson shot back. “This thing could kill people. We could make things worse. Just attack the edges like before, harder this time.”

Jiyu stuck her tongue out at him, and as the mech was feet away from attacking the hook, she jerked in motion with her thoughts.

Edson saw the movement. “I said no!” He tried to pull up, but it was too late to stop the mech’s motion.

The swords hit the tendril just below its hook and severed off the end. Only the severed dual scythe hooked into them instead. Strobe lights of red and purple shot out from the tendril’s wound as it flailed. The sound of a thousand fighter jets directly overhead blared.

Even without the tendril, the scythe pulled them towards the tear.

“Lontra, pull back! Lontra!” Sadie barely made out the words over the noise.

The strobing shifted to a boiling purple and black, and the noise deepened to a thundering bass. Her brain shook at the reverberations. She wanted to kneel to the ground, but now her hands wouldn’t let go of the controls. Numbness crept over her body until even her vision blurred.

The mech fell forward towards the tear and its voidless white displaced the sparks of purple and black from the severed tendril. When white eclipsed all color, she couldn’t tell if was because they stopped or the tear pulled them further in.

People yelled over the comms.

“Someone pull them off!”

“Those sparks keep blasting us back, sir.”

“Damn it! Where are the pirates?”

Until those faded too.