Marty Morgan forced his eyes open. His head hurt. He felt disoriented. The light from

the overhead was the wrong color in his opinion. He didn’t try to stand. He felt that

would lead to an involuntary crash to the floor.

He remembered driving down to the national park. He had paid for a car with

mismatched doors and an iffy transmission. He had wanted to infiltrate the park

quietly.

Somehow they had been spotted.

Marty thought about it as he tried to recover his senses. What had they stumbled on?

How did he get out of this cell to find out? Did he want to get out of the cell? He had

plenty of creatures that should work to start his escape plan. All he had to do was call

them.

He looked around from his place on the small bed. He saw a vent too small for a

human to climb through. If he tried, he would be stuck before he could get out of the

room.

It was still big enough for him to send a rat through to look the place over, and maybe

give him some way to escape. He doubted he was going to break the door down from

what he could see of it.

Marty called on his power. He imagined a rat sitting in his hand. He imagined the

whiskers and the twitching nose. He imagined the stiff fur and bald tail. Wide ears

and button eyes mounted on its head.

Nothing happened.

Marty stared at his hands. He had never had his power fail before. Could the clout to

his head have taken away his power? What was he going to do now?

He forced himself to sit up. He got his feet down on the floor and stood. They had

taken his clothes from him. He supposed that was to be expected. He might have had

some kind of secret weapon to get out of the cell he was in concealed in the lining.

Why wasn’t his power working? He looked up at the faintly purple light. He

wondered if the light was shutting off his power. He needed to knock it out to make

sure.

How was he going to do that? That was the question. The others had physical powers

that made them formidable heroes. He didn’t have any of that without his summoning

power.

He looked around for a weapon he could use to smash the overhead. If he could that,

the room would be dark. That would defeat any spies watching him.

Where was Ren? He should be here in the cell too. What had they done with the

apprentice? Would Doctor Tanhoubei look for them if he didn’t hear from Ren soon?

Marty doubted the Doctor would interfere. It was up to Ren to solve the mystery and

show the world he had done it. That meant Ren would be on his own for a long time

without his mentor butting in.

Marty found a chair in his cell. He tried to heft it. He frowned at the bolts holding the

chair to the floor. He sat in the chair as he thought about his next move.

He decided to take a better look at the vent. Maybe it was bigger than he thought it

was.

If he could climb out of there, that would be okay.

If he couldn’t, at least he tried the idea before he dismissed it.

Marty bent down in front of the grate. He saw that screws held the vent cover in

place. He didn’t have anything to take the screws out.

There had to be something he could use to his advantage.

“Can you hear me, Mr. Morgan,” said a voice in the vent. It sounded vaguely robotic

to Marty’s ear. He had experience listening to voiceboxes that weren’t human, and

this voice reminded him of Barry’s partially rebuilt larynx.

“Yes,” said Marty. He didn’t have anything to lose by listening.

“My name is Cog,” said the voice. “I am speaking through a drone. We are about to

escape. Would you like to join us?”

“Who’s we?,” said Marty. Reflexive caution made him ask the question. He didn’t

think anyone contacting him through the vent would have an escape plan, but he

wanted to hear something.

He had been struggling too long in the dark.

“Myself and two females brought in to be mindwiped,” said Cog. “One of the women

calls herself Finch. I don’t know the designation of the other female.”

“What about my friend?,” asked Marty.

“He is already trying to escape on his own,” said Cog. “I don’t know how he will get

through the door, but he was examining it when I checked on him.”

“Go over and tell him that you’re getting us out,” said Marty. “I’m having a problem

with my power right now. You guys might have to leave me behind.”

“You are under a beam that cuts off powers,” said Cog. “I will cut it off before I

check on your friend. That will give you a small amount of time to recover.”

“All right,” said Marty. The light changed subtly. He squinted. It didn’t look as purple

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as it had before their talk.

He thought he heard scuttling in the vent. He ignored it. It was obvious how Cog had

reached him. He had some kind of automaton that Mercer didn’t know about. He had

let the robot loose in the facility and had compromised the security somehow.

The explanation didn’t mean anything if this was all a trick of some kind. Could he

trust the synthetic voice? That was what bothered him. He just didn’t have any choice

if he wanted to break out of his cell.

And Marty admitted to himself, he wanted to break out of his cell and have another

go at the powers that had jumped him on the road. He wanted a rematch with his

power against theirs now that he had seen them in action.

“Mr. Morgan?,” said the mechanical voice. “Your friend has opened his cell. He is

coming your way to open your cell and the female’s.”

“Security?,” asked Marty.

“I am buying us time with the cameras and microphones,” said Cog. “But if someone

sees him, there will be trouble.”

“If Ren can open my door, we will work our way down to free you and Finch,” said

Marty. “Then I have to get some answers before we break out of here.”

“I’m not staying,” said Cog. “As soon as I get free, I am using an exit and going

home.”

“That’s okay,” said Marty. He concentrated on his power. He felt a flare and smiled.

It was surging under a weakened restraint. He could use it to get himself out now if

he didn’t want to wait on Ren.

The back of the door’s lock fell inside Marty’s cell. He waited. Ren pushed on the

door from the outside. He smiled when he saw the Scout waiting in the center of the

room.

“I have to find my clothes,” said Ren. He gestured at the hospital gown he wore.

“This is not something I want to fight in.”

“How did you get out of your cell?,” asked Marty. He went to the door and looked up

and down the hall.

“I have a lockpick designed by Doctor Tanhoubei,” said Ren. He held out his hand.

Something like a tuning fork glowed in his palm for a second before he concealed it

again. “It destroys locks easily.”

“That’s great,” said Marty. “For a minute, I thought you were going to tell me you

hypnotized the door.”

“That would be a feat worthy of my teacher,” said Ren.

“I bet,” said Marty.

They crept down the hall, looking for other doors. Marty spotted a row of lockers

behind a round desk controlling a crossroad. He pointed to it as he looked around.

Their clothes might be in one of those.

Ren started popping the locks. He frowned at a shirt, pants, and women’s underwear

stacked on top of boots. He put the clothes on the desk. He found his black suit and

coat, bag, and shoes in another locker. Marty’s old Scout shirt, jacket, and jeans were

in the last locker he opened.

“It’s always in the last locker,” Marty grumbled. He began pulling on his clothes. He

threw the hospital gown on the floor. He kicked it under the lockers. “Let’s find this

other prisoner, and then see what we can do about helping Cog.”

Ren hopped over the circular counter. He scanned the clean looking desk top. He

shook his head. He looked at the lockers. He hopped back over the counter and

looked at the door of the one that held the strange clothes. He smiled.

“Let’s see who’s in Six A.” Ren picked up the clothes and started searching the doors

for numbers. He smiled when he found the one marked the same as the locker.

A speaker stood next to the door. He pushed the button with his thumb. “Hello?,” he

said.

“What do you want,” said a female voice.

“My name is Ren,” said Ren. “I think I have your clothes. Would you like them?”

“Yes, I would,” said the woman. “Give them.”

“Step back,” said Ren. “I’m going to have to crack the lock.”

“Go ahead,” said the woman.

Ren shoved his tuning fork into the lock. The whole came apart into pieces with a

twist of the glowing tines. He pulled the device out of the wreck and put it away. He

pushed on the door. It swung inward silently.

A blond woman stood in the center of the room. She looked down on Ren and Marty.

She held out her hand.

“I’m Ren,” said Ren. He handed the clothes over. “This is Marty.”

Marty waved absently. He had his eyes on the corridors leading to the room. All it

would take to blow their escape was a guard coming along at the wrong moment. He

scratched his chin as he kept his lookout post.

“Corona,” said the woman. She stared at him.

“Sorry,” said Ren. He turned around to give her some privacy. “Do you know what’s

going on?”

“Cog said they want to brainwash us,” said Corona. She pulled on her clothes swiftly.

“Now that you are here, they should be thinking they can get started.”

“So they have been tracking us,” said Marty. “It makes sense. We were looking for

them, and they were trying to keep us in sight while we were looking.”

“Do you know what this is about?,” asked Corona. She straightened out her costume,

flexing her hands.

“We were looking into the ambush on the Hazard Scouts,” said Ren. “We connected

a man named Mercer and a company named Watson Security peripherally to the

attack. We were tracking Mercer to ask him some questions about what he knew was

going on.”

“Mercer was in charge of the normal troops that brought me here,” said Corona. “He

has mismatched eyes, so he’s easy to spot when you see him.”

“Thank you,” said Ren. “How did you get here?”

“These goons came after me,” said Corona. “There was a monkey, a girl clown, and

a guy with a bunch of pockets and utility belts. The guy with the belts zapped me with

some kind of beam and I lost my powers. Then I was tranqed while I was trying to

strangle the monkey.”

“Sounds like the guys we ran into down at the park entrance,” said Marty. He

summoned a mouse and sent it ahead of them. “We need to find an office with

records. If we get those, we can expose this to the public.”

“That will allow me to graduate,” said Ren. “The problem is we will have to find

them, and we will have to elude the powers and soldiers to escape.”

“And they can shut down our powers with those nullifier guns they use,” said Corona.

“You two help Cog and Finch escape,” said Marty. “I’ll find the records and cause

some kind of distraction for you.”

“I don’t think that’s wise,” said Ren. “One man can’t take on the people here. We

need to gather our forces and attack while we still have surprise on our side.”

“Plus I want a rematch,” said Corona. “I owe these people something for what they

did.”

“We head for the steps and try to find the others,” said Marty. “We take down anyone

in our way.”

“You know it,” said Corona. Light and heat played around her hand.

“Agreed,” said Ren.

Marty looked for signs to point him to the exit, or steps. His mouse hadn’t come back.

That was good as far as he was concerned. Once it did, he knew they would be facing

trouble.

The alarm sounded. Marty looked up at the ceiling. He frowned at the cameras.

Maybe Cog hadn’t shut them down like he thought the machine voice would. It was

obvious that he had fixed the cells so they could get out and wander the halls.

“Cog must have made a break for it instead of waiting for us,” said Marty. “Let’s find

those stairs so we can get off the floor.”

The mouse ran back. A troop of soldiers were down the hall, and coming fast.

Apparently, they were on the way to make sure the other prisoners were locked down.

Marty tried the nearby doors. He found one that was unlocked. He waved for the

others to follow him and hide in the room.