Cog examined the door to the command center. He checked the cameras. They were

going to cut through the barrier easily. All they needed was the right materials.

He had to vacate the office before they managed to come in and get him. He had no

need to fight all of the humans. He might be able to take them on, but he didn’t want

to face magnetic guns. He was not going back to that cell.

Cog’s tentacles sprouted tools at the end. He worked on the cameras precisely and

fast. He was not leaving them a way to track him through the facility. It occurred to

him that he could hide in the structure and use it for his own purposes.

He decided that he would rather retreat to his own home in Chicago. He didn’t want

to hide from amoral humans trying to find him and use his body for a shell.

He observed the cyborg moving around outside the command center. He thought he

could take it apart. He didn’t plan to stick around and try. That wasn’t his nature.

His people preferred to hide from their enemies and use the environment as cover.

Cog finished his task and put his tools away. He scanned the cameras. The friendly

humans were absconding with the brains from the factory that he had observed. He

wished them the best of luck.

It was time for the tentacle monster to get out of the room and move to somewhere

safer.

Cog slipped into the ventilation system. He pulled the grill behind him and welded

it in place. They would have to find out what he had used for an exit.

The cyborg floated down the duct, swimming in the air away from the locale. His

drone monitored the situation from above where the humans worked. He ordered the

drone to follow the others until he caught up with them.

He worked his way through the vents until he arrived at the motor pool. He heard the

bang of the door being blasted aside by the human soldiers. Then his surprise went

off. He made a noise that could be a human laugh.

The sirens went off to denote a fire burning in the control panel he had rigged to

explode to cover his tracks by shutting down the surveillance system.

He noted the humans and their burdens moving to a van in the middle of the other

vehicles. A bird flew up to the rafters holding up the roof. He decided that was one

of Morgan’s animals. It wouldn’t be interested in him. It was there to keep an eye on

Watson’s minions.

He flew to the van as it started forward. He crammed his metal head under the van,

and secured a grip so he wouldn’t scrape the road as the truck moved toward the door.

Cog pointed a dish back down on the line. He heard orders being passed in the

distance. Watson, or Mercer, had pinpointed their escape already. Clamps locked

down on the door. They weren’t lifting the hangar’s entrance by hand.

Should he drop off the van and look for some other exit? Had he made a mistake?

What should he do?

Corona blasted the door in front of the van. White fire punched a hole in the metal.

The van changed under his tentacles. He felt the effect but couldn’t explain it. The

van punched through the liquid metal and kept going.

Cog did a self assessment. Everything seemed to be working as well as could be

expected. He hadn’t lost anything to whatever had changed the van for the few

seconds the effect had existed.

The van pulled to a stop. He listened. The humans were doing the same thing and

checking out whether they could move forward.

The van started forward from the underground base. Motors attracted Cog’s attention.

The pursuit was still going to happen after what had just happened.

He ordered his drone to catch up while avoiding the humans. He didn’t want to lose

it after all this.

Watson’s minions boiled out of the hangar. They roared after the van. As soon as they

got close enough, they would fire on the van.

Cog had a laser built in tentacle. He could stop some of them if they got close enough.

One beam into tires would slow some of them down to let his transport get away.

Purple beams blasted at the van. So they had armed themselves with nullifiers. If they

hit Corona while she was in the air, she would crash.

Did they have the magnetic guns? Did he want to find out? He calculated the chances.

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He decided he should have stayed in the complex and used this as a distraction to fly

away in another direction.

He had made a mistake hitching his current with the humans. He should have done

something else.

How did he get them out of this situation? There had to be something he could do.

He decided that if he got out of this mess, he would arm himself with some kind of

energy weapon that had better range than his laser, and a bigger wave.

He decided that maybe a jet booster would be something to add to his body too.

Corona exchanged fire with the minions. Purple beams lit up the air as liquid fire

sliced through vehicles. Some of the cars caught fire under the onslaught. One of the

nullifier beams glanced off Corona’s aura. She lost power after the hit.

She descended to the roof of the van. She grabbed the edges of the roof to keep from

falling off.

Cog shifted position until he was on the roof. He wrapped five tentacles around

Corona.

“It’s nice to meet you,” said Cog. “I’m Cog.”

“Charmed,” said Corona. “You look like a squid.”

“I know,” said Cog. “I have never been able to switch to something more human

looking.”

“It looks good on you,” said Corona with a smile. “The light green skin brings out the

color in your headlights.”

“I’m going to transfer you to the inside of the van,” said Cog. He felt that he had

heard some sarcasm, but couldn’t decide how to react to it. Ignoring it would be all

right at the moment. “Tell the driver to speed up so we can get away.”

“I’m sure he knows what he’s doing,” said Corona.

“I’m sure,” said Cog. He peered over the edge of the van and knocked on a window

with a tentacle. The window slid down out of the way. “I’m going to lower the female

inside.”

Humans hands stretched out of the window. Cog lowered his burden into the hands.

Corona slid inside the vehicle with a nod. He retracted his tentacles so he had the

extra appendages to use for work.

“Nice job,” said Morgan. “What happened?”

“I got hit with a nullifier,” said Corona. She grimaced. “I will be back to normal in

a bit. At least I’m not under one of those lamps.”

Cog watched the burning vehicles fall behind them. The active cars rolled around the

bonfire and restarted their pursuit.

He wondered how he could stop the rest of them so they could get away. Corona had

done a good job on wrecking most of them.

He focused on the cars. He didn’t see any of the magnetic guns in the vehicles. Maybe

he could do something.

He flipped open the cutting bar in one of his tentacles. He eyed the trees passing on

either side of the narrow dirt road they were speeding along. He saw a tree that he

could cut through in one stroke. All he had to do was drop the tree across the path.

How hard could it be?

He swung the saw against the wood as the van passed. The top end of the tree fell

toward the road. It hit two other trees and froze in place. Branches had caught the

trunk and stopped it from finishing its fall.

He winced internally at that. Maybe he could do better with the next one that he

wanted to drop.

He picked two trees in a row. He sliced through both of them with abandon. They fell

across the road. He sliced through a third on the opposite side of the road as the van

kept going.

This was better than he expected. It didn’t make up for having to violently deal with

his antagonists, but it suited his personal tastes to cause problems for pursuers while

he got away to live another day.

He noted that some of the cars hit trees on the side of the road, but some just slowed

down to bounce over his obstruction. He had thought his idea would work to get them

clear. He needed to think of something else.

If only the van could fly. That would help solve some of this within seconds of lift

off. He didn’t think he could convert the thing to some kind of flier while they were

still in motion. They certainly couldn’t stop to let him work on his idea.

His drone signaled a flying machine was heading for them. That couldn’t be good

news. He needed to warn the others. They needed cover.

“There’s a flying machine on the way,” said Cog. He directed his voice to the inside

of the car. “Any suggestions?”

“We need to conceal ourselves to get away from it,” said Marty. “Any ideas on how

we can do that?”

“I still can’t fly,” said Corona. She lifted her hand. Nothing happened.

“Turn right,” said Finch. She pointed to a side trail.

Ren yanked the wheel to follow her direction. The van fishtailed as it slid into the

new path. He pulled to a stop next to a large pile of rocks sticking out from bushes

and trees.

“What now?” said Ren.

“We get out and head out on foot.” said Marty. He kicked open the back door. “You

guys head out on foot any way. I’m going to try to hold them so you can get away.”

“That’s stupid,” said Cog. “We should run together.”

“Someone has to be a distraction,” said Marty. “And right now, I’m the only one who

can take out a helicopter as long as they don’t nullify my power.”

“Let’s go,” said Finch. She pointed at the rock. She started away from the vehicle.

Corona followed more slowly. The blast from the nullifier had left her slightly weaker

than normal.

Ren paused to look at the brain tanks in the back of the van. He looked at the two

women heading away.

“We can’t just leave them here,” he said.

“Sure, you can,” said Barry. “The worst they can do is drag us back to that hole and

put us back to work.”

“I can handle this,” said Cog. “Go ahead. I will be right behind you with these two.”

The floating cyborg produced his tool kit. He cut into the tanks as Marty watched the

road. In a few minutes, the tanks had been reduced to the essential parts which made

the brain jars easier to carry in its tentacles.

Cog floated after the other fugitives. It carried the brains in a jar in its tentacles as it

fled.

Marty shook his head. He had to stop the pursuit here. He couldn’t let the Watson

boys know they had split up. He had to make enough noise that they focused on him.

He moved off the road, heading away from the rock. He wondered how many he

could take out before they nullified him.

If he could take out the helicopter, that would help his new comrades get away. If he

could drop the helicopter on top of the ground pursuit, that would make things even

better.

He crouched down in the shadow of a bush. He hoped the others used this to get

Barry away to somewhere he could fix himself.