One major downside of our two transpads was that each could only send out one group at a time. My team’s cruiser sat on the entrance bay transpad. That meant that we’d be the first ones out there. Surge’s cruiser was behind ours, and I had no idea what the AI were going to do, but I assumed they’d be fine.

I glanced down at the pistol I’d picked out. It was white with blue accents and seemed to have the same reloading mechanism as the First Division pistols we’d used. Now I understood perfectly why the AI seemed to have been so heavily influenced by First Division stuff. They had designed the prototypes and humanity had just taken credit for their ideas.

“I think enough speeches have been given around here. We can skip that part and get right to saving the city.” I slapped the pistol onto my hip, where it stayed thanks to the magnetic properties built into it. “Let’s go, team.”

I hopped behind the wheel as everyone else climbed in around me. Surprisingly, Beth chose the passenger seat. She wasn’t mad at me? She refused to meet my gaze; that spoke for itself. Laura and Kaela got in behind me; Anderson and Nessa sat behind them. Maybe Beth only sat next to me because I was her closest friend in the group.

“We’re ready, Exo,” I said as I started up the cruiser. I gripped the wheel and stared straight ahead. “Let’s go.”

The familiar blue flash consumed me as heat radiated through me. Thank goodness I was over my fear of fire because heat never seemed to leave me alone. When the blue faded, we sat in the familiar parking lot that I’d been brought to countless times over the previous twenty-four hours.

Exo’s eyes hadn’t deceived me: First Division ships really were hovering over the city. They were flying slowly, which was good. We needed all the time we could get.

Chatter reached my ears, but I couldn’t make out its source. It seemed to be coming from the civilians below us: the everyday people on the sidewalk. When I realized that, the chatter devolved into confused mumbles. It was like a crowd had gathered, but its members had no idea what they were there for.

They were about to find out the hard way.

“I didn’t ask for flashbacks to Effluvium, but here they come.” Kaela rubbed her temples. “Are we seriously not wearing helmets? Frost’s invasion doesn’t mean that we’re not wanted.”

“When they realize what’s happening, they need to know who saved them.” I smiled as the words naturally flowed off my tongue. “Truth only beats propaganda when enough evidence is presented. We have to show the First Division that everything Frost said was a lie. It’s the only way to prevent this from happening again.”

I sounded confident, but this was where things got unpredictable. For all I knew, every police officer in the area would call for our arrest the second they saw us. In a way, I was relying on the dropping of the Dwarfs to clear our names. Without them, we were just a bunch of criminals showing up to oppose Frost’s arrival.

“I don’t see the First Ship.” Nessa’s eyes flitted between every ship in the sky. “Just as expected. Unfortunately, that confirms that my father will be leading this invasion.”

“Good.” Anderson cracked his knuckles. “We’ve got a few scores to settle with him.”

“Then deal with it when we encounter him,” Beth said. “We’re wasting time here. Drive, brother.”

I nodded and stomped on the pedal. My stomach squirmed until we made it onto the city streets. I immediately hit the brakes because a wall of parked cruisers prevented me from going any further. The cruisers had stopped moving because every driver had stepped out to get a better look at the sky. Men, women, and even kids lined the streets now.

“You have got to be kidding,” Laura said. “These people are just waiting for the Dwarfs to kidnap them.”

“No kidding.” I sighed as I realized that even the sidewalks were littered with people. I couldn’t drive around. “Maybe they’ll scatter if I bust out the electricity.”

“And draw even more attention to ourselves?” Beth asked. “We’re lucky that we haven’t been noticed yet. Your electricity would just announce our presence to everyone within ten miles.”

What were we supposed to do then? As I wondered that, something red caught my eye. In a place called “Red City” that sounded ridiculous. Then I squinted and realized exactly what I was looking at.

Screams rang out as a handful of ruabrum leaped on top of the cruisers. My jaw dropped as I realized just how badly I had messed up by not giving the ruabrum some method of communication beforehand.

“Humans! Do not be alarmeded!” shouted Shu as he stood on top of some guy’s cruiser. He still wasn’t an expert in English, apparently. “Today, my race will defeat yours from the one known as Forest.”

“You mean ‘defend,’ and ‘Frost,’ and what the heck are you doing, Shu?!” I climbed out of the cruiser and slammed the door behind me. “You can’t just reveal yourself like this. You’re a criminal as far as these people…”

I froze as I realized what I’d done. Every civilian in the streets and on the sidewalk had stopped to stare at me: the former Epsilon Explorer and current most wanted man in the First Division. The shock on their faces was equal to the dismay on mine.

Great, we just made it seem like the Epsilon Explorer and the evil Martians were teaming up to take over the city.

Screams shattered my ears as everyone hopped back into their cruisers and struggled to drive away. They bumped into each other before all shooting off in different directions. By the time the panic had died down, the road and sidewalks were clear. We’d successfully cleared a path, but we had scared off the whole city in the process.

“So much for being heroes,” I said to myself before I faced Shu. He seemed as confused as anyone would be after all that. “Dude, no offense, but your kind’s been terrorizing this city for months. Did you expect them to change their minds just because you declared that everything was cool?”

Shu frowned. “I have hoped so. Odd if it is not.” Shu leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Am I speaked English correctly? After we parted, I readed a few more books to be ready for this moment.”

I sighed. “Make sure your next book is about grammar and you’ll be fine.” I glanced at the miniature ruabrum army behind him. Most of them were armed with the power-draining javelins. “Despite that entrance, I’m glad you showed up. We’re going after those ships. If you can do that thing where you fling the javelins so hard that they hit them, it’d be great.”

That was what the ruabrum had done to bring my ship down all those months ago. That crash was impossible to forget. If we could use the same method to bring down the FD ships, I might forgive the universe for all my bad luck.

Shu held up his thumb and grinned. “No problem! Stand back, my friend.”

He turned and listed off orders in Risputatio to his ruabrum gang. I marched back to the cruiser, where my team was waiting for me.

I hopped behind the wheel. “All right, let’s see if these ruabrum still have their aim.”

Nessa leaned forward. “Mind letting us know what you discussed with them? It’s a bit hard to hear from back here.”

I pointed at the ships. “Just keep your beautiful eyes on those things, and watch the ruabrum do their magic.”

The ruabrum huddled together and reeled back their javelins. They tossed all of them. Like a bundle of missiles shooting off, the javelins zoomed into the sky. They soared toward a ship, only to bounce off a transparent blue shield that flickered around it. The javelins fell back to the ground, where they fell somewhere down the street.

Shields? Had I encountered ships with shields before? Did any of my ships have shields? A quarter of the ruabrum had just lost their weapons, and all we had gained was information. That information amounted to the fact that we couldn’t bring the ships down.

“Wow, that truly was magical.” Nessa’s voice oozed with sarcasm.

“So, even if we’d used missiles or lasers, they wouldn’t have worked,” Anderson said. “Wait, do you think they can tell when something hits their shields?”

Do you even need to ask?

The ship they’d attacked broke off from the rest of the group and descended toward us. It planted itself down the street, taking out half of a building in the process. Debris rained down on the sidewalk, and some chunks bounced off the ship’s shield. Inflicting property damage before disabling tech? Wasn’t Frost afraid of that being caught on camera? Not that there were many people around.

Static filled my ears. For most people, that was nothing more than an annoyance. For me, it was a sign that an Interference Tower had been erected. I tried summoning my suit’s helmet to confirm, and all I got was clacking as the metal pieces failed to assemble. It was like my suit was trying to tell me how frustrated it was.

“Interference Tower’s up,” I announced as I eyed the parked ship. “I think they activated it from inside that ship.”

“That would explain why they landed,” Nessa said. “From what you told me, the tower doesn’t affect their tech much. However, activating it inside a ship would interfere with something no matter what kind of vessel it was.”

“Crap!” Kaela pointed to the sky.

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Black meteors were raining down from the ships overhead. They bulldozed through buildings before crashing into the ground. The crashed meteors stood straight up. Each one had piercing white eyes as well as streaks of white around its arms and legs. These were the latest Black Dwarf models for sure.

Distant screams rang out as Dwarfs crashed somewhere off in the distance. The invasion had officially begun.

An army of Black Dwarfs stood in our way, forming a wall between us and the ship. Getting inside that thing would mean we could take down the tower. That meant that, one way or another, we had to overcome these obstacles.

“Wreck the bots and get inside!” I shot a stream of electricity at the Dwarfs. My streak of blue wrapped around them then dissipated into nothing. They were as insulated as the last batch. I smirked as I grabbed my pistol and charged at the Dwarfs.

The ground rumbled beneath our stomping feet. Ruabrum charged past me. Some leapt over my head. All of my friends were following close behind me, and the ruabrum were in front. This army wasn’t looking too bad.

Red smashed against black as our forces met. A ruabrum sunk his javelin into the Dwarf in front of me. I swerved around them and shot the Dwarfs in the back. My blast exploded against one, and someone’s blue beam pushed it even further back. Beth sunk her blade into the Dwarf’s head, and pulled her rifle’s trigger. The Dwarf collapsed. One down, and far too many to go.

Fire rushed past me as Laura launched balls of it at the Dwarfs. Kaela’s dazzling rifle beams left dents all over them. I felt something approaching and jumped aside. A Dwarf’s white blast soared past my previous position. I fired at the Dwarf as it rushed toward me. Once it was close enough, I lunged at its chest. It raised its leg and kicked my chest. The blow knocked me to the ground. The Dwarf reached for me, but then Anderson rammed his shoulder into it. It toppled backwards and crashed to the ground like I had.

“Get up before one of them steps on your face.” Anderson extended a hand to me.

I grabbed it and pulled myself up. Then I rushed over and touched the fallen Dwarf. I rummaged around its head in search of its White Dwarf commander. Its presence felt close, like it was inside the ship. Just one more reason why we needed to get inside. Satisfied with my information, I willed the Dwarf to deactivate.

“Thanks for the assist, bro.” I grabbed Anderson’s shoulder, but not just for reassurance. “Your suit’s augments must be acting up because of the interference. Let me give you some assistance to compensate.”

I mentally grabbed hold of his suit’s augments, and pushed them up to one hundred and fifty percent. As his suit worked overtime, the red on it lit up brighter than ever. Anderson’s jaw dropped as he examined his arms.

I huffed. “I had no idea whether that was gonna work. The power-up won’t last forever, so make—”

Anderson whipped around and socked a Dwarf that had been creeping up on us. His fist left a dent in its face, and it stumbled back. Anderson lurched forward and wrapped his arms around its waist. He grunted with effort as he bent his knees and leaned back with the Dwarf, lifting it off its feet. Anderson suplexed the Dwarf into the ground with a deafening thud that sent shudders through the ground.

What had I done?

Anderson whooped with joy as he jumped up and rolled his head. “I have always wanted to do that! Thanks for the boost, Locke. Now let’s crack that ship open.”

He’d taken the words out of my mouth and made them just a tad more violent. Anderson socked every Dwarf out of the way as he and I rushed toward the ship. I scanned the chaos in search of everyone else. They were hard to make out behind all the energy, but the colors on their suits weren’t. Everyone was still standing at the very least. So far, so good.

We reached the ship’s exterior, but the shield prevented us from going any further. I placed a hand on it. It was pure energy. I couldn’t manipulate it without touching the device that was casting it. That meant that I’d need to shut it off from inside. But If I had been able to do that, I wouldn’t have needed to shut it off in the first place!

Anderson socked the shield. It didn’t ripple or shimmer at all. Pure force wouldn’t be enough to get rid of the thing.

“That’s all I got.” Anderson waved his hand as he winced in pain. “Any ideas, Locke?”

I refused to say “no.” If I didn’t come up with an idea, who would?

“I have the solution.” Beth marched up to us. How long had she been listening? “Brother, we can get inside with this.”

Beth motioned to her wrist. It had a little control panel on it. I had a series of flashbacks to every time a blue outline had washed over Beth and she had teleported out of my life. Including when she teleported me and Nessa back on the Oppressed base.

“You want to teleport inside,” I stated. “I’m down. Anderson, hold it down out here. We’ll be right back.”

Anderson nodded and jumped back into the fight. I huddled close to Beth as she tapped away on her wrist. In the past, I remembered her saying that she needed to calibrate the device for two people. That must have been what she was doing at the moment.

“Grab my arm to insure that we end up in the same place,” Beth said. “There’s no telling what effect the interference will have, if any. Pray that we don’t teleport into a wall or a person. Calibrating this thing is a pain.”

“What would happen if we did?”

“Two identical pieces of matter can’t exactly occupy the same space, so whatever would happen…just hope that it doesn’t.”

Yeah, this was one case where I didn’t need answers. I gripped Beth’s arm, which felt bigger than mine. It might have been a simple teleportation, but it was so much more to me. Beth’s teleportation had previously symbolized her constant failure to stick around. We would always reunite for a day then she’d leave again. Not anymore. Now, wherever she went, I’d follow. I would never lose my sister again!

Blue washed over me like it did whenever we used the Beam Bulb. When the blue vanished, my stomach felt like someone had dropped a wrench into it. Beth’s teleporter definitely wasn’t as precise as the bulb.

I scanned the room as I blinked haziness from my eyes. Counters, monitors, and expensive tools everywhere. We were in a lab. Several people in purple and black space suits gazed at us with dropped jaws and wide eyes. To them, two criminals had just teleported into their lab. We needed to act before their shock and confusion wore off.

“Hands up!” I electrified my hand and pointed it at one of them.

Beth aimed her rifle as well. That got a few hands in the air. They must not have been confident in their combat abilities.

“How did you two get in here?” asked one of them.

“Good question,” I said. “Better question: where’s the Interference Tower? I know it’s in here. You can tell me, or you can see what the dreaded Epsilon Explorer is capable of. Ever wanted to try shock therapy?”

I crackled my fingers as I said that. A few people jumped. I suppressed a chuckle. I wasn’t actually about to go around electrocuting people, but I liked the intimidation factor. Having a criminal reputation was fun.

“It’s just in the other room,” said a woman as she pointed down a hall to my right. “But if you turn it off, we’ll just turn it back on when you leave. You wasted your time coming here.”

“Uh-huh. Thanks for the tip. C’mon, sis.”

Beth and I marched down the hall. I spotted the huge, black cell tower before I’d even reached the other room. It was just like the one in New Selene, and it was about to suffer the same fate. We stepped into the room, which was similar to the one we’d just left. It even had the same people in the same suits.

“Who the—what are you doing in here?” A man backed up into a huge monitor. That was new.

The monitor displayed an explosion of color from a top-down view. It was a sea of black, red, and a few other colors sprinkled in here and there. Wisps of color darted across the screen. We were watching the fight as it unfolded outside: the one in which my friends were fighting for their lives. These scumbags had been observing the whole time?

“I see you’re watching the game. Want to take bets on who’s going to win?” I shot electricity at the monitor and willed it to shut down. The screen filled with static before going black. That was better. My friends’ struggle to survive wasn’t some sort of spectacle to be enjoyed with popcorn. “Don’t try anything or that electricity will go into you next.”

He glanced at the tower, and so did all the other scientists. I looked at Beth, who just nodded. She aimed at it, and pulled the trigger. A blue beam surged into one of the tower’s pillars, denting it. She pulled the trigger again and again until the tower’s leg gave out. Then she did the same to another leg. Metal groaned as the tower plummeted toward the floor. It crashed down with a thunderous boom that shook the whole ship. I felt sorry for anyone in the restrooms.

The static that had been giving me a headache just faded away. That was a sign that the interference had gone.

“Good luck getting that working again,” I said. “As long as I’m here, mind telling me where Frost and General Alhabor are?”

“You’re even more naive than Madam President said if you think we’ll help you,” said the guy by the monitor. “Besides, all you’ve done here is…well, I was about say you delayed the inevitable, but even that would be wrong. It’s already happening.”

Beth groaned and aimed her rifle at him. “Make some sense, or else. First and last warning.”

The man smirked as he raised his hands into the air. “A city as large as Red City, and you think we only brought one? There are towers being set up everywhere. You can try to disable them all, but, by the time you do, we’ll be done here.”

Static trickled back into my ears. I glanced at the tower and confirmed that it was still down. That meant this guy was telling the truth. Of course, it wouldn’t be this easy. My friends were struggling to survive outside, and I had to go and tell them that it was all for nothing.

Beth glanced at my frown and pointed her rifle at the guy’s face. “I suggest you say something useful. Now.”

The guy’s smirk remained, even as a bead of sweat rolled down his face. “Okay…I wouldn’t expect too much backup from the rest of your filthy Martian friends. We’re putting shields around every detention camp in the city. The idea came from yesterday’s breakout at the southeastern camp. Thanks for the inspiration.”

Honestly, I hadn’t considered the possibility of freeing more ruabrum. We’d have to if we hoped to have a chance out there. We didn’t have time for one camp at a time anymore, though. We had to take them all out at once.

“So the shields are being managed in this ship, then?” I asked, feigning curiosity as I looked around. “Guess we’ll have to stick around and figure out where you’re keeping the controls for that.”

“Fool! The shields are being managed personally from the Red City Filth Field Control Center, which is also shielded. If you want to use your strange technology to get in there, be my guest. I guarantee that you won’t like who you’ll run into.”

The control center? I’d been there before. Last time I’d been there, it had been to fight off ruabrum and defeat the Oppressed for Frost. The tables couldn’t possibly have turned any further.

“Shut down this ship’s shield,” Beth demanded of the man. “All of you are coming with us.”

A purple blast whooshed into me, launching me across the room. I grunted as I hit the floor then I pushed myself up. A White Dwarf stood in the hallway that Beth and I had just walked in from. Its red eyes told me that it was the one controlling all the Black Dwarfs outside. At least, I hoped it was controlling the Dwarfs outside. This guy could have been controlling Dwarfs halfway across the city for all I knew.

“Nice job,” said the jerk I’d been interrogating. He dusted himself off and marched toward the hall. Then he patted the White Dwarf’s shoulder before passing him. “Better late than never. Do your job and take care of those two.”

The man disappeared down the hall. All the other workers followed him out of the room. What a bunch of cowards. The White Dwarf fired at me again, and I barely jumped out of the blast’s way. My side still burned from the first blast. It looked like these Dwarfs were still holding back with me. Otherwise, that blast would have done a lot more damage.

“Beth, time to take this outside,” I struggled to say as I stood up.

Beth glanced at her wrist and nodded. I ran toward the Dwarf as she peppered it with rifle shots. That didn’t do much damage, but it provided a great smoke screen. Once I was close enough, Beth tapped her wrist, bringing on the familiar wave of blue.

When the blue dissipated, we were back outside with all the others. The White Dwarf’s barrel charged with purple as it eyed the group fight.

“Guys, wreck this thing!” I pointed at the White Dwarf.

I backed away as fireballs, silver blasts, and javelins flew at the Dwarf then smiled in satisfaction as the assault ruined its white shell. Two javelins were embedded in its shoulders. They filled with red as they sapped the Dwarf’s energy. Its red eyes flickered as it stumbled back. Nessa fired a silver blast at a javelin, detonating it in an explosion that brought back bad memories.

When the explosion cleared, the Dwarf lay immobile on the ground. Its eyes were dim, and most of its white exterior had been blasted away. Hopefully, the human inside was unharmed. The Black Dwarfs’ eyes returned to purple as the White Dwarf’s control over them faded. It’d be easy to take them from there.

“All right, let’s finish this up.” I electrified my hand. “Compared to what comes next, this is the easy part.”