I heard a weary laugh from more than one person on the comm. A few more laughed a little too hard.

Ex-Mayer Bouman, Synergy, or whatever he now called himself kept on talking, “People of Grand Lake, you might be afraid of what’s coming, afraid maybe that you’ll be absorbed and stop being you.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. You’ll be you but fulfilled. You’ll share your hopes, dreams, and worries with all your brothers and sisters in this city and sharing your burdens will make them light.”

Over the comm, Cassie muttered, “This guy does not understand how much it sounds like joining a cult.”

Marcus popped into the call for the first time, “He might not think it matters. I’ve been going through my implant for ideas and this isn’t the first time this kind of thing has come up. There are a bunch of species out there that live as parasites on others. The Abominators encountered and enslaved a few, harvesting their abilities and putting them into their human servants so they could make armies out of enemies. It’s kind of like Starro, but real.”

Jaclyn broke into the conversation, “So, Hunter has them and he accidentally recreated them on Earth?”

“I don’t know,” Marcus said, “but maybe. I’m thinking that everything he makes is a mix of multiple species. Check your implant and see what you think.”

Deliberately avoiding opening myself up to a torrent of information about alien biology, I thought back to something I had direct experience of—the Xosk. Amy and I had killed one in Detroit. An alien vampire that appeared to be composed of multiple intelligences that fed on and absorbed other lifeforms (leaving whole worlds with nothing living but a single Xosk), I couldn’t rule out a connection.

“We’ve got to kill this thing,” I said.

At that moment I noticed a new wrinkle that made my heart sink. Thanks to my view from the sky, I could see long tendrils climbing buildings to release clouds of spores. It wasn’t just in the neighborhoods nearby, but everywhere in the city that I could see.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The haze billowed outward in all directions.

Trying to ignore the voice in my head telling me that we’d failed and that we should have guessed that it could spread that far, I asked myself what we could do and opened up my comm, “Is anyone watching my feed right now?”

“We’re all in the air,” the flatness of Vaughn’s voice hinted that he was feeling the same thing I was.

“Everyone in here is watching,” Kayla said with a hitch in her throat as she she talked. She added, “My parents are at work by now.”

We all knew what she wasn’t saying. They were out in this and they’d probably been exposed.

Jaclyn said, “Mine are at home with my brothers.”

I thought about her two older brothers, both of them with the same powers she had. I didn’t want to fight them.

“They’re not,” C’s voice came over the comm channel. “Guardian got our family when he got the Mentalist’s out.”

Vaughn asked, “What about my mom and dad?”

“I’m sorry,” C said. “They weren’t viewed as being in any danger. We did get your grandmother.”

“Oh,” Vaughn paused, finally saying, “at least you got Grandma Hardwick. Well, my parents might be outside Grand Lake today.”

Trying to focus us on the possible, I said, “Is there any way all of you air manipulators can blow the spores toward the lake? We’ve got four of you.”

“I’m trying,” Vaughn said, “but I’m the only one with a big range and I’m kind of bushed. It’s been a busy morning.”

In the background, I could see other conversations branching off from the main channel. Sydney and Sean had to be talking about their mother. She lived in a penthouse. Maybe she’d be okay for now.

I checked Alex’, Jenny’s, and Brooke’s positions. Alex was my theoretical ace-in-the-hole, assuming we could get him into position—wherever that turned out to be.

They were in Chicago, but not at the Midwest Defenders offices. They were in an apartment complex nearby—probably because they didn’t want to discuss whether or not they should come here with Guardian, Brooke’s father.

They were estranged the last I knew, but might have patched things up enough to work together.

Even as I dismissed the GPS view from my sight, Guardian’s name flashed and turned solid on the main League channel. Knowing Guardian’s functions in Earth’s defense, that didn’t look good.

“Heroes’ League,” he said, his tone all business, “we’ve heard about a telepathic communication from the military team Major Justice called in. It sounds as though they’ve been absorbed into your potential extinction event and switched sides. We’ve also got reports of a giant spore release that seems to be converting humans, possibly an entire city of humans into a city of fungus monsters.

“Do you have anything to tell me that I can use to argue that I shouldn’t open up a portal to the sun and burn this entire city and everywhere around it to ash?”