“Huh,” I checked around us again for hostiles with the suit’s sensors and didn’t see anything while my mind raced.

How much could they get out of Arete at this point? He’d been dead for a bit by now. On the other hand, your opponent always did things for a reason. Best to assume that they were going to copy his voice, add it to the telepaths, and create some kind of super-influencer or add it to every fungus construct they could.

“Does everyone have buzzers? As in anti-voice control buzzers? Preferably my design?” I looked around the group for responses.

Everyone on our team had them. Dayton volunteered that, “We’ve all got your design.”

Looking up to face me, Bouman said, “We’ve got them, but not your design. Ours didn’t stop Arete from giving us orders.”

“It wasn’t an accident,” Prime said. “Magnus wanted contacts in government even when he was in the Cabal. We had people with Dominator powers all along. It’s not the first time I got handed a buzzer, but most of the time they just put wax in our ears.”

Bouman gave him a sideways glance, “Wax? That’s all it took? I’m surprised more people haven’t tried that.”

Prime shrugged, “Hot wax. Most people don’t want to.”

I eyed Prime, “Where did the Cabal get the buzzers?”

“They had off-planet contacts. That and leftover Abominator technology,” he looked down, opening one of the pouches on his belt and pulled out a small disk.

Holding it out in front of me, “This is a government buzzer.”

I examined it with my suit’s sensors, taking a picture of the inside. My implant identified it as an Abominator design with modifications by the Human Ascendancy. It placed the design elements as 150 years old.

“Thanks,” I told Prime. “You’re right. You all need new buzzers. Competent Dominators can go around them.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I reached into a pouch on my belt, pulling out four of mine. I’d taken to bringing along backups. I could have had my suit manufacture them from materials in the suit, but since those materials could also become armor, I didn’t.

As I handed them out to Prime, Logan, Yellow Mask, and our former mayor, I said, “They should be durable, but if they get damaged or you lose one, tell me. We’ve been fighting the Nine lately, so I’ve made a point of bringing spares.”

I didn’t bother to point out the fact that the government was handing out technology from the Human Ascendancy. It wasn’t impossible that they’d found it and copied it, but I’d made my design available to anyone who wanted it. It felt wrong that they were choosing to use tech that well-trained Dominators could get past instead.

Prime was undoubtedly right in guessing Magnus was involved. Unfortunately, it was nothing we had time to get to the bottom of even if the question of who Magnus controlled was important.

Having added Prime’s group to the League channel, I said, “We should have a plan if we’re going into the room. Our ultimate goal is to get Paladin in and have him touch the main brain of this thing and kill it.

“Given the size of the walled area in the middle, I’m thinking it won’t be a quick fight once we get in—which means that if we were to just have Blue and Accelerando bring him in, it would probably stall. Worse, everything else in the room would probably attack them from behind while also making it hard for us to get to them.

“So, I’m thinking we might want to take out everything we can before going in. Plus, we go in as a group and not just us, but Paladin’s group too. Anyone else have an idea?”

Amy frowned, “You’re making me wish I’d come up with something else in the last room.”

“It passed through my mind,” I shrugged, “but you got us this far.”

Jaclyn looked over at Izzy, “You’re holding back to keep the ceiling from falling in. Maybe you could do it intentionally—not the whole ceiling, but part.”

Cassie spoke over the comm, “She could let us get out and then destroy the whole room.”

Switching back to the even tone I associated with the True, Tara said, “No. Fungus will survive that. We need to kill it all.”

Nodding even though we were the only ones who could see it, Daniel said, “I want to second that. It doesn’t end if we bring the room down.”

Vaughn spoke up from Haley’s team, “I’m not at full power, but I can do a mass lightning blast or a tornado. Maybe both. I won’t be good for much after that, but it’s a start.”

Camille, Sydney and Sean’s half-sister, spoke up, “You’re forgetting me.”

“Yeah,” I said. She wasn’t wrong. I had. Haley’s friends mostly worked with Haley and in retrospect, we could have used her.

“So…” She began, “What if I start by changing the direction of gravity and pull everything to a wall? After that, everyone opens up on them.”

We talked more, ironing out the details, but that was the shape of it.