It took less time than I expected even though it seemed to be a disaster when it began.

As I’d stepped forward, burning through the legs of next nearest Prime clone, more barreled into the area all at once. Arms bashed me from more than one direction, knocking me sideways. Even as I began to push myself off the ground, I wondered if I’d be able to do anything.

With the speed of their attack, they’d passed through both our front line and second and were already in the process of attacking the line of Jennys between danger and the squishy people next to the wall.

I hadn’t been the only one knocked over either. They’d also hit Amy and Katuk.

Tiger had four legs and outweighed every single one of them. Even as I tried to pull myself up, four of them were trying to flip Tiger on his side and his response was to behead and dismember anybody in reach.

I didn’t allow myself to hope too much because Tiger couldn’t do it all himself. The rest of us were taking attacks from all directions since they’d made it to either side of all of us.

I pulled myself up only to be grabbed from behind by a Prime clone and then a blobbygator opened its mouth to grab my right leg from the knee down.

Using my laser to sever the blobbygator’s head, I struggled against the arm behind me for a moment. Getting my head in the right place, I dropped while leaning forward with the Rocket suit’s full strength, sending the Prime clone who’d grabbed my neck straight over me, hitting another Prime clone and dropping on the blobbygator.

That’s when the squishy people counterattacked.

Kals’ voice couldn’t do anything to walking fungus, but physically she had all of Cassie’s strength and agility even if her endurance and regeneration weren’t even close. Kals pulled out a pistol that my implant classified as an “Alliance military design influenced by Abominator technology.”

It wasn’t Cassie’s gun but still seared any fungus creature it touched and burned holes in any she targeted. She shot three of them through the head within the first few seconds of taking action and didn’t seem to be able to miss.

She didn’t seem to be the only one feeling inspired.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Daniel reached out with his mind, hitting the nearest Prime clones with telekinetic bolts that left them missing chunks out of their necks and chests, sometimes cutting off their arms.

I’d seen him try that before but never as effectively.

Alex gave me a thumbs up and fired his pistol—which appeared to be an Earth-made copy of the same kind of pistol Kals had. He made up for it with multiple precision shots—severing a leg that Kals' gun could have taken out in one, but still taking it out.

If that alone had been the only response, it would have slowed them down, but it wasn’t. Jenny shot back too and when she fired, she fired from thirty bodies at once. She fired off guns similar to Alex’s at the more distant Prime clones and blobbygators.

The nearer Prime clones experienced dual flamethrower streams, one from each of her hands.

Prime clones changed from actively dangerous foes to charred, actively burning foes.

I grinned as I remembered why. Paladin, for lack of a better way to put it, exuded an aura of health. Allies’ bodies worked better near him (including their brains) and for those that had them, their powers. It made all the sense in the world that those closest to him had already begun to feel the effects.

Not that I sat still. While all that was taking place, I’d shot the guy I’d thrown over my head as he’d landed on the blobbygator, the Prime clone that he’d bounced off before he hit the gator, and picked off the blobbygator that he’d fallen on as it struggled to get out from under the bodies on top of it.

Looking up, still surprised at my own efficiency, I realized that we’d cleared the room.

The toxic particles were still in the air as a mist, but it was beginning to clear. I could see the glow at the far end of the room again. I didn’t doubt that it would be normal by the time we got down there.

The only problem was that our armor still had a coating of sticky grit on it. We’d be exposed to whatever poison it was if our armor took enough damage for it to leak through—which meant that we’d need to wash it somehow.

Maybe Vaughn could squeeze rain into our attack plan? Assuming the poison was water soluble, it might help.

It reminded me of a street-level hero I’d heard about—Supersudz. His only power was to pull soapy water from another dimension, controlling the percentage of water to soap. From what I’d heard, he could make a battleground nearly frictionless, making him more effective than you’d think.

I didn’t expect to pull him out of retirement to help, though. He’d grown rich off of a chain of carwashes.

“We don’t have time to waste,” Jaclyn said, turning away from the bodies on the ground around her to face us. “They have to be summoning more troops from the city to fight us and most of them are going to be mind-controlled human beings.”

“We’re ready,” Haley said over the comm. “Are you?”

Jaclyn let out a breath that might have been a suppressed laugh, “I don’t think we have time to change anything even if we aren’t.”

Izzy stared up at the ceiling, eyes closed within her helmet, “You’re right. I can hear the footsteps of thousands of people coming this way.”

Alex held up his hand, “Hey, the only thing that matters is if I’m ready. Get me in there and I’ll take the damn thing down.”