She landed on her feet, pivoted, and let her momentum carry her. Too unfamiliar with the gleamers to dare giving them a try mid-combat, she let the slippery extinguisher residue on the floors coast her into the back wall and plucked Themyscira out of where it had been embedded in the now empty canister.
For the moment, only two of the apparitions were on their feet and close—immediate threats, but even as a tag team coming for her they were no match.
Rylee remembered what it was like to see Jonathan hit these beasts as her first downward strike knocked the Ferox down and into the floor with Earth-shattering force. The Ferox hit so hard the cement broke and the creature—bounced.
The second came at her an instant later only to take a bone-bending blow to the knee joint that left it staggering. Her eyes blazing with the power of the bond, she grabbed the staggering Ferox by the throat and drove the rattan straight through its eardrum.
The resistance she had to deal with in the past was gone—the weapon didn’t bounce off its armor or halt at the metal skeleton. It drove straight through and the Green—judging by its tail—fell limp in her hands. She ripped the rattan free and brought the body up and over. Slamming it into the one whose skull she’d bounced off the floor a moment earlier.
As she gave this Red apparition the same temporal lobe treatment she’d given the last, a proximity warning drew her attention to movement. The Ferox she’d first kicked off the pillar above her, was coming back into the fray. Rylee had heard all the same chatter as Leah over the comms. The females were squishier than the males, but far more dangerous in packs. This one was alone—
Except, she also sensed the one who first set off Leah’s mustard gas.
Rylee saw it then, the white apparition beginning to circle on all fours. These two hadn’t been around to get doused by the fire extinguisher. Still, there was no removing all that particulate from the air, and the closer they came the less invisible they were.
She eyed them right back as they circled, wondered if they had even realized that their cloak was no longer fully hiding them.
Rylee put up with this game for about a hot second before using a series of feints to back the two females off before jumping clear of the circle. She shot up to the auditorium’s second floor, quickly hurdling the railing as the females jaunted after. There is a reason people talk about having the high ground—and the first female learned this rapidly when, the moment she grabbed the outer railing, Rylee drove the rattan straight through her eye. Still it allowed the second enough time to scramble over the balcony while the first’s limp body fell to the floor.
It was about that moment, as Rylee set her attention back to the last female, something human moved in the darkness. Tam, gleaming ever so quietly down the wall behind the female. He almost got the drop on her—but at the last second, the female sniffed at the air and whirled.
Oh yeah, see how you like it, Rylee thought.
The female looked between the two of them and bolted. She didn’t attack, she ran. Rylee had never seen a Ferox run, only observed it through Leah’s eyes.
“Good to see you breathing,” Tam said. “I’d have miss—”
“Don’t let her get away,” Rylee interrupted.
Tam’s head turned to follow the female, no doubt heading for the hole Leah had made when they first attacked.
“Uh,” Tam looked at her funny, no doubt wondering why Leah was suddenly talking with an accent. “What about . . .”
“Go,” Rylee said.
She didn’t wait for him to say he would, but jumped back down to the ground floor, and opened her armor’s shields allowing the bright glow of the implant to bring light to the room.
“So much for my valiant rescue,” Tam said, giving chase after the female.
Rylee waited on the ground floor, and she didn’t have to wait long. The Alpha she’d dropkicked at the onset was pushing himself out of a pile of debris, rolling a lump of cement away before stepping forward.
Its outline looked at her, then put a hand to its chest, some guttural growls were made but Rylee couldn’t understand—wasn’t tied to its stone.
She wondered what had become of the other one. After all, when she’d drop-kicked the big fellow, he’d crashed into a smaller one at the rear before going through the pillar.
Wait. Was she that strong? Was the only reason this Alpha was standing because that other Ferox had padded this one’s collision with the pillar?
“Alight, moron, let’s get your funeral started,” Rylee said.
The Alpha tilted his powdered face at her as he hefted something from the rubble; it was as visible as he was, a massive ghostly axe.
Great, they’re bringing weapons now. Invisible Ferox, with invisible weapons. More guttural growls—this time, clearly aimed at her.
Rylee made some guttural nonsense noises back at him, but if he understood that he was being mocked she couldn’t tell.
“Who knew I’d miss being able to exchange pleasantries this mu—”
Rylee jumped back as the ghost axe crashed into the floor where she’d been standing.
The Alpha didn’t linger when it missed but charged forward with the axe in one clawed hand as Rylee retreated.
She slipped under the first swing, then dodged past the hulking beast when it swung the axe again. Wheeling to keep the pressure on, the Alpha choked in surprise when a blow from Themyscira crashed into the front of its neck.
The moment’s hesitation was a door opening on a whirlwind of pain. Rylee moved about the large creature faster than it could keep up, her hits finding joints and pressure points that slowed the Alpha down. Inside his reach, the axe became useless.
After fighting Malkier, and not so much as being able to make him blink with her best shot, this was all very cathartic.
Within moments, the Alpha became so forced to the defensive that he was using the axe as a shield. He expected a blow to come for his eyes, only to find Rylee had changed her strike. Sliding under it on the smooth floor, spinning and smashing the rattan into the back of his knee.
“You’re supposed to be the boogeyman,” she said as the Ferox lurched, lost its balance, and fell to all fours. “Do you know how much of a disappointment you are?”
Rylee kicked the Alpha in the torso hard enough to throw its body through the auditorium wall and back out to the street.
“Hey Leah, look, I made your hole in the wall,” Rylee said.
In her head, no one answered.
Jonathan had to react on instinct when the wall of the museum erupted outward and a pale outline of a large Feroxian shape came flying at him. He drew Excali-bar from his back in one fluid motion and slammed the shape down just before it barreled into him.
As he looked down at the thing he’d smashed into the side walk it became rapidly clear what he was standing over—a cloaked Alpha Ferox so beat to hell it was shaking in an effort to get back up.
That was all the time Jonathan was going to spend assessing the situation. He drove Excali-bar’s tip through the back of the Alpha’s neck with enough force that the demolition bar went in, out the other side, and a foot into the sidewalk. A long final breath gurgled out of the creature.
He was about to move, but before he could pull the bar free and charged through the hole the Alpha had come through, he saw a flash of light moving inside the dark interior, a glowing figure coming toward him from the dark. A moment later, Leah—the shields of her device retracted, emerged from the hole in the wall. She was using her glove to wipe black blood off Themyscira.
She looked at him, standing there relieved but a bit dumbfounded, and sheathed the rattan as she casually strolled over to him.
“Everyone en route to Leah, redirect to the stadium,” he said.
Rivers’ voice came over the line. “Got it covered, my team just arrived.”
He left Excali-bar where it was as he stepped around to meet her. “You didn’t run.”
She came to a stop only a foot away from him but d
idn’t say anything. She lifted one hand and tapped at the visor covering his face as though she were knocking at a door.
He retracted the helmet, saw his eyes glowing back at him in the tinted glass of her visor before Leah retracted her own. She looked at him for a moment, smiled—then grabbed him by the collar and pulled his lips to hers. For a moment, he kissed her back—but then suddenly he yanked back in surprise.
“Rylee?”
She smirked at him. “How did you know?”
He blinked for a moment, then forced himself to shake it off—at least enough to remove what he suspected was a very dumb look on his face.
“You and Leah kiss very . . . differently,” he said.
“Oh, do we now?”
His eyes narrowed, as if to say I will not be elaborating.
“Fine,” she said.
Rylee sniffed the air for a moment. “Do you smell that? It’s awful!”
Her nose’s search brought her to the vents on her armor and she made the mistake of confirming that this was in fact where the smell was coming from—recoiling away as though she’d just put her head in a compost bin.
“Oh God, no wonder they had second thoughts about eating her,” Rylee said.
She looked at him. “I can’t believe you smelled that and still let her kiss you—you’re disgusting.”
“I didn’t want to ruin the . . .” Jonathan paused. “Wait, I let her?”
“Well, you didn’t know it was me,” Rylee said, turning to walk back to the museum.
He did a double take as he watched her walking away, then shook his head.
“You want to grab that thing and bring it in here,” Rylee said. “Think you should see this.”
As he stepped inside the demolished auditorium and dropped the Alpha’s body on the floor, Rylee began pulling the rest of the corpses into a line.
She looked at the Alpha. “You aren’t gonna try and take credit for that are you?”
“I feel that wouldn’t be wise,” Jonathan said.
Rylee smiled. “Smart boy.”
Jonathan sighed, but there was a grin on his face as he did so. He had to deal with the mind job of looking at Leah’s face but knowing it wasn’t her behind it. Still—there was an ease to talking to Rylee that felt like an old injury finally beginning to heal after giving him nothing but pain for months.
“What’s this like for you?” Jonathan asked. “Being in someone else’s body?”
“Well, she’s taller. Bit bulked up in the shoulders. All that metal work I imagine, not as flexible as I’d have liked but she isn’t in bad shape. I can work with it.”
Jonathan blinked. He didn’t seem to know what answer he’d been looking for though. So, he turned his eyes to the corpses.
“There’s only five?” Jonathan asked.
“A female made a run for it, I sent Tam after her while I was dealing with tons of fun over there,” she said, gesturing vaguely to the Alpha corpse.
Jonathan nodded. “Probably a waste of time; Bodhi and Sam have trouble keeping pace with the females on the gleamers even when they’re visible.”
Rylee nodded. But Jonathan was already pondering something—and whatever it was his expression looked worried.
“Malkier sent all the cloaked units he had after you,” Jonathan said.
“Probably thought the female of the bonded pair would be an easier kill,” Rylee said. “I mean, he thought I was our first string—and I was barely compatible with the implant.”
Jonathan nodded.
“Still, he must have had a way to track you, probably both of us,” Jonathan said.
To this she frowned. “Why do you say that?”
“The cloaked team didn’t make a move on anyone else—only you,” Jonathan said. “Ferox aren’t that good at telling us apart, it’s why they kill civilians indiscriminately when they come here. Our entire army is wearing practically identical gear. I find it hard to believe they picked out the one woman amongst us.”
“It’s not impossible,” Rylee said.
“Yeah, my gut is telling me it’s more likely they had some way to find you,” Jonathan said.
“Your gut?” Rylee said, “You mean me and the little girl in the pink hoodie.”
Jonathan’s eyes widened, and he turned to her very—very slowly. Rylee’s self-satisfied smirk did not belong on Leah’s face—yet—there it was.
He grimaced and closed his eyes. “. . . How?”
“Oh, Leah wasn’t the only one who got answers from your head the other day,” Rylee said.
Jonathan grimaced. “I don’t want to discuss this right n . . . ever. I don’t want to talk about this—ever.”
“Jonathan—don’t be ashamed, it was adorable,” Rylee said, sounded as though she were remembering a puppy she’d seen at a pet store.
“Ever!” he repeated.
Rylee shrugged, whispering in the cutesiest voice she could manage. “Brings the Rain so sensitive.”
Perhaps in a hurry to change the subject, Jonathan drew a long breath and leaned down, activating his gleamers over the dead Alpha’s head. The liquid exterior of the cloaking device began to push away and reveal the band around the forehead. Deactivating the device, he pulled the band free.
The Ferox possessed those familiar markings. Those self-inflicted scars designing its skin. “I encountered a few of these in the queue loop. Was strange—I’d never seen one before—then suddenly four in a row. According to Mr. Clean, they came from a different tribe’s gateway. Only reason I was crossing paths with them was because their gate’s queue got dumped into mine,” Jonathan said. “Reports have been that they’re the only ones carrying weapons.”
“That mean something to you?” Rylee asked.
“Ferox males have a sense of honor when it comes to combat,” Jonathan said. “They judge you when they think you’re cheating. So . . . I’m thinking this tribe might be the sort that doesn’t see something like using a cloaking device as against their code.”
He pondered it for a moment before getting on the comm. “Tam, were you able to intercept the female?”
“Nope. Too quick,” Tam said. “But saw where she headed.”
“Back through the conduit?” Jonathan asked.
“Yeah, straight shot, how did you know?” Tam asked.
“The females are smart—better at guerrilla warfare. Think Malkier is using them to gather intel.”
Rylee considered. “You’re thinking the one who ran is reporting on their assassination attempt?” Rylee asked.
“She did get the hell out of Dodge the moment the tables turned,” Tam said.
Jonathan stared down at the cloaking device, rubbing the band between thumb and fingers thoughtfully.
“Which one of them hit you, I mean . . . hit Leah . . . first?”
Rylee looked over the shapes, tried the gleamer trick she’d just seen Jonathan use to remove the cloaking device off its forehead and pointed to one. It was also covered in those tribal scars.
Jonathan knelt down beside the body and drove his fist into its torso. After a moment of fishing around he found its portal stone and pulled it free.
“Can’t say I missed this par . . . Wow!” Rylee exclaimed.
“I feel it too,” Jonathan said.
“Yeah, the second you tore it free from those appendages,” Rylee said. “Wait, what do you mean feel it too?”
“When we first met in The Never,” Jonathan said, “I could feel the stone tied to your gateway as well as the one tied to mine.”
“Yeah, duh, I was there,” Rylee said.
“That isn’t normal though,” Jonathan said. “No one else in the army can feel stones that aren’t tied to their gateway specifically.”
“You’re thinking we’re different because of the bond?” Rylee asked.
Jonathan nodded as he studied the portal stone.
“How did you know we’d feel that stone?” Rylee asked.
“I didn’t. My hunch was that Malkier�
�s found some way to reverse the feed,” Jonathan said. “The Ferox with the stone can track the device it’s attached to instead of the other way around. I think that’s how this one knew who to single out. They’ve probably been watching us for a while.”
“They waited for the bonded pair to separate,” Rylee said.
“Mito made things difficult. Too good a bodyguard, only reason they got close was because he couldn’t see them coming, and they waited till you were apart,” Jonathan said.
Rylee sobered a bit. “Wait, Mito? Is . . . is he?”
“He here,” Beo said. They both looked up to see the giant standing in the hole. A much smaller man held in his arms.
“I foun’ him outside, he hurt bad, I was ‘fraid to pick em up,” Beo said. “He ain’t breathin’ right. Ain’t wakin’ up.”
As careful as he could, Beo knelt down on the floor with Mito. The man looked like he was cradling a child they were so different in size. Jonathan looked down to see Mito’s helmet was damaged, his visor broken so badly only a few cracked shards framed his face.
“Has he got any stones left to break?” Jonathan asked.
“I looked, couldn’t find none on him,” Beo said.
“No,” Rylee said. “He . . . he had spares.”
She was frantic, began to search through the man’s belt, only to find the pouch where she knew the man kept the stones was nowhere to be found. In fact, it looked as though it had been ripped away.
Jonathan, slipped the portal stone he’d taken out of the scarred creature that had been first to attack Leah into his belt pouch, and pulled up what vitals of Mito he could in his HUD.
There wasn’t any good news. Mito was fading quickly. Probably bleeding internally. If he had to guess, the man had been knocked out of the sky when trying to catch up with Leah. Fallen fast and hard.
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