Attack Doll 5: The End of Lily Lee

by Douglas A. Taylor

Chapter 28

 

  I'm sorry if this sounds sexist, but I never like to watch any of our female Primes get hurt. I mean, I never enjoy watching any of my teammates get hurt, but there's always an extra cringe factor involved when it's one of the girls. So even though I was curious as to what had actually happened with Trina at the start of the battle, I had to force myself to look at the screen when Wizzit got to that part.

  It was bad, but not quite as bad as I thought it would be. She just got herself zapped with a blast from the Huntress' energy bow. Her force shield got fried and she was thrown down pretty violently. I think everyone winced when we saw the way her head bounced off the rocky ground, staining the earth with red. Of course, she may have already been unconscious by the time that happened, so she might not have felt it. Regardless, Wizzit teleported her limp body out almost before it rolled to a stop.

  I have already described what happened to me. It was a little embarrassing, because when the kid with the winged hat and sandals clocked me upside the head, I looked as though I was moving in slow motion. Nicolai and Toby were the next to go. Toby had decided to go after the guy covered in soot -- hammer against hammer, I guess -- and he came off decidedly the worse in that exchange. Nicolai took on Black Bart a short time later and quickly found himself skewered by his two-pronged spear.

  Mike did the best solo work of any of us. The Huntress apparently still held a grudge for what she thought he had done to her, and she kept peppering him with energy shots from her bow. Mike, in return, merrily deflected the blasts toward any bad guy he could see. He was causing them so many problems, in fact, that eventually four of the monsters put their heads together and then began to attack him in concert.

  That by itself should have told us that these were unusual beasties, because Enclave monsters in general do not cooperate with one another. They're just as likely to attack each other as us. These four, though, acted as if they were controlled by a single brain, or at least as if they had practiced together a few times. Poor Mike didn't really stand a chance once they started ganging up on him. He made it a pretty good fight, but one can dodge four giants for only so long before getting pounded into oblivion, no matter how fast one's reflexes are.

  Which left Padma and Angie. By the time Wizzit teleported Mike out, the two of them were completely surrounded, standing back to back and nervously eying the largest horde of Enclave monsters we had ever seen in one place, not to mention a hundred or so active, driven Zoinks. From the bits of their conversation that Wizzit replayed, they were both pretty scared, and although they weren't panicking, neither of them had any idea just what to do. Padma was talking about initiating camouflage mode and fighting a mini-guerrilla war there on the Acropolis. I think Angie just wanted to go hit somebody.

  Fortunately for both of them, Cathy had teleported into HQ by that time. We overheard her talking to the two girls, calming them down and persuading them to let Wizzit bring them back to HQ -- discretion being the better part of valor and all that.

  There were expressions of dismay all around as the vid ended. Mayumi commented, "I have never seen so many Primes wiped out so quickly."

  "There was a monster we fought once that took out both Nicolai and Toby in just a couple of minutes," I said, "but you're right. These guys took out all seven of us in less than ten minutes. Pretty incredible."

  "So what do we do?" Trina asked. She seemed the most shaken of any of us. "How can we possibly fight them?"

  "Padma's idea of a sniper campaign against the monsters was not bad," Cathy said thoughtfully. "Having seen what I just saw, I know I'm not eager to go out there without a force shield. If I were invisible, though, and kept moving around, I could provide covering fire, at least."

  Bill nodded. "I agree. Any of the Emeriti who go out there will have to be in camouflage mode. It would be too dangerous otherwise."

  "We'd have to be extra careful not to run into our own people, then," Mike said.

  "I'll tell you what, that guy I fought was too fast for anyone except you to handle, Mike," I put in.

  "And the bloke with the hammer was too tough for any single one of us," Toby added.

  "And don't forget, we still have the Zoinks to worry about," Padma said. "It is not so easy to take them out of the picture if Lily is not leading them."

  Shelley leaned forward. "All right, let's take things in order. First of all, Wizzit, are all these monsters hostile?"

  There were a few snorts around the room, but she had a point. I know I hadn't been keeping track of which monsters had participated in which attacks. And I wouldn't put it past Enclave to try to lure us into attacking a monster that was "innocently" minding its own business.

  Nevertheless, Wizzit replied, "Affirmative. Those that did not take part in the attack on you have been engaged in tearing apart one of the smaller temples. All monsters and minders may now be considered hostile."

  "Good. Now, as for the two monsters that were specifically mentioned -- the one who got Trevor and the one Toby was fighting -- are they the worst ones? Are there others that are more dangerous?"

  There was silence for a few seconds as we all looked at each other. "The gal with the bow was a bit of a pest," Mike said, "although it was quite a laugh swatting her blasts right back down her throat."

  "Could anyone else besides you do that?" Shelley asked. "Hit her blasts right back at her, that is."

  He shrugged. Wizzit said, "In theory, yes. The energy bolts were traveling slowly enough that any of the regular Primes should have time to react. And each of you has sufficient eye-hand coordination to knock the bolt aside."

  "Providing we saw it coming," Padma said glumly.

  "Yes, providing you saw it coming," Wizzit agreed. "To further answer Prime Commander's question, my data indicate that the monster who wears the lion skin and carries the club is by far the strongest one out there. He is not very fast, however, nor is he bright. He also seems to have a violent temper; he has already attacked two of the other monsters."

  "That could be useful," Shelley mused. "Perhaps the gal with the bow or one of the other monsters could be lured into attacking him."

  "The problem is, there's too bleedin' many of them," Toby said. "We could take on any one of them, or any three, maybe even five, but they've brought in eleven. It's just not fair."

  "Fair or not, it's up to us to take care of them," Nicolai said quietly. "There's no one else who can."

  "Maybe there is," Mike said suddenly. "What about getting the US Army involved? Or their air force or something. They've helped us out before."

  I frowned. "You want the United States Air Force to make a bombing run on the Acropolis in Greece? I'm pretty sure that would be considered an act of war."

  "Well, maybe not on the Acropolis," Mike said, looking a little abashed. "But maybe one of us could grab a monster and then Wizzit could teleport them out to that Big Rock Candy Mountain Gunnery Range --"

  "Chocolate Mountain," Bill corrected him absently.

  "-- and they could bomb him to Kingdom Come over there."

  Shelley nodded. "It's worth a try. Wizzit, can you place an untraceable call for me? I'll give you the number I have."

  Wizzit must have cut off Shelley's sound to the rest of the room -- kind of like how he does with our Prime-to-Prime communications -- because the rest of us heard nothing of her phone call. We all waited, looking around the room uncomfortably -- all except Bill and Nicolai, who were staring at the vid screen. Nicolai looked as though he were making some sort of mental calculations; Bill was pointing at each monster in turn and murmuring to himself.

  After a few minutes, Shelley stirred in her chair. "Bad news, people," she said. "I got turned down flat. In fact, I was told we'd get no more favors ever until we started coming across with some technical know-how. They did promise, though, that if we released all of our technology to them, they coul
d have two thousand Prime-enabled boots on the ground anywhere in the world within a month."

  She had to wait for the hoots and howls of derision to die down after she said that. When she spoke again, her voice was grim. "I hate to say it, but we've got to go out there and try again. There's no other choice."

  "Bill," said Toby, "what about those guns you and I have been working on? I'm not sure exactly how they're supposed to operate, but maybe they might give us an edge."

  Bill was shaking his head. "They would work, yes, but we're going to be able to use them only once; after that, they'll be useless. We have to save them for a time we really need them."

  "I'd say we bloody well need them now," Mike muttered.

  "No," said Wizzit firmly. "I have definite plans for those particular weapons. They are to be used under a very specific set of circumstances, and it's not here and not now. We will have to make do without them."

  "What about the Unity belt?" Angie asked. "Is there any way we could use that? I mean, I know it was killing Shelley, but . . . look, I haven't been a Prime all that long; maybe that perceptual bias thing hasn't had time to --"

  "It wouldn't work, Angela," Wizzit interrupted her kindly. "Thank you for offering, but it has been too late for that from the moment you experienced your very first healing coma as Prime Violet."

  "We could ask Lily," I said into the silence which followed. "She's been Unity before."

  "She's also been nothing but trouble for us," Toby growled. "You know that, Trevor."

  "I agree. She is too unstable, and we can't trust her," Padma declared. "There must be someone else we could ask, someone who has never been a Prime. A -- a family member or a friend of one of us. They don't even have to be able to fight. Surely we could find someone . . ."

  "You're kidding, right?" I retorted. "Whoever wears that Unity belt is going to be a sitting duck out there. They'll have no weapons, no force shield, and no invisibility, and the white glow around them will be a dead giveaway that they're Unity. Heck, we're giving our Primes Emeriti more protection than that. No, Lily is our only possible choice. She's the only one who can handle herself well enough to go out there as Unity White."

  Padma nodded reluctantly. "I . . . yes, you're right, Trevor. I suppose I would not want to expose anyone I knew to that kind of danger."

  Mike gave a long exhalation. "But would she help us?"

  "She would have no choice if Trevor ordered her to," Trina pointed out.

  Angie and I looked at each other. "I'd prefer she do it of her own free will," I said.

  "Then will you ask her?" Mike said.

  I started to shake my head, but then Angie raised her hand. "I should probably be the one to ask." When everyone turned to stare at her, she went on hesitantly, "I know everyone thinks she and Trevor are tight, but . . . well, it's complicated, but basically, she doesn't want to have anything to do with him right now. Lily and I spent a lot of time together over the last few days, though. We're not exactly friends, but I think she'll listen to me."

  "I thought you didn't trust her, little sis," I said.

  "I don't --" She seemed to be fumbling for words. "That is, I wouldn't trust her alone with you for five minutes, big brother. She's got something weird going on in her head as far as you're concerned. But even she admits that, as a group, we've been nothing but kind to her, and she's almost as afraid of Enclave as she is of you. She might refuse to help, but I don't think she'd betray us. And I don't see that we have any other choice."

  Shelley was nodding. "I agree," she said. "Angela should be the one to ask. What do you think, Wizzit?"

  "Teleporting Angela in fifteen seconds . . ."

  Shelley and I locked eyes, and she jerked her head toward the door. I nodded. I had been thinking the same thing, in fact. They would want to monitor everything that went on between the two of them, and Shelley had promised I would not watch any videos of Lily. Without a word, I got up and left as Angie activated her force shield.

  I strolled over to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of orange juice. I was still sitting at the table sipping it when Wizzit said, "Trevor, Prime Commander would like you to return to the office now."

  Mike was the first to speak as I entered the room. "Did you know that Angie was going to deactivate right in front of Lily?" he demanded.

  I thought for a moment, then shook my head. "No," I said calmly, "but I can't say I'm surprised. Lily already knew pretty much everything about her except her name. Showing Lily her real face wouldn't have given anything away."

  "When did you find this out?" Shelley asked.

  "Last night when I went to visit Li Lin-fa. She kept referring to Prime Violet as my sister. I finally asked how she knew that, and she said she learned it from Lily. We were going to tell you, Shelley, but you had already left."

  Shelley frowned thoughtfully down at her desk. "It was certainly a gutsy move on Angie's part, revealing herself that way," she mused. She looked up at Mike. "But it sounds like it wasn't as foolhardy as we first thought, and it did get Lily to agree to help us, after all."

  "Did she have trouble getting Lily to cooperate?" I asked.

  "She sure did!" Toby exclaimed. "And it wasn't the fighting that bothered her, either. She was more worried about being out there with you than she was about going up against Enclave."

  Mike shook his head. "Something about you has got her spooked, that's for sure."

  "Yes. What did you say to her, Trevor?" Padma asked.

  "That's the thing -- I didn't say anything to her!" I protested. "I didn't do anything to her! Li Lin-fa says she's afraid of me because she doesn't like having to follow my commands."

  "Well, whatever the reason," Trina said, "Angie had to promise her that you would interact with her as little as possible. Of course, Lily wanted to know why she should trust Angie's promises. Angie asked her whether she wanted a gesture of good faith, and Lily said yes. That's when Angie deactivated and told her her real name and that she was your sister."

  "It was rather clever, if you think about it," Nicolai mused. "She gained Lily's cooperation without giving away much that Lily didn't already know."

  "Bill teleported out there with the Unity belt as soon as she agreed," Shelley told me. "He's resizing it to fit her waist right now. He'll give us a shout-out once she has successfully activated it."

  She leaned back and looked at the group gathered in the office -- six Primes and three Primes Emeriti. "We still don't know exactly what this Unity field is going to do for us, so you'll have to play things by ear when you get out there," she said. "Now, we have identified their four most dangerous monsters. I think our best bet is to assign each of them to one of you three." Here, she indicated Mayumi, Cathy, and Alvaro. "Bill will take the fourth. Shoot at them from under cover and try to keep them off-balance. Keep camouflage mode on and keep moving; these monsters are particularly dangerous, and I don't want anyone to get hurt if we can avoid it."

  "It's not much of a plan," Mike noted grimly.

  Shelley spread her hands. "I'm open to suggestions," she replied with a faint smile.

  Mike, it appeared, was taking her comment seriously. "I'll go after the bloke with the wingy hat," he said. "Perhaps I can keep up with him."

  "Lily should have something to defend herself with," Nicolai said suddenly. "Maybe she would want to have the spear I made from the unicorn horn. It does not require a force shield."

  Shelley nodded. "That's a good idea. Wizzit, can you pass along that suggestion to Bill?"

  "Will do, Commander."

  "I will go get it." Nicolai got to his feet. "After that, if you need me, I will be in my room changing into something a little less bloody."

  "If I use my triple-blaster," Trina said after he had left, "and I shoot at the monster with the lion-skin while his back is turned, then he might think he had been hit by the mons
ter with the bow, and he might attack her." She shrugged. "It is at least worth a shot." Then she smiled as she realized she had made a pun.

  "I'd still like to go after that alter with the bat ears," I said.

  "Yeah, you were wanting to get him when we were out there earlier. What's up with that? Why are you so obsessed with him?" Mike asked.

  It was Padma who answered. "Because he is the one who killed Commander Windham, Shelley's father."

  Shelley looked from Padma to me. "That's a pretty serious charge," she said. "How sure are you? I've seen the vid that JB Swift gave you, but I never got a good look at this guy."

  Before I could say anything, Wizzit brought up a pair of pictures on the video screen. The first was taken from JB Swift's video; it showed Bat-ears reaching down toward Shelley's father. The other was clearly a close-up from the battle we had just been in, and Bat-ears was in roughly the same position. Each was a clear image, giving us a good view of his face and body. It was definitely the same guy; there could be no doubt.

  Shelley stared at the stills for a long time, her chin resting on her hands. "I see," she said at last. "All right, I would like for this guy to be taken down if at all possible. I think that Dad would agree, though, that the mission comes first. It's more important than anything else."

  I glanced at Padma, then nodded. "I understand, Commander."

  "So why aren't we out there right now?" Toby said impatiently.

  "We'll go out as soon as Unity is ready," Mike assured him.

  At that moment we heard Bill's voice over the ceiling speakers. "She's ready now. It took a little longer than I had hoped because I had to undo most of the adjustments I made to try to get it to work with Gold. But now White, Violet, and I are activated and ready to go."

  The rest of us activated, and Wizzit teleported us out in short order. As soon as the teleportation haze faded from my vision, I took a good look around. The monsters had not been idle while we were away. Two of the smaller temples were now just heaps of rubble, and they were working on a third. I could see most of my teammates scattered across the stony field, but I couldn't see anyone who looked like they might be Lily.

  Next to Bat-ears, I decided that the monster I most wanted to go after was the Huntress. Unfortunately for my ambitions, she was at the other end of the Acropolis, scanning for targets. Nicolai had apparently called dibs on her anyway; at least, he was charging towards her, axe raised high. As I watched, he closed with her and struck. The axe blade caught her behind one knee, and with a screech of pain, she fell onto her back.

  At that moment, some sort of sixth sense told me to look out. I turned around just in time to duck; a scythe blade went whistling over me, wielded by the monster who looked like the old man, as I flattened myself against the ground.

  As soon as it passed overhead, I kipped up to my feet and fired straight up into the face of the monster without bothering to aim. I didn't hear a roar of pain, but he did shake his head and start rubbing his eyes something fierce, which I thought was a good sign. Encouraged, I holstered my blaster, took my vajra in both hands, and smashed the butt of it as hard as I could against the side of his knee, which was about as high as I could reach.

  That elicited the cry of pain I had been hoping for. The old guy's leg jerked convulsively, throwing him off balance. I hit him again, this time to the back of the same knee, and the leg gave out completely. He toppled to the ground, and I had to make with the fancy footwork to keep from being caught underneath him when he fell. I always hate it when monsters fall on top of me.

  I began pounding my vajra against any part of him that I could reach -- his spine, his shoulder, and the back of his head. "Coming to help you out, Blue," I heard Toby call, and soon I heard the sound of him smacking Old-guy Monster with his hammer.

  The two of us went at it hammer-and-tongs on him for a few minutes, only taking time out to punch the occasional pesky Zoink that wandered too close. Then Wizzit said, "Copper, Steel, Silver, and Blackiron, if you would kindly direct your blaster beams to the monster that Green and Blue are attacking, I believe we are ready for a final strike." He waited for the four of them to confirm, then said, "On my count: three, two, one, now!"

  Four triple-strength blaster beams lanced in from various spots around the Acropolis to strike Old-guy Monster. Toby and I hit him with our weapons at the same time. There was a shower of sparks, and when they died away, the monster was gone. "Wow, that was quick," I commented. "Was that Unity's doing?" There was no reply at first, so I said, "Um, Wizzit?"

  "Sorry, I was distracted," Wizzit replied. "Yes, Unity helped some, but it was mostly just a weak monster. Look lively, Blue."

  Somehow, I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had an itch between my shoulderblades that was telling me that someone was taking aim at my back. As I tucked and rolled to the left, I heard the sound of one of Huntress' energy blasts strike the ground where I had just been standing. It looked as though she had gotten away from Nicolai somehow, although he was chasing her doggedly. Still too far away for me to go after her, though.

  I looked around to see what other mayhem I could accomplish. About fifty yards away, I could see Angie dueling with the gal with the helmet and spear. Well, okay, I guess maybe dueling wasn't the right word here; it would imply that Angie was actually getting in some offense, which she wasn't. For the most part, the helmet-and-spear monster was jabbing and swinging the spear at her, and Angie was throwing herself this way and that to avoid the attacks. I imagined she was going to have bruises all over from that little encounter.

  I started trotting their way, trying to figure out a plan of attack. Not too far away from Angie, Padma was being chased by the guy with the goat horns on his head. He had actually lowered his head and was galloping after her on all fours as if he wanted to butt her with those horns, the way a real fifteen-foot-tall goat might have done. Or who knows, maybe he wanted to trample her, I'm not sure. Regardless, I was too far away to help her, and a blaster shot wouldn't have done anything to him, so I just watched helplessly as he closed in on her. And then, just as it seemed that he must catch her, Padma teleported away in a flash of indigo light.

  I suppose that Goat-horn Guy would ordinarily have clattered to a stop and looked around to see where she had gone. He didn't have time, though. See, he had been so intent on chasing down Padma that he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going, and Padma, clever girl that she was, had been leading him straight to where Helmet-and-spear was attacking Angie.

  Thus, before he had a chance to stop, he found himself applying his goat horns directly and with great force to the rump of Angie's monster. Angie ducked, and the she-monster was soon flying through the air over her head; she sprawled against the back of Black Bart. He turned around, snarling, and within seconds, the two of them began pushing and shoving each other.

  "Indigo! Violet!" I called out. "While those two are busy, let's the three of us take on this goat-headed guy." I didn't know where Padma had teleported to, but I was reasonably sure she would have stayed nearby to watch. I glanced around, half-looking for Padma and half-checking on the Huntress. That itch between my shoulderblades was back, but it evidently wasn't coming from her, because she was now chasing Nicolai. I decided to ignore the feeling.

  "The 'goat-headed guy' is probably supposed to be the god Pan," Bill said calmly, as if he were delivering a lecture. "And the monster who was attacking Violet -- the lady with the helmet and spear -- is undoubtedly meant to be Athena. The city of Athens was named after her, so I guess you could say this is her home turf."

  "I don't know anything about this Pan," Padma said. I could see her now. She and Angie and I formed a triangle with Pan more-or-less at the center. "Is he supposed to have any special powers?"

  "He might be able to make you very scared," Bill replied thoughtfully. "You know, like a panic? That's where the word c
omes from."

  "I didn't feel anything like that when I got him to chase me."

  "Enough chit-chat," I said. "Indigo, Violet, I --" I was about to start telling Padma and Angie how I wanted us to start attacking Pan when I felt something grab me from behind. Huge hands clamped themselves against my shoulders. I was being held too tightly to turn my body, but I managed to twist my head around to see Cyclops' big ugly face grinning at me.

  "Blue!" I heard Padma scream. She aimed her blaster and fired, and the beam struck Cyclops' shoulder beside me. It had no more of an effect than my earlier blaster shots had. I felt myself being picked up, up, up, until I was upside down, my legs kicking the air futilely, directly above his head. Or, more specifically, above his mouth. His huge, wide-open mouth.

  I had a sinking feeling that I knew where this was heading, and I said a very bad word. "Don't tell me he's got a sudden urge to try Prime Tartare!" I groaned.

  "Let go!" I heard Angie shout. From my peculiar head-down position, I could see that she was pounding on Cyclops' shin with her Escrima stick. Pan was between Padma and me, but I could see her racing around him to get to me. "Let Blue go!" Angie shouted again.

  Cyclops flicked his foot out, and he caught Angie across her middle. She went tumbling back and smacked up against a pile of rubble from one of the smaller temples. "Violet, are you all right?" I yelled. I was pretty worried, because the last time she had been smacked around by a monster like that, she had spent the next two months hobbling around with a cane.

  "I'm fine," she said grimly, and I could see her picking herself up off the ground. "I'm going to be pretty sore later, but this guy's definitely going to be sorer." As she began running forward again, I decided this was not the time to tell her that I didn't think "sorer" was a real word.

  Cyclops evidently thought that all this excitement would be bad for his digestion, and he decided to take me somewhere a little quieter for his little snack. He tucked me under his arm, and in three giant strides, he was away from Padma and Angie, over next to the Parthenon and slightly sheltered by it. He was still holding me so tightly that I couldn't squirm free; I couldn't even get an arm free to start whacking him with my vajra. He raised me up high again, and then he suddenly popped me into his open mouth.

  Up until that moment, I didn't really believe he was going to try to eat me. I mean -- gross, right? But that didn't mean I hadn't been mentally preparing for it. I had come up with what I decided was the perfect plan of attack, and I executed it without hesitation. Drawing on Mike's instructions and my own experience, I attempted to pull in energy from my force shield and then expel it again in a concussive blast.

  The shock wave worked better than I had hoped. Much better. When I pulled the energy in, it filled me so full so fast that I felt like I was nearly ready to explode, like I had been trying to drink from a firehose. And then when I let it out again, the sound of the explosion nearly deafened me.

  "That was . . . impressive," Bill said when the roar had died away. I think that was the first time he had admitted to being impressed by anything I said or did.

  "Are you all right, Blue?" Trina asked, sounding concerned.

  "That's a good question," I said. To be honest, I wasn't sure. I didn't hurt anywhere, at least not too much, but I didn't quite know what had happened to me. "Where am I?"

  "Um, it looks like you're covered with about half a meter of monster gunk, mate," Toby said. "It's going to be a hell of a job cleaning it off you."

  "You blew his head clean off, though," Mike said. "Pretty damn good work."

  By now, I was getting to my feet. "Wizzit," I said, "I don't remember my last shock wave being quite that strong. Did Unity have something to do with that?" When I didn't hear an answer, I said, "Wizzit? Hello?"

  "Sorry, I was busy," he replied after a moment. "Yes, indeedy, we have now identified one effect of the Unity field: shock waves are much stronger than they were. Weapon strikes, incidentally, appear to be about thirty percent more powerful as well. But you're still powerless, Blue; your force shield is drained. Teleporting you back to HQ now . . ."

  "Wait!" I cried. Damn, I always hated to leave in the middle of a battle.

  "Wait, nothing!" Mike said sternly. "It's too dangerous out here for an unpowered Prime. Right now, you can't even do camouflage mode."

  A thought occurred to me. "I've got my Junior Prime Blue bracelet on, though," I said. I was nearly free of Cyclops' disintegrating body by now and was eying a pile of rocks I could hide behind. "Wizzit, could I activate that and then deactivate my belt? That way I could keep on fighting. I could turn on camouflage mode and use a weapon, at least."

  "Hmm . . ."

  "It would give us a chance to gather data on how quickly Unity allows a force shield to recharge," I wheedled. "That would be a good thing, right?"

  "It should work," he said cautiously. "As long as it's done quickly enough."

  "You got it," I said. Then, as fast as I could, I shouted, "Junior-Prime-Blue-activate-Prime-Blue-deactivate-camouflage-mode-on!" I felt a brief, unpleasant jolt, something like an electrical shock, as the two fields clashed, but it subsided as soon as the Prime field deactivated. I ducked behind the pile of rocks to hide myself better. "Okay, Junior Prime Blue is on the job. Who needs help with anything?"

  "Actually, Blue, I have run into a bit of trouble with Zoinks." That was Mayumi's voice, although I couldn't see where she was. She sounded composed, but out of breath. "I could use your assistance."

  "Sounds good to me," I replied. "Want to sent me over to Copper, Wizzit?" Again, he didn't reply right away. What was with this? I wondered. The last time he had been this distracted was when Shelley's father had been killed. "Hey, Wizzit, is everything okay?" I asked worriedly.

  "Everything's fine," he replied tersely. "Teleporting you now, Blue."

  "If the two of you are going to be fighting as a team," Mike advised us, "then you had better turn camouflage mode off. You don't want to hit each other accidentally."

  "Understood, Red."

  By the time the teleportation haze cleared from my vision, Mayumi was visible. I could see her copper-colored, robotic form struggling in the center of a gaggle of Zoinks who must have run across her purely by chance. They were clustered around her so closely that any attempt by Wizzit to teleport her out of danger would have brought the Zoinks along for the ride.

  I turned off camouflage mode, whipped out my blaster, and began rapid-firing into the crowd as I ran forward. "Help is on the way!" I called.

  She was surrounded by ten or a dozen Zoinks. If my force shield had been functional, it would have been child's play for me to whip them into shape. Without that extra speed, strength, and endurance, though, things were looking to be a bit tougher; I was glad that I at least had functional weapons. With my vajra in one hand and my blaster in the other, I waded into the crowd.

  I hit and shot indiscriminately, trusting to the fact that neither my vajra nor my blaster would hurt Mayumi, unshielded as she was. Within five minutes, she and I had cleared a temporarily Zoink-free space around us. "Are you all right?" I asked her.

  She nodded. "I am a little shaken up, but not hurt." She looked down at the triple-blaster in her hand. "These are marvelous weapons, but they are not much good for close attacks." Then she added ruefully, "And I am afraid I'm out of practice beating up Zoinks."

  "Let's get out of here and find someplace a little less crowded," I said. "Wizzit?"

  He didn't answer. I looked around at the nearby Zoinks, who were getting to their feet. They would be coming at us again before too long, and I could see an alter hustling more of them our way. It wasn't Bat-ears, although there was a family resemblance. He had the long fangs and the barbed tail, but the top of his head sported a pair of devil horns instead.

  "Looks like we're going to have to finish this ourselves," I said. "Here, t
ake this." I handed her my vajra and quickly explained how the two ends -- the diamond point and the thunder knob -- worked. "It should help you keep them in line."

  "Thanks," she said doubtfully, "but what will you . . .? Oh, your sap gloves. I had forgotten."

  "That's right. I don't know what I'd do without these babies." I had, in fact, already dug my specially-powered sap gloves out of the pocket of my battle vest and was slipping them on. "Let's do this." And the two of us launched ourselves at the crowd of Zoinks.

  We had been fighting for only a minute or two when I heard Mayumi laugh delightedly. "What a splendid weapon, Blue!" she said. "I can see why you like it so much."

  "Thanks. Indigo made it for me. I, uh, wasn't sure you'd know how to use it."

  "Of course I do!" She sounded offended. "It's not much different from an iron fighting fan, and I have trained with those quite a lot." She chuckled. "I'm not just a pretty face with a gun, you know!"

  Before I could even begin to figure out how to reply to that, I heard an explosion on the far side of the Acropolis, away from the Parthenon. I looked up in time to see Black Bart collapse to the ground, sparking like crazy.

  "You were right, Blue," Trina commented. "These shock waves are very strong with Unity here. I have never taken out a monster completely on my own before."

  "If you don't count the unicorn," Toby muttered.

  "Nice work, Orange, getting him to come close to you like that," Mike said. "I, er, don't suppose you would be willing to return to HQ while your force shield recharges, would you?"

  "Actually, I would," Trina replied. "I thought I would ask Wizzit to send me back to my room --"

  "Good. At least someone has some common sense around here."

  "-- so I can pick up my own Junior Prime bracelet."

  "Hey, Wizzit, speaking of . . . has my force shield recharged yet?" I asked over the sound of Mike slapping himself in the face with his palm. "'Cause I could use a boost about now." At this point, the Zoinks had nearly swarmed Mayumi and me, and I had a sinking feeling that we might just lose this fight.

  "Not for another few minutes," Wizzit replied, with no delay this time. "It appears that Unity does not help force shields recharge faster."

  Mayumi glanced at me. "Then I guess we had better employ a little strategy, Blue."

  "That's what Bugs Bunny would do," I replied with more confidence than I felt. "What do you have in mind, Copper?"

  "First of all, let me get a little breathing room. Guard my back." With that, she turned away from me. There was a mound of rubble behind her, and she began clearing a path towards it with her triple-blaster, blazing away at every Zoink standing in her way. In less than a minute, she was standing on top of it, scanning the crowd.

  "Now, where is their minder?" she said, half to herself. "I don't see hi-- oh, wait, there he is." She adjusted her aim slightly, and then I saw her blaster beam strike Devil-horns across the chest. "All right, Blue, keep the Zoinks away from me while I go after him."

  "You got it, Copper. I'll do my best." And I waded into the crowd of Zoinks.

  "Has anyone else noticed that we seem to have eyes in the back of our heads today?" Angie asked suddenly. "Because this is like the third time I've turned around just in time to hit somebody."

  "Now that you mention it, I've been awfully lucky that same way," I said.

  "Same here," Nicolai agreed.

  "That's all that's been keeping me in the game so far," Mike admitted. "Wingy-hat is a pretty tough customer."

  "'Wingy-hat'," Bill said, "is probably their version of the god Mercury."

  "Mercury?" Angie repeated. "I thought Mercury was a member of the Roman pantheon, not the Greek. The planets were all named after Roman gods."

  "Good catch," Bill said with a chuckle. "Sorry, I should have said Hermes, not Mercury. Same guy, different name."

  "Yes, well, I'm certainly glad we've cleared that up," Mike said dryly. "Wizzit, are we seeing another Unity effect here?"

  "Where is Unity, anyway?" Toby asked when Wizzit didn't reply right away. "I've not seen hide nor hair since we showed up here."

  "I'm here," Lily's clear voice said, "although I'm not sure exactly where 'here' is. I can't see much of the battle."

  "Unity is nearby," Wizzit explained. "Hidden in a place that's mostly inaccessible to the monsters, although any one of you could get to Unity if need be."

  "As for your question, Red," he went on, "yes, this is indeed a Unity effect. By working through the Unity field, I am able to access your force shield displays in a much more direct way. I have always been able to keep track of the overall progress of your battles by monitoring your individual belt sensors, but reporting that information back without distracting you has always proved a challenge. I am currently experimenting with diverse means to deliver battle statuses to you more subtly than just yelling 'Watch out behind you, Red!'"

  "You mean, like a prickling on the back of your neck when there's someone creeping up behind you?" Angie asked.

  "Correctamundo!" Wizzit replied. "I'm sure it still needs tweaking, but so far it's proving quite effective, I'd say. The down side is that it requires me to process all the visual and auditory data from your various belt sensors in real time, and that is taking up a good deal of my attention. I can't help you as much in other ways as quickly."

  Yeah, I thought. Like teleporting us out of danger in a hurry.

  Lily said, "I -- I want to help, and I don't feel like I'm doing a lot for your team . . ."

  "You're doing fine, love," Mike assured her. "You've helped us destroy two monsters already."

  "Thanks, but what I mean," she went on, "is that I am able to process a broad range of visual input very quickly. It was built into my commander mode to help me direct my drones in battle. I might be able to help you process your input, Wizzit."

  "I don't see how . . ." Wizzit's voice trailed off, which is unusual for him. After a few moments, he said, "All right, Unity, let's try something. I'm going to take complete control of your visual display for a while."

  "You can do that?"

  "I'm going to try. I will begin sending the conglomerate video feeds to you shortly. But be careful, because you won't be able to see anything except that; in essence, you will become blind to the world around you while you're helping me. Get yourself someplace where you won't have to move around and where you will not be easily spotted by a casual observer."

  "Being blind will make Unity awfully vulnerable," Mike said. "Even more so than Unity already is. Should we assign a bodyguard? Someone just to keep watch?"

  "No!" Lily said anxiously. "Wizzit, don't tell . . . anyone . . . where I am!"

  "I think in this case, anyone specifically means you, Blue," Angie commented.

  "Thanks, Violet," I said dryly. "I hadn't quite caught on to that yet."

  "I won't tell anyone," Wizzit answered soothingly. "However, Junior Prime Orange is ready to re-enter the battle. I will send Orange to your location to keep watch. Orange, you will be able to figure out where you are fairly easily, but don't reveal that information to . . . anyone."

  Trina must have been monitoring our conversation from HQ, because she immediately replied, "Understood, Wizzit. Whenever you're ready."

  "Thank you!" Lily said. "I -- I'm sorry to be so much trouble."

  "Don't give it a second thought, love," Mike told her.

  While this entire conversation had been going on, Mayumi and I had been continuing to battle the Zoinks threatening to overwhelm us. Her strategy had been a good one; sniping away at Devil-horns was making it hard for him to effectively manage his Zoinks, which in turn made my job easier. Still, fighting a dozen or more opponents -- even if they're only Zoinks -- can take a lot out of you if you don't have a force shield. I wasn't going to be able to keep this up forever.

  "Wizzit, a little help here?" I calle
d out. "Copper and I are having all kinds of problems with these Zoinks."

  Wizzit didn't reply -- he must have been busy with Lily -- but I heard Alvaro say, "I see you, Blue, and I have a good vantage for shooting. How can I help?"

  I thought fast. "There's a tall alter nearby who is directing the Zoinks. Do you see him?"

  "No, I . . . oh, there he is. Yes, I see him."

  "Can you clear a path to him? Just shoot any Zoinks between me and him."

  "That may be tricky because I am a long way off, but I will do my best."

  "I'm a little busy giving cover to Red," I heard Cathy say, "but I may be able to help you, too. I've got a good view, and I'm closer."

  I made my way over to Mayumi. "Can I have my vajra back now, please?" I asked. Without lowering her blaster or taking her eyes off Devil-horns, she held out one hand. I took my weapon from her unresisting fingers. "I'm going to try to get over to that alter," I told the three of them. "If we have three or four of us attacking him at the same time, that should finish him off, right?"

  "Yes, if he's just an alter. Let me know when you're ready," Cathy said tersely.

  By now, I could see flashes of light lancing down from somewhere far off to my left. Alvaro was making a long-distance attempt to mow down all the Zoinks in my immediate vicinity. I surged forward, slashing left and right with my vajra.

  "Sorry about that, Blue," I heard Alvaro say after about a minute of this. "I nearly shot you by mistake."

  "It's all right. Don't worry about it, Steel." In truth, I hadn't even noticed; I probably wouldn't have, even if he had shot me. There was sometimes an advantage, I realized, in not having a force shield.

  Mayumi had begun helping Alvaro clear my path before me, and in just a few minutes I had reached Devil-horns. "I'm there!" I shouted. "Everybody concentrate their fire on him now!"

  Two triple-strength blaster beams lanced out, causing Devil-horns to begin sparking. "Could you circle a bit to your left, Blue?" Cathy asked. "You're blocking my aim."

  I laughed. "Sure, why not?"

  I made my way around to Devil-horns' right side. He was getting frantic by now, lashing out at me almost blindly with his claws, not even bothering to command his Zoinks. I ducked under his wild swings and began pounding and slashing him with my vajra, and I saw Cathy's blaster beam join Mayumi's and Alvaro's. Within seconds, Devil-horns was completely engulfed in sparks, and mere seconds after that, he was just a memory.

  There was an immediate slackening in Zoink activity. I wouldn't say it was exactly like cutting the strings of a marionette, but there was a similar effect. They ceased to be a serious threat to me or Mayumi. "Thanks, guys," I said to Alvaro and Cathy. "You really saved our butts just now."

  "No problem."

  "De nada."

  I felt the familiar tingle at the base of my skull; Wizzit had finally decided to teleport Mayumi and me somewhere safe. We materialized on the roof of the Parthenon. She and I looked at each other. "That was quite a little adventure," I panted. I was bent over, hands resting on my knees. Now that it was over, I was realizing just how much the battle had taken out of me.

  "It was fun, wasn't it?" she replied. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed my cheek. "Thank you for helping me, Blue. You're my hero."

  I pretended to tip an imaginary cowboy hat and said in my best John Wayne voice, "No need to thank me, ma'am. Just doin' my job."

  Wizzit interrupted our little tete-a-tete. "Blue, Red is asking for your assistance. Activate your force shield, and I will teleport you to Red's location."

  "Um, okay," I replied. "How long has my force shield been available?"

  "Three minutes, fifty-five seconds."

  I rolled my eyes. "Thanks. That would have been handy to know three minutes and fifty-five seconds ago."

  "Been busy getting Unity squared away."

  "Is Unity squared away?"

  "We'll soon find out."

  I did my activate-deactivate thing and endured the jolt of clashing fields again. When I materialized this time, I was on ground level. Looking around, I could tell that the others had been busy while I had been helping Mayumi. I couldn't see the guy with the trident any more, nor the fierce-looking fellow with the sword and shield. I vaguely remembered Wizzit calling for a final strike on someone while I had been swarmed by Zoinks. Had he done it twice? I couldn't be sure.

  Nicolai was nearby, fighting off a small group of Zoinks, but they weren't actually attacking him all that strenuously. I think they were more interested in following Bat-ears, who, for some reason, was leading his horde of drones into the Parthenon.

  "Hey, Yellow, where's Red?" I asked.

  Nicolai pointed with his axe. Mike's red-misted form was barreling toward us at top speed, closely pursued by Hermes. "I suppose we had better give Red some assistance," Nicolai said.

  As Mike ran past us, Nicolai executed some sort of reverse-spinning attack, and as Hermes drew even, the blade of his axe connected with the monster's shin. I wasn't quite so fancy; I just slammed the pointy end of my vajra into his other leg. With both legs cut out from under him, Hermes flew up into the air with a screech and face-planted onto the rocky ground.

  Mike had stopped his headlong flight and was circling back toward us. "Thanks for the assist," he said. He was breathing heavily, which is pretty unusual for a Prime with a functioning force shield. Hermes must have been pushing him to his limit. "I'm not going to be able to take this guy out on my own. He's just too damn fast and too damn strong; I'm going to need your help. So here's the plan: When I say now, all three of us are going to do that speeding-up trick. We attack him simultaneously, and hopefully that'll be enough to finish him."

  Nicolai and I looked at each other. "Uh, sure thing, Red," Nicolai said cautiously. "But . . . it's a tricky business even under ideal conditions, and you have never managed it before."

  "Then I'll have to now, won't I?" he panted. "Look, I honestly don't see any other way to destroy him. He's so quick that speeding ourselves up is the only way we're going to be able to get the jump on him. We've got to make it work, one way or another. And we certainly won't be able to do it if we don't try."

  "Whatever you say, Red," I told him. "Tell us when."

  "All right, set yourselves. He's getting to his feet . . . and . . . now!"

  I performed the quick, sharp inhalation, not really expecting it to work. And guess what? It didn't. I felt a rush of wind, and suddenly I was by myself; Mike and Nicolai had evidently been more successful than I and had left me behind.

  Muttering a very bad word under my breath, I tried again, and this time I felt the burning sensation spread through me as I drew in the power of my force shield. The ambient sounds faded away into nothing more than a low rumble, and suddenly I was moving with superhuman speed.

  I could see Mike and Nicolai ahead of me, slogging through the invisible mud as I was. They had a second or two head start on me, though, which translated into a couple of minutes, subjectively speaking. They reached Hermes before I had taken more than just a few steps.

  It was strange to watch as they began to battle him; each of them was moving just a bit faster than my current frame of reference. Nicolai looked like a vid on fast-forward as he slammed his axe blade into the monster over and over, and Mike was doubly so. I realized that if I were going to take part in a final strike on this guy, then they would have to coordinate their blows with mine, because, at only one hundred twenty-one times normal speed, I would be the slowest of us three.

  It appeared, though, that I was not going to take part in a final strike on Hermes. I wasn't even going to lay a finger (or weapon) on him. I heard something that sounded like a human voice, but speeded up far too much to be understandable. Then I heard what might have been the same thing, this time slowed down just to the verge of comprehensibility. I realized that Wizzit must ha
ve said something to Mike, then to Nicolai. And sure enough, he started speaking to me next, his voice wobbling only a little as he matched my speeded-up timeframe.

  "I'm aborting your mission here, Blue," he said, and I felt a slow-motion tingle start at the base of my skull. "Red and Yellow have things well in hand, and Unity needs your help."

  I had teleported once before while ultra-fast, and it was an even weirder sensation than normal teleportation. The tingling slowly grew stronger, and then for a moment I felt as though I were in two places at once. When I could see again, I was standing inside one of the temples -- probably the Parthenon itself, I realized as I looked around.

  Ahead of me, I could see an eerie tableau of a battle scene. Bat-ears, surrounded by his horde of Zoinks, was grabbing the hand of a figure who could only be Lily. The colors were all skewed because of my current state, but her stance and posture were pure Crazy Kung Fu Zombie Chick. Another glowing figure -- probably Trina, because she was holding Trina's sword -- stood frozen in time nearby, looking like she was running forward to help but being blocked by Zoinks.

  I saw a shimmer run slowly up and down Bat-ears' form, and I had a sinking feeling I knew what that meant. Wizzit confirmed it: "They're teleporting her out of here, Blue!"

  I didn't need any urging to push myself forward as fast as I could manage. I was too far away to reach Bat-ears, but usually when a minder teleports out, so do all his Zoinks, and I was hoping like hell that was the case here. I wrapped my arms around the nearest one, and soon I felt the tell-tale tingle that told me I was going along for the ride.