The Spatial Shard
Chapter Thirty-One: … Set…

“You might need to adjust your thinking, Primo,” Rannis instructed as they sped down the tunnel. “We cannot afford to come out of the portalway on the ground. Not at these speeds!”

“Got it!” Primo replied, lowering her head. Perfect! That was exactly what she needed: something else to remember!

“Hey, that’s not how we do it,” Cullen said softly, placing his hand on top of hers. “We don’t sweat it, we just do it! There’s not one person here who doubts you.”

“I figured I was doing pretty good at that on my own,” she replied.

“Bull!” he snapped back at her. “It wasn’t that long ago when I thought you were just a poser.”

“So what’s happened since then?”

“You got your set, just like you said you would. Find your set, Primo!” She wondered if he knew how brightly she was smiling underneath her helmet. She nodded her head and grabbed what she could of his hand as it overlapped hers. Suddenly, Imogene was straddling her board, facing the shore, waiting for her wave to come along.

“I am thinking I will leave all pre-game speeches to Legion,” Rannis thought as he looked at Sidewinder lend his support to Primo.

“That might not be a good idea,” Wilma projected. “If she feels the way she does now, I believe you’re right and why fight that? But remember, you’re their coach and they all take their lead from you.”

“And what does that make you?”

“That… makes me Tempest,” Wilma smiled at her third name.

“You think Primo’s going to be okay?” Javier asked Sharon.

“I appreciate your concern, Falcon,” she answered. “But if you don’t find your own zone, you’re just adding to my list of concerns. Get your groove and let Primo get hers. If she doesn’t, this is going to be one very short trip!”

“Roger that!” Javier replied as he closed his eyes, gave a silent prayer and made the Sign of the Cross. He then turned his head to look at little sister. Milania was already looking at him and she slowly put her fist to her chest. Javier nodded and faced forward.

“Nollie,” Imogene thought, “if you don’t mind me saying, you’ve picked a lousy time to be really quiet.”

“For that, Genie, I apologize,” Nollie replied.

“Please, it’s Primo!” she corrected as Imogene was brought to their ‘conference area.’

“You’ve got to be joking!”

“No, I’m very serious,” Imogene replied. “I’ve got to keep this mindset, separate the two. It just makes it easier for me to focus and keep it on one level. I mean, look at me! I’m wearing a gun! I’m not a cowboy, I HATE guns!!! So I’ve got to separate this or I’ll go crazy!”

“Then what’s my call-sign?” she asked.

Imogene thought for a moment and smiled underneath her helmet. “You’re Spike!”

“That beats what I had in mind.”

“And what was that?”

“Funky Phosphorous!” Nollie answered and Imogene’s body shuddered as she laughed. “Am I forgiven?”

“It’s not that easy, Spike,” Imogene answered. “I mean, of course I forgive you, but you’ve got to give me more than that. We’re sharing the same space, and it’s bad when you know everything you want to about me, but I don’t know anything about you!”

“Whoa! You have a good point there, Primo,” Nollie agreed. “But the simple truth is this: the memories I have been operating from… they aren’t mine!”

“What?!”

“Do you remember that vision you experienced when you left Santa Cruz?”

“Of course.”

“That was you linking up with Solomon Seaver, one of my former masters,” Nollie explained. “You were looking through his eyes, thinking through his mind. For a much more brief moment, he was able to do the same thing through you.

“Your contact with the magic of Staydenn took me to the fissure,” Spike shared.

“The fissure?!”

“Rannis told you I was damaged, right? Well, that happened when I first came to Five Pointes. I had been sent to Earth and I literally ran into Hiram Seaver and Samantha Vey. But when I made contact with Hiram, I was filled with so much power that I didn’t know what to do with it. Or should I say I don’t remember what I was doing when I took his plane to Undertown. The rest is history, but I don’t think my history is much longer than that. All of the knowledge I have been using… I think that is the knowledge of my first master, my creator!”

“And who is that?”

“I can’t say,” Nollie replied. “And by that I don’t mean I don’t want to… I mean I really can’t say because I don’t remember.”

“Then what about me being the forty-ninth user?” Primo asked.

“I cannot explain clearly,” Nollie replied. “But for some reason that feels accurate. There is so much I don’t remember or know and it feels…”

“You don’t have to say anymore, Spike. Trust me on this one. All of us go through that, and I guess that means you don’t need parents to be driven crazy. Take it easy, Spike! In the worst case scenario, you still have me. We’ll figure this out together.”

“Thanks, Primo,” Nollie said and its voice sounded lighter.

“Easy there, Primo,” Imogene thought as she was once again on her blastboard. “Don’t lose it, girl. Okay, it’s big news… but what does it change? Nothing that I can see right now. There’s still something at the end of this trip looking to destroy me. I doubt if I tell it that part of my memory isn’t mine that it will just say, ’Oh, okay! We got that wrong… so sorry!’ and then just up and leave. So this will need to be dealt with, just not now.”

“Well done, Courier,” Aaeon reviewed. “Most impressive!”

“Aaeon, I was so hoping you would show up! I want to say thank you again for what you did for Sharon and me.”

“But I did not do anything,” Aaeon disagreed. “I introduced you to my child. What happened after that was not because of me.”

“Understood,” Imogene smiled. “Do you have any more introductions you wish to make?”

Aaeon chuckled as his hand appeared around Primo and she fell into his grasp. “Not right now, Courier. But I can say this: perspective to some is a game of words. To you, it should be something much, much greater.”

“Are you actually saying I should have a different perspective on perspective?” Imogene asked and Aaeon burst into laughter. His touch was going to be brief this time. She knew that, but she did not focus on it, she simply basked in the feeling of what it was to be within his grasp.

“Now, if I had said that, you would have accused me of sounding like a fortune cookie!”

“And I would have been both right and wrong,” Imogene declared as she felt her body return to her blastboard, but she managed to hold on to some of the high that was Aaeon’s caress. It seemed that every time he spoke to her, he was going to leave something important for her to consider. This visitation fell in line with that observation. The weight of her own statement grew heavy in her mind as she considered the various implications. To be both right and wrong at the same time and understand both sides. She wondered if she was getting older faster than she was supposed to age.

“One last thing, Courier,” Aaeon said as he allowed his hand to pass over each member riding on Nightmare. As soon as Primo rejoined the normal frame of time, she knew they would all react. “… an advantage that I will allow myself to take. You would be wrong to think the Shard was sent to save you.”

“Okay,” Imogene thought as they passed through the last Gateway. “That could mean a number of things: it was sent to save us all, or I was meant to save it… or maybe it wasn’t sent at all, and I wound up with it by pure dumb luck!” Imogene could see the Minor Hub in front of her.

“What are the chances the Gateway leads right back to the ICU room at the hospital?” Imogene thought, remembering her last trip home was guided by someone else. “Which would bring this trip to a very quick end.

“Guided by someone else!” Imogene realized. “Aaeon’s not a Shard! And even if it wasn’t him, neither is his daughter. The Shard’s not choosing the landing spots, but when I don’t make a choice it goes either to a default location or to one of the old masters.

“Well I know San Diego like the back of my hand!” Imogene smiled as she took a more firm grip on her blastboard.

“Everyone, this is Primo,” Imogene called out as she envisioned San Diego and envisioned the area near the beach. “Hang on tight!”

His turquoise eyes opened and it was the second time that the face of Telishe was the first thing he saw. There were certainly worse habits he could form, and the first that sprang to mind was what had happened for her to have to heal him.

“My friend, Telishe,” he whispered. “Too many times, in so short a time, you have had to save me.” She smiled in response to his words, but Staydenn could see something in her eyes. She was in pain and so very weak. “What have I done to you?” he said softly and Telishe quickly put her fingers on his lips and shook her head.

“Is he conscious?” Neekrum asked, and Staydenn looked over to see the one who had obviously changed his mind about whether he would enlist his aid.

“Barely,” Telishe answered as she faltered and Staydenn caught her. Again their eyes made contact and she silently urged him to say nothing. He quickly stood up and took hold of her shoulders. He turned to speak to Neekrum when the Aspirant returned to him, bringing with it the fact that it had indeed found the Shard. What caused Staydenn to yell was the energy which Anehta had placed within the Aspirant to deliver to its caster. His mental reserves were about to be exceeded and Staydenn focused on Telishe and quickly applied his talents to repair her broken body and restore her energies. He then extended a portion of power to Neekrum who was awestruck by the distribution, and soon all three forms were floating above the roof of the building.

“This is why the Rotai fear the Shard,” Staydenn projected to his two acquaintances and the Custodian. It was time for him to feel fear; a fear by which his race would soon be overwhelmed!

“Custodian!” Staydenn shouted and his voice echoed throughout the city. “I am ready for you!”

“You should return to this Baxter who is predominant in your thoughts,” Z’Gal’For suggested. “This city is no longer a safe place for you to be.”

Audrey had no words, no actions that came clearly to her mind. The more she looked at the armor that this ‘villain’ had given her, the more confused she was.

“You know my name,” she said softly. “Give me yours.”

“Z’Gal’For,” he said calmly as he slowly ascended. “Now, heed my warning. Fly to your chosen mate and liberate yourself from the fate of San Diego.”

“Why would he make me more powerful if he were truly an enemy?” Audrey thought. “But he’s laying waste to the city and anyone who gets in his way! Why can’t somebody just give me a maniacal laugh so I know who the bad guy is? Because if they don’t, I get the funniest feeling that I’m only going to find them in a mirror.”

“I have need of you, Audrey,” Z’Gal’For said, hovering and looking at the rooftop where his target waited. His scans showed much of the same energy readings as those which had afforded the escape of the Offender. He reached to the rear of his belt and removed the last container box. He tossed it to Audrey Penders. “Attach that to your armor and reprogram it so that the bio-form follows your commands. But promise not to free it unless you have absolutely no other recourse.”

“How did Staydenn get so powerful?” she asked.

“It was not the Shard I felt,” the Custodian answered. “It was its power. The Atlantean’s magic has made contact with the Shard and it has returned to bring him a fraction of its ability. His power reserves have been refilled and he has also empowered those who are aiding him.”

“You can’t face that kind of power alone,” Audrey said as a glow of raw energy formed around her body.

“I can and will,” he quickly corrected, holding his hand up to stop her next action. “Besides, little one, I am not alone.

“Griffin! Cerberus!” he shouted. “We have our target!”

Audrey gasped as she saw creatures she had only seen in her father’s crusty encyclopedias and video games. Three versus three, and Audrey could not help but feel that the Custodian held a very strong advantage. But the glow remained around her body as Audrey took flight. Good guy, bad guy, indifferent… she had come to understand and accept one thing: people should be judged by their actions and she had a judgment she had to deliver.

“Here they come,” Telishe said, stretching her right side. She could not believe how strong it felt, given the hammering it had taken. The glow remained in her eyes and she knew she could not hold the abundance of power for much longer. As she looked down on the city and the three-headed wolf, Telishe knew she would not have to hold the excess power much longer. “I’ve always had a penchant for animals,” she said coolly.

“Good!” Neekrum snapped. “Then you can take both of them!” Telishe made no reaction to Neekrum.

“Fare thee well, Staydenn,” she said softly as she dropped down the side of the building.

“You are more than welcome to take the Custodian,” Staydenn quipped, “if that is your preference.” Neekrum ascended and turned to intercept the Griffin.

“Then you are mine,” Staydenn said softly as he took flight, his body covered with the purest form of the energy that powered magic, the pink-purplish light known as manna.

“Have a care for that which you desire, Offender,” Z’Gal’For whispered as they flew toward each other. “And more importantly, come to know why I am a Custodian!”

Staydenn’s form passed through the image that was the Custodian just as Telishe’s electrical blast arched through the image of the Cerberus and Neekrum’s barrage of force blasts passed through the false Griffin. Telishe’s blast carried into the side of a building, and the bricks which did not combust exploded from the wall. The barrage of force blasts hit three buildings, leveling one of them.

“Two out of the possible three,” Z’Gal’For thought, watching the two who aided the Offender spend their overage in very potent attacks. Only Staydenn’s manna was uncommitted. That was a pity, but Z’Gal’For smiled as his target was now in the middle of the sky above him. The photon he had been generating since speaking to Audrey burst from his hands and rocketed up to his target. Staydenn quickly accessed his mantellum and cast a shield spell which caught the bolt, but the shield was severely crippled. The magic-wielder was spared the effect of the bolt, but the impact of the attack still managed to daze him.

The Rotai flew up the side of the building, dragging his hand through the stuff of the wall. Gray squares sprung from his forearm guard and collected the debris, forming a massive energized stone gauntlet around the Custodian’s hand. Smacking his fists together formed a second gauntlet. An uppercut hammered against Staydenn’s shield and sent him even further up into the sky.

Telishe’s attack had been baited, and though she was still fully restored, her health had little to do with the fact that she had been fooled. The image possessed not only the cunning to create a shadow of itself to accompany the hologram, it had also carried a false intelligence; enough of a mental energy signature to make her believe that the image held a mind. Telishe hoped that the maneuver had been afforded by the creature’s master and what she was dealing with was…

“A simple animal?” Telishe received a projected thought. “Rest assured, I am not!”

Telishe looked in all directions and saw nothing. She then reminded herself what she was facing and took to the air.

“Interesting counter-maneuver,” it thought. “Provided, of course, I need wings to fly.” Again Telishe looked around frantically. “Hmmm, you are not a warrior. These games are not for you! But I digress. You would be correct in your assumption, however. I do need wings to fly. How fortunate that I have them!” Telishe looked up in time to see the Griffin pouncing down on her. She erected telekinetic shields in time to keep the talons from ripping away her flesh, but the force of the attack slammed her into the street. The Griffin stopped at the surface, but Telishe’s body continued into the sewer. Her back slammed against the tunnel and finally came to a stop. In an instant, she was taken from restored and augmented to battered and bedazzled, and the assessment of the creature echoed in her mind, along with the perspectives of Neekrum.

“Neekrum!” Telishe gasped as feeling was just returning to her limbs.

As the Griffin image faded, Neekrum erected a shield of pure energy and began to scan the city. He prepared another barrage of force blasts as he looked over building and road, his mind searching for forms which might have been flying overhead.

“Over here!” a rough voice called cried out to him and Neekrum looked down on a rooftop. The large three-headed wolf sat there, looking up at him. “I am the one who created the images,” it bragged, each pair of eyes glowing. Neekrum could sense that each head had its own brain, but it had been conditioned to form a fourth mind in which the other three were able to work together and communicate with the Griffin and its master.

“What are you?” Neekrum asked, but he did not wait for an answer. He was angry and let loose with his force blast. The center head reached up and consumed the blast while the heads on the left and right fired eye beams. Both struck his shield and did to it what Telishe had done to the Custodian’s force cage that had been crushing the armored human woman. His shield had been made unstable, but unlike force energy, which simply moved away, the pure energy exploded and Neekrum’s smoldering body fell from the sky.

“Take it, Griffin,” the Cerberus commanded. His winged partner ascended as the wolf jumped to the street, looking for the woman. As he landed on the street, he could feel the body of the woman teleport away. One head looked skyward to see that the same had happened to the slender man. The other two heads tracked the source of the teleportation and closed their eyes to see a large green field some sixteen kilometers away.

“What is a Qualcomm?” the giant hound thought, dismissing it, but marking the signature of energy should it be used to teleport anything back.

“They are undone,” the Griffin declared as it flew overhead. “Let us aid Master with the Offender.” The Cerberus ran down the street toward the Custodian.

“Scans complete, boss,” Princess reported. “Your self-repair program took to the manifold and the Thor Cannon is ready to fire. I’m not figuring this sixty-seven percent reading, though.”

“My self-repair program uses nano-technology,” Samantha explained as the conduit tubes retracted back into her belt. “They don’t exactly grow on trees, Princess. When they’re working with power systems, they can be lost when those systems kick back on. Put the making of a nano-tech emergency pack on your honey-do list.”

“You got it… honey,” Princess answered and Samantha chuckled.

“Do we have a reading on Big Red?”

“Sure do,” Princess answered as Valkyrie was frozen in place. Ice as strong as steel formed around her, encasing everything but her head. The suit’s strength could not even make Vey budge.

Audrey looked at her suit and smiled brightly under the mask. “Wow, when this thing says it can get past your sensors, it’s not kidding!

“That ice held up a jumbo-jet, sweet cheeks,” Audrey said as she landed in front of Vey. “You might as well save your batteries.”

“What are you?!” Vey shouted.

“Someone who’s showing you what it feels like to be blind-sided!” Audrey answered as she approached.

“You mean like this?” Samantha asked as she fired her cutting laser from the side of her helmet. The suit moved faster than Audrey could think. The cutting laser struck the palm of her gauntlet, but before any damage could be registered, Audrey’s body started absorbing the power behind the attack. Audrey’s free hand pointed its finger and she fired a red-yellow beam of pure energy and removed the cutting laser from the side of Samantha’s helmet.

“No, darlin’. Not quite like that,” Audrey answered. “But maybe now that I’ve pulled your teeth, you’ll take the time to consider what you’re doing.

“Wow!” Audrey continued as she drew even closer. “Standing this close, I can see your eyes… that’s not a good thing… not for you. I’ve seen those eyes before. You feel like the world owes one you because you’ve been stepped on... a couple of times, from the looks of it. Amazing when people like you get to wear that same shoe, you forget what it was like to be underfoot. Marinate on that for a minute. Let’s hope you and I never need to have a second conversation.” The mysterious woman ascended quickly and was out of sight in seconds.

“Oh, we will meet again, darling,” Samantha said. “And thanks for the tip on how to get out of this ice.” Samantha activated her flight pack and the head of the engines melted the ice fairly rapidly. She then picked up her cutting laser mount and held it to the side of her helmet. Her self-repair reserve fell to sixty-two percent.

“Princess, please tell me you have a lock on that woman,” Samantha said as she walked over to the Thor Cannon. She held it to her back and the servos locked the weapon back into place.

“Boss, I got bad news,” Princess said softly. “Aside from her recorded voice, which sounds awfully male on the immediate playback, I’ve got no record she was even there, just a couple of spikes in temperature.”

“I do so hate unannounced competition,” Vey said as she took to the air.

“We’ve got one announced piece of conflict headed your way,” Princess replied.

“Let me guess,” Vey said in disgust. “The National Guard?”

“Give that woman a cigar, ’cuz she knows how to smoke it!” Princess said, typing on her keyboard. “Not to mention that they’re ready to scramble replacements to the fighters Red took out.”

“They don’t even have emergency crews at all of the crash sites of the last group they sent!” Samantha considered. “What is the name of the typical male in charge?”

“This one is coming straight from the Governor,” Princess informed.

“I liked him so much better when all he did was make movies!” Samantha sighed. She had more influence with the Governor’s wife than she did with the Governor himself, and that was listed simply as ‘not much’. “Okay, we’re on a timeline. Prep a dust-off for me, Patel, and make sure Princess watches you.”

“Consider it done!” Michael vowed.

The onslaught the Custodian put on Staydenn and his shield was relentless! Every blow Z’Gal’For issued seemed like it was done in desperation. His energized concrete gauntlets had crumbled and fallen away and he was using small force shields around his fists and feet. He refused to touch the manna directly.

Staydenn did what he could to try to gain some distance from his opponent. He had been unaware of the creature’s prowess in empty-handed combat and he missed Firvah more than he thought he ever could. The fighting lessons he had mastered had been minor at best, and were insufficient to give him a moment’s respite. The shield was holding, and only his hold on the spell kept him from serious injury. After each blow he tried to roll away, get to his feet and leap for more distance. But the Custodian would meet him before his roll was complete and land yet another telling blow. It was nearly impossible to concentrate to hold the spell and create new shields as the older ones were destroyed.

“I will immobilize him,” Z’Gal’For thought, hammering down on top of Staydenn’s head just hard enough to drive him into the roof of the building, but not through the floor. Up to his chest, Staydenn only had one arm free. He needed both to make another shield. Z’Gal’For dropped to one knee and finally showed some signs he was tiring.

“You are out of options, Offender,” he huffed. “You can strike with energies, or free yourself from this impasse. But either way, you must release the spell for the shield. Your desperation to hold it tells me much. It says that your mantellum is not as powerful as my Masters feared, or you dared to hope.”

“So glad you are not beyond learning, Rotai!” Staydenn said through gritted teeth. “Here is another lesson!” Staydenn closed his eyes, locking his concentration on his shield and commanding it to expand. The strength of the construction material was not designed to deal with such a thrust of power, and it ripped apart. Both bodies fell through the fractured roofing to the floor below where a wall now separated them. Staydenn landed on a section of carpeted flooring between a large unoccupied bed and a gigantic entertainment center.

Z’Gal’For landed at the foot of a large bed, his feet came down on a human form that wailed in more shock than pain. The Custodian did not have time to console the very tall human. He also did not have time to question why he would want to do so.

“An effect of Audrey,” he thought as he leaned to the left. Large fragments of debris came flying through the wall and passed by his dodging head. The scream of rage he heard coming from the other room told him the Offender, despite his best wishes, had indeed lost hold of the spell.

“Aaarrrggghhh!” Z’Gal’For screamed as he put a plan in play. He was not injured, but he needed his opponent to think he was.

“Does it hurt, Custodian?!” Staydenn taunted. His rage was increasing as he looked at the bed behind him and prepared to throw it telekinetically.

“Not at all, Offender,” Z’Gal’For said clearly with a smile on his face as he let the normal defenses of his mind slip slightly.

Staydenn looked over at the window of the room in horror. The Griffin hovered outside the window, its eyes already glowing. Staydenn used the bed as a defensive measure, but it made a poor shield and the blast carried through the frame into the Atlantean’s chest.

Staydenn’s body carried out of the room, across the corridor, into the room and through the outside wall. He plummeted toward the street far below.

The only one not screaming when Nightmare came blasting into the Earth sky was Primo. The portalway door was huge and quite powerful, exactly what Imogene thought was appropriate.

“Man, I am feeling good about our prospects!” Cullen yelled.

“Feel good later!” Sharon shouted. “Heads up on our six!”

“What in the world?” Cullen said.

As everyone looked back, the rear cannon activated and Oracle drew his aim on the tumbling creature.

“Weapons lock!” Oracle shouted.

“Maintain lock. Edgers, go for launch!” Sharon commanded. “Primo, we’ve got a parcel in an awful hurry to be street-pizza.”

“Holy crap!” Imogene gasped as she launched and her board, Sport, fired its engines.

“Sidewinder, you’re her wingman!” Sharon directed. “Falcon, fly with me. Nightmare, recon the area and get me a tactical! I gotta know how many beaus are on our dance card.”

“Aye, sir!” Rannis replied as he turned Nightmare into a banking dive. “Electra?”

“Releasing remote sensors,” Milania said as she released five drones that quickly went about reading the area and transmitting data back to her station.

“I’ve got a strong bio-signal that is not human. Oracle, I’m sending you the coordinates.”

“Got ’em,” Wayne answered as the three barrels split to cover the two targets. “Legion, I have a shot at something big and bad.”

“Roger that,” Sharon said as she leveled off, approaching a large hotel that had recently been renovated by destruction. The Rotai stood in the hole of the building and looked down at Primo.

“SHARD!” Z’Gal’For yelled as he watched Primo in a very steep dive.

“We call her Primo, friend,” Sharon said as her board came to a stop. “My name’s Legion and I’d like to tal-”

Z’Gal’For ushered a photon at the young woman speaking to him. Her suit reminded him too much of the other human female he had faced, though it was clear this ensemble was of a much higher grade of technology. But she had advised him she was aligned with the Shard. There was little chance she had anything of use to say. His photon was two meters from its target when a blast from the woman’s forearm caused his photon to explode too soon.

“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear, blockhead!” the woman said as she fired cutting energy beams at the flooring. The Rotai fell out of the building. He was about to engage flight when something caught his ankle.

“Negotiations are so not my thing,” Sharon said as her force lines caught the large red man and slung him up, around and down, hard, on the roof.

“Looks good from here,” Javier commented. “Nightmare, if you’re backing us up, get to the other side of the hotel.”

“Received and understood,” Rannis answered.

As Sharon’s board quickly took her up to the roof, the large man was already getting up. “Whoa! Big Boy can take it!” she thought.

“You ready to start over, friend?” she asked. “We might be able to get more done if we talk.”

“Perhaps I have misjudged this one,” Z’Gal’For thought as he dusted himself off.

“Why do you wear the color of magic?” he asked.

“Didn’t know that’s what it was,” Sharon said as her board’s nose touched against the side of the building. She walked along her board and stepped down on to what was left of the roof. “Looks like you’ve had some issues,” she surmised. “Any chance any of this could have been avoided with a little communication?”

“You are wise, mayhap you know of one called Audrey?” Z’Gal’For asked, unable to scan the thoughts of this one; her mind was too well shielded.

“You know, there are so many of us, I can’t say yes or no. But like I said, my name is Legion,” she said as she walked forward and offered her hand.

“Santa Maria!” Javier thought as he prepared himself to act at a moment’s notice. He prayed that would be fast enough. The large, muscle-bound man looked at her hand and then at his own. He shook her hand but maintained the grip.

“I seek the Offender and the Shard,” he said. “Can your words deliver them?”

“I don’t of any offender and the Shard happens to be very good friend of mine. By now she’s caught that falling body I think you had something to do with.”

“Is that all your words can bring?” the Custodian asked.

“Yeah, this is not going well at all,” Sharon thought.

“Without any further detail from you, I’m afraid so,” she said softly.

“Then you should be silenced,” Z’Gal’For said as he squeezed her hand. Sharon winced in pain. The Rotai suddenly took on a blue hue as electricity coursed through his body coming from the gripped glove. He was not prepared to absorb the energy, and he froze in the wake of the shock.

“Your choice!” Sharon said, pulling her hand free and rolling to her right. “Falcon!”

“Talon, boost me!” Javier commanded as he leveled both arms at the red man and fired all four forearm weapons. The energy bolts blasted into the target’s chest and he flew up and off the rooftop. The concussive force of the blast also knocked Sharon off the roof and she toppled off the building.

“Legion!” Javier yelled, kneeling down. Talon fired its engines and raced after her.

Cullen flew behind her, but he knew Imogene was leaving him in the dust. She had not popped up, so her board was faster as she flew after the tumbling body. CJ just hoped she had room to catch the man and keep from hitting the street below.

“Ride the wave, Primo,” he whispered.

Smoke kept Imogene from getting a clear view of the man as he fell, but she already knew he was not a California native. She stretched her hand forward, but without a hand on each handle, her board was hard to control.

“I gotta pop-up,” she thought as the configuration of Sport changed. Oddly, she did not lose speed as she had expected. Again she reached her hand out, but she was not yet close enough. Suddenly, her hand stopped in its stretching effort and she fired a force line which wrapped around the waist of the man and she quickly leveled off. “Whoa! I forgot about those.”

She was only about three stories off the ground as she leveled off, and she flew down the middle of the street, taking in the slack of her force line. She looked back to see that the man was stunned, but coming around. When she looked forward, Primo gasped at the sight of a three-headed wolf in the middle of the street. Her board was caught in the jaws of the center head and came to an abrupt stop. Her gravity lock was unable to maintain the board and Imogene spilled over the front of her board. She yanked at the force line and brought the body of the man to her chest as her back met with the asphalt and she rolled. Each time she hit the street, Imogene struggled to make sure it was her body taking the brunt of the damage. When her back slammed into a wall of a building, the wind was knocked out of her lungs.

“Primo!” Cullen yelled as he saw her fall. He fired up his PEP units and released force lines for the far right and left heads of the creature. The lines wrapped around the jaws and muzzled them. “Tell me I read too many comic books!” Cullen said as he fired the force lines to a light post on either side of the street and brought them back to his hands as he flew by the Cerberus. The force lines pulled tight and the center head released the blastboard who quickly flew after Primo.

“Chill,” Cullen said as he fired both barrels of his left hand and encased the center head’s jaws in ice.

“Can I get a hee-haw?” Cullen said, firing two more force lines, wrapping one line around both forelimbs and the other around the rear two. One last pull and the Cerberus fell to the street, hog-tied. Mocking a spitting sound, CJ said with a country twang, “There’s a new sheriff in these here parts, little doggy!”

“Wow, that was fantastic!” a woman shouted as she came out of an alley, clamoring to get a pen to write on the notepad she had already retrieved. Several other people were with her and they were all cheering. “Absolutely fantastic!”

“Gotta get an upgrade on these helmets,” Cullen thought, wishing he could lift something and get a face-to-face connection with his adoring public.

“Don’t get it twisted,” he said as he posed. “Fantastic is someone else’s game.”

“So what are you?” she asked.

“That seems to be the question, doesn’t it?” he said as he began to fly toward Primo. “Mysterious, aren’t we?”

“So an enigma, huh?” the woman shouted.

“Hey,” Cullen thought. “That’s it! Enigma!”

The eyes of the center head glowed, cutting through the ice over the snout and blasting into Cullen’s back. He flew off his board and into a parked car. It then blasted each of the force lines before clawing the ice off its face. It howled in anger and the people clamored back to their points of safety. It looked at Sidewinder and as it hoped, he was not yet dead. It charged down the street.

“What hit me?” Cullen asked. He rolled off the top of the car just as the jaws of the giant wolf bit down. The three heads tore into the car and ripped it into three pieces. Cullen turned and ran. He could hear the beast chase after him and he fired a force line from his left hand and jumped. As he took to the air swinging, he fired a line from his right hand and changed direction. He just avoided a diving bite by all three heads and swung around a light pole.

“Dust Devil!” he called out and when he released the line, he landed on his board, avoiding cutting eye beams. Cullen turned quickly into an alley too small for the creature and sped away.

“Where are the ICBMs on this thing?” Cullen thought.

Imogene groaned as she crawled out from under the pile of debris. She was on her hands and knees and she crawled, bumping into the legs of the man she had caught. His body was weak, but his eyes were locked on her.

“Oh, there you are,” she said softly.

“Master?” Imogene could hear her mouth saying, but she did not choose the word.

“Anehta!” Staydenn said as he grabbed the helmet and shoulder of Primo’s suit. Suddenly the cosmetic light was replaced by the real energy... Imogene and Nollie’s energy… and while the former was confused, the latter could not think for itself; it just seemed to be the right thing to do… what it was meant to do.

Imogene screamed as energy passed through her and into the man. She wanted to scream ‘stop’, but the word would not form in her mouth. She could not move no matter how desperately she tried. All she could do was look into the eyes of the man whose life she had saved. She found no regard for her life in them. They were a lovely turquoise, but there was no soul to be found, just an animal-like hunger and he feasted. But at that moment, Imogene could see herself, looking through the man’s eyes. She knew then the man was a Shard user... and she knew so much more about him and his aims. It was a bad time to be powerless!

Pink-purplish lines of energy swirled around both of their bodies and into the man. He smiled as he started to feed on the manna. He had just tasted the energy when everything went black for Staydenn. His eyes closed and the energy he had summoned, along with most of his remaining manna, flowed back into Imogene and he fell unconscious. Once the man had fallen, Imogene could clearly see Sport hovering there and she quickly put together that the blastboard had slammed into the back of the strange man’s head.

“Talk about just what the doctor ordered,” Primo said, wrapping her arms around her board. “Looks like I’ve got two butt-kicking little brothers! No complaints here.”

Imogene’s touching moment was interrupted by the sound of growling and explosions. She quickly got on her board, firing a force line to stand Staydenn up and three force lines to bind him. “You stay here!” she commanded her prisoner and she flew toward the commotion, knowing this battle had just begun.

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