The Red City Filth Field Control Center towered over us. Once we had saved these people, they would need to rename this place. Pronouncing it shouldn’t have left me out of breath. The building was huge and wide with red and white tubes sticking out of the top like candy canes. Blue steam crackled out of them. The place was covered in white tubes crisscrossing each other. They held up platforms for people to walk on, but the whole thing looked like a huge game of tic-tac-toe.

Under normal circumstances, I would have said the parking lot was sealed off by a sliding gate. On this occasion, though, the gate was open, allowing in whoever felt like messing with the city’s filth field. In this case, we knew exactly who they were. I gave a tiny shrug and glided into the lot. It may have been trespassing, but we were only doing it to combat the real trespassers.

“My word!” Manning exclaimed. I assumed he’d covered his mouth in shock too. I was right there with him.

A dozen police cruisers were scattered across the hellish parking lot. I guess they’d had the same suspicions that we did. Since the barrier was still up, well, they must not have won this battle.

“How are we going to do what the police couldn’t?” Laura asked. “We got kicked from the Crimson Tower by a handful of ruabrum. Now we might be up against a whole building of them.”

“We’ll do it together, that’s how.” I parked the cruiser and peered out the window. No ruabrum in sight. “We can’t let our guard down for a second here. Stay close, stay together. Let’s go.”

I stepped out of the cruiser. It felt like I was walking into lava. I tiptoed up to the front door and flattened myself against the wall. It didn’t sound like a battle was unfolding inside. I kind of wished one was. That would have been a decent distraction. I tapped the green hand scanner and held my breath.

The door swooshed aside, revealing a dark interior. I peeked inside, but my eyes hadn’t adjusted yet. We’d be going in blind.

I pointed inside. “Stick to the walls. If we literally cover our backs, it’ll eliminate our chances of being snuck up on.”

“Great! That lowers our chance of being defeated from one hundred percent to just ninety!” Laura said in the most condescending tone I’d ever heard.

“Are you not the girl who was begging for leadership a day ago? Take it or leave it!”

I snuck into the darkness, stepping as slowly and softly as possible. All the shapes I could make out belonged to machinery; no doubt about it. The ruabrum’s red bodies were nowhere to be seen. Interesting. I strode along the wall as I eyed every inch of the place. A glint of silver and red caught my eye. It must have come from a javelin. I saw one wedged into a machine. Below it was a motionless policeman. I stifled my gasp as quickly as I could.

“What? What’s wrong?” Laura whispered. If I pointed it out, she or Manning might gasp too. What could I do but stand still? That didn’t even work because Laura followed my line of sight. “Holy—”

I reached out and covered her mouth on impulse. I’d heard her scream, and if I let her finish, the whole city would be on to us. I looked around for signs of activity and thankfully found none. We were still hidden. I heaved a sigh in relief and removed my hand. Laura socked me in the arm, which I barely felt.

“Does your hand ever not smell like metal?” she demanded.

“It’s literally my space suit! Keep moving.”

Manning chuckled to himself. The quietest one here, and he didn’t even have to try.

“Rukak ful!”

I did not say that. Neither did Laura nor Manning. Their eyes were as wide as mine. That gibberish had come from above. That was the one direction in which I hadn’t looked. I gulped and looked up. An army of red glared down at me. One of them spoke more gibberish then let go of the ceiling. He fell in front of me. Another ruabrum fell behind him. Thumps filled the room as ruabrum rained down. Each one clutched a javelin. I wasn’t ready to be on the other end of those again. I willed my helmet to form, as did my friends. If we were going to die here, I at least wanted to communicate with my murderers.

“How long have you known we were here?” I backed up against the wall, cornering myself. Nice.

“Since you entered.” A single ruabrum stepped up in front of the others. “That door is awfully loud.”

Too many ruabrum. There was literally no way we could fight our way out. There would be a javelin in my shoulder by the time I lifted my pistol.

“Perhaps we could reach a compromise here,” Manning said. “We know you are only claiming vengeance against the city. Our business with the Oppressed is unrelated to you.”

“We have held back long enough. We could have ended this when you stepped inside, but you are not like the black and white ones. You did not shout or raise weapons. Even now you are unarmed.” He twirled his javelin before striking it into the floor. His way of setting his weapon down I guess. “We offer you this chance: leave now.”

If I refused, they’d chuck their javelins and it’d all be over. Thoughts, plans, strategies: I needed them! What would my grandfather do? Get everyone killed. Yeah, I was trying to do the opposite of that.

“All that stuff Surge said…was it true?” I asked as I reached into my suit.

The ruabrum scoffed. “What do you care?”

“Hey, I care about lots of stuff! I may want to lower the barricade, but if that stuff is true…I don’t know. I just want the truth.”

The ruabrum’s eyes still burned with anger, but the rest of his face softened.

“When your race first arrived on our world, there was unity. You wanted to make changes to our home, and we allowed them as long as we also benefited. Thus, your cities were established, and you shared resources. You gained a new home, and ruabrum children grew to love ‘cheesecake.’”

He smiled to himself as if he were reminiscing on better times. I’d assumed that what he was talking about was still happening. That’s what they’d taught us in school: we shared New Earth and all our cool stuff with the “Martians.” I was sure he was about to explain what went wrong.

“Then!” he suddenly exclaimed. “We heard news of your people electing a new leader. That was when it began: our food supplies were severed. Communications with our human ambassadors ceased. We were ignored. We assumed something went wrong when your new leader settled in, so we decided on a way to reestablish our bonds: the Red City Peace March.” He sighed and clutched his chest. “Peace never came close to happening on that day.”

He pulled his brown cloak aside, exposing his chest. My stomach did flips, continuing as I quickly turned away. Laura screamed and Manning gasped at the sight. I gulped down air and took another look. Yup, still sickening. Pale scar tissue took up his entire torso. It was deep like someone had jammed a shovel in him and scooped away his—there was no way I could finish the thought.

“What happened?” I asked, and then cleared my throat because of my cracking voice.

“That weapon on your hip.” He nodded toward my pistol. My stomach had stopped flipping, but his words elicited one more. “Used against us as we were told to leave. Any attempts to explain why we were there only resulted in more brutality. It was so long ago, but the memory never ages. It’s the first thing I remember when the Sun rises. Always.”

Surge had been telling the truth. The pain in this ruabrum’s voice, it couldn’t be faked. I knew what it sounded like to be in pain.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “If I could fix everything, I would! I don’t understand why we attacked you guys.”

“That is not your concern.” He let his cloak back down. His grip on the javelin tightened. “Leave. If you are truly sorry, then you will not interfere with our revenge.”

For the first time since I had started this mission, I debated whether I should quit it. Apparently, Frost had had something to do with what had happened, and we were doing this for her. No, that wasn’t right. I had never been doing this for Frost.

It had always been for Beth.

“I really am sorry, and I understand why you’re doing this. But there’s something I have to do too, so I can’t help you…today.” I pressed my vivepen against the wall behind me and clicked it. Every drawing I’d ever stored began spilling out. All my schematics, hidden messages, to-do lists, and doodles painted the walls and floor. The ruabrum paused to examine the drawings as if evaluating their threat level.

I hit the button that I’d installed on the vivepen to activate my favorite feature. Every single line I’d drawn lit up like Christmas on the Sun. Blinding light poked my visor but didn’t get past it. Light couldn’t affect a suit made to withstand direct sunlight!

All the ruabrum clutched their eyes and stumbled into each other. Surge had said these guys lived underground, so they’d be blind for a good minute.

“Go, go!” I grabbed Laura’s hand and pulled it as I took off. Manning’s stomps were right behind us. “Don’t look back. We don’t have time to!”

My glowing drawings lit the way through that confusing and horrifying place. In any other circumstance, I’d admire the hulking machines we ran past. Now they were just in the way. As I ducked under a pipe, I realized that I had no idea where I was going. I didn’t actually know where the Oppressed were in this place. I gazed around the room and saw an elevator in the very back. Perhaps it led to nowhere, but we aimed for it.

A javelin zipped past my face and pierced the machine to my right. It glowed red as it siphoned energy. I screamed at myself to run, but…I couldn’t move. The machinery faded away as the desert’s red dust blew by. The humming of our cruisers was thunderous in my ears. Then the explosion washed over everything like the destructive force it was.

The scenery snapped away as someone tackled me to the floor. Oh no, I had been dazed for so long that a ruabrum had caught up! I pushed against my assailant, only to find myself pushing Laura’s helmet. Another javelin soared over us. She must have tackled me to save me from it.

She swatted my hand away. “Quit it, you’re scratching my visor! Get up, we’re almost on the other side.”

I wiped down my sweating face. “Sorry! I’m coming, I just got distracted.”

A ruabrum let out a primal roar as he charged toward us. Laura gasped and wrapped her arms around me. Her back was exposed to him. This wasn’t a hug, it was protection. I struggled, but she wasn’t letting go. No, I couldn’t let her get hurt because of me again!

The ruabrum stabbed at us but the javelin stopped an inch away from Laura’s back.

“Terribly sorry, but I can’t have anyone spearing one of my former students.” Manning yanked the javelin from his hands. The ruabrum’s yellow eyes widened with shock; so did mine. Manning flipped the javelin around and pointed it under his chin. “Call the others off. Please.”

The ruabrum chuckled. “Even if I could, I would not. That weapon is Oppressed technology. So long as we wield them, we will defend our allies.”

I didn’t know if he was trying to buy time, but he managed to do just that. A handful of ruabrum jumped out and pointed their weapons at Manning. He pointed his back at them.

“There are thirty-nine possible outcomes to this encounter.” Manning stomped as if planting his feet. “Even though most of them involve our deaths, I can’t believe I’m choosing the one where I return to combat. Children, run!”

A ruabrum roared and swung at Manning, who deflected their javelin with his own. He rammed the javelin’s blunt end into the ruabrum’s stomach. The ruabrum groaned and stumbled back while two others took his place. Manning effortlessly deflected their swipes then swept one’s legs out with his javelin. The other stabbed at his head, but he dodged as if he saw it coming. The tripped ruabrum jumped back up, so Manning swung at his side hard enough to send him teetering into his friend. After they bounced off each other, Manning spun and kicked one away, then he charged his shoulder into the other, pinning him against a machine.

“Whoa,” I said as something tugged on my arm. Laura? Oh, right. We were supposed to be running. I turned and bolted for the elevator. “As long as these glowing drawings stay up, we’ll have the extra protection we need to—augh!”

I was getting used to seeing javelins flying around me. I wasn’t used to getting hit by them. My vivepen…lay cleaved in my palm. My hand flooded with red as blood spilled from the stinging wound.

The glow faded from the room along with the drawings. Darkness settled in like it’d never left. The ruabrum were back on top.

“Crap!” Laura grabbed my non-bleeding hand and dragged me along. “Sorry, Wander. If only I’d saved some vita-gel.”

“Don’t apologize for—ouch! A thing!” I clutched my palm, which immediately sent pain through my hand. “Manning, we need to go!”

“I’m, the reason why you have an opening!” Manning deflected and then ducked numerous javelins. Without the light to distract them, the ruabrum were swarming him. “Go! I’ll be there in a moment—oh goodness!”

Metal scraped metal as a javelin nicked his shoulder. He groaned and backed away. We were out of time. Thankfully, Laura and I finally reached the stupid elevator. I slammed the stupid arrow on the panel, took out my pistol, and peeked at Manning’s situation. He took short backward steps toward us then long steps whenever a javelin slammed into him.

The elevator dinged as it pried itself open. If Manning turned and ran at us, he’d just get stabbed by all the javelins. He was our opening, but he needed one of his own. My vivepen wasn’t coming back, so my options were limited. I sighed and switched my pistol to “blast.” I aimed it at the machine nearest to them. Hopefully, this wouldn’t kill anyone. That was a really dumb thing to think before you created an explosion.

“Manning, bolt!” I shouted as I squeezed the trigger.

A blue bullet zoomed out and detonated against the machine. I shielded my ears from the blast as well as the screams that rang out. Javelins were knocked from hands and clattered to the floor. Ruabrum fell or stumbled around. I’d caused that pain, again. This was the second time I’d had to blow up something to get away from ruabrum. It wasn’t going to happen a third time.

Manning staggered, but he quickly regained balance and sprinted at us. Javelins flew after him, but there was no precision. None of them landed anywhere near him. Laura hit the button for the highest floor as Manning jumped in through the closing doors. One last ruabrum cried out as the doors slid shut, leaving only the three of us and the steel room. Everything rumbled as we got moving.

Laura heaved a sigh of relief as she slumped against the wall. “That was intense. Like way more intense than I was comfortable with.”

“You’re telling me.” I examined my slashed hand. I’d cut myself before. Playing with dangerous tools as a kid did that. It’d heal, and that was the important part. “Are you okay, Manning?”

He traced a finger over a metal gash on his shoulder. “I swore this suit would never see combat. It’s a shame I couldn’t keep that promise, but sometimes you have to fight to protect something. I am fine. These injuries are perhaps the most minor I’ve ever received.”

“I bet that’s true because you were amazing, Instructor!” Laura threw her hands up in excitement. Her eyes were shut like she was trying to get some last-minute sleep. “You fended off a miniature army of ruabrum! Wander would lose against one in a duel.”

“I don’t mind that. I’m not a fighter.” I held up my pistol and its holster. After seeing that scar on the ruabrum, how could I ever use this thing again? “I want you to take this gun, Manning. I don’t want to shoot someone ever again.”

Even if it was self-defense, it was too much for me. I thought I’d get used to it, but I didn’t want to anymore. I didn’t think I could talk the Blue Barricade down, but there had to be something I could do besides shoot.

“Your grandfather would have been proud of your strategy,” Manning said. “There are weapons in this world that would disintegrate a man if he was anywhere near the bullet. Michelangelo loved asking for those weapons just so he could ‘misplace’ them. He didn’t like fighting any more than you, but he felt pressured to join the war. He didn’t feel as though anything else suited him.” Manning gripped my shoulder as he grinned. “I know you’re burdened by those ridiculous expectations, but I want you to know that you’ve inherited Michelangelo’s best quality: his humanity.”

Pacifism ran in the family? That was…interesting to hear. It was nice to know that I wasn’t related to a crazy war machine or anything. It was strange to know that, though my grandfather never wanted to participate in the war at all, he ended up becoming its star. I wondered how he felt about that.

“Thanks, Manning. I really don’t want to fight my way out of this, but how else are we going to win? My powers? As if the thing that essentially killed my parents would ever be useful.”

He massaged his forehead. “I’m afraid I’m not much of a teacher since my abilities are passive and yours are active.” He looked away as he said that. “However, in the rare instance where I actively use my brain, I do it through sheer willpower. Your abilities are as much a part of you as your heart or brain. In time, using them will be as simple as breathing.”

We sure didn’t have time. I needed them now, and then I’d never have to acknowledge them ever again. If only there was Hybrid surgery, then I could just have these “Implants” removed.

“Forget the stupid powers! If anyone can win a fight without actually fighting, it’s you, dummy.” Laura patted my back. “If you want, I could do all the fighting for both of us.”

“That’s another thing! Laura, you can’t keep jumping in front of bullets for me.”

She scoffed. “It was a spear.”

“Javelin! And that’s not the point!” I locked eyes with her, and judging by how wide hers were, she knew what that meant. I hated eye contact, but if I wanted to make a point, it was necessary. “If you want to help, don’t just protect me. You have to keep yourself safe too. You think I feel any better about coming out unscathed if you’re covered in injuries?”

“No, but you don’t get how hard it is! Protecting you is second nature to me, but my own safety? Do you not remember what I did to my arms?”

DING!

The elevator gaped open, effectively catching me off guard. This was it. If we had the right floor, then the Oppressed were right outside this giant dumbwaiter. Ready or not, it was time to end this.

The room wasn’t as packed as I expected. It was pretty empty except for the computers everywhere. All of them seemed to be preoccupied with code. In front of a huge open window stood a single person. They weren’t at all who we were expecting, which they confirmed by turning around.