“Surprise!” Kaela raised her hands to the sky as she beamed. “I knew the ruabrum would take care of the cops, but nothing stops you miracle workers. Thank goodness I was right because today isn’t the day I shoot a cop. They’re just doing their job, you know? Kind of like me.”

And I’d thought Laura was the most persistent person I knew. “You’ve got to be kidding me—where’s Surge?” I asked. Kaela smirked instead of answering. The sight made my blood boil. “So, this is how things are going down. Look, either you tell us where he is, or you disable this barrier.”

“I’ll just be honest here, you can’t take down that fishbowl from here,” she said. “I don’t even know if smashing these machines would do anything.”

For her sake, I hoped this was just another joke. If this room was useless, then why was she here? How could this room even be useless? This was where they monitored filth fields, wasn’t it?!

Laura narrowed her eyes. “How stupid do you think we are? I know a lie when I hear one!”

“I’d never lie to you, cutie. Even though you can’t disable this thing from here, I know a place where you can.” Kaela picked at her teeth, but I’m sure she was entertaining herself while Laura and I exchanged confused looks. Was Kaela…trying to help us?

“Do you want to know more, or do you still think I’m a liar, Red Girl?”

“It’s Laura! Call me cute again and see what happens.” Laura crossed her arms and pouted. I was expecting an angrier reaction, but this one made me want to burst out laughing. “Just spit it out already.”

Kaela let out a tiny sigh of relief. “Surge isn’t here, obviously. He’s just filtering the generator’s power through this place. The machines that usually power the filth field are being used for the big blue eggshell. Since most of the power comes from the shield generator, you have to disable it to power anything down. Otherwise, the shield would still form, but since it’s not optimized for the city…yeah that’d be messy.”

“Could we hack one of these computers and shut the whole thing down?” I said.

“Probably, but then Surge would come over here and restart the whole thing.”

Manning rubbed the creases on his forehead. “Then we need to locate Mr. Antant. I assume you plan to lead us right to him. That, or you’re buying time for the ruabrum to catch up.”

Kaela’s smile grew. “Dang, you are smart. Yeah, I’m trying to say that I’ll take you guys to him. Hang on, let me text someone on the ship.” She took out her phone and typed away on it.

Was this really happening? I couldn’t tell when she was joking anymore. “Wait, wait,” I said. Kaela looked up, her fingers frozen mere inches from her phone’s keyboard. “What possible reason would you have for doing that? We saw you with him a few hours ago. You were the only person in the room that he wanted to talk to. Now you’re sabotaging his plans? This has to be a trap.”

“If I said it wasn’t a trap, that’d make this way more suspicious. I’m not betraying anyone, I just want you guys to talk this out. This is the only way to end this without anyone getting hurt.” She paused as she flashed a concerned expression. “I know Surge went too far this time. We can’t force people to join us. We definitely can’t trap them here! What if they have family in other cities? On other planets? It’s wrong, but he didn’t listen when I told him what I thought. Probably because Dylan was telling him what he really wanted to hear.”

Her agenda was suspiciously close to ours. Could she really be evil?

“You want us to stop him but not take him down?” Laura asked. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t you just protect him, no matter what? This isn’t loyalty!”

Kaela scowled. “Blind loyalty doesn’t help anyone, dude. I’m looking out for everyone, not just Surge. If I just go with his ideas no matter what, then I’m not a human, I’m a robot. We’ll find another way to hand Frost the beating she deserves. No offense to you guys. Even if your boss is insane.”

Laura glanced back at me before sighing. Funny how our enemy understood loyalty better than Laura. In her defense, Kaela’s situation probably wasn’t as intense.

A gust of wind blew into my face and roared in my ears. It was more like a miniature hurricane. Something flew into my eyes. So I shut them and shielded my face. I knew the window was open, but that didn’t explain why I felt like I was in a tornado. Mother Nature needed to buzz off.

“Did I tell you guys I knew magic?!” Kaela shouted over the roaring. “Watch this!”

She sauntered over to the window and stepped onto the windowsill. Her hair flowed majestically behind her as she gestured outside. At first, it was just the sky, but then…it became a ramp. It led up to a parking bay, complete with vehicles! Kaela winked and jumped onto the ramp. A knot twisted in my stomach as she stumbled, but then she stood up and took a bow. She must have faked that.

“Why is there a midair parking bay?” Laura asked.

“Either it belongs to a cloaked ship…or Ms. Fire released hallucinogens into the air,” Manning said.

A cloaked ship made sense. As much sense as anything could in this galaxy. I took a quick breath and headed toward it.

“Wait!” Laura reached out for me, but I shrugged her off. “It could still be a trap!”

“I don’t care anymore!” She flinched at my shouting, a sight guaranteed to make my heart sink. “I didn’t mean to raise my voice. I’m sorry. It’s just—if we make the slightest bit of progress from this, it’ll be worth it.”

Kaela leaned on her ship’s walls and grinned at us. She had no right to be so confident. I tapped the ramp and felt relief when it didn’t fall away. I pressed one foot onto it and then the other foot. I had learned my lesson from the solidios window, so there was no way I was looking down. In fact, I sprinted into the ship like a man with engines in his legs. I leaned against the nearest wall and heaved in and out. It was easier to breathe without rushing wind.

“What was that, dork? You weren’t in danger.” Kaela’s face shifted as the cogs turned in her brain. “No, wait, I know what happened. You looked down, didn’t you? No worries, your fear of heights is safe with me.”

“This isn’t a game!” I rounded on her, despite the fact that I was heaving hard. Without the adrenaline, my fear shone through. “How can you even joke with the kind of life you lead? You’re a rebel. You live to take down the government. You’re supporting a man who just enslaved a city. What part of that is funny to you?!”

Her face fell. Her arms and shoulders did as well. All of that annoying confidence flowed out of her. Had I gone too far?

“You know what it feels like to have your family taken away,” she said in an impossibly small voice. “Tell me what’s funny about that. Yeah, exactly. In a world where nothing is funny anymore, it’s up to you to make the jokes.”

Her eyes conveyed a seriousness that I never would have expected from her. I completely understood where it came from. She had the same story as me, but she was an enemy. Did it matter? Everyone had a family. Even if they were…evil? What even was the definition of that word?

“Hello.” Manning joined us. Well, snuck up on us is more like it.

“Please forgive Ms. Genki. Her stomach isn’t feeling too well. Walking onto a suspended ship is quite stressful, isn’t it?”

Laura stumbled past us, holding her stomach and groaning. I watched her stumble away and took my first real look at the parking bay. It was filled with beaten, rusted, and red cruisers. Yikes, I’d have to dedicate a weekend to each of them just to fix everything. They seemed familiar…They probably belonged to the ruabrum we’d fought.

“Want to know the secret behind my trick?” Kaela asked as she hit a button. The ramp groaned as it was raised toward us. It downgraded the roaring wind to a gentle breeze and then to nothing. “A magician isn’t supposed to reveal these things, but, screw it. The plan was to infiltrate this place with a cloaked ship, drop off our ruabrum pals for safeguarding, and then come back. Since I’m back, they’ll probably think that the control center is 100 percent secure.”

“Surge is really going to regret telling you anything when this is over.” I scanned the room again. Not because it interested me. Rather, the vessel containing it did. “Can’t believe we’ve made it to the Oppressed ship. I also can’t believe you guys are so close to the ruabrum. What did you promise them? Red City?”

“Something like that. Those guys offered to be the distraction we needed to pull any of this off. In exchange, we promised that we’d promote unity between humans and ruabrum once we got the city under control.” She paused. “Yeah, I’m pretty aware that they’re wreaking havoc on the city as we speak. That’s a problem for later, okay? Some of these people have had it coming.”

I couldn’t say I was pleased to hear that, but she wasn’t wrong. Barricade first, ruabrum…whenever we got to it. We all shuffled into the thousandth elevator I’d ridden in that week. Oh my goodness! When would it end? I leaned over Kaela to get a better view as she punched in our destination. She’d finished up by the time I got a good look. Dang it. Now I just had to trust that she wasn’t setting us up.

“Let’s try this again. What’s the plan?” Laura asked as she massaged her stomach. We should have gotten her a glass of water.

“Seeing as I’m Surge’s right-hand woman, I’ll lead the peace talks,”

Kaela said. “With me as the ambassador, we’ll make a deal in no time. It’ll be like a business meeting.”

“Negotiations between people who can’t stand each other? Yeah, it kind of will be,” Laura said.

“Just how close are you and Surge?” I asked. “We know he’s not your dad, but—”

“He definitely isn’t, but I guess he may as well be. I’m one of the original Oppressed members. I’ve been with Surge since he started this thing. I’m like the angel that sits on his shoulder, giving out good advice. There’s only a single person who’s closer than I am.”

“Who?”

SKREE!

The elevator screeched to a halt. The force threw me into a wall. Here I was, hoping to minimize the day’s bruise collection.

“Why did we stop?” I looked at Kaela, who glanced around with the same confused expression. “I want to blame you, but you don’t look like you just sprung a trap.”

“I didn’t! I’m trying to take us to the cockpit. I swear.”

“Don’t know if you realize this, but evil people lie.” Laura shot her a glare. “Pretty people lie too.”

Kaela’s confusion gave way to excitement. “Oh? Then what kind of lies do you tell?”

“Kaela’s never lied to me before.” I thought back to all our talks. She’d never directly told me a lie. “An outside force is messing with us. Since we’re on the Oppressed ship, it could be anyone.”

Kaela sighed. “Or just one idiot.”

The floor shook as the elevator shot down. I held onto the rail as I waited for the metal contraption to complete its journey. A jolt surged through me as the elevator halted again. My knees buckled, but I pulled myself back up. The elevator opened up, revealing a face only a mother could love. Assuming he still had one.

“Don’t move an inch, or I’ll shoot!” Dylan shouted as he shoved a pistol in my face. “Now…disregard the first part of that command. Shuffle out in a somewhat orderly fashion.”

Of course it was Dylan, the human garbage can. Seeing his face again was the worst part of my day. Even worse than realizing I was trapped under a blue bowl.

“What are you doing?” Kaela’s voice dripped with danger. “How did you even know?”

He flashed a creepy smile. “As if I can’t predict your every move. You’re so predictable it takes the fun out of it. ‘Surge, imprisoning bad people is wrong. I don’t care that we’ve been planning this for months, we have to stop right now!’ Give me a break. Get out of the elevator already. My finger’s getting itchy.”

I clenched my teeth but forced myself to swallow any insult I had. If I stepped out of line, he’d either shoot me or one of the others. I’d chosen a bad time to give up my only weapon. I raised my hands above my head and trudged out.

Dylan led us past a hallway of doors. We were in the ship’s cabin area. He stopped us in a section whose numerous counters and sink were littered with dirty plates. Why had he brought us to their kitchen?

Waiting for us in that very kitchen were six more people with guns. One had black hair, another had green hair, and another shaved sides; why did the Oppressed get all the stylish teenagers? All Frost had were robots!

“Friends, allies, minions,” Dylan said, even though those terms couldn’t all apply to one group, “we’re gathered here today to protect everything we’ve worked for. Seems that my fellow lieutenant, Mikaela, has decided to betray us.”

“Because this is stupid and wrong!” she said with her hands above her head. “If we imprison people and force them to join us, how are we any better than F—”

ZWOOM!

A green blast soared past us. Explosive force pushed us away as it detonated. Dylan’s face was twisted in frustration. I could see he wasn’t a fan of the “stun” setting if that thing had one.

“Prisoners aren’t allowed to speak!” Dylan suddenly smirked like he was daring us to protest. He turned back to his friend-lackeys. “What have we been fighting for if not this? Thanks to Surge, we now have an impenetrable barrier over our heads. Frost can’t get us even if she wants to! As soon as this city realizes they should be thanking us, we’ll be stronger than ever. Now, stun the prisoners. Surge will reward us for taking care of this obstacle. Although, considering how easy this was, perhaps ‘obstacle’ is too generous a term.”

His “minions” aimed their weapons at us. If there was any time to use my stupid powers, it was now. I strained my eyes as I imagined their weapons malfunctioning. I pictured them malfunctioning in unique ways too. For instance, one guy’s gun would just shoot confetti, another would completely dismantle itself. It’d be so cool! Unfortunately, none of that was happening in reality. All the guns were intact and seconds away from stunning the heck out of us.

“I can’t!” One of the Oppressed lowered his gun. The dude with green hair. He shut his eyes, blocking out the judgmental gazes of his peers. “Kaela’s our superior, just like Dylan. We can’t shoot her; imagine how angry Surge will be! Plus…she’s nice to me.”

Kaela beamed as she slowly lowered her hands.

“Don’t you move!” The girl with shaved sides jabbed her weapon toward Kaela. Then she turned it on Green Guy. “And you; coward! Dylan is closer to Surge than she is, so we’re on the winning side. Oh, and don’t forget she was betraying us! If Surge were here, he’d strip her of her rank!”

“Do we even have ranks?” asked a black-haired guy. “I just don’t think we should be fighting. I thought this blue shield thing was supposed to be a victory. Instead, it’s just making us fight each other. How’s that a victory?”

“Silence!” Dylan shouted. His face was redder than a box of strawberries. “Stop thinking about everything except what I’m saying. I’m giving the command to shoot, so you shoot! That’s all that matters!” He smacked Green Guy’s arm. “Now! Shoot them, now!”

Green Guy whimpered as he examined his gun. “I—”

“Do it.” Dylan pressed his gun against Green Guy’s face. His voice had that venomous tone I had heard back at the mall. “Now.”

ZWOOM!

Green filled the air. I turned away before immediately turning back. Everything happened so fast; I couldn’t tell who had shot who. Not until I saw Dylan sprawled out across the ground. The black-haired guy stood over him, his hands shaking around his gun. I couldn’t tell if Dylan had been blasted or stunned, but either was good. He’d already taken one blast on that day, so he could survive another.

Kaela exhaled as her arms fell to her sides. “That was tenser than any horror movie! Thanks for not shooting us, guys.”

Green Guy patted his own chest. “My heart’s going to be pounding forever. I’m just glad that’s—”

Dylan bolted up and shot the green kid. The explosion sent him barreling into the kitchen, knocking over pots and pans. They clattered to the floor as everyone except Dylan froze. He stood and stretched as if he had just been taking a nap.

“Funny how I knew exactly who would be too cowardly to follow a simple order.” Dylan pulled back a tube on his gun. It blew out steam and then zoomed back into the gun. That was how you reloaded it? “Alex and a few of you received weaker weapons. I may not be the poster child of the Oppressed, but I know who are on my team. Sit tight, prisoners. I’ll stun you all myself as soon as I’m done plucking these weeds.”

Dylan aimed at the black-haired guy—Alex. Kaela whipped out her rifle and aimed at Dylan. The girl aligned with Dylan shot at Kaela, who ducked and fired at the same time. Her shot brushed Dylan’s hair as it dissipated in the kitchen. The girl put her head down and scurried into the kitchen herself.

Alex yanked Dylan’s gun, but Dylan didn’t let go. He socked Alex’s nose and kneed his stomach. The kid wheezed as he clutched it. I couldn’t just watch this. I charged toward Dylan, but he smirked and kicked me away. That was the opening Alex needed: he finally wrestled the gun away. He pulled the trigger, but his hands were shaking too much. His shots merely illuminated Dylan’s back as they flew over him. Dylan became the latest to flee into the kitchen, ducking behind a counter.

I crouched behind a counter on our side. Laura squeezed in beside me, while Kaela and Manning shared one next to us. Manning was hunched over because the counter was too small to hide him. All of our enemies (and possible allies?) were scattered in the kitchen. Clattering pans and gunshots felt so close that I kept glancing over my shoulder. Had we just started an Oppressed civil war? Cool. Luckily, the elevator was on our side of the room. The Oppressed could beat the heck out of each other if they wanted, but we needed to go.

“On ‘three’ we go,” I whispered as I pointed to the elevator.

“I wouldn’t underestimate the Oppressed’s ability to multitask.” Kaela gasped as a bullet whizzed by her head. It ended up singeing a hole next to the elevator’s panel. “See? You’ll never make it. We need to take care of this mess before dealing with the other mess!”

“That’s what you said about the ruabrum! We’re going to have a pile of messes when we’re done here.”

“We’ll just need a distraction,” Manning said. “Someone to draw fire while the rest escape.”

“Why did you say, ‘Draw fire,’ so casually?” Laura asked. She had a look of disgust.

Manning sighed. “War tends to have that effect.”

I wiggled my fingers as my mind raced. “Kaela, they’re your team. You draw their fire while we book it. Then you run too. These guys are already pretty distracted. It shouldn’t take much. Manning, fire at them with your brand-new used pistol. Just be careful.” The sizzling hole next to the elevator caught my eye again. “Some of them have piercing rounds. Be ready when I give the signal.”

I reached up and grabbed a filthy plate off the counter. It was slathered in old hot sauce and meat specks. Revolting. I peeked around the corner and saw the girl struggling against Alex. That was one dangerous dance they were doing. I guessed I had to break it up. I slid the plate toward them. They didn’t even notice until the girl stomped on it. She yelped as the plate slid her foot away, stripping her of her balance. She crashed down to the floor. That was a position I’d become too familiar with lately. Seeing it happen to someone else warmed my heart.

“Go!” I said, aiming for a cross between whispering and shouting. I sprinted toward the elevator with everything I had. Laura passed me within seconds, and Manning was beside me, shooting back into the chaos. The only one unaccounted for was Kaela. I looked back as she whacked a guy across the face with her metal staff. He immediately crumbled, so she turned it back into a rifle and took aim, at Dylan. His gun was aimed at her as well. Neither pulled the trigger.

“Kaela, come on!” I shouted.

She shook her head without looking away. “He’s got me cornered. If I move, he’ll shoot. And…he knows I won’t shoot first. If I do, I’ll become a real traitor.”

Dylan smirked. “Don’t pretend you’d do it even if you wouldn’t suffer consequences. It’s just a stun bullet, but to you, it may as well be lethal. It’s fine because I think you should just do it. After all, in my eyes, you’re already a traitor.”

“You’re the traitor for letting Surge go this far!”

“You could have stopped him too! You didn’t try hard enough. Part of you wanted this, and you didn’t fight it hard enough.”

She wasn’t budging. Not when Dylan was so ingrained in her head.

Well, she couldn’t do it, but someone had to.

“Manning, please shoot Dylan,” I said.

Manning trained his pistol on him. “Roger that.” Manning gasped as a green beam pierced his side and sizzled another hole in the wall. Time slowed. He crumbled to the floor, clutching his wound. Laura shouted and shielded him. She inspected the wound. The yellow teeth of the girl with shaved sides flashed as she grinned and waved her gun. Anger and heat flooded me. If I’d had control over my powers, I’d have made her gun explode in her hands.

Kaela fired a beam right between her eyes. It knocked her head back and then dissipated. The girl’s eyes rolled back as she went limp. Kaela ducked down as Dylan shot at her.

“What are you waiting for? Get out of here!” Kaela crawled back to her counter cover.

Dylan took aim. I ducked his next shot and pushed my friends toward the elevator. Manning groaned, but at least he was walking. I slammed the elevator button as gunfire went off behind me. Another of Dylan’s shots exploded against the wall, followed by the firing of Kaela’s rifle. The pounding of my heart was so loud in my ears that I didn’t hear the elevator when it opened. All three of us threw ourselves inside. I flattened myself against a wall and tapped the cockpit button over and over again until the doors crept toward each other. Green flashed through the door’s cracks as Dylan’s third shot zoomed at us. I jumped back as it punched a dent in the doors. Thank goodness they closed in time.

“Barely made it out of there aliv—Manning!”

The hole wound wasn’t much bigger than my finger. The heat from the plasma had cauterized it so he wasn’t bleeding. Unfortunately, it had still ripped through his insides. Manning took sharp intakes of breath as he sat up. It was good that he was conscious. Probably the most positive thing I could say about the situation.

“Not the first time I’ve suffered such a wound.” Manning smiled, even as he coughed into his hand. “The first time in my old age, however.”

“Stop talking! Please, just rest, Instructor.” Laura’s eyes sparkled with concern. She must have felt so helpless as she watched her father figure writhe in pain. “Wander, is he going to be okay?”

“Doesn’t look like any vital organs were hit.” I tried to inspect the wound, but it was hard to look at. I missed my dad too much to consider having another, but Manning had always been a good mentor, especially now that he was my Hybrid mentor too. “Piercing rounds are weird because they were just designed to cut through space suits. They’re not too lethal if you don’t strike the heart or brain. How do you feel, Manning?”

“I assure you that I will live.” He coughed into his arm and covered his injury. “Never mind me. There are more pressing matters. Don’t forget where we are.”

The elevator shook as if it had heard Manning. I had felt better about facing Surge when Kaela had been helping. Now we’d lost Kaela and were losing Manning too. He was in no condition to face off against the Oppressed leader. I didn’t even feel ready for it!

Laura frowned. “Dang it! This sucks worse than an army of vacuums. Hopefully, this is the last time I ask, but what’s the plan, Wander?”

Plan? What we needed was a miracle. We had been relying on Manning to disable the barricade, but now he was fighting just to stay alive. I wanted to do this peacefully, but I was filled with enough anger and fear to come out swinging. Even if we somehow beat Surge, we’d have to ask him for medical support. We didn’t have much left on our ship.

“I have…a proposal.” Manning held up the pistol and passed it to Laura.

“Instructor, I can’t,” she said as she pointed to her eyes. “I’m nearsighted. I can’t aim.”

“Manning wears glasses, but it sure hasn’t stopped him yet,” I said. “You might not even have to use it. Surge might listen to reason. Might.”

Manning coughed. “He’s correct. This is a last resort. One I trust you to utilize correctly. You’ve done it once…and you are incapable of letting us down.”

Laura frowned and took the gun along with its holster from Manning. She held them with two fingers like she was holding something foul. She had a huge task, but I trusted her to carry it out. Heck, I trusted her to take on a tank holding nothing but chopsticks. This would be nothing.

“Okay,” she said as she finished adjusting the holster. “I’m not ready, but I’m guessing you’re not either.”

“Nope.” I knew the elevator was about to open, so I mentally prepared myself. It was time to talk down a maniac who had enslaved a city to get revenge for something that might not have happened. “I’m not ready at all.”