The soldiers ran out of the room, no doubt to investigate the explosion. I smirked as I pushed myself back up. It was difficult on account of my suit’s rebellion. My helmet alerted me that Kaela was calling me back. I just realized that I’d hung up on her.

“Hey, did you hit it?” I asked as I accepted the call.

“I think so?” Kaela said. “There was a huge flash of blue, and now everyone’s swarming that building. Are you still in there? You probably shouldn’t be.”

“On the contrary, I think you guys should come join me. Tell the others to invade the camp and help free all the ruabrum. Let them know that they can fight back now. I’ll join you guys out there in a second.”

I hung up and called Laura to tell her the same thing. She was angry once I explained that the hack had backfired, but I’d never said it would be foolproof. I stumbled out into the hallway, which was filled with scrambling FD soldiers. Most of them were running away from me, not because I was scary, but because they were heading toward the computer room.

The two soldiers who had just captured me turned around. Not good. I backed up as they advanced. A fireball crashed through the window between us. It exploded against the wall. It was not possible for those soldiers to feel its heat, but they backed up anyway. I didn’t have to wonder where the fire had come from.

Laura jumped through the window and launched two more fireballs at my captors. It dissipated against their suits, but they screamed all the same. In all the confusion, I raised my hand and zapped each of them. They fell to the floor as their suits shut off.

I glared at Laura. “Did I ask for backup?”

“No, but you should have.” Laura slung an arm around me, holding me up. “Who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t shown up? So now what?”

“Help me out the window.”

Laura and I climbed out the broken window, which put us back outside. The soldiers were swarming the whole camp. They burst into houses, shouting horrible things, and charged toward the building we had just escaped from. They even tackled ruabrum to the ground and pinned them there.

I glanced at the bracelets strapped to the ruabrum. They were dull. Shooting the monitors had worked! That was why the soldiers were rounding them up: they had to get them under control before they realized they had regained their strength. Toward the back of the camp, I spotted Nessa, Kaela, Surge, and Shu heading over. The archway’s security must have left if my friends were free to waltz on over.

Red and orange populated the camp as the ruabrum flooded out of their houses. I’d wondered how I was going to gather them, but the FD idiots were doing it for me. Now I just had to rally the troops.

“Ruabrum!” I shouted. I hoped that yelling their race’s true name would get their attention. It did turn a few heads, but the soldiers wrangling the ruabrum were still the stars of the show. “Your restraints are gone. You can fight back, and I want to help! So let’s work together to get you guys out of here.”

I waited for it: the big moment when all the ruabrum would jump up and turn on their oppressors, the moment when everything would work out. It didn’t come. Not a single ruabrum moved. It was like none of them had heard me…but the soldiers sure had.

“They’re the ones who caused this!” One of the FD soldiers pointed at me and Laura. “Eliminate them!”

Eliminate? Not imprison? I got my confirmation when they raised their rifles. A blue beam surged into the back of one soldier’s head; a silver blast exploded against the back of the other’s. Both of the soldiers stumbled, revealing Nessa and Kaela behind them. Surge and Shu were close behind.

Nessa rushed to my side, and then smacked my arm. “You chose the absolute loudest method to accomplish this task. Hurry and rally them before we’re all killed!”

Nice to know that I could always count on Nessa’s words of kindness.

As if on cue, a cloud of plasma zoomed our way. One of the bullets burst against my shoulder with the impact of a bowling ball. I’d expected that to pierce me, but it was blunt instead. Those must have been the rifles they used on the ruabrum. I gripped my shoulder as I ran behind a house, with my friends following my lead. I peeked around the wall. Soldiers, passive ruabrum, but no Surge or Shu. They must have taken cover too.

“What’s up with them? Why aren’t they fighting back?” Laura asked as plasma continued to shoot past us.

“They don’t trust me,” I said. “I guess when my helmet covers my face like this, I look just like the FD soldiers. They’re not going to listen to a thing I say. I need one of the ruabrum to convince the others.”

I scanned the camp for V’egelnuf. As the current leader of the tribe, he could help me convince everyone to fight. Seeing as he sported a distinct facial feature that was all my fault, he wouldn’t be hard to spot.

I saw him huddled with a familiar group of ruabrum beside a house. A few soldiers had their rifles trained on him and his group. He turned his head and made eye contact with me. He had heard me; he knew what I wanted. Instead of jumping up and commanding his troops like I wanted…he just smirked. If anyone else had done that, I’d have been confused, but, from him, I knew what it meant.

V’egelnuf had never forgiven me for scarring him. He had never gotten his revenge either. Now was his chance. We all knew that fighting back would result in many injuries, maybe even a few deaths. As miserable as they were here, it’d be safer to resist the urge to rebel. That was exactly what V’egelnuf was doing because it let him protect his tribe and get revenge at the same time.

I frowned. “We won’t be receiving aid from the tribe’s leader. We’ll have to find another way. I think I know exactly what to do.” I willed my suit to call Surge’s. When he picked up, I said, “Shu’s with you, right? Tell him to convince his people to fight. V’egelnuf won’t do it.”

“You’re asking a lot, kid,” Surge practically shouted over the whooshing plasma in the background. “This guy doesn’t seem like he’s ever rallied anything in his life. Still, I’ll pass on the message. Use your AR comms if you want to see how this goes.”

I did as he said and switched to AR mode. Shu popped up in front of me through Surge’s field of vision. He was shivering and pressed against the wall that he and Surge were hiding behind. Tentatively, he peeked around the corner then immediately flattened himself against that wall. His face was animated with anxiety.

Surge passed on my message, which added confusion to Shu’s fear. That combination of emotions was common in most leaders. I spoke from experience.

“I cannot lead.” Shu shook his head. “V’egelnuf leads. My rank in the tribe exists purely because we are related. I cannot fight, I are not brave, I do not has the qualities to—”

“I used to think the same thing about myself,” I told Shu. “No one’s born with the traits they want. They have to develop them. Your admiration of humans makes you unique among your kind. I think you’ve got greater leadership potential than V’egelnuf. You’ve just got to prove it. Not just to your tribe, but to yourself.”

I was essentially telling him to surpass his farbrother despite his never having had the drive to. However, establishing a new friendship between ruabrum and humans would make it that much easier for Shu to collect the human trinkets he liked so much. That alone was reason enough for him to try. He stood straight up as he seemed to realize this himself. I grinned as I ended the call.

I peeked around the corner and kept my eye out for Shu. It was only a matter of time before the soldiers completely took back the camp. We had to act before then.

“Hey!” Shu jumped up onto a house. His silver cloak fluttered around him as he stood up straight. Right on time. His voice was electronic, meaning that he was addressing his fellow ruabrum. “It is time to build a new partnership between our kind and theirs.”

Shu ducked as the soldiers shot at him. Nessa and Laura shot at them, while Kaela fired her rifle from a distance. I watched the ruabrum, waiting for them to make a move. They looked at each other, no doubt waiting for someone to leap up and make the first move. No one wanted to be that person, they just wanted to follow them.

“I have always known that my farbrother admired humans, but to go this far? How treacherous!” V’egelnuf spat. “Remember that it was humans who imprisoned us in the first place. We are only here because of them.”

I zapped a soldier who had his rifle trained on the ruabrum. “Do you have eyes? Don’t forget that it’s humans who want to free you! Don’t let your hatred for my kind diminish what my friends and I are trying to do here.”

I ducked as more plasma threatened to pelt me. The soldiers were advancing. Their numbers were growing. If we didn’t turn the tide now, we’d be dead in minutes. I understood how confused the ruabrum were…but it would sure help if they could make up their minds!

Plasma zoomed into my stomach, sending a piercing wave of pain throughout my body. Gripping my stomach, I fell back. I looked up as a soldier stomped toward me. My friends were too busy fighting off their own soldiers to help. I’d have to zap him, but my pain combined with my malfunctioning suit would make that pretty difficult. I did my best anyway as the soldier took aim again. I had lost this race for sure.

A ruabrum jumped onto the soldier, smashing him into the ground. Then he stomped on the back of his head. The ruabrum smiled at me as he stepped off his defeated opponent. He extended a red hand to me. I grasped it and allowed him to pull me to my feet. He then turned and shouted at the rest of his kind, who shouted back with equal enthusiasm.

I felt a pit in my stomach as all of the ruabrum stood up. Every ruabrum who stood was agreeing to fight alongside us. I was watching an army assemble itself. I smirked as the soldiers backed away. If I were them, I’d be praying.

Shu’s smile was the biggest one of all. He didn’t have much experience leading his kind, but he’d still managed to rally them. He’d make a great leader.

“You freaks think this is all it takes?” The soldier swung his rifle around as he tried to aim at everyone surrounding him. “You outnumbered us back at your stupid hideout, but we won that fight. What makes you think now will be any different?”

“That time you ambushed them. This time?” I surged electricity through my hand, allowing it to crackle around me. “We’re going to overpower you.”

The air exploded with the thunderous shouts of ruabrum leaping into battle. It was like my words were the gunshot they needed to spring into action. The battle that unfolded was chaotic to say the least. Ruabrum constantly leaped into the air to avoid gunfire, ultimately landing on soldiers. I could only imagine how many shattered rib cages littered the battlefield within seconds.

My team did their part too. I watched a soldier fire at Surge, only to have him dodge and then disappear entirely. I guessed that he’d activated his cloak, effectively making him untouchable. As the soldier looked around for Surge, he yanked the rifle from his hands and fired it at him. The blast sent the soldier flying backwards.

I zapped at least ten different rifles to make them malfunction. Sweat was rolling down my forehead by the time I got to the eleventh one. I was tired, but at least my suit was getting easier to move in.

Within an hour, the camp was full of beaten soldiers rather than depressed ruabrum. A welcome change, in my opinion. Plenty of ruabrum had been injured in the fight, but at least we’d won. I leaned against a wall and waited as the ruabrum finished off the remaining soldiers.

I hadn’t spotted V’egelnuf that much throughout the fight. Even now, he stood a few feet away from the rest of his tribe. His arms were crossed, and he was glaring at the ground. Everything had gone right for his entire tribe, yet he was sulking. Way to ruin the mood.

“I can’t believe we survived this.” Nessa stumbled into me, resting her head on my chest. “I thought for sure that you’d mess up as soon as it became a stealth operation.”

“I did mess up, but, as usual, it worked out anyway,” I said. “Mostly because of Kaela. If she hadn’t shot that wall of computers, the system never would have gone down.”

Kaela shrugged as a neutral expression graced her face. “I just did what you told me. It wasn’t that impressive.”

Not even shooting the beam of victory was enough to reinvigorate her? Man, what was with this funk?

“Don’t think you’ve won, criminals!” One of the soldiers coughed, rolling over. “Reinforcements are on their way. Don’t move. Wherever you go, they’ll find you. Whoever the hell you are…”

If it wasn’t for these identity-concealing helmets, they would have figured it out by now. Suckers.

“Sounds like we need to move.” Surge headed toward the parking lot. “Those massive vehicles we saw when we showed up might prove useful.”

I liked the way he thought. There was no other way to get so many ruabrum back to their home. I’d just use my powers to keep the vehicles running long enough to get us there.

“Don’t worry about getting punished by Frost,” I announced to the defeated soldiers as I strode past them. “She’ll be out of office by tomorrow. You’re all still going to jail though.”

The drive back to the abandoned Gal-Mart was a loud one. The ruabrum seemed excited by how well everything had worked out for them. I was guessing that was the first successful breakout they’d been part of. It would be far from the only one as long as negotiations were successful.

Ruabrum streamed out of the vehicles and back into their home. My team and I followed them down there. We stood in the open area next to the hallways while they settled in around us. It was louder than a school cafeteria there. Everyone really felt like celebrating their victory. Shu wore the biggest smile out of everyone as he approached me.

“Thank you for what you has done for us.” Shu shook my hand with both of his. His excitement only enhanced his ruabrumian grip. It didn’t help that he was frantically shaking my arm up and down like a cartoon character would. It was possible that I would need to see a chiropractor after that. “We now has a dept too immense to repay! I has only one concern: won’t the evil humans come back? They know this location, and they know we returned to it.”

“Not if we really do unite and take down Margaret Frost tomorrow.” I massaged my hand. “I asked for your cooperation when I showed up, and I trust that I’ve earned it by now. I could really use it.”

Shu nodded. “Of course! If you need our assistance after the Sun falls and rises again, then you shall has it.”

“Will he, Farbrother?” V’egelnuf marched up to us. A menacing sheen filled his eyes. “You did well in that prison, but I am still the tribe’s leader. Despite the humans’ cooperation, I do not think we should assist them in their battle. Too many of us were injured during this one. It would not be wise.”

All confidence hissed out of Shu like he was a deflating balloon. None of the other ruabrum were smiling over this latest revelation either. I doubted that they agreed with V’egelnuf, the guy who had done absolutely nothing to help them out of the camp.

I stomped up to V’egelnuf and looked him in the eyes. “I’m giving you one chance here: drop this grudge. I’m sorry that I scarred you, but you didn’t give me a choice. I’d saved you once before that instance. Back when I gave you those medic bracelets.”

“Do you think I care? Why should I? You scarred me and you“—he pointed at Surge—“allowed it to happen! Allying with you was a mistake that I will not repeat.”

Surge grimaced. “I apologize, but neither of us intended for—”

“I know, but it does not matter. One used me, one injured me, and now both ask for my assistance. What do you expect my answer to be?”

I couldn’t fault him there. For his sake, I just hoped that he would cooperate before I had to force him to. I guessed he wouldn’t. He was asking for what followed.

I sighed. “As long as we’re having difficult discussions, how about explaining why you’ve been using so much of the human drug, Beatitudinem?”

V’egelnuf’s face expanded as his horror seeped in. A murmur broke out among our ruabrum audience. Kaela furrowed her brow as she stood up a little straighter. We had her full attention.

“When did you—you went through my belongings!” V’egelnuf jabbed a finger at me. “Do your crimes ever end?”

“Don’t deflect, just answer.” Kaela stepped forward. “What’s with the drugs? Where did you even get them?”

V’egelnuf glared at her but quickly faltered. Things weren’t looking good for him. He needed to start talking before he totally lost everyone’s trust.

“After I was burned, the pain was immense.” V’egelnuf touched his scar. “It was too overwhelming for any ruabrumian medicine. During one of the riots, I was captured and interrogated. However, I was quickly released. Not because I was innocent, but because I was useful.” He grimaced like it physically pained him to say these things. “As the tribe’s leader, I knew the locations of all our sanctums. The humans…that’s all the information they wanted. In return, I would be given medicine for my scar.”

My heart grew heavy after I heard his dark confession. If it hadn’t been for me, he wouldn’t have had that scar. I was the reason why he’d had to take the Beatitudinem and why he’d sold out his tribe. That explained why the soldiers knew where the ruabrum’s secret hideout was.

“I had no idea.” I grimaced at the ground. “I’m sorry, V’egelnuf. If I’d known—”

“You endangered countless ruabrum because you couldn’t handle pain?!” Kaela rushed forward and seized V’egelnuf’s cloak. The surrounding ruabrum raised their javelins, but then allowed their arms to fall. I assumed that they weren’t in a hurry to defend a traitor. Kaela increased her grip when she realized that she wouldn’t be stopped. “One or two is fine, but that’s not all you took, was it? Come here!”

Kaela took hold of V’egelnuf’s arm and dragged him down one of the hallways. Shu, Laura, and I followed her. V’egelnuf could have easily broken free, but he didn’t. He allowed himself to be dragged. That was reason enough for us not to get involved.

Once she’d reached V’egelnuf’s room, she pushed him inside. He stumbled until he fell into his pile of Beatitudinem containers. The pile exploded, causing the pill bottles to fly and roll across the room. The clacking of the bottles was loud, but, to V’egelnuf, I’m sure it sounded like thunder.

He pushed himself up, but then his arms trembled. He stared down into the pool of bottles that he’d acquired. He’d accused me of committing crimes, but were we so different in that sense? His scar was proof of my crime, and the Beatitudinem containers were proof of his.

“I…I did not mean to take so many.” V’egelnuf shook his head. He shut his eyes too. “The pills, they were cursed! After I took one—”

“You couldn’t stop.” Kaela’s scowl matched the ones that Laura would give. Her voice was shaky. “Even after the pain faded, you just kept taking them. If you were human, you’d have died from overdosing. It’s not fair.”

Kaela’s shoulders slumped. Laura reached for her hand, but Kaela pulled away. She whipped around and stomped out of the room. I glanced back at V’egelnuf, who had moved into a sitting position. His back was to us.

“Shu,” I said, “you’re the leader now. V’egelnuf’s lost the trust of your people. Isn’t that right?” V’egelnuf sat still. I knew that he’d heard me and agreed with me. “Right. I’ll leave you guys to figure all this out yourselves. I just want to know if we’re still on for tomorrow.”

Shu’s expression was so gloomy that I expected him to deny my request. He and the other ruabrum did have a lot to figure out. I would have understood. That was why I was so shocked when he grinned at me.

“Of course. We are friends now.” Shu’s smile widened though his spirit was not in it. “Tomorrow, we will return to the surface. We will fight beside you, and, together, we’ll carry out the Red Revolution.”

That sounded pretty good to me. I shook Shu’s hand one more time and walked out with Laura. Her frown matched the atmosphere. We’d just added to our army; we should have been celebrating. We would have been if everything that had just happened hadn’t been so depressing.

“You okay?” I asked Laura.

She shrugged. “I’m not the one you should be asking.”

“I know. Don’t worry, I’ll be getting her answer soon enough.”