They'd slept through to the afternoon of the next day, except for Shade who'd woken early in the morning and had been clattering around the house until FX had shouted at him to shut up. Triss had joined him in drinking that night, polishing off the bottle of red wine she had started earlier, and now it was those two who had the hangover. Smoke, uncomfortable about how he felt on discovering this fact, went into the kitchen and made a curry from a mess of ingredients he scrounged up. Now, the six of them sat around the kitchen table and ate in relative silence, except Nick, once again full of energy and quizzing them all on the day they'd discovered their powers.

"So you've been able to do it as long as you can remember?" he asked Ollie, over a mouth full of rice.

"M-m-my childhood wasn't w-what you'd call a hap-happy one," he answered, once he had swallowed the last bite of his meal. "I don't recall m-m-most of it, but it was just something I c-could always do."

"You used it as a child? I thought these powers normally manifested when you hit puberty." That was when it had happened to the others.

"M-my earliest memory is a r-r-room, and p-pain. My da-da-dad wasn't a nice man."

Ollie's stammer had grown strong, and he stumbled over his words.

"I just knew I had to g-g-get away, and then I did."

The others looked down at their plates, leaving an uncomfortable silence.

"Th-th-that's when I began living on the streets."

"Well now," said Smoke, patting Ollie on the shoulder and standing. "That's enough reminiscing, I'd say. It looks like everyone's finished, so shall we bite the bullet and do this?"

The others nodded assent, and they stood up and headed to the front door. They'd elected to take both cars, Triss getting in the people carrier followed by Shade, Nick, and, to Smoke's regret, FX, whilst he and Ollie got in the old white one. He gunned the engine and pulled out behind the blue car.

"S-so what's the deal with you and Triss? You look a l-l-little unhappy that she's speaking t-to FX."

"Shit, you can see that? Dammit. I'm just tense because of what we're about to do," he lied.

"Oh. Alr-right then. We'll b-be ok, though, right?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine."

They drove in silence the rest of the way, as the tower grew larger in their sights. They saw very few people or spheres on the way, and those they did didn't react in any visible way, so the drive was uneventful for a long time.

They were driving down a small, one way road in a maze of backstreets when the people carrier ahead swerved left, nearly hitting the building to their side, and screeched to a halt. Almost ramming the people carrier, Smoke braked hard and pulled to a stop behind them. Through the rear window, he could see Shade and Triss shouting something at Nick, who was leaning over the driver’s seat.

"Let's see what this is about."

He got out of the car and walked to the side of the people carrier, sliding open the door.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine," answered Triss, "but this idiot just grabbed the wheel out of nowhere and nearly crashed us." Her face displayed her anger.

"What was that for, Nick?" asked FX, coming forward from the back seats.

"I told you, I saw a sphere. Down there." He pointed down the street to the right they had been making to go down.

"You saw a sphere, huh? Well, there's nothing there now, and that's the way we're going, so..."

"No!" yelled Nick. His face was red, but he took a deep breath and when he spoke again his voice was much calmer. "Look, just drive, ok. I have a bad feeling about that road. Just drive, please?"

"A bad feeling?" said Triss, restarting the engine. "Fine, but I don't see anything. You're acting a little strange, Nick." She turned back to facing ahead. "You better get going, Smoke."

Smoke stepped out of the people carrier and returned to his car, settling in the driver’s seat and resuming the drive. They had only got a little down the street when Ollie gasped. Looking in the rear-view mirror, Smoke was surprised to see a large group of spheres floating out of the street Nick had pointed down, followed by a squad car. He tensed up, ready to hit the accelerator, but the group headed away from them, up the road they had just come from. Swinging the car right and down another street, he breathed out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding in.

"Well, I guess Nick was right. Lucky break."

But something didn't sit right, and he still felt the tightness in his chest.

They only drove for a few more minutes before they pulled into a small parking lot at the service entrance of a small convenience store, abandoned[1]. Getting out of the cars, the six of them regrouped and began to walk towards the area of the tower Shade had chosen for their attempt.

"I've never seen anyone around this area," he said, voice low, "but do you think you could go a little ahead and scout around, just check for us, Smoke? It's down this street and then left - you'll see the base of the tower straight ahead."

Smoke nodded.

"Fine, but someone bring my clothes, alright? I'm not running around that tower naked."

So saying, he dissolved into the air and flowed down and around the corner Shade had pointed out, scanning as much as he could until he poured up against the base of the tower. The base blocked the street completely, and cut through buildings either side, its circumference extending for kilometres, and where it stood the ground had subsided several feet, making a trough in which the constant rain water had pooled. Reforming, the water covered him almost to the knees, and he swore and waded away from the wall until he was standing on the damp ground next to a dilapidated building. He hugged the wall, standing around the corner from where the others would come, aware of his nakedness and trying to remain warm by jogging a little on the spot.

At least it's not raining for once, he thought to himself.

FX came around the corner by himself a minute or so later, carrying Smoke's clothes. He passed them to him.

"I figured I'd get here a little ahead of the others," he said as Smoke quickly dressed, cursing the damp that now penetrated his socks and trousers. "Listen, that was weird back there, don't you think? Nick freaked out all of a sudden, and then we have a lucky escape from a patrol or something. You don't think that's weird?"

He leaned around the corner of the building, looking for any sign of the others.

Smoke nodded slowly.

"Yeah... Look, he's saved all of us already, so I'm willing to put that down to a lucky break, but... you're right. Something doesn't seem right. Let's keep an eye on him."

He broke off his sentence as they heard the sound of footsteps, light but audible, coming closer, followed by whispered conversation. The others rounded the building moments later.

"All dressed, I see," said Triss, and Smoke was unsure whether that was amusement in her voice or not. "FX wanted to hurry ahead to make sure you were decent for us." So, amusement.

Shade coughed once, unsure what the subtext was here, and broke the silence.

"Well, er, no sense hanging around here. We should get through before something else happens."

He looked at Ollie, who stared at the others nervously and then walked towards the wall.

"I need t-to see if I can get us through here. J-just a second."

As he spoke, he turned side-on to the wall and faded blue, one copy forming closer to them and one passing through the wall to his side. He blinked and the two images they could see looked around, but the others realised it was actually the third image they could not see doing the looking.

"Black," he said. "This area’s just wall. I..."

He jerked back, and his central image reasserted itself as he fell to his hands and knees into the water.

"Are you ok?" asked Triss, running forward and picking him up.

"I-I-I'm fine," replied Ollie, shaking. "That happens if one of my copies is inside a solid object for too long. I can hold it for a few seconds, but then they snap back."

"You were inside a wall?" said Nick, fascination evident in his voice.

"Y-yeah. It isn't a p-p-pleasant experience."

Ollie, now standing, took a few steps down from where he had been.

"I guess I try here now..."

He faded, and the others watched as the same events repeated themselves, Ollie snapping back into form and falling again into the water.

"No-no-nope. That's no good."

Triss, still standing knee deep in the water, helped him stand, and he walked further down. The third time, too, he was thrown into the pool.

After the fourth try, FX spoke up disgustedly.

"Look, this is ridiculous. He can't get in, and it's clearly hurting the guy. We'll have to think of something else."

It was true, the group could see that Ollie was by now shaking violently, and he was only standing through some effort.

Shade looked around helplessly, at a loss.

"I don't ... I don't know what to say. The information I got was that the walls were thinnest here. This was meant to be a weak point. If we can't get in here..." He trailed off.

Nick, until now standing back, waded into the water and put his ears to the wall, hitting it with his hands. He advanced along the base, speaking up.

"Maybe we can... here. Ollie, can you try here? It sounds a little more hollow."

Ollie looked up from where he had been standing glumly, and walked over.

"O-ok, I'll try."

Taking a deep breath, he faded once more, and as the others held their breath he stood there, two forms frozen. He snapped back, but this time didn't fall. "Here! I can do it here! There's a space. It's narrow, but I can do it!"

Success revitalised him, his voice uplifted. Smoke stared at Nick, who was still looking at Ollie, and then turned his eyes to FX, who met his gaze meaningfully.

"Good... job, Ollie. And Nick. Good job," he said slowly.

"Great. Ollie, can you take me through first? I can black out the senses of anything that may be on the other side as we go through." Shade stepped forward as he spoke.

"F-fine. Take my hand."

Ollie held out his hand, and they put their palms together as Ollie faded, this time two versions of both Ollie and Shade forming. When Ollie snapped back, Shade's form did not revert with him.

"H-he's in. Who wants to go next?"

Triss stepped forward, taking Ollie's hand, and the process was repeated. Next through was Nick, and when Ollie snapped back this time, both Smoke and FX stepped forward.

"Just a second, Ollie," said FX, looking at Smoke. He put his ear to the wall, and tapped it. He then walked a few paces down, and tapped again.

"Good ears, that Nick. I can't hear anything different."

Smoke nodded as he got the message, and then it was his turn to go through. Taking Ollie's hand, he faded.

Snapping back into form the other side of the wall, Smoke fell onto all fours and coughed, spluttering as he tried to draw breath. Triss, Nick, and Shade were all leaning against the opposite wall, Nick sitting legs sprawled while the other two barely stood, arms out for support.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" said Nick, as Smoke struggled to regain his senses.

"So, not the best method of transport, but it got us here," said Shade.

"Like your car, Nick," added Smoke, struggling to his feet.

"Hey! Lay off the car, would you?"

Nick pushed himself up as Smoke staggered towards them. The sound of FX snapping in, this time Ollie forming alongside, drew their attention. Gathering their wits, they looked around.

The space they stood in was a narrow, curved corridor, a gloom barely lit from light coming down from either end. The walls were the same slick, black material as the outside, but within were strung what appeared to be pipes, covering both sides and the curved ceiling. There was just enough room to stand, provided you watched your head for low-hanging pipes; something FX, still disorientated, failed to do.

"Ow. Goddamn, someone could have warned me," he said.

"Watch your head, FX," said Triss, smiling in amusement.

"Ha, thanks. So, what now?"

The six of them looked at each other, then all turned to Shade.

"Well, now we take a look around."

The corridor to their right ran gradually downward, so they decided to set off left. "The higher the better, right?" They walked for some time, the corridor always gloomy but bright enough to see in, though there was no visible light source.

"It looks like there should be light just around the bend, doesn't it?" said Nick.

It was an eerie sensation, always advancing towards a light that never came. Their senses told them that the tunnel must open up just a little further ahead, but every time they rounded a bend there was simply more corridor.

"So, uh, how long do you think this goes on for?"

They walked for what felt like an hour, though their watches told them it was barely twenty minutes, always heading gradually upwards before they felt a cool breeze flowing through the damp, musty air of the corridor.

"There's something ahead," whispered Shade, putting out his hand to halt the party. "Stay here, I'm going to check it out."

He walked carefully ahead, putting one foot ahead of the other slowly and with as little sound as possible. Returning to the group after a minute or so, he whispered;

"It opens up just ahead. I could see a wide hall or something. Doesn't look like there's anybody there but..."

"I'll go ahead," said Smoke, pre-empting Shade's request. "You know the drill."

Dissolving once more, he flowed down the corridor and out into a wide open area, scattered with strange crates and machinery. He floated around for a while, stretching until he was a tenuous mist, and then flowed back down the corridor and condensed.

This time it was Triss holding out his clothes. He reached for them, but she pulled them back towards her chest.

"I didn't hear you say thanks," she said, eyes sliding down from his face.

One hand covering himself as much as possible, he thanked her and struggled to get redressed as quickly as possible, muttering about how much he hated his power.

"This isn't the time for joking around, guys," said Shade, exasperatedly.

"Oh, lighten up, Shade," said Triss, face regaining a serious expression. "So, what should we expect out there?"

"Well, it's deserted, as far as I can tell. Just some kind of storage area. Should be safe enough."

They advanced cautiously into the hall. If it hadn't been clearly artificial, it would have been better termed a cavern. The ceiling extended far overhead, at least the equivalent of 4 stories, and from it hung strange extensions and misshapen lumps.

"Hey, this is construction equipment," exclaimed Nick, his voice causing the others to jump.

"Quiet!" whispered FX, finger to his lips as he glared at Nick. "What are you talking about?"

Nick was standing next to a long, yellow caterpillar-tracked vehicle, a large crane-like extension jutting from the front with a giant drill attached.

"Yamato Heavy Industries, it says here," said Nick, now in a loud whisper. "It says it right here. It's heavily modified, but it's a human vehicle! Look, there's even a human cabin on top to control it."

The others gathered round to inspect it, and agreed it certainly was a human-designed construction vehicle, albeit heavily modified. Taking a look around the area, they were forced to conclude that everything was machinery that wouldn't have been unknown a few years ago, at least.

"So, let's get this straight. They're using human technology to build these damn things, then? What about those ships? Surely they don't need to use our stuff for whatever they're up to?" FX looked around the group.

"Well, we came here to answer these questions, so let's get to it," said Shade.

They continued their way slowly up the tower, moving from corridor to corridor across cavernous halls similar to the one they had first explored, always stacked with crates and machinery, sometimes construction equipment but also often electronic in nature, crates of circuit-boards, micro-chips and resistors mixed in with generators, cables, and other more enigmatic devices. Nothing they saw, however, was unidentifiable, nothing truly alien in design. Only the tower itself, stretching ever upwards, seemed truly inhuman, reaching upwards into the heavens as if it would never stop. They never saw an opening to the outside world, though there were sometimes vents that carried the moisture-laden air of the rainy world outside into the tower as they got higher up. Smoke occasionally passed through these and floated outside, trying to ascertain how high up they had advanced.

By now, they had passed above the tallest building in this part of the city, matched only by the skyscrapers far downtown, though Smoke's hazy senses couldn't compare directly as he was unable to see them[2]. It was only several hours in to their explorations that they first heard sounds of movement, echoing along the corridor from somewhere ahead. Shushing the group, it was Shade who crept on ahead, almost crawling as he peered round the curve. The corridor itself had become slowly narrower as they had progressed, as stacked along either side were materials and boxes of tools: tools of recognisable origin, hammers, drills, screwdrivers and wrenches, among other things. Shade returned quickly.

"There's people up ahead. I couldn't get close, but I think they're working on something. Seems to be a large group in the next hall, I'd say 50 meters or so up."

"So, what do we do now?" whispered FX, "We don't want to be seen."

Shade looked thoughtful. "We could go back to the last area and try one of the other corridors, I guess."

"They all head in the same general direction, though. What do we do if this happens again?" This was Triss, who was creeping forward to see for herself.

Suddenly, there was a loud clattering, as Nick, at the back of the group, knocked a pile of tools off a crate to the side. The voices further down the hall grew louder as the group looked in shock at Nick.

"Shit shit shit, I'm sorry," he said, panicked.

"We've gotta go back down, someone's coming," hissed Smoke, beginning to creep slowly back the way they had come. Nick, panicking, span around and began to run, but crashed into a pile a little behind him, sending more items crashing to the floor and falling on top of them. A shout from up the corridor kicked the group into gear, FX grabbing Nick by the arm and dragging him up.

"You stupid bastard," he hissed, pulling him along.

"Who's there? Wait, please!"

The voice echoed down the tunnel, and the group saw silhouetted against the light a solitary human figure, facing towards them. As they made to run, it was Smoke who stopped them, holding out his arms and preventing them from continuing.

"Wait!" he yelled, all thought of stealth now gone.

"Listen. Shade, you recognise that voice?"

Shade paused, as again the voice came.

"Who's down there?"

"Lou?" said Shade, voice now raised to carry up the corridor.

"Holy shit... Shade? That you?"

"What the... No fucking way," swore FX, as Lou came towards them.

And it was definitely Lou. He looked haggard, his silver hair ragged and face covered with dirt and oil, but there was no mistaking his beat-cop gait and gruff voice.

"The hell are you guys doing here? Shit, I should've known you'd get up here somehow. Been hoping you would, to tell the truth."

He smiled as he held out his hand, shaking the hands of FX, Ollie and Shade and, to his surprise, pulling Smoke in for a shoulder bump and pat on the back.

"Glad you're here, man. Gotta tell you, it ain't no picnic up there."

The group reformed, Ollie wandering up the corridor from where he had been hanging back, partially hiding himself behind some crates.

"And who's this guy?" asked Lou, gesturing towards a chastened Nick.

"He's a fucking idiot who's trying to get us all killed," growled FX, shooting an angry look at Nick.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," Nick almost grovelled as he searched the group, looking for forgiveness from any quarter. "We're alright, aren't we?"

"We don't know what else could come down that corridor..." said Shade, and the group tensed and scanned ahead.

"Don't worry guys, there's no-one else coming. At least, no-one who will harm you. Look, I gotta get back up there, the others must be out of their minds by now. They'll come looking soon."

"Others? Can they be trusted?" asked Smoke. "What if the spheres see us?"

"Look, you gotta trust me for a while, ok? There aren't any patrols or guards here, you've got nothing to worry about."

"No guards? No spheres? How can that be?"

"Look, I'll explain up there. They don't need guards here. They've got a far worse system than that..."

They advanced up the corridor and rounded the final bend, emerging into the half-light of yet another hall. This one, however, was filled with the evidence of ongoing construction. Wires trailed from unfinished sections of the wall, and tools lay around discarded on crates or on the floor. Their appearance was met by a group of nine people, all who had been hovering near the corridor entry and clustered around them as they emerged.

The group ranged in age from some barely out of their teens to those who looked to be in their 50s at least, and was evenly balanced between men and women. Most of them looked ragged and tired, but were in no way close to the condition of those they had seen tossed out down the drains to the base of the tower. The group buzzed with question, such as who these people were and why they had come here. It took several minutes for Lou to answer their questions, and he didn't give any detail about the group, but by the end the captives were aware they had several Advanced in their midst and understood their general aims.

"So, you've come here to scout around?" a blonde man looking to be in his mid-20s asked. "Well, the only place that's not just wiring, generators, and fizzy-bucks is the hub, but I'm damned if I know how you'll get in there."

"Fizzy-bucks? What's that?" asked Nick, his curiosity momentarily overcoming the withdrawn attitude he had adopted in the face of everyone's hostility.

"It's what the walls are made out of. Buckminsterfullerene," a weatherworn woman with tired eyes and oil-slicked hair added. "The molecule of the future, it was back when I was a chemistry student. Medicine, metallurgy, superconductors, it was going to revolutionise it all. They never could make it in quantities like this, though."

"Yeah, well, they've got millions of tons of the stuff now, and they're gonna screw the clouds with it," replied the blonde guy.

FX jolted as he remembered his similar words from what seemed like years before and was clearly about to make an inappropriate comment, but Smoke, knowing FX, waved him down.

Triss chose this moment to break in, voice betraying barely controlled rage.

"What the fuck are you working on this for? There's nobody watching you, nobody checking on you. What do you think you're doing?"

Lou looked up as the rest of the group looked down at the ground between their feet.

"Look, Triss, they don't need guards here. You ever heard of the old Roman system of decimation?"

"Decimation? They do that here?" interrupted Nick.

"What the hell has maths got to do with anything?" Lou and Nick stared at FX, who realised he must have said something not so clever and sat back on a crate.

"Decimation," explained Lou, "was a method the Roman Army used to maintain discipline within the Legions. Should a cohort be punished, for desertion, failure in combat or any other reason, it would be divided into groups of ten people and they would be forced to draw lots. The loser would then be beaten to death by the others, who faced their own execution if they refused."

The sound of in-drawn breaths from Triss and FX was accompanied by a soft sobbing from some of Lou's fellow prisoners, a quiet, despairing sound that made the room seem somehow darker.

"This is what happens to our group if one of us refuses to work, or if the group fails to achieve its set workload within a certain amount of time. We put in cables day after day, setting up electronics we don't understand by following schematics we are given from others, and have to return to our cells when our shift is over. If we change this routine even a little, the group is refused food until one of us is killed by the rest. That is why the gutters below are filled with the dead and dying, and that is why we work."

The room seemed to fill with silence, only a low level background hum that had been a constant throughout their journey through the tower remaining.

"I will not do it. We all will not do it."

Lou looked at his fellows as he spoke, face set in an expression of resolution and defiance. The group nodded, eyes meeting in unspoken agreement. This was a decision they had already made, Smoke could see.

"But you have to know, we will break a quota, or a timetable, or something, at some time. They push us hard here, and there is never enough rest nor food. You guys need to figure a way to get us out of here, to stop this madness, if you can."

The group shifted uncomfortably, each seeming to realise even more than before the gravity of the situation. FX, especially, seemed shaken.

"We'll stop this. We have to." He spoke with a seriousness the others had not seen before, and they nodded in agreement. "Where the hell is this hub, then? We're wasting time."

Lou pointed down a corridor leading out of the hall to their right.

"Just follow it up, you're not far from it now. But we've never been in there. You need to be aware, they do have guards there. It's the only place I've seen them. Wearing the New City Police uniform. My uniform."

He spat to the side in anger and disgust.

They said their goodbyes and left.

The area a few minutes up the corridor opened up into a space far wider and grander than anything they had yet seen. Here there were actual lights, shining out from the walls either side and the ceiling above. The room must have been over half a kilometre end to end, the fullerene walls a shiny black. Hanging in the air in the dead centre of the room was a large cube, tubes extending from each face and stretching into the walls, floor, and ceiling, supporting it. The cube was easily the size of a large building, though not one of them could hazard a guess at its contents. Closer, maybe a hundred meters away, was a gantry way on which stood two guards in military fatigues, patrolling back and forth intermittently from the small cubicle on the right hand side. Under their feet, crossing the gantry from side to side, cut blue beams of light. The group had no idea what they were, but they weren't about to find out by crossing them.

Smoke and Lunar both quickly transformed, flowing silently up and over the gantry, Triss choke holding one guard into unconsciousness whilst Smoke blocked the other's airways with his hand until he passed out. Searching the opposite side of the gantry, they found a lever which deactivated the sentry gate.

"That... was... awesome!" whispered Nick as they regrouped.

"Shut the hell up, Nick. This is serious." FX glared at Nick while he spoke, then turned back to the others. "So, what now?"

Shade pointed up to the cube suspended in the air.

"That's the place we want to go. It must be."

The group looked up towards their target, its featureless black surface almost taunting them.

"Umm, what makes you so sure we can even get in there? If it isn't solid all the way through," Triss asked.

"Look at those cables. There's thousands coming out from it. Something is in there, I know it."

"Say, where's Nick gone?"

FX was the first to notice Nick's retreating form, disappearing in the direction of a great mass of metal and electronics the opposite side of the column extending from the cube.

"Son of a..." FX began to run after him, chasing him down into a maze of stacks.

He finally caught him as he rounded a corner some way away from where they entered, grabbing him by the collar. He was about to demand to know what exactly Nick was playing at when Nick's face swung around to his. His eyes were wide, the whites clearly visible, and tears were pouring down his cheeks.

"It's too late... It's too late... Don't go back for them, please. There's nothing you can do..." FX blinked, trying to figure out what Nick was talking about. He turned as a sudden terrifying realisation came to him, and he heard the screams.

FX propelled himself over the top of the stack, sound blasting from his palms as he launched in the direction he had come. Flying quickly above the stacks, he saw in the distance the rest of his group, surrounded by a mixture of body-armoured NCPD and many more men in military fatigues. There was a sudden spray of gunfire, and he could make out Shade spin around and fall to the ground, blood visible staining the floor under him even from this distance. Smoke was convulsing on the floor face down, three figures standing over him each with a taser in his back, whilst Triss was swinging wildly with her fists as another two surrounded her.

Why doesn't she change? he asked himself, but as he thought this he saw her get knocked sprawling to the floor by a massive uppercut, crumpling into an unconscious heap.

FX was nearly on them now, dropping in rapidly from above and yelling as he focused the sound waves into the ground. The deep bass modulated wildly, pulses sending the guards and bodies of his friends spiralling away across the floor in different directions. Landing heavily, FX first headed in the direction of Lunar, shouting at her to wake up then shaking her when she failed to. It took him a few moments to notice the dart sticking out her arm, syringe empty of whatever fluid it had contained. Tranquilisers? Spinning around he was just in time to react to the guard bearing down on him, gun raised. FX flung his hands out in front of himself, sending the guard flying up and backwards into the air on a wave of powerful bass, where he smashed into a low-hanging pylon and fell limply to the ground. FX's eyes followed the falling figure, but stopped when the mass of guards advancing from the other side of the cavern crossed his eye line. There must have been more than a hundred of them, a variety of guns, tasers, and was that a fucking flamethrower? advancing towards him purposefully and professionally.

Leaping into the air, he was forced to leave his comrades where they lay as bullets began whizzing past him. He flew quickly over the stacks he had chased Nick into, and dived behind them, leaning against a stack and trying to think of a plan, any plan. He was still standing there, panting, when Nick came tearing round the bend.

"FX, we need to..."

"You FUCKING TRAITOR!" screamed FX, raising his hands at Nick and sending out a pulse that threw him against the piles behind him, where he fell like a ragdoll.

"You fucking set us up! All along! I will blow your brains out your ears!"

Nick writhed in pain as the pitch of the sounds emanating from FX grew higher, always maintaining a powerful depth that destroyed his other senses.

"Stop! Please, stop! We need to get out of here, there's not much time! They've already got the others, we can't be captured too!"

Nick was almost sobbing as he slowly crawled towards FX, left hand outstretched as he fought the sound waves pushing him back.

"Get out of here? We aren't going anywhere without the others, you hear me? We're getting them out of here too. Then you're DEAD!" the rage in FX's voice was amplified by his powers, smashing a pile of equipment behind Nick to the ground and flinging him to the floor.

"It's too late... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's too late. Look..."

Nick pointed to an area above and behind FX's shoulder, and he turned to see three flat metal sheets floating into the air, supported by several spheres each, the bodies of Smoke, Shade and Triss just visible on them. The sheets rotated in the air and headed towards the central cube, an opening suddenly revealing itself and parting to permit them as FX sent one last, futile shockwave towards them. Just as quickly as it appeared the opening closed, and he was left staring at the slick black surface in hopelessness.

The silence was soon broken by a clattering as a grenade came bouncing around the corner towards him. Flinging himself into the air, he soared away from the explosion and towards the wall, all the time cursing himself. It took him a few moments to notice Nick, running towards a different part of the wall a few hundred meters away. Swooping down, he went to smack Nick on the back of the head to throw him to the floor, but at the last second Nick ducked and instead FX went sprawling into the wall at several miles per hour, stunning himself and collapsing to the ground. When he regained his senses, it was to the sight of tens of guards running quickly towards him and Nick yelling in his ear.

"You have to get us out. Right now! The wall here, blast it - it'll cave! Do it!"

Bullets pinged around them as he raised his hands.

"No!" shouted Nick. "SMASH IT! You need all your power!"

As a shot pierced his calf, FX allowed the rage to pass through him, felt the same pulse he had felt when he and Shade had escaped the police headquarters, and sent an eruption of sound pouring out. The advancing police were sent spiralling back into the air, smashing into columns and stacks, some folding into shapes they would clearly never again get up from, and the wall in front of Nick and FX blew outwards, revealing the clouds whipping by in the biting wind. Grabbing Nick and throwing him over his shoulder, he leapt.

[1] While many shops and services remained open on a skeleton staff that served the much-reduced population of the city, nothing remained open this close to a tower

[2] If 'see' was the correct term for the strange, fuzzy perception he had when he was in cloud form.