Jake watched as Peter swung the door open.

The man headed into the room, then scanned it with his brown eyes as he kept his gun raised. The Watcher hadn't stopped being a vigilant man.

Good.

Peter had brought his Soynite laser pistol into the building. The weapon was blue, from planet Free, and Peter had used it to keep himself safe. He had used it to keep his charge, Jake, safe as well.

"No Freemans," Peter said.

Jake stepped into the room.

Situated at the room's center was a long table, which was as gray as the floor and the walls. Six black chairs were located near one side of the table. Across that side were six more chairs. Each head of the table had a black chair near it.

Eight chairs in total, meant for eight Freeman enemies, eight brutes who would find pleasure if they murdered Jake and his Watcher.

There were two more chairs than six. If all the Highs were alive and with Jake, they could sit at the table and discuss their lives and the places they had gone to and what their Soynite Boxes contained.

Only one High occupied the room.

"I wonder what that paper says," High Jake Wayne said, pointing at a sheet of paper resting on the table's hard surface. A black pen lay on the paper. Jake, like Peter, could read Freeman. "I'm going to grab it."

Jake took quick steps during the short trip to get closer to the paper, aware every second mattered when the building he was in contained armed and dangerous Freemans. The light fixture above provided the glow Jake needed to read what a Freeman had written.

His shoes made contact with the hard floor, creating sound, sound that Jake hoped a nearby enemy wouldn't hear.

After getting close enough, Jake grabbed the paper with his free hand. He set his laser pistol on the table.

The average human would see Freeman writing as meaningless symbols, but Jake understood his enemies' language.

"Read, Jake," Peter commanded.

He stood near the open door, then he shut it.

"This is what we know," Jake said, reading the paper's text. "One former Soynite High, Boris Endman, is dead. He was killed by Great Leader Lock Tannis. The other former Highs who sided with Great Leader are still alive. Theo Majestic is not one of them. His location is unknown. His son is in hiding. Theo's three daughters are in hiding. As for the current Highs, barely anything is known about them. One of them is female. She has orange hair. She was blinded during an incident that happened on planet Still. That happened one year after the cleansing of the majority of the Soynite race. Freeman warrior Zale Kin gave that report. He has possibly been killed in action. Ultimately, it is unknown what happened to him. Ultimately, the Freeman empire's knowledge of the Soynite rulers is little. But we have been harming and killing other Soynites. Great Leader will lead us to victory. The Freeman people will win."

A dead former High. That former High had betrayed the Soynite race. Boris Endman had betrayed his own people.

A blind Soynite.

Theo Majestic's children.

Jake shook his head, then slammed the paper against the table.

"The former Highs betrayed us!" he said. "But Theo Majestic didn't! And he has children!"

Children.

Theo Majestic's children. They were Jake's sixth cousins.

Were they blond-haired and blue-eyed? Were they like Jake and Theo Majestic? Were they all fighters?

Being a pacifist no longer suited the Soynite race well. All Soynites who could fight needed to fight. It was as simple as that.

The Freemans had become too terrible. They had made destruction consume most of the Soynite people, Jake's people. They had murdered Jake's loved ones. They had slaughtered almost all of Jake's loved ones. Jake himself had fought. He had killed a Freeman outside the building, which was gray and large enough to fit many vicious Freemans and their vicious creatures.

If one of Jake's sixth cousins embraced traditional Soynite pacifism, it would be difficult for that distant cousin to view Freemans as enemies who deserved to be killed.

Peter moved to Jake's side at an urgent pace. He grabbed the note Jake had read, then started reading it himself.

The Watcher folded the paper after reading it. He moved it into his pants pocket.

"Interesting information," Peter said.

A frustrated breath left Jake, then he brought a hand against a nearby chair. He sat in it.

Theo Majestic had produced children with his wife, Lilly, Jake assumed.

Cousins exist because siblings exist.

Hase Majestic was the earliest ancestor of Jake and Theo.

Jake Majestic was a descendant of On Majestic. On Majestic's brother was Rio Majestic, one of Theo Majestic's ancestors.

Jake's great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Hase Majestic, was the first Soynite.

Jake's great-great-great-great grandfather, On Majestic, was Rio Majestic's brother.

Jake's great-great-great grandfather, Ant Majestic, was Sane Majestic's first cousin.

Jake's great-great grandfather, Ban Majestic, was Goal Majestic's second cousin.

Jake's great grandfather, Beetee Majestic, was Terrace Majestic's third cousin.

Jake's grandfather, Jommen Majestic, was Holy Majestic's fourth cousin.

Jake's father, Jalen Majestic, was Theo's fifth cousin.

Jake was sixth cousins with Theo Majestic's children.

On Majestic was the deceased older brother of Rio Majestic, the second earliest ancestor of Theo Majestic.

Theo was not a descendant of On Majestic. The man was a descendant of Rio Majestic, On's younger brother.

Jake himself was younger than Theo. He was a lot younger than him.

The Freemans didn't know where Theo was, but a Bloodhound could find him. On Majestic and Rio Majestic had known what it was like to be the brothers of the first Bloodhound.

Nerra Majestic, Jake's distant aunt, had murdered the first Freeman, Zero Spike.

Zero had died. His death had made Nerra become the first Soynite to willingly murder a Freeman.

Nerra was the first Bloodhound in history, but other Bloodhounds existed. They could find Theo Majestic. They could find Lovely Windsore.

Lovely Windsore.

She was blind. She had no sight and she was brutal. If there was a Soynite who interacted with her daily, Jake pitied them. Lovely Windsore was not a person you should spend time with. Unless you wanted your time to be ruined.

Jake did not intend to love her.

A blind Soynite would never become a great warrior, so Jake didn't doubt defeating Lock Tannis and his Freemans had become more difficult. But Lovely Windsore deserved to be blind more than the other Highs. Jake tried clinging to optimism and the belief that people could become better, but Lovely Windsore's existence made him struggle.

"That poor girl is blind," Peter said. He shook his head, then glanced at the door. It stayed closed. "Lovely Windsore has my pity."

"Her being blind is a good thing," Jake said, still sitting. "Maybe it finally made her polite."

Peter took a step back from his charge, as if Jake had expressed the desire to join Lock Tannis. The boy had never joined Lock Tannis, and he didn't plan on teaming up with the harshest Freeman in the universe. Jake was not like five former Highs. He was not Boris Endman, Don Ascend, Ray Fire, Notch Slip, or Tale Wick.

Theo Majestic was alive. He hadn't betrayed his people.

Don Ascend was alive. Kara Ascend's father had made the terrible choice to join Lock Tannis.

Ray Fire was alive. Like Don Ascend, he had decided joining Lock Tannis was better than not joining him.

Notch Slip was alive.

Tale Wick was alive.

Boris Endman was dead. The tallest former High, the only former High who had possessed white hair, had allied with the Freeman ruler.

Lock Tannis had killed Boris Endman. Jake didn't know why. The Freeman who had written the note hadn't bothered to explain why Lock Tannis had decided Boris Endman was better off dead than alive.

Why did Tannis kill Boris?

Was Boris Endman a deceased Soynite who had tried assassinating Tannis?

Jake pressed his elbows against the table's hard gray.

"Jake, what you said about Lovely was awful," Peter said. "You really dislike her that much?"

"She was almost as bad as the Freemans," Jake said. "You remember. She was never affectionate to me. She was only cruel. Some people are hopeless. Lovely is one of them. Lock Tannis is one of those people, too."

"I agree with what you said about Tannis," Peter said, standing next to Jake's chair. "But Lovely is still a Soynite, Jake. She's just a girl. She is a teenager now, just like you. Being treated well increases the probability that you will treat others well."

"You don't know Lovely like I do," Jake said. "She can't change. She won't change. I don't want her to be on my side. I want Maggie back. I want Reese Low with me again. Or even Kara Ascend. I don't want to see Lovely. Over ten years ago, we landed on this planet. That was the last time I saw Lovely."

Lovely didn't have the ability to see anyone.

"I want that to be the last time I ever see her," Jake said. He gestured to the space around him, gestured to the gray walls and the closed door. "We're here. We're inside a Freeman base. If Lovely came with us, she would've been useless. She's blind. And she's a terrible person. The invasion was eleven years ago. The note said that Lovely was blinded one year after that. That means she's been blind for ten years. She's probably not even alive. Maggie could see, but that didn't save her. A blind Soynite won't survive the Freemans for long."

"You're usually so hopeful," Peter said. "You want Lovely to be dead."

Jake aimed his blue eyes at the wall.

A hand came to his shoulder, his Watcher's hand. If Lovely Windsore was alive, if she hadn't been killed by a Freeman enemy, the sense of touch would be more important to her than it was for Jake.

Being harsh was important to Lovely. Being harsh to innocent Soynites was important to Lovely.

"Direct cruelty at the Freemans," Peter said. "Lovely is one of us. She is a Soynite, but she is also what you are. She is a High. You and her are my rulers. I serve you, Jake. But I also serve Lovely Windsore. We can't have any infighting happening between Highs. You're supposed to protect each other. You and the five other Highs are supposed to govern our people, the Soynite people. Remember that."

During the Freemans' brutal attack on Soy, preteen children and their Watchers had gone to meet Theo Majestic. The emergency protocol Theo had created had stated only the man would only turn preteen children into the new generation of Soynite Highs. The youngest High had been a baby during the time of her making into a High. During the invasion, the oldest High had never reached his thirteenth birthday.

His.

Yes, Jake knew the oldest High was male. The boy knew the youngest High was female.

If the Freemans wanted more useful information, they would have to speak to an evil Jake. But Jake didn't support the Freemans, nor did he support Lock Tannis.

"Maybe Lovely isn't dead," Jake said. "I don't want to talk about her. I want to talk about the other Highs. I want to see my best friend. And I want to see Kara. She's not a baby anymore."

"Right," Peter said. "She's eleven years old. And we know her father joined Lock Tannis. I don't know if her mother is still alive. If she is, she would probably decide to help her husband help Lock Tannis. If her brother, Cambridge, is alive, and if he reunited with his sister, he would probably stay with her. They're probably with Lock Tannis. All three of them. We can only hope that Kara didn't join them."

"Let's hope she's still with her adoptive father," Jake said. "If we're lucky, they didn't decide to join Lock Tannis."

"If we're lucky, Kara and her Watcher are still alive," Peter said. "The Freemans only know about Lovely, but they don't know about the other Highs. That means there's a chance they killed some Highs and didn't even know it. They tried to kill you. If they did, there would be a dead High. And the Freemans wouldn't know. There's a possibility Kara didn't even reach the age of one."

Jake tapped his fingers against the table.

Kara Ascend.

Her last name was part of the Ascend Museum's name. That was because that museum was named after her father, Don Ascend. The Ascend Museum, like the Soynite royal palace, was gone.

If a Freeman had murdered a girl Jake had held when she was a baby, that would give the teenager another reason to kill as many pale enemies as he could. Jake had watched one friend die. She had been killed by a Freeman, the same one Jake had shot to death. The seated teenager would rather not lose another Soynite friend because a Freeman preferred to see her become lifeless.

Did Kara Ascend lay in a puddle of her own blood? Was that a result of her biological father murdering her?

Did Lovely Windsore stay seated as a gaping hole stayed between her eyes? Eyes that were useless because of whatever had occurred on planet Still.

Jake didn't have the answers to his questions.

He knew he disliked Lovely and he loved Kara. He knew Peter Wayne kept his gun in his hand, while Jake didn't wield his own gun.

The door opened.

A laser shot through the space, rushing, but it didn't rush toward Jake. The red laser launched past Peter, missing his neck by an inch.

Then Peter fired.

A blue laser beam tore through pale skin and hard bone. The shot Freeman stumbled back, bleeding. He dropped his laser rifle after a brief moment. His breathing stopped. And the Freeman warrior died before hitting the gray floor. His corpse morphed into smoke.

Shaking, Jake reached for his gun on the table. His hand struck it, then the weapon slid off the table.

Footsteps sounded, loud.

Jake grabbed the chair he had sat in, then he tossed it through the smoke. A grunt emerged.

Peter raised his laser pistol, then pulled its trigger. A laser shot through the smoke, then shot into the towering Freeman warrior Jake had hurt with a chair.

"We need to leave this room!" Peter yelled, shouting as more footsteps erupted nearby. "More Freemans are coming!"

Jake moved onto his hands and knees, his heart pounding, the teenager intent on grabbing his gun, not intent on sliding the weapon off a table like last time.

He ran a hand through his blond hair.

Where is my gun? Where is my gun? Where is my gun?

Jake landed his gaze on his fallen pistol. It was in the same room as its owner, but it seemed too far as Freemans drew closer to Jake's position.

"Come on!" Peter yelled.

Laser beam fire sounded.

Jake grabbed the gun, moved into a standing position, then ran. He rounded the table's corner. A red laser beam shot past the space in front of him. Surprised, Jake flinched and almost dropped.

His Watcher dodged a laser, then darted out the room.

Freeman warriors held their positions in the long hall outside the room with the chairs, but Jake didn't see them. Near him was a hard wall. Near him was Peter, who did see the enemies.

"Run, Jake!" Peter shouted, urgency running through his deep voice. "Too many Freemans! I'll find you!"

Jake took a short breath.

He ran.

After he rushed past Peter, who unleashed laser beams on the Freemans he could see now, Jake hoped his legs would get him to where he needed to be: a safe place.

Jake looked back.

While they stayed positioned in the hall ahead of Jake and Peter, Freemans continued opening fire. The ones who carried laser guns, anyway. Several enemies held sharp swords in their hands, and a blue laser tore through the forehead of one of them. Peter's work. The blue laser blasted through more pale foreheads.

Jake shifted his attention. He focused on running to a safer location as he held the desire for his Watcher to survive the armed Freeman congregation.

After spending more time running through various long halls, Jake came to a stop. He was now near a closed door. The laser pistol he had brought into the base with him stayed in his hand. He took a breath that shook like his body shook.

"Peter is going to be fine," Jake said. "And I'm going to be."

The door opened.

A person rushed through it, then slammed their black weapon against Jake's arm. He winced.

The gun dropped against the floor.

The too-tall attacker grabbed Jake's shirt. He shoved the unarmed Soynite into the room he had emerged from. Jake stumbled forward, then his hands crashed against a shelf. A bookshelf.

With desperation running through him, Jake grabbed a book, which he planned on using as a weapon. He turned, swung. The Freeman grabbed his wrist, squeezed. Jake yelped and released the book.

Stabbing fright resumed rushing through the boy as his improvised weapon hit the floor.

The Freeman shoved him against the bookshelf with one hand. The brute brought his free hand to his laser rifle. He aimed.

A noise rocketed into Jake's ears as a laser rifle fired.

Fierce blue closed the gap between a Soynite rifle and the Freeman's head. The blue laser zipped past the area above Jake's head, ruined books, then blasted a hole into the wall.

With a gaping hole in his head, the Freeman furrowed his brow. He moved a big hand to his forehead. Red blood greeted the enemy's hand, his own red blood.

The Freeman dropped onto his side. He took a final breath, then living flesh became lifeless flesh.

His body morphed into smoke.

Good.

The room Jake was in was shaped like a rectangle, but it was smaller than the room that seemed to be meant for meetings between killer Freemans. Three bookshelves stood. One of the three bookshelves was behind Jake. The respective glows from the light fixtures on the ceiling gave illumination to the boy who hadn't been killed.

Wind moved through the hole in the wall and the bookshelf, brushed against as Jake's shirt as he remained not dead.

The boy's best friend was beyond the wall. Maybe she would be within the building. If that happened, Jake could reunite with her.

If a strong wind blew on Soy now, it met a ruined landscape.

The Freemans knew how to ruin.

Jake ran past the smoke cloud, then moved through the open door. Someone went in front of him. That someone was his savior. Her head wound was gone. It was as if she had never been shot.

"Maggie?" Jake said.

Maggie Up scanned the hall with her blue-eyed gaze, then lowered her Soynite laser rifle to the floor.

"I saw you die," Jake said.

"But you didn't see me get back up," Maggie Up said. She smiled, then brushed her fingers against her forehead. "I heal fast. My Save gives me the power to rapidly regenerate."

Maggie Up was alive. Maggie Up was alive. Maggie Up was alive.

Jake grinned. He gestured to Maggie's body.

"Can I give you a hug?" he asked. Maggie nodded.

Jake hugged Maggie, and she hugged him back. They held each other as their weapons stayed on the floor.

There was another teenage Soynite Jake clutched the deep desire to embrace.

He longed for that girl, but he didn't have any urge to give her a romantic kiss. No, that girl had become like family to him.

Pain had settled in Jake's wrist. The wrist still hurt. The dead Freeman had given it a squeeze. The healing glass that had healed Jake's arm wound could wipe away his pain.

The hug between Jake and Maggie Up ended.

Jake had put his arms around Maggie. The hug had been gentle, sweet. After seeing the girl take a laser beam to the head, embracing her had been wonderful.

Maggie had used a Soynite laser rifle to end a Freeman, who had tried killing Jake inside a room with books.

Jake looked at the Soynite laser rifle, then pointed at it.

"Where did you get that laser rifle?" Jake said.

"My spaceship," Maggie replied. "After I got shot, I went back there. I grabbed that gun. If only Lock Tannis was the person I killed. When I see him again, I'm going to kill him. Just like how I killed your bad mood when we hugged."

True.

But there were other people Jake needed to hug. His closest friend, for example.

"Yeah," Jake said. He pulled the healing glass square from his pocket, then placed it against his sore wrist. The pain vanished. Jake put the healing glass back where he had pulled it from. "You're cool. That Freeman was going to kill me, but you stopped him. During the fight, I actually picked up a book. I was going to use it as a weapon."

"Knowledge is power, Jake," Maggie said.

She bent down, grabbed her laser rifle, then stood.

"You really met Lock Tannis?" Jake said.

"Sadly," Maggie replied.

"Me and Peter found a note," Jake said. "Lock Tannis killed Boris Endman. One of the Highs is blind. Her name is Lovely Windsore. It's probably not her name anymore, though. And Theo Majestic has children. They're my sixth cousins."

Sixth cousins. Jake had those.

Where were they?

Who were they?

Jake had spent too long not being aware Theo Majestic had produced children. Unless the Freeman who had written the note had been wrong, it wasn't a lie Jake had sixth cousins. During his life, at some point in the past, Theo had brought his first child into the universe.

A son. Theo's eldest child was male.

But Jake didn't know his name. It was a big disappointment the note hadn't revealed the names of Theo's children.

"A family reunion needs to be set up." Maggie said.

"By the way, did you learn anything interesting?" Jake said. "While you were away from me and Peter, I mean."

"I heard a baby wailing," Maggie said. Jake furrowed his brow. "But I couldn't investigate it. Freemans showed up. Don't be too concerned. It was probably a Freeman baby."

Kara Ascend slipped into Jake's mind. Then her father did the same.

Despite all the years he had spent being friends with Theo Majestic, Don Ascend had betrayed the Soynite people. He had sided with Lock Tannis.

"Don Ascend joined Lock Tannis," Jake said. "So did the other former Highs. Theo Majestic didn't. And the Freemans don't know where he is. Don's daughter, Kara Ascend, is a High. I knew her when she was a baby. We lived inside the same spaceship together. I don't know if she's still alive, but I hope she is. I want to see her again."

"If that girl sees Don again, she might join him," Maggie said.

"No," Jake said. He shook his head. "She never met Don. She never saw him before. Her Watcher, her adoptive father, said that Don wasn't there when she was born. Camille Ascend lived with her older brother. Remember? And Kara's Watcher delivered her in that house."

"Kara met her uncle," Maggie said. "But she never met her biological father. If she does, it would be nice if she doesn't join him and Lock Tannis. I don't want one of my Highs to team up with the most evil being in history."

Jake didn't want that to happen. He and Maggie wanted the same thing.

They watched the the surrounding area, both teenagers having the wisdom to know enemies could sneak. Satisfied, Jake took a breath. Maggie made eye contact with him, the boy who was the only High keeping her company.

"One of the Highs is blind," Maggie said. "And another High has a Watcher who I don't see right now. Where's Peter?"

"Fighting Freemans."

"Let's help him."

Jake bent down, grabbed his own laser gun, then stood. It wasn't as dangerous as Maggie's rifle, but it could kill. That mattered.

Fighting Freemans was what Jake and Maggie had to do. Jake had left Peter as the man fought Freemans, but the Watcher had ordered his High Jake to leave him.

Jake headed toward the nearest neighboring hall, which he had already ran through. Peter awaited.

"Hey, Jake," Maggie said. Jake stopped walking, faced his living friend. "We need to be very careful. The Freemans released some pets of theirs."

Where were they?

Screeching blasted into the hall, coming from an animal species that hadn't been born on Earth.

Jake and Maggie turned.

As they flapped their wings, creatures resembling red bats with red eyes, red horns, and sharp teeth pinned their gazes on the two teenagers.

"Bellmas," the Soynites said.

As the flock remained more dangerous than the typical bird flock, the bellmas continued closing in on Jake and Maggie, who aimed their guns.

The closest bellma screeched out a battle screech, then flapped its wings faster, harder.

Jake aimed his laser pistol at the small monster. He pulled the trigger, letting the gun's barrel push out a bright laser. The laser beam granted more light as it zipped toward the bellma, more dangerous than the living target.

The laser ruined the little creature's face, then blasted through its head. Black blood exploded from the two holes in its head. Jake's work.

If bellmas elsewhere were in a current fight with Peter, Jake hoped the Watcher would put up a good fight and not get killed by the winged monsters.

The unwanted creatures' flight stayed real.

Freemans and Theo's children and a vicious blind girl stayed real.

Maggie opened fire.

Jake opened fire.

Bellmas fell as Jake and his friend continued living. Death had never plunged into them, but the teenagers did have to feed it into the bellmas that planned on feeding on them. The bellmas were closer to the gray ceiling than they were to the gray floor Jake and Maggie stood on, but the fierce animals with wings could get closer to the two sixteen-year-olds.

They could get too close to them.

There was no sign of Lock Tannis, who had met Maggie at some point in the past, but Jake would have to face the Freeman dictator sooner or later. And he would need to learn more about the mysterious Maggie, who had met Tannis and survived to tell a fellow Soynite about the fact she had met the man.

Lock Tannis's supporters did not grant sanctuary to Jake and Maggie. A Freeman warrior had shot Jake in the arm. A Freeman warrior had shot Maggie in the head, but she had survived the injury. The wound had vanished. Without a doubt, Maggie was a valuable girl, a valuable fighter. She had even saved Jake from a Freeman inside a room with books, with one of those books being an item he had tried using as a weapon. Maggie was Jake's companion. She was his newest friend.

But Jake would love it if his sixth cousins were with him. He craved the companionship another descendant of Hase Majestic could give him. He needed Theo's children, who were descendants of Rio Majestic, with him.

"Bats!" Maggie shouted, opening fire, shooting. "I'm so glad I'm killing you all right now! Keep bleeding black blood! You're not going to make me bleed my red blood!"

More blue lasers lit up the space around Jake and Maggie. More monsters from planet Free dropped.

"Only best friends kill evil bats together, Jake!" Maggie said.

Jake would be pleased if his true best friend returned to him. His best friend was not Peter Wayne. He considered the man to be his father, while his real closest friend's absence remained as a piercing pain. Emotional pain.

With so many Freemans alive and well, Jake needed to fight alongside his best friend. He needed her.

The Soynite had thrown a chair at a Freeman, but he wasn't able to hand more love to his missing best friend.

Love was sweet. But the Freemans were not.

Lovely, despite being a Soynite, was only a bit better than the Freemans Jake opposed and hated. The boy's best friend was not like Lovely. She was not like the girl who had been blinded on planet Still, which was a place more spooky than any planet Jake had traveled to.

Of course Lovely had lost her vision on planet Still. Going to Still was something a desperate person would do. It was a place almost as bad as planet Free, the ruthless Freemans' planet of origin. That was the same place the bellmas had come from.

Jake hadn't heard the bellmas when he entered the building, but they had been inside the structure. The boy didn't know where the Freemans had held their winged pets captive, but he knew that section of the base was not a place he preferred to be near. It was already horrible enough Free's wilderness harbored various different species of animals that were more dangerous than Earth's wild animals.

Wherever his best friend was, Jake was going to reunite with her.

Theo Majestic's children were out there. Jake would find them.

Now, though, Jake's blue laser zipped through the gap between two bellmas. He had missed.

A blue laser beam, one that was larger than any laser Jake's pistol could shoot out, launched from Maggie's rifle. It passed a bellma's red wing, but the laser didn't touch it. It only glowed against the animal that was the Freemans' pet and not Jake's.

If Jake had been given the powers Theo had been given, slaughtering the bellmas and the Freemans would come with ease.

Unless Strife disabled her power, Maggie could not be shot and killed. With or without Strife bothering him, a shot to the head could kill Jake. It also wasn't as if Jake possessed any Saves. He didn't. Peter didn't have any powers in his arsenal.

The bellmas neared Jake and Maggie, getting too close.

"Keep shooting!" Jake yelled.

They killed and killed. The bellmas weren't gone, and their hunger for Soynite bodies wasn't gone.

Jake and Maggie took several steps back as they fired. The bellmas advanced.

It didn't seem as if Jake and Maggie had enough guns. The bellma flock screeched louder, ready to sink their sharp teeth into warm Soynite flesh.

There weren't enough guns.

Red blasted through the violent flock. Freeman laser beams fed death into bellmas. The blue laser beams Jake and Maggie fired brought death to the bellma group's monstrous members, but the red laser beams also helped.

A bellma with a missing wing collapsed onto the floor, near Jake's foot. As black blood pushed out its wound, the creature's sharp teeth came closer to Jake's foot.

The rescuer slammed his shoe against the bellma. It whined. The man fired twice. Life drained from the Freemans' war animal.

"I don't remember ordering a Watcher," Maggie said. "But it's nice to see you, Peter."

Peter, armed with two Freeman laser pistols, smiled.

Seeing Peter smile while in the enemy domain sent more hope into Jake. The bellmas might have eaten chunks of Jake's flesh, and Maggie would have had lived throughout the entire attack, but Peter the Watcher had made a welcome arrival. He had used two Freeman pistols to help deal with the bellma flock.

Why were the other Highs' Watchers as great as Peter Wayne?

The Freemans never failed to disappoint.

But Peter hadn't failed to save Jake from being eaten by bellmas. The Watcher was a good man, and he had Jake's gratitude.

"I assume you can rapidly regenerate, Maggie," Jake's tough Watcher said.

"I can," Maggie replied.

"Maggie saved my life, Peter," Jake said. "And I'm glad you're okay."

"I was taught how to kill," Peter said. "Being a Watcher has its perks."

He headed to the widest gap between two fallen bellmas. As the Watcher examined the creatures for signs of life, Jake faced Maggie. She faced him.

"You saved my life," Jake said. "I'm grateful."

"The day will come when you won't be," Maggie said.

She glanced at Peter, then lowered her laser rifle to the floor. The girl offered Jake her hand. He took it, then Maggie placed her other hand on his shoulder. She brought her lips close to his ear.

Maggie Up whispered a single sentence.

But that single sentence made dread slither into Jake Wayne.

He pulled his hand away from Maggie's, then took a step back. His heart pounded.

Jake turned and ran.

"Jake!" Peter shouted.

"Stay away from me!" Jake yelled. "I'm going to deal with all of this on my own!"

He was going to deal with the Freemans.

He would free any Soynite prisoners inside the base.

He would try finding a way to accept what Maggie Up had told him.