Dyna didn’t hesitate to leap into motion. She also didn’t hesitate to leap into the truck. Given that the Hatman seemed dangerous only in close range, it might have seemed like a foolish decision, but there was something inside she needed.

She rushed past the disruptors mounted on the wall. It was tempting to grab one and swing it around, but the disruptor wouldn’t do her any good if she stood around staring at empty space, wondering why she had grabbed it in the first place. That was a sure way to wind up just like Ruby had outside the hospital. No, Dyna moved past the disruptors and past Ado, heading straight for Maple.

Or, more accurately, the rack of protective masks hanging from the wall between him and the terminal.

Dyna grabbed one and pressed it to her face as fast as she could.

Just in time to hear glass falling to pieces behind her and a rush of water—or whatever had been in that tank—spilling out over the back of the truck.

Whirling around, Dyna couldn’t help the relief she felt at being able to see the Hatman. If she hadn’t put the mask on in time, she probably would have ended up just standing around, staring with a blank expression on her face. Much like Ruby was doing at the moment.

“Ruby!” Dyna said, grabbing another mask from the wall. Throwing it with an underhand toss, she called out at the same time, “Put that—”

The mask didn’t reach its intended target.

The Hatman’s permanent marker-covered face, formerly dormant, burst into a flurry of activity. His fist shot out from the opening in the broken glass. It looked like he meant to strike at Ado, but he inadvertently knocked the flying mask out of the air. It hit the ground, emitting a series of sparks.

At the same time, Ado backpedaled, dodging the Hatman’s swipe. Apparently deciding the tank was a lost cause, she turned her back to the Hatman in order to take the large disruptor off its mount on the wall.

Dyna wasn’t sure how intelligent the Hatman was. The entity didn’t act intelligent. He didn’t speak and he moved in a way that felt… off. Obviously inhuman. Certainly nothing like the other entity that was over in the Carroll Institute trailer. That one was off as well, but still more human than the Hatman.

However, the must have been some glimmer of intelligence underneath that wide brim of his. Dyna figured he would simply lash out at the closest target—Ado—or maybe turn his attention to one of his previous targets—either Dyna, Ruby, or Matt. Rather, he used his tall stature to reach over the top of Ado as he stepped out of the broken containment tank.

His hand clasped around the large disruptor. A blur of permanent marker scribbled it out of existence. Ado stumbled, weight suddenly gone. She bumped a shoulder into the Hatman as a result.

He didn’t budge. His hands dropped down to Ado’s shoulders. He slammed her into the wall of the truck, pinning her there. There was one more disruptor up on the wall, but it was now stuck underneath Ado’s body.

She wasn’t disappearing like the gun had. Her protective suit must have been doing its job. Either that or the Hatman wanted to torment her.

Dislike of her aside, Dyna wasn’t going to let that happen if she could help it. If nothing else, she needed Ado to get Ruby back to normal. It would probably be difficult to accomplish that if she wound up phase-shifted.

There was only one more spare mask on the wall. Dyna took it and tossed it behind the Hatman’s back. Ruby snatched it out of the air without any trouble. Although she had a confused look on her face, she put it up to her face.

The change in posture was abrupt. She went from wary, guarded, and uncertain to aggressive in the blink of an eye. With her knife appearing in her hand, she looked ready to jump onto the Hatman’s back and start stabbing him repeatedly in the neck. Unfortunately, that would probably wind up with her phase-shifted again. She lacked Ado’s protective suit.

“Ruby,” Dyna said quickly before anyone could make any rash decisions. “The disruptor I left with the technician. Can you get it?”

Ruby hesitated. She took a half step forward, looked down at her knife, and apparently came to the same conclusion that Dyna had. With a curt nod of her head, she wordlessly turned on her heal and started sprinting back toward the Carroll Institute trailers.

Which, now that Dyna was paying attention, looked like they had sealed shut. Neither of the entrances were open. The guards were still outside, all aiming their guns toward Tartarus’ truck. Thankfully, none were firing.

With Ruby rushing back to hopefully get a weapon that would work on the Hatman, that left Dyna, a pinned Ado, and a seemingly frozen-where-he-stood Maple. All in a small confined area with a monster capable of removing them from reality at little more than a touch.

The truck had a side door. Closed at the moment, but Dyna slammed her fist into the button that would open it. Then she grabbed the keyboard from the terminal. It was wired, but a quick wrench pulled it loose.

Dyna promptly threw the keyboard at the Hatman. It hit his back and harmlessly fell to the ground.

It did get him to turn his head.

“Hey, remember me?” Dyna grabbed the trackball mouse. It didn’t come free as easily as the keyboard had, but the trackball fell right into Dyna’s hand. She flung it, managing to pelt the Hatman right between the eyes.

The ball never hit the ground. Black permanent marker scribbled it out of existence on its way down.

“He’s looking this way,” Maple said with a tremor in his voice.

“Out the door.” Dyna practically shoved Maple out the side opening of the truck. “Quick.”

To his credit, Maple found his motivation to unfreeze from his spot against the wall. Unfortunately, that motivation came in the form of the Hatman dropping Ado and turning fully on them.

Dyna hopped out of the truck and broke into a full-on sprint, leaving Maple behind. The Hatman wasn’t fast, but that was no reason to sit around waiting just outside his reach when she didn’t have to.

She pulled out her pistol as she ran. Matt said they worked to slow him down. Ruby wasn’t back with the disruptor yet. Even when she did arrive with it, they didn’t have a way to put him down for any length of time. Not with the large disruptor having disappeared to who-knew where. Even if they did incapacitate the Hatman, it wasn’t like they had a place to store him.

Not unless Doctor Teeth had been correct and the psionic isolation chamber, currently occupied by Grafton, would work. It probably could. The Hatman was a bundle of psionic energy. If they could isolate that from the rest of the world, then he would be effectively contained.

But without the disruptor knocking him out…

Could she lure him inside? He was after her at the moment. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that. Maple had sprinted off toward the school building while Dyna was headed perpendicular to that, running out into the parking lot.

Stopping, Dyna pivoted and raised her gun. Her mind was running through possibilities. Most of which involved her getting into a corner she couldn’t easily escape from just to get the Hatman into that psionic isolation chamber. She needed to know just how well a gun could stop him. To what effect. How long he would be distracted or incapacitated…

Flicking her thumb over the safety of her USP, she looked down the sights. Small glowing green dots. She didn’t have her ear protection on, but couldn’t help that at the moment. Finger over the trigger, she squeezed out three quick rounds.

If the Hatman teleported them away, it wasn’t obvious. Based on the disruptor and trackball, it took some time to do so, meaning he would wind up hit regardless.

And he did get hit. One struck straight in his center-mass. The .45 ACP bullet would have shattered the sternum on any normal person, sending bone shards and bullet fragments into vital organs. Another hit him just up and to the right. It probably would have punctured his lung, assuming it didn’t just shatter his ribs into his lung. She couldn’t tell where the third hit in the dim light. Either his shoulder or, possibly, straight over his shoulder. Regardless, the first two shots should have been more than enough to put down anyone.

The Hatman did stagger. He stopped his slow advance completely, jerking to a stop. But he didn’t go down. He didn’t collapse to his knees. After a tense fifteen seconds, he took one small step. Then another. In short time, he was moving again.

It didn’t slow him down enough. And Matt had been fending him off with a shotgun and a few home-made traps? Even if the Hatman never sprinted after him, his tenacity made Matt’s extended evasion all the more impressive.

Dyna flicked her eyes to the side. The guards were all taking aim, but hadn’t fired yet. It was possible they considered Maple still in their line of fire. He needed to veer off to the side to shield himself behind the truck. Or perhaps they had orders, were waiting on orders, or simply thought that Dyna could handle it on her own, being an artificer.

The mirror in her pocket might as well have been a paper weight. It wasn’t very heavy, so it wouldn’t have been good even at that small task. All Dyna really had was a few months of training with Emerald and Ruby. Which, to be fair, had been fairly intensive, but…

Didn’t really apply to the current situation.

Rather than pull out her mirror, Dyna pulled out her phone and quickly dialed a number.

“This is Beatrice.”

“Grafton’s cell in the trailer, could it hold the Hatman?” She needed to make sure that the final step of her plan would actually work before she started on step one.

“Unknown. No test data exists.”

Dyna continued to back away from the Hatman. Her initial sprint had put a good space between them, but with her walking backward and him power walking toward her, he was slowly closing that distance. “You must have some idea,” she said. “A guess or estimate or whatever you want to call it.”

Three clicking noises echoed over the phone line, followed by some garbled voices that were all saying something different, yet all spoke with Beatrice’s voice. The odd moment ended as quickly as it came and Beatrice’s voice came over the phone loud and clear once again. “Observation: The Hatman transfers people and objects to unknown. Observation: The Hatman was unable to transfer shielded protective equipment and the human contained within. Hypothesis: Psionic Isolation Chamber sufficient to contain the Hatman. Warning: Unknown anomaly caused containment breach. The Psionic Isolation Chamber is more robust than Tartarus’ glass containment unit, but may not withstand such assaults.”

So it was viable. At least they had some solution. But Beatrice brought up a good point. “The other entity is still in there with Teeth, right? Can you get me in communication.”

“One moment, please… Connected.”

“Entity?” Dyna said.

“What was that?” The voice was distant at first, then became clear as if someone had moved a microphone over in the middle of her question.

“It’s Dyna. Question I need answered as quickly as possible: I thought you and the… others didn’t like the Hatman? Why would they free him from his cell and how do we stop them from doing that again?”

“The Hatman is free?” She did not sound happy. “Is that what the commotion is about?”

“Ruby saw someone on the other side getting close to the Hatman, then the glass broke, now he’s chasing after me.” Ruby, Dyna noted, was only just now getting the guards to admit her into the trailers. That meant she should soon have the disruptor.

Dyna was a little surprised that Ado hadn’t popped out with the other one. With how hard the Hatman shoved her into the wall, it could easily be too damaged to be operational. Or maybe she was trying to recalibrate it to function like the larger disruptor.

Or maybe she was injured.

Too many possibilities. Dyna was putting her money on Ruby at this point.

“I see,” the entity said over Dyna’s phone. “It is possible they didn’t realize he was trapped. Or it is possible they were one of his.”

“His?”

“The ones he takes in and…” Dyna could almost hear a shudder. “He makes them think like he does. They have no thoughts of their own. Not after he is done with them. It is why we don’t like him. If he wanted, he could do the same to us.”

“He ignores you though?”

“There is something about the people out here. They are more… tangible? Having a body is strange. Normally, it is just us and our thoughts. I assume that fact makes the people out here more attractive to him, though I do not know why or how he selects his targets. Perhaps there is a use for them. I normally try to keep away from him.”

Mildly interesting. Mostly irrelevant. “How do we stop it from happening again?”

“Fend them off?”

“Do you have a suggestion as to how?”

“I might be able to. But your friend is likely more suited to the task of violence.”

“Ruby?”

“If she could see them, I’m sure I could teach her how to interact with them. At least once I figure it out myself.”

“How long will that take?”

“A while, but interference can be delayed. The other side, as you put it, is reliant on the thoughts of the many. The buildings? People see them, internalize them, and they form over there. This vehicle may have started to form, but I doubt it is fully substantial—and thus intractable—over there.”

“So we capture him then keep on the move until you figure out how to best defend against his… minions?” That was a plan Dyna could work with. “Any ideas on how to get him into a small chamber without getting us all phase shifted?”

The entity just laughed. “Good luck with that,” she said, voice carrying a note of finality.

“Beatrice?” Dyna said. She didn’t have any other immediate questions for the entity and if the entity didn’t have any ideas on how to contain the Hatman, she didn’t have time to chit-chat. “Thoughts on getting the Hatman in the isolation chamber?”

“Physical, unshielded contact required for the Hatman to submit unknown transfer.”

“Yes, I know that—”

“Find shielding.”

Dyna blinked, then it hit her. She felt like smacking herself in the face. It was so obvious, especially after having seen Ado not disappear in front of her eyes.

Shifting back into a sprint, Dyna turned toward the Carroll Institute vehicle. Ruby was on her way out with the disruptor, but Dyna had a different target in mind.

“Hey,” she shouted to the nearest guard. “I need your clothes!”