He sneered at Abraham, then flung his hand to the side, forming his trademark forcefield globe around the Canadian man. Prof clenched his fist to shrink it, but the forcefield caught as Abraham used the rtich to brace it on either side.
I had a good view of Prof’s startled face through one camera.
“Cody, go,” I said.
A flash of light shot from the shadows, and the forcefield around Abraham shattered. Good. As before, the tensor could negate forcefields. Though we had to be careful not to vaporize Abraham’s gun as a byproduct.
Prof roared and pointed at Cody, though nothing seemed to happen. I frowned at the gesture, but didn’t have time to think on it as Cody and Abraham engaged Prof. Cody wasn’t practiced with forcefields—while perhaps trying to throw a globe around Prof, he instead made a wall between them. That accidentally protected him as Prof sent spears of light Cody’s way. They slammed into the wall, piercing it and getting stuck.
“Abraham, wind around to his left,” I instructed. A blip appeared on my map of the caverns, a location where Mizzy had set up a pack of explosives. “Megan, see if you can draw him down that tunnel to the right, toward Mizzy’s surprise.”
“Roger,” Megan said.
My little cubby of a cave shook as Prof and Cody clashed, tensor blasts vaporizing one another’s forcefields. Abraham held his own with the rtich, forming it into a shield and catching spears of light. Cody wasn’t very useful with his own forcefields, unfortunately. A few hours of practice did not an expert make.
However, he did have tons of practice with the tensors from back in the day, and he was able to work those easily. He kept vaporizing Prof’s forcefields, protecting himself and—most importantly—Abraham. Cody’s suit had a harmsway attached to it, but Abraham didn’t have such a blessing.
I directed the team as best I could, and for once I didn’t have time to wish I were with them. I was too busy leading the team to push Prof toward the set explosions—we blasted him several times, staggering him and keeping him from bringing down Cody and Abraham. I also kept watch on Prof as he occasionally ducked through caverns at a run, trying to loop around and gain an advantage.
On my mark, Megan entered the fray, creating illusory versions of herself and Firefight to draw Prof’s attention and his attacks. So long as she didn’t push too hard, these would just be shadows from other dimensions, like the false faces we’d worn. It wouldn’t put anyone in any other dimension in danger, and hopefully wouldn’t risk her sanity. Only shadows and feints—anything to keep Prof distracted and off-balance.
I watched all of this with a sinking feeling. The longer they fought, the more obvious it became that Cody’s powers—though aligned more closely with Prof’s own abilities than even Tavi’s had been—would not immediately force Prof to change.
I zoomed my cameras in on Prof’s face, watching his expressions. His sneers and condescension soon gave way to a look of fierce determination. In that, I saw the man I knew.
Face it, Prof! I thought, huddled in my cocoon of stone, snapping orders and directing cameras. Come on. Why wasn’t it enough? Why wouldn’t his powers give way before his fears?
“Megan, Cody,” I said, “I want to try something. The tensors disrupt his forcefields, even the ones protecting his skin. Find a way to catch him in a blast of tensor power, Cody. Then, Megan, I want you to shoot him.”
“Roger,” Megan said. “Do you care where I hit him?”
“No,” I said. “His powers are strong enough that he should be able to heal from anything a handgun can dish out.” I paused. “But maybe make the first hit or two someplace non-lethal, just in case.”
“Roger,” they said as one.
Cody was panting. “Hitting him with the tensors is going to be tough, lad. He’s been trying to do the same to us, to melt my motivators away. We’ve been keeping our distance.”
I focused a camera on him. Seemed like using the tensor suit was exhausting. He and Megan maneuvered into position while Mizzy set up some more explosives farther down the corridor.
“We’ll have to risk it,” I said. “I—”
“Ach!” Cody interrupted. “What the…”
“Cody?” I asked. He didn’t seem hurt, but he’d stumbled back against the cavern wall and had managed to surround himself with a box of glowing green forcefields.
“Was that a squirrel?” he said. “It was running across me. A bloody squirrel?”
“What are you talking about?” Mizzy asked.
Cody seemed confused. “Maybe it was a rat or something. I didn’t get a good look.”
I frowned as he dismissed his forcefields and ran to join Abraham, who had moved in close to Prof after forming the rtich into a gauntlet covered in spikes.
“Knighthawk, Mizzy,” I said, “did either of you happen to see that thing? Whatever it was that was attacking Cody?”
“I saw a blur,” Knighthawk said. “I’m rewinding the footage now. I’ll send you a still if I spot something.”
Prof pushed past Abraham, leaving him tripping over a forcefield rod created right before his legs. Prof slammed his hand to the floor of the cavern and vaporized it in a large swath, dumping Cody into a river of dust. Cody stumbled, slowing down.
Prof summoned a spike of light in each hand and shot them across the room, pounding them into Cody’s shoulders. Cody screamed and fell into the dust.
Sparks. It was obvious who knew these powers better.
“Megan!” I cried.
“On it,” she said, and the ceiling of the cavern rumbled and collapsed, making Prof jump back in alarm. Merely a shadow of another world, but hopefully it would buy Cody enough time to heal.
“Prof started speaking into a mobile,” Knighthawk said, surprised. “He must know we’re monitoring his line….Sparks. He’s talking to you, I think.”
“Patch it through to me,” I said, “but don’t let him hear what we’re saying.”
“…think to beat me with my own curse.” Prof’s familiar voice, gruff and deep, startled me even though I’d been expecting it. “I have borne this viper for years, felt it poisoning me day by day. I know it like a man knows his own heartbeat.”
“David, lad,” Cody said, coughing. “I’m…I’m not healing….”
I felt an icy chill. I focused on Cody, and it was true. He crawled through dust in the trench Prof had made, bleeding from both shoulders, where he’d been struck by light made solid. Why wasn’t the harmsway working?
“Got it,” Knighthawk said. “Kid, this is trouble.” He sent to my screen an image from the camera footage from moments earlier. It showed a blur moving away from Cody, small like a mouse. Or a tiny person.
“Loophole is here!” I said over the line. “He didn’t come alone! Warning, there’s another Epic in the cavern.” I hesitated. “Sparks, she unhooked one of the motivators from Cody’s vest and ran off with it.”
“Cameras have infrared,” Knighthawk said, taking control of several of them. He sounded excited. Engaged, even. “Overlaying now…There! I’ve got her. Ha. Think you can hide from my all-seeing eyes, little Epic? You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
Knighthawk zoomed one of our cameras toward a tiny figure hiding in the shadows near one of the cavern’s many broken chunks of rock. She wore jeans, goggles, and a tight shirt. I didn’t spot the motivator, but she’d likely shrunk it to a size small enough to carry.
“Megan!” I said as Prof rounded the false cave-in. “You and Abraham are going to have to handle him on your own for a time. Keep him distracted; he’s going to try to finish off Cody. Mizzy, go help get Cody bandaged. Don’t let him bleed out!”
A series of “rogers” sounded. I started wriggling out of my stone confines.
“Should have known,” Knighthawk said over the line. “Of course Jonathan came with a plan. He may not have realized I used multiple motivators on this version of the suit though, so his orders to Loophole weren’t complete enough.”
“I nee
d you to run ops, Knighthawk.”
“Fine,” he said, reluctant. “You’re going to take on the mini-Epic by yourself?”
I squeezed out of my cubby and rolled to my feet, Gottschalk to my shoulder. “She’s not a High Epic. A single bullet will kill her.”
“Yeah. Hit her with a bullet the same size as she is—I’m sure that won’t harm the motivator she’s carrying.”
I grimaced as I crept down the hallway. It was a valid point. “Keep an eye on her for me.”
“Already done. One of the cameras is set to auto-track her. Jonathan’s talking again.”
“Patch him through to me, but not the others. I don’t want them distracted. And Knighthawk…keep them alive for me, please.”
“I’ll try. Get that motivator, kid. Fast.”