Singularity: Part 19
“Wow,” I said, turning and doing a quick scan of Power Burst with the suit’s sensors along with “Artificer vision.”
Grandpa glanced down toward Power Burst and then to the middle of the room where Magnus and the throne stayed. He shrugged, “It worked on Dixie Superman the second time we fought him and this guy seemed to have the same powers. Did the bastard have kids?”
Following his eyes, I watched Collette, Magnus and Ray as they watched from behind the glowing golden barrier. “I assumed Power Burst was a clone.”
Then I added, “We should move before Magnus takes another shot.”
He pointed upward and we flew in an arc that allowed us to use the glowing spheres as cover.
As we flew off, my sensors showed blood pumping through Power Burst’s body and a stable 97.9 degree temperature. I was no doctor, but he seemed to be alive. Better, his unconsciousness seemed to have cut the tie to Magnus.
Grandpa shot a look toward Cap as we flew away.
Either catching my own look or simply keeping me informed, he added, “The Mentalist says Cap and Red Lightning are alive and their best chance is if we get you to break through to the throne. That’s why we’re going around to the side. That Ray guy seems like he’ll only help if it benefits him. I wouldn’t count on him to attack Magnus unless Magnus is losing. Do you think you can get past the force field?”
We hovered in an open space between spheres, the reddish glow illuminating our armor.
I held out the sword, which still glowed in my hand. “With this, I might.”
Grandpa turned his helmet to get a better view. “Good. Then we fly around the side. I go in first to shield you. You cut through the force field.”
“I’m going to go faster,” I said. “I might be able to shield myself from Magnus’ blasts and if you get killed I might disappear from existence. I’d say I should go first. Cover me to the degree you can and if I get through, we’re both in.”
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He hesitated, but then said, “Okay. Let’s hope you need speed more than protection. Maybe I’ll be able to find a frequency that’ll make the shield shatter. If C can’t break it, force won’t be enough.”
“Back of the throne?” I asked.
He nodded, saying, “They’ll notice, but it might give us a crucial additional second or two. Ready?”
I replied by tilting sideways and beginning to fly. He followed, both of us boosting our speed as we flew and aiming toward the ground.
The spheres above glowed red to my eyes while exchanging streams of energy with each other to my additional senses. I still felt that I could figure them out, but I didn’t have time. Using my blade on the force field was essentially a brute force approach, but what else was I supposed to do at this point?
The throne grew in my sight as I descended, changing from a distant target to a giant floating chair all at once. The glow extended 20 feet out and no one appeared to have noticed that I was closing in.
I aimed for a spot next to the glow, diving, shutting off the rockets and letting my anti-gravity take me down to the ground, equalling out my momentum as I touched down.
Funny thing? You know how I said I didn’t see anyone? That doesn’t matter if you can teleport in.
Artemis appeared roughly 30 feet away (29.6 according to my sensors), raised her bow and loosed arrow after arrow in my direction. Even though they were only arrows, I ducked, moving to my left and releasing a killbot. Killing her might be disastrous, but loosing a killbot on the arrows worked.
The bot cut the first two in half. The third missed.
I redirected the bot to aim for her bow, but it didn’t make it.
Grandpa had seen her from above, targeted her with his sonics, and before he made it to the ground, she’d disappeared. Before the pop where the air rushed in to fill the empty space, and about the same time Grandpa hit her with sonics, a golden glow had appeared around her.
Sparks appeared around cracks in her personal shield as she winked out.
I turned my attention toward the glowing shield next to me, feeling confident that Grandpa’s sonics wouldn’t even make a dent in it and wondering if I had the power within to cut through.
I could see the shield taking in power from the sphere’s above.
Deciding that nothing in life was risk free, I readied my sword to strike the throne’s shield, noticing movement on the other side of the throne. Even as I wondered whether it was Ray, Magnus, or Colette, a flash of silver appeared in front of me and Jody appeared, stabbing at me with his blades.
They didn’t go through the Rocket suit. My tech still countered Rook’s most recent version of my monomolecular blade edge.
Where was C then? For an instant I worried, but I didn’t have to.
A blur of purple buzzed through and Jody was gone, chased by C.
I slashed the throne’s shield, throwing what power I had into the sword. It hit the force field, throwing a waterfall of sparks.