'What else would they be?' Hiro asked.
'A way to slow down the cities,' Tally said. 'To strip the world of metal and send it here. No more cheap metal, no more expansion.'
'You've got to be kidding!' Shay cried. 'You mean these weirdos are on our side?'
'It makes sense,' Fausto said. 'They could even get rid of the metal permanently?just shoot it into orbit. Those cylinders don't have to come down.'
Hiro let out a disgusted sigh. 'You mean you got this story wrong, Aya?'
'I got it wrong?' Aya cried. 'You and Ren were the ones who came up with the city killer angle!'
'But it was your story, Aya!' Hiro said. 'We just gave you an idea!'
'But before you guys started talking about reentry speeds and TNT, I just wanted to kick the Sly Girls mag- lev surfing!'
Frizz frowned. 'I thought you said you weren't going to kick that?'
'Would you randoms be quiet?'
Tally said, her voice suddenly full of razors. 'You want those freaks up there to hear us?'
Aya fell silent, glaring at Hiro. It was bad enough that every feed in the city would blame this bogus story on her; she didn't need her own brother piling on. She glanced at Frizz, hoping he understood what she'd meant.
'Don't forget, we aren't sure of anything yet,' Tally said. 'They could be building a hundred mass drivers right here, getting ready to bombard every city in the world. We may have to blow something up, after all.'
'We're almost at the equator,' Fausto said.
'The equator?' Tally shook her head. 'What does that have to do with it?'
'The closer you are to the equator, the faster the Earths spinning?more centrifugal force.'
Fausto made a whirling motion over his head. 'Like a pre-Rusty sling?the longer it is, the more momentum it gives the stone. Right here's the best place to shoot something into orbit.'
'So maybe there are mass drivers here!' Aya said. Maybe her story hadn't been totally truth-missing 'Don't get too excited, Aya-chan.' Ren stood up and crossed to the largest opening in the wall. 'I haven't see any mountains on this island.'
'The nearest ones I saw were more than a hundred klicks north,' David said.
'If you drill a mass driver shaft at sea level, your projectile starts too low,' said Ren. 'And on a tropical island you'd have to worry about flooding. It'd be a nightmare.'
Aya sighed. This island wasn't the best place to destroy the world from, and it was guilty-making how that fact filled her with sadness. If only the inhumans had been up to something world-threatening here 'So why are they salvaging these ruins?' Frizz paused, listening for a moment to the shriek of saws echoing through the ruin. 'And why are they on a schedule? In the hovercar, Udzir told us that they'd let us go soon.'
'When did he say that?' Tally asked.
'Oh,' Frizz said. 'I think that was when we were speaking Japanese.'
'Thanks for telling me!' Tally shook her head. 'Here I've spent all day babysitting you two, while these freaks are getting ready to ? do whatever!'
She stood up, snapping for her hoverboard. The other Cutters and David scrambled to their feet.
'Good,' Shay said. 'I've had enough sitting around.'
Aya stood. 'Yeah, let's go get some answers.'
Tally turned to her. 'Where do you think you're going?'
'Um, with you?'
'Forget it. You four are staying right here.'
'Here?' Aya cried. She had a story to rekick! 'But what if you don't come back? Or if the freaks find us?'
'In those sneak suits they'll never see you.' David pointed at the satellite dish. 'And if we're still gone at sundown tomorrow, you can call for help.'
Tally stepped onto her hoverboard. Its riding surface shimmered for a moment, then faded into the background. The four of them pulled on their hoods, and soon they were little more than ripples in the air.
'See you later, randoms!' Shay's voice said from nowhere.
The four shapes rose up, slipping without another word through the gaps in the broken wall.
'Wait, Tally-wa?' Aya's cry trailed off.
'They're already gone,' Frizz said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Aya shook him off and went to the crumbling wall of the skyscraper, looking out across the jungle. The sun had set over the trees, and in the distance the inhumans' hoverport was coming alight. The outlines of storehouses and factories glowed against the blackness of the jungle.
All the answers were right there in front of her. All she had to do was go get them.
Aya looked down at her own hand, almost perfectly invisible in her sneak suit glove 'Aya-chan,' Hiro asked, 'are you thinking of doing something brain-missing?'
'No.' She set her jaw. 'I'm thinking that I don't care what Tally Youngblood says. This is still my story.'
'You're nuts,' Hiro said.
'Look out there,' she said. 'The freaks' base isn't that far away. And we've got sneak suits!'
'But the Cutters took all the hoverboards,' Ren said. 'Are we supposed to walk there?'
'Well?' Aya frowned, looking at the floor. 'We've got enough pieces of hoverball rig for three of us. We can move pretty fast in those.'
'You want to float through the jungle at night?'
Frizz said. 'It was tricky enough when we could see!'
Ren nodded. 'There are wild animals down there, Aya-chan. And poisonous snakes and spiders.'
Aya groaned. Why was everyone suddenly so backbone-missing?
'You're just self-shaming because you got the story wrong,' Hiro said.
'That's not why I'm?,' Aya started, then glanced at Frizz. 'Okay, it's totally shaming. But there's still a story here, and we're still kickers, right?'
'I'm actually more of a clique founder,' Frizz muttered.
'Doesn't matter how big a story it is,' Ren said. 'We don't even have a ?' He paused, staring at her. 'Um, where's Moggle?'
'Of course!' Aya cried. 'Moggle could tow me in a hoverball rig, maybe two of us. Then we could fly over the jungle, above all the vines and poisonous stuff!'
'But it's still back at that ruin,' Frizz said.
'You lost Moggle!' Hiro cried.
'Again?'
Aya shook her head. 'Moggle isn't lost, okay? Just waiting at this rum we found. We have to send a ping.'
'Brain-missing for two reasons,' Hiro said. 'One, if we send a ping, the freaks will swoop down and capture us. Two, a ping won't travel more than a kilometer here. There's no city interface to repeat it?just jungle.'
'He's right, Aya,' Ren said, spreading his hands. 'There's nothing we can do but wait for Tally.'
Aya sighed, sinking to the floor.
If she couldn't rekick the story somehow, she'd be remembered forever as the ugly who'd blown the biggest story since the mind-rain, a useless kicker who'd needed Tally Youngblood to find the real facts.
The name Aya Fuse would forever be synonymous with truth-missing.
She looked up. For some reason, Frizz was making a low growling sound through his teeth.
'Are you okay?' she asked.
'It's nothing?' He flinched. 'I mean, practically nothing.'
Aya recognized his pained expression, and smiled. 'You've got an idea, haven't you?'
He shook his head, biting his lip. 'Too dangerous!'
'Come on!' she pleaded. 'Tell me!'
'Linear transmission!' Frizz blurted out, pointing to the satellite dish that David had left behind.
He rubbed his temples. 'We just need to point that in the right direction.'
