him.
'That way, Moggle!' she cried. The hovercam shuddered in her arms, twisting in random directions, almost pulling itself from her grasp, then headed straight for the ceiling. 'No, not up!'
She heard Frizz cry out below, and looked down. He'd bounced off a wall, straight into the outstretched fingers of the drone. As he struggled, the hand closed around him.
'Hiro!' she yelled. 'You have to help Frizz!'
'I can't!' he called back, his arms and legs twitching wildly. 'Something's wrong with my rig!'
'Down, Moggle!' Aya screamed with frustration. 'Now!'
Finally the hovercam obeyed, pulling her into a sudden dive. Aya's feet flailed behind her, one ankle clanging against the pursuing drone's metal palm, and spots of red pain washed over her vision.
When she could see again, Moggle was still diving, headed right for the floor.
'Not so fast!'
But the hovercam was suddenly a hunk of lifeless metal in her hands. It had lost power completely, pulling her down like an anchor toward the hard dirt floor.
'Moggle!' she shouted. 'Wake up!'
There was no response, and Aya let go. She tried to spin around and get her feet under her, readying to kick herself into the air once more. But somehow she wasn't weightless anymore, the pads of her hoverball rig as dead as Moggle.
Momentum carried her down, faster and faster. The ground rose up like a huge fist, and a thud went through her body.
And for a long moment Aya was swimming in a sea of blackness
Something hard and huge pressed against her, squashing her lungs?the ground, she realized. She was lying on hard-packed dirt, no longer weightless, every breath hurting like a knife between her ribs.
'Aya?'
She opened her eyes, turned painfully over. A featureless face looked down at her, nothing but gray contours where a mouth and eyes should be, flecked with glowing white dots ? a sneak-suit mask.
'Frizz?' she said, then let out a gasp. Talking hurt too, it turned out. 'What happened?'
'Looks like they caught us.'
'Oh, right.' The last few minutes came back to Aya as she took a shuddering breath, cataloging all the places she hurt: ribs, shoulders, left ankle. She felt her sneak suit flickering with random textures, damaged from the fall. But its armor had probably saved her from much worse injuries. 'Are you two okay?'
'We're fine,' Hiro said. 'You fell pretty hard, though.'
'No kidding,' she grunted. 'I think something went wrong with Moggle.'
Frizz nodded. 'Hire's suit went out too.'
'Your hovercam is undamaged,' a strange voice said in English.
Aya pulled herself up, looking around for whoever had spoken.
But there was no one in sight but Frizz and Hiro.
From down here on the floor of the huge orange-lit building, the unfinished missile towered overhead like a skyscraper. The three lifting drones lay on the dirt floor around them, their giant fingers in the air like the legs of dead spiders.
The glowing snow had stopped falling, but the ground shimmered softly, as did Frizz's and Hiro's sneak suits and her own arms and hands. They'd gone from invisible to sparkling like fireflies.
'The freaks jammed the magnetics in here,' Hiro whispered. 'We're not weightless anymore.'
'So I noticed,' she said. After all day floating in the hoverball rig, Aya felt like she weighed a thousand kilograms.
'Our apologies for any injuries,' came the strange voice again. 'But we know how dangerous you can be.'
Aya blinked, finally discovering the source of the words?it was lying right there on the ground, less than a meter away.
'Moggle?' she said softly.
'Forgive us for making modifications to your hovercam,' Moggle said in its weird and unexpected new voice. 'We found it damaged in the jungle. While making repairs, we installed this voice chip.'
Aya groaned, remembering her reunion with Moggle out by the ruins. For once it hadn't flashed its blinding night-lights, which wasn't like Moggle at all.
'We hoped you would rejoin your hovercam,' the voice continued. 'And we would have a chance to talk with you directly.'
'You've been watching us this whole time!' Aya cried.
'Our apologies for our deception, and for your injuries. It was necessary to disable you temporarily and bring you into a controlled environment.'
'Controlled environment?' Aya snorted. 'You mean a prison?'
'Of course not!' Moggle's new voice said. 'We are honored to have you here. Our colleague offers her profound thanks, by the way. Your hovercam saved her life when she fell from the ruins.'
'Yeah, this is some thanks.' Aya sat up straighter, pain shooting through her.
'If you allow us to explain, we think you'll discover that our aims and yours are complementary.'
Aya laughed. 'Sorry, but our aims don't include blowing up the world!'
The voice paused, then answered, 'It is unfortunate, but certain foolish children have misled you.
Perhaps you'll listen to an old friend.'
Aya frowned. An old friend? Who did they think she was? And why were they talking to her in English, anyway?
A rumble passed through the building, the huge doors parting a bare sliver. Through the opening, Aya saw several inhumans hovering nervously, needle fingers at the ready.
In front of them was a strange-looking man, with wild hair and bizarre ragged clothes. He slipped through the doors, which hurriedly closed behind him.
Aya blinked?she'd never seen anyone so ugly.
His skin was sunburned and his features crooked. The beaming smile he gave her was unbelievably snaggle- toothed.
He laughed and said in English, 'I knew you would come for me, Young Blood!'
'Um, I don't think we've met,' Aya said. 'And what did you just call me?'
'Your voice is ?' He stepped closer, sharp eyes flicking among the three of them. 'If you would show your face, Young Blood.'
A short, painful laugh escaped Aya. 'You think I'm??'
'She's not Tally Youngblood!' Frizz exploded. He turned to Aya. 'The freaks think we're Cutters.'
Frizz reached up to pull his hood off. Aya did the same, and after a moment's hesitation, Hiro sighed and followed suit.
The man stared at the three of them, dumbfounded.
'See?' Aya said. 'I really don't think we've met.' She gave as deep a bow as her injured ribs allowed. 'My name is Aya Fuse.'
'But you?,' the man sputtered, fingering his own dirty, ragged garment. 'You wear the Sayshal clothing, and the floating ones said you had come to rescue me. But your faces are not Sayshal!'
'Indeed,' Moggle's new voice agreed. 'We seem to have made an error.'
Aya nodded slowly. 'We aren't Cutters, but we're friends of Tally.'
'Young Blood is an old friend of mine as well!' The strange man smiled and clapped her on the shoulder. 'My name is Andrew Simpson Smith.'
Things were starting to make sense. Sort of.
Soon after their hovercar had limped home on autopilot, the freaks must have realized that Tally Youngblood had arrived. Who else but Specials would have jumped out over the jungle? And Frizz, after all, had announced
