actually fell back a step. He frowned uncertainly.
There s something wrong with your armour, Drood. I ve seen Drood armour before, and it never looked like that. I don t like the look of it.
That s all right, I said, through my featureless face mask. It doesn t like the look of you.
No, he s right, Eddie, said Molly, and there was something in her voice that made me turn to look at her. She was staring at me as though she d never seen me in my armour before. Something s wrong, Eddie. Your armour looks different. It looks tarnished.
I didn t know what to say to that, so I just shrugged and looked back at Hollis. Just in time to see him raise his right hand and make the shape of a gun with it, pointing the finger at me the way children do when they re pretending. And then he shot me in the chest. The impact sent me staggering backwards and left a great crater in the centre of my chest. But the armour protected me from the impact and repaired itself in seconds. I quickly recovered my balance and started forward. Hollis was using a conceptual gun, shaped and focused psychokinesis. I d heard of it, but never encountered it in the field before. Hollis took careful aim and fired again, three times in swift succession, his pointing finger jerking each time with the recoil. But I just strode forward into the invisible bullets, my armour booming loudly with each impact, shrugging the conceptual bullets off increasingly easily.
Hollis looked distinctly put-upon. He opened his hand, dismissing the conceptual gun, and gestured sharply with his other hand. A bottomless hole opened up directly beneath me, carpet and floorboards disappearing in a great circle to reveal a long drop with shimmering silver sides, falling away forever. And while Drood armour can do many marvellous things, flying isn t one of them. Luckily, I was blessed with really good reflexes. Even as the hole appeared and I started to fall, I was already throwing myself forward. I grabbed onto the edge of the hole as I fell past it. My metal fingers sank deep into the wooden floor, crunching and splintering the floorboards. My fall stopped abruptly, my whole weight hanging from the single handhold.
I looked down and immediately wished I hadn t. The terrible endless drop seemed to grab hold of my gaze, hypnotising me. It took a real effort of will to jerk my gaze away and look up at my handhold. Hollis was standing right over me, grinning. He stamped down hard on my golden hand and hurt his foot. He fell back from the hole, cursing loudly. Molly leaned over the hole from the other side.
I don t like to intrude but do you by any chance need a hand?
No, thanks, I said. I can manage.
I hauled myself up by brute strength, until I could get a second handhold, and then pulled myself up and out of the hole. The moment I had my feet back on the floor again, the hole disappeared. Inside the armour I was shaking just a bit, but no one else could tell. I nodded quickly to Molly and then looked over at Hollis. He scowled at me and plucked something out of the air. He held it up triumphantly before him, a shiny sparkling thing I couldn t seem to look at properly, even with all the filters and amplifications built into my mask. The thing seemed to twist and turn in Hollis s hand, as though its shape and nature were constantly changing. Hollis laughed aloud.
The answer to Drood armour: a supernatural can opener! I don t know why no one s ever thought of it before!
And before I could tell him why, he came surging forward to slam the shining thing against the side of my neck. It shattered immediately in Hollis s hand, falling apart into a hundred shiny pieces. Hollis cried out, as much in shock and rage as pain, and darted backwards, shaking his stunned hand. I was grinning easily behind my mask.
People did think of it before, I said. Lots and lots of them. But this is Drood armour. Why settle for less?
Oh, well, said Hollis, between gritted teeth as he shook his hand to get the feeling back into it, Worth a try Tell you what: Why don t we try this sneaky little thing I ve been saving for a rainy day? Specially designed to blast strange matter out of this world and back where it came from!
He raised his left hand again, and strange energies curled and whorled around it, twisting and turning in complex patterns. Hollis threw them at me, and the energies shot forward and splashed across my armour, only to sputter out and fade away almost immediately, unable to get a grip. Hollis just stood there and stared at me, blinking dazedly. I could have told him I was wearing rogue armour without a speck of strange matter in it, but why spoil the fun? Hollis said a few baby swear words that you wouldn t expect from a hardened ex-SAS officer, and actually stamped his foot on the floor in frustration.
Bastard sold me a pup! Last time I buy anything from a Nightside street trader!
Hell, I said. I could have told you that.
He looked at me. Don t you laugh at me, Drood. Don t you do that.
Molly came forward to stand beside me, and fixed Hollis with a cold, considering stare. You ve been ignoring me, soldier boy. And that is never a good idea.
She threw a whole series of fireballs at him, one after the other. Big balls of yellow sulphurous flames, crackling fiercely on the still air. Hollis threw one arm up and the fireballs slammed up against an invisible barrier, stopping dead in their tracks. Molly sniffed briefly and switched to throwing balls of spitting and sizzling energies. Hollis didn t stick around to find out whether his barrier would stop them; he was already off and moving, ducking and dodging. He jumped up onto the nearest wall and ran along it, and then switched to running upside down on the ceiling, laughing breathlessly. Molly pursued him with her energy balls, but he was moving so fast she couldn t keep up with him. The energy balls just ran out of steam before they could reach him, and fell apart. Hollis jumped down onto the other wall and I was right there, matching his speed with my own. I grabbed one ankle with a golden hand and then pulled him off the wall and slammed him onto the floor. He hit hard and curled into a ball, fighting to get his breath back. Molly nodded to me.
Nice one, Eddie.
I thought so.
And while we were busy congratulating ourselves, Hollis sat up abruptly and spoke a single powerful Word. The wooden floor exploded before us, solid floorboards flowing like water as they took on new shape and purpose under his augmented will. They formed themselves into two huge wooden hands that wrapped themselves around Molly and me in a moment, crushing us so tightly neither of us could move. It was all I could do to get my breath, even inside my armour s protection, and with my arms pinned to my sides I had no leverage to use against the unnatural strength of the wooden fingers. The hands rose, holding Molly and me off the floor, our legs dangling helplessly, utterly helpless. Molly hung limply, eyes closed, in the hand. Either through shock or unconsciousness. I struggled fiercely to get to her, but couldn t budge the wooden fingers in the least. Hollis got to his feet, took a moment to brush himself off and then smiled mockingly at me.
High and mighty Drood with his cheating armour, never underestimate the value of planning and preparation. Of checking out the scene in advance and setting a few booby traps before the enemy shows his face. I knew you were coming here. Crow Lee told me. And unlike those stuck-up devil boys of his, I think ahead. I ve spent a lot of time thinking on how best to take down a Drood. Now, I m sure that impressive armour of yours will break free eventually, but by then, it ll be far too late. I ve got something special here just for you. Supernatural Can Opener, Part Two. Try not to take what happens next personally, Drood. It s just what I do.
He walked unhurriedly up to me, the wooden hand lowering me slowly until I was face-to-face with him. I still couldn t move. He lifted his hands and placed them on either side of my face mask. The bones within his hands glowed fiercely, blazing right through the flesh, and then the glow seemed to seep slowly through the flesh to encase both his hands in the same brightly glowing light. Hollis set both hands carefully on either side of my head, and up close the glare almost blinded me.
The shining fingers clamped onto the golden metal. It didn t even occur to me to flinch. I trusted my armour to protect me, as it always had. The fingertips dug deep into my armour. I couldn t move; paralysed, helpless. The glowing fingers sank in deep and then pulled back, stretching and distorting the face armour. I screamed despite myself as an agonising pain swept through me. I was bonded to the rogue armour as a living thing, and its pain was my pain. Hollis pulled his glowing hands this way and that, tugging at the face mask, and the armour stretched and deformed but wouldn t break. I screamed again as the armour screamed, as Hollis struggled to pull the mask off me.
I could hear Molly screaming at Hollis. Leave him alone, you bastard! Stop it! I ll kill you for this!
Shut it, girlie, said Hollis, not even looking at her. I ll get to you when I m finished with him.
He moved in close, concentrating on me as he fought to break the face mask. I was screaming so hard now, it hurt my throat. And while Hollis was concentrating on me, Molly pulled her wits together and concentrated on a simple teleport spell. She jumped herself out of the wooden hand and reappeared right behind Hollis. He started to
