Nate tore past as a riding-sized feline of some sort. Izzy held on to his mane and shrieked her rage out at an entire wave of Kipas, sending blood and guts everywhere as she vaporized their skin and did whatever-the-hell else she was up to. I knew my sister's powers well, but I hadn't seen them on display like that in a decade. And it wasn't like I was signing up to be her next test dummy.
Lexi was a spiral of death. She saved Starseer twice in a breath, the big idiot not aware of two Kipas that were creeping up on him while he dealt with one. It's always important for any superhero to know how to throw a punch; you never know when you'll be reduced to it. But for him? He couldn't hit much harder than most civilians. And that wasn't the best situation for him to be in.
I went to his side, scowling at Lexi but getting to work. Kipa after Kipa came at us and the three of us killed them over and over again. The bodies stood stacked high at our sides but there were constantly more pouring in from the sides of the street, crawling over buildings. Sweat stung my eyes and I swiped it away, my arm crimson and blue with my own blood and that of the weird, chitinous aliens that had plagued us for so many years.
They never showed up in droves like this. From what we'd seen over that time, we'd thought that they were territorial. Our studies indicated that they didn't create packs of more than ten or eleven, but what the fuck was this?
"Edwin?" I gasped, breaking another Kipa's neck.
There was a pause that made my heart stop. Had he been captured? Withheld from doing his job? If he had, we weren't going to be answered by the tech support Logan ran, I was sure of that. But after a moment, I heard something beautiful. "Yeah, Creed. We're here. You guys are being overrun. We're sending in support, just. We're trying to get clearance to do it. There's still civilians in that area."
"If there's civilians there, they're fucked," I panted. "How many are there?"
"Thousands."
His answer made my blood run cold even as I dodged the claws of another Kipa. "That's fucking impossible."
"Not if someone's controlling them. Think for a second. Who do we know that can write anything into existence? That can just poof, scribble a couple of notes and there it is?"
I glared as I worked. "He lost his powers."
"The only proof we have of that is him trying to write Cassie's powers back into existence and it not working. Who knows? You could say you'd lost yours and we wouldn't have any way to prove it. Maybe he wasn't even trying."
"You think he has control over the fucking aliens?" I growled, my head snapping to the side as one Kipa got free of the others and landed a swipe on me.
Edwin typed something. I could hear the keys clatter. "I think that it's entirely possible that he's a fucking problem. We already know he might be connected to them. What's wrong with assuming he has control over them? They don't do this, Adam. They just don't. Tens, maybe. The most we've ever seen was 25 that once at the football game." He paused, then chuckled. "Get everyone clear. They aren't going to like this."
"You said there're civilians left," I said, pushing my way through to Starseer again.
He snorted. "Nothing that will hurt them, but plenty that the Kipas won't like. Your sister's kicking ass, by the way."
"I saw. Get the word out?" I asked, grabbing Starseer's shoulder.
He glared at me but I pointed to the spot where my headset connected inside of my supersuit and pointed off into the distance. Lexi would be told by Edwin and if she wasn't, well, that was just too bad. Starseer hesitated, but I grabbed him around the waist and pulled. He squirmed away but he obeyed. We ran for a nearby alley with Lexi, Nate, and Izzy following us.
From our hidey-hole, I could see Cassie, Nishelle, and the rest of the Thomaston crew carrying Kharmia into the safety of the alleyway across from us. The supersonic burst of jets crashed through the scene, flying too low to be piloted. There were too many laws in effect for that.
These had to be drones, the things that Edwin dreamt of having at his disposal. Let no one tell you that Edwin is fully sane; the guy would happily be some sort of evil doctor, tenting his fingers and stroking a white cat, if we let him. I like to think that Cassie, Nate, and I hold his feet firmly on the ground.
And maybe that was why Scribe hadn't allowed him to have these sorts of toys to play with. The drones dropped thousands of grenades along the collective Kipa population. I shoved the group of us behind a dumpster at the last second and covered my ears, hoping that the plate metal would be enough to stop any shrapnel that threatened to sneak past the alleyway entrance.
People in their homes screamed. I could hear it through the brick facades around their tiny apartments. There was a scurrying of feet not far behind me and I knew I could only imagine what the Thomaston Alliance insurance was going to have to pay out for this one. Thank God the numbers weren't my job.
The explosions went off one at a time, each louder than the last and slowly creeping our way. Bloodied, filthy, covered in sweat,
