“Asesinos.” Nyla cracked her knuckles and sprinted into the carnage.

  Blink made after her, but turned back to Evan. “You can do this. For them.”

  Something inside of him wanted to flee, to tug him away; to sprout wings and take him up into the sky. He grabbed hold of that internal coward, that enemy, wanting to strangle it, kill its will over him. But… was killing a demon any better than killing a man? He didn’t have the time to debate. So, he didn’t destroy his fear, but trampled it back into that pit of emotion for now. Said emotional pit was getting crowded.

  “Let’s save someone,” he said, joining Blink.

  She split after the refugees. “I’ll help them. You-!”

  “I’ll go after the Feds.”

  Blink turned her stifled words into a respectful nod, and went for her target, while Evan went after his.

  Five soldiers advanced out into the opening; guns trained on the runners.

  “Aaaahh!” Nyla swung her arm. The ground exploded at the center of the soldiers, sending them back in a cloud of dust and shrapnel. She charged into the cloud.

  Boom! A soldier flew into the air.

  Evan dug up his courage and ventured into the fray.

  But there were more than just soldiers.

  A ‘V’ of drones whisked above Evan’s head, panels shifting back to reveal clicking arms and needle thin darts that they fired at the refugees. Worse still, another squad of enforcers advanced up the street.

  Nyla charged the reinforcements, rocking them in rubble and fire. It didn’t take long to hear screams, indicating Nyla’s effective brutality. So, Evan turned to the drones.

  He reached out to the sky, as if he could grab those round shells of metal in his hands. He tried to feel them, but all he felt was the air between his fingers. He pushed deeper into his thoughts. Remember Krow’s eye, and Vihn’s vines. Remember the helicopter, beating in your hands.

  He pictured the drone, its armor peeling back off it like a grape.

  Nothing.

  The machines gunned down another refugee. Blink flashed in and out, grabbing who she could, more winded with each teleport.

  Don’t skip to the climax. Vihn’s lesson played in his head.

  Evan took a deep breath. He focused on a single drone, one closest to him. He noted its black metal, the way light glistened from it imperfectly where it was scuffed. Its arms were twigs, clicking against its vibrating underplate. Evan reached his hand out again, feeling the curvature in his hand – what he could imagine, anyway. He pictured the armor plate chipping at the seams where it was bonded to the machine, the dome cracking open like an egg.

  It did.

  Metal snapped apart at the joining place between the underplate and the hull – fading into dust. The plate dropped from the drone, and so did the robot as its gravity-suspensions were destroyed.

  “Yes!” Evan yelled.

  The other drones swung around and faced him.

  “Crap.” He dropped behind a car as a volley of glass syringes burst all around him. It was then that Evan realized the Feds might not have been screaming because of Nyla’s powers, but because of three beasts that were devouring them.

  He struggled to fathom it at first. Wolves, near the size of the cars on the street, gnashed their horrible teeth over the dead. Their black hides bristling with an unnatural convulsion, and their eyes were phosphorus gold.

  Nyla swore. She had made her way to Evan and was rubbing her back. A grouping of drone needles had hit her, releasing their toxin. She flung one more defiant explosion over Evan’s head, sending the rest of the drones raining to the asphalt in a mess of debris. Then she collapsed.

  One of the wolves, hulking compared to the other three, stalked Nyla’s body with blood dripping from its jowls.

  Evan jumped to his feet. “Get away from her!” He thrust his hands out, but before he could do anything, bullets connected with the beast and sent spurts of blood into the air.

  An enforcer had fired her gun at the wolf, drawing its attention. She fired into it again, but the beast continued to pursue this new prey. Evan watched the animal’s fur in wonderment. The bullet wounds writhed and expanded until the bullets were pushed back out of its body, and the skin sewed itself back together.

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  It’s Afflicted… Evan had once seen a bird with three eyes, which was mutant enough for a school lockdown while officers came to capture it. But he’d never heard of an animal with powers. It was horrifying, and it was amazing.

  He steadily approached Nyla’s body. She was still breathing.

  Now, all three wolves stalked the enforcer, who backed up helplessly.

  The enforcer tripped over the body of another soldier. Her helmet popped off and rolled to the side. Her short black hair was matted back, and her eyes quivered in fear. Now she wasn’t a faceless enemy; she was a human crawling back in desperation as predators came to devour her.

  Vihn had warned him about this exact circumstance. But to let someone die… to let someone be devoured… that wasn’t who he was – it wasn’t who he wanted to be. He reached out his arms, digging deep into his powers, visualizing each clump of fur and corded muscle of the lead wolf. It reared back and howled as its hide was seared by Evan’s powers, the molecules of fur and skin being burnt away. The creature yelped, and Evan stopped.

  You idiot, idiot! Don’t stop. It’s just an animal. They’re all just animals, you can’t feel bad for freaking animals.

  But I do.

  What a useless hero you’re going to be if you can’t help anyone, coward. You can’t save predator and prey at the same time. Someone’s always going to die. Who are you going to let it be?

  His mind dizzied from the familiar strain of his powers.

  The wolf leapt for him.

  Evan screamed, stretching his fingertips out. Blood and dust peeled from the wolf’s face, revealing bone and veins. It dropped to the ground squealing. The beast scratched at its missing eye. With a yelped command, it fled down the street, followed by the other two.

  Evan’s muscles quivered. He dropped next to Nyla again, feeling himself slipping away from exertion. But he sobered when he noticed the enforcer staring at him, gun still held in hand. She could shoot him now, and he was too weak to stop her. But she was hesitating.

  Bright light enveloped the space next to her. A fist connected with her cheek, sending her limp to the ground. Blink stood over the Fed, wheezing, and cradling her hand.

  Another soldier laying on the ground, whom the first had tripped over, drew their pistol. Blink flashed behind them and kicked the soldier square in the temple, sending them flat. The two soldiers lay unconscious on either side of Blink now.

  She dropped to her knees, wincing at some pain in her hand.

  Evan ran over to her.

  “You alright?” Blink asked him through gritted teeth.

  “Yeah, are you?” He examined where the pain was coming from. Her fingertips were flickering between a state of skin and vibrant light. He asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Don’t touch it, Evan. It’s my drawback. I jumped around too much, and part of me is having a hard time catching up. It’ll pass, just don’t touch.”

  He nodded in understanding. “Vihn?” He asked, hoping the rebel could hear him through the commlink.

  “Evan?”

  “Yeah, it’s me. We need to get out of here, Nyla’s out.”

  “Copy. Blink did good, we’re almost full. Looks like the Feds are being pushed out. I’m going to bring Addy to you. Get ready.”

  Evan looked at the two defeated Feds next to him. “Blink also knocked out two Feds.”

  There was a brief pause.

  “Bring them, too.”

  The flickering on Blink’s fingers dissipated, leaving behind blackened skin at the tips. She sighed. “That was fun. Let’s get Ny.”

  Evan and Blink lay Nyla next to the unconscious soldiers.

  The sounds of battle had nearly dissipated. The Sun made its descent, pulling red skies down amidst black clouds of smoke. A giant bird cut across the sky, lowering to the buildings, its wings folding close to its body as it hovered near the tall structures. It was Ad Astra carefully fitting itself past the buildings to the street. There was no place for it to fully land, so it remained hovering and dropped its ramp on top of a car, which allowed Evan and Blink to load Nyla onto the ship where dozens of refugees were already safely waiting. Vihn confirmed that the needles had only administered a sedative and that Nyla would be ok. Then they carried in the two Feds.

  Just as the pair were helping the last enforcer onto the ship, a drone spiraled from the sky toward them.

  “Look out!” Blink grabbed Evan. In a flash, Evan and Blink were out of harm’s way as the drone exploded into the car they had been standing on.

  “Aaaghh!” Blink grabbed her wrist as her hand flickered with light, but this time the light moved downward, turning her fingers in a scaley greyish color.

  Evan called out, “Vihn! Something’s happening to Blink, her drawback!”

  “Get her on the ship,” he commanded.

  Evan climbed into Ad Astra with Blink in his arms. The crowd of survivors backed away as Evan lay her on the cold floor of the ship. Vihn rushed into the quarters, a flower vial already popped open in hand. He poured the contents onto her shoulder and pressed his hands against it. The plant sprouted vines and wrapped around her arm to meet the glowing ring that had now passed into her knuckles, leaving behind decayed skin. The green vanguard disappeared as it collided with the corrosion, halting the terrible advance.

  Evan understood now why Blink had told him not to touch the glow. He watched helplessly as Blink cried in pain. Was it going to consume all of her?

  Vihn sent his plants up and round the parts of the hand that had already been burnt. They glowed the same whiteness that was in his eyes. The corrosion stopped, though the skin was not fully restored.

  Unfortunately, the ring of light had continued until it had reached Blink’s wrist before fully dissipating, leaving her with a hand that looked like a corpse’s. She sat up, staring at this changed part of her. Her finger flexed stiffly. She didn’t say anything about it, she just looked up at Evan, weak eyed.

  “You, ok?” She smiled.

  That caught him off guard, considering how she was obviously the one hurt. “Yeah.” He said meekly.

  “Cool.”

  Vihn stood and rubbed his eyes until the glowing had left it. “Let’s get out of here.”

  As the ship flew back into the air, Evan looked out the window and saw the Federation invasion force retreating, a fraction of the size it had been when it invaded.

  “You guys were right,” he said to Vihn in the cockpit. “They lost a lot of soldiers”

  Vihn sighed. “I don’t think it’ll be the same the next time.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They’ve never gone that deep into the city before. We need to find out what our two captives know so we can be ready for the next attack.”

  Evan looked back to the soldiers who lay tied to the floor, and Nyla who lay on a bench in Blink’s lap. Blink stroked Nyla’s hair with her good hand. Why would the Feds equip the drones with sedatives if they had come to kill all the rebels? Had they been planning to capture some of them? If so, then where would they have taken those they’d captured? What would they do to them? Evan wondered if all captured Afflicted shared the same fate as Ken. If there was someone who could tell him, it was those two captured enforcers. The time had come to figure out where the heck Ken was.

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