It was time.
As Kinzer pushed to his feet, Kelley and Quintz followed shortly after, along with several others who hopped up, some booing Treycore, others shouting out their cheers in favor of the creator’s punishment. The hatred in the air was palpable. Truly, the immortals present were celebrating the great jealousy they had felt for so long, that they dared not voice when Treycore was in the Almighty’s good graces.
Kinzer guided his companions back into the corridor between the inner and outer walls of the colosseum.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Kinzer muttered to Quintz as he let him pass him.
“Shut up, and everything will go according to plan,” Quintz told him.
Although, Kinzer knew that was never really the case. Things rarely ever went according to plan, but he knew that was their only option, so he went along with it.
When they came to the steps leading down to the exit archway, they stopped, Kelley twisting her hands so her palms faced before her.
Kinzer looked through one of the vertical window openings in the walls into the arena as the guards seized and dragged Treycore and Kid from the Accused box, pulling them toward the exit.
BOOM!
An explosion filled the air.
Kinzer moved closer to the opening in the wall, looking in the direction of the sound and seeing dust erupting from the other side of the colosseum. Some of the in-flight patrol descended from overhead, toward the debris, while a few guards abandoned Treycore and Kid to join them.
“They’re almost here,” Kinzer warned as he saw the guards pulling Trey and Kid into the exit archway.
“Don’t worry,” Kelley said. “They can’t see us now. Let’s go.”
Walking down the steps together as the guards with the convicted prisoners entered the archway, Quintz and Kinzer raced down and tackled the guards as they had discussed in their plans prior to teleporting into Parasonia. They needed to scatter and confuse them, and that was their best bet.
As Kinzer pulled the legs of a guard near Treycore out from under him, the guard and Treycore fell to the ground. Kinzer watched as the guard and Treycore seemed to swap places, thanks to Kelley’s gift. Kinzer leapt on top of the fake Treycore and bashed his fists into his skull until his body went limp. At the same time, the guard holding Kid swapped places with him, and Quintz did the same with the fake Kid.
Kinzer looked to Kelley, who nodded before he pushed to his feet. The now-disguised Kid glanced around uneasily. Kinzer grabbed Treycore, who thrashed about, surely thrown by his invisible assailant. He punched Kinzer in the face, knocking him down with his immortal strength.
“Fuck,” Kinzer moaned before hopping to his feet as Treycore got to his. “Trey, it’s Kinzer,” he whispered into his ear, dodging another punch as Treycore whirled around.
Treycore stopped, his eyes wide, his mouth shut as he glanced around, seeing the version of himself on the ground beside him. He watched as the guards surrounded his unconscious body.
Quintz was whispering into the disguised Kid’s ear.
“I’m taking your hand,” Kinzer told Treycore. “Don’t beat the shit out of me. Just follow my lead.” Kinzer took his hand, and Treycore didn’t resist.
The guards hoisted fake Treycore and fake Kid into the air and carried them toward the exit.
As Kelley had told him, her powers were limited. They didn’t have long to get them out of there and to their escape teleport, which they’d had to make across town, in a portal that no one would be using to come and go for Treycore’s Day of Judgment.
They started through the archway when another sound echoed through the inner walls. The ceiling of the outer wall collapsed to the ground, and stone debris fell into their path, crushing the guards and fake Treycore and fake Kid beneath it. The ceiling continued to cave in, moving toward the inner wall, and a rock hit Kelley. The illusions she had worked so hard to craft on everyone disappeared in an instant, and Treycore hurried to Kid, slinging his arm around him and guiding him out of the falling debris’ path, inside the arena.
Kinzer grabbed Kelley and helped her to her feet, guiding her with Quintz behind Trey and Kid so that soon they all stood back inside the arena, the exit blocked, a cloud of dust filling the air around them and filling Kinzer’s eyes.
The audience hollered and shouted.
They’d been caught.
Fuck.
Kinzer wiped the dust from his eyes. His prosthetics fell away, but what did it matter? His identity would be revealed as soon as he and his companions were captured.
As much as Kinzer was curious about what had led to the explosion, he feared it didn’t matter. Their fate was sealed regardless. There was no way they would be able to escape now that there were hundreds of guards’ eyes on them.
The dust around them settled, and the Council guards approached Kinzer and his companions, surely thinking they had been the culprits behind the incident.
