Fury thrusts heat into my weary muscles. I unlatch the door and fling it open, charging inside. My helmet light catches a flash of green skin behind the visor.
“Solcrue! Emergency power system!” I shout over my coms as adrenaline floods heat and strength into my weary body. I bolt down the hallway with everything I can muster.
He stalls as he looks up at me and draws a weapon. I don’t have anything but my body to use against him. I’m tired, injured, and starving, but I’m pissed. And I’m desperate not to lose my family after everything I’ve just been through, after getting the Rebels and Relics and Rogues on board for this mission.
I throw my pathetic weight into him. It’s just enough to make him stagger back and send us tumbling to the metal floor. He shoves me off of him and points his gun at my helmet.
My father’s chip falls out of my pocket, plinking across the floor. I guess I wasn’t strong enough to zip it shut completely. Snatching up the chip, I try to hide it from him, but the surprise on his face tells me I wasn’t fast enough.
“Command, I found her…” he snarls. His tall frame rises. His forked tongue rakes over his pointed teeth with hunger as he reaches for me, venom in his eyes. “Aera livesssss.”
Chapter 8: Aera
Two blue blasts of light smash into the Solcrue’s chest, then a third snaps his head back. He topples back, motionless. The gun falls from his hand.
My body shivers violently from the effort of smashing into him. Evo stalks down the corridor, eases the fuel cell back into the chamber, and twists the locking bar like he’s done it a thousand times.
“Stay here.” Evo steps over the body of the Solcrue lifts his rifle, and fires again, taking down another Solcrue. His communication lights up in my visor.
Evo>>Local: Hunting Solcrue, Life Support Emergency Power System. Two down. Will report when clear.
His boots are silent against the metal floor, even though I know he has to weigh at least ten times what I do. The way he moves, with caution but power like he’s on a mission of revenge, has me captivated. He is precise as a CyberGuard. His rifle flashes, taking down each additional Solcrue with a single shot. The blast echoes by me with startling force, yet he doesn’t flinch.
One shot. They get one.
The Solcrue that reached for me got three.
I study the body before me again, realizing there’s a part of Evo that hated this one more than the others. He wanted to make sure he was dead. Two to the chest, one to the head is an Omega Force tactic that Evo clearly doesn’t need to use. But he chose to.
When I look back at Evo, his virile body disappears around a bend. Blue flashes periodically light up the dark passageways. He didn’t say he wasclearing. He said he washunting.
I’m not sure, but I’m getting the feeling that Evo has taken personal responsibility for me.
“Aera, are you hurt?”
The voice that’s suddenly overhead makes me shiver in surprise. A Titan kneels before me, over the body of the Solcrue like it doesn’t bother him to be so close to the dead or the enemy’s blood. But I can’t sort out what's happening. Evo can’t have moved that fast. I point down the hallway.
He smiles and taps the badge on his armor, lighting upEon. “Evolutionis my twin. It’s easy to confuse us.Chameleonis also too many characters for a digibadge.”
Eon offers me a hand. “He will come back for you. But let’s get you among the Titans again. You are safer with us.”
He helps me up and guides me back to the group. “We are almost operational. So I have to ask, how did you know?”
When we enter the chamber that’s filled with flickering light, I motion to the door. “Emergency light went off. If it was low on power, it would only be dim. Someone broke the circuit.”
Eon guides me into the center of the group. “Quick thinking.”
A deep voice comes over the coms that’s so similar to Eon’s that I worry I might get the twins confused. “Six Solcrue down. Bodies evacuated. Returning to Life Support now.”
A stream of orbs drifts into the room as Evo returns. A Titan forms from the feet up and holds his shape, his armor gleaming with a digibadge that readsAtom.
“I’m about out of fuel,” Siphon says.
Sarge disconnects his cable from Siphon. “Save it. We might need it later.”
Diesel does the same.
“Oxygen is still limited but rising,” Evo reports from where he rests his hand on the life support control panel. “There’s enough to get them to our location, but we’re going to need to replenish their supply soon.”
