Izzy laughed.

Alex eyed her, “What?”

She shook her head, “You’re confident.”

“I’m stating a fact. You brought me here to do a job and I’m ready.” Alex looked over at a group of Jennys, possibly for support. More than one of them rolled their eyes.

Over the comm, Brooke AKA Portal AKA Guardian’s daughter and Alex’s girlfriend said, “Alex…”

Daniel interrupted before the conversation went any further, “Our chances of success start going down the longer we take here.”

At that, Alex nodded, “Let’s get started then.”

Sean’s voice came over the comm and Alex’s lip curled, “Hey, what do we do? Can we get through yet?”

“Probably not,” I said, “the mist is going down, but now it’s moist on the floor and it’s a contact poison. I’d be surprised if it’s not in the air, but if it isn’t, the slightest touch on your skin might take you down.”

Izzy spoke, her icon flashing blue in my HUD, “Unless you can get through the parking garage’s entrance to that level, you should go. I’m sensing thousands of footsteps and hundreds of tires moving in this direction. I think I even hear tank treads. They’re calling in everything they can to defend this level.”

Tank treads? That was interesting. That meant that they’d taken the local army reserve base. I wondered if they had any powered armor. If they did, it would get here sooner than the tanks.

Jody’s voice started with a small quaver, “We should go. We’re not going to be able to help.”

Yellow Mask snorted, “You can go if you want, but there has to be a way through.”

Kayla’s “Control” icon lit up, “Keep that discussion off the main channel. Tell me what you plan to do when you decide. I’ll rely it to the group.”

Dayton sent a thumbs up symbol and Justice Fist’s icon disappeared along with Prime’s team from the main channel.

“Is Team Hidden ready?” I asked, “We’re about to move.”

“We’re ready,” Haley whispered.

Vaughn said, “We hit the moment you become visible coming around the corner, right?”

“Right,” I replied.

His voice low, Adam added, “Remember that the moment you do something to harm someone, you become visible—all of you at once. You’ve got to be ready to fight the moment that changes or so thorough you don’t have to.”

“We know,” Haley said. “You told us already, but it’s still a good reminder.”

I could almost hear Cassie’s eye roll as she said, “You heard the Mystic. Move it.”

Jaclyn, Izzy, Amy, Daniel, Kals, Katuk, Alex, the various Jennys and I all looked at each other and ran forward, aiming to arrive at the corner at roughly the same time. Tiger walked next to Jaclyn.

I’d have preferred to arrive at this point less tired and beat up, but you do what you have to.

Izzy and Jaclyn stepped around the corner first, followed by Tiger. The light from the glowing fungus in the room reflected off their costumes, adding a multi-colored glow.

Amy and I came around after Tiger. As we did, the real show started. It was ironic in a way that the people we’d put in Team Hidden were there because they were less physically powerful because in another sense, they were the most powerful people on the team.

Take Camille AKA Gravity Star, for example. Being able to warp gravity to your will was no small thing.

As I got a full view of the lowest level of the parking garage with my own eyes, Camille and the rest of Team (no longer) Hidden became visible off to my right as the rest of the room glowed in its bioluminescent glory.

In that moment, the entire horde of fungus creatures charged in our direction—Prime clones, the giant headless beasts, humanoid beings just released from their translucent fungal birthing chambers…

Battle would have been joined then and there except that’s when Camille flipped the situation on its head.

Gravity changed. No longer pulling people to the floor, it now pulled them toward the far end of the left wall of the room. At least that was how it worked inside the room.

I only felt a small tug—which was fine.

People inside the room felt more than that and they fell—sideways. Giant headless fungus beasts rolled head over heels toward the room’s various mounds, reaching out toward them with their claws, sometimes missing as they tumbled “downward,” hitting the wall and splattering into chunks of beast-shaped fungus.

Others were luckier, grabbing a mound with their claws or landing on one of the mounds. How lucky that turned out to be varied. 

Not all the mounds could handle the weight and lost their connection to the floor, falling along with the beast that hit it. Other times, the beast hung on with its claws, tearing a chunk of the side off of one of the birthing mounds, releasing a thick fluid that glowed a dim green.

The fluid drained onto the beast and the floor, dripping and splattering on everything between it and the far wall, including other beasts, mounds, Prime clones, tendril monsters, and even the massive circular structure in the middle of the room.

However bad the fungus was thinking that was, it became worse for it.

Vaughn had been worried that he didn’t have enough in the tank to be useful, and here used the least amount of effort he could, but it was the exact right amount.

He created small gusts of wind that blew beasts or Prime clones that had fallen onto a mound off the mound. Was a fungus creature reaching out to grab a mound? A small wind blew it a few inches or feet away out of reach.

It was Daniel’s job to notice the right moment to enter the room and as the last beast fell, he said, “Go!”

Then Izzy grabbed Paladin and those of us who could fly aimed ourselves at the circular fungus structure in the middle of the level.