Urin dropped it into my hand. The outside felt as smooth as it looked and I felt a prickle of energy.

I considered trying to interact with it more, but I wasn’t skilled enough with anything Artificer-related to do it casually.

Looking up from it, I asked, “What is it? Do you know who made it?”

Glancing up from my hand with a frown, he said, “I was hoping for more of a reaction from it. Very well. I don’t know anything for sure, but my assumption when I got it was that either the Abominators made it or that it had been made by the Artificers and found by the Abominators. It was supposed to help find the Artificers’ creations.”

“Oh,” I looked down at it again, thinking Great, and remembering how the Artificers’ creations were designed to warp any other species that found them into wiping themselves out. Even better, they were intended to be so enticing that other races would copy them, spreading the taint further.

To be fair, Cassie had an Abominator gun and seemed okay and I had a room full of Abominator tech that so far hadn’t warped me or our grandparents, the people that had collected it.

Maybe the risk had been overstated. Maybe we’d been lucky.

“Is that it?” Rachel asked Urin and then looked around the room. “You’re giving us a rock and suggesting we ask our grandparents? Most of our grandparents are dead and the rest seem to believe that we need to do this ourselves.

“Is there anywhere we should start? One of Magnus’ former homes? Somewhere we can go?”

Jacklyn gave Rachel a nod, “That’s exactly what I was thinking. If you’re giving out hints, we could use a few more. We’ve got a whole planet to search now, maybe even Mars or the moon.”

Urin opened his mouth and let out a breath, “I’m sure we have hints, but we’ve been hiding for years now. We’re out of touch with day-to-day operations. Plus, we need to go. If we stay too long, Magnus will find us. You know who he works with. Given time, someone who doesn’t even know they’re a plant will betray you.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I’d been watching Ruthie Shaw. Even though she’d never stopped listening to the conversation, she’d been watching the room and the windows as much as any of the guards, her hand never leaving her sword.  She broke from watching for attackers to say, “We need to go. This is as long as we’ve ever managed without being found with this little preparation.”

Urin’s jaw tightened, “What she says goes. Exit protocols, everyone. Wizard Zoli, send them home.”

With that, all but two of the guards pulled away from the windows and closer to the tables. A man in a business suit (Wizard Zoli?) pulled out a necklace from under his vest. A chunky gold chain, it ended in a green gem with a barely visible glow.

When the man’s hand covered it, the glow increased, growing even brighter when he began to murmur words I didn’t understand.

Loud enough to be heard over booted feet and spoken orders, Daniel said, “Armor up. Chances of a bad future just spiked.”

By Amy’s standards, it was a subtle transformation. Yes, there were voices, but they sang softly and didn’t shout. There was a red light, but it didn’t fill the room. It gave Amy a glow, without being a spotlight and the ominous black letters dancing in the air around her faded without burning themselves into anything.

Amy turned around, Bloodspear in hand, checking for enemies.

I didn’t see any, but I was going through my own, much less impressive transformation. My clothes were transforming into the most basic version of the stealth suit possible. I hadn’t brought my backpack along which meant no extra material, and even worse, no rockets.

I had thin armor, a mask over my head, and sonics. Artificial muscles came as part of the stealth suit, but they didn’t match the full version. With no working GPS, I wasn’t going to be getting a load of nanotech-installed parts to upgrade and repair mid-battle either.

A quick look showed that everyone was in the same position I was—the most minimal version of their suit. Cassie had her gun, though. I had no idea where she’d hidden it.

Turning toward Urin, I asked, “What are we facing?”

He shouted back, “Nothing! We’re sending you back.”

Ruthie Shaw held her sword in front of her, blade up, and didn’t look at me as she replied, “It changes.”

With that came a sound somewhere between breaking glass and the sizzle of electricity. Figures appeared in the room. Four of them were the familiar, muscular figures of Cabal soldiers.

By themselves, that would have been tough for us to handle with only Cassie having a gun that could hurt them. As long as Jaclyn and Amy could keep them back, Rachel, Daniel, and Vaughn had a good chance of taking them out while Haley and I could… struggle to be useful.

They weren’t alone though.

In the middle of them stood an orange, glowing being in the shape of a man—if men had eight arms. Muscled like the Cabal soldiers, he dipped his head to avoid hitting the ceiling.

In all the time I’d spent following supers, I’d never seen anyone like this guy. I didn’t have time to think about it either. Within a second or maybe less of when they appeared, Cabal soldiers were already rushing the guards, their legs throwing them forward.

Then the orange man started to scream and I realized that I couldn’t hear it through my ears only in my head. Recognizing that it was a psychic attack didn’t help me concentrate enough to move my limbs. The scream blasted through any defenses I might have had, leaving me feeling as if I were nothing but the scream.

Only ten feet from me, a Cabal soldier hit Wizard Zoli, exploding his head.