As I flew toward the open windows, my implant summarized the feed from the tower to the degree it could—a series of pictures.

Scream Eagle rose toward the windows, gaining speed despite Camille’s control over gravity. A flash from Haley’s cam showed sweat on Camille’s brow, fists clenched, and mouth in a thin line.

Sean and Vaughn, meanwhile, were doing what they could. Sean whirled a circle of metal balls with enough speed that they turned into a ring reflecting the light of the sun and the room’s fluorescent lights. I’d seen what he could do with them. They made a highly mobile circular saw that could cut through more than you’d think. When used with his power, even if they shattered, he could continue to cut with the dust.

They weren’t a great choice if you wanted to leave people alive, but by the time Magnus powered someone up, we were past the point where that was the highest priority.

Scream Eagle burst into the room, flying through the open windows, a cloud of metal filings floating around him. Vaughn hit him with a burst of wind that held him for a few seconds, but Vaughn was tired too. He’d thrown a lot of lightning this week and raised a storm already today.

Wind blew papers and threw pens, pencils, erasers, and desktop decorations throughout the room.

Sean took advantage of Scream Eagle’s immobility to aim steel balls at him, but he must have underestimated Scream Eagle’s new magnetic abilities. Some of the balls began to circle Scream Eagle with the metal fillings, though not in a perfect circle.

The orbit of balls moved, sometimes further away from Scream Eagle, sometimes so close that they clipped Scream Eagle’s armor. Sometimes they redirected themselves into Sean’s original circle.

Sean stared and shouted at everyone else in the room, presumably for help.

Gritting her teeth, Camille stared at Scream Eagle while Vaughn released the wind Scream Eagle had pushed through and threw a series of lightning bolts at him.

It wasn’t a bad combination. We’d practiced it at Stapledon. Vaughn knew how to adjust to the effects of heightened gravity on lightning. Camille knew how to focus gravity on one person. Julie took advantage of the moment to shout at him.

He ignored her despite her voice and new training. Instead, he aimed the balls and shattered ball chaff into the room, shattering windows on all sides and forcing everyone to dive for cover with a few exceptions. Daniel combined his prescience and telekinesis, using the perfect amount of each to protect himself and Jody’s still-sleeping body.

My armor designs protected our people well enough, though metal coated Sydney’s body over and above my armor. Sean still controlled the balls well enough not to get hit while Dayton reacted soon enough to avoid taking any of the metal bits at full force.

It was at this moment, however, that Art and Zola had appeared in the room. I knew they’d experienced power-ups with the rest of Magnus’ attackers. If you’d asked me what to expect, I’d have expected the strongest effect on energy users of some kind and a minimal effect on people whose powers were physical.

I’d have been wrong. Art and Zola ripped the painted metal door at the top of the stairs open—never mind that they could have used the doorknob. Beyond that, they’d been physically changed. I’d long ago noticed that Haley’s and Travis’ skin around their hands and feet, while transformed, seemed similar to the malleable hard stuff that composed Marcus’ entire body.

While I saw nothing that made me think that Art and Zola had Marcus’ malleability, their entire bodies were gray, except for their hair, including Art’s goatee.

I hadn’t seen them since Higher Ground had been destroyed—though I’d sometimes wondered how they’d been doing. Zola, in particular, had seemed to be losing the battle with the animalistic side of her nature released by the Abominator birthing chambers.

Though this wasn’t a representative sample of her average day, if I’d been watching to figure out whether that trend continued, I wouldn’t have felt better. Art and Zola didn’t talk on the way into the room, sniffing the air and only giving each other glances and shifts in posture to indicate who they intended to attack.

Though I doubted they could keep it up, in this small space, their speeds rivaled Jaclyn’s. Art jumped toward the wall where Sean, Camille, Vaughn, and Julie had been trying to slow Scream Eagle down.

He bit Sean in the bicep, teeth piercing Sean’s suit, injecting poison. He’d let go and slashed at Vaughn’s face without hurting him even as Sean fell to the ground. Though his claws hadn’t made it through Vaughn’s facemask, the injector claw in the middle of his other hand popped up as he slapped Vaughn’s back, the claw sinking into Vaughn’s body.

By the time Art pulled his hand back and turned to Camille, Vaughn had fallen.