I adjusted my foot position and felt my feet shift naturally. Whatever “neutralization” turned out to be, it had worked.

I knew “Counterattack” had not come into play yet because Scream Eagle’s claws were now swinging in my direction. Possibly worse, the circle of metal was reforming in the air behind him.

He hadn’t seen my feet shift or recognized what it meant, though. I stepped back, swinging through his arms with the lightning sword. The sword didn’t chop them off, but I did feel resistance as I swung through the space.

The sword threw off a torrent of sparks with each arm and Scream Eagle let loose a high-pitched scream that, despite being muffled by the helmet, sounded as bad as if I had chopped them off.

On the bright side, his name made sense now.

Better, the blow stopped his attack. After nearly falling over while doubled up in pain, he pulled himself upright. Knowing that he was still powered up, I pulled back my sword to strike again, having noticed that Scream Eagle’s flying circular saw was now flying in my direction.

Except then Scream Eagle gasped and froze, his circle of metal wobbling. In my head, I heard my implant say, “Counterattack, stage one achieved.”

The circle of flying metal hadn’t stopped moving toward me, though, so I didn’t wait for stage two. I stabbed Scream Eagle in the chest and felt Magnus’ energy leave him.

He fell to the floor, and the circle fell with him; balls, metal bits, the microwave, bent chair legs, and even picture frame pieces flew in all directions.

I didn’t remember when we’d broken a chair or a picture frame, but I still got hit with a chunk of each.

It may have been my focus on surviving the last few seconds, or it may have been because my HUD had been shut down and I had to depend on my helmet’s eyeholes, but I didn’t see Art and Zola coming.

Art landed next to Jody and picked him up before I could move to stop him. I began to turn, hoping to stab him before he jumped again, but Zola hit me from the side, knocking me backwards to the ground.

I tried to push myself up, but post-power-up Zola didn’t have any difficulty in straddling me and holding my arms down. That had the side effect of pushing the sword out of position, even though I tried to push it back.

Giving up on that, I pulled up my legs with the idea of pushing so hard that I flipped myself over and maybe launched her into the ceiling, but she used her legs to push mine out and flat to the floor.

Through her implant, Haley asked, “Do you need help?”

I thought back, “No, get Jody.”

She ran past me, jumping toward where I’d last seen Art going.

I’d have turned to check except that Zola, maybe sensing my inattention, had opened her mouth, exposing her fangs and aiming for my neck.

Despite confidence in my armor’s design, I couldn’t do anything but shrink away. She bit down on my armor’s neck guard, but didn’t make it through. I heard the clack as her teeth hit and bite into the ceramic as the outer layers of armor strained, but didn’t shatter.

She pulled back, shaking her head, and spitting out a small bit of the outer layer, “What is that?”

“Ceramic,” I said, “but now I’m thinking a coating of Bitter Apple might be a good addition.”

She growled, diving in with her mouth to try again, leaving me all too aware that it would be another minute before my repair systems would reactivate.

Maybe I could blast her with the suit’s PA? It wouldn’t be as good as the sonics.

In the background, heavy footsteps fell, coming in my direction. Maybe Sydney could help?

At that, Zola glanced to the side. I never found out whether she planned to jump off to attack Sydney because she never got the chance.

Rachel’s white gloved hand became visible, appearing halfway out of Zola’s chest, still see-through, but there. She twisted her hand, and I felt a pulse of energy as she, for lack of a better word, grabbed the power-up and wrenched it out of Zola’s body, still glowing.

Zola screamed and fell to the ground, moaning. Her skin lost the gray hardness of Marcus’ malleable rocklike substance, and she again resembled the marketing professional that had been Stephanie’s friend at Higher Ground—within limits.

The armored, black jumpsuit she wore would never make it any list of professional work wear. Plus, the way she stared off into space would have resulted in a hospital visit or drug test.

She sniffed the air, addressed my boots and asked, “Do I know you?”

Then she fell unconscious, hitting her face on the tiled floor.

Rachel asked, “Does she know you?”

I didn’t have time to answer because I’d started running toward the window that  Art had jumped out of with Jody.

I got there in time to see Art, still carrying Jody, reach the bottom. Haley slid down the side of the tower behind them, pushing off the wall to leap at Art.