While Dayton’s strength, speed, and reflexes blew away a normal person’s, Jody was in another league.

Dr. Nation’s system for triggering improvements and latent powers had worked for Dayton. I’d seen figures ranging from 30-50% when Dr. Nation showed me the results. For that matter, Dayton’s mimic ability had become more flexible over time.

Instead of mimicking movements exactly, he could adjust them for his own build and strengths without thinking. He’d even reached a point where he could analyze a fighting style on the fly and anticipate moves he couldn’t do.

So, he wasn’t totally outclassed, but maybe 50% outclassed?

I released another killbot with orders to hide until it had a realistic chance to drill through one or both of Jody’s knees or heels.

I didn’t want to become casual about maiming people, but Alex wasn’t far away.

Somehow noticing my distraction, Rook said, “What are you… Oh. Look at that. Someone’s about to die.”

Then Rook fired both open-barreled arms at me, one ahead and above, the other ahead and below, and not enough room in between to go straight through.

Though I’d never have been able to notice it myself, my implant recognized it from the angles of his arms, and I had time to throw the inertial dampers to full, kill my momentum to almost nothing as the blasts passed ahead of me, and kick the rockets back up to speed.

Rook fired as I shot forward, but the move had thrown him off, and all of his shots missed.

I, meanwhile, had turned sideways, firing my lasers at him, but also turning, and simultaneously telling the remaining three killbots I’d launched to take him out.

Also at about the same time, Rook’s series of shots hit the wall and ceiling behind me, shattering chunks of concrete and creating a rain of pieces large and small.

One of my lasers hit him in his armored torso, bouncing off into a multi-colored sparkling light. I wanted to ask him how he’d done that since his black, bird-themed armor wasn’t particularly reflective, but suspected it wasn’t time to talk shop.

By then, I’d shot past the section of wall where I’d felt the portal, had to turn or hit the end of the room, and had to turn again to avoid hitting Sean’s giant ball of metal and minions.

Up close, it reminded me of a bunch of ants climbing on top of each other, the minions trying to fly out, but being pushed back inside by the metal bits.

While having to keep that up in the air, Sean wasn’t going to be much help in this fight. Well, aside from making it winnable by occupying most of the potential combatants.

Rook didn’t stop firing at me, and while he continued to miss, he also continued to be close, hitting whatever was behind me, including the giant ball of rotating minions.

Whatever. If he wanted to shoot his own followers, he was hurting himself.

I was more worried about Dayton.

At that thought, my implant showed me a burst of information on what I’d missed.

Dayton had said, “Jody, you know you don’t want to kill me. Tell your implant to accept data from me. It’ll help you get free. You can do it.”

I‘d been too busy to investigate implant-to-implant attacks, but Dayton must have taken a second because my implant identified what he was trying to do.

Xiniti had tricked Abominator implant slaves to accept attacks before. It was easiest when they shut down their protections. The alternative was knowing enough to hack into them or a physical attack, if you let your implant create the necessary systems in your body.

Dayton didn’t have the background to hack in. He might be willing to accept the necessary modifications to save Jody, but then he’d have to get close.

That was the past that flashed through my vision when I thought about Dayton. Before my eyes as I checked, I saw Jody’s eyes flash, hitting Dayton twice. Data from his suit showed that neither had gone through, but that wouldn’t last.

Dayton didn’t have a Rocket suit. He had a standard League suit that hadn’t been optimized for him. I’d set the parameters to be similar to Haley’s, which was close enough.

To my shock, Jody’s next few shots missed as Dayton zig-zagged in a pattern that made no sense to me, but must have been extrapolated from Jody’s shots at me and Dayton’s years of knowledge of Jody’s patterns of movement.

I couldn’t leave my attention there, though, because my killbots were closing in on Rook and hit him, all three burrowing through his armor and then exploding.

Pieces of his armor exploded off him, exposing… his body, and not the insides of it either. Though scorched, his skin was unmarred except for pock marks where the killbots exploded. It also wasn’t human skin. No longer pink or soft, it appeared to be rigid with a bluish-green tinge.

Rook laughed. “I knew you’d upgraded again, and I knew I couldn’t defeat it through software this time, so I went another route. I told my implant to give me skin that would blunt your bots’ blades. Oh, and did I hear you have Abominator implants? I have a command implant. Prepare to serve me!”

In that moment, my implant reported, “Intrusion attempt repelled. Counterattack to command implant begun.”

Rook bent over, more bits of armor falling off him as he screamed something unintelligible. I gave the rockets fuel and dove toward him, unsure of what I’d do, but confident I didn’t want to waste the chance.