Things didn’t exactly start off slow when we walked into that building. With the entire front wall ripped off, about half of the area we were walking into was the entrance foyer, on the right-hand side where a receptionist desk, waiting and sign-in area, and restrooms were. And on the left side were several offices and an employee breakroom, with a small hallway connecting them.

  Since we didn’t exactly have to worry about using a door to get in, we were all able to spread out and enter a few feet apart from each other, just to avoid being all clustered together in a single easy target right as we went in. But as it turned out, it didn’t matter, since they just attacked us all at once anyway. Rather, their defenses did.

  One of several Mirandas and I were going in together, on the far left side closest to that corner.

  No sooner had we stepped in, than a glowing red ball appeared right in front of us. The second it did, I jumped in front of Randi, but let Mountebank take the lead on exactly how to deal with that thing. Mostly because we had an advantage when it came to identifying things in what should be split second moments. Time in my own Archive could go much faster than time out here. So the instant we saw that orb, Story and the others in there were able to take several minutes to identify it, figure out the best defense, and then relay all of that information to Mountebank. All in what, to us, was an instant.

  For his part, Mountebank didn’t hesitate either. He took control as soon as he had what he needed from the others, taking our body right up to the orb in a quick couple steps while it started to flash brightly and give off this high-pitched humming sound. With a thought, he brought one of our blank spell coins to our left hand and used the instant inscription power to put a quick rune right in the middle. The coin was slapped against the orb and held there with one finger while he spat a single, complicated word that sounded like it was Ancient Egyptian or something. Whatever it was, the orb abruptly seemed to pop like a soap bubble, and the coin grew very hot to the touch. Mountebank pulled it back, pivoted on one foot, and threw it back the way we’d come. The coin bounced along the pavement before exploding into a big ball of acid.

  Of course, while we were busy with that, Miranda was dealing with the small swarm of drones that came flying in through the far doorway. The four of them looked like tiny robot (maybe Cyberform?) hummingbirds, but the lasers they fired still packed a punch, judging by the way one of them had totally vaporized the desk that Randi one-hand hurled into its path. Two of the others were caught by the wind orb she sent at them. They were launched into opposite walls when it became a miniature tornado. And the fourth flew around to the side to take another shot at her, but she raised her shield and projected a forcefield from it. It had apparently been upgraded since I’d seen her use it last, since there was no way it could’ve held back a shot like that before. But this time, though it flickered more than a little, the shield actually stayed in place against the impact.

  By the time Mountebank finished throwing that coin back out into the parking lot after it took on the energy from that orb, Randi had already hurled her shield at the first hummingbird drone, and made it ricochet around the room to hit the other three in rapid succession. They all went down, not only from the force of the impact, but also thanks to the electric charge the shield hit them with. It was enough to make the drones twitch a bit where they fell, before they went dark.

  Only then did I finally have a chance to glance around. The room we had come into looked like it had been an accountant’s office at some point, judging by the dusty desk full of spreadsheets being held down by one of those old heavy-duty calculators with the receipt-type paper. Honestly, I was surprised it was still there. Weren’t those things kinda valuable if-- oh shit.

  My staff jumped into my hand, and I snapped it out that way, triggering the kinetic charge at the last second. Just as I did, that ‘calculator’ abruptly opened up, rising partway off the desk as a pair of gun barrels extended. The wave of kinetic force slammed into the thing just in time, knocking it into the air and sending it flipping end over end. It fired about a dozen quick lasers wildly around the room before crashing into the far wall. Before it could fall, and possibly keep shooting, I spat a wad of resin across the room after it, catching the thing and sticking it in place.

  Meanwhile, even as we were fighting all that, the sounds of the others dealing with their own problems rose through this whole front area, audible through the thin walls between rooms. Clearly, these Crossroads guards were prepared for an assault. They had more than enough defenses for all of us at the same time, and no qualms at all about using them right off the bat. Which, I was willing to bet, meant they had plenty more where those came from. Just because we were inside didn’t mean this was gonna be a cakewalk, by any stretch of the imagination. We hadn’t even run into any of the guards themselves yet. Just a few of their automated defenses.

  Miranda left a duplicate behind to make sure those drones didn’t come out behind us, even as we ran through that open doorway to the hallway beyond. Marian, Senny, and Shiori were already there, with Avalon and another Miranda joining us immediately afterward. Together, we all ran from that short hallway to the entrance foyer. On the way, I shifted my staff into its bow form and sent a couple quick shots into the offices across the hall from where we’d come in. Just enough to do a little bit of damage, and make a lot of noise in that direction, hopefully drawing attention there.

  Laein and my dad were waiting in that lobby by the receptionist desk, with that tiger and Cerberus gleefully smashing a bunch of automated security robots (a mix of humanoid and animal) that had apparently tried to ambush them. It was probably something they regretted now, considering how much fun those two were having batting the remnants of the things around.

  Percy, meanwhile, was holding a little black cube that was barely larger than her hands. It was pulsing, sending some sort of energy into her. Whatever that energy was, it made dark lines appear all the way down her arms, and created a sort of sizzling sound. But a second later, the lines disappeared and she was right back to normal. That was Kore’s power kicking in to reset her body to its healthiest state, the whole reason Percy was able to stay in the body forever.

  Apparently the cube had expended itself with that, because it crumbled into dust, before Percy brushed her hands off and turned a bright smile our way. “Felicity, and others! If you see these cubes anywhere else, do not touch them! They are very bad for you. If they touch your skin--”

  Unfortunately, whatever she was actually planning to say next was cut off abruptly, as a golden glowing figure came slamming through the inside wall, flying fast enough to go right past all of us before we could react. The figure caught hold of Percy and flew off with her, out of the building and away from here. One of my ghosts who was still outside with everything else going on there managed to catch a quick glimpse of them disappearing off into another part of town.

  All three of Cerberus’s heads howled, as the big robot dog did a violent spin to face that way immediately. With a series of heavy thuds, he gave chase. There was one Seosten-aligned reptilian figure who happened to be standing in the way out there, but he turned into what amounted to a smear on the ground as Cerberus basically ran right through him. There was nothing that was going to stop that dog from catching up with the Boscher who had taken Percy. The death energy was… yeah, I could taste it even from here, despite not actually killing the guy myself or having anything to do with it.

  Nor was Cerberus the only one intent on going after that bastard. “Percy!” I quickly pivoted, shifting my weapon back to its staff form as I started to run that way too without another thought.

  Before I could get anywhere with that, though, two hands grabbed my arms. One was from Dad, the other Laein. Dad was the one who spoke first, his voice coming quickly. “Flick, no, we can’t go after her right now. We might not get another chance to get to Gaia before they move her. And there’s no guarantee they won’t find a way to block the spell we used to find them this time.”

  “But it’s Percy!” I reflexively insisted, starting to shrug my way free while still partially looking through that ghost’s eyes to watch the last area I’d seen them in. “That’s one of those Boschers, the ones that were hand-chosen to guard this place, who knows what he might be able to do!”

  Laein was the one who replied, in a sharp voice that managed to cut right through the cloud of anger in my head. “And they’ll have more than earned a raise if this distraction does its job, by getting you to leave right now! You think it’s an accident that they flew off with her like that? They want you to chase them, that’s the point. They want you to give them time to take Gaia away!”

  Flick, they’re right! That was Tabbris, sounding anxious. We can’t leave Gaia here, not like this.

  Just as I was starting to react to that, Senny stepped into my line of sight. Her hand caught my shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t worry, we’ve got it, Flick. We’ll go give Percy and Cerberus some backup.”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Shiori, right behind her, gave me a thumbs up. “Yeah, go, we’ve got her!” And with that, the two of them dashed out of the building, becoming a pair of blurs crossing the battlefield out there. Which, shockingly, didn’t make me feel any better about the situation. Somehow, having Shiori and Asenath going after the Boscher that had grabbed Percy didn’t fill me with warm fuzzies.

  Fortunately, I didn’t have to leave them on their own, not entirely. With a thought and a moment of focus, I gathered about thirty ghosts from various positions out there on the field, including the one that had seen where Percy and the Boscher went, and sent them to play backup. Or backup to the backup. Seth was in charge. I figured he’d want to be there, if his sisters were going. Actually, he probably would’ve gone after them anyway, even if I didn’t send him with a group.

  So, I just had to accept that those guys would be the ones helping Percy. It would be enough, it had to be. Shiori wasn’t helpless, and Asenath had more experience fighting real threats than most Boschers. Plus, now she had a copy of all Shiori’s powers to work with. Those two, plus Percy, plus Seth and a couple dozen or so ghosts playing backup? Not to mention a very angry Cerberus, who definitely wanted to rip out a few pounds of Boscher flesh. I had to set aside my desperate urge to be there myself and just let them handle it. Gaia needed me more right now.

  I would say one thing though, I was definitely gonna look into the idea of being able to put one of the Flique into a ghost or zombie body so they could operate at least slightly independently. That seemed fairly useful in situations like this. Or, uh, almost any other situation, to be really honest.

  Dad stayed there in the lobby, to help make sure we could get back out again if this whole thing went sideways. Laein and her tiger would be staying there to cover him. Which meant it was Valley, Aylen, Miranda, Marian, and me heading further into the place. And we had to go quickly.

  On the far side of the lobby was a doorway leading to the main workout room, a large space full of treadmills and other such machines. Just before that, there was another short hallway to the left leading to showers and locker rooms, and a set of stairs leading down to what I was pretty sure was a basement pool, hot tub, and sauna. Meanwhile, back in the actual workout room, there was another set of doors opposite the one we were at. Those seemed to lead to the racquetball and tennis courts, judging by what the couple of ghosts I sent forward could see. Which, while probably nice for the members of this place when it had been open, wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. Gaia, we needed to find Gaia, and the Boschers who were guarding her. And we had to do it quickly.

  Our guards were up as the five of us ran into that workout room. It was a good thing they were, too, because half a dozen more spells immediately exploded on us, while the few scattered (supposed) treadmills that were still there produced cannon barrels, just like that calculator in the other room had. Once again, the Flique were on things, taking the extra time they had to analyze the spells that were going off so they could identify the most pressing issues. Then it was just a matter of letting Mountebank take over. Together, they disabled two of the spells entirely, redirected a third, put up a shield that countered the fourth, yanked Marian out of the way of the fifth, and shouted a warning to Miranda to make her dive right under the last one.

  That still left the treadmill turrets, of course. But the others dealt with those. Within just a few seconds, all of them were down. Which still left me angry, and a bit confused. Why the hell were we still dealing with automated security? There were Boschers in here, Boschers who were supposed to be handpicked to be capable of holding out against an assault. Where were they? So far we’d only seen the one guy, and even that was only for a second as he grabbed Percy and flew off with her! So, where were the rest of these people and why were they hiding?

  Dude, Tabbris quickly put in, they’re trying to wear us down before they show themselves. Why would they let us fight them straight-up before making us waste as much effort as possible first?

  She was right. I knew that. But it didn’t stop me from being annoyed at these people. They had already kept Gaia prisoner for an entire year, and now they didn’t even have the common decency to actually fight us when we came and knocked their front wall down? And then, on top of everything else, when one of them did show himself, it was to grab my friend and fly away!?

  I was just gearing up inside my head to go off on a rather extensive rant about that. But as I did, the voice of another Flique member, Story, mumbled a quick series of curses. I barely had time to wonder when she had switched places with Mountebank before she took control of our hand and summoned a blank spell coin to press right against our forehead. Inscribing a bit of magic on the coin, she triggered it, and I could immediately think more clearly. Which made me realize what had just happened. We didn’t stop all the spells, there was one more in here, a mental curse. It was some sort of spell that made you stand there and dwell on how angry you were, instead of actually doing something useful about that anger. Or something to that general effect.

  Yes, now let’s get the others out of theirs, came the quick response. We moved, jumping over to where Marian stood. She was just there, gazing angrily at the ground like she wanted to punch her way through it. The same went for everyone else too. They were all staring in various directions, clearly angry, but so focused on obsessing over that anger that they weren’t actually moving. This was why those Boschers hadn’t attacked us yet. Tabbris was right, naturally, they could just hold off and wait for us to exhaust ourselves. But they could also let that magic curse leave us standing around doing nothing for as long as possible. Anything to give them time to get reinforcements, or just escape this place entirely, with their prisoner still safely locked up.

  It wasn’t just the anger curse cure we hit Marian with. While Story focused on that, and I kept an eye out for anyone else around us (now that we were moving, the Crossroads guards might just decide to jump in after all), Tabbris summoned a piece of paper to our other hand, inscribing details about how to use the curse counterspell onto it. Then she used a variant of the spell Gabriel Prosser had taught us, the one that pushed information right into someone’s mind. This version had been adjusted by her mother to share information without the sharp pain. Of course, it also didn’t include the bit where you could never forget that information, or have it magically extracted from you in any way. But it was still pretty useful for quickly sharing things like this.

  With Marian snapped out of it, she immediately took the information we’d given and moved to cure Aylen, while I did the same for Avalon. Miranda came next, and finally we were all back to normal. Only then did I realize the doors behind us, the ones leading back to where Dad and Laein were, had sealed themselves shut. And I had a feeling there was something a lot stronger than a bit of wood cutting us off from the front foyer. But it didn’t matter. Laein and Dad would be working on that. The rest of us still had a job to do. Gaia. We had to get to Gaia. This whole thing, everyone fighting out in the parking lot and the surrounding streets, the rebel Committee members distracting the Loyalist ones, all of it, everything, was so we could get Gaia out of here. And, even without the curse spell, I was tired of it taking so long. Fortunately, we could do something about that.

  Looking straight down, I smiled faintly. Because the invisible ghosts I had secretly sent out to search this place had found an area they couldn’t get into. There was a tunnel leading down from the pool area below us, to a place about a hundred feet deeper underground. There were all sorts of shields and anti-Necromancy effects up there. But that was okay. I didn’t need my ghosts to get in that place to know they’d found the right area. Sometimes, just the fact that the security was there said all it needed to.

  “Okay, guys, back up!” I called out to the others, before adding, “Tabbris…” Yeah, I couldn’t help but smile at the next bit, and lament Shiori not being here right now. “... You have the floor.”

  That was when Tabs took over, producing her wings. They emerged in a burst of glowing energy from our back, extending outward similar to the way Avalon’s Phoenix wings had outside. As soon as they were at full extension, the wings erupted with power. A massive blast shot downward. It was carefully aimed, with the aid of those ghosts, to hit the area right around that door they hadn’t been able to get through. We didn’t want to accidentally hit Gaia’s actual cell.

  And with that, we sure as hell weren’t going to give those guys any more time to come up with extra tricks. The instant Tabbris’s wing laser drilled its way through the hundred or so feet of floor, walls, dirt, and rock that had been between us and the actual prison area, we all immediately jumped that way, dropping down through the hole.

  Honestly, I was probably strong enough by that point that I didn’t really need to slow myself down for that sort of fall. But I still used the deceleration side of my rings right at the end anyway, just to make sure I landed smoothly enough to immediately keep moving.

  I expected to land in a tunnel of some sort. But no, it was a brightly-lit, round chamber. The area the ghosts had been stuck in was behind us, now wide open, thanks to Tabbris. And ahead of us was that circular room, a couple hundred feet across. The walls, floor, and ceiling were pristine white. In the center was a tube, with a very familiar figure stuck in some sort of stasis within. Gaia. She was right there.

  And that brief glimpse was all we were given, before something slammed into me from behind. A hand caught my arm and spun, flinging me out of the way. All around me, the others were being hit too. I flipped through the air, righting myself before coming down to skid along the floor.

  That was when I saw who was walking toward me. Two familiar figures. One of them was October. Not the Calendar guy, the Heretic that had been sent to the school by the Committee last year to keep an eye on things. And, of course, the other was his partner, Patrick. These were two of the guys the Committee had decided to have guard Gaia.

  “Okay,” I grunted while straightening up, staff in one hand. In the background, I could see the others all dealing with their own problems. “I wondered why I hadn’t seen you guys in a long time. So come on.

  “Let’s get reacquainted.”

  Joke Tags: Quick? Flick? Take Advantage Of The Distraction From That Resounding Sound Of? "WHO?" That Just Echoed From So Many Readers