Dante

  Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.

  --Sun Tzu

  “Got it,” Arden says, her voice tight. I’m certain she’s in there, now, which means I have to get her out, win or lose. Enhanced or not, she’s maybe 15 or 16, and her upgrades don’t seem to extend to being a warrior. Which means this girl is risking her life for everyone else on Earth.

  You don’t give up on people like that.

  I whirl my chain into a blur again, calculating the best moment to launch an attack on the oncoming Dragons, while also using Arden’s mech as cover. That giant distraction is the one element of surprise I have at this point.

  But the Dragons beat me to it.

  As I lean out to sight on the leftmost creature, she twirls into my line of sight and unleashes a narrow, blindingly brilliant beam from her jaws. Green and blue burning straight into incandescence, and heading straight for my heart, too fast to dodge.

  I know, even as I lurch to one side that the Dragon will simply sweep this shaft of power across me and burn me where I stand. A shadow passes over as the light rages forward.

  And then… my world disappears in burning sapphire and emerald radiance. And silver, as my photoreactive contacts close my eyes for me.

  And… I do not burn. Though heat roars around me like a blast furnace, I do not burn and I do not die.

  “Wow that’s hot!” a voice exclaims.

  I blink clear of the silver, hesitating to move as I hear the sound of crackling fire all around me, and my gaze focuses on a form just in front of me.

  Anton. Holding what appears to be a parasail now deflecting the coruscating plasma beam back at its source.

  The Dragon ceases her assault with an enraged hiss as her own power slices into her.

  “Sorry for the holdup, man,” Anton calls out over his should. “There’s an army up top, and your real backup’s fighting it. I was able to slip through because everyone was ignoring me in favor of them.” He nods towards the mech. “And were too scared to follow Hammersmith down the shaft.”

  “What’s…?” I nod to the parasail.

  “Parasail,” he says with a shrug. “Super-reflective metamaterial, superconducting electromagnet. Good for bouncing lasers and charged plasma. Oh, and all over a layer of borophene, so it’s tough.”

  “Stronger than graphene,” I mutter. Okay, the Aspects do pull some impressive tech out of their back pockets, I’ll admit.

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  Anton looks back at me, and his voice drops. “For that first shot,” he mutters back. “I don’t know if this can take a second. But I’d rather bluff than keep taking hits like that.”

  I blink, then nod in understanding. We need to change the nature of the game, or we’ll be ashes. “Does it still work as a parasail?” I ask. “And can you rappel?” My eyes go from the Library to Arden to the great clockwork gears and chains slowly moving in the sky… and in the depths below, out where the city streets have faded into nothingness, and there’s nothing but infinite machinery slowly moving in ceaseless rhythm.

  This may be insane, but finding the high ground isn’t hard when it’s all around us. And when, by its nature, it offers us a way up.

  “Yes to both,” Anton answers with a grin. I think he’s going to like what I’m about to suggest.

  At least one of us will, then.

  I step forward, and hand him rappelling kits, keeping a careful eye on the Dragons wending their way towards Arden. Their exchange of fire with the mech and the whirling spacetime blades hunting them have slowed their progress, but I get the sense of two predators not held at bay, but stalking weakening prey.

  Time to turn the tables again.

  “Let’s go,” I say, grabbing his parasail to help move it. No way I’m leaving this behind. Anton follows. The sail is light, of course, and while semi-rigid, remains flexible. We rush back to the nearest Library entrance and Anton taps a button as I prepare to angle it to get it inside.

  The right and left sides instantly fold in on themselves, and our cover is now just four-feet across and six-feet high. We barely have to tilt it to get it inside.

  We slip into the entrance and keep going. I’m not sure exactly how high we can go in this structure before we risk ending up in Waycross again, or if that’s only possible via the clock tower and the path Arden took.

  I’m also not sure…

  A blinding column of blue-green energy rips through the hall behind us, fortunately on the other side of our collapsed parasail. The Dragons are taking potshots at random, as I suspected they might.

  As long as they don’t hit us, they’re welcome to try. The distraction is the best thing we can do for Arden, until we’re in position.

  I point to a door marked ‘Stairs’ and we run for it. I blurt out the plan as we go. He gives me a surprised look. I get it. It’s a work in progress. But he has nothing else, and we’ll die if we stay predictable.

  Five stories up and we don’t seem to have transitioned to Earth, but aren’t under the clock tower proper, either. I point to a locked roof access and Anton kicks it open. And nearly off its hinges.

  I’d worry about the noise, but Arden and the Dragons are beginning to rumble.

  “Dante?” I hear her voice on the comms, edged with controlled panic. “I could really use some help, here.”

  “On our way, Hammersmith,” I answer.

  Anton and I have our rappelling gear on, multiple sets, actually, and the Circle’s version has a launcher with a nylon line. We fire as one, but at two different targets.

  The line has a sticky grapnel/harpoon on one end, and a handy speed winch on the other to reel you in for emergencies. This qualifies. But the winch isn’t nearly fast enough.

  Fortunately, we each tag a rising chain in the giant suspended clockwork creation surrounding us, and leap off the roof with a swing.

  Anton has his parasail-shield. I’ve just got luck and fatalism.

  I’m saving Arden if I can. No one said it would be safe. Or even possible.

  The Dragons are whirling around the mech, dodging a whole arsenal of attacks from the mech even as blades descend around them. But somehow, without the unpredictable tactics and the surprise that came with them, they no longer seem outnumbered or outgunned.

  Arden, or her combat AI, is doing her best. As we approach, I can see small jetdrones slashing beams of energy across the Dragons’ eyes and other weak points while waves of rocket barrages or plasma bursts hit them everywhere. Foresight is feeding me data through my shades, telling me not every energy in play is visible.

  But the Dragons are lashing out with incredible speed and variations on the plasma they not only breathe, but which seems to course through them like blood. And as we get closer, I can see at least part of the reason Arden is worried.

  Her mech has been taking this battering well, but I can see a thin crystalline shell over her mecha’s exposed surfaces. Something Foresight and I both identify as graphene.

  And it’s breaking up. The titanium steel beneath would have been impressive in a normal fight, or even years ago when she designed this thing as a child. But now the graphene is only difference between glancing blows and being cored with a single shot.

  One drilling a molten hole straight through the machine and taking anything in the way with it.

  She’s shifting her stance accordingly, but she has two Dragons aiming for a growing set of cracks in her defenses.

  We need to change the tempo of this battle, or she’ll be gone before we know it.

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