Seeing that prick in that heavy power armor sauntering arrogantly toward them as he went on about breaking a few bones to coax answers out of them, Irelyn set Paige back down and gave her a slight push to one side. Her eyes shifted a bit, taking in the rest of their surroundings. They were in the middle of the ghost village, with more of their pursuers coming to a stop all around them. The man himself was a big enough problem, but he wasn’t alone. There were suddenly somewhere close to twenty armed troops spreading out to take aim at the two from all sides.

  “Or,” he was saying, “you could just make this easy on everyone and start talking right now.”

  “Start talking?” That was Paige, the girl’s voice only slightly muffled by the helmet she was wearing. “You know, I happen to have a… a friend who would take that request as an opening to really start in with the jokes, the insults, the--you’d never be able to get them to shut up, let’s just leave it at that. You really have to be pretty careful how you phrase that sort of thing with them.”

  As she was saying that, the girl slowly walked forward, hands locked behind her head in a surrender position. With the armored man glaring at her, she walked right up to within a couple feet of him before stopping. There she stood, a young woman in a motorcycle helmet and casual clothes, standing almost a foot and a half shorter than the heavily armored man in front of her.

  Much as Irelyn wanted to tell Paige to stop, get the hell back where she was, and draw the man’s attention back to her, she had to believe that her sister knew what she was doing. Paige wasn’t just an ordinary child. Neither of them were, her or Sierra. They deserved to have all the opportunities of an ordinary teenager, of any ordinary person, but they weren’t helpless and she couldn’t just treat them like they were. Especially in this sort of situation. She had to trust Paige if they were going to get through this. No matter how much seeing her standing that close to this piece of shit made her want to immediately put a stop to whatever this plan of hers was.

  There was a very low, humorless chuckle from the man himself. He stood there in that seven-foot-tall set of brown and black armor with the demonic helmet, its glowing orange eyes seeming to go straight through anyone he was looking at. Paige, in this case. His form completely towered over hers in every way. “Well, thanks for the advice, kid. In that case, let me be clear.” He raised one hand, and part of the gauntlet opened up to allow a laser barrel to rise into place, pointed at her from point blank range. The tip of the barrel almost touched her nose. “My name is Battlement. I’ve been following leads to find this place for a very long time. Too god damn long, really. I’m tired of this job. I want to move on and do something interesting again. So if one of you doesn’t tell me exactly where the entrance to the Adherents’ teleportation system is by the time I count to six, I’m going to use this laser to cut your left arm off. Then I’ll do the right. After that, we’ll start with the legs and see how you feel when you’re nothing but a torso and head.” The barrel of the laser tipped down then up again as though pointedly looking her over. “Which, from where I’m standing, would be a real waste, because they are fine limbs indeed.”

  “Ew,” Paige replied succinctly even as Irelyn was judging whether she could go ahead and take the man’s head off with one leap and swing before the troops assembled around them could react. But she gave her sister another chance to keep talking. She was doing something. “And you don’t need to do that. We’ll leap right over all that and tell you exactly where you need to go.”

  “Babe,” he cut in, “if this is just your way of leading up to telling me to go to hell, just get to it.”

  Paige, however, offered a shrug. “Actually, I was gonna say, you should go up!” And with that, her hand snapped out to grab his arm. He was too strong for her to move it at all, in that armor, but she wasn’t actually trying to move it. Instead, Paige used the fact that he reflexively resisted any motion and held his arm very still in order to lever herself up and over his head. The weapon fired, sending a laser just past her rising form as she used his arm as a gymnastics pole to flip over behind the man. As she came down, her hands caught his back. In that brief instant, and only because she knew what to look for, Irelyn saw the interface wires come out of her sister’s fingers, plugging into part of the armor itself. Specifically, into his jetpack. And just as Paige had said, the man immediately went up. His pack activated, launching him far into the sky with a yelp.

  He might have recovered from that quickly enough for his brief trip to not really matter that much. Certainly quickly enough to intervene before all of his troops could be dealt with. But launching him into the air was only the first part. As soon as he was up there, already regaining control of his jetpack, Irelyn was gathering herself. She heard the other mercs reacting, shouting, taking aim, but they didn’t matter. He mattered. They had to deal with the man in charge. That was the biggest threat.

  To that end, Irelyn focused on him. Her empowered leap carried the woman that way, and before he could get himself completely under control, she slammed into him. The force of the impact, combined with his position in the sky and total lack of solid footing, allowed Irelyn to knock the man through the air, away from that spot. The jetpack, still going off slightly, carried them further than her leap could have managed by itself. But eventually they came down, crashing through the trees. He was cursing loudly. Branches snapped and broke around them before he hit the ground hard and skidded away, leaving a deep indentation and spraying dirt in every direction before hitting a boulder that cracked and fell apart under the blow with a sound like thunder. Irelyn had flipped backwards away from him, and landed back on her feet. They were far enough away from his troops by that point that he wouldn’t immediately have backup. Off in the distance, the shooting had already started. The men were shooting at Paige.

  As though reading her mind, before he’d even picked himself up, the armored man snapped, “Good job, now your little sidekick friend--” He got that far before a slot opened up in his back and another barrel extended, filling the air not with a laser, but a wide-encompassing burst of flame. The white-hot fire instantly raised the temperature of the surrounding area enough to be painful even several feet away from where the actual flames were. “--is gonna get her stupid ass killed for nothing!” Not content to simply rely on his fire to do the job, Battlement seemed to anticipate that she would jump over it, so twin gun barrels extended from his shoulders and began to fill the air with a rapid flurry of mixed bullets and lasers. “Cuz we’ll still find the damn teleportation system!”

  Unfortunately for the man’s attempt to trap Irelyn, he wasn’t thinking three-dimensionally. Up and down, after all, weren’t the only directions she could move. As soon as the flame came at her, she did indeed leap away, but she went backwards. She had, after all, been doing this for quite awhile and knew when someone was trying to herd her into a trap. That quick hop carried her a good fifty feet backwards before her feet planted against the side of a tree. While he was still shooting into the air and carrying on, she kicked off and sent herself sideways and forward a bit.

  Rebounding off three other trees in rapid succession, Irelyn sent herself all the way around the man until she ended up almost but not quite directly behind him. The last bounce sent her that way, as she gave two quick swipes of the sword she had snatched from its sheath. The loud staccato sound of his shoulder weapons firing was silenced as the weapons were cut clean off. Irelyn, meanwhile, came down about twenty feet past the man to his left, skidding on her feet.

  Paige would be fine. Despite the man’s words, Irelyn simply told herself that. Getting this guy away from his companions so he didn’t have backup was the best way to deal with him, and making sure he couldn’t help the other troops was the best way of dealing with those guys. Much as she wished she could be in both places at once, she couldn’t. It was impossible. She’d had to choose whether she should focus on him or his goons, and he was the biggest threat. Which meant leaving Paige to handle those guys. She just had to trust that her little sister could do that.

  Maybe some would have said something like that, would have told the man that that supposedly helpless little girl was already picking his men apart. Some Touched would certainly have taunted him about cutting off his weapons, or the fact that he had completely missed her with every shot. But Irelyn just wasn’t like that. She stayed silent, focusing on doing her job. In her experience, that tended to unnerve these people as much as the taunting did, if not more in some cases.

  Unfortunately, the man wasn’t exactly about to surrender just because a couple of his weapons had been cut off. Apparently he still had plenty to go around, judging by the slots that opened up along the side of his armor. A dozen hockey puck-like discs shot out, spinning through the air as they came at her. Irelyn was already launching herself sideways, even as the first disc exploded into a spray of liquid that narrowly missed her. That was immediately followed by three more discs breaking apart into globs of liquid. All sailed past the woman before hitting trees and rocks behind her. As they did so, the liquid instantly hardened into a firm shell against whatever it hit.

  With a couple more quick jumps, Irelyn avoided almost every single one of those pucks. But it was the last one, that final puck, that exploded before she could dodge again. Her right leg was caught in the spray, which instantly hardened and became an almost impenetrable amber-like shell that locked her to the ground. The damn stuff was covering everything from her knee down.

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  Before Irelyn could yank herself free, Battlement used his jetpack to launch himself that way. His armored fist came down, and she barely managed to jerk her head back enough to avoid a direct hit. Even then, the grazing blow across her temple knocked her for a loop. She was even wearing her reinforced samurai-like mask, which was probably the only reason she wasn’t immediately knocked unconscious by the hit. The man was strong. Or his armor simply made him that. Either way, she saw stars briefly, a grunt escaping her as her head was knocked sideways. Yet she couldn’t actually be thrown anywhere with her leg firmly trapped as it was.

  He reared back to hit her again, but Irelyn snapped her sword up into his path. She wasn’t strong enough to actually cut through that armor, but his own swing was. The blade cut deep into the gauntlet, making him stop short before it would have cut all the way through. That was the good news. The bad news was that the force of the blow tore the weapon out of her hand and a sharp snap of his arm sent it flying away to clatter loudly along the dirt completely out of her reach.

  The man barely paused before his fist lashed out again, backhanding her that time. Once again, her armored mask took the brunt of the blow and probably saved her life. But it was still enough to knock most of the sense from her, the pain making her grunt as her neck nearly snapped from the sheer force it was subjected to. Through it all, he was cursing, threatening her, saying things about what he was going to do to her and her sister, even as his fist collided with the side of her head a third time. She could barely think, barely focus on anything, barely remember where she was. Her ears were ringing, vision seeming to fade in and out even as he promised more pain.

  In most cases, getting close to her like this was a bad idea for the person involved. Her stamina draining power would have left him unconscious very quickly. But his armor was shielding him from that. It left the woman somewhat handicapped, unable to rely on one of her main abilities.

  Rather than hit her a fourth time, Battlement closed his armored fist around her throat, cutting off her air as he forced her to look up at his own demonic helmet. He was breathing rather heavily, muttering curses for another moment before snapping, “You think this is fun? You think I enjoy wasting my time beating the shit out of arrogant little girls?” A very brief pause followed before his harsh chuckle filled the air. “Well, you’re right, it’s a hoot. But playtime’s over. You’re gonna tell me what I want to know, or I’ll snap your spine right now and go find the other one. But so we’re clear, I don’t mean I’ll just kill you. I’ll just leave you paraplegic so you can watch what happens.”

  In the distance, both of them heard… explosions. There were explosions happening. The man chuckled. “See, they’re already having fun with that bitch. We better hurry, or there won’t be enough of her left for me to play with. So what’s it gonna be?”

  His grip loosened then, just a little bit as he gave her enough air to actually answer his question. Those glowing eyes were like flames burning right through her, seeming to capture all of her attention, making it all-but impossible to look away while the rest of the world faded into darkness. All that existed were those two orange spots, like glowing embers. A deliberate effect, no doubt, meant for intimidation now that he’d trapped her leg and beaten her nearly senseless. He wanted her to be afraid, wanted her to see only those two eyes and feel terrified of what else he might do to her, or to Paige. He wanted her to surrender to escape any further pain for them.

  With just enough air filling her lungs once more to allow her to speak, Irelyn gave a low, soft wheeze. She breathed in shakily, then out before speaking in a strained, barely audible voice. “You’re right.” After saying that and seeing the way it made his chin rise with obvious arrogance, she repeated just as weakly, “You… are totally right.” Another somewhat shaky and uncertain breath followed, even as she could almost picture his widening smile behind that dark helmet.

  “Playtime’s over.” Those two words, an echo of his own, were very different than her previous ones. The shakiness, fear, and uncertainty were all gone. Her voice sounded completely fine. No, not fine. Angry. She sounded angry, and certainly not as though she was just about to surrender.

  Hearing the sudden and unexpected change in her voice, Battlement reacted quickly, but not quickly enough. His hand began to close around her throat tightly once more. Yet even as he started to do that, Irelyn was already making her move. Which, in this case, meant triggering the laser weapon that she had cut off his gauntlet with that earlier blow, the one that had knocked the sword from her hand. The truth was that she had let go of it so she could catch the laser as it was cut free. The thing wasn't tied into its main power source anymore, but it still had just enough juice in it for one or two good shots even by itself. Most people wouldn't have known that, or known how to use the weapon after it was cut off the armor. But Irelyn had spent so many years training for these sorts of scenarios, which included hours upon hours of studying various types of armor like his. She knew exactly how to find the manual trigger.

  Because she had been doing this for a very long time.

  Irelyn didn't waste what was probably the only shot she had by trying to hit the man himself. It was honestly doubtful that it would actually do enough damage through all that armor to matter. And that was if it would even shoot that way at all. Most of these types had safety measures built in that would prevent their weapons from working properly if they were pointed back at them. Some would even explode. It was just common sense, really. There was really no reason to even try. Instead, when she pressed the manual fire button hidden on the side of the weapon that she had spent the past few seconds finding blindly while he was busy hitting her repeatedly, it was pointed at the hardened amber crap that had been holding her leg trapped against the ground.

  The other thing she had done in those seconds was make sure the weapon was turned all the way up. Which meant the laser cut right through that amber stuff. It would probably have taken her leg along with it, if she hadn't been very careful about where it was aimed. None of that had exactly been fun to focus on while Battlement was punching her repeatedly. Not that that would have been at all enjoyable no matter what else she happened to be doing at the time, but still.

  At the same time, even as the laser was cutting that one leg free, Irelyn was already lifting the other. Before Battlement could finish closing his hand around her throat once more, her foot slammed into his stomach. It didn't break through his armor, but the force of her empowered kick was enough to knock the man away from her. His fingers left her neck as he stumbled backward several quick steps and flailed a bit to catch his balance so he wouldn't fall over.

  By that point, the laser had cut through a good portion of the crap holding her down. With a grunt, Irelyn kicked her leg free the rest of the way. Shards of the hardened amber flew off in every direction. Before the man could recover, she was already leaping that way. In midair, her hand snapped out toward her fallen sword in the distance, as she activated the tech on her glove that summoned it right back to her. As if no one had ever thought about disarming her before. They’d dealt with that problem years ago. Besides, it wasn’t even her only weapon, a fact that was made even more clear as she used her other hand to snap her second, slightly smaller sword out of its hidden sheath.

  Battlement had steadied himself by then, and was straightening back up. But in that moment, Irelyn reached him. Both of her swords came down as hard as she could swing them with the added force of her forward momentum, slamming into and cutting partway through the armor around his neck. There she hung, suspended by her grip on her weapons as they were buried several inches into that armor. She and her opponent were face to face like that.

  Then Irelyn levered herself upward, using her grip on the swords to heave her body upside down. Both of her feet lashed out through that motion, colliding with his helmet with enough force to knock his head backward even more than his blows had done for her. More importantly, and more devastatingly for the man in question, his helmet went flying. She hadn’t been simply aiming randomly with those swords. Those few seconds she had spent up close and personal while he had been hitting her had given her a good look at where the locking mechanisms were, and her swords had cut right through most of them. The force of her kick did the rest of the work, sending his helmet flying and revealing a rather skinny-looking and very pale man with a thin mustache and stringy hair beyond. He almost looked like he could fit inside one of the power armor’s legs.

  Releasing her grip on the swords, Irelyn flung herself into the air and flipped over to land on the back of the armor itself. Her hands grabbed either side of the man’s exposed head, and she focused intently. He wasn’t shielded from her power anymore. Not like this. He cursed, flailed, struggled to break free, and threatened her. But in the end, none of it mattered. He went down heavily, Irelyn barely managing to jump away from the falling armor before it slammed into the dirt with a loud bang.

  For a second, Irelyn stood over him like that, making sure he was really down and out for the count. Then she grabbed her swords, yanked them free once more, and started to move back in the direction of the shooting. She had to get back to Paige. However, after taking a single step, Irelyn paused. A very quiet, almost inaudible sound was coming from the armor. A sound she recognized belatedly. It was the hiss of drugs being administered. Drugs that, given the sound of his body starting to push itself back up, were some sort of special adrenaline. He was rising behind her, moving slowly but steadily, his arm with one of his weapons attached lifting to take aim at--

  With a quick pivot, Irelyn faced the man, arm already extended and hand open almost before she had finished the motion. The man stared at her, clearly confused by the obstruction in the middle of his vision. An obstruction that was her smaller sword, currently quivering from the force with which it had been hurled through the air and into the space directly between his eyes.

  The light went out of those eyes, as the man’s body fell limply to the ground once more. Irelyn took just a second to see that it was truly over, then recalled her weapon and turned to head back for Paige. Just in time to hear another explosion.

  What in the hell was going on back there?

  Joke Tags: I’m Sure Those Are Happy? Positive Explosions? Right?