Chapter 50 The Prototype
"Sister," Kael repeated, tasting the word like a fine wine.
He stepped closer, the amber light of the Earth Shard reflecting off his silver hair. He moved with a liquid grace that was unnervingly familiar. It was my walk. My posture.
I nodded towards him and said, "You're gross. You're a clone." Then I stepped in front of Vane.
"I am an improvement," Kael corrected, raising a hand.
He didn't wear a leather bracer to hide his power: he wore a platinum gauntlet embedded with wires that ran directly into his veins.
"See, Elara, Mom was Prototype One. She was crude. Hardware grafted onto rotting meat,"
He flexed his fingers. Between them, violet sparks danced-but jagged, unstable, and hissing like a welding torch.
"And unlike you," Kael grinned, "I don't need to recharge."
BOOM.
He didn't wind up. He just pointed.
A beam of concentrated violet plasma shot from his gauntlet.
"Move!" Vane shoved me aside.
The beam impacted the gantry where I had been standing. The metal did not merely melt; it evaporated.
"Vane, the Shard!" I yelled, scrambling behind a generator. "Don't let him hit the Core!"
"I'm trying not to let him hit me!" Vane shouted, popping up to fire his dual pistols.
Bang. Bang.
The bullets hit a shimmering energy field inches from Kael's face, flattened, and dropped to the floor.
"Kinetic shielding," Kael yawned. "Boring."
He flicked his wrist. A wave of telekinetic force slammed into Vane, pinning the pirate captain against the wall.
"Stay there, pet," Kael said. He turned his attention to me.
I stood up, my back screaming in protest. The limiter Gizmo installed was vibrating violently as it sensed the massive energy output in the room.
"You are holding back," Kael taunted, walking towards me. "I feel it. That little Governor in your spine. Did you really think you could sneak into my house with a leash on?"
"I don't need magic to beat you," I said, pulling a stun baton from my belt.
Kael laughed. "Oh, please."
He dashed.
He was faster than Ryker. Faster than a wolf. He was a blur of motion.
He grabbed me by the throat and slammed me onto the metal grating.
"I have your memories, you know," Kael whispered, leaning close. His eyes were my eyes, but dead. "I remember the attic. I remember the hunger. I remember Kade."
He tightened his grip.
"And I remember how weak you felt."
My vision spotted. I couldn't breathe. I kicked at him, but he was immovable.
"You have the Origin Stone," Kael said, his other hand going for my chest. "The Empress wants it back. But I think I'll keep it. Imagine what I could do with two batteries."
The limiter in my spine flared hot.
Ache.
But through the ache, something else.
The gravity.
We were in the Core. Kael was using magic, but he was standing on a gravity-stabilized platform.
He is arrogant, I realized. He thinks power is the only weapon.
I couldn't blast him off me. But I could change the floor.
I reached out with my mind-not to the air, but to the Earth Shard pulsing ten feet away.
I didn't try to control it. I just poked it.
Destabilize.
I sent a tiny, sharp pulse of static electricity into the Shard's containment field.
WUB-WUB-WUB.
The amber light turned red. The hum of the gravity engine turned into a scream.
"Warning," the automated system blared. "Gravity field fluctuating."
Kael frowned. "What did you do?"
Suddenly, gravity reversed.
In an instant, "down" became "up."
Kael screamed as he was ripped off me and thrown toward the ceiling. He wasn't wearing magnetic boots.
I was.
My boots clamped to the floor grating.
Kael slammed into the ceiling pipes with a sickening crunch. Vane, who was pinned to the wall, slid up the wall.
"Turn it back!" Kael shrieked, floating helplessly near the ventilation ducts, flailing his arms.
"You have all my power, Kael," I yelled over the alarm, standing upside down relative to him. "But you don't have my brain."
I looked at Vane. He was clinging to a conduit pipe.
"The trash chute!" I pointed to a hatch near Vane's head. "Open it!"
Vane kicked the hatch open. The suction of the chute-designed to eject debris out of the Spire-roared.
"We have to jump!" Vane yelled.
"If we jump, we fall three miles to the slums!" I yelled.
"Better than being dissected by your evil twin!" Vane shot back. "Do it!"
I looked at Kael. He was orienting himself, aiming his gauntlets at me.
"This isn't over, Sister!" Kael boomed, charging a massive blast.
I released the magnetic lock on my boots.
I fell "up" into the trash chute.
Vane let go and followed me.
As we tumbled into the darkness of the chute, Kael fired. The blast scorched the rim of the hatch, sealing it shut behind us.
Sliding in pitch blackness.
"Deploy chutes!" Vane screamed.
"We don't have chutes!" I screamed back.
"Emergency gliders!" Vane corrected. He grabbed my belt and yanked a cord I didn't know was there.
FWOOM.
Stiff fabric wings deployed from the back of Vane's coat. He grabbed me.
We shot out of the side of the Spire, hanging in the open air, miles above the ground.
The wind whipped my face. Below us, the clouds obscured the slums. Above us, the glistening Upper City floated serenely.
"We're alive!" Vane laughed maniacally.
"We didn't get the Shard," I gasped, clinging to him.
"No," Vane replied, steering us toward the lower platforms of the arena. "But we rigged it. I slapped the detonator on the console before gravity went sideways."
He tapped his wrist.
"The dead man's switch is active. Now we just need to get Ryker and get out."
We banked toward the Colosseum.
From up here, I could see into the arena.
The second round had started.
But Ryker wasn't fighting a beast this time.
The arena floor was flooded with water. And rising from the center was a platform holding a cage.
Inside the cage was a woman with white hair.
"Varsha," I whispered.
And standing opposite Ryker, armed with a trident and a net, was a massive Gladiator in gold armor.
"That's the Champion," Vane cursed. "Titan. He's never lost."
We began our descent toward the Gladiator quarters balcony.
"We have to hurry," I said, watching Ryker wade into the water. "If he loses, Vespera kills them both."