It rose from the ground like a mountain—with a pointed peak and everything—as tall as any building she’d ever seen, stretching to her left and right until it disappeared in a slew of other offices and complexes. There were no straight lines on the structure, nothing flat, nothing symmetrical. Countless odd-shaped windows were scattered across the building’s surface, most of them with lights shining through, but others were filled with dark shadows. Chu’s headquarters towered over her and the other Realitants like a natural formation, a manmade mountain of glistening black stone.

Spanning the several hundred yards between them and the building was a broad expanse of grass and trees. A nice park complete with little streams, bridges, benches, and sidewalks that couldn’t possibly contrast any more with the massive thing that kept it half in shadow.

“That is one cool building,” Paul said beside her.

Both of them were armed with Master George’s strange weapons. The bulky body of the Shurrics were strapped on and pressed against their chest, joystick trigger clasped in their hands. Paul was using his broken arm for that, since all he needed was a finger to push the button. Each carried a leather bag tightly against their left sides, directly under their arm, with a small opening for retrieving the Static Ragers.

“Yeah, it’s cool,” Sofia said. “I can’t wait to see it crash to the ground.”

The Realitants stood in a rough formation, in lines of eight, all facing the mammoth mountain of black glass. Mothball was in front, her head tilted back as she gaped at the top of Chu’s palace so far above. She finally turned to face them.

“Done with speeches, we are,” she said, fingering her Shurric. “Master George got us quite nice and inspired, he did. Are we ready for a bit of battle? Ready to go in there and stop the monster named Chu once and for all?”

Several Realitants shouted their agreement.

“We all know the plan,” Mothball continued. “Get inside and make our way to the studies. Third lower level, section eight. Seen the map, you ’ave.”

Sofia felt a cold pit in her gut, her nerves jittery. An emptiness floated somewhere inside her; she knew what she had to do. If she could actually find Tick.

“I ’spect Chu’ll be sendin’ nasties after us before long,” Mothball said. “Better get a move on.”

Her last word still hung in the air when a great boom rolled across the park, shaking the leaves on the trees. Mothball turned around sharply and Sofia rose on her tiptoes to see what had happened. Another boom shot out, then another. Several more in rapid-fire succession. Soon they were almost indistinguishable from each other.