She didn’t even realize I was there until I put my hands on her shoulders. Her head turned, and multiple round red eyes appeared in the dark, focusing on me, some narrowing like an old camera’s shutter. She raised her hand in a small wave, and some of the lenses went dark.

Somewhere in the background, there was a detonation. I could feel it through the water, muted as any sound or vibration would be. It still shook my entire body.

I drew her close, pulling her tight to my side so we might be able to move faster through the water, with less drag. The return hug was bear-hug fierce, shocking after the casualness of the wave a moment ago.

I took flight, heading back the way I’d come. I was a little less gentle with Monokeros, gripping her wrist in passing, wrenching it as I went.

Even approaching the tunnel was a complete change. The debris had flowed in this direction, and with the movement of water from a larger room to a narrower corridor, the churn was worse. It threatened to tear Monokeros from my grip. Byron was still there, waiting.

I didn’t get that far before tendrils gripped me.

Two living people in my arms. I couldn’t use my forcefield or strength.

The tendrils pulled away.

It was always Tristan who had done the hand gestures or motions to accompany the uses of his power. This time, it was Byron moving his arm, touching a mote, and then moving his arm toward the hallway we were aiming to enter.

Ah.

More water, I thought, as the power took hold, motes disappearing. The lines and dots of blue light winked out of existence, plunging us into a darkness where the two still-lit lenses on Lookout’s mask were dots against blackness, rather than anything illuminating. With that darkness came an impact, enough that it knocked the remaining gulp of air from my lungs.

It was cold, so fresh into our reality, and I had to fight the impulse to use the Wretch.

My focus was on the team. I controlled our pace by flying against the flow, tried to keep Lookout and Monokeros closer to the top of the tunnel.

I breached open air, and it was startling, because we weren’t anywhere close to the hole. Water was flowing out and away.

My hand hurt in ten different ways because of the burn and the fact that the water was soaking through the bandage and it was cold enough that it would have hurt on its own, much less making contact with a sensitive injury.

I saw the square hole we’d cut in the top of the tunnel, and I hauled the two up. In the moment I was about to take us up and out, Monokeros jerked her arm free of mine. Waking up, maybe, or—who knew?

Rain was still in the water, half-turned to absorb the flow. He was holding position and holding onto Byron, using his power to keep them both in place as rocks amid the overflow.