Kingdom Come reached out with tendrils, groping at the ground and at piles of things. He worked to drag her prosthetic body across the floor, putting himself between us and what looked like a large computer server with cables running into the ceiling above it. Loops of metal bound tendrils together, and more cables and loops bound the tendrils to the body. Only a portion were free.

“Let her fucking go,” I said. I floated closer. A tendril slapped into the ground between us, slicing through the air with a sound like a sword might make.

“Thane,” a crackle of a voice could be heard, from the mess of technology to my left. “Stop what you’re doing, pull us out. Tell Kingdom Come and Blindside.”

Kingdom Come crawled closer to the console, blocking it off.

Rain, scrambling to rummage through the tech, found the device. He pulled it free and hit a switch. He hesitated for a second. “Clarify.”

“Who’s speaking?”

I mouthed the name.

“Kingdom Come.”

Tentacles slapped against the ground.

“We give her nothing. Find your way back.”

Kingdom Come dragged himself closer to the server.

What’s he doing? I floated closer, and tendrils struck out, forcing me to retreat.

How did this happen? Sveta in the center of the room.

I could deal with her grabbing. I’d dealt with it as the Wretch, but she’d been careful to hold, not to strike out. It had been the product of years of work.

Orange motes began to circle her. I didn’t move a muscle, watching. Tendrils reached. Stone trapped them. I saw ‘her’ react, pulling away, pulling tendrils out and through the gaps provided. Others squeezed at stone, straining to crush it. More tendrils reached, even using the stone as a point to grapple and pull herself forward. More stone trapped them.

Others reached out for the server. On the wall, there was a plexiglass case mounted, with wires hooked into the server.

It wasn’t a fire alarm behind that case.

“Shit,” I said, realizing just how they intended to leave Goddess with nothing. I looked back at Damsel and Rain. I saw Rain look down at the bomb that was still at his ankle. The shackle that kept him in prison, currently quiet and black, but so easily it could become death or maiming.

Tendrils snaked in. I flew closer, and tendrils almost immediately shattered the Wretch. Orange lights danced around the tendrils at the case, but it was too late. The light solidified into a hunk of stone, encasing those tendrils, while more lights solidified into chunks of stone that kept Kingdom Come locked into position, unable to crawl away or mount an effective attack.

Still too late. Within that case on the wall, which contained an emergency button that might easily set off every single ankle bomb, I could hear the plexiglass shatter, crushed.

Beside me, Tristan took a deep breath. I met his eyes.