How do we get past that and communicate with her? Or hurt her?

“What are you waiting for?”

The deep voice cut through the gloom. I traced it to a nearby building. A figure in the gloom.

“If I shot this thing at her, I’d be out of battery at a time it really counted, later. They heal.”

“And it would be entirely to her plan,” he said. “Just like you doing nothing now is entirely to her plan.”

I grit my teeth.

I looked down at him, giving it a second so the night vision could trace his misshapen outline.

HI CHRIS!

“Kenzie says hi,” I said.

He didn’t respond.

“She’s been quiet,” I remarked.

“Tinker inspirations got reshuffled. Makes it hard to work on old projects. She’s probably doing damage control.”

“Or she’s stressed.”

“Damage control,” he snarled the words, annoyed.

“It’s okay to be stressed.”

“Fuck off,” he said, and for a moment, I thought that would be it, and he’d go down the building the same way he’d come up.

A surge in the fighting seemed to thoroughly distract him. He decided to stay and endure me to keep watching it.

“Where are your giants?” I asked.

“On their way. Minus one, to keep your little friend Hunter busy.”

Sveta climbed up the side of the building. I was guessing Kenzie had let the others know. It was harder for Tristan to reach us, though.

“You couldn’t have done anything to help her?”

“Nah,” he said, and that was all he said.

I grit my teeth.

The fighting continued, Legend going all out. Titan Fortuna was taking damage, and she didn’t seem to care.

“The cracks spread soon,” Chris said.

“We’re kind of hoping,” I said.

“No you’re not,” he said.

I could have thrown him off that building if I hadn’t had the gun as an anchor to weigh me down and make my flight more burdensome. He probably would have survived.

“Rain’s in position, we’re ready, I’m shooting if they need something shot, but otherwise I’m prepared to help evac.”

“You’re in position and you’re making your plans, but she’s been positioned to win since the moment she moved,” Chris said. “If the cracks spread, it’s to her design.”

“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine?” Sveta asked.

“It’s going to get some of us,” he said, looking out at the ongoing skirmish. Titan Fortuna still in the background, advancing, letting Ophion open the next stage of the fighting.

“Possibly,” I said.

“It’ll get everyone she wants it to get,” Chris said. “The damage you did? Her design, I’m betting.”

“Maybe,” Sveta said. “We don’t know if she has blind spots around this stuff.”