“Scribe! Arm yourself!” Moonsong called out.

“Scribe!” Tristan called out, his voice louder, because he’d always been loud.

Scribe looked at him.

Tristan pointed at the largest chunk of crystal the unpowered people’s excavation had managed to turn up. Scribe ran over.

Skadi would be the worst opponent for us to face, she thought. We’re a set-em-up, knock-em-down team. Heavy hitting shakers, flankers, and support for the shakers and flankers.

Having control over the battlefield didn’t matter a bit when the enemy could just teleport across it.

Sveta called out, “Antares told us that the Nemean Titan was distracted by the images! I think Skadi is too!”

As if to answer, the Titan disappeared.

Appearing right above them.

Armiger created his shield. The two strikes collided with it, once, twice.

Three, four times.

The shield warped, glowing brighter.

Tristan stood beside her, staring up at the Titan, red lights tracing trails in the air. Past the helmet, his expression was grim.

The Harbinger kid with glasses was pointing, talking to Riveting. Moonsong wanted to believe that was a chance to hope, that they’d figure out a way to do a critical blow.

But they didn’t look confident. If they had, she might even have thought less of them.

Her dad was in the crowd, and as she looked back, her hand moving to give him a wordless instruction, he stopped running, grabbing the sleeves of two others, before saying something she couldn’t hear.

It would be nice, she thought, her inner voice speaking with a calm she didn’t feel, if at least one of us made it through this, so Mom doesn’t end up alone.

“Song!” Tristan called out. “Can you juggle me!?”

“No!” She was almost drowned out as trucks that had been used to bring equipment here, loaded up with people clinging to the sides, roared to life.

He looked at her, “What!?”

She slashed her hand down at a diagonal, in a firm negation, shaking her head, before turning away.

He squared his jaw, renewing his focus on the red lights.

The Titan slammed its axe-hand down, and the shield exploded into a wave of emotion. She could only guess what it was by the emotions that leaped into her chest and took over her body, and her guess was that it was a backwash of fear.

The Titan didn’t flinch in the wave of emotion, and there was no forcefield between it and them, now.

⊙

Tribute was waiting for her when she caught up with the rest of the group, putting her phone away. The call had been made, and they had permission, with a couple of caveats.

“Portal incoming in a few minutes!” she called out. The one caveat.

Furcate waved a hand, acknowledging her.