Page 20 of Only Hard Problems
The top of the Scarab lumbered forward, as if the machine thought its legs were still attached to the rest of its body, and the two halves started sliding away from each other. I snapped up my hand and used my telekinesis to fling the top half of the broken Scarab into the one standing next to it and then dashed them both into the wall.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Bright gray blaster bolts zinged down the corridor and slammed into the two Scarabs. Bits and pieces of metal cracked off their armor, and the fluids inside the machines splattered onto the floor, the wall, and even the ceiling, like drops of glistening, onyx-black blood.
Asterin stepped forward, still firing her blaster.Pew! Pew! Pew!
More bolts slammed into the two Scarabs. The green glows in their eyes finally dimmed and died, and both troops slumped to the floor like broken toys.
Despite the situation, I grinned at Asterin.Nice shooting.
She must have heard my telepathic thought, because she grinned back at me, her white teeth flashing in a beautiful, vicious expression. Then her eyes widened. “Behind you!”
I whipped to the side. Another Black Scarab lunged forward and rammed its fist into my temple. White stars exploded in my field of vision like a supernova, the intense pain blotting out everything else.
“I don’t have a shot!” Asterin shouted, but her voice sounded tinny and far away. “Zane! Zane, move—”
Her voice abruptly cut off, although more clanks sounded, along with the dim sounds of a struggle. Asterin must be fighting the other Scarab.
I snarled and lifted my sword, trying to blink the stars away so I could help her, but I was too slow, and the Scarab beside me rammed its fist into my temple again.
More pain spiked through my head and rushed out through the rest of my body in a tingling numbness. My legs buckled, my ass hit the floor, and my stormsword tumbled out of my hand. In an instant, I was flat on my back, trying to blink through the stars still exploding in my eyes.
Footsteps sounded. A shadow loomed over me, and Silas’s face swam into view. “Good-bye, Arrow.”
The Techwave leader gave me a dispassionate look, then raised his hand cannon and pulled the trigger.
Green energy erupted out of the weapon and slammed straight into my heart. The blast washed over me, zipping through my veins like an unstoppable current of hot, electric agony, even as that supernova of stars exploded in my eyes again, bigger and brighter than before.
I screamed once, or at least I thought I did, before everything abruptly snapped to black.
CHAPTER SIX
ZANE
“Zane?Zane!”
A voice kept yelling my name over and over, but not in an admiringZane-you’re-such-an-amazing-warriorway. Or in a passionateZane-you’re-such-a-fantastic-loverway. Not even in an indulgentZane-your-shampoo-commercial-is-so-sillyway. No, worry punctuated this voice, and the sound of my own name beat against my ears like a frantic hammer.
I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn’t cooperate, and pain kept zipping through my chest like someone was dragging hot daggers across my skin over and over. All I wanted to do was let go and fall back into the peaceful black void of unconsciousness, but that frantic voice wouldn’t stop shouting my name. Even more surprising was the sensation that flooded my brain, like a cold little pebble was angrily vibrating in the deep, still pool of my mind and stubbornly keeping me awake, whether I wanted to be or not.
My eyes still didn’t want to open, so I reached for my power. In addition to being a strong telekinetic, I also excelled at creating psionic shields, which let me ignore extreme injuries and keep fighting instead of being crippled by the agonizing pain. My shields were some of the strongest among the Arrows, and I could take far more wounds than most before my power gave out and I finally dropped.
I imagined erecting a permaglass barrier in my mind, a clear, sturdy wall with me on one side and all the hot, pounding pain on the other. Slowly, my psionic shield solidified, and the pain died down to a more manageable level of warm throbbing. I also tried to shove that annoying little vibrating pebble behind my psionic shield, but it refused to budge.
I cracked my eyes open, not quite sure where I was or what was going on. To my surprise, I was lying on my side like a battered test dummy in my father’s workshop. Green smoke wafted up off my ruined tailcoat, and an acrid, electrical stench invaded my nose, slithered down my throat, and coated my mouth like I’d just swallowed a handful of ash from a Magma planet.
Ah, yes. Now I remembered. I’d been shot point-blank in the chest with a Techwave hand cannon. Wonderful.
“Zane? Zane!” that voice kept shouting at me.
I opened my eyes a sliver wider. The remaining two Black Scarabs had overpowered Asterin, had grabbed her arms, and were now dragging her down the corridor toward Silas, who was still clutching his hand cannon.
“Let’s go!” Silas ordered, backpedaling all the while. “We need to reach our primary objective before someone comes across the dead Arrow. Bring her. Now!”
He whirled around and jogged down the corridor. Asterin kept yelling and struggling, but the two Black Scarabs easily pulled her along and rounded a corner, and they all vanished from view.
I tried to jump to my feet, but the pain spewed up like red-hot lava against the permaglass wall in my mind, threatening to melt right through my psionic shield, so I slumped back down and rested my cheek on the cool tile floor.