Mana washed over the city in a wave. Where it went, power died. Lights flickered and went out while vehicles and machines sputtered before grinding to a halt. Even the sirens were not spared by its passing.

  Within a minute of the waves' passage, the world fell into silence. Not one of peace and tranquility, but charged with the potential for death and destruction. Then, the silence was pierced by an alarming number of monstrous roars.

  With the roars came the cries as people broke out of their stunned stupor. Feet glued in place, I watched as the people below battled to get away from the walls. To get closer to the center of the city. Powers flared as people shoved, tripped, and blocked. Anything to buy themselves a few more steps. To reach safety just that much faster than those around them.

  I didn’t even try. There was no point. I didn’t have any way to keep ahead of the pack. I only had my knowledge and training on how to repair the things brought to me.

  Sure, I could have broken out my little project, but whatever creature generated another wave would just shut it down. Maybe for good. That wasn’t something I could risk. And if I got out of this, it was something I needed to address.

  “What is going on out there?” I nearly jumped when Bert spoke. He should have left. Jumped from my building to the next. Using the roofs themselves as his personal highway for as far as he could. “Why isn’t the wall firing? Where are the guards?”

  “Whatever took out the mana circuits throughout the city must have taken them down.” It was a rough guess, but something in my gut told me I was dead on. “I am sure the guards are trying to regroup and strategize on how to take down everything. But you should go. Get somewhere safer before it is too late.” The shove I gave his shoulder did little to move the muscled idiot.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I told you that I would keep anything from getting to you. I might as well start now.”

  Multiple bright flares of mana erupted from the center of the city, pulling my attention away from Bert and toward the sky. A squadron of empowered with a method of flight zipped through the air. Breaking off to head toward different targets.

  Of all the people to watch, Pyron, aka Leonard Pierce, was by far the most spectacular. Unlike most fire empowered, his flames were a light blue that almost blended in with the cloudless sky. But don’t let the near invisibility of it fool you. None of the other pure fire users came close in terms of heat, let alone power.

  The dot that was his body came to stop above one of the sources of smoke. He stood in mid-air for a second, seeming to do nothing. Then, a ball of bright white and orange light shot toward the ground.

  The sound of the explosion rattled the windows of the stores below a moment before the shockwave hit. Some of them shattered, unable to take the repeated abuse.

  Judging by the way mana bombarded me, he wasn’t the only one to attack his target with overwhelming force. The sound of crackling lightning, explosions, and other attacks reached me moments after the waves of mana and just before the air filled with several different odors.

  It was a mixture of burnt flesh, ozone, dust, and the sharp, clean scent that a decent-sized mana discharge left behind filled my nose. Any one of which would have caused me to sneeze a few times. All together they sent me into a sneezing fit. I lost count of how many times after twenty. Any time they stopped and I took a breath, the smell would just set me off once again.

  As focused as I was on trying to breathe between each sneeze, I didn’t notice when Bert picked me up and raced to the ladder. My only hint as to what was happening came in the form of weightlessness as he dropped through the hole.

  He didn’t stop there. He raced along the hallway and into my room, where he tossed me onto my bed. The world compressed to a dot as the bouncing and sneezing combined in a not-so-great way. But, thankfully, the sneezing subsided before that could happen.

  My vision expanded as my lungs raced to pay the debt my body had accumulated. “Still having issues with dust, I see.” Bert oh so helpfully pointed out.

  “No duh.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “You are going to have to figure out how to deal with it before we head for the academy.” God, what was with this guy and pushing this?

  “I am not going to the academy.”

  “Why not?”

  “It is too dangerous to…”

  “Go outside the city walls.” I narrowed my eyes at him as the smile on his face grew. He was up to something. “It looks like it is just as dangerous inside.”

  I knew I wasn’t going to like what he said. “I am sure this was a one-time thing. The last time we had a breach was before we were even born. I am sure it will be just as much time between now and the next breach.”

  My pad gave off a shrill beep. A moment later, the same noise emanated from Bert’s pocket. Given that the various devices in my room were still off, the fact that the pads were even on was interesting. Enough so that we both silently agreed to table the discussion for now as we pulled out our pads.

  Instead of my normal home screen, the words Backup Circuits and Emergency Power rolled across the top of the screen. The only icons visible were the ones for the phone and for sending messages. Which meant it was in safe mode. Given what sent it to said mode, I was going to have to open it up and fix it later.

  Still, even with its limited capacity, the device was working. I debated calling my parents. To make sure they were safe. But was it safe to do so? What if my call distracted or even called attention to them? My need to see if they were safe might be the action that got them killed. I couldn’t do that.

  A second, much less obnoxious squeal filled the space as a notification filled the screen.

  All monsters have been neutralized.

  City breaches are now secure.

  Technicians are already working to restore mana circuits throughout the city.

  All off-duty government and military personnel are to report to their assigned stations.

  Volunteer fighters are to call in for their assignments.

  If all the monsters were neutralized and the city was secure, why would they need all the people who could fight to report in? Then again, maybe they just meant that the monsters were isolated in a section of the city they didn’t care about. Somewhere without any person with the semblance of importance.

  Still, even if that was true, there had to be something more going on here. It couldn’t be the wall. Sure, it was down, but that would be the first thing they got back up. They would also break out some of the really old machines that didn’t use mana and stagger them along the wall. Just until they could figure out how to stop such a pulse from knocking everything out.

  Heavy boots smashed against the stairs moments before I heard the front door smash against the wall. Before I could make a move toward my door, it nearly came off its hinges as something forced its way through. That something smashed into me, driving me right back into the bed as it tried to crush me to death.

  My arms flailed ineffectively against whatever it was as I tried to force it off of me. “Thank god. Thank god.” It took too long for the repeated words to break me out of my fight or flight response. Not that it was doing me any good.

  “Mother?” She shouldn’t be here. Not when the meeting area was near the train station. A place nearly a third of the way around the outer edge of the city.

  “When I heard the alarms,” the words came out broken. Almost like she had to force them out while holding back the storm of emotion that I could practically feel. “All I could think about was you. About how you were alone and defenseless.”

  “But neither of those things is true. Not only was Bert here, but you know what the little project I had been making can do.”

  “He didn’t tell us when he would be here. Just that he would see about stopping by sometime today.” She loosened her grip on me enough to allow her to pull back and get a look at my face. “As for your little project. Sure, it sounds great on paper, but there is a difference between that and reality.”

  I had to admit, she wasn’t wrong on that. So many ideas looked great on paper, only to either fail when it came to implementation or the results were not quite what the designers expected.

  “I was going to test it today anyway.” My mouth got the best of me. I didn’t even realize what I was saying until the words were already coming out. Still, it wasn’t like I could stop it now. Too much had been said already. “So what if that test was in the field rather than a safe area?”

  The smack came fast and caused me to yelp. “Eli Manuel Richardo Tazlin,” Bert let out a soft whistle at my mother's use of my full name. “I taught you better than that. Never go into battle with any untested equipment. That is the fastest way to die.”

  “I would listen to her son.” My father called from the main room. “That being said, why don’t we go ahead and get that fixed. I am sure the place is still open.”

  “Most of the city is still without power.” Bert jumped in. Something told me the two of them told him my plans. Likely in case he didn’t find me here.

  “That is fine. Most of the places on Main Street have backup systems.” Her smile was wide as she released me and zipped out of the room. “Let me grab all the testing equipment from my workstation. Henry, go ahead and grab the unit.”

  “Got it.” The sounds of the two as they gathered everything filled the silence. As for me, I groaned at what was likely to be a spectacular bruise by tomorrow. My mother needed to learn that not all of us had empowered healing like Dad.

  Neither Bert nor I spoke as we made our way out of the house and toward the street. Hands full, both of my parents met us there. With a nod, my dad took the lead, and we were off to see if my design would do what it was supposed to. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted it to work. After all, it would be just another reason they could use to send me to the academy.