Emmett and Lock stood shoulder to shoulder, rifle and fists raised. Emmett stared at the creations of his former mentor—disbelief quickly being replaced by dread. The three exosuits hovered across the hallway, thrusters stirring up the air.

  The armory should have been closed off. How did Midas get access?

  The armory and the Gray Room were Dunamen tech and should’ve been keyed to Dr. Venture. TINA wasn’t sure whether they were keyed physically—to his bio signs or his brain waves—or keyed to him metaphysically through more magical ones. Either way, last month she’d intercepted communications from Midas to Ava Savanus lamenting that they didn’t have access. Savanus hadn’t really cared, but Midas had been particularly upset that his power couldn’t override the security.

  Somehow, Midas had cracked Dunamen security.

  And now he was controlling the exosuits.

  The first suit was massive and took up most of the hallway. The thick, rounded armor made it look more like a boulder than an exosuit. Emmett could just make out seams along the arm and shoulder plates, likely hiding weapons.

  The second exosuit looked similar to Clara’s original exosuit, like a fighter jet molded into a suit of armor. The difference was the weapons—Most of Clara’s kinetic weapons were built into the suit, so they weren’t visible at a glance. This exosuit was bristling with weapons. At a glance, there were arm-mounted rifles and shoulder mounted launchers.

  The third exosuit stayed in the back of the formation. Its armor was jagged, like it had been pulled through shattered glass. Each spike and edge emitted a small distortion field, causing the armor to glisten like a kaleidoscope. At first, Emmett thought it was some kind of camouflage, but the effect was even more pronounced in his infrared and UV vision.

  Emmett stared down three creations of his former mentor. Each exosuit was likely a Class 4 or Class 5 power level. Even though TINA didn’t have access to Dr. Venture’s designs, she could still help Emmett analyze their capabilities on the fly—

  Definitely not ideal.

  Lock asked, “On a scale of one to ten—”

  “We don’t need to win,” Emmett replied. “We just need to run.”

  Emmett let his rifle fall slack and quickly pulled gadgets from his belt. Flares, smoke pellets, noise makers, and a signal jammer—Emmett tossed them unceremoniously down the hall. He doubted that any one of those would slow the exosuits down, but hopefully together they would buy Emmett and Lock a second or two.

  Emmett and Lock dove over the railing and down the center of the stairwell. They hit the ground a breath later and took off running through the fifth floor.

  Lock said, “That guy’s an asshole.”

  “Told you.”

  “Aw,” Midas replied. “Don’t leave yet. Not when the fun’s just getting started.”

  Emmett and Lock ignored him. They sprinted through the fifth floor, destroying turrets as quickly as they deployed. No more blast doors dropped. Midas probably didn’t want to slow himself down.

  They were barely halfway across the fifth floor when gunfire erupted behind them, followed quickly by a hail of explosions. Medium caliber bullets, micro missiles—nothing powerful enough to damage the lab’s foundation. Emmett shunted additional nanites to his back while he ran and ignored the dull impacts of bullets that managed to hit him. The micro missiles were even less of a concern to him.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Lock ignored it all.

  A roar filled the hallway behind them—part train, part jet engine. Emmett glanced back just in time to see the massive, boulder exosuit rocketing toward them. In a fraction of a second, it went from barely visible across the hallway to taking up his entire field of view.

  Emmett leapt high, almost flattening himself against the ceiling, and the boulder-suit tore through the air just beneath him.

  Lock had turned and caught the boulder-suit head, but even he wasn’t a match for it. Lock and the giant exosuit careened down the hallway.

  Emmett dropped from the ceiling, reloading nanite rounds before he hit the floor.

  The jet-suit flew down the hall, guns and micro missiles blazing. Emmett ducked and rolled, staying one millisecond ahead of the jet-suit’s targeting. Micro missiles exploded up and down the hall, each blast sending tremors and shockwaves through the hall. Emmett shrugged it all off and returned fire.

  The jet-suit stopped mid-way down the hall and didn’t bother to dodge. All three shots struck true. Emmett didn’t have a moment to relax, though. He leapt to the side, bouncing off one wall and then the other as he tried to stay ahead of the suit’s targeting.

  Nanites crawled across the jet-suit, trying to find a way to get at its circuitry. Finally, the guns and launchers paused. It might’ve only taken a second, but it was an agonizingly long time in such an enclosed space.

  Emmett felt TINA’s frustration. All Venture’s exosuits would be completely enclosed and sealed to protect from biological, elemental, and psychic attacks. Protecting the suit from nanite attacks was just a byproduct. The nanites couldn’t get inside the armor—

  But they did get inside its weapon systems.

  More weapon systems engaged. Secondary rifles, anti-artificer barbs, spreadgun—Nanites took them all offline seconds after they engaged.

  Midas’s voice echoed through the hall. “You need to learn some more tricks. Bastion, get these damn things off of my suit!”

  A high pitch sound grew from the jet-suit before suddenly cutting out. The air shimmered as the exosuit released an electro-magnetic pulse. Nanites sloughed off of the jet-suit like melting wax. Emmett even lost the outer layer of his ablative armor.

  NANITES 260% CAPACITY

  Down the hall, Lock wasn’t faring much better. Impacts rattled the hall as test subject and boulder-suit wailed on one another. Even from far away, they were almost as loud as the micro missiles had been.

  Emmett was about to turn and fire when the shard-exosuit appeared. It hovered next to the jet-suit, like a shimmering marionette. Despite its fearsome appearance, it hadn’t done anything yet—

  Then it leveled a gnarled metal hand at Emmett. The kaleidoscope of colors grew large in Emmett’s vision until the entire hallway was sparkling with color.

  Midas’s voice came out fast and distorted. “Venture and his damn suits, always making things complicated.”

  The jet-suit flew forward. One moment it was across the hall—

  The next moment, the jet-suit was right on top of him. It leveled a spreadgun.

  Emmett only managed to twist out of the way because of his cognition. He still didn’t get out of the way completely. Pellets tore through his ablative armor, but thankfully didn’t go deeper. Emmett felt like he was moving through molasses. The jet-suit was already turning to fire again.

  The shard-suit was a reality-warper. It had slowed him down!

  Emmett grabbed the jet-suit and coated his feet in nanites. The exosuit turned, trying to target him, but Emmett used its own momentum to push him further out of the way. As the pair spun around, Emmett drew his pistol and fired at the shard-suit, but his nanite bullets moved just as agonizingly slow. The shard-suit barely had to dodge.

  Down the hall, Lock’s battle with the boulder-suit grew feverish and distorted. Lock was getting pummeled.

  Emmett had to end this. Now.

  With one hand still on the jet-suit, Emmett stowed his pistol and drew his rifle. He flattened the barrel and fired. Instead of lancing out, a thin bar of plasma hung in the air. Emmett lashed his whip to the floor for leverage, then kicked. The jet-suit flew backward, cutting itself in half across the still-hanging bar of plasma.

  A second later, the bar exited the warp and fizzled out a few feet away. The two halves of the jet-suit fell to the ground.

  One down.

  ~ ~ ~