Prentkos raised an eyebrow, “What is this fixation on kidneys?” Taking my eyes off the tower, I replied, “I’ve been told they’re an efficient way to kill people.” Ray nodded. “Unless your skin’s too tough to get through, you’ll bleed out pretty quickly to a well placed knife wound. It’s efficient and it works about as well on supers as the rest of us.

Ray didn’t need to shout at first. He’d pointed the tower out. All I had to do was aim toward it and dodge the perspective-wrenching sections of building that jutted out, made a twist, and seemed to be either on the ground or in the sky or, more often than not, both at once. I flew toward a distant walkway only to find out that it was close and below me, flew under a bridge over a lake that was also a walkway over a castle, and found myself at the foot of the tower.

“Technically,” I added, “it’s less his than Colette’s or whatever Dominator he’s using, but he’s behind it.” Ray dropped his hands to his sides, but continued to take slow breaths. “Magnus tried to teach me something like that. He powered me up somehow and said that learning how to control energy would help.” He turned away from me, eyes flicking around, probably to check for threats.

I couldn’t argue with him, but if I had to bet what Ray’s orders were, I’d have bet that they were to kill or delay us. That meant that we needed to take him down. The problem would be coordinating with Prentkos. If Ray had Izzy’s hearing, he’d hear everything and Prentkos didn’t have a League communicator. Then another thought struck me.

Ray didn’t land close to us. He gave himself 20 feet—which meant that that was as much as he thought he needed. It had been years since he’d died, but I still remembered him. As the leader of the Executioners, he’d excelled in planning on how to take down superheroes and their families—families first to increase the stress and emotional pain.

A human shape appeared between me and the light, stepping into it and disappearing. I followed, noting that the collapse behind me was definitely getting closer. It was maybe 50 feet behind me now. I gave the rockets full power, feeling the speed increase and like I’d left my stomach behind. The collapse followed, growing wider, if that were possible. At first, it had only seemed like a tunnel was caving in, but after I accelerated, I saw chunks of something falling, hitting the ground(?), shattering, or bounding forward in my direction.

It would be tempting to imagine that I was pushing a lever, but this wasn’t mechanical. As I touched it, I knew what I was really doing. I was providing power to open a portal, while simultaneously drawing power to replenish my strength from the life support systems, and equalizing pressure, momentum, temperature, and other factors through subsystems in the device.

“Great,” I said. “How? Do you have a password or cheat code or something?” Lee laughed. “Cheat code? Are you thinking the test Kee set up works like a video game? There are parts that might, I suppose, but no. This is real. I can tell you which parts of the control system you need to manipulate to get through the test.”

“You know what I showed you? If you can keep on doing it, from what they said, you can wipe yourself clean of a dominator’s commands. Also, I’ve got a device that can block Dominators’ commands—up to a point. If you’re facing more than ten or maybe five, I’d run away and throw rocks at them from a distance.” He began to laugh.

The scene froze, leaving Prentkos, Colette, and Magnus standing within the circle, caught in a moment where none of them were looking each other in the eye, a picture without much visual appeal. Spark asked, “Do you want to see more? There’s no more conversation except for Colette giving the command. Instead, they disappear, and I’m not allowed to show you where they reappear.”

“You can’t tell me unless you’re in my presence? Why? Because he told you not to tell?” The picture of Prentkos in my mind frowned. “I,” he said and paused. “I can’t say… It’s difficult. I know the Nine has me. His assistant—the blond woman who’s with him—she talked to me, and I can’t repeat anything she said.” “His assistant,” I said.

I reached out to the systems that surrounded me, trying to figure out what I could use. Though I couldn’t say that I was a massive X-Men fan, I remembered Cerebro from the comics. It was a device that allowed telepaths (or maybe just Xavier) to detect mutants. This wasn’t the same thing, but for Artificers. I knew this because I connected with it, specifically with its systems.

Using the model I’d made of the space, I followed the trail of whatever the CDPS was detecting in my head. It originated near three different spheres in a cluster. With a glance toward Spark, I flew toward the cluster, guessing that by the time I got down there I might be able to sense something. With my rockets firing, it didn’t take long to reach the spheres, all three glowing.

I’d expected the primary thing I sensed to be empty space or perhaps distant hints to chase, but that wasn’t what I found. This place pulsed with energy. The Core device kept these worlds alive. I didn’t know what was in them, but I could sense energy traveling to each one and a smaller amount of energy leaving each sphere.

“Wait,” I said, adjusting to that information, “what was he doing with them? Are you saying he brought them through to train them or to use them as guinea pigs to test the system?” I looked over the faces. There were at least ten or fifteen people. “Both,” she said. “You both can bring guests, but you’ve been taught what you are and trained to begin to use your abilities.

Meeting my eyes, she continued, “That’s not all. A new owner has the option of flushing everyone who’s entered in between owners from the system or selectively allowing specific entries.” “Oh,” I said, realizing as I said it what that meant. “So, if Magnus were to gain control, he could wipe everything that’s happened in the meantime, but he could also allow the specific entries that led to him controlling the system.”

Grandpa wore the late 50s and 60s version of the Rocket suit. Giles Hardwick wore the final version of his costume—red with a lightning bolt under an arch decorated with hieroglyphics. He’d always been fascinated with Egypt. Captain Commando’s blue costume with a US flag on it echoed Cassie’s, or more accurately, vice versa. Grandma wore a white jumpsuit, which seemed closer to skintight than I imagined for that era.

She shrugged. “My apologies. I have to follow the rules set out for me by the system I exist within. I think you’ll understand what that means and how to work within it.” “I get it,” I said, and I did. You’re a thinking being, but you’re also a program running on a kind of hardware, not so deeply integrated into it that you can reconfigure every piece of it at will.

The fall felt both endless and instantaneous. Darkness surrounded me, and it went on forever, except for the glowing opening to the room I’d left. As the opening and the portal on the other side grew larger, I saw myself in the Rocket suit flying out of nowhere toward the portal. We were close enough to collide as I fell into the space, and I wondered if I’d screw all of it up.

I don’t know how long I talked. He’d ask questions on human culture and sometimes small details about Lee or Kee’s actions or statements. When I did remember them, he’d nod slowly as if it meant something to him. I couldn’t be sure that was a good thing. He’d found the story of The Thing That Eats particularly interesting, both because I’d been able to tap into Lee’s power when creating a sword and because of Amy’s spear.

I could hear nothing. I could see nothing. Even the Artificer connection, the in-between space Artificers and Ghosts used to communicate across interstellar distances, was quiet. I sensed only motion, and that it was downward. It may have lasted only moments, but it felt longer. I checked my suit’s CDPS (Cross-Dimensional Positioning System) stats and found nothing. Zeros showed in every box where it didn’t instead say, “Error!”

Melisende’s expression changed, her smile widening. “Nick, I didn’t expect to see this version of you ever again. I know you told me I would, but with alternate universes, it’s not that simple.” It was still Melisende’s voice, but the accent had changed. Amy’s held a hint of the Florida woman whose blood she’d used to learn English. “Amy? This is so weird.

Darkness surrounded me, and I felt myself drop. I knew the feeling from my lessons with Kee and from just a second ago—I was changing universes again. Except that I then received another communication, this one from Hal. A rainbow glow surrounded me again, yanking me somewhere new as the connection with maybe-Govan ended with him saying, “What is this?”

The presence of Artificers pervaded everything. Though the Ghosts might have confused my senses, I doubted it. The Ghosts remained unnoticed unless they wanted to be. Artificers, except for Lee, Kee, and other members of the Live faction, had no reason to learn stealth. Too powerful to be threatened by most beings, they emanated power without hesitation. I sensed them on both sides, even from within the Rocket suits.

Okay. I knew when I was and where I was. Next problem? Getting to Mars or Earth and getting back home. I might make it to Mars, but given that something had smashed a space station and burned enough of the planet that I could see the damage from space. Artificers or one of their creatures would be able to do that.