Chapter Eleven: . . . and Take
"No!"
He stumbled to a halt, speechless and dumbfounded and unable to do anything but stare.
It stopped. Breach's vortex. It stopped. Somehow the portal could not get close enough to swallow Dexter or keep its integrity. A foot away from where Dexter held on to Ben's jacket, the vortex halted as if it has hit some sort of barrier. Nothing like this had ever happened before. As Rex watched in fascination, the misty red tendrils of broken reality turned an ugly blue shade and the disk of energy flickered a few times before it faded away, leaving Dexter shaken but untouched. Shock reigned supreme on the faces of Providence and Pack alike.
"Sweet," breathed Rex.
"What?" screamed Breach. "That's impossib-aaaagh!"
Her indignation was cut off by a blast of blinding white light that hit her squarely in the back. Breach staggered at the unexpected attack, tumbling to her knees and gasping in pain. She twisted to see behind her. Eyes narrowing in recognition, she savagely hissed, "You!"
"Yeah. Me." Chip Morton fired his Null-Void rifle again, sending Rex diving for cover. Breach barely managed to create a small portal that swallowed the beam and sent it straight back at the sergeant at point-blank range. It struck him square in the chest, slamming him into the wall behind him. She started to laugh, but her mirth faded when he stood right back up, protected by his armor and as mad as a hornet.
With a growl of frustration she gestured again, opening a vortex above Dexter and Ben and motioning it to drop over them in order to steal the redhead away, but once again it dissipated, leaving Dexter and his bodyguard untouched. She lost focus and control when Agent Six came crashing down upon her, smashing the EVO to the floor. Like a cat with a mouse she toyed with him, opening vortexes to catch him, turning him around and dropping him from the ceiling. He never stopped attacking, and she was forced to keep at it until they were moving in some sort of weird dance.
"You're boring," she said, leaping back as Six swiped one of his swords at her. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get a reaction out of him. "Rex is more fu-oof!"
A hard kick to the stomach dropped her. Six leaped and landed partially on her, pinning her with a sword at her throat. Breach glared at the man stopping her, opening a vortex that snapped him and left her free. Morton opened fired again, forcing her to dodge in the limited space until she was struck again in the leg. A scream of pain escaped her as the Null-Void worked to disrupt the nanites that were the source of her abilities. Stumbling to the floor, she made a slashing motion and Morton vanished through a tear in space. Dexter gasped "No!" and tried to move, but Ben held him firmly in place. The would-be kidnapper smirked, pleased to have revealed a weakness in her target.
"Your turn, Dexter," she teased.
"You have to go through me next," invited Rex, putting himself in her line of fire.
Having eliminated two major threats, Breach's confidence seeped back and she climbed to her feet. Still smarting, she nonetheless smiled as she opened a dozen portals close around herself and Rex. She punched into the nearest void, and her fist traveled through dimensions to hit Rex in the back. He staggered, righting himself.
"Cheap shot!" he shouted, his hands turning into huge, mechanized fists. He thrust both arms out into the closest vortexes. One emerged in the air between them, the other forced Breach to dodge. They exchanged blows back and forth, the rules and doorways constantly changing to ensure Rex got the worst of it.
Trapped behind one of the two-dimensional vortexes, Dexter pressed himself against Ben's back and whispered to his friend, "Try to touch it."
Without question or hesitation the brunet obeyed, leaning forward as he reached out to the tear in reality. Moving with him, Dexter clung close and tight, his hand on Ben's upper arm. The view into another dimension was deceptive – it seemed too far away and too deep for Ben to make contact, like trying to reach up and touch a cloud, but as he extended his arm the swirl turned blue and faded to nothing. Beyond the vortex, Rex turned and smiled.
"Nice work. Keep it up!"
"Stop it!" Breach yelled. She stamped her foot, furious at being thwarted. "Stop it! Stop it! You're not allowed to do that!"
Dexter leveled his most lethal glare at her. "I don't answer to you, termagant."
Rex grinned. He wasn't exactly sure what Dexter had just called her, but it was probably safe to say it wasn't a compliment.
Teeth clenched, the EVO growled, "You will! Give and take, Dexter, give and take – and I'm taking you!"
With equal ferocity Dexter hissed, "Try it!"
She swept a vortex at the two teens and it dissipated, leaving them untouched. Again and again she tried, her aggravation turning to rage as her attempts failed. She took her anger out on the soldiers, sweeping them up and dumping them in the docking bay from twenty feet up so that the only ones left in the immediate area were herself and the three teenage boys.
"Give it up, Breach," ordered Rex, though he knew she wouldn't. He backed up, blocking her sight of Ben and Dexter and swapping the Smack Hands for the Big Fat Sword. He leveled the blade at her. "What happened to that FusionFall?"
"I'll show you, if you want."
"Pfft. Right. Where's Six?"
"I sent him away . . . away away. But I gave him a friend." She was recovering her spirits now that she felt she had the upper hand again. She raised all four of her arms. "And now I'm going to send your friends away, Rex. If I can't take Dexter, I'll just take everything!"
He looked up. The ceiling was gone. In its place was a vortex big enough to swallow a jump jet or two. Straining with effort, Breach directed it straight down. Almost instantly it began to bend and warp as it got near Dexter, discoloring and barely holding together. A high-pitched whine filled the air and there was a feeling like a static charge building.
"Wha . . . ?"
"Ben! Get Rex!" commanded Dexter, and Rex felt Ben's hand clamp down hard on his arm.
He stared at the ugly mass overhead. There was something seriously wrong here. "Uh, guys, this isn't supposed to-"
"Stop it!" screamed Breach. She was raving, panicking. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! You're ruining everything!"
Rex had been sucked up into these vortexes plenty of times in the past, but he'd never felt anything comparable to this. Usually movement through dimensions was instantaneous and smooth (except for the landings), but this time it was like being caught in a flash flood. Pure energy smashed into and through him from every angle, throwing him back atop Ben, and sweeping them all away into darkness.