Chapter 45—Awake, Alive
Jay
Seeing Aaron so torn up and obviously not himself was probably the most disturbing thing I'd ever experienced. When he awoke from his coma only two days ago, I could tell he was different. Or maybe it was just the fact that I hadn't seen him in over a year—that I had gotten used to him being dead. I had just gotten used to using the past tense when talking about him. And now, here he was, more alive than ever. But he wasn't him.
I had always known Aaron had power—even before becoming a ranger, I knew there was something special about him. Maybe it was the fact that he was partially Eltarian that drew me to him in the beginning, though I somewhat doubted it. When we were younger, though, he excelled at just about anything he could manage to put his mind to; sports came easily to him and he seemed naturally charismatic. Then again, it could have just been that we were young and I looked up to him. Idolization or not, though, I never knew Aaron possessed this kind of power.
He was encased in a ball of rainbow energy that kept fluctuating and humming like a sing-song ocean wave, and the ground was trembling in absolute fear. I felt like the very sky above was splitting, but it was hard to believe it was all because of Aaron. I had seen him at what I thought was his peak—the Eyr Orion—and that was pretty awe-inspiring. But even that had nothing on whatever he was doing. I could hardly keep myself from flying away at the sheer force of his energy. Even Gabriel looked terrified.
As the rays of light began to slowly subside, I moved my arm away from my eyes tentatively. What I saw astonished me.
Aaron's ranger form had been fitted with armor I could barely describe. Where Gaiatech was all angles and straight lines, Aaron's Battleizer was curvy and sharp, but resonant of his original ranger form. His visor had taken on an odd blue-green color, reminiscent of his eyes, and the whites of his armor plating were pristine and scratch free. Golden armaments were carefully placed all around his body, and in the areas where it seemed armor would have been too limiting, golden mail-like material coated his body. I could not find a single vulnerable area on his entire suit, and for a second, I was entirely speechless.
"Now, you will feel the power of the Orion Radiance Ranger," the white suited figure spoke. I refused to acknowledge it was Aaron. My mind just couldn't comprehend it.
Yet, somehow, I felt like I was a part of him. Maybe it was because he had my powers, or maybe it was because he had empathically bonded with me before; all I knew was that I felt inarguably connected. But the connection wasn't like the one I had with Aaron.
"I don't care about your armor, Orion," Gabriel taunted. "You may have the ability to absorb their energy…but just try absorbing MINE!"
With his last word, Gabriel, who had been without his wings temporarily, spread them to their full length and bombarded Aaron with a wave of Cronus Energy. From where we were on the battlefield, I could still feel the immense power Gabriel was emitting. If it hadn't been for Amy and her quick thinking (plus her force field), we would definitely have been tossed off the mountain.
"This is insane," I said, "we have to help him…whoever he is."
"Wait," Beth said, holding her hand out, squinting at the blast zone. "Look."
Sure enough, Orion Radiance Ranger was still standing, as if nothing had even happened.
"Okay…I take that back," I said slowly, "that's insane."
"There's no way that's Aaron," Patrick muttered, "Aaron would never arrogantly take a blast like that."
"Well, like he said a million times: he's not Aaron," Matt agreed. "Maybe we should bail while we have the chance? Aaron, Orion, or Arion—whatever his name is—seems to have it under control. And we have no powers."
"I'm with Matt," Grace chimed in, "if he keeps letting Gabriel unleash blasts like that, we're gonna be bungee jumping down this mountain. Without a bungee cord."
"Doc," Beth finally said into her communicator, "can you teleport us back? 'Aaron' seems to be…occupied at the moment."
"Teleporting now," Doc Ol's voice said back after a few moments.
"Wait," I interrupted, "What if Gabriel gains the upper hand?"
"Are you crazy?" Amy demanded. "Gabriel just unleashed a blast that could have easily demorphed one of us, and it didn't even faze Orion. He just shrugged it off like it was a cool summer's breeze. I don't think Gabriel's getting any sort of hand."
It seemed Doc Ol agreed, because before I knew it, we were back in his basement.
"Can you please explain what's going on here?" I asked as soon as I saw our mentor.
"I haven't the slightest clue," he shrugged. "I had the computer attempt to scan Aaron's brainwaves and…" he motioned to a fried console, "this is what happened."
"So his brain is off-limits to external interference," Patrick assumed, "which means that whatever's wrong with him isn't being caused by Gabriel."
"Maybe Gabriel's the one blocking the scanners?" Matt ventured.
"No, there would be trace amounts of Cronus Energy at the very least," Doc Ol denied. "I've contact Hunter and Dustin on Eltar and they said they are rallying the Fury Team. Ever Eltarian on their planet felt Aaron's power surge, and the Council is far from happy."
"I don't get it," I began, "why are they always so pissy about anything we do? I mean, wouldn't this be a good thing? Aaron's got enough power now to wipe out Gabriel and SPD if he really tried. We could end this thing before it even begins."
"I don't get it either," Doc Ol said, "but I have a feeling it has something to do with why Aaron grew up on Earth and not Eltar."
Just as I opened my mouth to ask another question, Doc Ol's scanners began to go insane, alarms blaring from every console.
"What's going on?" Grace asked, manning a computer.
"A geological anomaly is occurring," her father answered, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "It's originating from Mount Imperious and is having catastrophic effects on the ocean. At this rate, it will cause tsunamis all across the western seaboard."
"It's Aaron," Patrick said solemnly. "He's…he's gonna destroy Mount Imperious."
"No way," Matt disagreed. "Dude's got power, but even Hunter couldn't do that…could he?"
"No," Doc Ol answered.
He brought up a visual of Orion Radiance, who had one foot on Gabriel's defeated body. "This is the end," he was saying.
A ball of energy was forming at the palm of his hand, which was raised into the air like some armored lightning rod. The elements of the world began to react, lightning bolts tearing through the already-destroyed ceiling of the throne room and setting fire to its floor. In the corners of the room, where shadows were cast by the flickering flames, dark energy began to dance violently as it contrasted the beams of light gathering around Orion Radiance's hand. From the floor beneath his feet, earth energy began to writhe up his leg as gales of enraged winds tore the walls away from the throne room. The now-exposed precipice of Mount Imperious was being mercilessly ravaged by Orion Radiance's onslaught of power, and Gabriel, who struggled to free himself, looked utterly horrified.
Finally, Gabriel slipped out from under Aaron's foot, rolling to the side and nearly tumbling off the mountaintop.
"It doesn't matter where you run," Orion boomed, "this war is over."
"Not as long as I live!" Gabriel shouted back, the chaotic whirlwind of power almost too loud for him to be audible.
Orion began to rise into the air, the elements still bending to his will. His body now radiated with energy, the details of his armor now fading under the light as he held his hands out to the side. He lifted his head to the sky and then clapped his hands above his head. From his mouth, his ethereal voice decreed an attack to alter the very face of the Earth.
"ORION STARQUAKE!"
There was a moment of complete and total silence where everything on the planet seemed to still. Doc Ol's sensors went dead, the lights ousted, and the sound barrier felt non-existent.
Then, a vibration rocked the Earth's entirety as everything came back to life. The visual then showed a beam of multicolored light that originated in Aaron's chest shoot up through his hands and into the cosmos, and down through his outstretched legs into two beams that shot right through the Earth itself.
—45—
Mount Imperious was gone. The tsunamis Doc Ol was talking about were gone. Everything on Earth looked completely and totally peaceful—as if my best friend (or something using his body) hadn't just released the most devastating attack I'd ever witnessed.
Aaron, or his body at least, was on the med bed (per usual) as he rested. I wasn't sure whether or not it was appropriate to freak out, but given the fact that he spent more time waking up on med beds than anyone else on the team, I tried to keep some reserve.
Hunter, on the other hand, was not.
"I just don't understand how this happened," he was saying to Doc Ol heatedly. "We took every possible precaution to prevent this from ever occurring."
"You mind telling us what exactly did happen? Cuz we're all a little lost," Grace spoke up.
Hunter sighed and I saw Beth pat him on the back. Did she know something?
"Aaron should never have been born," Dustin said, taking over for Hunter. "Since I'm a male human, I shouldn't be able to give birth. Somehow, though, I did. While you would think that would be cause for celebration," he said bitterly, "the Eltarian Council thought otherwise. They wanted him executed."
"What?" Patrick, outraged, demanded. "Why?"
We all shared his general sentiments, though Beth looked oddly informed.
"Well," Dustin sighed, "it's kind of complicated. Basically, they were afraid of what Aaron would become. Usually, when Eltarians have babies with someone who's not Eltarian, the Eltarian DNA overrides the other set and the kid is an Eltarian."
Hunter took over now, as Dustin seemed to be confusing himself a bit with the details.
"For some reason," the Eltarian King said, "that doesn't happen with humans. Don't ask me why, cuz I honestly don't know. But since Aaron was the first of his kind, the council was thoroughly irritated—especially because Aaron would be next in line to take the throne. They were afraid that he'd either be too weak with his human emotions or that they would drive him into insanity."
"But…Aaron's fine," I said. "I mean, except the autism thingy, right?"
Dustin and Hunter exchanged looks, but one of Hunter's sisters (Nike, I think) stepped forward. "He was. But he wasn't born that way."
"What are you talking about?" Patrick asked suspiciously. "I thought Aaron developed his autism because of his psychic field collapsing at birth?"
Nike shook her head. "Sort of. His psychic field kind of had help."
"You mean it was broken?"
"Andrea and I scrambled his psychic field when he was 2, hoping that if he were unable to focus on his latent powers, that he would never be able to use them."
I thought Patrick was going to pounce on Nike at any second. I didn't completely understand what was going on until Patrick set it straight.
"You're telling me you intentionally fucked up his head? Just to keep his powers hidden from him?" the Green Ranger yelled.
Hunter flared up. "You have no idea what you're talking about, Patrick."
"No, I think I do," he fired back. "You had your son's mind butchered so the Council would leave him alone!"
"NO!" Hunter bellowed. "The council wanted him dead because he posed too great a threat to himself and to the planet. I chose the lesser of two evils—to have him weakened and moved to Earth rather than have him killed!"
Beth now moved between the two of them, black lightning dancing around Hunter's body while Patrick's eyes released small bolts of green lightning.
"You two both need to calm down," Beth ordered, moving the ground underneath their feet to shift them a meter apart. "Now."
Patrick took a deep breath, his eyes resuming their normal grey color. "So what's wrong with him now?"
"We think all his time in the coma allowed his brain to assemble the psychic field, which then exerted his psychic powers, or his empathic powers," Andrea, Hunter's younger sister, answered.
She stepped over to a working computer and inserted a small device into one of the available ports. Instantly, a diagram of Aaron's brain appeared on a holographic projection.
"During the psychic repression, Aaron developed a sort of alternate self that was conscious of every event in his life. Unfortunately, he was pretty bitter about being locked up, not understanding that the power he wielded was dangerous to everyone—including himself. He hated the fact that he was made to look weaker than most Eltarians and that he struggled with the simplest things when, in fact, he was a thousand times more powerful than all of us."
"Wait," Matt said, confused, "I am so lost. Are you telling me Aaron is really two people?"
"Not entirely," Nike said. "Let me see…how can I put this?" She paused and thought to herself, but Dustin beat her to the punch.
"It's kind of like when you study for a test and you memorize everything you need. Then, when you go to take the test, you have a brain fart and you forget everything. Now, some people remember it right afterwards, but some people just completely forget it and never bother to go back and learn it. Basically, Aaron knew he had these powers, but we made him forget. Over the years, we've reminded him to see how he would react, but he never showed any progress of controlling himself…so we kept making him forget."
"That's why he always had to go Eltar," I concluded, "so you guys could remind him."
"Exactly," Hunter said. "It was the hardest thing we ever had to do."
"Well where does 'Orion' come into play, then?" Patrick asked, the anger still obvious in his voice.
"We don't really know. Every time we lift the psychic block on him and call him Aaron, he always tells us to call him 'Orion,'" Dustin said.
"I don't get how you guys were able to keep him calm every time you 'reminded him' of what he was capable of," Grace said skeptically. "Isn't he supposedly like, all powerful or something?"
"He needs time to recharge. Aaron doesn't keep a large enough store of energy in his body to do the things Orion can, that's why he absorbed your ranger powers on Eltar."
"I think I get it now," Matt nodded.
"So what do we do now? Are you just going to wipe his memory again?" Amy asked, her disapproval clear. I glanced at her, and her face seemed neutral enough, though I knew she was blatantly against messing with another person's mind.
"No," Nike said, surprising us all. "Orion's never been active for this long before, and to erase that much memory from Aaron's consciousness could leave him brain dead. He…he's going to have to stay as is."
"Isn't that…you know…dangerous?" Beth asked. "I mean, Aaron attacked us all and willingly drained our powers. With Orion loose, he's too much of a wildcard."
"Not to mention, what the hell do we call him? Arion?" Matt asked.
That earned him a glare from the Zeta family.
"What? I think it sounds kinda cool."
"Shut up, Matt," Grace, Patrick, and Amy chorused.
"Despite the evidence against him, I think he'll be fine," Hunter admitted. "The only reason he attacked you was because Gabriel was messing with his head. If Orion had wanted to destroy you, you'd all be dead by now."
"Comforting," Grace muttered.
Doc Ol nudged her.
"Well, let's look on the bright side," I suggested, "he totally kicked Gabriel's ass! That Orion Radiance Ranger is a beast! It made Gaiatech look like an antique."
Beth glowered at me, but I tried to ignore it.
"I think that may have been a one-time thing," Doc Ol said as he wandered over to his computer. "My readouts indicate the amount of energy needed to fuel a Battleizer of that degree is too great a risk for Aaron to use continually. Not only does it require the use of the Eyr Orion, but it needs all 7 ranger energies and the Gaiatech power, which would impossible in most cases. The only reason it worked this time was because he was able to absorb your powers more than once."
"Yeah," Beth said, "plus, I dunno about you guys, but I don't enjoy the whole empathic draining thing."
"I'm with you on that one," Amy agreed.
I shrugged, but I could still feel Beth's eyes boring holes into my skull.
—45—
"Where do you think you're going?"
Beth turned around, surprised to see me standing behind her.
"How'd you sneak up on me?" she asked, tying her shoes.
"Super speed makes me super quiet," I replied wryly. "Are you going for a long-distance run?"
She looked up at me, her eyes irritated. "Something like that."
"You know, I might not be the smartest in the group, but going to SPD to find Gabriel doesn't really sound like a smart idea."
A crack in her defenses.
"W-what?"
"I don't need psychic powers to know what you're thinking," I said, taking a seat at one of the kitchen stools as she stood from tying her shoelaces. "You want to know if he's alive."
"I know he's alive," she argued back, "I'm just going to bring him back."
"Here? Yeah, cuz that worked out so well last time."
"What do you mean 'last time?' We've never even tried reasoning with him!"
"Except for the time when he attacked you and Mesomorph interrupted. Or the time at the lake when you tried to convince him to come with us. Or about two hours ago when he was too busy trying to get inside Aaron's head."
"Shut up!" she finally yelled. "You don't know him like I do, and if you did, you would actually care!"
"No, you shut up," I snapped back. "Gabe was one of my good friends—hell, if I had known him longer, he'd probably have been one of my best friends. I was there when he died. I watched him die! So don't you dare tell me I don't care, Beth!"
She looked taken aback, and I couldn't figure out why until I realized my cheeks were wet. What the hell? Then I noticed I was crying.
"I…I didn't know," she mumbled.
I wiped my eyes quickly with the back of my hand and sniffed quietly. "Yeah…well…it doesn't change anything. Gabriel's not coming back, Beth."
"You don't believe that," she whispered, "none of us do."
"What are we supposed to do?" I wondered pitifully.
"Look," she said, "I'm sure he's weak from Orion's attack. If we can get into SPD and get him out of Mesomorph's reach, I know I can break through to him."
"How?"
"He's weakest when he's not ascended—that's the time when the Angel has very little hold over him," she said. "Since he ascended in the battle at the lake yesterday (God…was it really just yesterday that we were all at the lake, lounging around with the Mecha Squad?), he must have been re-energized before coming to Mount Imperious. But I'm willing to bet he has to descend in order to heal."
"Yeah, most likely," I admitted. "We should probably get the others if we're planning on doing this."
"You know Doc Ol will say no," she said, shaking her head. "You and I could do it easily, without attracting too much attention."
I hesitated to answer. "Are you sure? I might be a good idea to at least have Grace and Amy—especially since Grace knows her way around SPD and can turn invisible, and Amy can use her Jedi Mind Trick to keep people from reporting us."
Beth blinked. "Did you seriously just say that?"
"Whatever, it's true," I said, "besides, Doc Ol's bound to notice we're gone."
"Not with all this stuff going on with Aaron. He's too busy talking with Dustin and Hunter about SPD's Patrol Morpher production and how it's over 50 morphers a day." She paused and chewed her lip. "Plus, if we go, we could probably take out a morpher factory in the process."
"I'm not going unless we at least take Grace and Amy," I said.
"Ugh! Do you want to rescue Gabriel or not?" she questioned heatedly.
"Yes," I said flatly, "which is exactly why I want us to be prepared. Otherwise, we're walking right into a deathtrap, and you know it."
She took a second to process my statement before she nodded. "You're right…I guess I just got a little carried away. Why don't you go downstairs and see if you can get Amy and Grace to come up here, then we'll explain the plan."
"Alright," I said, standing from the stool, "I'll be right back."
It wasn't hard to get them out of the room, though Matt was endlessly curious as to where Grace was going. Ever since they'd gotten together, he'd become like a guard dog. I had to quickly assure him that Beth just wanted some female companionship so she could talk about Gabriel. He bought it somewhat easily, but then asked why I was following them upstairs. I made up some excuse about using the bathroom and his interrogation ceased.
But once we got upstairs, Beth was gone.
—45—
"She went to do what?" Grace half-screamed.
"Shhh!" I hissed. "Your dad's gonna hear you!"
"Uh, yeah—you say that like it's a bad thing," she said, as if it were obvious.
"Look, if your dad catches wind of this, he's going to flip. Beth has a point about Gabriel, and you know SPD better than anyone—except maybe Patrick. All we need to do is get in, knock him out, and teleport him back. Then we can use the stabilizing field we used on Patrick after he and Zeta split to hold him."
"Yeah, and then what? We ask him nicely to switch sides in a war that his ancestor's ancestors have been fighting?" she shot back sarcastically.
"Theoretically speaking," Amy spoke up, cutting me off before I could retort, "a stabilizing field would neutralize any psychic interference and allow us to talk to Gabriel—not the Angel. If we could do that, maybe we could help him get rid of the Angel altogether."
Grace inhaled deeply before she finally exhaled and agreed. "But we fall back if it gets too messy. Our Ranger Powers haven't recovered fully and we wouldn't last in a morphed battle."
"We'll teleport out of there if things get out of hand," I agreed.
"I can't believe I'm letting you talk me into this," Grace sighed as we headed out the front door and piled into Frankilos.
—45—
We found Beth on the way, thanks to Frankilos' advanced scanners. I could have killed her for running off without me, but luckily, she didn't have much of a head start.
"The easiest way into SPD is through the emergency hatches near the Reefside River," Grace said, pulling up a hologram of SPD HQ schematics and pointing at an underwater shaft. "Once inside, it's a mile hike into the actual compound. There are security cameras all along the eastern tube—I'll take those out while invisible. Once I'm done, Amy will trick the 8 guards that are posted in each cardinal direction into ignoring us. Gabriel is probably below the command center, in the hidden healing chambers. I can use my intangibility to get him out, but I can't bypass the sheet metal that separates the flooring."
"I can handle that," Beth chimed in, "metal is earth, too."
"Good. Amy, you and Jay will keep a lookout while we get Gabriel out, but as soon as he outside of that healing tank, he'll regain consciousness. You're going to have to get inside his head and keep him unconscious. Do you think you can do that?"
"Maybe," Amy said, "but I'll have to use Astral Projection, meaning I won't be able to physically move my body."
"Mr. Wide Receiver, you think you can carry Amy through the emergency hatch tunnel?" Grace asked me.
"No problem," I answered, rubbing Amy's hand with my thumb discretely.
"Alright, Beth, you use the spare sheet metal to make a stretcher for Gabriel, that way we can carry him faster. I'll have to cloak our retreat, but we'll have to stay no more than 2-feet away from me, otherwise you'll be outside of my cloaking range."
"That's a problem," Beth interrupted, "I'll have to move Gabriel horizontally, and he's about 6-feet tall."
"Can't you carry him vertically?" Amy asked. "Just make straps around his body with the metal so that he doesn't fall."
"Good call," Beth nodded.
"Frankilos, you wait by the emergency hatches—inconspicuously. SPD knows what you look like, and if they see you in such close range, they'll either try to capture you or they'll know something's up."
"You got it, boss," my automotive Zordian replied to my orders.
We finished our plans just as we neared the riverfront. It seemed peaceful enough, sun shining brightly on our bodies. We hesitated as we neared the water, though. I didn't do so well with water. Not when I knew I couldn't use my pyrokinetic abilities.
"Amy, can you make a force field to keep the water out?" Grace asked my pink ranger girlfriend.
"Sure, but we won't be able to move—I have to focus on keeping a constant force from pouring in. Not easy."
"I can handle the movement part," Beth said, flexing her fists and causing the ground beneath us to shift into a platform of sorts.
"Convenient," I smiled.
Amy quickly assembled her force field as Beth began to slide us forward into submersion.
I had never noticed how deep the river was until we were 30 feet underwater and still sinking. For some reason, I just always assumed rivers were mostly shallow. This one went down at least another 30 feet, and as I felt my ears pop, I became suddenly wary of the fact that if SPD were to attack us…we'd be defenseless.
"The emergency hatches are at the bottom of the river, about 300 feet due west," Grace said, checking her holo-schematics.
Beth nodded, directing us according to Grace's coordinates. One thing was certain, though; the emergency hatches were obvious as anything. SPD was emblazoned in big, blocky black letters, with large metallic wheel-handles. Unfortunately, they were magnetically sealed.
"Shit," I cursed, "we should have brought Patrick. He could zap these open in a second."
Grace rolled her eyes and dove off the platform, directly into the emergency hatch. When she should have crashed into it, she merely passed right through it.
"Ah, intangibility. Got it," I said, catching on.
Grace's hand extended through the top of the hatch, beckoning for one of us. Amy instructed me to go first, as she had to keep up the force field, and Beth was keeping us afloat on her giant rock. So I grabbed Grace's hand and tried to feel untouchable.
Next thing I knew, I was in a dark, scarcely lit tunnel. Then Beth was standing there, followed by Amy.
"I'll scout ahead and take out the cameras," Grace said. "You guys follow about 30 feet behind me."
We all nodded silently, creeping through the dark, dank tunnel. Everything seemed to echo, and every shadow made me jump. I honestly felt like I was 5-years-old and afraid of the dark again.
"Coast's clear, guys," Grace said, her voice startling me. "I covered all the cameras with a shade cloak, so we've got about ten minutes of cover."
"Won't they notice that their cameras are pitch black?" Beth asked.
"This tunnel's already pretty dark—the cameras are just made to detect a change in the visible spectrum."
"Clever," Amy admired.
Once through the tunnel, Amy did her part to trick the guards into ignoring us, and we headed toward the command center—cloaked by Grace, of course.
"Alright, the command center is usually empty if someone's healing, since the healing tank draws a great deal of energy from the command center. If Gabriel is healing, we'll be able to get in easily," Grace informed us, directing us to tiptoe further.
One we reached the command center, she stuck her head through the door—literally—and scoped it out.
"Coast is clear—Beth, you're on."
Amy and I waited inside the command center, monitoring the camera feeds directly outside, while Beth peeled back the metal as quietly as she could—which turned out to be not-so-quiet at all.
Amy, however, in her genius, put a force field around the conflicting pieces of metal to keep them from screeching, and before we knew it, Beth was inside.
"Get ready for Astral Projection, Amy," Grace yelled up from the healing tank.
Amy sat cross-legged on the floor, closing her eyes as her hair began to sway in an invisible wind. I saw her body become outlined in pink, and then her eyes fluttered open. The entirety of her eyeballs glowed bright pink—almost magenta—as she entered Gabriel's unconscious mind. I literally bit my nails while she did so. I didn't want her running around in his mind—not after what he did to Aaron. I doubted it was a very pleasant place.
Before I knew it, though, Beth and Grace were shadow gliding out of the healing chamber and into the command center, Gabriel on his makeshift metal stretcher.
"Let's get out of here," Grace said hurriedly, "I doubt Amy can keep him under for long."
I quickly hoisted Amy up onto my shoulder like a bag of potatoes, and Grace led us out of the room at a brisk walk. We held our breath as we passed numerous SPD officers, but I nearly shit my pants when we saw Messiah himself come out of the infirmary.
I exchanged worried looks with Grace, who froze in place. Messiah seemed to look directly at us, his reddish eyes narrowing at something in our general presence. Then I noticed that Amy's ponytail was just out of the cloaking range. I adjusted her as fast as possible, but Messiah had already seen enough. He stepped forward deliberately, extending a bandaged hand in our general direction. His fingertips were less than a foot away from Amy's face and I bit my lip so hard I could taste the metallic tang of blood.
"Sir!"
Messiah stopped mid-movement and looked in the direction of the officer who'd called him.
"Sir, the Patrol Morpher output has increased to 120 per day, as requested," said the man.
"Excellent," Messiah said slowly, looking back in our direction.
I moved ever-so-slightly as Messiah swept in a hand in Amy's general direction.
He missed by 3 inches.
I widened my eyes at Grace, motioning for her to move, but she shook her head and pointed to her ears.
He could still hear us.
I looked at Beth's feet—tennis shoes. Then I looked at Grace's.
Heels.
She must have sensed my irritation because she mouthed the word "sorry" and blushed slightly.
Beth closed her eyes, and for a second, I thought she was praying. Then I realized she was doing something else when the ground began to shake.
The SPD officer and Messiah began to quake with the rest of the room, and Messiah diverted his attention to his surroundings.
"Another earthquake, sir!" the officer shouted above the noise of panic. "It must be aftershock from Mount Imperious' destruction!"
That was the break we needed. Grace, Beth, and I took off at a mild jog, dodging the falling SPD cadets and officers and making our way back to the emergency hatch entrances. Grace grabbed a hold of mine and Beth's hands, and Beth grabbed onto Gabriel's stretcher as we all passed through the door and back into the tunnel.
We made it.