Tick had been thrilled when he noticed Sato and his Fifth Army come marching through the broken door, many of the soldiers holding Shurrics, those deadly weapons of sound. Sato disappeared from sight—he was shorter than the Voids standing outside—but the heads of people of the Fifth Reality rose above the creatures, and their faces were mixed with awe and excitement. Not much fear.
All of the Voids had opened their mouths wide, fire raging within, their faces slightly angled toward the ceiling of the passage. Their arms were rigid at their sides, stumpy fists on the ends, wilted wings hanging off their backs. A low groaning sound came from the rear of the pack, like the roar of an airplane’s engine as it started up.
The whole scene reminded Tick of a standoff in an old Western movie, and he didn’t like it one bit.
“Mistress Jane,” he said. “If you’ve got some advice, now would be a great time to share it.”
The robed woman stepped forward, seemed to assess the situation for a few seconds, then turned to face Tick. Her mask had no expression, but the roaring, growling sounds were getting louder and louder.
“I don’t know how to fight this kind of power,” Jane said. “The Fourth Dimension has obviously taken my creations and turned them into a weapon of some sort.”
She’d barely finished her sentence when one of the Voids in the front row ejected something from its mouth—a beam of pure flame, fiery and steaming, like a spout of lava shot from a hose. It flew up, then out, then came down and headed straight for Jane’s head.
Chapter 26
Ragers and Squeezers
As Tick dove forward, his shoulders smashing into the side of Jane and tackling her to the ground, somewhere in the back of his mind, he was aware that once again he was saving a person who’d devoted her life to doing evil things. No matter her intent. They crashed to the ground, and Tick felt a hot streak fly above him, almost enough to singe the hairs on the back of his neck.
He rolled off Jane in time to see the short stream of liquid fire sail past the rest of the crowd and hit the wall on the other side of the stream. Instead of splashing like lava, the fire sparked and burst into tiny explosions, crumbling some of the stone. Chips of rock rained into the water. But the weapon—or whatever it had been—left no trace, evaporating into the air with a puff of steam.
Jane and Tick jumped back to their feet, and everyone faced the Voids. Their mouths were still open in firing position, but none of them were doing anything just yet.
“Could it have been a warning?” Tick’s mom asked. “Is there any way we can talk to them? If they’re really from—”
“They are from the Fourth Dimension,” Jane interrupted. “And talking to them would surely be a waste of time. I can’t imagine they think like us, talk like us, see the universe like us. Our comprehensions of the Realities are probably as different as those of a spider and a redwood tree.”
“Or more like a human and an ant,” Tick murmured. “Maybe we’re nothing more than something they need to step on.”
Jane shook her head slowly back and forth. “We need to kill them, plain and simple. Atticus, prepare yourself. Pull in your Chi’karda, boy.”
Tick felt a rushing behind his ears, his heart thumping. He turned to Mordell and made sure he avoided eye contact with his family. “Take . . . please take my mom and sister somewhere safe. Please.”
“Atticus Higginbottom!” his mom said, planting her feet and propping her hands on her hips. “We can do just as much—”
Another one of the Voids shot a stream of flame and lava from its mouth. The fire sliced through the air toward the wall then curved, swinging around to head for Tick’s group. Everyone collapsed to the ground—Tick yanking on his mom and sister’s clothes—just as the deadly cylinder of bright red and orange flew over them and splashed into the wide stream next to the passage. Sparks and shoots of fire went everywhere as the water boiled and hissed for several seconds. Then it ended.
Tick grabbed his mom and looked her in the face. “Let me do this, Mom. You need to keep Lisa safe. Let me do this!”
Another burst of fire and lava came shooting through the air. This time it was Lisa who shoved Tick and his mom out of the way. The fiery stream slammed into the floor where they’d been lying. Sparks showered onto Tick; he swatted them off his shirt and stamped out the little fires around him.
“Mom!” he yelled. “You have to go! Jane and I can fight them off!”