We all bolt in unison down the bridge. As the world around us senses our movement, a thunderous crack sounds from above, and I lift my head to see black clouds forming in between the towers that disappear into the heavens. Lightning forks between them.
One strikes a building ahead of us. It breaks off a boulder of cement from the side of the structure, sending it tumbling down to our bridge. We skid to a halt as the boulder smashes into the middle of our path, blocking us from the tower and scattering debris everywhere.
If Sasuke is the one creating this path for us, then Zero is the one trying to destroy it.
“Stand back,” I shout as I pull one of the sticks of dynamite from my belt. I sprint to the boulder, light the dynamite, and toss it at its base. Then I dart as far back as I can get.
The explosion rocks the bridge and I’m thrown facedown. Stone and dust fly in every direction as the boulder disintegrates into pieces. I squint as I hop back onto my feet and run to rejoin my teammates. As I near them, they emerge out of the cloud of dust to the security bots hot on their trail. Two of the bots are closing in fast.
“Move, move!” Roshan shouts at me, waving for me to keep pace with the others as they run along the cleared bridge. He skids to a halt, his leg sweeping a half circle on the ground as he turns to face the oncoming figures.
His forearms come up in a cross. A glowing blue shield bursts out from it. He lunges at the first figure, shoving it back with all his strength.
The bot goes flying at the impact from Roshan’s shield, tumbling in a crash of metal until it falls from the edge of the bridge and disappears. Roshan brings his arms apart—the single shield reforms into two, one strapped against each of his forearms. He smashes one shield hard into the second running figure.
The hit is so strong that the figure actually crumples, its chest caving in, as it falls onto its back with a heavy crunch.
Roshan’s shields vanish as he brings his arms down and whirls to catch up with us.
As we near the base of the tower’s staircase, it shudders. My gaze sweeps from the top of the tower down to the bottom of the stairs. As I look on, a huge chunk of stone breaks off from the stair base and falls, crumbling into pieces. More cracks cut up along the staircase.
We skid to a halt at the broken base. The intact staircase hangs high over our heads, too far up for us to reach. It will be impossible to climb up this way. As we look on, cracks continue to cut along the side of the tower.
Hammie breaks into a smile at the sight. Where others might see a disadvantage, she sees footholds.
“Can you do it?” Asher says to her. Even as he says it, some of the cracks widen while others narrow, and new ones lace across the stone.
Hammie doesn’t hesitate. “No problem.”
“I’m going with you,” I say, undoing the rope at my belt. I toss her one end of it, and she straps it tight around her waist. “Once we reach the staircase, we’ll drop the rope down.”
“What’s this, another showdown between us?” Hammie grins sidelong at me before she launches herself at the tower. Her fingers dig into the first crack on the wall as she pulls herself up. “You know I’ll beat you.”
“I’ll let you beat me ten times over if we can just keep ahead of this breaking wall!” I call after her, before following in her wake, the rope dangling between us, and start climbing.
Below us, Hideo turns to see the security bots pass where I’d cleared the boulder from our path—they break into a run toward the base of the tower. He turns to face them, pulls out the blade hanging from his side, and twirls it once before them. Asher and Roshan brace themselves, too.
I look back up to where Hammie is climbing a foot above me. One of the cracks she’s gripping suddenly seals back up like a zipper, nearly slicing off her fingers. She lets go just in time and goes tumbling.
I yank out one of my knives and stab into the groove I’m using, bracing myself hard against the wall. The rope between us pulls taut—it nearly takes me with her, but my knife holds, and Hammie jerks to a stop several feet below me. Instantly, she scrambles for the wall again and finds her footing.
I struggle on. The intact staircase comes into view. I inch my way over, then make a giant leap for it. My upper torso hits the stairs, while my lower half dangles over its edge. I grab until my fingers find a solid crack in the stairs, and I haul myself up. Hammie reaches it right after me.
Down below, Hideo lunges at the nearest bot to reach them, cutting its metallic body in half with a shower of sparks.
Hammie loosens the rope from her waist and tosses it down. She wraps her arms around my waist. “Okay,” I shout at them. “Up you go!”
Roshan goes first, followed by Asher. Hammie and I flatten ourselves against the stairs as each of them comes up, pulling themselves onto the staircase. Hideo comes last. He leaps for the rope and barely manages to avoid one of the bots that grabs for his leg. I reach down and take his arm as he makes his way onto the stairs.
We race up the staircase. As we go, the world around us shudders again. Scarlet beacons of light suddenly turn on from the rooftops of the other towers, sweeping across the moving city like prison spotlights. I concentrate on the climb. The steps crack underneath our feet as we go.
Hammie arrives at the top first. The door glows blue around its edges, a startling contrast to its grim surroundings.
She pushes against the glowing door, but it doesn’t budge.
“I think we need a key or something,” she mutters as she shoves herself against it again. We push along with her, but it doesn’t so much as shudder. I look back down at the steps, some of which have crumbled away, and then back at the door. There are two round hovels against either side of it.
Hideo steps away from the door first. “I recognize some of the pieces here.” He nods at the dark marbles hovering in the air, and when I look closer, I notice that they glitter a deep scarlet and sapphire.
Immediately, I know what he means. These are from the game that Sasuke had once made up with Hideo, when they’d gone to the park and thrown red-and blue-colored plastic eggs all across the grass and then raced to retrieve them. When Sasuke had been stolen away. Remnants of that memory are now scattered in here, distorted into a nightmare.
I look back at the door’s two hovels. They’re the slots where the marbles fit, harkening back to how Hideo and Sasuke had once played this game.
“We need to collect them,” Hideo says. “One red, one blue.”
Hammie looks out at the hovering dark marbles. She nods at the closest one, and before anyone can stop her, she crouches against the steps and takes a flying leap off the side, launching into the air in the blink of an eye.
“Wait—!” Hideo starts to shout.
She seizes the closest one to her, twists in midair, and shoves it into her pocket. As she falls, she shoots out her rope and snags it on a crack in the stairs. She swings in an arc down further on the tower, dangling to a stop below us.
“Got one,” she calls up to us.
Every single one of the sweeping red lights suddenly shoots toward us, flooding all of us in a scarlet glow. A deafening horn echoes across the landscape.
This was a trap. The marbles are needed in order to get through the door, but making contact with those same marbles has also alerted Zero to exactly where we are.
“Climb!” Asher shouts down at Hammie, right as we see a whirlwind of security bots cluster at the base of the tower.
Hammie doesn’t waste another breath. She starts pulling herself up the rope as quickly as she can. Roshan darts down the steps two at a time toward her, but the bots are moving so fast that I know they’ll catch up to them before Hammie can get back to us.