Not long, not long, I don't have long…
Jack closed his eyes, felt through his inner universe, and let a star explode.
In the clothes store where seven Choppers were about to meet their end, a bright light bloomed. It grew and grew, and Shade stood out silhouetted against the light, his arm thrown up and hands pressed against his eyes. The light seemed to bleed through him as if he was not entirely there, and when it began to fade, he slumped to his knees and leaned slowly forward until his forehead touched the ground. Shade had been illuminated.
Reaper turned and started back towards Jack, thunder in his eyes.
“Oh, for fuck's sake!” Jenna shouted. She stood beside the fallen Chopper and held up her hands, palms out, in pure despair. “Are you all so stupid? This isn't a ‘who's got the biggest dick’ contest, is it? Jack said it to Breezer—we're all in this together. We've come together and found out something that no one has been able to find out before. Not even you!” She pointed at Reaper then turned her back on him, dismissive. “And the best way to move on from that is…what? More murder? More killing?”
“Stay out of this,” Puppeteer said, and he raised one hand. Jack tensed, ready to do something, anything, to prevent him from hurting Jenna. But right then he could find nothing. Countless stars were around him, but he floated in the deep spaces in between.
“Oh, grow up,” Jenna said.
“That's my girl!” Sparky laughed out loud. “That's my Jenna!”
“Seriously,” Jenna said. She looked down at the woman at her feet, then walked across towards the clothing shop. The Choppers there were gathered against one wall, drawn back from where Shade knelt slumped down on the floor. He had yet to look up, but already he was looking less there to Jack. Fading back to the shadows.
“Can't we lock them away somewhere?” Jenna asked. “Or, like…freeze them, or something?”
Reaper stood on his own in the middle of the street, expressionless, motionless. Jack knew that he could probably kill every surviving Chopper with one shout. But there was something going on behind his eyes that Jack recognised.
His father was thinking.
“Breezer?” Reaper asked after another few seconds.
Breezer shook his head, shrugged.
“I can do this,” Jack said. “Sparky, Jenna, give me a hand. If everyone else can just make sure they don't try anything?”
He and Sparky approached Jenna and the shop, and as they drew close Jack grinned at his friend. She raised an eyebrow and propped a hand on one hip.
“So what are you going to do, Superman?” she asked quietly.
“Just watch.”
Ten minutes later they had split into three groups again, after arranging where to meet to execute their assault on Camp H. It had to be quick. It had to be soon. And Jack knew that his mother and sister's lives depended upon whatever plan they all came up with being a success.
“That was pretty cool,” Sparky said.
“What, locking them in the basement?” Jack and his friends had ushered the Choppers down into the shop's basement, and Jack had melted the hinges and lock mechanisms of the two sets of doors between them and the staircase. They'd break their way out, given time. But Jack's final words to them, telling them that if they did break down the door there would be something waiting for them in the darkness, probably doubled the amount of time they'd stay down there.
They might be Choppers, but they were also people. They valued their lives as much as anyone.
“Huh?” Sparky said. “Oh, that. The doors. Nah, that wasn't cool, that was just heat. I mean you!” He leaned into Jenna and slung a hand around her shoulders, and she giggled like a schoolgirl.
“I've got to admit, you're right,” Jenna said. “I was pretty cool.”