For Every Action - The Quantum Mechanic Series Book I

“Holy shit”, Tammy heard Eddie exclaim, “That... that was a tesseract! You just folded spacetime! Oh my G... Holy shit! We... we just crossed an Einstein Rosen bridge! How? How did you?”

“Calm down”, Jacob replied, cutting him off flatly.

Tammy could hear the faint sound of helicopters in the distance and after a moment she slowly opened her eyes. She found herself on the lawn a dozen yards from a massive gash in the earth, and she could see Theresa Vallard kneeling over someone. There was a man with her, but he was so huge that she had to blink twice to convince herself that she wasn’t hallucinating. It looked like Theresa was guiding him through re-seating a dislocated hip and she heard it re-seat with the satisfying sort of “thunk” that was the hallmark of a successful reduction. Then she looked down to see who the patient was - and gasped. It was Director Barnes and he looked like he had been run over by a piece of heavy machinery.

“Oh my God!“, she exclaimed, and ran with Eddie and Elena to kneel next to him, “What happened?”

“We’re not sure.“, the redhead replied softly, “Clark carried me up from level six and we found him hanging on an air conditioning vent.”

Carried? Tammy thought as she turned to look up at the man shaped mountain looming over them. The sight of him triggered an instinctual fear in her, as if she’d suddenly found herself in the presence of a very large, dangerous animal. He had grown so big it was insane! What the hell had happened to him?

“Hey”, he rumbled, and his voice came out in a key so low that it vibrated the bones in her skull, “How’re you doin?” Then Barnes let out a groan and mumbled, “Shtop... thalking Clark... teeth I got lefth... arr gonna rattle out.“, and then he coughed and blood sprayed from his lips. Immediately Vallard reached down and stroked his head to quiet him, “Hush now… Save your strength. The support team is almost here.” But despite her ministrations he grew even more agitated by the second and struggled to say something else.

“Nooo... Med thoppers holding... out thwenty. It’th not... It’th not… over. ”

“Not over?”, Eddie asked, “What do you mean? What’s not over?”

Barnes trembled in pain as he raised his right arm to point at the sky, “Thatellite. Thtill there... Noth… done... thooting.”

“A satellite?”, Eddie exclaimed, “No way man. This had to be some kind of surface to surface missile attack. Nobody could put something that big up there without us knowing, and it’s been like twenty minutes since the last hit. They have to be long gone by now.”

“We did know… cauth it’th... ours... But it’th been hacked... Air Forth forthed it to do a... a reset. Buh… bought uth thome... thime.”

Eddie looked over at Elena, “That can’t be right, can it?” But before she could answer Jacob’s voice came from behind them, “It’s absolutely right”, and Tammy turned to see him staring up into the night sky, “There’s definitely something up there in geosync and I can see at least four projectiles inbound. Looks like a couple are going east of here and the others are coming to finish us off. We’ve got three... maybe four minutes tops before the first one hits.”

“What’s east of here?“, Clark grated and Tammy replied. “The service road. It’s the emergency evac route, but all of the trucks were over there at the motor pool.“, and she pointed towards the still smoking crater. “Anyone who got out would be walking on that road to the east gate checkpoint.”

They all exchanged looks before Eddie spoke to Jacob, “Jesus… This isn’t an attack, it’s an extermination! Can you get them all out the same way you brought us up here?”

“No”, Jacob said as he shook his head, “I don’t know where they are exactly and I can’t fold safely to somewhere I’ve never been. I could end up killing them. The best I can do is get us out.”

Before anyone else could respond, a weak voice came from his arms and they all looked to see Janelle blinking her eyes open, “J... Jacob?“. Tammy went quickly to check on the elderly woman. But Janelle ignored her and spoke to Jacob as he knelt to lay her gently next to Barnes, “What happened?”

“There’s a military satellite shooting at us. Almost everyone got evacuated, but they are walking out on the service road, and we think the next shot is going there. There’s no way they can make it.”

“And Jessica?”

“We don’t know, she’s still down in the lab. But the facility is collapsing. Sallinger stayed to help, but we haven’t heard anything.”

She was quiet for a moment, then she gently reached up to stroke his white hair, “Then it’s time.”

He gave her a quizzical look, “Time? I don’t understand.”

“Time to stop lying.”

“Lying?”

“Jacob Michael Saylor, don’t play stupid with me.”

Jacob sighed, “You knew?”

“Of course I knew”, she admonished him, “You and Aaron went missing for so long… Then all of sudden you both come home and no one will talk about what happened. But you... well, only part of you came back didn’t it? And... the part that didn’t come back got filled up with something… Oscar saw it. He said you’d been ‘touched’. Then the bridge blew up and this... this superman appears to save your little girl? So tell me Jacob... how else could you have been at the hospital? You said you saw it all from behind them... That means you had to be in Kentucky. But all the bridges were gone after that, and you sure as hell didn’t swim to Ohio.”

“Holy shit! I’m such a moron.“, Eddie exclaimed behind them, “How did I not see that?“, but then Elena shushed him.

“OK... Well, it’s all over now anyway. They saw.“, Jacob replied.

“Oh no Jacob, it ain’t over”, she admonished, “Take it from me. I spent my whole life denying what was right before my own eyes. I was too proud to believe in God because then I’d have to admit that there was a power bigger than me, that I wasn’t in control of my life, that I needed help. I thought I survived the drugs and the streets because I was tough and smart. I couldn’t accept that it hadn’t been me, that it had been Him watching out for me. But most of all I couldn’t accept that he could love me in spite of all I had done... I was afraid. So I hardened my heart and I let my Oscar die without ever really letting him in.”

She paused and touched his face.

“But then the evil came to take the only thing I had left - our baby girl. It was in that room with her, hovering. I’d felt that evil before and I could almost hear it laughing while it stole my Oscar away in little pieces. Feeling it again, knowing it was there for her... that broke me. I fell down on my knees, and let go of my pride. I begged God to save her, and he sent Dr Sallinger before the words had finished passing my lips.”

She paused, and closed her eyes for a moment. Then just when Tammy started to get worried, they opened again.

“So it’s your turn Jacob. You have to stop being afraid. Being afraid of what you’ve been asked to do. Being afraid of what you are. You were always destined for something big and we all knew it. You knew it too and deep down it fed your pride. But God had a different plan and it wasn’t what you had in mind - it was what He needed. Taking all that in was hard, I know. But it’s over and now you’ve come up on it... the moment he planned for you all along. Don’t worry, you’re ready. God made you into what he needs and he’s put you where he needs you to be. Right here... right now. So being afraid just can’t be an excuse anymore. You gotta give it up and give it over, or people are going to die. You know it as well as I do... It’s time.”

Over a hundred feet below them, Jessica screamed. The last bolt to rip out of her back had registered off the charts, and the chaotic male voices in her head had returned. Although her struggle to reach the metal supports had paid off, several of her most critical systems had begun shutting down before she could attempt a discharge. The shaking had become like a seizure, and her HUD was sputtering out random messages with bursts of incoherent noise. She fought with everything she had, but there was little she could do without an OS to serve as an intermediary between herself and her technology. It was just too complicated to manage, and the manual fallback controls had never been intended for this kind of abuse.

Then she felt the clashing din of voices began to speed up, merging and rapidly turning into a bone rattling buzz. In less than a second it felt like I drill driving through her head, and with a crack she lost all sensation.

Then everything went dead and in the darkness, a voice spoke.

Do not be afraid.

It was a voice that was not a voice inside of her and it rose up like her own thoughts. But it was distinctly separate... and familiar.

Sheng!

Yes, Miss Jessica. Please stand by for system re-initialization.

Seconds later a reassuring blue terminal appeared in the upper left of her vision, and a massive bootup sequence flooded by. Suddenly her HUD flared to life, and with the exception of her power level readings she had a green board. Her vision and hearing returned, incredibly sharp and perfect. She could feel the cold floor under her, the grit of the dust and debris, the texture of the plastic sheeting. She could hear Sallinger’s heartbeat and breathing, while other voices murmured in the distance. She could smell and taste the smoke, and she had her bearings again.

But most importantly, she felt alive. Alive in a way she had never experienced when she was human. An incredible strength surged through her, and her mind felt clearer and sharper than she imagined possible. If circumstances had been different she might have jumped up and down, whooping from the rush. But for now she settled on a knowing grin and pushed herself up onto her knees.

Sheng. What happened? How are you here?

My apologies Miss Jessica, I did not have time to explain. I have substituted myself in place of your operating system. It was the only option since I know every synthetic cell, every circuit, and every system inside of you. Unfortunately, just as I began the bootup sequence your body took a substantial electrical jolt from a falling power cable. I was knocked offline and your initialization was incomplete when you awoke. I am sorry that resulted in it being so unpleasant.

For a moment she was overcome with emotion and didn’t know what to say or do. If she could, she would have hugged the little Asian man hard enough to break his virtual bones again, but there wasn’t time. She still had a big problem.

Sheng, can you get the generators under control, or just shut them down?

No Miss Jessica. They were jump-started into an out of control cascade when they were hit by the power line, and the surge that created burned out the failsafes. They have begun to approach critical levels, and their being uncalibrated means that any adjustments may do more harm than good. We cannot afford even the slightest miscalculation... there is no room for error.

Shit.

Yes, shit is correct, and there is a larger problem. Long range sensors are picking up four hypersonic kinetic warhead projectiles inbound from low earth orbit. Speed and general characteristics indicate that they were fired from the U.S.S. StarLance Orbital Rail Gun.

Wait.. Why would our own satellite be shooting at us?

I now have access to the military networks, and according to an encrypted phone conversation in the Apex Three communications satellite buffers, the Chinese have taken control of the StarLance.

Oh double shit… How bad is it?

Although the primary support beams have held, the structural integrity of the facility is now compromised. It cannot withstand another impact.

So it’s bad. Really bad… Did everyone get out in time?

It appears that staffing was at a reduced level of approximately one hundred individuals due to the late hour. Forty-three members were evacuated before the strike, and thirty-eight after. Nineteen of the life badges worn by staff can no longer detect heartbeats from their wearers. Due to the destruction of the main gate and road, all surviving personnel are attempting to evacuate on foot via the east service road. But I am also picking up life signs for nine human beings who are on the surface above us. Based on voiceprint analysis, I believe that your aunt, nurse, and doctors are among them. Two others are highly unusual, one is unconscious, and another appears to be critically injured.

Aunt Janelle is up there? Tammy too? Shit, Sheng, we have to do something! We have to get them out of here!

Miss Jessica, at the moment we are a greater danger to everyone than the incoming warheads. We cannot assist them with our generators out of control, and we cannot intercept the incoming weaponry - even you cannot survive a direct hit from a projectile traveling at twelve times the speed of sound. The best we can do is remove ourselves, find a way to reconcile the generators, and re-engage to assist with rescue efforts.

Jessica struggled to her feet.

No Sheng, fuck that. We can’t stop the warheads, but we can sure as hell stop the satellite, and maybe bleed out the generators at the same time.

Miss Jessica?

I’m done with these assholes Sheng. They keep getting away with killing people. People who never did anything to anyone. Moms and dads, kids, even little babies!... NO MORE!

Starting today they pay. If they break skin, we break bones. If they break bones, we break backs. If they break backs... we kill. If they kill... we SLAUGHTER. Every time they do something bad, we’re gonna make sure they pay... and pay so big they’ll never try it again. We’re sending a message today. We’re coming for them and bringing hell with us.

There was a moment of quiet when she finished and then Jessica got the strange, and unmistakable feeling that Sheng was smiling.

Very well Miss Jessica... let us rage.

Fuck yeah Sheng. Prep us for a Hansler slingshot.

Sallinger pulled with all of his strength and for a second he felt his leg move a fraction of an inch. He was drenched in sweat and exhausted, but after a second gathered himself for another pull. Earlier he had been alarmed to see something was happening to the chrysalis where it had flowed over the malfunctioning controller and his prodigal workslate. The surface had begun to ripple and pulsate, contracting down as it extruded tendrils into everything nearby. Spidercrabs had begun swarming over it, furiously cannibalizing the nearby Q-SLAM towers and jamming components into the sagging chrysalis. The moment the materials touched its surface, the micronite infused gel dissolved them.

Across the room, in the corner of the haphazardly tilted observation booth, the holo display of the controller monitoring workstation flared to life. Sputtering in random intervals, it spewed code that flew in random patterns, until a single flickering amber symbol appeared in the center. The remaining arcane symbols flowed towards it, and began orbiting in ever growing circles until a hazy blue terminal blazed into life in the upper left corner.

Sallinger desperately fought to free himself, but only managed to make the weight press down even harder on him. He had to get out. Jessica had collapsed, and he was going to help her or die trying. No more little girls were going to be lost on his watch. No more little angels.

But then something strange happened. He heard... no, felt a strange and powerful note coursing through him. It rose in waves, pulling at his heart and soul, causing them to give forth a great keening. Visions of his wife and daughter came unbidden to his mind and he fell to the floor again, awash in a state of strange meldings between his past and present. He felt the gentle touch of his wife’s hand on his arm during their wedding and it blended with the compassionate grasp of Jessica as she comforted him over the need to amputate her leg. He saw his daughter’s birth blend with lowering the child into micronite gel. Then he watched his wife and daughter drive away for the last time in a hazy cerulean fog the same color as the chrysalis. Tears poured from his eyes and he sobbed as all of the love he had lost and then held at bay came flooding back. He remembered the night he and his wife spent making love not a week before her death and the following day that he and Amber had spent at the zoo.

He remembered... and he suddenly saw clearly the things that he hadn’t wanted to admit. That their deaths weren’t his fault. That God hadn’t taken them away as punishment for his obsession with his work. He could not have stopped what happened any more that he could have caused it. They had died because another person had given in to the evils inside of them, and made a choice that had terrible consequences.

He wasn’t a bastard. He was just a man, a human being... and humans were flawed. His mistakes had not caused anyone’s suffering, even his own. He hadn’t been able to see through his grief to the truth and the subsequent blame he placed on himself was the source of his misery.

Now he had to let it go.

With that the note faded and he was left gasping for air. “What the hell was that?“, he wondered after taking several sobbing breaths to calm himself. But before he could give it any thought he realized that Jessica was moving again... she was alive! Then he watched in amazement and rejoiced as she suddenly righted herself and seemed to be in perfect control. He called out to her again in the hope she could help free him they could escape together. But he got no response as she posed gracefully on her knees and settled into some sort of meditative position. Her Tesla microfusion generators continued to glow white-hot, but under the skin of her back he could now see ArcLight code cascading around them. Three circular ports the size of his thumb suddenly spiraled opened below each of her shoulder blades, and the air began to be pulled through them at a furious rate. He marveled at the power her microturbines must possess, for they swiftly filtered out most of the smoke and dust in the room.

Then she stood with a slow and slightly trembling movement and although he could see that she was in far greater control of herself, her power systems were still malfunctioning. She swayed after gaining her feet, but grew steadier as she squared her stance. Then she carefully raised her right arm, delicate fingers extended towards the thick Titanium alloy beam a dozen feet away, and bellowed in agonizing pain as a massive bolt of energy hammered through her arm. It sizzled from her hand in a blinding arc and struck the beam with a sharp and high pitched singing. Her blood curdling scream of anguish continued at ear-splitting volumes for several moments and he watched her stagger as the bolt coursed into the alloy pillar. But she did not fall and he could see the tremendous willpower it was taking her to stay on her feet. As the energy seared into the beam it began to burn with a white-hot glow, while smaller tendrils of energy leaked away and snaked wildly along the walls. After about ten seconds whatever she was doing finally ended and she bent over, gasping and exhausted with her hands on her knees.

But in the space of a few seconds she was back up again, squaring herself and then repeating the process with her left hand and the other beam. This time the bolt was a reddish-yellow, and the electrical tendrils it unleashed were fiercer. The power expenditure seemed to take more out of Jessica and she went down on one knee towards the end. But then he saw that the color of her generators had begun to dampen and he realized that she was draining off excess power!

So he lifted his head and called out to her again in the hope that in her moment of rest she might hear him. This time he was right and she looked over her shoulder at him as she stood. But instead of coming towards him, she carefully mouthed the words, “I’m sorry”, before turning back to the beams.

Then something happened that made Bertram Sallinger question his sanity.

All of Jessica’s limbs and her torso split vertically along hidden seams, breaking the skin apart into a complex assembly of interconnected hexagonal surfaces. For a second, he glimpsed unspeakably intricate machinery moving in between them. Then they began rotating and shifting while metallic ribbons with mirror-like surfaces exploded from the sides of her upper and lower arms, her thighs and calves, and all along her spine. The shimmering strips whipped wildly around her in fantastically intricate patterns, weaving in and out until she was covered from her neck to her wrists and ankles. Then they tightened and a quicksilver liquid flowed out of every seam, covering her surface until it was flawless and the child looked as if she had been dipped in chrome. Her forearms, hands, shins, and feet suddenly thickened and grew armor before the surfaces of her joints turned obsidian black. Only her head remained human and as she looked back over at him again it transformed as well. Her hairline rose up in segments on both sides until her wild mane of white-blonde hair formed into a massive mohawk. Armored plates slid into place over her skull and a hawkish black visor slid forward to snap down over her eyes and nose.

Then with a small nod to him she stepped between the beams, braced herself, and extended her arms to touch them both at the same time.

Instantly, there was a blinding flash, and a skull rattling, vibratory sound. To Sallinger it felt as if the world’s largest tuning fork had just been struck next to his head... and she was gone. A cloud of fire roared back down out of the breach above the beams, but quickly inverted itself and was pulled back out.

Tears streamed from Jacobs eyes as Janelle finished speaking, and Tammy felt her own cheeks grow wet from emotion. Then after kissing her gently on the forehead, he turned, and what Tammy saw filled her heart with an unimaginable mixture of fear and awe. There was a look of great and terrible meaning on his face as he strode away. It was a look she had seen before, on the half burned face of a determined Marine Sergeant just before he launched himself in a suicide run towards the last of the Corsican assailants. Then an ethereal light began to come from inside of him, flaring out and illuminating the bones within his flesh. In seconds it grew, until his form became consumed with a celestial brilliance that filled their hearts with a mixture of joy and terror. A sound began to accompany the light, rising around and within them, full of hope and fear. To Tammy it felt as if every fiber of her being were poised on the precipice of something so significant that it would bring an end to everything she ever knew and give birth to something greater than she could imagine. Tears burst from her eyes as she and the others fell to their knees and stared in abject wonder.

Miles away, every soul fleeing along the east service road turned to stare in slack-jawed wonder at the light, listening achingly as the note reached in to caress their hearts. Twenty miles further out, pilots, crew, soldiers, and medical personnel aboard a dozen rescue helicopters were caught up in rapture. Had it not been for the autopilot systems onboard, every aircraft would have spun out of control and plummeted to earth. Instead they hung frozen in the air like hummingbirds caught up in the song of angels. Orders and requests for communications fell on deaf ears and the flashing amber warning lights on their instrument panels went unseen. In the back of the last helicopter, Air Force Chief of Staff Andrew Tate sat in a fog of visions, mixing the faces of his precious grandchildren with those of men and women he had lost in war.

Later, it would be documented that on that night thousands of remarkable things occurred for miles around the facility. Debilitating diseases went into remission, deadly accidents were averted, alcoholics lost all interest in drinking, infertile couples conceived, and lifelong enemies lay down their grievances. Many reported having visions or prophetic dreams that brought them moments of insight and great happiness.

Tammy watched as Jacob put about a hundred yards between himself and the others before climbing onto a large chunk of cement. Then he looked skyward and extended his hands before him with his palms up. Instantly, every piece of the destroyed vehicles or other metallic objects strewn across the lawn rose silently into the air. The metal debris bobbed and floated, gradually drawing closer to him as he slowly closed his hands into tightly clenched fists. She saw an intense look of concentration come over his face and the metal fragments began to smolders and compress. Then they all watched in awe as a white heat consumed the floating wreckage, burning away everything until only two substances remained in molten form. Then the molten metal began circling him slowly, merging and splitting into swirling spheres that slowly cooled into dull greys or brassy tones. Half of them moved inward as they orbited, forming into two loose spheres around him, one inside the other. Then the others spread out into a series of concentric rings.

Tammy suddenly heard Elena whispering behind her, “Two, fourteen, eight, two... one, eighteen, eight, two... Oh my God... it’s iron and copper... one atom inside the other...“. But before Tammy could ask what that meant Eddie spoke in a tone she had never heard from him… reverence.

“It’s... it’s a quantum electromagnet... but... but that’s impossible.”

In concert with this statement the rings of Jacob’s construct began to spin in opposing directions, causing a vibratory hum to rise up and they all felt violently nauseous.

“We have to move back”, Elena cried out as she retched, “A field that powerful, there’s no telling what it could do to us.”

So they all worked as quickly as they could. Clark lifted Barnes and cradled him like an infant, while Ginney lifted the protesting Janelle into his arms again. Then they moved as swiftly as they could to the far edge of the lawn before turning back to watch as each of the spinning rings tilted on separate axis. Without warning, massive bolts of lightning came screaming out of the heavens to strike the spinning sphere and Tammy looked up at a darkly boiling sky, filled with red-tinged storm clouds that raced in from all directions. The atmospheric discharge increased until the electrical power pounding into Jacob’s creation became a deafening roar. A blinding light came from it that illuminated everything for miles like daylight. Violent winds whipped at their hair and clothing and Clark was forced to crouch over Barnes and Janelle to protect them from flying debris.

Then as abruptly as the lightning had started it stopped and the ephemeral note that had been playing on their spirits rose to a triumphant climax. Deep inside of her Tammy felt a surge of emotion so powerful that she let out an involuntary cry and fell to her knees again. Then there was a chest rattling rumble so deep it was beyond the scope of thunder and Jacob’s impossible atomic construct began to rise into the air. Up and up it went, creating a hypnotic warping in the air.

Then a brilliant streak of light lanced down from the heavens towards the east. A cataclysmic bolt of death sent by their enemy’s hand. Only it never arrived... and instead warped from its path with a screech of dislocation that made them all cover their ears and streaked into a jarring collision with Jacob’s quantum construct. The light from the impact was blinding and their chests rattled from the force of the detonation. But no shock wave ensued and instead they watched in astonishment as a strange bubble of force swelled out from the blast point. Then Jacob extended his hand towards it and it was pulled inexorably back to be absorbed into his spinning sphere of power. The absorbed energy from the blast sent sizzling blue tendrils of electricity crackling across the sky and the orbiting metal spheres around their mysterious hero picked up speed. Then a second lancet of light pierced through the sky and quickly warped off of its path to suffer the same fate as its predecessor.

Behind her, Tammy heard Theresa call out to Eddie, and looked to see him go quickly to her side. She couldn’t hear what she said to him, but he nodded and knelt to withdraw a small black case from the bags he had been carrying. He stood and opened it and Theresa listened carefully as he began explaining something to her.

Then the unearthly spectacle of Jacob’s defense pulled her eyes back, and she drifted several paces closer to watch. Another projectile pierced the sky and she saw it make an even more exaggerated curve into the sphere. But unlike the previous weapons, this one’s demise barely generated a flicker of light and a distant thud.

“Here come two more!“, Ginney exclaimed a second later and they all watched as Jacob’s form rotated rapidly towards them inside the construct. For a split second his face knotted in even greater concentration, and the warheads swerved in to meet to their destruction. They were followed by two more in rapid succession and then everything fell still. Jacob remained suspended above them, turning slowly to scan the night sky. Then the spinning rings slowed and he began to descend. Within moments he reached the cement block where he had begun, and the metallic spheres slowed their spinning until they fell to the earth like stones. Jacob stood very still for a moment and then turned to step down.

In the distance, the sound of helicopters began to rapidly grow and spotlights raced towards them across the ground. Eddie turned to Clark, Theresa and Ginney, “You three stay with the injured and wave down the choppers to land over here.” Then he looked at Tammy and Elena, “You’re with me, let’s go.”

Jacob was still standing stock still when they arrived, staring serenely into the distance. Not knowing what else to do, Tammy stepped as close to him as she dared, and gently murmured, “Hey, are you OK?... are we OK?” She was frankly terrified of him now and unsure of what he had become. But his response was to look down and give her the same, slightly rakish grin she had first seen after her flashback. The he spoke gently, “Yeah I’m fine. Better than I have been in a long time actually. I’m pretty sure it’s over too. I think that thing’s out of ammo.”

Eddie stepped closer, “Are you sure? How do you know?”

Jacob looked at Eddie for a moment, “Well, I perceive energy in a way that’s similar to seeing and hearing. That’s how I could tell the satellite was up there in the first place. It was giving off a lot of heat, and the projectiles did too when they came down through the atmosphere. But right after that last one hit there was something like the click of an empty gun.”

Eddie gasped, “Are you serious? You can ‘see’ energy?”

Jacob nodded, “Not exactly, but that’s as close as I can explain it.”

But before Eddie could reply they were all suddenly thrown from their feet by a powerful shock wave and a vibratory roar threatened to dislocate their skull bones. Looking up from the grass, they watched as a massive column of fire from the crevasse trailed into the sky after a rapidly dwindling object.

Above their heads, Jessica Saylor’s fury ignited the atmosphere in her wake as she streaked towards star wormwood. Her eyes seethed with rage and deep within her heart gave itself over to the Angel of vengeance.