So, we sat and paced around that room talking through everything together. And boy was it a treat to be able to actually talk about this stuff with people. Sure, it wasn't like they instantly had all the answers. Honestly, everyone else was basically as freaked out about the situation as I was. Even all of us together didn't stand a chance against Casura in a straight-up fight. She was completely out of our league.

The good news on that point was that it wouldn't be just us for long if this all went sideways. Rubi had let Caishen know the general points about what was happening, so she could have Ten Towers on alert and ready to go at a moment's notice. And yes, hearing about that did make that panic attack try to take over again. The idea that Casura might find out that there was a whole task force mobilizing to come after her didn't fill me with warm fuzzies. But Rubi assured me that no one outside of Caishen over there knew anything about the actual situation. As far as those people were concerned, this was just some sort of drill, or training exercise. She'd told her people she wanted them to be ready for anything, considering all the shit that had been going on recently.

All of which meant there would be a small army ready to jump in the moment they got word from Rubi. But that still didn't exactly make everything better. The most the Ten Towers people could do, even if they got here in time, was slow that bitch down a little better than we could by ourselves. This was a woman who regularly fought all of Armistice together. Anything less than that was just varying levels of speedbump.

No, there was no way that we were going to get through this and beat her with a normal fight. If it came down to Casura and the rest of us just trading blows with nothing else happening, we were boned, and we all knew it.

That was what we spent a couple hours going over. We talked through everything, and threw out a dozen ideas about what to do. Especially after I told them what I had been able to figure out so far about what I thought her actual goal here was. Once I told them about Safeguard, and how I was pretty sure this whole thing was about him, Rubi brought up the idea of warning the man to just leave. But the others pointed out that Casura could have disguised herself and spoken to him enough to use that alert power. Apparently another way it could work was by setting an alarm on one person to know if anyone else told them something specific. She could have used the power to set an alert to go off if anyone told him about her, or just that he needed to leave. She could have set it for any number of things, so we had no idea what, if anything, he could safely be told. His protection power… well, maybe it would work against that and maybe it wouldn't. It wasn't clear if the power was more focused on herself or the target, actually. We couldn't exactly test that without just going for it, and if it did warn her, we'd be right back to being boned.

Which also meant that my idea about giving him a reason to leave that didn't involve telling him about Casura was out too. She could have used the alert power to warn her if he was given any reason to leave the games. There was a chance she would be alerted the second he was given any reason to go against the planned schedule at all. We just didn't know, and this was the sort of thing we wouldn't get another chance at. There was absolutely no room for mistakes here, not with Paige and the others involved. We couldn't fuck this up.

After a couple hours like that, we were all laying on our backs on the floor, staring at the ceiling as we tried in vain over and over to suggest something that wasn't easily and immediately shut down by everyone else. There had been some truly ridiculous things suggested in the course of all this, mostly because we were desperately trying to think outside of the box.

Unfortunately, so far nothing had really helped. If anything, the box had become more confining as we realized just how few options we seemed to have. We kept coming up with more ways Casura could find out what was going on and start killing people.

Ryder was laying a few feet away from me, his voice thoughtful. "We know where the hostages are. We know exactly where she's keeping them. That's gotta mean something."

Yeah, apparently he and Broadway, who was also involved (but not here because she didn't know who I really was, let alone who the rest of my team were) had managed to track down the place where Casura was keeping the others. Or at least, a building she had gone to shortly after kicking the shit out of that guy who beat her dance dance revolution score. She'd also had pizza delivered there.

The second I'd heard that, part of me had wanted to drop everything and go storm that place immediately. The thought that Paige, Sierra, and the other two might be right there was enough to get my hopes up for just a moment. Obviously, I dropped that idea almost immediately. There was no way we would get in that place without Casura knowing about it, and then it would devolve right into the exact kind of fight I knew we couldn't win. A fight with Paige and the others right in the middle, probably with no way to actually help or defend themselves.

Wren had even admitted that she thought about just trying to scan the building and teleport them out of it, but when they checked it out (not going close enough for Casura to notice, of course), all her equipment went haywire. There was some sort of protective field around the place. So no teleportation for us.

Rubi shook her head from the other side of the room at Ryder's words as she pointed out, "We think we know where at least one of them is. But we don't know if they're all there, or if they'll still be there by the time we make our move. We don't know what sort of defenses she has in there considering the Tech-Touched powers she's stolen. Hell, we don't know if she's got some sort of teleporter in there linking that place to some other building."

Dani sighed and cursed a few times rather creatively. And the fact that Rubi didn't say anything about her saying those words in front of Wren kind of said at all about how we were all feeling right then. "Come on, there has to be something we can do here. We know where that building is, a building she's using at some sort of base, or entrance to a base, whatever. We know where that place is and she doesn't know that we know that. Sure, she's got all these defenses and all these powers, but we know where she is. We know where she's hanging out. There has to be a way we can use that against the bitch."

Peyton waved a hand in the air vaguely. "We also know who she's going after with all this. Assuming Cassidy's right, Safeguard has been her target this whole time. But that still doesn't solve the problem. The second we say anything to him, or even just try to trick the guy into leaving, she'll probably know about it. Then she'll either kill Sierra and the others, then come kill us, or she'll do it in the opposite order. Whichever it is, we're still dead. And so are the others."

Roald sat up a bit to put his back against the wall and stared down at his hands with a murmured, "We have to get Safeguard out of there and free the others at the same time, right? But we have no idea how long it might take to get through the defenses she has in that place. And the second we start doing either of those things, she'll know about it."

I made a face and idly sprayed a bit of red paint into a thumbs-down image on the ceiling above me. "And we can't just teleport Safeguard out of the way without telling him, because he's immune to basically everything unless he consciously allows it. We'd have to tell him what we were doing so he could let it happen. And the second we do, she'll know. And something tells me it won't be as simple as just saying a few words and immediately convincing the guy to let us teleport him somewhere. He's gonna have questions, which is gonna be time she can use to show up and kill people. Or just go kill Paige and the others." That last bit came out so quietly, I wasn't sure the others actually heard the words. But they probably got the point.

We were all silent for a minute, going over all that in our heads. At least, I was, and I had a feeling the others were in the same mental boat. We were all trying to come up with something that was a solution rather than another problem. God knew we already had enough of those.

And yet, my feeling of relief hadn't exactly dimmed. Sure, the situation wasn't completely solved. Sure, I had even less of a plan now that tricking Safeguard into leaving apparently wasn't an option. Or rather, now that I realized how dangerous it would've been. But the others were involved. My team was here. My friends were here. We were talking it out together, and that helped more than I could possibly have imagined. The simple fact that I wasn't alone in this anymore made me feel less helpless. There had to be a solution to this. We just had to come up with it.

It was Qwerty, pacing in a circle around Wren as the girl laid on her back, who suddenly piped up with a quick, "Teleporter!" he bounced up and down excitedly before jumping on the girl next to him as he repeated, "Teleporter, the teleporter!"

Murphy gave him a look. "Dude, weren't you listening? We can't teleport Safeguard without his permission. And the second we do that, she's gonna do bad things to our friends."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Qwerty shook his head rapidly, stumbling over his own words for a second as he struggled to explain what he was trying to say. He was so excited there was more chittering involved than actual English sentences.

Finally, Wren set up and pulled him into her lap, scratching under his chin as she gently urged him to calm down and say it more carefully. That was enough for the little squirrel-parrot to take a deep breath and try again. "No, I meant the shield, the teleporter shield. The one in Detroit. I mean the teleport scatter shield! Remember, the Scions had it around that building, and when the good guys tried to teleport through it, the shield made everyone inside get sent all over the city!" He chittered a bit excitedly before calming enough to be understood again. "Remember, remember? It was supposed to be random, but Pencil and the other baddies used it to get through those defenses on the Conservator place!"

Slowly, unsure where he was going with that, I nodded. "Sure, they had a shield that screwed up teleportation and sent people everywhere. But I don't see what that has to do with--" Suddenly, my eyes widened as the realization came. "Oh my God."

Peyton was walking back-and-forth between us. "What? What am I missing? We still can't use that on Safeguard. It doesn't matter if he knows where he's going or not. If the guy doesn't allow the teleport to affect him, it won't work."

I was sitting up by that point too. "It's not about teleporting him. This is about Casura. I mean, it's about the building. If we could put that shield up around the place she's got the others in, maybe around the whole block, then turn it on just before she tries to teleport in there from somewhere outside…"

Ryder literally jumped to his feet. "Holy shit, maybe we can't teleport through that field she's got around the place, but there's no way she'd stop herself from doing it. And if she passes through that shield while she's trying to teleport in, it'll send her and everyone in the place somewhere else."

I nodded quickly. "The Scions used it to send themselves to a specific place. I bet we could make it go to two specific places. One for Casura, and one for the others. We could send her anywhere in the city. Like somewhere the Ten Towers people could be waiting for her. And then Paige, Sierra, Flea, and Echo would just show up somewhere safe."

Dani rose beside him, muttering something about those people finally being useful for something. I honestly wasn't sure if she meant Ten Towers or the Scions. Then she added, "They said something about that shield screwing up teleportation powers for a little bit after you go through it. So she wouldn't be able to just immediately leave again. But you don't know who else might be in that building guarding your buddies. I mean, Casura's gotta leave sometimes to go do her things, no way she's leaving them on their own."

"Right, and if we're only sending her to the ambush while the others come to us… we'll have to be ready to fight them," Peyton put in. "Especially since we don't know what sort of condition Sierra and the rest are gonna be in."

Rubi stood up and walked from one side of the room to the other, alternately nodding and shaking her head as she went over all that. Her voice was a murmur. "Do you think that would work? I mean, just assuming we could actually get access to the thing and set it up without her finding out, would it actually work on her?"

The rest of us exchanged glances before I hesitantly replied, "She's scary, but she's not a god. She's using powers she stole from other people. There's no reason that something meant to work on the Conservators, or anyone else in Detroit, wouldn't work on her. The Scions built the thing intentionally to protect that building from anyone breaking through. And they wanted to make sure the second someone was teleported through it, everyone inside would be sent somewhere else."

Cherry bounced excitedly back and forth, flapping her wings rapidly. "If you can make her teleport somewhere else and ambush her, I bet the Ten Towers people would get a lot of help pretty quick as soon as someone tells them what's going on!"

Murphy smiled grimly. "That's for sure. She's got a lot of enemies out there. And the city is kind of swimming in Touched right now. Who are conveniently all going to be in the same place on Saturday. Which is probably how long it'll take to set something like this up. If you wait until the whole thing kicks off, then tell them exactly where to go to fight Casura, I bet you'll get plenty of volunteers."

My mind was still reeling from all this. I had to start pacing anxiously as the thoughts swirled wildly in my head. Could this actually work? Had we actually come up with something that could beat Casura? Or at least stop her from doing what she wanted? Ambushing her with an army of Touched while her hostages were teleported somewhere else was probably going to piss her off something fierce. But would it work? That was all I cared about right then, finding a way to save the others and get them out of there.

Ryder was the one who asked, "How do we make sure she's not already in the building, then get her to teleport back to the hostages?"

I already had the answer to that. "I piss her off. She'll be there on Saturday, at the arena. She'll have to be. She'll be right there, ready to take control. She'll want to see Safeguard put that ring on in person. She'll want to gloat as soon as he's under her control. Before that happens, before he puts it on, I'll tell him not to. I'll tell everyone not to put the rings on, and what's going on. She'll realize what I did and want to punish me. Which should mean she'll go back to the hostages. And as soon as she does…"

Murphy slammed her fist into her palm. "She gets teleported right where we want her. Then she gets to fight a bunch of people who are ready and waiting for her. While we deal with any guards that get teleported along with the hostages."

I looked Rubi. "Do you think you can get access to that shield thing the Scions used? I'm pretty sure it was confiscated and put away by the Towers people."

Her head shook, then nodded. "By myself, no. There's no way I'd have access to that. I'm still pretty junior around there, even if I do have powers. But Caishen can. She'll be able to requisition it or whatever. And she said she'd do anything she could to help."

Roald hesitantly pointed out, "We have to be sure about Sierra and the rest. We have to be absolutely certain they're really in there before we do this. Sure, they're probably there, but I don't… really wanna do all this on a probably."

Peyton sighed softly. "You know she's going to have cameras and plenty of Touched-Tech security in there. How are we supposed to get close enough to find out if those guys are there? The second we get within twenty feet, she'll know."

Cherry was bouncing again. "Oooh, oooh, we can do it! The Cuddles can check! Remember, we can be invisible to cameras and alarms and stuff. Even motion sensors. Her security system won't see us. I can get the others from the shop, and we can sneak over there. We can get close enough to make sure they're actually in that place."

I really wasn't sure how I felt about that. No wait, I felt really bad about it. But I also didn't exactly have a better idea. They really were invisible to technology. We knew that much from how easily they had managed to sneak around Wren's shop. They had even been completely invisible to Sierra and Paige. The Biolems had been incapable of seeing them, even if they looked directly at them, as long as the Cuddles had that power active.

From the look on Rubi's face, she wasn't the biggest fan of the idea either. But like me, she didn't have anything better. The Cuddles really were our best chance at getting close enough to the building to make sure we weren't making a gigantic mistake before it was too late. And this was the sort of mistake we couldn't afford to make. The sort of mistake Paige and the others couldn't afford for us to make. We had to be absolutely certain they were actually in there.

Which reminded me of another possible problem. I looked at Wren to ask, "If we do get that shield, do you think you can work with it and set the thing up to do what we want? I'd rather not have Caishen get her own people involved in that. There's too big of a chance of that getting back to Casura. The fewer people who know what's going on until the last possible moment, the better."

Poor Wren, who we had already asked so much of for so long, made a somewhat uncertain noise in the back of her throat before straightening up. "I'll try. I mean, I will. I'll do it. It has to do with movement, right? So I can work with it. I can make it do what you want. I just hope I can do it in time."

Ryder gave a weak shrug. "Isn't there some way to get the kid some help with that?"

Qwerty nodded rapidly and eagerly. " I can help! My power lets me help! I mean, I can help make Touched-Tech better!"

Even as he was saying that, another thought came into my head, another realization. It was an idea that I immediately regretted. Boy howdy did I ever regret it. But I knew I had to say it. Because I already made it clear to myself that we had to do whatever it took to save the others and stop Casura. No matter how much this idea made me want to throw up just at the thought of it, I still had to say it.

So, I took a deep breath before pointing out, "We can get her some other advice too, some help when it comes to making that shield do what we want."

The others all looked at me in confusion for a second, before Rubi asked, "You have another Tech-Touched friend you can pull into this?"

Oh boy. I winced, head shaking. "No, definitely not a friend. Not in the least. But she's the biggest expert there is on this specific thing."

Most of the others realized what I meant, and immediately started to curse loudly and creatively. Absolutely no one liked the thought that I had just put in their heads. Which was fair, because I didn't like it at all either. It was Peyton who eventually managed to say something other than assorted swear words first. "Wait, no. Don't tell me you're talking about--"

My head bobbed as I swallowed back the bile in my throat. "Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. If we're actually going to pull this off and beat Casura, we have to do whatever it takes. If it means saving Paige and the others, I'm willing to do anything.

"Including talk to Amanda Sanvers."

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