Page 1510

((Double Monday -- Page 2 of 2))
He felt her initiate the merge. It was like a somehow familiar moment of realization, a forced epiphany, prying his mind open and expanding it into her own. Not particularly pleasant, but not as bad as it used to be, either.

And the power. The surge of not only strength but thinking capacity. That was most welcome.

He didn’t have to care about dodging bullets now. The immediate and complete regeneration of pan-forma rendered Seyos’ weapon as deadly as a water pistol, ardor or not.

The only pressing concern in Diego and Yangéra’s collective consciousness now was whether or not they would be able take Seyos alive. Certainly, Diego’s nitrogen transfiguration ability did not lend itself well to restraint. They closed the distance at full sprint, aiming for a quick submission hold.

But then everything was wrong.

Diego lost all sense of himself, and he felt abruptly as if half his mind had been torn out of his head.

Because it had, he soon realized. He and Yangéra were separated again. Just like that, she was there on the ground in front of him, and he was struggling even to crawl. This was post-hyper-state exhaustion, he was fairly sure, but why? What the hell just happened?

Seyos had something in his other hand. Some kind of orb? It was so hard to tell. And Diego became immediately more concerned with the gun being pointed directly at Yangéra.

None of it made sense. There was no time. His reaper was about to die if he didn’t do something, and there was only one thing to do, as far he could tell.

“I surrender!” Diego yelled, as loud as he could muster.

It wasn’t fast enough to stop Seyos from getting another shot off. A bullet pierced Yangéra’s avian chest.

‘Agh!’ she cried out, shivering.

Diego grabbed her and wrapped himself around her. “Malast! I said I--!”

Seyos blinked out of existence and was gone.

Diego could see the ethereal smoke rising out of his reaper, the familiar indicator of a significant wound. “Are you alright?” he asked.

‘Yeah, I think so...’

He exhaled and rolled over, not intending to let go of her anytime soon.

-+-+-+-+-

Royo Raju understood the circumstances before the one called Manuel Delaguna did. He couldn’t tell what the man’s reaper was thinking, but it seemed apparent enough that his opponent didn’t realize that they were supposed to fight.

Royo could hardly fault him for that, though. Everything had happened so quickly. And Royo wasn’t eager to be aggressive, either. At the moment, this curious and confused camaraderie was certainly preferable to fighting a superhuman whose powers Royo didn’t fully grasp.

So he took his time and looked the new chamber over, paying especially close attention to the treasure here and encouraging the one called Manuel to do the same, ostensibly in hopes of finding a way out of here.

That might not have worked if the one called Manuel wasn’t so agreeable. Or confident, maybe. Too early to tell.