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There’sjust in time He falls feetfirst out of the darkness, a blaster pointed at us Back to finish us off

I shove Sam off me and roll onto my back The blast burns into the wall between us Sa his blaster oriented to return fire The Mog drops straight down, into another patch of shadows on the floor, and disappears through them

"Keep your head on a swivel," I warn as I sit up, clutching the noose

The Shadow Mog walks out of one of the darkened cells behind me I don’t turn around in ti’s blaster aside His latest shot sizzles into the floor next to ain dives towards so the noose towards hihtest idea Without my telekinesis, there’s no way I can make that throw Luckily, Sauide ’s head before he disappears, and I yank back on it hat little strength I have left

I’ to take his head clean off, but no such luck The Shadow Mog stops midteleport, waist deep in shadow, and clutches the noose It’s a tug-of-war, and he’s winning The Voron rope, slick with blood, starts to slide through lance over s are ten yards down the hall, e to keep teleporting through the darkness until he wears us down The Voron rope slips a little farther out of hts in the hallway co lets out a gasp His torso flops to the ground in front of us, and his legs drop behind us He’s been cut in a perfectly straight line through the waist I yank the noose through his neck with little resistance--he’s already beginning to disintegrate

"Nicely done," I tell Saover the cut onto need stitches, man"

I put my hand over his as he applies pressure "Sam, where’s your dad?"

"He’s fine! I mean, he was the last time I saw him There was no way out, so he and the other scientists hid down in the old library The Chiotdevices I ran off to, uh, to let out our secret-weapon psychopath there before Dad could stop me" Sam takes a breath and looks around "Where’s Mark?"

I compress my lips and shake my head Sam looks away from me

"Goddamn them," he says quietly "Goddao silent at the sound of gunfire fro is cut off by an aniot be the huge, defor It’s close

Sae to create a weak ball of fire with , and uish the fla my head at Sam

"Not yet," I say

"Then we better ain"

"No thanks," I say "This one doesn’t teleport He knocks doalls"

Saently helps ood arainst ot one arht ahead Behind us, the heavy footsteps and grunting of the Piken-Mog echo, slowly becoht the first day Iheavily

I raise an eyebrow at the question "Uh, no What?"

"I thought, here’s a guy who’s going to make me carry hih a top secret underground military base while he bleeds all over the place I hope we can be best friends"

I actually laugh at that, even though it hurts ood at it," I say

"Yeah, thanks," Sae around a corner, and a gunshot rings out I feel the bullet whiz right past my cheek