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Animal Planet surrounded me, but I had a good view of what was going on anyway.
Our side was using a lot of guns, mostly semiautomatics. The problem was, the Amazons could take a lot of punishment. “How many bullets will it take to down one of your people?” I asked Queen Renata.
“Many. We are . . . enhanced.”
“No kidding.” Martini was barking orders, and our team was fa
He turned just in time, and they were at it. This time I could tell she wasn’t holding back. He wasn’t, either, and he’d picked up a lot from their last fight, because he was dodging her strikes better.
“We need to help them.”
“We need to stay back,” Felicia said. “As your mate requested.”
I looked at the last place I’d seen Christopher. Now there were three of him, all fighting with Moira, but I had a feeling they were all hitting the real one. “Serene, who’s the real Christopher?”
“The one on the left!” Reader and Tim heard her, and they both ran toward this clutch of bodies. “Now on the right! No, don’t, that’s him!” Serene lost it and ran at hyperspeed. She hit into Christopher and tackled him.
Reader and Tim hit the fake Christophers, hard, and they shifted to look like what I’d expected them to be—the two guys from THEhotel. Nice to be right, hoped Tim and Reader would really hurt them. Human versus A-C was an uneven fight, but my guys had been working with A-Cs for a long time and were doing pretty well.
The rest of the guys who were supposed to be guarding Serene were over there now, and that brawl became hard to follow.
Not a lot of gunshots any more, not just from this group but all of our side seemed to have stopped shooting. It made sense—everyone was too jumbled up to shoot without a real risk of hitting our own side. The fight was now the oldfashioned kind—hand-to-hand, edged weapons, blunt instruments, completely brutal.
Gower ran to me and shoved in. “Kitty, take my hand!” I did and felt a power flow I’d experienced once before. I felt someone hold me up, saw Queen Renata grab Gower and hold him upright, then it stopped.
“Paul, are you okay?”
“Yes,” he said slowly. “It can’t last, but it’s necessary. ACE knows what Jeff doesn’t.”
I nodded. “It’s all about being strong enough to marry in, right?”
“Pretty much.” He squeezed my hand. “You’ll do fine. I have to go help Jeff.” Then he disappeared. I saw him slam into Kyrellis just before she could stab a long, glowing stick into Martini.
“What the hell is she using?”
Martini rolled away just in time. Since I was wearing his jacket, I could see him clearly because of his shirt. This meant, of course, that others could see him clearly, too.
“A battle staff,” Queen Renata answered.
Martini was on his feet; he and Gower were trying to get around the staff, but Kyrellis was good with it, and they weren’t having a lot of luck.
“Why do the ends glow?”
“They are supercharged and cause more damage.”
An end hit Gower, and I heard him shout. He wasn’t down or out, but I knew he was hurt.
“Wow, did George Lucas spend time with you guys?”
“I don’t follow you.”
“Few ever do, Renata. Got any more of those puppies lying about?”
“Yes, I brought some with me, in case we faced resistance.”
“Where they at?”
“In Neeraj’s ship.”
“Iguanodon, can you get stuff out of your ship without leaving the field of battle here?”
“Yes, but why? Our instructions are to stay back and guard you.”
“And the eight of you, all primed for serious butt-kicking, you’re alright with that? You’re good to, you know, fly across space to come here and hang in the back and watch the battle but have nothing to do with the outcome?”
There was a lot of shifting of paws and swishing of tails.
“I have four dogs and three cats, and while they don’t walk upright or talk or anything, they’d all be in it if they were here. And did I mention that iguanas and Komodo dragons can be really nasty?”
More paw shifting and tail swishing, with a little muttering added in.
Chuckie and Alexander were engaged with Lenore and Gregory. It was sort of even, or would have been if there hadn’t been three extra Amazons helping the other side. Only Moira and Kyrellis had the staffs.
“Why don’t the grunts have the battle staff?”
“It has to be earned.”
“I’m a brown belt in kung fu. And I’ve been staff trained.” Okay, sort of a lie. Not on the staff trained, on the belt level. I hadn’t tested for brown yet. Because I kept missing the test for end-of-the-world crap. But I was ready, my sifu said so. Well, he’d said I was ready to learn if I was really up to brown standards, but I took that to mean I was ready for black and just needed to hurry it up.
“I don’t know—” Queen Renata was interrupted by a bunch of battle staffs dropping to the ground in front of us.
“I’m with the Naked Ape,” Jareen said. “Let’s get in there and kick some evil overlord butt.” I realized it was the first time I’d heard her talk.
I grabbed a battle staff, and so did she. “Jareen, I think this is the begi
She gave me the Iguanodon smile. “Neeraj never wants to let me do anything, either. Because I always end up saving him.”
“Ain’t it the truth, soul sister? But you have to love them anyway. Especially when they’re totally hot.”
“You can tell Neeraj is hot?” she asked, sounding surprised.
I shrugged. “He said you were the queen of hotness on your planet. Didn’t figure he was barking, therefore, by your standards.”
Queen Renata showed me how to activate the battle staff. It was easy. It felt like any other staff, but seemed weighted like a javelin. No worries, my sadistic track coaches had wanted everyone to know how to do every single track and field event, so in case someone was sick, one of the rest of us could cover. The less said about my pole-vaulting the better, but I hadn’t been awful at javelin.
Our side was getting pummeled. I saw two of my flyboys down, Joe and Walker. I also saw Lorraine kicking butt while protecting them. “Can one of you hyperspeed a battle staff to the three A-C girls on our side?” I felt someone go past me and looked around. Wrolph and three battle staffs were missing. Lorraine started spi
Wrolph was back. “The second female needs help.” He meant Claudia, I assumed, because she was surrounded. Wrolph didn’t wait for anyone to comment, he disappeared again, and reappeared next to her.
“So, guys? You go
“Our side is not doing well,” Willem admitted as more Amazons appeared.
“Our side’s about to lose. This is where, in chess, the queen comes in.”
“The queen also comes in when you’re about to win.” Felicia pointed. Uma was there with the new contingent of warrior women, and she was swinging something that looked remarkably like a battle ax. She was also glowing.
“Three guesses where the Free Women’s PPB net is currently being housed, and the first two don’t count.”
The others around me all nodded. “It’s time to fight,” Queen Renata said. “To avenge the ills done to our people and to save the lives of our new friends.”
They took off, with a lot of snarling, hissing, yowling, and banshee screaming. Only Jareen and I were still standing there.
“I’ll stick with you,” she said. “At least for a while.”
“Works for me, girlfriend.” I pulled my iPod out of my purse while I took my shoes off. “Not being rude, just need some tunes.” I took Poofikins out and put it into the pocket of Martini’s jacket. Reality told me my purse had to stay here and hold down the fort by itself.
“I understand. Same here. Our players are a little different, but the effect is the same.” She fiddled with something, and I heard faint, odd sounds.