“You know what I showed you? If you can keep on doing it, from what they said, you can wipe yourself clean of a dominator’s commands. Also, I’ve got a device that can block Dominators’ commands—up to a point. If you’re facing more than ten or maybe five, I’d run away and throw rocks at them from a distance.”

  He began to laugh. “Rocks? I think I expected something more complicated from an inventor.”

  I shrugged, “If it works, it works.”

  Then I reached out with what might be best imagined as a phantom limb and opened a portal to bring him to me.

  Even though I knew he’d wiped himself clean of the Nine’s commands, I still felt relieved when he didn’t immediately attempt to kill me.

  Instead, he took in his surroundings—the transparent floor, the glowing spheres that surrounded us in a grid and the darkness above and below. Also, he glanced over at Spark, realizing that he shared this space with a female faun in the upper half of a suit.

  Showing the tolerance for weirdness that supers had no choice but develop, he didn’t freak out. Instead, he said, “It’s good to meet the two of you in person. I met the Rocket a moment ago, but I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”

  Spark regarded him for a moment, but then said, “I’m Spark, an interface for this machine. You’ve now been identified as an Artificer, but so undeveloped you will find that you cannot do much more than enter or leave this device.”

  He stood up straighter as she ended the sentence. “Did you say I can leave?”

  She nodded. “You may leave at any time. You’ll reappear at the time and location you entered.”

  “Oh…” He let out a breath, possibly considering whether or not he wanted to stay, but then said, “That’s good, but I’m not finished with what brought me here.”

  He looked out at the spheres, all of them glowing around us. “Was I imprisoned in one of those?”

  I nodded.

  He stared out into the darkness. “She said this was a machine. Do you know what it is or what it’s for? And what is an Artificer? Magnus and Colette used the word, but what were they talking about?”

  I’d spent years of my life not explaining that to people because it might draw the Destroy faction’s attention, but here, there was no reason not to spill it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You and a few other people on Earth inherited enough of a connection to multi-dimensional aliens that you have a chance of developing their abilities if you live for a thousand years. They’re called Artificers because they’re known for constructing ruins across the universe and seeding them with technology designed to destroy the civilization that discovers them.”

  He blinked. “That’s monstrous, and you say I’m related to them?”

  “Me too,” I said. “You know what’s ironic? Magnus’ justification for doing what he does is to defend Earth from them. It’s just that in his view, he needs to rule everything first. He’s also connected to them. It’s one of the requirements for controlling the device we’re inside. It’s basically a giant war machine not unlike my armor.”

  Prentkos let out a long breath. “We need to stop him. How do we get to him?”

  Using my implant, I connected with my suit, commanding it to create an anti-voice command buzzer, the kind that I’d designed to blend into street clothes.

  It formed in my hand, a grey, pea-sized ball. Handing it to Prentkos, I said, “Place it at the base of your neck. It will blend into your costume and counter the sound frequencies that the Dominators use.”

  He held the ball between his thumb and index finger, examining it, and then placed it on the bit of costume covering his neck, feeling it as it spread out, turned red to match, and disappeared.

  “That,” he said, “was more of what I expected from you.”

  I shrugged, “I’ve been working on that bit of technology on and off since high school. I’m amazed it’s still relevant.”

  Prentkos looked me up and down and then said, “I met the original Rocket once. I was young, and the Heroes’ League had tracked down one of their foes. I don’t remember the name, but he’d hidden in Krakow. We were communists then, but the League knew people. Russian heroes showed up to help them, and we, Poland’s supers, were ordered to help as well. I was sympathetic to the Solidarity movement and not so sure about these Americans if the Russians liked them. You know what I do remember? Lots of robots. We won, though. And do you know what? The Rocket knew my name. He complimented me on what I did during the battle, and we talked a little bit.

  “But that wasn’t the end. Maybe ten years ago, he sent me an email. He reminded me of our meeting and told me that I’d meet the next Rocket soon. He told me to protect him, if I could. All I could do a little while ago was to raise your suspicions so that you might leave me alone. Since you freed me and we’re going after the same man, it seems I can do more.”

  I nodded. “Oh. That’s weird. I’ve been trying to decide whether or not to free the original League to help. They’re in that sphere over there.”

  I pointed toward it, adding, “I’m sure they’d help, but I don’t want to risk changing my past. It’s them from way before I was born. The problem is that your story makes it sound as though he met you before, and this is the only place that makes sense.”

  I didn’t feel good about it, though. I decided to try a Hail Mary pass. If I could message anyone within this device, I’d message Lee.

  Connecting to the device’s message system took no effort at all. I chose to message Lee, and then I could hear his voice.

  “Hey kid, it’s a pleasure to hear from you. I assume you’re in a control center, trying to prove you’re powerful enough to get to the Singularity and take over this thing? I can help get you past it.”