Page 57 of Craze

Navi’s cell is just beyond them.

“Navi!”

Her body is curled up and lies against the glass. She shifts a little, giving me hope she might be okay.

The first to sling his whip at me gets a surprise when I catch the tails, tug on the barbed threads and punch him in the face. He crumples from the force behind my fist.

I ignite the zembi and spin it in preparation. “Let’s see who has better coordination.”

The second man, on my left, takes a swing. I lob off the threads of his whip then launch him into the wall with a boot to his chest. The third overshoots me. My zembi cuts throughhis side. The fourth slings the whip at my feet, but he sees his mistake a moment too late.

I catch a railing overhead and pick my feet up. When he looks up at me, I give him a little wave and point to the end of the whip he’s hooked on a pillar. I drop down and spear him with the sword.

He stills. As I walk toward Navi’s cell, I push him backward and let him fall from the blade.

“Gorgeous?” I scour the cell’s frame for a way in, then I think of the Tartarus I just cut down.Maybe they have keycards? Access codes?

She twists around and stares up at me. Her face is wet and her hair a tangled mess of inky threads I want to comb with my fingers. I want her in my arms.

“How do I get you out?” I ask.

Craze?She looks around at the cage.

Are the guards all dead?she asks.

I nod.

Navi closes her eyes, and the door swings open.

I don’t understand how she did it, but I’ll ask later. I snatch Navi up and turn for the escape pods.

Hang onto me, baby. Tightly, I tell her.

Navi hooks her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist while I pull up maps of the battledaggers I’ve been on in years past. I find the shortest route to the nearest transport.

Doors open behind us. A guard appears. I fire back and thrust us down a nearby hallway. Navi yelps and curls tighter around me.

Olive blood splatters our sides. A bullet whizzes past our heads. I turn around a corner, spin, and fire back.Headshots or no shots,as my Creation Trainer used to say.Missed shots waste ammo.

I clutch Navi inside the shield of my body and sprint down a, escape corridor. All of the escape pods are missing.

What the hell is going on here?I’ve never seen anything like it.

At the end is a hangar for a skysprinter. I grab another grenade, knowing there will be soldiers inside. I stick one end in my mouth and twist it. It blinks blue and starts the countdown as I burst into the hangar.

Flinging the grenade toward the cluster of Solcrue that always maintains the ship, I charge toward the vessel with the lowered ramp. Gunfire erupts, searing the air with fiery metal. I take a hit to the back as I sprint up the ramp.

Brothers come to mind as we take shelter inside the skysprinter. I twist and shoot down the two soldiers in range, then slam the close ramp button inside the ship.

The blast from my grenade goes off, billowing heat as the ramp rises and seals us from harm. The pilot gets up, sees me, and goes for his gun. I don’t want to break our ride out of here, so I steady the zembi between us.

Navi gasps and looks toward the flaming sword as I slash the Solcrue back. Then I set Navi down, engage the shields of the Skysprinter, and sling his body into the refuse chute.

“Strap in, beautiful.” I brace the back of her head and kiss her in passing. “We are getting the fuck out of here.”

I slam myself into the pilot’s seat and hear her buckles latch. I power up the thrusters as Solcrue try to overwhelm the ship with gunfire.

The shields hold. It takes something very heavy and large, like RamBash, Thruster, or Coil to break through Solcruean shields. I know we don’t have any NutBuster missiles these days, but I’d sure like to punch a hole in the heart of their military again.

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