Page 39 of Eclipse Bound
"They're coming!" she gasped. "Milano has thermal imaging of you both. They're preparing to raid the suite."
Eclipse and Solar turned from what appeared to be an impromptu defensive barricade of furniture. Solar's golden energy pulsed erratically, causing the lights to flicker and surge.
"Where is Dani?" Solar demanded.
"Circling around. She's safe." Rowan struggled to catch her breath. "But we won't be for long. They sent me this." She showed them the thermal image.
Eclipse studied it, his expression grave. "Their technology is more advanced than anticipated."
"We need to move," Rowan insisted. "Now. Before they surround us completely."
"The extraction coordinates are in the desert," Solar said. "We must reach them before extraction."
"And Lunar is still out there with Poppy," Eclipse added.
A heavy thud sounded at the front entrance. Then another.
Solar's form brightened dangerously. "Let them come. I will show them the power of Solarus."
"No!" Eclipse and Rowan exclaimed simultaneously.
"If you attack, they'll know exactly what they're dealing with," Rowan explained. "We need to escape, not engage."
Eclipse moved to the back window, peering out cautiously. "The cliff face provides cover to the west. If we can reach the canyon trail?—"
A deafening crash interrupted him as the front door burst from its hinges. Smoke billowed in, some kind of tactical grenade designed to disorient.
Solar reacted instinctively, his golden energy surging outward. The electronics in the room exploded in showers of sparks. The smoke dispersed in an unnatural ripple of superheated air.
Two figures in tactical gear appeared in the doorway, aiming what looked like specialized weapons. Not guns. Energy dampeners, if Rowan had to guess.
"Take cover!" Eclipse shouted, pushing Rowan behind the barricade.
One of the Milano operatives fired. A pulse of strange blue energy shot across the room, narrowly missing Solar and hitting the wall. Where it struck, the material seemed to warp and freeze simultaneously.
Solar roared in response, his human disguise burning away as his true form emerged, a being of pure golden light and fire. Heat rolled off him in waves that distorted the air itself.
"Stay down," Eclipse instructed Rowan, his own form shifting as the skin-suit dissolved completely. His twilight energy expanded, creating a shield of dusk-like atmosphere around them both.
The second operative fired at Eclipse, but the energy pulse dissipated harmlessly into his twilight field.
"The rear exit," Eclipse urged. "When I create a diversion, run."
Before Rowan could protest, Eclipse's form expanded dramatically, filling the suite with twilight energy that obscured everything in a purple-blue haze. The operatives' shouted commands were muffled, distant. It became difficult to breathe in the new atmosphere.
"Now!" Eclipse's voice resonated from everywhere at once.
Rowan scrambled toward the back door, unable to see more than a few feet ahead through the twilight field. Behind her, she heard Solar unleash his power. It sounded like a solar flare erupting, followed by the operatives' screams.
Her hand found the door handle just as something massive crashed through the front of the suite. More Milano forces. More weapons. They were out of time.
Eclipse materialized beside her, his energy contracting back into a roughly humanoid shape. "Go!"
They burst through the rear exit together, Solar following in a blaze of golden light that left scorch marks on the door frame. Outside, the desert sun beat down mercilessly, but there were no Milano operatives in sight. They'd committed their forces to the frontal assault.
"This way," Rowan gasped, leading them toward a narrow trail that snaked up the red rock formation behind the suite.
As they climbed, shouts and alarms rose from below. Rowan glanced back to see the Milano team pouring out of the ruined suite, pointing up at them. Several raised weapons.
