By me, with art by Sam Messerly.
Click here to read from the beginning.
Colander was the first to get a shot off in Ed’s direction. I expected Ed to spit fire-extinguishing foam like Warbell had earlier, but instead several of the rope-like tendrils that made up the walls and the floor swooped in and blocked the shot.
Ed was controlling the parts of the very tower itself! She was plugged in, and the tendrils and beams that would normally dance and shake and dodge the birds flying through the sky were now under her control. The next moment after I realized this, tendrils were around my body as well, squeezing me, crushing my arms to my sides, wrapping around my forehead and blocking my fire cannon. Another tendril slapped Colander off her feet, then pinned her to the floor.
Warbell disappeared from sight, initiating his invisibility cloak, but he wasn’t fast enough. Several more tendrils strtuck out at the seemingly empty space where he had been standing and wrapped around his body, squeezing and squeezing until he gave up and became visible again. The old lizard tried to shoot his shoulder cannons, but his shots went wide or were also blocked. Then as I watched, several smaller tendrils shot forward, wrapped around Warbell’s shoulder cannons, and ripped them off of his body.
Warbell screamed. I didn’t realize a dinosaur could scream, but Warbell did, high pitched and full of terror and pain. The translation devices did not make any translation—Warbell’s scream contained no words, but only clean, terrible emotion. The tendrils threw aside the torn-out cannons, which bounced on the membranous floor, spattering blood.
I stared almost uncomprehendingly at Warbell as life essence seeped and poured down the sides of his body. Warb continued to struggle, snapping at the tendrils holding him back. Several of the ropy snarls now controlled by Ed balled up together into something resembling a fist, reared back, and struck the old lizard in the face. A couple of Warbell’s teeth snapped and flew out of his mouth, skipping across the floor. Colander closed her eye and looked away. I stared, speechless with rage and fear.
Ed growled at Warbell, her voice shifting and rumbling, growing in menace.
“You thought to beat feet again,” Ed said, translated. “After what you did to Pearlwine. After what you did to my mother!”
The tendril fist clobbered Warbell in the face again, this time on the opposite side of his head. I heard something break again, and Warbell looked down, reddened saliva oozing out of his mouth.
Ed snarled with hate.
“You destroyed my cage worm,” she said. “I was going to bring you back alive once I got my mitts on ya. For justice. But I realized I could connect to the portal tower in the same way I could the cage worms, and my plan, everything, fell together. I was not keen on this outcome, but you left me no choice.”
The cage worm must’ve been the robotic centipede, or dinosaur “handcuffs,” that Warbell had stomped into the ground. Apparently to use the cage worm, Ed had to have some kind of connection, and via a similar principle, she could also hack into the robotic tower. It was horrible to think about.
Ed bit out the next few words, and the translation came out stuttered as well.
“You’ll get what’s coming to you here,” she said.
“Earthdancer,” Warbell said in return. “I love you. I always loved you, just as I did your mother, Pearlwine. Forgive me if I didn’t show you that love more effectively.”
Then Warbell turned to me and Colander and said in English,
“Close the portal. Use your mind and connect. You can do it at any time.”