Prism’s eyes flashed green as he punched a heavy metal door so hard that it was ripped from the basalt wall that held its frame in place. The door slid across the floor of the room until it smashed into a complicated machine that wrapped around the room’s rear wall. A spray of sparks flew from the dent the door left in the computer while Prism stepped into the small room.

  He saw Leanna strapped to an upright medical table in nothing but her black undershirt and grey panties, writhing in pain. She began to foam at the mouth as the machine that had been draining her mind of information malfunctioned behind her. Prism’s eyes fixed on the flexible cabling that ran out of Leanna’s shaved head. Only short patches were left of her beautiful green hair.

  Prism furrowed his brow and prepared the complex magic that would be necessary to make her whole again. He walked over to her seizing body, blue light undulating between the dancing fingers of his right hand. Once he stood beside her, he got to work.

  Blue light flowed from his hand like an aurora, spectral in its beauty. The light moved up to Leanna’s head until the blue streamed around it like a rushing river. Prism felt the emanations of Leanna’s consciousness and the intricacies of the machine’s filaments that had weaved through each region of her brain.

  He’d learned the ins and outs of the human brain since Jaik’s death. He was ready to meet the challenge of ridding Leanna’s neurons of the invasive technology.

  He tilted his head and swiveled his waist as he began neutralizing the neural filaments. Each one of the tiny strings began to vanish from Leanna’s brain until none remained. Prism blanketed her body in a warm white light and caused her restraints to unravel. He caused her body to hover above the medical table as blue and white light swirled around her. In a matter of minutes, Prism restored her normal brain function and caused her voluminous green hair to grow back to its normal length. He even cleaned the vomit and spittle from her face and clothing.

  Her eyes shot open while she floated on a warm cushion of healing magic. She gasped at the sheer suddenness of the surprise.

  “You’re okay. You’ll be okay.”

  Prism lowered Leanna’s body back to the ground until her bare feet touched the ground. She staggered when she was made to stand on her, but she managed to stand tall after a couple of seconds. She looked up Prism with tears in her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him into a tight, wet embrace.

  “I was about to die. I could feel it.”

  Prism rubbed Leanna on her back before pushing her shoulders away from him. He looked into her eyes with a sober expression. “We need to go save Ursun and Wadaw now. However, the base is on lockdown and we’ve got about a hundred soldiers mobilized to stop us.”

  “My gear is over there, in that chest.” Leanna pointed to a large gray storage bin in the corner of the wall in front of her. “They stripped me and prepped me in here. They got me ready for…whatever that machine is…all in one go.”

  Prism waved his right hand at the storage chest and sent a blue-colored stream of light at it. The chest then opened, sending its contents flying onto Leanna as it had on the Titian when Prism had dressed his teammates with magic there. In under a minute, Leanna had been transformed from a shivering half-naked woman to a fully-armored, fully-armed mercenary.

  “Strange that they brought your combat armor, dronepack, and even your PAW. You and Ursun weren’t wearing any of this back in the cellar.” Prism said after he lowered his arm.

  The light show that had surrounded Leanna for the second time faded away, leaving her partly dazed and partly amazed. She twisted her body and did a few squats to get used to the feeling of wearing her armor and carrying her gun again. “Our capture was well-planned. They were probably going to use the info they sucked from our brain to aid in their breakdown and analysis of our gear, hence them bringing it all here with us.”

  Leanna seemed like she was back to normal, wits and all. Prism, happy with his handiwork, smirked a bit. She glanced down at his naked body and smirked, too. “Come on. Ursun’s room is just down the hallway.”

  Prism and Leanna made quick work of the two dozen soldiers that flooded the corridor to block their path. Prism protected them with his magic while Leanna shot their enemies with magically-amplified bullets. The bullets released powerful explosions of light that killed several men at once, regardless of the armor they wore. They charged through the blasted bodies with gritted teeth and eyes of shining gold.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Hya!”

  Prism grunted as he smashed through the door of Ursun’s torture chamber. Leanna stood within what remained of the door frame, picking off stray soldiers that continued to pursue them. Prism raised his arms beside the medical table that Ursun was tied down to. It only took the elementeitan a few minutes to free him and heal him just as he’d done with Leanna.

  “What on ?ba…” Ursun gripped his head before his armor magically appeared on his brawny frame. “You’re able to save us from even that, eh?” The commander said with a stroke of his newly-donned helmet as he pointed his PAW at the machine that had been hooked directly into his brain. Ursun's coilgun, which they'd been surprised to see in the room, hung across his back on the black leatherine strap that Ursun wore across his chest.

  “It’s a “neuroslaver”. I learned how it works from a soldier that I-“

  Ursun unloaded his weapon on the wall-spanning device before Prism could finish his sentence. Indicator lights and gauges of all sizes began to blink wildly as a creaking sound began to grow louder and louder from deep within the system. Blue arcs of electricity danced across its damaged surface until the neuroslaver ceased all functions.

  “I know what it is.” Ursun said after he stopped firing. “Can we make it to Wadaw?” He then shared over their reestablished telepathic link.

  “He’s on a level directly above us. There’s at least a hundred soldiers up there waiting for us.” Prism shared along with the swarm of human mana signatures he could detect through the walls. "Here's the intel I got from an officer. Be mindful that the door to Wadaw's room is booby-trapped." Prism shared.

  Prism had filtered out the memories of specific moments that he'd forcefully ripped from the officer's brain, leaving only the knowledge and practical information of those memories for his team. Ursun and Leanna stood in silence for a few seconds as their minds incorporated the purely semantic memory.

  "Very good. This is invaluable." Ursun nodded to Prism once he and Leanna had absorbed the information. The commander rubbed his forehead in an attempt to dull the pain from the sudden surge of foreign knowledge being dumped directly into his brain.

  A few seconds later, Leanna sent her flying bug drones from her dronepack to perform reconnaissance of the connected corridors outside of the room. The circular living orbs zipped away on silent and transparent chitinous wings

  “I just lost contact with both of my drones. The last thing they saw were some of those pesky black androids.” Leanna said after recoiling in pain all of a sudden while touching her visor.

  Prism’s eyes glowed red. He wouldn’t be caught by surprise and restrained by the superhuman machines again. He pointed his hands at the two of his teammates standing on either side of him. The same red light that shined from his eyes then shined from theirs.

  “You know the drill.” Prism shared psychically as time seemed to slow down for the three of them. “Five minutes, tops.”

  The three of them ran out of the room in time to see four sleek androids running at them. If the mercenaries had been moving at normal speed, the machines would have pinned them down by now. But Prism’s magic made them move just quickly as the androids could; faster, even.

  Ursun and Leanna shot at the androids, sending magically-accelerated bullets at them that they couldn’t deflect or dodge. The bullets instead shot right through the machines, shattering their black composite skin. Clear liquid shot out of the holes in slow motion like trails of watery ribbons. Prism leapt over to the machines as they were falling and sent a bright flow of green energy into them until they were a corroded mess of parts scattered across the floor.

  “Lead the way!” Ursun shouted at Prism, who nodded before running just fast enough for Leanna and Ursun to keep up.

  The three mercenaries ran past a crowd of soldiers guarding the stairs leading up to the upper level. By the time the soldiers noticed their presence, the mercenaries were gone. “These are basement levels…” Leanna shared when she noticed the large "B1" floor marker on the wall of the spacious stairwell.

  "3 minutes left to massacre these soldiers before we're the same speed as them." Prism reminded them as they stepped on the first basement level.

  Prism pushed off from his right foot and tackled the door leading to the level's corridor. The door went flying as Leanna and Ursun continued running through its open frame. Prism kicked off from the door as it flew through the air, using it to distract the slow-moving soldiers that had been standing guard outside of it.

  The trio saw the multitude of well-armed Sguvan soldiers that dotted the corridor before them, each in a group of three or more. Prism saw them languidly turning their heads toward the commotion he'd created. The alien let out a pained breath as he put his all into a burst of kinetic magic that traveled down the hall, knocking over each person it struck and clearing the way for Leanna and Ursun.

  When they made it to the sealed door, they noticed its locking clamps were far heftier than the ones that had been on the doors that Prism had burst through earlier. "Fuck, they planned this. They knew this would all slow us down." Leanna shared along with her feelings of frustration.

  "Get over here fast, kid! What've we got, a minute left of this superspeed?" Ursun shared.

  "Less, since I created that shockwave." Prism sighed and shared. He leapt over the bodies of the soldiers that already began to stand back up again and landed right in front of Leanna and Ursun.

  Prism stared up at the door, taller and more complicated-looking than any he'd seen in the facility. He groaned, then placed his palms flat against its surface. He closed his eyes as he magically-scanned the door's structure and its mechanisms. It didn't take him long to identify the explosives; they were a sort of failsafe in case Wadaw tried to escape.

  "They're really worried about the tech in his face." Prism shared before he sent a pulse of magic into the door, unlocking and disarming it simultaneously. "They don't want the Queen to come here and wipe this place off the face of the planet."

  "So it was nanotech." Ursun shook his head.

  The doors began to slide open more slowly than any of them liked. By the time they were able to slip into the room, their speed magic had worn off. They each saw Wadaw laid back upon the black medical table naked with his eyes closed. There was no skin upon his bloody face; he appeared to be dead.

  Ursun ran over to his side while Leanna stood with her gun at the ready in front of Prism. The soldiers with a clear line of sight were back on their feet and raising their weapons towards the mercenaries. There was no escape.

  "Annoying." Prism sucked his teeth and shared. He turned around to face his enemies without any trace of fear visible upon him. "If you want to die, then keep your guns raised!" He shouted.

  Some of the soldiers flinched, but none of them lowered their rifles. Prism was dealing with Royalists, the most loyal soldiers in the Queen's empire.