This was one thing when she was a cat; it was something quite other now. He lay there in the dark for a while and decided that he really ought to apologize for what had happened earlier.... Apology accepted, as it turned out. With enthusiasm.

    * * *

    In the morning I issued a brief statement to those surrounding the base: "We are going off to deal with Power. If we survive, we'll come back and explain." Plus the now-standard warning about avoiding the use of bio-aura enhancing devices around anyone who has been anywhere near Power.
    "Guys, I've been thinking about this," Ezra said. "He seems to be an unstoppable machine, but he's not thinking. And that one time when I attacked him, he changed course a little. So maybe we should just attack him, get him moving—north, and run away, and that would give us some more time to deal with him."
    I shrugged. "How much more time can we use?"
    "We don't have much of a plan...."
    "For all we know he may run across the path of a threatening squirrel and turn back in this direction."
    Thunderbolt had a gut feeling that he would come to Boston no matter what; the threat needed to be removed. I gave him a worried once-over; he still seemed to be feeling the effects of the battle, though to a lesser effect. It seemed like I ought to be able to do something to help him, but I didn't know what. And I really didn't want him to flake out on us in the middle of this.
    Cockatrice had also been thinking. "Question. Can anybody who has powers that deal with stuff like this tell if the guy inside the primary Power is still alive?"
    "Yes. He appears to be," I told him. "There is a biological signature in there. He's not doing too good in there." And this Power was much stronger than the ones at the hospital; even if Melvin were unconscious, there was a chance the program would keep running. Killing him might work, but... ugh. Which left Thunderbolt, direct attacks, and trying to weaken him.
    So much for that. We got into the ship, showed Stephanie how to work the autopilot, and set off toward Power's last known location. He couldn't be tracked very closely, of course, because anything within a half mile stood a chance of being brought down by a power blast. We got to within what we thought was just outside his range and brought the ship down.
    "There are these radio sets in here," Stephanie held them up. "We have two left." Cockatrice and I took them. "Are you gonna be okay?" she asked Paul.
    "I'll do what I have to do," he replied somberly. We got out and walked. Power was moving slowly, conserving energy as he approached Boston.
    "We have to hit him all at once," Thunderbolt said grimly, and so we made our plan as we approached. Soon we heard a distant, predatory growl and howl, and a couple of energy blasts.
    "Squirrel?" I looked at Cockatrice.
    "Bears." It appears the local genetic meddler made them pack animals. I do loathe those people. But the distraction let us get much closer.
    "Let's do this." I wasn't happy, but now there was nothing for it but to go. I half shut my eyes and reached; lock acquired. Melvin wasn't in good shape, but the energy sheathe seemed to be feeding him, somehow. I didn't think that was good, either. And it meant we wouldn't be able to starve him out, anyway, a theory that had been kicked around some earlier. "Okay," I breathed to Stephanie through the radio link.
    From the plane a safe half mile away, a thunderous, "NOW!" echoed.
    Ezra ducked underneath Power as the blue being raised a hand, seeking the source of the noise, then fell as the ground disintegrated underneath him. He only went down ten feet before lashing out with all four limbs to brace himself against the sides of the hole.
    Blue energy arced out of the pit toward Thunderbolt, more than he could have handled at once had he wanted to; he turned immediately and threw it at a tree. He was not going to be able to deal with this the way he had the ones at the hospital.
    Cockatrice hurled his flash grenades into the pit; Power was looking up, and they bounced off his energy shield, then exploded, blinding him. I tripped Melvin's internal switches, exhausting the physical body within the Power energy. I felt him let go of the pit sides, drop down and into a crouch, and leap. He cleared a good hundred feet into the air and fired rapidly, shredding the treeline below him and to some extent us. Cockatrice dodged madly out of what looked like it was going to be a direct hit, I got singed, and Thunderbolt caught the edge of one. We managed not to make any noise that would allow him to target us more directly.
    The Bosonic Man formed some of the freed matter into a bed of spikes to meet Power as he descended from his leap, keeping his own tenuous form out of sight. At the same time, a massive rush of blue energy wrapped around Thunderbolt. For a split second we could see Melvin before the blue regenerated—and then he hit the spikes. As soon as he heard the impact, Ezra dissipated the spikes.
    Thunderbolt turned to hurl the energy away; we saw the bolt begin to form and then snap back into him.
    Shit.
    As Power began getting back to his feet with an acrobatic leap, Cockatrice jumped in and did something to him; Power grunted and fell over, and was Melvin.
    I watched Thunderbolt, not sure what to do. Attacking him might reinforce the programming's hold on him, or weaken his ability to resist it. If I could have been sure of dropping him quickly, that would have been one thing, but I know too well how tough he is. "Thunderbolt? Paul? Can you hear me? Nod, or something." He was shaking. "Paul, I'm not going to do anything." I hoped he could understand that I wasn't threatening him. I could hear Stephanie asking what was going on, why was I talking soothingly to Paul. "We've got Power down but there seems to be a complication here. Just stay on the ship."
    "What do you mean, a complication?! I'm coming over."
    "No, don't do that," I said, trying to maintain an even tone. He'd body-slammed her into the deck last night, and that was while he was more obviously him. He still had some control, that was clear; an energy blast arced out, blew up a tree. That brought the overall saturation level down, but it immediately began trying to regenerate.
    "Paul?" Cockatrice said, switching off his vest. "Try discharging some of that into me."
    Off to one side Melvin was trying to move. "Ezra, could you go talk to him?" I said, staring at Cockatrice. His bioaura was now like a black hole. An enormous blast of blue energy surged off of Thunderbolt and into Cockatrice, and... disappeared. They stepped closer to one another, compressing the current until only a foot separated them, at which point they both collapsed, fortunately in opposite directions. Plants died where Cockatrice fell. Thunderbolt's aura looked normal again, and I decided to keep my distance from Cockatrice.
    As requested, Ezra checked Melvin; it looked like not all of Power was gone, so Ezra wrapped him up in a soft blanket of bosons, muffling the nearby sounds.
     "Hello?"
    I jumped. "Sorry Stephanie. Things are okay, I think. I think we're all right."
    "Can I come over now?"
    "Why don't we come to you." It took the other two a few moments to recover enough to stand. "How do you feel?"
    "I don't know," Paul muttered, shaking his head.
    Cockatrice switched his vest back on.
    "Thank you. That's some sorta, uh, different ability you got there," I noted.
    "Yes, well, it wasn't something I planned for."
    "I know how that works."
    "I turned sixteen and everything I touched, died."
    Meanwhile, Ezra was exulting. "We did it! We won! This is incredible!"
    "Can we get back on board the ship? I really need a nap," the other native of 2086 said.
    "We've been getting a radio signal for the last couple of minutes," Stephanie reported as we climbed back on board.
    "Who from?" I asked.
    "Looks like the state government. They just keep repeating, 'Update us on situation please, should we evacuate.'"
    I leaned over to the mike. "Situation's under control." Astonishingly enough. I switched it off, in no mood to deal with officialdom. What the heck were we going to do with Melvin? He wasn't entirely cured, that was clear.
    "I got a message. Dear heat: Today the people won! Without the hand of the state," Ezra exclaimed. "The important thing here is to make sure that Force Technology takes the blame. We have to make sure that everyone knows that he's the responsibility of Force Technology, and everything that happened is their fault."
    "Kid, you have a lot to learn about this business," I said.
    "Ooh, that's not good," Stephanie said.
    "What?"
    "I'm monitoring communications traffic, John Force has apparently gotten himself out of the hospital, everything's okay there. They seem to be ready for you. They're making statements that they had one poor unfortunate soul who was trapped in an experiment and gone rogue, possibly psychotic and spouting babble."
    "Son of a bitch," Ezra spat.
    "Son, you've got a good heart," Paul assured him, leaned back in the chair and went to sleep.
    

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