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somewhere. I'd fucking love to beat those short-ears to a
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pulp, but not if that's the price to pay. Jerry sounded
harsh.
I can assure you that you won't be punished for this.
Quite the opposite. I have given this a lot of thought,
and I believe it's time to change the rules a bit. We are
off-planet, after all.
I'm not so sure the rules should be changed. They are
rules. Matt had to admire the way Aki carried himself.
You'd never think that it was Matt's friend and Robbie's
mate behind his cold and proper exterior. He really
sounded like he cared about the rules more than
anything else.
The Assessor nodded, smiling encouragingly. Oh, I
quite agree with you; it's not something that should be
done lightly. Only, we have a real problem on our
hands. He made a dismissive gesture. Nothing we can't
handle, of course, but... bothersome all the same.
The Assessor kept on describing the crowd gathering
at the Mall, only a few blocks away. Matt's attention
almost wavered when he heard that; they had so little
time. Then he went back to the task before him,
doubling his attempts to find a way into the Assessor's
mind.
It was completely fruitless, and Matt got more and
more desperate until he got just a bit too clumsy. The
Assessor clearly felt him, and immediately turned to
look at Matt.
Matt didn't have to fake his whimper; from what little
he had learned about the Assessor, he knew that his
blunder was enough to end his life right here and now.
He squeezed his eyes shut, faking dizziness, and leaning
into Pietr.
"What happened? Matt?" Pietr shook him, none too
gently. He gets so sensitive now and then. You never
know where you have him. There was nothing but cold
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annoyance in his mate's mind, and the icy condescension
was enough to make Matt whimper for real this time.
Well, keep him in line. Otherwise we'll have to
experiment with the alternative chip.
Matt cringed as he got a slight echo of associations
along with the Assessor's words: humans as mindless
slaves without any will of their own. Perfect humans, in
other words.
With a start, he realized that he really could read the
Assessor; however, the images were almost
imperceptible because of the Himiko's protection. Matt
had to trust his instincts and accept the elusiveness of
the images instead of striving for the clear pictures he
usually got. He relaxed and tried to sneak close, trying
to catch the echoes of the Assessor's thoughts like he
had done unintentionally with Aki, Sam, and Jerry the
last couple of days. Careful to disguise his presence, he
tried to see what he could get out of that. The result was
terrifying.
The Assessor was evil.
There wasn't any other way to explain it. The
Assessor's mind seethed with malevolence, and it was so
disgusting that Matt almost got sick. The Assessor was
also very different from any Himiko Matt had
encountered; his mind didn't reach out in an attempt to
create that kind of understanding that seemed to be the
distinctive trait of normal Himika. The common
connection that, according to Aki and Pietr, kept Himika
sane.
Instead, the Assessor held back, watching for
opportunities to manipulate his surroundings until he got
what he wanted. He was power crazed to a degree that
bordered on insanity.
Suddenly, Matt didn't have the slightest problem with
the task ahead.
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Matt only gradually came back to the conversation
around him. So, you want us to... crop their numbers?
Or just incapacitate the humans? It was Sam's voice.
Matt held his breath; the answer would confirm if they
really were going through with this. He still wasn't going
to do anything potentially harmful to the Assessor if the
Himiko only wished to uphold law and order.
I want to make sure that we don't see a manifestation
like this again. That means destroying enough humans
to teach the rest a lesson.
Free rein? Jerry grinned, sounding so bloodthirsty
that Matt felt sick.
You can kill as many as you like. For the first time,
the Assessor smiled. As a matter of fact, I think I'll make
that an order.
The words were there, spoken between them. Deep
under his shields, Matt could feel Pietr pulling all of his
energy together. Matt casually let his left hand wander
toward Aki. It was going to have to be soon, whether or
not Matt had found an opening.
Sam saw Matt's hand hovering over Aki's and nodded
almost imperceptibly. Then he stood up. Let's get to it. I
can't wait to use my skills for real.
The Assessor got up, too, a little taken aback with
Sam taking the initiative. Matt took the opportunity,
grabbed Pietr's and Aki's hands, and stood up, too. He
felt the energy going through him and attacked with the
power of all three of them combined.
The Assessor took a step back as Matt let all their
power fly against him. It was only a fraction of a
second, though. Then he hit back, and Matt screamed.
The Himiko's power was overwhelming, all the more
so because he was completely uncaring whether he hurt
anybody or not. As a matter of fact, harm was his goal.
Matt had no idea how they were going to defeat
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someone like this. How Matt was going to defeat
someone like this.
Matt still tried, though, out of sheer desperation,
pulling on the power of the two Himika united with him
and lashing out again. The Assessor brushed off the
attack almost casually and hit back once again. Matt
could hear an awful, shrill sound in the room, and he
was faintly aware that it was coming from himself.
This wasn't a fight at all. Matt pulled up his shields
tightly around them, building them as high as he could,
and just tried to survive. He briefly felt Jerry trying to
help; then the Himiko was thrown against the wall, and
Jerry fell to the ground, lifeless.
The pain from the merciless attack was excruciating
by now, and Matt could feel Aki's power starting to
falter. His mentor's rigidity was no match for this
whirlwind of mindless, evil power.
The inflexibility that worked so well for the Assessor
in building a hard shell didn't give Aki the power he
needed, and his energy crumpled, forcing Matt to
support him doubly now his own force was gone.
The Assessor gave a triumphant roar, and Matt felt
the Himiko collect all of the immense strength behind
that impossibly inflexible surface again, this time to
finish them off. Matt closed his eyes and fumbled along
the Assessor's walls in one last desperate attempt to find
a weakness. There were none, only unbreakable walls
that reflected any feeble attack Matt made.
Reflection.
In the endless moment before the final attack, Matt
pulled up their shield again, as strong as before, but this
time mimicking the reflectivity of the Assessor's
impenetrable shield. When the final attack came, it
rattled Matt to the core, and Pietr swayed next to him.
Matt desperately tried to keep his shield up, but he could
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feel the cracks developing. It was only a matter of
seconds now.
Bend, don't break. Aki's words were almost too weak
to hear.
Triumph shot through Matt when he understood what
Aki was trying to tell him. In a movement that made
Pietr cry out in fear, he yielded to the Assessor's force,
letting his shield retreat so much that it almost touched
the core of their beings. The movement allowed his
shield to heal, and he concentrated on reshaping it,
creating a rubber-like texture.
Matt felt the split-second of bewilderment from the
Assessor when his force hit the foreign surface. Then
Matt's shield sent all of his enormous power right back
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