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Happy Applewhite’s ping-pong-ball- shaped eyes blinked open, glowing a creepy, illuminated purple.
Kahn’s stomach dropped. He knew that very distinctive color. It was the exact shade of the force field that Vandal used to hold him prisoner in the Light Kingdom. The one that Kahn himself was supposed to invent, sometime in the future.
Vandal stole all his plans and notes, according to Randa. Including those dancing dolls he built for his sisters. If you were a psycho from the future, you could make those dolls life-size. You could alter the designs so they looked like robots. You could add weapons to them, that hadn’t even been invented yet. You could take all Kahn’s ideas and use them to ambush the strongest Phases in the realm.
Fuck!
This horrible party was about to get worse.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The elements of the party have been ill-mixed.
Anthony Trollope
Screaming. Cursing. Sudden bursts of energy. Robots.
It was all happening so fast. People tried to jump away and couldn’t. Something was blocking them. Weapons and powers were being unleashed, but the only thing to aim at was Happy Applewhite and his mechanical friends.
It was chaos.
Randa was still struggling to process it all, when Kahn swept her right off her feet. Her Match didn’t bother about the fight breaking out. He just grabbed her. Typically, he was extremely careful about consent, but now he was scooping her up like she was the delicate captive in some outlandish barbarian poem. It was almost as shocking as the robots.
“Daven!” Kahn bellowed and tossed her towards the other Light Phase. Literally tossed her, as if there was no time to waste.
Daven reacted with the same urgency. He only held her for half a second, and then she was flying towards Julius, who stood a few feet away. “Hurry, Jules!”
“Mannus!” Julius shouted. “The counter!”
Mannus was last in the bucket brigade. He was also closest to the snack stand. A glass display showcased dozens of types of candy and a popcorn machine on one side. Against the wall were soda dispensers, a spinning rack of churros, and a menu board that promised various pizza options.
Mannus caught her and promptly heaved her right over the top of the counter.
Randa hit the sticky ground in shock, the breath knocked out of her. What the hell? She gave her head a clearing shake. The Light Phases had just dumped her on the floor!
“Wait until it’s clear and then run.” Mannus ordered in an urgent voice. “No matter what you see don’t… shit!”
Flashes lit the room. She didn’t see where they came from, but she saw them reflect off the glass above her. Purple like the energy that powered Kahn’s force-field cage, back in the Light Kingdom. That future technology was dangerous… and in the hands of Vandal, of the Light House.
This was not good. Very, very not good.
She risked a quick peek through the bottom of the glass candy case. Sure enough, the other partygoers were scattered around the roller rink’s interior, trapped in those damn energy bubbles she’d seen in the memory sharing. There must have been one over the building, as well. That was why no one could jump out.
Phases tried to break through the purple walls of their cages, causing sparks to travel over the surface of the domes. The futuristic prisons held. Everybody remained locked up.
Everybody but Randa.
The Light Phases had protected her. Before anybody else. Before themselves. They’d instantly shielded her. Not because they were her bodyguards, but because they were her family. Whatever was happening, they’d reacted fast, and their unspoken decision had been to hide her away from danger.
She trusted them. Completely. She was going to do what they asked and stay down. The orders made total sense. …But she wasn’t going to run. Her Match and everyone else she cared about were being attacked. She needed to help them.
How though?
Robots were stomping around. She didn’t know how to fight them. She’d only seen one self-defense video! She was the worst possible choice to save the day.
“That actually worked? I’m shocked.”
Randa froze as a new voice sounded in the room.
