27

12:00 A.M.

PURPOSELESSLY HYPER-INFLATED INDIVIDUALITY

Jonathan caught most of the impact on his shield, but the collision still knocked the wind out of him. The darkling's skin bulged with muscle, as hard as a sack of doorknobs. He heard the thin aluminum alloy of Purposelessly Hyperinflated Individuality crumple with the impact, then the shield burned his fingers as it instantly turned white-hot. Sparks flew from the darkling's flesh, and its scream rang deafeningly in his ears.

For a moment Jonathan grew heavy; contact with the darkling had robbed him of his midnight gravity. He fell toward the ground, but as the icy touch of the creature's flesh faded, Jonathan's body lightened again.

By the time he hit the ground, he was almost back to weightless.

He rolled to his feet, coming up face-to-face with a very surprised Rex.

"Did you see that?" he said. "Direct hit."

On his way out to the Bottom, Jonathan had discovered that the trash can lid was a great flying aid. It was a surfboard, a wing, a sail - a surface to catch the air and control his direction after he'd jumped. In the moments he had soared toward the darkling, Jonathan had used it to adjust his path like a smart missile homing in on its target.

Something sizzled at his feet, and Jonathan glanced down. The spiders were closing in from every direction, forcing their burning way through the metal. He had landed in the middle of a lake of relentless, poisonous bugs.

Smart was relative, he supposed.

"Smells bad out here," he said to Rex and Melissa. "Let's jump."

"One problem, genius," Melissa said. She pointed.

The other darkling was swooping toward the three of them, skimming across the desert.

Jonathan pulled the still smoldering Purposelessly Hyperinflated Individuality from his hand, hoping its triple-decker name had one more jolt left in it. He crooked the trash can lid in his arm like a giant Frisbee and hurled it at the beast.

He didn't pause to see the result, grabbing Rex. He held out his other hand.

Melissa shrank from him. "I'd rather die."

"That's crap," Rex said, shoving her forward. Her hands came up instinctively and Jonathan grabbed one.

A wave of nausea hit him, and he almost blacked out. He could feel Melissa's mind rushing into his, belligerent and angry but at the same time feverishly hungry, consuming his thoughts and memories, pushing into every corner of his mind. Her emotions swept through him: terror of the spiders, surprise at being suddenly weightless, and, overwhelming everything, horror at the intimacy of being touched.

For a moment he was paralyzed, but then an irresistible command surged into his mind.

Jump, idiot, Melissa thought at him.

"One, two..." he started.

Rex hadn't flown with him for more than a year, but the reflexes were still there. They knelt and jumped together, soaring over the spiders. Together they were strong enough to drag Melissa along.

Jonathan heard the second darkling collide with the projectile, and another feline screech echoed across the desert. But there were other winged shapes coming at them - slithers, at least.

Melissa's fingers dug into his, but she managed to fight, snapping off necklace after necklace with her free hand, casting them into the air around the trio as they flew, knocking screaming slithers to the ground. Rex flailed about with his free hand, the metal rings he wore sparking to life.

The first jump carried them to within yards of the snake pit. Jonathan had to hold Rex back or their next leap would have carried them all the way through and out the other side.

They skidded to a stop inside the arc's safety seconds later, and Jonathan let go, letting them drop into the soft sand. Melissa landed badly, an ankle twisting and eyes flashing in the lightning. The venom and agony from her mind drained out of Jonathan, leaving a taste like rotten meat on his tongue.

Melissa doubled over, convulsing once with a pitiful moan, the fingers of the hand he'd touched clawing the hard sand. Still coughing, she managed to stand and face him, and Jonathan braced himself.

Her face held an expression he'd never seen before or perhaps had never been able to see. She was so sad, so hopeless. Then the familiar mask of annoyance descended over her features.

"Thanks," she said.

Jonathan realized that they'd actually made it back to the snake pit. "You're welcome."

Melissa turned to Dess. "And you."

Dess lowered her gaze, shrugged.

Melissa turned away from them all. "Thanks, I mean, Dess."

Jonathan looked at Jessica, who frowned. Rex put his hand on Melissa's shoulder, but she pulled away.

Rex sighed and tenderly pulled off his rings. The fingers looked burned underneath. He glanced up at the moon, almost at its peak.

"We'd better get started," Rex said. "Ready, Jessica?"

Jessica shivered in her jacket. "I guess."

Jonathan took her hand. He felt the muscles relax as midnight gravity flowed through her.

"Jonathan, you help Dess," Rex said.

He bristled for a moment, remembering how Rex always assumed he was in command. But he took a deep breath. "Okay," he said. "Help Dess what?"

Dess cleared her throat. "Help me fix the defenses to keep the snake pit from being overrun by darklings and about a million slithers."

"I thought you said - "

"The defenses are weakening," she explained. "Something big must have been caught in the lightning arc."

"Like a darkling?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah."

Jonathan and Jess looked at each other.

"I did that," Jessica said.

A few yards away Melissa snorted, completely back to her old self.

Dess frowned. "Wow. That's a trick you'll have to show me."

"Just an accident. Like everything I do."

"Later," Rex said. "Buy us some time, Dess." He turned to Jessica. "Jess, are you...?"

"Yes?"

Rex paused. "Are you wearing makeup?"

She rolled her eyes. "Come on. It's Friday night!"

"No, you look great. Really. Let's go do this."

Jessica squeezed Jonathan's hand, then turned away. Rex and Melissa led her down toward the dark center of the pit.

Jonathan took another deep breath, pulling his eyes away from Jessica.

"Okay, Dess, what do we do?"

"First, we need the clean metal I brought, which is..." Dess groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead. "In my duffel bag."

Jonathan looked around. "Where?"

Dess pointed out of the snake pit and across the sand, to where spiders still poured from the darkling she had speared, spreading over the desert to form a black, seething sea of legs and teeth.

"Not a chance," Jonathan said.

Dess sighed. "Then I guess we'll have to improvise."