The Alpha opened its mouth.
Blue light built in its throat.
Every hair on Jagger's body rose.
Jason's eyes sharpened. "Down!"
The beam fired.
A concentrated blast of blue-white crystal energy ripped across the hall, carving through pillars, walls, hanging signs, and the upper balcony in one continuous line of destruction. Marcus caught the edge of it on his shield and was driven backward with a roar. The shield face glowed, smoked, and cracked along one corner. Jason blinked out in lightning, but the movement was rougher this time, shorter.
"Blink's cooling," he warned.
Elias threw himself flat under the beam as it passed overhead and sheared the top off a concrete column behind him.
Jagger was too close.
The beam clipped his left side.
Pain exploded white.
His bodysuit hardened. The Blackfang plates shifted. Regeneration screamed awake, and still the blast tore a bloody line across his ribs and hip before he spun out of it and hit the floor hard.
