When the sky burned red and the air erupted with its monotonic song, Thirteen smiled to himself. About time.

"Fourteen, to place," he instructed, pointing towards the spot overlooking every point in the grounds. With Ten and Fifteen's help, the conservatory was remodeled into a bland tower, every mechanism meant to open the roof was disabled, sealing them in. Only a small square was left. That was everything Fourteen needed.

The girl nodded and packed her gear courtesy of Five. "The rest of you," Thirteen said. "Stay inside. Don't think of venturing out."

"Fourteen," he called just as her foot touched the first rung of the hanging stairs towards her perch. "Shoot anyone who comes close to our doors."

"Radius?" she asked.

His eyes narrowed. "At random," he said. "Make them think you're everywhere."

Fourteen gave him a lopsided salute before shouldering her pack and clambering up. The rest of her footsteps vanished against the thickness of concrete. He clenched his jaw, the counter's alarm grating every part of his being. It was their second, and after this, he would have a rough estimate of how long counters last. Rough, but it would have to do for their future operations.

He slid close to the wall and peeked out of the only window they dared to install. It was to see the rest of the grounds—if it even existed beyond the hall—and build an accurate scale of the playing field without having to go out. No one had to die, and he wouldn't risk any of his soldiers by doing reconnaissance. Not this early in the game.

Let them come first. He'd weed out the impatient ones in an instant.

They mapped most of the corridors in this building, discovering this was a huge fortress. Too many openings. Too many blindspots. There was only so much they could do to mitigate them. Something shuffled behind him, followed by the hissed warnings from his allies.

"One, what are you doing?" It was Seven. When Thirteen looked away from the window, he saw the boy yanking One's arm back, going as far as clinging to her black sleeve. "Sit down!"

Thirteen frowned. "What's the matter?"

One crossed her arms over her chest. "Why are we being kept here?" she demanded. "This is a counter. We can't be sitting ducks here. They're coming, and what's our defense so far? Fourteen can't handle all of them on her own!"

"You will do well to have some faith in your ally," Thirteen answered, aiming to turn back to the fight happening below. Already, distant noises of trees crashing and sparks erupting in showers of light and energy rang beyond the tempered glass of the window.

A click of the tongue. "You don't have to lord over us, dumbass," One said, stalking towards the other exit.

Thirteen peeled off the window. "What do you think you're doing?"

She flipped her hair to her back. "I'm helping Fourteen," she claimed. "Don't stop me."

That was what he wanted to do. "Hey! Come back this instant!" he called, stepping forward but stopping there. He couldn't yank her back though. She could burn his face without thought. Someone...

Nobody moved as One unlocked the door with the method Thirteen taught her and stomped into the darkness. Her murmurs faded the same way Fourteen's footsteps did, only this time, One moved towards a mistake. In their line of work, mistakes meant death, and Thirteen couldn't make good on his promise if they wouldn't keep their end of the bargain.

A hand clamped on his shoulder, stilling him. He looked up to find Five's pale face and sunken eyes behind him. He didn't even realize he was pacing and his nails suffered under the barrage of his teeth.

"I'll get her," Five said.

Thirteen opened his mouth, words of disapproval thick on his tongue. Would he risk losing another ability—a powerful one at that—to save someone who clearly wasn't bright enough to think beyond winning? He aimed to pluck the impatient ones off the board, but he didn't see that one of them might be behind him all along.

A sigh heaved off his chest. "Go," he said. "If you encounter trouble, don't reveal your ability. Lead them inside. We'll deal with them."

Five bobbed her head and dashed off, taking the same exit One did. Thirteen glanced at the others. Question and confusion shone on their expressions, but no one dared to follow after two of their comrades. He pressed himself against the window again, keeping his stance light. Should someone throw a grenade this high up, he could leap away in time.

Beyond the tinted glass, he watched the horizon zip with streaks of forces and lights. Small figures—no bigger than ants—whizzed in the air or dashed across the unruly landscape. The world outside the fortress also betrayed the world they were in. Dilapidated buildings, all barely liveable, sprouted from the carpet of overgrown grass. This might be an old campus, and somehow, the game chose this as the next arena for bloodshed.

He stole a glance towards the sky. Eight could reach it, should she will it and should he tell her, but both of them agreed it wasn't wise. One, it would expose her ability to the general public, opening her for countermeasures and pinning a target on her back. Two, if other sections saw them, the stream of discoveries wouldn't be consolidated to him. Knowledge was power, and for him who didn't have one, it was the best weapon to arm himself with.

Nevertheless, a bright blue expanse covered their heads, with cottony white clouds zipping through unbothered.

A new note joined the counter's alarm. Everyone knew what it meant.

"Intruders," Thirteen snarled, pushing off the window and rushing towards the pulsing blue light at the other side of the hall. He wove past the countertops, the file cabinets, and the tables. Feet shuffled and fabric rustled behind him.

"What are we going to do?" Nine demanded. "You let them get to us!"

Thirteen whirled to them in response to the accusation, a reply thick in his tongue. Ten beat him to it. "We should have followed One! Maybe she had a point. What's the use of having a fortress if they will find us here, waiting for death?"

"Shut it!" His voice speared through the nods and uncertainty blossoming from the crowd. He pushed the wavy strands off his forehead, bracing his hips and pacing as fast as his boots allowed him. "Would it kill you to stop talking? For once, think. That's all I need you to do."

He lowered his hand to find everyone looking at him with blank expressions. A short gust of wind filtered from his nostrils. Unbelievable. Did he have to explain every bit of his decisions to these...lambs?

"Don't let Fourteen out of the conservatory until the counter is done," he said. "Twelve, Fifteen. Come with me."

Nobody had time to argue. He didn't give them. He stalked to where the alarm was tripped, pushed the doors open, and dropped straight into a hole made for sewage. This building had excellent plumbing, after all. He didn't check if the two followed him. The footsteps splashing against the murky puddles were enough.

He dug the torch he stuck into his belt. One of the essentials he had Five give everyone. The limited beam flickered weakly against the inky darkness pressing from every direction. He nodded to Twelve, and she spread her hands. Her ability kicked into full power, characterized by a small twitch to her ears.

"Two people," she reported, her eyes closed. In the darkness and with his light barely doing anything, it didn't make a difference. "They're talking about returning to Section K. Somewhere in the ravines?"

Fools, a lot of them. He turned to Fifteen. "As soon as they're within range, leash them," he said. "Twelve, give them no chance to use their abilities."

Both acknowledged him with a nod. "And as soon as you disabled them, get Two down here," he said. "Report progress on One and Five if you are able."

"Got it," Twelve answered, her voice barely a thread of a whisper. "Here they come. Three, two, one."

Fifteen lashed out, her arms flying forward. Thirteen stepped out of the way, feeling the air become heavy and thicker than the black around them. "Leashed 'em," Fifteen grunted, balancing the imbued weight of her catch. "They won't stop squirming."

Thirteen glanced at Twelve. "Now."

A shriek rippled across the expanse, straight from Twelve's open mouth. It wasn't visible, wasn't audible either, but it did its work. Water splashed in panic as Fifteen's leash withdrew and Twelve's sonic attack at a lower decibel at full volume sank in. Weak whimpers and sharp breaths echoed in the darkness.

"Go," Thirteen said to Fifteen.

Before he could check on Twelve, a shadow whipped past the radius of his torch. "Wait!" he called into the wall of black, breaking into a run after the wet splotches of Twelve's boots. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm making sure they don't know where or who we are!" Twelve whispered, her voice carrying over through the sound waves Thirteen never understood the mechanics of. Maybe Seventeen could help him sometime. But not now.

A curse tore from Thirteen's lips. Twelve surely heard it, and he didn't shy away from directing it to her. "Stop this instant!" he said. "Wait for him!"

He dared not utter a name anywhere near an enemy. "We won't kill them!"

Twelve's footsteps halted. He whipped the light beam towards her to focus on her bewildered expression. "That's what we came here for," she said. "We need to kill the other sections until we're the only ones left."

Thirteen drew closer and gripped her wrist, noting how she tensed. His fingers rested on her pulse, counting the beats both to calm himself and confirm something. "We are doing that, but there's a right time," he said. "Follow my lead."

"We're here!" Fifteen's voice rang from behind. Thirteen stepped back and let Twelve go before anyone could get the wrong idea. He didn't prove anything with that method either. "What are we doing?"

"Keep them knocked out," Thirteen said to Twelve. Then, to Two, whose orange hair shone gold against the barest sliver of torchlight. "Scan them. I need information on the passageways, on how they got inside. Memories. Tell me everything they saw in their base and everyone who was with them."

Two nodded, following after Twelve. More footsteps rang behind them, and through the beam, he glimpsed One and Five. He said to report, not lead them here. He flashed a reprimanding glance at Fifteen who stepped back, throwing her palms forward. "I-I didn't tell them to come!"

"Stop scaring the girl," One said. "I came on my own accord when I heard about the intruder. What are you doing?"

"Saving our asses," Thirteen muttered, drawing away from the newcomers and Fifteen who lacked the spine to stop them. If he was to deal with people with thick heads all the time, he might just surrender and die.

He stalked towards where Twelve and Two crouched. Two bodies plopped face-first on puddles of muddy water, too still to pass as corpses. Twelve must have done a number on them, no pun intended. "As soon as you're done, head back," Thirteen said. He jerked his chin at Fifteen. "You too."

Two's eyes snapped open. "Got it," he said. "I'll see you at the briefing."

Unlike the older ones, this kid learned better. Faster. Thirteen stepped back to let them through, leaving One and Five with him. Actually, it was a good thing Five was here. As the bodies began stirring, he yanked the gun from Five's belt and pointed it down. Two shots. The smell of blood and burning sulfur wafted in the air. Not bad.

"The only way we're getting through this alive is you trusting me," he said, lowering the smoking gun and turning to One. "The other sections now have your profile—what you look like, what your ability is, and who you are with. They can design methods to take you down, and I will not risk lives to save you. You will die by your own folly, and I can't do anything about that."

If One was bothered by that, she didn't show it. "The plan is to draw them to us so I can analyze everything about them," he said. "We are not sitting ducks, One. We are predators poised to kill. Remember that."

He shoved Five's gun back to her. Whether they followed him back up or not, he didn't care. If they didn't want to, he understood them well enough to take them down. Keeping a rotting limb could endanger the whole body. And if One insisted on that, the only option was to cleave her out before it was too late.

Time and chance weren't good masters, but they certainly were better enemies.