Book 2: Chapter 93: Power Overwhelming (2/2)

There was a reason why the People stuck to the shadows. But for all her power, not even Anastasia could bypass Bastion's defenses. Echo glared upwards, searching the sky. Several helicopters circled the campus, and he knew one of them held the dangerous old bitch. His own range wasn't nearly so long, but he could feel the fluctuations of Bastion's shield as force battered against it. He could see kinetic ripples dancing across its surface, the shield holding strong as it absorbed the ludicrous amount of violence being directed at it.

With the same abruptness that it had appeared, it ended. The pressure stopped and the walls of force settled into smooth glass. Echo glanced skywards once more, but his eyes saw nothing of use. He did not know how Anastasia saw the world—she'd expanded her concept further than anyone he'd ever heard of—but to him pressure existed as splashes of brilliant colors. It was like a thermal image, everything from vibrant green to deep red to black. It was the latter that he saw out of the corner of his eye, motes of dark pitch gathering around a distant dormitory.

Echo shot to his feet, slicing a hand across his throat in a kill gesture, praying that Bastion would understand his meaning. With his other hand, he thrust out a palm towards the dormitory, grasping at the motes of pressure. His echoed power strained across the distance, seizing hold of a single bead. He pulled at it, fighting for control—

The dormitory crumpled into itself like a sheet of tin foil! There was a clap of displaced air and a violent gust nearly took Echo off his feet! He stumbled, dragged along towards the broken remnants of the dormitory. Wood, plaster, and concrete had all folded in on itself. The building, once thousands of square feet, had been crushed into the size of a studio apartment. The walls and debris were compacted into the shape of a square, and Echo felt himself relax a fraction.

He'd seen Anastasia compress a car down to a marble. If any part of the building was still standing, it was because Bastion had managed to protect himself. Echo watched the black splotches vanish from the building, only to reappear immediately around himself. He thrust out both arms, willing the air to stabilize. He felt a foreign will slam against him, and nearly collapsed at the pressure. He was instantly overwhelmed. The ground trembled around him, and the walls of darkness slowly closed in.

He could practically feel Anastasia's amusement. ”This is your trump card?” he imagined her whispering. ”This poor copy? This cheap fake? How could you even conceive of it withstanding me?”

Her power crept ever closer, and he grit his teeth and pushed against it. He could see nothing now, his vision had gone black from the pressure and the power and the stress. Bones creaked and his skull felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. His eyes bulged against their sockets and his eardrums screamed in agony. It was all he could do to stay conscious. The world faded away. Time became an irrelevant concept; he only needed to hold out. Soon, he thought. Soon. Make your move, Cannibal, and draw her away.

The sounds of battle trickled in from beyond his little corner of existence. Gunfire, screams, a rioting crowd. The clap of thunder and the grinding of broken rocks. Echo ignored it. He braced against eternity as it weighed down on him. He was the ant fighting the boot, but so long as he survived, he held Anastasia's full attention. Unlike the soldiers, she had no sense of restraint, no image to maintain, and nothing resembling moral fiber. Given time to think about it, she might grow irritated with the rioting crowd and flatten them like one might a cockroach. He needed those people if he were to stand any chance against the National Guard and what remained of the Federal Assault Teams.

How amusing that Echo found himself in a position that protected those he'd brought as fodder.

He stumbled as the pressure suddenly ceased. Air ripped away from him in a wave of force that cracked concrete. He gasped, suddenly able to breathe easy, and he frantically glanced around, then up. One of the helicopters had peeled away. It blitzed north, towards the nearest airfield, at almost full tilt. In the opposite direction, something massive caught the last light of the dying sun. In the far distance, peeking out between the skyscrapers of downtown Austin, a towering mountain of ice.

Echo smiled through bloody teeth.

What use was power if you weren't around to wield it?

None at all.