Game Over

Chapter 53





I’D NOTICED THAT every time Number 7 and Number 8’s cloud attacked me, it first had oriented its four eyes at me. Its eyes! In other words, it was finding me by sight. If the cloud couldn’t find me by sight, I might just gain some sort of advantage or, at least, a chance to live.

The next step was effortless. I filled the entire GC Tower lobby with something relatively easy to understand and create: mirrored glass. With a quick sweep of my arms, I converted the sleek obsidian ground floor of the building into a giant carnival fun house.

The fun part was that Number 7 and Number 8 didn’t see just me; they saw thousands of me.

The not-so-fun part was that, judging from the angry, droning roar that went up, they weren’t very happy about it.

“You think you’re clever?!” the cloud’s polyphonic voice challenged me, spinning its gray mass around and around as it—or they?—tried to figure which image was the real Daniel X.

This was no time for chitchat. I had to take advantage of their momentary confusion to strike back or get away.

The cloud’s eyes were up against one of the mirrors now, examining the surface closely, very closely. Then it lifted a glossy black appendage—an arm? a leg? a tentacle? a pseudopod?—and carefully tapped the glass.

There was a small ping and then the pane shattered into gravel-sized bits and collapsed on the hard floor.

“Not so clever,” the droning voices yelled triumphantly. The cloud flickered and launched a swarm of tiny, glossy black spheres. In a moment, they had all fanned out and had shattered every single mirror in the room, resulting in a sound like, well, a Niagara-sized waterfall of breaking glass.

All of them, that is, except for the one that was obstinately flying into my forehead, over and over again, wondering why on earth I wouldn’t shatter.

I grabbed it in my fist, and it made a disgusting popping sound as I crushed the life out of it.

“Ouch,” pouted the cloud’s voices as it turned its four baleful black eyes toward me.

“You started it,” I reminded them, as a wall of darkness roared near. I almost got out of the way, but it hit me in the leg—hard.

And then I began to fall, and my entire being exploded in pain, and, well, I don’t remember much after that…





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