The bus door opened with a pressure seal cough.
The transport officer stepped onto the road, one hand near his sidearm and the other lifted in warning. The candidates went quiet behind the glass. Even the driver kept his breathing low, both hands locked around the wheel.
"This is a restricted military route," the officer called. "Move to the barrier line and identify yourself."
The man in the road did not move.
The dark Ikona above him shifted its weight in the air. Dot pressed closer to Elias's neck.
"Do not let it sense me clearly," she said. "I do not know how, but keep calm."
"That is not a usable instruction."
"It is the best I have right now," Dot said, while outside the man tilted his head toward the bus.
"I know the shard boy is in there," he said. "Send him out, and the rest of them keep breathing."
The candidates reacted all at once. Someone whispered a curse. Marcus rose halfway from his seat before the driver snapped at him to sit down.
The officer drew his weapon.
"Put your hands up and knees down," he said. "If this is an insurgent stunt, you chose the wrong road."
The man smiled. "Your gun is not going to solve this."
"Then let the lesson be educational."
The officer fired.
A blue round struck the man's chest. His jacket tore open, but he stayed on his feet. Under the cloth, his skin had already started changing. Dark plates pushed through flesh in uneven bands. His shoulders widened. His hands thickened until the fingers looked less suited for holding tools than breaking doors.
The candidates shouted inside the bus.
Marcus was on his feet now, one palm against the seat in front of him.
"What kind of shard host does that?"
Elias did not answer because Dot was not answering him.
The officer fired again. The second shot burned a pit in the growing armor. The man grunted, then covered the distance between them in three long steps.
He hit the officer in the side.
The body armor took some of it. Not enough. The officer folded around the blow and struck the road hard, sliding until his shoulder hit the curb barrier.
The driver reached under his seat and pulled out a rifle.
"Everyone stays seated until I say otherwise," he shouted. "If you stand, I treat you as another problem."
Marcus ignored the warning. Two other candidates followed him, pulling emergency rifles from the rack above the front seats. They did not move like trained soldiers yet, but fear put a rough order into them.
The armored man turned toward the bus.
"The shard boy gets out now."
Elias felt every eye trying not to look at him. Nobody knew. Not really. But panic made people search for the person who looked different, older, bruised, late to the roster.
Dot's voice came inside his head.
"If he reaches the bus, people die."
"I understand the obvious part, so give me the useful part."
"His armor is not complete near the ribs. The transformation is borrowing material from somewhere, and it has gaps."
Elias stood.
The driver swung the rifle toward him. "Sit down before I make you."
"Give me the sidearm from the emergency kit," Elias said. "I can shoot, and if I stay here, he tears the bus open anyway."
"You are not authorized to carry that."
Marcus looked back from the front. "He is the one the pass was for. Let him help or start driving through a wall."
That moved the driver more than logic did. He pulled a compact pistol from the lockbox and shoved it toward Elias grip first.
"If you shoot a recruit, I will haunt your paperwork."
"That is the least threatening curse I have ever heard."
Elias stepped off the bus with the pistol held low.
The road smelled like hot asphalt and burned armor. The injured officer was trying to crawl toward his dropped weapon. Marcus and two recruits formed a crooked line near the bus door, rifles up, faces pale.
The armored man looked past all of them and found Elias.
The dark Ikona above him unfolded enough to show a heavy jaw and flat black eyes.
"There you are behind the others," the man said. "Your shard is hiding, but not well enough."
Elias raised the pistol. His hands were steadier than he felt.
"I have had a long week, so whatever sales pitch comes next needs to be short."
The man laughed, and the sound scraped through the road tunnel.
"Give me the shard, and I leave the bus alive."
"That is not how ownership works."
Marcus fired first.
The other recruits followed. Blue rounds hammered the armored man and forced him back two steps. Plates cracked. Underneath, raw skin showed through in red lines. The man roared and slammed both hands into the road.
Concrete jumped.
The shock ran under Elias's feet and threw the recruits off balance. The bus windows rattled. The injured officer went flat, covering his head.
The armored man charged through the dust straight at Elias.
Dot shouted inside him, "Move left when I pull through the watch."
Elias felt something tug through the watch and obeyed.
A chunk of metal formed in the air where his chest had been. The armored fist struck it and still threw Elias backward across the road. He landed near the officer, pain bursting through his ribs.
The metal plate hit the pavement beside him, bent almost double.
Elias stared at it.
"Dot, please tell me we can do that more than once."
Her answer came strained.
"I can try, but you need to stop getting punched by things bigger than doors."