"Hey." Kai didn't look back at them. His eyes stayed on the three thugs. "Stay behind me. Make a row."
Elara blinked. "What?"
"One leg forward, one back. Hold hands." He reached back with his left hand, keeping his right arm raised. "Last one holds mine. Don't let go. Be strong."
Elara grabbed Rose's hand, then Bati's. Their palms were sweaty. Kai's hand closed around Elara's wrist—firm, cold.
"Okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," Elara managed.
Kai shook his right arm. The silver band on his wrist hissed, metal plates shifting, reconfiguring. In three seconds it became a laser pistol, matte black with a humming energy core.
Rose gasped. "Wow! That's amazing!"
The thugs laughed. The leader cracked his neck. "You think that toy scares us"?
Then they changed.
The leader's body swelled, bones cracking and reshaping. Fur burst through skin. In seconds he wasn't human—he was a massive rhinoceros, gray and real, pawing the concrete with a hoof that left cracks.
The second boy shrank, twisted, became a panther. Real muscles rippling under real black fur. Yellow eyes blinked once.
The third exploded into feathers, wings spreading wide—a golden eagle the size of a man, screeching into the night.
Feralis. Shapeshifters. The real kind.
"Oh, hell," Kai muttered.
He fired. The blast took the rhino in the shoulder, spinning the beast around. It roared, a sound that shook the rooftop. The panther leaped. Kai fired again, missing by an inch as the cat landed where he'd stood.
"Hold on!" Kai shouted.
His band dissolved, melted, reformed into a flat silver board beneath his feet. It rose with a whine, wobbling, then shot forward.
They flew.
Elara screamed. The wind tore at her hair. They were skimming over rooftops, the city a blur below. Rose whooped behind her, wild and terrified.
"This is terrific!" Rose shrieked. "I love it!"
Elara risked a glance back. "Thank God. We're free."
"No!" Kai's voice was sharp. "Not now! Look behind!"
The eagle was chasing them—real wings beating, real talons extended. Gaining fast.
"Be ready!" Kai yelled. "Don't lose hands!"
"Ready for what—"
The board vanished.
They fell.
Elara's stomach hit her throat. They dropped ten feet before—thud—they landed hard on something solid. A car. Kai's band had transformed into a sleek black vehicle, expanding around them like liquid . Kai saw the restaurant up ahead. He took his foot off the accelerator.
The vehicle slowed, gliding inches above the concrete, then shimmered. Metal flowed like liquid, folding, compressing, dissolving back into the silver band on his wrist.
Kai stepped down onto the pavement as if he'd been walking all along. One foot in front of the other, smooth, casual. He adjusted his coat collar, hands sliding into his pockets, and kept walking toward the restaurant entrance without looking back.
Behind him, Elara, Rose, and Bati were sitting on empty air.
They hit the ground hard, skidding across the concrete.
"Ow!" Rose yelped, clutching her hip.
Elara scrambled up, knees burning. "We could have stopped first!" she shouted at his retreating back.
Kai didn't turn around. He just kept walking and disappeared inside the restaurant.
Bati sat on the ground, wincing and holding her elbow. "That was completely unnecessary."
Elara glared at the door, dusting off her clothes. "Jerk."
Inside, they surrounded him at a corner table.
Elara leaned in. "Thank you. But I'm curious—how are you that fast? In my dad's—"
Rose grabbed her hand, squeezing hard. Elara stopped. She'd almost said it.
"Can you teach us?" Elara asked instead.
Kai looked up. "Not at all."
"But—"
"You're girls my age who don't know how to use your bands. You were stupid—going into that district without protection. You got lucky."
He stood. "Wait five minutes, then get out. Walk home."
"How?" Elara asked.
"Like you came." Kai pulled his collar up. "I know you can only make good-looking cars. Figure out the rest."
He walked out.
---
Three blocks away, the bar was surrounded.
DRO soldiers poured into the alley, rifles sweeping. Their commander—a woman with a cybernetic eye—kicked in the back door.
"Search!"
They found three young men in tattered clothes, unconscious, naked, blood pooling beneath them. The Feralis had transformed back to human form after Kai's laser hits.
"No sign of the girls," a soldier reported.
The commander touched her earpiece. "Sir, she's not here. She's gone." She paused. "Yes, sir. A boy got them out.
She looked down at the unconscious Feralis.