Alex opened his eyes. The memories weren't all there, but with the help of Bolton's curse, he could at least recognize the shadow-faced people in his dreams. Well, he recognized all but one of them. The silver-haired knight was a mystery. Alex hadn't seen him running through the level he lived on.

Of course, Mari hadn't been a part of them, but Alex figured that had to do with where she was on the ship. He had a basic understanding of how the Nighthawk worked, which told him that the navigation system needed her beneath the bridge. It didn't make him feel better when he looked down at her clinging to his legs.

"Are your memories back?"

Bolton stood across from him, his hand on his hip beside his revolver. Alex had no specific memories of the man, but if pressed, he could say he met Bolton on Dry Turtle. There were still too many gaps.

"Pieces of them." Alex shrugged. I'm not going to pretend I know how this works, but maybe it's going to be more complicated than breaking one gem."

"There's no rest for the wicked." Bolton shook his head, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"And money doesn't grow on trees," Alex said, but only received a raised eyebrow in response.

"Is that some part of you that was part of your memories?"

"Maybe," Alex said.

"Alex is Alex," Mari said, her voice muffled by his leg.

"Is she going to be a problem?"

"Nah," Alex said, ruffling Mari's hair. "But the fact that breaking the gem didn't return me to normal is. I didn't see how we got caught or how this works. We'll have to keep looking."

"You said you could sense those thi—"

Skitter. Skitter. Click.

Bolton drew his gun, instantly training it above them on the wall. Alex looked up, his eyes searching for the source of the noise. A furtive eight-legged shadow jumped from the wall into a window, immediately dropping out of sight.

"Spider," Alex whispered.

"Doesn't matter what they are, they'll get a belly full of lead!"

'They' didn't bode well. Alex opened his gate, embracing the electric feel as thrumming power zapped out of his heart. Electric shocks ran from his gate to his fingertips, and his world opened into a sea of blue dots.

Electric signals marked the area, showing him faint impressions of metal objects and electrical signals around him. Mari's network of circuits and Bolton lit up like torches in the night. Around the corner, Alex also saw several eight-legged creatures crawling up and down the walls.

He grimaced. They went further than he could see. There had to be hundreds.

"We need to go," Alex said as he picked Mari up, her arms wrapping around his neck.

"I ain't afraid of spiders." Bolton had his gun trained on the corner.

"How many bullets do you have?"

"I only need one." Bolton didn't budge.

"You got a hundred?"

"A hundred?" Bolton snapped over to him, and that was when the spiders charged.

Skitter.

"What the fu—"

Bang.

Bolton took a shot, and Alex stepped back, grabbing the man around his waist with a grunt before charging down the street. He couldn't run as fast as he wanted with both arms occupied, but he was already stronger than a normal human.

Alex was a WPN, after all.

"What in tarn—"

Alex adjusted his arm, knocking the wind out of Bolton before he could complain.

"I need you alive," Alex said, focusing on the end of the alley. "So, let's run. Step."

Alex disappeared in a flurry of motion, his form blurring as he took a hundred steps instantly. He reappeared at the end of the alleyway. His chest burned, and his breath came in ragged, short heaves. He didn't have time to waste.

"It's all the extra weight." He sighed as he cut down the street.

Skitter. Skitter.

"They're coming!" Bolton bellowed.

Alex didn't need to look back to see the swarm of spiders. They were alive in his senses. They crawled across the wall in the alley behind him, running over each other to catch up. He needed to keep far enough ahead to find a hiding place.

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"That's assuming they can't track me through aether." He gasped as he cut another corner, putting himself out of sight of the nearest spider.

However, even if they did, he had a few options. But to work, he needed to be entirely out of sight. So, he focused on running.

"I can't say I like being carried around like luggage." Bolton grunted.

"Can you keep up?" Alex asked.

"Not with your fancy footwork, but if it's just running, I can."

Alex turned another corner, letting go of Bolton and letting him get his feet under him. Together, they started running again. The little dropoff cost them a few seconds, but freeing up the weight sped Alex up—tradeoffs for everything.

The spiders split up on the building behind them, and Alex frowned. His senses weren't wrong. The spiders had split into three streams, one going up and two around the buildings. It was a sign of some kind of intelligence behind the spiders. They weren't simply animals coming after him individually.

"We're going to have some trouble," Alex said as they ran down the street.

"What kind?" Bolton heaved, his arms swinging wide as he ran.

"The not-friendly neighborhood kind," Alex said, taking in a gasping breath.

He delved deeper into his gate as he ran, drawing in aether to force it wide open with his breath. He needed more power, and the second level of his curse would provide it. He didn't quite know exactly what he would do with it yet, but he knew he needed the options.

Bzzt.

Electric lances of lightning shocked through his body. His muscles twitched with each step. Power, electrical energy hummed at his fingertips. All he needed to do was call on the aether, and the metal he needed would reply.

"Bolton, catch." He tossed Mari to the man before skidding to a stop.

"Wait!" Mari yelled.

"Oof!" Bolton grunted as he caught Mari and fell into the wall.

"Rail Shotgun!"

Bzzt.

Alex extended a hand, and ten long, sharp bars formed around him. With a push of will and magnetic acceleration, each of the bars shot toward the roof, curving through the air just as the spiders swarmed over the top. Alex didn't wait to confirm that they had hit. He could see the metal pierce through the spiders in his senses.

"Come on." He grabbed Mari from Bolton's arms and kept running.

That move only bought them a few seconds. Some of the spiders stopped to check on their brethren while others jumped over them, crawling down the building with unerring purpose. Alex plunged into the next set of buildings, knowing that turning away would be pointless.

"In here!"

Bam.

Alex kicked open a door into an empty room. The door bounced off the wall as he stepped in, with Bolton not far behind. Bolton slammed the door behind them, putting his back against the wall.

"What's the plan, Ortega?" Bolton asked. "This door ain't going to hold them."

"Let me take a crack at it."

Crick. Crack.

Alex cracked his neck left and right as he approached the door. Bolton stepped to the side, nodding. Alex held out his hands as he focused his mind. Blue light flickered across his fingers.

"Steel Wall."

Bzzt.

A thick steel wall flared into existence along the wall, even covering the window across the room. Alex held his hands there, reinforcing the wall with his strength as spiders crawled toward the door outside.

"This can't be your only plan." Bolton shook his head. "What happens when they come in from upstairs?"

"Upstairs?" Alex turned to look at Bolton.

Thump.

Something moved on the floor above, and Bolton drew his gun. They locked eyes, and Alex shook his head. The spiders hadn't broken in yet. It had to be something else.

Bolton slunk to the side of the stairwell on the far side of the room, holding up his revolver as he waited. The sound continued, and the person above was walking toward the stairs at a methodically quiet pace. Either it didn't see the spiders outside, or it wasn't panicked by them.

"What in the—"

Click.

The person stepped out onto the first floor. Bolton pulled back the hammer on his revolver but didn't fire. Alex turned, putting his back to his steel wall. He didn't like that they were essentially holding a person hostage after breaking into their home, but it came with the territory of being an outlaw.

Except the figure wasn't anything like he expected.

Criminal thug would be the best way to describe him. He was dressed in a way that practically bled that he wasn't on the up and up. His face was ghostly white, but his entire attire was black. His head was shaved down to a stubble, but he kept a goatee. In his right hand was a long, wicked knife.

"I'm not one to judge, but that's not a good look," Alex said.

"What in the abyss are you doing in here?" the man asked before Bolton pushed the gun up against his cheek.

"I think we're asking the questions here," Bolton said. "You ain't acting like the other people we've seen here."

The man opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He looked between them, and his eyes widened as recognition came in. Bolton and Alex both had bounties. Well, Alex knew he had one. He just assumed Bolton had one.

"You're 'Tin Man' Ortega." The man gulped. "And 'Mad Dog' Bolton."

"He's definitely got his memories," Alex said. "Which means he knows what's going on."

"I don't want any…"

"Now, stop right there," Bolton said, pushing his revolver up harder into the man's chin. "We're going to get answers from you whether you like it or not."

Slam.

A hard thump slammed into the door, echoing through the steel behind Alex. Alex pushed hard against it, and the metal held against the attack. The spiders had found them, but Alex's wall held strong.

"The spiders, you're the reason they're swarming," the thug said.

"And we'll be the reason you're dead if you don't cooperate," Bolton said.

Crack.

"They're breaking through the windows on the second floor." Alex took note of the spiders in his senses. "I can go two walls, but it'll just buy us time."

"I—We have to go underground," the thug said. "They won't go down the access holes. They'll only go down their chutes."

Bolton shared a look with Alex, and Alex nodded.

"Drop the knife and show us," Bolton said.

Clang.

The thug dropped the knife and walked over to a rug in the center of the room. He pulled it up, revealing a round metal door. With a quick turn, he opened it, motioning down into the darkness below.

"I can go first," he said.

"Now, don't go doing that," Bolton said, holstering his gun. "I'll go first and secure the bottom. Then you can come on down."

Crash.

"Steel Wall." Alex raised a second hand, conjuring a second wall over the stairs in a flash of blue sparks.

"I'll come last," Alex said.

"Understood," Bolton said before jumping into the hole and starting his descent.

Thump. Thump.

The thug followed a moment after. Alex looked over to Mari. She held her arms close to her body and shook. Alex grimaced. It wasn't a good time to panic, but he couldn't ask a kid to just jump down into darkness.

"Come on, Mari," he said, concentrating on the walls. "I'll help you down."

Thump. Thump.

"Alex."

She nodded, running over to him, and he picked her up. With one last look over the first floor, he put his foot on the first rung, starting his descent and closing the door above him.

"Let's just hope that guy's right," Alex whispered as the light faded and he released his hold on the wall.

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