Against space-warping shaker, Flies into ceiling

Lights went out further down the hall, and the way they went out got our attention immediately. Lights went out one by one, and if the ceiling-tile-inset light right in front of us was numbered one and the number furthest from us was numbered one hundred, it was counting down by twenty a second. As each new light went out, another light behind it came back on.

"Heads up!" Capricorn shouted.

I saw it too, the distortion. Wall, wall, ceiling, floor, all rippled, as if a wave was traveling down it.

The Custodian? Something else.

I flew over the ripple, grabbing the nearest people. Capricorn, Rain.

My grab of Rain's arm hadn't been perfect. He'd swung in my grip as I pulled, and one arm grazed the ripple. Metal and tech was torn up like it had been thrust into a wood chipper.

The ripple was only a foot high, one or two feet long.

***

I could see the shaker preparing the power in his hands, getting ready to throw again. The closer I was, the less time I had to react.

He threw out the power, and it webbed out to every nearby surface before lunging forward. Before, it had been rings, a pillar. Always with a way through.

This time, a wall, impassable.

I veered hard right, put my foot out, kicking the actual wall, just to stop my forward momentum, then reversed course to get away and get back. My forcefield was up as part of the kick into the wall, and I felt the wall make contact with an extremity.

I felt the forcefield tear. It didn't die, but it remained in tatters, a body torn two, with limbs scattered.

I didn't want to drop the field, not when I needed it, not when it had eben damaged before and taken a minute to come back up, after being hit with Rain's silver blade. When Cradle had hit it and knocked it out for a bit of time. I threw myself into the ceiling tiles, into lighting and wiring, carving a furrow.

The others must have seen an opportunity, because they went for it. Into the ceiling, then down, to appear on the far side.

Emboldened, I changed course, driving myself further up into the ceiling until the field finally died. The shaker's wall passed beneath me.

- Dying 15.2