“Wait a second,” Haley said, “I’ve got a better idea. Gravity Star, ramp up the gravity around you so that none of them can move, and then we’ll all shoot them.”

Sydney’s voice came over the comm. “And kill them?”

“That’s what they’ll do to you,” Chris’ grandfather sputtered over the connection.

Kayla checked the screen. He’d made it out of the complex, and was walking through the woods. Lucky him, she thought.

The screens showed the breach in one of the doors that blocked off the League’s own tunnels from the abandoned sewer lines that the League used to exit the complex. From what she was seeing, they’d found the exit in the concrete wall next to the beach where Nick sometimes exited the complex.

She couldn’t see where they were in the complex yet. The cameras weren’t showing them.

Knowing how they’d appeared on the beach, she guessed they couldn’t stay invisible while fighting, but maybe if they moved slowly they could?

“Control,” Haley asked, “can you tell if there are any more of them out there?”

Kayla had been looking away from the screen, trying to see if any of them were inside. She hadn’t seen any yet. She wondered if putting the base on lockdown would stop the aliens from getting in, or if it would only prevent help from getting in.

If anyone could help, she thought. She took a breath, and tried not to sound like she was panicking. “They’re coming in here. They broke into one of the tunnels. I can’t see where they are, but sensors say ‘breach’ and I don’t know when they’ll be here, but I bet it will be soon.”

She took another breath. The whole “not panicking” thing wasn’t working.

“Shit,” Haley said. “Okay, go to the hangar, get into your suit, and get out of there. Got it?”

“Got it.” Kayla logged out from the workstation, and got up, getting ready to run for the hangar.

She turned her head, realizing that someone was in the hangar. The dull gray armor seemed to take on a hint of the colors surrounding it. She wasn’t sure if it was really changing or if she was only imagining it.

She decided it didn’t really matter either way because it’d kill her just as badly.

Guessing that running might attract attention, she walked to the nearest wall, looking for a weapon. There had to be something. Trophies from defeated enemies hung from walls except for the trophies that were enclosed in cases.

The SS uniform outfitted with an enormous metal glove had always given her the willies, and she wasn’t going to touch it. Besides it was halfway across the room.

What was closer? Her eyes darted all over, finally settling on the wall she stood next to. Directly ahead of her lay the “Starplate” as Nick jokingly referred to it. Marcus and Daniel were the only ones who seemed to get the reference and think it was funny.

The metal circle on the floor could supposedly open a gate to another universe. Kayla didn’t even consider it. She wasn’t that desperate—not yet anyway.

Near it on the wall hung the Gender Swap gun. That’s what she’d been calling it in her head. She’d always avoided it, and told herself that she’d never touch it.

She decided she was desperate enough to go back on that promise. She lifted it off the hooks that kept it on the wall and checked the energy gauge.

It was fully charged. She didn’t waste time wondering why anyone would leave a fully charged gun capable of changing the target’s gender lying around.

Kayla had heard the story about how Nick had tested the gun on the family cat, inadvertently “unnuetering” it. Knowing him, it would have been stranger if the gun weren’t charged.

Pointing the gun toward the hangar door, she aimed for the spot she expected it to walk out of.

Its gun came through the door first, and she pulled the trigger. Strange music played, and a tinny, recorded woman’s voice shouted, “Death to the patriarchy!”

The alien’s gun swung toward her, and for a moment Kayla expected to die. It’s shot went wild, firing into the middle of the room. She only knew that it hit something from the smell of burning plastic.

Before it could fire again, it fell over, lying on the olive green carpet, unmoving.

The second alien burst through before she could react. Jumping over the body of the other, it landed twenty feet inside the room, twisting and pointing its gun at her in a blur.

She didn’t have time to move or even to be scared. She only realized how close she’d come to dying as it fired.

A yellow beam met a black object in the air while another black object hit the alien.

It moved too quickly for Kayla to recognize it while it was in the air, but it knocked the alien over, sticking to its armor, surrounding the alien. It only became more entangled in black goo as it struggled.

It continued to hang on to its gun, however, and started firing in the direction of its feet, and hitting a chair, severing the cylinder that connected the body and the wheels.

The seat fell over.

Not waiting for it to target her, Kayla shot it with the Gender Swap gun. The gun’s tinny voice said, “Learn the truth, sister!”

The alien’s gun fell to the floor.

Kayla stared at the black object that had trapped the armored alien, and then over at the other that had saved her life.

They appeared to be made of rubbery plastic, and were shaped like boxing gloves.

Boxing gloves? She shook her head.

A Battle Roomba hummed, moving over the carpet toward the bodies. For the first time, she noticed a hole in the middle of its body, and a trail of black slime that led across the top.

That was what they did?