“They aren’t literal gods,” Darq explained as they ran through the noosphere-adjacent facility. “They’re more like the idea of gods.”

Dyna stopped abruptly as a catwalk ahead of them fell through a bottomless pit. “Is that any better?” she asked through clenched teeth.

“Yes.” Darq, seemingly unconcerned by the sorry state of the facility, simply turned and began walking in a different direction. He didn’t even pause in his strides. “If they were actual, original beings, the collective belief in them would likely not diminish their power or ability. Lucky for us, exceedingly few people worshiped titans even back in antiquity. Today, few people think of them outside historical academia and those people don’t think of them as gods but as folklore.”

“So it isn’t a big deal? You can put this titan back into containment without issue?”

“Maybe,” Darq said with a shrug. “I wasn’t the one to place the titans in containment in the first place, but I have read the reports written by my predecessors.”

“Alright,” Dyna said. “How do we help?”

“Ignore Helios and any other escaped entity. I will handle them. I need you to focus on what freed the titan.”

“Ignotus,” Dyna hissed.

“Perhaps. Whatever it was, it must be stopped before more can be freed. Even if all of them escape their individual confinements, they will not be able to return to the real world. Tartarus remains secure. However, we won’t be able to return either. Tartarus remains secure and will remain so until this security breach is dealt with.”

“We’re trapped here? No help from Id or Walter?”

“None.”

“Weapons?”

Darq motioned with his hand, squeezing between two containment tubes, before stopping outside another heavy door. “The armory,” he said, pressing his hand against a palm-reader. “All the latest gear and equipment for fighting tulpa. Chief Engineer Ado helped make changes to much of it, but some of it is older equipment. Tartarus has been around for quite a long time, after all.”

As the heavy doors slowly slid open, Dyna tapped her foot in impatience. “How long has Tartarus existed? How did you get gods and titans into containment before things like disruptors existed?”

“That, Dyna, is a trade secret,” he said with a smile.

The armory was, as expected, an armory. A relatively small room with racks of varying equipment. Most of which looked like the same disruptor guns that Dyna had seen Tartarus put to use against the Hatman. There were a few that looked newer, having sleeker bodies and the strange angled cylinder on top was smoother and had rounded edges, leaving it more egg-shaped.

Dyna frowned at the disruptors, wondering if she should go for the one she had used before or the fancier looking one. Ruby, standing at her side, just scowled at the whole array, clearly waiting for Dyna to take the lead. If this were a normal armory, they probably would have done the opposite. Even with all her training, Ruby still knew far more about conventional weaponry than Dyna did.

Not knowing all that much about disruptor technology either, Dyna watched Darq.

The doctor bypassed all the weaponry on display to head further into the back of the armory. There, he didn’t take anything that looked like a weapon, but a small remote control device. If Dyna had seen it sitting on a coffee table in front of a large television, she wouldn’t have blinked twice.

“While we aren’t in the noosphere, this place behaves somewhat similarly,” he said, pulling a small circlet off the wall. It was a thin white band covered in small copper connectors and thin clear tubes. “By that I mean to say that your ability is likely more malleable and potent here, not having to force your will through into the real world. However, Tartarus itself will fight against your power if it thinks you are compromising its security.”

“This place can think?”

Darq grinned wide, showing off all his teeth as he spread his arms. “We are in a world of thought. Is that so surprising?”

Dyna clamped her jaw shut. When he put it like that…

Shaking her head, Dyna cast her gaze around the armory. Eventually, she settled on the fancier disruptor weapon. She knew how to use the disruptors and, more importantly, it was fancy in appearance. High tech, obviously. In fact, probably more advanced than the models the Carroll Institute had most recently been using. She had managed to overcharge one of those enough to harm the mountain man. This would surely be able to give even a titan pause.

Holding tight to that particular thought, Dyna handed one of the disruptors to Ruby then took one for herself.

Darq nodded at her choice, then held out a hand. “Communicators,” he said, dropping earbuds into Dyna and Ruby’s hands. “I’ll handle Helios. The intruder was last spotted in the Egyptian section. Tartarus has locked down the area—they shouldn’t be able to free another entity—but I suggest you hurry nonetheless.” He motioned to the floor where a bright yellow line began glowing between the tiles. “Follow the yellow-lit road.”

Ignoring the reference, Dyna asked, “Who spotted them?”

“Tartarus, of course.”

“Of course,” Dyna said, tone flat. “Is it a tulpa? Advanced or a squad of the PP-2000 wielders?”

Lights on Darq’s circlet winked on and off as some violet fluid began flowing through the thin clear tubes. “Tulpa, yes. It appears to be a squad. I’m quite interested to know how they got here. It is much harder to escape Tartarus than to enter it, but not much.” One of the tubes changed to a yellow liquid as Darq winced. “Helios has started burning down the control room. I need to handle this.”

He pressed a button on the remote control before Dyna could stop him. In the next instant, he was gone. Dyna wasn’t sure if he had a method of teleportation or if he had stopped time. Either way, both she and Ruby were used to people disappearing like that. Neither blinked.

Dyna did glance down to where Darq had grabbed the remote from, only to frown as the entire wall had gone blank. Teleportation or time-stopping would have been nice, but it seemed like it wasn’t meant to be. She had to wonder if Darq did that or if Tartarus itself decided she didn’t need teleportation. Although she considered trying to force a remote to appear with her ability, she decided against it. Now wasn’t the best time for experimentation.

“Guess we better handle this,” Dyna said, turning to follow the yellow light. A pulse ran through it, starting at her feet and headed out through the large armory doors.

“Why is it always us?”

Dyna shrugged as they hurried along the outlined route. “I would say luck, but at this point, I have to wonder if I’m doing it to myself. All these incidents popping up around me is just a bit too convenient, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t call it convenient,” Ruby grumbled. “Bleeping annoying, maybe.”

“That too.” Dyna pressed her lips together in a thin smile. “Still, can’t think of anyone else I’d rather save the world with.”

“Is that what we’re calling it?”

“Maybe not the other incidents we’ve gotten caught up in, but this?” The line on the floor winked out as a small tremor shook the facility. It lit back up again, pointing in a different direction. Wondering if another catwalk had collapsed, Dyna turned. “Gods or ideas of gods, it is probably a bad idea to let them out into the real world.”

Ruby opened her mouth but clamped it shut right away as they reached their destination.

Dyna half expected the Egyptian section to be themed like an Egyptian section of a museum. Lots of stone statues and obelisks with hieroglyphs covering everything. That wasn’t the case. It was just more slim containment tubes. While she still couldn’t read the text on any of the plaques or display panels, she could recognize some symbols. One tank bore the jackal-headed guise of Anubis, another the tattooed eye of Ra. The interiors of the tanks were, unlike Dyna’s initial trip through the facility, completely shielded behind thick metal slats, not unlike the chamber Darq had been using to test her ability.

That made her wonder if she could change the contents. Presumably, they all held various Egyptian deities—maybe even pure concepts given form—but with those shields in place, she couldn’t tell for sure. Stopping at a container bearing the image of a cat, Dyna frowned. If they all just disappeared, there wouldn’t be any threat beyond the intruders.

Not to brag, but Dyna had taken care of her fair share of the PP-2000 tulpa. They weren’t a threat. The tulpa they were freeing were.

In fact…

If this was the noosphere…

Dyna looked away from the empty cat container to find a shadowy clone of herself. Just one, not a whole horde like she had made to fight the mountain man. She could see her clone’s displeased posture as it gave her a half-hearted glare with its eyeless face. Dyna couldn’t say she was happy to see it either. Which was probably why it wasn’t happy to exist.

Dyna hadn’t been able to help herself, however. The moment she thought about a clone that could simply rip apart the low-tier tulpa, it had appeared.

With a nod, the clone phased into tendrils of shadowy thought that raced away from the cat container, further into the Egyptian section of the facility.

“You’re making more?” Ruby hissed as soon as it left.

“I didn’t mean to,” Dyna said. “But as I did, it should take care of the tulpa then return to me. I… We don’t want more of me running around. There’s enough of me out there already.”

Ruby shook her head. “I can’t believe I thought you were the normal one.”

“Excuse me? I am the normal one. It’s my power that isn’t.”

“Uh huh.”

Rolling her eyes, Dyna started walking, keeping low and using the various containers as cover. “Come on. We should catch up to myself.”

“Uh huh,” Ruby said again, shooting Dyna a pointed look.

Ruby didn’t try to conceal herself as she moved. Dyna didn’t argue. Bullet holes were easy enough for her to fix. If the tulpa were focused on her, Dyna would be free to move around. Assuming that her clone didn’t handle everything before they spotted any enemies.

“Hello everyone, Doctor Darq with a q here. Do you read me? Hello, hello.”

Dyna glanced to Ruby, who nodded, then pressed the button on her earbud. “Darq? Has the situation changed?”

“Slightly.” Darq paused, then it sounded like he put a microphone in his mouth before sighing. “Whatever you did, please never ever do that again.”

“Make clones of myself? Sorry. If it is any consolation, the clone is going to merge back with me once—”

“Excuse me, you what yourself?”

“Cloned.”

“That’s… not what I was talking about but probably never do that again either,” he said, tone hesitant yet cheerful.

“I don’t understand. I didn’t do anything else?” Not unless her clone had done something.

“Tartarus reports that Bastet has escaped containment. More specifically, Tartarus reports that you helped Bastet escape containment. If you ever wish to leave this place, please do not make Tartarus upset.”

“Bastet…” Dyna trailed off, glancing back to the empty cat container.

“Egyptian cat goddess,” Darq said. “Generally of a playful temperament but gets volatile if you hurt cats. Do not hurt any cats.”

“Do you actually have… cats… down here…” Dyna trailed off, watching as a hairless cat with a blue and gold collar scurried across the hallway. “Never mind.”

“I’ll take care of it later. Please don’t free any more entities.”

Dyna closed her eyes, glad she had only focused on one containment unit rather than all of them. That… could have been a disaster. She did wonder if she could try to reverse the effect by pure thought, but decided to not risk it after Darq’s warning.

Keeping her mind clear, Dyna pressed on while ignoring the look Ruby was sending her way.

It wasn’t long before they heard something. Sound in the noosphere was strange. There was no background hum and certain things didn’t sound the way Dyna generally expected them to. Gunfire, for instance, didn’t seem to carry as far.

She still heard it.

Locking eyes with Ruby, they gave each other a nod before splitting off. Dyna moved around a particularly large tank with a sphinx depicted on its plaque, readying the disruptor as she moved.

The remnants of a small squad of tulpa were being torn apart by her clone. A small black cat sat atop another containment chamber, watching with golden eyes as the clone dove straight into the chest of a tulpa. Gunfire went wild, both from the attacked tulpa and the two companions.

Out of ammo! Dyna thought in a panic as a line of bullets traced up the side of the metal slats of the containment unit. A small sigh escaped her lips as the instant the thought crossed her mind, the guns stopped firing. The cat still let out a squawk as it hopped away, but at least it hadn’t been shot. Dyna didn’t want to see a cat shot in the first place, even less so when a cat god might pop out of the shadows and blame her for it.

The tulpa her clone had attacked rearranged its features and clothing, returning to the shadowy form of the clone. Before that had finished, the clone was already ripping apart the next tulpa. With only one tulpa left, Dyna pressed her earbud, about to report a mission success to Doctor Darq.

As Dyna’s clone turned to the final tulpa, it reached up and lifted the dark glasses it wore over a balaclava. Bright white light shined forth from where its eyes should have been.

The clone dispersed into thin strips of rapidly shrinking shadow, burned away by the light. It wasn’t just her, either. The entire room shuddered and swayed as another earthquake rocked the facility. Bits of equipment and architecture fell apart, following Dyna’s clone into thin wisps of dissipating thought.

Dyna clutched her forehead, grimacing. The tulpa wasn’t even looking directly at her and she felt like she couldn’t quite think properly. This was clearly an advanced tulpa of some sort, but what was she supposed to do with advanced tulpa? It took an excruciatingly long moment of time before she even remembered the disruptor in her hands. It was fancy and sleek. Earlier, she had known without a doubt that it would have worked on anything she aimed it towards.

Remembering that, Dyna leaned around the melting protective slats around the sphinx containment chamber and raised the gun.

The tulpa turned to face her the moment she pulled the trigger.

The disruptor turned to shadowy mist in her fingertips. Dyna’s body stayed whole and complete, but her mind went entirely blank. She couldn’t do anything but watch as the tulpa took step after step, slowly approaching while keeping the sunglasses out of the way of its white, burning eyes.

A meow at her feet was enough to make Dyna look away. It didn’t help the blank spot in her mind, but she stared down at the little black cat with golden eyes, half hidden behind the sphinx chamber.

The sphinx chamber was rapidly melting, turning to shadow and displaced thoughts. The tulpa was about to free another entity, but Dyna couldn’t spare any thought for that. She just looked down at the cat, mind blank except for one small notion.

Dyna was supposed to keep the cats from being harmed. She couldn’t remember who said that to her, but…

Kneeling down, Dyna picked up the cat and held it close. It didn’t squirm or try to escape, but its claws dug into her shirt. Her body wasn’t disintegrating as the rest of the place was. She could act as a shield.

A moment of clarity hit Dyna. Her thoughts came rushing back as she heard a shout from Ruby.

Bits of the tulpa were blasted from the larger body as Ruby’s disruptor hit the tulpa in the back.

It didn’t stop the tulpa. It recovered from a stagger and slowly turned, bringing those white lights in its eyes around to Ruby.

Ruby dove for cover behind another of the containment units, but she wasn’t fast enough to escape unscathed. Her scream pierced Dyna’s mind.

Dyna jumped to her feet in an instant, startling the poor cat clinging to her chest. Ignoring the pain from the claws as the cat ripped her shirt on its way to the ground, Dyna turned back to the tulpa and started sprinting as her mind pieced together what was happening. Wherever it looked, thoughts were disrupted. In a world of thought like the noosphere, that was particularly dangerous. Her body was real, her clothes were real, but everything else?

Jumping at the tulpa, grabbing at its face from behind. She tried to go for the eyes, but the moment it started struggling and clamping its hands over her wrists, she knew she wasn’t going to be able gouge them out fast enough.

The only consolation was that, with its hands on her wrists, nothing held up its glasses anymore. They slid back down, over its eyes. Mostly. Enough that, when the tulpa turned its head, Dyna didn’t feel her mind blank again.

Dyna’s lips twisted into a grimace as its hands squeezed down. Whatever power was behind its eyes wasn’t its only strength.

Stuck in this familiar situation again, she was about to start pouring her clones into it, just as she had done for the mountain man, when a sharp hiss had them both looking to the side.

A human-sized cat, garbed in black and gold with linen bandages around the dark fur of its arms, perched atop one of the partially destroyed containment units. Its golden eyes glared down.

With another hiss, it pounced.