A Scripta

Didn't get to do much because I actually had work to do.

6.
"You're not Mase."

Masonry turned around to face Thad, glaring at him. Kit looked from one to the other, while Scott looked obviously uncomfortable.

"Yes, I am Masonry. I'm not Nathan Greene anymore."

Kit stared at him, eyes narrowed. "That's why you said the armor worked on Nathan."

"I've read thought patterns like yours before," Thad said. "You're one of those squids."

He sighed. "I am not a squid. I can't even try to change into that form."

"This changes the tactics," Scott said coldly. "We don't have anyone to get their attention."

Masonry studied Scott. He wasn't sure if Scott was angry or not. Nathan and Benakaras would have assumed he was.

Kit offered, "We can call Frost - "

"No one's available," Scott snapped. "Let's go in."

"Scott, are you sure?"

He turned around to Masonry. "I'll get their attention. I did it before you came along."

Masonry only looked down at his uniform, the metal bands around his arms and legs, his torso covered in light kevlar and his huge spiked shoulder boards. He didn't fit this anymore. As the four of them headed into the fray, Masonry felt like a floundering swimmer. Eventually he caught his stride, after realizing he could hit at a distance. It was something he wasn't used to.

Until he Thad announced, "Void."

Masonry wondered if they saw his deer-in-headlights panicked look. The vision and feeling that Benakaras had when he was shot by that Void filled his being, and it took everything to stop himself from running out of the sewer. He took a deep breath and focused on the Void.

I see you, he heard in his mind. I kill you.

In slow motion, at least by his perception, the Void turned to face him directly. He raised the gun - and then fell screaming into the sewer water. Scott was on him seconds later, pounding him under the water. "Void down!" Thad announced. It still took him a few minutes to realize that he could now act.

He finally did, when the battle was three-quarters over. When it was over, as Thad and Scott advanced, Kit noticed Masonry wasn't there. "Wait a minute," she said, and started to backtrack. She found him back in the room staring out into space and shivering.

"Mase. Mase." She approached him, touched his arm. "Mase?"

"I - I'm here." He focused. "Kit. I'm sorry, I got lost in -"

"MASONRY!"

The two of them ran squishing through the sewer water to the other side of the wall, where they found Thad attempting to hold off a gang of Vahzilok, and Scott pinned to the wall by an Embalmed Abomination - Masonry tackled the Embalmed and it exploded under him. It felt like his insides flew out through his back, but he looked down to see himself still put together, but enclosed in a white light. He stood up, still covered in the white whispy light, and it slowly faded.

He then turned to another Abomination and punched it so hard his fist went through it. This was not unusual, as they were mostly animated husks of creatures that had been dead and put together with some sutures and glue. However, these weren't as dry as those of the Banished Pantheon. In a few minutes, he had cleared the area - but Scott was gone.

"He teleported," Thad said. "Knocked out. So what's going on with you, Mase?"

He looked at the two of them.