There was no scream. Just a flash of white light, a wet thwump , and a rain of ash.

Finally, the core room. General Kael stood on a gantry, his own arm fused with the God Hammer’s trigger. He was a giant, his skin flayed and replaced with woven circuitry. He laughed.

For one second, time slowed. Lola’s voice became a whisper: “Final Skillshot available: ‘God’s Mistake.’ Launch the general into his own firing chamber.”

Meridian clapped her on the shoulder. “You just kicked a man into a planet-killer. That’s a new one. Gotta be worth a thousand points.”

“Welcome to the Party,” a voice slurred from her comm. It belonged to a grizzled man in a duster, hanging upside down from a tangle of cables. He was eating a protein bar. “Name’s Meridian. You’ve got a Leash. Don’t point it at anything you don’t want to explode.”

A second mutant jumped from a catwalk. Nakamura flicked her wrist again, wrapping the Leash around its ankle, and slammed it into a third mutant. The two bodies crumpled. “Bowl-a-rama! +100!”

“Nakamura! Still kicking? The Leash suits you. A weapon for a dog on a chain.”

The first wave came. Screamer mutants—pale, twitching things with too many teeth. They charged.