“Yeah, you gotta get it while its flying or summit,” added Joel.

Theseus face-palmed, though whether at the ludicrous suggestions or the thought that they were probably right he didn’t know. Dealing with laser alarms and gas traps was simple enough, so why did all this ‘magic’ business had to come into things? Flying rock monsters? He strode through the water to stand next to John, whose mechanical gauntlet was still taking reading on the ‘golem’ and its surrounding environment.

“Please, Johno, tell me you have a better plan?”

“Scans confirm that thing is made from the same minerals as the tunnel around it,” he said, shaking his head sadly, “I really can’t explain this one. We’ll just have to believe in Faye. It’s not like it’s the first strange thing we’ve encountered down here,”

The others were gossiping among themselves, worried murmurs about the obstacle ahead. Even Lyra looked concerned, her heavy breathing and dark-rimmed eyes a reminder of just how much she had already exerted herself fighting off invisible forces. They were relying on the two boys to do something now. The cynics who chastised every mention of magic and demons. Either John would have to cover their plan up with technobabble, or they’d never live down their acceptance of ‘magic’.

“Let’s just keep it cool, okay?” he whispered in his friend’s ear, “I ain’t built for the tech stuff, so you handle that. Just come up with a plan and tell me what to do,”

“Faye said that thing could ‘circumvent the laws of physics’,” John whispered back, “Now that’s not exactly unexplainable: just look at some of the stuff that comes out of the cities, for example. A thousand years ago their idea of airships were giant balloons, and the ones we have now would be laughed at as being ‘physically impossible’, but science evolved and proved it was possible,”

“Eh, so this magic is just really advanced science, right?”

“Never lose faith in human ingenuity, that’s all I’m saying. This could be tech a thousand years ahead of what we know. Let’s just leave it at that and get on with the task at hand. Now, we need to make that thing fly…”

“Guess asking it nicely won’t work…”

“The cavern beyond is pretty spacious, at least according to the sonar readings. I think there’s a chance we could entice it into chasing a flying target out into the open space. Then, in that brief opening, we zap it.”

Theseus glanced at the propulsion-pack on John’s back, his friend’s idea entering his thoughts as if he were telepathic. “You sure that’s safe?” he asked.

“Mostly. There’re factors we can’t predict, of course, such as the reaction times and physical ability of a golem, but the tech on this thing should handle everything. Or at least, we can hope it can. This might be like trying to sneak past a motion-sensing plasma turret while riding a bicycle for all we know…”

“Man, you can’t just risk your life like that!”

“You want to tell Phoenie to turn back then? You know she’d just try and take it on herself otherwise… Besides, how much more dangerous is it than breaking into Godhand’s secret underground research laboratory?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll trust you know what you’re doing,”

“Trust science, not me. All I’ll be doing is acting as a living target. You’ll be the one whose shoulders this fall on – I’ll need you to fire in the first opening you get. No telling how fast that thing might be in the air.”

“Plasma, I assume?”

Chapter 50
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