Coalescence

quency and pitch, then with a sonic burst and a lunge from her sinewy, toned legs, she
was airborne. Increasing the intensity of the pulses emerging from her extremities allowed
her to maintain a hovering position that she tried to use to intimidate the thieves. It didn’t
work on them.
“I guess we’ll do this.” Grindor’s partner in crime dropped her end of the device, yet
somehow Grindor kept it aloft.
Not “somehow”, Emulator thought, the Cybertronic implants must be adding strength to
his already bulging muscles. Stop looking at them.
The South African tossed back her hood, revealing short platinum gold hair and splendidly
tan skin that tried its best to obscure a line of freckles that ran across her nose and collected
on her cheeks. She took a step back with her left leg and braced herself for some yet
unseen force. Her blue eyes flashed yellow for an instant.
Emulator winced. “This is going to hurt, isn’t it?”
The thief’s reply came in a crooked smile that slithered up her cheek. With her elbow
locked and arm held straight, she swiftly swept the upper limb in a winding motion. After
three or four times through the arc, she snapped her arm at a halt in front of her with
her palm upwards and two fingers extended. The scent of burning ozone wafted and everything
metal at this end of the campus started to crepitate. The escalating electricity in
the air then cracked and a blue lightning bolt surged from the thief’s outstretched fingers,
dashing at Emulator. It struck her in the side and she screamed out from the blinding pain.
“Aaerggh! Sweet mother of… Just… Gah!”
“Try to use the soundwav…” realizing his mistake in nearly uttering the name of the Decepticon
whose powers Emulator last copied, Rick instantly corrected himself, “…Sound
pulses to keep hovering. Without being grounded, without that change in resistance, the
electricity should pass through you.”
Emulator hissed at the voice in her ear.
“Ugh, Rick, I’m half metal and half skin and bone. I’m the living embodiment of a
‘change in resistance’.”
The singed skin at every seam with a metal plate cried out in an agony that agreed with
her completely.
“Fair point, I gues – Oh sh… She’s amping up again!” At Rick’s warning, Emulator turned
in the air. She saw the same arm spinning that had heralded the last lightning strike, and
flung an open palm towards the figure below.
“Not again!”
The sonic pulse sliced through the distance between them and collided with the thief before
she could start her attack. She screamed and covered her ears, but her hands did noth-
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