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Sometimes what you needed was a guy who had been there before.

The two ducked out from behind the pillar, weapons out, and saw a whole host of people pushing and scrambling to get through that exit. Wax lowered his gun, dumbfounded, and Wayne grinned asevery damn personleft. Sure, a few at the tail end glanced back—with concern, like maybe they were the guys in charge of this bunch and didn’t want to leave their posts. But when the army left you alone facing two trained Twinborn with notches in their stocks running to three digits…

In seconds, the marble entry room was empty. Wax shared a look with Wayne, then they walked to the large wooden doors at the far end and threw them open, to reveal a grand staircase leading up to some kind of ballroom with a skylight. Standing at the top were a man in a suit and a woman with a bowler hat, her head completely healed, flipping a dueling cane in one hand and trying her best—but failin’ somethin’ awful—to imitate a Wayne grin.

“These idiots again?” Wayne said with a sigh. “All right. I’ll tackle the one with the hat. You—”

“No,” Wax said softly.

“No?”

“No,” Wax repeated. “They were built and trained to defeat us. That man knows exactly how to hunt me.”

“So…” Wayne grinned. “I take the fellow, you take the woman?”

“Damn right,” Wax said, smiling. “Remember he’s a Leecher. Don’t get too close, or he’ll wipe out your Allomantic abilities.”

“Mate,” Wayne said, “I’m depending on it. Let’s do this.”

64

The Allomantic grenades in Marasi’s hands vibrated so powerfully, she thought they’dshake her flesh free of her bones. The Allomancers from the Community gathered around the edges of the glowing pool, which was rapidly vanishing—their hands thrust in to touch it, draw it in. Their skin glowed as they filled with power.

Marasi had waded straight into the middle. And she could feel those troops on the other side, in a place that was somehow distant and impossibly close at the same time. Waiting.

She needed this power gone. Now. Marasi continued to draw in strength, charging her grenades. She had no idea how much they could hold. She’dnever had access to this kind of strength before.

“It’s too much!” a man cried. “What do I do with it!”

“Burn it!” Marasi shouted. “Use it!”

“For what?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Marasi yelled. “We only need to getridof it!”

Bursts of emotional Allomancy washed over her as Armal used her powers to Riot. Metal in the radio room vibrated and ripped apart. The Allomancers in the room channeled every bit of energy they could.

The pool shrank further. Marasi thought—through the blasts of confidence Armal sent—that she could sense the troops on the other side gettingagitated.Then she felt something different. Somethingemerging.They were coming through. She understood it in a flash—you had towantto come through the portal. To command it to let you through. They were beginning the process.

No you don’t,she thought. Then she dropped both her grenades, and used the same mental command to open the portal to them.

The movement on the other side stopped. Frozen in time as the Allomancers around her continued—wide eyed—drawing from the pool. Siphoning away the awesome power until, at last, the glow faded. The room was suddenly a normal ballroom again, with a hewn-out rock pit in the floor some three feet deep.

She was left with one final impression from the other side. Shock. Judging by how much energy she’dput into those grenades, it would be a while before the army discovered what had happened.

The other Allomancers slumped against one another, exhausted. She had never thought that using their powers would be so much work, but she felt wrung out as well. Not simply from what they’ddone here— but from all of it, taking place in such a short time.

She limped to the edge of the pit and let them help her out.

“… Now what?” Armal finally asked.

“Now,” Marasi said, lying back on the rock, “we hope that my friends have had an easier time of it than I have.”

65

Figures,Wayne thought, dashing up the steps.Wax would want me to face the evil version of him. While he gets the easy job. My evil twin probably spent the afternoon drinkin’. She’ll be a snap.Especially since she’dgotten her face half blown off earlier in the day.

The steps led to a large ballroom, with red-carpeted floor and no furniture. A skylight kept out the mist above, but for the most part this was a wide-open room with high ceilings and no obstacles. No cover either. The two backed away a little as Wayne and Wax charged up the steps—Wax doing a steel-assisted flying leap at the end, because of course he did.