As we neared the end of the corridor, a door suddenly swished open and two Dancers appeared with three prisoners. One was Al. She was in a bad way, only half conscious and being helped along by Rutter on one side and Midas on the other. The Dancers had sticks in their hands. About two feet long, they were made of metal but the ends flickered and glowed with purple energy. They reminded me of Klingon pain sticks.
No sooner did they appear, than they saw us. At least, they saw Troy and Luke. With Luke in his arms, they would have discerned Troy's presence and once focused in on him, he couldn't dodge their gaze.
The Dancers immediately turned on their prisoners and jabbed both Rutter and Midas with the sticks. Bolts of purple energy buzzed and fizzled through them like lightning and they squealed as they fell to the ground in jittering, helpless heaps. Al, although untouched by the burst of energy, also fell to the ground.
"Mind the stingers," I heard Troy say discretely, and my eyes fell to the sticks.
But Troy was telling me more than just to avoid the weapons. Oh crikey! He was telling me that only I could tackle the Dancers because, even if Troy put Luke down, he wouldn't suddenly become imperceivable to them. I was the only one they were unaware of. Only I could launch any sort of assault on them, but I was unarmed and there were two of them. What could I do?
My eyes swept the corridor looking for something.
"Jen?" I heard a voice murmur.
I turned to see Al. She had managed to raise her head off the floor, but little else. She looked at me, her eyes wide in disbelief, but she mustn't give me away!
I shushed her, urgently placing my finger on my lips. Her brow furrowed in puzzlement and she glanced at the Dancers whose eyes were fixed upon Troy, not me. She didn't understand and then, too tired to pursue the matter, she slumped to the ground.
The Dancers, meanwhile, having disabled their prisoners, dropped the stingers and began to glow ever more brightly. They lost their form and melted into balls of light—their real form, and began rolling towards Troy and Luke.
Troy eyed the spheres of light, gently laid Luke down and stepped back from him. The Dancers picked up speed and rolled towards him like billowing clouds of light. Faster and faster they rolled but Troy held his ground. I think he was waiting for me to do something, but what! What could I use against the Dancers? How do you disable a being made of energy?
As the Dancers passed me by, the lights overhead flickered and flashed. The Dancers' energy was affecting them. One moment draining them and making them dim, and the next, forcing them to burn more brightly.
The first Dancer reached Troy. A tentacle of white energy unravelled from it, whipped through the air and struck Troy with a snap. Troy went rigid as flashes of purple electricity licked at his flesh, and he dropped to the floor, quivering under the shock.
A bang behind me made me jump. I turned. One of the bulbs in the corridor had blown. I stared at it for a moment and then realised.
I ran forward, grabbing both stingers on the way and rammed them, as hard as I could, into the nearest Dancer. The first stinger bounced off its surface as though it were made of glass, but the second seemed to find a dip in its surface. I could feel the energy building. The hairs on my arms rose with the static and a high pitched squeal pierced the air. I dropped one of the singers, but pushed the other, harder and harder, into the Dancer.
Purple energy crackled over the ball's surface while inside, it began to fill with an amethyst mist. It glowed brighter and brighter and screamed louder and louder, and then it exploded into a thousand pieces that flew through the air, slashing and cutting like broken glass.
The force of the blast was so great, I flew over Al landing ten feet or so beyond her. I felt my skin burn as the hot shards of Dancer tore at my flesh. Dazed, I looked up to witness the aftermath of my work.
Little splinters of light lay over the corridor's floor like glitter, flickering and dying like the sparks of a firework.
Shock filled me. I had killed it! I had never killed anything before, but now ... I had killed. I hadn't meant to. I had only wanted to stun it.
A little alarm bell began to ring at the back of my mind. Where was the second Dancer?
