Jaclyn sent me a message via her implant, "You mentioned it."

Ignoring her, I replied, "Both of you should get them. Everyone else did yesterday. I've checked on the specs, and they've been designed to work even with people who have magnetic powers."

In the back of my mind, though, I did remember that the implant could be used to immobilize someone at the command of a Xiniti citizen—which might be useful if Dominators got past their buzzers.

That led to another line of thought. "You'll want to use suits I designed for this instead of your regular suits. My suits interface with the implant, plus they're better protected from Dominators than yours. If there's anywhere we're likely to run into so many Dominators that they can overwhelm a buzzer, it's the island. And don't worry about looking different. It's trivial to make them look like your regular suits."

Sean frowned, looking down at his suit, "Our suits have metal in them so that I can use them as handles for the other guys if we need to fly away. If we're supposed to grab Jody and get out, it's going to make it harder."

Dayton shook his head, "If Jody has his costume on, you can still grab him, and if he doesn't, you're out of luck either way. You can leave me if you have to. I still feel weird about the part of the plan where the League fights Magnus and everyone else, and we run away."

Pointing up at the map, Haley said, "It's the best way to do it. Jody's in the same block of rooms as Magnus. You'll need to get him out of the fight, and it will be easier if all of his people are focused on us."

"Plus," I said, "I have a fix for the problem of grabbing Jody and Dayton's suits. Our suits are made of ceramic, but I can magnetize the ceramic. So you can grab Dayton, but not only that, I can make balls of suit stuff. You can manipulate them magnetically, and as long as you hit him with one, I can set it so that it surrounds him. Then you can take him away even if he's not wearing one of your suits."

"You're going to like this," Vaughn added, "our suits practically turn invisible, so getting in and out of that place will be a lot easier with one on."

Sean looked over from Vaughn to me, "Whoa. That's cool."

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Ape Nasty raised a giant furry hand, "Can I have one?"

"It's more camouflage than invisibility," I said. "There are limits, and you're big."

Giving a deep, thumping laugh, Ape Nasty replied, "Yeah, I get it."

Looking offscreen in Dr. Transylvania's direction, Ape Nasty asked, "Invisibility spell, boss?"

Dr. Transylvania raised an eyebrow, "Maybe, if you're good. Rocket, if you pass on the specs for the level of Dominator attack you designed your armor to prevent, it would help. I'm going to work something up for my people and Prime's. Whether it's magical, technological, or a combination remains to be seen, but I need to get to work."

"I'll do that now," I said, retrieving the specs and my basic design and sending them to him via my implant and his comm address.

His mouth twitched into a smile as he glanced at either the bottom of his screen or another altogether. "Thank you. That will help."

From there, the conversation dissolved into a sea of details again, but eventually we were done, leaving the League, plus friends, plus Sean and Dayton in HQ.

Tiger, Jaclyn's rescued feral puppy from space (now full-grown and larger than some horses), cadged tummy rubs from those comfortable enough with him to do it. He needed a bath, but we could put that off until after the battle—maybe a few days after.

Turning to Sean and Dayton, I said, "We should insert the implants now. There's an adjustment period. We've got the time, but the sooner the better."

Dayton nodded, saying, "Let's do it," and patted Tiger.

Tiger leaned into it, grunting.

Sean, eyeing the dog, said, "Yeah," and followed me to the lab.

While they waited, I grabbed the egg from the storage room, giving it a quick once-over as I asked my implant what items from the shelves would be useful in a fight. Making note of its answers, I passed them on to Tara and suggested she do the same with the items in the shelter.

When I got back and passed out the little gray balls the egg generated, Dayton asked, "Do we eat them?"

I shook my head. "Hold them under your jaw. They'll be absorbed into your skin."

"That's creepy," Sean said, but he did it, and so did Dayton.

They weren't the last ones either. I did the same for Samita, Rod, Alex, and Jenny. I thought I might have to do one for Brooke, Alex' girlfriend, but realized I wouldn't when I thought about how her "costume" was Xiniti armor. She'd already had an implant for years, and I had no idea.

When that was over, we all worked on the leftover details for tomorrow, gathering and assigning Abominator and Artificer devices, grabbing equipment, last-minute suit tweaks, and servicing the jet. Chris helped with the technical stuff.

When it was over, we all went to sleep in HQ. We'd be meeting Prime and Dr. Transylvania's people in the air above Florida and attacking the island around 4 AM.

Haley and I kissed each other goodnight in a room full of people, cots, bedrolls, and a snoring dog. I didn't sleep instantly. Too many possibilities, many of them bad, presented themselves in my brain, and I examined them in detail.

After a while, I used my implant to relax enough that I could finally drift into unconsciousness.

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