In her senior year of high school, Natalie Hope reunites with her friends, Adam and Barbara, at the funeral of the fourth member of their once-close gang, Jake. They remember the made-up superhero game they played as kids called "the Astronites," wh...
For five hours, Natalie followed Ador along the Heltest Eye's gigantic, thumping, intestinal pipes to the mythical Principle reactor.
It sounds like the pipes are pumping water, Ador guessed, occasionally sniffing the air to make sure they remained on the right path. We're returning to the surface, he sensed. Are you sure you don't want to take a break and eat something?
Not until we get there, Natalie said as she carried on. Food will be my reward.
The farther they traveled alongside the pipes, the louder the sound of crashing water became. Three hours later, the noise had gone from a faint whisper to a tempestuous roar. It was then that Ador viciously wagged his tail.
Get down, he warned.
They dropped to their bellies and carefully wormed their way forward. The ground before them ended in a precipice. The gigantic pipes dramatically dropped into an abyss and released splurges of water that careened far down into darkness.
There it is, Natalie pointed a mile ahead.
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The Principle reactor resembled a nuclear power plant built within a modern medieval castle. Its outer, curtain walls reached hundreds of feet high with upper ramparts patrolled by Mandata officers. They, along with their Mandata counterparts far below them, guarded the brow and base of the Principle reactor's main entrance: an intimidating, black steel gate. To reach it, Natalie saw that she and Ador would have to travel across a narrow bridge over a murky moat that surrounded the reactor. Natalie wasn't inclined to check if the water had any villains lurking beneath its tranquil surface.
We'll stay here for now, she communicated to Ador. We'll monitor the guards' movements and see if there's a way to get inside.
Ador nodded. I can repair our battlesuits in the meantime while you can eat.
Natalie reached into Ador's backpack and pulled out a pack of Fefsorian flare fruits. They looked and tasted like dry fruit, and despite the fact they took forever to chew, every time Natalie bit into them, flavor continued to squeeze out onto her taste buds without end. Eating one flare fruit was like eating ten regular fruits minus the hassle. Natalie was only able to consume an apple, mango, and banana flare fruit before she couldn't take any more. As she digested, Ador's little paws moved up and down her back, making stitches, reconnecting wires, and replacing various mechanical parts. It almost felt like he was giving her a massage.
Natalie used her quiet time to mark when the Mandata guards alternated posts, when the gate opened, for whom it opened, how the soldiers moved around, and whether any warplanes flew by. All the while, Natalie thought of her friends and tried using the pennar to reach out to them, but there were no replies. She wanted to use the pennar to see if they were safe, but for fear that she would miss something important by taking her eyes off of the Principle reactor, she didn't take the chance. She trusted Victor safely got them all back to Elem.
