Jasper stumbled off the motorcycle and over to the cage, not bothering to remove her helmet. “Is everyone okay?”
“Behind you—” Holly started.
Jasper ducked, narrowly avoiding the crowbar in the carnival worker’s hands. But the woman swung again before Jasper could fully recover, and the crowbar struck her in the stomach. She staggered backward but kept upright.
Four more of Ringmaster’s henchpeople approached, falling in line with the first woman. Jasper lifted her dagger. “Who wants to get stabbed first?”
“Looks like you already did.” The lead woman nodded at the small knife still protruding from the back of Jasper’s shoulder.
“Better than bleeding out.” Jasper lunged. The woman dodged and came at Jasper with a roundhouse kick. Jasper hopped over the leg and stabbed the dagger into her stomach. While the woman dropped to the ground with a scream, crowbar slipping from her grasp, the other four swarmed.
Jasper jumped at the last second to flip over the two to her left. As she moved through the air, she drew throwing stars and sent them spinning into limbs. The pain wasn’t enough to deter her opponents. The closest slammed a foot into Jasper’s chest as she landed, knocking her into the dirt.
Another yanked the star from his upper arm and threw it back at Jasper. Jasper rolled to dodge, sprang to her feet, and landed a blow to the man’s jaw. “What did I say about bleeding out?” she exclaimed as the worker hit the ground, frantically clutching at his arm in a futile attempt to stop the blood from pouring out.
Another henchman drew a blaster and took aim. “Okay, that’s enough.”
“I agree.” Jasper kicked the blaster from his grasp and slammed her foot into his ribs. She ducked to avoid the blast from the next woman’s weapon, and the laser struck the guy getting back up. Jasper snatched up the blaster she’d knocked to the ground.
The woman fired again, and Jasper fired a heartbeat later. The beams collided with each other and exploded in a shower of red sparks. While the woman shielded her eyes, Jasper drew a knife and drove it into her shoulder. She dropped.
Jasper hurried to the cage. “Everyone okay?”
“Are we okay?” Grace yelped. “You’re the one with a knife in your shoulder!”
“Oh. Right.” Jasper yanked it free. “Dax?”
Dax reached through the bars and rested a hand on her arm. “Be careful, it’ll still be easy to reopen for a while,” he said once the glow faded.
“In that case, it’s definitely going to get reopened. But thanks.” Jasper took a step back and assessed the cage.
“I’m not sure we can get out of here without Ringmaster’s powers,” Thea said.
Jasper’s face lit up. When no one reacted, she remembered her helmet was still on. “I have an idea. There is someone else here with Ringmaster’s power.”
“If we had enough heat, maybe a blowtorch—” Holly began.
“No, no, this will work.” Jasper took a few steps backward. “I’m going to find Aymes and convince him to help us.”
“I can’t imagine how you plan to do that,” Thea said. “But you better figure it out quick, because he’s right behind you.”
Jasper spun around. Sure enough, Aymes was coming her way, carried through the air by his platform. For a moment she thought he was following the racers—but no, his eyes were definitely on her.
His platform brought him to the ground before dissolving. He lifted a hand, and blast of silver energy fired from his palm.
Jasper narrowly dodged the blast. As she straightened up, she shouted, “Wait!”
A silver staff took form in Aymes’s hand. He stepped forward and swung. The staff smacked into the side of Jasper’s helmet.
She staggered sideways. Lifted her hands. “I just want to talk!”
“Ringmaster told me all about you, Van Terra. Don’t think you can fool me.” Aymes swung again, this time hitting hard enough to make lights flash in Jasper’s vision. Something cracked, and it her took a moment to realize it was the helmet. A piece of the visor fell to the dirt.
“Aymes! Please!”
Aymes paused. “How do you know my name?”
Jasper slid the cracked helmet off her head. “It’s me! Miss Elizab!”
Aymes lowered the staff, but his expression was still apprehensive. “Why are you dressed like that? And why are you here?”
“I’m Van Terra, idiot.”
His eyes narrowed. “Then we’re enemies.”
“Why? Because Ringmaster said so?” Maybe she shouldn’t have called him an idiot. Usually, the people she felt the need to inform of her identity were idiots.
“I work for him. So, yes.” Aymes swung.
Jasper ducked. The staff passed over her head. Her right hand shot up and grabbed it. She winced in pain as she attempted to pull it from Aymes’s hands.
The staff vanished into thin air. Aymes stepped back, summoned a new one, and swung again. He hit Jasper’s side and knocked her to the ground.
“Come on, Jasper!” Holly exclaimed. “Just knock the kid out!”
Groaning, Jasper sat up. “Aymes, I don’t want to—”
A sound like thunder shook the sky, drowning out the world for a moment. Jasper tipped her head back. Her eyes went wide.
The warp glowed brighter than it had before, and space distorted around it. A blast of white energy shot out, then another, and another, each accompanied by a loud boom. The blasts were all moving in the same direction: toward the Ferris wheel.
The prototype machine they’d seen in Dr. Prime’s research drive sat on the top of the wheel’s hub, sucking in the energy.
“Ringmaster has no idea what he’s messing with,” Jasper shouted over the next boom. “We have to stop him. Everyone on this moon could die!”
Hesitation crossed Aymes’s face. He lowered the staff. “Why should I trust you over Ringmaster?”
“He’s manipulating you into being a criminal!”
“Like you?” Aymes asked, his tone turning accusatory. “Why were you at my school, anyway? What were you doing?”
Jasper grimaced. “We wanted information on Ringmaster’s plans, and we knew you were working for him.”
Aymes’s voice rose. “You were spying on me the whole time?”
“Listen, Aymes, you’re new to all of this. Please believe me when I say it’s nothing personal.” Jasper climbed to her feet. “Ringmaster’s involved in a complicated web of…stuff. I actually don’t care much about him. Starr’s the one I’m really after. But…” She trailed off and shook her head. “It’s not too late for you to get out, Aymes. You have a lot of potential.”
“Yeah, a lot of potential and no money,” Aymes spat. “Ringmaster’s my only shot at getting anywhere in life.”
“No, he’s not. There are other ways.”
“Like what?”
Jasper’s mouth opened, closed, and opened again. She sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. But Ringmaster doesn’t care about helping you with school. You know that. He’s trying to persuade you to join him full time, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, but he’s not forcing me to do anything.” Aymes waved a hand, and his staff transformed into several hovering spheres. “And he does want to help me. In his own…twisted way, I guess.”
“I want to help you too.” The sky cracked again, and the moon shuddered with it.
“Why should I believe you?”
“I tried to help you at East Marina, didn’t I?”
“You were spying on me!” Aymes swung an arm, and one of the spheres flew at Jasper’s face. She barely had time to throw her arms up and shield herself before it hit her and knocked her onto her back.
Jasper sat up and looked back at the cage, at her team whose worried gazes flickered between her and the sky.
Heart quickening, her attention returned to Aymes. “Okay. Don’t believe I want to help you. I wouldn’t blame you.” She pushed herself up. “But you can’t deny that we’re in danger. Whatever Ringmaster’s trying to do with the warp, it’s going to rip the moon apart. People will die. Steal, break things, run Ringmaster’s errands, whatever. But you don’t want all these people to get hurt, do you?”
Aymes’s gaze darted to the warp. “Of course not. But—”
“You’re in over your head, kid.”
“And you’re not?”
Jasper laughed. “I’ve been in over my head for a long time. You learn to swim.” Her head tipped to the right. “Did Ringmaster tell you anything about the warps? About what that machine’s supposed to do?”
“No. But I don’t think even he knows what Starr wants with them.”
“I’ve been close to one before. Way too close.” Jasper shook her head. “Starr must be after something big if he’s willing to mess with something so dangerous.”
Aymes’s head turned to study the cage Ringmaster had made. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “Ringmaster was talking about evacuating if things went bad with the machine. He knows this is dangerous.”
“And you’re going to let him run off while people die?”
Another long moment passed. Finally, Aymes lifted a hand. The golden bars at the front of the cage glowed and shimmered before disappearing entirely. The team staggered out.
“Thank you,” Dax said.
Aymes glanced at him briefly before returning his gaze to Jasper. “I’m not doing this for you. But you’re right. I shouldn’t have let Ringmaster get this far with the warps.” He sighed. “I just wanted to learn to use my powers.”
“Don’t sweat it, kid,” Jasper said. “But if I were you, I’d get out of here. Or at least get out of the costume. Police are on their way.”
Aymes frowned. “How do you know?”
“Because I called them.”
“Most of the police who are trained to handle villains know not to touch Ringmaster,” Aymes warned. “And some of the other villains here are on Starr’s good side, too.”
“Trust me, these guys aren’t corrupt,” Jasper told him. “Starr thinks they’re too stupid to be of any use to him.”
“Are they?”
“Uh, yeah. They’re really just backup, and a threat to the lesser villains. I plan on catching Ringmaster myself.”
“Well, I’m not running yet,” Aymes said. “You’ll need my help to stop him.”