The great mass of black ground his leg against the rocky terrain and drove white light across his eyes. He tried to pull his leg out, but there was no use and it only amplified the pain and the disorientation. Ash and basalt pebbles filled his open mouth and soaked up the last of the moisture until he felt as dry and tortured as the land.

“Toby!” Benjamin peered down from the ledge, blackened with ash. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Why don’t you listen?” Tobias wailed. “Why can’t you listen? Why is it always me?”

“PT, signal the plane to get running, then get back here,” Benjamin commanded. He looked back down at Tobias. “I’m sorry, Tobias. I’ll get you out, but—”

One more mighty tremor shook the land so vigorously that the nearby puddles of lava jumped from their little pools and shivered over the terrain. Tobias cried out as the heat seared through his boot and he tried to push the great basalt rock off.

“Get the governess, then get me out of here!” Tobias howled, collapsing back, hard, onto his shoulder blades. “Don’t engage with Hellfire. Get her, get out, get me. You have six minutes, BJ!”

“Six!” Benjamin cried.

“If you hadn’t set off the bomb, we would have had more time, you—"

He was gone, and Tobias’s chances became and less with each second that passed. He tried again to push the rock, but as one of the less toned heroes of Benediction, his fitness was not at the peak that would allow him to stay crunched, and he fell back again, breathing heavily. He held his shield over his head before the nearby geyser could scorch his cheeks.

Poppy Tris slid down the basalt. “Tobias! Where’s BJ?” she yelped. She tried to push the rock, but he screamed with her added pressure and she staggered back. “Where’s BJ? Why didn’t he lift it off?”

“Another tremor,” Tobias croaked. He inhaled a long, squeaking, shaking breath. “The bomb decreased… the stability… of… OH, HEAVENS.” He sucked in another breath and tensed at the small lava stream that trickled up his leg along the land. It was hot, but it would be hotter when it burnt through his tights. “The volcano is erupting, and the lair is compromised!”

“Is it bad?”

“I can’t see, Poppy!” Tobias snapped. “I only see futures in my line of sight. There’s a twenty-percent chance that Benjamin will appear sooner if you go give him a hand, so please! Please, do!”

Poppy nodded and quickly jumped up the lair entrance. “Hang tight, man! I’ll get him moving.”

He tried to focus. Chances were that if he drove his shield under his leg, the red-hot liquid would only spread out more and cook a larger fraction. Chances were that if he moved his shield anywhere different, the geyser would sear his scalp. Chances were that Benjamin Jones and Poppy Tris weren’t going to save him. The more time that passed, the more safe futures dwindled across his eyes. In some frames of his vision, he could see only black, the indicator of unconsciousness, or death.

In some frames, he saw white, or white-coated images, depicting greater pain. He began to piece together understanding of the flash of vision he had experienced earlier. Red welts, blackened skin. It was already starting where his foot had lost feeling.

Heavy footsteps bounded from the lair and Tobias jerked his head in their direction. Benjamin Jones carried the unconscious governess limply over one shoulder, and a disoriented Poppy Tris over the other. He looked up at the volcano’s slope as the broiling magma approached, then down at Tobias.

“Help, Benjamin!”

Mr. Might started, but a geyser burst, and he stepped hastily back. He hesitated, assessing the options. The magma was well on its way, the volcano murmuring steadily. The smoke and ash in the air where he stood was suffocating. Down below, geysers blew intermittently and unpredictably and magma sluggishly snaked over the basalt, spilled from pools.

“I’ll guide you through the geysers, Benjamin, please! Hurry!” Tobias wailed. “Listen to me! We can all get out alive, there’s still a chance!”

The team captain stared back at the volcano, then down, then jumped to Tobias’s level, “Where do I step?”

“There’s a geyser to your right that blows in three… two…”

Benjamin staggered away, gasping and flailing his arms frantically. He looked again at the volcano. The land was beginning to crack around the heroes. Magma bubbled from each jagged cut, thick as blood. The tremors kept on coming, now relentless. Cracks spread through the basalt like spiderwebbing glass.

“Come on, Benjamin, please! There’s a thirty-percent chance. That’s one hundred percent if you do as I say,” Tobias pleaded. “Leap over to me in five… four... three… two…”

Mr. Might crouched down to spring and Tobias wept with hope. But, his face fell and he felt abruptly cold as Mr. Might sprang the other way. He leaped up to the volcano base and began to run.

“BENJAMIN!” Tobias screamed. He hurled a chunk of basalt at the man’s back, missing by far. “BENJAMIN JONES, YOU’RE A COWARD AND A KILLER!”

The captain called over his shoulder, “Protect yourself, Toby! The rescue ‘copters will come when it’s over! Promise! Protect yourself!”

“I’LL BE DEAD! DEAD!”

Benjamin Jones, the mightiest of heroes, the most highly regarded young defender in all of Benediction, the most publicly beloved of team Defiance, was gone, and Tobias bid the brown-nosing coward good riddance with one angry shout, so wrathful that even the volcano quaked.

He tried to push at the basalt again, but it was no use. He wedged his shield into a crack, propping himself up to sitting while remaining covered, then one-handedly opened his medical bag. He wiped the black from his goggles and widened his eyes and focused.

He had to survive.

It wasn’t the first time that Benjamin’s recklessness had put him and others at risk, but it was the first time that he had been left for dead. The odds were not in his favor now, and every decision made from here would matter.

He dove his hand into the bag and pulled out a pack of foil blankets. There were four, and though they were meant for the cold, they would have to do. Hanging from his shield, he awkwardly shook out each blanket with his free hand and laid all four over one half of his body, shoving them as best as he could underneath his pinned leg and tucking them under his thighs. Then, he stared into the bag once again and concentrated.

He pulled out a pair of scissors. Then, briefly glancing at the lava’s advance, he dug up two oxygen masks and a burn gel, all of which he left at the top of the bag so that he could take it quickly as he needed it when things were over. If he survived to see things when they were over. He sealed the bag, lay back, and hugged it tightly under his shield arm. The geyser sputtered, scalding the back of his head.

He cried out and pulled the shield flatter over his body. The bottom edge touched the boulder, one side touched the basalt terrain beneath him, and the other side he gripped with one hand, which pinned the insulating blankets over him like a tent. The scissors rose and fell with his breaths, and he closed his eyes. It was getting hotter.

It was getting much, much hotter and much, much harder to breath.

Tobias took a deep breath and exhaled, then took one more. From here, as unforgiving lava crawled over his shield and toed over the blankets, his future was up to fate.