Trevor's first impulse was to get to Pomimi somehow in spite of his one broken anti-grav, see if there was anything at all that...
But then...
Damn it.
Damn!
Trevor saw something, and what he saw was an opportunity.
Egoneg had floated completely over his head so that when Trevor looked up he saw Egoneg's feet.
And he saw all those hundreds of people hanging on to him.
Dear Lord.
Trevor went for it. That was something else he'd been trained in, how to react immediately to an inner attack response. Best to go purely with the instincts at such times. He kept all his weight on his own good anti-grav and stayed balanced, sort of, to rise towards Egoneg. Fear rippled through him like an electric current, but he chose to ignore it, had to ignore it, if he wanted to accomplish his plan.
Still, all those people...
Trevor could barely stand to look at them.
He spotted an area on Egoneg's body, right above Egoneg's crotch, where Trevor saw only Egoneg flesh.
That's where Trevor started.
Big as a blimp? Floating like a blimp?
Trevor figured he simply had to be full of hot air.
He flew to right above where Egoneg's gut met his waist, pulled out his laser-knife, and pierced Egoneg's flesh. He flew towards Egoneg's chest, zig-zagging past and around dozens of desperately clinging people, his laser-knife cutting through Egoneg the entire way.
It had exactly the effect he'd hoped for.
Egoneg went flying all over the sky like a balloon that had been blown up, then set free.
And all those hundreds of people that, for some inexplicable reason, had been hanging on to him?
They either dropped or went flying and then dropped.
In any case, they screamed.
A lot of the people down in the street and sidewalk couldn't get out of the way in time. It became people landing on people everywhere. Everywhere anyone looked, all they saw was blood and gore and broken bones.
Fortunately, no falling bodies hit either Fathom or Niki.
But they fell all around them.
Fathom shrieked.
It was a thousand times worse than any nightmare she'd ever had.
A middle-aged woman wearing a sensible matching skirt and top slammed into the lawn not five feet from where Fathom held Niki.
"Fathom," Niki whispered into her ear.
"What, my love?"
"I can see you," Niki said. "I just barely can, but I can. I can see, Fathom. I can see!"