Gagnon's Suit lit up a distant source of extreme electromagnetic activity on his HUD. This had to be what had managed to stop the Island spinning so quickly.

<Follow me!> he signaled.

<I see it too,> replied Zhao.

The two flew off after the source. So many countless people and things filled the air that they were forced to dodge and weave constantly. It was so thick the rangers could only see a few dozen meters ahead of themselves before the view became choked by everything imaginable all jumbled together.

They were only able to travel at a snail's pace.

<This is bad,> signaled Zhao, dropping down to avoid a flying ground car. <So many people are getting hurt.>

<You don't even know,> replied Gagnon. <The two islands are perfectly balanced so that their rotations cancel each other out. If Island B doesn't start spinning again soon the entire Wengehua colony is going to fall out of orbit.>

<Bleeding wounds...> Zhao didn't even finish the curse.

Both rangers had to split off as a crumbling building, strands of its foundations dangling beneath it like viscera, came lumbering past. Zhao made eye contact with an eerily calm man who clung to the roof as though it provided any kind of stability. He wished there was something he could do to help the man but he couldn't think of anything. He couldn't even help him to the ground. There was no ground at the moment.

A child spun helplessly in circles head over feet, crying with such intensity that slime dripped from every orifice. There was a distant sound of explosions and groaning metal as something far off pulled itself apart from the strain of free-fall. A former river had risen up and formed into a single massive wobbly sphere of water, leaving a dry riverbed below.

An uprooted tree floated by, with several people impaled upon broken branches. One was still alive and screaming.

Gagnon began to push forward faster, bumping into various people and things as he did so. He knew he would end up hurting some people moving this quickly but there wasn't time to play it safe. If he didn't get the colony spinning again everyone would be dead. Worrying about broken bones at this point would be downright quaint.

Gagnon bumped two people almost immediately, sending them screaming off in either direction. Zhao saw what his partner was doing and increased his own speed to keep up.

They made better time this way, plowing through the floating debris like the soil of a farmer's field. Zhao winced every time he made contact with someone.

The energy reading on the two ranger's HUDs grew larger and larger as the made their way through a sheer chaos of the colony in free-fall.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, they started to near a cluster of buildings towards the back of the island. This was where the energy reading was coming from. People, large objects, and the rapidly growing clouds of particulate matter lazily drifted all around.

It looked like the source was wedged somewhere between two of the buildings. There was still enough time to deactivate-

There was a blue-violet explosion that finally terminated in black as a kinetic bolt overwhelmed Zhao's shield. Both rangers turned to the source of the attack just in time to see three more bolts come flying at them. One popped Gagnon's shield with another burst of violet to black. The others flew wild.

Both rangers warped in Falsifiers instinctively. They looked for a target to return fire through the storm of people and objects but couldn't see any. Several more bolts came shooting at them. One tore through a cloud of particles and came to within centimeters of taking Gagnon's head off. Another collided with a ground car and caused it to explode spectacularly. Shrapnel flew everywhere.

Gagnon's Suit figured out where the source of the attacks were. It helpfully highlighted them on his HUD. Several people were on top of the buildings near the energy reading, harnessed down so they wouldn't float away.

And they had kinetic wands.

Gagnon saw red.

"Long Shadow traitors!" he shouted, aiming his weapon.

<It's too dangerous!> insisted Zhao. <You could hit someone innocent!>

Gagnon didn't listen, waited for the first gap in the floating mess, and squeezed off a shot with his ion rifle. The beam struck his target center mass. Weiwen Yonge exploded into a fine red mist. She had no armor or shielding of any kind.

The other harnessed Long Shadow agents returned fire, their kinetic wands like thunder, but their shots were swallowed by the flying debris. The explosions produced more particular matter, which spread out and further choked the sky.

Gagnon kept moving and shot again, but a tree was in the way. It shattered into pieces. He continued to fire, striking the roof of the building several times and blasting away large chunks of plasteel but failing to hit any of the attackers.

More kinetic bolts missed their targets, and Gagnon continued to fire back. He hit another Long Shadow agent, reducing him to mist. The tattered remnants of his harness flapped in the free-fall.

The endless volleys of kinetic bolts continued, although diminished in number. This time one of the attacks got lucky. It hit Zhao directly in the head. The front of his helmet shattered, the fields protecting his face winked out, and the force of the attack sent him careening backwards.

"Zvezdolet!" shouted Gagnon, who flew after him.

Zhao continued to drift through the air, blobs of blood spilling from his helmet before forming perfect spheres. He looked almost like some kind of a twisted shooting star.

<Zvezdolet!> signaled Gagnon. <Do you hear me? Can you answer?>

The closer Gagnon got the worse it looked. Zhao's face was a disaster. He could barely recognize it as human...

<Zvezdolet!>

A kinetic bolt struck Gagnon in the back, blasting away shards of armor and sending him spinning. Before he could right himself another hit him in the chest.

Everything went black.