“Hatman has been noticed,” the Manga Shoggoth warned the heroes waiting on the LairJet. “Whatever the entity is down there has detected his presence.”

“To be telling cute-Hatty to be getting out of there!” Yo called sharply. “Trickshot, to be winching him up quickly!”

The cable came up fast, but the end was sliced clean through.

“Hatman is engaging the adversary,” the Shoggoth concluded. “Excuse me, I must shift the bulk of my biomass down there to aid him.”

“We have to get down there too!” CSFB! called out. “We need to get the LairJet lower.”

Yo nodded and guided the vessel down into the dangerous depths.

“Make it faster, Yo-being,” Trickshot urged.

“It is too late,” the much-reduced Shoggoth reported soberly. “Jay Boaz is dead, sliced in two. And his adversary is… oh!”

And the Shoggoth flared with bright light and was seared out of existence.

Uhuna screamed.

Yo shifted the course of the LairJet but it was too late to avoid the incoming laser beam that sliced the craft from stem to stern.

• Oops…