PLUTO ACADEMY 2: BLACK HOLE STAR
BLACK HOLE STAR (Volume II KARLA, To Live and Die on Mars #10 excerpt) The conference feed glitched, painting Amara’s war room in strobing emergency crimson. A dozen holographic pundits from the Pluto Academy shouted over each other, their faces distorted by lag and outrage. "—unfit for office! A warlord in governor’s clothing!" "—saved Mars from Earth’s tyranny, you ungrateful—" "—his own financial disclosures are a black hole of—" Amara muted them with a twitch of his jaw. The noise died, leaving only the rhythmic click-clack of Kasei metal gauntlets being secured over his knuckles. The Keri Alu, usually a dormant crown of coiled serpents on his brow, had reshaped itself. In his right hand, a pulsating sickle of white-hot light, its edge humming with temporal shearing. In his left, a spear of the same energy, its tip distorting the air like a heat haze. Lumo’s voice, stripped of its usual sarcasm, crackled through the private channel. "Beaky’s Cag...