Hennepin had already transformed into a wonky scientist getup, long lab coat atop skimpy crimson corset and frilly miniskirt, half cyberpunk half steampunk all slutty Halloween costume. She pushed back the sleeves of her coat and swept a hand in fingerless gloves (fashion catastrophe). Through the light-soaked air rippled a translucent sheen that built form and geometry until it became a tall prismatic crystal. Embedded deep within the stainless quartz was her Soul Gem, a smooth opal.

Without pause, Sloan summoned a flash of light from her fingertips. Delaney covered her eyes until the flash subsided a moment later, dwindling into a single stream of light that stemmed from Sloan's outstretched hand to the center of Hennepin's crystal. Like a prism the crystal captured the ray, filtered it through the opal, and sprayed a rainbow array to create a transparent image of the Cadillac directly beside them.

Before Delaney could ask when Sloan learned this particular trick, the facelaser lurched forward. She jammed the transmission in reverse and drove. They moved toward the archon and the pure obliteration of its holy fire. The flickering image of the Cadillac rolled alongside them, their four dumb faces transfixed in perpetuity, the tires jammed so that it simply glided across the snow.

The laser pursued them, corralled them toward the archon. Delaney scanned for side streets but only an impenetrable wall of ruinous constructions walled the funnel.

Hennepin twisted her hands to manipulate the crystal that hovered alongside her. Its prismatic structure turned and altered the output direction of Sloan's light. The doppelganger Cadillac slowly began to change its trajectory, revolving in a circle around them, gradually rising into the air like a whimsical flying device torn from the screenplay of a Disney film fifty years old, the translucent images of Delaney and Sloan and all the rest sailing along for the ride with frozen expressions plastered across their faces.

After Ghost Car gained enough altitude, Hennepin made a dramatic swoop of her arms and tilted her crystal. Ghost Car shot through the air toward the face of the archon, ignoring its ghastly gaze. The small slits of eyes (there were far more than two, they opened and closed across the stellar face like sunspots or the eyes of Argus) peered in wonder at the thing that sailed toward it. Its facelaser ceased abruptly and it widened its mouth to charge another, all attention focused on the image.

(Chapter 27)