Wig-Wag One

As I began to set up for another collision and shove foreword, I noticed that the indented helper was aware of more than just it's own mission, and was actively moving to improve their rate of motion with small jiggles that avoided head-on contact. One-Eight-Ones were being flipped away from the backward flying ringlet, the Sevens swapping the One back and forth to keep the One-Eight-Ones at bay.

Moving as quickly as it was, the tagged 5-ring was not just a nearby target, but a highly desirable one. The faster it is going, the more energy I can convert into my own motion through the soup. I rotated the Eights around and meshed them with the soup, making the Eight-Eight-One look like an oddly angled pair of Eights that belonged to a pair of One-Eight-Ones.

By coincidence, the angle that hid my Sixes from the inbound 5-ring was also the proper angle that would allow my Seven to spearhead through the soup, and by twiddling with the Ones on the end, I could make small adjustments to my direction of travel. It took only a moment to wiggle the Seven and line up on the path of the inbound. The pulse of the approaching 5-ring was clear and strong, the One swapping from Seven to Seven, I felt a distinct tug on my One-less Eight, but it was not going anywhere. Not without the rest of us.