As Anomaly's nightmarish scream echoed through the night, I knew the countdown had started.

"Warning. Sudden change in Walker and Sweeper pathing. Likely Cause: Local Disturbance."

Yeah, the one I just made.

The data from my seismic sensors showed the two Walkers my drones were tracking abruptly changed their patrolling pattern, they were two minutes from our location. The haphazard plan I had thrown together in my head relied on catching Ajax's attention. Getting the Walkers here to take down Pandora was simple enough, getting away once they arrive? Much more difficult.

Avoiding capture wouldn't be difficult for me and Vigil, but Anomaly had nearly been captured by the ECU before. Ajax would succeed where they had failed.

The worst part was; we had less than a minute.

The Sweepers would get here first, assessing the situation before feeding information to the Walkers. After that, they would move in to incapacitate us all. We needed to be long gone before that happened, which meant that this battle needed to be decided quickly.`

I observed the chaos below.

Anomaly had already gone after Silver Sky, and my drones were causing disorder amongst the rest of them. My database had only basic information about their capabilities and a brief glance read: Elementalist. There was more, but I didn't have time for a full review.

White wisps of light circled his hands before he thrust out his palms, and a bar of white-hot plasma roared forth and skewered Anomaly. It was so quick I couldn't even track it. One of my five drones was caught in the crossfire, sliced in two before falling to the ground. Anomaly, however, was completely unfazed. His body reformed before he lashed out, stretching toward the flier with the intent to catch him.

I tore my gaze away.

The supers who had lost their footing were recovering and pushing themselves back to their feet, while the one unaffected by all the chaos stood looking scared. The flier responsible for the sound suppression sphere dislodged himself from the car he was embedded in and sent it flipping through the air with a gust of wind. He took back to the air, his sphere forming around him.

My database identified him as Windwalker, another Elementalist. This one specialized in aeromancy.

With his shield, they would have a much better chance of escaping. He needed to go down first.

I redirected my drones to focus him. I peppered his shield with the explosive ordnance I used before, only to watch as my attacks were blocked and redirected. The surrounding area was littered with impact craters and debris from the barrage.

I needed higher penetration power… something more direct.

Leveling my sniper-rifle, I flicked a switch to change to my tranquilizers and fired. It was going to take multiple shots to pierce the shield, so I didn't hesitate to squeeze the trigger more than once.

The projectiles slammed into the sphere and sparked against each other, the barrier caving in and bursting like a balloon on the fifth shot. Hurricane-like winds surged through the area, shattering windows and throwing several of the Pandora members back to the ground. Anomaly was caught in the blast and pieces of him were blown in every direction. Silver Sky managed to fight against the force but it took everything he had to stay upright.

I pulled the trigger a sixth time, and my sniper buzzed as the kinetic amplifier overheated. I reached forward and flicked a switch on the weapon. Cooling vents opened and hot air hissed as it shot out. I had never fired rapidly like that before, but thankfully my precautions had stopped the weapon from exploding in my hands.

The sixth tranquilizer struck center mass, and Windwalker dropped like a rock. He hit the ground and fell to his knees, heaving lungfuls of air. It struck me as odd that he didn't collapse immediately. Then I remembered he'd walked off being thrown through a car, so chances were his enhancement rating let him stay upright.

Regardless, it had him on his knees. One more would do him in.

I fired, but a mouth burst out of his chest to take the hit. It writhed, squealing as it continued to grow out of Windwalker's body before unceremoniously detaching and falling to the ground as a mass of flesh. Blood and fluids leaked from the faceless mouth as Windwalker stumbled to find some cover.

Wildgrowth.

I turned to see her spring to her feet before rushing over to another one of her downed comrades. She dove over him and began expanding, her body bloating to a sickening degree. Fresh chunks of flesh began to roll off the mass and splattered onto the ground. They grew limbs and scattered around the street like insects. It only took a moment to realize they were trying to find me.

Time stopped for no one, and I could see the incoming form of Sweepers in my peripherals.

"Hostiles identified. Sweeper arrival in: Twenty-one seconds. Estimated Walker arrival: Forty-five seconds. Recommended action. Retreat."

I sent three of my drones to try and slow the Sweepers down, but I didn't have much hope. They were nowhere near as sophisticated as Ajax's war machines, but they would at least buy me time.

"The shop!" I heard Wildgrowth scream. Appendages grew mouths, hollering at the rest of her squad. "Our target is in the shop! Get him NOW!"

"Which one?!" another one called out. I saw he was closest to where Anomaly emerged from. This one was male, probably the youngest of the lot if his size was anything to go by. My database identified him as Numbskull. "Wait, I see him! He's at the back!"

"Get him!" Wildgrowth screamed. "Grab him and we can get out of here!"

"But his power—!"

His hesitation cost him. I switched targets and hit Numbskull in the chest. I landed the shot but the impact didn't transfer.

The tranquilizer should have knocked him off his feet, but instead, it seemed like all the kinetic force behind the shot dissipated the moment it collided with his body.

I realized then what his power was.

It was a simple and somewhat strange enhancement rating. Numbskull was selectively impervious to all kinetic forces. It was why he was the only one out of the group not to be knocked down by my grenade or Windwalker's backblast.

"Oh God, I've been shot!" He touched the tranquilizer protruding from his chest. "What do I do? Wildgrowth—"

I hit him with the restraining mixture from one of my last two drones. Amber grew and surrounded him, but he just stumbled through it like it was water. Would even restraining not work? How were you supposed to contain or fight someone like that? I supposed I was lucky he had no idea what he was doing.

"You idiot!" Wildgrowth's various appendages roared. "Someone get the boy! We don't have time for this!"

"I'm on it!" Another sprang to his feet and booked it toward the shop. I switched targets again, ignoring the identification that flashed across my visor. His form blurred for a split second and my tranquilizer went straight through him. I growled in frustration as he disappeared inside the store, only to blink in surprise when he backpedaled out of the store half a second later. "The entrance is blocked! Vigil's statues!"

I felt a laugh bubble out of my throat.

Reflex.

This guy was an enhancement-mentalist combo. He could anticipate danger much like Blue, and could temporarily react with speeds that could rival Pink. I saw it in action when I tried to attack him. He weaved through every projectile and explosive I sent his way, blurring through fire and destruction, coming out without a scratch.

He's faster than Pink…

"What do we do?!" Numbskull cried in a panic. "We can't stick around here! There's too much going on, too much noise!"

Wildgrowth's blobs were still swarming the street while her main body concealed the last of their hunting squad. Clearly, they were the most valuable. Through the process of elimination, she'd be shielding the Super who was tracking us.

"Our mission was clear. If you don't want to deal with Liberation, get the boy!" Wildgrowth's limbs screamed. I heard the familiar buzzing of Sweepers as they zoomed into the street. I turned just as the countdown on my visor hit zero. "Go! Now! NOW!"

Numbskull and Reflex turned to try and assault the store once more, and I didn't want to see if they could get through. We were basically out of time, and Richard needed to be secured back at my workshop before he woke up. My tranquilizer wasn't going to last all night.

I stood from my position on the roof and my shoulder-mounted grenade launcher shifted and whirled as the mechanisms inside my suit exchanged high explosive ordnance for smoke grenades. It redeployed and fired.

One by one, they violently erupted into clouds of smoke, completely obscuring the street. My two remaining drones added to the attack by firing hallucinogenic canisters that mixed with the smoke.

The cloud had our enemies gagging and stumbling around. Numbskull and Reflex tried to get out, only to end up walking in circles. Wildgrowth's main body still remained in place, but I could see with thermal vision that a lot of her blobs were lost, dazed, and confused.

Windwalker had the potential to blow everything away with his power, but he had panicked and erected a new sphere instead.

Silver Sky and Anomaly were still harassing one another, but with the dense smoke screen up, Anomaly's physical form had all but vanished from view.

"Anomaly, get Richard and run. I'll stay and make sure you aren't being followed—" I let out a strangled yelp as something curled around my throat. I felt numerous blobs latch onto me and rows of teeth attempt to pierce my suit. Unfortunately for them, they shattered against my armor.

"Up here! He's invisible! Silver Sky! Blast him!" Wildgrowth's appendages tightened their grip, and the pressure around my neck increased. They weren't able to hurt me. "What are you, DEAF?" Wildgrowth's limbs shrieked as I extended my blade. "Someone get up here and— ah! Hurry up!"

Blood began to gush from the wriggling appendages as I hacked at the creatures trying to keep me in place, there was no way I'd be able to deal with that many.

I jumped off the side of the building and landed on solid ground. Wriggling limbs of flesh rained down on me as I activated my movement systems and a burst of compressed air sent me to the other side of the street, just in time for the first swarm of Sweepers to blitz past me.

"Warning. Intrusion detected. Primary communication and core systems at risk. Isolating hostile programs."

What?

What happened to my drones?

They were gone, their feeds nothing but static. The Sweepers had destroyed the three I sent so quickly—without me even realizing.

Panic flared in my chest as my visor was overloaded. I couldn't keep up with streams of code zoomed by me in multiple windows.

Not only was I being scanned, but hacked as well.

How? My scrambler and camouflage were still active.

I looked down to make sure I wasn't getting false readings, only to realize I was covered in blood from cutting through Wildgrowth's hellish spawns.

That's not good.

"Hostile programs isolated." I watched the various windows that opened up on my visor vanish in the blink of an eye. "Hostile system vulnerability detected."

A vulnerability in Ajax's war machine?

The Sweepers were the only piece of Mechatech I hadn't been able to use my power to scan when I was at The Citadel. I hadn't seen any glaring flaws in the design of the Walkers—some exploits maybe if I was feeling particularly suicidal—but nothing I could brute force with my suit's software.

I shook away my disbelief and fired the counter-hack.

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Every Sweeper in the vicinity visibly jolted like they had been shocked. It didn't take them long to recover, but they fled the area just as fast as they came. I didn't even have the opportunity to shoot one down with one of my drones before they disappeared.

It looked like my counter-measures were sophisticated enough to fry even the more powerful ECU tech, but I hadn't expected them to be able to block against a scan from a Sweeper.

That was valuable information to have.

"He's over here now, I've got him!" My head snapped to see a swarm of Wildgrowth's limbs screeching as they skittered across the pavement toward me. "What are you morons doing?! Hurry up!"

"I can't see a thing!" Numbskull cried out in response. "Where are you?!"

I switched functions on the grenade launcher once more. The barrel surged as a scorching ray of red light erupted out of the muzzle slicing through the incoming wave of flesh minions. The automated targeting system highlighted every unholy abomination and stopped most of them from gaining an inch more ground. My two drones aided in turning what I couldn't hit into mulch.

Some wailed as they died.

Most didn't get a chance.

I took a brief second of respite to survey the smoke screen I created. Vigil's statues were colder than their surroundings and silhouetted in my thermal vision. She had Wildgrowth's main body surrounded, and Numbskull entombed. Reflex, however, appeared to be missing. A quick glance into the shop revealed Anomaly's lankly silhouette snatching Richard's body to escape with.

Had Reflex escaped? The hallucinogens should have kept him from navigating to safety.

"Windwalker, clear the damn area!" Wildgrowth's various cries went unanswered. He was shielding himself in his barrier. No command was getting to him, and I drank in their disorganization like a succulent nectar. "Lower the barrier, you bastard! If you don't we're all screwed!"

"We're already screwed!" Numbskull called out. "A little help over here? I can't get out, the statues have me trapped! Silver Sky? Anyone? Where did Reflex go? He was right beside me!"

Vigil can hold him back, but my amber can't?

"Reflex!" Wildgrowth roared. There was no response. "Damnit! Silver Sky, where are you?!"

I peered around and saw his heat signature through the smoke. He was rolling over on the ground, trying to push himself back to his feet. It seemed Anomaly pulled him back to solid ground before he went to grab Richard.

"H-Here," Silver Sky groaned. "We n…eed to retreat."

I watched the giant mass of flesh roll off the top of their last comrade like a rogue meatball. It snagged the prone figure with a limb that sprouted from the side and began dragging him away from the fighting. Vigil's statues only served as a minor obstacle to the rolling blob of meat, so it was up to me to stop it.

It only took a second to switch back to my high explosive rounds and fire off a single grenade. It splattered the rolling flesh mound all across the pavement, drenching Vigil's statues in blood and guts.

Considering how her powers worked, I was in for an earful when I got back to the hideout.

With Wildgrowth temporarily incapacitated, I finally saw the last of their squad. He looked to be somewhat young with an athletic build, but the shape of his mask gave everything away. There was only one super in Bayside that wore a skinned dog's face for a mask, and it was Bloodhound. Alice had made a significant deal about being careful around this guy.

On his own, he wasn't that big of a deal. He had mild super strength, a weak regeneration factor, and an immunity to disease. His specialty lay in his ability to locate anyone whose blood he had tasted. If he got a bead on you, there was no chance of ever shaking him.

Not exactly a problem for me with my suit, but Alice mentioned having to run from fights when he'd shown up. If he managed to get to her, Pandora would never leave her alone.

Unless she killed him.

I crouched down and lined up Bloodhound in the crosshairs. Time slowed to a crawl as I felt the weight of taking another human life descend on me. Could I pull the trigger? I had done it before out of self-defense, but this was no such case.

I squeezed the trigger, hearing my heart thunder like a war drum.

The easier choice would be to tranquilize him and leave him for the Walkers to pick up. Inside ECU captivity, he wouldn't be a problem – assuming he wasn't broken out. Bonesmith might have been freed with the help of Mirage, but I doubted it would be that easy with Ajax and Chronos around.

But…

Bloodhound would be able to find Richard. If I followed through with my plan, he would be in the middle of my workshop. If Bloodhound cut a deal with the ECU, he could lead them right to me. I couldn't risk him doing that.

It was either kill him, or kill Richard and throw away the possibility of saving Alice, Seraphim, and her grandparents.

I knew what I needed to do, and squeezed the trigger a little harder.

Seconds ticked by and I felt myself tremble.

I can't do it.

The thunderous beat of my heart was quickly overshadowed by the rapid thrums I felt through the ground – the vibrations of an approaching Walker. It was moving fast, and it would be here in no time at all.

Do it, Maxis. Come on! You've done this before! You can do it again!

My heart continued to thump in my ears.

I couldn't do it.

I dropped Bloodhound with a tranquilizer before he had a chance to run, and immediately holstered the sniper rifle. Consulting my stream of data, I found the Walker approaching from my intended escape route. Frustration snapped at me as I searched for the next quickest route back to my workshop.

When I found it, I broke into a sprint and barreled toward the dissipating smoke. I felt Wildgrowth's dead and dying appendages squelch beneath my feet as I tore through the street, allowing my advancement movement systems to propel me forward every time they were ready. I passed Wildgrowth's main body trying to regrow itself so she could escape. I leaped over Bloodhound's unconscious body and dashed past the trapped Numbskull.

A new swarm of Sweepers circled like vultures around the incapacitated Pandora supers while completely ignoring me. I made sure to keep my remaining two drones at a distance, seeing as the two I had tailed the closest Walkers were now offline. At least the scrambler was still working.

My counter-measures prevented the initial scan from finishing, something which Ajax would certainly take notice of. If he was as intelligent as everyone believed him to be, then that wouldn't work a second time. His scanning equipment would be improved, and his Sweepers would be able to tear through my defenses the next time around.

I had no intention of allowing that to happen.

When I emerged from the smoke, my heart almost stopped when I saw a second Walker scrambling at full speed. Its spider-like legs skittered across the ground, tearing it up and sending debris flying through the street. I watched bug-eyed as a compartment opened on the side for a weapon to emerge. I had no time to react before a bar of yellow light flashed across the sky and slammed into its target.

I spun just in time to watch Windwalker fall out of the sky, in three pieces.

Not a second later, rockets shot out from the Walker and sniped my last two drones from the sky. They fell to the ground flaming and in pieces.

I had no time to repair them.

Time to go.

I sprinted for the nearest building and prepared to fire my grapple to escape to higher ground, however, I lost my footing. I pushed my arms out in front to catch myself and spring back to my feet, but I felt a sense of sudden weightlessness as the world started flipping on its head. A jolt of fear shot through me and my mind leaped to Mirage, but my suit was quick to inform me what was happening.

"Zero Gravity detected. Recommendation: Advanced Movement Systems required for traversal."

I craned my neck to look under me back at the street. The approaching Walker had fired some sort of stasis bomb that turned the street into a zero gravity zone. I saw the ripples through the air as a translucent shimmering blue dome formed around the entire block. The second Walker passed over me, and I heard a sound of rushing wind. My smoke bombs were suddenly blown away, along with any loose debris and hundreds of fleshy giblets from Wildgrowth, both dead and alive.

The second Walker stalked onto the street and towered over everyone.

Bloodhound was down.

Wildgrowth only just finished putting her main body back together.

Silver Sky was unconscious.

Windwalker was missing an arm and a leg from the Walker's attack.

Numbskull hadn't moved, still trapped by Vigil's statues.

One by one, the Walkers began scooping them up with their clawed legs. The only one who struggled was Wildgrowth, and given the nature of her power, she was able to wriggle her way free a couple of times, only for the claws to snatch her up again. She screamed and wailed as she was dragged toward the same compartment I saw the Walker deposit Seraphim's grandparents in, but the Pandora super still had one last gambit.

She pulled her own head off and tossed it.

It sailed through the air to freedom, growing what seemed to be wings made out of flesh and bone to try and gain additional speed. It was a horrifying sight, but the Sweepers were onto her. They zipped to the head and surrounded it.

A light erupted from the Walker that held her main body, lighting up the escaping head like a spotlight. The head started screaming again as it lost all momentum. Wildgrowth was summoned back toward the Walker. I felt my curiosity push against my logical and instinctive need for survival.

That kind of technology would be very useful.

Was it some form of telekinetics? A tractor beam maybe? The idea to incorporate something like that into my armor was always lingering but I didn't know where to start.

One of the Walkers turned its main body to face my direction, and I suddenly felt like a target. The jolt of fear was enough to catapult my fascination with the machines to the back of my mind. I activated my advanced movement systems and began retreating backward. The Walker began to stalk forward as I drifted harmlessly backward, slowly gaining speed.

If the Walker could actually process what its sensors were seeing, it wouldn't be moving so slowly. There was blood on me and enough of it to give me away as a target despite my continuous usage of camouflage, it was only a matter of time until the Walker saw me.

"Lock-on detected. Cloaking: Disengaged." I inhaled sharply as the canon on the side of the Walker lit up. "Full Body Kinetic Dampening: Engaged."

The plating on my armor shifted ever-so-slightly and let out a low hum as my suit's power began to noticeably drain.

It saved my life.

The cannon fired and slammed into me – the same hit that sniped Windwalker through his shield. It felt like being kicked with enough force to fold me in half.

I was flung through the remaining distance of the zero gravity sphere and sent tumbling across the asphalt. I skidded to a stop with all the air being knocked clean from my lungs. Still, I managed to scramble to my feet despite the wheezing.

"Moderate trauma sustained." A screen came up on my visor, highlighting the areas of my body that were significantly impacted by the attack. My head was highlighted in orange while my chest and lungs were red. "Armor integrity: 68% Power remaining: 34% Automatic medical systems: Engaged."

The pain that had only just begun to register disappeared, and I felt a rush of adrenaline.

My head stopped spinning just in time to see the war machine barreling toward me. Eight mechanical legs skittered madly down the street, and given its size, it would reach me in moments.

I couldn't take another hit from that canon. It drained most of my suit's power tanking that hit, and I would be left with only my core systems.

I turned on my heel and fired my grapple at the first building that came into view. I was pulled violently off the ground toward the ledge. I soared over the lip of the building into the sky, rocketing across the roof and even the next street over.

I didn't look behind me when my legs hit solid ground, the impact dispersal — a more focused version of what allowed me to tank the Walker shot — softened my landing. I only fired my grapple again and continued to run.

"Lock-on detected."

Shit, it's chasing me.

My own stupidity astonished me. Of course, it would chase me.

I dipped into a space between buildings to break the line of sight. With my scrambler still active, it would only be able to track me visually… I hope.

My half-baked theory was proven correct when the building behind me didn't explode. That still wouldn't stop the Walker. I needed to find a way to clean this blood off my suit quickly and I wasn't anywhere near the ocean, so I couldn't just go for a quick dip.

I needed to get inside – but the Walkers had ways of weeding me out of buildings. I had seen and escaped it once before already. If there was even a hint that I was hiding, it would deploy those mechanical firefly machines.

Gotta keep moving.

I zigzagged in and out of streets, all while my pursuing Walker scrambled over everything with ease. It was catching up, and my only advantage was the scrambler. The night helped to obscure me, but the Walker had visual sensors just like the Sweepers. No matter what I tried, I couldn't seem to lose it.

However, it couldn't cleanly capture me either. Whenever it locked on to me, my suit would warn me of the danger and I could duck behind cover. They might be war machines, but they weren't going to go blowing up residential buildings just to get me. I wasn't that bad.

That left us in a stalemate. I couldn't escape because Wildgrowth's blood rendered my camouflage obsolete, and the Walker couldn't get a proper lock on me. That would change very soon in Ajax's favor. I could only run for so long before he had more of his machines converge on me.

I had to take a risk.

This blood needed to be washed off, and I needed to do it quickly.

I altered my course and headed towards the more industrial part of the city, as soon as a factory came into view I blitzed towards it.

With the Walker scrambling behind me, I jumped through the window into the factory floor, deployed my laser pistol, and shot the industrial sprinklers. A moment later a torrent of water was unleashed throughout the room.

I had to trust that the blood would be cleaned off. I didn't have the luxury to stand there and scrub myself clean because I could already hear the buzzing of Ajax's mechanical fireflies. The Walker deployed them the moment I entered the building, and I had no doubt they would be able to navigate corridors faster than I could.

I couldn't linger a second longer than I needed to.

I continued forward, blasting holes through the building so all I needed to do was run in a straight line.

I repaired each wall with my power after dashing through.

[Charges: 9/30]

When I got to the fourth building, I managed to find a few seconds to breathe.

"Cloaking: Engaged."

I looked down at myself and saw minuscule smudges of red. I quickly wiped them away with my hands, holding my breath as the thumping outside came to a stop. The buzzing got louder, and I cautiously lowered myself to the floor.

The mechanical fireflies came through like a twisting tendril, blitzing through the room I had gone prone in. They soared over my head, desperately searching for me.

I continued to hold my breath until they passed completely.

Slowly, the thumping outside began to grow distant.

I exhaled slowly.

For the moment, I had escaped.

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