Light flickered at the corner of her eye, alerting her to the finished install. She peeked over the scrap. “Sasha!”

There was a thump. Sasha slammed into the floor near her and rolled into the hut’s wall. Three’s hand slashed after him a second later, smashing the scrap apart. He jumped up and scrabbled to her side, scrap flying. Bullets bit the tarp behind him to swiss cheese bare seconds later.

Sasha pressed up against the car’s chrome bumper and peered out, then scowled. He gave her a grumpy look. “What?”

“Protect me for a second, alright?” She closed her eyes.

Foreign sensations swirled around her. Light blasted by, colors, shapes. A world settled around her, one that made no sense. Bits and bobbles. A strange circle. Her limbs were short, non-existent. Inconsequential. She willed herself upright. Fans whirred, groaning, and then she popped off the ground. Black. Dark hair. Gold and white. Blue.

Ah, it’s upside-down. June reached out with her hands and spun them around, and the craft spun with her will. The hut settled around her. She was behind the dark-dressed men, back to the door.

She opened her eyes. She saw herself, crouched behind scrap. From behind the scrap, she stared back at the dark drone. The body was about as tall as a tablet and as wide as a hand. Four bright green rotor-blades churned the air midway up the body, two to the left, two to the right. A machine gun’s muzzle poked out of middle. Just above the muzzle’s dark hole, a small camera stared back at her from the place where the other her should have been. She blinked and shook her head. Disorienting as ever.

Sasha kicked away one of Three’s hands. Blindly, he lobbed a trio of blades over the scrap at the teen, the same blades he’d collected from the creepy men in Marly’s shop. Bullets flew back, zinging off the car. “Are you done?”

“You’re about to find out.” She closed one eye and tipped her head. The drone zipped sideways. Her fingers squeezed an imaginary trigger.

Bullets slammed into the dark-clothed men from behind. They staggered, but didn’t go down. They turned, but by then, the drone was gone. Instead, more men, these in white and gold, rushed into the hut. The dark-clothed men fired on the men in white. The men in white screamed and fell back, firing wildly.

“N—no!” Arelia gasped from the right. She kicked weakly, hands grasping futilely at the man’s grip.

June flicked the drone toward her.

Holding Arelia firmly in one hand, the bulky man turned to face the drone. Glassy eyes and an expressionless metal face stared into June’s soul. His grip tightened. Arelia kicked once more, then went limp.

“No you don’t!” June fired again.

Bullets sparked off his body uselessly. Unbothered, he reached out toward the drone with his other hand.

June furrowed her brows and started to retreat. Dammit, I can’t do anything!

“Keep firing,” Sasha muttered.

She glanced at him. “You’re not going to go out there, are you, kid—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Sasha jumped up. He darted low, under the man’s line of sight, then jumped up between the man and Arelia. He slammed his fist into the man’s elbow, leaving behind two blades. The arm faltered, and Arelia slipped through his weakened hand to slump to the floor.

Growling in frustration, he punched at Sasha. Halfway there, his arm halted, caught by the blades stuck in the elbow. Gears ground. Metal shrieked. The blades shivered, on the verge of breaking.

Sasha grabbed the man’s arm and pulled down. At the same time, he unleashed a devastating kick upward. There was a pop, horrifyingly loud and clean in the mess of noise around them. Wires snapped. The man’s elbow bent backwards and drooped uselessly.

Arelia staggered along the wall, holding her throat. She coughed weakly.

Sasha grabbed her wrist and tugged her down, behind their cover. All three of them huddled for a second while bullets bit the scrap all around them. June’s eyes blurred. The drone danced, always one step ahead of the men.

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Three reached for them from both sides. Sasha kicked one hand away, threw himself across Arelia, and stabbed a blade into the palm of the other. Arelia hunkered down and pulled her helmet on, strapping it to her suit to protect her wounded throat.

“Don’t… hurt my men!” she coughed.

“They’re trying to hurt us,” June muttered dryly.

Arelia swallowed. “They—they just don’t know…”

“You’ve been thrown away, too.” Sasha smirked knowingly. He patted her on the head mockingly.

June sighed. “You did just betray them.”

Arelia’s eyes blazed. “This isn’t a betrayal. It’s the start of my succession.”

June’s eyes blurred again, and she didn’t respond for a long moment. “Well, could you fuckin’ tell them, because they’re—fuck!” She jerked forward and pressed a hand to her eye. Across the hut, the drone listed to the side, one of its four blades sparking uselessly.

“Are you okay?” Arelia asked, startled.

June gave her an exasperated look, not sure what to say. “How many of your men are here?”

Arelia bit her lip. “Uh… at least fifty? And father sent most of the lab guys, as well…”

Sasha glanced at June. “We should run.”

“We’ll never make it. Hold on, kiddo.”

“Hold on? The scrap isn’t going to hold much longer,” Sasha observed.

Arelia sat up suddenly. “Stop! Stop, everyone!”

June grabbed her and yanked her down. Bullets slammed into the scrap where she’d popped up. “Dammit, do you have a death wish?”

“They…”

“They’re your father’s men, not yours. Don’t be stupid. Hold still.”

Arelia shivered, but obeyed.

“Afraid to lose again, Sasha? What’s our record now, eighteen to three?” Three taunted.

“Eighteen to five,” Sasha snapped. He leaned around the edge, tense. His legs went taut, his good arm pressed against the scrap in almost a runner’s stance.

June reached out and dragged him in by the back of the collar. “Not you, too.”

“Shut up. I can do it.” He struggled against her grasp.

“You couldn’t take on that streetpunk, let alone the Regis Group’s small army. Don’t be ridiculous.”

Sasha scowled. “I can beat Three.”

She sighed dramatically. “Both of you, hold on. Help is coming.”

Three’s face twitched. “Chunk, get rid of that lump. Don’t let them hide.”

Their shelter shuddered under the force of the bullets raining down on it. Abruptly, it stopped.

Sasha peeked out, then ducked back down. “Not good.”

Abruptly, the bulky man appeared at one end of the car. Poker-faced, he grabbed on, hand crushing into the metal. His other arm hung limply, leaking dark fluid. He groaned, and the car began to shift.

June threw her weight against the car, holding it down. “No… you don’t!”

Arelia screamed and scurried back.

“Help isn’t going to get here in time!” Sasha snapped. He twisted free of her grip and raced to the edge. Out of her reach, he perched, waiting for an opening.

June froze. Her face contorted in pain, and her fingers twitched. Her whole body went tense. The car slipped out of her grip and keened upward under the bulky man’s efforts.

“…June?” Arelia asked, concerned.

Heavy thumps sounded outside. One after another, growing closer, like footsteps, but a hundred times louder. Scrap crunched and keened. Men screamed in horror.

All at once, June laughed. “From here.”

A massive black-coated steel hand tore through the fabric of the hut and crushed into the floor. The shockwave threw the nearest men off their feet. As if clearing a giant table, the hand swept to the right, taking the hut with it. June threw herself over Sasha and Arelia to protect them, and then they were out in the night, nothing between them and the stars.

A huge harness looked down on them. As large as a demolition harness, maybe even taller, its body was slender instead of bulky. Every line screamed agility and power, from the gleaming legs to the clawed hands. Guns mounted on each shoulder clattered as it moved. Sharp-toed boots dug into the scrap. Scarred armor gleamed pure black in the two-tone moonslight. Dark as the night, black as pitch, it was a shadow in a shadow, a starless blot outlined against the night sky.

The few men who’d escaped the initial swipe turned their weapons at the harness. Three and the bulky man fell back, out of reach. The harness swept again, and the men went flying. Screams echoed over the scrap.

June jumped upright. She threw her hand out. The harness knelt for her, and a small door creaked open in the chest. June ran over stepped into the cavity, but didn’t shut the door. Instead, a light blazed down from the center of the harness’s forehead onto her as she stood perched in its chest. The harness stood again, lifting her above the chaos.

All eyes turned up, locked on the scene.

Laughing, she looked down at the crowd. Silence fell over the men, an awed emptiness. Jaws hung slack. Eyes opened wide. She drank it in with relish, ponytail billowing in the night breeze. “Do you recognize her? This is my baby. I call her Nightmare. And it’s been a damned long time since I took her for a ride.”

Fear shuddered through the men, almost palpable.

“A war harness, here?”

“The black harness!”

“Summer Massacre…”

“It can’t be, the Sole Survivor?”

June laughed again, madly this time. She reached back and pulled on a thick wire, drawing it up to her head. A large round plug glistened on the end. With her other hand, she lifted her ponytail to reveal the receptors in the back of her head. “Do you think I’ll be the sole survivor again this time?”

She plugged the wire into the back of her head. For a second, her vision went dark. Colors burst across it, wild blasts of interference. Familiar sensations welled up as the harness connected to her. Arms. Legs. Chest. Helmet. Guns. One after another, they became hers. Her hands. Her legs. White light spilled down on the scene as the harness’s eyes flickered to life, and her vision split yet again. From here, she could see the whole scrapyard. The men looked no larger than mice, tiny, pathetic beings.

Synchronization at 70%.

June grinned and rolled out her shoulders. The harness copied her movement, one with her body. Almost to herself, she murmured, “Why don’t we scare them a little?”