“Arelia, get back!” June shouted. She threw herself between Arelia and Regis’ men, arms out. Bullets splattered across Nightmare’s back.

Startled by the sound of gunfire, Arelia jerked in midair. “They… why?”

“You’d fire at your own princess?” June boomed. Pushing Arelia gently away, she rounded on the Regis men. Light blazed from her eyes, soaking the road in blood-red.

“Let’s do this!” Naemi shouted, voice booming over the megaphone.

The cars charged, streaking past June. On the opposite side, the construction equipment blared horns and rushed to meet them. June flared the guns on Nightmare’s shoulders threateningly and charged into the fray.

The demolition harness rushed to meet her. It threw its wrecking ball across the street. Cars flew, neon shattered. The ball smashed through the wall of the factory across the street, and the façade came crumbling down. It gestured, and the chain coiled in, drawing the ball back.

Nightmare stomped on the chain, stopping the ball dead. The tiny camera atop the demolition harness spun to face her. Unhesitatingly, June punched the camera. It flew off the harness’s shoulders and vanished into the street. The demolition harness reeled blindly. The claw hand grasped at the place where the camera had been, as though it was trying to fix it.

“This is for destroying my apartment!” She punched the harness with all her might. Metal buckled around her fist.

The claw blindly groping around its head stopped abruptly and darted at June. She jumped back. Her feet smashed into the ground, sending asphalt flying. Tripping over the curb, she stumbled backward into the crumbled facade. The blinded harness beelined after her. She dodged to the side as quietly as she could manage. The harness plunged into the façade seconds later, so close she could feel the force of the hit lift her off the ground. Bits of shattered concrete dropping off its back, it hefted itself out of the ruined factory. Its broad shoulders turned toward her despite the broken camera.

“You aren’t blind at all,” she grumbled.

As if to agree, two small panels opened up in the harness’s chest, lenses reflecting the light.

June snarled and jabbed her fingers at the panels. Before she could hit, they snapped shut again. Her fingers deflected to the side.

The claw closed around her arm. The demolition harness threw her to the ground, through the factory’s remnants. Concrete floors shattered against Nightmare’s head. She hit the ground in a cloud of dust. In Nightmare’s chest, June coughed, eyebrows furrowed. A war harness, Nightmare naturally didn’t have pain circuits, but with a hit that ferocious, she could feel it through the harness’s armor.

A shadow loomed over her. The demolition harness toppled forward. All its immense weight rushed down at her, boosted by gravity. June startled back to reality. She rolled to the side, smashing through the inner factory walls. A homeless man startled and fled as she rolled past.

BOOM. Dust flew. The entire factory shuddered. Parts collapsed in on itself, unable to maintain integrity with so much already broken. The impact threw Nightmare into the air. She landed with a thump. Ceiling panels, lights, and other bits of debris rattled down on her. Reflexively, June covered her face with her hands. A piece of glass slipped through her fingers and plunged toward her eye. June flinched, bracing for pain.

The glass bounced away harmlessly, unable to so much as scratch Nightmare’s lenses.

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June rolled her eyes at herself and climbed to her feet. Except for the demolition harness, nothing in this building was a real threat to Nightmare.

Low-slung shadows raced into the rubble towards her. Slender and quick, steel arms and legs stretched out as they ran on all fours. Their limbs joined into exoharnesses, upper joints lifted off their body and built into a reinforced steel frame that jointed with their spine, six inches higher than their spines. Their faces were masked, hidden behind steel muzzles and glowing red eyes, but their torsos were unmistakably human.

Inside Nightmare, June’s eyes narrowed. “Seirios.”

The nearest ones leapt at her, muzzles open wide to bare steel teeth. In the gap of the open muzzle, she could barely make out emotionless faces. Their small, pawlike hands and feet separated into sharp claws up to the first joint, ready to latch on.

June swept her leg and sent a few tumbling, but the shadows were faster than her. They swarmed around to her back. One jumped on to the back of her leg. She pulled them off and threw them away. A clang rang in her ears as another slammed onto her back. She stumbled back and threw herself into the wall, and heard a crunch as they fell free. Even before she could right herself, three more leapt at her front. She slapped one out of the air and sidestepped another, but the third latched onto her guns. Instinctively, she urged them to fire, but without any ammo, it was useless.

June snarled at herself and swung the gun wildly back and forth. The creature held on grimly, maddened mask-eyes burning. It crept down the gun one limb at a time. She slapped at the gun. The creature fell sideways, but still clung to her gun.

Another one grabbed at her leg, a sudden weight. With a clang, one caught her side. Frustrated, June took ahold of the one on her gun and threw it to the ground, then wiped down Nightmare’s body, almost as if she was wiping off spiders. The one on her side fell back to the crushed concrete below, but the one on her leg held tight. She kicked her leg a few times. Doggedly, the creature held on.

The wall cracked. The demolition harness charged through. Debris flew. June took a deep breath, then raced at it, as well. Just as they were about to meet, she dropped down and, using the leg with the creature on it, swept its feet with a low kick.

Demolition harnesses were always top-heavy. This one was no exception. It toppled forward helplessly and smashed into the opposite wall under its own momentum. The creature slid off Nightmare’s leg, little more than mangled flesh and steel.

The creatures laid on the ground, momentarily stunned. The demolition harness flailed, failing to push itself up out of the rubble. Its wrecking-ball hand kept slipping, leaving the claw-hand uselessly clasping the ground.

Not giving it the chance to recover, June jumped onto its back. It reached back for her, but she was ready. She grabbed the claw with both hands and stomped on its shoulder, then leaned back, pulling with all her might. The harness’s speakers coughed to life. It spat incoherent threats into the rubble. She ignored it. Metal twisted and popped. Wires snapped. Harder. Further. She pushed with her legs and ground her foot into the opening shoulder socket. With a screech and a pop, the arm came loose in her grasp. She staggered back, surprised by the sudden lack of resistance.

The creatures jumped up again, but this time, she knew their attack patterns. Using the claw-arm as sword and shield, she blocked them from grabbing ahold of her. Rather than continue to fight in the cramped factory, June darted outside, luring the creatures after her.

Outside, the battle raged. Gunfire burst out continuously, a rolling thunder. Cars harassed the construction equipment, while a chain gun had materialized in the back of one of Agatta’s vans and pierced holes in the sturdy equipment.

Opposite them, Regis group steadily plowed the cars back. The heavyweight equipment gave them the upper hand in head-on confrontations, so the Block was forced to retreat whenever they met. Black-clothed people in strange harness darted across the battlefield. Whenever they struck, punks and scrappers collapsed, but they retreated just as quickly. June frowned. They don’t seem interested in the battle, but if they don’t care, why are they here?

There was no time to ponder. One of the muzzle-masked creatures raced up behind her. She blocked their attack with an almost idle gesture and waded into the battlefield.

June raised her hand to her ear, activating her radio. “Tooly, where are Sasha and Arelia?”

“You think I have—shit! No! Haha, fuck you!—time to babysit?” Tooly shouted.

June’s face twisted. She dropped her hand in time to bat another creature to the asphalt. Tooly had a point, and yet…

Gunfire battered Nightmare’s chest. Behind her, the demolition harness struggled back to its feet. She let out a war cry and charged it, arms raised high. Dammit, kid. You better keep safe.