Glowing blue eyes glared at June. A gun leveled at her head.

“I’m not part of the Group. I’m here to help!” June held up her hands, her gun dangling from her fingertips.

The child regarded her from the far side of the gun. He backed away, but kept himself between her and the cage.

“Who sent you?” she asked. Who else cares about the kids from the Block? Enough to send someone that skilled in full harness, to boot.

His eyes narrowed. His finger tightened.

“Oh no no no, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I said that wrong. You’re here to save the kids, right? Me too, me too!” She grinned disarmingly. Moving slowly, hands where he could see them, she holstered her gun.

This is ridiculous. I’m being held at gunpoint by a twelve-year-old?

Her eyes dropped to the bodies sprawled over the floor. A twelve-year-old who just massacred an entire branch of the Regis Group.

The kid’s eyes flickered, dark momentarily overriding the light. He staggered, then caught himself.

“Are you hurt?” Jun stepped forward.

He snapped the gun up to her head. The light in his eyes stabilized.

She froze, hands up. “I’m not going to hurt you. It’s okay.”

He frowned again and rubbed his forehead. His eyes strobed between bright and dark, then guttered like a flame in the wind. As the light gave out, so did he. The gun drooped, suddenly heavy in his hands, and his knees slipped. He braced himself against the cage, subtly pressing a foot against its base.

“Put the gun down. I’m here to help.” Moving deliberately, she stepped toward him.

He shook his head, but let the gun slip out of his hands. It clanged against the floor and bounced away from him.

One step after another, June approached him. The closer she got, the more injured he looked. Dark fluids streamed from bullet holes on his abdomen. A piece had been blown off his metal arm, revealing wires, fibers, and gears. Deep gouges on his polymer skin leaked something darker than blood, probably some kind of oil. Some were deep enough to reveal the metal bones and wiring within. There was no longer any doubt: he was in full harness, despite the metallic and non-metallic parts. He backed away as she grew closer, wary.

Watching him from her peripheries, June pretended to ignore him as she picked up the gun. He wouldn’t let her near, but he hadn’t attacked her, either. It’s like a feral cat. I can’t approach him directly, but if he sees I’m not going to hurt him, maybe he’ll relax.

She braced the gun in her mechanical arm and turned toward the hostages. With a smile, she waved at the kids. “Hey, in the cage. Scoot out of the way.”

The kids split around her gesture, vanishing into the edges of the cage. The dark-haired kid watched from the corner, equally curious and suspicious.

She squeezed the trigger. The lock burst out in an explosion of sparks, then clattered to the floor. June dropped the gun and gave the cage door a kick. Rusty hinges groaned, and it opened wide.

“Alright, everyone grab the hand of the kid next to you. Okay? Yeah, you, you grab him, and he, you, grab her… alright. Stick close, hold hands, and we’ll get you home in no time flat.”

The kids stumbled out of the cage, linked together in a chain. Jun glanced around. Is there another exit? Please tell me there is. She didn’t want to drag a dozen kids through the bloodstained hallway behind her.

She caught the eye of the culprit, who leaned casually against the cage’s outer wall, as if she hadn’t seen him struggle to stand upright moments ago. Despite his bravado, his eyelids still drooped. He started to slide down the cage and had to grab the bars to stay upright. Blinking desperately, he forced himself to look up. Their eyes met, and he scowled fiercely.

June resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. Crazy kid.

The last girl in the chain, with pigtails and a stained red t-shirt, looked at the dark-haired kid, then reached out for his hand. The dark-haired kid was too busy glaring at June to notice her reach. June held her breath. The girl’s fingers brushed his palm.

Like a startled cat, he jumped ten feet back from a stand. His back smacked into the wall, and he slid down it all the way to his butt.

The girl giggled. “Wow, do you play basketball?”

June suppressed a laugh behind her hand.

Expression dark, the kid climbed back to his feet. He turned his glare toward the girl.

“Hey, enough of that. Let’s get out of here together, alright?” June called. She gestured for everyone to follow. “There’s an elevator over here. We can all fit.”

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“Of course we can. That’s how they got us down here,” the girl in the red shirt murmured.

“Well, it’s awfully convenient. C’mon. C’mon.” She gestured everyone into the elevator.

The kids filed in, all except one. June glanced back over her shoulder. “Kid, you coming?”

The dark-haired kid hesitated. He looked from her to the door and back again.

“It’s your choice, kid. The nasty hallway or the elevator. You can go back to whoever sent you afterwards, just—”

“I can’t,” he murmured.

“Huh?”

“I can’t go back.”

June blinked. The elevator’s doors started to close, so she stepped in their way and held her hand out. “Then come with me.”

Hesitantly, he started for the elevator. Slow steps couldn’t hide a limp in his gait. His eyes drooped lower and lower as he walked, as if she could watch him run out of energy. Barely a meter from the elevator, his feet tangled, and he plummeted.

June lunged and caught him. His skin felt cold to the touch, except his forehead, which burned against her bicep. Then his weight slammed into her body, and she nearly dropped to her knees herself. Heavy! What’s he made of, lead? His small frame was denser than she’d expected.

“Kid,” she tried, but there was no response. His eyes fluttered, but didn’t open. Out cold.

Shouts in the distance snapped her back to the moment. She hefted him over her shoulder and punched the button in the elevator. “Everyone, hold on to each other and follow me. If you let go, I won’t go back for you.”

The kids nodded. She glanced at them, and a sea of big, terrified eyes gazed back at her. Some of the smaller ones shuddered, on the verge of tears. June offered them a smile. One of the little girls caught her look and started to sob quietly, fat tears running down fat cheeks. Internally, June grimaced. Dammit. I’m no good with kids.

Footsteps clattered down the stairs. June jabbed the buttons. The door shut, but slowly, as if it knew she wasn’t the one meant to operate it. She scowled and jabbed it harder. Lazily, the doors slid ever closer.

Splatters in the hall. June scrambled out one of her guns and pushed the kids behind her. The door to the hall burst open. A mobster rushed in, shoes skidding on the blood. He caught sight of them and whirled, gun leveled.

“Get back here!”

The kids cringed back. Bullets splattered over the elevator doors. June fired back through the gap, and the mobster cried out and staggered back. She yanked her gun out of the closing doors barely before they touched, and the elevator finally dinged shut.

June took a deep breath, then turned to the kids with a smile. “Alright. Everyone, hands. Still holding hands? Get ready. We’re going to have to run.”

The older kids glanced at one another, then nodded obediently. One of the younger ones took it as his cue to start howling. The sobbing girl took it as her cue to join in, and then another, and another, and a second later, the whole elevator was a mess of screaming and tears. She turned around and took a deep breath, glaring at the matte steel finish of the doors. The sooner I get rid of these creatures, the better.

“June, come in. Are you still in there? There’s a whole squad on their way in,” Tooly said.

She rolled her eyes and put her hand to her ear. “Yeah, I know. Is the car running?”

“Yep. You got the kids?”

“You can’t hear? Yeah. Kids, plus one.”

“Plus one?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just be ready to drive.”

Tooly took a deep breath. “Dammit. This is the last time I go along with one of your crazy plans.”

June chuckled. “You know that’s not true.”

Tooly grumbled incoherently.

The elevator dinged. “Tooly, I gotta go. See you in a minute.” She turned to the kids. “Ready? Everyone, quiet, okay, quiet.”

Most of them nodded. Though the little ones were bawling, they still held on to each other’s hands. Some of the bigger kids shushed the smaller ones, and, with a few hiccups and sobs, the line quieted. The dead weight on her shoulder twitched, half awake.

The door crawled open. June took the hand of the lead kid and poked her head out. They’d arrived on the first floor. She leaned further, peeking down the hallway. To the left, men in white suits wandered the main lobby, guns in hand. To the right, the hallway extended into darkness. Somewhere down there was the rear exit, out the back of the second or third room down the hall. June’s brows knitted. Dammit, which one? Second or third?

One of the mobsters in the lobby turned. Their eyes met. His widened, and he raised his gun.

“Go, go, go!” June whispered. Pulling the kids after her, she raced into the hallway.

“Hey! Stop!”

She glanced over her shoulder. Two mobsters chased after them, more on their heels. One raised their gun, but the other hesitated.

Second room or third? Second or third? She bit her lip. Her eyes darted from one dark doorway to the next, but the shadows within were impenetrable.

Bullets chipped the marble around them. The kids screamed. There was no more time to think. She spun into the second room. At the far end, a door! June let go of the chain of kids and yanked out a gun. There was no time to check if the door was unlocked. She shot out the lock and threw her shoulder against it. Propelled by her momentum, she burst out into a narrow paved courtyard fringed on all sides by tall buildings.

“Tooly!” she shouted. She reached back, grabbed the chain of kids, and raced for a white panel van.

“Kids, get in!” Tooly shouted back. The rear doors hung open. The van’s lights blazed in the dark city.

June let go of the chain of kids and turned to face the dark maw of the door, shoving the kids onward as they passed her. They scrambled into the van one after another, the bigger ones helping the littler ones in.

One of the smallest ones tripped. She sniffed and climbed up to her feet, but stumbled rather than ran.

“Dammit!” June raced for her.

Two white-suited mobsters appeared out of the shadow of the room. They raised their guns.

June peppered the ground around their feet before they could line up a shot. The mobsters flinched. One ducked back into the hallway and safety, while the other threw his hands up. She snatched up the girl and raced for the van again.

“Stop right there!”

The dead weight on her shoulder startled. He pushed away from her.

“Dammit, now?” June grumbled.

Something hissed through the air. The closer mobster fell back with a grunt.

June tossed the girl into the van and jumped in after. Her left leg faltered, but her mechanical right leg held her and the semi-conscious kid’s weight. She rolled over the bed of the van in a clatter of guns and metal limbs, then threw herself upright, lunged for the doors, and yanked them shut. “Tooly, drive, drive!”

Through the closing doors, she caught a glimpse of a knife sticking out of the mobster’s head. Then Tooly pulled a hard turn and she lost sight of anything as she fell across the entire van and into a puddle of kids.

“Sorry, sorry,” she muttered. The kids shoved her away, and she pulled upright.

The deadweight didn’t protest the whole time. She glanced down at him. Unconscious, again.

June frowned. Just woke up for long enough to kill. What kind of kid is this?