Metal crashed into metal. June grappled the demolition harness. The claw closed around one fist, while the wrecking ball dangled around her other wrist. It battered her arm, but she held on tight. “Dammit, back down!”

She dug her heels in. The demolition harness pushed her back, hard as it could. Just as it threw its full weight on her, she twisted to the side and used its weight to throw it to the ground. The demolition harness bounced against the ground.

Panting, June glared down at it, then kicked it. “Stay down!”

Slow but determined, the harness crawled to its knees.

“Dammit.” June grimaced. She kicked its side again, hard, but it barely wobbled. Who made demolition harnesses so rugged? They didn’t need this much armor to put together buildings.

Black-coated men surrounded her. Bullets rattled off her legs. She kicked, annoyed, and they dodged back out of her reach, then continued to fire. The bullets couldn’t dent her armor, but the constant low vibration and rumble rattled into her brain. June frowned. I’m going to get a headache at this rate.

Louder than thunder, the sharp crack of an explosion shook the street. The men stopped firing, startled by the sound. Some of Regis’ men stood up in their equipment, turning for a better look. June whirled in time to watch dust rise from down the street and behind the factories. Brows furrowed, she raised a hand to her temple and focused for a moment. Her vision spun, then fragmented, and she watched a dingy pile of rusty metal fall away as the drone took to the sky. She pointed toward the explosion. Autonomously, the drone piloted itself off toward the rising dust.

The moment she was distracted, the demolition harness jumped up and hurled its wrecking ball at her, hooking it sideways. Putting the drone’s video feed to the back of her mind, she stepped out of the way.

Not far enough. She dodged the ball, but it whirled around behind her like a yo-yo, thrown with enough spin to turn back around on itself. It caught on the back of her legs and whipped around them, drawing them together. June staggered. She tried to high step out of the entanglement at the same moment that the demolition harness yanked the chain. Instantly, the chain closed around her ankles. Caught off-balance, she toppled. As from the explosion, a smaller dust cloud rose around her.

Black-coated men and creatures swarmed her like ants, putting aside their guns to rush in. June thrashed wildly. Wherever she could reach, she brushed them away, but with her ankles tied, she was powerless to keep them from crawling up her legs. The dog-like ones gnawed at her knees, while bulky men tied thick cables around her legs, binding them tighter. Frustrated, June kicked with all her might. Her legs barely twitched. She scowled. They got me good.

The burly men and dog-people scurried up Nightmare’s body. Despite her best efforts, they made it to her waist. June sat up, but the dogs threw themselves at her. Claws and teeth bared, they caught onto her and harried at her armor. When she brushed them away, the men ran closer to bind her with the cables. When she knocked them back, the dogs leapt at her again.

Frustrated, June bit back the urge to scream. If she had a second, she could overturn this entire battle, but they didn’t give her the chance. Perfectly coordinated, the men and dogs danced around her. They couldn’t kill her, but she couldn’t escape them, either.

Asphalt cracked, sharp and heavy. Slowly, the demolition harness hauled itself back upright. It retracted its wrecking ball, not that it mattered. The cables were already more than enough to bind her.

Dammit, they’re stalling for time! June struggled harder, but it was no use. The cables were too strong, and the dogs and men refused to give her the time to untangle the knot.

Across the battlefield, her side retreated. Without her support, the fractured force couldn’t stand up to the might of Regis’ and Seirios’ united front. The scrappers were the first to retreat, running openly back into the scrap. Mad Ag’s men drew back, their vehicles scurrying out of the line of fire into nooks and crannies between scattered factory buildings. Soon, only the streetpunks remained, neon shattered, wild paint jobs scratched, spikes chipped off.

The construction equipment pressed forward. One of the large shovel machines scooped up a car and carried it backwards, barreling into another car as it charged. Unceremoniously, it deposited the first car atop the second, then retreated, almost laughing. Behind the machines, bullets rained down on the cars nonstop. Some stopped dead, windshields shattered, oil and gas leaking onto the road. Even the fearless streetpunks retreated.

Stand up! Stand up already! June struggled against the cables, pushing the engines on her legs to their full power. The engines roared, and her feet shifted, but not enough. The cables held. The black-coated forces backed up, but only for a moment. The next, they charged ferociously, unafraid now that she’d completely failed to break the bonds.

“Do it!” Naemi howled, her voice pumped loud enough to cut through the noise of battle.

She and Charl raced forward, car’s engine screaming. Rallied, the streetpunks roared back and followed after, streaking toward the construction equipment with wild abandon. If their cars had broken down, they ran forward on their own two feet, sneakers pounding against the asphalt. Red hot bullets streaked from both sides. Punks fell, but white suits hit the ground, too.

Shaking blonde hair out of his eyes, Charl smashed a bright red button on the car’s dashboard.

Instantly, all the construction equipment stopped dead. Some of the faster machines rolled to a halt, but none of them moved on their own power. After a second, a few of the Regis Group drivers reached down and turned the ignition again, and their machines started back up.

Too late. The streetpunks ran them down. Guns flashed out windows. A few swung crowbars or sledgehammers wildly, using the car’s speed to smash heads. Blood splattered on all sides, but for once, the Regis Group was clearly at the disadvantage.

“Again!” Naemi shouted. Loud as thunder, her voice echoed across the battlefield. Her eyes sparked, short hair flying back.

Charl hit the button. All the machines that had started back up failed, engines spluttering, dead.

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As the streetpunks mowed down Regis Group, one of Mad Ag’s trucks zoomed over to June’s side, sliding up on two wheels as it took a turn too hard. It spun around, burning rubber, and a pair of grizzled old men pointed a chain gun out the rear doors. Bullets peppered the men and dogs all around her. The men fell back, but the dogs continued to attack madly. Through the muzzled masks, June could make out a faint blue glow. It spilled from their eyes and let the mask, so that the dogs almost seemed to be trailing blue mist from their maws.

Dog after dog fell, massacred by the massive gun. To the very last one, they didn’t retreat, but raced onward, unmoved by the slaughter of their compatriots.

June’s heart twinged. What did Seirios do to those people? They aren’t sane. Sympathetic, she reached out for the last dog. Rear legs missing, it leaked dark fluids and bright red blood down Nightmare’s body.

It chomped down on her hand. On the far side of the mask, wide eyes glared with pure hatred, utter, mad anger, so vicious that it blotted out all rationality.

Bullets slammed into the dog and blew it away. The dog’s body tumbled limply across the street, but the mask still clamped on her finger, head stuck in the mask. Glowing blue eyes glared at her through the eye holes, already dimming. Black fluid leaked from its severed neck. Its eyes went dark, but the mask still held on, determined even in death to bring her down.

“What are you waiting for? Get up!” Tooly shouted in her ear.

Startled back to reality, June blinked. A shadow towered over her, darkly malicious, headless, two panels in the chest reflecting the rising sun in fiery red. The demolition harness slammed its wrecking ball down at her.

No time to get up. June threw herself to the side, and Nightmare rolled over just as the wrecking ball smashed the road behind her. She yanked at the cables and finally made enough room to slip one leg free. The wrecking ball chased after her, swiping at her head. June ducked, then jumped to her feet and dodged backward in the next second. Smirking at the demolition harness’s empty shoulders, she couldn’t help herself. “I like my head, thanks.”

Unamused, the demolition harness neatly reeled the wrecking ball back in, then punched out with it. The thousand-ton ball rushed at her chest, so fast it flew a nearly straight path.

June turned sideways. The ball rushed by, so close the wind of its passage made Nightmare sway. Kicking hard, she slung the cables off her leg. They flew, twisting wildly, and wrapped around the wrecking ball’s chain.

The demolition harness twitched. The ball rattled back over broken road, knocking and twisting as it went. June grabbed the cables on either side of the chain and twisted them tighter, snarling them together. The ball retracted, but the cables went with it. They smashed into the hole where the chain retracted.

A second time, the demolition harness punched the wrecking ball at June. This time, she didn’t dodge. The wrecking ball jerked, then caught. Knotted cables whipped around the chain and thrashed against the arm. There was a rumble, a choking, metallic cough, then an ear-splitting blast. The place where the harness’s arm met the chain shattered, and the wrecking ball tumbled heavily to the ground. Thick black smoke rose from the harness’s mangled arm.

The demolition turned toward the arm and stared with wide glassy panels.

“Not so hot now, huh?” June asked, laughing.

It lunged at her. June grabbed it by the shoulders and leapfrogged it. As it ran under her, she gave it a kick in the rear. The demolition harness staggered and crashed into the wreckage of the factory. Another segment crashed down onto its back.

A thick iron bar jutted out of the new segment. June yanked it free. She stood over the demolition harness. Red light spilled from her eyes onto the fallen harness. Idly, she passed the massive iron bar from hand to hand.

The demolition harness struggled in the rubble. Its broken hand slid in the bits of cinderblock and concrete. It thrust its claw down into the wreckage and forced itself up, propping itself on the elbow of the broken arm.

June raised the iron bar high and plunged it into the heart of the demolition harness. The end of the bar thumped into the rubble. Sparks flew. Dark liquid dribbled down the iron.

The demolition harness thrashed, as if in pain. It fell to the rubble, too busy clawing at the bar to hold itself up.

June stepped on its lower back and pinned it. She drew out the bar and stabbed it home again, and again, and again. Holes opened up in the harness’s body, ragged-edged, metal twisted and broken. The bar twisted in her hands, blunting. She kept stabbing, over and over. Black fluids stained the shattered, dusty gray concrete. Electricity arced in the thing’s chest. It stopped struggling, but she didn’t stop. She jammed her hands into the holes and yanked. The armor stood. Teeth gritted, she yanked again, using all Nightmare’s strength. Screeching, tortured, the armor gave at last and peeled back.

Inside, a pale body trembled, bleeding black blood. Naked, it was piped into the harness, so many pipes and cables crawling over it that she couldn’t tell its age or sex. Pale fingers twitched, and so did the harness’s. It arced its back and kicked, then laid still. Red merged with the black, spilling down thick wires, dripping into the shadow, and vanished into the depths of the harness.

She stared, wordless.

An almost physical blast of sound rattled her back to reality. June blinked and stared at the iron bar. Black liquid dripped down its surface, thinner than the blood dripping off the body inside. Faintly, she became aware of a familiar voice in her ear.

“—the fuck? That’s—dammit, June, stop it already, shit’s going down! You need to—”

“I’m back, Tooly. I’m here. Demolition harness is down.” She tossed the iron bar on its back derisively.

“Good. Get out of that factory, you’re going to want to see this.”

She climbed out of the factory’s wreckage in time for a second blast of sound. June whipped toward it.

Fire billowed out of Regis Tower. Black smoke boiled to the heavens. Bits of iron and concrete rained down from the latest blast as a second tongue of flame licked up the side of the tower.

“Well, shit,” June breathed.

“Did… did we win? Who did that?” Tooly wondered aloud.

“No idea,” June muttered. Agatta? She’d be willing to, but how would she get in the building? Naemi’s Loners? They didn’t have the resources, knowledge, or discipline to bomb a building. The scrappers? She scoffed. Hardly.

A gold glimmer zoomed from the top stories of the burning tower. June zoomed in. The glimmer became a shape, then a human form. Her eyes widened.

“Arelia,” June breathed. I told Sasha to watch Arelia. If Arelia’s over there, where’s Sasha?

A moment later, her brows furrowed. Did Arelia bomb the building? But that made no sense. She’d used bombs before, yes, but June had been under the impression that she was more of a naïve deliveryman than a mastermind or deliberate attacker. Besides, Arelia still thought she could talk things through with Laredo. She would never, even if she’d had the chance to.

Then, Sasha? Immediately, she shook her head. The little firebrand would rather fight the entire building hand-to-hand than resort to bombs.

So… who?

“Did you just say Arelia bombed them?” Tooly asked.

“No, it’s just…” Let’s see what’s going on. June focused her attention on the feed in the back of her mind, and the drone’s vision leapt to the forefront. She’d sent it toward the tower earlier, so it only took a few moments for the tower to loom large in its lens. Bright fire roared, so close she could hear it. Billowing black smoke threatened to obscure the drone’s vision. Dodging the smoke, she urged it closer, close enough to see through the window. Floors flashed by as the drone zoomed up the wall. Empty. Office workers evacuating. White-suited men rushing about. Dark, lights out. One after another, faster and faster until they blurred.

Abruptly, June stopped the drone. It zoomed up a few more meters, then bobbed back down a floor.

Her breath caught. Dragging her vision back to Nightmare, she sprinted for the tower. “Shit.”

“What is it?”

Another explosion set the tower rocking. A section of the façade fell away and crashed to the street below, nearly as loud as the blow. Smaller bits and pieces rained down constantly as the tower destabilized.

June gritted her teeth and pushed Nightmare as fast as she could go. Her eyes burned a hole in the tower. Don’t fall yet, hold on, hold on! “Sasha’s in there!”