Wind rushed past them. Sasha fell. Arelia grew smaller and smaller above him. Her panicked face was erased as the rays of the rising sun reflected off her viewscreen and lit the gold sheen in the glass surface. It was peaceful, for a moment.

“Are you insane?” Seven-A kicked away from him. He stabbed his sword out toward the building, but the glass held against the flexible blade. It bounced off harmlessly, unable to slow Seven-A’s fall. He gritted his teeth, frustrated.

“No.”

“Even we’ll die if we fall from this high!”

“Mm.”

Seven-A glared at him. “Suicide is one thing, but don’t take me with yo—”

A massive pair of metal hands closed around them. Sasha slammed into the metal, but the hands swung downward with them inside, lessening the force of the impact. He couldn’t find a place to brace himself and hold onto, and neither could Seven-A. They rolled around like dice in a dealer’s fist, smashing into one another at random, unable to stop. Sasha’s shoulder screamed with pain every time he hit the wall, Seven-A, anything. He curled it inward, but could only protect so much.

The hands finally came to a stop. Slowly, they opened. Huge dark eyes peered inside, glittering with lenses.

Sasha staggered upright, silver arm hugged to his chest. The world spun around him, but he could stand, at least. Opposite him, Seven-A desperately scrambled to his own feet.

Their eyes met. Sasha ran at Seven-A, and Seven-A rushed at him.

“Hey! No fighting!” June’s voice boomed down, loud enough to rattle their bones. Sasha fell back against the nearest finger, and Seven-A ducked where he stood. The hands drew apart, separating the combatants. Closer to the edge, Sasha grabbed a finger with his good arm and barely escaped getting thrown off by the force of the movement. In the center of Nightmare’s palm, Seven-A had no such choice. He dropped to all fours and hung on for dear life.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Sasha laughed and barked at Seven-A. Seven-A glared fiercely back.

Her arms snapped out to full width. Seven-A and Sasha stood in ther respective palms. From here, Nightmare’s head blocked their view of each other, but it didn’t matter. The second her arms stopped moving, a starting gun only they could hear went off. The two of them rushed at each other, sprinting over her forearms and scampering past her elbows.

“I said, stop it!” June shouted. She started to lower her arms, then stopped. Dammit, I’ll drop Sasha, too! They hadn’t stood still for long enough for her to tell the two almost-identical kids apart.

Two identical blurs raced up her arms. Little feet pattered across her shoulders, and then the two sprinted across Nightmare’s helmet. She reached up blindly. “Stop!”

Sasha leaped at Seven-A, daggers arcing for his neck. Seven-A’s blade flashed, angling for the gaps in his ribcage.

Nightmare’s hand landed between them. Both attacks deflected uselessly off the harness’s armor. Undeterred, both threw themselves at the hand and climbed.

June curled her hand around one of them. He struggled like a bug, but couldn’t escape her grasp.

Long arms wrapped around the other one and drew him back. Three jumped down onto June’s shoulder. Seven-A thrashed, unwilling, but he couldn’t escape the twining cables.

“Time for us to go.”

“I had him! Let me go!” Seven-A demanded, fighting harder.

“Orders from above.”

At that, Seven-A fell still.

“What’s going on? Who are you?” June asked. She cradled Sasha in one hand, but the other curled into a flick, ready to banish Three from her shoulder.

Three bowed exaggeratedly, even as he backed away. “Greetings from Seirios. Unless you’re willing to give up Sasha there—”

“Never.”

“—we’ll be seeing much more of one another.”

He reached the edge of June’s shoulder and jumped. One arm flew out, extending on long cables, and caught a nearby building’s edge. He swung, released the hand, and hung in midair for a moment as his arm retracted. Then his arm shot out again and grabbed onto another building further away, and he swung again, reminiscent of a one-armed monkey. In moments, he vanished into the distance.

June uncurled her hand, slowly. Sasha jumped up and ran to the tip of her fingers. He crouched there, staring intently after Three and Seven-A.

“Friends of yours?” June asked.

Sasha’s face twitched.

June laughed. She wanted to ruffle his hair, but settled for shaking her head instead. “You gotta make better friends, kiddo.”