Metal screeched behind them, then an unending rumble, louder than thunder. Debris crashed down on Nightmare’s shoulders, buffeting her from side to side. June instinctively closed her hand around Sasha and ran, away from the tower. Dust billowed around them, swallowed them up. Blind, June fled.

Out of the dust clouds. Neon-lit cars littered the road ahead, scattered amidst broken-down construction equipment. Mad Ag directed her men around the scene, delivering bandages and antiseptic to the streetpunks. Naemi sauntered around, strutting and bragging to anyone who’d listen. Charl wandered at her side, interjecting occasionally.

“Where’s Arelia?” June asked. Sasha clambered up her hand and peeked out the hole in her fist, not particularly bothered by the situation.

“Gone, with the Regis Group,” Naemi shouted back. “Good riddance.”

June nodded. She scanned the group again. There were losses, but fewer than she’d expected. The streetpunks organized their fallen neatly by the side of the road, while Regis bodies were left where they fell.

She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, sirens echoed from the near distance, a block or three away at the best.

“Oh, shit! It’s the cops!” Naemi sprinted for her car, followed by Charl and the other streetpunks. They piled into the working vehicles and zoomed away. Off by the ruined factory, Tooly tossed her a salute before she vanished into one of the streetpunks’ cars.

Mad Ag limped into her van, slamming shut one of the doors behind her, partially concealing the machine gun. She paused there and squinted up at June. “Time to tuck your tail and run.”

“I will. Once everyone’s safe,” June asserted. She closed the hole in her fist to fully hide Sasha. He punched the inside of her fist, then fell back.

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Mad Ag hesitated another second, her brows quivering. “You…”

“Go,” June commanded.

She shook her head and yanked the door shut. The van squealed away.

Lights flashed. Patrol cars and larger, dark vehicles pulled up to the far end of the road. Police spilled out, jumping out of the cars, lurching out of the larger vehicles on their pogo-stick exo-harnesses.

Nightmare stood opposite, arms crossed. The newly-risen sun lit her from behind, casting a shadow over the policemen. White light glared from her eyes, a spotlight amidst her shadow. As the last of the police arrayed around her, guns raised and shields deployed, June laughed. Her voice boomed over Nightmare’s speakers. “You came. Finally.”

“Put your hands up and step out of the harness!” one of the police cars shouted back.

She chuckled, amused. “Or what? You’ll shoot me?”

The police hesitated. Scratches marred the paint on Nightmare’s legs and chest where bullets had deflected off her armor in the earlier battle. Circular scars marked direct hits. None so much as scored her armor. A few of the officers glanced amongst themselves, uncertain.

War harnesses rarely left the battlefield. Even large civilian exo-harnesses like the demolition harness she’d fought earlier were rarely seen outside of their construction sites. They were expensive, for one, and hard to hide. Outside of a massive criminal enterprise like the Regis Group who could afford one and hide it in one of its many holdings, large exo-harnesses seldom wound up in criminal hands.

“I conquered the Regis Group single-handedly. You think a few puny officers can stop me?” she scoffed.

Sasha squirmed in her hand and tried to wriggle out. June tipped her fist slightly, warning him not to fight her. The police don’t know his face. Best to keep it that way.

The officers conferred, and then one raised their microphone again. “The military is on its way. Surrender now.”

“I don’t think so. I’m the rightful ruler of the Block now. Shouldn’t you pay fealty to me like you did to Laredo?”

“If you do not surrender, we will use deadly force,” the officer continued blandly, unimpressed.

“Try it, big boy.”

The officer gestured. One of the subordinate officers hurried to a big black vehicle and dragged out a large gun with a wide, flat barrel.

June narrowed her eyes. She zoomed Nightmare’s eyes on the gun. A metal cage dangling from its back held a half-dozen disks. Sunlight glinted off something green in the cage’s depths.

Shit. EMP disks! Nightmare balked, falling back a step. The gun leveled at her. She glanced left and right, then spun and ran.