“Get her!” the commanding officer shouted. Sirens blaring, the police gave chase. They gained steadily,

Nightmare darted down an alley, one hand clenched in a fist. Corporal Thame jabbed a finger at her closed hand and nodded. By his side, Officer Sae, harness creaking, crouched and raised the EMP disk launcher. Smoke burst out the rear of the gun, and, with a low phut, the disk shrieked through the air after Nightmare.

Kew! The harness jerked to the side as the ball of green energy detonated. The edge of the energy caught its arm, and it dropped, limp. The had curled open.

A young boy fell headfirst out of the harness’s hand.

“What the…” Sae muttered. Beside him, Thame went stiff with shock.

Rather than crash to the floor, the boy spun in midair and caught Nightmare’s finger with his ankles. Using his own fall to power the flip, he whipped himself upright, caught Nightmare’s wrist with his fingers, and darted up the harness’s arm to its shoulder in a few deft jumps.

“…fuck,” Sae finished emphatically.

“I thought I’d just ordered a kid’s death,” Thame muttered.

They exchanged a glance. A second later, Thame’s face hardened. He bent to the radio pinned to his shirt. “Jun Solis has a hostage, I repeat, a hostage is present! Hold fire!”

Sae lowered his EMP launcher.

“Not you. Those are nonlethal, aren’t they? Keep firing!”

Didn’t you just say we almost killed that kid? Rolling his eyes to himself, Sae bounded after Nightmare. His harness took on the weight of the gun as he bounced over the asphalt with wide steps. The old gears crunched with every landing, but handled most of the weight for him. Though he knew the gun weighed easily over fifty pounds, it barely felt heavier than an ordinary pistol. His legs pistoned on auto-run, faster than he could ever move himself.

He stopped, braced himself, and fired again, but Nightmare dodged easily. The massive head half-turned, and bright eyes glared at him over her shoulder. Compared to the massive battle harness, he was an ant, an insect. A shiver ran down his spine. He froze, but auto-run dragged him after Nightmare, whether he wanted to or not. After a moment, he jolted back to life and ran with auto-run, picking up the pace.

They didn’t teach how to deal with battle harnesses in officer training. “ETA on the military?” he shouted.

“Whenever the hell they get off their asses,” Thame grumbled.

Sae’s face fell. So that was a bluff. Dammit. He shook his head, then surged after Nightmare, urging his harness to run faster. “Argh! Get back here, you damn terrorist!”

Suddenly, Nightmare darted down an alley. Thame’s eyes lit up. “Vehicles, go around, go around! Box her in! Hurry! Harness officers, chase her down!”

Already ahead of his commanding officer, Sae surged down the alley after Nightmare. The turn had cost her some time. He took a moment to fire, but the disk flew high. Sae grit his teeth and pushed himself after her.

With a hiss, the slim panels that covered Nightmare’s shoulder blades lifted off the harness’s body. Darkness gaped in their depths. Sae jerked back, hesitant. Is she dropping a weapon?

White smoke, thick and fat, billowed out of the panels. In an instant, it filled up the narrow alley.

“Fall back! Equip your chemical gear now, or fall back!” Thame shouted.

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Sae pressed a button on the side of his helmet. Gray rubber emerged from the sides and sealed against his face. There was a faint, dry hum, and metal-flavored air began to flow through his helmet. Around him, a half-dozen other harnessed officers did the same. They plunged into the smoke.

“Don’t let her out of your sight!” Thame shouted, voice muffled with his own chemical gear.

Thick white fog. He could barely see his hand in front of his face, let alone the walls or the floor. Nightmare was only visible as a swirling in the fog, the motion where a great form opened a void.

Sae’s skin prickled. At any moment, he expected to feel a bullet through his brain, hear lead bouncing off brick walls. Instead, there was nothing. The steady thump-thump of Nightmare’s feet and silence. He fired blindly at the footsteps and ran on through the smoke.

Nightmare’s shadow faintly darkened the smoke ahead of him. A wind stirred it crosswise, sending white flying into the sky, little more than an errant cloud. It’s dispersing!

He lunged, and suddenly the smoke was thin. Behind him, visible now that the smoke had thinned, the alley’s walls fell away. Ahead, a T-intersection closed off the route ahead. In the middle of the road, Nightmare hesitated a beat as if surprised to find its way ahead blocked.

“Gotcha!” Sae dropped to a knee and lifted the EMP launcher.

At the last second, Nightmare spun and ran to the left. Vehicles barred its way, lights lighting the smoke like a techno concert. Eyes flashing, Nightmare leaped over the vehicles and raced away, bold as ever.

“Dammit!” Thame’s voice was clear now, chemical gear disengaged. Sae followed his example and unsealed his helmet, dialing auto-run down to a stop. Nightmare surged down the street, seemingly unstoppable.

After a moment, Thame frowned. “No sign of the hostage. He’s either escaped or in the cockpit. Firing is authorized.”

They stared after Nightmare. A few of the vans turned and started to give chase, as did most of the officers in harness. Sae hesitated, biting his lip.

“What’re you waiting for?” Thame asked, glowering.

Abruptly, Sae turned to Thame. “Let me ride one of the vehicles.”

“What, tired of running? Hop in,” Thame grumbled.

Sae shook his head. He pointed up. “On top.”

Thame’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. “If this little stunt gets you killed, I didn’t approve it.”

Sae flashed a salute and a grin at the same time. Leaping from step to step, he mounted one of the vans with a single hop. He braced his feet on the roof, carefully angling the small rubber feet to get the best hold, and banged on the van. “Gun it!”

“Right!” a chipper voice replied. Fishtailing off, the van backed up, whipped around, and followed Nightmare. Sae swung around on the roof and staggered, nearly falling. At the last second, he found his footing and pushed himself upright.

Wind howled past his ears. Sae crouched low. He leveled the gun at Nightmare’s retreating back and narrowed his eyes. The helmet zoomed. It locked onto her spine, and the harness took over, adjusting his hands with the sway of the vehicle to hold the square on Nightmare’s back. Neither the gun nor the EMP disks could home. Instead, it was all the harness. When the square settled, the harness would aim the gun for him. He wasn’t a trained sniper, but he didn’t have to be; the harness did better than a human hand ever could. The downside was that the harness only had so many angles of maneuver, only so many shocks to absorb and redistribute the forces on it. It couldn’t carry the gun, run, and aim without either losing its aiming efficacy, or giving up on the human inside and churning Sae to ground beef.

In his visor, the square blinked red, a warning.

“We’re too far! Faster, faster!” he shouted.

“Roger!” The van jolted under his feet. Sae staggered, nearly knocked clean off. His visor lit up with red warnings, harness frustrated by his sudden movements. Engine roaring, the van gained on Nightmare.

He settled back into stance. The warnings cleared. In the center of the screen, the red square flashed quicker and quicker. “Closer! A little closer!”

“I’m already flooring it!”

Red turned to green. The harness moved perfectly in sync with the van and Nightmare, holding the gun trained on her back. Sae sucked in a breath, let it out, and squeezed the trigger.

The disk whirled from the gun. It rushed through the air and burst on Nightmare’s back. Green light engulfed the harness. Hideous green lightning snapped over its limbs. It jerked, then fell, rolling as it toppled. Its massive body cut a trough in the pavement.

The van skidded to a halt. Sae jumped off it and ran over. He leaped up Nightmare one hop at a time. Alright, let’s cut this looney out and send her to the bin.

Nightmare’s chest hung open, the cockpit exposed. Limp wires hung over the chair, and an old brownish stain marked where someone had once bled, but no one sat inside. It was empty.

“Dammit!” Sae threw the launcher on the ground. We had her. We almost had her!

“That’s precinct equipment. If you break it, it’s coming out of your salary,” Thame reminded him. He hopped up Nightmare after Sae.

When he saw the empty cockpit, his expression turned grim. He whipped around to face the others. “Comb the streets. Find her!”