The lights in the pound shop penitentiary flickered the light glinted off the small horde of mechanical beasts, but the dark just left thirty or so pairs of glowing orbs staring intently. Myles had become very familiar with predator behaviour in the last few months. Any sudden movement would trigger the assault.

Myles stood his ground, the cramped quarters meant that not a one of them was making it to the kids without going through him first. The Glaive, full of neon thunder was Myles’ strongest weapon, but despite the comfort it brought him its size would soon become a hinderance on this fun sized battlefield. The Legacy of Seleucus was right out unless he wanted to turn the kids into long pork pâté.

The lights flickered and in the moment of black one of the android hours leaped forward, razor sharp steel teeth snapped viciously at Myles.

The metal snout crumped in a flash of red. Head destroyed, the attacking hound dropped to the floor like a sack full of spare parts. The second attack dog made its move and just like the pack leader met the irresistible force of the Knuckle Busters face first.

Another pair lunged. Myles caught the first on his forearm and used it to batter the second aside. In a buzz of mechanical frenzy the pack attacked as a whole. But just as the space kept Myles pinned down, it left them unable to bring to bear their full numbers against the Trigger user. A hook and a jab crippled another. One of the battered hounds scrambled to its paws to be met with a boot to its face the sent it skidding back into the oncoming pack.

Pressing forward Myles willed more power into the Knuckle Busters, the first mounted weapons answered and sang with crackles of electricity and the promise of immediate violence. The next punch tore through a hounds torso. The punch after that send smoking metal spinning backwards into the mass of androids.

A trio of the dogs pounced, but their aim was not Myles, but the three children he was protecting. The arc of the leap took them over Myles head. But His instincts were sharp and the two were reduced to smoking parts by Myles’ fists, but the third one made it over before Myles spun and caught its handle and slammed it to the ground. however the momentary blindspot left him open and several sets of jaws clamped down on limbs and collar.

With force enough to leave dents in the metal floor Myles charged left into the wall crushing two of the hounds like empty beer cans. His free hand punched the head of a third almost flat and the last he tore free and stomped underfoot. Myles advanced and red thunder followed.

“Uncle Brian wants a hug!” Industrial Penetrator Demolisher bellowed in his deep mechanical cockney voice.

He charged towards the gathered heroes, the reciprocal motion of his crotch mounted iron spike filling the air with a hideous mechanical buzz.

The axe that blocked his path, was in turn blocked an an armoured forearm, sparks kicking off all over the place. Dyna took aim and shot targeting the Industrial Penetrator centre body mass. But the cyber side stepped, avoiding the projectiles almost effortlessly.

“Too slow and you shoot like a bloody immigrant.” Brians forearm split and rearranged into the shape of a cannon. “This is how you shoot!”

Yellow light filled the room as a cracking ball of energy shot towards Dayna. She barely managed to evade the sphere of scorching heat, taking the impact on her shoulder. Before she could recover the cyborg gangster is on her. Hands clasped about her head Dyna feels her head being pulled closer to what could only be described as violent overcompensation. Zara’s axe, with nothing to block it this time hit the cyborg square in the face knocking him prone.

Brian rose to see three warriors ready and waiting for him. the bitch with the axe was on his left, the bitch with the guns was to his right. But right in the middle was the git dressed like a cat, only now he was wearing a jacket and held a bloody big sword.

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“You trying to impress those birds with your big glowing dick sword Mr cat man?”

“The arsehole with a mechanical crotch weapon doesn’t get to cast aspersions on anyone else, for any reason… Ladies, cover me.”

John Barrington blurred into motion, the Neonblader striking the cyborg multiple times with force and precision. The blows keeping him off balance. However despite making some ground, even the power of the glowing neon sword was unable to do more than inconvenience the demented cyborg.

Industrial Penetrator Demolisher thrust forward towards Barrington, the reciprocating drill was blocked by the blade and sparks flew as the weapons clashed. Another thrust by the cyborg was parried by Barrington, but a blow to his head sent him reeling back.

“you know that jacket clashes horribly with your base armour, you look like a twat who can’t dress himself.”

John Barrington roared in anger and charged, the girls charged too. Keeping the cyborgs attention was of the upmost importance. Axe and sword swung at the gangster, doing little damage but keeping him off balance. Dyna duel wielded her guns and shot with pin point accuracy.

The cyborgs arm changed once more and blasted Barrington backwards, ricocheting off the wall and landing awkwardly. But the distraction had worked. While Industrial Penetrator Brian had fixated on the three humanoids, a stealthy quadruped had edged himself behind and out of sight. Charlie Murderpaws pounced. Murderpaws sounds like a cute nickname, but it came about because of the small pile of local fauna Charlie had presented Myles. The marmalade predator had been an existential threat to the local ecosystem, now he was the size of a tiger and covered head to tail in Trigger armour. Charlie’s paws had become true weapons of murder. Claws raked down the cyborg’s back, metal exoskeleton rending away from vital internal mechanisms. Brian toppled forward as the large cat continued its dread vivisection of the industrial Penetrator.

By the time Charlie was fed up, not that it took long due to him having the attention span of a ginger cat, Brian’s back had been mauled like a scratching post made of expensive furniture. His systems were shutting down badly in need of repair. Although one system was carrying on to last, if somewhat slowly.

“It looks like he is humping the floor.” Said Zara.

“Mmm not humping… mmmm Blokey Plonker.” Said Industrial Penetrator Demolisher, Brian to his friends.

“It those hats, I swear. They turn people into arseholes.” Said John Barrington. “Anyway, I recall he said something about my jacket.”

With that John Barrington, style icon of the super natural plunged the neon blades deep into the internal workings of the mechanical gangster, followed by a silver axe and several rounds of gunshot.

“I’m knackered.” Said Myles.

His instincts were telling him to loot everything for parts, but that only works go fairy matter and bugged if he was carrying thirty robot dog corpses around with him. He didn’t even know if it was a corpse when it was a robot… had been a robot, they were mostly junk and spare parts now.

Myles dismissed the suit and turned around to check on the kids. He saw the trio slack jawed in astonishment.

“Are you three alright? I mean, no you are not, obviously. Shut up Myles you are making this weird. Look, my friends and I are here to, well we were supposed to be spying on the place but then it turned into more of a police action because they were up to something and we needed to stop it, but since they seem to be holding children prisoner I think this mission got reclassified as Myles and his friend take a large foot and shove it right up….” Myles trailed off as he noticed the scared and confused looks on the kids faces.

“I’m sorry, I was rambling. what are your names?”

The girl who appeared to be of some asian extraction, stepped forward. Myles felt a little ping of white guilt that he couldn’t immediately tell.

“My name is Connie Su, The boy with grey hair is Slip and the blonde is Ash. Please forgive me talking for them, they did things here… the boys can not answer your questions, so I will have to in their place.”

The blond kid, tilted his chin backwards and pointed to his neck where a vicious thick scar snaked across. Rambling or not, Myles would stand by his earlier words, except it wouldn’t be a foot and it would probably be on fire.

The blond kid leaned over to Connie Su’s ear and whispered.

“Ash says thank you.” Connie Su repeated for him. “He also says he knows where you need to go.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I don’t think it would be safe to bring you guys along with me.”

Ash leaned over once more to whisper.

“Ash wants to ask exactly how safe they would be if they ran into another pack of android dogs.”

Myles did not have an answer for that question. Just because the place was clear when he had defended was no guarantee the kids would have the same clear path. Maybe Zara would look at him leading the kids and think he was good Dad material. No that was silly she would tear him a new one, call him irresponsible and assign him extra training. Of course, he still couldn’t leave the kids here, so extra training it was.

“Alright then, the rules are, run when I tell you. If I start running, you run. If you see and jam, tell me, especially if it looks fancy. Not if it’s open though, I’m not gross.

“Thats weird.” Said connie Su. “They were packing jam up to be destroyed in this room earlier. The icy blond woman ordered it… She had a sort of manic laugh, it was pretty scary.

Myles had no idea what Connie Su was talking about, but he felt it was important the kids felt heard.

“That is strange. But let’s put a pin in it for later, right now, guide to where you think I need to go.”

Kids who had seen him in full Trigger armour ‘knew’ where he needed to go. The ninety nine percent certainty Myles had felt about what he would find ticked over into a cool century.