The shop bell jingled as Will swung the door open. Scout bounded into the mech shop, and the others soon followed. The ever-present howl of the cold wind abated as he shut the door, and silence descended on the store.

The light inside was dim from the frosted glass, and they switched on their flashlights. It was a small shop with a counter off to the side. Lined along the walls were mechs of various sizes, their shells gleaming under their flashlights.

"Holy shit!" Remy gaped at all the vintage mech suits put on display and immediately ran towards them. "Is that a Paramat K7? And this... a Merkavan Panther! This is so cool! What are their specs? What are their controls? Will, tell me you have the originals!"

Will chuckled. "Those are just showpieces. We don't put the real stuff outside."

"Damn," said Remy. "Still cool, though."

Will smiled. He patted the glass top of the front desk with nostalgia and came around behind the counter. Hanging on the wall were mech helmets in various states of damage. Below each one was a plaque, all depicting the surname Dunn. Will bowed to the ancestor wall and prayed.

He prayed for their wisdom and guidance, and most of all, he prayed for their forgiveness. The Dunn line had nearly come to an end in his generation. It was all up to him now to bring them back.

Will opened his eyes to find Rebecca beside him. She was looking at the framed photographs hidden behind the counter. She smiled and showed him the picture. "Look, I found baby William."

Will chuckled at the photo of him in diapers. "Oh wow. I forgot about these."

"There is Mr. and Mrs. Dunn, and oh, who's this little cutie?" asked Rebecca.

"That's my little sister," said Will, looking at the photographs. Most of them were from right after they had first opened their shop.

"She's so cute!" Rebecca gushed over the adorable baby pictures, most of which little Ellie was clinging to Mom, but in one photo, she was sitting in the lap of an older girl. She had her long flowing black hair draped across her shoulder, and little Ellie tugged at it with her tiny fist. The older girl looked down at Ellie with kind eyes and teased her with a finger poking at her chubby cheeks.

Rebecca looked up at Will, the question plain in her eyes. Will let out a breath.

"That's Anya, my older sister," said Will.

"You have an older sister?"

"I had an older sister," said Will.

"Oh..." Rebecca gazed back at the photo, lost for words.

Will reached forward and brought out more photographs. "I remember there being more pictures of her. Ah, here is one."

Anya was outside in the park in a yellow sundress. Her legs were armored up to her knees. It looked like the plating of a half-finished leg piece of a mech suit.

"Did she want to be a pilot?" asked Rebecca. Will shook his head.

"She was more into designing than piloting." He brought out more photos of Anya in various armors, all half-complete. However, in the final picture, she was fully clad in a black and silver mech suit.

"I was so jealous when she got her first armor," laughed Will. "I wanted one so bad."

"At least that part hasn't changed," Rebecca chuckled.

"Right," Will laughed.

A thud interrupted their conversation, and they found Remy had dismantled one of the vintage showpieces. He had a helmet in his hand and a mech arm in the other.

"This is so cool!" Remy made swishing sounds as he swung the arm around. "The articulation, the precision. It's almost like the real thing."

"That's because it is the real thing," said Will. "The outer casing is the same. We just have to add the internals."

Remy shook his head in disbelief. He gazed into the eyes of the helmet and whispered. "Soon, my love. I'm going to build my own custom version, and it is going to be great."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"If you are going to pop a boner, do it outside, please," said Rebecca dryly.

"She sounds awfully jelly, doesn't she, Imperious?" Remy spoke to the helmet.

"Oh, yes she does," Remy mimed with the helmet. "It's because she won't find an armor big enough to fit her fat head."

Rebecca grabbed one of the mantle pieces and mimed throwing it at Remy, who laughed and pretended to dodge. However, he was surprised when he slipped and nearly fell over. He caught the edge of the glass countertop in the last second and righted himself.

"Son of a..." Remy cursed, looking at his feet. "Damn snow. Nearly cracked open my skull."

"Would have been an improvement," Rebecca muttered, but Remy paid her no mind. He frowned at the snow with a quizzical look.

"This is some weird snow. There is something off about it," said Remy.

They all glanced at the snow on the ground for a second when Rebecca chimed in, "that is not snow."

"Huh?"

"It's Lysom. It's used to clean up radioactive hotspots," said Rebecca. "The Tower dumped tons of it here to bring down the psion contamination."

"So, they screwed up?" asked Remy. "The radiation is still here."

"It takes time," said Rebecca. "Around a hundred years."

"What a wonderful scam," said Remy. "Pay me now and worry about the results after I'm dead."

"It's not a scam," said Rebecca. "There has already been a two percent drop in field strength."

"Oh wow... anyway," said Remy. "What's next, Will? Where is the good stuff?"

Will pointed to a nook in the corner behind the ancestor wall. "A level down is the storage."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Remy.

Will nodded and headed downstairs alongside Rebecca. Remy dusted off the lysom powder and followed them.

A single flight of stairs later, they were in a room filled with crates. Torches flashed in the dark room, and they navigated the rows of boxes. Dust picked up with every step, and Will was glad for their protective suits. The faint field surrounding them also had the added benefit of nudging dust away.

"Are these any good?" asked Rebecca, jerking her head towards the boxes. Will shrugged. "Sure, but the most expensive items are behind lock and key. Come on, it's this way."

They reached the other end of the storage area, and there was a cornered-off section of the shop locked behind steel bars. A dial combination lock was present on the barred gate.

Will flashed his torch through the bars and spotted a pair of armored mech legs behind the gate. The lone pair of legs were left like a discarded pair of boots. It was placed tantalizingly close to the gate where you could barely reach for it but never touch it.

Will burst out laughing at the familiar sight. When Remy and Rebecca gave him quizzical looks, he could only shake his head.

"I used to want them so bad as a kid," said Will. "Anya used to tease me by leaving those out in the open, where I could see it but not claim it."

He sighed. "I guess I can finally get my hands on it now."

Will reached for the dial lock, and Rebecca stirred beside him.

"You know the password, right?" She asked.

Will nodded. Ten-year-old him had worked so hard to figure out the password. It turned out that it was something that he knew all along – his name and his birthday. Ironic.

Will shook his head and reached out to turn the dial when he paused. He went stock still and stared at the lock.

"What?" asked Remy. "Does it need power to function or something?"

Will shook his head. "No, it is mechanical. You have to turn the dials to open the lock."

"So, turn the dial," said Remy.

"He can't," said Rebecca.

"Why not?" Remy craned his neck to see past Will.

"Because it has a child lock," said Becca. "The tumblers and dials are inside. I've seen these old locks before. You have to use your psion fields to turn the dials."

"Ah, shit!" Remy looked down at the protective suit he was wearing. The suit, while great at isolating the radiation and psion fields from outside, also restricted your personal field to the inside.

There were no two ways about it; as long as they were wearing the suit, they couldn't turn the locks.

Remy said uncertainly, "I could take my suit off—"

"NO!" both Rebecca and Will yelled.

"All right, relax," said Remy.

"There has to be another way," muttered Will.

"You didn't think of this before coming here?" asked Rebecca quietly.

"Well, with the thousand other complications, I didn't think that I would be stumped by a lock."

"We could dismantle it—" started Rebecca.

"—and risk triggering it," finished Will.

"Or," Remy interrupted. "We could try blowing it up."

In his hands were the fist-sized explosive disks that they had used to blow open the subway grates.

"We are not blowing up my family shop!" said Will.

"I don't like that idea," Rebecca shook her head.

Remy shrugged. "It's your place, Will. What's it going to be?"

Will clenched his fist as indecision gripped him. His eyes darted between the explosive disks and the steel bars for a solid minute before he opened his mouth.

"We—" He began when an explosion rocked the shop. The entire building shook, and several crates jumped in the air.

"What the hell?" Remy yelled.

"It's coming from outside!" said Rebecca.

"Come on," Will straightened up and urged the two outside. They rushed upstairs and made it out of the shop.

The store door slammed shut behind them, and they were back in the snow-clad city. In the distance, black smoke rose, and there was the orange glow of a fire.

There was a rumble in the air, and another explosion punched them in the chest. The trio raised their heads to see airships on fire. Multiple fireballs bloomed in the sky as one explosion followed another. In the distance, a flaming cargo ship got torn in half, and tons of burning metal ore plummeted to the earth.

The high-pitched whine of a failing engine was the only warning they got. An explosion sounded overhead, and the burning ship was seared into their eyes. The aircraft careened as it lost altitude and headed straight for them.

"Shiiiiit!" Remy screamed as the burning plane raced towards them.