Chapter Thirty-Five

“Luciole? Luciole, your vitals are spiking.”

I blinked. My throat felt tight, and I could feel my heart pounding. I looked over my shoulder quickly. “A Magical Girl? Are you sure?” I could hear people talking through Bentley’s headphones.

“Yeah. SHOCKS issued a total pull-back order. Defend shelters, but do not attack. They’re trying to get a better picture of what’s going on–your optical augment didn’t pick up enough detail to know for sure, but that thing didn’t move like a Mack. We don’t have any good guesses right now. According to our records, all Girls, retired or active, are accounted for.

“We need more information, but all strike teams are currently busy. Starlight Sisters is west of you, engaging some Type Eighteens threatening a shelter. They’re not available for backup or recon. No one else is close until HANAF shows up. Then the army might be able to do drone scouting.”

“In the meantime, your orders are to defend the Prestige building until that shelter’s secured. The main attack looks like it’s coming toward you two. Keeping the Macks out of Sooke is a secondary objective.”

“Okay, Bentley,” I said. I waited for Li Mei to finish her similar conversation with Charlie–ignoring that she signed off with ‘hugs.’ Then I pointed to the Prestige. “Let’s try not to fight them inside. When I fought against a Type Four before, moving helped keep it off balance.”

Li Mei nodded thoughtfully. “We should have a few minutes before those Macks get here. Where do we set up?”

I walked down the hall. Mr. Allen and the red-haired woman were still waving people toward the pool. “The Macks will be here in the next five minutes, Mr. Allen. Get everyone inside the shelter, but keep it open as long as you can. We’ll fight the Macks in the pool.”

Mr. Allen looked more sweaty than he had before. His eyes flicked toward the left hallway, then he started jogging down it.

The redheaded woman rolled her eyes at him. “These are the last folks, Miss. Thank you again for keeping us safe. I’ll make sure no one closes your team and the civilians out unless we have to.” She jogged off after her boss, pointing and shouting at a few hotel guests who were moving on the slower side.

“Okay, Li Mei. Let’s fight them in the pool room. It’s the only way we can be sure that no Macks get past us.”

She nodded, and we hurried down to the pool room. The glass door between the hotel’s hallway and the room itself had been propped open–clearly, to let people through. A second door to the patio overlooking the harbor was also open. I closed it but left the inside one open for now. “Type Ones might actually not get through that,” I said, half-hopefully.

A few poolside lounge chairs lay around the tile deck, and a basket in the corner overflowed with used towels. The deck still seemed wet near the pool itself. I furrowed my eyebrows. “I thought they turned the pool into a shelter?”

Then, we looked down into the pool’s pit.

A square of tiles had been ripped out and replaced with metal doors, which were currently open. Below it, a ramp weaved down into the darkness, lit only by flickering yellow emergency lights. Much of the pool’s floor was lined with grates–maybe they’d set it up to drain quickly. But why do all that work when they could build a new shelter instead? It didn’t make sense.

“Charlie, why is the Prestige shelter in the pool, anyways?” Li Mei asked. Clearly, she agreed with me–it didn’t make sense.

The shelter door started to close, and Li Mei screamed into the tunnel. “If that door locks, I will leave you to the Macks, Mr. Allen! You have orders–follow them!”

The door stopped. She took a deep breath. “Thank you, sir. Luciole, I think you should stay above the pool. Your powers are ranged, so staying high is important for visibility. I’ll be in the pool, blocking the entrance. I’ve never actually fought Macks, but I think I can keep them walled out.” She drew a pair of straight swords and grinned. The blades glowed a pale white on the cutting edge.

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I nodded slowly and pulled out my Delphi crossbow. With my back against the maintenance doors, I could cover my fellow Magical Girl and most of the pool. My health and mana bars were full, so I nodded at Li Mei. “I’m ready.”

We waited.

But we didn’t have to wait for long.

The first group of Macks–Type Ones, with their glowing yellow eyes and six spiked legs–skittered up to the outside glass door and windows. They stared in, then their eyes flickered red. Yellow. And red again. The first of the four crashed into the glass door, which shattered in a circular pattern. Instead of bulling through, though, the Mack bounced off. The glass held! The hotel must have invested in safety glass, so the anti-tank gun hadn’t broken its windows. Neither could the Mack.

With a brief reprieve, I checked my crossbow magazines. Plenty. But if the whole window gave, we’d still be in trouble. “Bentley, do we have something to brace that door with?”

“I’ll order up some Vambraces. They won’t stop a Class Two, like a Type Four, but they’ll be good against those things. 10 mana should brace that whole wall of windows.”

“Do it,” I said. I felt that now-familiar empty feeling as the barrier shimmered into being in front of me. The Vambraces didn’t look like much. Just a sheet of plastic labeled Vambrace Emergency Polycarbonate, engineered by Orson Biochem, licensed to SHOCKS and HANAF.

That company had its fingers in everything!

I grabbed it and started running over to the window. “Li Mei, keep an eye on the inside door. Bentley, how does this work?”

“It adheres to glass and acts as a layer of bulletproofing. There’s a reaction that fuses it with the glass and plastic and strengthens it up. Nines and Ones can’t handle it easily. Class Two combat machines usually have the strength to tear through over a minute or two, and bigger ones just bull through it. But it’ll help.”

I started pressing the plastic sheeting against the glass. Every time I did, it hissed and popped, and I pulled my hand back from the sudden burst of heat.

Li Mei rushed to the door. I heard her sword crash into something. When I looked over my shoulder, she had her foot on a Type One’s back. She yanked the blade free with a grunt. “Finish that up. There’s more coming!”

I turned back to the window. We should have fortified it before the Macks got here, but better late than never. As I worked, I heard Li Mei fighting. Her sword rang against Mack plating, and I heard her grunt in effort.

When I finished bracing the windows with Vambrace and turned around, three more Type Ones lay sparking and smoldering around her. She grinned, eyes sparkling. “This is way more fun than it was in the simulations!”

I laughed despite myself. “Those are just Type Ones, though. Fours are coming. We’ll need to work together or use our Mana Surges if we want to handle them easily.”

I took up a position near the Vambrace’d glass wall and door. Li Mei stood near the entrance to the Prestige building’s hallway. When the next group of Type Ones rushed in, Li Mei let the first one run right into an electric bolt from my crossbow. The second got sliced quickly, while the third and fourth reacted to her and started attacking, pressing her toward the drained pool.

I made a gun shape and yelled, “Moonblast!” A ray of white light slammed into one of the Macks, boring a hole through it and into the glass door behind it. Its light flickered out.

With only one opponent, Li Mei quickly cut through the Type One’s front legs, then thrust her sword into the machine’s eye.

Then we both took a breath.

“Luciole, Overclock, and Sam are on their way with stragglers. You also have a pair of Type Fours incoming. One’s exploring the building’s interior, while the other is outside checking for other entrances. Expect the inside one first.”

“Got it, Bentley,” I said. “Did you get that, Li Mei?”

“Yes. You fought them before and tried to keep them moving? Do you think they could get tripped up in the pool lounges?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. I used the bleachers on the one I fought. It had to keep changing height to climb up and down it. So maybe using the pool’s stairs or climbing the walls could work. But I was also around your level and alone, so it should be a lot easier with two Girls to fight them. As long as they come in one at a time.”

A yellow light grew nearer from the hallway. “Are you ready?” Li Mei asked. I nodded, and she poked her head into the hall.

A second later, the light flickered red. She pulled back. “It’s on its way.”

I gulped. The last time I’d fought one of these, in the gym, it had taken everything I had to win, and I’d needed James to order medical help as soon as I’d finished. How would this fight go?

We set up with the pool between me and the door. Li Mei was at the pool’s edge, ready to move to either side if the Mack tried to go around.

The Type Four crashed through the interior glass–it wasn’t safety glass or reinforced. As soon as it did, I cupped my hands, yelled “Feu-Follet,” and launched my Mana Surge at it. As my optics reset, I saw chipped and worn-out armor flaking off the Mack.

A moment later, Li Mei hit it.