Chapter Thirty-Six

I didn’t even see Li Mei move.

One moment, she stood at the pool’s edge. The next, a white blur zipped around the Type Four. A high-pitched ringing filled my ears. A second later, Li Mei stood on the Mack’s far side, the sword in her hands trailing behind her. The machine’s front two legs shattered, and it crashed onto the deck.

So did Li Mei. She dropped to one knee, sucking in huge breaths. “I didn’t…didn’t expect to hit it…quite so hard.”

“I think I softened it up for you,” I agreed. Then I stared at her and at the machine. Something wasn’t right. But what?

As I stared, the machine’s red gaze washed over my teammate. It dragged itself toward her with its last two legs.

She stood kneeling, propped up on her sword and staring toward the hall. “Luciole, that Mana Surge really takes a lot out of me. Charlie says my mana’s down to half. I won’t be able to do that again unless it’s an–”

“Li Mei, behind you!” I interrupted. A steel tentacle covered in chipped and flaking Mack plating zipped toward her as she turned and threw herself to the side. Her sword flashed out and carved a gash in the limb, which flailed feebly toward her. She swung again. The tentacle came off.

A second later, I fired my Delphi. The bolt caught just below the Mack’s eye. It detonated. Shards of Mack-plate shrapnel rained down on Li Mei. Her hood and full-body covering stopped most of them, but a few sliced shallow cuts in her arms. The red light faded to darkness.

“Thanks for the warning, Luciole,” Li Mei smiled and walked back toward me.

“No problem. Bentley, do we have anything for small cuts?”

“Sure, Luciole. It’ll cost a point of mana,” Bentley said. He started creating a tin box just a touch smaller than my hand.

When it finished shimmering, I picked it up. “Assorted generic bandages: 30 count?’ Seriously, Bentley?”

“There are more expensive solutions, but from a quick look, none of Li Mei’s injuries need QuickClot or a similar product. Why spend more mana than you need to?” Bentley said.

As Li Mei carefully grabbed the band-aid box and started rolling up her sleeves to bandage cuts, I examined the destroyed Mack. Its plating had flaked deep, then Li Mei’s sword had ripped through. The cuts looked smooth lower down, but they’d torn the plating itself apart in jagged chunks. My bolt had finished it, but she’d only been a moment from the kill herself.

As I stood up from my examination, something slammed into the window. The second Type Four punched through the safety glass and the Vambrace with its tentacle, moved over a few inches, and punched through again. Li Mei dropped the band-aids and sprinted toward the window, standing ready to slice as soon as she arrived. I squared up with the hand-crossbow aimed toward where the Mack was trying to come in.

Then we waited as it punched out a small gap in the window. It started to push its way in, and I pulled the trigger. The bolt zipped through the hole and out into the Prestige building’s courtyard, where it exploded with a loud bang. I winced. Hopefully, I hadn’t hit a palm tree.

I aimed again, then lowered my crossbow, growling in frustration. Li Mei’s attack blocked my shot! “Move, Li Mei!” I screamed as I ran to the side to find an angle for my last bolt in the magazine.

The Type Four made it into the room and started chasing Li Mei. She ducked a spiked tentacle and threw herself into the pool, landing with an awkward roll as the Mack extended its two forward legs down toward the tiles–and the still-open shelter entrance.

As it landed in the pool, Li Mei ran to the far stairs and hustled up them. She drew a second sword and waited at the stair top.

I pulled the trigger. My bolt hit the pool bottom under the machine’s four tentacles. The explosion knocked it off-balance, sending it careening toward the open shelter door.

Li Mei threw herself off the pool’s edge. As she landed, her swords flashed and sliced into the Mack’s legs, gouging plating off but not cutting deep enough to break anything.

It regained its balance and turned away from us and toward the shelter! Li Mei tried to recover from her jumping attack but overbalanced.

I reloaded the Delphi and fired another bolt. This one caught between plating, crippling an arm. But it kept going, dragging itself into the shelter.

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Then something else crashed through the hole in the glass wall!

Overclock ran in, giant hammer back over her shoulder. She sprinted down the stairs and jumped over Li Mei. The hammer came down on the Mack’s body. Then again and again until its light stopped glowing red.

“Good job, Girls,” Overclock said. “Anything get through?”

“Uh, no,” I said. Somehow, having Overclock come in to save the day felt like a letdown. Li Mei and I had everything under control. We hadn’t even used our Mana Surges on that one, and it wouldn’t have taken much more to finish off. “We were just mopping up the last one.”

“Great. Sam’s bringing the civilians in through the main entrance. I came over when I saw the Four break through, just in case you needed me. I’ll meet her, and we’ll get this shelter secured.” Overclock jogged to the door, stopped at the other Type Four’s flaking, mangled wreckage, and laughed. “Generally, only one Mana Surge for Class Twos, kids. That way, you can save resources for the next one and won’t get overwhelmed if the fight goes longer than expected.”

She ducked through the door.

Li Mei walked over and grinned breathlessly. “That was pretty fun. Is it always like that?”

I froze. The fight in the English wing and the one-on-one against the Type Four hadn’t been fun. They’d been terrifying. So had the fight outside, on the soccer field, against the Type Twenty-One. I’d spent my whole time trying to understand what being a Magical Girl meant and adjusting to my powers. And worrying about Dad and Sora.

But…the fight in the art wing wasn’t too bad.

Maybe some of this could be fun. If the stakes were lower. If people weren’t in danger. And if I wasn’t alone.

Overclock jogged back into the pool room, a handful of people following her. “Inside the shelter, quick!” She ordered them, an edge of authority and annoyance in her voice.

They filed down the stairs and into the shelter, Sam in the back. Overclock followed the civilians inside, waving at us to head in as well. As soon as we entered, the doors shut behind us. Everyone was safe.

Inside, a few guards in blue HANAF uniforms lifted their submachine guns so they aimed at the ceiling instead of the now-closed door. One threw a salute Overclock’s way. “Thanks for the cover, Miss,” he said.

“Do you have a count yet?” Overclock asked, returning the salute sloppily.

“Yes, Miss Overclock. We have just over two thousand civilians here. Twenty guards, plus the sergeant in charge of us. The other shelters should finish their counts soon as well.”

“Good work, soldier.” Overclock held her hand up to her ear to signal that James was talking. Her brow wrinkled, and her mouth turned down. “Take us to the command room. We need to have a private talk, Girls. Our next mission just came in.”

The soldier nodded and gestured in a follow-me wave, then started marching down the hall. I followed. People sat in the hall on the floor, panting and crying or laughing as stress boiled off them. I had to step over people’s legs and kids lying on the ground.

Bentley coughed in my ear. The sort-of-joking tone he’d had in training and even at the pool fight had disappeared. Instead, he sounded stressed. Anxious, even. “The east-coast line is getting pushed pretty hard, Luciole. They’re going to rotate Team Starlight Sisters over to help out, so there’s no strike team backup over by Sooke. For now, just listen to Overclock. James is filling her in. The other Operators and I are about to have a quick stand-up meeting to discuss the next phase in the battle for Sooke as soon as possible to figure out how to help you girls.”

We filed into the command room and sat in rolling armchairs that matched the ones below West End High. “Excuse me, troops. We need this room for the next fifteen minutes for Magical Girl business. We know it’s inconvenient, but we must have absolute privacy.” I blinked. Overclock had switched to her customer service voice.

Once the technicians and soldiers had left, Overclock sat down as well. “Kids, SHOCKS has a critical job for us. Please open up your Mission Menus and accept the new ones. Then we’ll brief on how it’s going to go.”

“Mission Menu, please,” I said to Bentley. Around me, the rest of Z-4 did the same. “Complete, Accept, Accept.”

Then I looked a bit closer at the new missions. My pulse started racing, and my palms got sweaty. “You can’t be serious!”

Mission Menu

Mission

Difficulty

Status

Rewards

Security Patrol

Challenging

In Progress

2 Exp., 1 point in Vit.

Priority: Prestige Defense

Challenging

Complete?

1 Exp., 1 Spell Refresh

Assault Whiffen Spit

Overwhelming

Accept?

2 Exp., 1 Sigil

Rescue the Magical Girl

Unknown

Accept?

1 Exp., 1 Sigil