As Gondo jetted into the smoke propelled by sheer psionic energy he consulted the diagram that was live updating in his holo. Ignasius drones were scanning through the smoke while bullying the target with auto-fire. He could see the brutish form of the mech suit as it returned fire and motored towards Gondo’s position inside the smoke cloud.

Gondo entered his focus and began to project several images of himself and Ignasius encircling the soldier. He was able to give them just enough phantasmal force to pick up on the mech’s radar. The suit began to spin and unleash its cannons into the replicas. A cheap trick, but it bought Gondo enough time to leap upwards and out of the smoke.

When engulfed in his focus Gondo could perform hyper actions that used to be relegated to the worlds of fantasy. He could run at extreme speeds, vault himself into the air, and even fly. Performing any of these feats was a telltale giveaway that an individual was a Caster, so they were normally for emergencies only. Obviously, this qualified.

He surveyed the scene from his aerial position. Four of the remaining drones were orbiting the mech soldier and distracting him from above while the specters below soaked up cannon fire. He chuckled to himself as he reached the crest of his jump and momentarily paused, then focused all his energy downwards. A corona of blue energy appeared and began to spread backwards from his head towards the sky. He became a psionic powered rocket that barreled through the smoke cloud and then through the mech suit itself. With the time dilation allowed him by his focus he could see the psychic energy peeling back layers of the man’s body and instantly vaporizing them. It was like viewing an MRI slide by slide from the top of the man’s suit all the way through him. Welcome to the meat show.

Once his body had melted through the remains of the soldier, he impacted the concrete and continued inward. He reduced his flow and as the smoke cleared found himself lying in a crater laughing to himself. Well, that was a new one.

He climbed out and looked to where Moriah had been engaged with the rival Caster. A large stain where he had been perched on the fire escape spread backwards across the buildings side, and Moriah was nowhere to be seen. Ignasius arrived looking battered but functional.

“You prime?” Gondo asked.

“Affirmative. Sounds like the party crashers are finally on their way.” Ignasius hinted at the distant sound of approaching sirens. The goon squad had no doubt paid them off to be elsewhere while the attempted hit was carried out.

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Ignasius sent him a code via internal comms that meant rendezvous at the Safe House. He sent the same message to Lowell who instantly responded that they were already there.

Gondo nodded to his friend, pulled down the hood of his radiation cloak, and disappeared into the darkness of the alleyway as the battle worn robot ascended into the sky via the rockets in his undercarriage and was gone into the golden haze.

...

Hours later at the lab the crew sat around their meeting table discussing the recent events. Ignasius was represented by a floating red orb. Immediately upon returning to the lab the robot had retreated into his workshop.

“He said something about how Cobra used scissors to cut up his pizza and then vanished.” Lowell had told him.

No doubt after the engagement his friend was working on upgrades. He always did this after a fight. Fortunately, with the vast memory banks and computing power the robot had at his disposal he could do two things at once. Or several billion, if need arose.

The red orb pulsed subtly along with Ignasius words. “They must have been surprised by our presence there. Unless that was just a warning there’s no way they would send such a small team after the three of us.” Loud banging, sawing and welding could be heard through the sound dampening walls that comprised his workshop and warehouse facilities.

“Indeed.” Lowell responded distractedly. “Krueger would have sent a battalion if he had known Gondo was present.”

Krueger had been a classmate of Gondo’s at the Academy and was now head of what amounted to the A.E.C.’s military department. He harbored a nasty grudge with Gondo and his team by proxy, and wouldn’t waste a chance to destroy them. It was highly rumored that he and his cabal were the real leaders of the corporation.

“Right.” Gondo added. “So, we must assume that Moriah was the sole target, we just got in the way. Lucky for us she can handle herself quite well.” A subtle smile lit Lowell’s face. Gondo had seen that same smile minutes before as they had watched Moriah’s battle footage. Lowell hated the A.E.C. and had openly fantasized about slipping into certain executive's homes with a laser scalpel.

Within a matter of minutes, the crew had come up with a plan. Their high communal intelligence leant the team towards quick, efficient, decisive action rather than bickering and squabbling over a path forward.

Lowell had already begun refining the Moonshield to avoid the intense attraction of the Pull. Experimentation with the updated formula and Casting were to resume immediately. In between Casts Gondo would recuperate and focus on covert actions in the real world to gain intel on the developing situation between Ourobouros and the A.E.C., as well as any information related to Calcio’s involvement. Ignasius was committed to battle readiness and kept to his workshop, but he would assist all parties as needed. He didn’t need a frame to be effective in the lab or on the streets.

Gondo proceeded to this Casting table and shed his cloak, his heart soaring at the chance to once more utilize the Moonshield.

“And so, my friends, we return to the infinite reaches of the cosmos.”