The Major continued to curse, her connection to her former body was cut due to traumatic injury and she knew, both her body and her father were dead. Lisa’s signal too had been cut, the last thing she saw there was the hole in her girlfriend’s chest before something triggered the trauma alert on her cyber brain. She could only pray that her braincase was intact. Amy was there, she would get her to Toybox, Riley and Cranial were on standby, she had to trust in them.

She didn’t have time to reflect upon the mess further as she dodged Hookwolf’s bladed arm. The man laughed, the two Coils were dead at his feet and it was only beginning to sink in how thoroughly she had been played by whoever pulled the strings. She couldn’t afford the distractions, her brain was in this shell, losing this fight was not an option and the Major knew better than to think she could escape.

Hookwolf surged forward, a tangled mass of rotating blades exploded from him in the confines of the small space and ensnared her left arm. The Major hissed as the blades proceeded to shred the limb bit by bit like a thousand saws. She detached it before he got more literal hooks into her and made some distance.

She pulled a grenade from her belt and tossed it. Hookwolf shifted the mass of blades to shield himself, only for the bulk of it to flash crystallize. Yet another of Bakuda’s creations that was too dangerous for the open market, much like ninety percent of her creations tended to be. Hookwolf screamed, the rest of him shifting to metal as he pulled himself free.

There was desperation there, she could feel it within herself too. Whoever had baited this trap, they wanted both of them caught in it. She needed to end things quickly. Unslinging the rifle from her back, she pointed it, one armed and fired.

The sound was deafening, and the pressure sensors in her shell sounded warnings. Hookwolf got it worse though, as the ultrasonic round sheared through his remaining blades like they were nothing. They retreated inward, protectively around whatever protected his body from damage in that form.

She wasted no time, running atop the blades, pulling the bolt slide back and letting another round chamber as she braced the heavy gun against her leg. She swung the barrel down, locking the stock between her arm and torso and pulled the trigger again. The recoil nearly ripped the gun from her grip, throwing it up in the air as she fought to control it. She pulled it back to her knee, slid the bolt once more and fired again.

Shot after shot was hammered into Hookwolf’s unmoving form, yet she didn’t relent until the gun clicked empty, no further rounds to fire. The Major was gasping for air, even though she didn’t need to, her adrenaline hadn’t spiked though she felt like it had. She tossed the rifle aside, letting it clatter to the concrete.

Right, trap.

She hurried over to the computer, pulling one of her hard lines from her neck and plugged it into the USB port on the computer. The machine was Tinkertech, purchased from Toybox two years prior, which made breaching the security child’s play. Soon she was dumping everything she could to her onboard storage despite the attempt to erase it all, perk of knowing the root access codes and safety workarounds.

Five seconds later, she had a complete copy of the entire network, her attention however was on the other thing she found. A countdown with only seven seconds left that she knew was connected to a self-destruct that she could do nothing to disable. The fucker had set a chemical trigger that was too fargone to stop without direct physical access to the device.

She ripped the cable free, pulled her Toybox transponder from her belt and aimed it at the wall she was now sprinting to. The world shimmered as she leapt, and heat crashed into her, sending her sprawling across the entry room.

“Taylor!” Melissa shouted, helping her sit up as she pushed the damage warnings from her hud, she could deal with those later, once she knew the general situation. Moreso, she felt a sense of loss, because Taylor was gone, yet she remained.

“I’m okay,” she said, half lying since she didn’t read all the warnings. “What about Lisa?”

Melissa grimaced, looking back towards the door she had just come from. “Amy brought her here less than a minute ago along with the other Undersiders. Cranial is setting up her lab and Jacob will be bringing Riley over as soon as he’s able.”

“How bad was it?” the Major demanded. “She took two sniper rounds, the braincases are tough but not invincible.”

“Only one hit her head, and it was a glancing blow,” Melissa said. “Come on, we need to get you to your lab, you look like hammered shit.”

“Feel like it too,” she said softly as she accepted the offered hand. “Danny’s dead.”

Melissa froze in place, halfway to lifting them to their feet. Absently the Major knew that meant something important given her shell weighed far more than a normal person, but she found it hard to care. Melissa snapped out of it and hoisted her up with a grunt of effort.

“Talk while we walk,” Melissa said, her voice odd, almost as if someone else were saying the words through her.

“Empire ambush at school,” the Major said, sending the footage to her backup while she thought about it. She could review it after repairs. “They gunned Danny down while he shielded Taylor.”

Melissa walked with her in silence. “She never told him that her body was a remote system, did you?”

“They hadn’t been on the best terms,” she admitted. “They were going to sit down again tomorrow, try to clear the air.” She laughed, weak and empty. “Too late now…”

“We’ll probably have a long talk once the dust settles, but for what it’s worth, Major, I’m sorry you have to endure this,” Melissa said.

She wanted to cry, but her shell didn’t have the capacity to do so and she didn’t have access to Taylor to offload any emotions. It was all so completely fucked. Coil led them all by the nose into a trap they thought they had planned for, one that was tailored to exploit those preparations. That suggested Coil was actually a precog of some sort, which hadn’t even made Lisa’s top five for possible powers.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Arriving at her lab, she hurried inside, pulling away from her mentor at the sight of Taylor’s girlfriend on the table. “Lisa!”

Cranial looked up from where she was working. “Calm down Taylor, she’s gonna be fine.”

The Major stopped, her body trembling as relief flooded her.

“Thank goodness,” Taylor said.

“Her body’s shot though,” Amy said, her hand on Lisa’s neck. “I got her core organs repaired, but had to cannibalize most of her biomass to do so.”

Sure enough, Lisa’s limbs were all but retracting into her torso as she watched. Amy herself was covered in blood, no doubt Lisa’s. Looking at her face, the urge to sob returned. Lisa’s head wasn’t repaired yet, the damage from the second shot still prominent even with her brain case exposed.

Her cracked brain case.

Lisa had come a breath away from death and she was powerless to have done anything to help. Deep down, someone wanted to scream, she had been so helpless during everything, she wasn’t able to help anyone she loved. She—

Melissa slapped her.

“Hey, none of that,” Melissa said sharply. “Lisa would be dead now if you hadn’t offered her that cyber brain. I’ll be blunt, had you done the same for Danny, he would still be here too. That’s in the past, mistake made, now learn from them.”

The Major regained her senses, anger filled her as she pushed Melissa away. “Taylor was going to offer just that! Tomorrow, over dinner, both to him and Ha— Miss Militia if they wanted it as a peace offering.”

“Why Miss Militia?” Melissa asked.

“Danny was dating her,” she said. “It started as a recruitment attempt, but they kept talking and eventually dating. Danny called her moments before he was gunned down. I’m pretty sure she’s dead too.”

Silence filled the room, only to be broken by a familiar voice.

“Well shit,” Regent said. “This is one hell of a clusterfuck.”

The Major looked over, Regent and Grue standing off to the side. She didn’t pay them much attention, they didn’t matter at the moment. She was honestly surprised Grue wasn’t going off about how the entire team had been tricked with her little show involving Crusader.

“Aptly put,” Amy said, finally pulling away from Lisa. “She’ll hold up, but I’d suggest getting her brain in one of those shells sooner. Her body isn’t going to hold up without Riley’s help.”

“Darn, I was just about to make a dramatic entrance too!” Riley exclaimed with slumped shoulders. “How’s she looking?”

“I’ll need your assistance swapping her into a fresh brain case and healing a minor concussion,” Cranial said.

“Alright, let’s get to work!” she exclaimed, skipping over.

The Major watched on, a question tickling the back of her mind, one she didn’t feel like addressing. Instead, she opted to deflect. “Jacob didn’t come with you?”

“He brought me over, then left immediately after,” Riley said. “Something about going to talk to some people about all this. He should be back soon.”

“Oh fuck,” Melissa whispered.

The Major turned to her, but she just shook her head. “Whatever. Amy, can you arrange to check Taylor’s body? If you get things repaired and jump started, I should be able to reconnect to the interface.”

“You want me to perform necromancy on your body?” Amy asked with a perfect deadpan. “That’s more Riley’s thing than mine.”

“Nope,” Riley said, her hands busy working on one of the spare brain cases that Taylor had built. “Her body has no brain, so all you need to do is patch it up, maybe make it drink some Gatorade or something due to blood loss.”

“Ugh, this crosses so many lines,” Amy muttered. “Can I get a ride there at least?”

“Harry can take care of that,” Melissa said. “He’s in his office with Kurt at the moment, no doubt looking into this in their own way.”

The Major nodded, glad that Harry hadn’t also been caught in the Arcadia attack and managed to slip out. She went ahead and forwarded him the few readings that Taylor’s communication suite had picked up.

Amy left the room, hopefully to change first before she scared someone. She would know if her friend was successful or not if she regained awareness of her old body… She tried not to think about Taylor’s father likely lying next to her right then, dead and gone…

“I’m expecting things to get exciting in Brockton,” Riley said, her voice lacking its usual exuberance. “Dad doesn’t play when people he cares about are hurt.”

“Why,” Taylor whispered, the Major feeling oddly detached as she did. “I’ve only been here for a few months.”

“Major,” Melissa said, her hands firmly on the Major’s shoulders. “You’re family, same with Taylor, and family looks out for one another.”

“Speaking of,” Grue said, ruining the moment. “If Coil has burned us as badly as I think, could someone make sure my sister is safe?”

“Aisha, right?” the Major asked. “She was friends with Dinah and Missy at Paideia Middle?”

Grue’s helmet shifted so he was looking at her. “Uh, yeah. How did you know that?”

“Because Shadow Stalker and I prevented Dinah from being abducted just thirty minutes ago,” the Major said. “If anyone knows what’s going on there, it’s them.”

The Major wasted little time connecting to her systems, this time actually heeding the warnings. She made notes for repairs and set the fabricator to start on a replacement arm at the same time. There was a lot of work ahead of her, but that could wait. She easily slipped into Sophia’s phone and found its signal was at the PRT building, not the school. Frowning, she accessed the PRT systems and did a check.

“Stalker’s in Master-Stranger quarantine,” she said aloud. “I can’t find anything on Dinah, but that isn’t much of a surprise if they’re giving her a Wards pitch. Shit, Aisha’s probably still at the school.”

“I’ll call and check on her,” Brian said, pulling a phone from his pocket. “Wait, how does that work here?”

“Just dial,” Cranial said sharply. “We have repeaters.”

He nodded and stepped away, placing that call. The Major staggered back, trying unsuccessfully to avoid the weight of everything that happened in the last half hour. Melissa pulled her into a hug, and she found herself trembling in the woman’s embrace.

It was a soft moment in the midst of a raging tempest and she could do nothing but lean into it. She needed time to process, and shoulders to lean on. Fortunately she had family, even if they weren’t blood. Still, what had been done would be repaid in blood, she could promise that much, she just needed a moment to breathe.

“Uh, guys,” Grue said, holding his phone up. “Aisha’s at the PRT building and she says Stalker’s being prepped to be birdcaged for assisting a known villain.”