Angelica lifted her pistol, aimed at Frankenstein, and opened fire. Both the female golems raised their hands, and her bullets stopped in the air a meter in front of Frankenstein. He laughed. Hannah stepped forward to stand next to her, leveling her submachine gun. "Come, come, ladies," said Frankenstein. "Use your magic. I'm eager to see how my creations perform."

Hannah lowered her gun. Angelica glanced at her sharply. Hannah’s face was a mask of rage as she snarled. The look was so uncharacteristic for Hannah that Angelica was momentarily shocked. Then the junior officer dropped her gun and charged.

"Hannah, no!" Angelica shouted. "No!"

From the corner of her eye, Angelica caught movement. Off to the right, Eva had ducking behind Frankenstein’s bank of equipment, slipping over a bundle of power cables and disappearing between the metal cabinet and the concrete block wall. What was she doing? Angelica didn’t have time to worry about the youngest member of her team while Hannah was charging straight into the teeth of the enemy.

The golem on the right shifted her hands as she readied a force blast. Hannah lifted her own hands, still moving forward. Angelica expected Hannah to block the attack, but instead, she fired a force blast of her own. The two nearly invisible techniques slammed into each other and exploded with power.

Angelica took a half step back as the shockwave washed over her. She dropped her now-empty revolver, only vaguely aware that she had still been firing. Force versus force combat was mostly ineffective. In their training, they had been taught to overwhelm enemy istota users with bullets

The golem on the left was still shielding while the golem on the right exchanged a furious series of force blasts with Hannah, who had stopped short several meters away.

Anjelica scooped up Hannah’s dropped subgun and fired a burst at the golem on the right, but the shielder shifted her spell to cover them both, and the bullets bounced off.

Angelica shifted her aim and fired a burst at Frankenstein, then another burst at the shielding golem. Both were blocked. Spent bullets rattled onto the concrete floor. How long could the construct keep this up?

"Hannah, fall back!" Angelica ordered. She needed the ammunition that Hannah had in pouches on her harness. Angelica continued to fire short, controlled bursts, alternating targets to force the shielder to keep her shield wide and expend more istota.

Hannah drew a knife and with a snarl, rushed in close. The Golem blasted her with a point-blank force wave that struck Hannah a glancing blow.

"Hannah, fall back!" Angelica called again, but the junior officer was ignoring her. Her knife lashed out, but the golem was much taller with longer reach. She dodged Hannah's swing with a quick step back and then moved in to strike Hannah a devastating blow. The Polish girl was knocked sprawling. Her knife skittered across the floor.

Angelica fired her last ineffectual burst into the golem Hannah had attacked, and the submachine gun ran dry, its bolt slamming down on an empty chamber. She rushed forward. She needed to grab Hannah and pull her back.

The golem on the right blasted a force wave into Hannah as she tried to stand. The impact sent her tumbling back straight into Angelica. They fell together in a heap.

Still lying on the floor, Angelica grabbed Hannah by the shoulder. Was she growling?

"Hannah, focus! Shield us while I reload!" Her words were cut off as another force wave hit them both. Hannah caught the brunt of it and slammed against Angelica. They slid towards the door in a tangle of limbs.

Angelica's head bounced off the floor. Spots swam before her eyes. Distantly, she heard laughter. Frankenstein was laughing at them. "Good, good, excellent! Golems, take them alive! I need their minds intact!"

The golem on the left blasted a force wave into them as she tried to stand, knocking her back down. Hands grabbed at Angelica and rolled her over, seizing her submachine gun. She fought back feebly. Angelica blinked, trying to focus her eyes.

Hannah stood over her, pushing another magazine into the submachine gun. Angelica rolled over and got her feet under her, fighting against the wave of dizziness. Her sheathed saber caught against her legs as she turned, and she had to straighten it before standing. Hannah finished her reload but held her fire, and they both took another step back.

"Throw the first switch!" Frankenstein yelled.

One of the hunchbacked golems scurried over and pulled down on a large lever. An electrical hum filled the air with crackling energy. The hunchbacks had been busy filling the tables with bodies again. At least a dozen new golems lay stretched out and ready to be brought to life.

"The machine!" she shouted to Hannah. "Aim for the machine!"

Where had Eva gotten to? Was she still behind the machine? Angelica didn’t have time to worry about that. They had to stop Frankenstein, right now, before he awoke even more golems.

Hannah emptied her magazine in a long burst, but the female golem pair raised their hands and generated force shields, keeping the machine protected. Their shields were definitely weakening. One of the golems took a hit to the shoulder, and another bullet ricocheted off the console, slamming into the metal control panel as the shields faltered.

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"Recharge!" Frankenstein yelled. He moved across the control panel himself, operating levers and turning dials. The hum from the machine increased in intensity and pitch.

Another hunchback golem scurried up. He had a large device in his hand that glowed purple, wires and coils sticking out at strange angles. He ran straight up to one of the female golems and held the machine up. Angelica could feel the desh. She had no idea how the device worked, but she knew she didn’t want the female golems powering up again.

"Shoot him! Shoot him!" Angelica yelled but Hannah was in the middle of reloading.

Angelica drew her sword and charged forward. The strange device must provide istota to these golems, to recharge them without needing a mech. It reminded her of the way they had tested her magical potential when she was a girl. It was a type of desh engine designed to be inefficient and throw off more than the usual amount of magical byproduct. A magically sensitive individual could absorb the excess, though it was horribly inefficient compared to a mech bond .

If they recharged their magic before Hannah stopped them, nothing would prevent Frankenstein from raising another batch of soldiers. Angelica dashed forward, swinging her sword, but the other female golem moved inhumanly fast. It raised its hands, but not open-palm ready to use magic. Instead, she threw a punch, one massive fist that knocked Angelica back.

Pain flared in her shoulder, but she shifted back and regained her stance. The golem moved in quickly as Angelica tried to fend it off with her sword. The golem caught her stroke on its forearm, the sword blade biting deep to the bone, seemingly unfazed. It swung another blow at Angelica, lightning quick and inhumanly strong.

Angelica dodged back as fast as she could, but the blow caught her across the chest and shoulders. It struck her like a falling tree and sent her flying. She rolled over instantly, but the golem was moving in fast. It would be on top of her before she could stand.

Hanna’s subgun roared and stitched a line of bullets across the golem from hip to neck. The monster staggered back. Hannah fired another burst, riddling the heavily muscled body. The golem sank to one knee, and a final burst shredded its face and split its skull.

Angelica was on her feet immediately, having managed to keep a grip on her sword. Hannah fired another burst, and Angelica's heart sank. Every bullet was stopped two meters before they reached the final golem. The hunchback with the strange device scurried away, its job complete.

"I'm out," Hannah called as she started a reload. Frankenstein was laughing over the crescendo of crackling electricity coming from the massive machine.

"Throw the final switch!" he yelled.

Yet another hunchback golem was there to do his bidding. The machine's noise rose to a crescendo. In seconds, those golems would be rising.

"We have to get out of here," Angelica yelled. She tugged Hannah's shoulder with her free hand to get her attention. "It's time to go."

Suddenly, Frankenstein shouted, "Stop! What are you doing?"

Angelica caught sight of Eva. She had worked her way around behind Frankenstein's equipment and now stood over the chamber where the firesoul was installed. She tugged at the glass lid, and it swung free.

The lights of the room flickered. Even before Eva reached for the stone, the machine's cacophony began to fade, the crackle dying immediately, the hum slowly tapering off. Eva snatched the stone out of the chamber and ducked back as Frankenstein lunged for her.

"You're too late!" he shouted as she ducked away behind the machinery.

Then, to his own golems, "Get her! Seize her! "

The golems started to move after Eva, then halted abruptly. Hannah’s submachine gun roared as she sprayed her fresh magazine across the control panels. A few rounds struck metal and smashed dials, but the female golem had her shield back up in an instant, catching the rest of the burst.

Eva came around the side of the panel and dashed to where Angelica and Eva stood.

"I have it! I have it!" she cried. She waved the stone in their direction. The tone of her voice dipped as she spoke and came out deep and rasping, "I have it!” Eva skidded to a stop and turned to face Frankenstein and his golems, the stone held out like a weapon.

Now that they had Eva and the stone, they needed to get out of here. Hannah finished reloading her submachine gun.

"I have it!" Eva said again. Her deep gravelly voice sounded like it came from a completely different person. "And now, thief, you will pay!"

In the back of the room, golems were rising to their feet, big and hulking, larger than Angelica had seen before. The shriveled hunchback lab assistants moved between the more than a dozen in this just-completed batch. Frankenstein was raving about how they would never make it out of there alive.

All the golems turned to face them. As one they surged forward.

Angelica raised her sword. Hannah lifted her submachine gun, but Eva was there, grabbing the barrel and pushing it down.

"Wait!" she shouted in her strange voice. Angelica, surprised at Eva's actions, hesitated only for an instant, but it was enough. The golems swarmed over them. Their hands were iron vices. Her sword was plucked away, and she was held by both arms. Another pair of golems grabbed Hannah, disarming her and holding her in place.

To Angelica's shock, golems swarmed over Frankenstein and his female golem as well. Five of them grabbed the female golem before she could react, grabbing hands and legs. Eva turned and pointed, "That one is an abomination!"

Before the desh-wielding golem could react, another golem grabbed her head. The hulking red-eyed golem twisted, and the female golem's neck snapped with a loud pop. Her head was twisted almost completely around before the golem let go and stepped back. The others released their holds, and the dead female fell in a heap.

"Master! Master! What's happening?" The lab assistant golems swarmed around the edges of the table and the control panel but stayed clear of their larger red-eyed compatriots.

Frankenstein stood gripped between two golems, mouth gaping. "What? What have you done?"

Eva was the only one not held in place by golems. She paced toward Frankenstein, brandishing the stone. Two golems held him in place while another wrapped its arm around his neck from behind. Eva cackled.

"You think you can raise your creations with my power and get away with it? All you have done is give your playthings to me!"

"Baba Yaga!" Frankenstein gasped, and Angelica finally understood. The Witch of the Wastes was here. Somehow, through the stone, she had gained control of Eva as well as Frankenstein's newly-birthed golems.

Boots echoed in the hall. Angelica twisted to get a look and saw several armed golems marching in. They stopped just inside the door of the laboratory. Apparently, Baba Yaga now had control of the previous batch as well. All the golems that had been infused with the power of the stone were now hers to command.

Golems moved up behind Angelica and Hannah. They were prisoners.