Waking up to sirens blaring throughout the city snapped me into fight-or-flight mode.

I was out of bed and halfway down the stairs to my workshop before I figured out what was going on. Francis was already up and dressed, staring out of a one-way armored window. It was still early winter morning, so the sun had yet to come up, but the light pouring through the window had me thinking it was much later in the day. It wasn’t until I peered out the window that I saw what was happening.

“Now? They’re launching them now?”

By the time Francis turned his head, Sam had already zipped downstairs, appearing at my side in the blink of an eye. Her eyes glimmered with a pink sheen as a smile stretched across her lips.

“I can’t believe they’re starting the party at five in the morning! Do those bozo’s not get that I need my beauty slee— argh, it’s too early for this…” Sam groaned, switching from Pink to Blue mid-sentence. “I suppose we can’t have everything. It’ll be too much to ask for them to run on our timetable.”

“Everyone’s moving into position,” Francis gave me a curt nod. “If you don’t want the Sweepers to find us, now would be the time to switch on the scrambling tech we gave you.”

The ECU’s headquarters had lights flashing all around it like they were advertising the circus was in town. Ajax’s Mothership hadn’t moved, but it was visibly putting out more energy than before. The body of the floating craft had lit up and compartments were moving all around and opening. Any moment now, the Sweepers were going to start pouring out in droves, followed by the gigantic Walkers.

I rushed over to a lever and a metal box Francis helped me install when we first moved here. I pulled the lever down and swung open the control panel next to it. There were dials and a couple of switches to configure the intensity of the scrambler tech. I flicked five switches on before turning my attention to the dials. There were six of them. The first two I turned two hundred and seventy degrees clockwise, then the next one a hundred and sixty degrees. I turned the last three ninety, seventy, and fifteen degrees.

“Shielding up,” I called out, looking over my shoulder to watch for any irregularities in my equipment. “Now, we just have to wait and see.”

The first problem I spotted upon installation was its potential to mess with the electronics already in my workshop. Efficient uses of this tech required human intervention, and so far according to Cyberspace, it hadn’t been properly automated. If we turned this on and left it on to cloak us from the Sweepers, my stuff wouldn’t even be able to find the workshop. Any incoming or outgoing transmissions would be redirected or blocked entirely. The scrambler also output some kind of signal that messed with the functionality of all my machines. I had to make a few upgraded tweaks to stop that.

“What the hell is all that noise?” Mia grumbled, walking down the stairs looking like she had fallen straight out of her bed. Given the circumstances, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. “Is The ECU deploying those things now?”

“Sounds like it,” Liam commented from behind her. He didn’t look as bad as Mia, but I could still see the sleep in his eyes. “I guess this is where we find out if we get to go back to bed in ten minutes, or fight for our lives. If there is a God out there somewhere, do us a solid and give us the former because I could really do with a few extra hours.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” Sam chided with a smile. “I remember the days I got a maximum of six hours. Those were good times.”

The sirens abruptly stopped, leaving a tense atmosphere. I could feel the anticipation in the room as we all glanced out the window, watching the lights brighten and dim every few seconds. After that racket the whole city would be awake, and it was intentional. The ECU wanted everyone to witness the deployment so they could be sure Bayside knew order was coming.

“Here we go,” Francis murmured.

Massive canisters dropped from The Mothership, falling somewhere close to the Citadel. Given our distance we didn’t feel any of the impacts, but it wouldn’t be long before the ground trembled as the Walkers roamed the city.

“Eighteen,” Sam counted the last canister drop with an unsatisfied edge to her voice. “Gold estimated at seven or eight…” she lifted a hand to rub her forehead, and I could see the frustration on her face. She wasn’t happy with this outcome, not in the slightest. “Cleaning up to reestablish a sense of order would only need that many. Any more than that means they’re being deployed as a preemptive counter measure.”

“Against what?” Mia asked. “Pandora? Gaea?”

“Us?” Liam added with a shrug. “Since we’re replacing Grim or whatever. Could this be for us?”

“Seems like overkill,” I voiced my two cents. Bayside wasn’t a continuous active warzone, even with Gaea residing here since the founding of the city, or the numerous gangs of Supers running rampant. Whatever was going on, the ECU deemed it enough to justify dropping eighteen Walkers into Bayside. “There’s no way this can be for us.”

“No,” Francis agreed. “There’s something else going on here.”

“The sinkholes,” Sam said. “It has to be something to do with those.”

“Sinkholes?” Liam said, looking confused. “I haven’t heard anything about any sinkholes.”

“It’s because of the earthquakes, you know, the ones everything thinks The Mountain has been causing?” Sam looked at Liam over her shoulder. “They’ve been steadily growing in frequency over the last few days, and I’ve started to feel a few of them myself. Down south, there are sinkholes opening up right underneath towns. While we were focused on knocking Grim off his high horse, towns in and around Zachery Port have been sunk so deep into the earth that expeditions and rescue efforts are still underway.”

“I’ve felt them too. They’re small,” Mia said, looking around. “Is someone responsible for causing these sinkholes to appear with the earthquakes?”

“No one’s sure yet,” Francis chimed in. “The only thing that’s been confirmed is that these earthquakes are not the result of The Mountain using his power, and that they’re not naturally occurring.”

“Naturally occurring is redundant considering this whole country isn’t natural. There's a whole list of things I could rattle off about what could potentially be happening and none of them are particularly pleasing to hear,” Sam grimaced. “Eighteen Walkers… yeah, I don’t really like the picture this is painting.”

“I’m so lost,” Liam sighed, looking in my direction for some help. “Can you translate?”

“The earthquakes aren’t just increasing in frequency, they’re getting closer. Coupled with the absurd amount of war machines Ajax just dropped into the city…” I looked over to Sam, meeting her gaze before looking back to Liam. I was starting to get used to Sam’s haunted looks. “Something’s coming – more specifically – something underground is coming.”

That managed to shake the sleep out of his eyes.

“Something? What’s ‘something’?”

“Not sure yet,” Sam replied before I could get a word in. “Whatever it is, I can’t imagine it’s going to want to sit down for a coffee and a sandwich. The sinkholes have already taken thousands of people. Whether or not they’re dead or alive remains to be seen. For their sake, I kind of hope they’re dead.”

Mia looked horrified.

“Why would you hope for something like that?”

“Like I said about Natasha. Sometimes, death is better than missing. If they’re still alive, there’s no way to imagine what kind of hell they’re experiencing,” Sam explained, giving Liam an apologetic look as he crossed his arms and glared at her. “Of course this is all just speculation and I could be way off the mark, but now that I’m seeing this, I’m pretty sure I’m right.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but the sudden shuddering of the floor made me pause. Each subsequent vibration grew stronger, and it wasn’t long before the vibrations shook the very bones in my body. I knew it was time to see if the scrambler Cyberspace gave us really paid off.

“If it wasn’t for the fact we had already faced down Grim, I probably would’ve been halfway to Canada by now,” Sam mused, shuddering. “Look at that thing… yuck.”

I saw the Walker silhouetted against the sky as the sun began to rise. It loomed in the distance on eight giant mechanical legs, dwarfing the surrounding buildings. Its disc-shaped body spun and whirred, the whole design feeling alien. However, what really stood out to me were the weapons – or the distinct lack thereof.

“Yuck?” I scoffed. “That thing looks like it's straight out of War of the Worlds, I’m not sure ‘yuck’ is the word I’d go for.”

“Anything with eight legs needs to be stepped on, no questions,” Sam responded with another shudder. “The only thing to think about now is how we’re going to step on this one. The legs and main body are composed of an evomat that Red won’t even be able to dent, and that’s not taking into account the force field protecting it from any kind of projectile.”

I stared at the Walker as if it was a walking vault carrying billions of dollars.

“What else does it have?”

“A whole cavalcade of weapons systems. Disintegration rays, incendiary and freeze grenades, at least four onboard gauss cannons, riot suppression weapons, crowd control compounds, bunker busting munitions… Jesus, I could probably write a book about what Ajax has stuffed in there and I’d end up with a damn trilogy,” Sam said. “Point is, everyone calls them war machines for a reason. They’re built for one thing and one thing only.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Pizza delivery,” Liam intervened, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, we get it. They’re mobile murder dispensers. What’re we going to do about the one heading right toward us?”

“Nothing,” Francis remarked, remaining as calm as ever. “We have the scramblers for a reason. Picking a fight with one of them is not the best idea. It’s going to take planning and efficient execution to bring one down quickly, without having to deal with the back up it calls.”

Multiple shadows flew past the window causing Liam, Mia, and myself to duck behind the nearest cover. Sam and Francis remained in place, standing and staring out the window like it was just another day. Sam looked over her shoulder at us and laughed.

“That won’t work. They have thermal imaging and highly advanced x-ray. If you don’t have something that can achieve a similar result as our scrambler, then you’re fried,” Sam shot me a quick nod of approval before gesturing at said scrambler. “Good thing we know it works. I kinda would’ve been pissed if I went to all that effort to redecorate, just to be forced to move again. Seriously, I am not dealing with Pink throwing a tantrum about what colors I should be using again.”

The Walker finally entered our street, systematically scanning every building as it moved through. We all watched in silence as it prowled, lowering its main body to street level. One of its lights flashed through the window and my heart leaped into my throat. For a few seconds, no one moved, and I felt like everything was about to end in a split second. All it would take was the deployment of one of its weapons systems, and we’d all be dead. Sam might be able to escape with Pink, but the rest of us would be reduced to a pile of ashes.

Thankfully, that did not happen. The Walker continued, passing through our street and onto the rest of Groves Den.

I brushed myself off and stood up.

“That was a little too close for comfort.”

“From now on comfort is a luxury,” Francis said. “The Sweepers and Walkers will be operating day and night without reprieve, so you four will need to operate with even more caution than usual.”

“Woah, woah, wait a second. All the time?” Liam pointed out the window. “I thought those things were just going to be out at night time, you know, to enforce the new city-wide curfew they’ve got going on. Are you telling me they’re going to be roaming around during the day too?”

Francis’ stoic expression shifted ever-so-slightly to disbelief.

“Did you really think Ajax would come all this way only to have them roam around at night? No, they’ll be operating twenty-four seven. That’s what they were designed for. Don’t like it? Well, welcome to The Iron Maiden’s world for the last decade,” Francis said before clearing his throat. “Now, the five of us have some things to discuss, so I suggest going to make some coffee because going back to bed is not on the menu.”

Liam slumped while I just sighed.

Fifteen minutes later, we reconvened upstairs around a table, all of us gripping steaming cups of coffee. Sam and Mia tidied themselves up so they didn’t look like a gust of wind had assaulted them, while Liam and I changed into warm clothes. It was still the middle of winter, and I had neglected to upgrade the heating in our living quarters since moving in.

“Let’s get straight to the point, the Sweepers and Walkers patrolling Groves Den need to go. We can’t operate while those things are out and about, so we need to come up with a plan of action to take them down,” Francis explained. “It’s easier said than done, and there are a multitude of considerations that need to be made before we go in guns blazing. Ajax isn’t some sprout fresh to the scene. His Mechatech is some of the most sophisticated, and bringing it down won’t be easy.”

While Sam and Liam nodded along, Mia rubbed the bridge of her nose, unsatisfied.

“This is a bad idea, we shouldn’t be picking fights with The ECU. If we go out there and start picking apart their special tech, they’re going to come down hard on us! I don’t know about you guys, but Ajax is the last person I want to piss off. There has to be another way we can coexist with them,” Mia stressed. “If we do this, we’ll be sending a message.”

“A message that Pandora and The Queen’s Court are probably planning on sending as well,” Liam chimed in with a rare display of wisdom. Sam and Francis gave him agreeable nods while I smirked. He had powers longer than I did, but it seemed he hadn’t been much more informed than I was. Now, he was picking things up quickly. “There’s no way they’re gonna let those things have free reign strolling through where their stashes can be detected. We might have the cool tech stuff to hide us, but I doubt those guys have anything remotely similar. They’re gonna be out there throwing bodies at those things.”

“Give it a couple of minutes and the fighting will start,” Sam kicked both feet onto a table, sipping her coffee before resting it on her lap. “You’ve got a few statues out there watching those parts of the city, so you’ll know better than the rest of us,” she turned back to Francis. “So, have we got any solid intel? Gold’s spotted a few potential design flaws we could exploit, but with how Ajax has historically fooled Mentalists, I’m inclined to double and triple check my findings before I act on them.”

Francis pulled out a few sheets of folded paper before handing them to us. I unfolded mine and scanned the contents. They were printed-out diagrams of the Sweepers and Walkers deployed in Bayside. Detailed notes were pointing to certain areas on the machines, but nowhere specified any kind of weakness we could exploit.

“Cyberspace compiled this information based on our observed reports in locations where these war machines have been deployed. Unfortunately, the bad news is the exterior has no structural flaws or weak points to take advantage of. Overwhelming force is required to break through the evomaterials once the initial force field has been depleted,” Francis explained. “Breaking through this forcefield won’t be an easy matter either. Just like the exterior shell, it will require a tremendous amount of force.”

I scanned the paper until I found a detailed breakdown of the forcefield and the tech used to power it.

“Solar Fusion?” I murmured, my brow furrowing. I looked up from the paper and into Francis’ stoic expression. “I’ve never heard of this kind of energy. Did Ajax invent it?”

“By harvesting energy directly from the sun,” Francis explained. “Some kind of century advancement in solar technology, combined with fusion power. Don’t ask me how Ajax managed that because I’m not a Mechakinetic. The point is, he did it, and those solar fusion cores power his war machines.”

“They’re… not going to blow up and scorch half the country if one of them gets knocked around too much, right?” Liam asked, a little concerned. “‘Cause like, I think we should think things over if that’s the case. This city might be the pits, but I still live here. I didn’t stick my neck out to drown Grim just to end up nuking the city.”

“No,” Francis rolled his eyes with a sigh. “There are fail-safes in place. If that were the case, Dubai and half the Middle East would be in the ocean.”

“Ajax wouldn’t leave a flaw like that in their design,” I chimed in. “When I started upgrading my Jericho Cores, one of the first things I did was make sure there were systems in place to reduce fallout if they malfunctioned or were destroyed. Ajax is almost certainly a thousand times smarter than me, so… yeah. I think we’re covered there.”

“Cool,” Liam nodded, relieved. “Alright, so we’re throwing ourselves at the Groves Den patrollers. What’s the plan?”

“Well, first we have to figure out how much force is required to break through the forcefield. Once that’s done, we then need to consider what it’ll take to pierce the armor enough to damage and disable the walking evohuman terminator before its power core can restore the forcefield,” Sam chirped with a smile. “I don’t have the slightest clue what solar fusion is actually capable of, but if the information Cyberspace has compiled here is even close to accurate, I’d wager we wouldn’t have long.”

Liam rolled his shoulders a bit at the challenge.

“So, what, we gotta bust the thing in five minutes?”

Sam snorted.

“More like five seconds.”

“Ah,” Liam sagged a little, idly tossing the paper to the side. “Well, this seems entirely pointless.”

“Don’t throw in the towel just yet,” I said, unconvinced that the venture was hopeless. Cyberspace would’ve known about all of this before compiling the information, yet they decided to give it to us anyway. Francis was the one debriefing us and even he would’ve known before handing them out. There was a catch, and all of us here were capable of extraordinary things. We took down Grim. If we could do that, then one of Ajax’s Walkers shouldn’t be much more of a stretch. There was something we could do. “We haven’t even considered what our options are.”

“We can’t brute force this thing,” Liam protested.

“We didn’t exactly brute force Grim,” Mia weakly countered. She didn’t look thrilled that she was taking our side, considering she was averse to this conflict in the first place. “We exploited a glaring weakness in his powers.”

“Didn’t we just establish that these things have no weaknesses?” Liam asked, confused. “Am I missing something? I know I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed…”

“You’re right, they have no glaring flaws. No weak spots to target so we can take them down,” Sam agreed. “It’s going to be a struggle, but not impossible. Actually, I think you’ll be surprised at how easy this could turn out for us.”

“You’ve got something in mind?” I asked, giving Sam a knowing look. She returned my look with a sly smirk. By now, I felt I should know better than to assume she wasn’t cooking something up in her head. I never wanted to assume she would be because I knew it would be dangerous to rely on her a hundred percent of the time. Sam had already admitted once that she’d been caught flat-footed with Mirage. Gold might have answers for a lot of things, but she couldn't know everything. “Let’s hear it then.”

Sam held up a hand, extending all five fingers.

“Five seconds, maybe a bit longer give or take, but I wager we won’t even need three.”

Liam groaned.

“Can you dial back the smug?”

“We’ll have to be quick with our ambush, as these Walkers are surrounded by Sweepers that’ll pick up our approach if we dawdle,” Sam said, completely ignoring Liam’s comment. His growing indignation only made her grin widen. “We strike hard and fast. Throw everything we got at the forcefield in quick succession, overload it, and power it down. After that, Max can use that five second window to get close.”

“You want me to get close?”

“These war machines are just that, machines,” Francis emphasized.

The implication hit me like a freight train, and I was suddenly cackling like a madman.

“Now you get it,” Sam cheered with a light applause. “Once you get close, give it a light smack and do the same thing you did to the crate that held Deadlocked’s prototype. Reset its security, and connect it to our network. We do that, and we’ll have our own Ajax war machine in our back pocket. The ECU will think twice before sending another to hunt us down. Hell, while we’re at it, we can snag a couple of Sweepers too. They’ll be more sophisticated than your drones, so you can use them as a basis to create more. The Walker is probably too big to make copies in this place.”

It was an ingenious idea, but I quickly ran into a glaring issue the moment I put even a smidgen of real thought into it.

Deadlocked’s prototype was absurdly costly to upgrade or alter in any regard. There was no way Ajax’s Mechatech was going to be cheaper. Sure, I could initiate a slow upgrade to incapacitate them, but they’d be stuck in place for who knows how long. I could move smaller items while they upgraded, but Walkers were huge. There was no way I was moving one of those anywhere quickly.

“One problem with that,” I pointed out, losing a significant portion of my prior glee. “When I use my power on things, they enter a liquid-like state. I can easily move smaller stuff, but the bigger things like a Walker will be troublesome to move, and I can’t imagine Ajax or The ECU are just going to stand around while I try to stuff a giant blob of floating liquid into a… a truck or something.”

Sam just laughed.

“Who needs a truck when you have a big eldritch horror blob capable of transporting half a billion tons of seawater into a mind-bending hammer space that even I can’t comprehend?”

My head snapped hungrily to stare at Liam, whose gaze was locked on Sam.

“Touche,” he murmured. “Just a heads up though, I am never going shopping with you. I am not going to become a glorified cosmic bag of holding for you.”

Sam giggled.

“I’ll find a way to make you come around. Now, I don’t know about you guys but I think it's time for us figure out what we’re up against?”

I grinned.

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one of those war machines.