Nikolas had never used one of the sentry bots to take out another sentry bot. It had frankly never occurred to him to do anything but try and take them all out as quickly as possible. But today was a day for firsts, and it was going to take creativity if he was going to take Shelke out.

Which is how he found himself dismantling the last remaining bot - a cannon head, or some other nearly-identical variant. He never bothered trying to learn their names if there wasn't a difference in how they were trying to kill him.

But when he took it apart, he now had a small cannon and a steel shield that would cover a good half of his body, a minimum of all his vital organs. He wasn't exactly accustomed to fighting using a shield, but he had once or twice and under the circumstances, as Reeve pointed out, he couldn't be picky. His Walls were not impenetrable even at their best. But a Wall and a steel shield? That had much better odds.

He did not expect to be making much use of the cannon against Shelke herself - he'd like to take the kid in one living piece, if possible - but the great big doors in his way?

Nikolas smiled with a bit of boyish glee and let loose. The first shot didn't do visible damage, but the second one made the doors shake in a way that suggested they were no longer as snugly sealed with one another. A third, and there was a barely-visible gap between them.

He took the advantage for what it was and shoved his sword in, using his strength to pry the doors open. Much as he hated to use his blade like a crowbar, he had to admit it was effective. And that was what counted, more than anything right now.

There was immediate gunfire peppering the doors, and he swore softly, popping his barrier into place. "Reeve? Cait?"

'Huh. Didn't expect she had time to move any of the equipment,' Reeve admitted. 'Machine gun turrets, and unfortunately they can keep it up for a while.'

"Any weaknesses?" He asked.

'You'd have to be willing to risk taking some hits, I imagine,' Reeve warned.

"I'm a SOLDIER, sir. That's sort of in the job description," he said dryly. "Odds are good I'll survive it."

'That's not as comforting as I think you meant it to be,' Reeve said.

"Mm. It's still firing and I'm wasting time," he pointed out. "Tell me what to do."

What to do ended up being nothing he would have imagined, as they both realized at once that the doors had broken enough he had a whole new potential shield once he'd cut a handhold into it. Which meant he could enter the room one step at a time, listening to bullets ricocheting off until Shelke must have cut them off. After all, ricochets had her in far more danger than him, assuming she was in there.

And then she was very much there even if he couldn't see her, because the metal door was a wickedly good conductor without any grounding and some sort of electric something had hit it hard.

He shoved it forward, toppling it and raising his actual shield, far smaller but the safer bet. He had approximately less than ten seconds after the door had gone down before he heard rapid, light steps, saw an orange and blue blur, and felt something slam into his shield. He nearly dropped it at the charge that raced through it, making his arm tingle painfully like it had been asleep for hours and was just now waking up.

But he didn't drop it, and he saw the dread in the girl's eyes - girl, fuck she was a literal child! - as she leaped back and twirled her batons.

There was nowhere for her to go.

He was never supposed to make it up here, and if he had, he was supposed to be incapacitated long enough for her to use her speed and superior familiarity with the place to escape. He could see it all plain as day in her eyes. She, too, had taken a risk, carefully calculated based off of whatever information she had been fed about SOLDIER.

Obviously, it was lacking.

She knew it. She knew he knew it, too.

A creeping desperation entered pale blue eyes and she amped up the power on her batons until they were visibly crackling. If she landed a hit on him, it was going to do far more than make his arm tingle.

But she had to know she wasn't going to land a hit on him. Which meant there was a fifty fifty chance, minimum, that it was not being readied for him. And he was not going to wait and find out what that meant.

He didn't shift stances so much as he lunged at her, counting on her to panic at the thought of a close combat fight she would inevitably lose. Counting on her to use her speed to dodge, to take the bait of having just enough room to his right to maybe start sprinting for freedom.

In retrospect, he should have known better.

Shelke knew she was going to lose, yes. She was younger, physically weaker, and likely inexperienced in such situations because you didn't put the brains of the operation in this position. She never should have been out here fighting him. But she wasn't a coward.

Defiant to the end, she twirled her blades for momentum, bringing them together with a resounding CRACKthat set off a blindingly bright flash as the power coming off them both comingled and began to build into something even more dangerously potent.

She gave him the tiniest, grim smile, and twitched something on the handles and he knew immediately. "Don't -"

The resulting explosion as the batons overloaded from the sheer level of electricity coursing through them threw them to opposite ends of the room.

Nikolas might have actually passed out for a moment, or at least lost his vision when he was slammed forcibly into the wall. The arm holding the shield fell limp to his side, save for a few twitches. He was beyond lucky that the shock seemed to have not really gone far beyond the elbow, though he had no real idea why he'd gotten lucky.

It was only as the roaring in his ears quieted that he could hear Cait Sith's nervous babbling interspersed with Reeve's low, urgent tones, that he realized maybe more time had passed than he'd thought. "'M alive."

'Oh thank the stars,' Cait Sith breathed. 'Gave us a right scare, lad.'

'What happened, Nikolas?' Reeve asked. 'How badly are you hurt? Is the fight over?'

Nikolas sat up with a bitten off groan, and felt the telling damp stickiness of a sluggishly bleeding head wound where he'd apparently slammed harder than he'd thought. Still, he forced himself to his feet, to take stock of the situation. "…I think she shorted out the control room."

'…not good but not irreparable; it's a feature, not a bug,' Reeve said. 'Details, please Nikolas.'

"Give me a minute. The fight's over. I think I have a concussion and I'm bleeding… one of my arms will need a good look, too…" Nikolas tsked, sighing. Mako eyes meant no light was no big deal. He picked his way through the rubble, and found the small body collapsed against the other wall, slid down behind a control panel.

Out cold, with a lot of significant burns. But her pulse was there, even if it wasn't as steady as he'd have liked. "Shelke's alive, for now. Out cold and hurt bad. She overloaded her weapon and it exploded. Tried to take us both out."

'Aw, lass…' Cait Sith sighed.

'We'll send people to clear the reactor, recover you both, and bring you to safety,' Reeve promised. 'Followed by a team of my people to get things straightened out, cleaned up, and back online.'

"Sounds like a good plan," Nikolas murmured, taking a seat beside Shelke. "…she's just a kid, Reeve."

'…I'm sorry,' he said, soft and sincere. 'That's not going to continue on my watch.'

"Never should've happened," he murmured.

'Hey now, don' go goin' to sleep on us, lad!' Cait Sith said. 'That's no good with a head injury, y'know that.'

"Right, right…" He sighed, licking his lips. Sensation was beginning to filter in, and by 'sensation' he mostly meant pain. "Think I broke a rib, maybe…"

'We'll have someone there soon to look at you, and bring you to Aerith,' Cait Sith promised. 'You just hold on, a'right? You're gonna be just fine, lad. We'll see to it. And we'll see she's taken good care of too.'

"Yeah…" Nikolas blinked blearily. "Keep talking? I'm… having trouble focusing."

'Of course,' Reeve said. 'We'll fill you in on the others…'