Many thanks to BeaconHill and GlassGirlCeci for betareading.

Radiant 13.3

"Sun's going down, boss," the Empire thug said nervously, his fingers rubbing the casing of his holstered pistol. The golden sunlight cast a sharp line of gold across his face where the last sunbeams streamed over the hills. "Sure we shouldn't, uh—"

"Run and hide?" The scornful voice emerged from the open garage, its thick German accent sharpening the disdain even further. "She'd be a fool to attack us here. My defenses will stop her long before she gets this far. Just do your duty, soldier."

"Yes sir."

I lowered the binoculars and passed them to Sophia. We were huddled in the bushes atop a hill overlooking the house. The sun streamed behind us, lighting the neighborhood below. It was a gated community, and we knew the Empire had threatened or bribed the surrounding locals into silence. I had no doubt Auxiliary had also tapped into the HOA's systems to improve his own surveillance. "Could you make out what he was working on, Dragon?" I asked.

"Looks like he's modifying large appliances," said Dragon. "Dishwashers, dryers, something like that. Three of them. Not sure what they do. And he's got his escape vehicle."

"We should assume he has all the standard defenses," said Sophia, lowering the binoculars. "Could you make out what they were saying, Taylor?"

"He definitely said his defenses would 'stop' me," I said. "Sounds like turrets or robots, something active."

"I can always drop an EMP," Dragon offered.

"That's a last resort," I said. "It's a civilian neighborhood—we don't want to damage the infrastructure if we can avoid it. But keep it armed, just in case."

"You got it. What are you going to do instead?"

"I can go in, poke the defenses, and see what happens," Sophia suggested. "I should be able to get out of just about anything they can toss at me."

"No," I said immediately. "It's too risky—what if they have an electrical field to stop you from phasing, or something else that counters you?"

"Then you can get in and pull me out," she growled. I blinked and looked over at her. She was glaring at me. "I'm not made of glass, Taylor," she said. "I may not be a juggernaut like you, but I've been doing this for a while. I know how to get out of tough situations. You don't need to protect me."

His power wasn't worth that to me. "Is this about Hookwolf?" I asked.

She looked away. "We'll talk about that later," she said. "For now—I'm going to try to get in close by the rooftops. Keep an eye on me—I'll try to stick to the shadows. Thank God for those big AC units."

"Okay," Dragon agreed. "Miss Militia, Assault, and Gallant are in position outside the main gate of the compound. I'll send them in if things start to go south."

"Fine," I said. "Please be careful, Sophia."

She gave me a quick smile. "I always am." She turned away and in the blink of an eye was gone.

I took a deep breath. "Dragon—keep eyes on her."

"I'm doing what I can. She's slippery, but I'll keep an eye on her. She's reached the target block now."

I gritted my teeth. This was harder than it had any right to be. I resisted the urge to check in with Sophia—it had only been, what, twenty seconds? At most?—and instead brought the binoculars back up to my eyes. Another group of patrolling thugs were rounding the house now. There were three of them, each carrying a rifle. The one in the back had a modified gun. Lumps of interconnected circuitry and exposed wiring dotted the sides and base of the weapon, and instead of a clip it seemed to have some sort of electrical hardware feeding into the barrel.

"You see that?" I asked Dragon. "Tinkertech gun on that guy."

"I see it," Dragon said. "Can't tell what it does yet, though."

"So do I," said Sophia, her voice barely more than a breath ghosting my ears. "Tempted to try and make a distraction, see if I can get him to fire."

"Too risky," I said immediately.

"Agreed," Sophia sighed. "Next best thing might be to disarm him before he gets the chance. Problem is, I don't know how many of those guns are around. I'm going to try and get a view of the back yard, see what's hiding under that big awning and in the gazebo."

"Good luck," I murmured.

She didn't answer—she had likely already faded into shadow. She spoke again a moment later. "There's only one roof with a vantage over the back yard," she reported. "If they were gonna lay a trap for a rooftop infiltrator, I'd bet money it'd be there."

"And that's the only way to see into the yard?"

"Without going inside entirely, yeah. I can spring it, or I can look around for a better idea of their defenses first."

"You're not springing a trap deliberately!" I said sharply.

"This whole setup is a trap. Springing it is the entire mission, Taylor." She didn't sound upset, or even impatient, but her tone was unyielding. "We're going to have to bust their shell from one angle or another. Might be best to go in from multiple angles at once."

I grimaced. "Dragon, how likely do you think it is that Auxiliary's trapped that roof?"

"Very." Dragon's voice was grim. "Rooftops are a pretty common tactic—one you've used a lot yourself. He doesn't have to be a tactical genius to recognize a threat. And there are tacticians in the Empire, even if he isn't necessarily one of them."

"What do we have on his psych profile?" Sophia asked. "Any obvious weaknesses?"

"Nothing that clear-cut," I said. "Only thing that stood out to me was that he didn't seem as fanatically prejudiced as a lot of other Empire capes. He's more of a casual bigot. Other than that, pretty standard tinker profile—workaholic, more comfortable with machines than people, likes stability in his life and workspace. Like Armsmaster, only evil."

"Armsmaster's more complicated than that," Sophia said absently.

"So's Auxiliary. I was summarizing. I didn't see anything that would help with an infiltration."

"I might have an idea. If he's anything like Armsmaster… Do you remember who was driving his getaway car, that time we fought him a couple months ago?"

"Auxiliary was, I think," I said. "Why?"

"He's gonna spend his time making tinkertech. Training people to use it isn't something he's gonna bother with, if he can avoid it."

I blinked. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"So the automated defenses are going to be more dangerous than human troops." She paused thoughtfully. "The traps on the roof will be automated. On your call I'll go for that guy with the tinkertech gun."

"Okay," I said. "Dragon, everyone else is in position?"

"Yes. Waiting on you, Mairë."

The name was going to take some getting used to. I still wasn't certain I was worthy of it. "Okay. Now."

I stood up, striding out into the street. Sunrise gave a joyous ring as I drew it from its scabbard. An explosion from the other side of the compound told me that Miss Militia had breached the perimeter. I saw men turning, some towards me, some towards the sound. Guns rose.

I brought my sword up so that the flat glittered red before my face, then lowered it to my side again. Light and sound burst from the muzzles of the rifles, and bullets began to ping uselessly off my armor.

For a moment I allowed myself to indulge in nostalgia. Once, this situation had frightened me. More recently, it had excited me.

Now I was almost bored. I found myself hoping Auxiliary had something more interesting to throw my way.

I banished that darker impulse. I had to remind myself that my friends, and the local civilians, might not see it that way, and nor should I.

I bounced once on the balls of my feet and charged. The two blocks' distance between me and the Empire troops closed in seconds. Sunrise flashed as it sheared through the barrels of their weapons. Then I shifted my grip and, one by one, I struck each trooper carefully in the temple with the sword's hilt. There had been six of them, and they were all out cold in under a minute.

Then a bolt of brilliant blue light shot past my face. I turned. Another man was frantically trying to reload a modified tinkertech gun. Sophia had been right—he didn't seem familiar with the equipment. Still, as I raised Sunrise into a guard and began to run in his direction, he managed to get the gun humming again and leveled it at me. A lance of luminous blue shot forth as he pulled the trigger.

I brought Sunrise about to deflect the laser. The blue light scattered in a luminous pattern across the pavement around me, refracted by the rippling metal of the sword. Then I reached the man, slashed through his gun, and knocked him out.

A humming sound made me look up. The streetlamps were shifting, hidden panels opening to reveal concealed weaponry. Here were the turrets.

I rolled forward, out of the way of the first burst of bullets. They shattered the asphalt behind me. As I came out of my roll, I slashed at the base of the lamppost. An energy barrier flickered to life around the pole, but Sunrise tore through it as easily as it did through the metal, and the turret sputtered and died as its host lamp began to fall. It clattered down into the street, but I was already turning and rushing towards the next lamp.

"Dragon," I said as I disabled the next turret. "Warn the other team about these turrets, would you?"

"Already have. By the way—watch out for manhole covers. They're trapped too."

"With what?" At that moment, I heard a resounding boom from the other side of the compound. I looked over and saw a metal disk soaring through the air, flickering lights decorating its underside, broken machinery sparking beneath it.

"Explosives and robots on the underside," Dragon explained. "The mine propels the robot out of the manhole, and the robot then engages with automated weaponry."

"Got it." I looked around. There was a manhole about half a block from me. I rushed towards it. When I was about ten feet away, I saw the edges of the metal disk light up. I jumped.

The explosion shot the manhole up into the air—and right into my feet, propelling me upward. I drove my sword downward, through the metal circle, and heard the crunch as the robot was destroyed. Then I braced against the disk and jumped off of it, propelling myself upward and forward as the disk was driven down into the street.

I soared thirty, forty, fifty feet, until I was right over the garage where Auxiliary had been working. I saw a turret extending from the house's chimney, but I raised Sunrise and deflected the two bolts of light it shot at me even as I fell. The shingles of the roof gave way beneath me and I whirled in midair, driving my sword straight through the plaster ceiling.

I landed kneeling in the middle of Auxiliary's workshop. To my left, something that had once been a washing machine roared to life. Legs emerged from the base, arms emerged from the sides, and where the door of the washer should have been on the top, a robotic head emerged, two glowing red eyes trained on me. Machine guns affixed to the shoulders began to whir.

Before it could even finish standing, however, I drove my blade into its body and clove it in two. Then I spun and bisected its brother, a mech that had once been a dryer. The dishwasher got two shots off before its arms were separated from its body. Then I turned and faced the car, with Auxiliary himself in the driver's seat, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Surr—" I began, then lunged and slashed the tinkertech machinery off of the hood of the vehicle just as it began to hum. The cloaking field which had just begun to coalesce around the car sputtered and died. I cleared my throat. "Surrender," I finished.

He blinked. His mouth opened and shut a few times. "You are stronger than I remember," he said, his harsh accent unable to mask either his fear or his awe.

"Where have you been the past two months?" I shook my head. "Doesn't matter. Surrender. Or I can just knock you out and take you in anyway."

He nodded. "Fine. I surrender."

"Good. Deactivate your defenses." I fixed him with a stare as he pulled out a cell phone and began tapping out commands. I narrowed my eyes, but there was no sign of defiance. I sheathed Sunrise and turned away. "Dragon?"

"I've told the others. They're converging on the other troops now. Cleanup shouldn't take too long."

"Mairë." I turned. Sophia was emerging from the shadows in the corner of the garage, staring around at the destroyed tinkertech. "I saw you coming through the ceiling."

I nodded. "Sorry I didn't wait for you."

"No worries. You all right?"

"Yeah. You?"

"No complaints. No civilian casualties, minimum property damage. I even managed to salvage some of the tinkertech for Dragon, too."

"That puts you ahead of Mairë," Dragon said, and I could hear the pout in her voice. "She ignored my needs completely!"

I snorted. "Sorry about that, got caught up in the moment." I glanced back at Auxiliary. "Out of the car. Let's get you into custody. If we hurry the team might be in bed before midnight, this time."

And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.