Step 6.8

There are things I regret.

I regretted not being strong enough to tell Dinah answering nine questions in one day is too many. I regret not being brave enough to honestly talk with Lafter and make sure she's okay. I regret that, though I did a slightly better job of it than before, I didn't feel like a very good daughter. I even regretted at times that maybe Veda might be better off if she'd never been dragged into my crusade.

At the moment though, I mostly regretted never building Astraea to handle two-hundred-forty millimeter howitzers.

Dragon shouted my name, but I started moving as soon as those barrels leveled at me. I shot forward, releasing the hold on my bazooka and swinging out the GN blade. The cannons shattered the air, and my ears. The entire robot-tank-thing shook, and the wall of force slammed into me. I lost my balance, a half dozen warnings blaring in my ears. Fortunately, the robot-tank was a big target. Even upside down I managed to make a token swing into the side as I passed under the left arm.

It didn't feel right.

I threw my feet back, thrusters firing in time to keep me from hitting the wall. The robo-tank began to turn, the chassis going one way and the torso the other. Dust and fire erupted throughout the workshop, clouding my vision even with advanced optics.

"Squealer," Dragon called. She landed on the ground, and behind her I saw people running for an opening. A door? "We're not here for you. The person we want is Cranial. Tell us where she is and-"

The robo-tank's arms raised and the hands began to spin. The cannons erupted – Veda identified them as eighty-eight millimeters – and Dragon's suit darted to the side.

The wall tore like tissue paper, dust and debris showering down into the workshop as the entire building shook around us. It got hard to see, even with night vision and sonic imaging.

"Squealer!" Dragon cried.

"Where's Skids!" The voice on the speakers shouted. "I want Skids!"

The torso turned toward me.

"You know where he is. Where is he!?"

I paused, hearing a slight slur in her voice.

Is she high?

She's a Merchant. So, probably.

I raised my pistols and fired, which obviously didn't work. I dodged, the torso turning far too slow to keep a line on me. I didn't quite expect the cannons to fire anyway. The blast threw out another wave of force, and knocked Astraea to the ground. I raised my shield, projecting a GN barrier in front of Astraea before the hand cannons sprayed a volley at me. I felt the first bullet like a fucking semi hit me, and then the second and the third.

The fourth hit too hard.

The shield snapped, GN particles bursting in every direction. I shot into the air before the fifth and sixth bullets hit me. Extending my shield arm straight, one of the missile tubes popped.

The projectile streaked forward, and I didn't really know if a GN missile would work on her laminate armor.

I didn't find out either.

Two panels on the robo-tank's shoulders and three on the torso popped open. Machine guns slid out, and a stream of bullets hit my missile. The blast filled the room, and I pressed on the thrusters hard. Astraea hit the ceiling and kept going, flying up and out of the warehouse before the roof collapsed.

I blinked from above, calling, "Dragon?"

"I'm alright," she said.

Her suit slid out of the expanding dust cloud, carrying a man in its arms. One of the workers from inside.

"Armsmaster," Dragon called. "We have a complication."

"Define," the Protectorate leader said.

I cycled through camera modes, but the GN particles in the air threw them all off. I vaguely made out several shapes in the debris below, but nothing solid.

"Squeal has built a-"

"Dragon!" I shouted.

The air billowed and parted like the Red Sea as the robo-tank fired. Dragon darted out of the way again, carrying the worker with her. She dropped the man on the ground, and he promptly scrambled to his feet and ran while her suit kept circling.

I dove from above and swung the GN blade into the tank's back. It felt wrong again, like trying to cut through the world's toughest jam. The blade moved cleanly through the armor, but it didn't feel deep enough or fast enough. Not like it did when I cut into the mini-tanks.

Did she improve the armor?

I really hoped she didn't improve the armor.

The torso spun at the end of my swing, the blade still about a foot inside the monstrous vehicle. I got dragged along and flung across the ground before I could react.

Astraea rolled over the ground twice before I caught my balance and stood. The head turned slightly, a pair of panels sliding back on either side. The guns inside erupted, peppering the ground around me and dinging my armor.

"Forty-five millimeter," Veda said. "They are insufficient to penetrate Astraea's armor."

"Squealer has built a very big tank," Dragon said, finally answering Armsmaster's question.

Dragon fired a volley of missiles, larger than the first one I'd seen. The machine guns on the shoulders swiveled around and fired, the bullets trailing the projectiles and leaving explosions in their wake. One got through and hit the back of the head, but the vehicle kept moving like that didn't matter.

"I see it," Stratos announced. "Targeted and firing."

I felt momentary relief, up until nothing happened. Well, not nothing. I saw the black bubble that marked Stratos' power. Four or five of them, one after the other, running along the robo-tank's torso. They were too small though, maybe only the size of my first.

They didn't do anything.

"That might be a problem," Stratos said.

"What?" I asked.

"His power has a weight limit," Dragon said on our private line. "Squealer must have built the armor with an ultra-dense material."

That's why the cut felt off, I realized. Sigh, she improved the armor.

Dragon fired another volley of missiles, and I shot off the second GN missile. I got myself back into the air, watching as the guns on the shoulders hectically fired back and forth. I raised my pistols and fired. The stream of particles bounced off the tank's armor, three shots hit the machine gun on the left shoulder.

The gun exploded.

My GN missile got through, along with two of Dragon's. The robo-tank buckled and shook under the blasts. Smoke, fire, and green speckles spun in a swirl around us.

"Good shot," Dragon said.

And the tank just drove out of the cloud with its armor looking a little banged up.

"Not good enough," I said.

The machine guns turned on us and fired. The bullets dinged and panged off my armor, but the force still hit me. I pushed on the pedals and rose higher, avoiding a volley from the hand guns. The machine guns turned toward another volley of missiles from Dragon, and the torso rotated to keep following me.

I didn't have anything in my arsenal that hit harder than a GN missile, and at most it looked like I'd managed to twist some surface armor with a slight spiral.

"We're going to need assistance," Dragon said.

Stratos used his power again, hitting the marks left by the missiles that hit. Still nothing but small pits.

Until he zeroed in and started hitting the same spot over and over.

The small pit grew larger and deeper.

The torso turned, and I flew to the left. The guns stopped trailing me after a second, and Dragon stopped behind the tank suddenly.

"Stratos!" She shouted.

I tensed, looking behind me just as the robo-tank's howitzers fired. The shells wheezed through the air, and the top of one of Brockton Bay's tallest buildings exploded.

The air cracked around me, my body thrown back as I accelerated as quickly as possible. Far too quickly for the neutralizers to negate.

Veda highlighted him in the falling debris.

I can make it.

The top of the building slid off in a wave, crashing down toward the streets below. Pieces and chunks struck the building on the way down, shearing off the entire north side of the tower as they fell. My eyes searched the debris, and I spun around as I lined up. Pieces of glass and rubble crashed into me like rain, and I fought the controls to maintain my course for the briefest seconds.

I threaded a narrow passage between two different pieces of collapsing rooftop and spun about. My feet went forward, and I grabbed Stratos out of the air. He gasped at the impact, and a rather large piece of concrete hit Astraea in the head.

It dazed me for a second, and there's the ground shit.

I righted myself and shot back toward the sky, carefully keeping myself from going so quick I'd lose my hold on Stratos.

The chatter came in fast.

"What the hell was that?" Velocity asked.

"Market Tower has been struck," Armsmaster said. "Emergency response, expect civilian casualties."

"Newtype?" Dragon asked.

"Isn't that where Stratos was?" Vista asked.

"What was that?" Laserdream asked.

"Squealer has built a large armored vehicle," Dragon said. "Newtype, did you catch Stratos?"

"I got him," I said with a huff. A silence followed, and it felt grateful.

I didn't get to enjoy it.

I landed ungracefully, Astraea's feet leaving a trail behind them. I set Stratos on the ground, and turned back just in time to watch the wall of destruction crash into the street. I shot forward, grabbing a woman and a small boy and pulling them under Astraea. Rocks and glass pattered against my back, and then rolled around me like a wave.

I tried not to think about the seven other people I'd seen right as everything fell atop them.

"I want that monstrosity destroyed!" Piggot's voice shattered the silence. "Armsmaster!"

I rose up, pieces of building falling off Astraea's back and shoulder. I heard Armsmaster talking, but I didn't listen.

The debris pile covered the street like a dam, thirty feet high, with huge pieces of steel and concrete among drywall, glass, wood, and plastic. I knew people were inside. I could see them on the sonic cameras. Some didn't move. Others did.

Beneath me the woman covered the boy and cried. They seemed okay. A cut on her arm, and one on the boy's head, but it didn't look too bad.

"Go," Stratos shouted. He marched toward me, scope pointed at the debris. "I'll dig the civilians out."

He started firing, his power vanishing pieces of debris left and right.

I turned back toward Shanty Town. "Okay."

"Thanks for the save," he said.

"Yeah."

Astraea burst into the air.

"Veda," I whispered.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"No," I snarled.

I got line of sight to the tank again and zoomed in. The tank rolled out of the wreckage of Squealer's workshop, a few oddly colored fires burning behind it. The vehicle entered the streets, turning toward Downtown.

Dragon's suit drifted back and forth low to the rooftops, lasers and missiles pouring from it in far greater numbers than I'd expect from a suit Astraea's size. I dived low, staying hidden behind the buildings.

"Cranial probably knows we're coming now," I said. "Crack her network as fast as you can. I'm going to deal with this."

I pulled up at a dead end street and flew straight toward Squealer's tank. The cannons fired at Dragon, but her suit emerged from the dust cloud looking okay. Squealer must have seen me, because the right arm turned my way. I threw one leg to the left and fired the thruster, and then did the same with the right. Astraea spun up, and over, the bullets from the hand guns whizzing past.

I swung the GN blade down, cutting into the hand's armor. I pushed the blade harder and deeper, hoping to cut something important.

The hand exploded, so I hit something.

I kept flying past, righting myself and diving back into a street behind some buildings. When I came up for another pass, the right hand was a mangled wreck. I took aim for the left, darting to the side and away as the torso spun around and the mangled right hand took a swipe at me.

Dragon swung in from behind and landed on the right shoulder. She ripped the machine gun off and reached into the vacant hole. She fired, a series of explosions popping the armor from the inside and blasting smoke and air in Dragon's direction as she lifted off and flew away.

"Fucking bitches," Squealer wheezed. "Is all your fault!"

Dragon and I darted back and forth, machineguns trailing our paths and peppering the street and buildings.

"Squealer," Dragon called. "You need to stop this. You're making things worse for yourself."

"Shud'up!" A slurred voice screamed.

Did she take drugs before getting in there, or is she taking more now that she is?

Dragon fired another volley of missiles, and I dove in from above as the machine guns began shooting them down. One I destroyed with my GN pistols, and another I cut with the GN blade after landing on the chassis. Squealer began turning the torso as I drove the GN blade into one of the gun ports. Metal and machinery gave way to the blade easily without the armor to protect it.

I pulled myself free as the left arm swung back at me, GN pistols aiming for the third machine gun. The hand came down and blocked the shots, and I quickly righted myself and flew out of the way before the still working hand guns fired at me.

"The point defense is almost eliminated," Dragon said. She launched another volley of missiles from behind the robo-tank, and while the chassis turned and the machine gun started firing, nearly all the missiles got through.

The tank kept going, the armor dented, bent, and scraped, but still looking like a solid wall between us and anything critical.

"The two hundred forty millimeters have a reload time of fourteen seconds," Veda announced. "Five seconds to firing."

I looked around. Shanty Town might not be heavily populated, but people still lived here.

I put myself in the middle of the street as the robo-tank drove into an intersection, pistols firing. The machine gun and the head cannons began peppering me, and I let them. The howitzers leveled toward me, and I flew up into the sky right as they fired. The blast threw me up higher, but at least it hit the middle of the street and two buildings no one lived in.

I can't do that forever

I started to line myself up to do it again.

Cannons erupted from below, one of the shells striking Astraea in the shoulder and mangling it. I spun into the ground and crashed. I shot back at the shooters, my vision spinning for a few moments. The two mini-tanks drove right at me, one slamming me into a wall and the other exploding.

Dragon came down on top of the mini-tank trying to pin me and dug her claws into the top. She ripped the hatch off, and I cut one of the guns away with my sword. The pilot got dragged out and thrown to the ground, and I shot him twice in the chest while pushing the tank away.

"Are you alright?" Dragon asked.

"Fine," I snarled.

Dragon's suit nodded and then stepped back as a shell shot past. I stepped behind the mini-tank, using it for cover as another pair came at us along with a dozen guys on foot. I started shooting the foot men, and Dragon took out both mini-tanks with a volley of missiles.

And now Squealer has reinforcements. I checked the Haros cameras, seeing more groups closing in on us and the robo-tank rolling toward Downtown two blocks over.

"This needs to stop," I hissed.

"Armsmaster," Dragon said. "Newtype and I are not able to stop the vehicle alone."

"We're working our way toward you," he said. "The Merchants are amassing around your position."

I saw his group about two blocks away, and Miss Militia's nearly ten.

Laughter knocked down a Merchant and kicked another, covering Brandish as she cut one of the mini-tanks open and dragged the pilot out. They wouldn't make it to us though, not with Miss Militia pinning down Mush with her grenade launcher and the PRT and other heroes covering her.

It took me a moment to locate Dauntless, Lady Photon, and Laserdream. They'd become bogged down fighting Merchants along the border with the Docks. Why were the Merchants trying to push into the Docks? Did they want to drag the ABB into the fighting?

"Do what you can," Armsmaster said. "We'll be there in six minutes."

The Haros showed me video of Armsmaster sweeping his way through Merchants, Flashbang and Manpower right behind him with dozens of PRT troopers.

Six minutes is too long.

No one mentioned Cranial, because of course a giant monster robot tank kind of took priority.

Dragon lifted back into the sky, and I followed after her.

"The armor is problematic," Dragon said.

"We can take out the last machine gun," I said. "At least she won't be able to shoot down your missiles."

I eyed the visor head. I couldn't see through it, but if any part of the robo-tank served as a cockpit, it would be there. If not the head, then the chest.

I flew up and over the robo-tank, shooting down. Dragon cut across a street ahead, and between her lasers and mine we destroyed the last of the machine guns on the chassis. We crossed paths as we circled, the hand gun firing a stream of bullets at us. I forced myself not to calculate the trajectory.

Those rounds would probably come back down somewhere in the Trainyard.

"Point defense destroyed," Dragon announced.

The cannons fired, and they weren't aimed at anything. Why the hell is she shooting without aiming at anything?

I turned, watching a building collapse. Veda confirmed it as vacant, but there might still be squatters or homeless inside.

This has to stop.

Dragon fired a volley, and I flew in behind them. The missiles exploded, shrouding the robo-tank in smoke. I slashed at the figure in a quick pass, the GN blade cutting through the front of the torso and leaving a small gash in the armor.

Dragon and I started shooting at it, zipping back and forth as the one still working hand fired at us. I dodged, my heart dropping each time. Every shot I avoided hit something. A street, a car, a building. Astraea couldn't take those hits. I couldn't stop them.

We kept shooting at the openings I'd cut into the vehicle, and something on the robo-tank's back exploded. The vehicle sputtered and whined for a moment while Squealer cursed and slurred. I paused for a moment, hoping we hit a power source or something. The tank sputtered back and forth for a few seconds, and something clicked.

The treads whirled, the vehicle accelerated forward and through an office building like a rusty knife through butter.

I flew back into action, cutting through the street and slicing apart a mini-tank as I did. A Haro came in behind me and dropped a stun grenade to take out the foot thugs. I looked around me to notice most of the surrounding Merchants were tied up fighting Haros.

Good work, Veda.

With a good chunk of the Merchants at least distracted, I focused on the tank and ignored the occasional bullet that hit my armor.

With Dragon's next missile volley I dove in again, hoping to take out the hand. The cannons fired, shattering a building to my right and throwing Astraea across the street into a parked truck. The hand turned my way, and I scraped against a brick building getting back into the air.

All the while dozens of people shouted in my ear, giving progress and warnings, voicing ideas. I only heard some of the responses. The background noise of the battle got drowned out by the gunfire and explosions, and I honestly wasn't paying much attention to what anyone said. Just Veda and Dragon.

This is too much

Nothing like the other battles, not the one with the Merchants when I went after Ali Al-Saachez, or the one a few days ago. It didn't feel like gang fighting, or stopping crime. It felt more like being in the middle of a war movie, with explosions and bullets ripping everything around me apart.

I wasn't ready for this.

The howitzers fired another volley and struck a parking garage in the Towers.

"I want that thing destroyed, now," Piggot shouted. "Do what needs to be done!"

Dragon protested. "Squealer-"

"If she dies she dies!" Piggot shouted back. "Her life isn't more important than everyone else in Brockton Bay!"

I tensed.

"Very well, Director," Dragon replied.

First Cranial, and now Squealer?

I didn't get time to debate the morality of it.

The howitzers fired at Dragon, and a building exploded further down the street.

I reacted.

I dove, flying straight toward the visor. I swung my feet down and slammed into it, the shock rolling through my body and sending ripples through the robo-tank. I swung the GN blade through one of the cannon barrels, and then turned to cut through the visor. The blade slashed through one of the head guns, and then started parting the visor when Dragon shouted.

"Newtype!"

I raised my shield, the mangled hand slamming into me and pushing Astraea away. Brick and glass gave way behind me, and the wooden floor splintered as the weight came down on it.

I tried to pull myself free, but whatever Squealer built her tank out of weighed a fucking ton. The mangled hand pinned me to the ground amongst the debris, and my attempts to find purchase only found a sliding pile of wreckage. Something clicked. I raised Astraea's head enough to see the robo-tank pulling away, leaving its hand behind. The stubby arm raised, revealing another fucking gun just below the elbow.

You have to be shitting with me.

The gun pointed right at me, and then exploded in a beam of golden light.

"Shit fuck!" Squealer shouted.

I forced my way out from under the hand, and got myself back into the air.

Another beam of light hit the bank right as I flew back out the building, and I turned.

Eidolon's cape billowed around her. She wore a simple costume that showed off slender curves, black and gold with circuit like patterns along her arms and legs. I did think she seemed a little on the short end. Damn clichés.

"Squealer, is it?" She asked. "Surrender immediately."

"Fuck you!"

The howitzers fired, including the one I'd cut because of course cutting the barrel off didn't stop the gun from working. A wall of golden light appeared around Eidolon, the blast slamming against her shield to no effect.

"Very well," she said.

Eidolon raised her hand, the lines started to glow, shining brightly as a charge coalesced in her palm. The beam shot out and slammed into the robo-tank. The armor impacted, a massive dent forming in the chest.

How the hell?

My lasers did nothing to Squealer's armor, nor did Laserdream's or Dragons. Our missiles did something, but not enough to matter.

And Eidolon blasted into it like she'd punched with a giant fist.

Sheer kinetic force?

Squealer turned the hand-gun and fired. Eidolon dodged this time, flying to the side as her hands charged two more blasts. Dragon flew in from behind, a volley of missiles launching and her lasers firing. I got myself into the air too, flying straight ahead and slashing the GN blade across the left shoulder.

The explosion threw me up and I hit the ground again, though a bit more gracefully. I took the impact mostly with one knee, Astraea sliding back as smoke and fire billowed from the robo-tank's shattered left side. The armor fell into the building I'd been pushed into.

Eidolon fired again, her power ripping through the smoke and shattering the chassis on the same side. The robo-tank lurched, the torso turning to face the golden woman. I shot forward from my position and drove the GN blade into the open gash into the robo-tank's back, and Dragon came down from above and hit the torso as hard as she could. The vehicle jerked, and when the howitzer fired the shell flew off and into the bay.

I saw something through the opening in the armor, and I pulled the GN blade out. With both of Astraea's hands I grabbed what looked like something really important and fired all of my thrusters. Metal wailed, and the large cylinder ripped free of its mooring. Wires and cables sparked and flailed after I did so, and I swear the robo-tank made that generic 'powering down noise' like on TV.

I stood on the street, what looked like a reactor in my hands. Dragon and Eidolon hovered in the air on the left and right.

The robo-tank didn't move.

"I believe the vehicle is neutralized," Dragon said. She glanced toward Eidolon. "Thank you."

"It sounded bad," Eidolon said. She lowered down, very photogenic with her cape still billowing around her.

She landed on the tank's shoulder, looking at the head.

I looked down at the reactor, noting the scribblings all along the surface. The lights in the surrounding blocks remained off, so it must still be working? I figured the 'all the power stops working' thing that tended to happen around Squealer's larger vehicles came from the reactor. A wave function of some sort that messed with anything that lacked a dedicated, shielded, battery.

I didn't see an off switch anywhere.

In fact, I didn't even see an access panel, or a way to open it. Ports stuck out of either end, but the entire exterior appeared to be a single solid piece.

How the hell did she maintain it?

I set the reactor down on the street and joined Eidolon and Dragon atop the tank. They seemed to be looking for a way to get Squealer out.

I solved that problem by cutting into the visor and finishing what I started. Eidolon floated out of the way, giving me all the room I needed to finish.

With the visor ripped open, Dragon and I used our suits to push. The head bent and groaned, but the visor gave way. It seemed to be a far more malleable material than the armor.

A blonde woman in overalls – filthy overalls – lay splayed across a seat inside, her eyes bloodshot and staring up at the ceiling. She mumbled under her breath, and her hands kept working the controls like she didn't know her tank didn't work anymore.

I tried to remember her name. Sherrel something.

"She's high," Eidolon said and fuck Eidolon is floating right next to me.

"I suspected," Dragon said.

"Me too?" I added.

"You had a precog who said she could lead you to Cranial?" Eidolon asked.

"Yes," Dragon said. "Forecast predicted we'd find her if we found Squealer, though…"

She trailed of, but I knew what she meant. Not sure how we'd get answers from her. She seemed so out of it that I don't think she knew where she was anymore.

Although.

I found a place on the shoulder with enough room and crouched. Astraea's armor opened, and I carefully climbed out.

"What are you doing?" Eidolon asked.

Dragon, despite her suit not having a face, seemed concerned.

"Getting her phone," I said. I walked along the top of the torso like a ledge, and carefully climbed into the spacious cockpit in the head.

Squealer kept fiddling with her controls and wow she stank. Aside from her clothes, her hands, face, and hair seemed equally unwashed, and it looked even worse up close given all the smeared makeup. I tried not to look at it, and took very shallow breaths while I searched her pockets.

"I'll be good," she mumbled. "Don't hurt me. I'll be good Skids."

She kept saying those sentences over and over, and it turned my stomach with implications.

I needed to reach across her stomach – of course I did – to find the pocket with her phone. I pulled it free, glad the device didn't seem nearly as filthy as her. I actually found a second in another pocket right next to it.

"StarGazer, have you found anything in Cranial's network?" I asked.

"Not yet," Veda answered. "This network is… confusing. Data is not stored logically."

I pulled out my phone and checked, and I honestly didn't know what to make of it. It didn't look like a computer system. More like a box of puzzle pieces with no clear picture on how to assemble them. Green and Veda fitted a few of them together here and there, but that still left a huge jumble of data that didn't seem to have any organization to it.

How the hell did that work?

I turned my attention to Squealer's phones. One looked like a cheap and common burner, and the other clearly more personal. An older model, but modified. Not surprised a tinker might modify their phone.

"I've got Squealer's phones," I said. "We can use them to find out where she's been and who she's talked to."

"Let me see," Dragon said. Her suit held out a hand and I passed both phones to her. "Accessing. This will take a few moments. Her tinker phone is modified and I don't want to trip anything."

"Take your time," Eidolon said. She landed on the tank's other shoulder. "I need to recharge anyway."

"Recharge?" I asked.

"My power is charged," she said. "I burned most of what I'd built up getting here."

I raised my brow. "You didn't come with Strider?"

"Strider is in Houston with the others," she said. "Alexandria might still need them in Sacramento. Hopefully my showing up will be enough to dissuade the other gangs in Brockton from jumping on this tank as an excuse to 'help."

Oh… OH.

Shit. I could see Kaiser doing that, and if he did it then Lung might too. Squealer wrecked over a dozen buildings, blew off the top of a skyscraper and… And I didn't want to think about the death toll. She definitely killed people. Enough that Kaiser or anyone else might declare the Merchants out of control. Charge it, beat them out of their territory in the name of helping the heroes 'just this one time' and then keep all the territory.

Or start a three or four way fight again in all the confusion while muddling things.

We'd never find Cranial dealing with all that.

But what, "That means you crossed half the continental United States in what, a minute?"

Eidolon stared down at me.

"I'm very fast."

"Eidolon can't match Legend's maximum speed," Dragon said, "but she is one of the fastest capes in the Protectorate."

"When I want to be," she said. "It takes a lot of my charge to do it though, so teleporting is generally preferred."

I nodded, taking that in as best I could.

"How long do you need?"

"Five or so minutes should do it," she said. "I know this situation is pressing, but I'll be able to help more if I can get a few more blasts and shields ready."

"You can use that time to recharge your suit," Dragon said.

"Right." I sat up straight. "Right. I can do that."

I rose to my feet, turning and facing Squealer. She still seemed completely out of it.

"What about her?" I asked.

"Armsmaster will be here soon," Dragon said. "The troopers can take her in."

I nodded.

Soon apparently meant as soon as she said that.

The gunfire closest to us died down, and Armsmaster came around the corner a block down. Vehicles, troopers, and police followed after him, and Manpower, Flashbang and Prism.

"Wow," Manpower said as they approached. "That is big."

"Is Squealer neutralized?" Armsmaster asked.

"She's too high to hurt anyone," Eidolon said. "Other than herself, at least."

Armsmaster nodded. "Eidolon."

"Armsmaster."

"Thank you for your assistance."

And then the social paragon began directing troopers and police. Three men climbed up onto the tank and started working Squealer out of her seat.

Apparently, being touched woke her mildly from her stupor.

Squealer began thrashing and screaming, and… I actually felt bad for her. Skidmark this and Skids that, and begging not to be hurt while still asking where he was? I didn't know what he did to her, but I think drugs and kidnapping amounted to the least of it.

And then she saw me.

She stared, bloodshot eyes unwavering as the troopers got her hands behind her back and cuffed her. It started getting creepy.

So, naturally it got worse.

"You!" Squealer lunged at me, and my back hit the wall before the troopers grabbed her. "Where's Skids! Where'd you take him! What did you do to Skis," - pretty sure she meant 'Skids' - "you bully!"

My head went blank for a moment.

"Newtype?" Dragon asked. "Is something wrong."

"No," I said stiffly. I turned, watching the men lower Squealer out of the head and down to the chassis where more troopers waited.

"Addicts aren't known for being nice," Eidolon said. "Don't let it get to you."

I nodded and pushed it from my mind. Rather, I tried. I tried really really hard.

Why did getting called a bully bother me so much?

"Are you nearly finished charging?" Dragon asked, turning her heard toward Eidolon. "I believe I have located Cranial."

"I'm good," Eidolon said. She glanced down at Armsmaster. "It's your city. I'm just helping."

Armsmaster nodded. The Protectorate leader paused for a moment and then announced, "Dragon has given me a probable location for Cranial. Miss Militia, continue containing Mush. All other teams keep a watch for Trainwreck. Squealer is being taken into custody."

We lost Trainwreck?

sys.t/ what happened?

sys.v/ Trainwreck entered an underpass
sys.v/ he has not emerged anywhere I can see

What? He seemed almost like a defacto leader during the big fight a few weeks ago. Mush and Whirlygig at least seemed to take their cues from him.

"Could he be trying to circle to the PRT HQ to free Skidmark and Whirlygig?" I asked.

"Possible," Dragon said, "but we're in a strong position to stop that if he tries. We should focus on Cranial. The Merchants will not be a major threat with Mush contained and Trainwreck missing."

I nodded and climbed out of the cockpit.

Glancing down the street, troopers and police continued to advance. The Haros left a lot of Merchants tied up on the street.

A few loitered around Squealer's reactor.

"I couldn't find a way to turn that off," I called. "I don't know how volatile it is."

"Armsmaster," Piggot called. "Deal with it."

Armsmaster frowned. "Director."

"We'll go after Cranial then," Eidolon said. She lifted off the robo-tank into the air. "Dragon and I should be sufficient."

"I'm going too," I said. I climbed back into Astraea and closed the armor.

"We might need you if anything else happens," Eidolon said.

I looked at the Haro's camera feeds. Destroyed buildings, fires, black out… Just like Boston.

"I can cross the entire city in a matter of seconds," I said. "If something happens I can go. Until then, something good needs to come from this."