Author's Note: We're back with Evelynn this week as SGGE takes on The Pantheon again, though with some substantial help from the Ace Ops.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its associated characters. The characters in this writing so far are mostly original characters, but I make no claim over the existing characters.

Chapter 22

M.A.D.

Evelynn's Perspective

I looked up as a pulsing flare illuminated the sky in a bright green that contrasted harshly against the orange backdrop created by the setting sun behind me. The flare pulsed on and off in an encoded sequence to make it clear that it had been fired by a member of Team SGGE. That particular color was supposed to be used by whichever team located Helios first, which meant that Randall and Grayson had found him. I dropped the Waffle soldier I had been holding, allowing him to collapse onto the ground as he tried to catch himself on the arm he had broken during our brief fight. I turned and waved to Eugene, pointing out the bright glowing flare, and he moved to join me in the street. We both bent low into a runner's stance, holding out a hand in front of us as I fired our corresponding pink flare to indicate that we were ready for transport.

It took almost a minute for Harriet to reach us, so we stood awkwardly, hands extended, waiting for her to arrive. Just as I was about to turn to Eugene and ask if we should start moving by ourselves, a blur of movement followed by crackling yellow lightning shot up the street behind us. Harriet grabbed each of our extended hands almost without slowing, and we were yanked along behind her as she accelerated towards the other team's green flare. My shoulder spiked in pain as the socket strained to hold together, but my aura allowed me to accept the acceleration without any real injury.

We zipped through abandoned streets, passing broken buildings and active warzones alike in a blur until we finally arrived at an open square, where it looked like the buildings had been flattened by repeated aerial bombardment. Harriet released her grip on our hands as she decelerated, allowing us to shoot out ahead of her instead of snapping us to a sudden halt. Eugene and I tucked and rolled on the broken and pockmarked street, bouncing up to our feet to jog off the last of our momentum.

I slid to a stop about twenty yards past where Harriet had released us, my combat boots skidding on loose pebbles as I searched for friction on the broken asphalt. As I finally canceled my forward velocity and recovered my bearings I saw the familiar outline of Grayson in his combat armor crouched over Randall. They were surrounded by figures wearing bulky heavy armor, likely a squad of Heavy Armor Troops. Grayson and a soldier I didn't recognize were working frantically to treat Randall, who was unconscious on the ground with a gunshot to his torso.

I frantically shoved my way into the circle of outward facing troops to check on Randall, and was greeted with a nasty sight. He had clearly been injured during the fighting, having sustained a number of cuts and bruises, but the worst was the hole in the side of his torso, just above his left hip. I had seen similar wounds in combat troops, usually ones who had been hit either by a high caliber sniper rifle or similarly powerful huntsman weapon. The wound was wide, with the high energy of the bullet causing significant cavitation as the flesh around the bullet hole was torn and damaged by the energy being transferred to Randall's body.

Grayson was whispering something to himself, just barely audible, though unintelligible. He seemed to be becoming frustrated as he worked, trying to halt the bleeding of the wound. I couldn't understand the whispers, but his tone of voice indicated that he was begging, or perhaps pleading. As I watched Grayson and the armored medic working to keep Randall alive, I was filled with doubt. If I had split our team differently would this have happened? If I had been here instead of Grayson could I have protected Randall?

I froze up looking at the blood oozing out of the wound into the dirty street, and I could feel my heart pounding as a million different imagined scenarios raced through my mind while I tried to think of something I could have done better. Eugene's cone of silence enveloped me, and I felt a calming hand on my shoulder. He forced me to look away from Randall, holding eye contact with me until he saw my breathing begin to calm. He held out his hands to sign a short message to me.

"It will be alright, you couldn't have changed it. Randall is going to be fine."

I struggled mightily for a moment with my sense of professionalism before giving in slightly, taking the hand on my shoulder in my own hand, squeezing it tightly for a moment to reassure my subconscious that he was fine. After a few seconds I released him, wiping away the tears that threatened to leak out of the corners of my eyes, and stepped out of his cone of silence to coordinate our response.

I pointed at the soldier with the most stripes on his armor.

What happened here?" I demanded.

The soldier turned his head to look at me, a crack in his helmet visor allowing me to see one exposed eye as he explained.

"There is a sniper ma'am, last spotted on the seventeenth floor of the Dust Works building. We returned fire, but did not secure the kill."

Grayson spoke up angrily from where he was setting up a plasma transfusion for Randall.

"It's Helios, I saw him. As soon as I'm wrapped up here we're going up there and getting that son of a bitch."

I turned back to Grayson, confused as the what was taking him so long.

"Can't you heal him?" I asked, adhering to the cover story that he had insisted upon by implying that LIWI's magic was merely his semblance. He didn't pause his work, but shook his helmet side to side as he checked on the bandage the other medic had applied.

"No, I can't. I'm tapped out right now, something's wrong with my equipment." He placed emphasis on the word equipment, which told me he thought something was wrong with LIWI. I hoped the kid was alright, but now wasn't the time to ask. I next turned to where Harriet had strolled up to the huddle of troops.

"What's the hold up?" She asked. I pointed wordlessly to where Grayson and one of the armored medics were fighting for Randall's life.

"That's going to slow us down," Harriet remarked bitterly. "Don't worry though, once he's stable I can get him to a hospital."

Grayson spoke up again, not looking away from his patient.

"If you do, you're going to have to move a lot slower than you normally do. I wouldn't want to run at a normal speed with him in this state, let alone the speeds you hit. We should call our Bullhead back for a medivac."

"What are the frequency details for your transport?" The armored master sergeant posed the question.

Grayson responded by reaching a bloody gloved hand down to his belt and unclipping a radio encryption key. He tossed it to the master sergeant, who handed it off to a subordinate. That soldier sprinted away, his powered armor moving with mechanical efficiency to carry him at high speed toward where the mechanized infantry command vehicles were being moved up the line. "

Fine," Harriet spoke again, "Then the three of us will go after the target, have Sergeant Phoenix coordinate his evacuation."

I paused, thinking through our options. If I brought Grayson with us then I would be putting him at significant risk, especially if LIWI was on the fritz. I would also be risking Randall getting less than optimal care from a medic whose experience level I didn't know. On the other hand, going up against Helios with even less of our force was not an appealing concept, so if Grayson could contribute more towards the fight then I should bring him.

I looked at Grayson, trying to judge his combat effectiveness. Blood was slowly pooling and dripping from his right shoulder as he moved, and the left leg of his armor looked absolutely shredded by sustained gunfire, the normally white paint overshadowed by bright red blood leaking from a wound on the actual leg. The rest of his armor was damaged to a lesser extent, and he seemed to be moving much more sluggishly than he normally did. I examined him for a moment more, but I had already made my decision, and he wouldn't like it.

"I agree." I said firmly. "Grayson, you stay here and attend to Sergeant Green while the three of us engage Helios. Get yourself back to base with him and make sure you receive treatment as well." Grayson flinched at my words, looking away from Randal for a moment to look at me. I could tell by his posture that he was upset by my decision, though I couldn't see his face behind his emotionless visor.

"Ma'am-" he began, but I cut him off with a knife hand.

"You're not up for it" I told him, "You can't help us right now, but you can still help him." I pointed towards where Randall was lying to emphasize my point. Not waiting for his response, I nodded to Harriet and held out my left hand, taking up the runner's stance we had used earlier to brace for her acceleration. Eugene did the same with his right hand. Harriet cracked her neck, then took hold of both of our hands, yanking us along behind her as she zipped off towards the Dust Works Headquarters building, the same one we had fought Hyperion on not too long ago.

-/-

Buildings passed by in a blur until I felt a sudden upwards acceleration. Harriet ran part way up the side of the Steelworks building, her semblance allowing her to gain traction as she ran up the otherwise flat wall. About eleven stories up her speed began petering out, so she flung us up the side of the building before she would be forced to either turn around or fall. Eugene and I soared upwards, our momentum carrying us another thirty or so feet, then I brought Silver Reforged out, ordering it upwards to carry me the rest of the way up to where the side of the building had been blown off by return fire. Eugene's grappling hook found its way up alongside me, and he began running up the side of the building as it reeled him in.

I soared upwards, reaching the apex of my flight just high enough to reach out and grasp an exposed piece of rebar with one hand. I used that hand hold to fling myself upwards and into the building proper. As I entered the damaged portion of the building I noticed that all the lights were off, not surprising given the ongoing war, and that Helios was nowhere to be seen.

Eugene clambered up alongside me a moment later, then Harriet zipped up to join us, having completed a lap around the block to build up a running start to give her enough speed to make it up the side of the building herself. I held Silver Reforged out in a defensive stance, unsure of how to proceed. Eugene unslung Tenebris, and sighted down the canted sight Grayson had installed at forty five degree angle relative to the original scope. I had never seen a sighting system like that, but Grayson was insistent that it was a useful tool, and Eugene seemed to like it, so I was happy for him.

Enveloped in his cone of silence we couldn't speak to Harriet, who hadn't learned sign language, so I stuck to simple hand signs. I motioned us forwards and began advancing carefully through a damaged doorway towards an open office floor. In the main floor I saw a number of abandoned desks, cubicles, and offices that seemed strangely untouched considering the chaos on the streets. I split to the left to search through offices while Harriet went right to check in cubicles.

After a minute of searching, we concluded that this floor must be empty, and moved up to the eighteenth. Both it and the nineteenth floor were more of the same, empty and abandoned working spaces, collecting dust since their workers had departed in the early days of the war.

When we exited the stairwell to the twentieth floor we were greeted with a reception area, likely for an executive office. The floor was made of some kind of fancy wood paneling, likely very expensive, and the giant double doors to the main office looked like they had been designed to try and intimidate anybody entering the office. I began to step forwards towards the doors, but Eugene held up a hand. He pointed towards the floor where there were scuff marks and scratches roughly corresponding with a person's stride length. The scuffs were roughly the size of a power armored boot.

"I see it, stay here and cover us." I signed to him, and he dropped back silently, raising his rifle towards the closed doors.

Harriet and I strode towards the doors, then threw them open to reveal the office interior. The room was expansive, with high ceilings and decorative filigree on the walls. A floor to ceiling window gave the far end of the room a perfect view of the rest of the city. Thirty feet down away from the doors sat an expensive looking desk, and behind it Helios sat reclining in the executive's chair, feet propped up on the desk while he fiddled with a tablet of some kind. He looked up at us and smiled broadly, there seemed to be a concerning genuineness behind his eyes as he waved us over.

"Hello!" He called out cheerfully. "So good of you to join me up here, would you mind not attacking me immediately? I'm trying to finish editing this."

Harriet and I advanced cautiously, looking around for signs of a trap or an ambush, but I couldn't see anything out of place. Helios continued tapping away at his tablet, his helmet sitting on the desk, evidently discarded. He wore a suit of black and red power armor, and he had a few different weapons scattered around him, including a sniper rifle, submachine gun, and a shotgun. According to what Grayson had been able to piece together, his power armor was similar to Hyperion's, which was based on a prototype that Atlas had been developing before funding was cut and the project was shifted towards purely robotic infantry.

I approached the desk, holding up Silver Reforged and pointing it directly at him.

"Gideon Roth" I declared, "You are under arrest."

He held up a finger, pressing one final button on the tablet, then spun it and held it up to show me what he had been working on. It was a video, evidently taken from the roof of the Dust Works building, that showed multiple angles to include the Atlesian warship currently overflying the city and the enemy fortifications that had been set up in the residential complexes. From this angle almost no defenses were visible, outside of a few personnel standing on a rooftop. The video zoomed in to show that the people standing on the rooftop were wearing generic civilian clothing, instead of the normal black and red of the Waffle troops, and appeared to be looking at something through binoculars.

One of them pointed towards the warship, shouting something, then tried to run towards the stairwell right before the ship opened fire on the enemy emplacement. Beams of energy and high speed kinetic shells eviscerated the building, turning the entire area into nothing more than dust and rocks kicked up by the repeated blasts. The bombardment lasted a full thirty seconds, and the video showed all of it, then cut out.

Helios set the tablet down, then leaned back in his seat again, propping his head up by folding his hands behind his head with a smug smile on his face.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" I asked, "So you got a good angle of your troops being obliterated, how does that help you?" He brought his right hand out from behind his head, holding up a finger to emphasize a correction.

"Actually" he corrected, "I got a very good angle of a group of unarmed civilians being obliterated, with extreme prejudice I might add." He propped his head up again, clearly not feeling particularly threatened. "That video has already been sent to our command post, and by tomorrow it will be on every major news outlet in the world." I scowled, then reached out and ripped the tablet from his hands, trying to see if that was true.

"Don't feel bad" he said, "Even if you had come in here guns blazing, the raw footage was sent as soon as it was taken. But now I think it's time to leave, so goodbye, and I'll see you later." He attempted to stand, but I kicked the desk forwards, trapping his legs up at an awkward angle before he could get them back on the ground.

"I don't think so," I told him, "You're coming with us."

"Really?" He asked, seeming genuinely curious. "How? You can't even hurt me without getting melted, what are you going to do?"

Harriet answered his bold question, zipping around the desk in a flash and securing a pair of aura blocking cuffs around his left wrist. His red aura flickered and began draining away as he looked at it in surprise.

"Oh," he remarked. "Clever." He whistled sharply, and I heard a sudden movement to my left. I turned just in time to see a second huntsman slam into me. Thomas Hall, better known as Hermes, appeared out of nowhere. Flames enveloped him as he flashed across the room almost as fast as Harriet traveled and slammed his fist into the side of my head. He wore blue jeans and a black leather jacket with a dragon stitched across the back, likely some sort of reference to the fire traveling up and down his limbs as his semblance accelerated him to incredible speeds.

I was sent flying by the impact, and crashed painfully into one of the decorative walls of the office, shattering the expensive engraved surface. Hermes didn't slow down, instead pivoting to attack Harriet. Lightning crackled and flames burned as the two incredibly quick huntsmen launched into their own battle, flashing around the room almost faster than I could track. Harriet charged past me as she chased Hermes across the room, yanking my pair of aura blocking cuffs off my belt as she ran. The fiery huntsman flashed past Eugene, striking him on his way down the stairs and into the rest of the building. He was clearly trying to get Harriet away from Gideon, but the Ace Operative ignored my warning as she gave chase with a crackle of lightning.

I turned back to Helios to monitor him, only to see him flick his right wrist in a practiced gesture. A small cylinder, similar to the ones Hephaestus has fought with, emerged from his armor, firing a concentrated laser beam. He used it to slice through the cuff on his left wrist, cutting a small line into his armor as the beam caught his wrist in the crossfire. His red aura flashed back into place, only partially drained by the short exposure to the blocking technology. I raised my hammer to strike but reflexively dropped it as the haft became so cold that it felt like it was burning me even through my gloves. He retrieved a shotgun that was leaning against the desk.

"Let's try that again," he said in an irritated tone, and racked it.

I charged him, ignoring the blast of lightning infused buckshot that impacted my aura. A shot from Eugene took the shotgun out of his hands as I dove across the desk, launching myself into a flying tackle. He stepped away from me, but stumbled over the chair behind him, and I slammed into his armored torso with my padded shoulder. We went to the ground and I reached up with my left hand to grab a hold of the edge of one of the armor panels near his collar, using it as leverage to keep him from escaping me. He kicked off the ground, trying to reorient himself to gain a better position, but I reached to the back of my belt and retrieved Leader, one half of the weapon that Grayson and I had built from the core of the old Silver Forge.

Friend and Leader were thick knuckle dusters carved from the respective portions of the old core that held the text they were named after. The marble coring of the weapons was coated with earth dust infused steel, giving them both heft and durability, which proved necessary as I used my semblance to accelerate my punch to Helios' sternum. With us held together in a grapple it was impossible to gain enough leverage for a good punch, but with my semblance Friend leapt forwards of its own accord to slam repeatedly into his armor, causing his aura to flash an angry red each time.

He grunted from the impacts, then used both hands to reach up and knock my left hand off his collar. He kicked out as he broke the grapple, launching me up into the air. I spun and twisted as I flew, drawing Friend with my left hand. Using my semblance, I ordered Friend and Leader back towards him, pulling on them at the same time to redirect myself in mid air like a gymnast performing on rings. I twisted into a dropkick, slamming into him as he climbed back to his feet and sending him skidding away from the desk where Eugene could resume firing. Several silent shots rang out, each pinging off Helios' armor but causing his aura to flash brightly each time as it was required to prevent his injury.

Helios finally skidded to a stop, regaining his feet and activating a blue hardlight dust shield on his left wrist. The hexagonal projection was wide enough to deflect the next two shots towards him, one of which would have otherwise struck his unarmored head. With a flick of my wrist I sent Silver Reforged flying towards him. The hammer crashed into his shield, sending him tumbling again. He slammed into a decorative wall, shattering the faux wood paneling and coming to a stop.

I held up a hand to signal Eugene for his aura cuffs as I charged in to press the advantage, trusting that he would see it and follow me in. Helios dodged to the side as I came in with a punch that further shattered the expensive paneling, then scrambled to retrieve a rifle that he had stashed on a chair near where I had knocked him. He rose to his feet as I charged him again, emptying the magazine of dust bullets into me. I was forced to dodge sideways, using Friend and Leader to yank myself out of the way of more shots as the heavy impacts threatened to shatter my aura.

I slipped on the polished floor as I tried to recover my running stance, and tumbled behind a table. I could see him lining up another shot, so I kicked upwards towards the edge of the table to knock it on its side, blocking his line of sight. Bullets pierced through the flimsy wooden cover, seeking me out as I scrambled out of their path. A moment later the gunshots fell silent, but the bullets continued firing for a split second before ceasing. I realized Eugene must have closed to melee range, likely trying to get the cuffs on Helios.

I sprang up from behind the table to see that my guess was correct. Eugene had Tenebris strapped to his back and was standing in a wide stance, like a basketball player trying to guard an opponent. In his right hand he held the aura cuffs, but he was forced to pull them away as Helios tried to shoot them. I reached down, lifting the table up above my head, then hurled it towards Helios as he moved to reload. He couldn't hear me from within Eugene's cone of silence, and he clearly wasn't used to fighting deaf, as he failed to react to the table as it flew across the office and crashed into him.

Eugene, already used to over relying on his peripheral vision, saw the attack coming and was ready to follow up on it. He dashed forwards as the table connected, and slapped the rifle out of Helios' hands while he was distracted. He reached up, trying to snap the cuffs onto Helios' wrist, but the enemy huntsman produced a pistol from a holster and emptied the magazine into Eugene's stomach. Eugene couldn't dodge without releasing him, and was forced to block the shots with his aura. I charged in to help, feeling the familiar comforting silence of Eugene's cone of silence as I ran in, striking Helios' jaw with a right cross from Leader.

The huntsman rocked back from the hit, and Eugene tried again to clasp the cuffs on his wrist, but he twisted away from us to evade Eugene's reach. I chased him as he stepped away, coming in with a left jab into a right cross towards his head. His aura deflected both hits, but flickered weakly with the last hit. I had been about to follow up with an uppercut, but instead pivoted to try and tackle him when I saw how dangerously low his aura was.

His hard light shield manifested again in front of his left forearm, and he used it to block my tackle by knocking me to the side and out of my planned trajectory. I landed on my shoulder and rolled with my existing momentum to get my feet back under me, ending my fall in a crouch facing towards Helios. He brought up the pistol again to fire at me, but Eugene came in with a front kick, knocking it out of his hand. Helios spun with the kick, turning in a full circle and bringing his left arm around in a hammer fist and striking the back of Eugene's head with his armor plated knuckles. Eugene stumbled forwards, and Helios stuck out a leg to trip him up. I charged towards them, and Eugene tossed the cuffs towards me as I leapt over him, launching myself in a flying kick into Helios.

The cuffs felt like they were made of icy fire in my palm as Helios' semblance sucked the entropy from them, but I ignored the pain as I struck my target with my left boot. His stance was poor after overextending to trip Eugene, and he collapsed backwards onto the ground, damaging it as his heavy powered armor crashed into the fragile flooring. I landed on top of him and sank my knee into the neck of his armor. Without the helmet attached he could only use his own jaw to try and block me from crushing his airway, so he was forced to bring his hands up to shove my knee away. I exploited his defense and snapped the cuff onto his right wrist, then delivered a punch to his face to stun him while I snapped the other cuff onto his left. I had succeeded in getting the cuff onto his left wrist, trapping his hands together, when my brain replayed something in my head that didn't make sense.

When I had struck his face his aura had flashed to protect him, even though the cuff was already on his wrist and should have been blocking the manifestation of his soul. I looked down at the cuffs to see that not only had they been frosted over by his manipulation of thermodynamics, but the small indicator light on the side was completely dead, the electronics having failed at near zero temperatures. I looked back up to see Helios grin broadly as he twisted his arms, using the pneumatic strength of his powered armor to snap the now brittle chain that linked the cuffs. They broke apart with a spark.

I reached out to grab hold of his wrists to try and maintain the grapple position I had taken, but he kicked off the floor with his left leg while pushing off with his left elbow, launching both of us a few feet into the air. He got a hand between us midair and shoved me, separating us to go crashing into furniture as we came back to ground. I hit a group of chairs, and became tangled up in them as I tried to get back to my feet. I felt noise drop away, then a helping hand under my shoulder as Eugene hauled me back to my feet.

"Aura?" he signed with one hand, and I waggled my right hand to indicate that I was doing okay. Satisfied, he turned back to where Helios had retrieved his pistol. I moved to summon Silver Reforged, but instead of fighting he turned to run towards the floor to ceiling window that stood behind the executive desk. Eugene and I gave chase, separating to give me back my hearing, but Helios had enough of a headstart that we couldn't catch him in time.

A few dozen feet before he reached the window Harriet zipped back into the room and cut him off, her Fast Knuckles and much of her uniform covered in burns from her encounter with Hermes. Helios pulled up short.

"What did you do to Thomas?" He asked angrily. Harriet answered with irritation while simultaneously dusting ash out of her mohawk.

"Your friend is fine. He ran when he realized he didn't like the idea of fighting me and an entire regiment of troops." She finally gave up trying to get the ash out, and raised her fists towards Helios.

"Now how about you give up before I have to give you a proper beatdown."

Helios looked towards where Eugene and I were blocking the door, then to where Harriet blocked the window, realizing he was trapped. I could see the gears turning in his mind as he worked to think his way out of his predicament. I stepped towards him, and he made up his mind, placing the barrel of his pistol to his chin.

"Do you know what my semblance is?" he asked me.

"I do" I replied firmly, seeing where he was going with this.

"Then you know what Mutually Assured Destruction means?" He asked. I nodded, so he turned back to Harriet. "How about you?" he asked her. Harriet grimaced, but nodded her understanding.

"Outstanding," he continued. "Then if anybody makes a move I pull this trigger, and this entire building turns to slag, with you in it." He motioned to Harriet, waving her away from the window.

Outside, the smoke and dust from the bombardment was slowly drifting away in the steady breeze, though it was still easily visible from here. I could almost make out the Bullhead we had called for Randall down in the crater that had been created.

Helios moved towards the window, menacing Harriet away from him with the gun held to his already low aura. He would survive the gunshot, but there was no way the three of us could survive the ensuing thermodynamic meltdown if he triggered his semblance. Out the window I saw the Bullhead taking off, and I was relieved to see that at least Grayson and Randall were making it safely back to base. Helios backed towards the window as Harriet stepped away, frustration building on her face as she tried to think of a way to get the gun away from him or to survive the ensuing catastrophe. The Bullhead swung towards us instead of flying directly back to base, and I had a moment of panic as I realized that if it got too close then they would be in the danger zone if Helios triggered his semblance.

The Bullhead climbed skyward, intent on flying directly over our building, and I saw flares shooting out the back at a rapid pace as a myriad of surface to air missiles sought it out. I watched transfixed as the side door opened and a lone figure in white leaned out while it was still climbing to pass over us. I saw rapid flashes of light coming from the figure that were likely muzzle flashes, and another missile's smoke trail swerved as it was knocked off course by the rifle fire. My heart leapt into my throat as one of the missiles detonated prematurely just behind the aircraft, staggering it and knocking it off balance. The figure in the doorway lost their grip on the aircraft and fell out the open door, pivoting as they fell and deploying some kind of wingsuit to save themselves from crashing to the street below. They turned towards us, arms outstretched to let their wingsuit billow outwards and catch the air as they zipped towards the Dust Works building.

"Oh that suicidal idiot" I whispered under my breath as I realized that the figure on a collision course with us was Grayson Phoenix.

Helios finally reached the window, slamming the armored knuckles on his free hand into the glass behind him, causing cracks to spiderweb in the thick glass. Harriet looked towards me, discreetly revealing my cuffs that she had palmed in her hand, then nodded towards where Helios was breaking open the window. The cracks grew with each strike, until finally the window broke with a resounding crash, sending shards raining onto the street below.

"So long, suckers!" Helios called out cheerfully, and turned to jump out of the windows to the street below. "What the Fu-" he exclaimed as he finally noticed Grayson right as the moronic sergeant slammed into him at high speed. The impact launched both of the armored soldiers back into the office as wind screamed into the building through the shattered window.

Harriet flashed forwards towards where they were struggling on the floor, but tripped as her right foot suddenly slipped on a rapidly growing patch of ice that surrounded the two combatants as Helios flash froze the water in the air. Eugene and I rushed forwards to recover the aura cuffs as they slipped from her grasp. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Helios recover his footing, lifting Grayson's limp form with one hand. He pulled his arm back, then hurled Grayson out of the shattered window. The sergeant flew out into the open air, his wingsuit causing his limbs to flail awkwardly as he hit the windstream outside the building.

"Grayson!" I shouted, using my semblance on Silver Reforged to launch myself out of the window after him. As I flew out of the window I heard a single gunshot, followed by Harriet's frantic call of "Lookout!" My trajectory arced straight down as I fell, and I collapsed my hammer to stow it on my back and free my hands. Friend and Leader remained firmly wrapped around my knuckles, but they were all the stone I had left to command as I shaped my body to redirect my fall through the air to where Grayson was haplessly tumbling as his wingsuit caught just enough air to slow his fall. I stretched my arms out to catch him as I felt a singe of heat behind me, emanating from the top of the building.

Part of my mind realized that the excess heat must have been generated as a byproduct of Helios' semblance detonating, but I forced myself to push the thought out of my head for long enough to save who I still could. I collided with Grayson halfway to the ground, wrapping my arms around his torso and ordering Friend and Leader back upwards to slow our fall. The knuckle dusters yanked at my arms, but provided enough force to slow us without snapping his unenhanced spine. I switched my grip to grab the rescue handle behind his shoulder blades, then unsheathed Silver Reforged and hurled it towards the ground to slow our momentum further. The heavy hammer smashed into the street below, creating a crater of broken asphalt. I ordered the asphalt up towards myself in waves, then twisted mid air to hit feet first. The waves of asphalt collided with me, allowing me to absorb their impacts and keep my speed low as I landed.

I hit the ground with bent knees and tumbled to try and break the impact for Grayson as best I could, but we still landed much harder than I would have liked. Grayson's limbs were splayed awkwardly, and he wasn't moving. Worried I may have landed too roughly, I reached down and grabbed the faceplate of his helmet, ripping it off to expose his face. He was bloody and bruised, and his eyes were closed, but he was still breathing. I let out a small sigh of relief as I confirmed he was still alive.

Finally, I couldn't avoid thinking about it any longer, so I turned my head upwards to see the top of the Steelworks building. The top ten floors had melted into slag, pooling in on themselves as the material liquidized and poured into the open space below. Much of the material the building was made out of had also poured out the sides of the building, but had cooled while dripping down the side, giving the building the appearance of being covered in numerous magmatic growths. The entire structure looked not unlike a volcano that had been flash frozen mid-eruption. I stood up, straining to try and find any sign of Eugene and Harriet, but couldn't see them anywhere.

Grayson coughed, a deep phlegmy sound that indicated he probably had sustained internal injuries, and mumbled something under his breath. A moment later his sword flew through the air from wherever it had fallen on our trip down and skittered to a stop beside him. He reached out weakly and tapped a button on the side, transforming it into its rifle form, then dragged it towards himself. The injured sergeant squinted up at me against the diminishing light of the setting sun, a sign of a likely concussion. He reached into a belt pocket and retrieved his issued pair of aura cuffs, the last ones we had, then offered them to me.

"Prop me up somewhere," He said in a raspy voice. "I'll be fine while you go back up there and kick his ass properly."

Author's Note: In case anyone is curious, the inscription from the core of the old Silver Forge was 'Christine Petal, Friend and Leader'