The hands rose and reoriented, the entire machine trying to get to a position like its original one, with four arm-shaped ‘legs’ firmly on the ground in a quadruped position, but this time with the two narrower, nimbler arms extended up and above from the midpoint, each with five cables draping from them, those cables swiftly becoming invisible.

Foil and the Harbinger took point. As the arms whipped out again, Harbinger shot. The invisible cable’s course was altered, and it clipped the ‘elbow’ of one of the arms.

I couldn’t fly full speed, so I rose steadily, up and away from the scene. Moose was helping Rain, lifting him up and out of the cage. Foil and Birdbrain were taking up different points around the clearing, to have a better chance of hitting Cradle if he turned up.

I could hear the gunfire and see how frenetic the flashlights were moving in places. More reinforcements. There were less people pressing in against Rachel and the dogs, now.

I could see the cape I’d tasked with evacuating Brandish. I could see the glow of the orb.

Rain got free and sprinted toward the mech. He made his silver blades, then sliced at one finger.

It broke, the weight of it serving as the catalyst to bring about the break. Rain was already swiping at another—until his sword fizzled out.

“Fucking come on!” he swore. “Come on, come on!”

The blade appeared again. A delay between uses, apparently. Rain cut at the hand itself.

“Back out, Rain!” I shouted.

I saw him hesitate, moving like he was going to jump back into the fray.

“You’re not thinking straight!”

He seemed to get that. He turned to run.

Hands moved, cables slicing audibly through the air, right for him.

Moose grabbed his hand and hauled him out of the last foot of the cable’s reach.

The mech tried to stand, but with one finger and part of the hand broken, its attempt to ‘walk’ itself forward failed, and it toppled.

The fact that it was slower made it easier to keep a distance. The reinforcements we were getting were making it so we weren’t surrounded by soldiers while holding our ground in a ‘house’, to use my allegory for the nature of the clearing. The soldiers were under attack on their own, and we had a chance to breathe. To shore up.