I saw the orb fly low, almost scraping the ground, before rising. Curving in the air, but this time a rising shot. It skirted the halo’s range, and it collided with a bit of filtration structure a few feet below the thralls. The gas made the middle of the front lines back up a bit.

“Fume Hood!” I called out. “Experiment for me!?”

“What experiment?”

“Create gas, block the halo’s view? Fire a shot through once it can’t see!”

Rain threw one of his blades blind. Lightweight as they were, it was a long way to throw, and he was hurling it over the top of the structure.

“More to the left, Precipice!”

He threw again.

“Further!”

A third throw. The halo shot this one out of the air.

“It got intercepted. Halo shoots anything down that gets too close!”

“Should I keep trying? Burn its battery?”

“If you want, but focus on staying safe, get to a good vantage point!”

“On it!”

Precipice was using his power to lock his position to become a handhold for Fume Hood. Fume Hood, meanwhile, was creating a series of orbs.

She threw them out. Another vague U-turn of a curve, but not swooping low and rising. This set went horizontal, then straight. It passed within range of the halo. Each detonated as the beam cut into them.

“Another set! Higher!”

“So fucking demanding,” Fume Hood muttered.

She threw again. Not quite the same direction.

The orbs were lasered out of the air. The cloud of gas hung thick in the air, too opaque to see through.

“And one in the middle!”

“One orb?”

“Yeah!”

A little low to be the ‘middle’, but it was sufficiently masked by the cloud in the air.

I saw the flash, the glow, and the laser’s appearance. Same range, same response time. The halo mech blocked the orb.

The suits loomed closer.

“No go!” I called out. “Incoming!”

The fog of gas wasn’t blocking their sensors or view, but as they passed through, fans and ventilation systems sucked up and pushed away the gas. As I’d noted earlier with Fume Hood’s fan that she’d built into her jacket, the fans here made the angel’s positions apparent even before they emerged from the cloud.

The mechs floated closer, to the point that some of our capes who’d been behind cover weren’t anymore. I was one of them. The halo angel had lights at its side that were glowing, and those lights grew brighter as it revved up its engines. Antigrav panels, turbines, and larger rotary propellers encased within protective cases all sped up and glowed brighter as it prepared a charge.

Sarah and the artillery cape attacked it from behind. The halo deflected the shots, but the engines went dark, steam venting around the mech’s body as it twisted in the air to face them down.