Don’t move too violently or hit it. Stay still, embrace it.

I intercepted it. I felt the Wretch latch on. No violent blows.

Arcs of energy crackled along the Wretch, dancing over droplets that had found cracks and crevices on the Wretch’s form.

I twisted around, using rotational force to add to the strength of the swing. I’d have to take a chance at being zapped as I dropped the Wretch, but—

The warrior angel was there, twisting around, sword poised. With the heavy object and my momentum wrapped up in swinging it, I didn’t have the option of getting out of the way. Not unless I wanted to drop it.

And I wasn’t about to drop an electrified power cell into shallow water that some of my fellow capes were sloshing around in.

The sword plunged, striking the Wretch. I released the cell, in hopes it would reach the halo’s range. Not enough, with the sword’s impact driving me and the Wretch down in the moment before the Wretch gave up.

It was Love Lost and Colt who jumped in. They’d been more or less out of sight. I’d been at the left filtration system, they’d been at the far right of the one to the right. Love Lost leaped out, running along the glowing sword blade, leaped off to where Colt was flying, and leaped out again. Colt followed her, and Colt had tinker stuff along her own arms. They weren’t artificial limbs, but studs. When the electricity crackled out, it went to those nodes.

Love Lost planted both feet on the cartridge, residual electricity arcing along her tinker gear, and then kicked off, full-force.

It only pushed the cartridge a few feet closer to the angels, but a few more feet was enough. The halo zapped it, and it detonated.

I flew toward Love Lost as she hurtled toward the ground. I reached out a hand—

She batted it aside, glaring, and carried on falling until she was close enough to the filtration structure to catch it with her claws. She ran alongside it until she reached the pooling water below us, landing on two feet.

Okay, fine. You had it handled.

The detonation hadn’t done much. A bit of damage to the warrior angel’s robe, a bit of damage to its hand. One of the halo mech’s feet was scuffed.

Fume Hood was on one of the catwalks now, and was pelting them with a barrage, devoting the occasional shot to blinding the thrall gunmen who were spread out around the other filtration structures. Some of the shots from the guns had already damaged or destroyed sections of catwalk that all of our non-flying teams were struggling to reach.