The winged angel, meanwhile, guarded the door. It was struggling, a hand raised to its upper chest, trying to use some superheated steam or a chemical to get rid of the gunk. In the end, it unscrewed a section of its chest to lose that section entirely. As it did, the yellow gunk extended out clinging only by scattered edges and droplets, took on a texture like needles caught by a magnet, then splatted back down onto the area that had been beneath the collarbone segment, as if it had remembered its momentum and forward energy from before, and reapplied itself on removal. The winged angel fought to scrape that away with metal fingertips, then gave up.

Thralls were shooting, though, and I had to be mindful, which limited how much pressure I could apply. Imp’s group crawled over the structure. Juliette froze someone, and Samuel jumped them while they were out of commission. Imp zapped one after another.

I could hear Ashley using her power. I twisted around to look.

Ashley blasted with one hand while running along the sloped wall, keeping herself more or less on track. She was injured, that impacted how she ran, and I saw her slip, only to blast with her other hand, bringing knees to chest, and find her footing and forward momentum again.

The winged mech threw out another projected wing, aimed for Colt and Love Lost. As it had done with me, it essentially scraped them off. Colt hit the water and canceled her breaker form. Love Lost leaped up and onto the side of the other filtration engine.

Ashley—her eyes were wide. She blasted, bringing herself my way, toward the fallen warrior and the outstretched plane of the projected wing.

She blasted, and her power cut through the projected wing. It annihilated metal, twisting it, disintegrating it, and leaving fist-sized chunks where metal had been condensed.

She slashed, punching with her power, heedless of the injury to her side. Destroying one shoulder, then stumbling over to destroy the other.

The wing tried to move, and I used my power. The Wretch grabbed the wing and grabbed the mech beneath the wing, holding onto both. The projected image disappeared, and I flew forward to put myself in the way of the non-projected metal wing before the mech could lunge forward and swipe Swansong with it.

She continued to tear into the shoulder.

With that done, it would leave the mech with wings as the only quasi-threat, it’d—

There was a gasp, a yelp, a buzz of an intercom.

I twisted around to look.

Hidden near the shoulder of the warrior angel was the cockpit. Further to the left than the human heart would be.

Ashley’s power had cleaved into it. It had torn into the person within, a woman.