All she wanted to do was curse as the lights drew closer over the treeline. It had been a mistake to humor her father for as long as she had, but the damage was done. Now she had to figure out how they were going to get out of this one intact. Fighting the police wasn’t an option, and revealing themselves as Rangers would be a disaster they couldn’t walk back from.

  “What was the pn?” Sarah asked.

  Grace grimaced. “Honestly? Show up in the dead of night and convince you to come back with us. We didn’t expect that perv to be in the room with you.”

  “They sent three cars,” Nicole said from above them. Gncing up, her girlfriend was indeed atop the roof, watching the distant cars as they sped down the driveway towards them. “Grace, I’ll head down to the car and move it somewhere, then grab our bags. We can lose them in the corn fields.”

  “And we’re just ditching my car?” she asked, though she had a feeling she already knew.

  “It’s not like I can pick it up and carry it,” Nicole said, if a bit petuntly. “Though, you probably could.”

  Grace frowned. “That would mean blowing our cover.”

  “Pretty sure it’s already blown,” Nicole said, then jumped towards the parked vehicle, twisting through the air in a flip that somehow didn’t defy physics. That she cleared nearly a hundred feet of distance in doing so left Grace more than a little awed. Nicole wasted little time hopping in the driver’s seat and peeling away from where they had stashed the car and drove straight into the corn fields.

  “No point hiding it then,” Grace said before handing her phone to Sarah. “Hold onto that for me, the transformation tends to drain the batteries.”

  She didn’t give her little sister a chance to ask questions, and hit the buttons on her watch. “Roll the Dice.”

  Her world was consumed in deep crimson as the power rushed through her like a live wire. It was invigorating in a way that even a line of coke failed to measure up to. She’d only let herself be talked into it once when drunk at a party shortly after arriving in the city, and she’d sworn off the stuff after.

  “Holy shit.”

  Grace turned to find her sister sck jawed and staring.

  “It’s a bit different seeing it in person, isn’t it?” Grace asked.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the time to let everything settle, so she instead scooped her sister up into her arms and jumped as well. Sarah let out a piercing scream as she held on for dear life, but that soon turned into a whooping cheer from the little adrenaline junkie.

  The nding was as smooth as ever, Grace bent her legs just right to absorb the shock and her sister was barely ruffled. She had plenty of practice thanks to her time with fire and rescue and it was paying off as she took off at a heavy sprint towards where Nicole had driven the car. Grace was barely a hundred feet into the cornfield when the trail went completely cold.

  She took a look around only for Nicole to slip through the rows of feed corn a moment ter, barely ruffling the pnts as she passed.

  “Fuck that was heavy,” Nicole said, shaking her hands to loosen them up. Their bags were currently hung over her shoulder, but there was no indication of what should be bothering her. “Car’s just past the treeline now. They shouldn’t find it easily.”

  “Did you just carry my car into the woods?” Grace asked incredulously.

  How had she even done that? Sure, Grace was strong as a Ranger, but to pick up a car and carry it? That just seemed excessive, yet Nicole managed it in such a short span of time without her morph. She didn’t even want to consider how much damage might have been done to the frame when it was lifted and could only hope that they could drive it away ter.

  “Why not just leave me with the car?” Sarah asked. “The two of you could cim to be in the area and saw the lights or something.”

  Grace blinked, wondering if it really would be that simple.

  “We’d be risking them finding you,” Nicole said. “I put the car somewhere that they won’t be able to move it without clearing half the woods, and there’s nothing left inside worth fretting over.”

  “Then we run,” Grace said, adjusting her grip on her sister. “Think you’re up for not screaming this time? We’ll be moving fast.”

  “Hell yeah,” Sarah said with a grin. “And don’t hold back! I want to feel the wind in my hair!”

  “Great, now she’s treating me like a sports car,” Grace muttered, though there was no heat to it. “It’s because I’m red, isn’t it?”

  Sarah gred at her. “No, it’s because I’m freaking the fuck out and trying desperately to distract myself from everything that’s been dumped on me today.”

  Wincing at the vehemence of the statement, Grace could only berate herself internally. Her little sister was being pressured by a man that had no business being alone in her room with her to do things that were beyond unacceptable. Now she was fleeing from the w with a pair of Rangers, one of which was her long lost older sister that ran away years prior without a word spoken to her.

  They set off at a run, shifting directions after a moment. Grace knew they needed to put more distance between them and the farm, and the spotlight of a helicopter soon revealed the reason why. Three more joined the search moments ter and Grace swore under her breath. How the hell did a town like Somerville have access to four helicopters?

  Were they waiting for a kidnapping? Or did they know that Sarah was plotting her escape and had some friends in high pces prepare for the attempt? The thought sickened her, but there was nothing they could do about it now. All she could do was continue to run and hope Nicole knew what she was doing.

  Abruptly Nicole signaled to divert and she followed. The helicopters were working in a search grid, keeping their window for movement tight. A snarl escaped from her girlfriend as the formation shifted, and once more they had to adjust to avoid it. Unfortunately, they might have been unnaturally swift, but they still had to account for an unpowered girl. They couldn’t go all out, not without risking Sarah’s life.

  Another shift and Grace was beginning to worry. She could tell that the pilots seemed to know their general location despite the darkened night. It was overcast, which was initially a boon, but it wasn’t doing much good now that powerful searchlights were upon them. She could tell that her girlfriend was growing angry, that she knew how effective those techniques were due to her own training with the fire department. That was likely the only reason they hadn’t been caught yet.

  They continued to move, the searchlights growing ever closer to spotting them with each shift in pattern. Someone had to be watching them, coordinating the shifting of their grid, and then they burst from the fields and back into open air.

  “Drop your morph!” Nicole said sharply.

  Grace did so without hesitation, then blinked in dismay as she realized that they had been herded right back to her old home, and more than that, her father, as well as the perverted youth pastor that he was trying to set them both up with, were on the porch waiting. The old bastard had even repced his shotgun with a new one.

  It took a moment for them to notice the three girls, and Grace was grateful that Nicole had thought ahead enough to warn her. She could feel the eyes crawling across her, but it was the lecherous grin on the bastard of a youth pastor’s face at the sight of her sister that turned her stomach the most.

  The growing shiner on his eye told her that next time her girlfriend wanted to punch someone, she shouldn’t hold back as much as she clearly had.

  The helicopters circled around, a spotlight fell pointedly upon them as the officer shouted something into their megaphone that couldn’t be understood over the roar of the rotors.

  This was it, they would have to confront the authorities about what happened, and own it. She knew there was nothing that could be done to persuade the local level officers, but the federal level people would be more likely to listen.

  If nothing else, she could reveal herself as a Ranger and get them to listen.

  “I must say, I didn’t expect to actually need all my paranoid preparations,” Brian said, holding a bag of frozen peas to his face. “Now, hand my bride back over and we’ll leave the rest to the police.”

  “Not happening,” Grace snarled. “You’re a vile pig and there’s no way I’m letting you touch my sister.”

  Her father ughed. “He is allowed to touch his bride. I’ve ensured everything about their union is perfectly legal. Your sister deserves a godly man to provide for her.”

  “Nothing godly about him,” Sarah muttered.

  “That’s certainly the truth,” Nicole said easily. She was spinning a bde in hand as she regarded the pair on the porch, eyeing the gun being pointed towards them. “So, who should I gut first?”

  The shotgun slide racked and a cartridge popped out, and Grace almost ughed at how the man was once again repeating his mistake from earlier even with a new gun. Nicole didn’t have that level of control, she did ugh.

  “Oh please, go ahead and shoot at us. The only person you’ll hurt is Sarah.”

  Grace wasn’t quite so sure of that. Yes, Nicole was wearing her under armor that Sincir had gifted her. It could stop small caliber rounds with little issue, but it still hurt like a bitch from what Nicole had said during testing. Even if the statement was a bluff, her father did lower the gun slightly.

  “Stop goading the psychopath with a gun,” Sarah hissed.

  Several officers that had run into the field after them were running back, guns up as they joined the two corrupt pastors in their standoff. Spotlights fell upon them from the hovering helicopters as they circled around, the wind harsh as it nearly folded the field behind them. Orders were being shouted, but nothing could be understood over the cacophony of conflicting directives. Given their prior experience with the police it was almost a wonder that the officers hadn’t just shot first then asked who it was they just unloaded upon. Okay, that was a bit harsh, but she was really struggling to see the good when it came to w enforcement.

  “Will you all shut the fuck up!?” Nicole shouted and to Grace’s surprise, they actually stopped yelling over one another. “One person talking at a time or otherwise someone is going to start shooting and I don’t think any of us will like what happens next.”

  “Is that a threat?” an officer yelled back.

  Something stirred through the air and Grace found herself watching her girlfriend closely. Nothing was entirely visible, but there was something electric about the air around her as she took measured breaths, the sensation stirred in time with her breathing, making it very clear that she was doing so intentionally.

  Was that the Source? She knew from Kelly’s readings that Nicole was experiencing elevated levels of the exotic energy after the accident, but was she now able to draw upon them at will? What did that mean for her abilities?

  Regardless, Grace knew she needed to reframe the situation before it spiraled out of control. “I refuse to hand over a minor to a pedophile! If anyone is going to take Sarah, it will be federal agents at minimum!”

  The officers paused at that statement, only to jump as the shotgun discharged, sending dirt and grass into the air. Grace turned, shielding Sarah from the bits that impacted them from the warning shot. The slide racked, and Grace heard shouting before she could take her sister away, but it all halted as the sky turned a brilliant crimson.

  She barely had a moment to look up as a streak of roaring fme crashed into the nearest helicopter with the force of a falling meteor, and it took Grace a moment to realize that was more or less exactly what it had been. Whatever the object was, it struck the fields beyond the house and she could only watch as the fmes plumed up skyward.

  Her first instinct was to panic, because the fields being on fire was a serious problem, but then she snapped back to her current reality because the police were now more focused on the crashed helicopter than they were on them. The other helicopters had peeled away to check their fallen compatriot. It took a moment for Grace to realize that this was the perfect opportunity to flee, despite her training urging her to rush forward and help.

  Nicole didn’t have the same reservations that she did and was already in motion to help with the situation when the first screams were heard in the distance. She wasn’t sure what that was about, but her confusion was swiftly put to rest as a fucking automaton burst out of the corn rows. It was fme scorched and missing an arm besides, but Grace knew from experience that didn’t mean much when it came to their lethality against normal people.

  She didn’t hesitate this time, once more pulling on her Ranger form, the reinvigorated power surge tingling to a point that it almost burned under her skin, but she grit her teeth and endured the brunt of it, knowing full well she would suffer further backsh once she dropped the morph.

  “Sarah, run,” Grace said, drawing her axe from wherever it resided when not in use. “Don’t stop, don’t look back. Use my phone to call Carlos in my contacts, he will be able to help you.”

  “Uh, right,” Sarah sputtered, then she surprised the hell out of Grace by actually listening. The girl took off at a full sprint in the opposite direction of the crash. “Alright, now we just have to put down an unknown number of these bastards and hope they didn’t get an emergency signal off.”

  Grace took in the sight as machines continued to emerge from the field, her girlfriend already in the thick of it with her bdes reflecting the harsh lights as they carved through machines. It was awe inspiring, yet she was only one person and unmorphed besides. Some machines slipped past her, and the police opened fire, as did her idiot of a father. He’d drawn the attention of one of the robotic bastards, which turned its full attention on her estranged family.

  Surging forward, Grace cleaved through a machine before it could pounce on the man that had nearly shot her just moments earlier. She didn’t care about her father, but she did care about machines being allowed to thoughtlessly sughter human beings.

  “You can’t be…” her father said, his voice trembling. “The sacred defenders were sent by God to fight demons, there’s no way that—”

  “News fsh, most of the Rangers are queer,” Grace spat and shoved him aside. “Now piss off, I’ve got a job to do and alien scum to dismantle.”

  She left the bastards behind and jumped back into the battle that her girlfriend was neck deep in. A dozen machines had emerged, all bearing orange bands, and she could see the fields rustling with movement. They were in for a hard fight, and had no clue how many machines had been on whatever crashed.

  Like, what even were the odds of a Syn ship crashing on the farm that her parents happened to own? Something about the situation wasn’t right, but she could worry about it ter. Machines fell at the bite of her axe, fluid sprayed as she cleaved one in twain. She was a force of nature, fury given form, and she had the perfect outlet for her anger right in front of her. Grace lost count of how many machines she put down, and the police had elected to ensure the others were safe rather than risk fighting the machines they couldn’t even dent.

  The helicopters continued to circle above, which proved to be a mistake as one automaton made the leap. It carved into the side, immediately making the craft list from the sudden force. Grace hurled her axe without thought, recalling it the moment it tore into the drone but before it could impact the craft.

  “We need to push through to the ship,” Nicole said, nding beside her. “If we present ourselves as the threat, those that scuttled off should be drawn back to defend the wreckage.”

  The logic was sound, but Grace remained skeptical. It wasn’t like she had a better idea, so she just nodded and followed Nicole into the maze of corn. The smoke and fme in the distance served as a beacon and they continued to encounter automatons as they advanced, and were just as quick to cut them down in a flurry of steel.

  The wreckage quickly came into sight, but as they approached it became clear that they hadn’t been the first to arrive. Another half-dozen machines, these an imposing crimson with bck bands, stood in formation around another figure who was digging through the wreckage. They took hold of something and pulled it free, standing to their full height and Grace realized she was very familiar with the woman that had beaten them to the punch.

  Maraline stood, a blinking device now in hand. “Pardon the intrusion, but I had to retrieve something vital from the wreckage. I care not what happens to the rest, you may cim it if you wish.”

  “Now I’m curious,” Nicole said, steadily approaching the dangerous woman. “What would get you to leave the comfort of your ship like this? Clearly that item is of great importance, so why not gloat about it?”

  “I am not so crass as to funt,” Maraline said as she lifted the device as if she were presenting it as a prize on a gameshow. “Instead, you may py with my minions while I return this to my ship.”

  Energy began to swirl around the woman and in the span of a single blink Nicole surged forward faster than Grace had ever seen her move before. The energy hadn’t finished encompassing Maraline when Nicole grabbed hold of the object, and just as it looked like she might pull it away in time, the light engulfed them.

  Grace had to shield her eyes, but when she opened them once more all she could see were the dozen crimson automatons, which were entirely focused upon her.

  Maraline was gone, and so was Nicole.

  She stood alone in her parent’s corn field, and the strangest sense of nostalgia fell over her as she lifted her axe and shouted her rage unto the heavens as she took the fight to the unknown machine variant with rage on her lips and despair in her heart.

  Pendragoon