With Henry identifying the stranger, Mercy watched as Boris and Reggie tensed up before taking a step back.

“Henry, you sure?” Reggie took another step back.

“Yes.” He didn’t move. The gears were clearly turning in his head. He lowered his weapon and motioned for everyone else to lower theirs. “It’ll escalate the more force we use.”

A little late for that! You tased this thing like three times!

Reggie clearly didn’t want to take her gun off the legion, but she lowered it and Mercy followed suit, tucking the pistol into her back waistband.

“I’ve never encountered one before.” Boris looked down at his arm. It seemed like the legion managed to damage the arm enough that it was refusing to function like before.

“They’re dangerous. They will not hesitate to kill you if you get in their way… or if you’re the one it’s chasing.” Henry collected himself and shot a glance at Mercy.

Yeah, yeah, I get it, be careful, but if it’s that dangerous, why isn’t it attacking us?

Mercy followed his eyes as they landed back on Patricia. Both her and Winston were terrified now. Henry’s gears kept turning. The legion whirred as it tried retracting its tendrils, but some of them remained stuck.

“Luke! Aimee! Sasha! Get in the kitchen and get the back door open!” Although Aimee was still wobbly, the trio scampered to the kitchen. “Patricia, very slowly, move toward the kitchen, but do not leave this room. Winston, stay put.” Patricia didn’t budge. “Patricia, this thing isn’t going to be stuck for much longer. Move!” 

With a reassuring pat on the shoulder from Winston, Patricia backed away toward the kitchen door, navigating around chairs and stools, never turning her back to the legion. Its head followed her while the internal speaker continued playing on loop.

“Tee…tee…tee…tee…”

The legion’s whirs became strained as the tendrils were pulled fully taut. Metal grinded against concrete as the tendrils tried to pull loose of where they anchored. Mercy waited for instructions, but Henry, Reggie and Boris just stood there. 

“Uh, you guys got a plan or something?” Henry and Reggie turned to her, looking confused before staring back at each other. Mercy waited as the two of them made faces at each other before Henry looked back at her.

“Mercy, we need your SIG, now!” 

Fuck, they’ve been talking this whole.

Mercy’s throat closed up.

Do I really have too?

She could see Henry was wondering what she was waiting for.

“I…I…can’t…” He was clearly becoming frustrated, but it was Reggie that spoke up.

“Mercy, I know we just met. Trust me, I’ve done enough jobs with strangers to know how you feel, but the team needs to be on the same page right now, and that includes you!” One of the tendrils ripped out of the wall, slithering back into the legion’s abdomen.

“I…I…”

Fuck. Fuck! I don’t want to! I’m so tired of having other people’s shit in my head, but what can I tell them that they’d believe?

Another tendril ripped loose and the group took another step back as the legion jittered forward.

“I…I don’t know what my SIG is…” Everyone in the group shot glances at her. She watched as they looked at her with utter bewilderment.

“How is that possible?” Reggie caught herself before she fully looked away from the legion. Mercy was trying to figure out what to say when Henry chimed in.

“Back alley job?” Not seeing a better out, Mercy nodded. Another tendril pulled loose, but now they were keeping the legion anchored as it tried to keep moving towards Patricia. “We don't have time to sort this out.” He seemed to focus on messaging someone and Mercy watched the holographic bird glide through the kitchen window before it swooped around and landed on her shoulder. “Alright, here’s the plan.” Chunks of concrete began to scatter as the legion’s clawed feet brushed them away with each step. “This thing is going to keep following Patricia until it gets destroyed or deactivates. We can’t bet on it deactivating, and it’s not going to stop chasing Patricia till it kills her, so we have to get this thing out of the neutral district and contact a district blockbuster.”

No idea what that is but okay.

“Closest district is Old Town, but it’s five blocks south of here.” He motioned toward the door. “Before this thing is free, we’re going to sit by the door. Patricia!” He turned back to her. “This thing is going to keep following you, but as long as you don’t run away, it’ll follow you slowly.” Henry pointed toward the kitchen. “Once it’s free, wait until it gets within two meters of you. When it does, head into the kitchen and meet up with the rest of the team. They’ll keep you safe until we coordinate with the blockbuster and will guide you from there. That clear?” Patricia nodded timidly and Henry turned back to Mercy. “Since we don’t have to move slow, me and Boris are going to rush to the Old Town while you and Reggie get up somewhere high so you can keep an eye on them and the legion.”

“Tee…tee…tee…” The legion’s clawed feet gouged the floor. Mercy could see the tendrils were reaching their limits.

“Quick question, why can’t we put it down ourselves, ya know, while it’s stuck?”

“Because we have no idea what this thing is armed with and no idea where all of its internal processors are. For all we know, it could have a bomb inside.”

“And why can’t we call the police here?”

“They can’t handle it either, and that’s assuming they have enough people to send over here.”

So the blockbuster is all we got.

The concrete around the legion’s tendrils began to crunch and bulge outward.

“Move, now!”

Reggie and Boris skirted around the legion, their eyes darting between the tendrils and its arms. Henry motioned for Mercy to go next, so she creeped toward the door. As she got closer to the legion, the scent of mechanical lubricants and blood serum saturated the air, causing her to feel nauseous. She tightly gripped the clothes in front of her stomach as she looked away from the legion. As she reached the door, Boris already had it slightly ajar while Henry circled around the legion. As he moved, Mercy could see his pupils were narrow and his eyes were unblinking. A tendril popped loose, but he didn’t flinch, continuing to make his way over. Slowly, he slid beside Mercy, his hand squeezing his firearm’s handle enough to make it creak.

“Henry, one more question.”

“Yeah.” His body was tense like an athlete waiting for the starting bell.

“Why are we doing this?” He shot her a glance out of the corner of his eye. “I mean, is this really our business?”

The concrete crunched more.

“Tee… tee… tee…”

Henry looked back to the legion.

“No, it’s not…”

But…

The concrete gave way as the tendrils pulled free, flinging dust and debris everywhere. The legion lurched forward as its clawed feet dug into the floor.

“…but I’m hoping Winston might knock a bit off the tab you guys rung up.”

Henry looked back to her, snarkily smiling beneath his helmet. Mercy couldn’t help but let his infectiousness get her to smile as well.

“And we didn’t even get to eat ours, huh?”

The legion took a few more steps towards Patricia. She was still scared, but she was sticking with the plan.

“Don’t worry, if we finish this fast enough, it’ll be lukewarm by the time we get back.” Something in the back of Mercy’s mind felt a gnawing sensation of nostalgia.

“Tee… tee… tee…” 

4 meters.

“Mmm, my favorite way to eat things.”

Probably would still be good…

“Tee… tee… tee…”

3 meters.

“Tee… tee… tee…”

As the legion stepped within 2 meters of Patricia, she headed through the kitchen door and Boris swung the front door wide open. Mercy felt a surge of heat creep along her scars as nanomachines began infusing stimulants into her blood.

It was time to go.