The technical term to describe what was going on with me was ‘anxiety nausea.’ Probably a more accurate description was that I ‘freaked out, and threw up.’

  As sophisticated as Morrigan was, she didn’t really have a great solution to what to do if I yakked in my own helmet, so I popped out of the armor, and made it all the way to the couch before losing my lunch. The couch was already completely covered in debris from the shattered windows, and the Swiss cheese drywall, so It probably wasn’t that bad that I got it a little messy.

  I felt hot and sweaty, and the nausea hit me in waves as I lay on the couch staring at the ceiling. Once my eyes started to focus and the world stopped spinning, I gazed at the coffee table for some, I don’t know, maybe a little variety or something. Something caught my eye. Kalea had left a soda can on it, and hadn’t bothered to put it on a coaster. It had probably made a ring at this point. What a jerk!

  The light from the windows caught the small bit of dark colored liquid that remained caught on the lip of the can from where she had drunk from it. Weird. I couldn’t stop looking at it. The way it caught the light was… I wasn’t sure. It looked golden in the light.

  Another wave of nausea hit me.

  What had I done? I knew that I was supposed to be some big damn hero, but I didn’t feel like it. I felt like an idiot. I felt like I had gotten so very lucky. Had I been just a little bit slower, had I not followed Emma exactly the way I should have, I would’ve been Swiss cheese too, just like the drapes, just like the couch.

  Morrigan couldn’t look at me disapprovingly, because she didn’t technically have eyes, but I felt it.

  “Ugh, what do you know?” I said, weakly.

  Emma walked in just then. She didn’t say anything at first, just sat at the ruined piano. I could feel her gaze but didn’t turn to look at her.

  Some time passed before I heard her plink at the piano, trying each key one after the other until she hit one with a broken string.

  “Arrggh, what do you want Auntie Em?”

  “To congratulate you on winning your first firefight.”

  “They shot up our house,” I said.

  “Eh, it was starting to look a little dated anyway.”

  I looked around at the decor and mourned for all of the cross stitch and embroidery that had been ruined by the assault. It represented hundreds of hours, wasted.

  “How are Paula and Kalea doing?” I asked. “Did they save Boston?”

  “I don’t know. My phone doesn’t have service here.”

  “Just use the wifi.”

  “You never told me the password.”

  “Have you just been using a hotspot this whole time?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Jesus. Hand me your phone.”

  I held my hand out for her without taking my focus away from the ceiling. She gave me her phone, and I typed the passcode in.

  “Is it alright if I?” I asked.

  “Sure.”

  I opened the RII portal and checked my socials. More flooding of support from people I barely knew. Several of my mutuals had shared the same story. There were messages of ‘Rest in Peace Paula.’

  Damn.

  That was the news of the day, everywhere. Paula, one of the last of the remaining twelve, had been killed in action protecting Boston.

  I just kept scrolling. It didn’t get better.

  Six silver elite units, or Silv-ite, robots had ambushed her. Despite an amazing display of field application where she called down a flurry of thunder and lightning, she’d been overwhelmed. Kalea escaped, but the city had fallen.

  The army had moved in to set a perimeter, but nobody had faith that they could contain the problem, much less kick defeat the robots.

  I cursed.

  “What’s wrong?” Emma asked.

  I handed the phone to her wordlessly.

  Aunt Emma cursed too, and slammed her hand on the keys. She left my phone on the couch at my feet, and walked away. I reached down to get it, only then noticing the patch on my arm that was covered by some kind of medical gel. The cut I received was fairly shallow, caused by flying debris, but Morrigan must have seen to it anyway. That was nice.

  It was strange to have this thing do stuff without my directing it to. It needed to be flexible. But how much could Morrigan think for herself? What was really up with her?

  I should have talked to Saanvi more.

  The sound of breaking glass in the other room brought me back to my current moment. I knew Emma had to be having a hard time.

  Also, Kalea needed me. I was the closest Knight. Or I wasn’t a Knight yet, but I had a suit.

  I wasn’t ready for combat, real combat, yet was I?

  Putting my phone down, I stood. I felt woozy on my feet, but I could stand. I needed to comfort Emma, at least.

  I looked at Morrigan, briefly considered getting in her, I would feel stronger like that, but my Aunt probably needed a human presence. Or at least I hoped I could help.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  I made sure to step around the sharp debris as I made my way to the kitchen.

  “Oh, hey,” Aunt Em said, “you shouldn’t be in here barefoot.”

  I winced as I stepped on something but brushed the debris off my foot easy enough. A stricken look passed her face.

  “I’m good,” I said, “most of the glass isn’t sharp anyway.”

  Aunt Em was suddenly very close, and she pulled me into a hug. She cried into my shoulder.

  “God, you shouldn’t have to deal with this, you shouldn’t have to deal with me,” she said through the tears. “What have I done? You’re just a kid.”

  “It’s fine, Aunt Em! I’m 18!”

  I mean. I thought it was fine at the time. If I didn’t do something, who would? If I hadn’t jumped in Morrigan, we would have been very dead.

  “No it’s not!” She said, keeping her hand on my shoulder but pulling back to look into my eyes. “You don’t even know how to fight. I should have prepared you better. I should have listened to the prophecy from the start. I just didn’t want it to be you.”

  I didn’t know about all this prophesy stuff, but having some more combat training before all this would have been nice. But I did okay in that last fight, right?

  “Hey, I did okay!” I said.

  “God, you were a mess.”

  “Morrigan did most of the work. I did fine, okay.”

  “Yeah we did okay on Morrigan. She seems like a great suit.”

  “Look,” I said, “I’m gonna go out there and give Kalea some backup. Then we’ll rescue Matt. Then we’ll come right back home.”

  “That’s such a bad idea.”

  “Well it’s the only one we have, Aunt Em. If you have a better one I’m all ears.”

  “We stay here and protect the house. Once Boston is cleared, we take you to the dreadnought like we should have all along.”

  “But you said—”

  “Fuck what I said, Kat! I’m an idiot!” Her eyes were shut tight and she’d slammed her fist into the counter. “I believed too much in the stories. You aren’t ready,” then, speaking softer, looking out the shattered window. “I just lost Pau. I can’t lose you too.”

  I stepped back from Aunt Em. I knew that she was right. I was in way over my head.

  But I had to. I had to.

  Matt needed me. Kalea needed me.

  Could I really do this on my own?

  Saanvi entered the kitchen. Outside, it was starting to rain.

  “I brought you flip flops,” she said, placing the cheap plastic thongs on the floor next to me. Then, bringing her attention to Aunt Em, said, “I’m sorry about Pau.”

  Aunt Em’s hand went to her mouth as she choked back a sob.

  “How is it out in Boston?” I asked her

  “It’s bad,” she replied.

  I turned my head to focus on Aunt Em one last time. The pain on her face was almost enough to make me stay. Almost.

  I decided just then that from now on I would be brave. No matter what happened. No matter how awful and scared I felt, I had to go out there and save Kalea, save Matt.

  I just wished that the last time I saw my Aunt that it had been the face of someone who believed in me. The face of pride. Instead, it was a woman in pain, a woman scared in a way I had never seen before.

  No matter. I was going to be a hero.

  My feet carried me into the other room and I kicked off my flip flops before putting my back to Morrigan. Her plates slid over me like a warm hug.

  I was fast, real fast. Before I knew it, I was out the door and down the road in seconds. Every step whisked me down the road much quicker than I was used to.

  Hope you know where we’re going, I thought to myself. Or maybe to Morrigan.

  And just like that the HUD had a small map of the area surrounding Boston, then the image scrolled across the country to my family farm, to me. I was a small arrow.

  How helpful. Boston, here I come. Another pop up in my HUD:

  Weapon load out — Side arm: not selected. Main weapon: not selected. Melee weapon: shortsword, elite-grade.

  I stopped, turned around, and sprinted back to Auntie Em’s pickup truck. The coilgun pistol, it’s huge clunky design with exposed sections showing the red hot barrel steaming in the rain, lay there for me. I picked it up, and found a compartment for it next to the nanite storage tanks at my hips. Morrigan pinged my HUD again.

  Side-arm: Chester-class coilgun pistol [TC 110%]

  So this thing would be useless until it cooled. Or until its Thermal Capacity dropped. Maybe there was a Field Application, or Knight magic as the normies called it, I could do to cool it down, but I didn’t know any of those.

  Saanvi headed to the barn. She gave me a double thumbs up. I waved back.

  I ran.

  The rain came at me sideways as I started off at a sprint. It was easy, exhilarating. My legs carried me and I hardly felt the ground. The trees whipped past me as my feet tamped down the gravel. Headlights came toward me, but I sidestepped the cars easily.

  I was fast. I was cooking.

  Morrigan gave me an ETA, a small number next to the map, of an hour from now. I must be pushing seventy miles per hour.

  It wasn’t long til I was at I-95. Brakelights stretched as far as the eye could see, traffic backed up in both directions. Clumps of people walked down the road, huddled together against the rain, splashing in the painted ribbons of red from the brake lights of cars trying to escape the city.

  They’d draped coats over rolling bags, covered their backpacks with their waterproof parkas, anything to protect their possessions against the rain. Some didn’t have anything more than the clothes on their backs.

  The cars whipped past, and I ate up pavement as I ran. I had to get there faster. I had to run faster. Before I changed my mind.

  I couldn’t go back.

  I had to do this. Because I decided to.

  It wasn’t long until the city was on the horizon, the sun a grey presence somewhere behind the clouds. Man, how fast was I running?

  I wasn’t even tired. It had been only a little over half an hour of running, full tilt.

  Something was wrong. I could hear screaming. But how?

  Something flashed in my vision. It was my Visual Projection. I could see shapes, man-like shapes highlighted in the distance. But it wasn’t men. They were the robots. Three of them.

  My heart leapt. This was it. If I was going to prove to myself I could do this, it was out here on my own. A pack of them had split off from the main fighting. What were they doing?

  One of them pulled a woman from her car. I ran faster.

  Another grabbed her arm. They were going to pull her apart. I couldn’t let that happen.

  Naked metal, and dead eyes. Like last time, but now they wore clothes. The metal bones, and jagged plate armor jut unnaturally against thin T-shirts and tattered scarves. The common ones had never looked made for war. And maybe they hadn’t been. But now they looked even less threatening. One, bizarrely, had plastic sports pads strapped to his joints. How could I take anyone in knee pads seriously?

  But they were monsters. They didn’t even wipe the blood from their face plates. How many people had died before they made it here, to this woman. And now they were outfitted with the things they took from us.

  I pulled my sword from my waist as I ran. It’s do or die now. I’m not going to let them hurt her. Her eyes looked at me. If I let her die…

  That wouldn’t happen. Not today.

  And now I was on them.

  I fell to my knees and slid on the armored plates protecting them. The robots let her go and grabbed for me. Their metal fingers stretching for me, just out of reach. I arched my back down low, and brought my sword into the legs of the first one, making sure to follow through with my swing when I felt it connect. I cut right through it, and leapt to my feet, bringing a slash down on the second one. He fell in half, and I kicked the first’s head clean off.

  Water sloshed off my armor and pooled at our feet. Not great footing at best of times. Two down. The third leapt on me.

  I wasn’t fast enough.