“I can’t say I’m fond of heights in general,” Elvis said. “But it is nice to be climbing something that isn’t trying to kill us.”

  Rush climbed up one of the exposed structural beams of the crumbling skyscraper, and a small chunk of loose concrete slid away where his feet had just been.

  “Actively, at least,” Elvis said. “Do be careful, Mr. Rush.”

  “I’m being careful.”

  He continued to very carefully scale the tallest of the ruined towers, in hopes of getting a better vantage point. The metal skeletons of the city were wreaking havoc on Elvis’s already limited ability to scan, as signals bounced and echoed off the ruins. The AI had been the one to suggest seeking higher ground, a suggestion he now deeply regretted. Elvis had been imagining some stairs, or at least a ladder. Rush had just found the nearest exposed beam and started climbing.

  “How fare above the other buildings do we need to be?” Rush asked. “I just passed another rooftop.”

  “A bit more,” Elvis said. “I’ve got a very clear signal from the west, but it’s still bouncing around the nearby buildings.”

  The metal beam groaned under Rush’s weight as he continued upwards. Elvis focused his sensors on the anomalous signal and tried to ignore the distance between them and the ground.

  “Ah! There we are,” Elvis said. “I’ve got it, Mr. Rush. Judging by this power signature, I’d say our bandit is just a few streets over. They seem to be lurking within the shell of a tower.”

  “Good position for an ambush,” Rush said. There were only so many ways to disguise something the size of a building -using a building was about the only sensible option.

  “It appears to be stationary, for the moment,” Elvis said. “Likely saw the clan coming and set up in its hiding spot for an ambush.”

  “We’d better get to it before it realizes no one’s coming, then.”

  “Yes, with some careful footwork we ought to be able to-”

  Rush let go of the beam.

  “Why?”

  The desperate plea went unanswered as Rush plummeted fifteen stories to the ground in complete silence. Inches away from the ground, the kinetic barrier took over and redirected the energy of his fall, slowing him down and causing him to plop harmlessly onto the ground as if he’d fallen no more than a few inches.

  “Hmm. That was worse than I expected,” Rush said. Even knowing he’d be able to land safely didn’t make falling pleasant.

  “It was exactly as bad as I expected,” Elvis snapped. “Why did you do that?”

  “It’s the most efficient way to the ground,” Rush said.

  “Oh, I don’t know why I bother,” Elvis said. “Why must so many of your strategies involve hurling yourself through the air?”

  “It keeps working,” Rush said. “How much energy did the landing use up?”

  “About seven percent of a battery charge,” Elvis said. “Negligible, in the grand scheme of things, but you might wait a minute or so before engaging your opponent.”

  “It’ll take us that long just to get there anyway,” Rush said. Elvis put an arrow on the helmet’s screen pointing towards their target, and Rush carefully proceeded through ruined buildings towards the target. He kept to cover and out of sight as they approached the bandit’s hiding spot.

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  “I see why he chose that one,” Rush said. Unlike most of the surrounding towers, the hiding place had relatively intact walls that would obstruct anyone approaching from the streets. Rush crept around the building’s exterior and could barely catch a glimpse of anything waiting within. “Must be an opening on the fourth side.”

  “Then perhaps we should move to find an opening on one of the others,” Elvis suggested. Rush nodded in agreement and started climbing the crumbling stone. “Just try not to jump off of anything, Mr. Rush.”

  The lack of response began to worry Elvis the higher they climbed. Much to the machine’s relief, Rush only went about five stories up before finding a large gap in the wall and creeping through. Once inside, Rush could finally see the mech in full, and appraise it for what it was.

  “That’s a piece of shit.”

  The mecha lying in wait was even more decrepit and rusted then the first he’d faced. Large holes had been worn through what was left of its hull, and what little remained intact was dull and coarse, clearly worn down by exposure to the elements. Its forearm had a mount where a weapon had once been, but judging by the sear marks still visible on the armor, that gun had disastrously misfired at some point in recent history. Most telling of all, crystalline growths were visible around the cracks of its chest armor -signs of a corroded Kell Cell overgrown with Kellcite.

  “I see why this one relies on ambush tactics,” Elvis said. Flakes of corroded metal were shedding from its joints, even at rest. “A caravan of junkers could probably outrun it, in this condition.”

  “Its armor is worthless,” Rush said, stating the obvious. “What about the shield? Is that still functioning?”

  “Not in the slightest,” Elvis said. “That, combined with our recent acquisition of ranged weaponry, will make this fight fairly easy, I should think.”

  Rush said nothing. Elvis could practically feel his mind buzzing with ideas, and chose to let Rush think in peace. The mech was still motionless, unaware it was being watched, which gave them plenty of time to consider plenty of options, hopefully not including any jumping off of anything.

  After a few minutes of consideration, Rush started creeping around the building’s interior in search of a better angle. He descended a few yards, then clung to a ruined patch of wall on the verge of crumbling. From his new vantage point, Rush raised his new railgun and took aim. Then he put his plan into action.

  “Hey, you!”

  At the sound of an unexpected voice, the mech stood and turned. The rapid movement caused its decrepit form to groan audibly under the stress, especially around the joints. Rush targeted that weakness and fired a railgun bolt directly into the knee joint of the mecha. What little material held the mech together crumbled on impact, and the off-balance machine started to plummet, crashing through what was left of the building as it fell.

  As the collapse began in full, Rush punched his way through the broken wall and broke into a dead sprint away from the falling building. Dust and debris scratched at his heels for the first few strides, but the Scrapper suit was able to outpace the collapse and get to a safe distance. From down the street, Rush watched the dust settle, revealing a mecha crushed by debris, with nothing more than its head and shoulders poking out of the rubble.

  “All done.”

  “Excellent work, Mr. Rush! Dare I say that was quite pleasant, by our standards,” Elvis said. “We stayed mostly on the ground, even!”

  “I thought you’d be mad about the collapse,” Rush said. He started to approach the fallen mech to check on its pilot.

  “Well I can’t say I’m a fan, but we outpaced it fairly easily,” Elvis said. “And it was a very clever use of the environment! My compliments, Mr. Rush.”

  “Thank you,” Rush said. “Now, activate the power saw and let’s start cutting through the cockpit.”

  Rush held up the saw and looked into the glass shield that formed the cyclopean “eye” of the mech. It looked right back at him. The glass was too corroded to see through from this side, but it was impossible to miss when the head started to move.

  “Oh dear.”

  The fist of the mech slammed into the dusty street, and Rush dodged just in time. Though the armor cracked on impact, the heavy fist slammed down hard enough to leave a crater in the concrete. Rush took a few steps back as the mech’s other hand took hold of a piece of wall and began to pull forward.

  The creaking groan of metal preceded a shrieking tear as the mech pulled itself free of the collapsed wreckage -in a sense. The shattered lower body stayed behind as the upper limbs and torso pulled themselves free and started to crawl forward. The mech’s stump of a torso dragged a trail of sparks behind it as it clawed forward, relentlessly, towards Rush.

  The power saw retracted as the railgun charged up once again. Nothing was ever simple.