There was an inaudible hum and the shadows fell away from her, revealing the world again, as well as Alleyshadow - suddenly between her and her escape route, gesturing fervently for her to turn off of Sixteenth. She did so, and found herself at a street more or less blocked off by a dump truck. There was a gap just between the truck and the sidewalk just large enough for her bike to squeeze past.

The Ferret perched on top of the truck’s cab motioning for her to take the gap.

Erin drove past the dumpster and cut back on the acceleration, hoping she could hide behind the truck, where The Ferret had already hopped down to find her.

Though the helmet and her ringing ears, Erin could still more or less understand the distorted berating shouting from The Ferret. “Erin Razor! What the hells are you doing out here?”

Erin put the kickstand down but didn’t turn her bike off or climb off. Erin was breathing heavily. She yanked off the helmet and, as Alleyshadow appeared in the same gap she entered from, said, “I know who’s behind these bots-” she took a breath, “I think, at least. I tried to call you. I texted you about it too.”

The Ferret and Alleyshadow looked to each other, and back to Erin. “What are you talking about Erin?” The Ferret continued, loud enough over the gunfire echoing off the walls. Misty’s goggles - no doubt showing all sorts of data on their screens - did not hide her obvious anger and confusion. Erin wondered if she was reading those texts now.

Erin was more frazzled by the raw disbelief and near dismissal in The Ferret’s tone, than she was by the Plot, who seemed to want to close her throat off. “It’s Donovan McMillan, a manager at Divinilogic, he’s a former manager with Boron Heavy Industries, he set up the contract with Tyson, months ago, some fake company named Inter Operables -He must have been using Divinilogic to help develop the bot coding without explaining that they were weapons. I think he’s got Janey too!”

Divinilogic really was not a weapon or military company, which was why the damned requirements she’d been working with were so badly parsed. They were trying to obscure the project they were being used on. ‘Autonomous platforms’, what a joke. 

Alleyshadow and The Ferret froze at Tyson’s name, and didn’t respond. “God-damnit! I’m-” Erin stuttered at their horror, but continued, “I’m trying to help! Each of these bots you keep destroying will remotely activate two more tomorrow! That’s what you need to know. Tell the other heroes! Disable them, but stop destroying them! Or you’ll have sixteen tomorrow!”

Alleyshadow was the first to react - a quick wide grin - and said, “Sure thing, Erin. Ferret, I got that part handled. I’ll call Silverknight over.”

He stepped into a deeper shadow of a doorway to an electronics shop, and vanished in a distortion of light.

Erin focused on The Ferret. “Listen, you need to find out where Donovan McMillan is, or figure out who Divinilogic’s contract really was with. You’re the super-hacker! I am just a desk jockey. Donovan has Janey!”

“What? Erin?” A deep booming voice washed over them, louder than the echoing shots and fighting between hero and bots.

Silverknight floated over the garbage truck, levitating as easily as if he were a drone 

Erin was still pulling off her backpack to give her laptop to The Ferret, or she would have pointed at him angrily. “You! Where the hell is Janey? When’s the last time you saw her!?”

She finally got her backpack off, finally just dropping her helmet on the ground. Some small part of her was upset at mishandling her equipment and worried about the damage to Oda, but Erin pushed that thought far, far away. The Ferret stepped up to help, pulling out Erin’s laptop.

Erin barely registered as The Ferret pulled out some device from her belt that plugged into two of the ports on the laptop. As the laptop screen flipped up, Erin was apparently already logged in, with some script running in a command line.

Erin’s attention was focused on Silverknight. On Tyson. “Janey’s been missing since Monday morning!”

Erin recalled when Silverknight had arrived for her website demo, he said he hadn’t heard from “her” in a couple days. And that hint of an argument between them on Sunday.

Silverknight shook his head, arms wide. “What are you talking about? Ferret, what’s going on?”

Erin motioned for his attention while the Ferret worked on her computer. He landed next to her bike, and Erin spoke up when The Ferret didn’t seem ready to talk. “My manager kidnapped Janey or something, because she figured out what he was doing, probably. He’s got her phone. Donovan McMillan used to work for Boron Heavy Industries, who designed the bots, and you helped set up that contract in New York! You mentioned it when we went to get coffee that one time!”

Erin was angry at how dumb it all was. She shouldn’t have had to put together these pieces. Whatever happened between Tyson and Janey, he should have wondered where she was after a single day. Janey had been kidnapped before. This was Tyson’s mystery, his Plot line, and yet three unrelated people died yesterday. 

Silverknight asked, still incredulous, “You know who I am?”

Erin needed to take a breath before she responded. “Tyson. I know who everyone in the Cavalry is. Is this the damn time for those questions! Shouldn’t you be finding Janey!?” She’d started out calm, but the last came out in a strangled angry tone again, like most of her screaming. The gunfire continued to echo through the streets, but Tyson wouldn’t have any trouble hearing her with the suit on.

The Ferret piped up, “Hell’s Bells. Erin’s right. I had to track through a dozen shell corporations, but McMillan owns 100% of an autonomous arms company that is contracted to Divinilogic through Inter Operables. Gods, it’s headquarters only two miles from here. In my own backyard too. Gods damn.”

The Ferret yanked her tech dongle out of Erin’s laptop and the monitor reverted to her normal login screen. Erin opened her backpack and The Ferret inserted it more delicately than Erin would have bothered herself.

Erin zipped up her backpack enough for it to not fall open, and put it back on. “Good, go save her! I can find my own way out.” Erin couldn’t even feel the Plot against her skin anymore. Either she was so hyped on adrenaline and furor that it didn’t register, or it decided to finally leave her alone for now.

She was frankly terrified of leaving on her own, but she wasn’t going to stay here either.

There was a *thunk* of an impact nearby, and she started to grab her accelerator, to get out of the way of a bot that may have appeared, but it was just Pyrocles, having leapt in from somewhere. “Sorry I’m late, what did I miss?”

Erin shouted over the sound of a quick succession of gunshots in the distance, “Don’t destroy the bots, Janey was kidnapped, Ferret may know where, and yes I know who you are. And I’m getting out of here.” The sound of gunfire continued, but not immediate and pressing like it had been when it had been aimed at Erin.

Pyrocles gave a single ‘Hmm’ as if absorbing that all in some small amusement before saying, “I’ll escort you. Alleyshadow and I can clean up here with the help of the other heroes, while Tyson and The Ferret find Janey.” Gunfire continued to ring out, but none of it immediate enough to interrupt their conversation. She wondered if they had killed most of the bots, or if her warning had been early enough.

Erin shoved her helmet back on, glad to not lose yet another. The Ferret pressed a few buttons on her wrist and another motorcycle came racing around the corner towards the four of them, without a driver. The Ferret hopped onto the hyper-fancy tech bike while Silverknight lifted off the ground with his suit, glowing lilac with alien power. He’d have no trouble keeping up with The Ferret while in the air. Pyrocles looked at Erin, asking, “Ready?”

She kicked off the kickstand and nodded, knowing her words would just get muffled by the helmet. She followed his jogging from about fifty feet behind. He was easily able to maintain at a decent twenty-five mile-an-hour clip.

His escort ended up being more or less unnecessary, as she came back to another police barricade and no bots.

While Pyrocles parlayed with the sole police officer there, who was hiding behind his car, in case of another bot, Erin squeezed between a gap in two wooden barriers. She didn’t want to deal with the police this time.

It had been a long day.