Will watched in horror as the plane crashed next to the Grand Central Mall. The coming secondary explosion nearly threw him off his feet.

"Oh my god," Rebecca gasped.

"Come on," Will yelled and rushed towards the crash. He wasn't sure if there was anyone still alive on that plane, but they had to do what they could.

Scout raced ahead and took point. The little bot had been quietly following the trio until now, but now sensing an emergency, it took action.

They rushed down the corner towards the mall, kicking up snow. Smoke billowed out of the crashed aircraft. It had plowed straight into the building next to Grand Central, and bits of fuselage rained down from the sky.

A large sheet of metal crashed down on the piled-up cars, which was followed by rocks and giant chunks of the building wall, sending more debris flying.

Will cursed. In his rush to help, he didn't even consider the buildings might have destabilized. More debris fell from the sky as the high-rise support pillars crumbled. They would never reach the plane if they were blocked by the falling skyscraper.

Another explosion came from the plane. Through the smoke and fire, dark forms shifted in the flames. Two armored mechs stumbled out of the wreckage, which was immediately followed by a thunderclap and the staccato burst of an all-too-familiar sound.

"What was that?" asked Rebecca, but the boys knew right away. Remy flattened himself against the ground, and Will dragged Rebecca behind the cover of a car.

The machine gunfire sounded again, and the two mechs tore at each other with naked fury. Bullets pinged against the cars, and Rebecca let out a muffled cry.

More bits of the building wall crashed down, and one of them landed on the egg sculpture in front of the mall. The twisted steel ribbons of the sculpture snapped, sending them careening across the sky. They rained down like spears, skewering the cars around them. One of the pieces speared itself near their feet, spraying them with snow. Rebecca gave out a terrified squeak as the jagged piece of metal nearly took her leg off.

"What the hell is going on?" Remy hissed over the comms. He crawled forward and joined Rebecca and Will.

"Damn," cursed Will. There was another explosion, and the sounds of combat intensified.

"Scout, give us a look," Will instructed the little bot, and Scout scrambled to its feet and poked its head out of the cover. It streamed the camera feed onto their visors.

In the corner of his helmet, the video feed popped up. With a few eye commands, Will enlarged it.

He watched the dust and snow clear. Everything was a mess. The cars were torn apart, and the metal ribbons from the egg sculpture turned the street into a twisted maze of interlocking steel spears.

Far ahead, the mechs were still engaged in battle. They moved in a blur of clashing metal and steel. Sparks flew, and gunfire rang, and Scout could barely keep track of them through the smoke and fire.

One of the mechs finally came to a halt when its opponent managed to score a hit. A green military mech struggled to regain balance as it withstood the onslaught. Its camo paint job flaked off its body as it kept getting struck.

The military mech unloaded its magazine as cover fire as it tried to level its disadvantage, but the enemy was too fast. It was smaller than the green mech but a lot more agile. It zipped by in a red blur and came at the bigger military mech from the side.

Two red arms clamped down on the military mech, immobilizing its arms. This was followed by an attack from another pair of red arms carrying short swords. The multi-limbed enemy mech aimed for the military mech's neck.

The military mech didn't bother with defending. It tucked in its neck and used its leverage to bodily pick up the multi-armed red mech and threw it to the side.

Sparks flew as the red mech managed to make shallow cuts on the military mech's arms before being tossed aside. It rolled and came to a stop crouched on all six limbs. It skittered away through the fallen debris before the bigger mech could get a lock on it.

"Will, it's not just mechs," said Remy. "Look to the side."

Will got Scout to retract the zoom, and he spotted another, more intense fight off to the side. The mechs had bot assistants.

The small army of bots duked it out away from the mechs. The military bots were painted in camo green and ran on all fours. The dog-shaped K-9 units fired lasers from their mouths, blasting craters in the snow.

The red enemy bots skittered out of the way as nimble as their master and returned the laser fire with their own. The spiderlings were quick and vicious.

The two camps of bots mauled each other with a ferocity only matched by their owners. Laser beams flashed between each camp, and both spiderlings and Coyotes got blasted into slag.

On occasion, they harassed the enemy mech, to eke out an advantage for their owners, which ended in tragic consequences for the bot. The smaller machines didn't have one-tenth the firepower of the bigger mech and could only act as cannon fodder.

More bots fell, and Will noticed that they were all fighting over something. A silver briefcase lay in the snow, and both sides were desperately trying to get their hands on it. The case slid between the combatants as each side tried to make a grab for it, only to get blasted aside by the bigger mechs.

An errant spray of gunfire came in their direction, and Scout had to pull back into cover. The bullets pinged over the cars, and Remy cursed. "What the fuck is going on? Who is the military one fighting?"

"No clue," said Will. "But the speed and power of that thing are off the charts. It is not your average mech."

"Guys," Rebecca whispered urgently, but both boys were too focused on the fight.

"Six arms and no markings," said Will. "And they are fighting over that case."

"What do you think is in it?" muttered Remy.

"Don't know, don't care," said Will.

"Should we grab it?" asked Remy, and Will looked horrified.

Rebecca started urgently tapping Will on the shoulder. "Guys!"

"Have you gone mad?" Will hissed.

"Kidding, just kidding," Remy chuckled.

"We should get out of here while we can. Whatever is going on, we don't want to be involved."

Will felt his arm being wrenched and shaken. "Guys!"

"What?"

Rebecca had one hand over her faceplate, trying to reach her nose, but the helmet was in the way. Will finally recognized the faint smell of ethrazene in the air and the reason for Rebecca's predicament. Sniffling sounds came over the coms, and Rebecca looked like she was about to explode.

"Becca..." Remy warned.

Rebecca sneezed explosively, and the ghost city suddenly turned quiet. Will and Remy didn't dare to move. A faint sound of something sliding over snow reached their ears, and Remy and Will noticed that they were no longer bent low under their cover, and a silver briefcase rested between their legs.

Wide-eyed, the trio looked at the briefcase and then at the two mechs that had their cameras trained on them. There was a pause that seemed to last an eternity, after which both mechs raised their guns towards them simultaneously.

"Shit!"

The trio dove out of the way as bullets rained down on them. Remy kicked the briefcase up, and it exploded into a thousand pieces as it got caught in the fire path. The shrapnel flew at them, and Will, who was closest, got hit.

Pain shot through his amputated limb as the shrapnel buried into his stump leg. Fire raced up his calcified kneecap, and Will nearly passed out.

"Warning! Containment breach! Containment breach!" Red alerts pinged his visor, and Will instructed the suit to compress down in the torn area. The suit tightened around him, and Will felt the suit field adjust to compensate.

"Will!" Remy dragged Will forward. The rat-tat-tat of the machine gun sounded again, and mechs riddled the cars with holes. Only the sheer amount of scrap metal between them and the mechs kept them from being turned into a red mist.

"Come on!" Remy yelled, and the three of them made a run for it.

Three pairs of feet pounded across the snow. Scout loped beside them, its camera still keeping an eye on the fight behind them.

"Why is the military also shooting at us?" Rebecca gasped.
"Probably because he wants us dead!" said Will.

A chittering sound came from behind them, accompanied by the roar of an engine. Red alerts pinged on his visor, and Will spotted two bots breaking away from their pack. A coyote and a single spiderling rushed forward. Red light gathered in their mouths as they powered up their lasers.

"Shit!"

Twin beams of death flew over their heads and struck the path ahead with a boom. Two small craters were blasted into the snow, and they were hit with a face full of steam as the snow flash boiled.

"Keep moving," Will yelled. They scrambled to their feet and ran. Will glanced at the camera feed from Scout. The two bots scrambled up the cars and dodged the fallen steel spikes of the broken egg sculpture. The maze of steel ribbons and their wariness towards each other were the only things keeping them from fully focusing on firing at the trio.

"We are not going to make it," Remy yelled, and desperation tinged his voice.

Remy was right. They were too slow. The fresh snow made it hard to run through, and compared to the bots, they might as well be standing still.

Another laser beam flew over their heads. The bots weaved through the steel ribbons, and the cars crumpled under their weight in their mad rush towards the trio.

"Think, think, think, think," Will panicked as his heart raced. Sweat drenched his forehead as he ran through scenarios, but all of them came up short. He couldn't think of a way out of this. They were too slow, the snow was too deep, and the bots were too fast. All his calculations led to a dire result, and their chances of making it out were getting smaller by the second.

Red light bloomed in his visor as the Coyote trained its head towards Remy, who was too slow to react.

"No!" screamed Will.

Boom!

At the very last second, Scout leapt up and bodily blocked the laser fire. The bot fell into the snow, smoking.

"Scout!"

The little bot rolled around in the snow and put out the flame. Its thick outer plating was steaming. Will picked up the bot and rushed forward. Another laser pinged them, and Will dodged to the side.

Snow boiled to steam once again, and much of the laser's energy was diffused into the meltwater.

Will's eyes went wide. "That's it! Remy, toss two explosive disks behind us."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it!"

Remy armed the disks and threw them behind him. The explosion sent a cloud of snow and steam into the air, blocking their line of sight.

Another laser light came from the mist, but it barely singed them. It lacked the penetrating power it once had. Steam condensed back into water, and a fog enveloped them.

There were more lasers incoming, but they all missed under the cover of the fog.

"This way." Will led the trio around the corner.

There was one place where they had a chance at losing their tail, and it wasn't out in the snowy streets. They ran alongside the nearby building until they spotted the back entrance. Will kicked the door open, and the trio trooped into the Grand Central Mall.