In order to allow her captive to lead the way, Aurora had to grant the sentry a limited degree of freedom to move and, unfortunately, speak. It was as they were approag what would seem to have been the correct door when a seven-and-a-half-foot tall power suit stomped through the entryway. The back had retractable stabilization wings, jets, and a pack for housing munitions. The left arm featured a spiked tip while the other had some sort of firearm attat. Aurora would have been able to identify more about it if she hadn't gone cross-eyed while reading the tech specs.

  “Boss, look out!” her most ret hostage cried out, his voice shaking with urgency.

  Aurora sighed, nodding. They may be crooks, but they were still fiercely loyal to their boss, for the most part. That was a someositive quality, if not an annoying one.

  Lifting her hand casually, she released a bolt dead ter to her captive’s back, knog him out cold. He crumpled to the ground with a groan.

  This was iable, she supposed. She didn’t have any doubts about her abilities even though she was this superheroing stuff. She was marginally ed about proteg the assets of the pany the suit was stolen from, but that was far from her biggest worry. As Detective Kirby had said, the first priority was to take this man down.

  The brief window Aurora had used to assess the armor, knock out her guide, and go over her win ditions was used by the pilot to open fire on her instantly with a bst of his own. The energy from the bst sizzled through the air, narrowly missing her.

  Aurora sidestepped the bst, her wings helpio move faster than even an above-average human being could unassisted. She retaliated with a powered-up bst of her own and struck true on the chest of the armor. The impact reverberated through the room.

  Her oppo pnted a foot to halt the backward skid he was sent into, stopping just inches before crashing into the far wall. The force of her attack had been strohan she expected, but the armor held firm.

  “Ah, it’s you, that Angel. And here I’d been hoping that you’d be the oo fioo bad we’re in this cramped refinery building… I’d have preferred to meet you while we were pulling this job so I could sy you in the killer skies,” Blue Max said, ughing, crossing his arms and managing to look somewhat imposing due to the armor. His voice echoed through the helmet, filled with fidence. As the man moved, Aurora he mae mimicked his motions with uny precision.

  “Is that so?” Aurora retorted, a smirk pying on her lips. “Well, I guess you’ll just have to settle for being taken down here and now.” Her wings fred behind her, catg the light and casting an imposing silhouette.

  Blue Max's ughter echoed again, louder this time. “Brave words, little angel. Let’s see if you back them up.” He raised his firearm arm, aiming it directly at her.

  Aurora readied herself, her muscles coiled like a spring. The stakes were clear: she had to ralize Blue Max and protect against uable colteral damage. There was no room for error.

  Aurora spoke after the pilot’s decration, “It’s my turn, yes?” Did she have a brand new super vilin of her own already?

  Her idle thought gave enough time for three pinpoints of light to train on her, and following them, three small missiles rocketed out towards her. “Three stones for one bird, hahaha!” He ughed, his voice eg through the room.

  Aurora unched herself away ireat while throwing up barriers. Without aiming much, she hip-fired a light bst behiowards the ining missiles. She got lucky when she mao ect, causing the oruck to crumple and explode with the force of a powerful grenade. Aurora led the other two around the rge warehouse cavern, practically clipping around the ste tanks while tinuing to bst away.

  tinuing evasive maneuvers, she leased to see a seissile was struck by her bsts, but the third was still rapidly closing the distance. Unfurling one wing, she used it to cut a sharp turn around one of the rger tanks, making the turn as sharp as possible.

  The missile struck the tank aonated as she hoped. She was shielded by her power and the thick shredded tank’s material. The fmes billowed around her harmlessly, the heat barely registering through her shield.

  “Ha ha ha… I hope you still have some fight left in you, girlie,” Blue Max yelled. The room was filled with smoke from all the explosions and fmes that now spread. Her vision was obstructed, but wouldn’t his be too?

  Aurora shot back, “Plenty left! Why don’t you e here and find out?” She gauged where he was roughly from where his voice came from and pced the body of the charred taween them. As she used her wings to navigate better, the smoke stirred and swirled, creating an eerie dance of shadows.

  “If you don’t want to e out and py with me, maybe I should start exeg people like this now otherwise useless minion of mine, hm?” Blue threatened, ughing. His heavy exo suit’s footsteps started walking away from Aurora, the sound reverberating through the space.

  Aurora crept closer and sneaked a peek, moving as silently as possible. There was a vague outline in the smoke, and sure enough, he was moving towards his minion. The sight of the massive suit moving with such purpose sent a shiver down her spine.

  Aurora shook her head. Despite the situation, she couldn’t help fangirling. This guy was hardcore pying up the archvilin schtick. Maybe he really did io be her nemesis. That was a little fttering.

  She took a deep breath, steeling herself for the move. With a burst of speed, she unched herself towards Blue Max, aiming to catch him off guard. Her wings fred behind her, cutting through the smoke like bdes.

  Blue Max turned just in time to see her ing, raising his spiked arm to block her attack. Aurora’s fist collided with the metal, sending a shockwave through the room. The force of the impact pushed them both back, but her was willing to give an inch.

  “You’ve got spirit, I’ll give you that,” Blue Max growled, his voice dripping with disdain. “But spirit alone won’t save you.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Aurora retorted, her eyes bzing with determination. She unched another series of rapid-fire bsts, eae aimed at a different part of the exo suit. The room filled with the sound of energy colliding with metal, a symphony of battle.

  Blue Max tered with his own barrage, the spiked arm swinging in wide arcs while the projectile arm unleashed a torrent of bullets. Aurora danced around the attacks, her movements fluid and precise. She could feel the strain of the fight, but she refused to back down.

  Refog on solving the problem at hand, she looked for any tools that would e in handy. Her eyes fell upon a tainer marked with a fmmable symbol, but there were other smaller tanks around. These tanks were the right size to be attached to the suit. Sihis was where the thing’s fuel roduced and the gang had just pleted the jailbreak, they’d have just switched out its fuel tanks. If they weren’t filled to the brim with fmmable fuel, at least one would have something in it.

  Iing…

  Aurora tilted her head and on foot ran silently to the tanks and gathered a number of them by toug them and covered them with her field to e their weight. She knew if he heard her moving, it would take him time to turn around in that powerful but ponderous thing, but she still knew she had to be quick. Sweeping past with the tanks in tow, she hoped the lottery had drawn her some particurly useful ones.

  Her flight path took her right up into the face of her oppo. As he awkwardly turned, hearing the fpping of her wings, she released the tanks right into him, smming them against the armor and at that moment, she geed a massive halo around.

  THAT’S IT! I’ll call them halos! What other name would be more appropriate for these lovely tight snuggly circles of light?

  The tanks were now bound to the suit, restrig the thing’s already limited mobility. The armor's servos whined uhe strain as Blue Max attempted to free himself.

  “What’s this?!” he cried, one arm still free. Not only was the armor fined by her halo, it had gone around the cockpit or stirrups, whatever they called it.

  However, when a bde extended from the free arm, Aurora khe fight was far from over. He hacked at the halo, doing minimal but obvious damage to it. She was shocked that apparently her halos had a physical substahat was susceptible to physical attack. Sparks flew as the bde cshed with the glowing ring.

  “Damn you! I’ll get you!” As best he could, Blue unched directly at her.

  Aurora evaded, flying around the room again, baiting him. His jets opened wide as he accelerated to keep up. Aurora dodged and avoided the strikes of his bde, now the only way he could attack her. He’d bee sed that he wasn’t using the armor as anything but supplementary legs. His movements became more erratic, driven by sheer anger.

  Meanwhile, she lured him closer and closer to where she wanted him. She o set the perfect trap.

  “I have you now!” he shouted excitedly as he thrusted his bde. Aurora stopped flying and dropped, pulling into a ball while trating on maintaining her protective field.

  With foam flying from his mouth, he thrusted, sure that he’d gotten her. His eyes opened when he felt the tip pierething. His lips spread into a wide grin, but theiced what he’d struck was the biggest fmmable tank. He hadn’t looked where he was going.

  “You BITCH!” He cried out as he yahe armor’s spiked arm out.

  Just puncturing the tank wasn’t a problem, but his real miscalcution was the sparks that flew wheal of his knife rubbed against the g. There was a titanic explosion! The force of the bst hurled Aurora clear across the room like a onball. The shockwave rippled through the refinery, causing more damage in its wake.

  With closed eyes, Aurora bounced off the far wall and rolled across the floor like a pinball. She cleared her eyes with quick blinks and shook her head a few times and stood to see that the remaining thugs of the crew had gathered up around her and were pointing their guns at her. Looking around them, she hat the refinery was totally abze. Fmes licked the walls, casting eerie shadows.

  She dusted herself off as she stood and squeed internally. hat a thrill! The adrenaline c through her veins made her feel more alive than ever. She g the thugs, a fident smirk on her lips as she prepared for the round of a.

  “e now, guys…” Aurora rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You know what happehe st time you tried this on me, right? Just give up. More importantly, your boss might be lightly toasted at the moment, and I’m probably the only one capable of saving him at this point. So be good boys for once, put down the guns and form a pretty circle so I do my job.”

  They didn’t seem to be particurly vinced by her words, but then the squawk of a squad car’s siren caused them to look around and they realized the police were closing in. They all started to drop their ons, and sooive Kirby showed up in the nearby doorway with a gun leveled and held a megaphone in his other hand.

  He lifted the megaphoo his lips and yelled over the hustle and bustle, “Thanks for the signal, Aurora. Did you catch their leader?”

  Through the sagging ceiling, a rge object shot out and as it rose, suddenly there was a small detonation and two trails of smoke followed it as it arced towards Aurora.

  “I’m not finished with you, bitch!” Blue Max’s voice echoed through the inferno, but the strahing was it was distorted as though he eaking through an inter. The armor seemed to have saved his life by c the open cockpit in time.

  “Hold that thought, Detective.” Aurora barked and fpped her wings rapidly reactively. While she took off in a flurry of wind, she thought about what else she could try. The force of the air her wings dispced staggered a flying the crooks that had ringed her.

  The armor leaned bad its damaged arm swiped after Aurora with a now white-hot knife. Not waiting to see what that thing might do to her if it ected, she opened fire and her cussive bsts khe arm aside. Now she’d have his undivided attention. Proteg the people was most important, particurly Detective Kirby who could get caught in the crossfire.

  Making the situation more plex, the cops surged into the room. They at least made quick work of seg the gang members, but sihe armor was still operative, this wasn’t the best time to make arrests. Thankfully, Blue Max was indeed focused exclusively on the angel and that would help keep the battlefield stay less chaotic.

  “This way, Maxi-pad!” Aurora yelled to reinforce the rage he was sunk in.

  His flight array fired up and he charged after Aurora in an attempt to keep up, but a malfun occurred. The jets were popping and hag while whining loudly. The whole armor seemed somewhat off-kilter.

  Aurora opened her mouth and began taunting even more. “Oh dear, Maxi! You don’t think you outfly me in that sad state, do you?” She ughed and whizzed around him, making good use of her agility.

  Despite her movements, she was tired and achy in pces she didn’t think she could hurt in, but still she flew in circles, bsting, knog him repeatedly off bance, delivering timely blows to knock him off bance over and over, treating him like she had the e. Despite her efforts, he finally recovered his band went berserk again, screaming.

  This time, his clever tactic to answer hers was to fil and swing uselessly until Aurora flew up right in front of him. She reached uhe chestpte with one hand and blocked the ining bde with her other. The edge of it bit into her forcefield, but couldn’t quite pierce it.

  “By the by, Maxi Pad, the Junker Cat said to not steal the s from his box,” Aurora said. She engaged her field and forced the half-melted eject lever down with her aura.

  Blue Max roared in frustration, the sound reverberating through the warehouse. “You think you’re clever, don’t you?!” he snarled, his eyes filled with fury. The suit’s systems began to whine uhe strain of Aurora’s field.

  Aurrinned, feeling a surge of fidence. “Clever enough to beat you,” she retorted, her voice steady. She pushed harder, her aura intensifying around the lever.

  With a final, desperate effort, Blue Max swung his bde arm, aiming for Aurora’s head. She ducked just in time, the bde slig through the air above her. Using the momentum, she twisted her body and delivered a powerful kick to the suit’s chest, sending Blue Max stumbling backward.

  “You’re done,” Aurora said, her voice low aermined. She watched as the exo-suit’s systems began to fail, sparks flying from the joints.

  Blue Max’s eyes widened in realization. “No… this ’t be happening!” he shouted, his void the speaker crag with panic.

  The hissing speaker attached to the armor died as Aurora fired and forced the top off and Blue Max was sent rocketing into the air. She threw her anti-gravity aura around the suit, but sooermihat it was too heavy to hold with the system offline. Whatever of it survived the fire would have to do, therefore she opted to let it drop and grabbed hold of only the pilot instead on his way down.

  Even so high off the ground, Max lifted his arms to try to finish the fight personally. With pt for his physical limitations, Aurora spped halos on his wrists, flitted to the side, seized his arms, and yahem behind him, joining her halos to fine him in her own variety of cuffs.

  After having secured the vilin, Aurora lowered him to earth where the police were eagerly waiting. On toug down, two officers aive Kirby promptly charged over to make the arrest.

  She dissipated the halo as she touched down and allowed the officers to seize Blue Max and cuffed him with their less shiny handcuffs. Blue Max struggled against the restraints, but Aurora's halos had sapped his strength.

  “That was impressive wood job ralizing his ons and distrag him,” Kirby said with a nod. “I guess notig the ejector let you save him, eh?” the Detective ented with a smile.

  The two other cops hauled Blue Max off, who snarled and thrashed. Blue Max shot a murderous look over his shoulder at Aurora. His eyes burned with hatred, but he owerless to resist. Detective Kirby spoke again, “Well, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that guy’s fa a wanted poster or two.”

  Aurora nodded, her wings foldily behind her. “He’s all yours, Detective. Just be careful with him; he’s got quite the temper.”

  “Well, anyway. I’m sure you have pces to be at this point, so I won’t keep you. I’ve got the report and the rest of the -up covered, though I may have a few more questiohe fire department should be here any moment, so I think we have things well in hand at this point.”

  Aurora winked and saluted Kirby. “Send me his doetime if you would, just in case. I get the impression he REALLY wants to be the first in my rogue’s gallery.” She chuckled.

  Kirby ughed, shaking his head. “You got it, Aurora. We’ll keep in touch.”

  “See you around, Detective. I’m gonna go take a nap. That was a heck of a ride.” She ughed as she took flight, spinning into the air. The paratively cool air outside felt incredibly good on her skin. The adrenaline was still c through her veins, but she knew she’d earned a well-deserved rest. The stars above seemed to shine a little brighter, a reminder of the hero she was being.