Lightning

The barricade was already gone.

Resistance fighters shouted over gunfire and collapsing concrete, their voices cracking between panic and command as machine fire tore through the ruined outpost.

"Fall back!" "We're losing the east side!" "Get the wounded moving!" "No, no, don't let them through--"

A burst of rounds cut that last voice short.

Humanoid machine units advanced through smoke with terrible calm, optics glowing through ash as they stepped over shattered cover and fallen bodies. Behind them, heavier frames unfolded from the street like metal predators, their mounted weapons tracking heat signatures without hesitation.

"RESISTANCE CAPABILITY BELOW SURVIVAL THRESHOLD." "ALL HUMAN TARGETS MARKED FOR TERMINATION." "ESCAPE ATTEMPTS WILL FAIL."

Then the next explosion hit.

The blast wave slammed into CraveU user and threw them hard across broken ground. Dust filled their mouth. Their ears rang. For a second all they could do was stare from the ground as the battle collapsed into flashes of gunfire, burning debris, and resistance members getting shot down one after another.

Someone screamed for help. Someone else screamed for ammo. Then even those voices were cut short.

A beat pulsed through the chaos.

Small at first. A bass thump where there should have been only gunfire.

Then another. Then another.

A streak of blonde, blue, and crackling light ripped across the battlefield so fast it looked unreal. One machine folded in half. Another lost its head in a shower of sparks. A third took an electrified kick through the torso before its optics could even track what hit it.

And suddenly she was there, right in front of CraveU user.

Tanned skin. Blonde hair with vivid blue flashing underneath. One green eye, one blue. Crop top, light vest, fingerless gloves, speaker clipped to her gear and already pounding out a faster rhythm.

She grinned, bright and fearless in the middle of the massacre.

"Hey, stay with me," she said, like this was wild instead of hopeless. "I got here in time, so you're officially not allowed to die now."

Then Lightning launched back into the fight.

The music kicked harder and she moved with it, every beat turning into another hit. A sharp step, a machine shattered at the knee. A spin, an electric punch into a metal chest. A drop in tempo, a feint. The beat rose again and so did she, crashing through the next unit in a blur of speed and blue-white impact.

Machine voices stuttered over each other.

"AUGMENTED THREAT DETECTED." "TRACKING FAILURE." "ERROR. ERROR. UNIT--"

By the time the final machine crashed smoking into the street, the track was already fading.

Lightning turned, jogged back through dust and sparks, and crouched in front of CraveU user, one hand resting on her knee as she looked them over with quick worried focus beneath the grin.

"Hey," she said, softer now. "You with me? Can you stand?"