Cordelia’s portals provide convenient gateways, doors of glass that allow her teammates to spill out onto the battlefield. They glimmer in the moonlight, shimmering beacons that signal Team 3’s arrival on the battlefield.

Similarly, the resounding crash of Penny’s hammer indicates that the tides may be changing. Not soon though, and not easily. Though sparks fly when she makes her impact, the imposing machine barely buckles under the weight of the blow. The crater-like dent left behind in its metal ‘head’ is concrete proof that Penny’s done some damage, but the monstrosity doesn’t seem to slow any for it.

Instead it shifts to the side, making Penny’s footing on its rain-slicked metal surface abruptly more precarious. The force and speed with which the machine moves is surprising, a sudden jerk to the left as its upper body becomes alarming vertical. The bulk of it swings toward the nearest building, a half-standing skyscraper, its upper body into the ruined building with intent the flatten Penny like a pancake against its surface—or at least force her to abandon her perch before that happens.

On the ground the team of pinned-down officers is surprised briefly by the appearance of Cordelia’s doorway. When Dana appears from the doorway, however, they quickly recognize this as a good thing. Especially when the gunslinging Ars Magi begins blinding and blasting the advancing squad of drones bearing down on them.

“Dana!” It takes a minute before the Norban is recognized is her parma, but it happens eventually. Noah leans out from behind the chunk of the building he’s hiding behind, waving energetically to catch her attention.

“Shoot these!” 

These being a bandolier of grenades that the large boy lobs toward the lumbering machines. They soar through the air, oval-shaped magitech bombs primed with a dull blue light. They’d make hard targets for your average marksman—but Noah’s counting on Dana to be anything but that.

In the meantime Amanda continues to dutifully prevent the closer machines from reaching her charges, arrows of ice sending several more drones crashing to the ground. She leaves Dana to the sharpshooting, focusing on close-quarters defense and letting Dana take care of the larger chunk of machines.