Clearly the guardian had thought Sprite to be incapacitated, but clearly he had never faced her before. Having recovered from the machine’s last fireball, Sprite threw her last tosser at the back of that thing.

“Helen, run!” Sprite yelled.

The tosser landed just where it needed to, bouncing lightly at the top of the orbiter’s back, just where its neck would be, if it had one.

Helen took off at a run, turning to fire more shots at the machine.

The tosser exploded, propelling the orbiter forward. It managed to keep its balance, taking several steps forward to do so.