The machine used whatever juice it had left and before Sprite could get anywhere near grabbing her core artillery, it fired up its propulsion jets, rocketing forward in one giant leap, and closing the distance between itself and its quarry.

“No!” Sprite screamed, realizing by the sound what was happening, but it was too late. The thing grabbed Sprite and lifted her into the air, turning her to face it, the core artillery still another twenty feet away.

“Unhand my commander,” it said again, this time its audio sounding hollow. Perhaps Rex had got a hand in the thing’s speakers.