"Are you in yet? Please tell me you're getting somewhere!" Juliana questioned desperately into her mic. She lay flat on the roof of carcopter number seven, her leg poised to strike. She knew she was working much too slowly- most of the people on the street had left, but there were always a few stupid stragglers who just had to get everything on camera, and the last thing Juliana wanted was any civilian casualties. 

"I'm trying, okay? You know hacking isn't like in the movies- these things are being run from Thornton computers in America. Max Thornton's got some of the best security in the world. He's obviously even consulted with Order members to make the probs impossible to manip-"

"How long?" Juliana asked, cutting Chase off as her leg swung under the carcopter's spinning blades. There was a loud crack, but no telltale crash to follow. She hadn't kicked it hard enough. The glass tower still stood. 

"Five more minutes and I can probably get you manual override on the first two copters," Chase replied resolutely. 

Five minutes, and the carcopters had to be ready to board. Juliana craned her neck to look over at the tower of glass, her telekinetic shield causing the tiny shards to fly around her head in an arc. She clenched her jaw as they whizzed tauntingly past her ears. She needed a new strategy, and fast. 

Pointing her palm at the glass tower, Juliana readied her laser shooter. She hadn't tried this method before because there was a risk of cutting off the carcopter's blade along with the glass, rendering it useless. But now that she knew Chase was only going to be able to reprogram two copters for their escape, that shouldn't matter too much.

The glass tower fell with a clean cut, its smoking remains toppling off the side of the roof. Juliana caught a glimpse of Adrian in her peripheral vision as he ran out of the building with Winterbird at his side. She wasn't sure where Astrid had come from, but it was just as well. They needed all the help they could get. In fact, she was so relieved to see them that she didn't notice that the blades of the carcopters behind her had all stopped spinning and lights on their sides were now flashing red. 

Juliana jumped off the roof and jogged over to meet Astrid and Adrian, but before she could cross the street, she was tackled from behind. She tensed up for the impact as her face hit the concrete, and for a moment, she lay there stunned. 

Her nose throbbed painfully, and when she finally managed to roll over, she spotted a speck of blood on the ground. The worst surprise, however lurked above her. A metal thing approximately the size of her torso hovered inches in front of her face on noisy, fly-like wings. It could only be described as a drone, but it was unlike any drone she'd ever encountered before. Two spindly appendages akin to arms- probably what it had used to push her over- extended from its sides, and cameras were positioned on all four of its sides. 

"We live in the twenty-first century- soldiers shouldn't have to die in wars," Max had said proudly, pointing to the then-inactive drone sitting inside a glass display case. "Someday, we'll just send a couple thousand of these into a country and let them knock themselves out." 

Juliana winced as Astrid helped her to her feet and Adrian smashed the drone with one swing of his mace. How could she have been so stupid? She'd seen these weapons firsthand, yet allowed them to exist under the naive assumption that her buddy Max Thornton would never let them be used. 

You're the Queen now. People might be too scared to be your enemy, but that doesn't mean they're your friends. She should've listened to Chu. She should've listened to Lord Hewkin. She should've listened to all the people with twice her age and experience who told her that just because she defeated the Jackers and opened the Order, she couldn't just wave her wave her magic wand and create world peace. 

There are limits to what you can do with the Box. Sometimes, even numbers fail. 

"Your lasers... I think they activated the carcopters, somehow," Adrian remarked. Juliana turned around to see that the carcopters' roofs had opened up, releasing more drones. She activated her spear, throwing it through a drone as she drop-kicked another. As her spear arced back into her hand, she let out a huff of frustration. Even a direct strike from her super-sharp PW had done little damage to the drone- it flew effortlessly through the air despite the hole through its middle. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Adrian and Astrid having similar success destroying the drones. 

Hayley practically sprinted out of the building, whip in hand and closely tailed by Farrah. Juliana's eyes widened with rage at the sight of the nasty burn on Hayley's thigh, but before she could give Farrah what she deserved, the Red Knight spotted the drones and disappeared back into the building. The Thornton weapons were all designed to be deployed remotely... she was well aware that they were indiscriminate killers. 

"Go for the cameras!" Astrid yelled as she raised her arm, blasting one of the drones in the side. Brilliant. Juliana smiled as she hurled her spear at another drone, this time not aiming for the center. They couldn't kill them, but they could blind them. 

"First two copters are on manual. I'm on my way outside- how does it look out there?" Chase asked through his mic. 

"Not too good. We've got killer drones. Let's hope you paid attention in Chu's class. Okay, team, we've got to split the two copters: Chase and I will go in the first, Adrian, Hayley, and Astrid in the second. The goal is to take off before the drones realize they've lost two members of their fleet. From there, it's an air battle."

As the other members of Project PROB acknowledged receipt of her orders, Juliana continued to battle the drones, slicing through their cameras with her spear and her laser shooters. Yet, their multiple cameras made it nearly impossible to completely blind any one drone. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by six of them and they were closing in on her in a coordinated attack. She raised her spear, quickly calculating the optimal order in which to attack them before stepping forward, knocking one drone out of her way and diving to avoid the others. Yet, she couldn't move quickly enough to incapacitate the ones behind her. 

Juliana felt a blinding pain between her shoulder blades as a drone sliced through her suit, cutting into her back. She fell to her knees and braced herself, but the drone never found its mark again. She looked up to see it floating aimlessly with poison darts sticking out of all four of its cameras. 

"Come on, Angel, I got you." Juliana heard Chase's reassuring voice as she was lifted up. Chase slung her arm over her shoulder, but stumbled after a few steps, caught off-guard by a drone whizzing past his ear. "Actually, maybe I don't..." he whispered nervously. 

"Yes, you do," Juliana smiled as she turned to face him, her eyes watering from the pain. She raised her spear despite her back screaming in protest, knocking a drone out of Chase's way. "We've always got each other."