Mike and Merlany walk from the garage towards the city center. With every step, the factory town becomes busier and more modern, the rail system becomes more complex and the people become happier. It's pretty clear that more money flows here than in the outer areas of the city, and since this part of town only exports weapons and steel, most of the area's big earners are money launderers or extortionate traders. There are surveillance cameras on almost every wall, drones patrol here almost as intensively as on the outskirts and there are also two PALADINS in sight. If a fight breaks out here, the two are history. A fairly clear sign on the signal tower wall states that trespassers 'will be executed without warning and removed indefinitely'. Not good prospects for a break-in. They observe the building, looking for a weak point in the security, and lo and behold, after a while they notice maintenance workers coming in and out through a back entrance with a special authorization card. That's the solution, steal a card, get into the tower, and inject Skid's computer virus.

Once the maintenance staff finally pack up the tools and their equipment and get into a van, the two take their chance and follow the van. Thankfully, being fully loaded, the van didn't go to fast. It turns into a deserted side street. At the end of this is a small factory site. The emblem of the Gray Gauntlets is painted over a large area on the wide front. As expected, these mechanics are members of the gang - as they have access to the signal tower, the control center of the city's machinery. Mike and Merlany carefully sneak over. They hear a familiar, if unwelcome, voice around the corner. Rogers, the Steelstorm.
"What do you mean, the signal has a limited range. How are we supposed to take the other districts with the PALADINs if the connection breaks down after a kilometer. It's high time to raze these cursed insurgent southern slums to the ground. Biz and Wolf really get on the boss's balls. After that, we'll drive out those Flames and the southern city will be ours."

Mike and Merlany run around the corner, ready for rematch.
“See you again, you psycho!” Mike hisses challengingly at his enemy.
“Time to die, Tin Man,” Merlany adds coolly.
"What are you damned Bolts doing here! Soldiers, grab them!" Rogers orders loudly.
The maintenance people run towards the two, ready to attack. Merlany gathers her strength, lightning wrapping around her arms. Mike pulls his staff out of his jacket, expands it to its maximum length and runs past the minions straight towards Rogers, who has a pair of new arms that look more sturdy than the last ones.

The maintenance men try striking the witch with their metallic gloves, building tremendous force. Merlany easily avoids the punches of the pressure boosters. She simply floats back and forth between strikes as she gathers more and more lightning around her arm, which she then releases in a single, powerful burst that hits most of her enemies. The shock knocks the Gauntlets off their feet. Meanwhile others start firing their rifles. Merlany holds her hand open in front of her, concentrating hard on the bullets flying towards her. She quietly whispers “Absorption” to herself. A coin-sized black hole opens in the middle of her palm. A powerful suction in her hand begins to absorb the bullets, dust and debris into the black hole. Violet sparks flash around her hand. Merlany slowly closes her hand while the two Gauntlet shooters just look puzzled.
"Expulsion!" Merlany suddenly calls out, to the further confusion of the maintenance people, as she suddenly opens her hand again. A dark pressure wave consisting of what had just been absorbed knocks the shooters against the wall of the factory, causing them to lose consciousness. Merlany quickly floats over to them and collects two of the authorization cards.

At the same time, Mike fights against Rogers. He skillfully avoids the predictable blows of the Steelstorm. Each time he hits the cyborg's torso with his staff, he appears unimpressed. Rogers brings both hands together and raises them above his head, only to slam them back down with tremendous force while angrily shouting "Steelstorm Hammer." Mike takes a quick leap backwards and is shocked to find that the asphalt beneath him has been completely shattered under Roger's balled-up robot hands. This attack could have been the last. Jumping forward, Mike tries to smash his staff against the head of the Steelstorm, who easily catches it with his hand. He now has Mike's staff in his grip and begins to swing it wildly, causing the stick to be ripped out of Mike's hand. He throws it several meters through behind him.
"Fight like a man, without this thing!" the Gauntlet Commander bellows defiantly.
"Says the guy whose arms are made of half a ton of steel."
Rogers starts striking at Mike wildly, who concentrates on avoiding the huge fists. When his counterpart finally takes a moment to breathe, Mike throws a few punches. He quickly punches Rogers in the stomach a few times, then jumps off and smashes his right fist into his metal face. Rogers, unimpressed, grabs Mike's arm, lifts him up and starts laughing.
"You idiot, as if I could still feel a punch in the face. But I'll show you something you're surely going to feel."
Rogers slowly squeezes Mike's arm with his steel paw. He put his other arm back and seems to charge up a poweful punch. You can almost hear the unpleasantly painful cracking of the bones under his grip, when suddenly an electric shock hits Rogers in the back. Roger's entire body is electrified. He immediately lets go of Mike, who immediately rolls towards his staff and quickly gets it back. Merlany tries to keep the lightning on Rogers, but she is slowly running out of energy. Just like Nico has explained to her a thousand times. The lightning stops. Rogers gives the two of them a visibly pissed look. Mike runs towards Rogers with the staff, starts swinging it around wildly, jumps off and smashes it with full force onto the skull of the still paralyzed Steelstorm. Rogers rolls his eyes back and falls on his back like a stone.
"Did you feel that, loudmouth?"
Mike looks exhausted at Merlany.
"I knew that my first blow to the face had hit him hard. It must have hurt. And then that electric shock. No chance he could take that last hit"
Merlany just stares at Mike, confused.
"You're crazy, you know that?"
"Yeah, it's nothing new to me."
Merlany shows Mike the two authorization cards.
“I hope these things were worth it.”
Mike grabs one of them.
"So, then one of those commanders is down," adds Mike as he looks at the unconscious Rogers, "What do we do with him now? You wanna kill him or lock him up in some dark basement? Or whatever blutlusty thing we are supposed to do?"
Merlany thinks for a moment.
"Be serious, Mike! We'll just dismantle his arms and then we'll tie him up somewhere in the factory. By the time these guys find him and fix his arms, we'll probably have driven Bradford away."
Mike smiles approvingly and follows up with a short “Sure thing.”