"Let's see how you and this piece of junk like some flames," Black growls as he attacks Skid's drone with the flamethrower.
Skid taps wildly on the screen in his bracelet. The drone races out of the flames and charges towards the cop. The bladearms swing quickly from different directions, but Black parries each blow with his armor. The arms of the machine race towards the police officer from both sides. Strongly opening his arms outwards, he blocks the blades, but exposes his body to the laser, which hits him a few times. The officer frees himself quickly by kicking the drone and manages to get the machine away from himself with another kick. His chest armor now bears burns, some of which have reached his body. While the machine is still recalibrating from the hard kick, the cop with the jetpack, which emits huge engine flames, races after it and gives the machine a few more blows and a powerful kick that roughly smashes the drone to the ground. Skid quickly runs a diagnostic/repair program on its small controller.
"Engine A damaged, arm Y on regeneration, laser Z needs to restore charge," he muttered to himself.
The drone slowly rises back into the air while Skid makes some inputs.
"Isn't the thing finally broken? I fried the electronics and smashed it into the ground. How can this piece of junk still work?"
Skid's eyes begin to sparkle. He takes a deep breath and begins to explain: "I used a self-made, temperature and water-resistant steel-carbonate-azenophite alloy in the armor. The electronics run via a double charge processor, which brings faster input processing and reserve memory. In the head is the, camera-connected,  self-preservation AI.”
"Very interesting! Why don't our drones have this?"
Skid loosely raises his shoulders and continues: "Because my machines are built with passion! And your Boss is way too stingy to pay up for the materials."
Black gives a Skid devious look.
"Wouldn't it be a shame if we kept such a great machine a secret from the Gauntlets? How about you build me one and we forget about this. Then I wouldn't have to kill you, and Bradford doesn't have to know anythingb about it. So what do you say?"
Skid's gaze becomes unusually sharp and his face turns bright red. He doesn't seem to get this upset very often.
"I'd rather die than give you guys another one of my masterpieces. It's bad enough that I gave your Boss the PALADIN!"
Black glares at Skid through his helmet visor again.
"You'd rather die? Yeah, i can manage that"

The drone flies towards the cop again, swinging its blade arms at him. As before, he parries very sharply while Skid enters the commands on the screen. The drone stabs with its right blade, but Black grabs the mechanical arm, kicks into the chassis and uses all his force to completely rip the arm off.

The drone, which now only has one arm left at its disposal, continues to fight the enemy. Following a strong kick, using his jetpack for more velocity, Black pulls out the flamethrower again and flambés the opening created by the torn arm. In a last ditch effort the machine throws itself towards the officer and cuts through the flamethrower hose with its remaining arm. The flamethrower  lets out a final burst before the drone sprays sparks and slowly sinks to the ground. Skid's bracelet sounds loudly "ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!".

Cold sweat drips down his forehead.
"Dammit," he whispers nervously.
He raises his voice in panic: "Does your offer still stand, Mister Black?"
The black helmet turns towards the young inventor.
"You would rather die, don't you? I'll be happy to fulfill your wish"
Skid grins nervously: "Oh, dying is a big word... How about we talk this out?"
Black takes the blade he tore from the drone into his right hand.
"About that force shield of yours..."
Black takes the gun with the electrodes from his weapon belt.
"An EMP generator," explains the cop, "One direct hit switches off all electrical devices. Too bad i didn't think of it earlier...."
Skid types something onto his wrist watch. An electrical charge is created between the electrodes of the EMP gun. Black pulls the trigger, causing a small blue ball of electricity to fly towards Skid's shield. As it hits, the shield begins to scatter sparks. The network of hexagons slowly collapses. Black has a firm grip on the blade and charges towards Skid with the jetpack, whose shield finally breaks down.
“Defragment!” he shouts at the moment when Black is only centimeters away from him. The last remains of the electronic shield scatter in small pieces, like glowing blue shards, in all directions around Skid, and the fragments that catch Black electrify him, causing him to freeze in place. As a last resort, the battered drone jumps onto Black's back, points the laser at the back of his head and puts the blade on his neck.
"One wrong move and the drone blows your skull off as the blade slits your throat. Throw away the EMP, take off the jetpack, and surrender!"
Black happily obeys Skid's orders, since his life is more valuable to him than any job. Unarmed, Black is lying facedown on the ground, as Skid quickly unscrews the jetpack, removes a fist-sized, glowing capsule that emits heat, and puts it in his backpack,
“What are you going to do with the fuel cell?”
Skid smiles: "Big things"
He charges the EMP and shoots an electric bullet at Black, shocking him into unconsciousness.
"Goodnight, see you in a week I guess"
He packs up the broken drone and disappears from the empty hangar.

Back in the garage he meets Mike and Merlany waiting outside.
"Good job with the tower, that almost went wrong for me," he explains happily.
"Where were you Skid? And what would have gone wrong?" asks Mike, somewhat perplexed.
"I had business with one of the commanders and got this thing."
He takes the fuel cell out of his backpack.
"With this small source of energy I can finally finish my new machine."
Merlany gives Skid a questioning look.
"And then what, you genius?"
Skid puts on a victorious smile. Mike starts grinning too.
"And then it's time to scrap some PALADINs and rid the city of the Gray Gauntlets. And you can do whatever you want for all I care. You definitely don't want to be caught in the crossfire with my newest robot unless you had interest in a premature death..."
Mike taps Skid on the shoulder with his fist.
“You won’t get rid of us that easily”