From her seat on the other side of the classroom, Rae stared at Violet and the robot. Is that two-bit copy of me off her nut? she wondered. You don’t just break Masquerade unless…crap. Rae jerked to her feet, yelled, “Ima throw up!” then clapped her hands over her mouth and ran out of the room.

She nearly ran into the Vi-scooter, in her robot form, clumping up the hall toward the classroom. “What the hell?”

“I was monitoring Marauder frequencies. There’s a ‘gas leak’ ready to go off, and a collection crew on the way to this school. We have to get out.”

Rae blinked. “What’s a collection crew?”

Violet’s optics glowed for a moment. “You told me they threatened to melt you down into diesel and you don’t know what a collection crew is?”

“What does that have to do with—?” Rae’s eyes widened. “You’re not serious. They’re going to…do that to the entire school?”

Violet’s shoulder servos whirred and clanked as she shrugged. “Seems the four of us have turned into loose ends that need to be cleaned up.”