Caitlyn PoV

  The two Twenty-Threes burst through the smuggler’s tunnel, hot on my tail. Although I was fident that I could wear one of the creatures down, giverength of my nd áine’s agility, two were a serious problem.

  With a sihought, I opened up the missile racks hidden on áine’s rear haunches and unloaded them on the pursuing Antithesis. I turo watch, as the foot long explosives smashed directly into the closest monster’s face. Unfortunately, it did little more than stuwenty-Three for a moment. The massive creature shook its head, shedding some of its damaged armor, and immediately took off after her again. I frowned, leaned closer to áine’s neck, and pushed her a little harder.

  Since we couldn’t outruwenty-Threes, and I couldn’t stop them with my missiles, we’d have to try to out mahem, at least until her backup arrived. I pulled áio a hard turn, slippiween a pair of parked cars and doen street on ht. The Twenty-Threes tried to follow, but didn’t quite have the agility required.

  The first creature dug its cws into the road, in a desperate attempt to make the er, but it's extra mass caused it to skid past the turn and sm into the building on the er. The sed didn’t fare much better, and when it tried to make the turn it smmed directly into the first monster a it tumbling further into the building. The sed beast swayed for a moment, almost fell into the building itself, but quickly found its footing again and once again took off in pursuit.

  [I could use a little help here guys!] I yelled ints. Fag owenty-Three was definitely better than two, but I still didn’t like her odds on narrow streets, especially against a pissed off Antithesis that was twenty pert teeth.

  [We’re here!] Angeline replied excitedly. [Evelyn is going to help you with that one, while the bears distract the other. Take a right at the interse!]

  [Great.] I could hear the sound of cars being crushed behind me, and I decided to spare a gnce backwards, only to find the Twenty-Three MUCH closer than I expected. It was gaining, fast. “She better be close,” I muttered.

  áine and I slid around the er and into a wide, empty, street. The Twenty-Three only a few steps behind. “Evelyn!”

  Just as the monstrosity stretched out, preparing to bite down on my position, a fuzzy bck projectile fell from above, smashing it in the face. “Bob, what the hell are you doing? If you get bitten, and I have to repair you again, I’m going to be pissed!” Evelyn’s voice echoed from the nearby rooftop.

  With a quick flick of the reins, I áine about, only to see an absurd sight. The Twenty-Three, the massive forty foot long pnt based killer, was staggering about with a massive teddy bear stuck to the top of its head. The bear had o of cws embedded in the creature’s head, while the other arm sshed the Twenty-Three’s head again and again. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be doing much, beyond pissing the giant Antithesis off. While I was watched this odd dispy, Evelyn leaned over the top of the er building and fired some sort of heavy rifle which dug deep into the Twenty-Three’s side but failed to do any signifit damage. The diminutive girl immediately threw that rifle to the side, and grabbed another, identical model sitting beside her. “Look, I’m helping the best I , but yoing to have to kill this thing!” Evelyn yelled.

  I grit my teeth, lowered my nce, and charged. The on started glowing a pale blue, as I triggered the ser capacitor, slowly growing brighter as áine accelerated. Thankfully the Twenty-Three was too distracted by the bear attached to its head to notice, or dodge, and the rue, embedding itself deep within the creature’s abdomen. As soon as I felt the impact, I triggered the built-io cut deeper.

  The Twenty-Three paused for a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was out of fusion or pain, then the beast began to thrash about violently. It smashed its head repeatedly into the wall until Bob let go, then locked eyes on my position.

  “That's not good,” I muttered, as I yahe on out of the creature's wound. áine danced betweewenty-Three’s legs, just barely avoiding its stompi, as I unload a full salvo of rockets into the monster’s open wound the two of us shot off dowreet.

  The Antithesis twisted around to follow, but it wasn’t as quick as before. The wounds had obviously affected it, they just weren't enough to put it down. Evelyn took another shot from her rooftop perch, smashing into the creature’s side, but now it was focused exclusively on me. I mao make it to the end of the street, before I wheeled my horse about, and charged again. The Twenty-Three put its head dorepared to ter-charge, only to get interrupted, once again, by Bob. The bear shot out of the building it had just been buried in, and smmed into the creature’s face, causing it to flinch. That’s when I embedded my nce squarely iithesis’ face. The beast didn’t even have a ce to react as I once again activated the built-ihe on burnt straight through the Twenty-Three, and the beam exploded out the back of its thick skull. All the fight went out of the colossal creature, it slowly teetered for a moment, then finally colpsed.

  “Fuck yeah! Eat it you oversized tree” Evelyn cried from the top of the building. Her bear kicked the Twenty-Three in the head, apparently double-cheg to make sure it was dead, before wandering away.

  “What’s happening with the other Twenty-Three? Have you heard anythi?” I yelled at the diminutive girl, slightly out of breath after the intense melee.

  Evelyn shrugged, “Angeline’s handling it. We go over and check, but I’m guessing it’ll be over by the time we get over there.”

  “Angeline isn’t bat focused, we should definitely head over there to help her.” I reminded her, before rushing back to where she st saw the other Twenty-Three.

  It didn’t take me long to figure out where it was, I could see a swarm of squirrels cirg over the rooftops, while some vaguely rabbit shaped silhouettes bounced around the rooftops.

  Snaking my way through the streets, I just caught sight of the Twenty-Three’s tail as it disappeared around a er. I pushed áine harder, trying desperately to catch the monster. Just as I was about to catch up, a little green bear jumped out in front of áine, blog the way.

  “Please stay here for now” The bear said, in a female voice. “If you interfere at this point, it may endahe operation.”

  I stared down at the bear in fusion. “eration, who the hell are you?”

  “Dyana. Angeline’s AI. Nyx lehis bear so I could intercept you.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  The bear just held up a hand, sileng her. It poio an interse further dowreet, where a group of rabbits were jumping from roof to roof. A few seds ter, the remaining Twenty-Three rouhe er. The creature, apparently frustrated that it couldn’t reach its quarry, saw me and dashed in my dire. O got halfway into the interse Evelyn’s bears appeared in multiple windows, all with one of her heavy rifles, all firing simultaneously. Every single rou into one of the Twenty-Three’s legs. It wasn’t enough to take the leg off, but the attack did hobble it.

  “You might want to stand back from the street, and plug your ears.” Dyana said.

  “Why? What the hell is going…” I didn’t get a ce to finish. There was ah shaking boom, which was followed by a pressure wave whiearly unhorsed her. “What the fuck was that?” She asked.

  Dyana just poi the Twenty-Three, which was now missing a rge se of its torso. I urged áine forward, cautiously, and gnced down the sidestreet. There was Angeline, literally jumping in joy, o a massive on. Angeline waved, grinning from ear to ear. “Evelyn was right, this thing is WAY too much fun to fire.”