REAGUNT
ADAM
There was blood on Kelly's arm, but it took Adam a second to realize it wasn't from an attack. She was scratching violently at the device on her left arm, slashing the skin around it into ribbons and getting blood everywhere. She didn't seem to notice. She was just staring off into space without blinking.
Suddenly, the entire street shook as a massive boom resounded from farther up ahead, where most of the fighting was. Adam couldn't really tell what was going on, even with the moonlight. There was a lot of dust in that area, billowing around too much to see.
Not his problem right now. They needed to cover the 'sarians. The angels were doing a lot of damage, but using their light painted giant targets on their heads that even the screamers knew to take advantage of. Without Kat, they didn't have a sniper, which might be an insurmountable problem all by itself. Without Kelly, Adam wasn't sure they'd even be able to contribute.
“Drakela Sanguinas,” he said as firmly as he could. “Wake up, Corporal. We've got work to do.”
She didn't react. She just kept scratching mindlessly.
This was going to become a problem sooner rather than later. It was a miracle she hadn't hit bone yet. Adam tried to grab her hand to stop her, but she just swatted him away, flicking blood in his face.
Okay. New plan. It would either snap her out of her little trance or get rid of dead weight. Either way, they'd be able to continue.
Adam pulled out his pistol, placed the muzzle against her forehead, and pulled the trigger.
She moved fast. So fast he couldn't even see her move. She could give Akane a run for her money. Before his finger even finished pulling back the trigger, she was already moving out of the line of fire. By the time the bullet exited the chamber and the gunshot echoed around, she was standing next to him, her bloody right hand around his throat. She didn't squeeze, but he could feel her claws hovering millimeters above his skin.
“Hello, corporal,” Adam said calmly. He ignored the wet feeling as a few drops of blood ran down his shirt, when his bouncing throat cut itself on one of her claws. “Ready to get to work?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Did you know I would dodge?”
“Of course,” he lied smoothly. Though it was only a half lie, really. He did think she would probably dodge, he just didn't really care either way. This wasn't the night for mercy and sentiment. “We need your head in the game.” He nodded at her arm. “And we should probably bandage that up before doing anything else.”
“The hydra will clot the blood automatically,” she said, distracted.
Sax strode up from wherever he had been hiding—probably helping the medics with the wounded. “No, Kelly, it won't. There's no active hydra in your system any more. Remember?”
Kelly blinked very, very slowly, before nodding firmly. “Right. Of course, you're right. Get me patched up. We have a battle to fight.”
Adam followed both of them to one of the 'sarian ambulances, where George was waiting patiently. To Adam's surprise, he could see tear tracks in the dust on his cheeks. He was taking Kat's turning a little harder than Adam had expected, but otherwise seemed okay. He nodded as they approached, and called over a medic.
The young doctor whistled. “You did a number on yourself there.” He peered closely at Kelly's arm. “Almost managed to rip the needles right out. Now that would have been the cherry to top off the little disaster, eh?”
She didn't react.
He sighed. “Fine, fine. One bandage, coming up.” He pulled a roll of gauze from a nearby box. It looked tinted red in the multicolored light of the moon and the ambulances, but Adam wasn't sure if that was his imagination or not.
Sax saw Adam's look and stepped up next to him. “Bloodmaker bandages. They're infused with an engineered bio-solution for speeding up blood clotting and flesh repair.”
“Sounds useful,” Adam said. A thought occurred to him. “Could I use it? Since I'm a clay?”
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Sax nodded. “Sure. The solution is created by the toy maker, but it uses entirely different principles to heal. Even changelings can use it without getting into trouble. Normal people—like you and me—will heal about three times as fast, and it will last a day or two.”
“And people who aren't normal?”
“Kelly was specifically augmented to account for things like this—probably Alex too, but I'm not sure. She'll get a much bigger boost out of the bandage, but it will burn out in a few minutes.”
Adam nodded. Made sense.
Kelly let the doctor wrap the bandage tightly around her wound without a word, all the while eyeing Adam warily.
Okay, maybe shooting her wasn't the best of ideas in hindsight. Or maybe he should have just come up with a better lie. Either way, it was too late now.
“What's the plan?” George asked as he hefted his minigun. His perpetual grin was still gone, but Adam had a feeling it would be back eventually. He was a tough one.
Kelly finally looked away from Adam, back towards the fighting, or more specifically at the slowly-settling cloud of dust.
“A skyscraper fell,” she said calmly. “Probably Medina's doing. We need to head back there and provide support. Hopefully the enemy forces will be split, and we'll be able to help turn the tide.”
Adam extended his hand, indicating the street before us. “Lead the way.”
She frowned at him, but did as he suggested, George and Jarasax just a few steps behind. Adam hefted his own Caedes and followed as well.
While the Necessarian redoubt was still nominally intact, there were large holes here and there from where the Nosferatu or screamers had gotten too close and started ripping into the wall. The soldiers had managed to push the enemy back away from the barricade, which meant that those same holes acted as pretty good sniping positions.
Adam's Athena was the only thing with a scope. Even though it wasn't exactly a full sniper rifle, it would work well enough. Their targets were only about a hundred yards in front of them, probably less, so even though the others just had iron sights, they wouldn't have too much trouble aiming. The bigger problem was hitting their allies.
Kelly didn't have a scope, but she did have a pair of binoculars she was using to look at the battle. She lowered them and readied her rifle—a Saint Euphemia, if Adam remembered correctly. The 'sarian Saints were pretty popular weapons.
“They seem to have taken care of the screamers,” she said. “There are just some of the crazier ferrets left. Take out the big ones, and the rest will fall into line.”
“Are those Nobles there?” George asked with a grunt. He hefted something heavy-sounding, but Adam wasn't looking at him. “I still owe Cinder for Hathsin.”
“No,” Kelly said. She glanced at him, and smiled a little. “You probably won't be needing that.”
Adam glanced back as well, and was surprised to find the giant toting Kat's sniper rifle. It was so huge that even in his massive hands it looked big, and Adam found himself wondering once again how she even lifted the thing. She had called it a Crisis 04111970, from B.O.B.'s Crisis line. More commonly known as the Apollo Crisis. Fitting, all things considered.
“Keep it handy,” Adam said. “We might need it.”
Jarasax snorted. “That's an anti-tank rifle. It's overkill even for most warlords. I really don't think we'll need it.”
Adam raised an eyebrow. He still didn't know much about strategy and tactics and so on, but he was learning, and he knew enough to know that there weren't any tanks in Domina. You didn't field that kind of armor in a city—they just don't have the mobility to do anything useful. “Why the hell did she even have one, then?” He shook his head. “No, scratch that, why would B.O.B. even make something like that?”
Jarasax shrugged as he hefted his own weapon, a sleek rifle Adam didn't know the name of. “They're good for other things. Bunker busting, gargant killing, that kind of thing. Not to mention they're one of the few weapons that can reliably one-shot a warlord.”
“Besides, tanks do show up here every once in a while,” Kelly said without turning from the battle. “They have some uses in urban environments.”
George grunted. “Why are we talking about this? Let's shoot something already.”
Adam eyed him. He was in a bit of a mood tonight, though Adam supposed he could be excused due to Kat's turning. Adam hadn't thought they were close, but who knew.
Whatever. He had a point. Adam steadied his rifle on the edge of one of the holes, aimed carefully through the sights, and fired. He was still getting used to the kickback, but he managed to keep it from bucking out of his hands this time.
A small Nosferatu covered in a black carapace—but otherwise seemingly unaugmented—flinched as a small chunk of his head exploded. He wavered on his feet for a moment, and likely would have fallen soon.
But Adam had enough experience with the city now to know better than to ever assume someone was dead. He shot twice more in quick succession, popping the vampire's skull like a tomato. Not even a warlord would be able to survive that, and he proved it by crumpling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
“They're coming,” Kelly noted dispassionately, as a cluster of vampires split off in their direction. “Don't worry about headshots. Just focus on hitting them.” She fired off a short burst from her boxy weapon, and one fell. “Focus on the legs, if you can.”
They all nodded, and braced for the incoming wave.