Hiro took a step closer to Hachi, who instinctively pressed back, his muscles tensing as if preparing to bolt. The dog lowered his head, bared his teeth, and let out a deep, rumbling growl—a clear warning. His ears flattened and his body coiled like a spring, ready to snap if Hiro pushed any further.

“Relax, it won’t be that bad,” Hiro told him, eyeing the mask once again. “Just think about it: if you put this on, you’ll become a monstrous, horse-sized beast. Don’t you want something like that?”

Hachi barked and continued snarling.

Hiro lifted the mask closer to his own face. “Like this. See?” He didn’t press it against his skin—he knew better than to test the Doom System like that—but he wanted to show Hachi what it would be like.

“I dunno, Big Bro,” Bianca said. “As much as I like a human-animal bonding moment, I don’t think this is going to be it. But if you ask nicely, I could try to hold him down while you put it on.”

“Maybe…” Hiro puffed his cheeks out as he considered his options. “But then again, maybe not. Maybe we hold off for a bit. Also, the description didn’t say how long he’d be horse-sized. It didn’t say anything about it being temporary, but… yeah, makes sense. Let’s just hold off for now. In the backpack you go,” he told the mask.

“With Mishka?” Bianca asked in horror.

“She’ll be fine.”

Ignoring the way his stomach grumbled, Hiro tucked the mask into his backpack and started off again. He’d been hungry before—back when supers reigned supreme and resources were scarce. He remembered going days without food, lying with his head in Monica’s lap as she described her favorite meals. His mouth would water, making things worse and better at the same time.

There was an irony to it now, one Hiro didn’t miss, especially with his boost in MIND. I definitely wasn’t this hungry in the First Interim. The Doom System was deliberately messing with his body’s chemistry, producing more… The word surfaced in his mind, unfamiliar yet certain. Ghrelin. A hormone that signals hunger to the brain.

In that case, he decided, I’ll only eat when Mishka is hungry. Hiro had Survivor Tenders in his bag. He could also eat in the past, but that would require rest. Or when it becomes too much to endure

Hiro turned back to the collapsed Williamsburg Bridge, its twisted remains severing the connection between Brooklyn and Manhattan. “We’re going to have to either rest here in Brooklyn or make our way to the Manhattan Bridge,” he said, pointing toward the structure that linked downtown Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan.

“Because Mishka doesn’t have enough Back to the Future juice left to get us back across.”

“Sure,” he said the shield as he glanced toward the Brooklyn skyline, where glowing, ominous advertisements flickered across towering buildings. “She has under fifteen seconds left. If we try to go back in time now, we’ll drop straight into the water.”

In the distance, an explosion erupted, sending a thick plume of smoke curling into the sky. Damn, he thought as he watched another explosion light up the sky, one a bit further out.

“So we explore Brooklyn, rest, and avoid whatever the frick just happened over there,” Bianca said.

“Something like that.” Hiro shifted his attention to the Manhattan skyline, where three purple beams marked the locations of the remaining Revenants. Alongside them, the beacons he had set glowed steadily, while numerous merchant markers dotted the cityscape.

“You sure are one for words.”

“Let’s keep going,” he told her as he set his sights on what lay ahead.

###

It took them a few minutes to reach the exit point of the Williamsburg Bridge, the collapsed structure behind them fading into the murky skyline. The exit consisted of a set of rusted stairs leading down to the streets of Williamsburg, lined with cracked pavement and a few streetlights.

Hiro paused at the top of the stairs, scanning the area.

He was just about to take the first step down when movement caught his eye. He went for the hilt of his katana instinctively as he saw them—six or seven grotesque, toddle- sized figures crawling up the stairs toward him. Their bodies were covered in wiry, hirsute bristles that bristled like needles, catching the dim light. Instead of faces, glowing white barcodes stretched from the tops of their foreheads to their chins, pulsing faintly.

Hachi immediately started barking, his fur on end, his stance rigid.

“Those babies with… barcode faces?” Bianca asked.

“Here we go,” Hiro braced himself as the barcode babies surged toward him, some climbing the railing while others scuttled directly up the steps.

He slashed downward, severing one cleanly in half with his katana. Hachi threw his full weight into another, knocking it off the stairs entirely—the two figures tumbling down onto the street below with a sickening crunch.

“Good boy!” Hiro praised, but he wasn’t about to fight on the stairs—too many angles to get overwhelmed. He triggered {Bounce}, and launched himself back onto the bridge proper, where he could assess the situation.

He immediately attempted {Thoughts and Prayers}, but as expected, nothing happened.

Of course, he thought as he followed this up by summoning his phantom demon cats, who responded in full force, rushing forward to meet the creeping barcode creatures that had now clambered over the railing and onto the bridge itself.

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Bianca surged into action beside him, her tentacles whipping through the air, grabbing and flinging the creatures like ragdolls. More kept coming, scuttling over metal and pulling themselves up from the streets below, their barcode faces flickering.

A dozen and still counting. Not good.

Hiro brought his sword down on another, slicing it clean in half—only to watch as both halves convulsed and take shape again, becoming two fully formed barcode babies, each just as fast and aggressive as the first.

“They’re multiplying!” he shouted to Bianca.

“What? Shit!” Bianca flung another one over the side of the bridge. “Should we run?”

Hiro might have considered it if not for the flood of barcode babies scrambling up the stairs. They seemed to feed off each other, their movements becoming sharper, faster, more erratic. A few lunged for him. Bianca swiped one away, but another latched onto his leg, its needle-like bristles stabbing deep into his flesh. The pain was instant and excruciating.

He dropped his sword, instinctively grabbing the creature with both hands—only realizing his mistake too late. Tearing it off sent a fresh wave of agony through his fingers.

“Argh!” Hiro stumbled to the side, then launched himself upward with {Bounce}, narrowly avoiding a collision with one of the steel beams framing the Williamsburg Bridge.

“I’ve got you!” Bianca’s fuzzy tentacles shot out, wrapping around his arms and pulling him the rest of the way up.

“Thanks!” Hiro told her as he landed safely atop the bridge’s steel framework, giving him a vantage point over the swarming babies as they skittered up the metal below.

From his new position, Hiro spotted Hachi, the dog nearly overwhelmed by the crawling monstrosities. Shit, shit, shit! Panic surged through him—until movement on the stairs caught his attention. A Survivor, clad in camo and a black motorcycle helmet, sprinted up the steps, holding what looked like… a gun?

No, not quite. A few of the barcode babies turned toward the new arrival, but the Survivor stood firm and aimed his weapon, releasing a red light flickered that exploded the first barcode baby on impact.

“Is that a… price scanner?” Hiro blurted out as the Survivor calmly adjusted his grip and fired again.

“What?” Bianca burst out laughing. “Oh my god, no way! That’s sick!”

Every baby the Survivor scanned detonated into bursts of confetti, the remnants fluttering like shredded receipts.

The ones swarming Hiro instantly shifted their attention toward the new threat. The Survivor welcomed them, his scanner flashing again and again, cutting them down in rapid succession. Just as quickly as the fight had spiraled out of control, it was now completely turning in their favor until all their opponents were gone.

The big man turned toward Hachi, the dog already barking at him, hackles raised.

“I’m coming down there!” Hiro called out, giving a warning before he jumped to ground level. No need to startle the guy.

“Should I stay up here?” Bianca asked quickly. “Just in case.”

“No, just be ready.”

Hiro bounced down, landing beside Hachi, who remained stiff and on edge in front of the Survivor, his ears pinned back, teeth bared.

“I’m not the main character,” Hiro said immediately.

The man let out a short, dry laugh. “You say that crap too?” he asked, his accent telling Hiro he was from somewhere in the South. “Heh. I remember when the Damn System said that at the beginnin’. Didn’t make no sense then, and it don’t make no sense now. I’m Ben.”

“Hiro. The dog’s Hachi. He’s not friendly.”

“Shee-it, who woulda thought?” Ben didn’t extend a hand, but he did slide his price scanner back into a holster at his hip. His nose twitched. “Dang, man, that smell you?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Well, in that case, I’m glad I got this here helmet on. The Damn System gave me a roulette-whatever that makes my eyes real sensitive. I see things, though—world hints and whatnot. Like knowin’ I needed me a price scanner.”

“To kill the barcode babies?” Hiro asked, cautiously sheathing his katana.

“Yup. Cain’t kill ‘em without it. They just keep comin’ back for more. Found me one in an abandoned convenience store… or bodega, that’s what y’all call ‘em, right?” Ben chuckled. “Don’t even need no electricity. Just clicked the button, and it worked.”

“It’s funny how that happens… here,” Hiro said, his heart still racing a bit from all that it just happened. To go from being bombarded by menacing barcode babies having a cordial conversation had a way of throwing him off guard.

“The shitty part is if I take off the visor, I’m blind as a dang bat.”

“What’s it do when you encounter bosses?”

“Sentries and Hunters? Shee-it, I wish it did more. I get the same dumbass descriptions you probably do.”

“They’re always something.”

Ben snorted. “Mine seem to focus on makin’ fun of me, liberals, freedoms, and all this shit it thinks’ll rile me up. But hell, none of that matters now. We’re all in this shitshow together.”

Bianca shifted on Hiro’s arm. “I love our new cowboy friend! I haven’t met many Southerners, you know. I only visited the South once—Miami. I also went to the U.S. Virgin Islands, but that’s not the South, right?”

Hiro didn’t answer her as Ben sized him up. “I see you got a katana.”

“First Interim.”

“Lucky. I would’ve loved somethin’ like that. The Damn System gave me a pen.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. The pen produces a lethal poison, but I gotta stab someone with it to make that happen. That’s why I got the camo—not that it works real well in an urban environment. Last Interim wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you what. But I picked up a few powers, and with my eye situation, maybe I’ll make it through this one. Maybe.”

“Maybe,” Hiro echoed, aware of all the hope and trauma that single word carried.

Ben’s nose twitched again. “I guess it ain’t too wrong for me to ask, considerin’ the circumstances—why exactly are you covered in shit?”

“It was an attack I used against a Sentry.” He motioned to the bridge. “Back there.”

Ben let out a sharp laugh. “Your smell matches your look.”

“Meaning?”

“You smell like hell, man.”

Hiro couldn’t help but laugh at Ben’s tone. “I was planning to clean off.”

“I’ll bet. Where you headed? Ain’t no place to hose off in this direction.”

“I need to get back across the bridge, downtown,” Hiro said. “So I was thinking of looping around to the Manhattan Bridge. I guess I’ll figure out some clothes on the way.”

“You ain’t gonna get that stink off you with a simple clean-up. You’ll need new clothes entirely. But I know a spot. Just a block or two from here. A warehouse that wasn’t raided, believe it or not. Gotta get in from the top, though.”

“Not a problem.”

“There are more price scanners there, too. I know ‘cause that’s where I got mine. You’re gonna want one. These dang barcode babies are real sons of bitches.”

“So we partner up?”

“Seems like the best move. I’ve been meanin’ to head over to Manhattan anyway. Gettin’ sick of Brooklyn. We hit this warehouse and get you some clothes, you clean up, we head over the bridge, and part ways. Cool with you?”

Hiro hesitated. He couldn't see Ben’s face behind the dark visor of his helmet, couldn’t read his expression. But there was no real choice here, and the man seemed friendly enough. “Cool. Let me bandage my wounds first.”

“You grabbed one of the barcode babies?”

“Unfortunately.” Hiro showed Ben his bloody hands.

Ben let out a low whistle. “That’s definitely a fool-me-once situation if I ever saw one.”

“Definitely.”