Some of the Class Zeroes spat fire. Some delivered powerful electrical shocks. Others were armed with cutting claws and spinning saws. The worst of them were filled with a thick black poison they pumped through a sharp stabbing needle.

To Larkin Morant none of that mattered.

The C Hall Hunter wore a metal cylinder strapped to her back. The simple motor inside converted the Blue into a fiery substance that could be sprayed through a special hose attached to the cylinder.

Gus called it a post modern flamethrower.

While it wasn't much use against the larger Gods, it was extremely effective against the Zeroes. Whole waves of them burst like popping corn when they advanced on Larkin.

Even Larkin would have had difficulty with the multitude scuttling toward Rafferty right now.

The residents of J Hall were in significantly more trouble.

Blaspheme fired into the mass of metal, peeling off Zeroes with each shot, but it wasn't having much of an effect.

Sheridan knelt and fired three arrows in quick succession. The resulting explosion took out most of the front row of Zeroes, but also scared up clouds of dust.

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"Great, Fawkes! Now we can't see!" an angry Blaspheme shouted down the line.

The horde came out of the swirling dust. It would be on them in only another moment. Rafferty had exactly one idea, and decided to act on it.

She jumped in the air, and rose above the center of the cluster of the Zeroes. She raised one knee, and pointed the blade of her sword straight down. As she fell to earth, she put both hands on the sword's handle. She rotated her right hand clockwise until she felt a little click, deep in her chest. After that, she raised her other knee and tried to stay as still as she could until she hit the ground.

Rafferty hit the ground in a big burst of Blue. It wasn't powerful enough to consume the Zeroes, but it was enough to scatter most of them.

So they were no longer facing a great wave of metal and death, but they were facing a dozen or so smaller ones.

She had also blunted the tip of her sword with that last maneuver. It would be slashing only the rest of the day. No more stabbing until Trevor could see to her blade.

Rafferty heard Sheridan swear as she was showered with Zeroes. She tensed, ready to jump in that direction, when she saw the shadow pass over head, and knew that Cody was already en route.

"Ballin'!!" the little blonde shouted as she descended, her hammer smashing a group of Zeroes.

Cody had discovered that word in an ancient, crumbling periodical. They had begged her to stop, but she still used it whenever she was really feeling it. Apparently, she just couldn't help herself.

Cody stuck around long enough to give Sheridan a little nod, and then disappeared. She reappeared nearly thirty feet away, smashing another half dozen.

She called it blinking. It was a trick she could manage while she was holding the hammer. Rafferty had never seen anyone else do it, wouldn't even know how to attempt herself. Cody could blink about seven times under the right conditions. Once, she had done it nine times in a row, and she had forgotten her name for two days.

Rafferty watched as Cody disappeared and reappeared across the field, taking out Zeroes at every step. On the sixth try, Cody came out of the blink a little woozy. She did not raise her hammer. She was going to need rescuing.

Rafferty saw that Colin was on his way, and she decided to join him. She was just about to jump, when she heard Blaspheme.

"Rafferty, don't move," she said.

Rafferty glanced over at Blaspheme just as she felt the cold metal on her neck. She heard the sloshing that meant this Zero was full of poison.

Blaspheme was pointing her gun at Rafferty.

Seriously?