There’s no such thing as friendly fire, watch where you point this!

-Sticker on Baby’s first antithesis protection weapon

—

“Why the fuck was this thing here?” I asked as I plunged my sword repeatedly into the Twelve’s head. I was pretty sure it was already dead, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

“Popcorn,” Trevor grunted from the corner of the warehouse.

I stopped stabbing for a moment. “Popcorn?”

“And candy, hamburgers, and hotdogs,” Trevor declared. “This appears to be where they stored the food for the stalls. That thing was pigging out on whatever it could find.”

“Well, better to have it pigging out on junk food than on humans,” Skyler quipped. “How do we deal with the body? We can’t leave it here for other antithesis to recover.”

“I have a catalog for that. I’ll deal with it,” I said. As I wiped off my sword, the group chat lit up.

{Arty: Actually, you can both do it. If you give us permission, Athyna and I can share your catalogs with other people. With some limitations. I would recommend sharing your Class I Anthesis Biomass Denial Catalog, so Skyler can purchase the antithesis clearing equipment without your input.}

{Sky: Just that one catalog?}

{Athy: Although you two work well together, most of the catalogs you’ve chosen are very personal and don’t fit the other person. Reina doesn’t use guns and explosives, and Skyler doesn’t use traditional weapons. We’ll keep an eye out for other catalogs to share in the future.}

{Rei: It’s just that easy?}

{Arty: There are restrictions, like you can’t share over vast distances, but for the most part it’s just that easy.}

{Rei: In that case, just share all my catalogs with Skyler whenever we’re close enough. I don’t see any point in hoarding my catalogs.}

{Sky: Same!}

While I sheathed my blade, I watched as Skyler ordered some sort of grenade to dispose of the gigantic corpse. I couldn’t help but smile when her face lit up, delighted by the experience of purchasing from one of my catalogs. She casually threw the device into the gaping hole in the Twelve’s corpse, then stepped away as the body slowly began to melt away.

“We’re not that far from the second shelter now. I’m not exactly sure if we should expect to see more antithesis, or if they all stopped here, so everyone pay attention to your surroundings,” Skyler declared as she waltzed over to Howie. I was used to seeing Skyler give commands, but the squad was not, and it took them a few moments to actually realize what was happening and form up around her. I waltzed up behind her, more than willing to let her take the lead for this next part.

According to the map, the second shelter was located behind the ferris wheel. As we approached the area, we could see the signs of combat, both smashed androids and dead antithesis. Skyler didn’t waste any time, she signalled for the squad to come to a stop and immediately released one of her drones. The little thing darted forward, weaving back and forth through the spokes of the ferris wheel while it searched for a target.

It zipped around the large, squat building that supposedly held the shelter, reporting the area was clear, before expanding its search area. It didn’t take long for it to find something interesting. Skyler shared the feed with everyone.

There was a massive melee in front of one of the snack shops. A dozen androids standing their ground against several dozen antithesis. Humans would have been cut down in seconds, but the androids' metallic skeletons proved a little harder for the low level antithesis to bite through. The big Samurai Man models took the charge of model Threes head-on before repeatedly hammering their metallic fists into the alien’s thick heads. It wasn’t fast or pretty, but after half a dozen blows, they managed to put the small models down. The model Fives didn’t fare much better. Their neurotoxin covered spikes penetrated the mascot’s casings quite easily but never deep enough for the core systems. They were quickly run down by the agile Samurai Girl models, which closed the distance between the two groups, before delivering a similar bludgeoning to the porcine models. The only ones that were really having issues were the squirrels. They were up against the model Fours. While the Threes and Fives struggled to land a significant blow, the bone tipped tentacles had no problem penetrating. It only took them seconds to skew the fuzzy androids a half dozen times, before slowly moving towards the others.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Should we intervene?” I asked as the last squirrel fell. “I honestly don’t have much love for those oversized tin cans, but they’re just following their programming, and having them around might keep the park safe after we leave.”

Skyler was quiet for a moment.She had that far off look that people get while communicating through augs, so I waited patiently until focused again. “You sure have some interesting toys babe,” she whispered as soon as she came out of it.

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “I thought you said you’d never use that kind of language in public,” I whispered back.

“Sometimes I can’t help it,” Skyler replied with a cheeky grin. “Ready to see something fun?”

Before I could answer, Howie opened up, launching all six mortars at a distant target. “Aren’t those going to mess up the androids too?” I asked.

“Just watch,” Skyler replied.

I flipped back to the feed just as the mortar shells hit. Instead of the massive explosion I was expecting, each one spat out thousands of needles into the surrounding area. They harmlessly embedded themselves in the android’s plastic facades but had devastating effects on the antithesis.

“That looks like the grenade I used back in the mall,” I muttered as I watched most of the antithesis force, both living and dead, melt away, “the enzyme catalyst ones.”

“That’s because that’s what they are! I was able to take your grenades and turn them into a payload for my mortar shells. It’s a great way to clear an area without causing any collateral damage,” Skyler said. She was obviously quite pleased with herself.

“And the androids can handle the cleanup, nice,” Steve muttered.

Indeed, the androids seemed to be almost entirely unphased by the mortars, and had already started gathering the remaining antithesis bodies in a pile. Most likely to dispose of them the same way we witnessed before.

“We should keep moving,” Skyler said after a minute, her drone zipping away from the area. “I’ll keep the drones out to watch out for threats, but considering the next shelter seems to be inside, I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be.”

“It’s fine,” I told her, “I’ll take the lead for the interior.”

We quickly advanced towards the next target, trying to take full advantage of Skyler’s overwatch. Unfortunately, it became quickly apparent it would be difficult to rely upon this strategy in the future. Skyler needed to actually concentrate to move, and monitor her drone, which meant she was practically oblivious to the world around her. She couldn’t do much more than a light jog, and even then she required someone to look out for her, so she didn’t trip on anything. We’d have to figure out a system, if we wanted to use drones on the move in the future.

We still managed to make good time, despite the problems, and arrived at the squat structure a few minutes later. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. It was over a hundred feet long, definitely too large to just house the access stairs to a shelter, and it lacked the loading ramp that pretty much every other building on the service road had. On top of that, it lacked any identifying markings. The only thing I was sure of, was that it was the only building anywhere near the shelter mark on my map.

“Guess we’re going in. Any bets on what we’ll find inside?” I mumbled.

“It’s probably another warehouse for merch, or a repair shed for the rides,” Trevor suggested. “Nothing to worry about.” I didn’t miss how he tightened his grip on his gun when he said that.

“Right, let’s hope,” I replied. I paused at the door for several long seconds, trying to make out any movement inside, pushing the door open after several long seconds. As soon as I stepped inside, I wished I hadn’t. “Is this the android storage shed?” I hissed.

Inside there were hundreds upon hundreds of shells hanging from the roof, and a handful of androids either laying on work tables, or propped against the walls. As I carefully walked through the gloom I gave all the skeletons a wide berth, imagining that any one of them could jump up and grab me.

“Maybe the repair shed,” Emily replied, pushing in after me. “None of these are active.”

“Why are there so many different shells? Aren’t there only three mascots?” I asked quietly as I ducked to get past one low hanging foot.

“Oh, oh, oh, I know this one!” Skyler’s excited voice echoed from the back. “Nimbletainment does not have the right to the likeness of every samurai, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make their mascots look noticeably similar to existing samurai. Look! Those three look like Myriad, Bloodhound, and Legion from New Savannah. A little hard to tell since it’s just their outfits on a Samurai Girl, and Myriad is known to be quite… curvy, but I’m pretty sure.”

“So we can expect to see our clothes grace one of these abominations in a couple months?” I grumbled.

“Yup!” Skyler replied happily.

“Grand,” I mumbled as I finally made it to the far side of the shed. Thankfully, I found the shelter we were looking for, right next to the other entrance. “Let's check on these people and get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”