The biggest problem with the antithesis is that by the time you’ve killed one, two more have shown up to take their place. That's not a problem if you can keep up with their numbers, but things don't always work that way. You need to keep in mind that not all antithesis are built the same, and some will require a lot more effort or precision to kill than others.

- Yurei 'Thirteen' Neylan

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“How did you open that door?” Emily asked as I Skyler and I crouched in half an inch of enzyme catalyst, looking over the two survivors. “It’s supposed to be impossible to open a shelter before the all clear signal goes out?”

“Samurai magic,” I muttered as I watched the little medical scanner Skyler was running over the victims. “I needed to open up a vault and let some survivors in earlier, because someone had overwritten the emergency protocols. So I picked up the ability to bypass the system.”

“That’s illegal,” Emily growled.

I turned and stared at the woman. “No shit. That doesn’t prevent some assholes from taking advantage of the system,” I replied quietly.

Skyler’s scanner beeped, causing me to turn back towards her. I couldn’t read the display, but the fact that she was shaking her head wasn’t a good sign. “The Seven dug too deep, she’s already gone,” Skyler announced, gesturing to the elderly looking woman. I could see the woman’s eyelids twitching.

“You’re sure?” I asked quietly. Skyler just nodded, already scanning the second survivor.

I slowly started reaching for my blade when Bulldog stopped me. “I’ll do it,” he growled, grabbing the woman by the scruff of the neck and carrying her towards the small pile of other compromised people. I watched as he put his pistol to her head, but turned away before he pulled the trigger.

“He’s not completely gone!” Skyler suddenly announced, causing me to turn back towards her. “His nervous system is in bad shape, and he might need to learn to walk again, but we can save him!” She reached down and ripped open a pair of small boxes that just materialized in front of her. I watched as she carefully leaned down and injected both directly into the base of the boy’s skull, before letting out a breath of relief. “He’ll be fine. He might be unconscious for a while, but he’ll recover.”

Emily nodded. “We can have Trevor monitor him in the APC,” she announced. “If you’re done, we really should get out of here. Staying in one place is dangerous in the orange zone, you’ll never know when you’ll draw the attention of something dangerous.” She waved to Steve and Trevor and the two men ran over and picked up the survivor.

Since Skyler was hovering around the survivor, and the rest of the area had been thoroughly checked, there was nothing left to do in the devastated shelter. I just stood up and followed Emily up the stairs. As we stepped out into the main shop area I became aware of the APC’s gun again. I’d apparently managed to tune the constant, drumming noise out while concentrating on other things.

We made it halfway across the room when the gun cut out for a second, replaced by a high pitched squeal. Emily’s hand shot to her ear as she sprinted forward. “Jockey, what’s happening?” she yelled into her radio.

“We’ve attracted hitch hikers boss! A couple of Elevens have taken offense to me being here.”

I ran behind Emily, pausing for a moment at the door to the front of the store, trying to understand what I was seeing. The APC was still there, just about six feet to the left. All around the vehicle were about a dozen Model Threes, Fours and Fives, chewing on the tires and scratching its armor. I grabbed my sword, and took a step forward, but was interrupted by a gust of wind as something massive swooped past the front of the store and smashed into the APC. The vehicle slid another few feet, but managed to stay upright.

I stared at the oversized flyer in shock. It had the same approximate shape as a turkey vulture, but nearly as large as a Model Twelve. The six eyed, four winged monster casually shook off the APC’s flak rounds, before catapulting itself back into the air.

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“There’s multiple of those?” I asked in surprise.

“They’re not that uncommon,” Emily shouted. “They usually collect mass to bring back to a central hive, but they can also carry passengers. I was kind of hoping we could avoid dealing with something like this.”

As she yelled, another Eleven conducted an attack run, and slammed into the APC. The vehicle tilted dangerously, balancing on the four left wheels for several seconds, before slamming back to the ground.

“Skyler! Can Howie take those things down?” I yelled back to my girlfriend.

She bit her lip. “I’m not sure if the flak shells would be strong enough, and even though his guided shells are accurate, they’re not accurate enough to hit something flying. I may be able to hit one on the ground, but that would risk damaging the APC!” Skyler cried.

I heard the whooshing sound that signaled another attack run and made a decision. I sprinted out the door a second before the Eleven hit, drew my sword, and thrust my blade upwards. I managed to catch the middle of its first wing, slicing the membrane in half before the heavy bone in front of the second wing connected with my sword. The impact sent me tumbling away, and attracted the swarm of smaller models surrounding the APC, but also sent the Eleven straight into the ground.

The massive antithesis bird skidded a little ways before it pushed itself upright, using its wings like front legs, and stared me down. The sound of gunfire erupted from behind me as the team fired upon the smaller models, but I didn’t have time to worry about that. Instead I had to dodge out of the way as its massive maw snapped down on my position. I slashed at its face as I rose, cutting across one eye, but I couldn’t penetrate that deeply. The remaining two eyes on that side narrowed as they tracked me.

As I backed away from the first Eleven I became aware of the sound of rushing wind behind me. The sound of another one diving. I threw myself to the side, back into the store, just as the second Eleven swooped past me.

Apparently surprised by my evasion the creature didn’t pull up in time, and slammed into the grounded model before sliding into the APC. The two struggled, falling over each other trying to get back to their feet when Howie unloaded with all six barrels. Skyler pretty much had to get the bot to lay on its front in order to fire the mortars forward, and out the windows, but it worked. All six rounds smashed into the struggling pair.

I kind of expected that to be enough to finish them both, but the crippled one struggled out of the scrum only partially smoldering. The previously healthy one seemed to have taken most of the blast, shattering its spine, but it was still moving.

“I think we might be in trouble,” I muttered as the pair struggled towards the storefront where we were all standing. I stood my ground, waiting for one of the Elevens to make the first move when the third creature plummeted from the sky. Unlike its compatriots, this one made an uncontrolled descent and landed back first onto a nearby car, completely crushing the vehicle. It was missing its head.

The remaining two Elevens seemed completely unaffected by the death, and snapped at me with their jaws. I dodged to the side, my shield flaring as one came too close, as I desperately looked for an opening.

That’s when it started snowing.

As soon as the snow-like substance hit the Elevens they seized up, starting foaming from the mouth. Even though I didn’t have a clue what was happening, I took advantage. I plunged my blade into the nearest creature’s neck and wrenched it forward. It wasn’t enough to fully decapitate the Eleven, but it was enough to kill it. The second one had collapsed to the ground so I started stabbing into the side of its head repeatedly until it stopped moving.

Once that was done I just stood there for several seconds, breathing heavily. Slowly, I became aware of someone standing outside, clapping lightly. I turned to find a petite woman standing there, a massive pair of moth-like wings on her back, and feelers on her head. I’m sure the massive set of black goggles was meant to give the impression of giant eyes too.

While she had several moth-like attributes, the rest of her outfit was very fashionable. She had shoulder length black hair with a streak of pale violet. She was wearing a light grey jacket with pale violet trim that flared at the wrists and waist, and matching bellbottoms, and a feather boa around her neck.

I just stared at her for several long seconds.

“Hi,” Skyler finally said. “I’m Skyler, that’s Reina, and this is Emily, Bulldog, Trevor and Steve. Thank you for helping us, we were in trouble there for a minute.” Her words kickstarted my brain, and I finally cleaned and sheathed my sword.

“We appreciate your help,” I finally said, giving the woman a small bow.

She smiled. “I’m Velvet Aurora,” she said. “You must be the rookies.”