After that point cleanup was smooth, but slow. At least another half an hour of fighting, followed by a period of throwing bodies into the sludge. It was almost cathartic, until Sharron got on my case.

“Soooo… when are you going to name the other bears”, she and the bears were busy dropping bodies off the bridge, I tried to help but was excused when I spent five minutes dragging a single body to the edge.

“I’m not planning to name them all.”

Sharron passed me again, going back to pick up more bodies already. “Come on Evelyn, they look so sad without names.”

“They’re killer robots disguised as teddy bears, they don’t have emotions.”

She came back, arms full, “But you love them. I can tell”

“I can’t name them all, I plan to have a ton of them later”

Antithesis disposed of, she passed me again, “You can name these ones, they’re your first ones.”

I crossed my arms and pouted. I knew I shouldn’t, I was attached enough as it was. On the other hand… cuteness.

“Fine, bears front and center!”

My bots stood in a perfect line, Spooky on one side, the fox on the other. Sharron behind them excitement on her face.

“Nyx, which bot is which.”

Spooky stepped forward and walked down the line, pointing at each bear in turn. “This is the bear we picked up in the slums, this is the bear that went down at the precinct, this is the one we left here at the bridge, and this is a fox.”

“I knew that last one, smart ass.” I looked over the line up and thought it over.

I pointed at the first, then went down the line “Heavy, Deadbeat, Dusty, and Bandit.”

Sharron’s face fell, “Those are terrible names.”

“I can name them whatever I want.”

Nyx spoke up, “With your permission, I could dress them up a little bit more.”

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“Am I going to regret this?”

“No?”

“Was that a statement or a question? No, you know what, do just do it."

Purchased - Advanced Robot Facade 25x5 - 125 points

Points Remaining - 3418

The bears all changed, I sighed, Sharron squealed. In front of me was a completely different group.

Spooky now had black special ops armor over his gray fur, tiny tinted goggles pulled down over his eyes.

Heavy became white, he was covered in way more armor, it almost looked like a tiny bomb removal suit without a helmet.

Deadbeat turned a sickly green, his eyes became tiny X’s and a tiny tongue was stuck out the corner of his mouth.

Dusty was now tan, and now wore a big pair of goggles, a tiny copy of my bandana, and had several bandoliers draped across him.

Finally, Bandit was now covered in a tiny ghillie suit, which did nothing to hide his ears or long red nose.

The bears all saluted in unison.

"Nyx, knock it off”

“That wasn’t me. The more advanced Facades have built in micro behaviors, which allows them to interact with people in a more natural way. The AI inside the bots is also adapting to your combat style so they can better assist you”

Sharron bounced from bear to bear, inspecting each. Or she would have if she wasn’t wearing a metric ton of armor. “I take it back, they're adorable.”

I smiled, in spite of myself. “They’re definitely something.” I wanted to squeeze each of them, but held back. We still had work to do. Reluctantly, I turned to Sharron and Spooky.

“We need to plan our next move. So, Nyx, did we get a location.”

“Yes, and no. Let me show you, I’ll send Aeonys a copy of the data”. A map popped up in my Augs, several points were marked off.

“The Model twelves went to several different locations, there didn’t seem to be a single endpoint, but Aeonys and I did identify several points of interest.” The map flashed, zooming in on one point after another. “This appears to be an abandoned factory, Luxian Corp, based on what we could dig up. The second location appears to be near this generic residential tower, and the third seems to be near the base of the lift.”

Sharron’s eyes narrowed, “You two couldn’t narrow it down further?”

“Unfortunately no. Aeonys and I have shared the data we’ve gathered since this incursion started, and we agree, the Antithesis have been acting unusual since this incursion started. Instead of dumping all the mass in a single location the twelves are spread out, decentralised”

“Wonderful. The giant killer aliens are hiding” I rubbed my forehead, thinking “What’s closest?”

“That would be the Residential tower, followed by the factory.”

“Fine, we check the closest locations first and work towards the lift.” I glanced at Sharron, she nodded.

“Then let’s move on. The sooner we find this hive the better.”