The closer we got to the lift, the more chaotic it was. The area looked like a bomb went off, or a riot happened, or a natural disaster had just occurred. I guess, in a way, the Anithesis are all three.

It’s strange, I’d only been a Samurai for about six hours, but I was already fairly de-sensitized to the carnage around me. As was apparent by the conversation Sharron and I were currently having.

“You know what you’re going to call your new companion already?”

“Yup,” I patted the giant bear on the back. Well, the upper leg, he was tall ok? “I’m going to call him Bob, it’s short for Big Old Bear.”

Sharron stopped, then turned to face me. Face in serious mode. “Can I ask you something? You seem so mature most of the time, but every once in a while you show this cutesy childish side. I know I kinda egged you on to start, but what gives?”

“Oh, that’s something that I, and the group of people I live with, believe in. No matter how bad things get, you should always try and find something that brings you joy. For me, that’s cute things, for my friend Jane it’s fashion, Allen really likes crystals. It’s different for everyone, and it doesn’t have to be anything big. Life down here is rough, you need something to hold on to. Is it weird?”

She shook her head, “No, when you put it that way it makes sense.”

“Good” I smiled, “Cause I’m not going to stop anytime soon.”

I glanced down the cross-street, there were several packs of Antithesis pulling miscellaneous items out of stores, mostly food, but the occasional synthetic good and plant were dropped on the piles they were creating. The Antithesis were thick in this area, easy points but slow going.

With a single mental command I sent my bears forward, swarming towards the carrion in the streets. I found it much easier now, the bears acted more like an extension of my will than simple combat droids. I was proud of my fluffy murder machines.

After that last pack was cleared, we finally got a clear look at our destination. The main lift towered over the entire district, built alongside one of the support pillars it was a monolithic cage like structure that connected the undercity to the megacity above. You’d never realize the scale until you were right on top of it.

The lift itself was massive, two hundred feet across, and about fifty feet deep. It never stopped moving, at least normally. Today, the lift shaft was coated in some sort of organic substance, which gummed up the entire system. It was disgusting, I could only assume that was the remains of the pod the Antithesis arrived in. There was a mess of fluids at the bottom of the shaft, which I could only guess was the remains of the Antithesis that died on impact, and were almost immediately recycled.

Arms crossed, I stared. Despite all the carnage there weren’t many Antithesis in the area.

“What are you thinking about?”

“If I was a smart ass plant, where would I hide? It’s obvious the fucking thing isn’t here, so it must be hiding somewhere”

Spooky stepped forward, “Someplace inconspicuous, away from the initial location the farther the better.”

“If that’s the case, we may have gotten lucky.”

Sharron turned to me, “Why?”

I pointed straight up, “The rain. You’ve seen what it can do, it restricts their movements. The Antithesis would either have cut under the canals, which takes time, or the twenty six would have to risk getting spotted crossing a bridge. Doubt that’s something a ‘smart’ Antithesis would do.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Sharron and Spooky both nodded. “If that’s the case, where would it hide? Time is short, scouts would identify a handful of locations.”

“I calculate that there’s a ninety three percent chance it would have chosen the junkyard just east of here”, a deep male voice echoed out of Sharron’s armor, I could only assume it was Aeonys’s voice. “There are other locations, but that’s the only one close enough, and with enough cover to give them time to dig out.”

Nyx paused for a moment. “Agreed. There are several other locations that would be ideal for long term habitation, but not hiding.”

I glanced at Sharron, we both nodded, “Then that’s where we’re going. If there’s no twenty six we can always come back and look for a conventional hive afterwards.”

I sent all my bears, sans Bob, out ahead, clearing that way to the junkyard. We were finally closing in on our quarry, I could feel it.

******************

The Scrapyard, as it was known in the district, was used by the corps as a dumping place for anything they couldn’t make a profit on recycling themselves. If Dante hadn’t called me for a job, I’d probably have been here, looking for tidbits to salvage and sell. Being at the center of an Antithesis attack… at least it would have been a quick death.

Unfortunately, the Scrapyard was also huge, miles in diameter, a veritable sea of rusted metal and outdated tech.

“This might take awhile”, I muttered. “This place crawls, so I can’t use Bandit to just track Antithesis activity back to the source.”

“Not unexpected, we knew this was the best place for them to hide” Sharron replied. “Ideas?”

“I’ll take the left side you take the…” She bopped me, “Owww, rude. Well, if you don’t like that idea, we start on the south side.”

Her arm, which had been crushing me, let up a little. “Why?”

“There’s a canal running from East to West on that side, if they wanted to dig out that would be the place to start.”

The offending arm retracted, giving me a chance to rub my head. “Not a bad idea.”

“And I can use Bandit to search for vibrations.”

She lifted the cannon and started walking, “Ok, let's do that.”

“When you get out of that suit I’m going to get Bob to bop you and we’ll see how much you like it.”

She glanced back at me and grinned, “Okay Tiny.”

Traveling through the Scrapyard was slow going, not only did we have to deal with the Antithesis, but also shifting loose metal, stacks of wrecked cars blocking our path and dozens of other annoyances. After running around all day my energy was starting to fail. Sharron must have noticed, because after about twenty minutes she stopped her relentless march and turned to face me.

“You ok back there?”

I stumbled a little, steadied myself, then looked at her. I tried to keep the exhaustion off my face, pretty sure I failed based upon the look of concern. “Maybe slow down, I only have little legs.” I gave her a bright smile, which was a mistake because I stopped paying full attention to my footing. My next step was on a loose piece of metal, my feet went out from under me, and I rolled down the pile of metal we were traversing. Thankfully the ground was mercifully free of jagged metal spikes when I landed, that would have been an embarrassing way to die.

Sharron half walked, half slid, down the pile behind me, with a lot more grace than I managed, before reaching out. “Are you ok?”

“Don’t worry, the ground broke my fall” I laughed, then immediately regretted it. “I think I bruised my everything.”

“You’re lucky you landed on something so flat.” she looked down, “Although, I’m not sure why. The metal seems like it’s been pressed into the ground.”

Spooky pulled at my arm, slowly helping me to my feet. “I’ll give you a hint, this area is around six feet wide, and it looks like something has pushed wreckage around to make a path.”

I looked at the bear and willed my eyes to say ‘I’m too tired for quizzes you son of a bitch’. He apparently got the message.

“This path is the right size for a model twelve to travel, it may be how they’ve been getting biomass into the new hive.” The bear patted me on the arm “Before we chase this lead down, I think you oughta get a tetanus shot.”

I just moaned in response.