The two Twenty-Threes burst through the smuggler’s tunnel, in hot pursuit of Caitlin. Although she was confident that she could wear one of the creatures down, given the strength of her lance and her mount’s agility, two was a serious problem.
With a single thought, Caitlin opened up the missile racks hidden on Áine’s rear haunches and unloaded them on the pursuing Antithesis. She turned to watch, as the foot long explosives smashed directly into the closest monster’s face. Unfortunately, it did little more than stun the Twenty-Three for a moment. The massive creature shook its head, shedding some of its damaged armor, and immediately took off after her again. Caitlin frowned, leaned closer to her horse's neck, and pushed it a little harder.
Since she couldn’t outrun the Twenty-Threes, and couldn’t stop them with her missiles, she’d have to try to out maneuver them, at least until her backup arrived. Caitlin pulled her horse into a hard turn, slipping between a pair of parked cars and down an open street on her right. The Twenty-Threes tried to follow, but didn’t quite have the agility required. The first creature dug its claws into the road, in a desperate attempt to make the corner, but with its extra mass caused it to skid past the turn and slam into the building on the corner. The second didn’t fare much better, and when it tried to make the turn it slammed directly into the first Twenty-Three and sent it tumbling further into the building. The second beast swayed for a moment, almost fell into the building itself, but quickly found its footing again and once again took off in pursuit of Caitlin.
“I could use a little help here guys!” Caitlin yelled into her Augs. Facing one Twenty-Three was definitely better than two, but she still didn’t like her odds on narrow streets, especially against a pissed off Antithesis that was twenty percent teeth.
“We’re here!” Angeline replied excitedly. “Evelyn is going to help you with that one, while the bears distract the other. Take a right at the next intersection!”
“Great.” Behind her Caitlin could hear the sound of cars being crushed, she spared a glance behind her, only to find the Twenty-Three MUCH closer than she expected. It was gaining on her. “She better be close.”
The horse and rider slid around the corner and into a wide, empty, street. The Twenty-Three only a few steps behind. “Evelyn!”
Just as the monstrosity reached out to bite her, a fuzzy black projectile fell from above, smashing it in the face. “Bob, what the hell are you doing? If you get bitten, and I have to repair you again, I’m going to be pissed!” Evelyn’s voice echoed from the nearby rooftop.
With a quick flick of her reins, Caitlin brought her horse about, only to see an absurd sight. The Twenty-Three, the massive forty foot long plant based killer, was staggering about with a massive teddy bear stuck to the top of its head. The bear had one set of claws embedded in the creature’s head, while the other arm slashed the Twenty-Three’s head again and again. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be doing much, beyond pissing the giant Antithesis off. While Caitlin was watching this odd display, Evelyn leaned over the top of the corner building and fired some sort of heavy rifle which dug deep into the Twenty-Three’s side but failed to do any significant damage. The diminutive girl immediately threw that rifle to the side, and grabbed another, identical model sitting beside her. “Look, I’m helping the best I can, but you’re going to have to kill this thing!” Evelyn yelled.
Caitlin grit her teeth in determination, lowered her lance, and charged. The weapon started glowing a pale blue, which slowly got brighter as her horse accelerated. Thankfully the Twenty-Three was too distracted by the bear attached to its head to notice, or dodge, and the lance struck home, embedding itself deep within the creature’s abdomen. As soon as her weapon struck home, Caitlin triggered the built-in laser to cut deeper.
The Twenty-Three paused for a moment, although she was unsure if it was from confusion or pain, then the beast began to thrash about violently. It smashed its head repeatedly into the wall until Bob let go, then locked eyes on Caitlin. “This isn’t good,” the mounted warrior whispered, as she yanked her lance out of the creature's wound. Her horse danced between the Twenty-Three’s legs, just barely avoiding its stomping feet, and unloading a full salvo of rockets into the open wound before the horse and rider managed to escape down the street.
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The Antithesis twisted around to follow, but it wasn’t as quick as before. The wounds had obviously affected it, they just weren't enough to put it down. Evelyn took another shot from her rooftop perch, smashing into the creature’s side, but now it was focused exclusively on Caitlin. The cavalier managed to make it to the end of the street, before she wheeled her mount about, and charged again. The Twenty-Three put its head down, and prepared to counter-charge, only to get interrupted, once again, by Bob. The bear shot out of the building it had just been buried in, and slammed into the creature’s face, causing it to flinch. It was at that moment Caitlin struck, and this time her lance struck the Antithesis squarely in the head. The beast didn’t even have a chance to react as Caitlin once again activated the built-in laser. This time the weapon burnt straight through the Twenty-Three, and the beam exploded out the back of its thick skull. All the fight went out of the colossal creature, it slowly teetered for a moment, then finally collapsed.
“Fuck yeah! Eat it you oversized tree” Evelyn cried from the top of the building. Her bear kicked the Twenty-Three in the head, apparently double-checking to make sure it was dead, before wandering away.
“What’s happening with the other Twenty-Three? Have you heard anything yet?” Asked Caitlin, slightly out of breath after the intense melee.
Evelyn shrugged, “Angeline’s handling it. We can go over and check, but I’m guessing it’ll be over by the time we get over there.”
“Angeline isn’t combat focused, we should definitely head over there to help her.” Caitlin frowned, before rushing back to where she last saw the other Twenty-Three.
A few blocks away, Angeline was sitting on the porch of a building, watching a show. Her squirrels had flooded the area, and were monitoring the remaining Twenty-Three from every angle. The creature was in a rage. Evelyn’s rabbits were out, having a field day, taunting the Twenty-Three from multiple angles, only to dive into the nearby buildings for cover whenever the monster came close. The Twenty-Three was tearing up the street, but it never managed to even get close to one of the rabbits before they disappeared from sight. Angeline made a quick note to upload the footage to one of the Samurai forums she frequented. She was sure everyone would get a kick out of the fact that Antithesis were the absolute worst at whack-a-mole.
[Everything is set up.] Dyana informed her.
“Good, let's get this show on the road.” Angeline stood up, and wiped herself off. “Please instruct the rabbits to lure the Twenty-Three to the target position.”
[Already done.]
“Good, it should be quite a show.” Angeline smiled, and went back to monitoring.
As she watched, the rabbits suddenly shifted tactics. Instead of taunting the Twenty-Three they took to the rooftops as a group, just out of the Antithesis’s reach. The large predator watched the group, with narrowed eyes, and began stalking them from the street below.
Meanwhile, Caitlin finally finished backtracking to the location where she lost the other Twenty-Three, and was about to try and track the creature down, when she was interrupted by a little green bear jumping out in front of her.
“Please stay here for now” The bear said, in a female voice. “If you interfere at this point, it may endanger the operation.”
Caitlin stared at the bear, “What operation, who the hell are you?”
“Dyana. Angeline’s AI. Nyx lent me this bear so I could intercept you.”
“Why?” Caitlin asked
The bear just held up a hand, silencing her. It pointed to an intersection further down the street, where a group of rabbits were jumping from roof to roof. A few seconds later, the remaining Twenty-Three rounded the corner. The creature, frustrated that it couldn’t reach its quarry, saw Caitlin and dashed towards her, or at least it tried. Once it got halfway into the intersection Evelyn’s bears appeared in multiple windows, all with one of her heavy rifles, and they all fired simultaneously. Every single round went into one of the Twenty-Three’s legs. It wasn’t enough to take the leg off, but the attack did hobble it.
“You might want to stand back from the street, and plug your ears.” Dyana said.
“Why? What the hell is going…” Caitlin didn’t get a chance to finish. There was an earth shaking boom, which was followed by a pressure wave which nearly unhorsed her. “What the fuck was that?” She asked.
Dyana just pointed at the Twenty-Three, which was now missing a large section of its torso. Caitlin urged her horse forward, cautiously, and looked the opposite way down the street. There was Angeline, literally jumping in joy, next to a massive cannon. Angeline waved, grinning from ear to ear. “Evelyn was right, this thing is WAY too much fun to fire.”