“Where are you taking me?” Amiga growled.
The young Foxen was angry, she felt violated. Ever since the experiments she had to hide her true abilities from the world but she had never been made or forced to do anything. To have a group of males come along and compel her submission did not sit right with her and to not be able to do anything about it stung even greater. And then to top it all off, to have them completely ignore her at that moment and talk amongst themselves was enough to make her scream.
“Who is going to stay?” An athletically built Puma asked the others.
“I’m not babysitting the bitch, I gotta get out there and kill the other ones.” Came the reply from a mustelid skunk.
“Flip for it or what?” A mottled mix breed canid said.
“No, I’ll babysit. You guys go tear it up.” A larger predatory Canid replied. Amiga could not make out the exact breed, he surely was no Wolfen or Foxen, but was larger than the other.
The other four cheered this turn of events and left quickly, probably in hopes they would be long gone if the Canid changed his mind. He came and sat down on the bench next to her while the others left cheerily, like a pack of frat-buddies on a drinking binge.
“You had a good run I’m sure, but in the end you gotta know, Zenith always runs you renegade types down. In fact, there’s only a handful of you rogue types left out there.”
Amiga turned and gave the other Canid a sullen look. A part of her did not want to address him or acknowledge him in any way.
“What do you mean?” She finally asked.
“Over the past few years there’s been hundreds of hunter groups that have been out tracking you guys down. Hunting…and exterminating.”
“And that makes you feel good I bet. Exterminating Titans.”
“Hey little female. Our group actually works for the top brass at Zenith. We aren’t specifically a hunter group, we just happened to have been nearby and got called in this time.” The Canid studied the female for a long moment, he did not seem devoid of compassion, or perhaps it was simple attraction in his eyes. “At least it’s over now. No more looking over your shoulder and wondering when it’ll come. They must have really botched it with you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Amiga fumed at the comment, and whatever insinuation he was making behind it.
“Just that you’re a female. In fact, according to the list you’re the only female. I don’t have access to any of the science notes or anything, but I figure there must have been something wrong that they didn’t use any other females. I figure maybe you didn’t come out as good as the rest of us.”
“I’m pretty much bulletproof and can bend steel easy enough.” Amiga could not help herself challenging the male’s implications. “I dunno what kind of strengths or powers or whatever that you got, but if you really want to test it, why don’t you let me go and try to take me one on one?”
“Tempting…” The male smiled a condescending smile down on her. “But no. As much as I may like to otherwise put my hands all over that fantastic little body of yours, my job was to bring you in, not test my skills.”
“Aw come on now. Aren’t you even the least bit curious? To test yourself against someone else like you? I know I am.”
“I know you’re hoping that I’m going to be stupid enough to let you out of those cuffs and drop my guard so you can pull something and get away, but that’s not happening. Nope, you’ll probably be processed and terminated soon. Real shame too, you’re quite a looker. I’ve always had a thing for red and Foxen.”
Amiga was now in the back of an armored transport vehicle, there were close to a hundred battle drones outside the doors that she estimated from the brief look she got when they brought her inside. It wasn’t the metal robots that were a threat to her though, and they probably knew that. It was the other male like her, and the handcuffs that seemed to have some similar property to the sonic device that they used on her initially. When she tried to sit up, she got dizzy and felt faint, and the only explanation for that had to be the handcuffs.
“Yeah boss, I’m here. What are our orders with the female?”
Amiga listened in as best as she could. He was obviously on a call through his Net-com, and she would only be able to hear one side of this conversation.
“Who is it?” She still tried to ask. “Tell them I said go to hell.”
“Alright, I’m on it right now.” He then turned to her. “Good news for you perhaps. We’re not killing you right away, we’re moving you. Come on now, up you go.”
He grabbed her wrists by the handcuffs and guided her back to her feet and then shoved her along out the back of the armored vehicle. Once back outside she saw that there was a small personal spaceship landed just past the ground vehicles, and it had its back hatch open. The ranks of battle drones moved aside and let them through to the ship.
* * * *
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“That one’ll work over there.” Eligah pointed out down the street.
Ricky followed the indication and saw an armored transport vehicle standing open in the middle of the road. No doubt it had discharged its payload of battle drones and was awaiting their return. They had passed a few of these since they began walking, but they had all been closed and locked up, until now.
“Bravo One to Bravo Two, do you read?”
“Bravo Two, I read you. What’s up?”
“Got a Vehicle here.” Ricky zoomed into the side logo with his Net-com headset monocle. It was not all black like the Zenith vehicles, and as he suspected, it read “Starcore Engineering Security” along the side. “Starcore Engineering. I didn’t know that Starcore were here in Furwood.”
“According to this Starcore is headquarted on the Rook Coast. Chances are its nearby.”
“They make armor don’t they?”
“Yeah, most of the best armor on the market is Starcore.”
“Can you get me in? We want to commandeer this vehicle.”
“You know the drill. It’s short wave, you’ll have to stay close. About ten feet or so.”
Ricky looked around, as did everyone else behind him. There were only three battle drones standing guard here, and they were spread out. The rest of the visible street and walkways along the side of the street were clear and devoid of any traffic. It appeared as though the majority of the forces that were out hunting for them were about a kilometer down the road, towards the art museum.
“We’ll have to take those three ‘bots down at the same time.” Ricky turned and said to the rest of his companions.
“I’ll take one.” Bingo was quick to offer. The sneer across his sharp maw said that he was eager to do some damage too. He pointed to the one off to their right.
“You take the nearest one here.” He motioned at the one just a few dozen meters away along the street in front of the alleyway they were stooped in.
Rocco nodded solemnly and readied his batons for action.
The robots were all facing opposite directions away from each other to cover as much of the 360-degree view of the roadway scene as possible. There was plenty of space between them, but it would have been very difficult for anyone to have passed by them without being seen by their cameras the way they were positioned.
“Stay here until I give the signal.” Ricky spoke to the elderly Eligah, then turned to the other two and nodded. They all nodded back to each other before taking action.
No other commands were needed. Rocco was out of the alley first with his batons in hand. Even though he was first to move, the other two proved much quicker than him. Bingo and Ricky reached their targets at roughly the same time.
They all moved next in unison, despite their distance apart. Rocco could not quite get behind his target without being seen by Bingo’s target, so he lunged from the side. His electrified batons struck the battle drone, temporarily scrambling and disabling its core systems when they connected. Bingo managed an impressive leap, landing on his target from nearly ten meters away. The cyborg crossed the gap in an instant and began slashing away with his bionically enhanced claws, slashing the drone apart with surgical precision.
Last up was Ricky, who could not match the speed of the cyborg, or the strength of his brother, but made up for it with practiced stealth and sheer athleticism. When he came up behind the final target, he readied his energy dagger and plunged it into the “head” of the unit from behind. With a crackling spark, the drone fell to the ground.
The other two had destroyed their targets in a heartbeat, leaving Rocco still smashing his target’s head several times before it finally busted open, exposing the vulnerable processing unit for one final smash before his target too was down. He raised a thumbs up to the other two, who did not seem impressed by the extra hits that it had taken Rocco to dismantle his target. The batons had scrambled the unit’s systems though, so even though it had taken a few extra seconds, their operation was not compromised in any way. Ricky was already moving to the vehicle with haste.
When he got within ten feet or so, Ricky alerted his brother.
“Bravo Two, go.”
“All right chaps, I’m in.” Rocky stated through the Net-com channel. “Going to have to give me a bit.”
Ricky was scanning both sides of the street nervously as he leaned his back against the armored vehicle. The streets were empty and there was little to hide behind either. The four of them could be spotted from a good distance should any other drones venture this direction.
“Hurry, we’re quite exposed here.”
“Right. And there’s no way of telling when a patrol or just a returning unit will come this way.” Eligah added into the channel.
“Not much cover either.” Rocco agreed while moving to the other side of the armored vehicle to at least get some cover.
The minutes ticked by slowly as the four Titans there felt exposed and anxious that they would be discovered at any moment. A tense five minutes went by before Ricky prodded his brother.
“What’s the holdup? We need to get off of this street!”
“Working. Not long now.”
“I got a life reading.” Bingo added to the channel suddenly.
“Life reading meaning you see a Titan, not a Zenith drone?” Rocco asked.
“Yeah, either that or your mother. Figure it out ya fuckin’ loser.”
Rocco was left to growl in anger as the little cyborg was already moving down and across the street, presumable to get a better look at the readout.
A teenaged civilian came out to the street, looking around at the strange situation. It was not every night that he came out and saw the street totally devoid of any signs of life, a single security vehicle blocking the middle of the road, and several shady looking Titans standing around it awkwardly looking around.
The Titan Weasel yelped in surprise as he was watching the scene, an unseen Titan came up from behind him.
“Don’t move!” Growled the angry sounding cyborg. The Weasel did in fact freeze in place compliantly. “What are you doing out here?”
“Uh…nothing man. Just taking a closer look. I’ve never seen it so empty before. Even at this hour.”
Bingo grabbed the juvenile from behind and held a sharp talon to his throat.
“What do I do with him?” He asked the others in the channel.
“Leave him be!” Eligah protested.
“Yeah let him go. He doesn’t know anything” Ricky agreed. “He can’t do us any harm.”
“Ok listen to me bud. You turn around and you’re gonna go back in and not look back out or talk to anyone for about an hour. If ya do, you’re dead.”
“Alright alright!” The young Titan stammered nervously. “I don’t know what shady business you guys are up to, and I don’t want to know! I don’t care.”
Bingo let the Titan go, and he did just as commanded. He made his way back through a grassy lot and up to a house on the corner. Just as he was about to enter, he turned and looked back one more time, and Bingo lip-read enough of what the pup was saying.
“Fuck me, he’s calling the emergency number!”
“Dammit! Now’s your time to hurry Rocky!” Ricky replied angrily.
The sound of sirens blared in the very near distance, and from many different directions at once. They drew closer every moment that the group stood in the street.
“Got it, go!” Rocky finally replied as the sound of the engine starting and roaring to life sounded out into the late-night air.
Ricky called back to the others.
“Who’s the best driver? This is usually Rocky’s gig.”
Bingo came up and leaped into the open back hatch of the armored vehicle.
“I got it.”
Bingo slid behind the steering wheel while the others got in.
“Go!” Rocco called up to the front, but the cyborg already had his foot to the throttle.