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I leap from the side of the building, but instead of falling, I launch upward. The repulse discs built into the suit turn my jump into a thirty-story vault. I catch myself on the side of the forty-one-story Wells Fargo Center building and have no trouble holding on, thanks to the strength granted to me by the suit, and the fact that every single window in the building has been blown out.

Collins lands beside me. Lilly touches down three stories above us. Dressed in the battlesuits, with their faces covered by masks, the only way I can tell them apart is by their body shapes, Collins being the taller and the more curvaceous of the two. I look back for the horde of Ferox, but they’re not in the air, they’re below us, charging up the side of the building, relying on their natural abilities.

I push off hard with my feet and engage the repulse discs, shooting to the top of the building and landing on the roof. From my new 546-foot-tall point of view, I can now look down on the scene. Giger is below us, assaulting the smaller PacWest building, which is now riddled with fiery holes, as the laser continues to shoot through it. The freakish Kaiju drops down low, splaying its legs wide, and scrambles at the building , avoiding the next barrage. It then spins in a tight circle, whipping its tail around and slicing clean through the already ravaged PacWest building. The structure falls in on itself and collapses, revealing the Luminox to Giger.

“Now or never, people!” I shout. Then I jump off the edge without looking to see who’s with me.

The Kaiju starts through the ruined building as I fall toward it, and I have to engage the flight suit to adjust my course. The wings pop out between my extended arms and waist, as well as between my legs. My fall transforms into a glide, and when I engage the repulse discs, powered flight.

“Whoohoo!” Lilly shouts, and I know that she’s still with me.

As I arc around behind Giger, and angle in toward its massive upper back, which is divided by those long, swaying spines, Hyperion winks into existence between the Kaiju and its target. The giant robot is charred, but functional.

“I’m here!” Maigo says.

“Keep Giger there!” I shout. “We’re coming in behind it.”

“What?” she says, and then she must see us, because she follows up with, “Are you guys insane?”

“You all should know, I’m seeing movement from Karkinos,” Woodstock chimes in over the comms. “Nothing major. Just some twitching in its neck. But I wouldn’t count it out yet.”

“We’ll check it out,” Cole says, his voice deeper and more gravelly. By ‘we’ll,’ I assume he’s talking about himself and the fugly brigade at his command. They’re agile and strong, but since they can’t fly, they’re probably having a hard time keeping up. And if they can take out Karkinos on the ground, that’s a win-win.

A roar rolls up over my back, and as I close in on Giger, I glance back. Lovecraft surges toward us, using its massive wings to lift itself over the ground. It can’t fly, but it’s moving quickly. And I see why a moment later. Nemesis is barreling forward like a bat out of hell, gaining on the big Gestorumque, which seems to have no interest in fighting.

They really are just here for the Luminox.

“Jon!” Collins shouts, and I turn forward in time to see some of the thick black spines on Giger’s back whip in my direction, as the monster rises up and grapples with Hyperion. The robot’s weapons systems have been reset to Level One. I roll hard to the side, getting under and inside the swaying Kaiju spines, but I’m still on a collision course with the solid plates covering Giger’s back. I retract the wings, flip myself forward and give the repulse discs everything they have, which isn’t enough to stop me completely. The battlesuit absorbs a lot of the impact, but I tumble down the spine-covered back until I’m caught by my wrist and pulled back up.

The strength behind the grasp fools me into thinking it’s Lilly who caught me, but when I look up, it’s Collins who is pulling me up. “Always slacking off,” she says. “Can we get this done now?”

“Are you with us, Lilly?” I ask.

“Up here,” she says, waving at us from forty feet higher up, closer to the Kaiju’s neck.

Giger roars and thrusts forward, nearly dislodging me again.

“Hurry up!” Maigo urges. “I can’t hold it much—gah!”

Giger’s tail has just whipped around and struck Hyperion someplace sensitive enough for Maigo to feel it.

“Two bombs each,” I say, holding onto a spine with one hand, and plucking one of the smaller discs off my belt. I slap the device to the shell and am surprised when it vacuums itself down tight. Cole upgraded the bacteria bombs, too.

“These things have a one minute—” I start to say, but then I hear a hiss from the bomb I’ve just planted. “Scratch that. They trigger on contact. Plant what you have and get away!”

I slap down a second bacteria bomb and am about to jump away when a panel of Giger’s bony armor pops open between me and Lilly. A black sphere shoots out, headed for the sky overhead. The last time I saw one of those was over Boston Harbor, where it created a cyclone.

“Cole,” I say. “There’s a black sphere headed into the sky.”

“Weather generator,” he says. “We’ve used them in the past. Things are going to get uncomfortable. Approaching Karkinos now.”

“I’ll see what I can do about the weather doohicky,” Woodstock says.

When I see Collins and Lilly jump away, propelled by their repulse discs, I leap out, extend my wings and I’m struck in the side by something like a falling tree. I topple through the air and fall several stories before landing inside the blown out Wells Fargo building and tumbling through office desks, chairs and computer stations. When I finally come to a stop, forty feet from the window, I’m covered in office detritus and twisting power cables. Happily, the battlesuit has done its job. Other than some soreness—that will probably hurt like hell tomorrow—I’m in one piece.

I’m brushing debris off me, grumbling and cursing, when Maigo shouts, “Dad! Look out!”

Hyperion’s face slams into the side of the building and crashes in, its blazing red eyes rushing toward me.

I try to get up and run, but slip on a stack of paper and go down. Hyperion’s face stops moving just a few feet away.

“Dad,” Maigo says, sounding worried. “I can’t—”

Giger’s tail punches through the side of the building, wraps around Hyperion’s face like a constrictor and pulls the giant robot back out. I watch them fall away together, leaving a massive hole in the side of the building. I barely notice the roof crumbling in as Hyperion falls back and Giger lunges atop the robot, scratching and clawing its metal surface. Then Maigo gets in a good swing with a blade attack, severing one of the four arms completely. The result is a frenzied attack. Giger flails all about, while stabbing down with its tail, plunging the end into Hyperion, over and over.

“No!” I scream, as dust falls past my face.

Giger lifts its tail again, and stops, frozen in place as though it heard my scream. But then it arches its back and wails in pain. For a moment, it reaches for its back, like the creature’s trying to dislodge something that’s not there.

But it is there
, I realize. The bacteria bombs are eating through its exoskeleton.

The Gestorumque flails to the side, striking the Wells Fargo building and toppling over into the street, where it thrashes about.

Hyperion lies amidst the rubble of the PacWest Center. Its red eyes are dull. All three rings on its chest are extinguished, and surrounded by an array of puncture wounds. “Hyperion is out of the fight,” I say, and then I notice for the first time that the building above me is leaning at a sickening angle.

Holy shi—

Something gives way and the building snaps, collapsing downward. I leap through the ruined wall, falling for fifty feet before engaging the wingsuit and the repulse discs. Pursued by fifteen stories of building, I soar toward Hyperion’s still form and pull up at the last moment. Debris crashes down behind me, sending a plume of smoke out to chase me. A thunderous crash shakes my body and knocks me to the ground, just beyond Hyperion. My landing isn’t graceful, but I end up on my feet. I turn in time to see the building land on Hyperion’s lower half, burying the robot in debris.

“Hey, boss,” Woodstock says. “You have incoming!”

I leap to the roof of a fifteen story building and then bound off its roof, rising quickly from street level to the top of Congress Center, a three-hundred-twenty-foot-tall building. The new vantage point puts me roughly at neck level for both Lovecraft and Nemesis...who happen to be tumbling in my direction, limbs, wings and tentacles thrashing about in frenzied combat. They land atop a domed building, taking down the nearly three-hundred-foot-tall building under their coiling bodies. Smoke billows around them, swirling from the Kaijus’ breath as they roar at each other. And then, they’re both rising from the smoke, facing off.

I’m unsure about what to do. With the battlesuit and the bacteria bombs, I might be able to help Nemesis, but in situations like this, it wouldn’t be uncommon for Nemesis to self-immolate and level several blocks of the city, which would currently include me. I either need to take action, or get the hell back, but for the moment, I’m rooted in place.

“Collins,” I say. “Where are you?”

“Street level,” Collins says. “North side of town.”

“I’m here, too,” Lilly chimes in. “Thanks for asking.”

“We’re beyond Karkinos,” Collins adds.

I look north and see the Kaiju’s massive body, still buried, still motionless. “Jon, I don’t think we’re alone.”

“Cole’s down there,” I say.

“I don’t think he is now,” she says, “though it’s hard to tell. The bodies are a mess.”

“Bodies?”

“Ferox. They’ve been slaughtered.”

“By what?” I ask.

“By that,” Lilly says, but she’s not talking to me.

“Oh my God,” Collins says, and then I lose her in a burst of static. “Collins. Collins! Cole, are you there? Maigo?”

“I’m here, boss,” Woodstock says, “but I’m not having much luck catching this dang thing. It’s as fast as Betty, and now it’s spinning around like a drunk squirrel.”

I glance up at the sky where storm clouds begin to swirl, condensing into a thick, gray mass, billowing with energy.

With one last look at Nemesis, I think,
You’re on your own girl
, and then I remember that Endo is in there somewhere, helping direct the monster’s actions. Perhaps sensing my departure, Nemesis charges, tackling Lovecraft into the building I’m standing on. Then I’m off the side, flying away from the now teetering skyscraper and flying down to street level, where I see something hideous attacking my wife.

42

Manhandled. That was the word the Voice of Endo used to describe Nemesis’s current encounter with the larger Gestorumque. It had a size advantage, a far longer reach and wings that also worked like shields. Using those advantages, the creature kept Nemesis at a distance, patiently counter-attacking. The calm counter to her rapid attacks enraged Nemesis, whipping her into a frenzy that carried over into her thoughts.

Katsu Endo fought the chaos as best he could, trying to impose his will on the mind of a force of nature. He had faced adversaries like this monster, and he knew the only way to defeat them was with equal patience, measured strikes and careful probing of the enemy’s defenses. The Gestorumque had a weakness. They just had to find it.

But Nemesis was lost in rage, unable to think, so Endo had to make his observations as best he could while Nemesis fought like a beast. At the very least, he’d convinced her to not attack using her explosive membranes. They already knew the creature could survive the blast, if not neutralize it entirely. And if it didn’t, there were people in the city that they cared about, including one he had not expected to sense: his sister, Maggie Alessi.

What is she doing here?
he wondered, and as he focused on her, he sensed something odd. She felt like the woman he had met a few years ago and quickly become close with, but this was the first time he’d been this close to her as Nemesis’s Voice. There was something strange about her. Her personality... The number of voices emanating from her... There was more than one. And not all of them were human.

During this brief distraction, the tentacle-faced Kaiju swung out with a backhand, catching the side of Nemesis’s head. She sprawled to the side, and caught herself on a building, which began to crumble. She turned back toward the Gestorumque, and while Endo couldn’t see her from the outside, he felt the Kaiju have her very own
Enter the Dragon
moment. Nemesis slowly extended her tongue, licking the side of her face, where a small wound was bleeding red. The color separated her from her purple-blooded Gestorumque brethren. Part of Maigo’s DNA had been left behind. Her gaze returned to her adversary, and then all control was lost.

Nemesis charged with such passion and speed that the Gestorumque had no time to defend against it. They toppled back together. Nemesis clawed, jabbed and bit, as did her enemy. Pain wracked her body, but mania masked it.

Endo sensed Hudson nearby, watching the chaotic brawl, no doubt wondering where Endo’s influence of the Kaiju had gone. Knowing Hudson was there, no doubt judging Endo’s performance and finding it lacking, gave Endo the desire to double his efforts and become an equal partner once more.

As buildings crumbled and monsters pummeled each other, Endo let himself feel the world around them. He felt a large number of foreign voices, some of which reminded him of his sister’s. He felt Collins and Woodstock, and then the voice he was searching for, Maigo.

He reached out, using Nemesis’s connection to the girl.
Are you there? Can you hear me?
The word ‘hear’ didn’t really apply, since he was trying to connect directly to her mind, but it felt the most natural way to approach the situation.

Maigo! Are you—

Nemesis?
The girl’s reply sounded weak and confused, and she was obviously hearing his voice projected through Nemesis, which would have been confusing, since the Kaiju primarily communicated via emotion, rather than dialogue.