“Goddess!”
“Get back here!”
Huey and Max could only watch as their leader was taken away on top of the fishy upside-down garbage can.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hmm? Why is the car heavier?”
“She’s on top of it!” Llenn noticed. She tried to push the lid on top open with her lightsword hand. “It’s too heavy to open!”
“Trying to mooch a free ride? You’ll pay for that!”
Suddenly, the interior of the PM was bright.
“Huh?”
Llenn looked up in surprise and saw that, despite doing nothing on her own, the lid was open by about four inches—and there was a pistol pointed right at her through the crack.
Vivi had slid down off her stomach and clung to the edge of the PM, ripped the lid open with her right hand, and jammed the M17 pistol she drew from her waist into the opening.
She fired.
“Aiee!”
Llenn dodged. If her agility hadn’t been buffed to its current level, she would have gotten a 9 mm Parabellum bullet through her head.
Instead, however, the bullet struck the helmet of Fukaziroh, the driver, bounced off, deflected against the inside of the PM again, then lodged itself into Fukaziroh’s side.
“Gaagh! First you try to ride for free, then you hijack me, Vivi?!”
The bullet ignited her fury. She’d lost 20 percent of her health.
“Tah!” Llenn output a short bit of blade from the photon sword and thrust it at the gun. But Vivi was quicker to withdraw her hand, and the sword singed nothing but empty air.
Then the lid was slammed back shut.
“Yeow!”
Right on top of Llenn’s head.
✦ ✦ ✦
Vivi clung to the outside of the racing PM. Over her shoulder, she called out, “Shoot them! Shoot me!”
“But…”
“We can’t…”
Huey and Max hesitated momentarily, watching the PM carry their leader away.
“Your goddess commands you!” she yelled.
“Open bolts!”
“Yes, sir!”
They immediately jumped into action, pointing their machine guns at the trash can rushing away at a distance of fifty yards.
“Wha—?!”
But a huge swarm of Pitohui Army ghosts rushed in to block their visibility.
“Move it!”
“Damn youuu!”
They started blasting at whatever they could see through the crowd.
✦ ✦ ✦
The bullets roaring toward the back of the PM did not hit it.
Fukaziroh did a left turn to take them around a barricade, causing the bullets to shoot harmlessly past them. If not for the ghosts’ interference, she would not have made it in time.
“Llenn! Cut down our fare dodger! Cut through our baby if you have to!”
“Got it!”
Llenn pointed the end of the photon sword at the roof of the PM and adjusted the output to maximum. The blade extended upward and penetrated the lid, which was not as thick as the armor on the sides.
“Did that do it?” asked Fukaziroh, who was staring through her forward hole.
“I didn’t feel anything!” Llenn replied, right as the hole went dark.
✦ ✦ ✦
When Vivi had slammed the lid down, she trapped her left hand under the edge.
In real life, that would have broken all the bones in her fingers, and she did lose some hit points, but it wasn’t worth worrying about.
She clutched the front of the speeding PM, found the little hole in the exterior, and stuck the end of her pistol against it.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Gyaaaaaa!”
Llenn was stunned to hear Fukaziroh screaming in a way she’d never heard before. She checked the status area and saw that her teammate’s hit points were all the way into the red zone.
“She shot me in the eye… Damn, I can’t see a thing!”
Even still, Fukaziroh did not stop running. She craned her head out of the way to avoid getting shot a second time.
“Take thiiis!”
Llenn shoved the lid upward with her head and swiped sideways with her photon sword.
Clink. The hilt of her sword smacked against Vivi’s M17.
The sound of metal striking metal was dull and hard.
While the driver continued to run, sight unseen, Llenn and Vivi stared each other down atop the speeding PM.
“I did say we’d be enemies the next time we met, right?” said the pretty redhead, smiling.
“Yeah, I know…,” Llenn muttered reluctantly.
She’s scary—for the opposite reason as Pito, Llenn thought, but she didn’t have the time to say it.
She wanted to push her lightsword through and finish the swing, but Vivi’s brute strength, which even Fukaziroh admitted was impressive, kept her hand in check with that pistol. Vivi’s other hand was gripping the pipe edge of the PM and couldn’t let go. If she did, her entire body would get sliced in two.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
But because Vivi had the butt of the pistol pressed against the hilt, she couldn’t point the gun at Llenn, either. They were both using the side of the PM to prop themselves up and couldn’t let go.
The word logjam came to mind, an impasse of a situation.
Then for some reason, it morphed into gunjam in her head.
She had thought that neither of them could move, but Vivi’s arm strength gradually showed Llenn that she was wrong.
They weren’t in a stalemate; Vivi was pushing Llenn down. The butt of her pistol slowly moved the hilt of the photon sword lower and lower.
Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. This is bad. Like, bad-bad.
Sirens were blaring in Llenn’s mind. If she got pushed any lower, the photon sword would cut through the PM and Fukaziroh alike. But if she switched it off to remove the blade, Vivi would instantly be able to point the gun and shoot Llenn with it. She wasn’t likely to dodge at this distance.
What should I do?
There was nothing she could do.
And that was when she saw something preposterous over Vivi’s side.