Simone had trained for this exact run. She wound through the narrow alleys of Etokuso toward one of the devices the Shafted called Motherfuckers, grabbed the hanging loop of high-quality rope, wrapped it around her wrist, and kicked the lever at its base.
“Motherfucker!”
The counterweight dropped, the winch screamed, and Simone rocketed toward the top of the four-story row houses. It felt like her shoulder was being ripped from its socket. At the top, she released the strap and sailed another ten feet, arms spinning until she caught her balance and landed on her feet, just as she had the hundred times she practiced it.
She rubbed her shoulder and rolled it. Two extra points in Strength, specifically so the Motherfuckers stopped dislocating it. Worth it.
She grabbed the pack and bow she had stored up there hours before and dashed across the rooftops.
The rooftop gardens, chill pads, and balconies provided plenty of space to parkour through the growing maze. She bolted toward the next Motherfucker, the only one unused because it was one way.
For her.
Below and behind her, the Shafted waited in the parking lot. The bearded clams held the first line farther out, clashing against the owlbears, their googly eyes spinning as they collided. The Brandersnatches and Spear Bitches waited along the flanks. Ahead, the owlbear army stretched back toward its source.
Simone tried to get a read on the field, but it was mostly a mess of feathers and beards.
The next Motherfucker waited at the edge of the rooftops. It was the same basic machine as the others: lever, winch, rope loop, and counterweight. The difference was the thousand-pound weight hanging from its frame.
Chino had built this one specifically to throw her from Etokuso into the treetop canopy.
Simone wrapped the rope around her wrist and stared across the gap. She only needed enough height and forward momentum to clear the outer trees and land near the center.
It had been too dangerous to practice, but Chino promised it would do its job.
She tensed her muscles and kicked the lever.
“Motherfucker!”
The counterweight dropped.
Simone tore into the darkness. The sensation was like being ripped in half. She could swear she saw her foot still sitting on the lever as she rocketed through the cold night.
Her head crested the canopy, but she kept going.
Panic set in. She was supposed to reach the top, not launch thirty feet above it. Her arms started flapping instinctively as she reached the pinnacle of her climb.
Then she began to fall.
Too high. Not far enough forward.
Her trajectory was going to bring her down short of the center and drop her between the solid canopy of thick, fibrous leaves.
Shit.
The rope from the Motherfucker was still looped around her wrist. Simone ripped it free, gathered the loose end, and threw it toward a sturdy branch.
Before the rope could slide away, she nocked an arrow and fired. The arrow punched through the rope and buried itself in the branch, pinning it in place.
Simone dropped to the end of the line and slammed into the trunk with a thud.
She shook it off, slung her bow over her shoulder, and pulled herself up to the canopy.
From there, she could see a sea of evenly placed and identical treetops stretching toward the Teradyn Fields. The parking lot and allied line sat behind her. The owlbears filled the forest below. Somewhere ahead, past the army, was Craig.
She checked the battle again.
Still no Craig in sight. Just owlbears quickly overwhelming the bearded clams. The Shafted waited in the parking lot, equipped with their new gear and buzzing with energy. The Brandersnatches and Spear Bitches remained in the wings as the clams fought.
Scanning the battlefield, Simone looked for her targets but couldn’t find them.
She ran and jumped to the next tree, then the next, embedding arrows in key spots to give herself stable routes back while she followed the line of beasts toward its source.
Suddenly, the massive tree beneath her shook. Simone nearly lost her footing, but she hopped to the next just as it rumbled as well.
A group of owlbear mages dressed in their trademark neon-yellow VMMF hoodies lobbed spells at her and the treetops from atop…
What the fuck was that?
She squinted as she dodged a bolt of stray magic.
“Motherfucker.”
Simone jumped toward the next tree, drawing the mages’ fire, then changed direction at the last second and ducked behind a thick trunk. She knelt and pulled out her phone.
“CRAIG HAS THE FUCKING VALID REASON!”
She pressed send, messaged Sara, tucked the phone away, and looked back at the mages.
A second later, her bAnAnAwAtch sent a notification.
A valid reason for what?
A bolt passed right beside her as she sailed through the air and pulled her phone back out.
Shit.
“Autocorrect.”
Simone made sure to type it correctly this time.
BATTLEWAGON!
She tucked the phone into her waistband and found a good line of sight behind another trunk.
The Battlewagon was slow as always, but it was plowing through everyone in its way. It was fifty yards of solid wood, operated entirely from inside. Hatches lined the top, with a crow’s nest for snipers. Reinforced windows could open along every side so the people packed inside could attack.
It also had bunks, a bathroom, a pantry, and an unbreakable glass conservatory attached to the back.
The Battlewagon had gone through many incarnations across their campaigns, but this was the version they used most often. Cody wanted a rolling home one day. Mark let him roll for it. Cody kept expanding it at the cost of speed and weight until it became this.
Simone pulled an arrow from her quiver and broke off the arrowhead. She dug into her pack and retrieved the first part of her assignment.
A black cube.
On one side was a hole just large enough for an arrow. On the other was a large tuft of coarse hair.
The Pubix Cube.
She slid the shaft into the hole until it fit firmly, then nocked and drew. She took an extra breath for control and released it at the lead mage standing on the Battlewagon’s roof.
The cube struck him square in the chest, released a loud meme moan, then activated.
Inside, the arrow pushed a spent bullet into a piece of Draggin scale, opening a miniature portal. It flashed outward until it was about the size of a Frisbee and sucked in every person and owlbear within twenty yards.
Nothing else moved.
The Battlewagon continued forward while at least ten owlbears and every mage on its roof vanished. The Cube dropped to the ground where it had last flown as the portal disappeared.
The crowd around the spectacle screamed and became even more violent.
Simone scanned the Battlewagon as it passed.
There it was.
The activation hole was facing her.
In the distance, she could finally see the end of the mob. The owlbears weren’t infinite after all.
But something far worse waited beyond them.
Craig.
He rode a Draggin that made the one they had fought before look flaccid. Black armor plated its chest, neck, and flanks. A massive metal cock ring locked around the base of its swollen shaft, keeping it grotesquely hard and engorged beneath him.
No time.
Not her job.
Simone waited for the crowd to pass and fired.
The instant the arrow left the string, she knew it was wrong.
It sailed far left and struck a prone owlbear directly in the asshole.
He yelped to his feet, both hands flying behind him as he rubbed his bruised anus.
Simone had already corrected.
Her second arrow flew through the activation hole in the Pubix Cube. The portal flashed open again and sucked in a much larger swath of the remaining owlbear force.
The fighting stalled. Their numbers were plummeting, and Simone had one more task to complete.
She pulled out her phone, sent a text, tucked it away, swallowed hard, and jumped from the canopy.
Simone fell with her arms spread, feeling the wind in her hair.
Three seconds of freefall ended when a giant eagle swooped beneath her and caught her hard. Her grip held as she leaned down and wrapped herself against the feathers.
“Thanks, Kaori.”
Arrows and spells flew at Kaori, but she dodged them with loose, playful banks as she carried Simone high above the battle toward the next objective.
Then something slammed into them.
The air left Simone’s lungs as she twisted and fell. One full rotation showed her a griffin rider crashing into Kaori. The impact knocked Kaori out of her eagle form, sending both women sprawling and spiraling through the air.
Simone’s heart raced, but she tightened her muscles and took control of the fall.
The rider had already circled before Kaori could recover. He swooped toward her with his spear leveled.
Simone grabbed the green arrow from her quiver, aimed, and fired.
The arrow sailed inches past Kaori’s face and struck the griffin’s wing. Vines burst from the shaft, tangling the feathers and sending the rider away from his mount as the griffin crashed hard into the ground.
Kaori shifted in midair and dove after the falling rider.
She caught him seconds before impact, carried him low over the ground, and dropped him the last few feet before circling back.
Kaori could have let him hit.
She didn’t.
Arrows flew around her as she caught Simone and pulled up hard, but not hard enough to miss the ground.
Simone was instantly buried in fur as Bearori crashed beneath her and absorbed the impact.
Kaori coughed and shifted back into her human form.
She would feel that later.
They were in the thick of the battle, but close to the target. Simone wasted no time helping Kaori to her feet.
“Are you okay?”
“For now.” Kaori coughed again. “Good luck.”
Simone dashed toward the store while Kaori jumped, shifted, and took flight again.
Simone ducked and dodged across the field toward the place where the Pubix Cube had fallen after its final flight. She scooped it from the ground and tucked it safely into her pack.
Only a few more leaps carried her into the relative safety of the parking lot. Her shoulder burned and her ribs protested every landing, but she kept moving.
The Shafted cleared a path for her, then filled it with force as she passed through.
Simone ran up to Cody, Thiccolus, and Chadriel waiting for her. She closed the distance, pulled a small black item from her bag, and passed it to Cody.
“You’re up.”