FSE

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I gave Sledge a quick explanation while we ran. Luckily, the trank seemed to be wearing off.

We didn't stop until we were several blocks away. Still in the almost rural area that merged with the industrial section called Norrington a few blocks ahead of us. This was a part of town that the corporations who built Neon City never did much with. Might've been a good place to hide under other circumstances, but the hunters were probably using every piece of high-tech hardware they could get their hands on.

That's the thing with people who hunt for "sport." They always make sure they have every advantage. Hiding in a blind, using scents to lure deer and elk into their sights, and sniping them from a distance--not much of a sport, if you ask me. If the deer and elk could shoot back at them, the mighty hunters would find another hobby so fast it'd make the air crackle.

Same with these sick bastards who hunt anthros. Supposedly doing it for the challenge. But if they had to face me in a hand-to-hand fight, I'd rip 'em into small chunks of wet meat--and they knew it. None of 'em would have the stones for that.

We found a hiding place in someone's back yard, hopping over the rickety wooden fence and crouching behind a large tree. Sledge, being the size of an average human, had a much easier time staying out of sight, but I just had to stretch out on the ground and hope for the best.

"I don't suppose you can sense any of 'em," Sledge whispered.

"No." For once, I wished my psi talent were more reliable. I don't want to become dependent on it, but it sure would've come in handy right then. "How about you?"

"Not yet."

His abilities were much stronger than mine, so maybe this meant the hunters weren't closing in on us yet. I couldn't let my guard down, though. I checked my ammo, made sure my gun was loaded with high-velocity, armor-piercing rounds, and peeked between the slats in the fence. Nothing moved out there, for the moment. I turned and checked behind us, and found nothing again.

At least Sledge had other abilities that would help level the playing field. If any of the hunters got close enough, they'd be in for a hell of a surprise.

"What the hell are we gonna do?" Sledge whispered.

"As soon as you're ready, the first thing we'll do is keep moving. I'll call our parents and have them get you out of here."

"What about you?"

"I'm gonna stay in the game long enough to get as much evidence against Theron as possible. Maybe capture one of the hunters alive, if one gets close enough. I want to have enough on Theron to fucking bury his entire operation."

Besides, I was pissed. Theron should've come straight at me instead of going after my family. That son of a bitch didn't know what he'd gotten himself into. But he would soon.

I tapped Sledge's shoulder and pushed myself back into a crouch. "Okay, let's get moving."

#

I dialed all three of our parents while we ran, holding my phone in one hand and my Glock in the other. Four rings, then it went to their voicemail. I gave them a quick explanation of what was going on and hoped they would check their messages soon. They were probably still looking for Sledge, probably still worried sick.

The message I'd just left them wouldn't offer much comfort, other than letting them know that he was okay.

"I need you to pick Sledge up and get him out of here," I said before hanging up. "After that, just stay out of it. I don't want any of you getting hurt. I'll finish this myself. I love you." I switched on the phone's GPS long enough to log our location and direction, attached the info and sent it to their phones, then I turned my phone off to prevent anyone else from using it to track me, and shoved it into my pocket.

Of course, there was no way in hell I could convince them to stay out of this. I'd have better luck cutting down a tree with a butter knife. But I had to try. Sledge was in this because of me, and the last thing I wanted was to endanger any more of my family.

"What now?" Sledge said.

"We just keep moving." I pointed ahead.

Sledge stopped and held up a hand. "Wait. They're nearby. They've found us."

I tugged on his arm, leading him into a space between two run-down apartment buildings. "Not our parents, I assume?"

"No. Definitely not."

"How many of 'em?"

"Two. They're very close."

Huh. Ballsier than I'd expected. And stupider. Still, they might bag us if they stayed on a nearby rooftop and used sniper rifles. But if they tried to get up close and personal for a bigger thrill...

"Wait here. I'll draw 'em away from you."

"But--"

"Don't argue, damn it! I'll have a better chance of taking these pricks out if I don't have to cover your ass at the same time."

He grumbled something, but nodded and stayed put.

"I'll come back for you." I patted his shoulder, held his gaze for a long moment, and moved slowly into the open. I gave the street a quick visual sweep. Didn't spot anyone on the rooftops. Maybe they'd taken positions in an empty apartment in one of the nearby buildings.

Movement in the corner of my eye--in the street, three buildings away. My head snapped toward it and I spotted two men in black armor and helmets, carrying assault rifles.

I stepped into the street and spread my wings, making sure they saw me. They stopped in their tracks and raised their guns.

I ran.

They opened up on me and I pushed my body into its battle mode, dodging to the left, hitting the gravel and rolling. The bullets zipped past me as if in slow motion, missing me by inches.

I glanced around, looking for cover, and found a ditch lining the street. I threw myself into it and tried not to flinch as the bullets plowed into the ground all around me.

The shooting stopped and I let my body return to normal. I poked my head up above the edge of the ditch long enough to locate the hunters. They were passing in front of the building where Sledge was hiding. Their helmets pointed toward me as soon as I popped up.

Ah-hah. Motion sensors in the helmets, probably light-amp and thermo vision modes for night hunting, as well. So much for being in it for the challenge. Fuckin' weekend warriors.

Their guns snapped up and I ducked. A couple dozen bullets blasted chunks out of the ground on either side of me.

I popped up again, aimed my Glock at the nearer of the two, and drilled him in the chest. The bullet punched through his armor, traversed his body and plowed into the parked car behind him. His buddy watched him drop and continued to stare at the body instead of running for cover. I shifted my aim to him.

He twisted around, pointing his rifle off to the right. I turned to see what he was aiming at--

Oh, no! Sledge had stepped out into the open.

The red dot from the rifle's laser sight danced up his chest and stopped on his forehead.

He didn't give the hunter a chance to pull the trigger. He thrust his arm out, as if pushing against something, and the man flew backward like he'd been hit by a truck. He slammed into the car hard enough to dent the door and shatter the window, then he plopped onto the ground like a sack of wet shit.

I hurried over to him, kicked his rifle away and checked his pulse; still alive, but he probably had a concussion--at least.

"Shit," Sledge muttered. "I didn't...kill him, did I?"

"No." I glanced at the one I'd shot. I'd been in plenty of fights, used my body's combat mode often enough that I was able to push it to about ten seconds before dropping out of it--but I'd never been shot at before, and had never killed anyone. He'd had it coming, but still...

This wasn't the time or place to come to terms with it, though. I forced it from my mind, whipped out a pair of handcuffs and slapped 'em on the survivor. Then I called our parents and told 'em where to pick him up.

"We're almost there," Dad said.

Just then, I heard his car in the distance. I turned around just as another hunter appeared, popping out from behind a parked van. He aimed his rifle at me and I dived behind the car, grabbing Sledge and pushing him ahead of me.

I popped back out and aimed my gun at him--but before I could get off a shot, Dad's monster hearse roared around the corner and accelerated straight toward the hunter. The guy had just enough time to turn around, then bam! Head, meet bumper.

Dad hit the brakes, threw it in reverse and ran over him again.

It's probably wrong of me to laugh at that, but I couldn't help it.

"Sense any others nearby?" I whispered to Sledge.

He closed his eyes for a moment, then shook his head. "I think I'm picking something up, but it's not too close yet."

I nodded and waved at Dad, and waited for him to drive up to us. "Get in!" I hustled Sledge into the passenger-side door and headed for the unconscious hunter.

"Boiler, get in the car," Dad said.

"Just get Sledge out of here. I'll handle the rest of these assholes."

"Don't argue with me, just get in!"

"I'm the one they're after. If I go with you, you're targets. I'm staying."

"Boiler, get in the fuckin' car now!"

"It's okay, Jack!" Mom-C called out from above, and I turned and looked up in time to see her land a few feet away. "Taura and I have her back."

Dad glanced around. "Where is she?"

"In her car. Should be here in a moment."

The sound of another engine reached me. Mom-C grinned, flashing her thumb-length fangs.

"Right on cue!"

Mom-T's car skidded out from the same street Dad had used a few moments ago, swerved around the hunter's body and slid to a stop beside me. She leaned out the window and glanced around, wide-eyed. "Sledge?"

"Here." Sledge waved, then Dad put a hand on his shoulder and pushed.

"Stay out of sight."

"What's the situation?" Mom-T said.

"Two dead assholes," I said, "one unconscious one. I was just about to stick the survivor into the back of Dad's car."

"Put him in my trunk." Mom-T pushed a button on her dash, popping the trunk open. "I don't want him anywhere near Sledge, even though he's cuffed."

I picked the guy up, stuffed him into the trunk and slammed the lid. "Hit as many speedbumps as you can find on the way to the station."

She chuckled and nodded at Dad's car. "Better let Jack give you a lift out of here. We'll find out who this guy's accomplices are when we question him. There's no need to stay--"

"If Theron is as determined as I think he is, he'll keep coming after me. If I'm with you when it happens--"

"We can handle it." Dad jabbed his thumb at the rear compartment. "Get your ass into the car!"

"I'm not gonna argue anymore. You want me to leave, you gotta shoot me with a tranquilizer dart and drag my ass outta here."

Mom-C sighed, shook her head, and threw her arms up. "Okay, fine--Jack, take Sledge to HQ. Taura and I will stay here. Then, when you get back, she can take the prisoner in and come back afterward."

He hesitated, then grumbled, revved the engine and popped the clutch. We watched him drive off, then we took cover in a nearby alley.

"What now?" I said.

"We wait for Jack." Mom-T crouched behind me, back to back, watching the far end of the alley. "If we move around, we'll expose ourselves to attack from all sides. Here, if any more hunters find us, we we can pick them off when they approach."

"Know how many of 'em we'll be dealing with?" Mom-C looked up, watching the rooftops for a long moment.

I shook my head. "Theron didn't give me a number. But I doubt it's more than a handful of 'em. I know a lot of people are pretty fucked-up, but I can't believe many are that fucked-up."

"Yeah, well, that's what I used to think. Taura, I don't suppose there are any surveillance cameras in the area?"

"Checking." Mom-T closed her eyes, using her implanted cybernetic interface to search for nearby devices, and shook her head. "Plenty of computers and other gadgets in the apartments around us, but no external cameras."

"Well, it was worth a try." Mom-C glanced at me. "Even if there's only a small number of these hunters, Theron has plenty of other goons working for him. He might send reinforcements if he thinks these goofballs aren't up to the job."

I shrugged. "I figure that'll make it a fair fight, then."

#

Looking back on it, sticking around wasn't the brightest move I could've made. But I was pissed. I wanted to stay and fight, and take out every last one of the goons Theron sent after me. I had to send him a message--that even if he managed to slip through the police's fingers after this was over, we were not to be fucked with.

I started to think that at least some of them had gotten the message, since nothing happened the whole time Dad was gone and for nearly half an hour after Mom-T left.

"Maybe the rest of 'em chickened out," I sighed.

"I doubt it," Dad muttered. "These guys are in it for the thrill. They get off on it."

"Any movement yet?" Mom-C whispered.

"Nope." Dad swept his black cybernetic eyes up and down the street again. "Just a few small animals; some raccoons getting into the trash cans in the driveway across the street, but not much else."

Mom-C prodded my shoulder. "Maybe we should get you into a place with a lot of people around while we have the chance. They aren't as likely to shoot at you with a bunch of witnesses around."

"But if they do, a lot of bystanders could be killed." I glanced over my shoulder to check the other end of the alley. "Besides, I won't be able to shoot back at 'em with a bunch of people getting in my way."

"How about Anthrotown, then?" Dad grinned. "The people there can take care of themselves."

I kind of half shrugged and half nodded. Anthrotown was a part of the city that started off as gathering place for homeless humans and the chimeras who had just been released from their growing tanks and had nowhere else to go in the 2040s. The place had kept growing until it became a community, rather than the miles of condemned buildings, abandoned warehouses and disused factories that it was before. Now, the buildings have been fixed up, there were stores and other businesses, and the majority of its population were anthros created for military use.

And they don't like anyone from outside coming in and waving guns around. Which made it a good place to lead the hunters.

"Well, okay, that might make things interesting," I said, then shut up when Dad waved his hand.

"Hold on, I see something." He leaned a little farther out of the alley and pointed. "On a rooftop halfway down the street. Dude wearing the same kind of armor as the ones we took down a while ago."

Mom-C tugged on his arm, pulling him back into the alley. "Looks like they're getting smart and trying to snipe us instead of facing us head-on."

"I'll go check it out." I crept up to the corner of the building. "Which roof is he on?"

"Whoa, hold on a minute!" She grabbed my arm.

"Forget it, Mom. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a big girl now. I can handle this."

"I never said you couldn't, but we didn't insist on staying with you just so we could sit here and let you take all the risks."

"Right," Dad said. "If Theron screws with one of us, he screws with the whole family."

I sighed. "Okay, fine, since you're already here and I can't talk you out of leaving."

Dad smirked. "You'd have to shoot us with tranquilizer darts and drag us out of here."

Marvelous. Damn it. "Just watch your asses."

"I'd rather watch Corrie's." Dad winked at her.

"There's a time and a place," I grumbled. "Is the guy still there?"

He peeked out of the alley, then nodded. "He's got a sniper rifle. Looks like Corrie was right."

"As usual." She winked back at him. "Okay, Boiler, how d'ya wanna handle this?"

"Same way we handled the last guy--I knock his ass out and one of you take him in for questioning."

"Okay. I'll distract him while you slip up on him." She ran over to the fire escape. "Jack, he may have someone on the ground looking for targets. Maybe inside some of these buildings, too."

"Way ahead of you, babe. I'll let you know if I find 'em." He glanced at me. "The guy's two blocks down, on the left corner. Wait till Corrie gets to the roof, then go."

"Yeah. Be careful."

"You, too." Mom-C crouched and leaped, grabbed the ladder and began climbing.

Dad started to move, then paused for a few seconds. "Just got a message from Taura; she's on her way back and should get here in a few minutes."

I nodded, watched Mom-C climb the side of the building, not bothering with the ladder, jumping from one floor to the next instead. When she disappeared over the top, I darted between the buildings and headed for the sniper.

#

The son of a bitch was a decoy--moving out in the open to lure us in. If I hadn't spotted the tiny red dot from a laser sight flitting across my left arm as I crept up behind him...well, maybe my armor vest could've stopped the bullets, but it's just as well that I didn't have to find out the hard way.

I revved my body up for a few seconds, long enough to throw myself aside and then change directions abruptly and bolt straight up behind the hunter Dad had spotted. I was almost on him when the bullets from another rifle drilled into the roof a few feet behind me.

He spun around, obviously startled by the shooting, and froze at the sight of me charging him. His helmet's visor covered his eyes, but I could still see his mouth--and I didn't think anyone's mouth could open that wide, but his sure did. I was kinda disappointed that he didn't piss himself in sheer terror, but one can't have everything.

I plowed straight into him, knocking him off his feet and slamming him to the ground, landing my entire body weight on him. The air rushed from his lungs but he still tried to roll away from me. I clamped onto the front of his vest and ran for the edge of the roof. It was too high off the ground for a safe landing, but not high enough for my wings to catch an updraft or even slow my descent enough to avoid splattering myself all over the pavement. So I found another way to get out of the line of fire.

I flung both of us off the roof just as more bullets hit inches away from me. Then I grabbed the edge with my free hand and swung down toward the nearest window. Mom-C zipped past in the corner or my eye, diving in the direction the shots had come from--then I had to focus on what was directly in front of me.

The window was closed, so I hurled the guy at it, using his body as a battering ram. I figured his armor and helmet would protect him from the shards of glass...and if he got sliced up anyway, well, he was trying to kill us, so fuck him.

He got most of the glass out of my way, but I cut my left arm on a sharp piece as I shot through the window after him. I paused long enough to be sure the wound wasn't too deep for me to ignore it for a few moments, then I picked the hunter up and yanked his helmet off. I figured I only had a few minutes before his buddies followed me in, and I wanted to at least get a good look at this guy first.

He was human, looked like around twenty or so. Mustache, brown mullet--fucking mullet, for Christ's sake--and a weird look in his eyes, like he wasn't firing on all thrusters. He looked like the kind of guy who, at least twelve to fifteen times a day, scratches his crotch and then sniffs his fingers.

I wished I'd left his helmet on.

"What the hell?" a voice somewhere on the right blurted.

I whipped my gun out and aimed it at the voice's source, and reigned myself in when I saw that it was just a guy and his girlfriend on a bed.

Yeah, I'd crashed into someone's bedroom. They were humping it out until their window imploded, and I had a view that left nothing to my imagination. The guy was a scrawny, dark-haired teenager with glasses, and the chick...

After staring at her for a few seconds, I realized that she was a sexbot like the ones I'd seen on the way to Craig Theron's hideout. Its face didn't show much emotion, just a faint smile, which was probably its default expression, and its eyes weren't really alive. It looked almost human, but I could tell the difference.

That must've been one lonely kid. Shame, really; he was kinda cute. I might've given him my phone number if I hadn't been running from people with guns. And if he hadn't just been banging a robot. My skin was gonna be crawling for a while.

The kid blushed and tried to push the bimbot away. "Uh..."

"Oops." I picked myself up, keeping my grip on the hunter, and pointed at the window. "You'd better get outta here. I'm being followed by a bunch of heavily-armed bad guys. You don't wanna get in their way." I left without another word, dragging the hunter with me.

He whipped a knife out, but dropped it when I bashed his own helmet into his head.

"And you, you asshole, you're gonna answer some questions for me."