Chapter 4

"Alright, I want you all to be on your toes," Melanie said. "We managed to shake loose some intel that has our thinkers and planners fairly certain that Lung is going to be at one of the three targets today. Best guess is that he'll be at Target Two, which is why I'm working that mission with Labyrinth. Purity will be there, along with Hookwolf, Ballistic, and some of the heavier hitters from the other groups. Oni Lee may be at either of the other targets, so you need to keep your head on a swivel. Gregor, you and Spitfire are on ordinance disposal. Your target is supposed to be a depot for a lot of Bakuda's bombs. It's not her lab, but its destruction is a top priority. You'll be with Trickster, Grue, Krieg, Rune, and some others. Grue and Trickster are both team leads so let them argue over control. I want you to concentrate on making sure none of the materiel ends up in anyone's hands, not even ours. They're just too dangerous."

"Understood," the quiet man said.

"Newter and Chrysalis, you'll be hitting Target One. It's a drug factory the ABB captured from the Merchants. Unfortunately, Kaiser will be leading your team. He's a blowhard, but he's been at this a long time, so he mostly knows what he's doing. Don't let him use you as bait and don't count on him to back you up, even if he promises. Tattletale is likely to be there as well, probably with Regent or Bitch. Try to avoid talking with her. She'll do her best to get into your heads and mess with you. Even in the middle of a mission, she can't help fucking with people. It's what she does. Ignore her as much as you can. You need to look out for each other. Watch each other's backs. And have an escape route ready if needed – live to fight another day."

She gave us both a flat look. "And try not to get on NetTube again if you can avoid it. Once a week is more than enough of that."

"That wasn't our fault," Newter complained.

"Maybe not, but it would be better to avoid that kind of notice in the future." She turned to me. "After this is done, we'll think about approaching our contacts in the PRT and the City. Now that you're publicly associated with us, we need to deal with the City's complaints against you. We want to keep the locals happy with us. That's one of the reasons I took the current job. We're basically assisting the police and PRT on Coil's dime. They may not be happy with our 'partners' in the endeavor. But if we're careful, they won't be able to argue with the results. We'll come out of this with them owing us some favors."

Forty minutes later Newter and I were in one of the heavy SUV's driving through the Archer's Bridge neighborhood. I had been told it was Merchant territory, or it had been before the ABB started expanding. The area was predominantly filled with older tenements and mostly shuttered factories along either side of Archer's Creek, a narrow, bricked-in waterway that emptied into the Bay. The blocks around the Bridge had been a tourist area back in the Fifties and Sixties but had gone downhill since then.

"… did she see the comments those clips were getting? She should be happy. They were sixty, maybe even seventy percent positive. That's really good. We struck a blow for all weirdies and the net loved it," Newter continued. He had been complaining about Melanie's negative reaction to our trouble at the mall for the whole drive.

"Let it go, Newt," I said. "I'm sure she'll get over it." I was not sure, but I really hoped she would.

The idea she might decide I was more trouble than I was worth was disturbing. Despite my lack of physical needs like food or sleep, I really did not want to go back out on the streets. I had not realized how much I had been missing friendly human contact, even before I changed. It had been almost two years since I had a meaningful interaction with anyone. I was finally beginning to feel like I had friends at Palanquin, and I was not ready to give them up.

He turned to look at me, his mouth open to keep arguing when a large truck rammed into my side of the SUV. It slammed us against a concrete loading dock. I could feel the frame of the reinforced vehicle buckling around the two points of impact.

My new sense stretched into the metal parts of the larger truck from where its grill pressed into my door. The behemoth was a bizarre mixture of a cement truck and a tank, with treads in place of hits rear wheels. It was also heavily armed and armored, particularly protected was the engine compartment. The driver, a buxom woman by the shape of her harness, stomped on a pedal and the monster's engine roared.

Ping! Crack!

The metal in our SUV was deforming as we were being crushed against the immovable concrete. Looking up I could see the gloating faces of Squealer and Skidmark as they high fived each other.

"It's no good," Newter said as he pressed on the accelerator. The SUV revved but did not move. "We're stuck. Split up. Go out the back!" He unbuckled and spun in his seat, slamming his tail against the cracked windshield. It started to shatter.

Squealer gave her vehicle more power and my door started to cave in towards me. I reached through my broken window and grabbed the front grill of the monster truck. I dove into the vehicle.

I needed to stop the truck before it crushed us. So, I formed my new shell out of the engine and its armored box, stepping out next to the driver's door. I was now a thousand pounds of metal come to life. That was the maximum mass I could use to create a new body. It left quite a hole in Squealer's brainchild. The engine immediately ground to a smoking halt.

"No!" she yelled. She sounded like I had dropkicked her baby.

I stepped towards her door, wanting her out of the vehicle before she could activate the guns or some other surprise. But as soon as my foot hit the pavement, it shot out from under me. I started to fall backwards but grabbed on to the side of the monster truck to steady myself. My fingers denting the lighter surface metal, scratching the cherry red flame painted on the hood.

Looking down, I saw the street was glowing blue where my feet were shading towards purple at the other side of the intersection. There stood a larger than man-sized shambling mound of garbage reaching towards me with elongated arms. The street glow ended just before his feet.

I felt the weapons on the truck begin to move. Three were pointed towards the front or the driver side. Newter was already out of the SUV and moving towards the passenger side of the truck – heading for Skidmark.

I dove back into the truck and formed a shell out of the forward-facing gun and its mount, then dived again to form a shell out of the guns on the driver side. Diving back into the truck, I reanimated my engine block shell. Now my feet were touching the asphalt and I was able to create two quick shells to block the doors, before diving back in the street and appearing behind Mush.

I missed the roof hatches on the truck that let Skidmark and Squealer get out to attack Newter.

"What the fuck, Skids? You're breaking the truce!" Newter yelled as he dodged the gunfire the Merchant leader was using to keep him at a distance.

"Fuck the truce," The older man yelled spittle flying from his lips. "All y'all knobgobblers disrespected me. Disrespected all the Archer's Bridge Merchants. We can't let that go. You're in our house here so you gotta pay the toll."

"You know this means you're basically taking the ABB's side," I argued. "They're the ones that kicked you out of your territory, and now you're protecting them?"

"We ain't protecting no one. We're gonna fix those puckered, juicy assholes too. But you shitstains are easy to find, with your little club. So, you get the first blast." His vulgar hip thrust made the subtle subtext obvious. "Now shut the fuck up and die already you mutant orange rectal cyct."

Newter dodged until the gun clicked empty.

I wasn't able to see the rest of that fight as Mush decided to wrap my head in garbage. I had no idea how I could still smell, even though I did not breath. At that moment, I desperately wished I could turn it off. I was in no danger of suffocation, but the experience was still exceptionally unpleasant.

Through the refuse I could feel his tendrils twisting about within the bulk. There was a fleshy core in the middle. I drove my arms into the pile, struggling forward against his strength.

"Fuck, no!" he called from within the middle of the mass. "Stay away from me."

"You're the one that grabbed me," I replied, wrapping my hands in his tentacles like a fork in spaghetti. Once I had a firm grip, I dove into the concrete and resurfaced on the other side of him. The purple field was gone. I jumped forward slamming into him. Feeling his core, I was able to hug him close and dive back into the pavement, locking him in place.

"Arggh!"

I turned to see Newter standing on the street a few yards from a tall, bulky powersuit. Trainwreck had a blade extended from his left forearm and it was covered in blood. Newter was crouched on the street, one arm holding his side, where his shirt was stained red.

"You ok?" I asked my friend. I knew he was tougher than a normal human, but that looked painful.

"He just wants a free sample," Newter joked.

"I'm gonna skin you, fillet you, and cook you. Lizards good eating." The steam-powered tinker bragged, moving towards the injured boy.

I ran to interpose myself. I had seen the tinker in action before when I was looking for shelter in the trainyard. I knew he was strong and surprisingly quick in short bursts. He had killed at least three well-armed men that had been trying to capture him or drive him from the area. The little war had taken several weeks, and I had not seen the end. The fact the juggernaut was here told me he had survived.

"Newter, move!" I cried as I stopped in front of him.

Trainwreck unleashed a fast jab, backed up by the steam pistons in his arm. It caught my cement shell in the chest, cracking it.

As soon as the armored gauntlet touched me, I dove into the suit. It was several hundred pounds of metal and rubber. I formed a shell out of the metal and stepped out behind the Merchant tinker.

"No!" he called, and I heard a soft thump as he hit the ground. When I turned, I was shocked to see another inhuman form. He looked like fleshy water balloon with a misshapen human head on top. There was no sign of arms or legs until he reached for me with a pseudopod. "Give it back. Please, give it back. Don't leave me like this."

"Sorry guy," Newter said as he brushed a bloody finger across the man's cheek. Seconds later the boneless Case 53 collapsed.

"Are you ok?" I asked again, turning to my partner.

"I'll live."

In the distance we heard the rattle of gunfire. Several individual pops, followed by a burst. Then more individual shots, some much deeper and louder. Soon there were explosions joining in the cacophony.

"Sounds like they started without us," Newter said.

"We need to get there," I replied.

"Yeah. Boss won't be happy if we flake on the contract." He crouched down in his normal running posture. He winced, stood, and tore his tank top off, wrapping it around his abdomen and trying it off. My fingers were too clumsy to offer assistance.

"I can make it, but it might be faster if you carry me."

"Give me a second," I said. I saw that Skidmark and Squealer were also tripping courtesy of Newter, but did not know how long it would last. I recycled one of my asphalt shells and grabbed both of the Merchant leader's wrists, one in each hand, then dove into the street and resurfaced in another existing shell. I bound the vehicle tinker the same way. Then I touched the truck and created a shell out of its toughest armor.

"That should hold them. Are you ready?" I asked.

"I'm all yours," he said leaping into my arms. I carried him bridal style and ran towards the sound of the guns.

The echo of the battle petered out, first the loud booms, then the automatic fire, then, after a single shot the explosions stopped.

Less than a minute later a mighty roar echoed through the streets.

"That's Lung," I said.

"I think you're right," Newter replied, sounding unhappy.

As I ran, I sent my sense through the pavement towards the fight. But we were too far away for me to find anything.

We could hear screams and crashes, roars and the woosh of flames. Lights flashed against the sides of buildings in the distance.

"That doesn't look good," I said.

"You gotta take Lung out really quick, before he has a chance to ramp up," Newter offered. "That's widely accepted as the only way to beat him."

"Has anyone ever beaten him that way?" I asked, remembering when the dragon took out the whole Protectorate team in his early days in Brockton Bay.

Newter shrugged. "Doesn't matter now. It's too late for that to happen."

"Can your juice affect him?"

"It might. No one knows. But, I'd have to get past his fire and steel scales and … not a lot of opportunity."

"Not you," I said, looking at my hands covered in Newter's seeping blood. "Me."

Suddenly, we were within a thousand feet of the battle.

I could feel a large open courtyard or parking lot covered in pavement. It was connected to the street on which I was running. My new sense was not great at picking up people at this distance. But I could feel two large masses of metal, each a bit bigger than an SUV, shaped vaguely like torsos, sprawled on the ground. There was a dome of metal three times the size of a car near one of the large bodies. There was another spot where the pavement was liquid, flowing away from something in the middle of a circle. I could also sense a large metallic form – Lung I assumed – moving around. It … he … was chasing someone. And they were coming our way.

"Lung is coming this way," I said. "I think he's chasing someone."

"Shit!" Newter said, panicked.

I could understand that. If I could breathe, I'd be gasping in fear. Instead, I was worried about my friend. "Should we run? I think most of the others are down."

"You said you had an idea?"

"Yeah. We can give it a try. We've got to get to the top of one of these buildings. Moving up there we can get close to him."

"If you put me down you can just teleport up there, right?"

"No, I need you with me." And hopefully you'll be safer up there than down here.

Newter moved to my back as I climbed the outside of a tenement, I was able to use a combination of fire escapes and making my own handholds in the brick wall. Once out of contact with the pavement I could no longer sense Lung, but I could hear him roaring and spraying fire. He was coming.

"Right," I said. "If this doesn't work, you need to run and hide. You can't do anything else in your condition."

"Then don't do this."

I saw Tattletale and Bitch ride by on a giant lizard rat thing. It was jumping between building walls and the street. The thinker was blackened and bloody, but Bitch looked like someone had sliced her throat. I had no idea if she was alive or dead. Lung was close behind them, roaring in rage.

He was in full dragon mode, at least three stories tall, with wings and a tail, and completely covered with shining metallic scales. I bent to rub my hands in Newter's blood then ran and leapt off the roof.

Even though my shell weighed almost a thousand pounds, I was able to clear the distance to Lung. I landed on his head.

"Rawar?" He roared as he shook his head to dislodge me. I grabbed on to his scales, but my hand was slick with Newter's blood. I clamped my legs tight, and spikes grew out of my metal calves and feet, helping secure me. I didn't know I could do that, I thought absently as I clung to my unwilling mount.

Lung kept trying to twist to see me, but I was too high on his neck for him to be able to turn that way. He clawed at me, scraping across my armored back.

I pushed up with my legs and reached over the top of Lung's head.

Craning his head back, he beat at me with his wings, his tail flickering nearby. He was bent almost double.

My left hand slipped as I tried to reach his eye. I almost slid back, but my spikes tangled in his scales. With a final heave I flung myself forward and plunged both hands, fingers pointed like spear tips, into the dragon's eyes. My metal hands – still covered in Newter's psychotropic blood – punched through his thin-scaled lids to sink in almost to my elbows.

Lung cried out and slammed he head into the wall of a building, catching my shell in between.

That wrenched me loose, leaving me embedded in the bricks. He blindly released a jet of white-hot flame and flung his head about drawing a line of destruction in its path. As the flames approached me, I dove into the building and resurfaced on the opposite side at the alley floor. Immediately I dove into the street and found the building I had left Newter on. A second later I was in a new shell standing next to him.

"Quick, we have to …" I started, only for him to grab my arm and point.

"It worked!" he yelled.

I turned to see Lung swaying on his feet, bouncing off the nearby buildings and slowly shrinking. Less than a minute later he was back to his human form, recumbent and slowly writhing in the street.

"It fucking worked!" Newter grabbed me and kissed me, then started dancing first on two feet then on four.

"It worked," I repeated, putting my cement fingers to my lips.

That's when I realized the building was on fire, as were most of the others around it.

"Hey! Building's burning. We've got to get out of here."

"Right," he said. "That's a bad thing."

"Get on my back and call Faultline. Let her know what's happening," I said.

He crawled on and I started down the side of the building. I ran to where Lung was, having to drop Newter off first as the sleeping dragon was surrounded by fire.

I picked up Lung, grabbing his wrists and hugging him with his hands behind his back. Then I hopped on to one foot. When my foot hit the ground, I dove in and immediately resurfaced. My old shell was holding Lung and was only attached to the ground at one point. I kicked through that anchor and picked up my prisoner in his girl-shaped prison.

"Boss wants us to check on the others. She doesn't want us to kill Lung, unless we have to, you know, to save ourselves."

"Can you move on your own or do you need a ride?"

Newter looked at Lung and decided he was fine on his own. I led us to the site of the battle. I could only sense one person moving, in the middle of the liquid pavement. And they were not moving much.

When we arrived, it was like a scene from hell. Immediately our eyes were drawn to a small sun blazing in the far corner of the lot. Even I could not look at it directly, it was so bright. I could feel the heat but was not too affected by it.

Newter had to stagger back behind the shelter of the wall.

The second thing I saw were two giant women, the valkyrie that had accompanied Kaiser to the meeting. They were obviously dead – one with her head burned off and the other disemboweled and then burned. Near them was a dome of steel half-melted into the asphalt. I could sense there was a hollow in the center of the dome. I assumed that was Kaiser's shelter. The question was if he were still alive inside it. I saw the bodies of two of Bitch's giant beasts torn apart and half roasted. There was one of Coil's men, draped across the tailgate of a pickup truck, his back bent at a fatal angle.

I also saw Oni Lee laying on the roof of an SUV, or at least a man in the Oni mask, with a bullet hole right between the eyes. That shocked me. I wondered who had gotten him, if it was him.

I reported all of this to Newter who was on the phone with Faultline.

"She wants to know if you can check in the dome," he related.

"Yeah," I replied. "Give me a bit."

I ran to the edge of the dome. The heat from the sun has making the asphalt on the ground soften. It was even affecting my shell. I touched the outside of the metal construct and resurfaced on the inside on the side furthest from the small sun.

It was dark, too dark to see. I could feel something electronic crunching beneath my foot. I was going to need to dig a hole through the dome to let in some light. I positioned my current shell away from the divot it had come out of, then created a new shell in the same spot as the first and moved it away. It only took four shells before I was through to the other side.

Light and heat poured in. Kaiser had not survived, assuming the corpse baked black beyond recognition was the Empire leader.

I left him there and jogged towards Newter.

That's when the sun blinked out and a woman in red collapsed to the miraculously untouched ground at her feet.

When I got to Newter, I wrapped my steel shell around Lung and created a new one out of concrete. I really did not want him getting out. I had seen what he could do. I was not certain if I would be willing to face him again now that I knew his power.

"Tell her we've got a real mess here." I paused. "I don't know if things just got a lot better or a lot worse, but it's a real mess."