Chapter 10- Priorities
"Rath, Beth, Barb, give us some cover fire," Bruce said. They nodded and the man with the long hair, the short black-haired woman and Ash pulled out wands. The crowd that was behind them was gone, the door covered by a solid block of metal.
"Scott, James, Jared, flank 'em." Bruce now stood with his brothers in front of the hole blasted in the wall. Then his voice echoed around the room as he spoke to the man.
"Why did you come here Steven?"
"To keep you on your toes."
"So this is Roche 4 all over again?"
"Pfft, Roche had a research station on it."
"Ah, so the bombing of Big Ben."
"You won't stop me this time."
"Good, I'll just have to actually try this time."
Steven was about the charge Bruce, but his eye caught sight of Asu.
"Now what have we here? I thought you UDDs had rules dealing with cloning."
Bruce turned back to look at her. "Oh…shit," he muttered and nodded to the others. They reformed into a line, and Beth and Ash switched back to their scythe and katana.
Asuyuka met the gaze as he saw her, tensing up immediately. She had no idea who this was, but the aura he gave off sent chills up her spine. When she heard him speak, her ears perked up and she lowered her tail and made it straight, growling just enough to be heard. As the group reformed she took a defensive stance, forming a pair of brass knuckles out of the air. Her ears sucked back into her skin, same with her tail and fur.
"And a shape shifter to boot, nice work, Nate."
"What?" Bruce turned around. "Barb…do you know of this?"
Ash turned, "that is part of her powers…but something's wrong."
"What would that be?"
"I don't know…"
"HA! Don't even know about your own creations Bruce?" Steven laughed.
"We didn't make her."
"Sure, you just picked her up on the side of the road or in an alley. Either way, she does seem to need proper study."
"Your version of proper study is more like dissection."
"No, I have another idea…New objective," he said to the man/machines. "Get the clone." He and his followers ran towards them.
Bruce considered every possible action in the 3…no, 3.697 seconds until they all got into a mess of a battle. He wasn't sure who he should protect or not. The targeting system of his eye told him the priority was to protect the base and the personal under his command. But he had read a lot of Barb's stories, and he knew what he needed to do, and added another objective to the list: Assure the survival of Asuyuka Meya Kimeno. …He just hoped that he hadn't made a mistake.