A second explosion sounded from the direction of Ammit. The creature growled and hissed, twisted and jerked, trying to snag the mysterious annoyance that kept harming it. But the annoyance moved too quickly, its path was crazy and chaotic, almost as if everything was being made up on the spot.
TK smiled happily. The sonic engine he had obtained from Asher roared below him, carefully strapped onto the handmade-skateboard that Albert had crafted. Banking to the side, the hippie avoided Ammit's outstretched claws, and slapped down onto the cave wall, rocketing a loop around the cavern. The board was a little unbalanced, but it handled well. Albert hadn't done half bad, for his first attempt.
With one hand, TK withdrew another smoke grenade from his pack, with the other; he flashed a peace sign at the figures below him. "And we're not going to take it, anymorrrrrrrre!" came the cry, as he launched off a smooth rock and flipped right over the Beast.
Emmanuel, Mike, and Fred were holding a position near the rear, holding off the enemy from their unarmed comrades. Fred's assault rifle beat a steady rhythm as she mowed down the incoming beasts, occasionally broken by the pop of Mike's pistol, covering her while she reloaded.
Mike felt his shoulders tighten as he saw an anomaly sidle up behind Harry's fighting figure. With one shot of the pistol, the monster collapsed. He gazed at his hand in awe. Somehow, in the past weeks he'd gone from being unable to identify a safety, to hitting a target at 50 meters.
Fred noticed his gaze. "You were a little off target. Still need to account for motion." She shrugged. "Decent, though."
Mike shook his head.
"Never was good at fighting, to be honest. When I was alive, I was always too afraid to do anything other than avoid conflict," he admitted softly.
"Winnie, why'd you put me with you guys in the combat division?"
Fred's response was long in coming. Finally, she coughed. "Because you were too useless to put anywhere else.
"And… I didn't mind. About you being a horrible fighter, I mean. Well, I don't know, I guess I just wanted you around. Thought you'd be useful."
Fred paused. When she spoke again, her voice had hardened. "Guess anybody can be wrong.
"Now I'll ask you a question, Mike. Why the hell did you even bother saying that you'd help us? What was the point if you were just going to throw us away?"
Mike flinched. He tried to meet Fred's gaze, but she was staring straight ahead, fixated on her enemies. "No, I didn't! I mean, I…
"Winnie, I'm sorry for lying to you." He swallowed. "I just thought I'd be able to do some good, to help you guys. I guess, I should have just told you guys once I learned the truth about-"
"Don't you start that garbage!" Winnie turned toward him, eyes shooting daggers. "I won't listen to that rubbish about this world being here to help people, not after we've been-"
"Fred, Mike!" a voice called out. They snapped towards its source. Both of them immediately recognizing the speaker, but both were shocked by the emotion contained in her words.
Hannah shuffled toward them, holding Luke up beside her. Mike was amazed that she wasn't screaming, let alone standing. Her skin was a mottled pattern of red and black burns.
Mike and Fred rushed up to them. Mike caught hold of Luke, and flinched in surprise; Luke was incredibly light, Mike could barely even feel the youth. Mike glanced at his friend.
The bite wasn't a terribly deep wound, and the flow of blood had largely stopped. But Ammit's fang seemed to have done more. The skin visible under Luke's torn shirt had gone unnaturally grey, almost cloudy in nature. Mike realized he could see right through it. As he watched, the tendrils of grey stretched and expanded, poking through on the jugular of Luke's neck.
"Ammit bit him," Hannah croaked urgently. "It's some kind of poison, or infection.
"We have to finish this. We have to kill the Beast."
Luke was silent, his lips fluttering wordlessly as the wisps of transparency worked their way over his chin. His eyes blinked fearfully.
Fred watched her soldier for a moment. Mike witnessed frenzied horror in his friend's eyes.
"Winnie," he said, stepping to nudge her in the side.
"Please, let me help you. I'm sorry for lying to you, but I'm not sorry for believing that there is still hope for us.
"You don't have to make your decision now. I know you're furious at me. But please, let go of your fury just for a bit, so we can do what's more important."
Reeling from the smoky attacks of the air-borne hippie, Ammit charged to the side of the cavern, tramping a few rows of shadows. The Beast barely had time to draw breath, when a new attack hit.
The tech and diversion divisions tossed another volley, cheering as their projectiles made contact. Small rocks, water balloons, sharpened pencils glanced off of the Beast's flank. Their cheering quickly petered out as a roar rocked the cave, and Ammit turned toward the source of the annoyance.
"HEY," came a shout. Ammit growled, and continued forward, drawn to the source of the noise. Mike strode towards the beast, coming to a stop in a particularly rocky portion of the cave, one strewn with boulders. "HEY," he repeated. "Uh, lizard-face! Why don't you come and pick on someone your own... That is, come on and-"
Ammit roared. He charged forward, dripping jaws coming open.
At the very last moment, Mike leapt to the side-but Ammit's speed was unexpected. There was a blur of teeth, and Mike was sent crashing away, his motion brought to a stop by a boulder. The youth slumped, groaning, as the monster swept down, opening wide-
There was a blur. A form leapt from behind the boulder, soared over Ammit's approaching teeth. Fred bounded onto the creature's jet-black tongue, and turned her rifle to the sky. Jaw clenched, the Battlefront's leader unloaded into the roof of the Beast's mouth, as the jaw snapped shut.
Shakily, Ammit straightened up. The room witnessed the creature's eyes widen in confusion. Then, all at once, the twin pits of fire went still.
Ammit's fiery mane blinked out with a hiss. The sludge on its rear bubbled into a frenzy, sweeping to cover Ammit's whole body as the creature collapsed to the floor. The frantic bubbling overtook the corpse, its mass melting away with every second.
Before the Battlefront could do more than shout in shock, there was a familiar flash of white. Emily dove to the floor, pinning her wings to her side as she plummeted into the bubbling mesh of what used to be Ammit's head.
A second of silence dragged by.
The obsidian slime exploded outward as Emily's snow-white wings burst apart. They beat powerfully, streaks and droplets of black flying off as she rose from the ooze, coasted a few yards, and landed back among the Battlefront.
Fred's feet touched the ground. Coughing and swearing, she wiped the sludge away from her eyes. She spat. "Ugh. Glad that's over with."
The Battlefront cheered, those closest stampeding forward to mob their leader. Fred struggled her way to freedom, gasping. "Keep it calm, guys. Hey, Mike? You okay? Mike?"
Her breathing settled as she saw his familiar figure making his way toward her. As she walked, she thought she saw a trail of blood on his arm, but when he arrived, the sleeve had been pulled down.
She frowned. "Hey, Mike, are you-"
"We did it," Mike interrupted, clapping her on the back. "Nice job, Winnie. " He glanced over into the crowd. While the combat division maintained a perimeter keeping the shadows back, some of their friends had gathered in the center. "Hey," Mike shouted. "How's he doing?"
There was no response. He and Fred hastened into the crowd, and looked down. Hannah knelt by Luke, not looking up. The wisps of grey had not halted. The entire lower half of his face was translucent, as well as his hands. Luke's eyes blinked with increasing terror, the last part of his body still solid.
There was a thud. She witnessed Jake fall to the ground, two anomalies sliding to cover him. Richie appeared moments after, pulling his friend to his feet with a grunt of massive effort, then riddling the pair of monsters with bullets.
She trembled. Enough. Enough. She looked up-Osiris's platform was empty; he had disappeared moments after the fight started. All that remained on the platform was a small door. Above it, a lamp flickered dutifully.
"Everyone," she called, stepping to the outskirts of the crowd. Her friends turned to look at her, sweaty and dusted.
"Thank you all, so much, for everything you've done. I realize that I never could have gotten here on my own. Guess I was being a bit off a moron."
She swallowed. "And now, I need you more than ever. I need you to keep the shadows back. I'm going to find Osiris, and end this. Like I promised I would."