Katherine Legato

  Katherine and Max hunkered in a small copse of trees farther down the fence line. It was the only thing they could do while the other girl faced the titan alone. Katherine felt terrible about that—especially after she realized she'd pushed her straight into the electric fence. If there had been time to give a proper warning, though, she would have done it. She'd been too focused on making sure none of them got crushed, and that meant shoving everyone out of the way with the corpses she'd collected. Unfortunately, it turned out shoving them away coincided with shoving one of them straight into the fence. Sorry sorry sorry!

  Katherine knew the other girl—other Star Guardian—was still alive, and that wasn't a guess based on the sounds of pain and rage coming from the titan. She could feel both of them, much in the same way she could feel Max beside her, or the skinners roaming the treetops. It was also the only thing that allowed her to force herself to stay back. There wasn't anything either of them could do that would make a meaningful difference against the enormous Anathema. Still, Katherine would have done something, anything, to help—if only it weren't for the eager confidence radiating from the site of battle.

  Ha. Maybe I'm just telling myself that. Yeah, Kathy, you'd totally go over there and do something if she needed help. You're totally not just being a big coward.

  But it was true. When the titan first appeared, it felt like a mountain of power and aggression was collapsing down on them. The feedback from her power was what allowed her to react to the titan's surprisingly stealthy approach in time. Then, after making sure Max was safe, she'd cast her sense out for the last member of their group. That was when she realized that instead of pushing the other girl to safety, all she'd done was injure her and leave her behind.

  Her other bodies had all already been crushed, but she started to turn back anyway—up until she understood the feeling she was getting from the other Star Guardian. There was pain, yes, but the dominant feeling was annoyance. Katherine took that to mean she wasn't hurt too badly. There was still the threat of the titan, though, and Katherine wasn't going to leave anyone behind. But that was before her power was crushed by the weight of an overwhelming sense of danger and disdain.

  She ran so fast that she didn't realize Max was still with her until they were both huddling under the same clump of trees. She still didn't know his name at that point, as she'd only just thought to ask. That wasn't a concern though, because for a terrifying moment—Katherine thought she just abandoned someone to die.

  But if she wasn't misinterpreting the feedback her power was giving her, the other new Star Guardian was winning.

  Where before the titan's presence felt insurmountable, a walking calamity, what she felt now was pain and frustration. Then, as the seconds ticked by, the urge to devour and destroy gave way to something she hadn't felt from a single Anathema since she'd bonded with her Star Core and the start of the incursion. The thing wanted nothing more than to get away.

  What is she doing to it? Katherine didn't know what the other new Guardian's powers were. To be fair, it's not like I've got a good grip on my own. She'd briefly tried explaining the perceptual part of it to Max, after telling him how the other girl felt confident in fighting it and winning. She'd initially compared it to sensing emotions. That wasn't quite right, though—it was close, in some instances, but only as a chance approximation. At times, she felt it was closer to picking up on beliefs or intentions. Naturally, Max asked if it was some kind of mind reading.

  Katherine wasn't sure. The idea of that wasn't at all comfortable, and it also didn't feel like she was picking out individual thoughts. Everything about it is just so confusing. There's so much noise. Even the trees and dirt feel like a noisy mess. That was, in part, why she'd ended up on the ground and cradling her head earlier. Her own stress and terror had been bad enough. The violent pressure of a billion clashing auras threatened to drown out everything that was Katherine.

  I can do this. I can do this.

  She realized that the pressure of the titan had all but vanished. So too had the sounds of injury and battle—but not the pressure she'd come to associate with her fellow Star Guardian. Strangely, she didn't know how to articulate the conveyed feeling. It was shockingly flat and neutral—maybe a bit curious? Katherine had no idea what to make of it, and she was about to tell Max that the titan had been defeated—only for a foreign intent to stab outward like the strike of an intangible knife. Huh. I wonder what's up with that?

  She realized Max was looking at her. He probably wants me to use my special 'mind reading' powers to see what happened. Things had just gone a bit quiet, after all. No reason not to, I guess. But what do I say? It's not like I understand it either—I'm not even sure I'm interpreting it right.

  "She won." The relief in the man's posture upon hearing her words was immense. But before he could start heading back in that direction, Katherine grabbed onto his arm. It was huge, but despite their relative sizes, she experienced a moment of disorientation where she felt like she could overpower the man if she tried. Is that because I bonded with the Star Core? Did I get superhuman strength?

  She would worry about that later. Max had stopped walking—voluntarily—and she needed to explain. "She doesn't want us to return, yet. I think. I'm not sure." Ugh, start sounding like you have more than three ounces of confidence. "I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure she wants us to stay back for just a bit longer."

  He didn't look convinced—but he didn't push past her, either. They waited.

  It was a minute or two before Katherine felt like whatever was making the other Guardian not want anyone to get close was gone. Maybe some lingering effect from the titan that could have been dangerous? She wasn't sure what the reason was, and nor was she any more sure she was even correct in her assumption that they should hang back. Regardless, the feeling was gone, now, and she hoped that meant it was safe. As safe as you can be in the middle of an incursion, I suppose.

  They didn't have a long distance to walk. It took less than a minute, and finding the site of battle wasn't hard. The enormous, dead Anathema would have been difficult to miss. The whole area around it had been swept clear of trees, likely uprooted or simply torn apart by the monster's immense bulk. Katherine didn't see any obvious signs of special abilities being used, and nothing was burned or corroded or anything like that. There was only the dead titan—and the Star Guardian who killed it.

  Katherine took in a breath upon seeing the other girl. Rather than the casual clothes she'd been wearing before, she was now decked out in a suit of full combat armor. It was all forged from the same dark, grayish metal, except for a few gold-trimmed highlights. The overall shape of it made her look like a cross between a knight of old and some futuristic space warrior. That included the helmet, which itself looked like a motorcycle helmet had been shrunken and streamlined, then contoured and given fanciful embellishments. The most eye-catching feature was the pair of classic, swept wings that were mounted on the both sides above the ears. The whole getup left only her eyes and part of her forehead exposed.

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  What the hell, that's so cool! Where'd she get that? It has to be part of her power, right? Katherine would admit to being a bit envious. I want an awesome Guardian costume!

  She'd get one eventually, she knew, and 'costume' wasn't the best word for it. What was the official phrase? 'Brand stylized personal fatigues?' It was something silly like that. Whatever. I'm just gonna call it a Guardian costume.

  Katherine also noticed that the armor had a kind of metal skirt attached. That's cute. She didn't know if it served any kind of practical purpose, but it certainly made things less threatening. And cute. Can't forget that part. It's very important.

  Also can't forget the incursion. Katherine sighed. She had a feeling they were still just getting started.

  I ended up not having to hunt down Sidekick and Rambo, and that was because the two of them came right back. Their timing couldn't have been more perfect, which I have to say made me just a bit suspicious. Like, were they just hanging around at the edge of the clearing and watching me? I'd need to keep an eye on both of them.

  I also learned that they had names. Or, more accurately, I learned what their official names were. Like of course they already had names. It just meant I no longer needed to call them by my own made up monikers. That was a good thing for Sidekick, because I'm pretty sure no one wanted to be the sidekick. Definitely not me.

  Her real name was Katherine, or Kathy for short. I was fine with that. It felt like it fit her, so I wasn't at all unhappy about it. Rambo, however—well, his name turned out to be Max. I wasn't sure how to feel about that. It wasn't like it didn't fit him, or anything, and in fact, I feel like it fit decently well. If anything, it was too reasonable. A guy like him needs a name that's a bit more over the top. Like 'Maverick' or some shit.

  From there, the three of us resumed our trek towards the nearest breach. Katherine could also hear the atonal buzzing, I learned, and Max was the only one who couldn't. Definitely an Anathema slash Guardian thing. I also learned that Katherine was way better at locating it than I was, to the point where I started to feel like it was unfair. I didn't know if that was due to her actually being a Star Guardian or if it was a symptom of her weird fucking power.

  Yeah, that was the other thing. It turned out I was wrong about it being raising dead people. For one, she kept having trouble getting it to work on Anathema. She'd only managed to reanimate a single shitty skinner, and that had lasted all of thirty seconds before getting torn apart by a pack of its fellows. Turns out Anathema are actually really good at picking out imposters. I legit wouldn't have guessed that. I hadn't paid much attention until it was already too late, which meant I was going to have to observe much more carefully the next time she succeeded in controlling one. I wanted to see if I could also spot some instinctual difference.

  Fortunately, she didn't end up being completely useless. That was because she also had creepy psychic powers that made my spine want to squirm out of my neck and strangle her. The woods were positively teeming with Anathema now, but we only had to cut through a fraction of the number we otherwise would have. This was because Katherine was using her freaky mind power to make them avoid us somehow. I don't think she was controlling them, though, even in some partial or minor way. I think it was more like she was projecting an icky aura of Anathema discomfort-ness.

  The reason I suspected this was because holy shit she is setting me on edge right now and I am one minor inconvenience away from twisting her Goddamn head off. It definitely wasn't affecting Max, so I felt justified in assuming I was getting a sort of friendly fire effect from also being technically Anathema. I could see why they were mostly avoiding us if this was what getting close to her felt like. Personally, it was making me feel violently and irrationally upset, but I supposed lesser Anathema might just get spooked by it.

  Huh. When did I start thinking of them as my lessers?

  Regardless, plenty of Anathema still tried their luck, attacking us in spite of Katherine's aura of bad vibes. That was where I came in. The first few times a skinner attacked, I ended up flat on my back, wrestling the big bony cat-lizards to death. They were never a real threat, not anymore, but it was annoying and inefficient. That was why, by the fourth time, I'd learned a way to crouch and time things such that I could grab them midair, twist, and slam them to the ground behind me. After that, all I had to do was keep them pinned and rip straight through their long, snake-like necks with my claws.

  It soon became apparent that I wasn't just super-humanly tough. I knew I'd become stronger, but it wasn't until after the titan was defeated that I started to get a grip on just how much force I could now exert. It was enough that the skinners, known for being tough, rubbery, and bloodless, felt like shitty papier mache to me. Also, all that metal I was carrying around created a huge amount of extra mass. It was certainly several times heavier than my normal weight. That helped a lot in my scuffles with monsters that were up to several times bigger than me.

  Skinners weren't the only thing overrunning the woods. Two other common variants of low tier Anathema had begun adding their ranks to the population of invaders. The first were big masses of slippery black tentacles, known as grabbers. Their size was highly variable, ranging from housecat to big enough to fill a dumpster. Their tentacles, despite being incredibly smooth and slippery, were also completely dry. They also didn't have any hooks or suckers—something I appreciated, as I was the one who ended up cutting straight through the middle of one on three different occasions.

  They were even less of a threat to my armored, metal body than the skinners were, but that didn't change the fact that they were kind of gross.

  The one other type of Anathema we frequently encountered were the armored scuttlers. Basically just big, bright red beetles, these were both the most potentially annoying to handle with my abilities and the ones that ended up pissing me off the least. In theory, cutting through their tough shells and doing enough damage to stop them from simply regenerating could be problematic. In practice, my claws were up to the task. After all, being several times tougher than a skinner doesn't matter much when I already tear through skinners that easily.

  Ultimately, it wasn't any of the Anathema that truly frustrated me. It wasn't the positively rancid vibes Katherine continued projecting, either—even if those are definitely super annoying. No, what bothered me most was that I didn't get a chance to properly consume any of the shit I put in the effort to kill.

  It wasn't like I could start taking bites out of every Anathema that came our way. That would be, like, possibly the most suspicious thing I could possibly do here. The hunger never went away, and leaving behind so much good food was making it worse. Bit by bit, my control over it was starting to slip. And fucking hell, Katherine, your stupid anti-Anathema bubble is not fucking helping. Now that the initial thrill of testing myself in combat had worn off, I was basically speedrunning my ongoing deterioration into one cranky and inhuman bitch.

  Like seriously. How much longer do we even have to go before we reach the breach?

  Logically, I knew it had only been a few minutes.

  There was a single saving grace, here, and it was that a minuscule amount of every Anathema I cut down got absorbed straight into my claws. It was so little that it really only made my hunger grow worse, but every bit of extra power I could get was welcome. And I was sure it was making me more powerful. The more Anathema devoured, the bigger and stronger they got—and eventually, they could grow beyond their current tier into the next one.

  I wasn't sure what the result for me would be if that happened. I wasn't even sure what tier I was to begin with, only that it was probably around Tier 3. Just a guess, though. But in a way, it didn't really matter. I might have wrestled control over the base instincts of my hunger, but there was a major difference between denial and making sure it didn't completely enslave me. I might not know what happens when I tier up—but yeah, I'm definitely going to find out, one way or another.

  I realized I'd gotten distracted, and Max and Katherine had both stopped. I realized why just a moment later. That atonal buzzing was louder than ever, and that was because we'd found our destination.

  We'd arrived at the breach.

  The MGAAD Playlist. The most important addition is track 6 ("Rich Girl," Hall & Oates). There's also the followup from Alex's perspective with track 7 ("Material Girl," Madonna).