“Landing zone clear,” Dragon said tersely. “Fighting within one block, Protectorate is heavily engaged. It seems Amaranth wasn’t exaggerating about the clones.”

  “I remember these guys as the Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand,” I said flatly, checking the chamber on my carbine. “So no the fuck I wasn’t.”

  “You remember?” Lionheart asked sharply.

  “A secondary aspect of her power,” Miss Militia explained. “Amaranth is a precog as well, of a different sort.”

  “I see,” he said, staring at me. “Any hints for the coming battle?”

  “Don’t die,” I replied. “This shit is months early, I literally could not tell you what’s going to happen, beyond a lot of people are going to die if we fail.”

  “Well, that’s more specific than Hunch,” he said dryly. “Months early, so you remember it differently? Interesting.”

  “A lot’s changed,” I said as the craft bumped to a touch-down. The hatch hissed and I raised my carbine. “But the job’s still the same.”

  I was the first out the door and onto the snowy streets of New York. We’d landed in a small park in a suburb...somewhere. Way in the distance, the glittering lights of Manhattan glowed like a beacon against the dark sky, the city we were here to protect. Of course we were still within the city limits, but it wasn’t exactly the Big Apple like I’d expected.

  “This way,” Miss Militia said, leading us towards the sound of distant fighting as Dragon’s craft took off again, probably to gather more capes.

  Snow crunched under our boots as flakes gently drifted down from the clouds above, lit by the amber street lamps. It made for a strangely scenic march towards the nearby fighting. Judging from the footprints, tire tracks, and lack of cars around, it seemed the area had been hastily evacuated. That was good, it meant we really didn’t need to hold back.

  “Miss Militia!” a voice called from the next street. “Over here!”

  “Double time,” she snapped, and we started running.

  Three capes ran around the corner towards us, two of them with strange beetle-like monsters attached to their backs. I slung my rifle and poured on the speed towards them, passing Miss Militia in a flash. I slammed into one of the panicked, infested capes and knocked him to the ground, wrapped my hands around the bug and— Oh gross.

  I held back my bile as it exploded with a splatter of gore, painting my hands and the cape’s back bloody. Rising, I sprinted to catch the other cape and repeated the process, pulping the parasites with ease. Both were seriously wounded beneath the bugs, their skin torn and bitten. The third who’d called us over knelt beside me, panting hard.

  “Thank you,” he said quickly. “We need to evacuate them, they’re too injured to continue fighting.”

  “Can you manage?” I asked.

  “I’ll...do my best,” he said, swallowing and looking to Miss Militia as she approached. “Ma’am, thank god.”

  “Get these two out of here, Highline,” Miss Militia said firmly. “What were you facing besides Breed?”

  “Only saw him,” Highline replied, shaking his head. “But I know another team is fighting Miasma and Mannequin a street over.”

  “Miasma’s here?” she said, stiffening. “Damn.”

  “I guess he puts out some kind of gas?” I said.

  “He can render himself undetectable and secretes a dangerous, odourless gas,” she explained.

  “Okay, I’ll handle that,” I said, unslinging my rifle and making it ready. “Don’t need a gas mask, my projection keeps out anything that I can’t breathe. Nadir, with me, we’ll back them up while Miss Militia and Lionheart—”

  “Absolutely not,” Miss Militia cut me off sharply. “We stick together.”

  “We need to—”

  “You need to follow orders,” she barked. “You’re not going off on your own and starting trouble, Amaranth.”

  “Come on,” Joy said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “We need to work together.”

  “Fine,” I spat, shrugging her off. “Lead on, ma’am.”

  Miss Militia glared at me for one second longer, then took off down the road with Lionheart on her heels. We followed after them, rounding the corner and finally arrive at the battlefield. None too soon either, as I saw capes fighting against dozens of creatures like the ones that I’d destroyed before. There were others too, flying and spitting some kind of liquid. A gob hit one cape as they fled, and they screamed as their flesh sizzled. Acid.

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  I took a knee and aimed carefully, then fired a burst towards one of the flyers. At least one round struck home, and it fell with a bone-chilling shriek. No time to celebrate though, there were enough of them that one wouldn’t make a difference. A swarm descended towards us, but Joy reached out a hand and all of them fell to the ground. Keeping her arm extended, she drew a grenade, reached forward to pluck the pin, then lobbed it into the center of them. They exploded in a shower of carnage, and we continued forward to join the fray.

  It was a horrific fight. Half a dozen capes were laying dead in the snowy streets already, and I could hear more cries as others were wounded by the remaining bugs. As I fought, shredding bugs with my carbine as much as my hands, I kept searching for their master. He’d be nearby, probably hiding out of sight. Too bad I couldn’t fly, that would just make it too easy.

  A flicker of movement just behind a house caught my eye, through a gap in the fighting. It was a number of crawling, beetle-like creatures creeping towards the fray. I squinted and peered towards the house, then my eyes widened and I took off at a dead sprint.

  “Amaranth!”

  I ignored Miss Militia’s shout, and it was quickly drowned out by the roar of the flamethrower in her hands that she used to roast the bugs above. I slung my carbine and drew two grenades from my belt, pulling the pins and holding the spoon of one down while I let the other cook. I tossed it when I was just feet away from the reinforcing beetles, blowing them apart and leaving a crater in the grass that I leaped over. I let the other spoon fly and rounded the corner, eyes widening in horror.

  I’d found the source, fuck me.

  I couldn’t call it a man, not with how twisted its body was. A living hive, like what I’d imagine Bonesaw would create if she ever got her hands on Skitter. A few beetles hung off it or waddled around its feet, and one was emerging from its distended mouth. Its eyes met mine and the spell broke. I threw the well-cooked grenade right at its feet and dove around the corner to avoid the explosion of gore that followed.

  Readying my carbine, I swung around the house again, aiming where Breed had been. It seemed it had survived the initial blast, but the bugs sure hadn’t. It was twitching, trying to crawl away, so I emptied a magazine into its malformed head, demolishing it entirely and finally ending the threat.

  The fight wasn’t over, but the sounds of battle were growing quieter as I rejoined the main body of the line. Now it was about containment, annihilating the remaining bugs on the streets, then working in teams to clear each house in the neighbourhood. Fortunately, Joy and I had plenty of experience with that, and each let a small team to swiftly clear the houses. Ten minutes later, we regrouped on the street to plan our next move.

  “Ammo check,” I said to Joy as I began counting up my remaining rounds.

  “Used a lot,” Joy said flatly. “Damn things were hard to hit.”

  “You did good with your power,” I said with a nod. “Probably made this a lot easier.”

  “And you? You got Breed right?”

  “Yeah, a grenade and a magazine,” I said. “Thought he’d be tougher, if I’m honest.”

  “Lucky he wasn’t,” she said. “Okay, I’ve got three magazines left, and two grenades.”

  “Two and two,” I replied, shrugging my backpack off and unzipping it. “Let’s bomb up.”

  “Amaranth, Nadir, we’re getting ready to reinforce the teams engaging Mannequin and Miasma,” Miss Militia said as we loaded loose rounds into our spent magazines. “Are you ready?”

  “Will be in a minute,” I said tersely. “How bad were our casualties?”

  “Eight dead, ten more severely wounded,” she said gravely. “But likely lower than if you hadn’t been there. Thank you for dealing with Breed.”

  “See? When you actually want someone dead there’s nobody better to have around.”

  Amaranth…” Joy said, putting a hand on my back and making me sigh.

  “It’s more your willingness to throw yourself headlong into the worst part of the fight I respect,” Miss Militia said evenly. “Certainly your power is part of enabling that, but you’ve always been courageous.”

  “Not much of a choice,” I said flatly, loading the last round into my magazine and putting it back in my vest. I dug four grenades out of the bottom of the bag, handing two to Joy and taking two for myself. I zipped the bag back up, then slung it on my back as I stood. “Alright, enough mushy crap, we have dragons to slay.”

  Miss Militia and Joy shared an odd look, but neither said anything so they probably understood. We couldn’t afford to delay any longer, not with god only knew how many clones of the Nine left in the city. Joy, Lionheart, me, and a the four other capes who’d been fighting Breed and were able to continue the fight. It wasn’t much, but four of us hadn’t been much and we’d turned the tide of one battle.

  I could only pray for a repeat performance.

  We didn’t have to go far to find the next fight, but it was going much worse than the battle against Breed had been. We hadn’t heard any sounds of battle as we’d run, and that was because it was already over. When we got to the street where the fighting had been, mostly what we found was bodies.

  Strewn up and down the street were about twenty capes, mostly heroes going by their brightly coloured costumes. Some lay face down in the snow, others slumped against walls or objects. A few near to us though were standing, staring ahead as a hulking, strangely-built Mannequin lumbered towards them.

  Miss Militia was the first to react, her weapon shifting into a massive anti-tank rifle. She knelt and fired, the round striking Mannequin’s shoulder and knocking him back a foot. The brute whipped towards us, then swung its arm out and bisected the nearest cape with a hideous looking axe attached to it.

  That at least cleared the way for Joy and I to open fire as well, sending alternating bursts into Mannequin’s torso. It didn’t seem to have any effect though, even Miss Militia’s rounds didn’t seem to leave a scratch on his armour. As he approached, my breathing grew more laboured, each pull of the trigger took more and more strength, and nothing was fucking working.

  Why was I even bothering? I already knew this whole operation would be a total wash. My team was gone, we didn’t have the people we needed to win this. We would fail and fail so badly everyone would die. If that was the end result of this, I might as well just give up now.

  I let my carbine fall as a shiver ran through me. It was getting colder, the winter chill cutting through my borrowed fatigues. Frost grew on my lashes, making it harder to open my eyes again when I blinked. I was so cold, so tired.

  So cold...so tired…