CHAPTER 39
Cait threw herself through the underbrush, blood rushing in her head as she pursued the fleeing Ironhide. Faintly, she knew the team was calling her back. Vividly, she knew Kennedy and Breastman needed her. She felt a heart break as her link to Kennedy snapped, and she didn't know whether it was Kennedy's or her own.
None of that mattered. She'd let this bastard, or his fucking twin, get away last time, and now they were down another Guardian. That didn't fly. Things got better, now that Cait was a Guardian. All those dreams of changing things would not remain dreams.
It was lucky that the metal motherfucker was shiny. Even in the night, the moonlight glinted off that fur enough that Cait could keep track of him. She couldn't see anything else, but while the monster might be able to take one of her punches, nothing else out here could, and tree after tree fell in her wake as she pushed forward. She screamed vitriol after it, her Altered lungs easily able to spare the air.
She knew it could bleed. She and Breastman had made the other one do it, and the raw red flesh that Fingerguns had exposed on this one meant it was the same. She could kill it. She would fucking kill it.
She had always been single minded to a fault. Now that her body no longer tired, it was far too easy to lose track of time as she chased the beast. Dawn had broken, and she hadn't even noticed. What she did notice, was when the treeline began to give way to rubble.
New Davenport, Cait's mind noted the ruins and assigned a name, but spared it no more attention. Instead, she was laser focused on the monster that stood in the middle of what had been a main thoroughfare, mocking her.
Cait roared, and charged, never breaking her stride as she crashed out of the woods. She bounded towards the beast, which stood there, arms folded. Part of Cait's mind screamed at her that that was wrong, but it wasn't the part that had control. That was the part that had always gotten her into trouble.
As her foot hit the pavement for the last bound before she made contact with her target, silver flashed in her peripheral. A heavy, growling weight slammed into her side, and they plowed through a wall on the side of the street. Cait let out her own growl, letting an uppercut pull her to her feet as she sent the new attacker flying. Again, the rational part of her was screaming. Again, the Fuckboi laughed it off.
What are they gonna do, kill me?
Cait snarled, smashing back through the wall. She found she was seeing double.
Nope, triple, she reassessed, as rubble across the street shifted and the monster she'd sent flying rejoined its brothers.
It didn't fucking matter how many of them there were. These stupid beasts didn't understand what they were up against.
She shot herself forward again, finding enough extra gas in the tank to take one by surprise, taking it in the chest and sending it flying towards the river. The other two fell on her then, snarling and slashing.
Cait laughed. The monsters yelped as their claws shattered against her skin.
"I ain't prey, motherfuckers!" she yelled, taking one in the side of the head with a left hook that sent it tumbling back into the rubble it had just crawled out of. The remaining beast didn't look as scared as it should have. The raw red wound in its side marked it as the one Fingerguns had gotten a piece of.
"Didn't learn your fucking lesson, huh?" Cait asked, grinning at the beast. It returned the grin, eerily human. A crunch from behind her, and Cait spun, pulping an ordinary Coonbeast. When she looked back, Ironhide was gone.
"Don't fucking run!" she yelled into the sky. "C'mon, 3 on 1 is more than fair!"
Rubble shifted on the side of the street, and Cait remembered the one she'd sent that way. She rushed over, arriving in time to slam a fist into the things chest, arresting its rise with force. She pounded it a few more times, before letting out an 'ope!' as one too many blows finally proved too much, and the pair broke through into the basement of the building that the rubble had once been. Time slowed as she fell, and she saw the raw red of the beast's throat like a glowing weak spot on a boss mob.
Chance.
She angled a fist down towards that soft flesh, and as they landed, her hand found itself buried in concrete as the monster's last breath gurgled out around her arm.
Triumph sent frisson cascading down her spine, and she roared it to the sky. As the red cleared from her vision, she saw the two other Ironhide beasts, holding something that looked hauntingly familiar from some very sad newscasts. She heard the deafening rush of water as the monsters dropped the core of the Risen River into the basement.