Surprise almost turned things from an ‘oh fuck’ moment into complete desaster. Five times the thinking speed was almost not enough as I spotted the damn spider thing lunging at Bomberman. I lunged in response. Bomberman barely managed to notice and jerk back from his destroyed mech dog.

  That was really the only reason I managed to get a hold of any of him. The horror of a creature’s T-rex looking head clamped down even as I engulfed a section of one of the only people I could call friend.

  I didn’t have time to worry about which bit I got. I just isolated everything as soon as the antithesis bit down and sucked it into the deepest part of me. Quickly shunting it into my pocket dimension and shifting that into its own mini me. Which promptly fucked off in the direction of the bunker for him. Inside I did everything I could to provide life support.

  <>Good job you got his head and most of his chest! You’ll need….

  I interrupted Naylle. {Don’t fucking care. Just buy it.}

  <>Purchases made. Protocols are available. I was thankful for Naylle’s patience with my bruskness. But I didn’t have time yet to express that.

  Nanites started shifting their siblings into the required materials and feeding them into the wounds where others rapidly built cybernetic replacements for everything that needed it in order to make sure the specialized life support nanites weren’t working their tiny little asses off in vain.

  Outside the bulk of me distracted the new creature while my life support capsule version disappeared into the bunker. I did so by surging forward like a tide of grey-black semi liquid, trying to pin the thing down with my usual MO.

  Fucker did not cooperate. Instead of being slow enough I could get a hold of it, the damn thing was fast enough to retreat well out of reach. Skittering on those horrifying multi jointed legs. At least I got a good look at it before it started fading from sight.

  “Bomberman! No! What the fuck is that?” I had never heard a human scream that loudly, but Gravitas apparently had lungs on her.

  [It’s a Model Thirty-Three.] The laser comms from Drag-On cut straight through the standard communications interference. This thing was apparently still pumping out at full volume. [It’s super dangerous. Nobody comes out from your bunker. Oggy, can you reinforce them more?]

  [Yes. But it’ll take some of my mass. I have Bomberman’s head and most of his torso. He’s still alive.] Outside me didn’t wait, simply splitting into three and engulfing each of the bunkers, adding everything I could spare to them in order to prevent them from being overrun. [It’s so fucking unfair. It has stealth! Strong enough even my class two exotics can’t track it!]

  [Good. Yes, they are quite unfair,] Drag-On agreed with a bitter frustration mixed with hope in their voice. [I have something that will… soften it up. But no one with lungs should breathe it.]

  I was acting as a relay at this point allowing both Drag-On and Gravitas to communicate.

  [I have a helmet with filters and a shield. I’ll be fine. Oggy, how is Bomberman?] The version of me assigned to her bunker watched as she received a new case, kicked it open and pulled out a full head fishbowl helmet.

  Outside of our group, the darkness was currently oppressive. There were so many scents I couldn’t distinguish anything from anything else. We were deep enough that there were no ambient emissions that I could pick up something like backscatter X-ray. And the damn thing didn’t show up on thermals or sonics. Fucking spiders, why did it have to be a spider. I Hate spiders. Creepy crawly little bastards jump out at you from the most unobvious of places.

  [He’s still got brain function and is getting oxygen. But he’s out cold. Scans say he’ll survive. I’ve almost completed his new cybernetics but I don’t want to wake him. He’s out for the count. As soon as I can I’m sending him to the surface for proper medical treatment.]

  [Good. Smart. That just leaves us, and that thing to deal with.] Drag-On sighed physically where they were, huddled in the middle of their dragons curled up body. [Oggy, give me access to the outside.]

  I pulled away from both bunkers, reconsolidating on the last bunker. Enough of me there splitting to the life support capsule to give it one full mass. Of all of us Bomberman needed the most defense.

  That the creature allowed this unmolested was somewhat surprising. I took the opportunity to consolidate most of myself and prepare for the next attack. Leaving just enough to continue to secure each shelter and perform repairs as needed.

  Inside Bomberman was still unconscious, so rather than try to wake him I decided to medivac him. That portion of me shifted to the shape of a cartoonish drilling rig. Which promptly began digging its way out of the battle theater. First down, then back the direction we came from, backfilling the tunnel behind itself to prevent anything from trying to follow it.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  With that weight off my shoulders I turned every sensor I had in the battle space to trying to find this new threat. I hate spiders.

  [Good news. I’m evacing Bomberman. He’s alive and stable, but unconscious.]

  [That is a relief sweety. But can you see the Thirty-three that attacked him?] Drag-On was obviously trying to refocus me, probably more concerned about our survival than Bomberman at this point. This thing must be more terrifying than I first assumed.

  [I’m afraid not. It’s a thirty-three? Nevermind. Didn’t you say you had something that could soften him up?] I started extending a web of monofilament lines made strictly of my own body. The irony of webs locating a spider was not lost on me, but needs must when the devil drives.

  [I’ve been releasing it for a while now, it’s colorless, odorless and if you were dumb enough it’s also tasteless. It should negate its ability to avoid sensors. But only when combined with the binary compound. Which I will apply when it attacks again.]

  [That’s all well and good, but can’t you do something chemical to attack it? And why can’t we breathe it?] Gravitas sounded a little frantic, maybe being locked in a dark room with filtered air is bad? I decided to use the small amount of myself that was still with her to display a screen of what was happening outside, sensor adjusted for her visual spectrum.

  [The substance itself is rather caustic to organic materials I’m afraid. But when combined with its mate it becomes even more so. To the point that large gatherings of it will ignite.] Drag-On sounded distracted, as if they were paying attention to some source of data. One I didn’t have. Upsetting, but their prerogative.

  Something heavy stepped on one of my webs. Then another. It was moving rather slowly, circling the area trying to find a back to attack. The darkness and the pillars didn’t seem to impede it at all. But every second my threads of cilia picked up on where it was more and more. I didn’t bother focusing on it, instead making sure there weren’t more. I kept track of it to the best of my ability anyway.

  [Careful, I’ve found it. It’s circling to our southwest heading east. About fifty meters from the pillar there.] I did nothing physically to indicate, but instead threw up the new data on the tactical network and let them sort out what it meant. [It looks like it’s looking for another pounce spot.]

  [You’ve just given me exactly what I need.] Drag-On was smug as their dragon’s head poked out of the entrance to their bunker and turned, shooting a glob of something from its mouth.

  The spider thing tried to dart out of the way, but the glob exploded into a mist of opaque white droplets. Large enough that a small portion of the cloud covered the thing. Where it touched ignited.

  The fire wasn’t hot on thermals, but it was bright and clear as day. The Thirty-three attempted to douse itself with the river a dozen steps behind it. That did not put the flames out.

  [Foxfire doesn’t go out in water jackass! Run if you want, we've got you now!] The uncharacteristic outburst from Drag-On actually startled me enough to prevent me from lunging after the thing.

  That was fine, it decided that if it couldn’t stealth all out attack was the better choice. Guess who has thumbs for days and was the most obvious target. I’ll give you three tries. You don’t need any? Well your right. It was me.

  Have I mentioned that I hate spiders? A Spider with the head of a T-Rex might actually be worse. The fact that it’s the size of a mid sized building and moves like a fucking cheetah? That’s just icing on the cake.

  I can’t even say it hit like a mack truck. That would be underselling how hard the impact was. I was splattered across half the mausoleum-like drainage channel, a rather large chunk of me in its mouth, fighting with its tongue for who could twist into odd shapes more.

  Drag-On started releasing that green fog from their Dragon again, spraying it directly at the abomination that was even then trying to stomp out Bombermans bunker.

  The upside to it now being visable was that all those bombs bomberman left as a trap could get sensor lock on the fucker. As soon as he started retreating from the fog he moved into that feild. Which started going off as soon as they were in range. The down side was that I was all over the thing, glops and globs clinging to it wherever I could get grip.

  The spattered disperate chunks were converging quickly, but a lot of them were also in the explosion radius. The chaos of that minefield made me wonder what happened to all the other units that had been charging only moments before.

  There had been tens of thousands of single digits in the first minutes of battle. And when I dropped the recycling facility on some that had taken out maybe a couple dozen of the hundreds of double digits that were attacking. They were nowhere to be found now.

  All of me looked around frantically, even the poor bastards running a rodeo on the back of the Thirty-three. Trying to figure out where the rest of the twentys went.

  [Why are you distracted?!] Gravitas, bless her heart, noticed my distraction. Sadly it made her extra frantic, even as she was continuing to adjust aim, but not fire at the Thirty-three. Probably afraid to shoot at me.

  [First, I just noticed we’re not inundated with that horde that was attacking just a second ago. Second, Why aren’t you firing? Don’t worry about killing me. I’ve got plenty of mass plus I'll survive because I’m also with Bomberman.]

  The sections of me riding the creature, which waas starting to bash itself against surfaces to shake me off as well as put the fire out, began to link up, slowly caging it in. I might not be able to stop it, but with enough time I could do damage. It had already swallowed part of me which, if it hadn’t died in the stomach, was probably already beginning to work inside.

  [Are you sure?]

  [Shoot it in the head.] I think the fact that the part of me talking to her was so calm was what broke her fear of hurting me.

  She unleashed a torrent of lasers and missiles directly at its head every time it came available. Drag-On, on the other hand, had been continuously adding green fog and those weird green fireballs the whole time.

  Shittily enough, we weren’t really doing much damage at this point.