Can we take him?
Likely, yes. Stick to basic strikes and conserve your energy for defense.
"Julie! I'm free! Pin him down, and I can attack!"
Julie was on her back. She lifted Cody into the air with all eight legs, then shot her webbing at him.
Cody disappeared into a large plume of gray smoke that slithered away, reforming on the other side of the room.
"Stupid bitch. I'll kill you both," he snarled. He cannonballed at Julie.
Julie didn't dodge him. Instead, she caught him with her eight legs, wrapping him up. The wall shuddered as they crashed into it together.
Julie's legs moved faster than I could see. In that brief instant, Julie had rolled Cody up into a cocoon of her webbing, trapping him inside. The cocoon went slack and deformed, then took the shape of a bulldog again.
Cody was trying to use his smoke form to escape, but he was stuck. Julie stabbed a leg directly into the webbing, then another.
The shape inside the cocoon began shaking furious. "He's trying to bite free!" Julie cried.
"Focus on the webbing!" I ran up to the cocoon. "I'll deal the damage."
Julie covered the cocoon in more webbing. Meanwhile, I extended a single claw from my right paw and punched it into the center of the mass. The claw was only about six inches long, but it was enough. I felt it pierce past the webbing and hit a thicker resistance.
It wouldn't do much damage, but Cody was helpless. I punched my claw into Cody over and over again. Julie repaired her cocoon faster than Cody could do any damage.
Several minutes later, the bulk inside Julie's cocoon vanished. He had zeroed.
"Let me get him out," Julie said with a click of her mouth pincers. Her legs moved rapidly, teasing apart her webbing.
I watched, still in my Beastform, as Julie tore away the final layer of webbing.
I stared in horror at the figure that fell out of the webbing.
It was Cody, or rather, the bloody mess that had once been Cody.
The body had no skin, bloody muscles and pulsing arteries clearly visible. A metal harness, the plate I had seen on his back, was at his side. Something dark and stained in ichor stirred next to the body.
I unmelded in shock, fighting back the urge to vomit. It was his bulldog, a bloody mess, just like Cody.
Eyeballs moved within the larger mess of wet muscle and gore that was Cody. An opening, maybe a mouth shifted. A weak voice spoke.
"Kill me. Please. Kill me."
CHAPTER 20
Julie unmelded and rushed to my side. "My god."
I glanced at her. "Shouldn't you…disappear?"
Julie shook her head. "Stealth Crawling drains my energy reserves slowly. I didn't have much left before the fight. I won't be able to use it again much without resting."
I turned back to Cody. "Cody, what happened? Who did this to you?"
"The old man. The toaster. It doesn't matter." The bloody dog at his side let out a weak yelp. "Kill us…both."
Dustin…
Zoe, what do I do?
Zoe didn't reply immediately. Her own horror leaked through our bond. What he asked. End his suffering.
"Dustin?" Julie asked. She flexed her hands. "I'll do it."
"Wait, can't we help him? Do something for him?"
Cody coughed weakly. "You going to make me beg, little-D? You don't know what they can do to you. I can't take it anymore."
Cody was an asshole. A prick. A traitor.
But no person deserved this. I closed my eyes. Dr. Preston, the Mekanics. We were pieces of meat to them, to everyone.
I hated them, for what they had done to Cody, for what they wanted to do to us, for what Cody was making me do now.
I can take care of it. Look away.
No, Zoe. I held up my hand to stop Julie as well. This was a world that chewed you up and spit you out. Mekanics, humans. We were no different. I wouldn't run or hide from the ugly truth. We were all monsters. I'll do it.
We'll do it together.
"Fuck, I hate everyone," Cody muttered one last time.
I melded. Two quick swipes of my claws, and it was over.
"Dustin, it had to be done. He turned on us." Julie reached out to pat my Beastform.
I didn't reply. I stood there, silently, staring at my handiwork. At least Beastforms didn't have tears.
The door slid open. An enthusiastic girly voice called out. "Dustin, Dustin!"
I turned to find Vikki staring at us with an open mouth.
"Oh."
"Stop, Julie!" I cried.
Julie had melded and leaped towards Vikki, her legs pointed like spears. Julie retracted her legs and shot a string of web into the floor, swinging herself to the side to avoid Vikki. She crawled to Vikki's side, aiming four legs at Vikki's body.
"She's one of them," Julie hissed. "I'm compromised. We have to find Mia and scram. Dump this bitch, and let's go."
She has a point. It's too dangerous to stick around Garvek for longer. We've lost Julie's element of surprise. We need to go.
Julie raised a leg higher, ready for a stab. I unmelded and ran up to Vikki. "Hold on, Julie! She can help us." I turned to Vikki. "Vikki, we need your help. Please."
Vikki looked curiously at Julie's Beastform, then Cody's bloody remains. "I…I don't know. Father said he'd come to talk it over."
"Garvek? He's coming?" Shit.
"Let's go!" Julie hissed.
I shook my head. "We need Mia's phone, or a way to contact someone. We'll never get off here by ourselves. Plus, if Garvek's coming, he'll bring us Mia."
"What?"
"He's holding her in his torso. Don't stab him there."
Julie nudged Vikki with one arm. "We can still get rid of this one. One less threat."
"You're going to destroy me?" Vikki asked with big eyes. Her voice quivered.
"No, we're not," I said loudly to both of them. Vikki started sniffling. "What's the big deal? You can get a new body anyway."
Vikki shook her head. "It's not so simple. I told you, I rebooted recently. My neural algorithms are still converging. I can't sideload as easily as Father does."
Meaning we could kill her for good. Zoe's horror had turned to a quiet rage. She usually kept pretty tight control of her emotions, but recently, more had been spilling over to me than usual.
The Mekanic were the enemy, but I couldn't bring myself to kill Vikki. Maybe it was an act, some clever programming, but I couldn't bring myself to kill her in cold blood. Not after I just killed someone for the first time.
It's not her fault, Zoe.
Zoe was quiet, her anger fading, at least from my bond. Hurry, either way.
I grabbed Vikki by the shoulders. "Vikki, listen, can you help us? Where did you get Mia's combat uniform? Did she have a phone with her? Some kind of communication device?"
"Yes, I know where it is," Vikki said. "But why…" Her eyes grew wide. "You want to leave? Why?"
"Why?" I pointed to Cody's corpse. "Didn't you see what Garvek did to him? Why the fuck do you think we want to leave?"
Vikki shrank back. "But…but Father said he would make things right. Talk it over."
"Where's the phone?" I asked.
"I'm not telling you." Vikki pressed her metal lips into a tight line.
"We can torture her," Julie said. "Force her to tell us."
"No! Forget her. Let's go, Julie." I melded and left Vikki behind. I sprinted along the tunnel's floor while Julie skittered overhead above me.
Uh, so where are we going, Zoe?
The training room had a command console. If it was really designed by the Mekanics, it may have similar functions.