the slabs.
I pushed, pealing us away from the stricken oak tree, and pulled free of the wreck. “Dispatch! I screamed. “Code-red, A, two, Rush delivery!” And I launched.
Back arched, fists together, true form, I hit him above his center-of-mass and kept accelerating as we headed back down. He oofed, the air knocked out of him, and then we cratered in the intersection. Chunks of concrete flew into the air. Around us bystanders abandoned their cars and ran. The man under me tried to fly, flipping me as I fought to hold us down, and swung me through the corner gas station and into the brick side of its garage.
I pushed off and flew us through a gas-pump and into the road, digging a trench as I angled us down. My armor-reinforced knee caught him in the gut as he pulled us up, and I spun us again as he wheezed. A round back-hand to my temple rang my ears and I let go.
Kicking me away, he laughed as I smacked down into the street.
“I’m going to eat your eyes!” His voice rasped inhumanly and his own eyes flared red. Sweat dripped down his face and he shook his head. “Nice armor,” he added, sounding normal. “Trying to level-up?”
An eye-twisting blur flashed by me and with a solid smack, Ajax’ huge titanium-headed maul filled my hand. His backup maul; his original weapon lay in pieces on display in the Dome museum.
“Delivered, RushCrashSprintsSifuevacuatingzonenow,” Rush informed me as fleeing bystanders began disappearing around us. Villain-X saw the motion and dove, and I launched to meet him, swung the maul with a scream. The shock of impact almost made me drop it, but he spun away, decapitating a lamp-post and bouncing parked cars aside as their alarms wailed.
“Yes!” I screamed. “You are waxed!” I dropped on him, bringing the maul down to shatter the sidewalk as he desperately rolled away. He kicked again, but I twisted to take it on my cuirass, swung, and the maul rang again as he flew backwards and into an abandoned van. Pulling himself out of the wreck, he took off straight up—burning brighter in my infrared sight.
“Astra!” Lei Zi shouted in my ear. I could barely hear her over the roaring in my head. “The zone is clear—keep him there, help is incoming!”
I launched myself after him, but he didn’t flee; instead he looped around again to dive. Swinging the hundred-pound maul, I took him in the side with a hit that could have dented main battle-tank armor. He screamed, voice inhuman again, and grabbed my weapon hand, crushing my fingers around the maul’s haft. Instead of letting go, I pulled him into knee range and hit the same spot with a crunch. He let go and I back-swung, a ringing strike to his head.
He shook it off. And smiled.
“Delicious,” he said, in that nails-on-chalkboard voice. “You’ll be delicious.” His skin began to blacken and smoke, and my singing euphoria fled, leaving me cold.
“No,” I said. “No. You’re served.” Then he hit me.
I got the maul up, but the hit drove it back into me, throwing me down through the gas station’s weather-roof onto another pump. I lost the maul.
At least I’m keeping him in one spot.
Scrambling dazedly, I got to my feet before he hit me again, hammering me into the ground. I twisted and rolled, throwing us through the corner of the station in an explosion of concrete blocks and glass. Free, I hit the smoking nightmare with a stricken Chrysler, sweeping him out into the street, and dove for the maul.
I grabbed it as he grabbed me and squeezed. My armor creaked, but it was like he’d forgotten I was wearing it.
“Astra,” Lei Zi shouted in my ear. “Take him up and look west!”
Okay… I tried to find west; it felt like any second he was going to crush my torso armor like a beer can, and then I wasn’t going to be able to breathe. My takeoff surprised him, and I pulled us around, away from the Lake.
“Brace for incoming!” Shelly cried. Shelly?
I braced, and heard the missiles before they hit. One missed and auto-destructed ahead of me as the others caught us from behind, the fireball surrounding us. Villain-X took every hit and let go to fall, stunned. I reeled, thrown end over end till I didn’t know where the sky was.
“I said brace!” Shelly complained as I spun in the air, trying to find her.
And there she was, so not Robotica. Okay,