The kaiju felt her feet tearing through the street as the robot continued to push her backward. Apetrain had managed to push Bearadon back five city blocks before she was able to bring the robot to a stop. Bearadon tried to throw Apetrain to the ground when in a show of superior strength, Apetrain lifted Bearadon off the ground and tossed her into the remains of a nearby building. Bearadon was blinded by the dust and concrete that flew into her eyes. The kaiju was trying to regain her feet when Apetrain’s huge fist struck her in the jaw and forced her back to the ground. The mechanical gorilla delivered blow after crushing blow to Bearadon’s face and jaws. She was briefly able to open her eyes long enough to see Captain Okafur bring the TR-3B in behind Apetrain and open fire on the robot with his machine guns.
Bullets tore into Apetrain’s back, but the robot felt no pain, and it was programed specifically to destroy kaiju. Apetrain had no concept of self-preservation. The robot’s single motivation was to carry out the command of its programming.
As yet another fist slammed into Bearadon’s face, she realized that she was only a few more heavy blows away from losing consciousness, and if that happened, she was fully aware that death would soon follow. When she saw the next blow coming, the kaiju quickly shifted her head to the left. When Apetrain’s fist crashed into the debris next to her, she bit into the robot’s left hand and then dug her claws into its arm. In a quick and fluid motion, Bearadon brought her back legs up and placed them on Apetrain’s chest. The kaiju then pulled the robot’s arm while using her legs to push against its chest. Bearadon felt her strength being pushed to its limits, but she was fully aware that if she was unable to tear Apetrain’s arm from its body that the robot would soon beat her death. The kaiju roared as she exerted even greater pressure on the robot’s arm and chest. When she heard the sound of metal tearing, Bearadon began to shake her body from side to side, twisting the damaged metal that connected Apetrain’s arm to its torso. There was a loud snap as Bearadon finally tore Apetrain’s arm free from its body.
As its arm tore off, Apetrain fell backward onto the ground. Bearadon quickly stood up, and before Apetrain could regain its footing, the kaiju sprang forward and attacked its right leg. The kaiju bit into the leg and tore a chunk out of it. Apetrain reached out with its right arm and backhanded Bearadon across the face, knocking her off its leg. Bearadon shook off the blow and lunged back at Apetrain’s leg as the robot was trying to stand. Bearadon swiped her paw at the robot’s thigh, slicing deep into it with her claw. She was still tearing into the robot’s leg when she felt Apetrain’s fist come crashing down onto her spine. The blow buckled the kaiju’s knees and forced her to the ground. Apetrain lifted its fist to strike her again, but Bearadon rolled out of the way, causing the robot to lose its balance, forcing it to use its hand to keep itself from falling over.
With her enemy in a vulnerable position and with its damaged leg close to her, Bearadon attacked. The kaiju swung her body around and drove her spiked tail into Apetrain’s leg. With the robot’s leg already severely damaged, the kaiju’s tail was able to tear through what was left of the damaged appendage. With its right leg and its left arm gone, Apetrain fell face first onto the ground. The disabled robot used its remaining arm and leg to spin its body around, and when it was facing Bearadon, it tried to crawl to the kaiju. Bearadon knew that she could end the robot’s existence right there by jumping onto its back and tearing out its insides. While her initial instinct was to destroy her enemy, the soldier and the human inside the monster knew that she had more pressing concerns. Bearadon turned away from Apetrain, and she began running after GE who had caught up to the fleeing mass of humans and was once more crushing them beneath its feet.
Bearadon quickly looked to her left to see Captain Okafur flying around Colmar and unloading his machine guns on the robot. She could see that while the TR-3B’s bullets were penetrating the mech’s armor, they were not causing much significant damage to it. The sheer force of the bullet’s hitting the robot was, however, delaying the mech’s progress as it tried to pursue another wave of people that was trying to escape from it. Bearadon hoped that Okafur would be able to delay Colmar from reaching the fleeing people long enough for her to dispatch GE and then make her way over to finish it off.
The kaiju turned away from Colmar and focused on GE who was now reaching down and grabbing another handful of people. The robot was lifting the people off the ground when Bearadon darted forward and sank her teeth into the robot’s arm. The kaiju pulled down as hard as she could, forcing the robot’s hand back toward the ground. She had pulled the robot’s hand to a height of roughly ten feet off the ground when GE brought its free hand around and struck Bearadon in her ribs which had not yet fully healed from her last battle. The blow rocked the kaiju, but she refused to release her grip on the robot’s hand until she was able to free the twenty-some people trapped within it.
Bearadon lifted her right claw and used it to gouge out a piece of the robot’s arm. GE responded by delivering another crushing blow to the kaiju’s ribs. Bearadon groaned in pain as she scratched away yet another piece of the robot’s arm. She saw GE pulling its hand back to punch her again. Bearadon quickly shifted her hind legs, and when her tail was positioned correctly, she swung it at the robot’s head, burying her spikes in the mech’s face. While the blow to GE’s face didn’t cause any significant damage to the mech, it caused the robot’s punch to strike her flexible tail instead of her injured ribs.
GE brought its free hand to its face where it grabbed Bearadon’s tail and tried to dislodge it. While the mech was removing her tail from its face, Bearadon furiously attacked the arm that she was latched onto. With three powerful swipes from her claw, the kaiju finally managed to tear the robot’s hand off. Bearadon gently placed the hand with the captured people in it on the ground. GE pulled the kaiju’s tail from its face and held it in its grip. Bearadon yanked her tail forward, causing her spikes to embed themselves in the robot’s wrist. The kaiju then turned around and slashed at the robot’s right leg, tearing out a portion of it. She then stepped forward and pulled her tail, causing the robot to fall onto its face. GE was trying to stand when Bearadon climbed onto its back and forced it back to the ground. Unlike Apetrain, she knew that she needed to completely destroy GE. The robot’s primary function was to capture and kill people, and even if it had to crawl to do so, the robot would continue to carry out its programming. Bearadon slashed and bit at the locomotive parts which constituted the robot’s back until she was finally able to see the rubber lining beneath it. The kaiju plunged her jaws into the robot’s back, bit into a mouthful of rubber, and then tore it out. Bearadon tossed the rubber aside then she once more thrust her mouth into GE’s back where she ripped out its CPU. She felt the robot cease struggling beneath her then she climbed off its back and turned in the direction of Colmar and the TR-3B.
Bearadon’s entire body ached as she made her way toward Colmar. When she had crossed half the distance to her next target, she saw the still-functioning form of Apetrain crawling toward her. When she walked past the partially dismembered robot, it spun on its stomach and started pursuing her again. The kaiju made a mental note to finish off Apetrain after she had destroyed Colmar.
Each step that Bearadon took sent a shot of pain surging through her body. She had already fought six different mechs today, and she was moving toward her seventh. She knew that after this battle, she would have to take time to heal if she was going to be any help to her teammates in the next couple of days. She also knew that she would heal much faster if she stayed in her kaiju form which meant that she would be unable to board the TR-3B and meet up with the rest of her team. Despite the fact that she would be unable to join her teammates in their upcoming battle, she was still confident that she had made the correct decision. She had already saved countless lives by destroying GE, and she would add onto that number if she was able to stop Colmar. Bearadon also still had complete faith that the other members of the Kaiju Corps would be able
to destroy the robots in Chicago without her help.
Several blocks ahead of her, she saw that Captain Okafur was still doing his best to battle the giant robot with his TR-3B. Bearadon watched as the machine gun that Okafur was using to attack the mech expelled the last of its bullets. Having exhausted his supply of bullets, Captain Okafur was forced to pull away from his attack.
With the TR-3B no longer impeding its progress, Colmar started moving toward the mass of fleeing people. Bearadon roared and tried to run after the robot, but with pain surging throughout her body, the best that the kaiju could manage was a quick trot. She had almost reached Colmar when, to her surprise, the robot turned around and backhander her across the face. The blow knocked the weakened Bearadon to the ground. She realized that in addition to the robots learning and taking steps such as creating robots like Apetrain to fight her that perhaps the humanoid robots were also having changes made to their programs to attack her prior to her attacking them first.
Bearadon was trying to make her way back to her feet when Colmar kicked her in her badly damaged ribs. The kaiju let out a slow and painful roar as her injured body slumped back to the ground. Colmar stomped on Bearadon’s ribs several more times, causing the mammalian kaiju to start coughing up blood. The robot was lifting up its right foot to stomp on Bearadon again when she whipped her tail around and buried the spiked end in the robot’s left leg. Bearadon used her tail to pull the robot’s leg out from under it. When it crashed into the ground next to her, the kaiju noticed that the mech’s armor cracked in the areas where it was riddled with bullet holes.
When she saw the cracks spider web between the bullet holes in Colmar’s outer hull, she realized that she was not the only one who had sustained heavy damage in her previous fight. Like two weary prizefighters entering the tenth round of a match, the injured kaiju and the damaged robot staggered to their feet. Bearadon forced her body to stand on her hind legs so that she was at her full height which was at least twenty feet taller than her opponent. Colmar pulled his fist back to punch the kaiju and Bearadon responded by letting her weary body fall forward onto the mech. Despite Bearadon’s massive weight leaning on it, the robot managed to maintain its footing. With her body pressed against the robot, Bearadon wrapped her powerful arms around its torso. The kaiju then began to squeeze the mech. Bearadon could both hear and feel the robot’s badly damaged armor cracking and shattering beneath the intense pressure she was placing on it. The kaiju closed her eyes and roared as she squeezed and shattered Colmar’s upper body to pieces.
As Colmar’s body crumpled, Bearadon released her grip and returned to her quadrupedal stance. She heard a scraping sound behind her, and the kaiju turned around to see the persistent Apetrain crawling toward her. Bearadon roared and then she began limping toward the damaged mech. When she was close to Apetrain, it lifted its hand off the ground and swung at Bearadon. The kaiju easily avoided the blow, climbed on top of the mech’s back, and then proceeded to tear out its CPU.
With the threat to Buffalo destroyed, Bearadon crawled down from atop of the defeated Apetrain. She wanted to roar, but she lacked the strength to do so. Bearadon quietly laid down in the middle of the street. Even though she was exhausted, she knew that she couldn’t let herself fall asleep, because if she did, she would revert back to her human form, and in order to heal as quickly as possible, she needed to be a kaiju.
The TR-3B landed in the street next to Bearadon, and as the door opened, she saw Captain Okafur standing in it. He yelled as loud as he could, “We aren’t going anywhere for a while, are we?”
Bearadon simply shook her head no in response.
Okafur shrugged. “Okay then. Let me get in touch with headquarters and tell them that we are not going to make it to Chicago in time to rendezvous with the rest of team. Just so you know, I think that you did the right thing by deciding to save all of these people, but I am telling the people at HQ that it’s your fault we can’t make it to Chicago!”
Bearadon nodded as she did her best not to let her exhausted body fall asleep.
Chapter 11
Catskill Mountains, Horsemen Facility
Clarissa slammed down the button that shut off the video feed from Captain Granderson’s TR-3B. Her body was shaking with anger, and she needed to calm down before she reached out to Timothy and discussed how they were going to have to alter their plans. She took a look at her reflection in the computer screen and yelled, “Why can’t she just follow orders! The importance of saving Buffalo doesn’t even compare to the importance of reuniting Bearadon with the rest of team!”
Clarissa took several deep breaths then she turned on her computer screen to see Timothy working with several other Horsemen on still more EMP bombs. She waited a moment as Timothy finished working on the latest bomb then he turned around and walked toward the screen. When Timothy reached the screen, Clarissa informed him of their current situation. “Bearadon took it upon herself to fight the robots that were attacking Buffalo. She managed to destroy two humanoid robots and a battle robot that she designated as Apetrain. She saved close to five hundred thousand lives, but she is injured and exhausted. She needs to stay in kaiju form for several hours in order to heal. This will delay our plans to have her join the rest of the Kaiju Corps in Chicago.” Her tone changed from anger to disappointment. “We can’t wait for her to heal before we launch our counter-attack in Chicago. There are still over a million and a half people alive in there. Many of them are still hiding within the city or using the underground tunnel systems to try and escape from the robots. If those people have any hope of surviving, we need to launch our assault now, but without Bearadon, our chances of success decrease and the chances of losing another team member increases drastically. If we don’t have all four of the Kaiju Corps alive, we won’t be able to initiate the next phase of our plan at optimal efficiency.” Clarissa was silent for a moment after making that comment, so that Timothy could fully process what she meant.
When she was sure that the gravity of the situation had sunk in on Timothy, she started speaking again, “We also have to face the fact that we need to follow Mr. Linke’s suggestion and disconnect the TR-3Bs from outside sources to prevent them from being corrupted. With each passing second that Michelle is separated from the rest of the team, we increase the likelihood that the Signal will overtake our fastest and most powerful aircraft.”
Timothy looked behind him at a woman who was working on yet another EMP bomb. He gestured her over to come over, and as the woman was walking toward the screen, he filled in Clarissa on their progress. “We have successfully dropped EMPs on twenty-eight percent of the cities in the world. The increased productivity is a testament to the workers we have here. The projections on how long our firewalls will last continues to drop drastically. Our programmers have dropped our timeline to less than thirty hours. Given that our timeline continues to be diminished at such an alarming rate, we are going to continue to cut our deadline to twenty hours. We believe that in that timeframe, we can use the EMPs on as much as forty percent of the world’s cities.”
The other woman who Timothy had called over had reached the screen, and she was standing next to him as he continued to fill in Clarissa of their progress. “That number should give the surviving population and the Kaiju Corps a fighting chance of surviving this invasion.” He turned to the woman next to him. “Susan, Jerome, Nick, and Miki are about to engage multiple robots in Chicago. As you know, we feel that we need to disengage the TR-3Bs from external communications ASAP. We are going to recommend that the remaining TR-3Bs deliver their current payloads and then we are having them all return to this location. Once they are here, we will disconnect them from external communication, arm them with whatever weapons we have left, and then have them join the Kaiju Corps in Chicago. Having the squadron of TR-3Bs at their disposal will help the team as this war continues.”
Timothy placed his hand on Susan’s shoulder. “We know that you and Michelle have never had much of a persona
l connection, but we will not be able to communicate with the other members of the team until after their battle. We need you to explain the next phase of the long-term plan to Michelle.”
Susan nodded. “I understand. Connect me with Captain Okafur.”
Okafur was sitting in his pilot’s chair when the screen in front of him flashed to life with Susan’s face on it. She didn’t waste time introducing herself, “Captain Okafur, I need you to relay my projection in front of Bearadon. I urgently need to speak to her.” Okafur simply nodded and recast Susan’s projection in front of Bearadon.
When Susan saw how badly bruised and bloodied Bearadon was, she gasped. While Michelle had always kept Susan at a distance, she loved the young woman as if she was her own daughter. She did her best to respect Michelle’s independence in hope that one day the young woman would learn to love her as well, but now Susan realized that day would never come. She fought back tears as she addressed the resting kaiju, “Michelle, I know how badly you are hurting, but there is something that I must discuss with you. I would not ask if it was not of vital importance. I know it will be physically difficult for you, but please return to your human form, enter the ship, and ask Captain Okafur to step outside for a moment.” The projection faded from in front of the Bearadon and the kaiju groaned as she began the transformation back into a human. Michelle’s body was so badly beaten that she could barely stand. Her ribs were badly cracked and her face was swollen and bruised. She bit her lip to help her deal with the pain and then she started limping toward the TR-3B.
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