TBoB - Book 3 - Chapter 30 - Bickering

With Helen’s agitation system disabled it only took a few minutes to clear the horde outside the building. As we slowly made our way over to meet Helen in front of the building, careful to not slip on the roads that were absolutely coated in antithesis gore, my Grizzlies arrived.

“Can’t you clean up after yourself?” Helen asked as she finally made it to the Kodiak. She was dressed in some sort of garish mauve power armor that made her look like some sort of super hero. I glanced over at my bears, who were busy throwing flesh melters everywhere, before looking back at Helen, eyes narrowed.

“I absolutely can. I just don’t like cleaning up after other people,” I hissed before Hoppy put a hand on my shoulder.

“Why didn’t you pick up any calls?” Hoppy asked politely. “Everyone was worried about you.”

“No they weren’t, they were worried I was off doing something stupid, like slaughtering a building,” Helen snapped. 

“Well, you do have a history of planning wholesale slaughter,” I reminded her.

“That was before I went through therapy, and was reminded constantly that there are other options,” Helen replied. “Besides, according to all my calculations I had a legitimate reason to be concerned about the undercity population, and samurai response times. How was I supposed to know that you’d never stop creating those bears of yours, and you’d have a full blown army within a couple months?”

“I’m pretty sure I made my intentions clear,” I said before Hoppy stepped between Helen and me, breaking us up.

“I think that’s enough friendly banter for now,” she declared, before shooting a disapproving glance my way. “Don’t we have bigger things to worry about, like a full blown incursion?”

“I can banter and fight simultaneously,” I replied, defensively. “In fact, I fight better that way.”

“Same!” Helen barked.

“Well you two can show me that WHEN we get to the next area. Did either of you even bother thinking about where to go next?” Hoppy asked.

Helen and I glanced at each other for a moment, there was a long pause. “We should probably meet up with Humboldt and Hel, and drop off one of the Grizzlies first,” I declared the instant I thought of it. “The lure effect isn’t massive, but should still speed up how fast we clear the streets.”

Helen nodded. “That seems reasonable,” she added quickly.

Hoppy just sighed. “It’s like talking to a couple squabbling six year olds,” she muttered before turning away from the two of us. 

Despite the widespread carnage, it only took my bears a couple minutes to clean up the area. Since the bodies were packed so tightly together the flesh melters cleared entire groups. Once they were done, they came scampering back.

“Nyx, can you ping Hel’s AI, and get a location for me?”

Deadbeat turned and looked at me. “They’re about five minutes away at cruising speed. Do you think it’s worth going that far out of our way?” Nyx asked through my bear.

“It’s a little out of our way, but since I’m managing the bears inside the incursion zone, it would be best if we got rid of the worst distractions ASAP,” I said, glancing at Helen.

“If you think so,” my AI tentatively agreed. 

I mentally prodded Dusty and got him moving. The little convoy made some good time, but after about two minutes Bandit came over and prodded me.

“Oi, boss lady, shouldn’t we be dealing with all the gribblies down there?” he asked, pointing at the antithesis on the street below.

“We’re going to meet up with Humboldt and Hel, to drop off one of the Grizzlies, and one of our passengers,” I answered idly, without looking at the fox.

“That can’t take all of us!” he replied. “How about the boys and I pop over to one of those tin cans following us, and do some street clearing. Just like the old days!” 

I turned and looked at him in surprise. It was a surprisingly simple request, and something I hadn’t even considered until now. Somehow the fox managed to pull off a wolfish grin, despite his plushy appearance.

“Fine,” I agreed after a moment, “But Bob is staying with me, Spooky is managing the perimeter, and Dusty’s driving, so you’ll be down quite a few bodies. Be careful down there.”

“Don’t worry about Dusty, we can get you a replacement driver!” Bandit replied with glee. An instant later the Kodiak descended streetward, followed by the Grizzlies.

“What’s going on?” Hoppy asked with alarm as the bears began clearing the street.

“Bandit wants to take the squad around and do some clearing while we’re talking with the others, which I thought sounded like a decent idea,” I replied. “I didn’t expect him to immediately force us to land!”

“The antithesis waits for no man!” the fox declared from the other side of the vehicle. As soon as we touched down, the bears scrambled for the nearest Grizzly. The back of our transport even opened up, and Dusty even ran out, swapping with the bear in the Grizzly. The entire process only took a few seconds, and the Kodiak took to the air again. Bandit waved merrily at us as he and the others started clearing the road down below.

“That was efficient,” Helen remarked dryly. “Although I’m not sure why you didn’t do that back before we left.”

“Because my fox asked to be let loose,” I said, finally turning away from the street below.

“They actually ask for things? I thought tubby was the only smart one,” Helen replied, pointing a thumb at Bob. The big bear narrowed his eyes and cracked his metal knuckles, but he didn’t make any moves towards her.

“That was six months ago,” I scoffed. “Things have changed since then. You’ve seen me have conversations with them before, didn’t you realize some of them have full AIs now?”

“I thought you were just talking to your AI again. I probably wouldn’t have made that mistake if you bothered to subvocalize, and kept your conversations to yourself,” she snapped.

Hoppy just sighed, and shook her head before dropping heavily onto the back of the Kodiak, intent on ignoring Helen and me. 

Thankfully it didn’t take us much longer to reach where Humboldt and Hel were fighting, so Helen and I didn’t have much time to verbally spar. We had to circle the street once, because the entire area was absolutely flooded with Hel’s freezing gas. Humboldt was probably the perfect partner for Hel, her armor was insulated against the cold, and her weapons could pick apart the frozen foes in seconds.

Once Hel noticed us, and stopped firing, I ordered the Kodiak to land.

“Teddy, Hoppy, I thought you were clearing a different part of the city, I didn’t expect to see you here,” Hel said dryly.

“We have something to return to you,” I replied, pointing at Helen, “Plus I thought I’d drop off one of my mobile lures.” 

Hel raised an eyebrow. “You weren’t using them before?” she asked.

“I forgot ok!” I grumbled. “It’s been months since I had an opportunity to take them out, and I replaced the older vehicles with newer models.”

“Well, a lure would definitely make our jobs easier, thanks Evelyn,” Humboldt said, trying to elevate the atmosphere and keep the discussion moving.

“No problem,” I replied lightly, before pushing Helen forward. She slipped a foot forward, teetered at the front of the Kodiak for a moment, then shot me a scathing look before hopping off.

“Now that we’ve dropped off our luggage, Hoppy and I will be off again. Got antithesis to kill you know.”

“Before you run off,” Hel said, her voice serious, “The Family has been trying to contact you for a while now. They were so desperate to talk to you, they even called me a few minutes ago.”

“Well, I’ve had Nyx screening my calls,” I explained, as I plopped down on the front of the Kodiak. “I don’t like talking to the Family during the best of times, why would I want to talk to them during an incursion.”

Hel sighed. “Well, you should have picked up it was important! The council contacted them earlier, after finding out that Helmar betrayed them the council decided to pursue peace. After they saw what your bear did to that tank they want you to provide the security around the peace talks, and maybe mediate,” Hel explained. “Are you willing?”

I stared at her for several long seconds, trying to figure out if she was serious or not. When I determined she was, I burst out laughing.