“Hey Brood,” I chirped as roached the other two samurai. “Long time no see.” I could see Raijin’s eyebrows raise at the greeting, but Broodmother’s didn’t look fazed in the slightest.

  “It’s been a while Evelyn, or should I call you Teddy now? gratutions on the name,” Broodmother replied. I couldn’t see her face, which was covered by the same deep brow she was wearing at our first enter, but I could feel the warmth in her words. “Thank you for the timely assistance.”

  “It’s no problem, we were in the neighbourhood anyways…” I replied, which caused Humboldt to smack me on the back of the head and Bright-Eyes to giggle.

  “Indeed. I see you’ve met Hoppy,” Broodmother said as she gestured at the samurai literally boung behihis is the other young samurai that apanied us on the iigation, Raijin,” she said. I took a quick look at the man standing behind her, early twenties, probably of Asian-Ameri dest, wearing a leather trench coat and top hat, both of which were absolutely covered in strange, sparking maery. Wheuck out his hand, I half expected to get electrocuted. Thankfully, I did not.

  “So, now that you’ve arrived, and our perimeter has stabilized, you let us know what the situation is,” Broodmother said, crag her helmet for the first time since Humboldt and I arrived.

  “I’m not going to lie, the situation wasn’t looking that great when we arrived. The eeam i the entrance by the sheer number of antithesis in the area,” I reported. “A bination of high-tier antithesis, and rapid replenishment of the lower models meant everike team was having difficulties.”

  “Was?” Bright-Eyes asked. I just poi the far side of the room where, even at this distance, I could clearly make out Grey’s mass of nahrashing about. I retty sure I could even make out Whisperer’s elephant, breathing fire. Bright-Eyes stared at the mass across the room for a moment before turning back, “I have no further questions,” she said quickly.

  “The eeam nning on pushing out, ahodically breaking down the minor hives while pushing towards the tral spire,” Humboldt expined.

  “And why didn’t you go with them?” Hoppy asked hesitantly.

  “I wasn’t invited,” I replied flippantly. I saw Bright-Eyes and Broodmother exge a brief gnce, so I waved my hand and eborated. “My bears might be good at dealing with the smaller models but Bob was the only way I had to deal with rger antithesis, until I upgraded my IFVs. I’m also much more fortable in arenched position than on the move. If I stuck with the group I probably would have had my bears slowly whittled down until it was just Bob left,” I expined. “ing to meet up with you was the best option.”

  Hoppy raised a hand. “Ummm… Who is Bob?”

  I just pointed out into the sea of scarabs, just in time to catch Bob cave in the head of a Twenty-Three so the scarabs could e it. Once he was done, he turned and waved happily in our dire.

  “Don’t let the goofy demeanor fool you, he’s the strohing in my arsenal,” I said.

  “So… what now? Do we push out and try to meet up with them?” Raijin asked. I noticed the guy was a little twitchy, although I wasn’t sure if that was due to his excitement, or if he was stantly gettirocuted by his gear.

  “We could,” Humboldt said, “With Mother’s scarabs we wouldn’t have to worry about any small fry. However we’d be opening up both our sides and our backs for attacks. Do you think we’d be able to handle assaults from all sides?”

  Raijin tensed up. I could see he yearo say yes, maybe earn some glory, but he wasn’t stupid enough to risk everyoo do it. “No, we’d be overwhelmed,” he admitted.

  “That doesn’t mean we have to just sit idle,” I said. “My IFV has the ability to strike at the hives, and earn some tokens for you and Hoppy, while Broodmother’s scarabs are earning everyone a stant point ine. We’ll spend some time tooling up, and push out when we’re ready.”

  “A sensible suggestion,” Broodmother said. “her Bright-Eyes or myself have a good way to deal with ther models still. We’ve tried to adapt… but we’re heavily specialized in re, and light on the bat applications.”

  “Hey! Don’t sell us short! We mao hahose Twenty-Threes they sent after us… eventually,” Bright-Eyes cut in. “Granted, putting explosives in my squirrels and having them kamikaze dowunnels wasly the most graceful solution, but it worked in the end.”

  “Thank God it did, I’d be dead without them,” Hoppy added.

  “So, we agreed? Work on earning you some upgrades, then push out once everything stabilizes?” I asked. “Wonderful! I’ll get my bears on it right away” I added before anyone could answer.

  I caught a slight smirk ht-Eyes’ face, and the massive frown on Raijin’s, while I sent a and to prep the Kodiak.

  Broodmother nodded ohen slid her helmet ba. “We’ll leave the hives to you then,” she said before turning to Raijin and Hoppy. “I know it might not seem like the most satisfying way to fight, but there’s a lot to be said foing slow and steady. We’ll get you some higher tier catalogs, and push out when we’re ready.”

  “I’ll help Broodmother watch the perimeter,” Humboldt volunteered. “I may not be able to clear the heavies away as fast as that bear, or Teddy’s tank, but I keep them off us for a while. Just destroy those things quickly,” she said.

  I nodded, before turning bay IFV. Both Hoppy and Bright-Eyes followed behind me, apparently very ied in what I was doing.

  “Sooo… you’re the ohat runs around with teddy bears? That’s cool! A lot of the people on the web were ughing about it, until the videos got out,” Hoppy said, trying to make versation.

  “Actually wasn’t my choice at the beginning,” I admitted. “The bots are just so fug ugly that I needed a way to travel around without sg children, and my AI got cheeky. I’m just too zy to bother ging it.”

  “That’s cool…” the girl said awkwardly.

  “So what’s yimmick?” I asked turning to look at the nky girl when I arrived at the Kodiak.

  “I’ve trained in kickboxing since I was a kid, so I’m pnning on iing on leg enhas to smash the antithesis with,” she said. “These babies let me run faster than most cars, and jump up to three stories high. I really want to get something that’ll let me crae of those heavier models though,” she gushed.

  “Just make sure you purchase some better armor, or some type of emergency escape option before you try it,” Bright-Eyes cut in. “All it takes is a single misstep for you to end up getting injured, or dying. Better safe than sorry.”

  Hoppy nodded seriously, before turning back towards me again. “So… what’s the pn?”

  “Purchase advanced ammunitiohe hive with it until it colpses, the,” I replied, popping open the back hatch. Both bears turo look at me as I entered, followed closely by the others.

  “That’s it?” Hoppy asked, surprised.

  “I know some samurai like to do big, fshy things,” I said, turning to look at the girl, “but I’ll warn you now: the bigger and fshier you go, the more dangerous it’ll be. Sometimes you have to do something like that, but there’ll always be risks. Fuck… I sent Bob away for five minutes, and almost lost my walls before I came over here.”

  “And that’s why you bought this thing? Right?” Bright-Eyes announced mischievously.

  “No….” I replied, defensively. “I DID have to panic buy something to deal with that, but I actually spent some time thinking about this purchase,” I admitted. I noticed Hoppy was gng betweewo of us, so I decided to try and salvage the discussion. “Moral of the story is, knowing your strengths and weaknesses is important!” I announced, “and trying to get fancy, when you really don’t o, is a good way to injure yourself.”

  She nodded, apparently accepting my ‘wisdom’, but I wasn’t sure. This ehing just showed off why I shouldn’t give advice. “Alright, I’m going to order some rounds. If yoing to stick around you might want some ear prote, because things are about to get loud.”