Southern California, November 2056

  "Oh… crap!"

  Candys flinched as scintillating light splashed against her magitech shield.

  Her HUD screamed at her to be more careful.

  "Shut up! It's not like I want to get hit!"

  "Shoot back!" Jes skated across the asphalt on bare feet just a few meters ahead. The slim spellgun mounted on the back of his armor spat blue marble-sized orbs into the sky.

  The flashes of light were brighter against the dark night.

  Inhuman screeches assaulted them.

  They sounded angry rather than pained.

  "Let's try mundane!"

  "Okay…"

  Candys kept her horned head on a swivel.

  Her faceplate was a jumbled mess of flashing warnings and target acquisitions.

  She had trained, but not nearly enough.

  Scout and messenger.

  Those were her roles.

  Being in the thick of combat wasn't her thing.

  "Shoot them!" Jes snapped. "I'm out of micromissiles and flechettes!"

  He sounded stressed.

  So much for his big talk about wanting to be in the real fight.

  She did what the training said and looked up, trying to target the harpies with her eyes.

  The display flickered as red tried to outline the targets.

  Magical interference or Skills left her with no idea how many locks she got.

  "Fire missiles and gun!"

  Stress made it impossible for her to concentrate enough to use the cybernetic thought commands.

  Micromissiles streaked out of her back-mounted launcher.

  So soft that it barely nudged her off her long, loping stride.

  The gun, a small tube that looked innocuous, slid up over her shoulder and spat flechettes in short, controlled bursts.

  Jes looked back to the sky.

  Spell gun fired.

  Screeches answered.

  Candys didn't understand harpy, but the sounds of pain were universal.

  "Take that, bi- bird women." Jes nodded.

  No more fire from above meant that Jes had gotten them or at least enough of them to send the rest away for the moment.

  "Sector 27."

  "Yeah…"

  They had a mission, which was also a Quest, to deliver an important message to the ranger command center in the northeastern section of their territory.

  Long-range comms struggled with enemy countermeasures and weren't a hundred percent secure.

  Jes glided. She ran.

  They ate the kilometers quickly.

  Speed meant she didn't have much time to take in the aerial battle.

  Fireworks, but not the fun, happy kind.

  Skyships on fire.

  She remembered seeing that once before.

  This time she saw several of the great dagger-shaped vessels burning as they sent harpies and flying monsters crashing to the ground in dark rain.

  Smaller shapes flitted around the skyships as though they were lonely islands in a dark, wide ocean.

  Well, smaller in comparison, drakes were large creatures, wyverns larger still.

  They reached a street awash in dark, smoking liquid.

  The monster responsible lay across half a block in the remains of the buildings ruined by its fall.

  Jes shuddered despite the fact that his power meant none of the foulness gushing from the many gaping holes in the monster would touch the soles of his feet even if he went right over it.

  Candys had shoes made for her hooves, but she didn't like how the black blood sizzled and appeared to eat away at the asphalt.

  "Should we go around?"

  "Yeah…"

  They ran into people, but didn't stop to answer frightened eyes.

  They had emergency procedures.

  Shelters to flee to.

  The attack could've been worst. From the snatches she had picked up at her stops the enemy's golden portals had been mostly shunted outside the boundary of controlled territory. Only a few had opened inside.

  Birds swarmed around them out of nowhere.

  Jes cursed, waving his arms.

  Small, brown birds.

  Sparrows?

  She had no time to ponder or grow concerned.

  The birds swirled in front of them coalescing into a person.

  A young man in armor and clothing that evoked the birds.

  He tipped a broad-brimmed hat that hid shiny eyes in shadow.

  Low-light vision.

  She saw it in her mirror when she forgot to turn on the bathroom lights.

  "Hello, hello! Timothiel, sparrow witch. Message for you two."

  "Pass phrase?"

  Candys knew they had auxiliary help from other places.

  Timothy gave the correct one so she relaxed.

  "You are to go to this place for orders."

  The address was a few kilometers away.

  An emergency shelter. A small one.

  "Luck be with you!" Timothy turned into a flock and flew off to his next delivery.

  Ironic that.

  Jes snorted. "Messengers need messengers now."

  More running or sliding in Jes' case.

  They stuck to the ground rather than take to the rooftops for obvious reasons.

  Still ran into enemies.

  Strange automatons in humanoid shapes with varying amounts and types of limbs.

  They cut through an alley and left the men of brass and bronze for the actual fighters.

  The shelter was on fire.

  "Well… shit."

  Jes skated ahead.

  She followed at a walk.

  Best not to spook itchy fingers with sudden, fast movements.

  "Yo." Jes shot a gruff nod to the first ranger he saw. "Sparrow guy said you needed our help."

  "Messengers? You the Morningstar kid?"

  The ranger's eyes lit up when they fell on Candys.

  Hopeful for what a hybrid could do.

  She dropped her gaze to the ground.

  All she could do was run fast and jump high and far.

  Keen ears listened to the rangers evacuating people out of the building into old vehicles and the ranger explain what he wanted from them.

  To scout the road to the southwest ahead of the evacuation.

  Thus they ran or skated a few dozen meters in front of the lead vehicle.

  Trucks, vans and one car.

  "We can go faster," Jes grumbled.

  Indeed they could, but the ranger had given them orders.

  Things went well for a few klicks.

  They dodged the fighting.

  The closest call was a wyvern crashing close enough that they could feel the ground rumble.

  The great beast's wings had been frozen solid in glittering blue ice.

  Short-range comms chatter filled with dismay until the captain barked.

  She almost spoke out that she hadn't seen the rider or the rest of the combat crew on its back.

  Of course that didn't mean they had managed to bail out.

  Combat found them eventually in the form of a huge manticore and a small wing of harpies.

  The monster dived with a roar that made a tiger sound like a mewling kitten.

  There was something more in it because the urge to freeze and bolt into the dark building to her left-

  "Inspire Courage!"

  The captain's voice filled the static-y comms. Crystal clear, unlike it had been earlier.

  Candy's found her control and her legs.

  Jes regained his skating stride, pushing off against the side of the car he had been about to slam into. His power slid him across the car's side like his hands were coated with grease.

  Huge, leathery wings beat, scattering a cloud of dust over the convoy.

  Tail stinger jabbed rapidly, spitting jagged, venom-filled projectiles?

  The green-tinged crystalline shards broke against a myriad of shields and armor.

  They were meant for softer targets.

  The monster roared against the return that raked its tough hide.

  Candys had fired her spellgun.

  It had been a panicked sort of snap shot and she had no idea if the magic missiles had hit.

  The harpies swooped on the convoy’s rear.

  Wing arms beat.

  Feathers flew, turned hard as steel and sharp as blades by spell or Skill.

  The truck and its occupants resembled a porcupine freshly painted red.

  The captain's voice drowned out the screams.

  "Squad 187, dismount and engage! Drivers, scatter!"

  Ah… shit…

  That sounded like a last stand.

  The convoy accelerated into the next intersection. Its parts splitting in three directions.

  The manticore caught prized prey.

  A large van crammed with evacuees.

  The sheet metal crumpled under its strength and weight.

  Jes cursed.

  "Keep running. I'm going to help."

  She shook her horned head, but failed to find her voice.

  Jes didn't have the weapons to do more than annoy the monster, but neither did it… probably?

  She thought to grab him.

  His anti-friction power worked through his skin.

  Grab his armor.

  He was a lot stronger than his thin frame suggested, but she was stronger still.

  Gloved fingers brushed a whisper on his shoulder.

  Venom-filled shards rained down on Jes as he glided toward the monster with a face that was too close to human.

  They shattered against armor. Viscous green sizzled against dark gray Threnium.

  Jes caught a barrage with bare palms.

  The shards slid off, shattering against the asphalt.

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  Venom instantly ate holes through the street.

  The monster gave him an almost quizzical look before opening its fanged mouth wider than it seemed possible.

  Before it could roar a ranger leapt out of the dust and dark with spear in hand.

  The Skill carried her toward the monster like a missile.

  She plunged her spear into its eye.

  Skill or magic gave her added strength for a deadlier thrust.

  Regardless of the source, she drove her spear almost up to her lead hand midway up the shaft.

  Stabbing the brain was a kill shot, but sadly it wasn't instantaneous.

  The manticore mauled her with tooth and claw in its death throes.

  Threnium held true, but there were gaps.

  Candys would never forget the look on the ranger's face as the venom dissolved flesh.

  A rush of feathers gave her scant warning, but it was enough thanks to the essence of the animal the Eidolon of Sut had blended into her.

  Pronghorns, like all antelope, tended to be twitchy as a consequence of being prey.

  Sharp senses always attuned to the sounds and smells in their surroundings that could’ve heralded a predator.

  Thus, she reacted with a superhuman leap.

  The harpy slashed razor-edged feathers on one wing arm as she swooped low to the ground just missing the bottom of Candys’ hooves.

  A second harpy dived at a steeper angle at just the right trajectory to catch Candys’ horns in the chest.

  Light armor failed and the pair crashed to the ground in a tangle of flailing limbs.

  Candys gored the hell out of the woman more by accident than intent.

  Red slicked over her faceplate as she pushed the dying woman off.

  She wiped frantically, clearing enough to see the ranger squad engaging the harpies from beneath the shadow of a building.

  A screech rang out.

  Eyes skyward.

  More harpies.

  One was huge.

  Almost as big as a small house.

  The captain cursed in the comms.

  That was an elite. Both a leader and a stronger fighter than the normal-sized varieties.

  The buzzing flock peeled off, answering the calls from above.

  Candys saw the captain gesturing frantically for her and Jes.

  She hurried over, keeping her eyes on the night sky and the huge, winged shape blotting out the light show with its dark wing arms.

  The captain thrust a small kid in Jes’ arms.

  “You get them out of here, understand!”

  Rangers thrust two people at Candys.

  The kid’s mom and older sister from the resemblance.

  “You’re supposed to quick, fast, agile and untouchable,” the captain said.

  “Just me and I basically have to be naked to be totally untouchable,” Jes hissed as the kid struggled in his arms in an attempt to reach the mom. “Damn it! Stop wriggling or I might drop you!”

  “Focus. I’ve teamed with your parents and your older brother and sister. They know how to keep cool under pressure. And this is nothing. You just have to run without dropping him. We’re going to do the hard part.” The captain glanced at the sky.

  The harpy reinforcements were seconds away.

  “The more distance you make the quicker we can fall back inside and set up a proper defense.”

  “We’re running.” Candys surprised herself with the strength in her voice.

  “Luck! See you on the other side!”

  Candys said a quick apology to the mom and older sister as she tightened her hold around their waists.

  Like two sacks of rice under each arm.

  It wasn’t going to be comfortable.

  She took off down the street.

  Fast, but not too fast that it was dangerous for her unprotected passengers.

  More the sudden drop of the tallest ride at Disneyland than the max thrust of a skyfury.

  Their screams were lost in the wind.

  Long, loping strides covered great distance.

  Each one longer than the ancient Olympic long jump record made by a normal human.

  The beeping in her HUD told her that Jes had fallen behind.

  He had a much faster top speed, theoretically, if one didn’t account for obstacles, but she had him beat easily in acceleration. Plus, she was a lot more agile at higher speeds.

  “Slow down!” his voice crackled in her helmet. “We’ve got incoming from the sky! Front and back! 8 o’clock front! Dead 6 back!”

  Ah, yes.

  She noticed the harpies in her HUD.

  In her defense enemy countermeasures kept the targeting system from getting a steady lock. It was a bit in and out like the comms at anything more than a few dozen meters away.

  The speedometer said she was just over 150 KMH.

  She had a lot more room until her top speed, but any faster would get too dangerous for the people in her arms.

  Unprotected, they risked hitting debris turned deadly by her speed.

  Without a helmet or mask with an oxygen supply they risked asphyxiation.

  “Let’s split up.”

  Was that her?

  It sounded like her voice, yet the words didn’t seem like something she would say.

  “What—”

  It seemed Jes was in agreement.

  “I mean, strength in numbers. We’re supposed to back each other up.”

  The harpies forced the discussion to be tabled for the moment.

  One, a dark-eyed specimen with a striking, sharp-featured face— a mix of bird and model— screeched a Skill.

  A sudden burst of speed shot the harpy down on an intercept with four wingwomen in her wake. Like a huge, feathery arrow of unknown, but undoubtedly deadly abilities simmering just under the surface ready to be unleashed in a boiling eruption of hot oil.

  She fired her spellgun.

  Magic missiles did nothing.

  Time slowed in her perception.

  An impossible leap.

  Instinct granted her legs temporary wings.

  She pumped them desperately.

  Shod hooves stomped on hard surfaces despite being over 10 meters off the ground.

  Armor, feathers, wing arms.

  The next thing she felt was the hard asphalt.

  She hadn’t even broken her stride.

  Jes cursed, then crowed.

  “Ha! Did you see that? I slid right under them! Fuck yeah! Fu—”

  The harpies came around for another pass, executing an impossibly tight vertical turn in the tight space of a two lane street lined by buildings.

  They practically skimmed the ground.

  The sad truth was that while she was fast, they were just faster.

  “Antelope chick? Kid?”

  A voice crackled in her helmet.

  “Can you hear me?”

  A woman.

  “Yeah. Who the fuck is this?” Jes snapped. “This is an official ranger channel!”

  “Mouthy little bastard…”

  Candys sensed something in the woman’s voice.

  Pride?

  Regret?

  She had a sort of sixth sense when it came to reading other people.

  Granted, she had never had it properly tested or even quantified.

  Mr. Cruces had offered potentially exploration and training, but she had always been afraid of tapping too much into the animal side of her.

  She preferred to remain as human as possible.

  The horns and hooves were enough of a reminder.

  At least with her senses she could sometimes pretend and even forget.

  “Fuck it… two streets from the next intersection. Chapman. Take a right. You got that? Right on Chapman and stay on the ground if you don’t want to lose your heads.”

  Candys did what the woman said, leaning forward as she ran.

  Just in case.

  The words sounded too specific to mess around with and she was exceptionally tall on account of her weird legs.

  She turned on a dime, digging her lead hoof into the asphalt and pushing off with superhuman leg strength into a turn that was almost 90 degrees.

  Jes skidded around well behind her, nearly clipping a light pole.

  “Oh shi—”

  His words were drowned out by a sudden flash of red light and sound of sizzling feathers.

  Reminded her of throwing some burgers down on a too hot grill.

  A glance back showed her two things.

  A huge net of what looked like red lasers hung across the street and a woman standing on the side of one of the buildings on bare feet.

  And it was definitely a woman despite the dark gray helmet concealing her face.

  There was no hiding that shape with how skin tight her clothing was.

  The bodysuit might as well have been painted on.

  Candys would never have been caught being so immodest, but who was she to judge?

  The woman had cleared the harpy wing off their back after all.

  “Don’t stop,” the woman said. “More bird bitches are on the way.”

  She ran across the side of the building like it was the street.

  No.

  That wasn’t right.

  The woman glided across it in the same skating motion that Jes used.

  Candys was confused. She knew of no woman on the rangers’ roster with those abilities.

  Jes was just as perplexed.

  “Wait! Who are you? How are you—”

  “Shut up, mouthy kid. Less yapping and more faster. Is that the best you can do? Cause it’s going to get you and that little girl killed.”

  The HUD blared.

  “Here they come.” The woman’s voice was strained, like she had to force the words out through clenched teeth. “I was promised no fighting,” she muttered.

  Harpies dived.

  Firing spells from the gems set in their chestplates or helmets.

  Candys spellgun fired back automatically while her shields activated.

  “Shit’s fucked!” Jes cried out.

  Unhelpful, but accurate.

  Her shield energy drained to nearly zero.

  And the magic missiles from her spellgun were doing just about the same level of damage on the harpy shields.

  Razor-edged feathers rained.

  The woman cursed, leaping from the side of the building into a twisting flip, while flinging tiny, glittering things from both hands.

  Flak, chaff or whatever?

  All Candys knew was that they worked because there was a bright flash and deadly razor feathers fell like gentle ashen snow on her and her screaming passengers rather than shredding them to wet, red bits.

  The woman alighted on the side of the building on the opposite side of the street without breaking her skating stride.

  “Well… fuck me… that shit actually worked. Bad news, kids… I don’t have anymore. So… how about faster? Chop chop!”

  “Isn’t someone coming to help us!” Jes snapped.

  “That’d be me, you ungrateful little pri—” the woman cleared her throat. “Just go faster, kid. They gave me a few more tricks.”

  “We can’t go faster without hurting them!” Candys was thankful for the saves, but the woman’s attitude was grating. “We’re doing our best!”

  The woman sighed.

  “Fair enough.”

  Screeches heralded another strafing run.

  Weaker Skills because Candys barely felt the prey response bubbling from within her instinct.

  “Move in a zigzag pattern or something!”

  Candys glanced over her shoulder for a split-second. Her perception of time slowed, allowing her to take in the woman leaping off the side of the building.

  This time the harpies focused their attacks on the twisting form in the dark, skin tight bodysuit.

  Spells and feathers.

  Somehow, everything seemed to slide right off the woman, not leaving the slightest singe mark or cut in the fabric.

  She threw things from the small bag of holding at her waist like a flailing child trying to drive a hungry falcon from her pet rabbit.

  Her movements were graceful, but it appeared that she wasn’t a practiced fighter.

  Regardless, the items seemed to take that into account.

  Laser nets gibbed harpies.

  Choking clouds of nauseating green sent harpies careening into the buildings or the street where they tore at their own necks, eyes bulging, red weeping out of their orifices.

  Crackling electric fields sapped razor feathers, dropping them harmlessly to the street.

  Candys shifted her focus forward.

  Open streets ahead.

  Burning skies behind… well… everywhere actually… so, she focused ahead and at ground level.

  “Where are we going?”

  Jes had managed to get up to her speed with how open and straight the street was.

  Good question.

  “Beach is coming up.”

  Two turns and they would be at Ranger HQ.

  Then again the fighting around there had been going through waves.

  Very fierce and bad followed by quiet once the enemy had been destroyed.

  But then more enemies would come.

  Did they want to risk arriving at the wrong time?

  “We can keep going straight.”

  There was another ranger base at the end of the road.

  Some kind of golf course that was also an old military base for the old country that had been in control before the spires.

  The thought of those people made her angry.

  They had turned her into a hybrid against her will by threatening her family. They had done it to all the kids in her small town. She had been luckier than most of her old friends. Most had died. Sometimes she thought they had been the luckiest of them all.

  Her therapist had done good work with her so that she thought that way less and less over the years.

  “Yeah, let’s do that. I don’t want to slow down.”

  She glanced back.

  Jes’ face—

  No!

  She wouldn’t take pleasure in the look.

  He just got a taste of a real fight.

  There was no reason to shove his face deeper in the fear.

  There was no sign of further pursuit or the woman.

  As for the kid in Jes’ arms?

  Poor thing’s eyes were screwed shut. Tears stained her cheek briefly before the wind blew them away.

  “Jes.”

  “What?”

  “Please cover her face.”

  “Huh? Oh— yeah, got it.”

  Jes moved a gloved hand until it provided at least some protection from the wind.

  The comms crackled as they neared their destination.

  “— copy, rangers?”

  “Yes, we copy. Three civilians. Medics required. Maybe.”

  She wasn’t sure.

  It was hard to tell, but the two in her arms were still breathing.

  Though they were clenched up tighter than her momma under the blanket when watching a scary movie.

  “Understood. Follow the arrows and slow down. You’re making people nervous, Ranger Candys.”

  “No way! We might have harpies on our tail!” Jes whined.

  “Relax, Ranger Morningstar’s kid brother. We’ve got air superiority here.”

  “Not a kid,” Jes muttered. “I’m gonna be 21 in a month.”

  Candys didn’t relax.

  Not when she jogged through the comforting defensive emplacements.

  Not when she handed her two passengers off to the medics.

  Not even when she went into the cafeteria for hydration, electrolytes and protein.

  High performance needed fuel.

  And she got the best they had to offer.

  The night wasn’t close to over and one of the rangers had already told her that they were going to need to make contact with the command center far to the south. All the way down to the edge of the San Diego undead spawn zone.

  Comms were spotty and the last they heard about ten minutes ago was something about a sudden surge.

  “Don’t worry.” Jes patted her shoulder. “You’re, like, the backup to the backup’s backup. They’ll send fliers first.”

  She nodded.

  “I can come with if you want. We’re not supposed to go solo anyways.”

  Except, the ranger had been clear that she was going on her own if she was needed.

  “Thank you, but I think that rule is out like the baby with the bathwater.”

  Jes blinked.

  “Why would you throw the baby— I don’t get it?”

  “Dunno either.” She shrugged. “My momma says that a lot.”

  Her family was safe in one of the best defended shelters.

  She tried to push that worry out of her mind.

  “I’m sure they’re okay.”

  Of course, he had it worse than her when it came to family situations.

  His sister was somewhere out there on some kind of mission. No word other than that she was okay for, like, a year or something. His brother was fighting. As were his parents.

  It was an emergency situation.

  All hands on deck.

  Retired rangers called back to serve.

  Hopefully, not for a one last time, last stand sort of bullshit.

  Candys didn’t like that.

  People should’ve been able to put their weapons down and just… relax… or whatever they wanted.

  Shouldn’t have to fight and maybe die when they had gotten lucky enough to live that long.

  Where was Rayna?

  Where was Mr. Cruces?

  She didn’t want to think about the possibilities.

  Because if they weren’t putting a stop to the fighting then that meant they couldn’t… right?

  Did that mean there was something worse out there in the dark that was keeping them busy?

  Now that wasn’t something she wanted to be thinking about especially when there was a good chance she was going to have to make the run all the way down the 405 with the night sky burning overhead and screeching birdwomen shooting bullshit at her.