“Put the mask and glasses back on and stick this in your ear,” Pinpoint said, handing her an earpiece as their driver took a hard left.

  Erika held a death grip on the handle above her as she slammed back into the car door, her shoulder luckily taking the blow instead of her head. As the SUV’s engine revved, pressing her back into her seat a bit, she barely grabbed the offered ear piece and shoved it into her ear.

  “Great. Dispatch, Firefly and Pinpoint online and one minute out. Give us a rundown,” Pinpoint said.

  Erika winced as her earpiece crackled loudly for a moment before automatically adjusting to a comfortable level. “Roger,” an unfamiliar man’s voice said through her earpiece. “Firefly, Pinpoint, we received several calls that loose monsters came out from some of the storm drains in Chinatown and are attacking civilians. PD is on scene and establishing a perimeter. There’s an unknown number of civilians and several dozen reported monsters. Estimated E Class reptilian types. Eliminate any monsters and secure the safety of the civilians. Confirm.”

  “Pinpoint confirming,” the older hero said before glancing at Erika and motioning for her to speak.

  “Uh, Firefly, uh confirming,” she said awkwardly.

  The city flew by through the window, and in what seemed like only a few seconds Erika felt her seatbelt digging into her chest as the unnamed driver slammed on the brakes. The SUV barely came to a stop before Pinpoint unbuckled her seatbelt and leapt out.

  Following her lead, Erika hurriedly unbuckled herself and jumped out, only to see Pinpoint rushing towards her with several objects in hand, a pair of pistols already strapped to her waist. “We haven’t had a chance to cover it, do you know first aid?”

  Erika nodded. “The basics.”

  “Great, take this,” Pinpoint said, handing over a plain black pouch with a white cross on it. Like a fanny pack, Erika was able to clip it around her waist, cinching it tight enough that it wouldn’t slide around too much. “Gloves, spray on bandages, gauze, a couple tourniquets. Small wounds, the sprays will be enough, bigger ones, slap some gauze on first then spray. Big ones, call me over. There’s also three of the nano wound injectors, but those are only for you to use on me or you. You’re also going to need something to protect yourself. Take these.” Pinpoint said, handing her a pair of what looked like nightsticks from an old cop show.

  “Nightsticks?”

  “These are tonfa,” Pinpoint said, pulling out another pair that’d been strapped to her back and gave her a quick demonstration. “They can be used a few different ways, but you don’t have time to learn them. You can either hold them by the shorter handle like this and punch, driving the end into your target, or hold like this, and swing it if you need more reach.”

  Doing her best to copy her sponsor, Erika tried both of the ways Pinpoint showed her. Punching with the things felt a bit more comfortable to her, the movements more familiar to the movements she’d learned over the past week training with Pinpoint. “I think I got it, but do you have any more guns?” Erika asked, pointing at the weapons on Pinpoint’s hip.

  “I’d love to hand you a gun, but we haven’t had time to train you in that yet and I won’t trust an untrained person with a firearm,” her sponsor said, shaking her head.

  “That’s bullshit!”

  “We’re about to go into a complicated environment with an unknown number of monsters and civilians. Trigger discipline is going to be critical, and we don’t have the time to get you that right now. The best I can offer with what I have on hand are these. It’s either these or nothing.”

  “I’ll take the nightsticks.”

  “Great. Normally we’d split up for this kind of low level incident, but for now, you stick close to me. Follow my orders, and I got your back. Ready?”

  Erika grumbled one last time as glanced at Pinpoint’s guns then at her own borrowed weapons. “Yeah.”

  “Good, let’s go.” Pinpoint said as she started to run.

  Following close behind, Erika saw her sponsor run past several uniformed officers and the unnamed driver, the police quickly clearing a path for the two heroes as they ran between two police cruisers blocking the street.

  As Erika ran, her eyes started to pick out details around her. Bags, boxes, and other items littered the ground where people had dropped them as they ran. Puddles and drops of red dotted some parts of the sidewalk. Blood, she belatedly realized.

  It didn’t take long for them to run across the first dead body. An elderly man lay sprawled against a wall, a bloody smear running down to his corpse. Pinpoint didn’t even slow to check him as they passed. From the way his throat had been torn out, it was obvious there was nothing they could do for him now.

  Gripping her borrowed weapons tighter, Erika followed after her sponsor, her head on a swivel for roving monsters.

  “Above!”

  Glancing above, Erika’s blood chilled as she saw a reptilian monster falling towards her, its jaws opened wide. Darting to the side, she barely avoided the creature as it landed in the street where she’d been standing. The monster’s size surprised her, barely coming up to her waist as it started to rear itself up on its larger hind legs. The thing looked like a velociraptor mixed with a chicken, its hide scaly with a mane of bright red feathers around its neck and lining its tail. And just like an angry chicken, it was vicious.

  “Skreee!” the monster hissed as it leapt at her again, slashing at her with the dangerous looking talons on its forelegs.

  Dodging out of the way again, Erika barely avoided the creature’s claws, her grip tightening on her borrowed weapons as she looked for an opening. She didn’t see any. The monster moved fast, faster than her, but her training with Pinpoint seemed to pay off as she moved, barely avoiding the raptor’s wicked claws. As the beast leapt at her again, she finally saw an opening, ducking out of the way and lashing out with a wild punch as the creature flew past her.

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  “Skreeee!” the monster shrieked in pain as her weapon slammed into its side with a resounding crack!

  “Take that!” Erika shouted excitedly, her confidence soaring as she scored the first blow.

  But before she could reset her stance or follow up with another attack, the monster retaliated with a bite, its teeth scoring a glancing blow on her left arm as it grabbed onto her weapon in anger.

  Erika suppressed a yelp as the monster pulled its head back and dragged her closer. Releasing the tonfa, she narrowly avoided the raptor’s slashing claws as she retreated. Glancing down at her injured arm, she held back a curse as she saw her shredded jacket sleeve stained with blood.

  “Hsssss!” the raptor snarled, the mangled weapon dropping from its jaws as it tried to circle around her.

  Erika rotated with the raptor, keeping her front to it. It didn’t take a genius to know that letting it get to her side was a stupid idea. Keeping her eyes on the monster, she noticed it tense its hind legs coiled up for another leaping strike. As soon as it leapt up, Erika darted to the side, narrowly avoiding its talons as it flew through where she’d been.

  Glancing at her weapon, she frowned. Punching with the tonfa brought her way too close to the monster’s claws and teeth. Flipping her grip around to hold the weapon the other way Pinpoint demonstrated, Erika charged back in as the monster recovered and swung down with an overhead blow, catching the monster on its hip.

  “Skreeeee!” the monster screamed in pain as it whirled around and snapped at her with its teeth, but Erika moved out of its range.

  With the extra reach she now had, Erika battered the creature to death. Her third blow shattered its hip, ending its leaps as it resorted to quick lunges and swipes. The fifth smashed its eye with a bloody pop, ruining its vision as it hissed. The sixth had it turning tail to limp away as fast as it could, but Erika didn’t let it go and pursued. Two quick steps was all it took for her seventh blow to knock it to the ground on its side, and her eighth finally put it down with a vicious strike that crushed its skull.

  Gasping for breath, Erika backed away from the corpse of the creature as she scanned the street, looking for more monsters, only to see Pinpoint finishing one off with a quick jab that shattered its skull. Dead monsters surrounded the hero.

  *Ding!* Your party member has defeated Maned Raptor (Class E) x6! You have gained 300 EXP! Congratulations!

  *Ding!* You have defeated a Maned Raptor (Class E)! You have gained 500 EXP! Congratulations!

  Blinking away the notifications, Erika examined her injured arm. The bleeding was already slowing on its own, but she had a fancy kit on her waist for a reason. Opening it up, she grabbed one of the spray bottles and coated her wound, barely blinking at the stinging sensation before the pain started to dull. The light blue liquid foamed up a bit before it hardened into a thin, flexible layer that covered up her wound. Carefully testing her arm, it felt good enough to use as she walked back over to the other tonfa and grabbed it. Other than a few teethmarks, it seemed to be fine. Nodding to herself, she adjusted her grip to hold it in the longer way.

  “Good choice to use the bandage. Save the injectors for a serious injury. Let’s go.”

  Pinpoint set off again as Erika followed, their movement interrupted only once more by a single monster that her sponsor put down without stopping.

  *Ding!* Your party member has defeated a Maned Raptor (Class E)! You have gained 50 EXP! Congratulations!

  Within a minute, they stopped just outside a marketplace. Inside, Erika could hear hissing monsters and screaming people. “Stay close. Stay alert. Dispatch, Firefly and I have arrived at the marketplace, we’re going in.”

  “Copy Pinpoint. Sanctum, Triage, and Game Phreak are enroute, ten out.”

  “Thanks Dispatch. Firefly, let’s go.”

  Erika wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting when she stepped into the marketplace. It’d always been a pretty lively place full of small food stalls and vendors. She’d been there a few times before to grab some cheap food or hang out. But now, it was something out of a nightmare. Tables and chairs were scattered around, many knocked over in the obvious panic as people ran out, and the scent of blood was obvious. Amongst the tables and chairs, she could see a few still forms, their bodies covered in wounds with obvious bites taken out of them. Pinpoint moved quick, darting from form to form as she checked for a pulse before shaking her head and moving on.

  “Firefly, found a survivor,” she called, motioning her over.

  Rushing to her sponsor, she found Pinpoint kneeling by an unconscious woman clutching a wound in her stomach. Pinpoint already had a pair of gloves on as she quickly packed the wound with gauze and started to spray the bandage on. “What do you need?” Erika asked, watching the woman work.

  “Check for more survivors while I work on her.”

  “On it.” As Pinpoint worked on the woman, Erika quickly moved through the area, but every body she checked was dead. At least the humans. As she checked one of the butcher’s stalls,s he found the first dead monster, its skull cut open by something heavy and sharp. A second dead raptor lay just a few steps forward, a heavy cleaver buried in its neck. A third raptor was still alive, snarling weakly at her as it lay in a puddle of blood. A single solid blow to the head was enough to finish it off.

  *Ding!* You have defeated a weakened Maned Raptor (Class E)! You have gained 250 EXP! Congratulations!

  Beyond the third raptor, she saw the corpse of a middle aged man in a stained tanktop and apron collapsed next to the door of a walk-in refrigerator, his throat ripped out and another bloody cleaver on the floor next to him. It was pretty obvious she couldn’t do anything for him, but she checked his pulse anyways, unsurprised to feel his quickly cooling flesh. As she stood back up, she heard a sound come from inside the walk-in. Frowning, she moved over to the heavy steel door and pulled it open, ready to swing at whatever came at her.

  “Aaaahhh!” a man screamed as he charged her, swinging another of the heavy cleavers at her.

  Acting on instinct, Erika moved to the side and parried the blow with one of her tonfa. The heavy cleaver went flying as her weapon snapped the man’s wrist, “I’m not a monster!” she belatedly yelled as the man tumbled to the ground with a cry of pain.

  *Ding!* You have defeated a Human (Class F)! You have gained 100 EXP! Congratulations!

  As the man went down, Erika heard more sounds from inside the walk-in and looked up to see a fearful woman staring at her, a crying child shielded behind her. “What you do?!” she yelled in broken English.

  “He attacked me!”

  “He no attack!”

  “He rushed me with a cleaver!”

  “Protect!”

  “Firefly, what’s going on?” Pinpoint said as she stepped behind the counter carrying the unconscious woman over her shoulder.

  “She attack!” the woman in the refrigerator screamed, pointing at the man now groaning on the floor clutching a broken wrist.

  “I opened the walk-in and he rushed me with a cleaver!” Erika said, trying to defend herself.

  Before Pinpoint could respond, a chorus of hisses filled the marketplace.

  “Shit.” Pushing past Erika, Pinpoint grabbed the groaning man by his good arm and dragged him back into the walk-in before setting the unconscious woman down on the ground. “Stay in here and don’t come out,” she commanded the civilians. “Firefly, you’re with me. We’ve got a fight on our hands.”