I just wao watch a movie. Gamma-18 panicked, lying ft on his belly on the main road leading to the shelter. The day had started excellently; his brother praised the prepared breakfast, which, in hindsight, was already a portent of an incredible ominous event to e. Beta-18 never appreciated his brother’s efforts to introduce him to proper cuisine, preferring te himself on bags of chips and throwing darts at Zurkov’s photo in an attempt to curse the misguided individual.

  Their business was booming thanks to Social Services, who gave their small ter a sum eclipsing their annual earnings just to treat the Wolfkins for free, and the twins couldn’t be happier about it. Seeing a steady line of soldiers waiting for their turn outside, more ers had dared to veo their humble establishment, and Gamma-18 cut two hours from his sleep, baking foods for the visitors, until Beta-18 told him to cut it off and repced him at a stove. Two Orais had a word with the protesters, and sihen there had been no disturbances outside their parlor.

  Life was ging for the better, and Gamma-18 had decided to celebrate su occasion by visiting a ema, ving himself that he could stand the bigots shouting about him being non-human. It was a necessary obstacle to overe if he wao work in a military hospital. Beta-18 wasn’t always going to be at his side to proted support him. No one screamed at him in the ema, but rather many screamed with him wheerrorists attacked.

  If it hadn’t been for that brave Wolfkin, they’d have been dead by now, because the door outside was jammed. The brave woman shielded them long enough famma-18 to get close to the jammed door and knock it off, along with part of the wall. Outside was er; it was as if the ey had gone mad. Quakes, billboards exploding, the grouing, cars driving over people…

  Houstad wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was a civilized pce, where Gamma-18 hoped to build a fortable life for Beta-18. Here, police respoo calls and arrived quickly, ready to help anyone, regardless of background, and social workers regurly visited their massage parlor and assisted the bioons in adjusting and filling out paperwork.

  Gamma-18 came to love this city, and so he tried his best to keep everyone safe. His skin was tough enough to mostly ignore shards of gss and pieetal, and the occasional cut was nothing to fret about. But the familiar streets had ged; crashed vehicles and fallen buildings clogged the streets, and fires raged in the alleys. Dead, shot and trampled, bhe ground, and the stench of urine, gas, and burning bodies was ing. Thick smoke made orientation difficult. Navigation through the work wasn’t w. But when all hope seemed lost, unusual drones swooped in, beaming an updated map of Houstad, and a fident voice from Mayor Jaquan and Wolfkin Kirk gave them strength to fight the fear.

  “I… sorry,” said a nky kid in a leather jacket, holding an unscious girl close to his chest. The child had tried to bite and scratch her out of the blue, then lost her sce after headbutting a hardy Orais’ knuckle. Several people succumbed to a strange bloodlust and had to be tied up or knocked out for their safety.

  “Hm?” Gamma-18 inquired nervously, arg his eyestalks under his head. They took forever tee, and several scalds from overheated metal already adorned his head. He wasn’t the only New Breed helping to keep everyone safe, and an Orais distributed them evenly around the line, giving the bioon the hardest area.

  “About yelling at you to fuck off from Houstad.” The kid swallowed, his eyes red, soot and scratches c his face. “We thought… it seems so bullshit now... we thought your kind lured humans and ate them, like the rest of the bioons. We… I didn’t… Sorry. About everything.”

  “No, I much prefer meat borscht. Beef brisket on the bohin strips of beef, pork ribs, chi if I ’t afford pork. And no sour cream! Mhhhmmm… Heavenly!” Gamma-18 grumbled, using pleasant memories to bat the horror and keep moving.

  He reized the young man; his ass was throwing rotten fruits at their building. He had half of a mind to tell him everything he was thinking about his ilk, how stressful it was for the poor Beta-18 and how Gamma-18 had to budget their expenses, often cutting ba food because those lousy nits were sg away ts, but who would this help? And it felt too hollow and childish to hold a grudge in the face of the age.

  “Let’s fet the past,” Gamma-18 sighed. “Tell you what, sir, e visit us for a few sessions and we’ll call it even. First time free!”

  Bio-ons did indeed have a terrible reputation, to the point that they were hated in many lesser tries more than even Malformed. It wasirely undeserved. When the Old World was dying, hordes of creatures were unleashed from the secret boratories, murderiire cities. Gamma-18 and his brother were of a more enlightened sort, and after being cleared by the specialists at the Iigation Bureau, they opted into a program desigo rehabilitate the public perception of their kind. It didn’t involve any work; all they had to do was live their lives without breaking the w, so the gover could ter point to them and say that bioons were exactly the same as everyone else.

  “You treat Normies too?” The kid g him.

  “Our specialty lies in massaging New Breeds.” Gamma-18 beaten aside a rock that was falling on a woman nearby and began to expihusiastically. “You see, it is natural that very few specialists work with New Breeds’ bodies…”

  “I don’t get it. Why is it natural?” the kid asked.

  “Multitude different body types.” Gamma-18 pressed a hand to his ow. “I ck a heart. ionally speaking, but physically. Orais evolved to have hardy, rough hides, almost impervious to ventional kit knives.”

  “Impervious!” boasted an Orais knuckle-walking in the middle of the group.

  “If you say so, sir,” Gamma-18 agreed. “Several of our ts’ ans are in stant flux. Imagine a brain migrating through the body on its own. There are also chitin ptes of Iones and sub-dermal exoskeletons of Wolfkins. Or poison spikes, intense heat, or, the rarest of my career, a brain radiating unnatural fear. Each requires a unique approach. My dearest brother and I have aced that mastery.” He stopped; the worry about Beta-18 spread like the sharpest needles pierg his chest.

  “He should be okay,” the kid tried to cheer him up. “It ’t be that bad everywhere, right?”

  “Thank you,” Gamma-18 said holy. “Regardless, Normies’ and human-shaped New Breeds’ bodies plexity for the ck of a better term. It doesn’t take as much time to learn their inner ws and how much pressure to apply for a proper rexation session. Don’t take it as an insult.”

  “aken,” the kid chuckled. “You are passionate about your work, mister…”

  “Just call me Gamma-18, sir, and of course I am. I take tremendous pride in my craft.”

  “Where is your ter, again?” asked a blonde woman.

  Gamma-18 gdly began to expin, advertising their humble services to the best of his ability and trying to further pique the crowd’s i with an offer of perfectly baked homemade treats. It was a little distasteful to be involved in a potential business discussion in the current situation, but none of the inhumahings happening today were his doing, aa-18 insisted that Gamma-18 o socialize more. Besides, a pleasant versation helped the group fet about the deadly dangers around them.

  When they almost reached the bunker, a rocket struck a building on the side of the road, sh a rain of destru down at them. Gamma-18 reacted far faster than ever before. Twenty of his arms pushed those closest to him into the safety of the Orais’ embrace; ten more pulled those behind him into the safety of his expanding body. He had never imagined himself capable of such speed aiohan a sed ago, he was engaged in a pleasant versation with his newfound friends, and the , his body was moving on its own, knowily what to do to save lives.

  The building colpsed, dropping its heavy weight on Gamma-18’s back as he did his best to spread himself out over the trapped people, trying to lift tons of sto wasn’t easy; he and his brother preferred nar shapes for a reason, but it wasn’t impossible.

  His eyes spotted trembling pebbles, and he heard stompi approag. Gamma-18’s hope that they were rescuers soon turo fear as a one-armed terrorist emerged from the billowing clouds of smoke, letting go of a rocket uncher. His armor was shredded by cws and firearms, blood gushed from a stump of his arm, an eye was missing, but he giggled half madly and reached for an oversized rifle strapped to his belt.

  “If... if you... s-surrender, I promise te for your survival!” Gamma-18 tried to offer, but the armiant spat something in an unknown nguage and aimed his on at his head. He repeated his offer in uages, screaming desperately, but nothing helped. “Beta-18. You are the best brother ever...” Gamma-18 whispered, awaiting a shot.

  A click of ay gun startled the terrorist and saved Gamma-18’s life. A figure in green riot gear burst through the smoke and struck the helmeted head with the buttstock of his shotgun. The strike produced a thud and did little else, and the terrorist began moving his own rifle when a stun baton’s tip raight in the gaping wound of the missing arm. Yells filled the street, and the rger oppo recoiled, trying to retreat as the officer tinued frying him. A headbutt to the face cracked the officer’s helmet, and a strand of white hair showed through the crack.

  Zurkov, Gamma-18 couldn’t believe it was him, rammed his empty shotgun against the facepte of his oppo, shattering the visor and sending razor-sharp shards of reinforced gss into his eye socket. With a roar, the terrorist let go of his rifle, wing and vulsing from the electric shock c through his body. He rammed a ko Zurkov’s stomach, bending the man over, and added a heavy blow from above, denting the armor.

  “Bastard.” Zurkov’s hand closed on the dropped rifle, and he leveled it at the giant’s crotch. “Drop dead already!”

  Bullets hurled the screaming terrorist against the building. New holes appeared all over his armor; he tried to put a hand over his face, screaming in a fn nguage, but the officer was merciless, emptying the entire magazine. Swaying like a drunkard, Zurkov rose to his feet, kicked the rger body to see if it was dead, and picked up his ons.

  “Citizen, you are alive; stay still, everything is going to be okay; help is close by…” Zurkov stopped, reloading his shotgun, and reitio across his face. “Freak,” he hissed. “So many people have died and your soulless kind is still alive…” The shotgun shook in his hands, frightening Gamma-18, but then the officer secured it to his belt and k, trying to push the rubble up. Through the cracks in Zurkov’s helmet, Gamma-18 saw a bruise swollen around his eye and blood streaks across his face. “My armor is damaged and malfuning, and I am not a New Breed,” he said, face red from exertion. “Might be a tad unfortable, but you should…”

  “God bless you, Zurkov!” Gamma-18 ughed. Live, live, he was going to live! He’d have to ask Beta-18 to st to curse this bizarre officer. Gamma-18 pced his hands on the ground and strained himself, raising the rubble. “Just you wait, I will give you a monthly… no, a lifetime subscription!”

  “What… How did you?” Zurkov’s shock didn’t st long, and he immediately grabbed the unscious people under Gamma-18 and dragged them to safety, one by one. Only then did the bioon slip out from uhe rubble and his arms around the officer. “Let go of me, creep! Don’t you defile God by mentioning him with your abominable mouth!” Zurkov struggled in vain against the embrace.

  Gamma-18 let go of him as other officers emerged from the smoke to check the civilians’ pulses ahem wake up. The bioons refused medical aid, pointing to a closing burn on his shoulder.

  “.” Zurkov shrugged. “My men found the rest of yroup and escorted them to the shelter. You best follow them. It isn’t safe…”

  “Sir! More wounded!” An officer yelled, trying to remove a steel pte from the colpsed building. Another officer held his hand over the wrist of a pale arm visible from underh the rubble.

  “Stop it,” Zurkov anded. “None of us will lift this. You two lead the civilians to safety. I’ll report to the and…”

  “I help!” Gamma-18 eagerly volunteered, thrusting his hands uhe pte. There they stuck to the surface, and the bioon lifted the pte vertically so the officers could crawl underh ahe wounded out. “If you need help with the heavy lifting, I am ready! Just please call my brother and ask if he is okay.”

  “I’ll do it right away, and you are heading to the shelter,” Zurkov said.

  “Sir, we could really use extra help,” a police officer said.

  “It… He is a civilian,” Zurkov snapped. “We do not endanger civilians, Jane.”

  “Not uhey voluo help, sir!” She saluted. “Please. There are not enough hands to help the trapped, and our military is still fighting. Every sed ts. Lives are at stake.”

  “So we should put others…” Zurkov shook his head and ched his fist. “Fine. Beta-18, right?”

  “Gamma-18, actually!” Gamma-18 corrected him.

  “Yeah, uood. I hereby accept your assistance, and on behalf of Houstad, thank you for this generous offer. Stay behind us; don’t even dare to peek until we secure the area and give you permission…”