“That’s really wicked looking,” Fran nodded appreciatively, “I wouldn’t expect otherwise from your gear.”

“Isn’t that a backhanded compliment?” I spoke, realizing my voice was an octave deeper.

“Whoa, talk more, your voice is so different! And your mask is doing this fancy light show!” Alice laughed, coming down from her perch on a nearby building. As she dropped, two braces of metal, slim and elegant, touched the ground instead of her feet. She bounced on them easily, controlling the motion simply. Her control was perfect. She was also now a head taller than I was.

I’m still the shortest. I didn’t say it out loud. It didn’t count.

“That’s odd, I wonder why it’s doing that?” I put a hand to my chin.

Daniel crossed his arms thoughtfully, “It’s probably for the intimidation factor, the rest of your gear oozes it.”

The lines of my helmet creased in a grimace, the red seeming to run with my expression and voice.

“Wow, that’s some fancy stuff. Isn’t that, like, hardcore luxury goods?” Alice loomed over me.

Fran nodded, “Strange that so much effort would be put into looks. But, I guess if it works?”

“Now, plebeians, don’t get too jealous.” I mocked, “For real, though, it’s definitely got a lot more actual utility than just the looks.” I didn’t mention that I really liked it for the aesthetics, they grew on me. Heh, literally, now.

Bad jokes aside, Daniel waved at me, “I’m sure it does, but you look almost like another person with that on. It really is cool, and intimidating. Maybe if kill-teams and hunters get real famous, you’d be the poster boy.”

“Mostly for edgy teenager’s, though,” Fran chuckled at my expense.

“Hardy har, well you guys get your stuff ready.” I muttered a few more choice phrases under my breath, but I yet had the wisdom to keep them to myself.

Over the next five minutes they finalized their selections and purchased them all at once.

Their transformations were no less amazing.

I grinned, my mask grinning a bright red line with me, “Oh, yes. That’s what I wanted to see.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Daniel Drake’s P.O.V.-

Everything had been happening so fast these past few days. Somehow, I remained optimistic, maybe even when I shouldn’t have been. The day before yesterday I got the reality check that I really needed.

Matthew almost died in that tunnel. If it hadn’t been for us hearing Smith call for us, I wouldn’t have known he was in trouble. We were too embroiled in our own battle, and I’m still ashamed to admit that I was having fun.

That’s right, I was having fun fighting ten bears and a collection of wolves. I put my trust in Fran to keep them staggered and to keep the tempo of the battle. My job was simply to cleave through them until there wasn’t anything left to cleave. It was easy in comparison to what Matthew had been going through, and somewhere along the way I think I forgot that I was in a machine, a metal shell that kept biotics gut-spilling claws away from me.

Fran had picked me up and thrown me, we were desperate. I still remember seeing it all in slow motion, I dreamt of it that night, too. Matthew’s smoking, pain wracked body and that looming monster. I remember the indignation of it, the anger that the only family I had left was so hurt. Most of all, I felt the guilt that I’d been having a great time while Matthew was fighting for his life.

I yelled at him a little, but I couldn’t bring myself to be angry at him. I was angry at Smith for all of the things that were happening to Matthew. Part of me feared that Matthew was changing too much, too fast, that it wasn’t really him.

But he’d laugh, or make a snide sarcastic comment, or consider things from his narrow view point and I’d be reminded that he was still him. Was he different? Hell yeah, but he’d literally gone through two near death experiences over the past two days. If it weren’t for that Reaper. A.I. thing keeping him alive, he would have died. How was I supposed to feel about this? Should I force him to stay home, stay out of harm's way, so that I don’t have to worry about the day when all that’s left of Matthew is a steel skeleton?

Those thoughts haunt my idle mind.

If it weren’t for Fran, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I love her to death, and I don’t think there’s another woman out there that could understand and accept me the way she does. We’re both worried about him, I could tell that.

Then, we met Alice, a poor woman who had seen hell and nearly cracked, and I knew that I couldn’t do this without Matthew. I put on the brave face, and could march up to death and grin, but it wasn’t like I knew what to do. A long time ago, I’d almost given up living. Then I found this beat up guy in an alley, having been left for dead after the beginning of the apocalypse. Some group had taken him in and used his mind, he found goods, food, medicine, and knew his way around. They took him in until they wanted what he’d gathered, then they beat him and left. I don’t know what happened to those people, but they moved to the outskirts of the city. With luck, they were dead now.

That man I’d found was my childhood friend, Matthew Todd, and those people completely ruined him for trusting people.

I needed him, he gave me a reason to give a damn, he made me have to be the talker, he gave me the opportunity to meet Fran. The plans were always his ideas, but I was always there to help fill in the cracks. Scout out the forest for food supplies to keep things going? It was a great alternative to hunting in the city. Kill off some of the wolves? That seemed good, and with his surprisingly good aim, he was great to have around.

I still remember the annoyance he always felt at people, the fact that some people had betrayed him and jaded him to all of the others. He was never a particularly bloodthirsty man, and violence did not come readily to him.

The nuke was a bad idea. We both admitted that after it happened. I thought Matthew got lucky when he got a class too. I thought he would get something really cool like what I got, a giant metal suit.

He got a nightmare living in his flesh. Smith, or whatever he wanted to call it, wasn’t something a regular person would probably wish on themselves. But what could I do? He was in Matt’s head, and from what I could tell, Smith was trying to keep Matthew alive after he’d opened his own private pandora’s box. I watched Matthew struggle with the changes, the stress of nearly dying ate him alive.

This morning, we walked in, and I realized all of that again. I saw him, deadlifting 600 pounds with little effort. I also could easily see the red under his skin, like lights in a machine. His arm was mostly black metal, or biosteel, whatever he called it. Right eye gone. Who knows how many organs changed. Even his brain was changed, better to be able to handle what had been dished to him.

I was out having a date with Fran, having the time of my life.

He was stuck in a body that I don’t even know was his anymore.

And then we stepped on the landmine. I was guilty, I tried to say the platitude statement’s to make someone feel better about what was happening to them and failed hard, like it was cancer or something. I saw it in his eyes when we said it, but Alice said it best.

He looked scary.

And then I felt like an idiot. The sarcasm he gave us, the irritation, the less than civil and patient treatment. He was still Matthew. Stressed, requiring prosthetics, dealing with a Reaper A.I. that pushed him to the limits, but he was still him.

In spite of still feeling guilty, I also felt glad. He knew what was happening to him wasn’t great, but he was dealing with it, and somehow I felt like he was in control of himself again. It just happened that the current him had the means to go hunting biotics actively. We’d gotten superhero complexes with great power dropped in our laps, and we almost died from it.

So, when we sat on the edge of obelisk space and I watched Matthew get wrapped in a bubble of darkness, I kept myself in line. I readied myself to try to accept whatever version of Matthew came out of this one.

But god damn, I didn’t expect the specter that stood before me. All at once I looked back at all the acceptance I’d had and really wondered how I was going to live with myself if I was going to be so shaky.

Fran and Alice managed to tease him even, and here I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t let that be. He might put on a strong front, but the guy really did let people’s opinions get the better of him.

“I’m sure it does, but you look almost like another person with that on. It really is cool, and intimidating. Maybe if kill-teams and hunters get real famous, you’d be the poster boy.” I spoke, and as I did, I realized something. I wasn’t afraid of a changed Matthew, we’d already changed so much from when we knew each other before the apocalypse. I was afraid that Matthew would stop needing help from me. Was that it? I needed him, so he needed me?

That was weak sauce.

He was looking forward, he was thinking how to win. We weren’t just two guys anymore, and whether or not we both had hero complexes now, we were in this big time now. Not just anybody in the city was a reaper or dreadnought.

I psyched myself up. Goddamnit, I’m a fucking dreadnought! I’m a moving, living, breathing engine of destruction. I wasn’t taking this seriously enough. I needed to get my head in the game.

And then I remembered when Matthew first had that smirk when the obelisk landed. He knew what he was aiming for the whole time. Sure, it was single minded and naive, but he didn’t flinch. He was tenacious as hell, but he was still human under all that metal.

And my best friend needed me to be a god damn Dreadnought.

“Let’s tear it up, then.” I murmured to myself, sorting through my purchases. Fran had as much intensity as I did. Maybe she came to the same conclusion, or maybe she knew from the start that the way things were weren’t the way they would be from now on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Matthew Todd’s P.O.V.-

A few hours later and we’d mapped out our kill-zone. I sat in relative silence, I’d found the perfect box canyon that I wanted to use. The sides were difficult to scale, and they’d serve us well for our needs.

According to what Fran and Alice saw, the unique was still nearby. They’d kept tabs on it while I set the kill zone up for our needs. I could hear them talking, our voices being linked through the obelisk system so that we could communicate over longer distances. It was an amazing feature that I wish I’d have known about before.

“Alright, my trap’s set over here, how’re we looking on your side, Daniel?” I asked, retreating up the slope, kneeling against a rocky outcropping to the right side of the canyon.

“I think I’ve got the hang of moving with this now. It’s pretty awesome once you get used to it.” Daniel’s voice came through clearly. He seemed more focused now, and I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened.

I didn’t think about it too hard, “Good, then we’ll start the operation on your signal. You’re in control until we can get it into the noose, then Fran gets you out, and Alice and I pummel it from high up.”

“Sounds good,” Daniel affirmed.

Alice followed, managing to remain cheerful, “Roger, roger!”

“Let’s get rid of this thing.” Fran shuddered in disgust, having now seen the creature herself.

I set myself up, feeling my environment for any changes. I was trying to be constantly aware of the possibility that we might be snuck up on. But, it looked like there wasn’t anything left in this area. The unique might have been responsible for that.

I directed thought through the mark on my hand, contacting Sis, just like I would to Smith.

[Specialized Intelligence System is currently busy. Please leave a message.]

I scoffed, a freaking answering machine? Wow. “Sis, you’re dropping the ball. I want that core back if you’re not even going to tell us that there’s a unique sitting on our doorstep. Get back to me for the Bounty. Thanks.”

The hell kind of world did we live in when an A.I. was too busy to answer a message. I shook my head. After a few more minutes of waiting, staring at the sparse demesne of trees below, I started to hear a loud tremoring. It grew louder, and I could hear explosions and the loud snarling of a machine, and the mournful howling of our quarry.

“Almost there, Matt!” Daniel shouted, “And I hope you’re ready, because this thing is pissed!”

I nodded, “Fran, you’re up, pull him up and out. Alice, the opposite slope to me is your firing point. If it starts running at you, don’t freak out, just keep firing.”

“Got it!” Voices rang in unison. I watched, the three barrels of my rifle connecting together as one, converting to a hefty sniper. I felt the hum of energy in the barrel, the superheated plasma ready to fire. It was, likely, the strongest personal weapon on earth right now, with exception to the ridiculousness that Daniel and Fran had come up with.

[“Sorry, Matthew, I was busy. What was this you said about a unique on your doorste--Oh my!”] I heard Sis and saw her blue outline in my field of vision, I tuned her out. It was bad timing. Below, I could see what looked like a steel angel slice through a few trees as she gracefully reached out towards a decidedly unholy looking metal behemoth.

Where Fran’s wings had doubled in length and size, Daniel’s mass had increased by one foot in height, and two in width. The most distinctive change, aside from the guns on Daniel’s frame, were the many energy discharge ports on his body. The backs of the mech’s legs, ribs, and back all had vents that burned with power, a product of the many new engines that gave him raw power and speed. His every foot step upturned soil, and if it weren’t for the fact that his legs were now even larger than before, I’m certain he would have been more than capable of gouging out several feet deep of earth in his stride. His weight class was enormously higher.

Fran pulled him hard, what looked like four ribbons drifted down from behind her. They didn’t touch him, and the ends seemed to ring with harmonics, along with the open diamond pattern that the blue ‘fabric’ ended in. That fabric was not cloth, but woven metal, and I could see the massive magnetic forces at work as she pulled Daniel from the ground and ascended steadily, taunting the beast that pursued them.

That beast drew Sis’s attention, [“That… that can’t be here already.”]

“Sure, I believe you.” I remarked sarcastically, feeling utter revulsion towards the thing. Even with Alice giving me the heads up to what kind of brand of horror I could expect, I found I was glad to have literally an iron stomach. It did not so much as run as half skip and half roll towards its prey. Protruding limbs, and even entire wolves, were used to propel it forward like many legs. Some of the more used wolves were ragged and tattered, yet still in use. It was fast, and I was glad that I’d had Daniel take the job. I hadn’t tested my speed, but this thing would probably overtake me.

[“I mean, yes, it’s obviously there. It’s a special kind of unique.]

[Bounty Hunt! Kill The Amalgamation “Wolven” of Harrowing 0/1 (~!~)]

I frowned seeing the notification, better late than never, though. It seemed the naming scheme was a little different, saying ‘of’ rather than ‘the,’ but I didn’t have time to worry.

“Alright, Alice, don’t move from that rocky outcropping, it’s the most stable piece of land on that slope.” I didn’t need to look elsewhere for my helmet to be able to search for her. A few hundred feet away, she’d set herself against the rocks. She didn’t say anything, tense with what was going on.

[“This creature is extremely dangerous, you should retreat.”] Sis sounded genuinely worried. I frowned at that, this thing was about as dangerous as I’d feared then.

“We’ve taken some precautions. We don’t intend to fight a losing battle.” Sis opened her mouth to say something else, “Just watch and tell me what you think.”

Further on in the narrow canyon I watched as the creature started to slip on the rocks, it’s bulky chaotic gait not giving it any decent purchase.

Then, Fran set Daniel down atop a hard stone lip, sixty feet up. I looked at the creature, Wolven, and noted that there were at least eighty wolves in it now. It had grown dramatically. I sure as hell didn’t want to give it the opportunity to get out of here and get worse.

It scrambled up the slope, and none of us fired just yet. [“Why do you wait?”] Sis asked. I didn’t answer yet, it wasn’t quite the right time. But, whatever this kind of creature represented really shook her. I didn’t want to see what this would be if it grew up.

And it wouldn’t.

[And the Reaper’s hand was dealt. And in that hand was hellfire.]

Smith punctuated the occasion perfectly. The only precursor to the show was the sharp beep, only once.

Several explosions rocked the face of the valley, two mines exploding and showering the creature with raw plasma. Stone immediately melted, dirt glassed, what little plant matter there was there had evaporated into clouds of smoke. Shrieking and howling rolled through the air as the amalgamation lit aflame. Daniel’s mech let out a stunning retort, almost as loud as the reaper mines had.

“Let’s go!” Daniel’s bellow rang out with the shots from the cannon on his right shoulder. He leaned over, the apparatus coming up over his back and firing shells into the monster. It was a tank cannon, there wasn’t any other way to categorize it. Each shell blossomed before hitting the beast, shredding its surface with projectiles and heat. The plasma melted into the holes, it made it worse.

The ribbons at Frans sides, all four of them, corkscrewed out in front of her. She positioned her wings just behind them, and feathers started darting out of her wings, traveling through the tubes. It was mind numblingly destructive, they pierced straight through the things body, though its mass shifted as they did so. The front half of Wolven was on fire.

It retreated in sheer panic away from them, though it took a moment for the side that was on fire to realize what had even happened.

Alice opened up next, drilling shot after shot into the heads of the wolves. Unlike with a regular bow and arrow, these shots did not simply stick into a skull. The energy drilled through, leaving the heads with an open hole in them. She’d target the same wolf body as she went, annihilating it entirely. Then, disgustingly, the body fell away, along with the trail of guts that rapidly turned to fragmented dust, crackling in the wind.

I opened fire, a short, vicious bite. One shot tore through a wolf, melting it from the inside out. The entire mass quivered, and after a moment, it started to try to run towards the mouth of the canyon.

I detonated the next mines by remote. Four explosions went off, these ones only catching its face by a small amount. I wanted it to know that moving forward would be a fiery death. It had to go through a wall. Even so, part of it had tried to continue on, as though it didn’t realize how dangerous the gouts of burning plasma was.

Incredulously, I watched as it stepped into it for a few seconds and seem to panic, running backwards into the canyon.

“Is it stupid?...” I felt insulted that I’d put this much thought into this plan for an idiot.

No, don’t get cocky. We’re far from done. I reminded myself this was something that gave Sis pause.

It’s many heads turned to face Alice, her shots dealing the least damage thus far.

Alice choked down a scream and laid into the beast with abandon. It ran at her side of the valley.

“Alice, calm down, it won’t get to you. Trust me.” I grinned evilly, “It’s really not that bright.”

Another mine went off as it hit her side of the canyon wall, showering it with yet another plume of burning plasma.

It screamed unlike anything I’d ever heard. It was really hurting now, and I found myself egged on by that sound.

“Pour it on, everything!” I shouted into the mic, firing puncturing bolts of plasma one after the other.

It spun in place, utterly confused and overloaded from pain. I watched now as bodies fell from its corpulent mass, melting in the heat. It started to run towards me, and then it shuddered, stopping.

The creature looked up to me, and its many stolen eyes had a look of comprehension. Yes, this slope, too, was mined.

But you’re far too naive. My mask lit up brilliant scarlet, highlighting the skull within my helmet. The thing shuddered as I pulled my hand up, aiming theatrically.

There was one mine on my slope, yes. But the other two?

The mines exploded directly under the main body of Wolven. I saw fire tear through the top of the creature. There was no direction to its madness now, and I watched as it rapidly fought even itself in confusion, trying to separate its burning parts from the rest. I could see a pair of eyes gleaming in the mass, light filtered automatically with my reaper eye. It looked to me.

My gun came up, and I saw it had fear in its eyes. Perhaps the helmet wasn’t only for scaring other people, after all?

I fired into the mass, marking the thing. Bullet after bullet ate through the husks it used to defend itself. Finally, it shrank to only half its original size, and there was no unburned part of its body. What was worse for it, though, was when Daniel revealed his second of three weapons he’d added. A missile pack rose from his left shoulder, and fired. Instead of hitting the creature, it opened above it, unleashing a layer of thermite on its flaming surface.

The explosion rocked it to its core, the plasma lake it sat in ate it from below. It stopped struggling, and in spite of our evident success, I found myself frowning. Something felt off.

“Where’s the main body?” I murmured through the microphone.

“Main body? Did you see something like that?” Fran asked, her birds eye view granting her what should have been a superior vantage point.

“Yeah, my reaper eye picked it out in the mess. I don’t... “ I looked down, assessing the pool of plasma.

It was shrinking.

“No! It’s digging!” I nearly screamed in frustration. It dug through plasma? What the hell? Did it not care about damage?

Wait, if it was borrowing bodies, why would it? It just needed the main body to survive, that was all.

“Damnit!” I let my weapon slip into my cloak. I didn’t dare go down there, but I knew that I had to hurt it, badly. We had to buy time at the very least. I pulled out grenades from my reaper storage, several of the claymore grenades coming out. I didn’t need to aim much, the vantage point was perfect. I pressed the button, throwing it into the mass. I repeated the process with three more grenades.

“Cover!” I shouted, and everyone ducked behind rocks, or in Fran’s case behind Daniel.

From deep in the mass, two grenades shredded wolves, and two more exploded underground. The wailing from earlier, distinctly different now from wolves, met my ears.

I knew just how much those things hurt in tunnels.

The carnage was complete topside, but I knew that the thing had managed to escape. A river of molten stone sealed the entrance behind it. None of us had the ability to detect it.

“Good job guys, we did some real damage. I don’t think there’s even anything left except the main body.” I started walking towards Fran and Daniel, Alice doing the same, casting shocked glances at the melting bodies.

“I didn’t think we could actually…” She started, and I grinned in my mask.

“Just Reaper things. It’s kind of my job to make sure it dies. I realized that the other day.” I chuckled, “Dan, dude, the hell is that thermite? That kicked!”

He laughed, “Those mines are overpowered, the fuck is that?”

“Plasma, or a form of it,” I snickered, “I’ll bet it won’t forget this soon. Maybe it’ll stay away from people.”

“Fran, these are so pretty, but… did you make a railgun?” Alice walked up, touching some of the trailing, winding tails of metal on Fran’s wings.

“Heh, I thought of it when I picked up Daniel. I think I need practice, but against such a big target, I don’t think I can miss.”

[“All of you…”] We suddenly remembered that Sis had been there.

“Oh, my bad. So, what’d you think? Any tips?” I turned around, nonchalant as we rode pretty high on our draw.

[“That creature is type of biotic that is rightfully feared across the galaxy. It is durable, sentient, and can single handedly bring a world to ruin.”] Sis looked at us incredulously, [“I have never seen any species, even on a low tier biotic planet, bully one to near oblivion like I have seen today.”]

“Yay! We did good!” Alice shouted, “Uh, so, who is this?”

Daniel and Fran gave her the overview as Sis’s look of perplexity deepened.

“Why do you look like this was a bad thing?” My suspicion meter dipped, hard.

[“Uh, no, it’s good that you’ve done this. Miraculous, even. But the fact that a creature like this has appeared so soon… And with you humans being…”]

She hesitated. I couldn’t keep from growling, “Look, just say it. You’re an A.I. and we’re stuck with each other, don’t make this weird, okay?”

To my surprise, she smiled, [“Well, when you say it like that. I may have to report to my supervisor that humans are far more aggressive and adept at warfare than most species we’ve run across. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I’m not certain, but suffice to say that they would be much more interested in ensuring your survival going forward.”]

Daniel caught that, “So they’d be interested in us being useful, you mean?”

[“Exactly, that would be ideal.”]

“Not necessarily,” Fran cringed, along with Alice who seemed like she was imagining something akin to a forced military.

[“Ah, I’ve caused you some discomfort. Please, keep in mind that there are laws against enslavement of a species, even in spite of the biotic presence on many worlds. I and these obelisks are also here to stay.”]

I let out a sigh of relief without realizing it, “That’s good. Say… we wouldn’t happen to be able to cash in on any matter energy off of all that, would we? Considering we did just set a galactic record?”

Sis glowered at me, [“Well, I don’t normally do so without a kill… but… you’re right that I should reward achievements when they’re earned. Here, take this, all of you, but don’t complain to me about the amount. I’m not supposed to give you things for almost killing biotics.”]

I kept my mouth shut on that one. It did make some sense, even if I wanted to poke fun at her for it. “Oh, by the way, why didn’t that thing get detected?”

[“It hides behind the amalgamated parts, the wolves, and hides its signature. It looks like a bunch of wolves running around together on my sensors.”]

“That’s… fun.” I groaned. Finding this thing in the future would be a pain.

[“Oh, don’t worry, now I have a lock on its signature, it’ll be much harder for it to hide. But, it might go farther out now that it’s survived your encounter. In any case, I have to go, always busy. Good hunting… Oh, and good job.”] She smiled, beaming blue energy before she vanished.

“Feels good to be congratulated.” Daniel sighed in relief.

I smiled, “And better to be paid.”

We each got 500 M.E. even. Now we could get Alice some more gear.

On that note… “Alice, why didn’t you use a single one of those arrows?”

“Err… I forgot.”

“Right… Let's work on that.”