I zeroed in on a pair of humanoid shapes perched on one of the tiers in the building across from us. I attempted to push out my thoughts like with the voice, but received muted static in return. I could only hope that the creature who had been talking to me was more friend than foe and that the ‘they’ were the pair on the building.

The moment my thoughts bounced off the humanoids, they let out shrill guttural sounds, jumping down from about twenty feet high.

“Keep them at range! I am going to try to stun them, when you have a shot pelt them with everything! Marvin, hit the other one!” I shouted, kicking off and out of the building.

One of the mutants was similarly looking to the long armed woman we had seen in the passage. The other however, looked to be all kinds of bone; jagged shoulder blades and extra bones coated its arms and legs, while an exterior ribcage seemed to extend from its back into an odd bony chestplate. I chose the bone mutant as my target, hoping the ATC would be able to at least hold and drain the less armored one.

I ran full tilt towards the bone monstrosity. I held my wrench out in front of me, ducking just in time as it threw bone projectiles at me. I had to weave twices as it slowed my forward momentum with its ranged attacks. While not as strong as I wished, I pulled the move I had used on Starden’s ATC. The swing connected as I slid to a stop on the stone street. I felt the impact reverberating through my arms, stronger than when I had hit the ATC.

I heard crunching from the mutant’s joint as it halted its advance. Before I had a chance to stand back up, it had grabbed the back of my armored suit. I felt myself get launched into the air. The creature was not necessarily fast, but it had superhuman strength. In the second or so that I was in the air, I tried to get my bearings.

Delta and Beta had been forced to engage the long limbed mutant while the others threw rocks at it. I could see that Marvin was knocked over to the side, struggling to rise in its bipedal form. I saw the mutant swat the ATC back to the ground just as it was about to stand. The next moment I was sliding on the ground, sparks flying off my armored back.

I spread myself as wide as I could, trying to stop myself from having my slide turn into a roll. I had lost my wrench when the mutant tossed me, the only thing I had left was a wooden spike still wedged in my chest belt. I stood to my feet, the pain from the impact already fading. I felt my mind clear. Ever since the meeting with the mind speaking humanoid, the increased strength and vitality I had been experienced had come slightly more under my control.

I knew that the longer this fight went on, the more likely it would be for the bone mutant to use its ranged attack on the others. I gritted my teeth, wishing the others luck as I ran back to the grotesque bone monster. It was all I could do to move out of the way of the thrown bones, several striking my armor plating. The mutant seemed to be pulling out all the stops as it heaved a deep breath, the bones on its arms bristling like a porcupine.

I knew what was about to happen and with only a few feet between the two of us, I dove forward. Again, several bone shards glanced off my armor, but several more found purchase in the gaps of the plating on my back. I screamed, embracing the pain and remembering the feelings I had fighting the ATC. Shivers ran down my arms as my flexed muscles pushed the bone shards out of my body, spurts of blood flying into the air.

I gritted my teeth, roaring as I grabbed the mutant before it could shoot any more bones. My armored hands dug deep into its forearms, snapping bone all the way to the original human’s radius. The nails-on-chalkboard scream that erupted from the mutant caused me to flinch slightly. This gave it enough time to shoot out a bone shard dead into my chest plate, knocking me on my back.

“Come the fuck on you boney asshole!” I screamed, the last part of my insult turning into a roar as I leapt to my feet.

I tackled it, looping my finger around the outer rib cage as we fell to the ground. I pressed my foot on its abdomen and heaved up, breaking its sternum apart. I ignored the mutant’s screams and flapping arms as it tried to throw me off. I grabbed a hold of one of its ribs, ripping it from its body and ramming it through its bone plated chest into its heart. The flailing continued for a few more seconds as black blood coated the street and as soon as the flailing weakened I stomped on its throat for good measure.

I looked around for the others, hoping for the best after seeing them engage the long limbed mutant. What I saw surprised me. It seemed like my reckless fighting style had been passed to the others; Delta stepped on the mutant’s back and, with Epsilon’s help, tore its head off completely with my wrench. The pipe wrench must have slid over to the others when the boney bastard knocked me down. Not only had the others torn the mutant’s head off, but it was bleeding from several places and one of its long arms was bent in a series of painful angles.

I huffed my way over to the others as Delta and Beta helped Marvin to its feet. I retracted my helmet when the others did, all of us looking winded, but happy to have survived.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Epsilon said.

You are not done.

I turned to the direction I felt the mental pressure, finding the the humanoid from earlier standing on B1. What I noticed next forced me to reevaluate our fighting prowess. The humanoid was holding a multiarm in one hand as well as two long limbed mutant in its clawed set of hands.

The true monsters are coming.

It tossed the bodies over the side, coming to land a few feet from us. The rest of the Digits turned, alarmed at the mutant that had caught them off guard, yet not murdered them.

“There are more coming. Be ready.” The voice that came from the humanoid, clearly a mutated man, was as if three different people were harmonizing badly. I shuddered even more at its actual voice than its mental one, my skin crawling with every word.

Before the others had a chance to respond to the mutant’s shocking entrance, roars even louder than my own came from the direction of the city’s forests. We all swiveled.

Charging down the street were a pair of monstrosities. I had imagined that nothing could be more grotesque than the multiarm mutants or even the boney one, but the creatures coming towards us were amalgams of horror. One of them looked like an ape’s upper body had been stitched on a horse with spider legs sprouting from its equine back. The other was a blobulous mass of limbs that was rolling-crawling towards us on its dozens of limbs, an occasional human or canine face erupted from the flesh wall to snarl as it approached.

I felt the painful howling in my mind, the connection between my earlier thoughts and the monstrosities evident. I spared a glance towards the humanoid standing calmly a few feet from the group.

What are those? I thought.

Experiments.