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Thump.

I snapped my head around, reaching for my gun, and found Caboose on the floor, sitting up and looking around with a dazed expression.

"He fell off the couch." Shadow sighed, picked up her kitten and placed him on her lap. He purred, walked over to his previous spot at the front edge of the cushion, curled up and closed his eyes. Shadow shook her head. "He never learns."

I managed a quick smile before returning my attention to the big screen on my living room wall. It showed a constantly moving first-person view of a staircase as Dad hurried down to the ground floor, followed by Mom-T.

<I'm going in the front door,> Mom-C reported in, having already landed on the street.

<Wait till we get there,> Dad said. <Taura, you still watching the internal cameras?>

<Yes, Jack. Theron hasn't moved. He's still talking with McHugh.>

<Good. Adam and Jamie, cover the rear exits in case any of 'em try to get out that way.>

<We're on it,> the two robots said in unison. My parents' comm implants picked up the rhythmic clanking of their feet as they scampered around to the back of the nightclub.

<Quietly,> Mom-T said.

<Right. Sorry about that.>

I caught myself gritting my teeth. I took a deep breath, let it whoosh out and tried to relax.

Seth leaned over to put his arm around my shoulders. On the couch, Marissa reached over to take my hand.

"Try not to worry," she said. "This isn't their first op."

"I know." I shrugged. "But they're my parents. How can I not worry?"

"They outnumber Theron's guys and he doesn't know they're coming," Otto said. "They'll be okay."

I nodded and kept watching the screen. My parents had gathered at the front door and were currently flashing their badges and pushing their way past the bouncers. They strode through the crowd, weaving carefully past anyone in their way to avoid causing a disturbance and tipping Theron's people off. No one tried to stop them until they got within twenty feet of Theron's table--then his bodyguards materialized from out of the crowd and blocked them.

"Outta the way," Dad said, holding up his badge. "We're gonna have a word with your boss." As he spoke, he swept his gaze over the four people in front of him. One human and three anthros, all of them big and muscular and possibly using cybernetic enhancements. And if they were cyborgs, who knew what kinds of weapons they had built into their limbs.

"Not gonna happen." The one on the left--a lion model with a long, black ponytail--growled and shook his head. The other three moved closer to him and crossed their arms over their chests.

Both of my moms rolled their eyes. Dad sighed.

"Come on, you don't want us to start playing rough."

Mom-T looked away for a few seconds and her face took on that slightly distracted look she always got when she was using her implanted computer system to hack into something. She grinned and leaned forward to whisper into the lion's ear.

"Tell you what--you let us through and we'll ignore the warrant that was put on your ass for assaulting the guy you caught banging your wife."

His jaw dropped, but he stood his ground. Though whether it was from loyalty to his boss or simple shock, I couldn't tell.

She dropped the capper on him. "Not only that, but we also won't tell your wife about the Model X212-B companion 'bot you were humping for three months before your wife decided to cheat on you. According to the transaction record, its name was Hunny Bunny."

Dad laughed. "Well, isn't that just fucking adorable?"

Mom-C grinned. "I bet that'd make the divorce really interesting."

He stared at them for another long moment, then he kinda sagged and shuffled out of their way. The other three stared at him with varying degrees of disgust.

From the way the image moved, Dad was shaking his head.

The lion glared at him and muttered, "Fuck you."

"You're not my type. But don't worry, you still have Hunny Bunny." He turned back to the other bouncers. "So, do the rest of you want to get out of our way, or will Taura have to dig the skeletons out of your closets, as well?"

They shook their heads and backed off. My parents stepped past them and headed for Theron's booth.

"Wow," Seth said. "I gotta be sure I stay on her good side."

I managed a brief grin. "Got some dirty secrets?"

"Maybe he can show you in the back of your van." Otto wiggled his eyebrows. Seth blushed.

Thump.

I spun around and found Caboose on the floor again. He looked around slowly, as if confused, meowed and returned to his spot on the edge of the couch cushion.

"Little dumbshit," Shadow said under her breath as she picked him up and moved him away from his precarious position.

He promptly wriggled out from under her hand and curled up on the edge again.

Shadow sighed. "I give up."

I chuckled and faced the screen again. On it, my parents had reached Theron and were now blocking his escape routes.

"I'm sure you know why we're here," Dad said. "I really hope you resist. You tried to kill our kids, so we'd love an excuse to tear you apart with our bare hands."

Theron sighed, shook his head slowly and stood. "That won't be necessary. I'm ready to go."

I frowned. I'd expected him to put up more of a fight. What was he up to?

"Arrogant son of a bitch," Otto muttered. "Acting like he has the right to decide whether or not to be arrested."

"Well," Shadow said, "as long as they bring him in before he can hurt anyone else, it's all good."

Theron nodded at his bodyguards and waved them aside. "Let them pass. My attorney will contact you if necessary." He turned to McHugh, still sitting and flicking his narrowed eyes from Theron to my parents and back. "We'll finish our conversation later."

"Oh, no you won't." Dad stepped between them. "You'll have no further contact with this bastard, McHugh, or we'll haul your ass in, too. And if he's hiring you to take out our daughter, you'd be much better off turning the job down. If you get anywhere near her or our son, we'll kill you--and that's only if she doesn't beat us to it."

McHugh scowled at him, but was smart enough not to mouth off.

Mom-C grabbed Theron, spun him around and cuffed him, then she and Mom-T dragged him away. Dad covered Theron's henchmen as they left, staying between the goons and my moms, not taking his eyes off McHugh and the others until they'd passed through the front door.

<Got him,> Dad sent to the rest of the team through his comm. <Jamie, come on around front for the pickup; Theron's gonna be riding in your trunk. Adam, you're on escort duty.>

<We're on our way!> both 'bots said in unison.

"That was too easy," I muttered.

"Maybe he realized how outgunned he was," Seth said.

"After all the shit he's done already? I doubt it." I kept watching the screen, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Thump.

I looked over my shoulder and found Caboose on the floor again. He blinked and looked around, yawned and sat there for a moment.

I looked back at the screen. The end of my tail twitched. A few seconds later, Caboose scurried over to stare at it, then he took a swat at it. I managed to ignore him until he pounced on it and sank his teeth in.

"Shit!" I pried him off and handed him back to Shadow. "Try to keep him away from--"

Shakira leaned forward abruptly. Her eyes flicked back and forth, as if scanning the walls of my apartment--or, rather, something beyond the walls.

Great. Here comes the other shoe.

"I'm picking up comm chatter," she said, standing. "It's scrambled."

That could be a lot of things. City police searching the neighborhood or prepping for a raid. Government agents like my parents' unit doing the same. Corporate security. Military.

Or a bunch of Theron's people descending on us.

"Maybe Theron's a decoy," Sledge said softly, as if speaking too loud could bring the thugs crashing through the door. "Maybe that's why he came out of hiding and didn't put up a fight. What if he wanted our parents to find him?"

"Oh, hell," I growled, standing and drawing my gun.

"I'm checking the street cameras." Shakira stared off into the distance for a few more seconds. "There's a big moving van parked across the street. Shit, the doors just opened and people in armor and helmets are swarming out."

"They armed?" Otto said.

"Oh, yeah--and they're heading straight for this building."

"If they're smart, they'll come in through the doors and windows at the same time." I headed for the door. "We'll be sitting ducks in this confined space. Get up, everyone--we need to get the hell outta here."

#

We made it to the elevator at the end of the hall before the shit hit the fan. The doors parted just before we reached them, revealing four people in armor and helmets. They froze for an instant, probably not expecting to find us right in front of them--but then they recovered and aimed their guns at us.

I grabbed Sledge, yanked him back and threw myself in front of him and my friends, whipping my wings out to block them from the goons' view. I snapped my Glock up to draw a bead on the point man's helmet.

In the corner of my eye, Otto's left hand shot out, palm held up toward the guys in the elevator. The air between his hand and the thugs rippled, as if a shockwave had fired out of his palm, and all four of them lurched backward and hit the wall like a freight train plowing into a stalled car. Bones crunched like a fistful of fresh celery stalks, the wall behind them cracked and bowed outward, and the men crumpled to the floor.

Sledge leaned around me and stared at them. He turned his wide eyes back to Otto. "That...was awesome!"

"Well, the elevator's probably hosed." Shakira waved a hand at the back wall, which had a dent big enough to at the very least scrape the shit out of the shaft on the way down.

"Better not take any chances." I headed for the stairwell, opened the door and waited for everyone to dash through it.

"Some of 'em are probably on their way up the stairs," Shakira said as she passed me. She and Otto took the lead and I brought up the rear.

We kept quiet as we descended the stairs, all of us quite aware that our echoing voices would draw the attention of any assholes on the way up to us. And we ran into them about halfway down--six more black armor-clad bastards carrying machine guns, and this time we didn't catch them by surprise.

I pushed Sledge, Marissa and Seth to the floor and crouched in front of them, trying to protect them while at the same time making myself a smaller target. Even crouching, I was big enough to give them plenty of cover.

They stopped on the bottom of this flight of stairs and aimed up at us.

Otto held his hands out again.

Shakira leaped off the top step and landed right on their heads. Only one of them had time to get off a shot, and it punched through her "skin" and bounced off her metal skeleton before she crashed down on him.

The man farthest from her managed to avoid the pile-up and pointed his gun at Otto. He pulled the trigger and a burst ripped out so fast that it sounded like paper tearing--only a hell of a lot louder, of course. The bullets perforated Otto's shirt, turning it into Swiss cheese in barely a second and drilling into the wall beside me.

Otto's shirt and pants appeared to slide down through his body, ending up in a pile on the stairs. "Damn it," he grumbled, floating up a few inches to get completely out of them. "I still haven't quite gotten the hang of that."

The thug's blank faceplate stared at him for a long moment as Shakira tossed one of the others over the rail, sending him tumbling to the ground floor. Otto raised his hand, making a sort of lifting gesture, and the guy launched up into the underside of the stairs over our heads. After the impact, he went all ragdoll and dropped back to the floor.

I took my gaze away from him just in time to see Shakira finish off the last of the goons with a punch that cracked his helmet like an egg. The rest of them were already sprawled at her feet.

"How the hell did you do that?" Marissa said as Otto picked up his pants and put them back on.

"Same way I put my arm through your body. The bullets passed right through me. Unfortunately, so did my clothes." He shrugged. "I've never managed to get it right, though--to let the bullets or whatever go through me, but solidify fast enough to keep my clothes on."

"Let's keep moving before more of 'em come up to see what's taking their buddies so long." Shakira took the lead again, and Otto grabbed his shirt and slipped it on as he caught up with her.

"Those were some pretty nice moves, Shakira," Seth muttered.

She grinned. "Always bet on black"

We got to the ground floor, going around or stepping over the body of the guy Shakira had dumped over the rail, and paused at the door leading into the lobby.

Shakira watched the door for a few seconds, and held up two fingers. A second later, she pointed at the door.

Swell. Two more of 'em, and they were right on the other side.

I nudged her shoulder and she moved out of my way. I raised my right foot and rammed it into the door, snapping the bolt and slamming it into the two goons. When it had opened wide enough, I squeezed through and found them sprawled on the far end of the lobby. The top hinge, I noticed as I ran over to them, had been torn clean off the frame.

Oops. On top of everything else, I wouldn't be surprised if I got billed for the damage.

I grabbed one of the men and dragged him along as we headed for the exit. Once we were out of there, this motherfucker was gonna tell us who he and his buddies were. I wasn't gonna give him a choice.

The other one moaned, pushed himself up on one elbow, and reached out for his rifle.

Otto leaned over, pulled the guy's helmet off and touched his forehead. "Nighty-night, asshole."

The guy grunted and slumped over.

I glanced at Shakira before reaching out to pull the door open. She shook her head.

"There's more of 'em out there, but not very close. We'll at least have a chance to get to your battle wagon."

I nodded and looked at my brother, Shadow, Seth, and Marissa. "Stay between us and the building." My van was parked in the near corner of the lot beside my apartment complex, so it could've been worse. At least we wouldn't have to cross the entire lot and add another ten seconds to the amount of time we'd have to try not to take a hail of bullets in the back.

We got about halfway there before Shakira looked off to the left and shouted, "Get down!" She gave my shoulder a push that sent me stumbling into my brother and friends. I threw my arms around them and lunged, carrying them maybe four steps before a shockwave knocked us flat.

I rolled over and raised my gun, then froze at the sight in front of me--Shakira's torso, only a couple yards away, pulling itself away from what was left of the lower half of her body.

Shadow gasped and clamped her free hand over her mouth.

Caboose's fur bristled and he hissed and squirmed, trying to slip out of her other hand.

Shakira looked down at the mangled edge of her torso and her mouth dropped open. "Fuck!"

Otto, laying face-down a few feet away from her, pushed himself up and shook his head. He turned, took one look at her, and yelled, "Oh, shit!"

"Keep going!" I grabbed her arm and hoisted her onto my back. "Hang on!"

They bolted toward my van and Shakira put her arms around my neck. Otto and I planted ourselves between them and the half-dozen armored scumbags slowly approaching us, keeping their guns pointed straight at our chests. The one on the far right was holding a pocket-rocket launcher. Shakira must've thrown herself into the rocket's path to prevent all of us from ending up as clouds of charred meat.

"Don't move!" one of the men said, his voice amplified by his helmet mic.

Slowly, methodically, but very likely with my building rage showing clearly on my face, I checked the clip in my gun to be sure that it held armor piercing rounds, shoved it back in and strode toward the one who'd just spoken.

"Uh..." He exchanged quick glances with the others. "Don't--stop right there!"

I didn't stop until I was close enough for the barrel of my gun to touch his faceplate. I had no idea why he didn't pull the trigger. Maybe he was just that scared. Or maybe he didn't have the stones for it; if you threaten someone and don't follow through when they ignore you, you lose any control you might've had over them.

"Run," I growled.

They looked at each other again.

"I said, run!"

Another second or two passed, then the leader shouted, "Blow this bitch's head off n--"

I didn't hesitate. One quick twitch of my talon and a stream of blood spurted from the back of his helmet and he dropped as if his strings had been cut.

At the same moment, Otto used his mojo to yank the guns from the others' hands. They reached for the sidearms on their belts, but Otto took care of those, as well, leaving them standing there and staring at us through those blank faceplates.

I drew in a deep breath and roared, "Run!"

They stumbled back a few steps, flailing their arms, turned and bolted. I had to fight the urge to shoot each of them in both ass cheeks before turning and sprinting back to my van. I handed Shakira off to Otto and he jumped into the back, joining the rest while I squeezed in behind the wheel and started the engine.

"Bloody hell," Marissa gasped, staring at Shakira. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"I've had worse, believe it or not." Shakira shook her head. "I just hope my insurance will cover this."

I winced. "Damn. I should've picked up that guy I was planning to question. We could've found out all their names. Then we'd know exactly who to bill for your new body."

"Eh, it's probably better this way. If those guys were just the first wave, you might've gotten blown away if you'd stopped to grab him."

"Maybe." I spotted one of our attackers getting back to his feet as I headed for the street, and swerved toward him. He heard the rumble of my engine and turned around, then backpedaled. I grinned and held up my middle talon just before his helmet cracked open on the grille and his body fell under the tires. Ka-thump, ka-thump. The van rocked up and down and side to side twice in rapid succession, and everyone braced their hands against the walls.

There's something deeply satisfying about knowing that the last thing the fucker ever saw was me flipping him off.

Once we were on the street, I accelerated and shifted up, wondering if it was too early to sigh with relief.

"Will it take long for you to get...repaired?" Marissa said, still staring at the twisted and jagged ends of Shakira's spine and other components.

"I've still got my first cybernetic body. It looks a lot more robotic, but I keep it around in case I need to switch back into it temporarily. Which has happened a few times."

"Ah." Marissa was silent for a few seconds. "Oh, is that the one Otto once described as a cross between the FemiSapien and Briareos Hecatonchires?"

"Yeah." Shakira chuckled. "When I lost my original body, there wasn't time to wait for a custom one to be built; I had to take the first available one just to stay alive." She shrugged. "Luckily, they had a female one. Ending up in a mechanical body was traumatic enough; I don't think I could've handled being stuck in a male one."

"Yeah," Otto said, "that would've made things a little...awkward."

Before I could interject a smartass remark, something slammed into the side of the van. Something big. Big and heavy enough to cave in the driver-side wall and knock the whole thing sideways. It teetered on its passenger-side tires for a moment before toppling over. I spun the wheel to the right, but not fast enough. A second later, it scraped down the street on its side, shooting sparks everywhere until it ground to a halt.

"Everybody okay?" I shouted, sliding out of my seat and plopping onto the passenger door.

"Oh, just fucking peachy," Shakira mumbled, her voice muffled by the pile of bodies tangled in the rear compartment. "Marissa, would you mind getting your tits out of my face?"

"I'm trying. Someone's on my back."

"That's me," Shadow said. "I think. Christ, what happened?"

I shoved the driver-side door open and pulled myself up over the edge. The first thing I saw was the huge dent in the side of my van. "A truck or something must've hit us." I looked around, but couldn't find any other damaged vehicles nearby. The only cars in sight were ones that had screeched to a stop when we skidded out into the middle of the intersection. Doors opened and the drivers got out.

"Anybody hurt?" one of them called out.

"Ow," Shadow said, "Sledge, you're on my wing. Ow!"

"Sorry!"

A leathery flutter drew my attention and I turned around. It had sounded like a draconid's wings. "Shakira, have you contacted my parents yet?"

"Yeah, a few minutes ago. They're on their way."

Maybe I'd heard Mom-C landing, then. But if it was her, she would've run straight up to us, or at least said something to me. Maybe it was just someone who'd seen the crash.

I dropped to the pavement and leaned over the doorway, reaching in to help the others out. Seth was the first to grasp my hand and let me lift him out. He parked his ass on the side of the van for a moment, ran a shaking hand through his hair--then he leaned forward and kissed me. I froze for a second, then went with it. When we parted, his eyes were almost wide enough to fall out of their sockets.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't even know I was gonna do that."

"I don't mind." I grinned and swatted his ass. "Hey, just so ya know, I'm willing to fuck on the first date."

He burst out laughing as he dropped to the street and leaned against the van. "I needed that. Though, technically, this is our second...uh...oh, shit."

"What?" I looked at him and found him staring at something behind me. I turned and found myself looking at someone's chest. I craned my neck until I could see a face--and there was a huge draconid with dark green skin and an almost alligator-like muzzle towering over me. He had to be at least ten feet tall, and his muscles had muscles of their own. He had to be an older model, maybe one of Biotek's first generation; they haven't made any of us that big in a hell of a long time.

"Now I know how everyone else feels." It must've been his wings I'd heard a moment ago.

Before I had a chance to wonder if he was there to help, he raised and backhanded me, moving as fast as lightning. The impact against my chest was followed a split-second later by the impact of my back against the van and then by the sharp thud of my head on the pavement.

In the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the van spinning off to the side, heard the voices inside screaming--then everything just faded away.