With each searing exhale, Mercy could feel her feet throb with pain. She couldn’t tell if it was from drop kicking the legion while going near 90 kilometers per hour or that she had just ran 4 blocks barefoot at her top speed. Reggie had initially wanted the both of them to meet up with the team together, but something must have made her nervous because she told Mercy to catch up with the team as fast as she could and gave her directions on where to find them. Mercy knew her shoes wouldn’t hold up if she did, so she left them with Reggie, despite her being hesitant to let Mercy leave like that. After seeing how things were going, Mercy was glad that she had gone on ahead, but she knew there was no way that was going to be enough to stop the legion, as it was already working to untangle itself. She looked behind her to where she had dropped the rifle case, about ten or fifteen meters back. When she went to stand up, her legs seized, still overheating from the sprint here. Realizing what she was doing, Boris ran over to the case and retrieved it for her, setting it on the ground beside her.

“Thank you for stopping it before it gutted me.” His eyes were studying her body, trying to parse what machines were inside her. She pulled the case toward herself and threw it open.

“Where are we with dealing with this thing?” Mercy tried to lift the rifle, but her arms began seizing too.

Fuck, I pushed it too far.

“Captain contacted the blockbuster and they’ll be here in a bit.” Mercy’s body was scorching. She struggled to take off her work jacket.

“How long’s a bit?” Mercy watched Boris direct his focus away for a moment to check his messages.

“Fifteen…maybe ten minutes.” Exhaustion began to hit Mercy hard. 

Would’ve been nice to eat that curry before we left.

As Mercy continued to fight with her jacket, she felt a tug from one of her sleeves. Turning to see Boris was trying to assist her, she worked with him to free her arms. He promptly removed the jacket and tossed it on the ground beside the case. Mercy could feel the trapped cloud of heat around her dissipate and it became much easier to breathe again.

“Are those, what is word…stomata?” Mercy turned to Boris, perplexed by what he was talking about. He pointed to her shoulder where a series of plastic rings adorned her skin.

“Oh…uh yeah. They’re…they help me...”

“Breathe without moving so you are still while sniping?”

“Yes! Yes, exactly!” Boris nodded in approval.

Mercy looked back toward the legion that was beginning to get on all-fours. She saw Henry, slinking away from it, not taking his eyes off it. When he got a few meters away from the legion, he got on his feet and headed toward her and Boris. Holstering his pistol, he took a look at the bottom of her feet.

“What happened to your shoes?” He looked around to survey the area.

“Burned up while I was running.” As Mercy cooled off, she could feel her limbs relax. 

Henry gave her a look that suggested he was not impressed with her joke. He began taking off his helmet and work equipment while Boris remained focused on the legion. When he got to his undershirt, he ripped the sleeves off and began tearing them into strips. He reached for her leg but paused, looking up at her. Staring down at him, she realized she hadn’t gotten a clear view of his face since it had been mostly obscured by his helmet.

Henry had a series of parallel scars across his left cheek and he had a bit of gray coming in. She noticed the tip of his left ear had been severed, and it clearly lined up with the scar just beneath his eye. His eyes were a pale gray, almost ghostly. He was tired, but he didn’t seem ready to quit. Seeing that she wasn’t resisting, Henry lifted one of Mercy’s feet and began applying the scraps of his shirt to them like boxing wraps.

Mercy’s mind drifted to a small grassy hill. It was called a park in the loosest sense of the word, containing a single picnic bench, a barbecue pit and a dozen or so shrubs with a lone tree. Despite its paltry offerings, to Mercy and her friend, it might as well have been a jungle. On that day, she sat on the grass crying as her freshly skinned knees stung. Her friend approached cautiously.

“I’m sorry! Are you okay?” Mercy glared at the dog girl wearing a striped t-shirt and overalls in front of her.

“No! You pushed me, you poop head!” Her words were broken up with sobs. Her friend knelt beside her and examined the tender injury.

“Does it hurt?” Mercy attempted to shove them but couldn’t quite reach.

“Go away! I hate you!” The girl started to cry too.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t… I didn’t mean to…” Her bawling made whatever she said indecipherable. Mercy felt her throat tighten. Her friend was always tough. She had never seen her cry, even after the time she got in a fight with some of the older kids. Wiping angry tears from her eyes, Mercy moved close enough to hug the girl.

“Please don’t cry. I don’t hate you.” The girl wrapped her arms around Mercy and she felt the girl’s head rest upon her shoulder. Mercy could feel her shirt sleeve become wet as the girl continued to cry.

“I’m…I’m s-sorry I hurt you. Pl-lease don’t be angry.” The girl squeezed Mercy tightly. “I don’t want you to stop being my friend.” Mercy squeezed back.

“I’m not going to stop being your friend, dummy!” Mercy grabbed the girl by the shoulders and shook her. “Did I say I wasn’t your friend anymore?” The girl’s gray eyes twinkled.

“You…you still wanna be friends?”

“Duh!” The girl’s tail wagged as her face lit up.

“Really!?” Mercy rolled her eyes. 

“Yes!” The girl wiped the tears from her eyes and grinned. Some of her baby teeth had fallen out but her adult ones hadn’t finished growing in.

“Okay, cus I wanna be your friend too!” The girl got to her feet and extended her right hand. “Come on! Mom got cute band-aids! They have unicorns!”

Mercy took the girl’s hand and the world began to spin. Everything was hot and loud as Mercy was pelted with sharp objects that scraped and cut her skin. She couldn’t breathe or see. Her friend's hand still gripped hers, so she held on tightly. Mercy screamed for her to hold on, but it was so loud she couldn’t hear herself.

After a few moments of unmitigated chaos, Mercy finally hit the ground and was winded. She was choking, struggling for breath, but she never let go of her friend's hand. Not knowing what else to do, Mercy balled up her free hand and punched herself in the chest as hard as she could. With a heavy gasp, she was able to inhale again, but the air was now full of dust and smoke.

Mercy laid on the ground, coughing and sputtering, trying to catch her breath. Everything was still spinning and she had double vision. As she lay there, she tried calling for her friend, but realized she couldn’t hear. Reaching for her ears, she felt something warm and sticky. Bringing her hand into view, she saw the blood on her fingers. Mercy called again and squeezed her friend’s hand again, but they didn’t respond.

Fighting against the dizziness, Mercy sat up and took in what happened. In front of her was a crater and a world on fire. There were people running around: hurt, scared and panicked. There were other people, but they weren’t moving. Many of them were missing… parts. Looking at the crater, Mercy saw a large red splatter right where they had been. Mercy turned to look at her friend, but only saw she was holding an arm.

Confused, Mercy looked around, but didn’t see her friend anywhere. She brought the arm closer. It was the same size as her friend’s. The fur was even the same colors. Cradling the arm that was growing colder, Mercy summoned the strength to stand up and stumbled to the steaming red splatter. She fell to the ground where newly exposed rocks jabbed into her knees. She barely felt them as she stared at the splatter. 

Mercy could make out meat and bone that still seemed to move. It smelled freshly cooked, but it was off-putting, like something deep inside said she should never want to eat this. As her eyes inspected the splatter, they stopped on an eye surrounded by wet, red bone. The eye, though pristine, lacked the glint of life, but Mercy could never forget its shade of gray. 

“Cassidy?” Mercy felt the tears pour down her face.

“What did you just say?!” Mercy took a deep breath and found herself back at the Quiet Commons apartment building. Henry was looking up at her. He seemed shocked.

“Did… did I say something?” Mercy brought a hand to her face and felt the tears.

“You said someone’s name? Do you not remember?” Mercy wiped the tears away.

“Sorry, I just… you reminded me of a friend I lost.” Henry continued to cast glances at her, but finished bandaging her feet.

Mercy collected herself and took in her surroundings. Boris stood vigilant, blocking the legion from sight. Turning to her left, Mercy saw Aimee and Luke huddled around Sasha. He was sitting up, but he looked a million miles away. Reggie was nowhere to be seen.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Henry turned to Sasha.

“His link wasn’t broken with the zodiac when the legion killed it. No telling how that’ll affect him, but Luke’s got enough training to take care of him.” 

“Tee…tee...tee…” Henry and Mercy turned back to the legion. Its body groaned and scraped as it tried to stand up despite the various parts of it getting jammed.

“So…it’s still going…” Henry got to his feet.

“Like I said, they don’t stop till they’re destroyed or they run out of people they have data on.” He offered his right hand to her. Mercy began to reach for it but paused, almost being sucked right back into the past. With a deep breath, she took hold of Henry’s who lifted her with surprising ease. Mercy felt a surge of pain radiate from her feet as she put weight on them, but she stood firm.

“Tee…tee…tee!” The sound of ripping metal and plastic filled the air as the legion ripped apart its chassis to fully stand up. Mercy watched viscous golden fluid pour over its tattered shell of a torso. In the exposed joints and connections, she could see rotting flesh and shards of bone. Mechanical wires and tiny machinery weaved and worked its way throughout the body, artificially animating the dead flesh with movement. Mercy gagged as the stench of corpses reached her, but held her vomit down. She watched Henry put his helmet back on.

“Mercy, I didn’t expect your first day to be anything like this. Can’t imagine a worse start for this line of work.” He reached for his pistol. “Honestly, I find this job kinda boring most the time. Just wandering around the city, lookin’ for people or doing odd jobs. Most of the people we look for either give-up or just run. Not many put up a fight.” More mechanical arms bearing garden tools began protruding from the legion, but it remained with its back to them. “Probably hasn’t helped that you’ve had your own problems going on today.” He drew his pistol and Mercy began eyeing her rifle, still sitting in its case. “If you want to leave now before it comes for us, I wouldn’t blame you.” Mercy almost felt insulted.

Fuck that.

Kneeling down, Mercy grabbed the spare magazines from her case and put them in her pockets. Front left was the shredder ammo, front right was shock, and both back pockets were standard ammo. She pulled back the bolt and loaded the magazine she had used earlier. Sliding the bolt forward, she heard the familiar clicks of the next round being loaded and she switched the safety off.

“You know you don’t have to do this?” The gun felt heavy now that she’d strained herself, but Mercy held it at the ready.

“You’re right, but I want to.” Henry trained his pistol on the legion. 

“Well, not sure what else this thing’s got left, but it’s not going to hold back the moment we start shooting it.” Mercy could hear Henry’s pistol creak as he squeezed it. “Ready?”

The legion swayed, its newly sprouted appendages seemingly throwing off its balance. As it began to turn, it stuttered as parts of its body continued to catch on one another. Mercy brought the rifle to her shoulder and steadied it. Just as the legion was about to face them, it paused. They waited, but all it did was stare up at the building.

Why did it stop?

Mercy looked to Henry, who also seemed confused. He quickly turned to check the building before returning his attention to the legion.

“I see movement on the fourth floor. Can you see what it is?” Adjusting her position, Mercy looked through the rifle scope at the hallway of that floor. Quickly scanning it, she caught some movement through a window. It was Patricia.

Oh shit.

“It sees her!” 

“Tee…tee…” Hollow metal tubes began extending from the legion’s body. Boris was perplexed.

“What are those?” The legion promptly answered the question as a revving noise began to emanate from its body. A glow started to fill the tubes. Mercy’s eyes grew wide.

“Are those fucking rockets!?” 

“TEE!”

With a roar, streams of condensed fire erupted from each tube. The whir of whatever engine powering them increased as the flames grew brighter. Mercy and Boris shielded their eyes, but Henry, protected by his helmet, rushed forward. Mercy couldn’t make out what he was doing but she could hear the legion begin lifting off the ground. 

The legion lagged in the air for a few moments before the whirring grew even louder. With a final roar, the legion was catapulted into the air, soaring to the apartment building. No longer being blinded by the rockets, Mercy and Boris scanned the environment. The garden and lawn were utterly torched with flames decorating various plants, but Henry was missing. Mercy and Boris exchanged a confused look before a panicked yell directed their attention skyward.

As the legion flew towards the apartment building, dangling from one of its remaining tendrils was Henry.