Standing beneath the spinning helicopter blades, I can’t help but turn around and watch Nemesis stand. She’s as massive as I remember, shedding building debris as she pushes her massive girth up, until she’s standing nearly twice the size of the building I’m standing atop.
I’ve been in a similar position more than once before. But this feels different.
Nemesis feels different.
And that’s when I realize I am feeling her. Not like before, when I touched Maigo, but just a hint...like an instinct. I feel her anger. Her hatred. Her loathing.
And then, she feels me.
Nemesis’s giant head turns down, looking at me. Her eyes, I think, they’ve changed. Where Nemesis used to have almost human brown eyes, they’re now lifeless and glowing orange, like the membranes covering her neck, chest and torso. There’s nothing of Maigo left in the monster, which means there is no affection left for me. No protection.
“Oh, shit,” I say, just a moment before Collins wraps her arms around me and wrenches me back into the chopper.
“Go, go, go!” Collins shouts, and the chopper pitches to the side even as it lifts off, pulling us west, across the roof and away from Nemesis.
The goddess of vengeance roars. I’m pretty sure everyone in the helicopter shouts in pain from the sound, but I can’t hear anyone, not even myself. Looking out the side window, I see a giant arm swooping down. The massive hand, tipped with five long, hooked claws, will pass through us like we’re nothing more than air. We will simply cease to exist.
The roof fades away below us, and the swinging arm strikes the building, disintegrating it and all those horrible experiments. A shockwave rattles the chopper, but we’ve made it out of range, thanks to the building’s sacrifice. But that doesn’t mean we’re out of danger. Nemesis doesn’t give up easily.
But then the giant flinches, her arm snapping up to something on her chest.
A Tsuchi.
An elephant-sized Tsuchi, with its tail poised to strike the orange membrane on Nemesis’s chest, unknowingly dooming us all.
20
Raw anger boiled through Nemesis. Her blood felt like acid. Her skin, fresh and thick, squeezed her body, making every movement a fight. But she was alive, and the world around her assaulted her senses.
The pain that had awakened her had numbed some, but she still felt as though something had been stolen from her. Part of her body. Her essence. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The entire world and all its misery washed over her. Crimes committed around the globe filtered through her mind, lighting fire to her synapses and bringing back memories of tortures at the hands of those who...attuned her to injustice. She could feel them all. The murdered. The raped. The enslaved. The atrocities of mankind fueled an ancient furnace that flickered to life and then burned white hot. She would smite them with glorious vengeance until the injustice and misery broadcast by every wronged person fell silent, or until there were no more people left.
But there was something else, something missing. She felt...alone. And cold. And unrestrained!
Nemesis twisted her body and stood. She met a momentary resistance, but then she shoved against it, and like everything she encountered, it yielded to her might. The metal roof sheared away, and Nemesis saw the sun. She also felt a sudden and ripe burst of injustice, just above her, dangled out like a treat. She opened her jaws and snapped them closed, uncaring that she’d consumed both wrongdoer and victim. She felt the tiny bodies in her mouth, and she crushed them with her tongue, silencing their blaring moral foghorn. Millions more remained, but the nearest of them was—
As she stood to her full height, more nearby voices reached her. Hundreds of them. All coming from the building below her. She turned her head down toward the offending structure. So many voices in one location, all crying out for vengeance, could not be denied.
Then she saw him. A man standing on an adjacent roof, eyes turned up. He was afraid, but he did not cower from her judgment. Memories of this man returned in flashes, but she didn’t understand them. The places and words and emotions associated with that face lacked meaning. All she felt for him was indifference, and while he did not deserve her wrath, many of those cowering in the building beneath him did.
Nemesis raised her massive, armored arm, the dark gray skin between the thick plates bending and flexing. She watched the tiny man run toward an awaiting helicopter. She didn’t direct her blow toward him, but she didn’t try to avoid him, either. He was simply a curiosity. Something from a past she no longer felt anything about.
The building provided no resistance for her strike. It crumbled beneath her massive claws, as though it were little more than air, but it did provide her some relief from the anguish oozing out of its walls. The voices within were silent now.
After unleashing a victorious roar, Nemesis noted the small man still lived, carried away through the air. She watched him for a moment, able to pinpoint his tiny face, framed by a window in the moving vehicle. And, for a moment, she felt something. It was fear, but not just for himself. He was afraid for them both. But why—
Then she felt it.