We streak past the ruined Bank of America building, twinkling panes of glass still fluttering from its gutted side, and then over what little remains of those weird tennis-court-topped buildings. Ahead is a flattened hotel, office park and the 11o freeway, where the X-35 hovers, just out of reach. They’ve lured the creature onto the freeway to avoid more structural damage, but the many lanes are already clogged with vehicles. Traffic is stopped to the horizon in either direction, with most people abandoning their vehicles and making a run for it. Despite the X-35’s distraction, the Tsuchi continues its feast, plucking up fleeing people and devouring them whole. I can almost see the thing getting bigger. But the real problem is that it’s picking off people without looking.
It’s going to sense us coming. Our only hope is that people moving at 100 mph are harder to catch than those scurrying along the ground. I try to glance back over my shoulder in search of Nemesis, but I’m quickly pulled off course. I correct my aim back to the Tsuchi and fold my arms back, dropping down and speeding up. Lilly follows suit, her ability to watch and mimic other people making her look like a seasoned thrill seeker, which I suppose in some ways, she is. After living on an island fraught with danger, she’s been cooped up with the same group of people for a year. This must feel like a vacation. When she gives a loud, “whoop,” I’m sure of it.
When we’re within a few hundred feet of the Tsuchi, I splay my arms and legs wide, slowing down to make sure I hit the target, rather than flying right past. As Lilly and I slow, movement to my left catches my eyes. The long tail, pulling back from the Tsuchi’s mouth, is swinging around, the giant jousting lance pointed straight at my side. It looks like it’s moving slowly, but that’s just because it’s so damn big.
“Lilly!” I shout. My voice is lost in the wind, but Lilly’s keen hearing picks it up anyway. She turns in my direction, eyes widening as she sees the impending attack.
I’m about to fold my arms back and hope the increase in speed will help us dodge the attack, but Lilly has other plans. She angles her body to the side and then rolls up and over me. Before I can understand what she’s up to, I feel her land on top of me, her claws digging into my armor, locking us tight together. I don’t see or feel her tap the button beneath her chin, but the two small rockets at the back of her wingsuit kick on and launch us forward, and down.
As we rocket toward the Tsuchi, accelerating past 150 mph, I catch sight of the giant stinger, sailing past, uncomfortably close. Simply diving wouldn’t have done it. Lilly saved my life. Temporarily. We’re still about to become smears on the Tsuchi’s armored back.
Lilly’s claws retract and we separate with just five seconds left until impact. It takes me two to reach up and slap the button on my chest again, and another two for the rapid deployment chute to explode out and unfurl, catching the wind and snapping my descent to a 20 mph impact. The remaining second is stretched into five, thanks to the chute, but the impact with the Tsuchi is still jarring. I hit the solid plate hard on my side, slamming my head against it. The Tsuchi rises up for a moment, and I slide toward the ground, the chute catching air once more and then snagging on one of the monster’s many spines. I’m slammed back down again, a cowboy on a bucking Kaiju.
Hanging in place by my parachute, I toggle my throat mic. “We’re down! Back off, so this thing stops thrashing like there’s a bear trap on its nuts.”
“Copy that,” Silhouette replies, and the X-35 accelerates up into the sky, far enough away that the Tsuchi loses interest and settles back down onto all eight limbs. Silhouette’s voice returns a moment later, trying to conceal his surprise, but failing. “Uh, are you aware that Dark Matter Three is en route to your position from the coast?”
“Her name is Nemesis,” I say, trying to roll over onto my stomach. “And yes.”
With my hands and knees under me, I get my bearings. I’m on the Tsuchi’s back, but toward the tail end, which is the opposite end of where I want to be. But still, I wingsuited onto the back of a Kaiju. That’s pretty impressive on its own. Now if only I could keep up that level of awesomeness... I unclip myself from the parachute and am immediately thrown to the side as the Tsuchi turns its attention back to downtown Los Angeles, and eating people. I roll hard, reaching out, but I’m slammed against a spine and spun around.
Then, all at once, I’m locked in place. For a moment, I think the Tsuchi has reached up and caught me, but when I look up, it’s Lilly I see. With her talons locked into the armor’s porous texture, she stands easily, bending her knees to absorb the vibrations rippling through the thing’s back as it moves. Luckily, its eight legs mean the trip is fairly smooth.
Lilly grips the armor on my back and lifts me up. “Why are you here again?”
I squeeze my fists into balls, twice in rapid succession, the way Endo showed me. Hooked metal claws not too dissimilar to Lilly’s pop out of the finger tips. “Now we both have claws.” The DARPA climbing gloves are yet another high tech toy found in the X-35’s many compartments, which, according to Silhouette, “contain the most advanced equipment and weaponry that the world’s most elite covert-ops team could need. We have every potential situation covered.”