She tucked her arms back, dropping and picking up speed, as Obsidian opened his arms and legs wide, slowing down in preparation to deploy his chute. She ducked her head, zipping right under the big man, and then, with a quick spin, turned and faced him, reaching up and grabbing hold, adding her weight to his own.
“The fuck!” the man yelled. She couldn’t see his eyes behind the mask, but she imagined they were twisted up with fear. And that made her happy.
She looked ahead, her view upside down. They were rapidly approaching Nemesis’s head as the creature kicked its way through heaps of debris, closing in on the Tsuchi, which now seemed confused. As Obsidian tried to shake her off, Lilly extended her claws into his armor and reached between them with one hand, triggering the man’s rapid deploy chute. It burst up, filled with air and then snapped them to a stop—just twenty feet above Nemesis. But the Kaiju was moving fast. She’d be beyond them by the time the chute lowered them the rest of the way. Lilly reached up and swung her claws out, cutting through the cables. She and Obsidian fell the remaining distance. Lilly landed first, catching Obsidian and putting him down on his feet...on top of Nemesis’s head.
If the monster felt their arrival, it showed no indication.
And if Obsidian felt any thanks for her catching him, he didn’t voice it. Of course, he hadn’t really reacted much to her hitching a ride, either. In place at the landing zone, he was already going to work, extending his suit’s claws and removing the bacteria bomb from his waist. She was happy he was the one doing it. Nemesis might be a killing machine, but she could see Maigo still felt a connection to the monster. For the sake of their relationship, she didn’t want to be the one ultimately responsible for the Kaiju’s death, but she also couldn’t ignore what she felt was her duty.
After leaving Island 731 with Hawkins, Joliet and Uncle Bray, Lilly had felt lost and alone, hiding from the world on a Ute reservation. Then came the FC-P, with Kaiju and action, and she helped save Washington D.C.! She might still have to hide from the world, but she was also living. Really living. And being part of this team meant everything to her. It was their job to protect the world from the weird, and that’s what she intended to do. But in this case, she was happy Obsidian was the one pulling the trigger. And while he set the bacteria bomb, Lilly watched the Tsuchi stumble through the city.
It’s working, she thought. The bacteria is eating its brain.
Lilly’s heightened senses suddenly warned of danger. She ducked and spun around, claws extended, muscles ready to spring. Black tendrils reached out for her, snaking out of a weird-looking opening where Nemesis’s neck met the head, just above the massive carapace that hid her deadly wings. It looked like a slimy, orange cocoon of some kind.
It wants to pull me in there. But why?
She backed away, bumping into Obsidian. “Hey, watch your—” He stood suddenly, eyes on the tendrils reaching for them. That also happened to be the same moment the Tsuchi twitched its legs out and caught Nemesis in the gut. The Kaiju pitched forward, flinging Obsidian from her head. Lilly reached for him, but the man fell down, straight into the waiting jaws of the Tsuchi, which, despite its melting mind, was still eating everything, and everyone, that it could.
Lilly lowered herself down, clinging to Nemesis’s warm flesh. She checked the bomb. It was counting down. Fifty seconds left.
As Nemesis righted herself, the three-hundred-fifty-foot-tall behemoth came level with the now windowless thirty-fifth floor of the KPMG building. Lilly sprang out, leaping the fifty foot distance, but she fell several floors before reaching the building’s exterior. She caught hold of an empty window frame on the thirty-third floor, the impact knocking the air from her lungs. She dug in her claws but felt the ruined wall giving way. Before she could fall, a pair of hands reached over and took her arm. “I have you,” said a man with a thick Mexican accent.
While most of Lilly’s cat-like features were concealed by the tactical suit she wore, her hands and face were exposed. The man showed a moment of surprise, but then started pulling. Lilly reached up and put her claws into the floor, pulling herself up. The man helped, but he couldn’t have pulled her all the way inside by himself. Inside, they both fell back onto the floor.
“Are you like a super hero or something?” the man asked.
Lilly smiled at the man, who was dressed in a blue uniform sporting the logo of a cleaning company. “Let’s go with: ‘yes.’”
Nemesis’s massive form moved past the building, her arms grazing the facade and peeling it away. The whole structure shook, but instead of running away, Lilly moved to the open window and watched. Nemesis dove forward, landing atop the now twitching Tsuchi, its brain and insides being turned to putty. The impact rattled the building top to bottom. Lilly watched as the sister Wells Fargo building, already weakened at the base, swayed back and forth.