“Helping,” Endo replied.
“Helping who?” She didn’t want to have to subdue Endo, too, if Jon had sent the man after her. The city below was the last place someone should be unconscious. Even conscious and running, the odds of escaping the Kaiju battlefield were slim...that was, if the two giants ever got back up. She stole a glance at the Tsuchi, still on its back, still clutched in some kind of rigor. But then, a limb twitched. The Tsuchi was waking up.
“Maigo!” Endo says. “Follow me!”
Endo banked to the left and dove, swooping down into the tan cloud of pulverized city. Not seeing any other clear path, Maigo did her best to mimic Endo’s maneuver and half glided, half fell after him. She nearly plowed into his back, but snapped her wingsuit open wide, caught the air and glided beside him again, just four hundred feet from the ground, which was steadily approaching.
“Look for...her light,” he said, coughing from the air.
The air didn’t bother Maigo, either because she was accustomed to worse—a Kaiju’s breath was repulsive in a way she couldn’t explain—or because her stronger body and lungs resisted the irritation better.
Maigo looked ahead, using her powerful vision to cut through the darkened ruins below them. Then she saw it. A faint orange glow. Then another, and another. Maigo finally recognized the glowing pattern as the side of Nemesis’s neck. On the ground. Unmoving. But still glowing. Still burning with unspent primal energy.
She motioned toward the light with her head. Endo looked, but didn’t see it until they had cut the distance in half.
They glided straight toward the massive neck. It wasn’t a small target to land on, but this was Maigo’s first attempt. Endo seemed to know that, too. “I’m going to deploy my chute first. I’ll need more time to land. But you can take a hit. Deploy at the last second, and you’ll hit your mark. Ready?”
Maigo glanced forward. They were just three hundred feet from Nemesis, moving at a 100 mph. She didn’t have a choice. “Ready!”
A hundred feet from Nemesis, Endo’s chute exploded out, catching the air and yanking him back. Maigo slapped her chest a half second, and half the distance later, when impact seemed unavoidable. The chute burst out, filled with air and yanked hard on her body for just a moment, before she collided with the armor-plated carapace that was Nemesis’s back. A strong, hot wind took hold of the chute and dragged her across Nemesis’s back, slamming her into the towering, bone-like blade extending from the creature’s shoulder blade. Maigo used the momentary pause in motion to detach the parachute.
Endo, smaller and weaker—lacking Maigo’s Kaiju blood—landed beside her, on his feet. He detached his parachute in time for the wind to carry it away from him. He did it with the same ease someone else might open a door and step through, but looking much cooler.
He smiled down at her obvious admiration. “Let’s move.”
A rumble of movement spurred both into action. Nemesis was waking up.
“Move it,” Endo said, running over Nemesis’s massive back, toward her head. He looked like an ant running over a person. As Maigo ran, she realized she was seeing the world through Nemesis’s eyes, her mind mentally preparing for the coming perspective shift. Right now, she was still just another ant.
She caught up to Endo as they ran over the rough folds of thick black skin and armored plates. Then she saw it, thirty feet ahead, at the base of Nemesis’s skull. It was an opening big enough for a person. Black tendrils were already stretching out toward them.
Before they made it another two steps, Nemesis took a deep breath. Her back flexed up into the air, pushing up on their legs. It felt like gravity had suddenly tripled. Endo and Maigo both dropped to their hands and knees.
“Hold on!” Endo shouted, extending the claws on the fingertips of his gloves and digging into the thick skin.
Maigo realized she was wearing the same kind of suit and extended her claws with a grin. This was what it was like to be Lilly. But then the ground fell out from beneath her. She shoved her arms down and caught hold before Nemesis’s exhale pulled the creature’s back out of reach. Maigo snapped down and slammed into the back, watching smoke and dust spiral away from Nemesis’s breath. With a constant vibrating rumble, Nemesis lifted off the ground. A moment later, the level floor beneath Maigo began angling up.
Nemesis was standing.
“Hurry!” Endo shouted, starting up the rising incline.
Maigo started up after him, but the shaking was so intense that each step was a battle. They were within fifteen feet now, the black tendrils frantically snaking. Endo paused, watching them slither back and forth. She couldn’t tell if he was horrified or mesmerized.
The angle suddenly sprang up to vertical. The sudden motion pulled Endo free with a shout. Maigo reached out, caught him by the arm and pulled him back. He dug in his claws, clinging in place.