“Where the fuck is Bandit?” I asked, turning around only to find the little fox standing directly behind me, causio jump. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I s the little bot.

  “What? You think that si track that asshole down?” Helen asked.

  “There are half a dozen more outside in the armored vehicles,” I mumbled. “Unfortunately Bob and Spooky arely optimized to sift through all the sensory data that foxes transmit to track him effectively, so… Nyx, gimme a bear booster,” I said, holding out my hand.

  “Bear booster?” Helen asked.

  “Are you sure? That would put you extremely low on points,” Dusty asked.

  “But not critically, so do it!” I snapped.

  As soon as the rge ior appeared in my hand I immediately stabbed it directly into the side of Bandit’s head.

  “Jesus! What the fuck, Teddy?” Helen yelled as Bandit’s head spasmed bad forth violently.

  “Was that really necessary? It might have been slower, but Spooky probably could have hahe manhunt,” Nyx used Dusty to ask.

  “Maybe… but this will be much faster. Plus I have way too many bears, and not enough anders,” I replied, as Bandit slowly stopped twitg. “Plus he made fun of my hoodie,” I added quietly.

  “I heard that,” Nyx decred.

  “Are you ign me?” Helen yelled from behind Dusty. I ignored her and leaned in closer to Bandit. A sed or two after he stopped twitg, his eyes lit up and focused on me.

  “Hey buddy, you think you track down that fucktard whled out of here earlier? I know it’s probably too te, but I’d like to get to him before he talks to his superiors, so Nyx track his calls,” I said quietly. “Whether you mahat or not, we ot let him get away. Do what you o in order t him back alive.”

  “The wanker will never know what hit him!” Bandit replied with a smirk. He took off at a dead sprint, but skidded to a stop and walked back a few feet to take a thermal axe off one of the other bears before sprinting off again. A sed ter we heard a yell outside. “Oi! You lot, let's go!”

  I stared at the door for several seds. “Is it just me, or did Bandit have a strange at there?” I asked bnkly.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Helen asked.

  —

  In the sector over, a shadow slowly made its the side of one of the factories, sg the pipes in order to get to the higher levels. Progress ainfully slow, but this process was necessary. The lifts were far too crowded to risk getting actally bumped, or spotted, so that meant moviween levels manually.

  As soon as the shadow made it to the fifth floor it slipped betweeween a couple factories, using the back areas to move through the area unnoticed and unaccosted. After about ten mihe figure slipped into a blind alley, before raising a flrate that artially obscured by steam, and disappearing below.

  Only ohe shadow was below, hidden away in its tiny ir led between the maze of pipes, did the figure drop its adaptive camo. As the advaealth deactivated the figure reached up and pulled off the helmet.

  “Motherfucker, how the hell did the locals catch up with me so fast?” Marcus swore, cheg out his damaged helmet. “I don’t have a rept, nor the equipment to repair it. and isn’t going to like this,” he grumbled before chug the damaged helmet on the improvised bedroll. “No point in deying the iable.”

  He enabled his augs, switched over to one of the secure els and pinged his handler. Or at least he tried to. After a few seds the system failed and threw up an error message, ‘Uo ect.’

  “Useless piece of crap. Not only do I have to live in this shithole, but I ever get a signal. What is this? The twenty-twenties?” Marcus mumbled. He briefly sidered taking the time to ge into something less spicuous, but decided against it. The geezer always pined anytime he deyed rep ie this being a multi-week operation. Impatient asshole.

  Instead he grabbed a dirty robe and ed it around himself to hide the armor, before making his way back to the grate. After listening for a minute, he lifted the heavy grate open slightly, checked the surrounding area, then popped out.

  “Let’s try this again,” Marcus muttered as he tried to ect to the el again. The system cycled, dispying the ‘attempting to ect…’ message half a dozen times before it finally gave him what he wanted, dispying ‘ected to secure el.’ “Finally”

  [Clive, you there?] He waited a few seds, but didn’t receive any reply. [Yo, Jackass! You better be there, I have important information!]

  The el remained suspiciously quiet for several long seds before he finally got a reply. [I have everything I hank you for your cooperation. Bandit, if you would please…]

  “Fuck!” Marcus swore, as he cut the e. “How the fuck did someone promise the el? It’s supposed to be untraceable.”

  [Maybe for most people, but not for me] his augs fshed. Marcus froze. He’d already disected from the el, which meant that message went directly to him.

  “I’ve pissed off the wrong people… there’s a vanguard involved,” he muttered. “Shit! I have to get out of here.” As he turned back towards his hideout, he noticed a handful of figures standing at the end of the alley. They must have already been standing at the dead end when he emerged. Short, with massive ears.

  “Oi Mate,” came a quiet call from above him. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Fuck you!” Marcus spat as he extehe bde on his arm, sshing blindly at the figure above him. Before it ected, something lit up the darkness, a bright e-while light, and intercepted his bde. There was a brief sizzle, and just a moment of resistance, before his arm came back down, the bde melted off.

  “Idiot,” the figure mumbled before dropping down behind him, cutting him off from the open end of the alley. It was a stuffed animal ed in a camo cloak, but fully articute. Behind him Marcus could hear the ures start moving forward, probably pnning to apprehend him before he could escape. He could not let that happen. Marcus struck out, kig the stuffed animal in front of him, trying to make enough room so he could slip by.

  Instead of a stuffed animal, It was like kig a steel wall.

  The thing only moved back half a step, before brushing his foot away. “Quit it.”

  “Get out of the way!” Marcus growled, extending his other arm-bde and rushing the odd creature. The bde slipped easily into the creature’s neck, for about an inch, then came to a sudden stop.

  “What did I tell you?” the strange eared thing growled. It raised one arm above its head, holding some sort of axe in its hand. The o from a dull grey, to bzing white-e in an instant, and then the on desded upon Marcus’s arm. There ractically ance as the on cut right through his cyberic, severing it at the elbow.

  Marcus could only look at his arm in horror. “What the fuck?!?!? That was state of the art!” he yelled in surprise.

  “Well… ya shouldn’t have stabbed me then,” the animal scoffed. “Now hold still so I apprehend you properly.”

  “Fuck you!” Marcus spat. He turned back towards the grate. The other stuffed animals were still a few feet away, so if he could get it open there was still a ce he could lose the crazy things iunnels. At least, he could have if the axe didn’t strike out again, catg him in the knee. With only one arm to brace himself, Marcus smmed to the ground hard.

  “A… now you’re a right mess. I’m going to have to go bad pick up all your little pieces when I’m dohe creature chuckled as it crouched down by his head. “Ready to go quietly?” it asked, lifting his head slightly.

  “Go fuck yourself, monster,” Marcus muttered, spitting the blood in his mouth in its dire.

  The red, fuzzy thing just smiled. It was a smile that chilled Marcus to the bohe name’s Bandit, mate,” it chuckled befrabbing the back of his head and smming his fato the ground. As darkness started creeping into the ers of his vision, and sciousness started leaving him, Marcus heard it stand up. “I hope the hunt is more difficult,” it muttered.