Stray Cat Strut Chapter Sixty-Two - Quick Thinking

Chapter Sixty-Two - Quick Thinking

During the early 2010s, several companies ran this advertising campaign that encouraged people to na their children after a brand or corporation.

These children would, in theory, benefit from discounts and rebates while shopping at those locations.

Of course, that backfired spectacularly when most corporations forgot all about that by the ti those children were old enough to purchase things themselves.

--Interview with Walmart 'Walt' McDonalds, 2034

***

I have a plan, I said.

That was quick, Gomorrah said.

The plan is that Ill jump out of this car and summon a giant warch so that I can fight and hold off the aliens while you keep bombing the ground around , I said.

Gomorrah paused for a long few seconds. I see now why the plan was quick.

Hey, its got decent odds of success, I think. We need to slow down the advance of those bastards, and thisll let the vans continue to drop bombs along the shoreline. The vans were coming around for another bombing run already, continuing the line that wed started already. Gomorrah and I had left them to it and were racing to where the antithesis were actually coming from, about a kilotre and a half further down.

Fine, Gomorrah said. Dont die.

I grinned. I wont, I promised. Myalis, how far can that ch you were talking about drop from, and can you summon it with inside?

I see where youre going with that line of questioning, and while the attempt does sound spectacular, it also sounds foolhardy. The warch I proposed earlier can drop from a height of seven tres without any issue. Above that it will suffer increasing amounts of damage from the fall. As for the summoning, yes, I could summon the vehicle around you in mid-air. Or you could politely ask Gomorrah to swing down and drop you off at ground level.

I groaned, but she was probably right.

It wasnt nearly as badass though, to be dropped off than to jump out of a moving car, summon a warch around , then land with that. Gom, can you drop off... about over there? I pointed to a spot so fifty-ish tres from the shore. There were so wooden piers over the lakeside where the water ended at a cet of cent walls. The piers stretched out over the water, and there were so restaurants nearby using them as sitting space.

A few smaller models were already pulling themselves over the edge of the pier. Dog-like model threes, so tentacle-covered assholes too, and of course, a bunch of model ones were flying right out of the water and into the air for a short distance. A flock of these were hanging onto the rails, like seagulls on a wire, only worse in every way.

Gomorrah brought the Fury down low and quick, the hood popping open to release a flathrower which did flathrower things to the nearest aliens.

I waited for the fire to die down before stepping out. Stay safe, I said.

Youre the one going out there, she said.

Yeah, but Ill be fine, I said as I clicked the door shut. The Fury rose up past in a wash of broiling air and I was left standing in the circle of burning pier over increasingly agitated waters. Gonna wanna back up a bit, I said to myself.

Are you ready?

How much is this going to cost? I asked.

The more you put into it, the more youll get out of it.

That was fair enough, I supposed. Whats my point total right now? I asked.

Current Points: 37,634

I let out a long breath. What was that big model? The really big fucker that I saw with the Kittykopter.

That was a model twenty-eight. It is worth six hundred points if you manage to kill it. A rapid estimate suggests that the entire value of the antithesis column moving in your direction is close to twenty-five thousand points.

I worked my jaw, then watched more model threes start to climb up onto the pier. No ti to waste, then. Myalis, sink twenty K into that warch, and make it fucking fantastic.

Understood. Summoning a Mark IV chcatular Nyanzerfaust. Prepare for arrival.

Wait, its called the what? I asked.

Then I was interrupted by a glimr from above. By the ti I started to look up, the thing was already crashing down onto the ground next to . The burst of wind from its passing kicked up the flas all around and its landing buckled and splintered the pier, sending wooden planks flying into the air.

New Purchase: Mark IV chcatular Nyanzefaust

Points Reduced from 37,634, to 17,634

The robot was three tres tall and twice as long, all black and chro and pent up violence. Its eyes lit up, pink and bright then the light washed out across its entire fra, skimming along its sensor-whiskers, then along its mane and through its body. It flashed as it reached each individual paw and glowed faintly for a mont as it touched the thagomizer on the chas tail.

It was was several tons of composite, alien armour and corded artificial muscles, and it looked like it could fuck any antithesis day up.

The ch turned its head my way, locking eyes with , then it bent down in a feline bow, the plates along its neck hissing apart to reveal a seat surrounded by control surfaces nestled deep within the chas body.

Ah, fuck yeah, I said. I dont know what Im feeling, Myalis, but its a good feeling.

Its a little disturbing, actually.

I planted a foot on one of the slid-back armoured plates, then leapt up and into the cockpit. Just dont tell Lucy.

That you were turned on by a multi-ton warch?

...Actually, maybe Lucy would understand, I admitted.

The cockpit and the ch imdiately linked up with my augs and my vision filled with a confusing ss of commands and controls. Fortunately, the one to close the cockpit was dead centre, and I tapped it.

The armour slid back into place, and the inside closed up fully. I could feel it going airtight with a faint pop in my ears. Then a whisper-quiet hum filled the space around and the air started to taste different.

The seat shifted suddenly, and I almost gasped before I realized that I was ant to be laying on my stomach, legs braced into a pair of holes and chest pressed up against a soft cushion. My hands naturally fell onto a pair of joysticks surrounded on the outside by dozens of buttons, and the world around opened up as a projected screen ca to life.

Fuuuck, I muttered. This was so top-tier sci-fi b-movie shit. Uh... how do I pilot this?

It has an autopilot, though it is designed to be fully controlled by the person riding within it, otherwise you might as well exit the vehicle and just let it fight on its own without any added weight.

Ouch, I said.

There are tutorials built into the ch to teach you how to fly it.

How long do I have before that model twenty-eight shows up? I asked.

Approximately two minutes.

I nodded. How longs the tutorial?

Significantly longer than two minutes, Catherine. This is a full-on stealth capable warch. Piloting it without assistance makes piloting a modern main battle tank look like riding a tricycle. The upside is that the wide control range ans that a pilot can do so spectacular things with a vehicle like this one.

I ground my teeth. Sure, letting the autopilot take care of things would be fine... but I really wanted to do the piloting myself. It was too cool not to be sothing I wanted. And I could just imagine the ladyboner Lucy would get once she found out.

Do you have one of those implantable knowledge things? I asked.

For a few points, certainly.

I rolled my eyes. Really, Myalis?

Actually, the Mark IV chcatular Nyanzerfaust cos equipped with its own learning architecture. All youre missing are the neural uplinks to truly make use of it all.

Fine, I said. But nothing too intrusive. Call it two hundred or so points? Im feeling cheap right about now.

New Purchase: Internal Neural Uplink System

Points Reduced from 17,634 to 17,434

What Myalis got ca in the form of a small, boxy syringe with the words PRESS TO FOREHEAD written on one side.

I did just that, and imdiately felt a wave of cold washing over my head, like a sudden brain freeze. Little tendrils raced across and out of the box, and I almost ripped it away only to realise it was stuck there. Then my head vibrated for just a mont and I was hit with a sudden sense of deja-vu.

System installed. There should be a new jack along the back of your ears. Youll find a connector on the ceiling, jack it in.

I felt at the side of my head and found what she was talking about, a tiny pinprick hole that hadnt been there before. Wait, did that drill through my skull?

Just a little bit. Dont worry, its stronger than it was before.

I frowned as I tugged the jack out of the ceiling and shoved it into place. There was a noise, like connecting one of those old aug cables, then... then I felt myself.

My vision doubled. I was at once in the cockpit, and also seeing out of the eyes of the ch.

I moved my arm back into place, then raised a paw.

Whoa, I said.

This... was fucky.

And unfortunately, as the pier exploded out around , I was out of ti to explore that fuckiness.

***