“No,” Ursula said. “My responsibility is to the nexus points and keeping them intact. If even one is destroyed, the integrity of the entire network is compromised. That is a bad thing—stuff of your worst nightmares bad. If you need to cut and run, I get it. I’m pretty the hellhound and I can do what needs to be done.”
“First off, I don’t ‘cut and run’ unless a strategic retreat is required, in which case, staying alive to fight another day is a sound strategy. Second, Peaches stays with me. If I go, he goes…with me.”
“Makes sense,” she said with a wide grin. “Someone has to keep the immortal safe, I guess.”
“You’re worse than Monty,” I said. “No one has to keep me safe. All I’m saying is let’s not rush into this without thinking.”
“Relax, Strong,” Ursula said. “I’m just yanking your chain. I’m serious about the points, though. I won’t…can’t abandon a point in danger of being destroyed, so we better make sure this thing doesn’t get close to the nexus point.”
“Understood,” I said, “We’ll keep it safe.”
“Good,” she said, looking down at Peaches. “Will he be okay?”
“Peaches is nearly indestructible, but I’m not playing tag with anything tonight. We get its attention and pull it behind a building if possible, to give Monty a chance to find the mage—if not, we get the hell out of Dodge.”
“I’m not letting it destroy a nexus point,” Ursula said, her smile gone. “If it manages that, we’re going to have worse things than a golem to deal with—trust me on that.”
“Where exactly is this hub, just so I know where to do my Gandalf Balrog move?”
“Your what?” Ursula asked, looking at me like I had grown an extra head. “Can you say that in English?”
“You know, ‘You…Shall Not…pass’?” I asked, spreading out my arms in my best imitation of Gandalf blocking the Balrog. “The Fellowship of the Ring? You’ve never read Tolkien?”
“Who?” Ursula asked. “Is he joining us tonight? Because from the feel of this thing, we may be here a while.”
“I can’t believe you’ve never read—never mind. If we get through this, I’ll make sure to fix that. Where is the hub?”
“Bowling Green. The structure is somewhat in-between like all nexus points, but it connects to our plane at Bowling Green, not far from here.”
“Got it, we can’t let it get to Bowling Green.”
“Is this Tolkien person joining us?” Ursula asked. “Because I’m sensing a serious energy signature.”
“Only in spirit,” I said. “This one is all us tonight. Well, us and your team, of course—how many did you say were on your team?”
“Two more.”
“Two more what? Two dozen, two hundred?”
“Two,” she held up two fingers. “Just two more.”
“Me, Monty, Peaches, and you and your team of three,” I said. “Against an unstoppable rock thing and a psycho mage?”
Ursula nodded with a grin. “Nothing is unstoppable.” She turned in the direction of the golem. “I almost feel sorry for them.”
The roar of another explosion filled the area, followed by the roar of the golem. I think I preferred the explosion. We were standing near South Cove Park, a few blocks away from where the World Trade Center once stood. and in the center of the park, moving toward West Street, was what I could only describe as a giant man-shaped rock creature.
Cracks ran along its body, revealing lines of what looked like magma, making its skin resemble an active volcano. It stood nearly twenty feet tall and was attempting to crush the NYTF who were dousing it with water and chemical solutions created to stop fires.
All that did was create steam and limit visibility. Another NYTF group tried to contain it with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, and I watched a volley of rockets sail into the golem and explode with no effect. They might as well have been throwing cotton balls at it.
The golem roared again.
“That’s our cue,” I said, moving closer and drawing Grim Whisper. “Let’s see if we can get its attention, at least.”
I unloaded the magazine. The entropy rounds punched holes into the golem’s body, causing it to turn and focus on me with another roar.
“Good job,” Ursula said with a nod, swinging her hammer. “Looks like you got its attention.”
“You plan on using that oversized paperweight? Or is it just for show?”
Electric arcs raced across the hammer’s surface and up her arm. I gave her some space in case she needed to discharge some excess electricity.
“Kirves isn’t for show,” she said, running at the golem. “Stay back.”
“I still can’t believe she calls that thing Curvy.”
<Can I go bite the rock man?>
<No. Biting means getting close, and I don’t want that thing to swat you like it did Bangers. I think you’re going to need to go XL on that thing.>
<XL? Do you mean get big?>
<That’s what XL means—extra large.>
<Why don’t you just say extra large? Are you saying I’m fat? Is that why you want me on an exercise program?>
<Can we discuss that later, when we don’t have a large rock creature about to squash us?>
<Going XL means my sausage needs to be XL, too. I think it’s only fair.>
Peaches bowed his head and growled. The runes along his flanks exploded with red light as the air around him became charged with energy. He shook his body, spread his legs, and barked—a real bark that left my ears ringing.
The sound deafened me for a few seconds as all of the windows in the surrounding buildings and vehicles shattered. Peaches increased in size, reaching XL status.
<Hit it with your omega beams. Blast it to bits!>
I pointed at the golem.
<MY BALEFUL GLARE DOES NOT POSSESS THE NECESSARY POWER TO RENDER THE CREATURE DOWN TO ITS COMPONENT PARTS.>
<Can you hit it hard enough to stagger, then?>
<THIS IS A VIABLE OPTION. HOWEVER, THE CHANCE OF THE WERE-CREATURE ENGAGING THE GOLEM BEING IN DANGER MAKES THIS COURSE OF ACTION PROHIBITIVE.>
<Fine,
