They Called Me Madder: The Mad Series Book 2

by Pal, J

  I didn’t tell my friends, but my hopes were riding on the pylon and my technopathic abilities. If I found a way to control the alien structure instead of taking it down, perhaps we could use them to track down family and lost friends. I bet if I tinkered some more and got Pallav in the base, removing the limiter would become a possibility.

  After settling in, one of our primary tasks had been to organize all the materials we had brought with us and cataloging what the base had to offer. After toying around a while with the Upgrade menu, I found a perfect set-up for Liam. Using a couple of McGuffins, I could get the 3D printer running for him. Then using it and all the materials we had available, he could build his own drones and turrets for the building. The new printer would use all materials as long as we could provide them in a liquid state. Following some experimentation, we figured out that included the biometal.

  Kitty was disappointed when I declared that the first two McGuffins would go to Liam. However, she changed her tune when I took her down to the basement and read out the Hub Core menu to her. For the price of one McGuffin, rubber sheeting, hoses, and fertilizer, I could transform the second floor into a D-rank Farm. Due to it being within the Nurturing Field, the interface informed me that it would give us C-rank output and, as a System-made structure, would require a lot less work. Then as we got more resources, we could upgrade it to meet the needs of our Hub’s population.

  We spent our second day in the new base clearing the second and third floors. We first let Liam pick everything he wanted and helped move it all up to his new home on the top floor. Then we kept whatever I needed for crafting and the rest went to the Hub Core. Even though it declared biomass as its preferred building material, it happily accepted a variety of materials for crafting.

  The Hub Core let me designate roles to certain floors, and a few of them didn’t have any cost. So we designated the third floor as our living quarters. Much to my surprise, the interface let me redesign the floor’s layout. For the time being, I decided not to make too many changes besides adding a few beds to the larger offices as well as a few shower rooms. Kitty and I had spent our first night in our new home sleeping on couches. Deciding not to make any assumptions about our sleeping arrangements, I made a separate living space for her. Whether she wanted to use it or not was up to her.

  By day two, the Caretaker Drones had made a ton of progress. They had food ready and preserved for when the eggs hatched. The Nurturing Field kept them nourished and pushed the little guys to go beyond their duty. The creatures had put together mental enrichment exercises to keep the infants stimulated when they hatched. Watching them at work got me excited about getting more drones to take care of the building’s upkeep. Once we had a Farm up and running, we’d have Farmer Drones to watch over it. I wanted a few Cleaning Drones and Security Drones too. Liam wanted to take care of the latter, but it would have to wait until we got the necessary materials.

  “What happens when we run out of meat?” Kitty asked one afternoon after we’d finished lunch. “Have you seen any animals besides monsters?”

  “Well, if there are dogs and cats out there, there have to be others that survived too. There might be other creatures out there with edible flesh.”

  “I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Kitty said.

  “The challenge will be finding it. Using the Menagerie and the Farm, we could grow animals for eating. It’s just not a priority right now.”

  “It will be once the freezer is out of meat and we struggle to get iron in our diets.”

  “Considering it’s just the two of us eating right now and the size of our stocks, we don’t need to worry for several months. I’ll keep it in mind, though. Kitty needs her meat.”

  The statement got a good laugh out of her, and it was just what we needed to reset the building tension. Kitty kissed me or held my hand from time to time but never let things escalate any further. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it: things were getting a tad difficult for me. She was an attractive young woman and had a strength about her I hadn’t encountered before. However, after losing two people dear to me, I found myself hesitant to push for anything more. Besides, we had time now. There was no reason for us to rush or jump into anything.

  All of that went out the window when she joined me in my room that night. I expected her to vent at me for following Liam’s project first or explain her reasoning for keeping a distance. Instead, she stripped and joined me under the covers. We didn’t talk.

  My mind wandered while we were together. This was all too nice. We were facing monsters and a superior alien race that would soon make us their target—if they hadn’t already. Yet the three of us had spent the day enjoying our new home and now this. It all felt too good to be true. Perhaps this was the calm before the storm.

  Chapter Six

  Where Is She?

  I hoped Knurven had kept his word and cut away from us during the night. From what I understood, the channel didn’t just focus on me, but all three of us. Hopefully he’d cut to Liam when Kitty had started peeling her clothes off. I don’t know whether she’d accepted that eyes were watching our every move as an inevitable part of our life or if there was something else going on. She had established that she didn’t want to talk, and I realized that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

  The next morning we were feasting on my favorite breakfast in the world—French toast—over the sink when the building shook. It wasn’t like the vibrations from when the Hub Core had transformed the building. Instead, it reminded me of day one when our section of the city had dislodged from the ground and flown up into the sky. This felt like a truck had rammed the side of the building.

  The building got darker all of a sudden, and a loud metallic thud echoed through the building. It took us a moment to realize it was the metal shutters. Liam must have figured out a way to control them and triggered it as soon as we got hit.

  After enjoying the morning in bed, we had wandered down to the kitchen ravenous. I had my goggles on me, as I refused to go anywhere without them, but the rest of my belongings were still in the room we had shared. Kitty and I both ran up the stairs to get clothed. She hadn’t gotten much use out of the Shadowskin coat yet, since she spent most of her time in fights riding Morpheus. Besides the stealth and almost negligible defense, it had a mobility function too. It would take her some time to get used to it but had the potential to increase her survivability several-fold.

  “I need you up on the roof,” Liam said through the communicator built into the goggles. “We’ve got company.”

  “On my way,” I replied, pulling on my many devices while Kitty scrambled to get dressed too.

  “Get up there and help him, Winnie,” she told her stuffed bear golem when it tugged at her boots. “I’ll follow you upstairs on Morpheus.”

  “The elevator isn’t operational yet. Will he fit up the stairs?”

  “I’ll figure something out. Go help Liam.”

  We parted ways at the stairs. I headed to the roof and she to the ground floor. Kitty and I had talked about it, and we both agreed: it was time for her to get more equipment. We wouldn’t invest McGuffins in her yet, but it was vital that she learn how to protect herself. The focus would need to be mobility, with repelling or disabling enemies being secondary. Once she got more proficient with whatever weapon suited her, we would look into adding lethal force to the equation.

  A shiver ran up my spine and my nerves felt like they were made of rubber and had been stretched to their elastic limit. The System rewards had turned the base into a valuable commodity. What if the Alvans or one of their allies had the ability to inform people of what we had and our location anonymously? Bloody hell. I didn’t want to kill another human being. The anguish and rage from Rajesh’s death had sort of helped me deal with killing the invisible woman, but my conscience wouldn’t let me justify doing the same again.

  “What is it?” I asked at the top of the stairs. Liam was waiting at the landing. He had joined with both
of his drones to take on the large armored spider-bot form.

  “I don’t know,” he answered. “I didn’t want to head outside without checking with you.”

  “I should add some surveillance cameras.” The Charge Launcher’s barrel powered up, and I checked all my displays. As expected, everything except for my jacket’s repulsors were fully charged. Whatever it was, we’d deal with it together. Then we heard a deafening bang, and the building shook again. This time, it was hard enough to make me stagger. Liam’s eight legs kept him stable. “I’ll go out first with my barrier up. You follow gun blazing. Alright?”

  Liam gave me a digital thumbs-up before I threw the door open. We didn’t see anything as we ran through, but the chirping and screeching told us who it was. Large platyhawks flew above our heads, circling the building. One of them flew high up into the sky before diving. Its massive eyes were focused on us. I aimed at the creature and just fired.

  The projectile exploded against the platyhawk’s beak, covering the animal with arcing bolts of electricity. The creature’s eyes went blank and its tight form spasmed, running its trajectory. Still, I dove to the side, putting several meters between me and it. The creature struck the roof, shaking the building again. This time I was prepared. My stabilizers and conscious effort together managed to keep me stable.

  The creature tried to get up, but its twitching limbs gave way,] and smoke rose from its head. Liam reacted quicker than I did. He charged in. The barrel extending from his underside unloaded glowing projectiles at the creature one after another. A second barrel poked out, shooting pellets of poison too. Liam didn’t take time to figure out whether the beast was dead or not. He climbed on top of it and stabbed one of the spider legs into the platyhawk’s eye.

  Elite Platyhawk

  Unlike the younger and weaker members of the species, elite platyhawks have adapted to survive lightning storms. The sonic distortion is still too much for them, but they make up for it with their sturdy forms. It helps them survive falls and dive-bombs from incredible heights.

  Platyhawks already have incredibly powerful beaks and claws. An elite can easily shred concrete and carve up stone.

  I scanned the monsters flying above us as well. A third of them were elites, and one was similar to the creature we had fought before: an elite transitioning into a boss-class monster. Its scan data came with “Biometal” in the name. The beast’s wingtips and beak glinted in the morning light. That had to be the mate. It had come looking for its partner and had figured out the new residents had killed it.

  “Liam, my Charge Launcher is no good against these things,” I said. “Think you can fly up and knock them down?”

  “I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” he replied. “They’re dive-bombing us now. Any weaknesses?”

  “Sonic attacks.”

  A third barrel extended from Liam’s underside. The new one’s muzzle resembled my Sonic Shotgun. I didn’t think too much about what was going on with him or how he was morphing my creation. I focused on the three platyhawks dive-bombing us instead—one elite and two normal ones. Liam shifted into flight mode and shot up into the air. He got in the elite’s face, and his new weapon proved much more effective than my Charge Launcher.

  I fired the Charge Launcher at the two diving beasts. Unlike the elite, they interrupted their dive and swerved off course. I missed, but they were no longer coming for me. Instead, they flew after their falling elite. My energy bar dropped by five percent as I upgraded my goggles with a part I’d gotten from the last elite. It gave me the telescopic sight I was after. The elite was already dead. Even though he was in flight mode, Liam had extended two spider legs from his torso and clung onto the beast. I watched him pull a glowing drill out of the elite’s skull.

  There were nine platyhawks left: seven normal, one elite, and the almost boss-class. I pointed the Charge Launcher at the boss, took aim, and fired. It didn’t try to swerve out of the way. One of the ordinary platyhawks dove in front and took the shot. Unlike the elites, it didn’t resist the Charge Launcher’s shot. The creature exploded with the projectile, turning into a cloud of red mist.

  “Above you!” I exclaimed when the boss changed its lazy flight pattern and swooped towards Liam. He had set his eyes on the last elite and was advancing towards it—his cameras didn’t give him the ability to see directly above his dome.

  Following my warning, Liam swerved away from his target and zigzagged, trying to lose the creature following him. Unfortunately, it had more practice flying than he did. “Try the cell tower! It can’t get you if you stick close to it.”

  Liam followed my instructions, zooming towards the metal structure. He flew around the structure, sticking close to the metal bars. Much to my disappointment, it didn’t deter the monster. The creature flew straight at him, and when it missed, the bastard kept going. The metal-tipped wings and beak all glowed a bridge blue before it swept through the tower. My jaw hung open as the creature’s wing cut straight through metal like a hot knife through butter.

  I didn’t get the opportunity to observe Liam’s fate. The dumbarse that I was, I wasn’t watching the other platyhawks. Fortunately, it was one of the little ones who came for me. The creature fell on me with its claws extended. Even though they ripped through my lab coat, the contraption blocked most of the force. I fell on my bottom, trying to activate the repulsors, and got no answer from them. Then Winnie fell upon us, spiked arms swinging. I felt the metal humming millimeters off my skin.

  It was a struggle to crawl out from under them as the two wrestled. The creature tried to take off again, but my bear friend ripped at the wings, grounding it. I left them to their wrestling and rolled to the side, just in time to see the elite diving for me. It crashed onto the roof next to me, sending tremors through the floor. The beast recovered from the collision in a heartbeat and then charged at me.

  The Sonic Shotgun didn’t fail me. As my temples throbbed from the near-death experience, I activated the Pogo Heelies to propel myself backwards and it threw me into a neighboring wall. The collision knocked the air out of my lungs but got me away from the elite’s snapping beaks. I fired at the creature’s face, and it did an excellent job of putting my target down. The Barrier Projector activated just in time to arrest the charging creature’s momentum. The force filled up the shotgun’s charges. The creature threw up blood before collapsing in a heap and going still. It didn’t have the same resilience as the almost-queen and went down much easier.

  When I tried to get back up, pain shot up and down my back and hips. “Holy shit, that hurts.” I groaned, pushing myself upright. The other platyhawks were coming for us now, and I needed to be in fighting form. Then the door to the roof burst open, and Morpheus pulled himself through the opening using his massive metal arms.

  “About time,” I said as the golem shot me with a dart of healing fluid. It stung but didn’t compare to the ache from my fall. “Let’s take these pieces of shit down.”

  “This sucks,” Kitty growled. Neither she nor I could pin down any of the platyhawks. The projectiles were slow, and our targets flew much too quickly. No matter how hard I tried, the two crosshairs refused to line up. Perhaps my next upgrade needed a lock-on function. “We’re just wasting ammunition.”

  The sound of destruction rang out all around us. The almost-boss sliced through metal and concrete with its glowing, biometal-lined wings. Liam was doing an excellent job of keeping it away from our new home but hadn’t inflicted any damage to the pursuing monster. Unlike me, he had little trouble landing his shots. Unfortunately they did little to no damage.

  The projectiles from his McGuffin-powered nail gun pinged off the glowing body parts. “They’re just chipping the biometal lining,” Liam said. The only time I had heard him so panicked was when the elite mantises had attacked after Mama’s death. “The poison pellets aren’t doing much either, mate. What the fuck should we do about this bastard?”

  “Aim for the eyes,” I told him. “Those won’t
have the same protection, I guarantee it.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve tried that? It’s too fast. I can’t do jack without your help.”

  I didn’t know what to tell him. We were sitting ducks. The creatures were smart enough to know we’d put them down if they got close. So they stayed high above us while their leader continued to mince the surroundings. Occasionally one of them would scoop up rubble and drop it from above, trying to push us out of cover. Morpheus didn’t care, and, when necessary, I blocked the falling debris using the Barrier Projector. The device must have grown since its creation, because the attack only depleted a tenth of the bar.

  We needed to figure out something soon though. For all we knew, these creatures had greater numbers elsewhere and could return in force. Meanwhile, our weapons had limited energy. Liam and the golems could probably sustain a siege, but I couldn’t. No matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn’t figure out what to do.

  “Any time now, Matt.” The stress in Liam’s voice was building. “You established yourself as our leader and tactician. Now would be your time to shine.”

  “Lead him towards the building.”

  “That’s a stupid idea. It’s precisely what we don’t—”

  “If it’s close we can hit it where it hurts!” I exclaimed, saving the Barrier Projector’s charge and side-stepping falling bricks. “For your fat brain’s sake, Liam, you’re the only one who can fly. We’re not going to hit these monsters without a year of marksmanship training or smarter weapons. If you get it down here, I can hit it with the Sonic Shotgun or Morpheus can pin it.”