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Chapter 2 - Gotcha!

Something big and black ran across the wall. Then I heard a crash, and a long burst of bullets hit the wall. Brick chips flew in all directions, and a cloud of plaster completely obscured my view. The loud noises only made my headache worse, so I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth. 

The surface I was lying on began to tilt. I rolled over onto my stomach and crawled away. When I reached the wall, I tried to stand up, but fell down, causing the pain that had subsided to return with a vengeance. A knight in white armour landed on the platform.

 "No, not the Middle Ages...

 "What's going on?" replied a girl with a beautiful face hidden by a semi-transparent holographic visor. She wanted to say something else, but was interrupted by a blow from a scorpion's sting under her helmet. 

The shooting intensified. 

Another woman in armour came from the side, and I was able to get a closer look at her. She was actually wearing a high-tech combat exoskeleton with blades on her gloves and jet engines on her boots. Her body was covered with metal plates joined at an acute angle in the centre of her chest, and her helmet, or rather her helmet, was attached to her throat with a thick wire. Her arms and legs were unprotected but equipped with servo drives that creaked as she walked. 

 "Twelve o'clock! Faster, we've almost got her!" she shouted into her communicator. The woman in the exoskeleton glanced at me, but did not allow herself to be distracted like her predecessor. She trudged past. The platform with the corpse collapsed a second before the warrior stepped on it, causing her to hesitate, and then I heard her new order:

 "Retreat! Emergency meeting at headquarters!

With a long jump, she leapt over the cloud of dust and disappeared. Soon, the only sound was the ringing in my ears, but even that gradually faded away. The dust settled, and I realised that I was indeed at some kind of construction site. A new attempt to get up was successful. I had to figure out where I was and what was going on!

And also... 

I was definitely dead. And now I'm alive. My palms are small, and my feet are completely different from the ones I have to make custom shoes for, because factories don't make such large sizes. This is clearly not my body. Speaking of bodies, there's a corpse down there, and somewhere nearby is his killer. 

I wonder if I stand a chance against a creature that can run up walls and crack a human skull with a blow from its tail? That's not to mention the fact that, even in her reinforced exoskeleton with blades on her gloves, the female soldier was afraid to engage the creature alone. Although she seemed rather timid. She ran away for no apparent reason, even leaving her casualties on the battlefield. Examining the corpse revealed nothing new; her helmet was buried under debris, and I couldn't find any fasteners on her armour. 

Following soldiers who ignore civilians, abandon their own, and obey some woman seemed like a bad idea to me, so I headed in the other direction, deeper into the unfinished building. Everywhere I looked, I saw signs of battle, bullet holes, broken partitions, and, less frequently, concrete slabs with clean cuts. I got quite lost, but I didn't come across a single staircase, intact or destroyed, to search the other floors. After wandering around for another five minutes, I saw a hole in the floor. When I got closer, I heard moans of pain coming from below. Moving slowly and carefully, I walked around the hole in a wide arc and peered inside from the shadows so that my head would not be a dark target against the light background. Even if the person below was in a lot of pain, that didn't mean they couldn't hurt me. 

In the pit, I saw a black, chitin-covered body bleeding in several places. The figure was human, even more than that — female, slender, with large breasts and wide hips. Something white was visible under the chest. I moved a little and saw that it was a glove from an exoskeleton, or more precisely, a forearm with a hand, severed from the bones, tubes and wires. It seemed that one of the soldiers in exoskeletons had managed to wound the creature, but paid for it with a limb. Or maybe with his life... 

A dangerous monster. But beautiful! Damn, what should I do? She can take on at least four soldiers in high-tech armour, she hasn't died from a wound to the heart for twenty minutes, she has big tits, she...

What's there to think about? I have to save her! 

Jumping over the debris, I went down to the floor below and approached the wounded monster girl. She was about six feet tall, her face had no nose, but her eyes were larger than necessary, and instead of a mouth, she had powerful chitinous jaws. She had claws on her hands, over her human wrists, and a long scorpion tail behind her. And it was reacting to my approach! It was aimed at my chest and watching to see if I moved away. Okay, fine. I jumped to the side, and the tail slowly turned after me. It's clearly not in the best shape right now. If I get close, waiting for it to strike, it will be very easy to dodge. I rush forward, closing the distance, and the tail misses, cutting a deep groove in the concrete. 

I stroke the creature on its shoulders and arms, and its tail calms down and falls limply. It groans loudly and stops breathing. Without hesitation, I grab the stuck glove and pull it towards me with all my strength. It gives a little, then gets stuck again. After several attempts to pull the metal out of the wound, I notice that it is bent and there is almost no flesh left inside. 

The monster's jaws click loudly and begin to open. I hear labored breathing from inside. The monster's head continues to move from side to side, revealing the face of a red-haired, blue-eyed girl. So it's not a monster, but a person in a costume? Even more interesting...

I grabbed the open black flesh and pulled it in different directions. The suit gave way easily, and I pulled the naked beauty out of it. I laid her down on the floor, where it was cleaner, and began to examine her. Large, soft breasts... No, no, I mustn't think about that. Right now, her breasts were just getting in the way; she had been wounded somewhere under her left hemisphere. At the site of the wound, I found a whitish strip that felt slightly different from the skin around it. 

A hand fell on the back of my head. I looked into the girl's eyes, and they were dancing with sparks. She smiled and pressed my face into her charms. For ten seconds, I tried to understand what was happening, but I started to run out of air, so I squirmed and tried to break free, but I couldn't. She was holding me very tightly. 

 "Ha ha ha haaaaaa," she let me go with a hysterical laugh. 

 "What are you doing? 

 "What are you doing? I died in battle, and now I'm supposed to have an angel! Where are your wings???

 "Actually, I saved you. 

 "The Church of the Goddess promises every worthy warrior a personal angel after death! One who will do anything! And you...

 "Wake up, you're alive! 

 "Really? Are you alive too? 

 "What, you doubt it?

 "I was dying on the outskirts of the New York wasteland. Where would a real, living man come from here?

 "I was just passing by!" – this naked bitch is already starting to annoy me. 

 "Nonsense... You wouldn't have made it a hundred metres. If that?" She twisted around and grabbed my wrist.

 "Let go! You're hurting me!

 "You're stronger than you look," the girl let go of my hand, stood up, picked up a brick from the floor and crushed it into dust just by clenching her fist. 

 "Okay, stop! What the hell is going on here? Let's take this one step at a time! First of all, who are you?

 "Mary Jane Watson, third-level mutant, freelance stalker of New York City, and simply the most wanted criminal in this city. 

 "That doesn't make any sense. Let's try this another way: where are we?

 "An unfinished industrial area in Manhattan Harbor. Did you get here by boat? 

 "No. Tell me how New York became a wasteland.

 "When the people disappeared, this started... Oz Corp against the gangs of Vella Fisk, who is sponsored by Tony Stark himself! And then mutants like me appeared. It's everyone against everyone... I heard that half the population disappeared, but there's hardly anyone left here. It's a wasteland: few people, buildings destroyed, and monsters sometimes come out of the sewers.

 "What the hell is that?" I pointed at the scorpion suit. 

 "Oh! What happened to her?" Mary ran up to the pile of black chitin that her armour had turned into. 

 "She tried to kill me, by the way!

 "Of course! You're draining her energy." She bit her hand and dripped blood onto the chitin. A wave rolled over the suit and it froze again. 

 "I saved you. And what do you mean, 'sucking energy'?

 "We have a symbiotic relationship. And it seems" — she pressed me to her chest again — "with you too. Apparently, your touch makes me feel better. And her" — worse. 

 "Where did you get that suit?

 "All living weapons come from Oz Corp laboratories. There was a time when they were willing to equip anyone if they were Vella Fisk's enemy. And I'm not just her enemy, I'm a powerful mutant. They gave me the best they had.

 "And those women in exoskeletons?

 "Vigilantes. Fisk's personal army, mostly ordinary people, sometimes with enhancements. They're only dangerous because of their numbers and their weapons from Stark Industries. But after the Osborn corporation fled the islands, there were too many of them, and they crushed the resistance of the stalker clans. Many fled to the mainland, but I stayed." Mary looked sad.

 "Why did these 'invincible' vigilantes flee?

 "Really? I don't remember much after I took the second bullet. Retreating is not in their nature; they have iron discipline. Kill one, and another will take her place without hesitation. 

 "All right. I need to think. 

Damn it! Is this some kind of parody of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? And why are there so many women here? Has Disney gone so far with diversity in its latest films? No, I haven't seen the first ones, and I didn't watch anything except cartoons as a child... I glanced at Mary Jane again. This is turning into some kind of porn parody! 

Am I against being part of a porn parody? I was just about to be raped. And for some reason, I refused! Okay, screw reflection, let's leave that for later. I wanted an ally who could take out a squad of soldiers, didn't die from her wounds, and was beautiful to boot? I wanted it. And I got it! Well, everyone has their flaws. True, not everyone has the status of "terrorist number one" and indiscriminate choice of partners bordering on nymphomania, but I think I can handle it all. 

 "Can you restore her combat effectiveness?" While I was thinking, Mary tried to put the suit back on, but it showed no signs of life."We need to get the metal out, but these blades are designed to kill super-tough enemies. 

 "We need to get the metal out, but these blades are designed to kill super-tough enemies. If we pull harder, the glove will tear off and the blade will remain. The armour could push it out on its own, but your touch put it into hibernation, and now it won't regenerate until it's fully charged. 

 "And how do I recharge it?

 "With the carrier's blood. But I'm afraid even my regeneration won't be enough to give it enough blood.

 "Maybe feed it a corpse?

 "What corpse?

 "You killed several vigilantes.

 "They're just ordinary people, their blood won't help. 

 "That's bad. But I'll think of something.

 "Huh? What did you say?

 "Just thinking out loud. 

 "You don't need to come up with anything. By right of the strong, you now belong to me and must obey my every whim." Mary smiled sweetly and picked me up. 

 "You... What are you doing, you crazy woman? Put me down immediately and tell me you were joking!" I began to struggle with all my might, but her grip was too strong. 

 "You're the one joking, my little slave. Don't struggle, I have big plans for you!"

***

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