Apocalypse Parenting

That can’t possibly be right. Several of our clients and potential clients had Challenge-eligible nestmates. Both Fluffy’s client and Greenfern’s have already spotted at least one such in their own arenas! It seems too improbable for that to have come about by chance.

– Radio transmission from Voices for Non-Citizens

As I raced toward Cassie, I was dimly aware that the Hispanic man who had started following my little group was only the first of several. There were other people who’d found each other, but we were one of the largest groups, and we were moving with purpose. Some people were running for the mist, but others had decided there was safety in numbers. A good plan: I could hear the sounds of combat ahead, where an armored adult had fled into the mists.

Cassie had gotten her cloudcar free by the time I reached her, slowing it just enough for me to catch up and drive alongside. It was a good thing Pointy was helping her steer, because Cassie leaned over the back of her seat, waving both arms at me excitedly. “Mommy! Mommy! Hi hi hi!”

I blinked the water from my eyes. “Hey, baby. Let’s get out of here to someplace safer, okay?

“Your guidance will help with that, Meghan.” Pointy said. “Which of the flora and fauna do we need to avoid?”

“The collections of softball-sized rocks are bad. The green-yellow weeds seem fine. Not sure about the larger shrubs yet. I’m guessing you saw what the megamole looked like before it attacked you?”

Pointy shook her head, seeming irritated. “We didn’t kill that. We just found its corpse.”

“Those keep their noses above ground. They look kind of like weird, ruffly mushrooms.”

“Noted.”

“Good Lord, thank you for reuniting this mother with her child. Please let my own children be safe, and let me return to them,” Lindani said, panting as we ran.

I stumbled at that, and Pointy sighed. “Come on, Meghan. Real-time translation is hardly the most difficult thing you’ve seen me do, and vocal mimicry is child’s play. I’ll get your words to her too, now that I know what language she speaks. Unless you understand English?”

“No!” Lindani said, looking startled. “Thank you, little turtle!”

Behind us, the Titan’s fountain of water tapered off and the monster stretched, paying little heed to the smattering of ranged attacks that showered it from all directions, leaving little more than scratches on its hide.

It was lithe now, deadly, limbs rippling with muscle. There was no sign remaining of its previously-bloated form. Large eyes were set to the front of a near-triangular head: a predator’s arrangement. It pulled itself to its feet, lashing its thick tail behind itself, and launched itself across the open space in a flash, toward the spot where I’d recently seen a pair of two vanish into the mist.

Then it dashed back across the open area, passing terrifyingly close as it launched itself toward the sounds of combat I’d heard. An armored body was tossed back out toward us, and then one of the rhino-sized monsters was briefly visible, triangular head emerging to sink dark blue jaws into the victim and dragging them back out of sight.

“Fuck! They’re working together!” I shouted.

It was a worst-case scenario, and made me totally rethink my decision to flee. The smaller monsters were clearly the same species as the larger one, and their strategy had just become clear. Big Mama cleared the area while the babies stalked the edges, slowing down anyone who attempted to run until Big Mama was ready to finish them off. Escape was only possible for people who could fly or outrun the babies: anyone who stopped to fight was kibble. Judging by Big Mama’s speed, outrunning the babies wasn’t going to be a possibility for me - or most people - even if they were only half as fast as their progenitor.

Don’t run! The big one is working with little ones, which are hunting down runners. To live, fight!

Before I’d even finished my Announcement, Pointy had started shouting as loudly as she could, presumably repeating my words in Mandarin and other languages. It was a blessing that her enhanced link to Cassie let her access my daughter’s perceptions and hear my Announcement directly. About a quarter of the people sprinting toward the mists stopped running immediately, and more people slowed, looking confused and uncertain, but at least understanding that other people had decided not to run.

I pointed my handgun at Big Mama as she exploded out of the mist, using Assisted Strike to fire a bullet at her right eye. It was only a little more effective than the attacks others had landed against her sides. It left a divot, and clouded a section of what must be a transparent eyelid, covering it in a spiderweb of cracks. Unfortunately, the eye was still functional, tracking toward me and narrowing.

I blanched, but Big Mama didn’t turn, dashing past me and heading in the direction we’d come from: the same route Ha-yoon had used to flee.

“Damnit!” I swore. We had to kill this thing to live. If we didn’t act now, another child would die.

Sem seemed to realize at the same moment that I did. He lifted a hand and flash-froze a puddle around Big Mama’s foot, creating an awkward and ungainly shoe that hampered the large monster’s stride. She actually paused her run, smashing at the ice around her foot with her thick tail until only fragments remained.

It took her only seconds, but it was long enough for me to catch up to her with a Telekinetically-held jar of mud, smashing it against her flat-planed forehead and letting the thick substance seep over her eyes before she could start forward again.

Our combined efforts left our massive foe well and truly distracted from her hunt, a decidedly mixed blessing. Ha-yoon was safe, but Big Mama had turned back toward my little group and was pawing at her face, trying half-successfully to clear her vision.

The cloudcar was already accelerating away from us, thankfully. Pointy wouldn't be foolish enough to go for the edges, and Cassie needed to stay well away from me if we were making a fight of this. A tiny technicolor kitten scampered back toward me and leapt to my shoulder with a flutter of wings. Cassie’s larger summon, Bigkitty, was loping alongside the cloudcar, a choice I approved of; Bigkitty might only be able to slow down Big Mama by throwing her own body down the Titan’s throat, but that might buy precious seconds Cassie needed.

How the hell were we going to take this thing down? I sure as heck didn't have the devastating power it would take, if a gunshot to the eye had left only cosmetic damage. If only Vince were here! I didn’t know enough about the other people here, what their capabilities were, and-

I frowned. I didn’t need to know. Not necessarily.

If you think you can damage it, focus on the monster’s neck! If you can slow it down, do that. Everyone else, hold fire until it’s injured!

Lindani frowned, but gave a slow nod as Pointy shouted a string of popping, clicking words our way. The African woman adjusted her grip on her machetes.

Then she vanished from sight as our house-sized enemy bore down on us.

Big Mama was fast - too fast - and she ought to have been on top of us seconds earlier, before I’d even finished my second Announcement. She would have been, I’m sure, except that she was being hit by attack after disorienting attack.

I’d popped a series of large holographic walls in the way to block her vision, which I’m guessing distracted or confused her for like… a quarter of a second. Fortunately, other people had more effective options. Someone with Specialty-level water control had gathered up a huge wave of water into a forceful jet and was using it to pummel the monster’s face. Sem had taken advantage of the free water delivery to repeat his earlier trick, and judging by the amount of ice weighing Big Mama down, he wasn’t the only one who had. There wasn’t much here but sand and water, but a few other people with shaping talents were piling on, including one man who appeared to have brought his own kudzu vine to the Challenge.

Even with all that interference, Big Mama had gotten perilously close. I dodged to the side as she lunged for me, and managed to evade the snapping jaws, aided by the fact that the monster’s wedge-shapped head had whipped to the side, clearly diverted by someone else's timely Draw Attention. As I ran, Cassie’s little Summoned Seeker leapt from my shoulder onto the monster’s nose, tiny claws searching for purchase in the cracks of the injured eye.

I couldn’t see Lindani, but I could feel her on Life Sense, swift and silent, using the vines and ice as hand and footholds as she scaled the monster and reared back, slamming both blades against the monster’s neck.

She was still invisible, but the attack had been solid, cutting through several inches of toughened hide and, for the first time, letting pale pink blood drip to the ground below.

Big Mama might not have been able to see Lindani, but she could certainly feel pain. The monster’s tail swiped forward, trying to bat the machete-wielding woman away. A split-second of Paralyze on the base was enough to make it miss, though the effort was tiring.

I still had enough energy to grab a sack of gunpowder and drag it up toward the injury Lindani had made, which was rapidly widening as several dozen people focused ranged attacks on the area. It ignited before I could push it deep into the wound, courtesy of one of the many flame attacks peppering the monster. I’d been ready with one of my iron plates, however, slapping it against the burning sack before too much could burn away.

When the bag detonated, the force was enough to send my iron plate flying out of sight, but not enough to kill Big Mama. A cantaloupe-sized chunk was missing from her neck, but she was still standing, still using her trunklike tail to hammer away anyone who approached from the rear, still snapping at me with crocodilian jaws. The ice, vines, and mud were slowing her down, but even so, I was just barely keeping ahead of her. Only my improved ability to multitask that had come with Telekinesis was letting me pull off any attacks as I fled.

What did we need to do to take her down?!

Assisted Strike let me fire a bullet without turning, making an otherwise impossible shot at the monster’s exposed esophagus as her maw gaped open. People were closing in on our oversized foe, emboldened by the damage we’d done.

Then I heard it, the voice I’d been hoping for and dreading: “Don't hurt my Mommy!”

My idiot son was charging into the fray, suddenly visible as he leapt atop Big Mama’s back.

Gavin’s tail wrapped around Big Mama, the blade at the tip sinking deeply into her neck injury and anchoring him as he leapt away again, sailing around her front to dodge the monster’s own tail. She twisted her head to snap at him, but I was ready, forcing an iron plate deep into her jaws, slowing her bite as the metal warped and bent before her prodigious strength.

She raised a paw to swipe at him, but a burly man ran forward, slamming a massive shop-purchased hammer into the limb with an echoing crack.

I ran to the side, activating Draw Attention to keep Big Mama’s eyes away from Gavin.

All the while, attacks had continued to rain into the Titan’s gaping neck wound, and Gavin continued to wiggle his blade deeper and deeper.

When the end came, it was sudden. The light in the monster’s eyes faded mid-lunge, and its muscles crumpled as it fell, nose digging a furrow in the sand. It vanished from Life Sense.

“Did we get it, Meghan?” Pointy asked, sounding tense.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s dead.”

A small cheer arose, but was quickly cut off.

Materializing from the mist around the clearing, moving only slightly slower than their progenitor, Big Mama’s babies went on the attack.