A light rain had began over the broken forest-covered landscape that stretched far off into either horison. Rain like a cold sorrow fell from the heavens, wich too were colored in only shades of grey, great clouds drifting slowly across a low sky. tears of rain fell upon the forest, pattering off wide leaves and fern. And sitting low on this this shadowed, wet land, were the ruins of some ancient florentine city that lay broken and scattered from an untold age before. it’s wide stone streets and grand bridges lay cracked and broken. In the center, or as near as it appeared, rose up into the dark rain, a cathedral to some long-forgotten saint. And all around it were the ruins of the once great city. The town square with it's grand fountain, where childen ran and played and mechents could be heard selling good and and making deals, now lay empty and broken. its' streets and avenues once so busy with the passing of people going to and frow, lay cracked and blocked by fallen columns and crumbling walls. the city was dead: it was broken and fallen, stained black by time. The cathedral was no exeption. the original style had been byzinten-gothic, or somthing very close. now it's great rose windows were as gaping maws with jagged teeth of stained glass set high into the westworks. the flying butrasess spreading out like the cracked legs of some giant spider, and the great timpasnums reached out as if to swallow one inside.

no one remained in the city, no one living.
yet there were new visitors.

Two figure were picking their way over fallen arches and through the wide avenues strewn with stone debries. They were supporting an unconcious figure between them, and so their progress was slow as they made their way towards the towering cathedral. The rain had picked up by now, turning into a cold downpour. this made distinctions difficult, but some details could be made out even throught the rain. The figure on the right was taller then the other, yet carrying the unconsious subject between them mean she had to slouch. and female she was, here tight clothing made this even more apperent because of the rain. She wore cut-offs and a white tank top exposing her midriff. for a moment she looked up, and her face showed her to be like the others, a fox. Her muzzel was white up to her green-brown eyes. Her ears were tipped black, yet that was all, as her hands and feet were uncommonly white.
Her companion supporting the limp figure from the left side was different.
she was a fox just the same, but her muzzle was more traditionally painted a light orange/brown all the way to the nose. her ears were tipped in black as well as her forarms and hands, so were her feet up to below the knees. she had two small triangular tatoo markings on the left side of her face, just below the eye. her hair was golden blonde stopping just above her shoulders. her stance was visibly different however, where as the vixen on the right was walking upright, the blonde one on the left walked digigrade, on her toes.

The limp figure in the middle was male, but somwhat indistiguashable as his head hung downward, and his long hair had fallen over his face in the rain. he was a fox like the other two, and he seemed to be suffering from a wound of some sort to the left side of his torso. even now, blood appeared to be spreading out even further acroos his shirt and running down down his pant leg to mix with the rain water.

presently the girls picked their way across part of a smashed gargoyle and came to stand before the great bronze doors of the the cathedral. they were tinged green with age yet still stood like two ancient gaurdians, standing against time itself. The doors were slightly ajar, and the taller fox motined for the blonde one to carry their companion inside. They entered the cathedral and began making their way up the great hall towards the alter. rain dripped in through holes in the lead roof and broken windows, echoing loudly under the high roof. rotted pews and choir benches lay around them in several stages of disrepair,their stylized carving now rotted away. at the front of the chapel the two visitors layed down their wounded companion in the middle of a dim shaft of light.
The taller of the two looked up.
"ok, how bad is it Kitsume?" Geno asked.
"I don't know, i have to get his shirt off. Give me a hand Geno." Kitsume replied.
the two vixens worked to get the blood-staned shirt off their male companion's body. now in the light, it was clear that he was related to the taller fox, his facial and limb markings were the same.
"So, how's it look." Geno asked again.
"Give me a sec..." Kitsume trailed off. It was just like him! she thought as she examined his wounds. he acted like it was his personal job to save everybody! he didn't care what happened to himself, or what he had to do, he'd just take his beating, stand back up and go help someone else... but in private he was so shy. it was like he was to embaressed to really let someone in. so he'd go out, do whatever needed to be done, then dissapear because he was to scarred to let them thank him.
like now, he was buying time for a the caravan to escape and had been struck by an arrow in the ribs. she checked the wound and sighed with relif. the edge of the arrowhead had cought a rib and bounced off, saving his life. he was incredible lucky. Theimpact had knocked him off balance, forcing him to overstep and fall, rolling down a hillside in the forest. He fell, slpping down the steep embankment until he struck his head on a tree trunk, knocking him unconcious. he had lost a lot of blood. Kitsume looked up.
"He's lost a lot of blood, but the bleeding seems to be stopping. He was incredibly lucky, the arrow nicked off the bone, so it didn't go inside."
"no it just made a horrible gash that's been bleeding for the last fifteen minuets. Are you sure there's none of the bleeding is internal?"
Kitsume put her head to his chest and layed her ear flat against it, listening intently.
"no, i don't think so. if there was he wouldn't be breathing so calmly, and his heart wouldn't be beating so well. i think it just tore much more deeply when he rolled down the hill." she looked back down at him. "these bruses are all superficial, as far as i can tell, there's no breaks anywhere, but where that arrow hit hit rib will probably bruise the bone."
"that's good to hear." Geno was obviously relived. "com'on, wake up Hobbes."

Somwhere across the city, an ancient gurdian was slowly moving. it had lost their heat trail in the cold rain, but could hear their sounds again, comming from the great cathedral at the city center. it's ancient program was very simple: intruders = defense. invaders = destroy.
it began slowly moving forward, the squeaking of un-oiled joints and metal on stone obscured by the rain...

Geno had her shirt off and was squeezing the water out while Kitsume was bandaging Hobbes' wound with what was left of his shirt. Geno glanced over after shrugging her shirt back on and noticed Kitsume shivering.
"you should get out of those wet clothes or your going to catch a cold."
"good idea. is there anything to make a fire? we should try to keep him warm if he's lost this much blood."
"yea i think so. you change while i see if any of those benches are dry enough to burn."
While geno began walking though the chapel, kitsume took off the loose fitting lavender sweatshirt and tight bluejeans she had been wearing and wrapped herself in a towel to dry off.
They didn't have much. Hobbes had his big backpack with his sketchbook, notebook, a set of clothes, his black knife and some other things. Geno had a smaller canvas backpack with some clothes, a jacket and her giant revolver plus it's acsessories. Kitsume just had her shoulder bag with her original clothes in it. though now she wore the things she had found on her travels with these two more often. She kind of liked wearing pants. she also carried her small compund hunting bow, dissasembled and unstrung inside the bag, next to the blade her father had given her, plus a few other essentials.
Geno had returned with some semi-dry looking chair peices.
"it's all i could find."
"i'll see what i can do." kitsume knelt down and started working with her flint. Geno pulled her jacket out of her bag and layed it over hobbes who was still unconcious. Kitsume spoke slowly, without looking up. "any clue who that was back there? what was it?"
"i didn't get to see very well, but whatever fired those arrows was big." she paused, thinking. "worst it moved pretty fast, which alarms me."
"it wasn't a person?"
"no. all i saw was some low shape, and then it was gone. whats worse, the arrow bolts it was firing were solid metal and short. it makes me think it wasn't from a bow or crossbow, but some kind of heavy wepon."
for a moment no one said anything.
"do you think it's gone." kitsime asked as the fire finnaly cought and began to flare up.
Geno didn't answer, and Kitume asked again: "well? do you think it's gone?"
"i'd love to say yes, but i don't think so." Geno looked up and continued. " A friend of mine told me somthing once, an old army trick. you wound one member of a group, and if forces the other members to slow down and take care of the injured. them you can track them to a more favorable location and finish them off."
"What are you saying." Kitsume was starting to get woried.
"this may have been a bad idea to come here. this building is most likley a trap."
"You mean they were leading us here?"
"Not here, exactly, any building would have done. i just mean whoever it was who attacked us, can get at us more easily in the city. sniper points, level terain, blind corners."
for several moment neither women said anything. The only sound was the crackling fire and the dripping rain in an echoing stone hall. Kitsume poked at the fire.
"Somtimes during a hunt, the beast will intentionally lead the hunter into a place they can't easily escape from. if the animal is small, it can escape, if it's big and feirce...well the situation reverses itself. hunter becomes prey." she had a small smirk.
"do you think we can do that? trap it and turn the tables?" Geno asked.
Kitsume smiled. "I've brought down beasts five times my size and made jewlry out it's bones. this will be no different."
Geno smiled and shook her head. " alright. if you think so, i'll start looking around. although it would be helpful if i knew what we were up against." Geno walked off towards an arch set in the wall and began climing a set of stairs. Kitsume turned back to the fire and her drying clothes. they were still wet, so she put the towel back in her bag and shrugged on her older set of clothes. it was a large loose brown shirt/tunic with triangle markings on the sleaves and bottom. She looked at herself. Hobbes had said she looked like a cross between a "Native American" and a white mage or geomancer from somthing called "Final Fantasy." How strange. she pulled from the bottom of her bag her bow and string. it had a compound mechanism and was colapseable. she smiled remembering the time she showed it to hobbes. His eyes had gotten really wide and he asked her if he could draw it. apperantly they didn't have things like it where he came from. Kitsume looked over at Geno's bag. Her wepon was the truly unique thing. it worked with the powders the shaman used during festivels, only hers were far more powerful. it could fire an arrowhead without the shaft because it had straight pipe in the front called a "beral". Geno had showed it to her once, how it opened for her to load, and how the trigger worked. it was so simple, but powerful. the hard part was being able to cast metal into such complex shapes, somthing her clan couldn't do. Geno had showed her how she could hit a target at a hundred yards, and been dimbfounded when Kitsume had been able to match it with her bow. Now, Kitsume pulled a side puch open an took out her remaining arrows. half a dozen. next time she had the chance, she would have to make more. Geno made her own... was it bullets? as well. but that was because she said she liked to make them different, adding the same powder to the tips of some to make them explosive. and adding some thing even more powerful she called "uraniun" to even fewer. As she attached the arrowheads to the shaft she looked over toward the unconsious form lying beside the fire.
"please wake up hobbes...

Geno was climbing stairs in the east wing, into what looked like one of the three towers. she handn't been able to see much when they were entering the front hall, but the towers had been rather distinct. as she climbed she bagan to take stock of the constrtuction. even though the stones had been stained dark by time and foul rain, some of the carving reamined. it was gothic in the most literal sense of the word, the dark stain only serving to highten the look.
presently she came to a false column and stopped. it was beveled and had two weeping angels in the coners of the top, surrounding an image of christ nailed to a cross. many of the columns' were decorated like this, images of christian faith, saints and martyers, weeping angels, and the virgin mary, all in sculptuer about a foot tall in the caps. similarly were the the walls inset with this theme of sculpture as well. Geno coninued her climb and soon she reached a landing. stepping out she saw she was in the east bell tower overlooking the city. She looked down and noticed how high she was. the chapel was high enough to warrent buttressing, and the tower rose above the peak in the roof equally as high. from her vantage point in the tower, she had birds eye view of the ruined city. not that such a bird could see much in the rain and low light. she looked around. she stood in what was once a vaulted dome supported by columns. now, it was half missing, a great hole turned the dome into a cresent, and the comuns into the jagged teeth of some ferral creatures skull. she marked the spot in memory before heading back down, it might be useful later.
Geno's foot was on the first wide marble step when it happend. the faintest whisper of sound made her ears prick up and her body tense. she stayed motionless for nearly half a minute, waiting for conformation.
nothing, just the sound of heavy rain.
she turned to start again downwards when the sound came again, and she dashed to the ledge and looked out over the city, squinting into the distance. it was coming steadily now, faint yet distinct, the sound of heavy metal falling on stone. she caught the direction of the sound, but coudn't make anything out. then she saw it. as black and stained as the stone it slowly moved over, a low rounded shape moving through the heavy rain. when she sqinted she could just barly make out the six apendages it was moving forward on. on its back was some sort of pipe system and at the front (as near as she coult tell) were two large pointed shapes she took to be mandibles or pincers. presently it passed beneth an archway, and she gauged it's size. it was huge! at least twice her height and maybe four or five times as long. she stared at the slowly advancing figure a moment longer before turning and racing back down the staircase.

Kitsume had just finished packing her now mostly dry clothes back into her bag when Geno came tearing into the chapel. She skidded to a halt next to the alter just as Kitsume asked "what's going on?"
"we have to move...hobbes, i saw...something coming...our way." she said in between breaths.
"saw what?"
"what ever -it- is, it’s big and moving our way. i'm pretty sure it’s the same thing that attacked us in the forest."
"ok..." Kistume looked around." but where should we move to?"
Geno cast about before setteling her gaze upwards."there." she pointed. " the upper gallery. there should be a room off to the side on the second level we can be somwhat safe."
with that, both of them gabbed their bags and picked the injured Hobbes up under he arms and started moving towards the stairwell. "what do we do once -it- gets here? could you tell waht it was?"
"it was defenetly mecanical, i could tell by the sound alone. once we get hobbes stashed somwhere, i'll find somwhere we can trap it and..." she trailed off.
"and?"
"and, i dunno look for a weak spot. pull out its batteries, i'll think of somthing."
"batteries?"
"i’ll tell you later."

outside the gaurdian had reached a node. it stopped and procesed its commands. none of the other nodes had worked, but it's ancient progamming forced it to try. a foot-long metalic proboscus extended from under its frontal sensor cluster and inserted itself into the receptical. the node it was acsessing was like any other that was, or used to be set about the city in small off to the side service domes about three feet tall and twice as wide. the gaurdian input the correct commands: right five-left one-righ two-right six and so on, speaking the ancient programming language. it had repeted this procedure at several nodes throughout the city along its route towards the cathedral. nothing had yet responded, for most nodes had long scince been detroyed or simply rendered non-functional. this one however was different. moments after compleating the instructions and retracting the proboscus, an ancient stone door in the street shuddered to life, and with a great creaking and squealing of grates, slid open. There was a faint yellow glow from within, and slowly a second ancient gaurdian ambled to the surface. it was like the first, a large arachnid based mecha defense unit, but also damaged by time and neglect. A series of small infrared lights flashed quickly between the two and they both began once again to move slowly through the rain, towards the cathedral.

The girls wrestled the limp hobbes up two flights of sairs and into a side room on the upper level. it was a long rectangle, with part of the wall missing near a ruined balcony. once they set hobbes down, Geno got up and began serching her bag for her revolver.
Kitsume looked over.
"ok, so what's the plan?"
Geno was still busy fishing out bullets. she responded without looking up. "i'm going to try to lead it into a narrow hallway or shallow arch or somthing and cut off it's movment." she finished loading the the last round and snaped the gun shut."then i'll find some way to put it out of commision." Geno looked over. "meanwhile, you stay here and gaurd hobbes."
"What?" Kitsume was on her feet. " what do you mean "stay here"? we'll have a far better chance of killing this thing, whatever it is, if we work together. It was my idea, and besides" she put her hands on her hips “i'm the better hunter.”
Geno sighed. "i know, but one of us should really say here with hobbes. It's true we'll have a better chance if we stick together, but if we leave hobbes ungaurded in his current state, and that thing comes crashing in here and no ones with him to protect him..." she trailed off.
"but..." kitsume trailed off as well. She knew Geno was right, and the argument died on her tounge. There was a time when she wold have argued that geno stay and she be the one to go, but now... now she would rather stay and make sure nothing happened to him. Kitsume turned her head, glad geno was looking away at that moment. she really dind't want Geno to see her blush and fold her ears back.
"Ok, you've got a point. i'll stay"
Geno looked over, slightly surprised she had agreed so esily. usually it would have been a bit more of an argument.
"Thanks Kit. just leave this one to me." she stuck the quick loader in her pocket and turned. "you take care of hobbes, and i'll deal with our mechanical friend."
"good luck."
"Thanks." Geno replied as she sprinted down the stairwell. And no offence, geno thought to herself, but with no one around, i can fight with my full abitity, without worrying who might see.

Rain was falling like needles outside as the two gaurdians arived at the cathedral. The two units stopped, processing commands. The first unit was a bladed type with limited ranged combat capabitlities. the second more recently activated unit was a gun type. in place of the front mandibles were two 60mm heavy cannons, and an aft mounted chain grapple. There was a quick flash of infrared as the two unit confered, before they once again started moving. The second unit walked to the wall and stopped. a small port on the rear ball turret opened skyward. a hooked chain grapple shot upward towrds the souternmost spire, and imbeded itself in the stone wall. it used this to begin scaling the cathedral wall, making it's may towards the top. The first unit waited a moment, casting about in either direction as if deciding somthing, before it to began to move. It moved toward the main door and entered into the darkness within.

Geno was running along the second teir when she heared the distinct sound of impact somwhere nearby. The sound of metal on stone echoed through the wide hallway. she paused, listening as hard as she could to see what might happen next. but all she could hear her own heavy breathing, and the echo of dripping water form somwhere off in the distance. then just on the edge of her hearing, she made out a faint crunching sound, that seemed to be slowly moving toward her. she looked around for some sighn of movment, but could find none. the sound was growing louder, and soon she realised it was coming from outside, but how? suddenly she realized it the crunching sound was not inside, but stedily moving up the outside wall! she paused not daring to move, slowly she reached for the revolver at ther hip. Her hand reached the butt of her gun and she slid her fingers around the handle, her thumb on the hammer. The sound grew louder, almost on top of her, and still she stood still, muscles tensed. She thought the crunching sound was most likely the mechanical combat unit climbing stright up the wall. she wasn't sure how it was doing it, but it was right outside now.
Geno didn't move.
The crunching sound continued moving up the wall, right past her and in a moment began to fade. Geno waited a moment before breathing a sigh of releif. it must be heading for the roof. she thought, if i head up towards the tower i can cut it off and fight it from above.

The bladed unit moved slowly between the colums and massive arches. it was tracking a heat source coming from somwhere near the alter. It stopped off in the darkness and scanned the area. There was a concentrated heat source directly in front of the alter, and seveal minor heat trails leding off to the left. The direct heat source was too great to be organic, so it locked on to the heat trails and began to follow.

Kitsume had readied her bow and was crouched in the corner, waiting. Hobbes was against the left wall, still unconcious. In the last few minuets he had begun to move somewhat, and it looked like he might be waking up soon.
That was a releif.
she almost hoped she might get the chance to fight soon, it had been a while since she had felt so alive. muscles tensed waiting for the right moment to strike, adrenaline running trough the veins, she waited ready. And if whatever it was did attack her first, she could prove she was just a capable fighter as Geno. There had been the sound of movment outside sometime ago, the echo of broken stone was rather loud. everything had been quiet for several minuets, and she was begining to think it may have just passed them over, or was waiting. Then it came agian: the sound of metal on stone, slowly moving around outside. the sound grew louder and she knew they had been discovered. she stood up and knocked an arrow, drawing the string on her bow tight against the fur of her cheek. the sound grew louder until it stopped at what seemed to be right outside the door. Kitume waited...

Geno reached the tower and looked out into the pouring rain. She looked around for a moment before spotting a dark shape clambering over the lip of the lead roof. Now that it was closer, she could make out more details. it was definatly mechanical, and very, very old. it was modeled after a spider sure enough, like she had spotted before, it had large pipes protruding from the backside. the moulding on the joints had been torn away in several spots, and she could see the system of cables that moved the apendages. there was a small sensor bubble near the front that glowed a faint red. what she had thought was pincers turned out to be two large circular tubes she couldn't tell the meaning of. the whole ting was a tarnished bronze.
That's strange. she thought. i could swear it had pincers in the fornt. oh well.
she couched down behind one of the pillars and opened her revolver to check the bullets. three uncolored: standard rounds, two blue banded: explosive tipped, one red banded: DUC; depleted uranim core. she snapped the action shut. peering around the pillar, she leveled her gun at the slowly moving machine. she took carfull aim; if she could hit what appeared to be the sensors at the front...she peered down the berral sight a second more and began to squeeze the trigger. slowly the hammer pulled back, Geno tensed , further, a little further...
there was a sound like a cannon in her unprotected ears and a bullet exploded out of the end of the barrel. the same instant she saw the flash of the round ricocheting off the roof mere inches for the mechanical spider. Geno ducked beack behind the colunm, closed her eyes and cursed. "fuck! ok, what are the odds he didn't see that." she peaked back around the pillar to see the giant spider wasn't moving. then, slowly it rotated its bulb-like head up towards the tower where she was hiding. "oh well," geno said aloud to herself, " snipers tend to have rifles anyway." she could hear the sound of the great mechanical spider turning around to face her. Geno looked around before setteling on the chain hanging on the empty bell anchor.
Time for action.
in a moment she had gathered up the chain and secured one end around a bit of bent iron bar. the spider was still moving into position down below, so she had only moments. Geno took the chain and threw the other end over the side, then griping her gun firmly in her right hand and the chain in her left, she threw herself over the edge.

Geno fell, fireing her gun the whole time. she managed two rounds before the chain snapped taught, catching her halfway down the tower. Both hit's stuck home, pinging loudly off the metal hull, bouncing off it's back without causing damage. the spider was crouching, but now it swung it's bulk towards her, bringing it's mandible section to bear. there was a rather loud *Ka-thunk!* and Geno realized she was looking down the barrels of two rather large gatling cannons. her heart skipped a beat. then, moving as quickly as she could, geno kicked her legs up and repeled off the wall. The spider machine opened fire with a sound like deep thunder, and in a hail of bullets and falling rock, geno doged and ran sideways across the tower wall. She held on to the chain for dear life as she ducked around the corner, sparing herself from the onslought from the spiders' twin cannons. she swung around to the other side and hooked her arm around a protruding gargoyle statue spouting rainwater. The spider continued firing for a moment before stopping. from the rate of fire and noise, geno geussed it was at least 50 cal. mabey even 60. the rate of fire was too slow for anything else. geno heard a whipping noise and the sound of a chain being drug across the roof. the machine began moving again, coming around to take another shot. geno quickly grabbed the gun sidways with her mouth so she could climb atop the staue.
She had an idea.

The only sound Kitsume could hear, was her own, slow breathing. it felt like she had been standing ready for several minuets, but she knew it was most likley only seconds. from outside, there was a sound like many blades being sharpened at one. she waited.
the bladed noise stopped, and there was the sound of metal screaching, there was a pause, and the giant wooden door exploded inwards in a thousand splinters. kitsume gasped as she saw what they were running from. a giant spider twice her height stood in the doorway silloweted by the light. it had some sort of metal hide that was broken in many places showing it's insides. but strangley, it's insides were metal too, all wheels and pullys. it's front mandibles had split apart: the knife shapening noise she had heard was the blades seperating. now it had six long curved blades in the front, slowly moving independantly of each other. Kitsume quickly regained herself and took aim. it took one step forward and kitsume sent a shaft flying at what she took to be its head. there was a loud *clang* as it bounced off.
"oh no." Kitsume's eyes went wide. it really was a monster! she coulden't even hurt it. Quickly she knocked another arrow and stepped sidways, away from the limp figure lying in the corner. the macine was having trouble getting through the doorway it had just destroyed. it was a double doored-arch configuration, and the mecanical archnid was just managing to slide it's feet through standing in a straight line.
Kitsume took aim, but stopped. waht am i supposed to hit? it's got to have a weak point but where? now is the time to strike, while it's struggling. everything is vaunerable somplace, if i coul'd just... then she spotted it, the broken peices of it's armored hull where the insides were showing. Kitsume narrowed her eyes and smiled. " If a machine can be wounded, it can be killed." the spider mech was almost through the opening, so kitsume took aim at a break in th hull near the front and fired. The arrow flew straight, and passed directly into the opening. For a moment, nothing happened, and the spider continued to move into the room. Then, there was a sound of crunching, and it stopped. it's two right forlegs began to wobble and shake as it tried to lift them, and the grinding became louder until both legs colapsed limp onto the floor. The spider bot staggered and stopped for a moment, turning it's head-bubble towards it's dead legs. then it fixed it's gaze on Kitsume, and with its remaining legs, pulled itself fully into the room. it used it's remaining legs to turn towards her. She had another arrow knocked, but with it facing her, she couldn't get a clear shot. The spider rised its right blades up above her and brought them crashing down in front of her. She jumped back just as the left blades swung sideways. it had an incredible reach! as she jumped back, she saw the blades were jointed, so they could extend farther. Kitsume was backing toward the great gaping hole in the wall and half-destroyed balcony. the spider bot continued to swing and stab, advancing the whole time. all she needed was one more good shot...

Geno sat atop a stone gargoyle statue halfway up the cathedral’s belltower in the pouring rain. in one hand she held her gun, in the other the chain. As the giant metal spider was rapidly rounding the corner, Geno grabbed hold of the chain with both hands and began to climb. slowly, through the chilly rain and blinding wind she moved up the wet stone surface. she pushed as hard as she could, thinking each moment the robot would round the corner and open fire once more. she was almost withing reach of the the edge of he tower’s top when the clancking monster came once again into veiw. franticly she scrambled the last few feet towards the lip and grabbed hold just as the spider locked on and swung it’s great cannons towards her. Geno forced down as hard as she could, straining from the effort, hopping her flimsy hold didn’t slip in the rain. In one fluid motion, she flung herself up and onto the stone floor of the tower platform. Just as the spider opened fire, Geno kicked up and rolled away from the edge as a hail of bullets tore throught the stone. she lay on her back a moment, panting from the exertion while down below, the spider continued to fire. All too soon it stopped, Geno knew it would be comming up after her next...and she had run out of tower. “oh well, “she said aloud to herself “what goes up must come down.” for a moment she just made a face, before she slapped herself in the forhead and shook her head muttering about how she couldn’t belive she had made such a lousy pun. Geno sat up. Grabbing the same length of chain, she threw one end out the other side and made sure it was fully attached at the other. As if on cue, a heavy metal grapple came fliing up from below, lodging iteslf firmly in the rock at her feet. Geno smiled, lightly. part one was going ok.

As the metal beast began scaling the tower wall, Geno snapped open her revolver. three shots left and no time to re-load. two were blue banded and one was red. Good enough. If the normal shots would’t penetrat mabey these would. She snapped the action shut and stuck it back in it’s holster on her leg. The spider was already climbing up: she could feel the tower shake with each step it took. Grasping the chain in both hands, she flung herself once again out into the rain.

It was pouring now, and there was a flash of thunder off in the distance somewhere. Geno was hanging off the far end, nothing below her but the ground so many feet below. She began slowly scaling down, trying not to make so much noise as to alert the spider, and also trying not to slip at the same time. She could feel the cool summer rain running down her clothes and soaking her fur. She was sweating from exertion by this time, climbing and running for her life all over the tower. Despite the fact she was hanging hundreds of feet above ground, for the moment it felt nice.
She was about halfway down the tower again when she heard the spider stop. It was exactly on the opposite side from her, and she froze not daring to move. For a moment nothing happened, the spider andher clinging to opposite sides of the wall in the rain. Then it began to move upward again, on towards the top. Geno sighed quietly in relief and continued downward. But something was happening, it sounded as if the spider was still moving upward, but it was also going sideways, and quickly too. With a gasp Geno realized it found her out and was going to jump sideways. Quickly she loosened her grasp on the chain and started sliding downward, not a moment too soon. The spider mech burst out into the air above her, swinging around from the right side. It landed far too deftly for it’s size and ground to a halt with it’s claw like legs, gouging great sections out of the stonewall and sending bits of rock tumbling down onto Geno.
With great speed it began dropping downward and towards Geno, it’s front sections facing her. For a moment she almost panicked before she caught herself and started repelling downward. It was closing fast and Geno could see it was lining up a shot. A few more kicks and it would have her pattern and could open fire. She kicked off hard, dropping down several dozen feet. it was almost too far, for several seconds she was nearly airborn, falling in the rain. She swung back in, readying herself as the wall came rushing up too meet her. She landed and kicked off sideways just as a hail of bullets stuck where she would have been hanging. But insted she was off and hopping sideway across the stone wall, the spider bot tried to follow her and kept firing in a line behind her. Rock exploded outward behind her as she ran along the wall. She was reaching her limit; the chain was almost wrapped as far as it could go. With one final leap, she pulled herself up even further. She stalled for a moment, standing sideways on the wall, a black silhouette against the rain and dark gray sky. As she turned she looked to see the ruse had worked: as she leapt sideways the spider had continued to drop. Now she was above it, ready to swing in for her attack. the spider was angled downward but still had its head and cannon section twisted around to face her, it opened fire again as she swung towards it.
This was it, Geno drew her gun.
She could feel her heart racing, and time seemed to almost slow down. Her movements felt sluggish and the sound of the spiders’ cannon sounded deep and distant. She could almost see the individual bullets coming at her. Geno leveled her revolver , only three shots remained. She could hear the deep, slow thumping of the cannon, the whizzing sound of the bullets passing close by her, the raindrops hitting her body, all below the great sound of her own heavy breathing and the wild thumping of her own heart. She took aim at the rear section: the chain holding the spider up. She fired twice, the deep shock of her own gun echoed in her ears. Two special shells tore out of her gun and hurtled toward the spiders’ chain section. She watched as the first one struck an individual link in the chain dead center, exploding on contact. Blue was explosive shells. The second one hit the spider rear blowing away metal hull and gears as the winch was destroyed. It’s line broken, the spider mech began to fall. Everything got fast again and Geno watched with satisfaction as the robot fell kicking it’s legs in the air.

Kitsume could feel rain on her now, she was just feet from the edge. Her bow was ready, but she needed another good shot. If she didn't get a chance soon... suddenly from behind the spider mech, there came the sound of someone groan in pain. Oh no! hobbes was waking up. Kitsume thought. And just as she'd feared the spider mech stopped moving and turned it head towards him. "Oh no you don't! leave him alone you monster, he's mine and i won't let you hurt him!"
With that she fired another arrow at the beast's head. It bounced off, but it swiveled back to look at her. "That's right, i'm your target." she said knocking another arrow. The distraction had given her jsut enough time to slide sidways a bit, she was aiming for the balcony. There was more sounds from hobbes, and then a low "ow, my side... kitsume? geno? what happened?"
Kitsume shouted "don't move! Your in danger, just stay still untill i kill it!"
"What? Where am i? Kitsume, what’s going on." followed by a "what the hell is that! ouch, my ribs..." she couldn't see him, but she fuigured he must have sat up or moved around. That ment he was alright. Kitsume smiled, glad. Suddenly the spider mech raised it's claws high into the air, ready to slash downward to deliver the final blow. Kitsume was backed up towards the balcony, but it wasn't enough room to escape. She crouched, ready to roll out of the way, or at least try, but then she saw somthing. Underneath its left claw, there was a large gaping hole. Before she could strike, the spider struck dwonward at her, missing by mear inches as she rolled out of the way. Kitsume rolled to the right, and just as quickly pushed off to the left as a second downward strike stuck the spot she had just occupied. she lept forwrd just in time to dodge the final blow and came out of a sumersault into a crouch. Acting quickly, kitume raised her bow and fired one final shot into the mechanism, and closed her eyes, ready to be struck by the giant claws. But the blow didn’t come. Insted, there was an even greater grinding, and sparks began shooting out of the joints of it's head. It staggered once sideways, tripping over it's own legs. Kitsume saw her cance and dived sidways as the beast staggared forward reeling at the edge before pitching forward. It fell, flailing its claws in a mad attempt to gain balance. before it dissapeard over the edge, it struck the wall hard, causing the already ruined wall to crack farther. Kitsume watched in horror as the floor began to crumble benether her. Just as the ground fell away and she began to fall, she heard somone calling out her name. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion. the floor falling away, herself slipping downward, and hobbes a million miles away bearly on his feet and reaching towards her. she reached for him, but it was too late, she began to fall downward into the rain.
It was over.
It was all gone.
just because of a mis-step, she would never get to see...
never get to see if their futures would be spent together.
Kitsume closed her eys and fell. So slowly.
There was a sharp pain at her wrist and her body jerked striaght. Sound returned, and her eyes snapped open. Hobbes was holding her by the wrist several stories above the ground. With wide eyes she looked down, just to see the spider bot crash into the ground, and with a loud metalic shreik, it died.

The mechanical sipder kicked furiously in mid-air. Geno watched as it’s kicking caught the wall and it righted itself, catching the stone with its great claws. Geno gasped as the robot began to stab the wall with its other legs, driving them deep into the stone. soon it had a flimsy grasp, clinging desperatly to the wall and turning towards her. Geno’s momentum had stopped and it hung directly beow her. She heard the sickening sound of the gun once again being swung towards her.
she desperatly looked around but there was nothing. All she had was one more round and it was red: her special shot. Geno closed her eyes. “i don’t want to, but i don’t seem to have any choice.” she though. She sighed as she opened her eyes to see the guns were pointed at her, ready to fire.
She could feel the rage building in her.
“why couldn’t you just die! why the hell did you have to remind me! i didn’t want to goddamnit! she screamed.
the spider opened fire.
Geno let go of the chain and jumped forward off the wall, grasping he gun in both hands. The robot continued to track her, firing at her as she leapt into the air and fell.
“EAT THIS!” Geno screamed and fired. She could feel the shock of the red-banded round exploding out of the chamber. There was a deafening noise, louder even than the spiders’ cannons as the round left the gunberral. The shot went right into the head, ripping a crater in the metal with a deep thud. It continued ripping through the units’ systems until it came straight out the rear and embedded itself in the ground below. depleted uranium core, high velocity.


"Give me your other hand"
Kitsume looked back up. Hobbes was straining visible to hold her up. She grabbed his other outstretch hand and he started pulling her up.
"Hobbes, you...you saved me." was all she could manage.
"no," he said in between grunts "i think...you saved me."
"oh. yeah."
"besides...i thought you said...you were staying with us... for awhile."
and with that he pulled her up onto what was left of the balcony.
They both layed on their backs on the balcony. The rain, for a moment, didn’t matter.
Kitsume sat up. “Thank you hobbes, you really did save my life. i thought i was...” she trailed off. She looked over at him “Hobbes i...” but she stopped again. “Hobbes, your bleeding! You tore open your wounds!”
He slowly sat up, wincing from the pain. “Yeah, when i dove to grab you.”
“Here, let me...”
“It’s alright, it doesn’t hurt much. Look its almost stopped, see?”
He motioned to his stomach. “Besides,” he looked into her eyes. “I’m supposed to be the one protecting you.”
Kitsume didn’t know what to say.
At that point she wrapped her arms around his neck. He did the same back.
“Thank you” she whispered in his ear.
“But you saved me.”
“not for that.” she whispered back, too quietly for him to hear.

“i’m sorry.” hobbes thought at that moment. “i should’ve been the one to fight that thing.
...
“somone once said you can at best protect yourself and one other person. more than anything i want you to be that one. even if i can’t save myself, i’ll save you.”


The dead robot fell slowly in the rain, Geno falling alongside it. It all seemed to slow down like before, only this time she was calm. She saw now she had been hit sevral times and was bleeding into air as she fell. They hurt, but not like bullets wounds should. She looked stright up into the downpour, the air seemed thick with rain. It seemed to streatch out for miles above her, giving the air depth all the way to the grreat grey sky. And she was in the middle, falling down.
For a moment, she considered not doing it, not saving herself. “Just do nothing, and i strike the ground. I wonder if id’ die? I might. I don’t know if i even can.” She thought.
The ground was slowly rushing up to meet her, like a strange thing she’d never seen before. “I hope when my end really does come, it’s this peacefull.” she said to herself. Geno closed her eyes and visualised the cathedral spire, thinking of the view from the inside. She concentrated on that one image excluding all else. Just seconds from the ground, internal systems kicked on. Static generators and targeting sensors, porjecting arrays and containment feilds activated. a million calculations a second took place. And just before she struck ground, eyes closed and arms outstretched, facing towards the heavens, the system finished. there was an internal discharge of power, and Geno’s body dissapered.

Geno lay on he steps of the belltower, soaking wet and bleeding. She opened her eys and slowly, painfully sat up. She looked around. she was back inside, the system still worked. She sighed and examined a bullet wound on her left arm. It had only grazed her, but she could see beneth the blood, torn flesh and muscle, there was a glint of wet metal.
“thanks dad.” she said quietly. no one heard.

outside, it rained.