The Wendigo

>titaniumangels -h ttnngl.msdd.whi -u murizar

>Password: ****************************

Logging in….

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MORNINGSTAR DEFENSE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS

********************************************

[Warning]: Unit "Chihiroe" prototyping incomplete!

[Warning]: Unit "Wende" prototyping incomplete!

[Warning]: Unit "Alice" prototyping incomplete!

[Warning]: Unit "Dorothe" prototyping incomplete!

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL

PROJECT "TITANIUM ANGELS" PAYLOAD 40% READY

[Warning]: Deployment system not calibrated!

CONTINUE Y/N?

> y

Options:

STATUS

DEPLOY

LOG

UPDATE

EXIT

>Deploy all -f -calb n -test n -timr 0 -cond null

DEPLOY ALL TITANIUM ANGELS?

>Y

SELECT TARGETS FOR DROP POD 1 "CHIHIROE":

>US random

Deploying to randomized target in continental United States…

[Warning]: Nuclear Environment Detected

[Warning]: PROJECT "TITANIUM ANGELS" IS NOT RATED FOR NBC ENVIRONMENT

CONTINUE Y/N?

>Y

SELECT TARGETS FOR DROP POD 2 "WENDE A":

>US random

Deploying to randomized target in continental United States…

[Warning]: Nuclear Environment Detected

[Warning]: PROJECT "TITANIUM ANGELS" IS NOT RATED FOR NBC ENVIRONMENT

CONTINUE Y/N?

>Y

SELECT TARGETS FOR DROP POD 3 "WENDE B":

>US random -y 2> /dev/null

SELECT TARGETS FOR DROP POD 4 "WENDE C":

>US random -y 2> /dev/null

SELECT TARGETS FOR DROP POD 5 "WENDE D":

>US random -y 2> /dev/null

SELECT TARGETS FOR DROP POD 6 "ALICE":

>US random -y 2> /dev/null

SELECT TARGETS FOR DROP POD 7 "DOROTHE"

:

>US random -y 2> /dev/null

ALL ASSETS DEPLOYED

[Warning]: Unit "Chihiroe" prototyping incomplete!

[Warning]: Unit "Wende" prototyping incomplete!

[Warning]: Unit "Alice" prototyping incomplete!

[Warning]: Unit "Dorothe" prototyping incomplete!

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL

PROJECT "TITANIUM ANGELS" PAYLOAD 0% READY

[Warning]: Deployment system not calibrated and tested!

>exit

GOODBYE.

----------

January 2019, outskirts of the small town of Tulanmola, Texas

The tall woman stood up amongst scorched black blades of grass. Her skin had a dull white metallic sheen, her hair short and blonde. The green camouflage-pattern jumpsuit on her skin fit unnaturally well against her skin, more as if she were tailored for it, rather than it for her.  Her round face seemed nearly flawless, though her facial features were perhaps a little too smooth to quite be human. Her eyes glowed a very bright shade of green that could not possibly have been mistaken for any work of Mother Nature.

Where she had been laying seconds ago, fine glasslike shards littered the prairie for a few dozen meters around.

The woman opened her eyes and immediately, preprogrammed thoughts raced through her mind.

WEaponized Neutralization and Detection Entity (WENDE)-Series D, Unit Number 7 activated. Scanning perimeter for active threats.

No threats found. Secure environment, conceal landing.

WENDE-D7 moved without hesitation or caution and dispatched a combat knife from a holster on her hip. With thirty seconds of furious motion, she gouged a large hole in the ground, despite the knife's clear inadequacy for such a task. She began ripping out the burnt grass and shattered glass, and piled it all into the hole. A minute later, she filled the rest of the hole and tamped it down, leaving a barely noticeable patch of bare dirt.

The night air around her felt dead and empty, bereft of even wind. Nothing had so much as twitched while she worked.

Primary Directive: Acquire combat data.

Primary Directive: Assure intact retrieval of combat data at all costs.

Secondary Directive: Conceal and suppress unauthorized knowledge of current mission and Morningstar project information.

Secondary Directive: Assist employees of Morningstar Defense Systems where possible.

The deathly-pale robotic woman took note of faint yellow lights in the distance.  Understanding it as the glow of civilization, a wicked grin approached her lips, the first expression on her face so far. She did not holster her knife. She did walk towards the lights. She did keep that grin on her face the entire time.

-------

One year later, January 2020, the town of Chique, Arkansas

John downed the last of his bourbon and took stock of the folks around him. "Well, I can say, this was not the posse I was expecting." The mustachioed old man carefully adjusted his well worn, faded leather jacket.

John slammed his drained shotglass on the table and leaned back. "I'll take what I can get. Ain't no one goes after a Wendigo alone and lives."

"You done, old man?", said Keith. The black-haired man sitting across the table from John had a twitch of the eye that was hard to miss. John had been around long enough to recognize the signs of sleep deprivation. Keith wore a tactical vest and fatigues, which made him stand out in a bar full of folks in outdoors work wear. Not in a particularly good way either, John thought. Keith continued, "Let's get a move on. $400,000 is going to go far and I ain't itching to let someone else get to it first."

"Please, just call me John Santafe. ‘Old man’ is my father." said John, with a sardonic tilt of his head.

"$400,000 is assuming we all live", said a redheaded young woman wearing a tan longcoat, with a shotgun by her side. She sat by Keith's side, but carefully maintained her distance and eyed the younger man with irritation every time he spoke. "Wendigos have killed bigger groups than ours", she said. "I figure that $2 million might not end up being split five ways in the end."

John grunted and rubbed his temples slowly out of habit, before remembering he wasn't around friendly company in the slightest. He slowly returned his hands to his sides and spoke. 

"Thank you for the optimism, Miss…

"Pauline Darton."

"Thank you, Miss Darton.", said John. "That's why the ad asked for folks who've been in the game for a while. Between the chaos in the West Coast and the skirmishes around the Mexican border, it's getting harder to get ahold of good bounty hunters. I think we're up to 46 missing cases and 5 confirmed dead last month, and three of those were my last bunch of deputies! No luck so much as getting eyes on the Wendigo, and it still managed to kill good men. So, as my duty as sheriff of Monroe County, I'm handing all you strangers temporary badges, because I am straight out of options. I hope you'll do better than the others did. Hell, I'll give up my share of the bounty if you can make sure it's definitely the Wendigo and definitely dead. I just don't want more folks to get hurt."

Another woman, pale-skinned, with thick round sunglasses, light brunette hair, and her boots on the bar table, let out a loud snort. Everyone stopped talking to look at her.

"Sorry", the woman managed to say without sounding apologetic in the slightest. "I'm Lily. Lily Tiger. It's just, that was the king of confidence-building speeches! 'Well, this county is fucked, might as well go with you guys because everyone else is just gonna get killed straight up.'" She grinned.

Lord almighty, is she really wearing sunglasses indoors at night? Kids these days, thought John. At least she looks like she's been in a good scrap or two before.

Pauline glared at Lily. Lily didn't seem to notice. "Well, Mister Santafe,", said Pauline, turning to John. "That is mighty generous of you. Doubt you'll follow through, but nice of you to say it. Would you happen to have a plan?"

"I have a lead, there was another massacre tonight, so you folks had good timing to answer when you did. Wendigos tend to linger in the area and keep killing. My deputies are working as lookouts in the area. We'll pin down its location as it attacks, and then intervene."

"So, fair question." said Lily, adjusting her sunglasses and tilting a broad-brimmed green hat slightly. "How many of you have killed Wendigos before? In the year since they showed up?"

No one at the table said anything. The rest of the bar continued its low hum of chatter and clinking glasses. "Well, what about him?", said Keith, carefully nodding his head towards the fifth person at the table.

An African-American man with long curly hair and a long black trench coat busily sharpened his knife with a whetstone. "Barker. Just one." He returned to sharpening his knife as if it were the most important thing in the world.

"I've killed two", said Lily with pride.

"Bullshit", said Keith with a grimace. He slapped his hand on the table. "They run faster than even cars, with the strength of three men. Pale as death, eyes that glow bright in the night, and can shrug off even 223 Remington straight to the chest. They can break through snares that would cut a deer In half. I've read the police reports. What the hell do you think you have that you can just say you killed two of them? Quiet guy, uh, Barker here, I can believe. He does things other than run his mouth."

Lily paused. "Well, to be fair, I wouldn't say 'faster than cars'", said Lily. "More like, I dunno, if Usain Bolt had the knife from Counterstrike an-"

Keith stood up, producing a loud wood-on-wood screech as his chair slid. "What the fuck is your problem, lady? You think this is a joke?"

"Ladies. Gentlemen", said John.  He sighed mightily. "We are here to stop the deaths of innocent men, women and children. Federal and state has their hands full with the blob cult and anarchists and the Altan Ord next doors, the bounty money is the best anyone can do. We're the only line of defense. If we can't put aside any disagreements long enough to take it down, none of us get the two million and more good people will get hurt. I don't think anyone would be happy with that outcome, so please…"

Lily kept a smile on her face, still sitting with her dark green boots on the table, as if she were looking forward to all of this. "Well, they aren't that tough if you stick together, watch your backs and shoot at everything that moves and isn't you."

"Yeah, like we're going to listen to miss he-killed-one-so-I-killed two." said Keith. The words came out almost as a growl.

"He has a point. Do you have any idea what you sound like?" said Pauline.

John put his arms up in between the three as best as he could. "Look, Keith, right? You said you wanted to get a move on. I think that would be for the best. I'm deputizing you all, and time's a-wasting. Let's do what we have to."

"Yeah. The less time I spend with this bitch, the better", said Keith. Lily seemed not to notice.

John got up as quickly as his early arthritis would let him. He tried not to join the others in glaring at Lily as they left the bar.

--------

"Are you serious? You're wearing sunglasses outside at night?" said Keith.

"Hey, I don't complain about you going all tacticool on us. How much does that shit weigh?", said Lily, shrugging a shoulder at Keith's modified assault rifle.

"By saying that, you are complaining", said Pauline. "Maybe shut up, Lily?"

Barker kept silent as before, looking at the corpse on the parking lot floor. John knelt down beside him for a closer look.

"Fresh. Looks like blunt trauma. Poor bastard." John shifted the rifle in his hands uncomfortably as he bent over to lean at the body. In twenty-three years as a sheriff, he never had to kill anyone. Sure, wild animals and standoffs happened. But never an actual person, shot and killed. He considered himself lucky. Until the Wendigo came to his jurisdiction. "Wendigo didn't spend long here, and there’s no sign of a struggle, this was a hit-and-run. We're going to have our work cut out." he said.

Lily butted in to look at the corpse. "Ooh! Damn,  looks someone was in a hurry!" She didn't seem to have any difficulty seeing through her sunglasses.

Barker grunted in agreement.

"Are you done looking at the body?" said Keith. "It's probably moved on already"

John was about to reply when his phone rang with a tinny beep. He lifted it up to his ear. "Yeah? Another one already? That far? Damnation, it's moving fast. People, let's go, there's another one around Oakside."

"Where the heck is that?", said Lily.

"We're all from out of town", said Pauline.

"Right", said John. "Just… follow me."

The bounty hunters and the sheriff piled back into their cars.

----

Oakside Lake was a small, secluded forest, more like a glorified copse, which would have been gorgeous in daylight. Nighttime made it cold and hostile, as the trees seemed to moan and whisper in the breeze.

"Looks like it might have got a camper. My deputies have evacuated the area, as per my orders."  said John. "It's just us and the Wendigo. As you can see, there's clear sightlines outside of the trees. It's definitely still in there somewhere."

"Let's move in." said Keith, as he stepped into the thicket. "One of us should keep an eye on its escape route in case it runs. I vote on Lily, she can't fuck that up."

"Uh, I really do recommend sticking together. We'll do a lot less dying that way.", said Lily.

"Shut up!", said Keith.

"You're on lookout duty, Lily.", said Pauline. "Since you talk so big, you can chase the wendigo down if it starts to run. I'm sure you'll have no problem catching up to ‘Usain Bolt’."

"I can take lookout duty. I'm going to admit it, I'm not the fighter that you four are", said John.

"Then Lily joins you. We're going in without her, I've had enough of her shit. The sooner this is done and I'm done with her, the better." said Keith.

"Yeah, pretty much." said Pauline.

Barker shrugged. He walked over beside John.

"Looks like it's just us", said Pauline. She lifted a grenade in her hands. "Come on. Wendigo will never know what hit it."

Keith and Pauline walked into the dark thicket of trees, leaving Lily, Barker and John outside.

John walked over to his pickup truck and pulled out three folding chairs. "Let's get comfortable then. But don't let your guns leave your hands."

Lily nodded. She turned to look at Barker.

"So, you also killed a wendigo huh? What was that like?', said Lily.

Barker sat down, looked at her evenly and said nothing.

"Alright, fine, fine, keep your secrets.", she said nonchalantly. She leaned back in her chair.

Too far away for any of them to see, glowing green eyes looked out of the shadows.

Combat Analysis

Sighting of five individuals as seen in previous three locations, heavily-armed, shortly after interaction. Almost certain probability of attempt at retaliation. Must be resolved immediately. Probability of defeating all five individuals simultaneously: low. Terrain of encounter: excellent.

-----

Subject name: Keith

Physique: Above Average

Coordination: Above Average

Alertness: Low

Reflexes: Moderate

Aggression: Extreme

Weapon: Assault Rifle (modified sights, trigger, safety, unknown attachment)

Overall threat : Moderate

Tactical Approach: Ambush from Above

"Where the fuck is it?", yelled Keith "I swear it's taunting us!"

"Calm the fuck down, Keith", said Pauline. "It's probably struggling after we hit it. Flash out!"

She threw the flash grenade at the sound of the last rustling of leaves. The flashbang went off with a boom and briefly illuminated the undergrowth, casting deep shadows everywhere. Keith and Pauline averted their eyes.

"I think I see it!" said Keith as the light died down. He fired a burst into the trees.

"You're wasting ammo, idiot!" said Pauline.

"There! I definitely saw it there!" said Keith, pointing at the trees where he had seen a thin humanoid figure quickly darting through.

"We need to wait for a good shot, it's too damn fast", said Pauline, lifting the shotgun to her shoulder and sighting it.

"I- agggh!" yelled Keith. His shoulder spurted bright red and a figure behind him sprinted away.

"I need a good angle!", yelled Pauline, trying not to point her shotgun straight at Keith as she tried to aim at their fleeing attacker.

Keith fell onto his back, bleeding profusely. He clutched at his wounded shoulder with his free hand, trying to stem the bleeding.

"That'll do it", said Pauline. She fired off several rounds where Keith and the attacker were a second ago, but after the muzzle flash cleared. the Wendigo was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it! It's gone", said Pauline. "Wait, a blood trail…. If I follow it…."

"I'm bleeding, you stupid-" Keith swore sharply and extensively.

"Just shut up!", said Pauline. "Let me kill it, and then I'll take care of you."

"Damn it, woman! We need to get the hell out of here and regroup! There's-"

"There! You got sloppy!", said Pauline. Her shotgun roared again, discharging heavy shot which ripped through leaves and branches. Something heavy fell to the ground. A small combat knife, still covered in fresh blood, skipped along the ground in front of her and came to rest. The redhead smiled.

She aimed down at the source of the yelling.

"Finally got the bastard. Sorry, Keith, but two million is a lot of money and like I said, the Wendigo would most likely kill at least one of us in the process."

Keith's eyes widened. "You bit-"

She fired again. Keith's blood-splattered rifle clattered to the ground.

Subject name: Pauline

Physique: Above Average

Coordination: Average

Alertness: Average

Reflexes: Below Average

Aggression: Moderate

Weapon: Shotgun

Overall Threat: Minor

Tactical Approach: Distraction

Pauline approached the body that fell and dropped the knife, and found it was … an old, beat-up store mannequin, buckshot freshly embedded in its side. "Ah shit", she had time to say, before a tall, deathly-white woman in blood-stained green fatigues lunged at her from behind. She spun around with her shotgun and fired.

WENDE smiled and deflected the shotgun with one hand as it fired. With her other hand, she slapped the shotgun out of Pauline's hands and onto the blood-slicked forest floor. Pauline stared at her empty hands for a second, then drew a bowie knife from her belt. She didn't have time to so much as point it in WENDE's direction before she felt crushing, blinding pain. 

One after the other, WENDE's fists caved in Pauline's facial bones, drawing blood. The human woman fell to the ground writhing in pain and cursing. She felt around for WENDE's legs and, feeling a solid mass, shoved her knife in as deep as she could. Except that WENDE moved with the strike, dragging Pauline's grasping hand with her and pulling her foot away from the stab. Her foot then returned and slammed hard into Pauline's skull. The woman twitched and went limp.

Hostiles defeated. Completing elimination….

Pauline quietly hyperventilated in pain next to Keith's mangled corpse. WENDE looked down dispassionately, and lifted her foot above Pauline's head. She let it drop as hard as she could with a wet crunch.

Three more targets remain. Scanning perimeter… new target found.

Barker looked at her from thirty meters away, his suitcase in hand. The black man calmly took in the scene, with the Wendigo standing over the corpses of the two other bounty hunters.

Subject name: Barker

Physique: Average

Coordination: Average

Alertness: High

Reflexes: Average

Aggression: Low

Weapon: Pistol (holstered)

Overall Threat: Minor

Tactical Approach: Direct Assault

WENDE smiled ferally and picked up Pauline's bowie knife. She gracefully wiped the blood from it onto her torn camouflage jumpsuit.  She flipped the knife into an ice-pick grip and stared straight into Barker's eyes.

Barker shrugged. He snapped open the suitcase and pulled out an absolutely enormous multi-barreled gun. WENDE took a step back.

Revision to Subject "Barker":

Weapon: M214 Microgun

Overall threat: Extreme

Tactical Approach: Evasion

WENDE did a spinning backflip as Barker's minigun spun up and started shredding everything in WENDE's general direction at waist level. She ducked down low and sprinted as fast as she could as bullets flew everywhere. The entire forest completely lit up with gunfire, wood splinters filled the air like confetti, trees cracked and groaned as torrents of bullets hammered and sawed them clean in half. The minigun growled and groaned like the hounds of hell ripping sinners open in the seventh level of hell. WENDE leapt over a cluster of bullets that came too close and, as she was about to touch the ground, flung her knife at Barker.

The blade landed squarely in Barker's left bicep, causing his minigun to shudder and rock as he lost control. As he fought to get the enormous gun back on course, WENDE took the pause in shooting to lift up a fist-sized rock from the forest floor and pitched it hard. The rock screamed through the air and struck Barker hard in the forehead, sending him staggering, and ripping his finger off the trigger, silencing the minigun.

The large gun hit the forest floor with a crash and shortly after, Barker landed face down on the leafy, bloodied forest floor.

WENDE leaned against one of the few trees that survived the rain of bullets and rested for a while. It cracked slightly against the thin gynoid's considerable weight, but held firm.

"Taking a breather?" said Lily. She placed her rifle flush against the side of WENDE's skull.

Subject name: Lily

Physique: Average

Coordination: Above Average

Alertness: Exceptional

Reflexes: Above Average

Aggression: High

Weapon: High-powered semi-automatic rifle

Overall Threat: Moderate-High

Tactical Approach: Direct Assault

WENDE shifted her weight slightly and with a downward thrust of both hands, snatched the rifle clean from Lily's hands. The robot flipped it around to aim perfectly between Lily's eyes and pulled the trigger.

Click.

Lily grinned and grabbed the barrel of the rifle with both hands and pushed forward, shoving the butt of the rifle into WENDE's face. WENDE fell backwards from the force of the blow, and leaned backward into the blow, planting one hand on the ground behind her as she fell. Lily rushed forward, fists, swinging, only to be met with a fall turned into a high kick from WENDE. The blow shattered her sunglasses, knocked off her hat, and sent her sprawling backwards.

WENDE recovered into a cartwheel back to a standing position and saw, across the battlefield, unearthly green eyes staring back at her with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. She looked down and saw dye the color of Caucasian skin staining the side of her boot, while Lily's face had been scraped stark white where she had struck.

'Lily' smiled and said, "Nice hit."

"You are one of us", the first WENDE, designation D-7, said. She stomped forward indignantly.

"Right you are", said ‘Lily’. "I'm WENDE D-4. Pleasure to meet you too."

"We are not intended to combat each other.", said WENDE D7. "This is a violation of our primary directive, to ensure data integrity!"

"S'why the gun's empty, love.", said WENDE, with a warm smile. She discarded her shattered sunglasses. "Not gonna risk destroying your hard drive. I'll just beat your outsides to a pulp and make sure your memories are safe with me. Plus the ones I make killing you, it’ll be great combat data. Also, you remember our second directive? You're violating its ass by being a serial killer. The humans are gonna eventually catch you, open you up, and learn stuff they really shouldn't." She wagged a finger at her counterpart.

"You are a perversion of our mission and our design. Your defective processor is a disgrace to our purpose."

"I'm a perv about a lot of things, 'sis'. " said WENDE D4. "And we were all created a bit differently, because we are experiments after all. Me? I guess they turned on the 'gives no fucks' and ‘knows what she’s doing' switches on me, because you look like total shit. Covered in leaves and blood and dirt and junk."

Revision to subject "Lily"

Subject name: WENDE Series D Unit 4

Physique: Exceptional

Coordination: Exceptional

Alertness: Exceptional

Reflexes: Exceptional

Aggression: Extreme

Weapon: Hand to Hand combat

Overall Threat: Extreme

Tactical Approach: All means possible

"Ohhh, you're doing the scan thingy on me", said WENDE-D4. "Well, right back at ya."

Subject name: WENDE Series D Unit 7

Physique: I'm kinda buff, so I guess so is she

Coordination: Those backflips, okay, wow, never seen that before.

Alertness: I mean, I did sneak up on her and I normally suck at that.

Reflexes: Pretty dang good I guess

Aggression: Murderin’ er'ryone out here.

Weapon: Fists that she got from the same place as mine.

Overall Threat: Crazy High

Tactical Approach: Fuck her up.

"That wasn't too helpful.", muttered D4. "Anyways, how often do I get the chance to beat the shit out of myself without consequences and get paid for it? You know unit D3? Took me hours to track her down and shoot her in the face. She went down just like that, I didn't even realize the 'Wendigo' was her until I got up close. Absolutely no satisfaction there. It was D6 that made me realize, damn, we can put up a really good fight! She got the drop on me, and really good, too. Humans? Man, most of them just can't compare to one of us."

WENDE D4 pointed to her left eye. "For instance, this one used to be hers. Was not easy, fistfighting with one eyeball, but I think I earned the replacement."

WENDE D7 clenched her fists. Hard. Her fingers would have turned pure white if she wasn't already that color. Or if she had blood.

D7 broke into a sprint away as fast as she could, sending leaves into the air. WENDE D4 smiled, then her smile immediately died as she noticed where D7 was moving. The blood-stained serial killer in the green fatigues ran towards Barker’s fallen body, and dived hard and fast along the ground. She spun around on the ground to a kneeling position, now with Barker’s minigun in her hands. She pulled the trigger and decidedly did not let go.

D4 was already moving as D7 started shooting. The first burst was awkwardly aimed and missed D4 by ten meters, but D7 quickly corrected her aim, and stood up to better maneuver the massive weapon. D4 ran past a series of bushes, cursing as leaves and branches popped, exploded and shattered around her. She took a dive past a tree and found a body on the ground. With a grunt, she lunged down and grabbed the body as she ran, and threw the body forward as she rounded a particularly thick tree. She grabbed onto a low branch and curled up around it to kill what was left of her momentum after throwing the body. The mannequin that D7 had used as a decoy tore, danced and splintered when it left D4’s hands and the minigun caught up to it.

D7 immediately realized what had happened and focused her fire on the tree, ripping it apart with a deafening crack. Something dropped to the side of her vision and she realized that the bounty hunter had outmaneuvered her. The minigun clicked dry before she had fully adjusted her aim again. She dropped the minigun, and had already hit a dead sprint by the time it touched dirt. She covered a dozen meters in two seconds, and slid down again past Pauline’s corpse, sitting upright when she had halted, now with Pauline’s shotgun in hand.

She heard the other android moving before she saw her. She quickly pivoted and pumped shotgun blasts with a speed and precision that’d unnerve a professional shootist. A flashlight flew through the air and managed to shine precisely into D7’s eyes as it spun. D7’s eyes automatically closed their pupils faster than the sudden change in light could overwhelm her vision. Her eyes adjusted to full vision as soon as the light left her vision and the flashlight crashed into the ground, and she heard D4 moving again. She fired again, and her shotgun clicked empty. She again discarded the gun without hesitation, and lunged to grab Keith’s rifle a few meters away. She had closed her hands around its handle when a pair of heavy green boots landed on the rifle.

“Uh uh uh!”, said D4, looking down and shaking her head. D7 blocked D4’s hasty kick and punched D4’s standing leg in the kneecap, sending the bounty hunter stumbling back. The Wendigo yanked the rifle free and pulled the trigger. D4’s hair blew wildly as a single bullet raced past the side of her head. Keith’s rifle clicked dry.

“Looking for this?” said D4, holding the gun’s magazine. She threw it high into the air between them. D7 took precisely one-tenth of a second to assess whether this was a trap or not. She hedged her bets and kicked D4 hard in the gut and then caught the magazine, only to realize it was quite empty. As D4 fell backwards from the kick, she let the rifle’s bullets tumble from her hand. She managed to catch her footing and raised her fists.

The android formerly known as Lily was battered and bruised, and several rounds had torn through her clothes and cracked her metallic skin, but her smug grin had returned. “Come on. Scared without your little murder knife? No soft squishy humans you can pick on instead?”

D7 snarled, discarded the rifle, and led with a hard cross. D4 parried the blow and punished D7 with a sharp right hook to the head. D7 flinched from the blow. D4 then threw a rising knee into the camouflage-covered murderer’s abdomen. D7 staggered from the strike, then sidestepped to take the worst out of a roundhouse kick from D4. She smoothly snapped forward with a backfist, catching D4 in the side of the neck. D4 retreated, and narrowly ducked past several furious jabs. She ducked under one of D7’s strikes, and threw her hands up to catch the serial killer’s extended arm. D4 twisted the caught hand down under her armpit and elbowed D7 hard in her exposed face. D7 grunted from the impact and hit D4 in the stomach with her free hand. D4 disregarded the pain and locked D7 into a clinch, then started shooting her knees into D7’s torso. D7 slipped a hand onto D4’s face and started pushing. D4 gave her no time to follow up, however. The bounty hunter leaned back into a fall, still clutching the Wendigo close, and transitioned into a belly-to-belly suplex, sending D7 ungracefully crashing into the ground.

WENDE D7 recovered quickly, but as she got up to all fours, D4 tackled her and slammed her hard into a tree. D4 ducked under a retaliatory punch, and then let loose a brutal hook into D7’s side, shaking the tree almost off its roots. D7 heaved under the strike, and then D4 nailed her with several more hard strikes to the face and chest. D7 finally parried a blow and caught D4 with a fierce headbutt. D4 fell back, but just as abruptly caught her footing, reversed direction and threw a haymaker out of the sheer blue beyond, right into D7’s head. 

D7’s skull scraped a broad, shallow groove in the tree bark as she slammed against it and slumped to the ground.

Warning! Severe blunt trauma sustained. Limb control affected. Sensory mechanisms affected.

The Wendigo tried to shake it off and get back up when D4 bashed her head in with a fierce twelve-to-six elbow, the impact digging an impromptu crater in the dirt. The killer robot sputtered, her faceplate almost torn open from the beating. D4’s weary grin of triumph looked entirely fitting, considering she now had many new dents in her body.

D4 stood over her quarry, foot on the other robot’s neck . “Any last words?”, she asked.

The fallen robot replied, “You will nev-”

“Don’t care.”

Lily applied all her weight to her front foot, sending shards of plastic and metal everywhere as she separated the Wendigo’s head from her body.  D7’s decapitated body, still quite active but now blind and deaf, wildly flailed around. Lily pinned her sister’s torso into the ground,  lifted one hand high and stabbed her hand clean into D7’s chest and tore out a large chunk of metal and wires, sending sparks and shards all about. D7 twitched. Her panicked movements soon lost their vigor and speed, and then she went utterly still.

“Thanks for donating your batteries, Wendigo. Much appreciated. ”, said WENDE D4. She couldn’t quite pant or sweat, but nonetheless slumped down in exhaustion, and drooped her head. She dropped D7’s battery onto the ground, leaned against a nearby tree, and closed her eyes.

------

Sheriff John Santafe of Monroe County anxiously waited with his rifle ready, covering his torso and legs behind the bed of his pickup. He aimed his rifle at the female figure walking out of the forest.

He nearly dropped his rifle. Out strolled Lily, but with much paler skin. Her eyes glowed bright green without thick sunglasses to cover it up. Her clothes were torn to hell like she had just finished fighting an entire war by herself, but she didn’t bleed in the slightest, instead sporting dry bullet holes and discoloration-free dents in her body. She dragged in one of her hands a body John recognized as Barker, sporting blood-stained bandages on his head and arm. In her other hand was someone who looked very much like her, but blonde, wearing fatigues, and nearly torn in half at the neck.

“You’re the Wendigo!” the older man said, fumbling with his rifle when the glowing green eyes made contact with his.

“Uh no, the Wendigo is in my right hand here. Smart of you to stay out here, by the way”, said WENDE.

“W-what happened in there? It sounded like a whole war went on. And it looks like one happened to you too.”

“Long story short, Keith and Pauline were killed by the Wendigo, my sister. Barker here can corroborate. He pulled out a gatling gun or something, it was quite impressive, but he got his ass kicked, then the Wendigo decided to fuck with me. So I killed her first. Simple as that. I tell you any more, and I’m literally programmed to try and kill you. I’d really rather not, you seem like a stand-up guy and I’m tired of fighting humans.”

“You’re a robot?” John felt uneasy, like he might fall to his knees, even leaning against his truck.

“You’re pushing it already if I say yes, but-” WENDE strained for a bit, as if fighting to motivate herself to do something really unwanted. “Yeah, basically”, she said with a sigh.

John decided to keep his mouth shut.

“Anyways, I’m claiming the bounty, because I’m also not allowed to let you inspect her remains.”

John suddenly had a thought, and he immediately regretted letting it leave his mouth. “Wait, how do I know you’re not the Wendigo switching places with Lily?”

“My name is WENDE. And…” She thought for a moment. “We’re all natural blondes, I guess. I dyed my hair a light brunette.” She gave her hair a sharp tug. “It’s not a wig or anything. Anyways, no offense, but I’m not sure you could stop me anyways. Just, let Barker wake up and ask him if you’re not sure. Are we cool here, Sheriff? I’ll cut you and Barker a check for 600 grand and we can call it squaresies. Sound good?”

John nodded. “As long as people are safe.”

“In the state this country is in? Ain’t no such thing as safe”, said WENDE. “But I guess they’re a lot safer now that I talked sis-” She shook the mangled android in her hands slightly, causing its taped-on head to bobble “-into leaving you all alone.”

WENDE then cautiously, reassuringly approached John’s pickup truck and with one hand, managed to gently lift Barker into the bed of the truck. “I’m not a medic, so uh, probably get him to a hospital or something. After you check out the crime scene. ” Barker let out a grunt and slightly opened one eye.

“Thanks”, he said.

“Yeah, whatever.”, said WENDE. “Nice gun, by the way, wherever did you get it?”

Barker gestured slightly with his head for WENDE to lean in, and then whispered in her ear.

“Dang. Now that is impressive.” said WENDE. “It sounds wild enough to be true, but wow. I’d love to try that sometime. I’ll track you down sometime to see if you’re lying.” Barker nodded in approval, then let his head drop back down and went back to sleep.

WENDE turned to look at the Sheriff. “Oh. By the way, John, I’m going to run out of sisters eventually. would you happen to have heard of any other androids around these parts, besides the Wendigo killers?”

John thought for a second. “Um…in Arkansas, no. But there’s a guy I saw on TV once, a real life cyborg. You might have some luck with him?”

“Well, my sisters are all female… or so I presume. It might be worth checking out.”

“He’s a champion in Ultimate Wrestling on… uh MOX Ultimate Wrestling. Yeah, that’s the one. Jeremiah Vastrix, owner of Hammer Industries. ”

“Thanks, man. I guess I’ll look into wrestling on a slow day. Always did enjoy scrapping without weapons…. His competition… are they tough?”

John relaxed a bit. “Woman, you have no idea.”

“Fantastic.” WENDE beamed and draped the Wendigo’s corpse over her shoulder as she got into her car. “I’ll move it up on my list. See you later… or if you’d prefer, never.” She fetched a pair of sunglasses from her pockets and put it on her face and frowned when she realized they were also broken.

John stepped back from himself from a moment, took a deep breath to absorb the entire situation and then buried his face in both hands “I’m going to have one hell of an explanation cut out for me, won’t I?”

“Well, humans are great liars.” said WENDE through her broken sunglasses, with a smile. “Or crap at seeing through lies. Either way. You’ll figure something out.”

She drove off, leaving Barker and John to deal with the mess in the blood-splattered forest.

John got out his phone and started looking up “plausible explanations for a robot killing everyone.”

Tonight would be a very long start to a very, very long 2020.