Only Superhuman Read Free

Bast, and those claws left their marks in Emry’s arms a couple of times more, as well as doing a fair amount of damage to the conduits. Regrettably, none of them was carrying anything hot or caustic to spray out in Bast’s face, as they surely would have in a movie or sim. Real life was such a rip-off sometimes. “Keep scratching up the furniture and we’ll have to get you a manicure!” Bast slashed out with a foot, barely missing her. “And a pedicure. How about a sinecure? Get paid to sleep all day—what cat could pass that up?” The next swipe of Bast’s claws raked across the back of her hand. Emry lost her grip and barely managed to catch herself on the pipe below. “Would you settle for a cured ham?” I’ll need a cure for disembowelment at this rate.
    But Emry had grown up with cats—surely she could use a few of their tricks herself. Hell, she was wearing tiger-print panties. The next time Bast’s claws slashed from around a vertical pipe, Emry swept around the other side and collided with her. They fell together in a Coriolis arc. Emry struggled to hold Bast and make sure the she-cat landed on her back. But Bast’s tail gave her the advantage in midair twisting, and Emry ended up on the bottom (not her favorite position), just managing to splay her arms in time to absorb the impact wrestler-style. Which made them unavailable to stop Bast from going for her throat again. So she slammed her forehead into Bast’s. Not for the first time, her thick skull came in handy; Bast yowled and fell back, letting Emry get her legs up into the she-cat’s midriff, launching her backward. She landed in a three-point crouch, though, and Emry struggled to rise and face her, though she found it hard to get beyond a sitting position. “Anybody got a ball of yarn?”
    “Oh, for God’s sake,” came Arkady’s voice, “just shoot her!” Emry grimaced. She hated guns, even the nonlethal kind—nasty things, and they took all the fun out of a good fight. But Arkady had a point—they didn’t really have time, what with the other terrorists on the loose.
    The clincher was that Bast was pouncing again, all her pointy bits deployed for the kill, and Emry couldn’t dodge fast enough. In one smooth, swift move, she fell back, drew her dartgun, and placed shockdarts in Bast’s exposed midriff and neck. The she-cat convulsed and fell heavily atop her, burying Emry’s face in her thick, silky mane. “Sorry,” Emry said. “This was just starting to get good.” She rolled the dazed panther-woman off of her, taking a moment to appreciate how soft her fur was, and feeling irrationally tempted to stroke it back into smoothness. But there was no time for that now. She drew binders from her belt and swiftly secured Bast’s wrists and ankles before she could recover.
    Emry turned to see Arkady hovering nearby in his armor suit, its wingjets keeping him airborne and correcting for Cori drift. She always thought the bulky thing made him look like something out of an old anime . Apparently he’d just lifted out of the way of the bull-man, Taurean, who was extricating his horns from a dented wall panel and shaking his head. He must’ve given up on the gun or been disarmed. Arkady fired a shock laser, but Taurean dodged surprisingly fast, the electric arc hitting the wall. Arkady deployed his arm-mounted sonic pulser, but before he could fire, Taurean leapt up and took him in the chest, smashing through several overhead pipes. Taurean landed smoothly on his feet, but Arkady fell badly and hit headfirst, a number of heavy conduits landing atop him.
    “You okay, Papa Bear?” Emry called—but then noticed Taurean eyeing her and pawing at the ground. “Ohh, bull…” She fired off some shockdarts as he charged her headfirst, but they bounced off his skin as though it were light armor, not holding contact long enough to deliver an effective charge. No wonder Arkady had switched to beam weapons.
    But Emry would not be cowed. Like