Thunder rumbled overhead. Lightning danced through thick black clouds. Raindrops smacked the glass eyes of Beth like bee bees. I swiped the foot pedals to the sides, tossing a pair of gun trucks off the road as we dashed down the street.

"That way." Shia pointed and Mia turned Beth’s head to follow.

There under a streetlight was a heated argument between Verim, Agatha, and Millie. Verim held a purple-haired woman in a headlock under his arm. She had long brown fur on her legs. Agatha held a handful of Verim's hair, twisting his head to the side. Millie was ramming her horns into the rear end of a massive moose.

We screeched to a halt and the hunchback flipped on some beams of light from the front of the mobile fortress. A slender man with the head of an antelope froze and turned his head to stare wide-eyed into the headlamps. He had been hidden in the darkness and attempted to slip away during the fighting.

Agatha gave Verim a slap and pounced on the antelope man. He kicked and fought against her but she headbutted him in the back of his skull.

I could see blood running down from her lip. "Somebody get them in here before the guard converges on us," I said over my shoulder.

"I'm on it, Rage," Shia said. Goar cleared his throat and hefted his minigun on his shoulder.

I looked back to see the hunchback busy at work. He flipped switches and tapped on the glass of one of his gauges. Then humming to himself he jotted something down on a clipboard. I found the strange-looking man to be quite cheery despite his appearance.

Mia rolled her ball slowly lowering the head down the rest of the way. We heard the hydraulics opening the mouth below us. We watched realization wash over the faces of Verim and Agatha. Then they started pointing at each other and shouting through the rain. Strangers gathered in the shadows to watch the spectacle but kept their distance.

Goar and Shia argued back, and the antelope man started tiptoeing off again. This time Shia wrapped him up in her vines and the frantic man bucked and flopped around on the ground.

I reached over and squeezed Mia's hand gently. "It has been nothing but chaos since I met you, I'm sorry."

Mia purred, "this has been the greatest adventure of my life. You have nothing to be sorry for. I spent every day carrying drinks out to the same customers, hearing the same stories, cleaning the same messes." Her green eyes sparkled. "Doing nothing new. I would have run to the door when I saw you if I would have known. I never know what the day will bring. I don't know what you are thinking. You are a mystery to me. I can't understand what drives you. But you are an unrelenting force and reckless. It's amazing to watch you when you get in a rage."

"Well, then I'm sorry for corrupting you. Your father will be twice as upset with me when I return you talking like that." I smiled and winked at her. The overhead screens glowed on her slender face. I adjusted my harness to distract myself.

I looked out the windshield through the pouring rain as Shia and Goar herded the motley crew into the gaping mouth of Beth. I listened as banging and shouting filled the hall behind me.

Trucks spilled out onto the street in front of us. Heavy guns were mounted to the bed and half a dozen greasers were in each truck.

One greaser with a pink mohawk and gauged ears tossed a grenade under the front of the fortress. Mia spun her ball backward lifting our neck high up.

"Time to move," I shouted and rolled the ball back. I smashed down on one truck with both claws and something like red dyed pumpkin splatter drenched the windshield.

You killed Greaser Guards +7200 exp.

We trampled forward over another truck as he rounded the corner.

+5000

"Hunchback light em up!" I shouted over the carnage. Flames roared from our mouth as Mia turned our head.

+4205

+7860

+500

"You hit a civilian," I shouted as the man stepped out putting on his glasses a moment before the flames turned him into charred meat. Two bags of burned groceries dropped to the ground.

Felony

Bullets ricocheted off the head of Beth. A greaser stepped out the side door of a black van and lifted a rocket launcher onto his shoulder.

I rolled the ball back to the left and we began to scale the side of a glass building. Our feet plunged through the glass and grabbed onto the concrete floors inside. Something struck the carapace back of the Beth and the air shuddered inside.

The air in my ears compressed and I had to cover them with a pair of hands. My other pair of hands played with the toggles and levers. We ducked into a floor level and people scattered as we plunged through walls and into new apartments.

We burst out the other side of the building and I caught a glimpse of Veagon and Eldrin. The elves were dragging a pair of Lamia by their tails. The women hissed and lashed out at the Elves. Each woman had a single, fifteen-foot tail for legs covered in red scales. I scrolled the ball and drove us in their direction.

Veagon slapped Eldrin on the shoulder and pointed at us. I signaled Thurnar and he grunted heading for the door. I heard his heavy steps down the metal of the spiral staircase and then the hydraulics below us.

"Well, that's the last of them." Mia looked over at me, doubt and concern on her face. "Those women don't look so happy.

"We will calm them all down when we get away from the city." I dropped my voice low and leaned toward her, "I promise, everyone will be taken care of."

Mia relaxed her shoulders, "think they will be able to see the Dwarf?"

I twisted a pinky in my ear. They were still ringing and the clatter of metal below in the hallway made them itch. "Elves have good enough eyes to see a tiny man in the mouth of a dragon." I joked back. "Calm them down," I screamed at Goar and Shia. I doubted they could hear me over the ruckus and through the steel door.

The Hunchback busied himself flipping switches and turning dials. "We have thirty more trucks closing in on us." He informed me. "They are going to get their birds in the air soon."

I looked out the window to see Veagon lower his bow and shout something to Thurnar. Then the elves began dragging their tied-up snake women into the ship. "Well, point us to the gates," I said. Then I saw someone small running toward the mouth of Beth. I leaned toward the glass and peered through the darkness and rain.

Blond locks of hair swished from side to side. Then he looked up. It was the kid.