37 - 13 - Group Pounding

The inspector. The Garatron. Had to be. Nothing else moved like that.

A blur and Marco's head jerked to one side. His knees buckled.

THWAP!

Marco was down, moaning.

<Jump him!> I ordered.

<Can't see him!> Cassie yelled.

Insane! Tobias threw his huge body at the inspector. At the point in space where the inspector had been. Less than a half second earlier.

Thunk!

Tobias was facedown on the floor.

The inspector circled and spun like a whirling dervish around Cassie. Jim Carrey in The Mask. The Tasmanian Devil in a whirlwind around Yosemite Sam. Futilely she slapped the empty air with her paw, over and over again.

<Cassie! Watch out!> I cried.

Too late!

Dizzy from trying to follow the inspector's swirling path, she couldn't react in time. Couldn't dodge the swinging bladed arm of the Hork-Bajir who loomed behind her.

<AAAAGGGHHH!>

She was down! The Hork-Bajir raised his arm to strike again, to slice the polar bear's already bleeding back.

Two down! No!

<No you don't, buddy.> Marco! Stumbling into the Hork-Bajir from behind, buckling its knees, shoving it away from Cassie.

<OOOWWWRRR!>

I'd been hit!

Shot in the belly at close range by a human-Controller I hadn't seen sneaking up on me. I'd been too distracted by the inspector's infuriating speed and evasiveness.

(...)

The hissing growl of polar bears, growing weaker.

I had to get up, get back into battle!

Slowly, painfully, I raised my bruised head.

And saw the blue blur come to a dead stop about twenty feet in front of me. Speak to a blue deerlike creature with a bladed tail who stood just inside the door.