Above this scene of decimation, a desperate dogfight raged in the sky. The Thunderbirds were engaged in an all-out battle with the helicopter corps. Bugz yelled at the Thunderbirds to focus on one helicopter. She held on to the back of her bird’s neck with a death grip as the thunder-being fired several bolts at the target. Another Thunderbird turned and fired at the same chopper. The combined lightning fire overwhelmed the helicopter’s evasive maneuvers, and it exploded into a shower of flames, pieces of the wreckage crashing into the shallows. The explosion attracted the attention of the horde.

“Get them!” Alpha shouted. He pointed to the sky.

His soldiers obliged, opening fire on the Thunderbirds. Rapid pulses of energy tore through one and sent her in a death spiral toward the lake. She crashed into the waves and sank below. The Clan:LESS gunners took down another and another. For a second, the tableau of the battle showed eight massive and beautiful Thunderbirds falling, their black-and-blue eagle-shaped bodies careening out of control as gunfire and laser beams crisscrossed their doomed trajectories. They crashed to the earth with finality. The way of life that Bugz had recreated in the ’Verse was disappearing before her eyes.

As the horde shot at the last of the Thunderbirds, one flew close to the bird carrying Bugz and glided next to them in silence for a moment. The Thunderbird smiled at Bugz, a pure smile, eyes given over to it. Bugz shook her head.

The smiling Thunderbird banked away and descended on a kamikaze mission to take out the mega–Gatling gun. Another Thunderbird recognized the plan and followed suit. As the birds approached their destinies, their bodies were lit up with energy fire. The Thunderbirds were terminated while still in the air, but momentum carried their bodies forward, crashing them into the mega–Gatling gun and shattering it to pieces. The impact threw the gunners and Alpha backward. The Thunderbirds’ sacrifice gave the lone surviving bird, carrying Bugz, a chance to escape. Still, the helicopters closed in.

CHAPTER 42

Feng finally logged into the Floraverse, his aunt having filled the earlier part of his day with chores. The eyes of Feng’s ’Versona, run by his bot up until this point, twinkled with a higher degree of awareness as they came under Feng’s control. From his post amid his clanmates, Feng scanned the battlefield: dozens of expired sturgeon in the water, Thunderbirds piled on the shore, a burning forest, animal skeletons all around, scores of bodies of former Clan:LESS soldiers. Smoke rose from the rubble. As he turned, he could make out Bugz’s figure on the back of the Thunderbird the gunships chased. They fired repeatedly and did immense damage to the bird’s wings. The Thunderbird finally crashed to the earth and sent Bugz sprawling to the ground. She slid face-first through the sand.