Chương 114: Book 2 - Chapter 32 - Bear-ly an Inconvenience

Alan felt his feet leave the ground as his Guiding Light escort literally threw him into a dark room.

"Stay there, and keep quiet. The boss wants you alive, but I doubt she'll care if we have to rough you up a little." The monster of a man threw a blanket onto the floor, before closing and locking the heavy metal door behind him.

"Fucking assholes," Alan muttered. Not loud enough for them to hear, of course, but he still felt the need to let it out. The room he'd been thrown into had probably been a secure storage room decades ago. Now all that it contained was piles of rotten boards and rusty metal. It was quite obvious that the blanket was less to give him a little bit of comfort and more to prevent him from getting tetanus or some other disease if he tried to sit down. He shoved enough of the junk aside to sit on the floor.

The single lightbulb in the room flickered occasionally, threatening to plunge the room into darkness. Thankfully it didn't, instead it provided just enough light to leave everything in a state of perpetual gloom.

"I really fucked up this time. Jane and Evelyn are going to kill me." Even through the walls, he could tell his jailers were having a great time. He couldn't make out everything they said, but he could make out the occasional word. Things like samurai, bitch, and failure. It didn't take a genius to realize they were probably making fun of Evelyn, which made him feel even worse. The merry-making seemed to carry on for hours, even though it was probably only a couple of minutes, before something changed.

There was a horrific crash, followed by shouting and gunfire. Then silence. A moment later, the door was wrenched open. No, not opened, the entire thing, frame and all, had been pulled right out of the concrete wall and a massive bear stuck its head through the hole.

"Hello Alan, I am sorry for the delay, but I am here to protect you!" it declared. Alan sat there, stunned, for a moment. Not only did the bear speak, but it sounded like an upbeat gameshow, or sporting announcer.

"You're one of Evelyn's bears," he said dumbly, "How did you get here?"

"I'm Bob! I came in through the roof," it replied.

"It took a while to find a place that wouldn't cause the entire building to collapse. Thankfully, the beavers were able to determine a location with sufficient stability."

"Right…"

"We should be going. There are several samurai assaulting the premises, but my orders are to get you to safety," the bear said. Alan scrambled to his feet and approached the door. The bear beyond was… different from what he remembered. Where Evelyn's personal bears wore some variety of modern combat armor, this one had some sort of futuristic carapace armor chest piece, pants, and some massive gauntlets.

"Stay close to me, and I'll get you out of here," Bob said, with a slight nod.

"We are currently in an abandoned manufacturing building, and must go through the main assembly floor to exit. We expect resistance from both Guiding Light supporters, and defensive drones."

"Is that safe?"

"I'll protect you, and they can't stop me," the bear declared dismissively.

"Right…" Alan replied suspiciously. The bear was obviously one of Teddy's, but he'd never seen one so confident, or vocal. This was something new. As Alan stepped into the main room, he saw what happened to his captors. Four men, all wearing light armor and carrying weapons, were strewn about the room. Each one had a series of splatters across their face or chest. Less than two feet from their makeshift poker table was a massive hole, which extended through both the second floor and roof.

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"Fuck me," Alan muttered.

"Time to go. Our reinforcements are on the way, and the boss doesn't want to risk you getting caught up in the crossfire," Bob declared. The bear didn't attempt to open the wooden door to the next area, he just walked through it, taking a large chunk of the wall with it. It didn't even slow him down. Beyond the doorway were half a dozen Guiding Light followers that seemed to be coming to investigate the commotion. As soon as Bob came through the door they almost instantly opened fire.

Alan crouched down, covering his ears, as the bullets smashed into the giant bear. Bob, however, seemed completely unconcerned. He deployed a massive shield out of one arm, making sure that no bullets could accidentally hit his charge. A double-barrelled SMG popped out of his other arm, which he used to completely hose down the room. Between the high rate of fire and unnerving accuracy, it only took seconds for Bob to neutralize the entire room.

"Come on, let's get a move on!" he declared as his shield and weapon folded back into his arm.

"Are… Are they dead?" Alan asked as he jogged to catch up to his massive protector.

"The boss doesn't like unnecessary killing, so I'm armed with tranqs for this mission. The little ones will hand this lot over to the authorities when this is all over."

"You think the police will take them?" Alan asked, half out of curiosity, half to keep his mind off the situation.

"The boss seems to think so. This lot pissed off a whole lot of samurai, which apparently entitles them to special treatment." The bear strolled past the bodies, and up to a second door on the far side of the room, but paused just before passing through.

"The situation's changed," Bob said, turning slightly.

"The foxes tell me a security bot has been activated, I need to neutralize it before we can leave. Wait here until I call for you."

"Wait…" Alan called out, but the bear had already stepped through the wall and into the assembly floor. He stared out the gap, into the darkness, after the massive bear. Bob didn't walk around things, he just went through. Conveyor belts, storage boxes, and even assembly machines were casually pushed aside as he strode across the area. In the darkness, something rose to meet him. Alan couldn't see exactly what it was, it was just a faint shape in the darkness, that was until the guns opened up.

A pair of heavy machine guns opened up, illuminating a massive, fifteen-foot monstrosity that looked more like a tank than a robot. Even though its guns focused on Bob, it was still causing immense collateral damage. Machines exploded, belts were ripped to shreds, even the floor was pulverized. The bear didn't care; he just kept walking. When he was about six feet away from the bot, it stopped firing, and instead just smashed him with one of its massive legs.

The tree-trunk-sized limb smashed into the side of Bob, resulting in a massive crunch. When the dust cleared, Bob was still there, in the exact same position, and the bot's arm was partially crumpled against his head.

"I have spatial anchoring, and I'm made of Class III materials. If you want to hurt me, you'll need to hit me with something a lot stronger than that," Bob said, almost smugly. The bear took a couple more steps forward, and then threw a punch at the security bot. When the bear's relatively small and slow-moving fist connected, the security bot just exploded backwards. Three quarters of the core disintegrated into a spray of shattered parts.

The remainder cartwheeled backwards, ripping through all sorts of machinery, before crashing through the outer wall. Alan just stared in shock.

"You can come out now," Bob called, slowly making his way back across the factory.

"I might have made the structure slightly more unstable… so we'd better get out of here while we can."

"How did you do that?" Alan asked, scrambling through the wreckage.

"I knew Evie's bears were tough, but… that was insane."

"Got an upgrade before I came—AI, resilience, the whole nine yards. Apparently the boss was inspired by something she fought in Seattle and spent almost her entire balance to get me going." The bear turned, and despite not having any facial expressions, seemed to give Alan a look.

"You better tell her you appreciate the effort and apologize for running off when we get back." The bear wasn't exactly trying to intimidate him, but Alan certainly felt a certain… pressure. He swallowed and nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, let's get you out of here." One of Evelyn's IFVs landed outside the factory; it was visible through the hole Bob knocked in the wall. Alan took about two steps forward before he was stopped by the big bear.

"Let's take the front doors. I may have a habit of knocking holes in things, but considering how rundown this place is, it's probably better if we take the front door," Bob said. As if to emphasize his words, the broken wall crumbled, taking a small section of the roof with it. Alan just nodded in agreement.