Moose could see the mists were swelling, almost reaching the rooftops here at the edge of district five all the way from district two.

That meant, the TBD would be getting hungrier now, the cloud growing as the TBD began bleeding hydrogen gas like crazy to regulate the expanding gasses in its body.

He looked out into the growing grey haze, the tops of skyscrapers peeking up from the gloom like a copse of glass trees on a granite hill.

He felt the vibration in his eyes, a sense all the hunters possessed, a quirk of evolution, something about magnetoreceptors in the eyes that made it possible to track the TBD. Only a handful of people had it, but his was particularly strong. Almost able to see the creatures in the mist, if not in the literal sense.

This one was fast.

Stealthily moving from one place to the next, climbing up buildings, moving from cover to the open as if it were~”

“Eagle One, call back.”

“Kssh~ Go for Eagle One?:

“Somethings up. Take a sweep over the city, but stay high,” he didn’t want to coax an attack, but he needed some intel.

“Kssh~ Problems?”

“They haven’t corralled it yet. It’s still free roaming.”

“Kssh~ Don’t know how that sense-thing of yours works, but I’m with you. So, what’s the plan?”

“High strafe, twenty meters at least, drop three noise makers along Takamiya dori Ave, every twenty meters.”

There was a long pause, but then the osprey started to lift off from the building behind him.

“Kssh~ We only get one chance at this. Kssh~ And I won’t be able to come back your way without risking the TBD coming back this way.”

Moose didn’t say anything, he knew it was risky. There was no way to know what level of ready the others were at. A noise maker along the main road could bring the TBD right on top of Panda or Bear, or worst of all, Cobra.

But he could tell, something was going on down there.

The wind kicked up from the osprey taking off, it lifted off and quickly rose up into the air. 

Moose could feel the shift in the strong field.

It was like a weight settling on him, the urge to fire so strong, but as soon as he had drawn his bow it moved, and he lost his shot.

He let go the tension, the bunched muscles in his arm loosening up as the winches relaxed, looking up as the first squeaker dropped.

He waited.

The fog was beginning to curl up over the edge of the building he hid on.

The second squeaker dropped.

Still nothing.

The mist shifted, his senses drawing him to the building ahead of the~

“Break away, break away, break away!”

Eagle one was no slouch of a pilot.

He broke left as something lith shot up from the fog, a bright shining blue streak like shining carbon steel. It clipped the right wing, sending the osprey into a spin, barely recovering before the mist as the massive rotors twisted and it shot forward out of range as the TBD tried again to attack.

Moose was ready this time.

He had loosed two shots before Eagle One had even cleared the mist, one shot arcing wide, but the second shot connected. 

The massive lance-like head of the arrow hit the TBD’s beak, knocking its head aside as it tried for a third strike at the osprey as it fled.

The TBD tumbled back into the fog, a heavy crash carrying through the silence up through the streets, the smash of steel, and the crunch of shattering glass.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but it caught in his throat.

The weight of that feeling resting on him again.

The TBD had found him