Operation M.I.A: Missing in Action (IN NEED OF REVISING)

Chapter XXVI

Mackenzie nods, then looks up to Avery (who's now on the robobull's back) and yells, "AVERY! There's wires in its eyes!"

Avery looks confused for a moment, as if unsure as to what to do next. Then she reaches into her shirt and pulls out a bra (which I hope is not the bra she's been wearing). Then she yells, "LUKE! CATCH!" and throws it to Luke. At first, it's not clear why she's done any of this.

Then it hits me. The bra is red.

And bulls have a bit of an issue with red cloth.

Luke catches the bra, dazed. "What the..."

The robobull looks in Luke's direction, snorts out a huge puff of smoke, and makes a muffled howling noise. Its eyes turn from yellow to red, and then it starts pouncing in place, charging up to begin running at Luke.

"OH MY FUCKING GOD!" Luke yells, turning around and running while the robobull starts chasing him. He runs in a circle around the perimeter of the battlefield, with the robobull close behind but not really making an effort to catch up. Avery does her best to hang on to the bull's back, but it looks like quite the bumpy ride.

At one point, I think I hear her yell, "NOW I KNOW HOW AN ACTUAL BULL RIDER WOULD FEEL!"

"Y'know, I think I remember hearing once that bulls were colorblind to red, so this confuses me," Heath whispers to Sam. Sam nods while the two watch the scene unfold with interest.

Eventually, Luke does the smart move of throwing the bra into some bushes nearby. This makes the robobull stop its pursuit of him, skidding to a stop. Its hind legs move up while doing so, once again sending Avery flying forward on the bull, this time slamming her into one of its ears. She opens her eyes and looks at what stopped her, and I think she says to herself, "Well, that's convenient."

Then Avery begins slowly making her way around the ear of the robobull, much more wary than Mackenzie was earlier. The robobull itself isn't even noticing the fact that she's climbing across its face. Avery eventually reaches the other eye, and kicks it open. She starts to reach for the other wire...

And then the robobull leans forward on its front right leg, causing Avery to fall off the bull entirely. It turns out that Sam randomly decided to shoot at one of the robobull's legs, which somehow made it detach itself from the body. I guess the legs are weaker than the rest of the body or something. When Avery sees this, she looks up at Sam with a deadly glare. Sam just smiles sheepishly and mutters, "Sorry... I thought it might help you."

Avery groans and yells, "We need to take out the rest of the legs, guys."

So that's what we spent the next few seconds doing. Heath and Luke get several shots in on its front left leg, and the hovercraft fires an energy orb at the back left leg. Both legs go down quickly. I run with Mia to help her with the back right leg, even though I end up not needing to. Mia is able to take out the final leg by tazing it and then firing a shot right at where the leg connects with the body. At this point, the robobull's legs are all detached, so the oval body just falls to the ground.

And then it does the strangest thing. It starts rolling around the battlefield on its own, slowly coming after us.

"What the hell!?" Luke exclaims, just as surprised as the rest of us are.

At first, there isn't much to this attack. We just bait the robobull in a circle around the field. It doesn't roll particularly fast enough to catch any of us. Mia eventually decides she's had enough, though. She groans to herself and pulls out her knife, then aims it at the robobull's other eye wire. She then chucks it hard enough to make herself fall backward.