Tanya and Ian were standing in the centre of the room. Tanya had claimed one of the larger pots from the water collection for him to use as a helmet and the metal lid of a wok to use as a shield. He swung a large kitchen knife from side to side. Tanya demonstrated with a smaller one.

"Controlled strokes, yeah? You don't need to hit it a lot, just hit it good."

Ian swung with too much force. He stumbled backwards into the back of the armchair, and the pot tipped over his eyes, hitting him in the nose. "Oof."

Olena walked in. "You ready to fight chicken to make stew?" she asked, nodding in approval. "They look cute, but they go for the eyes."

Tanya tried to stay upbeat. "Tryin' to prep Ian for a fight with a monster. We ain't quite there yet."

Ian sighed and took off the pot, placing it down beside the knife.

Olena looked between them. She walked closer and held up a hand to whisper, "Tanya, didn't you say he not have Class?"

Tanya didn't need to look at Ian to know he heard it loud and clear.

"Mrs Eceer is sending me to kill a monster."

Olena paused for a beat.

Tanya was preparing her answer for Olena, inevitably asking why, but she didn't.

A smile broke out on Olena's face. "Then you need better armour."

"Olena, are you sure about this?" Tanya asked, walking even faster to try to keep up.

Ian was jogging, huffing and puffing. His hair was slick against his forehead.

That would've been me before me Attributes and Class.

"Mrs Eceer said no tattoo, yes? I not give him anything—I lend him something. Is totally different."

"Thank…you…I…appreciate…it," Ian puffed.

Whatever it was.

Olena seemed to take that as encouragement to go even faster, and her speed walking briefly turned into skipping.

Ian pushed onwards, his jog becoming a run and his face even redder.

Tanya saw the glimmer of the wards appearing in the distance. So far, they'd been going the same way to the Estate as with Adam.

"It ain't far, is it?"

Ah shit, maybe I should have left Assistant behind to take care of the shop.

Tanya glanced over her shoulder, but she didn't really want to owe Assistant anything else, and nothing would piss off Assistant quite like summoning them in the middle of the street on her way to seeing something of Olena's and commanding it back to the parlour. Tanya was convinced that the only person who enjoyed Olena's company more than herself was Assistant, who had taken to watching Olena work with a fangirl curiosity whenever Olena showed up with some new invention she needed the Monster Core to power.

She'd just hope that Marcy didn't show up whilst she was out. Anyway, Olena said this would only take a few minutes.

Pushing her reluctance aside, Tanya sped up once again to keep up with Olena's building speed.

A few turns later, Tanya was pretty sure they were a few minutes down the road from The Peabody Estate, where Adam and Marjorie lived, even though they'd gone a strange route. Tanya assumed that Olena was doing it to avoid pileups and rubble, because the streets had been clear. They'd passed at least three groups of monsters, but Olena had masterfully just turned them away each time, sometimes even going through buildings that didn't look like they had an exit in order to bypass them. Ian seemed skittish, but he hadn't done anything stupid yet, like run at one at full speed, or yell, or run away at full speed, and that was all Tanya wanted from him.

Tanya stared longingly at a corner shop on the way past. "And this one?" she whispered hopefully.

"Still in the riot area," Olena replied, in a sing-song voice.

They walked around the corner, still in a huddle so they could hear each other. Olena b-lined through a busted Citroen dealership, weaving between a mixture of perfectly poised cars and ones that had stopped mid-drive.

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"What was it like?" Tanya asked. "The riot?"

Ian blinked at her from behind his frames. "Weren't you there for it?" For a second, he seemed to forget where they were, but then he snapped back to reality, looking around more nervously.

"I was passed out," Tanya said.

"Oh," he replied.

Olena ran her hands along the body of a blue car she passed. Her volume increased as she got into it. "It was crazy. The first TV man come up and explain what they understood and to not go out—all the expected things. People start calling in begging for military to save them and suits say nothing in many many words—"

Tanya held up a finger to quieten her down.

"People say it like Covid but worse, and they announce limits on shopping so everyone breaking into shops to stockpile and fighting and everything."

They passed out the other side, on a main road Tanya recognised but couldn't recognise the name of. It wasn't a side of Whitechapel she'd visited much—too close to Stepney, which she'd always thought was only good for historical buildings. She'd never had a reason to come here before.

Wait, there weren't any police to calm it down.

"Why'd it stop?" Tanya asked.

Ian grimaced. "Monsters."

Tanya stepped over half of a woman's body. There weren't many bodies on the streets. She had initially thought that was because people were moving them, but now she realised it was more likely to be the monster's aim to bring people back alive.

Tanya spied a group of silhouetted flying things on top of a building further down the side street. They had bat-like wing-arms and long faces like a pterodactyl, but their tails looked like a whip. She silently pointed it out to Olena.

"There's more than last time I was out here," Tanya whispered. "Only found one kangaroo one then."

Olena groaned. She held up her cannon arm, activating it so all of the different smaller cannons popped out.

Ian gasped, backing towards the smashed glass of the run-down off-license.

"I want to blow them up so bad, but then they will all run, and you said we had to be quick," Olena complained. She pouted at Tanya, lowering the cannon back down. All of the extensions dropped back into the sides.

Tanya smiled. Nothing lessened the existential horrors of the apocalypse quite like Olena.

They stopped in front of a typical-looking row of flats, with a pass-through for cars to drive underneath a section of building to get to the old courtyard in the middle. The only sign that Olena's shop was there at all was a chipping metal sign saying 'Full Throttle Repairs'. The name made Tanya smile. It didn't get much more Olena than that.

"Home sweet home," Olena said.

She was the only one of them who seemed unfazed by being outside the wards. Tanya kept her knees bent, looking side to side on instinct as she crisscrossed the narrow London streets. Ian was on even higher alert. He'd always had his back towards buildings until Tanya warned him that monsters could jump out to attack too. After that he stayed next to Tanya, seeming to incorrectly assume that Tanya was the stronger of the two.

Olena sauntered further in, turning around so that her back was to the entire unexplored area. "Come on!" She sniffed loudly. "That oil is the smell of home!'

Yeah, I'd assume I was better protection too.

Ian inched closer to Tanya.

That's when Tanya felt the familiar movement inside her wrist. She walked inside the brick tunnel to the courtyard, comfortable putting her back to it as there were no windows.

She'd already lost sight of Olena, so no harm in waiting here whilst she was distracted. No matter how many times she summoned Assistant, it was an overwhelming and strange sensation, like some parasite wiggling under her skin. She always got this instinct it would hurt, but then Assistant would actually push itself out, and there was no pain at all.

Ian stood beside her and watched, looking more and more nauseous at the sight of the wiggling summon crawling out of her skin.

"You'll have to get used to it, eh?" Tanya joked.

He grew paler.

"Don't worry 'bout it. Most of them don't come out quite like that."

He nodded reluctantly.

Assistant finally made its way out and looked around.

"We're at Olena's shop—" Tanya started.

Assistant stamped for yes too soon.

"You know?" Tanya asked.

Another yes.

Assistant crawled onto Tanya's shoulder, stretching. Tanya continued her path towards 'Full Throttle Repairs', with Ian in tow.

"How'd you know?" Tanya asked.

Assistant patted down Tanya's pockets. An aura of frustration overcame it.

"Ah, shit, sorry," Tanya said, making a mental note to make sure she always had some with her.

She changed tack. "Can you see what I'm doin'?"

Assistant tilted side to side in a sort of.

"Huh, interestin'," Tanya said, as the three of them made their way inside.

They entered straight into the main area, full of car lifts and tools. Metal beams crisscrossed the ceiling, connecting the brick walls together. The building and layout itself were exactly what Tanya expected from a garage. That's where the similarities ended. The back wall was covered in neon signs, everything from vintage Coca-Cola to diner and even some huge 80s bowling alley sign with the bowling ball hitting a few pins and pop art style lines coming off it. It reminded Tanya of Marcy's new tattoo.

There was a ridiculous amount of empty instant noodle pots around the workbench along the left side, with what looked like hand-sewn bunting along the top of it. Tanya wondered how Olena had space to do anything with the workbench at all. Every few feet between them was some new trinket, with everything from a chipped Michael Angelo bust to what looked like the flame-painted body of a motorbike.

Tanya knew this was Olena's home, but she still checked as she went, peering into the windows of the two cars she passed and hovering her hand over Phantom Brand on her hip with each new turn.

Glinting in the back right corner caught Tanya's eye.

Behind a deep red truck on the lift, metal chains hung from the ceiling, each as thick as her arm. They looped into three heavy mounts bolted to the wall. The whole setup sat in an odd recess—like someone had ripped off the front of a storage room, leaving the space to jut awkwardly into the main bay. The office was tucked just to the left of it, making the corner feel boxed in on three sides. It wasn't small—big enough to park a car—but it looked out of place, as if the garage had been repurposed around it for reasons Tanya couldn't guess.

Tanya heard Ian's yell — "TANYA!" — before she saw why. She spun, catching only a hulking silhouette crushing a car as it leapt towards them, its outline sliding and shifting in the flicker of half-light. The air seemed to thicken around it. It spread its legs in the air above her head.

It had so many arms.

So much for no yelling or running towards monsters; Ian was already moving, closing the distance between himself and the thing in a few desperate strides.

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