This was a really fucking stupid idea.

The wind whistled past Chad's face as he dove toward the falling helicopter. He heard the faint sound of someone screaming brom behind him, but it was hard to be sure among all of the other battlefield noise. Either way, he couldn't focus on it right now. He was busy.

His dive took him down to the aircraft, its remaining rotors still spinning as black smoke poured out. It still spun out-of-control, and now it was accelerating toward the ground even faster. Chad could see the buildings reaching up from below, just waiting to smash them to pieces.

He raised an arm to block the incoming helicopter blades, shattering what remained into shards. He drew up next to the falling hunk of metal to find all eyes on him.

"Hold on tight!" He yelled. Hopefully, Squawkers had sent his message. Though it seemed like everyone was holding on pretty tight already.

With a deep breath, Chad reached out and touched the edge of the helicopter, then – as gently as he could – he flung it straight upward.

The aircraft immediately changed course, turning its spiraling descent into an arc. He saw its inhabitants lurch and stumble at the sudden change in direction, one soldier nearly stumbling out the door until a green vine pulled him back in. Hopefully he hadn't given anyone whiplash.

Focusing on his Curveball skill, Chad arced his "projectile" just over the incoming buildings and toward the spiral staircase nearby. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to do much more before his own problems became evident. Namely, the rest of the sky's occupants. And the ground.

A massive leathery wing slammed into him, sending him spinning sideways. He activated Iron Skin on instinct, bracing for more hits and whipping his head to the side. The pterodactyl-like wing was attached to the fuzzy body of a bumblebee, one the size of a Volkswagen Bug.

The thing buzzed at him again, producing a scimitar-like stinger. Chad brought back his arm for a punch just as an explosion of whitish gore erupted from its head.

Chad grinned. With the amount of activity happening around, he couldn't be sure of what had just happened. But presumably, Annie had just saved him from being skewered.

That, or someone else. Still, I'm gonna guess she's the only one who thinks I might live through this. So thanks, Annie. 

Unfortunately, it wasn't just one bumblebee. As he continued to tumble through the air, Chad realized there was an entire swarm of the things buzzing in his direction. They mobbed him, stingers pinging off his skin with painful impacts. The sudden mass of fuzzy insect bodies filled his senses.

He swiped outward with his palm, splattering a few of the things and sending more wildly off course with angry buzzes. Twisting in midair, he reached out and grabbed for one of the stingers as it stabbed forward and whipped the creature in a circle above his head. It slammed into its fellows with a series of soft-sounding impacts, showering him with fuzz.

Hurling the bee-creature into the distance, he glanced at his enemies. A handful more of the things still persisted around him, but they weren't the biggest threat anymore. The ground was approaching far too fast for his comfort, and he still had no plan to deal with it.

The bees swarmed him again, and Chad made a decision. He reached out to seize one by its fluff, wrapping both arms around it and holding tight. It struggled beneath his grip, trying to simultaneously stab him and escape him both.

"Come on, come on!" Chad shouted into the wind as it whipped past them. "Fly, dangit!"

He struggled around to a sitting position on its back. The bee flapped its wings rapidly, but more to knock its unwanted passenger off than to actually fly. Either it didn't realize how close they were to crashing, or it didn't care.

Shit, shit, shit–

Chad gripped a little tighter, hoping that the fluffy body would cushion the impact at least a little bit. But suddenly, the bee stopped struggling. Its wings flared out. "Attaboy!" Chad shouted. "There we go! Good bee!"

The bee turned their midair wrestling match into a Its wings flared out and it pulled into a graceful dive. Chad let out a cry of triumph as the bee began to arc upward, gaining altitude once again. 

"You absolute moron!"

Chad looked over for the source of the voice. There, flying through the chaos, he saw a grey parrot shooting toward him as fast as its little wings could manage. Shots rang out, downing enemies around it as Squawkers frantically dodged through the battlefield with alarm.

The parrot dodged another bee and slammed into Chad's chest with a whumph. He curled his left arm protectively around his feathered friend. "Squawk?! What are you doing here? Have you seen all the dangerous shit flying around?"

"Dangerous? Dangerous?!" Anger suffused his voice. "You're gonna tell me how dangerous it is when you jumped out of a fucking helicopter?!"

Oh. Good point.

Still, it was one thing for him to make stupid decisions. Squawk though? Why would he have flown all the way out.

"Besides, someone had to save your sorry ass!" Squawkers growled. "If I didn't put in a good word fo you, you'd be jelly by now!"

"A good word…?" Chad looked down at the bee. "You can talk to these things?!"

Squawkers scoffed. "I can talk to damn cats, I'd better be able to yell at a bee. Now c'mon. We gotta get to the staircase!"

Chad's breath caught. In the midst of everything else, he hadn't seen the fate of his thrown helicopter. He'd made sure it was on a good trajectory to not hit anything, but still…

The parrot seemed to read his expression. "They're fine. Your idiotic excuse for a plan worked, somehow. But there's a lot more baddies on the stairs to deal with. Let's go!"

Relief washed through him, followed by firm resolve. With a nod, Chad nudged the pterodactyl-bee toward the gleaming staircase, adjusting himself to free up his right arm for ball bearing throws. Creatures all around them fell to his own shots and others he didn't see himself.

It only took a few more moments for them to regain lost altitude and see their allies. A group of humans stood on the white spiral, facing outward with firearms of all types raised. Some of them were focused on holding back the swarms coming down the stairs, while the rest aimed for enemies around Chad and his mount. At their backs, a tidal wave of cats shredded anything that even thought about coming at them from behind. Even from this distance, he could hear the faint melody of violin music as Jerry played within the circle.

The bee swooped up and deposited Chad behind their lines before flying off. All around them, opened and discarded parachutes lay crumpled on the floor. Another helicopter circled their position above, and within it he spotted Annie and the others offering support fire.

Nick rushed over with a jar of some foul-smelling ointment in hand. "Chadwick! Are you harmed?"

"Nope! Just fine." He nodded. "What about you guys?"

"We survived," the elf confirmed. "Neck pains, abrasions, and a few twisted limbs, but nothing lethal. Thank you."

Chad grinned. "No problem. Anytime!"

"Not anytime," Squawkers grumbled. "We need to get up there. Let's move!"

With that, the group began their ascent up the spiral staircase. Their boots pounded up the smooth but surprisingly grippy steps. Thankfully, he saw a playing Jerry begin moving as well.

Still, Chad was more than a little concerned. Jerry wasn't supposed to be here on the ground – he was supposed to be air support, flying above all of this like his sister. Between the look of concentration on his face as he played and his admittedly spindly limbs, he was afraid the musician might not make it up the stairs. Especially since they were lower down than they'd planned for.

Still, Annie's brother clutched his violin and jogged upward with the rest of them. He and the more support-based members of their team were being guarded and kept safe behind the mob of soldiers and Chad himself. Their rifles barked continuously as they sprayed the incoming opponents, downing them or forcing them off the stairs entirely. 

Chad, though, wasn't about to sit back and let the others take care of it for him. He reached over his shoulder with his more flexible left arm and grabbed his weapon – a sturdy pipe he'd brought just for this purpose. Switching it to his right, he held it in front of him and waved it back and forth, carving a swath up the stairs.

Did it look silly? Yes. Did he care? Nope. Because it absolutely worked.

As Chad led the formation, the soldiers covered him and took out any long-range attackers trying to stop him. The assault came from all around as even some of the fliers around them looped back to give them trouble or take potshots. Now his group was out of the sky though, it seemed as though the military had redoubled their own efforts, firing missiles and machine guns on everything they could. The explosions lit up the sky like macabre fireworks around them as enemies fell before them.

He heard Annie's own custom rifle bark from above as heads exploded. Squawkers kept up a constant stream of updates in everyone's head, calling out positions and warnings. Nick slapped balms on wounds and occasionally hurled out a rapidly-growing vine to trip someone up. Yowls and hisses came from behind as the cats guarded the rear. But as Chad continued to fight, all that faded away, and the only thing he could hear was the sweet sound of the violin.

The waves of music washed over him, making his muscles swell and his energy return. The enemies seemed to wobble around in a daze as they looked around in confusion, giving everyone the perfect opportunity to strike them down. The music was working overtime to keep him from getting too tired, but running up flights of stairs was not something he was built for.

When Chad finally started to pant from exertion, they changed tactics. At a call from Squawkers, the cats swarmed ahead of him, a furry tide of teeth and claws that bowled into the enemies blocking their way, shredding them as they went. As efficient as they were, the cats didn't have the same firepowers as Chad himself did. So after a few moments of slowing their pace to catch their breath, Chad was back in the front, ready to go again.

A minotaur charged down the stairs, its head lowered. It bellowed at their party. Chad marveled at his dexterity and sheer willingness to run down floating stairs at full speed. Running up was one thing, but down? That was another matter.

With one hand, he grabbed the creature's horn and spun in a half-circle, flinging the Minotaur man off to the side. It collided with a flying creature that looked like a mix between a squid and a dragonfly, crumpling its wings and sending them both to the ground hundreds of feet below.

More and more flying units came in, trying to stop them, but they were all picked off. The pressure from behind eased up as they began to outpace their pursuers, and the army of cats dealt with what was left. Still, nothing really blocked the flying creatures coming at them from the sides.

For a moment, the pressure of aerial attacks let up. Glancing to the side, Chad saw that they were grouping up into a single dense cloud like a boulder of living mass.

"Incoming!" Squawkers called. "They're gonna try and knock us off!"

Nick stepped forward and tossed a handful of black specks into the air. Just as the overwhelming tide of flying enemies rushed forward, the seeds sprouted. Deep purple vines wrapped around wings and necks, binding limbs and tightening around anything they could reach. Screeches filled the air as enemies plummeted to the ground in sickening thuds, and crunches echoed for the next 30 seconds as enemies lost to gravity.

Chad watched as Nick's level skyrocketed. "Damn. You can do that?"

The alien grimaced, his face pale. "I don't like to. It… takes a lot out of me. Not to mention it's a bit distasteful."

They rounded the last bend of stairs. Above them hund the deep maroon expanse of the portal, its surface rippling like smoke and crackling with lightning. Its edges were obscured by swirling black clouds, but beneath them Chad could barely make out something more solid.

There. That's what I gotta hit.

Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones here. Standing before the portal, they saw ten aliens, a group of confident humanoids. Their varied features and armor made them resemble a Dungeons and Dragons party mashed together with sci-fi cosplayers, albeit far more deadly. The red light glinted off of the metal and bone weapons held ready at their sides.

Chad winced. Every single one of them was over level twenty. Apparently, these were no slackers.

The two groups paused, Chad standing beside his allies a dozen steps below the aliens. The lead one, a dark-horned demonic creature, opened his mouth as though to speak.

We're gonna talk? Really? What is this, some kinda action movie?

But the stream of fire that hurtled toward his face told a different story.