Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 544: Mutant slaughter.

The mutants didn’t see them coming. They were so confused about why their prey was not paralyzed. They didn’t expect a group of children to come out of the bushes and start a riot.

Mickey reached the nearest mutant before it could even turn around. She didn’t have a sword, so she just used her enhanced strength to pick up a fallen log_ a massive, water-logged thing that weighed at least two hundred pounds! She swung it like an ordinary baseball bat.

CRACK!

The log hit the hound in the ribs, sending it flying through a tree tree before it hit the ground with a wet thud.

"Home run!" Mickey cheered, running around in circles. "Did you see that? I hit a real mutant beast, everyone’s going to be so jealous when they hear this."

In her excitement, she failed to notice a hound that almost bit her head off. Ala fired a weapon just in time to save Mickey.

"Hey cheerleader, battle stance." Ala screamed.

Mickey quickly went back to a fighting stance, abandoning her fists for a gun that she had witnessed turning metal into ash.

Pico, meanwhile, was using his small exo-suit to zoom around the perimeter. He wasn’t strong enough to kill the mutants, but he was fast. He darted between their legs, stabbing at their joints with a small glowing knife. For some reason, he was very verbal, taunting the hounds with every move he made.

"Hey, ugly! Over here! Too slow! Maybe if you had eyes, you would see me."

Ariel could not help sneering at Pico as he emptied his weapon into the head of a mutant.

The remaining mutants s turned their attention away from Leah and Arwin, their formation breaking. A new enemy that appeared to be stronger needed to be stopped.

Leah blinked, the fog in her brain clearing. She looked up and saw a small, familiar figure standing in front of her. "Ala?" she whispered, confused. "Am I dead? Am I hallucinating?"

"No mom," Ala said, she flicked her wrist and the pocket of the glove on her hand released a glowing arrow. It shot a mutant beast, entering through butt and vanishing on the inside. The beast fell down and turned to ashes.

Leah blinked. "What are doing here and what kind of weapon is this?"

Ala didn’t wait for a lecture. She whipped out her customized sidearm and squeezed the trigger, sending a pulse of energy right into the chest of a growling beast that was creeping too close. It yelped and skidded backward into the trees before vanishing.

Ala turned to Leah, her small face set in a look of pure determination. "Mom, look," she said, her voice steady despite the chaos around them. "You can be as mad as you want later. You can ground me for a hundred years once we’re home. But right now? We have a forest full of Sky razor hounds to finish, and you need the help."

Leah opened her mouth to argue, but then she looked at the weapon in Ala’s hand.

She looked over her shoulder and saw the determined faces of the "Kid Squad" scattered through the trees killing the mutants with ease. She let out a short, stressed laugh and gripped her dragonoid tighter.

She had many words to say, ninety nine percent of which was scolding. But now was not the time. The kids needed to be protected. It was not their job to save the adults.

"Fine," Leah huffed, a spark of pride flickering in her eyes. "One thousand years of grounding. But if we’re doing this, stay behind me and you’re definitely in big trouble with your dad. He is going to spank you or confiscate your books."

Ala would have laughed, if not for the situation they found themselves in. Her father loved to spoil her. He would not spank her or confiscate the books. But he would definitely raise his voice and blame her.

Reinforcements in exo suits flooded the forest, swarming the mutants. The odds shifted to six-to-one, in favor of the humans. It wasn’t a fight anymore; it was a cleanup mission as the backup squads began slaying the last hounds where they stood."

The mist moved away, little by little. The sky over the Westbrook forest finally belonged to the humans. The roar of engines drowned out the remaining growls as the backup aircrafts arrived, hovering like angry dragonflies. Through their high-tech visors, the pilots locked onto every red heat signature in the brush.

The fight had brought out mutant beasts looking to take advantage of the chaos to hunt.

"Command, be notified that we have eyes on that mutated bee colony. Permission to clear the zone and retrieve the bees." a pilot radioed.

"Seriously!!" Lisha growled. "Now! couldn’t you find another time to do this?"

"Mutated bees mean mutated honey, ma’am. With all this firepower, it seems like a good time to harvest some gains." The pilot replied. Beams of light rained down from the belly of the plane, sniping mutated beasts near the bee colony with surgical precision.

"Permission denied, fly back to the base after clearing the territory. We should not risk losing any more men tonight. You can return for the bees and honey tomorrow." Hades replied.

The plane continued to circle the area, mapping the area. The pilot and soldiers could sniff a heavy pay day. Provided that Sunshine had a use for the honey.

Meanwhile, back at the Fortress, the atmosphere was much more terrifying. Rori had cornered a shaking Jen Gooding, who finally cracked. "They went to the forest! Ariel and the others... they went to save Ala’s mother!"

Rori didn’t waste a second. She sprinted to the Command center and burst through the doors. "Hades! The kids are gone! They’re in the forest!"

Hades felt like he had been punched in the gut. He stared at the monitors, pulling up the live images from the forest, his face turning a ghostly pale. "Ariel? That boy is supposed to be the responsible one! How could he be so reckless?" He wanted to sprint for the hangars, but he couldn’t. The sensors were screaming_ the main attack on the Fortress was minutes away, there were mutants moving towards Westbrook town. He was trapped. "Major Elio, engage before they attack." He gave an order.

"I have to call her," Hades whispered, his hand trembling as he reached for the comms. "She’s going to kill me, but I have to call her."

He dialed Sunshine. When she picked up, he didn’t even say hello. "Sunshine, don’t scream. Ariel and the Kid Squad... they teleported to the forest. They’re in the middle of the fight."

There was a silence on the other end that felt heavier than a mountain. Sunshine didn’t scream. She didn’t cry. She simply hung up.

Inside the truck, Hadrian watched in shock as his sister in law’s face went from exhausted to "world-ending fury."

"Suni, what is wrong?" Hadrian gasped.

Sunshine didn’t answer him. She parked the truck, grabbed Nimo by the arm, her eyes glowing with a terrifying light. In a second, they vanished from the truck, leaving a very confused Hadrian behind.