Climbing an enraged Arachnid Queen is very much like trying to ride a mechanical bull during an earthquake, if the bull were made of knives and actively trying to dissolve you with acid.

  "Baby, baby, love me more!" Luna's amplified voice blasted through the air, creating visible shockwaves that made the bone trees vibrate like tuning forks.

  Every high note hit the Queen like a physical punch. The spider screeched, shaking its colossal body to try and rid itself of the noise and the parasite (me) on its back.

  I drove my climbing picks into the black carapace. The smell up there was unbearable: concentrated ammonia and rotting meat.

  [EROSION ALERT: SUIT AT 85%. ACID DETECTED ON SURFACE.]

  "Arthur, hold on!" shouted the Parasite's voice in my head, assuming control of my left arm to transform it into a temporary claw and stop me from being flung away. "If we fall now, we turn into puree!"

  "I know!" I yelled back, spitting out a piece of moss that flew into my mouth. "Luna! Boost the bass! I need her dizzy!"

  Down below, Luna adjusted the dial on the metal baton.

  "DROP THE BASS!" she bellowed.

  A deep, low frequency, almost infrasound, swept the clearing. The liquid floor of the Rift rippled. The Arachnid Queen stumbled, her eight legs crossing momentarily.

  It was my chance.

  I released the picks and ran along the beast's spine, jumping over the poisonous spines sprouting from her back like giant ingrown hairs.

  I reached the cephalothorax. The spider's actual "head."

  And there it was. The Mimetic Human Torso.

  The pale woman fused to the top of the spider's head turned toward me. Her neck rotated 180 degrees with the sound of snapping bone. She had no eyes, only empty sockets weeping black liquid.

  "Doctor..." the thing hissed, opening a mouth full of shark teeth. "You smell like... betrayal. You carry one of Ours inside you."

  "I'm just a bad host," I replied, drawing the Pneumatic Extractor (a titanium syringe the size of a shotgun). "And you look like someone who needs a root canal."

  The lure-woman screamed. It wasn't a sonic scream like Luna's. It was a call.

  From the folds of the spider's skin, dozens of Brood Parasites—smaller spiders the size of dogs—emerged, climbing toward me.

  "Oh, come on!" I complained. "Is her immune system external?"

  I kicked the first spider away, my reinforced boot crushing its thorax.

  Arthur (the Parasite) activated bone blades in my elbows.

  I started spinning, slicing the smaller spiders while trying to keep my balance on the giant beast. It was a ballet of viscera. Green and purple flew everywhere.

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  But there were too many. They started climbing up my legs, trying to bite through the suit.

  "Luna!" I shouted into the comms. "I'm being overrun!"

  "Hold on!" The music changed. From pop, it went to Death Metal.

  Luna pointed the microphone at the top of the spider.

  "SCREAAAAM!"

  A concentrated beam of sound hit the Human Torso. The lure-woman's head exploded like a rotten watermelon.

  The Arachnid Queen convulsed violently from the pain of losing her primary sensory organ. She reared up on her hind legs, exposing the underside of her head.

  The Venom Glands.

  They were two pulsating sacs, neon green, right behind the chelicerae (the fangs).

  "It's now or never!" I told myself.

  I ignored the smaller spiders biting me. I ran to the edge of the Queen's head and jumped.

  Not away.

  I jumped forward, toward the giant fangs.

  In mid-air, I activated the gas thrusters on my boots to correct the trajectory.

  I landed right on top of the left chelicera. The fang was slippery and thick as a tree trunk.

  The spider tried to bite me. The other fang came toward me like a guillotine.

  "Open wide!" I roared.

  I jammed the Pneumatic Extractor into the junction of the venom gland.

  I pulled the trigger. The syringe piston fired with the force of a hydraulic hammer, piercing the hard chitin.

  THUNK!

  The thick needle went in.

  The Queen roared, a sound that made my ears bleed. She shook her head frantically.

  I held onto the syringe like it was the bar of a runaway bus.

  The reinforced glass cylinder began to fill.

  Green liquid. Viscous. Glowing.

  Isolation Neurotoxin Venom. The deadliest and most valuable thing in that ecosystem.

  "50%... 70%..." counted the syringe's digital display.

  One of the spider's legs came toward me to crush me against her own face.

  "Arthur! Look out!" Luna's voice faltered. The show was over. She was out of mana.

  I looked at the giant leg descending. No time to dodge.

  The Parasite made an executive decision.

  [MASS CONVERSION: CHITIN SHIELD]

  My right arm swelled, skin tearing to form an instant black bone shield.

  BOOM!

  The spider's leg hit my shield. I felt my humerus crack. I was flung to the ground like a ragdoll, but the syringe...

  The syringe was in my left hand. Full.

  I landed in the acidic mud, rolling to dissipate the impact.

  I stood up, coughing, holding my broken arm (which was already painfully reconnecting thanks to the Parasite).

  The Queen, now furious and blind, thrashed her legs randomly, destroying the surrounding forest.

  "Luna! Exit! Now!" I shouted, running toward her.

  Luna was pale, leaning against a bone tree, her nose bleeding profusely. I grabbed her by the arm and threw her over my good shoulder.

  The Queen heard us. She turned her eight empty sockets in our direction. She was going for a final strike.

  I pulled the last grenade from my belt.

  It wasn't explosive. It was a glass bottle with a hand-written label: "Muscle Relaxant for Dragons (Black Label)."

  I threw it into the spider's open mouth.

  She swallowed on reflex.

  Three seconds later, the neurochemistry did the work. The spider's legs gave out. She collapsed to the ground with a crash that shook the world, paralyzed, foaming at the mouth.

  "Never underestimate pharmacology," I wheezed, limping toward the Rift portal.

  We exited the portal and fell onto the concrete floor of the abandoned factory. The rain of S?o Paulo had never seemed so welcoming.

  I rolled onto my back, staring at the hole-riddled roof of the shed.

  I held the syringe up to the dim light. The green liquid glowed, hypnotic.

  "We did it..." Luna whispered, lying beside me, looking at the ceiling. "I think I swallowed a Rift fly while I was singing."

  "Extra protein," I joked, though my body screamed in pain.

  [COLLECTION COMPLETE]

  [INITIATING ANTIDOTE SYNTHESIS...]

  [ESTIMATED TIME: 12 HOURS.]

  I sat up with difficulty.

  We had the weapon. We had the plan.

  But now, the clock was really ticking. The Solar Knight wouldn't wait.

  "Luna," I said, storing the syringe in a refrigerated case. "Call Valéria. Tell her to prep the lab. Tonight, we're cooking our dear hero's final dinner."

  I stood up, my freshly healed arm popping. The city skyline glowed in the distance, oblivious to the fact that in a few hours, its greatest savior and its greatest nightmare were going to collide.

  And I, the garbage man, would be the judge.