He’s not speaking.

He’s just raising his palm forward at us. I don’t think Moonslash is playing around at this point.

“I think we should settle all of this like rational adults,” I say. “Maybe it’s time to talk it out–”

“You think a piece of filth like you is going to thwart me, a Cybermancer, by going to the Data Farm? I BUILT the Data Farm. This place’s my flesh and blood.” He continues pointing menacingly at Karina and me, and our buddy DODF too I guess, who continues standing at the reception desk.

Karina assumes a fighting stance, but I try to remain calm and ease the tensions here. We’re in the middle of the entrance to a public building, albeit one that isn’t very rife with people these days. Sure is a neglected flesh and blood if I’ve ever seen one.

“You’ve really made me mad this past week,” I say. “All the ‘trials’ I’ve gone through really have been awful. And to that I say, you win. I think you’ve had your revenge.”

“If you hadn’t come here looking for dirt on me, I would have been a bit more accommodating to you, but the fact you did means you are open and willing to attacking me any way you can find,” Moonslash says.

“Chuck said it’d be…”

“Chuck’s Tech Emporium Chuck? He’s a fool. Why did you listen to him?”

“Because…” I want to debate him on Chuck being a fool, but he’s not exactly wrong on this one.

“I’m nipping this at the bud. By ‘this’ I mean you.”

“Uhhhhh I don’t like the implications of this…”

“Why don’t we end this now, this charade?” he asks.

“How’s this gonna go down?” I ask.

Moonslash pulls out a knife from one of his many pockets. It’s glowing and purple, just like Jones’s Magitek knives.

Huh-uh, not dealing with this again.

Without another thought I sprint over to Moonslash and kick the knife out of his hand. It falls to the floor–

And then I realize he has my foot grabbed with his power glove.

Ah, shit!

“Face the true power of MOONSLASH.”

It’s not the shock that hurts.

It’s not the fact that I’m currently frying like I got his by a bolt of lightning.

What really sucks is the blinding brightness.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I’m probably suffering some permanent eye damage from this, and I doubt my enhanced healing powers are going to help much when I have to get cataract surgery in thirty years. Thanks a lot, guy.

After about ten seconds of searing pain he lets go and I tumble onto the floor.

Wow.

“That was just a taste of what this baby can do,” he says, pointing to his power glove. “You may have defeated Athena Supreme, but her plan to crash the MARTA had shown she’d gone, well, psycho. You’ve never faced a REAL Cybermancer.”

I want to speak to make a witty retort but it seems my mouth is unable to move, on account of getting electrocuted and partially-blinded just a moment ago.

“Morgan, let’s get out of here!” Karina shouts. She grabs me by the hand and hoists me onto her back. “Hold on tight, because this is going to be a dumb idea.”

Wh…wha?

I then hear a clicking sound and realize–

Karina’s activates her rocket boots in the middle of the Data Farm.

This place isn’t magnetized! What are you doing???

We careen off in a random direction, flying at insane speeds towards the ceiling before zooming down and past Moonslash.

I really want to scream right now!!!

For what it’s worth, we are headed in the right direction if we want to leave the Data Farm. It’s just that we might be dead when we get there!

“Hold on, I’m going to try and brake,” Karina says. She deactivates one boot and balances that foot on the single remaining rocket for a few moments, which slows us down considerably but causes us to wobble in a extremely unstable manner.

Finally, she extends both feet apart and deactivates the second boot. The momentum keeps us flying in the air another ten feet, but she lands on her feet and skids to a stop.

The carpet in the main entrance is slightly damaged, but we’re alive. And for all those theatrics, we travelled about half a room’s distance. Away from Moonslash, at least.

I can’t believe I survived that while hanging onto Karina’s back. I’m like a damsel in distress right here.

DODF still stands motionlessly at the reception desk. I summon the energy it takes to actually speak and weakly spout out, “Thanks for… helping us out, DODF.”

It looks at us and replies, “Please do not use rocket boots in the premises of the Data Farm. Our servers are located deep underground but any damage to our interiors will be strictly–”

DODF begins shaking and sparks fly out–

Its head explodes and it falls to the ground.

Moonslash turns around to face us again, his power gloved fist clenched tight.

Oh, poor robot. You lived the same way you died. Talking.

“I’m not letting you go that easily,” he says.

“Let me down,” I tell Karina. “I think I can– Agh!”

I collapse onto the ground, and then get back onto my feet. Yep, I’m ready to fight again. Definitely.

“Actually, let’s just run,” Karina says.

We do.

When we exit the Data Farm, we now have a wider field of battle to play in, and we aren’t at risk of destroying company property and getting sued for damages, Now, we can actually take this guy down.

…Unfortunately, there’s a lot of robots out here too, and they all seem to be under his control. They have the entire place surrounded in a perimeter of sorts.

Moonslash sends another beam of bright white light towards me, but I dodge it. It hits the concrete sidewalk and dissipates.

Alright. Now we’re getting somewhere.

Getting up close to him isn’t a good idea for one of us, but if we both–

Karina punches Moonslash in the face and sends him stumbling towards me. Alright! I kick him back towards Karina, who then uppercuts him into the air.

It’s caught him by such surprise that as he falls back to the ground, he still hasn’t quite realized what has happened to him.

Time to finish him off. I jump in the air, ready to do a cool dropkick–

And he catches me. AGAIN!

Bzzzzzzzzt!

He throws me onto the concrete and I land with a resounding thud.

Now I’m stuck lying on the ground again.

At this moment, several of the robots approach me and hold me down. I struggle to break free of them, but their combined force makes that nearly impossible.

Moonslash steps up to me, points his Power Glove my way, and…

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz—