As usual, Lucas was worried. It wasn’t something he ever let show, but you didn’t live long in the stilts without a healthy paranoia. This time was different though. Shiv was dead and Gator was closing in, and Lucas was having trouble seeing a reality where their victory was anything more than pyrrhic. Their only real chance was Victor, and the thin hope that he could create some technological marvel and save them all. At this point that was the only real thing keeping the dregs of Shivs crew from changing their names and high tailing it out to the Rebel States.

Victor needed to be seen, the men and women on the dock needed to know he was still in their corner. The problem was Victor had locked himself in his lab after issuing his initial orders, claiming he “Needed time to work on a way out of the situation.” Lucas knew being surrounded sixteen- and seventeen-year-old wannabe gangsters wasn’t exactly the best working environment, but fucking Christ these kids needed something, and Lucas wasn’t sure he could give it.

He hated doubting Victor after the guy had already saved his life, but he had already been holed up in his workshop for the last three days, and if it wasn’t for him taking meals and using the bathroom the gang would’ve assumed he had cut and run. Lucas was doing his best to hold the gang together, but they weren’t much more than a mob of scared kids right now. These kids would run in the face of a stern talking to, let alone the threat of real violence. Without some serious firepower to back them up they weren’t going to be inclined to stick around and fight.

Lucas glanced at the clock and realized it was his turn on watch. Breaking out of his mental musings, he grabbed one of the rail rifles from the cluttered store counter and made his way down the musty hall to the roof hatch. Climbing the ladder and popping the hatch Lucas found one of the newer members of Shivs crew, Kei, half awake in a lawn chair with her rifle laid across her lap. Beyond her name Lucas didn’t really know the woman all that well, she hadn’t been with Shivs guys for all that long before this nightmare with Gator started going down. From what he’d heard she was a good shot and reliable in a fight, and Lucas honestly couldn’t ask for much more than that right now.

“Hey Kei, your shifts up - before you crash for the night swing by Reese’s bunk, she wanted to go over something with you.”

Kei went from half asleep to wide awake when he mentioned Reese’s name, her eyes darting around worriedly.

“Got any idea what she wants outta me before I go walking into the dragon’s den? I swear that woman scares me shitless”

Lucas rolled his eyes at that. Reese wasn’t some evil monster; she just had a low tolerance for bullshit and Kei like to slack off when she didn’t think the stakes were high.

“No clue, but the longer you keep her waiting the angrier she’s gonna be at you.” Lucas didn’t think Reese was all that angry when he spoke to her, he just wanted Kei to leave so he could be alone on the roof. They were all packed in pretty tight down below, so he was anxious to get some time to himself.

As Kei climbed back down into the T&R Lucas looked out over the water at the gleaming spires of Columbia peering out over the massive wall encircling the city. Despite the majesty of the soaring towers Lucas knew Columbia city had been built downwards just as far as it had been built upwards, and his life in the Stilts was downright pastoral compared to some of the poor bastards living in the lower levels of Columbia.

The city was originally going to be the primary anchor of the North American space elevator, but when the first metas started to emerge the project was put on hold indefinitely and the city was left with a massive, reinforced open cavern. Lucas just couldn’t imagine trying to live that far underground, especially in a city where coastal flooding was such a pervasive issue. Of course, that wasn’t even taking into account the constant attacks from rival city states and random metas. If that bulwark ever even sprouted a real leak thousands of people would drown in seconds.

Lucas’s gaze shifted from the bulwark surrounding the city to the water around the docks, he was, after all, supposed to be on the lookout for enemies coming in for a night strike with the guys down on the docks. Now that he thought about it, Lucas hadn’t heard anything from the guys below for a few minutes now. He got up from his tattered beach chair and moved to check in on the guys below to make sure they hadn’t fallen asleep on watch. That sudden movement likely saved his life, as he felt something fly just under his right arm, where his chest had been just a moment before.

Lucas spotted a faint flash from beneath the water near the abandoned husk of what was once a sandwich shop before he dropped straight to the ground. It took a moment for him to get his bearings before he started to raise the alarm, which was a technical term for “Shout your head off and hope somebody hears you.” Thankfully Lucas managed to get the attention of someone inside, and he soon heard Reese shouting like a madwoman for people to wake up and get ready to fight.

Lucas’s relief only lasted a second as he realized Reese would likely be sending guys out onto the dock, where the sniper would have plenty of easy targets as confused gangsters roamed about on an open platform in the dark, looking for enemies they couldn’t see. Lucas let out a breath as he quickly peaked over the concrete lip of the roof, spotting the glint of the sniper’s scope off the floodlights as they repositioned to get a better shot on Lucas’s fellow subordinates.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Taking a deep breath Lucas forced all the sounds and sights of the Stilts to dissolve around him, reducing the world to nothing more than him, his target, and a thin strip of space between them. All that remained was him, his target, and the line he drew between them. Lucas pulled the trigger as he exhaled, watching as the round closed the distance between him and the sniper with preternatural speed, showering the once vibrant walls of the abandoned sandwich store with the would-be sniper’s gore.

Lucas quickly repositioned, trying to parse if this was an isolated guerrilla strike or the prelude to a larger offensive. His question was answered as he spotted several dark shapes moving through the murky water up towards the docks.

Lucas leaned over the side of the roof, all attempts at sheltering behind cover forgotten.

“Reese! The snipers down, but they’ve got people coming up through the water!” Lucas shouted at the woman, relief flooding his thoughts as he saw her nod in understanding.

His message delivered, Lucas repositioned and aimed his rail rifle down at the bleary shapes moving through the murky water of the Stilt’s ramshackle canals. Lucas didn’t bother trying to hit the shapes beneath the waves, he would just be wasting ammunition trying to hit such a poorly defined target. It was far easier to hit Gator’s flunkies as they climbed out of the water on to the docks, and he certainly wasn’t lacking potential targets.

Lucas’s abilities weren’t nearly as strong as some of the other metas out there, he couldn’t hold a candle to most mid-grade capes let alone some of the big names like Andromeda or Gateway. That said, Lucas’s improved balance and reflexes and Victor’s rail rifle made for a potent combination, and he was more than happy to demonstrate its effectiveness to Gator’s goons. Quickly shifting targets from a slain foe Lucas caught sight of an enemy already on the docks, their cobbled together gun pointed square into Reese’s back. Lucas barely managed to shout a warning before the woman let out a hail of bullets as Reese turned to face her.

Lucas was certain he was about to watch Reese die, already beginning to panic at the idea of keeping their motley band of thugs and rejects in line without her. Lucas was shocked, then, when all of the bullets missed their target. No, missed wasn’t right, it was as if the hail of rounds had changed trajectory while in flight. Either way Reese didn’t seem particularly concerned as she thundered over to her assailant, driving her hammer into the other woman’s gut with incredible force. Reese gave Lucas a grin followed by a quick thumbs up before diving right back into the thick of the fight.

For a brief, wonderful moment, it looked like they would win. Gator’s crew couldn’t get meaningful purchase on the docks and Reese’s squad on the docks was still in one piece. Then there was a thundering roar followed by the sounds of splintering wood as a massive mutant alligator burst up through the dock behind Reese’s team. The freakish creature batted her back into the wall of the T&R before grabbing a member of her squad, a young guy with a huge mohawk named Matt, and tearing off both his arms at the shoulder.

Before he even really knew what he was doing Lucas took a running start and jumped down off the roof onto the docks below, bellowing out orders as soon as he landed.

“Kei, cauterize Matt’s wounds and get him and Reese inside! Everyone else focus on keeping Gator’s guys from getting a foothold on the docks; I’ll distract the big green asshole for as long as I can!”

Even as he shouted the orders Lucas was firing into the back of the monster’s head hoping to grab its attention. He couldn’t help but notice how shallow the wounds he was leaving on the creatures back were, even using a meta engineered weapon. Lucas quickly back peddled as the creature whirled on him, firing directly into the creature’s face in the hopes of landing a lucky shot on an eye or in the throat.

Lucas rolled under a swipe from the creature’s claws, hopelessly firing up into the creature’s head from his crouched position below. After clumsily dodging a stomp aimed at his neck Lucas realized he was rapidly running out of room to retreat, paired with the sudden realization that he was probably about to die.

As the creature closed in for the killing blow Lucas made a split-second decision and charged it, running at full speed towards the monster in the vain hope of catching it off guard. Lucas didn’t really know how to tell if a mutant alligator was surprised based solely on its facial features, but as he dropped into a slide and moved between the creature’s legs, he hoped it was at least a little unexpected.

Despite managing to slide through the monster’s legs without being crushed to death, Lucas was still caught by the creatures tail as it whipped into his side just as he was standing up. Lucas flew into the wall of the T&R and crumpled to the ground, clutching his side with his right hand and frantically searching for his rifle with his left. As the creature closed in for the kill Lucas’s pain addled mind drifted to Victor, wondering what had happened to him in the commotion of the battle.

Lucas’s question was answered as a searing orange beam of molten light screamed out from the T&R and deposited a smoking crater into the side of the mutant moments before it savaged him. Lucas watched as an eight-foot-tall suit of rust-red metal armor marched out onto the dock, the weapon fused to its arm still smoking slightly from the beam it had released just moments prior. The armored giant, who Lucas realized had to be Victor, marched out into the center of the docks and looked out over the carnage surrounding his home, his gaze lingering for a moment on the shredded bodies of Shivs former crew. Suddenly Victor spoke in a familiar, if artificially deep, voice.

“I was originally inclined to offer you all the opportunity to surrender and vacate the premises peacefully, but we appear to be well beyond the point of such pleasantries.”