MILO

Because Milo kept the adrenaline trickle close enough, he just managed to fold into his lightning form and thundered through the detonation as it collapsed around him. The surging flames reached for him, but he felt no heat. A chainreaction of smaller explosions went through the ship as he passed through the debris. He escaped the destruction.

“Here,” Argus said, the coordinates shone in the mental channel.

Milo thundered through space and skipped the four closests ships of Saif’s fleet and entered the fifth, Saif’s location. Through an exposed panel by an airlock and into a corridor, he severed the bitterness, transforming back and landing with his boots on the floor. He let the sweetness rush into his mouth and his barrier crackled online as he straightened his back.

“Crew, Saif actually blew one his dreadnoughts with me still inside it. He is hellbent on destroying us. Even sacrificing his own men and women, like pawns in a game,” Milo said.

A beam of liquid green came from the other end of the corridor and impacted his barrier. It oozed and stung against his tendrils, they struggled to keep the acid away from his body.

Milo discharged two lightning bolts, but they crackled harmless against the acid man’s green barrier.

Simon. Yuri had told Milo about him. Milo was determined not to waste adrenaline.

Another set of acid beams came at him and he dove forward, trying to get underneath them. He went into a roll as he passed safely underneath, saving on his barrier. But this put him closer to the enemy.

A fist surrounded and enhanced with a layer of acid connected with his barrier and sank through it slowly, but steady.

He stepped around the fist and put his palms on the green barrier directly. His lightning bolts pumped into it, the tendrils shoot out across the barrier, spreading around it. Searching for a weakness and way in, and at the same time trying to electrocute it with brute force. Cracks grew in the green barrier, but not enough to shatter it.

A hand grabbed his throat and squeezed, breathing grew difficult. The hand was covered in liquid acid, and it oozed from it. His barrier tried adjusting itself, coming closer to his body, to give him protection against the drops of acid. He let go of the green barrier and grabbed the arm for which the hand was connected to, and shoved.

They parted from each other. But they leaped against each again, rolling across the floor. Green acid fighting blue lightning. Punch after punch, discharged beam after lightning bolt. Their struggle moved them against the wall, Simon was currently on top, and pushed the advantage, keeping his attacks coming in. Thick drops of acid landed and crackled against Milo’s barrier.

Milo commanded his electrical barrier to speed up. Even faster, he pushed them to their limit.

His barrier exploded with a chaos of lightning and swirling blue.

Simon was launched into the ceiling, bouncing off it. The explosion had cracked his barrier, but it was still up.

Water was not enough. Milo found the blood deposit and let the taste of iron rush into his mouth. He came up to his feet and another batch of tendrils came to life, replenishing his barrier. He stepped forward and discharged two bolts of lightning.

Simon was already in the air, leaping at him, and the blood fueled lightning bolts missed their target. Simon crashed into him again, they rolled across the floor and hit the wall.

Simon screamed and his acid barrier exploded.

A wave of thick, oozing acid splashed over Milo and his electric barrier crackled a final time before fading away. The remaining acid singed at his vac suit, but it held for now. Simon grabbed him by the throat and the world grew dark, his mind clouded. The back of his head struck an access hub and the world turned dark for a moment.

Milo merged his blood fueled tendrils onto his fist and punched.

Simon was launched away, further back into the corridor. The electrical tendrils ate at his barrier, but it still held firm.

A series of red laser beams struck the green barrier, Simon pulled back and shielded with his arms as he escaped into the corridor.

Sam stepped up to Milo, in his new and improved rig. It was at least three times as thick as the old one. The perception of brutal strength and violence clung to it like mist.

“I came running, sensing that you were in trouble through the mental channel. But when I arrive you have already sorted it out yourself. And I was left with scraps,” Sam said.

“Well, it was serious there for a moment. But I managed, you were a bit slow in arriving,” Milo said.

“You have grown, Blue. No, it is Captain Milo. I don’t need to be by your side any longer,” Sam said.

Milo looked down, not wanting Sam to see the trickle of a tear that slid down his face.

“I am in need of a boost.” Milo stepped back to the wall and forced the access hub open. His hands found a cable and he tore the insulation off, his fingers grasped the exposed wiring.

The world slowed down as his mind sped up. His body drank the electrical energy greedily. It had been a long time since he drank an external source, his body was hungry, his mind anticipated the sense of power. The bottom of the source would be deep. His mind raced across the ship’s electrical grid. It honed in on the fusion reactor. He overcharged his deposits until he felt ready and let go of the cable.

… Empowered. Energy rippled through his body. He was the conduit of moving electrons. His very breath electrified the air.

Milo cracked his neck to the side and inhaled deep. “I am ready.”

“You are making me feel insignificant,” Sam said.

Milo smiled, tendrils crackled inside his mouth as they jumped around.

“The vanguard! Powered people. We need assistance,” Beth said.

“We are coming,” Milo said.

Sam nodded. “Behind you, Capt’n.”

-

Something tingled in Milo’s mind, but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

“Saif is trying at me again,” Milo said. “He is refining his methods. But he saves his deposits too, otherwise he would have focused on you too.”

They passed an opened chamber. There was a figure.

Milo halted and turned back. “Saif. I saw him. In that room!”

“You go first,” Sam said.

Milo formed new tendrils in his palms, they started merging together, preparing a lightning bolt in each hand. The adrenaline deposits sat ready in his mind if he needed to transform at a moment’s notice. After a deep breath he leaped into the room and extended his palms forward.

“You think you are so clever. Attacking my fleet in this manner, with your one ship and thin crew,” Saif said, leaning against the wall with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Sam stepped in behind him, his weapons at the ready.

The door slid shut behind them and locked with a distinct click. Milo turned to Saif and discharged the two lightning bolts. They thundered across the distance, but Saif dissolved.

It had been a figment!

Sam stood at the door and banged on it. “The door is not opening!”

A series of smaller explosions went off at the seams of the room and then the sudden increase in gravity pulled Milo to the other end of the room. Sam slammed into the door, helmet first. They were hurled through space. The entire room had been launched off the starship, the seams had detonated and separated it from the ship. The room spun, sending them to different corners of the room. Saif had somehow tricked Milo, put a figment of himself into his vision. Somehow he had not noticed the change in his mind and thus he had not transformed to burn the influence away.

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The adrenaline deposit sat still in his mind. There was no other way but wasting yet another charge of the adrenaline. He needed to fight Saif, but he was forced to use it anyway, even before the real fight began. Saif was smart and used all the tricks he had learnt over the years, to force Milo to waste his only real weapon.

“You can go, Milo,” Sam said. “I know you can use your lightning and bridge the gap.”

The room kept spinning as they moved further away from the ship.

“I am not leaving you behind,” Milo said.

An idea popped into his mind.

“Is your rig sealed against space?” Milo said.

“It has its own fully functioning life support system and is sealed against vacuum. My rig is its own little and isolated world,” Sam said. “It could almost be compared to a starship, with its weaponry, navigation and sensor arrays and power supply.”

“But it cannot fly?” Milo said. “Feels like a combat suit of this complexity should be able to fly.”

“You don’t understand how heavy this thing is. The flight module in Claire’s suit works because her rig weighs a fraction of mine. It would have worked if no gravity was affecting me, but that module would have robbed me of certain weapons, to fit it in and the use case was too slim,” Sam said.

“You don’t need proper thrusters to fly. You only need a bit of a boost and initial steering,” Milo said.

“I have jumped further distances before. I will jump it,” Sam said.

“It will not work, this room is spinning. You cannot determine what trajectory you will launch yourself into,” Milo said.

“It’s the best we got.” Sam stepped up to the airlock door and started tampering with its control panel. “You just be ready to go into lightning form, because when I get this door open, it will go fast.”

Milo nodded, locating the adrenaline deposit and held at the ready.

“All or nothing.” Sam bent his legs and held a hand on either side of the door frame.

The door opened and Sam jumped.

Milo made the adrenaline trickle into his mouth. A surge went through him and his body transformed, he folded into lightning and thundered into space. He passed Sam without stopping, there was nothing he could do for Sam. Even though he knew that Sam was going in the wrong direction, away from the fleet instead of towards it. A ship, he needed a destination.

But which one?

He impacted the first one and found a way in. His boots hit the metal floor as he severed the trickle of adrenaline and transformed back into his human form.

“Sam! Where are you?” Milo said into the mental channel, while he tried looking into space through the look through glass in the airlock door.

Sam was still spinning away from the fleet, away from rescue.

“It ain’t going too well. But I want to try something,” Sam said.

An explosion detonated right by Sam.

“Sam!” Milo yelled, a stray railgun must have glanced off his rig and caused something to blow.

But the explosion sent Sam into a new trajectory. Almost straight back to the fleet.

“I will try again. One more should do it,” Sam said.

Sam was detonating the grenades from his rig to adjust his trajectory.

Another explosion sent Sam straight back to the fleet. But not to the ship Milo was at. Sam went out of sight.

A minute passed and Milo took the moment to breathe and collect himself. He still had adrenaline left, the fight was far from over.

“I made it, Milo! But we are in trouble,” Sam said. “We need you here. We are locked in battle with the vanguard. Come, quickly.”

“Argus, give me a fix!” Milo said. “There are too many ships.”

A new set of coordinates dropped into the mental channel. Milo was on the wrong one, but Sam and the others were only a few ships away.

“I am coming!” Milo said.

The adrenaline came in a trickle and he folded into lighting, thundering through the corridor until he found a way out, an airlock provided that perfectly.

Two ships away.

He found a way in and severed the adrenaline, his body transformed back and he rolled across the floor.

A set of four tentacles extended forward from each end of the corridor. Wet and dripping of slime. Their suction cups were the size of fists and they reached for him. He stepped away and rolled, avoiding the tentacles.

“What the hell?” Milo said. “Why would they have a giant squid monster on board?”

The sweetness rushed into his mouth and his barrier came online with a crackle, new tendrils formed inside his closed hands, merging together.

He stepped forward, extending both palms, the two lightning bolts arced across the distance, but went straight through the tentacle monster and struck the bulkhead wall behind it.

An illusion.

Adrenaline trickled into his mouth and he folded into lighting, something burned away in the back of his mind and the monster dissipated, he thundered through the corridor. He cut the connection and his human form landed on the floor after the junction.

Saif was inserting things and beings into his mind. But his lightning would not interact with them. So, if he sent bolts at everything to test their validity, he would be fine. But shooting lightning bolts at his friends and crew wouldn’t work. He would just have to spend more adrenaline. The deposit was almost halfway down already and the fight had barely started.

“Argus, which ship?” Milo said.

“Why are you there? Milo, you are in the wrong one. These are the coordinates I sent you,” Argus said.

The coordinates popped into the mental channel.

“They didn’t look like that last time. Saif is altering my perception of the world,” Milo said.

“Get a move on!” Beth yelled. “We need you.”

Adrenaline trickled into his mouth and he folded into lightning.

Three ships away.

The emissions cloud was starting to disperse and it would severely hinder their efforts.

He found a way in, through an externally mounted railgun, through its local electrical grid and into the ship’s main one.

Beth’s roar echoed through the corridors. He went on foot, saving the precious adrenaline. Her voice grew louder and clearer.

Through the last open door.

Milo tore into the blood deposit, the iron taste rushed into his mouth. Its power surged through him, a storm that had no pause or end. Electrical tendrils crackled to life from his hands, snaking around and across his body, merging and separating. His barrier came in full effect, crackling with more intensity than the water fueled one.

This was it.

Milo stepped into the training field, it was way more spacious than he had imagined, Yuri had not done it justice in his descriptions. Milo entered from a height, out onto a platform that overlooked the training field. Battle. Combat suits and powered people at one side, and his crew on the other. Clashing and using their powers and tricks to their fullest extent. The tingling sensation echoed through his skull.

Saif.

Saif stood on the opposing platform, on the other side of the training field. The smile on his face was unsettling.

The tingling sensation grew distinct. Saif was trying again. This was it, the end. Milo reached and tore into the adrenaline deposit, letting it trickle into his mouth. He folded into light, the tingling sensation dissolved, and he thundered towards his target.

A moment before impact something happened, Saif transformed. His body molted into a dark, intangible black cloud. A cluster of thoughts. He raced towards Milo.

They crashed together. Lightning versus thought.

Milo severed the connection with the adrenaline as Saif did the same.

Milo discharged lightning bolts, as they impacted Saif’s diamond tissue, the man grimaced as if in pain. Keep going. Milo leaped at Saif, lightning pumping out from his palms, they crashed together and fell off the platform. They fell only for half a second, before Saif’s flight kicked in and pulled them upwards. The training field was in chaos. Vanguard versus his crew.

Saif transformed again, and the dark, intangible cloud reached into Milo’s mind, straight through his forehead, through skin and skull alike, as if it was not there. The tingling sensation climaxed before turning into agony.

The bitter taste of adrenaline rushed into Milo’s mouth and his body folded into lightning. The dark cloud was pushed out and all its wrong doings undone.

It had been close. Saif had almost grabbed a hold unable for Milo to escape from, if given enough time in his mind Saif would hinder his ability to transform.

They smashed together into a bulkhead wall, locked in struggle. Both of them were trying to get the upper hand, forcing the other party to waste their adrenaline first. Because the one who had their adrenaline depleted was the one who lost and which would determine the faith of mankind and the Universe.

They slammed into the ceiling, and transformed back to their human forms, for a moment Milo created distance from Saif and fell. He rolled across the platform on impact, spreading the momentum.

Saif hovered above him, breathing heavily. Milo grabbed the opportunity for a breather and re-focused. His deposits were draining fast, but so would Saif’s too.

“You cannot win,” Saif said. “I am not letting you. I need to save mankind from destruction.”

The battle on the training field continued on, a light show of all colors as beams were discharged from left to right from different types of powers. Screams and roars, dragon claws and combat suits’ weaponry. His friends needed help.

“You are the destruction of mankind,” Milo said. He shoved the doubts away and pulled with his confidence, deep into his mind. To where the deposit of fat sat. The brown liquid moved back and forth, inviting him. He tore into it.

Milo held his palms almost together as the taste of meat rushed into his mouth.

An electrical sphere came to be between them and it grew, it grew larger than all his previous attempts as he depleted as much of the fat deposit as he dared. Even larger than Tern’s spherical body.

“SHUT UP, RACHEL!” Saif yelled. “I am vaulting the hurdle!”

Milo threw the sphere into the ceiling.

Saif transformed and the black cloud reached for Milo.

Milo let the adrenaline rush into his mouth and his body folded into lightning.

Lightning and thought slammed together.

The sphere came to its peak, above the training field’s battle and halted, hovering in mid air. Lightning bolts surged out from the sphere, striking at their enemies. The lightning storm had started.