I used to feel like there was a bad omen around my heart, but instead of attacking it directly, the omen would squeeze my arteries and veins, clogging them and slowly pushing me to an impending death. This situation felt like that omen, but I brushed it off in light of the necessity to focus.

The wind in my eyes couldn’t distract from the thoughts of failure, horrible crippling failure. It felt like I was short of breath, short of ideas. The greenery of the Charlotte’s park was easy to pinpoint in this concrete jungle. Though, the natural human instinct to relax around nature was missing in action at the sight of those damnable TS. The city looked so small from above, yet when I landed, this situation was behemoth.

Before I could properly assess my surroundings, a kid, no more than ten years, was picked. Whether it was random, I don’t know. Her dad screamed out and pushed a TS away to get to her. He balled his fist, anger seeping out his eyes, but, his heroism was rewarded with a bullet to the head, right before his punch connected. His limp body fell, blood began pooling on the ground. I could feel like the flashbacks wanted to smite me, but the blasts of the TS’ boosters wrested my attention from those memories. They’d already injected the girl whilst I was focused on her father.

I was hot on his tail, deflecting the intermittent bullets with the shielder. It kept low, as if trying to avoid detection from radar and made a sudden right into an alleyway. The minute I made the right myself, I saw the little girl dropping right at me. The TS actually released her. I put my arms out to catch her but this was all in the plan. Having my arms like that, my shielders couldn’t protect me. I could use the shielder, but the girl would just fall on the azure shield and be in the line of bullets. The dastardly robot aimed, and waited until the girl was at the perfect range. It shot one, grazing me on the arm. I grabbed the girl, fumbling with her, but the TS flew down at us, grabbed her by the ankle and raised its knee, smashing into my cheek at a ridiculous speed. I rotated so much I couldn’t make sense of the whirling scenery, so I just curled into a ball and activated both shielders. I landed and skated a good distance into the streets and stood up in a frenzy.

Some onlookers, simply pointed me in the general direction the TS flew. I flew by a couple blocks and suddenly heard gunfire. My shielder went up again and I avoided a fatal one. It was high up, hiding out on a rooftop whilst raining down bullets, this time from a sub-machine gun, but soon stopped and went even higher into the air, suddenly dropping the little girl again. I stopped tailing the robot and nosedived to save the girl. Just as I suspected the TS was doing the same to remedy my state of consciousness with another blow. However, this time, his leg smashed onto the shielder energy field and bounced off just enough for me to grab Z-21 from off my back and strike down the middle of the android, leaving him a sparking mess in the centre of the street.

Back to Charlotte’s Park I sped, landing on the cobblestone pathway and earning yet another passing grade from this hellish game. With the same pattern of diverse flightpaths, the TS slipped away. The TEOs who manned the park didn’t bother shooting. I released the girl and wiped the blood off my arm, but only managed to spread it thin.

Finally, I was left with just one more situation to deal with. My mind and body were up to the task, but somewhere inside I felt like I hadn’t properly realised how scary this all was. Two people were shot dead before we arrived, and one after, despite that it didn’t seem like it all properly caught up to me yet. Maybe my mind wouldn’t allow it–shifting my focus elsewhere at that point would be a blunder that might’ve brought about irreversible mishaps.

“Kid, you alright?” a TEO asked, after a few of them gathered around. I must’ve looked absent-minded, gathering my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I breathed slowly, “yeah.”

I could tell his lips held back words he knew not the composition of. Trying to figure out a soothing yet realistic combination of words to mollify my unsteady heart was a task even I couldn’t fathom. What did I want to hear in that moment anyway, that everything would be alright? That someone else would take care of it? That I wouldn’t have to fight anymore? Merely wishful thinking that only served to project phantasmal glimmers of what could be. Reality was nothing of the sort and he knew that perfectly well. Hence, a simple, yet reassuring tap on the shoulder replaced those words of inspiration without selling me dreams.

I whisked away my brow’s sweat with the unsoiled sleeve and bolted away, closing in quickly on North Sky mall’s parking lot. Traffic was being routed elsewhere, and the entire mall was isolated. Not a soul was able to get in nor near. Every exit from the mall itself was closed off except the exit farthest from the danger. As in the previous two situations, there was a group of hostages with armed TS androids placed strategically in the group, making outside interference null, and androids surrounding that group of people on the outside, forcing their captives to remain docile. There was only one difference in this scenario–the rather uncanny presence of one David Cennet and one Charlie Foster. I wasn’t sure what to think or how to feel, far less for what to do. Their proximity to each other was a daunting sight; shoulder to shoulder they stood.

What the hell… So many thoughts passed through my mind whilst I slowly descended. What was Cennet thinking? What did he do to dad? What did he say to dad? Did they, know each other? Maybe I was just overthinking, and he only set things this way to knock me off my game. Either way, I pretended not to notice them and focused only on the TS.

“This one will be different,” one of them said, the clutch holding his weapon changed from a one-handed, relaxed disposition to two-handed readiness. “Survive.”

A simple command, yet a horribly overbearing one. It felt like time slowed and space twisted inside my mind. The gun was rising, slowly coming to aim at me from the chest up. My hand, in turn, began ascending and the blue translucent energy shield formed in front of me. That first amber flash of light blackened my peripheral vision, forcing my eyes to focus dead centre at the TS. All sounds were filtered out except the helicopters’ propeller beating the wind downward and the blasts of gunshots from the TS. It flew towards me, going over my head to find the edge of my shielder’s layer of protection, but a simple turn of my arm stopped that move from prevailing. The robot switched its boosters off to drop quickly, landing on my shield and bouncing off, resorting to close handed tactics.

I drew Z-21 and fuelled a strike to the shoulder of my enemy but it stepped back, blocking with the machine gun. The sword cut clean through the machine gun and sliced off a forearm with the remaining momentum. Its arm sparked randomly and uncontrollably, but androids felt no pain and its missing limb didn’t faze it a bit. The functioning hand reached for a pistol and fired off a couple rounds, the first grazing my shirt and burning a hole through it. The second bullet was deflected off my shielder on the sword arm.

It flew up, putting its boosters on full-blast and blocking my already tunnelled state of attention to the oncoming TS. It tackled me from the side and into some nearby brambles across the street. We rolled until we came to a stop, smashing into someone’s picket fence. It grabbed a knife behind its back and attempted to stick me right in the neck while it had the mounted advantage. I blocked with both arms instead of the energy shield so I could curl my legs in and place my feet against its chest. My boosters activated, blowing out the android’s core through the back. Its body became limp and it fell down on top of me.

The jet-like sounds of boosters scraped the air of any other noise, making me converge my focus upwards. I hid as best I could, under a trampoline, but alas their thermal sensors found me quite easily. The louder their boosters became, the more I realised they located me, so I whizzed out, trying to locate my dropped Z-21 from an aerial view, but the slow speed I employed to find the damned sword allowed them to catch up to me in the blink of an eye. I placed an arm behind my neck and brought forth the energy shield to protect me from any fire from above. But I was mistaken to think they’d waste their bullets unless they had a clear shot.

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One of the three cut under and then upwards at me, throwing me off by forcing me to bank to the right, off-route to Z-21 that was dropped at the edge of the parking lot. Damn! I continued banking to manoeuvre behind them. As I closed the gap, that’s when they opened fire, making me use the shielder. The air resistance it incurred made me much more sluggish than needed.

I broke off pursuit on them and sped towards Z-21, but one smashed into my shield from above. I was on a slow descent downwards. Even if I wanted to maintain a straight travel path, the TS’ main thrusters pushing me down versus my auxiliary boosters’ attempts to keep me levelled was an obvious loss on my part. I deployed the other shielder below me and before I hit the road, skating on my energy shield with the TS on top of me.

There were now two shields, one protecting me from the TS above and one keep me from the asphalt, but in between there was a small but obvious flaw. The shields weren’t perfect semi-circles, they were like turtle shells, and so, could not totally encase me. My sides were open, and this was exploited by the low-flying TS that had its forearm cut off. It zoomed by, spraying rounds from a machine gun it supposedly got from another of its metallic comrades with just that one remaining arm. I rolled to my right, moving the vulnerable spot to an aerial picking. That was a mistake. The bullets were shielded successfully from the vengeful TS, but the rounds that rained from above was something I couldn’t foresee, or react to for that matter. A couple hit my left shielder and destroyed it, but luckily, I was still unharmed, not considering the cuts and bruises.

I spun the clingy TS off my back and flew right into it, flipping my body around before I rammed into the robotic soldier so Grav could finish it off like the one before. I burst forth, destroying its core and speeding towards Z-21 in one fell swoop, not forgetting to shield myself the minute I heard the release of bullets. Finally, the sword was back in my hand, however, I was down a shielder and could no longer use the near-perfect defence like I once did.

I got used to their speed, their tactics and teamwork. It was time to go on the offense, especially seeing that I’d have to make do with just one shielder, making this a war of attrition wasn’t in my favour. The TS whose arm I sliced was the first in my sights, and the easiest to do away with. I flew towards him, and he in turn flew backwards and upwards, going right into the one of the many news helicopters that gathered above like vultures. The pilot made a sudden jerk to the left to avoid us, but the TS was too fast and too sudden. It ended its own life in attempts to save itself from me by colliding with the tail rotor. The bird began spinning out of control. Shit, shit! I flew to the tail and steadied the spinning, but it was plummeting fast. I jetted down then caught it from underneath, bringing it down much slower, but the remaining two TS wouldn’t have my blatant disregard for the presence. One began shooting at me from behind, to which I could protect myself with the shielder, but I couldn’t possibly do anything else about the one in front of me because I had one hand touching the belly of the news helicopter to slow its fall.

The one in front of me flew farther away for some reason. I kept my shield up against the barrage of bullets bouncing off the shield to my rear until its clip emptied and it had to dig around a pouch it was carrying for more ammo. The faraway one seemed to wait for this chance, as it bolted toward me at full speed. He went farther away to build speed? I knew it planned on tackling me away from the helicopter, but what exactly could I do? Should I take the chance to move my shielder arm towards the oncoming TS and risk giving the gunner enough time to reload and blast me to oblivion? Or do I stay my hand and hope somehow to weather the suicidal tackle? Either way, it looked like the people in the helicopter would die, or I would die. If only I had my hand, I could just sho–

Of course! It’s risky, but… The idea wasn’t exactly failproof, but it was better than choosing my life over the reporters or vice versa. I slammed my back against the belly of the ‘copter and kept my feet facing downwards to keep it from freefalling. With this awkward and uncomfortable position, both my hands were somewhat free. I kept the shielder to the shooter, and aimed Z-21 to the tackler. It was a shot I couldn’t take the chance to miss, so I had to wait until it was close enough to dismiss the chances of dodging. Using that laser wasn’t something I wanted to resort to in a populated area, but I could only hang onto the chances that it wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Just a couple dozen metres away, I let the blast go and it made a hole straight from the TS’ face to the hip, snapping a leg off and throwing off the trajectory so it missed me. The laser though, continued on strong, but thankfully it appeared to have landed in undeveloped land. There were a few bullets that hit my shield, but the minute I shot down the android, the marksman stopped shooting. Their ‘watch and learn’ was a horrifying thing in the hands of Cennet. Had it just been regular programming that they ran on, it would have most likely wasted the rest of the magazine.

As the buzzard got closer to ground, I used more of my booster to pad the landing as best I could and shimmy my way out from between its legs afterwards. The last TS just stood there, as if actually thinking of strategies to remedy my arsenal of gadgets, or mayhap receiving orders. It walked forward, a calm air about its already apathetic silicone face. What was it planning, I wonder?

“Hey, kid, thanks!” a man from the helicopter said, as the crew stepped off and ran towards the encirclement of TEOs. I didn’t even bat an eye at them, as my focus was solely given to the confident TS. I held my sword back and put my shielder forward, inching my way closer as well. Suddenly, it whipped forward with human-like fervour, then began zig-zagging with just one booster to change direction more easily. On the last turn, it used both boosters for an unexpected speed boost and gripped its gun with one arm, sinking its fingers into the energy shield for some grip as it swung around me with incredible speed. I began falling and raised my sword arm but it kicked my wrist away, then got its gun inside the shield, pulling the trigger and shooting my shielder itself, and managing to bury a bullet into my exposed flesh on the inside of my forearm just before I swung my sword again, cutting away his gun like I did the first TS.

I felt a slight heat from the wound, but the adrenaline made it almost numbing. With both shielders down and the TS’ gun destroyed, I was at a clear advantage with Z-21. At least so I thought. It threw a piece of its gun right to my face, then clutched both hands together and swung, colliding its metal knuckles with my cheekbone then tackling me, powered with boosters immediately after. We landed on the ground with the TS mounted on me. I couldn’t get my feet up to blast it away with Grav this time. All I had was a wounded arm to somewhat defend with.

I activated my boosters and we both traversed the road. My shirt tore and my upper back’s skin was left bloody from the grinding against the ground, but I was able to slip under a van and smash the TS into the front of it. Admittedly, the van being there was pure luck, I was no longer sure my mind could process any stratagem. Like the first TS said, all I was thinking of at the moment was surviving. I rolled out from underneath and ran around to the front to engage it again, swinging Z-21 the moment I was in range. It stepped back, and avoided the blow with just a few inches of space. My mind was starting to feel woozy, my body was becoming increasingly numb. I gave it a taste of its own medicine and tackled it. We slammed into a lamppost and I slowly slipped the tip of the sword right into its chest, watching it slowly die.

Just when I thought it was all over, yet another android landed in front of me. My breath was heavy, but I was prepared to go again. “You have passed,” it said, then flew off again. The loud sound of boosters turned my eyes to the sky. The rest of them finally left. This impossible task was finally over.

I flew over to the hostage group, making my way through the people. Dad was there, it seemed like it was his turn to give his statement, but the moment we crossed eyes, he paused and began walking my way. His burly arms wrapped around me, and I placed one around him.

“I’m, glad you’re safe,” he said. He could’ve scolded me to the ends of the earth. He could’ve interrogated me until sundown. He could’ve broken down and cried miserably on my shoulder. Yet, he chose those words. He was concerned about my dealings with this dangerous turn of events, of course, but he put it behind him for this moment, simply to tell me he’s happy I’m alive. Well, I couldn’t agree more.

Mom on the other hand gave me an earful when I called her. I don’t know if it was her incessant quarrelling that didn’t give me time to have my own input, or if it was the weakness from the constant blood running from my arm, but when I noticed my vision becoming fuzzy, and black static encroaching from my peripheral vision, I knew it was the latter. I blacked out.