Kazin

Vyvani leads me through Sangsum’s enormous compound. She is able to inject guiding lights of augmented reality to lead me on my way. There is so much I want to ask her, so much I need to know; but right now, I am focused on finding Jin, Mugen, and Kala.

The building has been emptied of guards, much to my relief—having to deal with them as well would have been detrimental for the amount of support I would be able to offer my friends outside. But it also means that I will have that many enemies to fight.

I don’t have that much charge left, Vyvani.

I know. I can get a reading on your energy levels.

A bar gauge appears at the corner of my vision. It is less than half full.

That’s not much.

I know.

Then what should I do?

Leave it to me.

I can sense her smirk resonating in the folds of my mind. It is hard for me to shake off the strange sensation of having someone else occupy my consciousness in a symbiotic way while I myself am fully awake and in control of my faculties.

There it is!

The doors leading to the outside are highlighted in bluish light. Bracing myself, I crash through the doors, right into the pouring rain.

I take a quick reading of my surroundings and the current situation. Seven of the rescue force lie dead, with only two Kargu casualties. Without an energyTower to aid them, Mugen and his team have been torn to shreds.

I begin running towards my friends.

Mugen, Jin, and the five remaining of their number are pressed against a corner of the compound. Their faces are weary, and their shoulders are slumped from exhaustion. They breathe heavily, eyeing the enemy warily as they are slowly pressed in.

Then, the Kargu strike. In a coordinated attack, as seamless and smooth as if they had rehearsed their moves, the Kargu lunge at their prey. Even as I watch, I can hardly believe what I see.

At the exact same moment, three teams of two Kargu each pounce from left, center, and right. Each team has selected a particular target. Unfortunately for Jin, he is one of them.

As one of the Kargu swipes at his head with a blue flameSword, the other swings at Jin’s legs. Jin’s main skill is agility and size—he leaps quickly back, his head slightly ducking as he does so. That is enough to avoid the initial attack.

Just then, the Kargu who had struck at Jin’s head bends his knees, the bioEnhancements on his arms and legs blinking and flaring as he does so. The second Kargu pulls her flameSword back, and her bioEnhancements begin whirring and lighting as well.

The first Kargu vaults with his shoulder, slightly to Jin’s right; the second Kargu whirls like a cone of blue light to Jin’s left. They move more quickly than any mortal being has any right to; Jin makes a quick decision, and steps to the right. The Kargu’s shoulder launches him backward to crash against the wall. Jin slumps to the ground, revealing small cracks spiderwebbing across the stone.

Jin attempts to push himself onto his feet; he groans and falls back down. A mobster impedes the path of the two oncoming Kargu. They attack him with a coordinated attack; he manages to take one of the Kargu through the chest with his crackler before his lifeless body falls to the ground. His head lands just beside his corpse, the stump at the neck still steaming from the flameSword beam.

The Kargu steps over the corpse, approaches Jin, and lifts her flameSword.

Jin looks up. The rain patters down on his face. He smiles, closes his eyes, then mouths a series of words.

“Damn fuck, Kazin.”

A roar tears from my lips.

“Fuck you too, Jin!”

The fight stops momentarily. That is all I need to reach my friends. My legs blink and fire up. My surroundings become a blur as my sight focuses on the targets before me. I am rushing towards them, and I crash against the nearest Kargu. There is a metallic crunch as her chest caves in and envelopes my fist. I have blessed her with flight, and she enters the building through the nearest window.

Glass shatters and falls in a sharp, piercing rain.

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Jin blinks in confusion. Then, his mouth comes agape, before curling into that damn, cocksure smile of his.

The fight continues when Mugen reduces a Kargu to a crumpled piece of sparking limbs with his crackler.

The Kargu reel in surprise at first, but their collected demeanor of cool murder returns just as quickly. A Kargu swings at me with a precise swing of his flameSword. I duck, charge my right leg, lunge, twist, charge my left leg, and smash his face to smithereens with a kick.

I check my gauge—less than five percent left of my charge. I wonder if I’ve grown weaker. Losing over forty percent of my charge with only two attacks just doesn’t make sense. At this rate, I realize, I don’t even have enough energy to launch another bioCharged strike.

Vyvani, any time now.

No answer.

Vyvani!

Just as I begin wondering if I had been imagining my conversations with Vyvani, if my sessions within Sangsum’s memories have driven me insane, Vyvani answers.

Ready.

I check my gauge, and it suddenly begins to refill. The juice flows through my veins, and I am refreshed and recharged.

Tell your friends I’ve hacked into the energyTower and recalibrated it. Go get ‘em, Kaz.

“Don’t conserve your charge any longer!” I yell. “The energyTower is ours!”

Many of the Kargu faces devolve into looks of horror. Mugen and his team fight with an unbelievable fury.

Three Kargu surround me. They lunge at me in one, coordinated attack.

But something strange has happened to me in light of Vyvani’s occupation of my mind. It is as if I can see through their movements—there is a quick analysis of their intended motions: Kargu one means to strike at my head; Kargu two cuts off a sidestep escape by attempting to flank me and read my motions from behind; Kargu three attacks from the right as insurance.

As Kargu one swings at me with a crackler, I feign a right step. Kargu two moves to the left to cut off my escape as Kargu three comes from the right. I draw closer to Kargu one, then grab at his crackler. Because of the nature of the weapon, it has the easier and longer handle to grab, and that is what I do.

As I take the crackler in my hands, Kargu one tries to yank it from my grasp. Using that momentum against him, I bioCharge forward so that he falls backwards. Then, I connect the fall in a fluid movement, and I charge my legs and somersault into the air. The Kargu is still clutching onto his crackler.

Big mistake.

As I move to throw him into the concrete floor, my handle on the crackler, combined with my forward movements, are a greater advantage for me. I swivel my wrists forward, sawing the Kargu through the middle as he vaults into the air with me. When I smash him into the ground, I expect to see blood and burnt flesh.

But instead, I see a titanium skeleton and wires underneath.

Interesting.

The two Kargu circle me. As the one on the left jumps towards me with a bioCharged movement, a white flameSword slowly appears in front of him. The Kargu removes his neck from his body of his own accord and sinks to the floor. The third Kargu, I easily dispose of with a bioCharged clap to either side of his face. It rains red and water.

As I wipe the blood and brains and chips from my hands, Jin saunters to my side.

“Took you long enough, Kaz,” Jin says with a smile.

I stare at him, smile, then we clasp our hands and greet one another fondly. Damn, but does it feel good to see him.

“Thought you were dead, man,” Jin complains.

“Not that easily,” I chuckle. I glance at his right arm. Jin notices.

“Ah, no biggie.” He tries to make light of it.

“Never knew you for a left-handed fighter,” I say.

“I’m not,” Jin laughs. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been in this little debacle. If I had my right hand, man, I could’ve taken out one hundred Kargu bitches by myself.”

Five Kargu begin to circle us.

“Right,” I say jokingly. We laugh together as we stand back to back.

At that moment, ten security drones descend from Sangsum’s compound and join the fray. Blaster shot riddles the air as they pump the Kargu full of smoking holes.

With the additional reinforcements, and without the energyTower to aid them, the Kargu run out of both energy and numbers. The remainder are quickly disposed of by Mugen and the team. They eye the drones suspiciously, so Vyvani allows them to clatter to the ground.

Suddenly, the entire tower falls dark as all lights shut off and all generators are silenced. There is nothing but the drumming of the falling rain and the sounds of the city below.

Jin shakes his head. “Damn. Well, no one can say that Kala didn’t follow through with the mission.”

Mugen walks towards me, breathing heavily. He offers me a hand in greeting, and I take it.

“Damn good to see you, Moyashino,” Mugen says. “Came at just the right moment.”

“Hey,” I say. I lower my eyes to the ground. “Mugen…”

He claps his hand against my shoulder. “No thanks needed. And no worries, Kaz. This wasn’t a favor either. We still have to work together to fight the Kargu. We'll defeat them, whatever it takes.”

I nod gratefully.

I notice that Vyvani has been silent for a while.

Hey, Vyvani. You there?

Yes.

Why aren’t you saying anything? You okay?

You’ve changed, Kaz.

I nearly laugh out loud in my incredulousness, before thinking better of it. I don't want to appear a madman after having just emerged from my torture sessions with Sangsum. I do choke, however, and when that earns me stares, I disguise it as a cough.

And you’re the same. Sure.

We have a lot to talk about. But I’d rather not do it inside your head. That’s weird.

I suddenly redden, as I realize she might catch wind of a daydream here and there.

Yes. You’re right. What should I do?

You’ll need to get in range of an energyTower pretty quickly. You are hosting the both of us, you see.

I am not entirely sure what that means, but I agree to her request.

It isn’t long before Kala and her team come barreling through the doors. Her face and blade-arm are streaked in blood. Her eyes widen when she sets them on me.

“Kazin, you got out!”

“On his own,” Mugen adds. He squints his eyes, then turns to me. “How did you get out?”

“It’s…hard to explain,” I say.

“Well, we better get going,” Kala says. “Explanations can come later. Let me call the transports.”

I remember something of great importance. I have a gift for my friends. A gift for myself. A smile extends across my face. “Is there room for one more?” I ask.

Kala stares at me strangely. “You got a friend in there too?” She nods towards the compound.

I begin laughing. “Yeah, I do.” And he has no idea what’s waiting for him when I get him back home.

As I fall into crazed glee, my friends stare at me worriedly, unsure whether I have lost my mind or not, not knowing that we may have just found the keys to victory.