***

The girls ran in the dead of night, hopping off and sneaking within the ruins of the streets. Their target was bigger than any of them, as the purple void hummed lowly yards away from them.

They climbed the unstable hills that were once just another sidewalk. Trying to stay grounded despite what was considered ground broke under their footfalls. There were many notable stumbles, causing the others to look at the person that nearly fell face first.

Using the cover of an unusually thick night, the five girls spread out and tried to softly shift through the rubble of what happened earlier that day. Parts of buildings, scraps of metal, and tons of glass shards.

“Nothing—” Aiko whispered, knowing that the others were going to hear her.

“Same over here,” River whispered, practically a Master of It. “We can’t risk getting our hands cut doing this; so be carefu—”

All of their heads turned to Tracy, who violently coughed out the dust she inhaled foolishly. And it wasn’t a series of coughs, but a mighty heave from the bottom of the throat.

“Jesus fucking Christ—” Maddie plainly said out in the open.

“At least go over and fucking help if you’re gonna complain, Solomon!” Jackie hissed through her teeth, a few feet away from her.

“We might as well give up now,” the little girl spat back. “She literally just gave it away—”

“Or maybe you keep quiet so they could brush it off, idiot!” Jackie shot back.

River was the only one that went over and helped Tracy, during the verbal exchange. So silent, despite being fairly wide and uncoordinated. She comforted a kneeling Tracy that had her face covered in hands, rubbing her back softly.

Jackie sighed, and didn’t see Aiko in her sights.

Darting her eyes around, she spotted the girl further ahead, trekking through the piles of ruin towards one of the Extant outposts erected from the cleared ground. A metal fortified tent, made from and merged with the streets.

“Aiko--!” so fast to both say and reach her arm forward, Jackie forgot that she had to keep quiet. She reeled that arm back, clutching her fist near her mouth. Scolding internally at herself.

She just turned to the rest, “Let’s go, now.”

Running after Aiko, being careful while wading through what was calf-high broken materials. She and the others were only saved from the scratches due to the black jeans given to them, along with the other simple clothing the relief team gave them.

Waiting until midnight, until things considerably slowed down and everyone was forced to lower their guards to rest. They talked about their plan for hours, hashing out their respective problems. So Jackie kept it simple:

Savage for fallen but usable Extant gear. Swipe at least one issued device from their station. Use siVis to walk through and take on the power of the barrier. Get in, save who they could, and get out. Helping Extant to just focus on getting the traitor that caused this in the first place.

And yet they were struggling at the first step. It didn’t bode well with Jackie, unable to swallow the pit that was supposed to be in her stomach, logged in her throat.

Aiko was crouched a ways away from the station, its lighting getting more intense. Jackie finally catch up, grabbing her shoulder which startled her to turn around.

“What the hell are you doing--?!” Jackie questioned.

“Man, I don’t usually hear that from you—” Aiko didn’t remotely answer her.

Jackie mouthed “Ans. Wer. Me.” silently.

“You guys got into it again!” Aiko admitted. “I was just saving time like you said!”

Before Jackie could bat against that, she heard the hushed noises of surprise behind her, forcing her to turn her head.

“Hey hey hey~!” Maddie boasted under her breath.

She had her arm deep into the ruin layer, pulling it out with a miniature Dizzy Bomb in her small hand.

“Nice find,” Jackie nodded.

“You better be gr—fuck—grateful~” Maddie winced visibly, putting the bomb in her other hand.

Jackie was puzzled at that, but the arrival of Tracy and River caught her attention.

Tracy happily raised a huge travel-back, plated, white and gray, and practically could cover one’s entire back.

“I found this!” her voice still hoarse, which made it perfect for her to keep quiet. “Redemption, right?”

“Very nice,” Jackie said. “Empty?”

“Yes!”

“I can put my bag in this, at least,” as River started to take off her rundown backpack. “Protect the computer and what not—”

“Come and put this thing in it too,” Maddie held out the bomb in her hand.

“…Y’know what, never mind,” River put her backpack on.

As Tracy pressed the button to open the retractable lid, Maddie casually tossed the bomb into the hole, causing Tracy to withhold a scream while trailing backwards, forgetting to drop the thing she wanted to run from.

Maddie was cackling in the night, softly clapping at the expense of Tracy who regained her wits. An icy stare was shot at her, which was shared by Jackie.

Again, Jackie was going to scream at her again, before the loud rustling to her side.

Aiko raised two of her full hands, having two more Dizzy Bombs.

Jackie quickly put a finger to her lips, practically pressed up against them in building rage.

Aiko realized where she was, lowering her hands and rushing back over to the others.

The saddest part about this operation was that it was still going well, all things considered.

Jackie heard Aiko shout, as she quickly threw the two bombs into the pack, causing Tracy to jump in her skin again.

“Do you exist just to make noise--?!” Jackie hissed.

“They burnt my hands!” Aiko said, extending them to Jackie, unveiling how pink they were. “I didn’t realize how hot they were!”

“Eh, you could’ve handled it,” Maddie said with her own hands buried in her pockets. It clicked in for Jackie, at that moment.

Jackie sighed through her nose. “Let’s just go, let’s just go—”

Rushing forward, she tripped in an instant and fell with a loud thud into the wreckage.

She shot up, mostly powered by the immediate shame and rage that washed over her. Looking around, until she saw the quick flicker of lights scanning over near where they were.

Hearing scrambles and mutterings of “shit” behind her, Jackie looked over her shoulder and saw that at least Aiko and Tracy got down on their bellies in response. That was good.

Jackie looked forward, waiting out the panning searchlights that she had no idea where they came from. Her mind filled with cursing.

After what felt like an hour, they stopped. But Jackie knew that they were on high alert now.

Sighing, and turned herself over, landing on her back. Just looking up at the purple, murky skies above.

Maddie’s head popped into view. “I think you ran too fast, Jackson—”

“Fucking bite me,” she said dejectedly.

“If you guys are gonna start up again…” River signaled to them verbally. This caused Jackie to sit up.

River rose up a circular device. It had wheels on the bottom and a thick lens in the front of itself.

“The hell is that…” Maddie asked.

“Extant Buster Rover,” River answered. “They use these to scout ahead or wedge them into wrecks to see if people or things are there. Autonomous, so we don’t have to program it or something, just point at it and go. The lens is cracked in places, but we can make it work.”

“…And I tripped on that?” Jackie said flatly.

“Yup,” River answered just as flatly. “Congratulations.”

Jackie sneered at Maddie. “Funny how one trip from me was much more productive than anything you’ve done so far~”

“Whatever you tell yourself to keep the ego going, dear,” Maddie crossed her arms with a nonplussed face. Jackie read that as something she does when she’s annoyed and took it as such for her personal joy.

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“Regardless,” River tried to nip things in the bud. “We should get to some cover, right?”

Jackie nodded. “Of course. Let’s go. C-carefully.”

Jackie got up, crouching. She looked over to see the others do the same, before darting off.

She scanned the horizon, until finding a car buried nose-deep into the ruins, submerged with only the trunk up in the air.

Rushing over there, sitting once more with her back leaned on the bottom of the car, being the lookout for the others. One by one they managed to get to the cover, with River being the last not due to speed, but having the Buster under her arm while pulling out her laptop.

“Okay,” she sat down along with them, giving the Buster to Tracy.

River proceeded to fold her laptop into a tablet, taking the keyboard and putting it behind the screen.

“Oh, my fucking god, I thought you—” Maddie cut herself off. “Like, I thought you just broke your already fucked up PC—"

“I just do that by using it,” River replied, tapping away at the screen. “I’ve managed to find software that’ll let me reverse and decode any more ‘messages.”

Everyone else looked at each other in varying levels of disbelief.

“…And you just figured it out--?!” Tracy explained, somehow still muted.

“And you say you aren’t a genius,” Jackie shook her head.

“What? No,” River looked at both. “Somebody on the forum I frequent did it and shared links to it. I’m not good with actual skill, I follow directions good.”

“Either way, well done,” Jackie moved to the side of their cover, peering at the station, and seeing two Enforcers patrol the perimeter.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Pleading with herself to do something this time. Something effective, something meaningful for once.

Her eyes shot open, using siVis to toggle her enhanced sight, hoping that the sudden spike wasn’t enough to trigger the CAST as a result.

Focusing on the two Enforcers, they told her all that she needed. And given her what she hoped for.

One of them wasn’t holding their Multi-Action Rifle as firm as they should have, and as they walked far enough, used it as a crutch to lean on. Nuzzle first.

The other held it too tightly, looking around, their helmet looked as if it was twitching.

“Perfect,” Jackie turned her head towards the others—before quickly un-focusing her eyes. “We can get them away.”

“Hunch or bullshit?” Maddie questioned.

“These guys must be the first watch. The more experienced officers must be resting up and sent the more fresh meat as a result, these guys are baaaad…”

“Still, the fact that they’re bad doesn’t measure up to our level of bad…” Tracy brought up. “They’re trained people at the end of the day. So, still, need to be careful…”

Jackie then looked down, for something big enough that’ll cause the most noise. Using her hand to hover over the debris, her hand hovered over a cluster of bricks, that was once a wall.

She turned that hand around, looking at her palm. And as she flexed her fingers lightly, her eyes couldn’t help but linger downwards, looking at the crimson, high-tech car boot on her arm.

Taking another deep breath. She couldn’t let it win, this time.

Picking up the brick cluster was not only hefty to lift at first, but created such a loud noise as the rest of the broken content to fill in where it used to lay.

It was perfect, for the next part of the plan.

“What the fuck--!?” Maddie rang out. “What the fuck, Steven—you need to be quiet, you idiot!”

Jackie quickly turned up her hearing, to see if the bait’s been taken.

“What was that--?” a voice from afar asked. “It was that voice from before—I told you I wasn’t hearing things!”

Jackie had to keep her eyes from rolling out of her head. Now Maddie’s mistake was constructive for this plan.

Now it was her time.

She just had to put everything into her fist.

Feeling all of her available bodily energies start to allocate within her arm, as it turned a bright blue.

INNATE… DRIVE!

She let the energy “go”, as she threw the cluster of brick across the horizon at blinding speeds. It crashed, sending a mini-explosion of garbage flying up into the air as a tremendous result.

After being in awe for a bit, Maddie remembered her line.

She screamed out, causing the others to get into position.

“Fuck!” one of the Extant Enforcers cursed. “Spread out, go towards the explosion—I’ll check for that scream!”

“Heard a siVis call too, but my damn ears focused on the explosion…” the other said. “Be careful.”

Jackie quickly looked from the cover. One was racing towards the impact zone, the other going the other way. A completely straight line.

“Run!” she ordered her girls.

They darted from their cover and ran straight down towards the station. Still crouched, but now sprinting the fastest they can, without the use of siVis.

On that thought, Jackie raised up her arm, seeing it twitch as it slowly became grayscale.

“Now why didn’t you work when the statue came right for people?” she was speaking to herself, maybe her siVis use. It was hushed enough for no one but her to pick up on.

And almost in response, her arm locked up as its pieces tensed up and bound themselves violently. Once her arm went completely grayscale, it fell limp at her side, problematic because she was running and her CAST was repeatedly bashing into her.

She growled, holding her “dead” shoulder. Her ability was completely and utterly flawed. Able to use the kinetic energy stored in her body and unleash an explosive burst, but the affected arm goes limp because, well, there’s no energy in it anymore. To think that this was an improvement, since the first time she used it, she used all the kinetic energy in her body—leaving her “completely” dead as a result. At least she was with people to drag her away and the target of her attacks extremely damaged, but it’s still incredibly high risk.

Now she had a limited slapped onto her, now making her already high-risk power outright useless. Seemed to be a recurring theme, today.

She shook her head, seeing that they were close now.

“River, Aiko, Tracy—” Jackie gritted through her teeth, “Get ready, you’re next in line!”

River nodded, coming up next to Jackie. Her mouth was noticeably closed, needing every bit of air she could get.

SL—SLIPSTREAM

With her siVis call, she vanished into the smoke she began producing.

Maddie scrambled, making a catch for both her PC and the Buster, getting both despite both wincing and an annoyed disposition etched on her face.

The smoke spread within moments, covering everyone as they continued to run towards the station. But, leaving an easy-to-follow trail as a result.

Jackie glanced about within the smoke. Thankfully, everyone in this group so used to River’s smoke, that they can see better than most people who got trapped in it the first time.

Everyone was accounted for, Tracy and Aiko forced themselves forward in the pack as Maddie joined Jackie in the back. And a few seconds later, River rematerialized in the vapor, out of breath as a result. Maddie quickly moved in, grabbing the chubby girl by the wrist and helping her along. But, the smoke ceased generating, stopping the trail, now the effect was left to linger.

They made it to the station. A teleporter pad in the center, with Multi-Tools in the barracks on the left. That’s what Jackie was after.

But first, there was the issue of the back wall having a camera plastered onto it.

“You’re looking where she needs to be, Aiko?!” Jackie inquired of Aiko.

There was a shake of the head from the view behind.

“Well this didn’t work the first time so please oh please oh please have this work now so help me,” Tracy managed to say in a second. She shot her arms forward and squeezed her eyes shut.

PERSPECTIVE FLIP…!

Tracy’s eyes then beamed with surprise as she looked back up, small shouts of wonder and relief escaping her mouth. But her face quickly turned sullen, because she has to fulfill her part of the deal she made.

She acted like she was flipping the wall within the smoke, craning her body to the right, bending her fingers as if she’s dug them into and clung to the side of the wall, and struggling to flip it over.

Bit by bit, the wall came undone, folding and opening like a door as it slowly turned itself around. It took some time, but it was completely flipped over. Thus, no more cameras.

Jackie couldn’t help but smirk. They were limited, broken, and out of practice. Yet they were doing it.

Despite having most of their numbers tired, and rushed for time—they made it to the barracks where the Multi-Tools hung, each locked in a special see-through locker. Padded with number pad, hand scan, and alarm paired up with each other.

“All you, Aiko,” Jackie instructed.

“Allriiiight~!” Aiko grinned ear-to-ear.

I-MMA-TERIAL GIRL!

Aiko shook in place, before thinning out and surfing into the locker before everyone’s very eyes. It was a very disturbing thing to witness, her taking over machines.

But Jackie considered her to be one of the strongest on the team for a reason. One could say anything they wanted about Aiko, but you couldn’t say that her ability was not effective in a growingly technological world.

And it’s in the hands of an easily bored daredevil.

The number pad started punching in the dials on its own, the hand scanner was flickering green, and the alarm short-circuited within seconds before making a sound. Within moments, the door was flung open, causing Aiko to “leak” out and fall onto the floor.

“mfndmesh—” gibberish fell out of Aiko’s mouth, she squirmed on the floor, trying to hold her own head but failing. “Worse one—worse one yet—that thingy better be—all the worth…”

That “thingy” was held up by a metal bar display. It had a curved, yet cylindrical body, the top of itself hooked and structured like a spear, a handle jutting out of the middle of the extremes. The top of the spear was layered, thick, black, and gray rings making up the base of what would be the sharp blade on top. But it was turned off.

Jackie read that these Multi-Tools were made to cut through debris, crave through obstacles, and if it calls for it, a long-ranged weapon. She grabbed it, taking in the sight and the weight. It was something she was counting on.

Tracy helped up Aiko, and Jackie grabbed onto the Multi-Tool’s handle, now it resting against her non-CAST-ed arm, elbow-side. Maddie since gave the technology back to River, and Tracy was sporting the backpack.

Everything was complete.

“Let’s go do something, girls,” Jackie proudly proclaimed.

“Yeah, because those guys must be hauling ass back now—” Maddie deflated the moment per usual. “Less speech-y, more runny-!”

Jackie looked at her right arm, noticing that it’s finally come back to life. She clutched her fist, and led the charge.

Now with her left arm outstretched as she kept the pace, she didn’t focus on that. All she focused on was the purple void that was steadily growing before her.

Everything was a success. Mistakes were made into opportunities, they were stocked with something, and their abilities are working correctly again. Granted, despite how annoying their siVis calls are—they denoted if they were working or not. It’s the purpose of why they ring out, to make people aware of a siVis attack. And theirs were stuttering…

No, giving into insecurities and the darkness of any possible situation was the thing—the heart of their respective problems. She had to be steel-headed, be remotely prepared for what was going to be before her in a matter of minutes.

“Maddie!” Jackie shouted out, eyes still forward. “It’s all you!”

“Yeah yeah—” the small girl responded nonchalantly before raising her hands.

LIFE F-F-FIBERS!

Maddie raced to grab Jackie’s CAST hand, digging her fingers into it.

Within seconds, she created multiple holes burrowed into it, and the surface and inners turned into a string-like texture.

She continued on, giving the same treatment to the other’s hands, one by one. If this was going to be their approach to brave the Boundary—they needed to have a grip on each other, no matter what. And having a girl who can turn things into strings with a touch, turning one’s hand into a makeshift rope knot…

Jackie looked over and saw that the girl was done. She reached out to grab Jackie’s hand and gripped it tight.

Tracy then followed up. With River following up, and then Aiko.

It was immense, being mere feet away from the Boundary. What Jackie thought was going to be empty, had a gelatin texture to it. It looked alive but produced such a chill that she saw her own breath within moments.

She closed her eyes. No more thoughts or worries.

She began to shift, her pieces vibrating in discordant harmony. Turning herself into a wispy, unstable figure whose movements were too fluid to capture. And despite her eyes being shut, she felt increased rumbling located at her hand. The others were following suit.

It was like entering the ocean for the first time. All she felt was pure coldness, but it was so thick that she couldn’t move. She and the others were vibrating mere seconds ago, and they could not move against the Boundary.

It wasn’t forcing them back… There was no motion to begin with. It wasn’t walking against a river, climbing a high peak—at least Jackie’s human brain could understand that. She just stopped. And the Boundary was keeping her there.

Her eyes shot open, but then they were closed again.

She didn’t do that.

In fact, she just noticed that the first step she took, she repeated it again. And again. And again.

Only to open her eyes again, and shut them.

Her body was on repeat, leaving her mind to panic.

She felt her movement become more and more divorced by her, and in the brief interim of sight, she saw echoes of herself float before her in their own respective time lock. Repetitive movement being reflected in a 3-D space.

Were they stuck there?

Was this the end?

She wanted to scream, but couldn’t.

Until that weight was taken off of her all at once, and was launched forward into the ground.

“What the fuck?!” a voice, a different voice that echoed from afar, screamed. “The fuck are you doing?!”

And before she and the others knew it, she was being swallowed up by the ground they planted on.