>> End Of The Line

Cataclysmic thunder slams us against the floor of the hyperloop as the ancient structure shakes on its foundations. Miles upon miles of suspended tunnel vibrating, flexing, and shattering from within. Exploded open by the force of the vast machine violently coiling and compacting inside it like a living thing.

Every impact snatches our legs, and hurls us wildly against the floor and sides of the tunnel. Blurring the world into a tumbling mess of faces, limbs, and hyperloop track - all of which smashes me, repeatedly, in the face. Knocking us, bit by bit, towards that screaming wall of metal and plastic and flames.

It's the kind of thing you cannot fight, or escape - only survive, and endure.

So I pull my arms in, and force my body to relax. Timing kicks that send me barrelling, backwards, into the others. Knocking Zipper and Demon and Badger further from the broiling brink of annihilation as the bend itself is torn apart and broken open. Hurling struts and sections of tunnel into the stormy dark beyond.

An eternal instant later, the tearing engine begins to slow. Ionic engines reversing, and then shutting off, as the train crashes to an unseemly halt. Slamming carriages into the floor as the whole thing, slowly and surely, grinds to a halt.

Becoming just another wreck in the wilderness. Belching smoke and bits of train.

For a blessed moment, there is silence.

And then there is Badger.

"OH MY GOD, BUT THAT WAS THAT WAS TOTALLY AMAZEBALLS!!!" He cheers, hopping and skipping and dodging chunks of ceiling. "NO!! IT WAS BETTER! IT WAS ULTRA MEGA EPIC! NO! IT WAS-" He takes a massive, epic, shuddering breath.

“BRUTAL!!!!”

"Yay." Kami says, flatly. “I need a stiff drink and a lie-down.”

"But you're already-" He goes 'yeerp!' as she grabs an ankle, flipping him onto his face.

"Y'know this is why you're on all them bloody watchlists? Right?" I grumble as the lil terror pops instantly upright, doing a happy lil chugga-chugga choo-choo victory dance around us. And over us. Jumping our groaning bodies, and pumping that oversized robotic fist in the air.

"Hey, like, least it ain't the worst train wreck he's caused. Right?" Zip says as an entire carriage snaps off the train, crashing off towers and outcrops all the way down.

"I guess he didn't hit any massive bloody gas tankers this time."

"WOO!! BEST SHOT EVAAAR!!!"

"Or, like, another train." Zip adds.

"SECOND BEST SHOT EVAAAR!!!"

I shake my head. "God dang. How many is that now??"

"Uh, like....." Zipper starts counting fingers. "Does, like, that pirate truck-on-rails thing count?"

"Yes. Yes it does." I gripe as Badger giggles helplessly. Or, possibly, maniacally. "How does he even bloody do it? It's a bloody train! It's massive! But he knocked it over with a lil bag of- of whatever!"

"I dunno, mate. He's, like, an idiot-savant for bowing stuff up?"

"Idiot is bloody right. He got the lowest bloody test score in the history of-" A metal hand slaps down on my helmet, rotating it up and toward Kami's face. "...uh oh...."

"YOU BLOODY LEFT ME BEHIND!" She explains very calmly and gently. Lifting me by the ear to give me a little shake. "I'M GOING TO RIP OFF YOUR DUMB TAIL AND CHOKE YOU WITH IT!!"

"OW! OW! SHIT! Can ya sort this after the mission??" I yelp, fending her off. "It ain't like we could've carried ya!"

"YOU COULD HAVE HELPED!" Her jaw grinds left, then right. "No. Never mind. You'd only have made it bloody worse."

I blink. "Uh.... Glad I could help, then?"

"You- You should be!" She concludes, in a rational sort of way. Stalking off in search of her other boot.

"Jeeze." I growl, furiously rubbing my poor ear. "Least one o' us is in a good mood....."

"Right, mate! Yeah!" Zip grins, catching a still-dancing Badger. "But, like, what now, though? Tunnels kinda blocked, right? We going through the train?"

I flick a look up at the silvery, windowless, monstrosity rupturing its way through the bend in the track. Its mangled engines pumping deadly black smoke as rain blurs down through huge holes smashed in the walls of the tunnel.

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Walls cracked open, like an old skull, to reveal the world of tumbling blackness beyond.

I shudder as the train slips a little more. Reminding me, a little too forcefully, that we're stuck in a thin plastic tube suspended over a terrible drop. With new, and massive, cracks splitting the floor.

I give the wide open tunnel behind me a longing look. An escapeway streaking off into infinite distance, broken only by moderate to massive holes - no doubt caused by pirates using it for target practice.

Where does it go? I have no idea.

Nowhere I know.

"C'mon." I growl. Forcing bravado into the word as I step up. Clouds of inky-black smoke boiling around me as we attach magnetic breathers, and run toward the train. Heart skipping as I tear my eyes away from the ripped-open walls to focus on hopping across the fallen scrap. Our part of the structure only holding because the train didn't hit the junction head-on.

Zip grins, firing a line into the ruined ceiling mid-leap. It catches - and both feet swing to land, smack, against the polished side of the smoking train. The blue-haired boy cocking me a salute as he half-reels half-walks his way up to yank a little red emergency lever.

I step back as the pressure-seals blow, and a mechanical hatch unfurls. Inner doors unlocking and splaying like leaves as a bright yellow emergency slide unfurls and inflates. A dozen lights flashing as the final layers slip open with a tiny puff of sterile air.

I pull a massive leap, and fire my rappel. Landing, crouched over my toes, on the ledge as electric bees boil around me. Zipper swinging in as I side-roll, hard, across the dim-yet-inviting luxury of the first class carriage to impact with one hand on the opposite wall as Demon lands behind me.

Claws sink deep into royal blue carpets, etched with golden leaves that glimmer softly in the low yellow light. A gentle flicker of antique brass lamps wedded to faux wood panelling. The strange calm offset by the eerie, Dutch-angled, tilt of the hallway.

And there. Drifting like smoke through the dim, radiant, flicker of the lamps - I hear it. The softest murmur of classical music. A whisper so gentle a human ear would barely perceive it. Unfaltering, after even a hundred years or more.

"No dust or nothin'." I note as Demon leaps up with Tufty and Gremlin on his back. Kami thundering awkwardly, with a little cackling dumbass hooked up under one arm. Still clutching his horrid, many-legged, rat - its face the very picture of 'I guess this is my life now'.

I stand, carefully. Weighing my balance against the unsteady tilt of the deck as the carriage tips ever-so-gently toward that vast, black, hungry holes in the tunnel wall. Firing my beating heart with the wild song of panicked adrenaline. With images of the entire junction failing, crumbling, and dropping me into-

No. I cannot. I will not run.

I will not give in to the fear. The falling dream.....

The others are depending on me. I've got to step up. I've got to.

"Mate....."

I clench my teeth, and shudder. Standing, tall. "C'mon. We're going in." I step forward, then turn. "Watch y'selves. This entire bloody train is a choke-point. So, get ready - they'll hit us again."

"Oooh! Maybe I can-" Badger starts, but Kami shakes a lil idiot.

"You've done enough." I whisper. Flicking a finger at Kami, who tosses him into the luggage racks. "Shorties to the rear. Demon-"

"I'll see to them." Kami says in a tone of calculated boredom. Three of her hands descending on Tufty's head and shoulder. Sending a thrill through the small cat's body.

I hesitate. "Guard our rear." I tick my head toward Tufty, eyes sharp. "No casualties."

Her lip twitches. "Sure."

I nod. "Gremlin. Ya wanna do a little scouting?" Her little eyes wibble at me from under Demon's cloak. One paw held stiff, like it's hurting. "Uh. Maybe not then." I snort. "C'mon. Let's roll."

I take point and we push forward, between rows of empty luggage racks. Bursting in through an ornate sliding door, into a world from a forgotten age.

Cosy tables of pretend-oak line a stream of that deep blue carpet. All lit by frosted lamps that flicker with fake flame, as endless oil-painted hills roll steadily by on either side.

All sun-dappled colours, and things from a dream.

Illusory butterflies linger with Zip's bees, fluttering about over empty seats. The air alive with artificial scents. Old leather. Old brass. Old polish. I shiver a breath, and step forward. Eyes eager for danger. Ears swirling this way and that.

"Spread out." I whisper. Slapping a hand to a left-side table to shoulder-roll atop it. Demon pouncing on the right, as Zipper casually struts up between us. Cocky, casual, and ready to rock. His smirk lazy. His SMG loose in one hand.

The stance of a guy with whiplash reactions.

"Careful." I hiss, and take another step. Feeling the trap, even before it springs.

I hop forward a table, eyes sharp. Tail lashing as-

"There! Turret!" I roar as a gleaming brassy orb drops from the ceiling, ejecting a cloud of flat metal cogs that blitz themselves into a whirl around it. Orbiting the machine at terrifying speeds. "What is it......"

I snap my head to one side as a disc slams through the exact space where it was. Coming to a sudden, violent, buzzing, stop in midair. Humming like an industrial saw.

Hoooo boy.

I launch in as Demon blurs in on the other side. Bladed discs sparking off [Berserker] armour as he kicks from wall to table to wall, leaping right at the turret.

Which dodges.

"Shit! It's a drone!" I yell, as the thing skids my way. Hitting it with roaring [burst]s of ammo as it flicks and darts from side to side. Snapping out disc after disc to cut us down as Zipper comes streaking up the middle. Eyes gleaming as his gun slaps upward, hurling out burst after burst. Fast as [Full Auto].

The done snaps back to Demon's side. Hurling a skimming, singing, ring of death that skims toward Demon. - forcing him down as it streaks overhead. Arcing towards Zipper, like some terrible guillotine that forces him to twist and leap onto my side of the tables.

I curse, and start running down the row. Leaping and bounding, on all fours, from table to table as bladed rings shriek past my face. Jolting to a stop right before they hit the walls, the fabric, or anything around us-

"It won't hit the train! Use it as cover!" I shout as two interlocked blades come spitting at my face. Forcing me down, into the seats, as they go wheeling and slashing overhead.

But I don't stop. I can't stop.

I feel the air snatch at my tail as I leap over the back of the seats. Feeling the whir of the blade that arced right around the corner - slamming to a stop, right where I was. And in that instant of distraction, as I half turn to look, I almost loose a hand to the pair of blades carving in from each side. Snipping shut like sheers, so close they sting the skin of my fingers.

And that's when the second drone drops.

Dozens, upon dozens, of gear-toothed blades building into a storm that roars toward us.

Screaming their pent up thirst for our blood.

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