“This kid is the one who’s been causing us trouble? Ridiculous.”
The crowd of passengers scattered in all directions in a panic, leaving only two people remaining in the hallway — Zeo, who was just beginning to rise up from the ground after the wind blast had knocked him down, and a man in a black half-mask and a thick head of spiked-up green hair.
Zeo jumped back to his feet and readied his stance. Of course, since the airship staff required all passengers’ weapons to be stored in the security office, he didn’t have his blades on his back, and felt more than a little awkward squaring up against this mysterious opponent. “You’re with Mistral, aren’t you?”
The man’s eyes slowly panned up and down, assessing Zeo, who felt a breeze wash over his skin during the Mistral man’s observance. “No, I’m a high-class hooker. ‘Course I’m with Mistral, idiot.”
After another pause, the man continued, his words sharp yet airy; there was a biting snark to them, but an obvious indifference as well, like he wasn’t taking any of this seriously. “The name’s Gael, since it seems like you forgot to ask my name. Try to remember your lines, hero.”
Zeo’s brow furrowed. “What are you planning?”
Gael took a step to the side, which caused Zeo to flinch; a fact the former did not miss, though he didn’t act on it either. He continued to leisurely pace around the hall in a circular motion, which naturally prompted Zeo to do the same to maintain the distance between the two. “Blow this ship to kingdom come. Kill a bunch of people in the Chateau. Standard bad guy stuff.”
He’s mocking me! He really thinks I can’t stop him, doesn’t he? But he’s got no idea what I can do!
A green spark of electricity coursed up Zeo’s arm the instant he extended it forward. The spark exploded in size as it leaped across the hall, aimed directly at Gael’s chest.
It should have landed. It was too quick not to. But it didn’t.
And Zeo wasn’t sure why.
It looked as though the bolt had struck Gael directly in the chest; the man hadn’t made any attempt at dodging it; in fact, he had been standing almost completely still at the time. And yet, the bolt did nothing, and when Zeo realized that fact, Gael appeared to be a half a foot off to the side, out of the bolt’s reach entirely.
“Quick trigger finger. I like it,” Gael said coldly. “But that can’t be all you’ve got, can it? You’re gonna need a lot more firepower than that to stop what we’re trying to do.”
Gritting his teeth, Zeo brought his hands to the space before his chest. A loud, booming voice reverberated around the halls:
LIGHTNING!
Three more bolts, much larger and erratically-shaped than the spark Zeo had fired earlier, escaped from his hands, effectively covering the entire hallway.
But Gael dodged each one. Granted, it took more obvious effort on his part; he actually had to bob and weave his head around, and make rapid steps in a variety of directions, a much more reasonable response than the practical teleportation he’d performed earlier.
“A Lightning Install?” he remarked, stroking his chin. “I’ve never actually seen that before. Guess there’s a first time for everything, huh? Maybe you do have something special in you after all.”
Before Zeo could continue his attacks on the Mistral man, a rumbling storm of footsteps came charging in from down the hall. It was a pack of soldiers dressed in matching uniforms with Mistral logos emblazoned on them. “Commander! All squads are moving out!”
Zeo wanted nothing more than to charge through and take them all down right then and there, but he knew that without his swords, it’d be a tough task, especially once the Mistral soldiers all began to retrieve their own weapons; guns, batons, swords, spears. He’d need his own blades back before he could properly take them on.
And so, he crouched down low as quickly as he could, preparing to tap his fingers against the sides of his shoes to activate the Ride the Lightning Art and escape in a flash.
But just before his fingers could make contact, two heavy gusts of wind burst outward, sending his hands flying away.
“Pretty rude to go running off without properly introducing yourself.” Commander Gael said. He’d likely be wearing a smirk on his face if he were the type of person to actually express emotion.
Zeo clenched his fists. The ease at which Gael seemed to be able to toy with him was digging away at his patience. That being said, it wasn’t like he was being given many options. “Zeo.”
Gael nodded before turning away. “Decent name. Good fit for a hero.”
The two men vanished in identical instances in opposite directions; one in a flash of lightning, and the other in a rush of wind.
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
Kiria and Reina quickly directed all of the nearby civilian passengers to take cover in the nearby cabins, and when the last of them made it inside, it was just in time, as a Mistral soldier rounded the corner.
Though she’d had to relinquish her rod to the security office, Kiria still had her Cyberizer arm, and there were more than a few tricks programmed into its sleeve. Once the soldier stepped into the room, she threw her hand out directly to his gun.
The instant her cybernetic fingers made contact with the weapon, the nano machinery within dismantled the gun to pieces, each of which scattered to the floor.
After that, all it took was a simple roundhouse kick to the face to send the Mistral grunt toppling.
“We need to get to the security office!” Kiria stated, already racing down the hall as fast as she could. Reina was quick to follow, and to her surprise, keeping up with Kiria proved quite difficult, despite Reina’s own level of fitness. It must have been the different lengths of their legs and strides, and totally not because one of them was overstuffed with junk food that was starting to take its toll.
As they ran, Reina made a pouting face. “I knew I shouldn’t have told them my bow-bracer was a weapon!”
Before the girls could make it to the junction and turn the corner, two Mistral soldiers appeared, pistols in hand.
Damn, I can’t dismantle both of their weapons, Kiria thought to herself. There were no other hallways the two could turn into, so the only option she could deduce in that fraction of a second was to quickly bust down one of the cabin doors and take cover inside. It wasn’t a great plan, as it could potentially endanger anyone inside, but there weren’t any other escape r-
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ICE!
Reina quickened her running and pushed ahead of Kiria, then conjured a shield of solid ice, holding it out front just as both Mistral soldiers fired their weapons.
The bullets struck the ice shield, blasting off shards of frost in all directions, but they couldn’t pierce through it completely, frozen within its core.
Kiria smiled at the fantastic play that Reina had made, but they weren’t in the clear just yet. While the bullets hadn’t managed to pierce through the ice shield, they were still creating lots of impact force — so much so, that Reina was very clearly incapable of holding the shield up any longer. Her arms were shaking, and the fact that she was running forward and losing her balance wasn’t helping.
“Reina! I’ll hold it!” Kiria called out. She thrust her cybernetic arm into the center of the ice shield, and locked the machinery into place. The arm could hold the shield without wavering, and Kiria could even keep her other hand free.
“Thanks!” Reina responded, shaking cold water droplets and the impact sting from her hands. Once finished, she conjured up another disc of ice, although this one was much smaller than the shield.
She spun in a circle and hurled it forward like a discus. The ice disc zoomed past Kiria and underneath the ice shield towards the two Mistral soldiers.
Both managed to leap away and avoid getting crushed, but the attack wasn’t finished. The ice disc bounced off of the wall behind the two soldiers, ricocheting back into one of them and knocking him unconscious.
Not only did that give Kiria enough time to move in close enough to attack, it also allowed her to focus on just one gunman rather than two. She slammed the ice shield into the Mistral soldier’s front side, shattering it to pieces. His gun arm went flying, leaving him wide open to a sharp elbow swipe that laid him out completely.
Kiria looked down each stretch of hallway for reinforcements, but was distracted as Reina’s palm suddenly came into view. “High five, Kiria! We kicked their butts!”
With a giggle, Kiria met Reina’s hand with her own.
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
Annabelle’s heart was racing. She’d been sleeping soundly in her cabin, but had been abruptly awoken by loud voices. And before she could drift back to sleep, Mistral’s attack had begun.
She could hear racing footsteps outside in the hallways from all directions, screams of panic and fear from innocent passengers, aggressive, commanding barks from what sounded like soldiers, and the occasional crash and rumble farther off in the distance.
Without Kiria or Zeo around, she didn’t know what to do. She wanted nothing more than to rush outside and find them, but that was suicide. She’d undoubtedly get caught in the crossfire; after all, she wasn’t a skilled fighter or a hero like either of them were. She was completely helpless.
And so, she did all that she could; she stayed hidden and quiet, and tried not to attract any attention to herself or her room. The cabin was incredibly light on furniture, so the best she could do as far as barricading went was to move the nightstand over to the door, and even then, it wasn’t even tall enough to obstruct the door handle in any way.
She wrapped herself in the blanket, and made her way over to the bathroom, locking the door and huddling in the tub with the blanket providing her with a tiny shred of comfort and security.
I need Kiria….I need Zeo….
She buried her face into her knees, as though blocking out her vision completely would make her that tiny bit safer in the chaos.
“….plosives….p?”
Her ears twitched, and then her head slowly rose up from her knees.
“….tone….e….igh….”
Those voices had initially scared her, as they’d appeared closer than they actually were. They seemed to be coming from the hall outside of the bathroom.
Annabelle pressed her face up against the wall. All the while, her sensitive elven ears continued to twitch, focusing on the source of the voices.
“When you’re done with that set, head over to the east wing,” one voice spoke. It was a gruff male voice, and with how unbothered by the crisis he sounded, he was no doubt a part of Mistral. “Pick up the extra forcestone explosives there and set them up on the cabins in this hall.”
She felt her heart lurch up into her throat as her mind played out the scenario it’d overheard. They were lining the halls with explosives; the hall she was in.
“Am I detonating them after I finish?”
“No, we’re waiting until all the bombs are set. That way we can take the entire ship down in one go. Besides, we have to wait until we’re closer to the Chateau anyway.”
Tears began to well up in her eyes, which fell back to her knees. Her hands brought the blanket up over her head soon after.
Zeo, please help me….! Save me!
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
“Hey, we got one still moving over here! Why didn’t you finish him off?!”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Cain spat as he shifted around the corner to take cover from the incoming gunfire. “None of you clowns are strong enough to take me on!”
While he genuinely believed that to be true, he couldn’t deny that in his current predicament, there was an element of bluffing behind his words. During his first scuffle with a Mistral soldier, he’d unfortunately had to block an incoming attack with his broken arm so that his good one could land a counterpunch.
Damn you, Tyger, he cursed in his mind. If his arm wasn’t broken, he’d surely be annihilating these chumps.
A door opened nearby, and out came another Mistral soldier, this one wielding a club. He spotted Cain immediately, and rushed in to take him down.
Cain ducked beneath the first swing, stepping to the side and landing a snap kick to the back of his opponent’s knee.
He reached for the club to disarm his foe, but this particular Mistral soldier had some fight in him. He slammed his elbow into Cain’s side and pushed back up to his feet, putting distance between them.
Cain scowled as he was forced to dodge another club swing. He didn’t have much time to activate an Install, so he was going to have to rely on his own body, broken as it was.
He stepped into his opponent’s guard and landed two clean jabs, staggering the Mistral soldier. This time, he successfully managed to wrest the club from his opponent’s hand. He backhanded the soldier clean across the face, felling him.
There wasn’t any time to celebrate or even get his bearings, however, as more troops were hurriedly shuffling into the hall.
Cain rushed down the corridor, narrowly avoiding taking a bullet to the back as he spun around yet another corner. Rather than continue down the long stretches of halls and risk getting caught out in the open, he pushed through a staff maintenance door instead.
As he took cover against the door, he heard the boot steps of the Mistral soldiers scramble past. Once the volume of them peaked and began to fade, he let loose the tense breath he’d been holding.
The door had led him to a back hallway of sorts. It was a stark scenery contrast to the passenger sections of the airship, which were kept meticulously clean, and had lavish carpeting, lighting, and wallpapers. This maintenance hall was pure concrete and metal, with chipped paint on the walls, and cleaning equipment scattered around the floors and on workbenches that lined the sides.
He decided to keep exploring this section of the ship, partly to give himself time to recover and ease the aching pain in his arm, but also to satiate his natural curiosity. Cain had always enjoyed exploring new places and learning as much about them as he possibly could, even when those new places consisted of drab old maintenance halls.
As he walked and took in his surroundings, his mind tried to piece together what Mistral’s plans might be. If they were willing to cause so much chaos while the ship was airborne, they were likely either on a tight schedule, or they’d been pressured into acting before they were ready.
In either case, that meant that their plans were unlikely to be going completely smoothly; there was room to disrupt them. All he had to do was figure out what they-
As he entered what appeared to be a repair room for various airship components, he froze in place. A cold chill had suddenly entered the room in tandem with his body, washing over him from behind.
It was an unnatural wind. There was nothing in the hall he’d come from that would generate air flow like that.
Cain didn’t have to spend much time pondering what exactly could have caused that rush of wind, however, as the green flows of air soon made themselves visible within the repair room. They were like free-flowing trails of ink slithering through the open space like eastern dragons, coiling around the various tools, machinery, and metal parts that populated the repair room.
Each object the wind streams coursed around began to levitate and maneuver around the room, as though they were gliding along invisible railroad tracks. The green wind flows then extended in length, and began to encircle the growing pile of moving metal objects, forming a stationary tornado at the center of the room.
Cain brought his arm up to shield his eyes as the winds picked up in speed, scattering small items like nuts, bolts, and scraps of paper around.
When the whirlwind finally died down, he slowly brought his arm down.
A mech stood in the center of the repair room, staring him down directly. It pulled its arm up overhead, preparing to smash it down onto his skull.