CHAPTER 30

2010

Tanadad Front City

Earth

Riley watched wide-eyed as the five mysterious armed men marched toward him. He drew his handgun and aimed it at them as he shuffled back.

“Stop!” he ordered.

The men stopped. The largest of the group stepped forward, laughing. He seemed to speak, but his voice was unintelligible to Riley. It sounded like beeping and distorted screeches at various pitches. Riley narrowed his eyes, confused by the sound. Was he speaking or doing something else? The man looked back at the others and they also laughed. Laughter seemed to be a universal language.

“I don’t know who you are or what you want, but unless you back off, I’ll make you very dead.”

The man stopped laughing. He placed his gun on his back and pulled a metal whip from his waist. He cracked the whip and sparks of energy flew from the weapon. He lowered his arm, letting the whip rest on the asphalt. He took two steps forward and swung the whip at Riley. It was so quick that Riley couldn’t see it coming. It barely touched Riley’s chest, yet it had enough force to knock him back with a jolt of electricity. He landed on his back, but he simply huffed and jumped back up almost immediately. Electricity coursing through his body was nothing new to Riley. All it did was charge him up and heighten his senses. Riley launched himself at the man in a corkscrew motion. He rammed his shoulder into the man’s abdomen and knocked him back a few steps. Riley held on, trying to take him off his feet, but he was stronger than expected. The suit only made matters worse; it scratched Riley’s skin like a razor mesh when he rubbed against it. Riley jumped back. He knew now that his handgun would be no use against the suit.

The man approached Riley with another swipe of his whip. Riley ducked. He was about to bounce back up when the whip suddenly changed direction and came down at him. The whip cracked loudly as it collided with the asphalt, melting it on impact. Riley frowned and his eyes moved from the electrified whip to the handle. The weapon was connected to the man’s suit at the waist. The man charged at Riley again. He was fast, but Riley expected it now. Riley dodged to the side, drew his knife, and slashed with all the strength he had. The knife sparked as its blade brushed against the metal cable that connected the whip to the suit. The man swung the whip at Riley again. This time, Riley caught the whip in his hand. The man paused, confused, then looked at his waist to see the severed cable hanging from it. He pulled at the whip but Riley held onto it. With a grunt, Riley grabbed the whip with his other hand and pulled. The force brought the man flying toward him. Riley clenched his fist and caught the man on the jaw with it. There was a loud thud as he landed on the ground.

Riley released the whip and aimed his gun at the man. “Move and I’ll kill you!” he barked. He knew the bullet wouldn’t even leave a mark on the suit, but he hoped the men didn’t know that. “Who are you?”

Despite the warning, the man stood up. He turned and spoke to the others. They nodded and immediately raised their guns. Seeing that they were about to open fire on him, Riley bolted toward the nearest house as energy projectiles flew at him, burning through everything they touched. Riley dived behind the house then peeked out and saw them coming toward him. He pulled himself over the fence, crossed into the neighboring garden, then mounted the wall and climbed onto the roof, making as little noise as possible. He jumped to the next house, then to another, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the mystery men.

They were too powerful; there was no way Riley could take them on. His only option was to run. After jumping across seven houses, he spotted a car parked on the road three houses from where he was. The driver had one foot in the car and one foot outside. Riley dropped down from the roof and landed beside the house. He looked out again. There was now some distance between him and the men, and they weren’t looking in his direction. He carefully moved the frozen man and set him down on the lawn, then hurried into the car. The key was still in the ignition. Riley tried to start the vehicle, then realized the engine was already working but frozen like everything else.

Riley heard a whistle. He looked up at the rearview mirror and saw a ball of energy flying toward him. He jumped out just as the energy hit the side of the car. It exploded on impact, flipping the car into the air. Riley looked up and saw the car coming down at him. He had no time to move out of the way, so he curled up with his hands guarding his head and closed his eyes. Riley knew he was stronger and tougher than other people but he had never truly put himself to the test. As he laid there, scared that he was about to die, he could only hope that he would be strong enough to survive the impact.

The car was mere inches from Riley when the band around his wrist dissolved into flowing particles and spread over him with incredible speed, forming a hard layer of protection over his body.

The vehicle landed, pinning him down. The five men walked toward the car, speaking to each other in their unknown language. They were about ten feet from the car when it moved with a clank. They stopped and raised their guns. The vehicle moved again and, this time, it flew at them. The man in the middle blasted the car with his gun and it exploded. As the smoke cleared, they saw the figure of a man standing among it. When it cleared completely, Riley was standing there, covered in silver armor.

Riley looked down at his hands, wondering what had just happened. As he looked at his body, Riley remembered seeing the armor before, almost two decades earlier, on Exoginos. Riley gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and charged at the men. His steps covered so much ground that he sped past the men and slammed straight into a house further down the street. He stopped in the lounge, turned around, and saw that the damage he did to the house was undoing itself. He looked at his hands, shocked by his speed and strength. Riley jumped out through the hole before it closed up. This time, he took every step with caution and didn’t run. The mystery men were so far away that he couldn’t see them. He raised his arms and tried to run but, this time, he put far less effort into it. Riley sprinted along the road. Unlike the first time, he had some control over his movement. As soon as the men were in sight, Riley struck the first one with a punch, sending him flying through the wall of a house. Riley stopped and turned toward the others, and they immediately opened fire on him. He crossed his forearms to block the shots. Before the projectiles could reach him, more particles flowed from his suit and formed a shield that covered him from the front. The shield deflected the shots, and the mystery men exchanged confused glances.

Behind the shield, Riley wondered how any of it was happening. It wasn’t the time to worry; it was time to act. Once the shooting had stopped, Riley retracted the shield and charged at the men. He ripped the gun from the nearest man’s hands, snapped it, then headbutted the man, knocking him down hard. Riley turned to the next nearest man to attack. Before he could strike, the man threw a sticky device at Riley’s face. The device clawed into Riley’s facial armor and bombarded his brain with disruptive signals. Riley grabbed his head, groaning with pain. Everything had turned white and it felt as though he was on fire. Riley fell to his knees. A ball of energy hit him from behind, knocking him down and dragging his face a few feet across the asphalt. Riley balled his fists and pushed himself up. The armor on his face dissolved into particles and, once the weapon was gone, the mask solidified again.

Riley looked up, only to see a glowing sword coming at his head. He ducked instantly, the velocity of his movement putting a dent in the ground. He reached for the hand holding the sword but someone grabbed his hand from behind and held it. Before Riley could react, another pair of hands grabbed his other hand. He struggled to fight free. The man holding the glowing sword raised it and charged at him. Riley couldn’t break their grip. The sword reached his chest and burned through his armor. Riley didn’t know how else to escape, so he jumped as high as he could. He hadn’t expected to go as high as he did. Before he knew it, he was in the clouds, along with the two men holding his hands.

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They ascended a few more feet before they entered freefall, hurtling back toward the Earth. Riley flailed his arms, trying to break free, but they held on until they were about a thousand feet from the ground. They finally released Riley and activated thrusters on their boots and elbows, slowing their descent. Riley continued to plummet and hit the ground back-first, making a crater in the road. A sharp pain spread through his body on impact. He coughed, and blood came from his mouth. With a grunt of pain, Riley rolled onto his front and started slowly getting up. He heard the men speaking. They were close.

Wham!

Riley felt something collide with the back of his head, driving his face into the ground. He grunted and more blood came from his mouth. He balled his fists again and pushed himself to his knees. Something hit him again and his face dug deeper into the ground. A sharp pain spread from his head down his spine. For a moment, Riley’s entire body felt numb. He knew he would get hit again if he tried to get up, so he remained flat on the ground, wishing he could see what they were doing. As he thought it, Riley found that he could see them without turning around. The largest of the group held an ax, while the others were aiming their guns at Riley. It was as though they were waiting for him to move again so they could blast him.

Whoever these men were, Riley knew now that they didn’t come to talk or take him alive. They came to kill him. He considered his options but he couldn’t possibly move quickly enough to avoid another strike.

“Are you trying to die?” Riley heard a voice ask.

He looked around in the armor, wondering whose voice it was and where it came from. Suddenly, he realized. “Sky?” Riley asked.

“Hello Riley,” Sky greeted. “You miss me?”

“I’ll be damned… Sky, can you get me out of here?”

“Yes, but I won’t. You will. I know it looks different but the armor you’re wearing is the same one you thought you lost and even more.”

Riley was silent for a moment. “What are you talking about?”

“Vindex in Machina, Riley. Just as you have changed since we last met, so has it. It has been augmented with technology you couldn’t even dream of.”

“Sky, get me the hell out of-”

The ax struck Riley’s back so hard that he bounced on his face. Riley groaned, spraying more blood from his mouth and nose.

“Riley, the armor may look different now, but it’s still Vindex. It can do everything you remember, and so much more. All you have to do is think about the desired action.”

Riley closed his eyes and concentrated. He switched the view to his rear and saw the ax coming down at him again.

Shock wave!

A sudden energy wave exploded from the armor, knocking the men away. Riley pushed himself up, struggling to breathe. His eyes had turned red with blood, and his ribs felt broken. He looked around and saw the men getting back up as the surrounding destruction mended itself. Riley felt a sudden cold throughout his body and his limbs trembled. He turned and saw a bolt of lightning flying toward him. Riley dived out of its path and watched the projectile tearing past him. He lunged at the attacker and was about to land a blow when a charged whip coiled around his body and yanked him back. As he was pulled toward the man wielding the whip, Riley flipped in midair until he was facing the man. He raised his fist and his arm extended. Riley was three feet from the man, ready to smash his face when he noticed the man’s image flickering. He realized he was aiming at a holographic decoy. The man’s fist connected with Riley’s jaw from the side, sending him skidding across the lawn behind him. A sharp pain shot through his head, but it wasn’t enough to keep him down.

“After all this time, you still haven’t learned to stop running blindly into battles,” Sky lectured. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“I haven’t died yet,” Riley answered.

“These men aren’t vilis; they’re much smarter. If you don’t fight smart too, you’ll die.”

Riley shook his head. His entire body was hurting, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him.

“The funny part,” Sky continued, “is that you have enough tricks at your disposal to end this fight in seconds. But you would rather fight with your fists than win with your head.”

Riley was on one knee, puffing for breath. He rubbed his hand over his face to get the blood off, but it brushed against the steel armor instead. He scoffed. To his surprise, the blood on his face dried and fell away. The man with the whip came at him again. Riley frowned. He wanted the man gone for good. Riley dived head first at the man but, at the last second, the man stepped out of the way and swung his whip around Riley. It crackled, sending electricity through Riley’s body, but the armor protected him. Riley landed, sure that the man was about to repeat the same move as earlier. The man yanked at him again, pulling Riley closer. Riley turned in midair and fired a beam of light from his face. The energy burned a hole through the man’s chest and cauterized it instantly, leaving his lifeless body to crash to the ground as Riley landed behind him.

Riley heard the men screaming. It was the second time they had made a sound he understood. He could feel their pain, and it made him smile.

“One down, four to go,” Riley growled, loudly enough for them to hear. He couldn’t understand them, but Riley was certain the men understood him.

The other men opened fire while the man with the ax charged at Riley, screaming. Riley raised his hand to protect himself, and a near-invisible energy shield formed around his hand, deflecting the shots. Holes appeared on his suit, releasing smoke around him. In moments, a cloud of smoke shrouded the street. Sky initiated a thermal scan, allowing Riley to see the men as three-dimensional figures. He charged at the nearest man and punched him through the wall of the house behind. In another swift move, Riley gave the next man a chin-shattering uppercut, sending him flying into the air. Without hesitation, he went after the third man, grabbed the back of his head, and smashed his face into the ground, crushing his skull between Riley’s hand and the asphalt. With the three men down, Riley finally stopped and looked for the next man. He found him stumbling through the smoke with his back turned. Riley pursued him but when he reached out to grab him, his hand passed straight through another hologram. Somehow, it was able to fool his scanner.

Riley backed away from the decoy and released a burst of air, clearing the smoke. In seconds, he could see normally again. He saw the men he had killed, and the one he punched lying some distance away, clutching his side, and trying to get up. The last man was still nowhere to be found.

Riley heard a buzz and looked down to see a sparking, triangular device on the floor. It exploded, releasing an EMP that disabled Riley’s armor. The Vindex clanked as he tried to move but, with the systems powered down, it was just a heavy lump of metal. Riley couldn’t move it an inch. With Riley trapped, the man approached him. Riley could see him clearly but could do nothing to react. The man moved a few steps away from Riley, then set another device on the floor in front of him. Riley thought it strange that such a large device could come from a pouch barely the size of his hand. The man backed further away as the device buzzed to life. It floated five feet in the air, then it spun. Riley watched the disk spinning, clueless as to what was about to happen.

Meanwhile, in Vindex in Machina, Sky was trying everything she could to get the armor back online. Eventually, she shot cold air onto the pulse generator until it froze and shut down. With the pulse generator down, Vindex rebooted and came back online. Riley regained his movement and dashed at the disk, reaching out to crush it. He didn’t know what it would do, but he knew it couldn’t be anything good, at least not for him. His hand was less than a foot from the device when he suddenly froze in midair. Riley still had his motor functions but he couldn’t move the armor. He looked around. The man also stood still, frozen like everything else. Riley’s eyes moved to the device and he saw it slow down, then spin in the opposite direction. As soon as it began its backward spin, everything went in reverse, time moving backward.

Riley watched with horror as the men he killed came back to life, one after another, and he could do nothing about it.

The time rewound to when Riley was on the floor, with the car about to crush him. The car that had nearly crushed Riley returned to its parking spot, along with its original driver. Riley’s armor retracted into the band and Riley fell to the floor, no longer affected by the reversal. He jumped to his feet and lifted the bracelet to his face. He tapped it several times, smacked it, and yelled at it, but nothing he did would get the armor to come out again.

Riley looked along the street. The men were no longer there. He heard movement behind him and turned, only to be greeted by a massive fist to the face. He staggered back. Riley raised the band to his face again, hitting it and shouting at it desperately. A hand grabbed Riley’s and slapped a glowing band on it. The band made several clicking sounds and tightened itself around Riley’s hand, rendering it numb. The man with the massive fist picked Riley up by his neck and threw him at the car. Riley cried out as his back collided with the vehicle, shattering its window and denting the door. Riley looked up. The mystery men were five again.

They approached Riley, speaking among themselves. Riley knew now that he was beaten. He could remember everything that had happened before, and the men must have remembered too. There was nothing he could do but sit and wait for whatever they wanted to do to him.

Further down the street, the door of Garth Andrews’ delivery van opened and Garth stepped out. He calmly walked along the road toward the five men. They had their guns raised with their fingers on the trigger, about to execute Riley.

“Andilac morphard roedurk,” Garth said.

The mystery men dropped their guns and fell to the ground, twitching. After a few seconds, the lights on their goggles and guns went dark and they became completely still, seemingly unconscious.

Riley heard the words but he didn’t know who spoke them. Garth walked around the car with a blank expression. He bent down in front of Riley and stared at his face.

“Who the hell are you?” Garth asked.