“There’s a reason why we never threaten a Samurai’s family or friends. They will spend every last point, every last credit, and every last moment hunting you down and ensuring that you cannot do jack shit. So, let me ask you…why would you even think that that was a good idea? I quit.”
2053, A member of HR within a corporation that had its information wiped from all databanks and all of its employees detained or killed a day later
The jolt of the Bloodchaser was much greater than I anticipated. My body was not meant to take the abuse it was about to take from the speeds and hits I was about to create.
I didn’t care.
Bursting upwards, I aimed for the first plant I could see and struck hard and fast. It was one of those sharkhounds from before, a Model Three.
It didn’t stand a chance.
I felt the shakiness of my body for a moment, adrenaline fighting to keep up with that initial burst of speed before I finally got it under control for a second. I was on a timer. A timer to make it to the shore.
Minutes at best.
Minutes before, the Bloodchaser could only do so much to carry me while on land.
Go.
Strike. Move. Throw the Requiem Piercer, and catch up to it milliseconds after it lands in its target to press the strike further.
I felt a slam against my back as I scanned around for my next prey.
The spinal reinforcement of the Bloodchaser came in clutch. I’m sure if I were any regular person, that would have shattered my spine. I whipped around, activating the multistab of the Requiem Piercer as I struck, landing three blows in the time that I would have had the time to strike one, before pulling back and getting the rest of the blows. I kicked off the corpse of the Six, clocking what I had killed barely as I flung myself forward.
You are currently moving away from the Seattle shoreline.
“Got it,” I thought to Kyos. I couldn’t afford to speak at this speed. I knew enough about my own biology that that wasn’t gonna work.
I rounded back towards the Six, swimming over it and gaining speed.
The Mark II Bloodchaser will move much faster than a normal human can sustain with their own body. Though, I suspect you already knew that. Its top speed is around 300 knots on the surface of the water and on a linear path. It will also allow you to, at top speed, move around 100 knots underwater. Though I do recommend not reaching either of those without significantly altering your biology.
Definitely not meant to survive a head-on collision at the moment. Not without needing nanite assistance. Luckily, the subsonic speeds that I was at least attempting to reach allowed me time to have the GILLS circulate some healing nanites through my system.
Need to move. Stop thinking.
The horde had noticed.
My stunt with Chemical Element 119 had alerted much of the waterborne incursion in the nearby area to my location, and I was…not going to be able to take them on for long. I needed to make as much time as possible in the opening I made.
A bolt of lightning, the last to come from the Anemone due to range, lanced past me, striking a Model Four that was trying to take advantage of my contemplation.
Two other figures flanked the Four and shredded it. Bruce and Jeff were both a bit worse for wear after everything that we had gone through so far.
Worry about that later. Keep moving.
This instinctual pull to keep moving caused me to grit my teeth within my lips at the oncoming multitudes that barred my path. I raced forward to meet the oncoming tide of aliens, but my win condition wasn’t to kill them all.
It was to make it to Nate.
A battle cry bubbled up in my chest and escaped through my mouth as I raged through the single-digit crowd that surrounded my path forward. Electricity branched from the tip of the Requiem Piercer with every strike. Every bite and slam and injury rebuffed, leaving damage that I could capitalize on.
My eyes could barely keep up, but I kept moving nonetheless.
Macy.
Kyos’ voice spoke to me. I didn’t heed it.
Stab. Shoot. Move. Kick. Weave. Stab glancingly. Block barely. A narrow dance of death. I felt like I was getting closer.
Macy!
Another call for me. Another plea unheeded. I didn’t have time. I didn’t have time.
If he dies, and I did nothing, I will truly be nothing.
He let me be me.
No one else will.
I barely avoid the swipe of a Model Eleven swimming past to try and cleave me like before. Not this time.
And then another struck me in the back. And while it didn’t get past the wetsuit or break the Bloodchaser…it still left me reeling.
No, no, No, NO, NO, I can’t stop; I can’t lose now! Come on!
I feverishly looked about, attempting to find my assailants, and spotted one coming back towards me. I charged at it, unwilling to let myself be ambushed a second time…or third…I felt tears stinging in my eyes, though they faded into the equally salty water around me as I roared out and blitzed down the manta. The water burned, as I realized absentmindedly that my goggles had been ripped off by the explosion before, and I had neglected to get a new set.
No time. Keep moving.
I launched the Feeding Frenzy tip and let it shock the Eleven into incapacitation before it pulled back to me just as I slammed into it and started savagely attacking it, leaving it a hole-riddled mess by the time I was done with it.
I could feel myself slipping, the person of Macy Adams starting to crack and crumble under the pressure, pain, and emotional anguish. I was losing myself to this desperation.
I didn’t care. How could I care?
He was the only one who cared enough to have me feel like an actual person. I loved him as my best friend. No eros involved.
A message appeared in the corner of my augs’ hud.
It opened.
“M-cy! -helter com-romised! Ev-ryt-ing ba-. P-ease, -tay saf-.”
My vocal cords shouldn’t have been able to do what I did next, as they very much screamed at me to stop destroying them as I was.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I screeched, my hope draining from my heart.
I was scared.
I was angry.
I was raw.
I ripped forward, not caring about what I bumped into. What I hit. It didn’t mean anything. My body didn’t mean anything. I couldn’t.
I couldn’t just let him die.
MACY!
The voice of Kyos was louder than before, reverberating through my body. It forced me to stop, both figuratively and literally, as the Bloodchaser’s systems seemed to shut down.
What the hell are you doing, Macy? You’re losing yourself…
“It doesn’t matter,” I rasped. “I’ll do whatever it takes to save my best friend.”
Even do things that he would tell you were hurting you?Macy, you haven’t even thought once about yourself this entire time. What would Nate tell you?
“To not hurt myself like this, to be better. But-”
BUT WHAT, MACY?! But what? There’s no reason, other than your own internalized hatred, that you’d break yourself like this.
I realized at that moment I was fighting against the parasite.
Nate once told me a piece of advice that had stuck with me, even if I do not always heed it.
When you have depression or anxiety or are just having a shitty day, there’s a “parasite” in your head that is telling you every bad thing that could happen, every problem that you cause, everything you could have done better, and every tiny little fuck-up that seems like it adds up; it lets you know that in excruciating detail.
So how do you handle that parasite?
Ask yourself something important: Would you say those words to your best friend?
Your answer would always be, “No, I would never.”
Then, you respond to yourself, “How dare you say those things to my best friend?”
The first time I heard those words from Nate, I didn’t know how to react.
This time, they broke me.
I wailed into the sea, disregarding the world around me for a few moments as explosions went off against the antithesis that decided to try and hurt me in this vulnerable moment.
I felt weak.
“Help…”
Ok.
Unlocked!
Class I Translocation Technologies - 300 points
Points reduced to… 6803
New Purchase!
Object Fixed-Point Interspatial Teleportation Wristlets - 500 points
Points reduced to…6303
I felt two bracelets appear around my wrists and then connect their effects to my augments.
I also saw a notification asking me to bring a previous device to my current location.
I accepted.
I’m sorry, Nate.
I’m so sorry.
The Anemone reappeared around me, and I burst into tears and let myself break down.