“Sometimes, I feel like the Protectors are punking us with making goals for saving people. I mean really, how do you expect me to get even one person other than myself out of a crumbling city?”
“Simply try harder, dumbass.”
A conversation overheard between newly-initialized Ultraviolet and Geryon-Delta
It is a disorienting feeling to know where your hand is going to land before it touches down. The sonar perception was definitely noticeable as I began to rouse from my horizontal state.
“Guhh…weird haptic feedback…,” I grumbled as I sat up, Nate giving a chuckle.
“Worth it though?” He asked, slowly getting to his feet and brushing off his pant legs.
“Considering I can sense something coming towards the hole up there…and a shit ton of swarming things around the circle of the resonators’ influence,” I pointed to the hole where the ceiling had broken and crushed Nate, “I think it’s already paying dividends. Oh. And that thing that was trying its luck just popped. Fun.”
I then realized something.
“Oh! Neat! You didn’t mention that before, Kyos,” I grinned as I hopped up onto my feet, my cybernetic tail swishing behind me.
“Is this perhaps in reference to being able to lower the input of certain incoming frequencies in order to not overload your new augments? Because yes, and I am sorry I did not. But, I do think you are enjoying it.”
“Are you kidding? I love it! God, it was like having tinnitus every time I was around one of the resonators. Glad I can make it easier to handle without reducing the effectiveness of them.”
“Lucky you,” Nate snarked.
“You want earmuffs?” I retorted.
“You’d be able to find quality ones in the Protective Clothing catalog that you have, Macy.”
I looked at Nate with a shrug, silently telling him ‘your choice’. He gave a noncommittal wave with his hand.
“Not for now. We need to get moving.”
I nodded and focused back up. I stretched out for a minute, rotating my shoulders, flexing my forearms, and bending to stretch my legs before finally doing a couple small jumps to see how I was feeling. Nate went over and grabbed his gun, taking the time I was stretching to look it over and figure out where everything was on it.
“Alright. I think I’m good. Are you good, Nate?”
“Yeah,” He sighed, “I’m not even a Samurai, and I’m doing this.”
“Hey, maybe the Protectors’ll see you doing this and reconsider. You’d make a hell of a Samurai.” I gave a breathy ‘ha’ as I finished speaking.
“Sure, Mako. Whatever you say,” He dismissed me, though his smile returned to his face as he did. “So, which way do you want to go?”
I pointed to the hole I mentioned earlier. He grimaced.
“You told me that you couldn’t carry me? What changed?”
“I have a harder time ascending on land than in water. I can only really hover most of the time. However, I should be able to get you up to a point where you can land and then you can help give me a lift…wait.”
I sighed. “Fucking cybernetics. Ok. New plan. Out the…”
I heard a crash of rubble down the hall from us. I took a breath in, closing my eyes as I did.
“Nate, please tell me the way to the front door is not blocked with rubble.”
“Ok. The way to the front door is not blocked with rubble.”
…
…
“Fuck off,” I shook my head with a grin, and began to laugh. Nate followed suit, and even Kyos gave a small giggle at the level of dad humor we had just witnessed.
“Alright, Mark I Resonator time it is. We’re boring a hole.”
I called the Mark I Resonator to my hand from its place nearby, shuddering slightly as the sense of something teleporting within my sensory range was a new and disorienting experience, and coded it once again to the stone of the building, which it began to chip away at. In around two minutes, we had a sizable hole that we could clamber through in the walls of the building.
Besides the one or two Antithesis that decided to test their luck at making it past the wall of sound that surrounded the building, there was none close to the building. However, I knew that there was a bunch massing around the area. I didn’t see all of them, but my new senses were “pinging” left and right, letting me know the exact positions and amounts of enemies.
This allowed me to understand exactly where their formation was weakest, if you could call it a formation. It was a disorganized wave of maws, tendrils, and murderous intent. And that intent was aimed at yours truly. I probably stank of Antithesis death pheromones.
A group of five Threes came into full view from the shadows of the buildings as the early evening began to create shadows that stretched across the open space. I was going to be losing one of my senses soon. The power was most likely down throughout most of the downtown area by now, so it would be complete darkness. Luckily, I had gotten more senses to compensate.
“We’re going to need to keep running, no matter what happens, Nate. We need to work together to make sure we get out. All faculties. My new senses, your ‘intuition’, as much as you may hate it.”
“I don’t…I’ll process that later. Ok. Pathos can help guide, but I’m helping fight,” Nate resolved. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly. He then opened them quickly, “Let’s move.”
I nodded, and in a flash of movement, I jumped an inch off the ground, and let the Bloodchaser propel me forward into the crowd of Threes as Nate began to break off around the building towards the northeastern side. It took me only a moment to catch up as the Threes fell to the ground crumpled and charred from electricity and violent and speedy stabbing.
As Nate booked it over towards his goal of getting to one of the streets, he jumped to the right, barely dodging a Nine that I noticed moments before. By that time, I had already landed, pivoted and jumped back in that direction, and before the Nine could get in any other strikes, I landed and stabbed it several times, letting the small electrical bursts of the Feeding Frenzy tip rip the creature to shreds.
“You’ve certainly…gotten some good upgrades,” Nate chuckled as he got his bearings and continued to move with me next to him.
“I’ve been working hard, what can I say?” I gave him a goofy grin.
“You’re already doing extra sensory stuff, you have speed, and you have a really good weapon. I think that makes you a Class II samurai?” He puffed from the speedy exertion.
Oh Nate, if you’re having a time now, we’re going to be struggling later.
“I think so.”
I took a moment to catch up with my thoughts as we neared the edge of the “safe range”.
“Kyos, can I get another pack of Seven proofing pills?”
Indeed you can.
“...Then, get them please,” I deadpanned.
Well, since you asked so nicely.
A pack of ten proofing pills in a foil pill sheet dropped into my hand as I held it out, and handed one over to Nate.
“Take it. You’ll need it.”
“Oh shit, yeah, thanks,” He laughed before stopping quickly, downing the pill and continuing to run.
The only thing that was slowing me down to Nate’s speed as we began to work our way outside the sound barrier was blitzing several single-digit antithesis who tried to get the jump on us. The wave of Antithesis around the ruined shelter seemed that they were getting wise to the trick and were converging.
I didn’t mind, though. Points were points and I was making a lot of them. My counter crept back past 7000 points before long, as we finished the climb up hills and onto the old car expressways. While they didn’t see as much use for recreational travel recently due to hover vehicles being used for things like that in the above ground of the city, they still were important byways for military, commercial, and a margin of recreational transport.
A giant creature appeared in my sonar, followed by a muddled mapping of what the creature looked like through electrical and sonic signals.
“Nate, get down!”
Boom.
A building punched out and rained rubble everywhere, destroying city blocks in a single strike. We weren’t too far away from it…hell, we weren’t even a block away from it. Glass shards and concrete, like a blizzard on a harsh winter’s day, began to lacerate and bludgeon. Any signs of life, even from other antithesis below the perpetrators vision, gone. Both Nate and I were lucky, we just barely avoided the radius of fallout from what had been done.
“Go, go,” I quietly shouted to Nate, and we began to book it.
Mantis shrimp. That’s what I parse from the mental mapping from my sonar.
Of course they got fucking mantis shrimp. Why wouldn’t they get one of the craziest things to ever exist within sea life? They use everything else to evolve. Why not that?
Nope. Not dealing with that. Not today. Bones too fragile. Body too weak. I took down the Twenty-Nine, but that was in my element. This was not. This was the Attack on Titan Mantis Shrimp and I did not have three-dimensional movement gear.
Nate and I ran and killed as much as we could before reaching the tunnels that would lead us up to the bridge across Lake Washington.
And then, my sonar pinged again.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”