Another deflected shield hit the corner of one of the glass oculars, causing a spiderweb of cracks to snake across its entirety. Servos whirred in protest and the brain began to buck on its brain-stem like an enraged bull in its agony, jumping and dropping amid broken bits, further impaling itself.
With fewer shields to focus on, the M.I.N.D. managed to lift some of the few remaining shields and they began to fling blindly about in a mad attempt to hit Yuki by chance. Only by using Shadowstep was she able to dodge three shields coming from different directions. Two of the shields collided midair, but only spun off wildly, regaining their trajectory after a wobbly interruption. Hitting on their ‘strong’ sides wouldn’t damage them, unfortunately.
Yuki tried to reach out and grab another shield, but it was moving too fast and she worried about having her ribbon totally cut off, leaving her with only one weapon.
They began to bob as they spun madly around the brain, angry hornets protecting their disturbed hive. Despite all the damage that had been dealt, Yuki had only managed to bring it down to 60% of its max health. The damage from the shards was not going to cut it. A quick check showed her heel-guns were empty as well.
The shields were flying so quickly and erratically that any attempt to whip the M.I.N.D. itself was quickly dashed. After severing a foot-long length of her more intact ribbon, she retreated back to look at her options. The shields only spun faster and faster, compensating for their number being cut in half. The enormous organ swung around, unable to keep itself aloft for more than thirty seconds or so before crashing down, causing a multitude of shards to bounce up into the air. After impaling itself, it would jump up again, swaying like a top-heavy cobra before crashing down again in a different spot.
Yuki could see that the key to ending this was the relatively narrow brain-stem. But how to get to it? She doubted she could even approach amid the shields that jetted by so quickly they were beginning to blur together.
If only those damn shields were out of the way!
It wouldn’t solve everything; she would still be at the mercy of the bucking brain and getting flattened as it slammed to the ground. But the brain did cast a large oval shadow beneath it… Before Yuki had too much time to think, she saw the boss rotate slightly as it began its fall. But it was going to fall on top of the shield that stuck out of it! Like a cat ready to pounce, she pumped her legs. A bone rattling moan resonated through the chamber as the M.I.N.D. landed on its own shield, sinking it deeper into the lobe and temporarily the shields flew off like shuriken, lodging in the walls and floor. Before it could totally settle to the ground, Yuki took her chance and activated Shadowstep.
“Does she always twitch like that? How do we know if something’s wrong?”
“I honestly don’t know, Aurora. She hasn’t been in the field long enough to really get a feel for her capabilities.”
“Well, I hope she—” Aurora paused, looking up from Yuki’s prone form as if she had heard something suspicious.
“You see it on your minimap too?” Tempest asked, voice turning severe.
“Unfortunately, yes. You think she’ll be okay?”
“Do we have a choice?”
Tempest keyed on his comms. “Gus, follow our location nav-point and meet us, we’ve got company. Prime, Yuki is at this nav-point, stay in stealth and make sure no one harms her while she finishes her slice.”
“Okay,” Gus confirmed.
“Copy. I’ll be there in five minutes, Prime out.”
“They’re at the hospital’s mass transit exit, let’s go,” Tempest urged Aurora as they tore out of the small equipment shed.
“I’m only seeing two…” Aurora gasped as she ran up the covered walkway.
“For now. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
“I hate running. I hope whoever is behind those red dots on my minimap is ready for an ass kicking, because they’ve put me in a very bad mood. Who even knows we’re here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He spat before shouting, “Don’t do this, Kenway, we had an agreement.”
Rounding the corner they found the bald man affecting a golf clap.
“Aye, and I’ve honored that agreement. You have the information you wanted. Now that our business is completed, I have just found another offer. Seems someone is interested in anyone poking around in their affairs, and is willing to pay good money if I can deliver the meddlers to the interested parties.”
Gus turned and slid down an embankment, slipping on loose moss and sludge to join the others, neon lights illuminating the alley with blues and reds in the undulating mist.
“Liar!” Gus yelled, catching his breath and swiping his hair out of his eyes.
“I am a dishonest man,” Kenway said with pride. “And you can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest—”
“You think you and your cat can handle all three of us? I take it your cronies didn’t want any part of this?” Aurora challenged the pirate as she saw the odds had tipped in their favor.
Kenway shrugged. “Why split the bounty?”
“I know you better than that, pirate. The only one you could compel to go with you is your tiger, isn’t it?” Tempest remarked sardonically.
Gus recognized the tone and found it affected Kenway in much the same way it had him—reckless anger.
Kenway opened and closed one fist, the hiss of pistons echoing in the alleyway. A sharp crackle sounded as a taser attachment sparked to life on his multi-tool arm.
“This has grown tiresome. Let us be done with it!” Kenway roared as he launched his attack.
Gus saw a red dot appear on his chest and looked up to see the tiger leaping toward him, some of the neon light glinting off the metal fangs rapidly approaching.
“Aww, crap…”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Eye of the Tiger
Gus tried to dodge out of the way but the tiger was so massive it still bore him down. He was carried backward with the momentum and his head hit the ground with enough force to make his vision blur. Nausea swept over him as his headache returned in full force. His hybrid armor had shielded him somewhat, protecting his head enough so that it didn’t crack like a watermelon. He felt shaken, but not winded from the impact.
A high-pitched squeal emanated from his shoulders as the tiger flexed its claws, only to find them scraping harmlessly on the gunmetal gray of hybrid-Nth concentrated there. Gus could feel a low rumble through the legs of the tiger as it turned toward him and began to growl.
Gus felt a hot and humid breath on his neck as the tiger bit down, trying to clamp down as Gus’ hybrid armor moved to resist the killing force. The tiger tried to reposition its jaws but was thwarted at each attempt. Then it targeted his neck. Despite his armor’s best efforts, each time the tiger clamped down, the force of its jaws closed his airway as the pressure encircled his entire neck. If the tiger had only closed down consistently, Gus would have been choked out in no time.
His hands flew up, his right arm finding only short bristly fur. He punched at the creature but it did no damage from his prone position. His left hand slapped against the metal housing on the tiger’s chest and side, ripping and grabbing madly for something to gain some advantage, but the metal casing remained intact, protecting the delicate components inside.
Gus saw that his shroud only had 5% battery life left. They would be exposed and detectable as supers regardless, so might as well use his powers. He activated Xyzzy for the first time in what felt like forever. As expected, both he and the tiger teleported, but Gus used a push from Advanced Flight to spin them so the tiger was underneath. While he hovered there, the tiger fell away from him.
Instinct took over and the large cat tried to twist to land on its feet, but the distance was too short and the large beast landed right on its shoulder, mid-turn. There was a crunch followed by sparking and a scraping sound as the tiger’s right foreleg collapsed.
Suddenly, the tiger turned and a beam shot out of its eye. The red blast bor
e straight into Aurora’s back and quickly tunneled through her to shoot out the other side. She dropped and her electrical attack at Kenway pop-fizzed into nothing. She fell hard to her knees, gouts of blood starting to pour out of the wound in her abdomen. Gus tried to fly over to help, but another angry red beam sliced through the air, bringing his attention back to the animal.
How did it have enough intelligence to do that? Was this a hybrid gone too far, rather than a cyborg tiger?
Before he could think too much, the tiger spun and began to charge, much more quickly than expected with its damaged leg. It leapt into the air and before Gus could review his abilities, he activated Zeno Effect. He had only used this once before, but it froze the tiger midair, and it was easy to sidestep its trajectory.
The eyes of the tiger rotated to watch him as Gus cycled through his abilities. When this was all over, he really needed to focus on using every one of his abilities and training them to be used more intuitively. Finding one he liked, he activated Ice Shard. Two daggers of ice appeared, clearing the air of a good portion of its ambient fog. Gus plunged them into the tiger’s side and sliced.
One broke off at the hilt, hitting a rib that appeared to be reinforced with some metal as well. The other sunk home and the tiger erupted in a closed-mouth roar, still unable to move. He sawed it back and forth, trying to do as much internal damage as possible, but his overzealousness caused the blade to break off within the tiger.
Damn it! This would be a different story if Jet was here.
He held a hand out and activated Krackle. Balls of energy formed in his hand and Gus scrambled up to aim them at the tiger as his body went rigid and the ability fizzled out. Gus collapsed onto the ground, face falling into a puddle as his body continued to buck and tremble. He could see Kenway pointing finger guns at him, the ends sparking with blue electric energy, before turning to face off against Tempest again.
His display showed a stunned debuff and a counter with fifty-seven seconds remaining. Gus looked up at the tiger suspended above. It was watching him with anticipation as it hung in the air. It could have been his imagination, but he thought he saw the tiger smile.
Another wave of pain stabbed into Gus’ brain as he lay there in the dirty rainwater. The exertion and use of his powers flared his headaches to life like a beast awoken. With the pain, Gus found that he couldn’t focus on his abilities at all. They felt slippery and unmanageable.
The more he reached to activate something, anything, the deeper he felt a hot poker of pain stab into his temples. Letting go for a bit, the wave of pain receded. When he tried to focus again, he couldn’t even open his display. The countdown timer for his debuff appeared to go even slower. Forty-nine… forty-eight… forty-seven.
Hazarding a look, he saw that the tiger was in a different position, but as he kept his attention on it the movement slowed. Looking at the tiger’s debuff, he was reminded of what Zeno Effect’s conditions were:
Zeno Effect: Focusing on the quantum state of an object or target will freeze its passage through time, preventing physical movement or skill activation while observed.
Gus locked his eyes on the tiger, and it looked back.
They waited to see who would be first to break free.
-Blink-
Yuki reappeared under the massive brain as it began to descend again. Falling to her knees, she crossed her arms and slid on the slippery slime that was smeared about. As she approached the brain-stem and right before hitting it, she brought her arms apart, severing it at the root. The edges sheared effortlessly through the soft tissue, and with a heave, Yuki used her last reserves of strength to slingshot herself from underneath the large brain as it toppled and crashed into the floor a final time.
The floor rippled and shook as a yellowish-brown fluid sprayed up from the cut brainstem like a geyser. Deprived of its connection, the brain twitched like a fish out of water, all mobility lost besides its death rattle.
Yuki wiped her face, flicking away a handful of slime and spitting in disgust. Sitting back with a loud sigh, she saw that her knees and shins were studded with tiny bits of shield embedded in the leather. She winced as she pulled out some of the larger pieces which had pierced her outfit, tiredly throwing them to the side. With a prolonged exhale, she tried to slow her breathing, looking at the spectacle before her. She groaned and hung her head.
At long last a message appeared:
Congratulations, you have defeated the M.I.N.D.
AI added to Summon bestiary.
42,000 XP awarded.
You have reached level 41.
You have reached level 42.
Root access allowed. Do you wish to exit? (Y/N)
Yuki shuddered as the ecstasy of leveling caused her to momentarily forget the weariness she felt.
Whooo! Yuki sighed as she exhaled deeply. When she opened her eyes again, the awful smell and carnage were beginning to fade, and the remains digitized and fell upwards like rain in reverse, disappearing after hitting the roof above.
Yuki accessed the root and began searching. Alarms were going off all over the system as she opened the interface. She was worried she had set something off until she noticed the alarm codes.
What the hell are you guys doing out there?
Chapter Fifty
Only Human
Gus watched in horror as the tiger began to become unstuck in time and finish its arc to the ground. It took only seconds but the tiger touched down on the ground with a light splash and slowly turned towards him. It seemed to know that he was helpless and walked around him, batting him with a paw as it circled.
Thirty-seven seconds… what are you going to do when you finally can move? If it’s not too late…
He tried to open his abilities again, and his brain exploded with pain. He crushed his eyelids shut as the mother of all brain-freezes stopped his panicked mental scrambling.
The tiger roared right next to Gus’ ear, so close and so loud that it began ringing. He couldn’t even flinch away. He could feel a wet nose sniff the back of his neck, giving him goosebumps. The tiger moved on, but the effect spread to his whole body. Even the hair on his head felt like it was reacting. Though he was not moving, a feeling of dizziness overwhelmed him, and he started sweating.
It’s going to end soon.
He kept his eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable mauling to start. Bracing himself for the attack. His tongue felt dry in his mouth, and he could taste something metallic. He felt pins and needles in his arms and legs. It was going to come too little, too late. His body was waking up—but even when it did, his powers would not be available.
A stillness set over him as he stopped struggling. There was nothing he could do now. He could hear Aurora’s groans now. The thunder rumbling above. The soft *pat* *pat* as the tiger walked around him. The smell of chlorine that tickled his nose.
The counter was at twenty-two when it happened. It was different than he had expected; deafening noise and burning heat. He felt his body flip and then nothing. His body was still numb, yet the countdown timer was still counting down. Odd. He tried to assess his situation but everything was dark. Much different than he expected. Why do I still have this headache?
A gentle hand gripped his shoulder and flipped him over. He saw his father kneeling over him, brushing wet hair out of his face. The last seconds of the countdown timer elapsed and Gus could speak again.
“Are we dead?” Gus gasped.
“Far from it. You were close to the blast but I don’t see that you were hit. Blasted lightning takes such a long time to charge, and even longer to target. It helped that these two were covered in metal.”
Gus lifted his head and saw Kenway lying on his back down the promenade. Looking the other direction, the tiger had been flung the other way, only then noticing the pock marks in the paved sidewalk and smell of burned hair and ozone.
“A-a-aurora…” Gus struggled to sit up, but had to lie back down as he felt lightheaded.
�
��She’s fine. Just relax, Gus. I gave her some gels and she’s got some wound clot on the area. Her bleeding has already stopped, and her Nth are stitching her back together.
“Yuki just sent me a message; she’s turned off the alarms so we can use our powers freely now. But we have to hurry and meet her. She’s already inside. Let’s go get your mother.”
Gus nodded and let his father help him to his feet, which were still a little shaky.
Aurora was already standing up, wiping blood off of her outfit, but he could see the swath of skin underneath was smooth and intact.
“You about ready, Aurora?” Tempest asked.
In response, her mouth fell open and she just pointed. The circular glass roof that covered the promenade had three figures standing on it, staring down at them.
“What now?” Gus sighed. The ceiling exploded, and glass rained down as the three figures dropped through onto the promenade.
The leader shook his duster, flicking off broken chips of glass and revealing a blunderbuss fastened to his hip. Its brass bell glimmered before disappearing as he settled the front of his trench coat.
Another touched a dial alongside his head and focused some bulky oculars, shifting his shoulders as he settled the large backpack he was carrying. Seeing the tiger, he shuffled over to the body and started picking at the metal parts on its face and arm.
The leader turned and saw Kenway’s prone form while he lifted the pinched front of his Stetson, tilting it so the tiny bits of glass fell off and calmly placing it back on his head.
“Good, we won’t have to bother paying him,” the leader said in a smoky, raspy voice. Turning to the supers he cracked his neck and pointed at Tempest. “I assume you’re the ones who poached our deal with the Clan?”
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