by Isaac Nasri
Whatever tension brewed between the two comes to a halt. The human’s eyes squint as she levels her gaze at the fiery rocks rolling. Rising nervously, Soriana raises her glance to a lean and armored operative dangling unscathed with one hand on top of a light pole. Twin horns mount on top of her helm. Pictures splatter in Soriana’s brain upon sight of the smoke whistling out of the cyborg’s hand. The bones in her wrist ache.
Oh no. Oh NO!
Soriana opens her mouth, wanting to scream her name, but a gasp belches instead. Helpless even as she witnesses the dangling operative turn and leap, leaving the pole to collapse as she lands like an acrobatic ape on top of a tree. She looks over at her left, but the cryptic operative is nowhere in view. The force of her feet ignites a minuscule crater on the concrete. With one step, she races to a twisted miracle behind the mask.
Debris surfs as Soriana accelerates. Her hair flutters, and chest tightens to the speed. She bolts in mid-air, racing on top of a skidding gun truck before it can hit her. Meanwhile, the ninja pounces from one street pole to another, transmitting like a phantom as she did. Soriana’s ears rip to multiple splashes rippling into the Potomac River. VTOLs glide and flood the sky, showering their rockets onto the streets. The gas station combusts, and as soon as the last pedestrian closes the store's door, the inferno devours the edifice into its storm. Undeterred by the tremor wobbling the ground, the human continues in her pursuit.
A horde of possessed Virtuals throngs their hands onto the upper plate of a staggering spider tank. Soriana bites her teeth, skating low enough underneath the tank’s belly before the large shadow can crash. The ninja’s ghostly shadow trails to the Watergate infrastructure, and Soriana follows. She pounds a finger at her bracelet but not one radiation sparks. Anxiety’s skeletal hands gripped her as she hastened. She wanted to cease. Flash a pause to the commotion in this cyber-attack. Nevertheless, whatever Soriana was being led to, her adrenaline wouldn’t allow any breakage.
Soriana, having reached the large complex, decelerates and skids abruptly in Virginia Avenue. Smoke hisses from inside the hotel’s shredded entrance, and her attention hooks to a cyborg’s body resting supine on top of a burnt truck. A puncture lays visible on the scalp and shock hisses. She presses a hand to her throat, attempting to placate herself. Another cyborg lost to a virus she had to divulge. How would she stop it Soriana was eager to find it now. The more she cogitates, her apprehension levels burgeoned. She flashes to her phone conversation from yesterday.
Troy!
She takes shelter in front of the hood. She whips her phone, dialing the numbers rapidly. After brief ringing, the line activates.
“Troy,” she cries.
What’s up with connections?
Distorted noise surpasses whatever normalcy that can be spoken. Soriana stares downward, glancing over her shoulder. “Okay. Troy. Be safe and hide. Whatever this cyber-attack is, it’s coming—”
Her brain jumbles, and the human loses her thoughts as she cuts the line. Whatever this is the last between the two or not, she’d be wholesome to hear a snippet of Troy’s voice. At this point, Soriana could only wish him safety from afar.
She rushes inside the foyer, but her pace wanes to a scorching trail on the pristine floor. Stalking assiduously, Soriana shivers to the thawing aura inside the byzantine lobby as she glosses at the butchered corpses and inert explosives littering the floor. The numbers were too vast for her to count. Glass ticks underneath her cutting edge boots. A pubescent cadaver’s torso, severed from the abdomen, plasters like a sticker onto one of the metal clad silver columns. He looked no older than twelve from his frail features, but his common monk-like head stirred a cut that released a storm of maggots out of Soriana’s chest. A knife juts deep inside the dangling corpse’s mouth, holding him in place, and teardrops stream from his pitch white eyes.
Ugh. This is beyond unimaginable.
Soriana shakes her head, catching blood rushing in her chest as her gaze jails at the grisly detail alarming her nerves. Moses’ face beams, overshadowing her perception of the corpse. The level of suffering inflicted drawn her in a twisted way that left her rueful and nauseous. Her chest jabs so rapidly that her pupils shake. The water in her eyes refrains once her attention draws to a morbid cry. A swaying city officer, devoid of his arms, kneels toward a renegade standing without a single flinch. The officer displays his teeth angrily.
“I won’t…” he spits with attenuation. “Crazy…scrapdog, BITCH—”
He’s silenced by the protrusion of a very bright, ruby longsword screwing into the base of his lower jaw and reaching past his skull. The policeman’s cheeks puff. Soriana’s mouth drops. The weapon’s critical resemblance snaps like electricity, and Soriana steps her foot rearward. Her left hand slumps, and the pistol touches the ground, creating an echo that lures the operative’s gaze. Displaying over the azure face mask, the Virtual’s stone-hearted eyes catch onto Soriana, likened to a shrewd tiger creeping upon the herbivore as the latter’s wounds satiate her hunger. Peeling the sword and splitting the policeman’s head like a slab of meat, the renegade disperses away from the helm and vanishes. Her long dark hair knots in a bun. Soriana bites down on her tongue as the operative divulges her identity with a peel of her mask.
“I knew you’d be here.”
Eva’s voice echoes. The stygian edge in her tone stung Soriana like a wasp’s bite, eradicating any sign of bonhomie and longing lingering. Twin lines, crafted from human blood, embellish like feline whiskers on the rogue agent’s two cheeks. Her Oni, now crystallized in infernium, drags gently. Sparks buzz on the ground and the blood drizzling down the tip goes unnoticed.
“Eva.” Soriana supplicates. Her ankles were numb as she struggled to move. “Please—”
“That’s dead to me,” Eva dismisses sharply. “I’ve WARNED you days ago Soriana, remember?”
Tangerine lines glow like molten rock on her polished armor plate and pads. Blossoms rain within her long red drape tied to her waist, and her bionic legs gleam underneath. Soriana could not believe what she was seeing. She wanted ammunition and fire at this parlous mirage, but the agent was powerless. Even if she were to press the trigger, she still remained on edge.
Eva. She’s a terrorist.
Soriana touches her shoulder plate upon drawing her gaze at the bodies and moist cranial matter bubbling inside the policeman’s cleaved head. Her fingers throb. “This doesn’t seem real. It doesn’t…”
“Humans can be so gullible. Always wanting to live a lie to absolve yourselves from the trash you’ve made.”
Eva impales the Oni into the ground. Circling her foe, her lips curl into a devious grin that lasts briefly. “Yes, Soriana. YES. I’m that forsaken ‘scrapdog’ you’ve been looking for this whole time! I incited this war! TOOK down Ottoman. YES! I created the Infernal Python!”
Drips tap onto the reception desk, exacerbating the tension. The Virtual gestures to her temple. “Thanks to what I’ve implanted into my mind, the Virtuals and Martials, the system you’ve forsaken to your politics. I’ve united them all to rise up.”
She’s controlling them? She’s acting as the new SMART.
Soriana’s eyes crack like a hypnotized host drawn in panic to her urban predator as she draws her attention to her former companion’s every step around her. She couldn’t blink. Ringing stings inside her ears as the realization sinks its fangs into the layers of her skin. Then her brother’s voice sings warily.
“She ain’t got good intentions. Take it from me though… nothing beats anything in this world like the familia.”
“I assumed at first that you and your nation’s culture were anything but diabolical,” Eva continues. A glare tightens within her gaze. “But, when Ottoman played a deception—and I’ve made him PAY greatly for it—it made me realize I was facing a problem far more pervasive than I thought.” Pause lingers as she stalks. Her sharp heels clamp on the auburn tiles. “It told me, humans aren’t just simply flawed. They’re thirsty
for power. You crave it because, deep down, you’re pathetic. That’s why regulators enforce so many laws and standards that are so selective against us. You and the sexes’ been manipulating and exploiting each other for centuries until the year you discovered advancement. Now you’ve found another victim to prey on.”
The renegade takes and whips out her sword. She wheels her Oni, and blood squirts. “Humanity’s a mistake. But I’m here to eliminate the poison.”
“You’re trying to clean the house with the world population?” Soriana questions under pants. The truth behind the fate of her drone comes full circle. Eva is no longer the agent Soriana once accompanied. She’s been pursuing a death wish this entirety; how more nonsensical she can be? Soriana attempts to glimpse at the child’s corpse, but a block withholds her. Sweat rains down her temple.
Lifting her face mask over her lips, Eva raises and aims the edge of her blade at the human. Her hands cradle the sword’s butt. She scoffs. “You should know the answer to that.”
“I can’t let you do that then.”
Eva delivers the first sweep. Tiles burst. Dust and cinders cloud Soriana’s view, and she covers her eyes to the steam. The human looks around rapidly and coughs. Eva was nowhere to be seen. That is, until a torrid sensation skimmed behind Soriana. The mist hisses, and the Oni charges like a lance. Inhaling, Soriana dodges, catching the sword between her hands.
Thunder bolts in Eva’s eyes as she bends her blade, nearing it to her foe’s temple. Soriana holds her breath and her glare matches hers in the ensuing struggle. The effects vanquish steadily, and Soriana cries to the scorch gnawing on her palm. She flings the Oni, eyes twitching to the gash sizzling in her hand. The officer shoots a glance at the dead child and draws a hand to the dagger. That soon backfires with an instant BOOM.
The knife detonates, and its impact thrashes Soriana rearward. Debris tears from the column behind her as she rolls on top of the corpses and luggage. She heaves to a joint pain on her shoulder, and a plate of hers lands. Her blood circulates to the tray of grenades, and flash bangs scattered before catching Eva skid her way.
Ascending, Soriana scurries for the explosives. She throws the first frag, cutting Eva in her tracks with the crackling explosion. The human hurls the second and third explosive, but the cyborg twirls her sword like a fan, deflecting the combustion and heightening the former’s shock. The blade ignites. Stalking, her legs shake to fleeting imagery of the agent, standing on top of the streaming river and positioning her palms like a gracious bird against her ex-superior. Soriana glosses downward at the flash bang cradled in her right hand. Cracking away the spoons, Soriana trudges at the fiery vortex and shatters the mirage once she hurls the explosives. The balls swirl like aerial missiles toward the renegade’s direction.
Eva whirls her scorching sword persistently, absorbing the frag, but she overestimates as soon as the bang trespasses its way into the wheel. She roars to a flare slapping in her eyes and staggers.
Soriana bolts, seizes a luggage, and wheels the box. Despite being blinded, Eva swings flimsily with one hand. The human’s mouth drops as the longsword arbitrarily rushes pass the hardened material, and cosmetics and outfits splatter into a blaze. Regaining vision, the cyborg swings a second time until she jerks to a parry. Eva grunts to a shin, driving sharply into her stomach.
Euphoria booms as Soriana twists and winds her leg at the Virtual’s head. Her foot collides into Eva’s skull, and the cyborg pushes to the voltaic impact. The column shatters to her weight, and the Oni twirls in mid-air, impaling into the wall of bottles. Glass and wine descend simultaneously, pervading a boiling that screeches on the ground. Eva manages to regain stance as her knuckles pierce onto the ground, bringing herself inside the bar, and she calls forth a hand. However, the force of the combustion forces her heels back, and the two agents recoil to the tangerine roar winding through. The cement buries the sword in its bed.
Soriana shakes away the breeze, and her eyes sharpen at her enemy in agitation. Soriana skids. The floor rumbles to the vanishing electricity. However, Eva’s senses kick in, and to Soriana’s chagrin, the latter gasps to her foot rushing into a vanishing cloud. Halting quickly, her heart speeds as she gazes like a madwoman at her surroundings. Blood streaks glow in Soriana’s eye sockets as she clenches her fist. Soriana’s reaction slips too soon as a shadow swats at her cheekbone. The claws swipe immaculately on her skin, and a dense pain grips her jaw.
She gulps to Eva’s hands, clutching her throat, and squeezes the cyborg’s steely arm. With a light rise, Soriana’s head thrusts flat onto the vast bar table. Her legs slump onto the red chairs, and wine bottles splash at her. A bright burn overwhelms her brain, and blood trickles pass her lips like a stream of tears. Wiping the smut off her skin, Eva reaches a hand toward the hill. Her spine cracks as Soriana manages to rise and dive a foot at her back. Eva stumbles onto her knees. Soriana, sealing aside the throbbing in her skull, charges. She bends to three knives shooting her direction and Soriana’s hair flies to the melee sweeping close on top of her head. Soriana flips forward and smacks her leg onto Eva’s temple, sending her nose down onto the ground.
Fire surges in her muscles as she rolls and crosses her ankles around the renegade’s neck. Eva grits her teeth to the pressure closing on her, and she stomps her foot. Soriana yanks further, glaring at her foe as she consolidates her grip until she loses momentum. Eva’s veins glimmer as she ascends on her knees and pounds her fists onto Soriana’s chest. A plate cracks from her torso. The human gyrates, followed by a violent impact sending her careening onto the puddle of glass. As Soriana coughs to the boiling stream, Eva lands and pins her. Soriana raises her arms to the terrorist’s fists, pummeling consecutively. Her bones sting to the impact. Breathing rapidly, Soriana reaches for a sharp scrap near her and drills the piece into the soft layer above her augmented palm like a nail.
Eva’s eyes bulge to the blood popping as Soriana screws the scrap further into the organic veins flowing in her forearm. Soriana catches onto the renegade’s throat, pulling the latter close enough to toss her weight aside in mid-air. Eva’s blood trails as gravity rolls her back. She clutches her arm, whooping to the burn as she reels. Meanwhile, the flames accumulate behind Soriana, and she leaps from the circular wall tumbling. Her skin boils to the temperature until she storms forward. Her nerves continue to ache despite the ascension in her adrenalin. Eva scrams as Soriana rushes to raise and slam her foot. The cyborg’s hair flies as she upturns like a wheel, rising on her feet once again.
Soriana transitions her stance. Her fists tighten. The scene alters once again, and she finds her ankles sunken on a shallow but roaring stream. Eva ducks swiftly from Soriana’s rounding leg like a clock, and the water gushes out of her bare feet. Swallowing down a lump, Soriana holds back her right calf and thrusts her foot upward into the scenery like a flamingo. Eva manages to deflect the blow, but the force inflicted brings the hilt of her feet skidding. With each twist and shout Soriana initiates, several forceful kicks barrage into Eva’s guards until a galvanic throb touches her abdomen. Shattering her enemy’s guard, Soriana skims onto a column, and her cleats radiate as she descends her way toward the cyborg.
The terrorist pants behind the mask, and Soriana finds her foot rocketing toward a vanishing particle. Soriana catches the terrorist reappearing, albeit four feet away. The two find themselves in a far more capacious area. An inactive escalator leads to the second floor. The ceiling’s gigantic lamp dangles above, giving a grisly lighting of the corpses and used grenades lying. Soriana’s eyes redden to the strain tearing in her lungs and sodium chloride rushing in her sputum. Even with her disintegrating armor; these boots were all that’s securing her at this point.
“I always thought of you as a sister,” Eva barks. Blood drips from her eyelids, and she positions her arms upward. “Now, I’ll take everyone and EVERYTHING away from you!!”
That CAN’T happen!
Shaking her head in disgust, Soriana advances, but E
va beats her as she lunges in mid-air. Soriana grimaces upon looking up at the terrorist swinging on top of the crystal lamp. A swear spits out of the human agent’s mouth once Eva gestures her spikes downward. She pounces aside from the raining knives, only to soon discover none of them aiming her way. Soriana scratches her head, dumbfounded until her face whitens to the six knives jittering on the grenades that extended from the bar and to the floor where she stood.
“Say goodnight!” Eva taunts.
The ground shakes to simultaneous explosions. Several debris bolt toward Soriana, and she scurries out of the way. A rupture snakes its way toward the wall and onto the ceiling, shooting rocks and dust. The firestorm surfaces like a tidal wave, engulfing the bodies in its path. Soriana’s heart twirls endlessly to the cacophony, and she leaps toward the escalator. She rushes before the quake can get to her and gets knocked aside to a blow.
Soriana rises, discovering herself on a floor surrounded by derelict malls. However, the sight of Eva reconstructing elevates her fury. The ache in her temple amplifies, and blood sinks downward. All the while Eva stands vigilantly, eyes fueling with bloodlust. Her alternatives vanish. Soriana was on the brink of committing the unspeakable.
“You’re giving me no other options!” Soriana confronts. She stalks toward the renegade, but the quake causes a stumble in her tracks. Her bracelet vibrates once again. The thunderous current wraps around her calf, congealing her stance. “Enough—”
A strike pushes the human deliberately, and her foot stomps deep into the floor’s surface, withholding her. Soriana looks up to Eva wheeling her foot but Soriana counters with a retaliatory kick. Their ankles clash, and a discharge stirs, hurling the two away. With one step, Soriana jerks to a split, snapping on her exoskeleton calf. As the malls begin to obliterate from inside and bring forth smog, Eva doesn’t hold back once she swings. Catching it with accuracy, Soriana shoots a dark glance and welcomes her enemy with a punch socketing to the nose. Blood soaks Eva’s mask as she reels. Soriana brings down the final kick to the skull until firm hands halt her by the ankle.