by Isaac Nasri
Wayne glares at a falcon shooting a venomous glance from the side as it flaps its wings above. Its talon drench in a smock of blood, and Wayne touches his head. The human draws his fletcher till a cut knocks the weapon off his hand.
A soldier concealed by an anomalous helm swings in Wayne’s direction. However, Wayne raises his shield, clashing it with the PMC’s strike. Sweat drips from his skin. Wayne steps back, unleashing his blade and gesticulating his enemy. The soldier’s stars protrude between his fingers, and he lunges. Wayne slashes relentlessly, deflecting every single blow with the surface of his knife until he finds an opening. The soldier jerks to a strike, and guards raises, letting the blade pass and cling to the bionic surface.
Wayne grunts to the soldier’s foot careening on his ankle. He raises his dagger, but the soldier flips back. A bluish light illuminates behind the insurgent’s visor as he regains stance. Wayne witnesses the foe toss the gleaming stars, and the former raises his shield to the clatters. Sparks hiss. The ninja stars glide until the soldier gestures, holding the stars afloat.
What’s going on here?
The ninja stars bolt downward like arrows, and Wayne heaves. His pupils motion in a rapid pace to the whirling razors nearing until a slash rounds. The stars halt once again in mid-air and eschew a startled Wayne as he frowns at his rattling shield splitting suddenly. His expression perplexes to a scar skidding on his forearm. The surreptitious shadow mounts over his head, and he evades from the cyborg’s attack. Wayne’s mouth drops to the draw of the renegade’s crimson katana, and the air’s particles redden to the swing. Two nerves protrude on his temple.
Found you!
Wayne hops back one more time, enduring his grasp on the bloody dagger tremble as he gazes at his goddaughter’s killer. Horns arch from her crimson helm, and the face mask undoes on her lips. Moreci glosses to the helmed contractor walking toward her until she waves her katana warningly.
“Leave him to me Hai,” she states. Orange scars gleam over her armor’s plates. Her ruby drape slings between her bionic legs and blossoms dance virtually on its silky fabric.
Wayne spots Hai’s visor deactivate, revealing a worrisome face. His left slanted eye shines with a bluish hue. “Eva. I—you’re sure this will work?”
“Don’t worry for me.” Moreci lowers her sword, transitioning her glance toward her former Director. Her eyes squint darkly. “You and Felix get going. Execute. I’ll settle this dirt.”
Her companion stares pensively at the ninja stars in his hand then takes a step back. Turning his back, Hai glances at Moreci one more time before hopping away. The wind settles, traveling its way toward the small blaze rumbling at the forest on Wayne’s right. Wayne’s veins consolidate, and not one blink sets in his eyes as Moreci briefly sets her sword inside her belt’s scabbard and steps foot.
“You’re quite a WILD bastard to face me with nothing Wayne,” Moreci ridicules. She gestures with arms raised proudly, untroubled by the knife in Wayne’s hand. “Understand. Your death…it will only finalize my duty on this land.”
“I’ve been dead a long time ago, Moreci,” Wayne says. He slides the blade on his wrist, removing the blood. “Amassing a mindless army under your command to initiate insurgencies on the globe? You’ve lost whatever conscious you had. This isn’t liberation.”
“You know NOTHING, old man.”
“It’s nothing but a genocidal cause… destruction of the whole ecosystem itself! Just like you’ve done to the Jaguars of Apollo! Your logic’s a twisted one. Unjustifiable! You’ll leave them lost! Your world…it will die faster than the billions you’ve claimed worldwide.”
He catches Moreci’s spikes arch threateningly on her knuckle’s pore. Wayne’s cheeks shrivel as he glances at his agitated expression on the blade’s surface. “I may be human…but one who’s aware of the things in my past. Doing what’s necessary.”
“You still don’t get it,” she claims. The rogue cyborg shakes her head. “I know…because I FELT those things before! I did…but oh no. You and all else just wanted to bring me down. I don’t care to think about conquering this disgusting world!” Moreci releases her Oni, and the sword vibrates. The circular bands embellished below her eyes glitter. “Keep underestimating us Wayne…because our numbers vast equally in numbers to you damn humans. The PMC’s done for. And in a few hours, so will my Infernal Python.” The face mask lifts, and she directs her blade toward Wayne. “Hope we’re clear.”
Wayne glowers and threatens Moreci with his own weapon in return. Stepping forward, the renegade’s upper face conceals to a beaked-shaped visor. Sighing, Wayne braces to her mounting speed till her body disappears. The hunter’s ears ring loudly on his right, and he turns anxiously. His breath holds.
WHOOSH.
The specter blitzes with the spin of her sword. Wayne blocks the swiping attack, but the impact of the enhanced Oni sends him skidding. His bones jiggle. Wayne struggles to bulge as Moreci sways her sword meticulously. He deflects the consecutive strikes, and his knife quavers to each blow. His eyes linger on Moreci’s sword rushing downward, and Wayne motions.
Wayne’s heart accelerates as he counters with the arch of his blade. The edge glimmers, bolting to her armpit till a bionic arm chains his forearm. Moreci growls coldly behind the visor, and her shoulder bends. The human grits his teeth to a throbbing pervading around his arm, and he struggles to lean his dagger in. His blood boils, keeping his feet static on the ground. Yet the struggle intensifies, and water streams from his nostrils to a gleaming facet frying at the rear of his spine.
Moreci raises her shoulder and plunges her fist into Wayne’s stomach. The spikes puncture their way into Wayne’s plate, boosting him back, and he grunts. Wayne staggers, looking down at cracks hissing in his plate till his glance draws on Moreci’s pores whistling. The three knives zap like bolts, but he manages to parry the first two before flinging to a blazing burst.
His body rolls on the concrete, coughing. Wayne breathes to a piercing pain on his back and rises to reach a hold of one of the purple labeled knives. Spotting its label, Wayne throws it her way, interrupting her advancing as the knife inserts close to her pelvic arm. Moreci gasps, bending before she whips away the kunai. Wayne rushes.
Poison effect.
Wayne charges with knife set but a pale stricken Moreci leaps in an instant. Gathering herself, the Virtual sheathes her blade, and a voltaic ignition stirs. Her wobbly posture crumbles to a slash upper cutting her face. Wayne looms like a prowler, blade raised to the shattering of Moreci’s visor and residue of her blood reaching at the tip. Moreci catches his wrist, but her grasp wanes quickly. Wayne resists, grabbing her throat and butting the side of his balding head toward Moreci’s own.
The cyborg stumbles, and a red drop spills from her nose. Despite the throbbing in his skull, Wayne advances. Suddenly he’s knocked by the swift flip of her legs, and Wayne groans to ironclad toes ramming his chin.
His body surfs in mid-air till dropping on top of a van’s hood. Wayne’s jaw yowls to a bright sting. He frowns at a strange emanation consuming the terrorist.
“Had me Wayne,” she compliments with an edge of derision. Moreci presses a hand to her chest, and an azure radiance flows in her fibers. She pays no heed to the bloody tear streaming down her mask. “But our bodies regenerate from toxins within a few seconds.”
With that said, Moreci plunges her Oni into the ground. The fire still kindling on the railings whirl and flakes soar. Wayne rises, gulping to the blaze slithering downward onto the sword like a swarm of bees craving newfound honey, stoking the blade’s power. The human draws out his barbed crowbar quickly once Moreci swirls her katana. A scorching cocoon engulfs her presence like a barrier, and Wayne leaps away in time as a crimson wave bolts.
The strike slices its way toward the van, and Wayne jerks to the flare. His nose stings upon seeing a crater residing where the terrorist once stood. Then the fire opens its gate to a charged Moreci sprinting. Wayne blinks at the scorchin
g flakes and hops from the thrust of the renegade’s blade. His skin tingles. The second sweep lands but gets parried by the touch of his crowbar. Wayne’s forehead bubbles to the Oni’s grueling proximity until he sets the charge.
Moreci’s glare wavers to the voltage popping from the crowbar’s spikes. The shock reflects chillingly inside her eye, and she ceases struggle with a spiraling kick. Her heel skids toward his abdominal plate, and Wayne skids back. Meanwhile, Moreci leaps upward on car debris.
She lands further on the bridge, posed with her sword, and the cyborg bolts with arcane speed. Wayne rolls from the scorching comet and shivers. The road’s debris rips as Moreci changes angle. She speeds, catching and sending Wayne twirling to a piercing slash before he can evade again. He clutches to a split on his bleeding shoulder, but Wayne’s forced to snub the pain when the terrorist dashes with full force.
Flames swoosh wildly, clouding the cyborg’s presence. Stalking back, Wayne’s view obscures the blossoms. He shields himself from the blows, but the inferno takes its toll with the third. Blisters scar his fingers, shattering whatever guard he had. His affliction aggravates to a tear on his shin, and gravity leaves him.
As Wayne slumps forward helplessly, his eyes sharpen to the vanishing of the blazing petals. His lower muscles crack. Moreci’s defiant presence stands visible, posed with sword sealed in the scabbard. Her hands clasp on the handle, then steam hisses with the arch of her katana.
NO.
SLASH.
Wayne grunts reverberates in the air to the thunderous dash. His body hurtles backward on the concrete. Red consumes his visioning, and his brain jangles. He struggles to raise his eyelid before an edge impales the concrete. The street implodes. Wayne descends, and his nose lands with a loud splash.
Rocks can be heard splattering behind him. Pops snap in his brain. Wriggling, Wayne raises his head, but at a cost. He gulps to his blood flowing onto a stream of murky water. His nerves seethe gravely to a squirting cord dangling, and the minute Wayne touches his left eye, he mutters in shock.
A thump makes landing, and a number of splashes echo. Black organisms scatter, blurring Wayne’s view like a digital distortion as he gazes around him. His hands repeatedly tap on the rocks underneath the water. A light chortle booms, spiking his temperature.
“Never should’ve tested me. Bastard,” Moreci spits out.
Wayne’s neck sores upon turning his head. His mouth hangs to the cyborg’s hands clutched to what appears to be the eye he lost. Moreci consolidates her grip, and the socket splashes, leaving nothing but a dark smudge oozing between her fingers. Her one-horned helm floats, leaving her hair slinging as she advances.
In contempt of his crippled perception, Wayne looks away and crawls, managing to find sight of his knife and crowbar. He collapses, grappled by the biting pain in his chest. Then his hands press on several beady pieces lying, and he draws them away. The darts swirl below the water’s shallow surface. His rifle surfs.
“That’s right,” she continues. “Go ahead and reconsider your life! Your service! There’s only this much time once I reunite you with Soriana.”
Chunks tumble from the divided bridge and the river quakes. Panting, he pounds his fist on the water and shimmies his numbing hands on the needles. His blood blends into the creek. Inserting the shells into the cubic magazine, Wayne’s mind wanders. He seethes to the flames incinerating the wildlife that stood neighboring his goddaughter’s place. Soriana sat idly on top of the tree, reaching a hand to the brown leaves blossoming to the gentle wind till a slash rips though. The world has lost its grip. Wayne’s lost much, but his spirit was too relentless to give in to this monster’s satisfaction.
I can’t end like this. I can’t.
He finally plugs in the last needle into the clip and bites down on his jaw to astute shrapnel stabbing into his calf as he inserts the magazine into the gun. Wayne’s dopamine burgeons, snubbing the exertion and turning to aim the weapon toward Moreci. Her spiked hand closes on the rectangular muzzle like a crocodile bite.
“Time to go, Wayne.”
Wayne does not hold back once he pulls the trigger. Smoke spits upon him as the darts scatter, preceding the moment Moreci crushes her hands onto the arsenal’s barrel. The human gasps to the bursting of scrap, and they plop into the river. Moreci’s spiked hand curls into a fist, and she arches it for the kill till she grimaces to a strange ticking. The cyborg glances at needles alarming onto her arm, and the final signal hits, unleashing a morbid flare onto her face.
Fear evolves to shock in a heartbeat as Wayne witnesses the renegade stagger crazily. The forearm to where her pores once extended gushes smoke. Azure liquid sprays clockwise from the muscular tubes. Her cry screeches into his ears, filling the creek with a noxious commotion.
Adrenaline kicks into his system, fueling Wayne’s growing fury as he musters to raise himself. Blood streams down his ankle, and his face dampens to the ocular pain. Nevertheless, Wayne sweeps up his blades and lunges. The one-armed terrorist catches her elder enemy’s presence mounting in her irises and teleports. The color around Wayne wrenches, but he trails his nose to the fuel. His feet twist slowly on the watery surface. He rotates to a rising growl and makes his move. Moreci lifts her longsword, but Wayne disarms it with a precise sweep. The blade ascends several feet, and the river plashes to the Virtual’s chagrin.
Buying his chance, Wayne plunges his crowbar. He hears her howl to the electricity pounding onto her byzantine torso plate. With one push, the fracturing of the dense plating thrusts Moreci back, and the heaving cyborg looks down at the material crumbling from her breast and abdominals. The shadow advances.
The human comes in with the gyration of his body. The knife’s tip spins its way on Moreci’s cheek, and she bends. Wayne persists, initiating a ruthless cut at the chest and knocking her with a tear at the temple. His blood elevates with every jab he brings, tantamount to a bear punishing the degenerate whom invaded his territory. The mutilated cyborg wobbles, grabbing tightly at the right on her bleeding neck, and her lips quiver. Wayne catches her cowering with her intact arm lifted, and he brandishes the surface with his spiked crowbar. The shocking impact surges onto her shoulder, eradicating the plate. Releasing vapor from his nose, Wayne unleashes his boot against the renegade’s body and witnesses her body flop onto the stream with a splash.
Moreci groans as she struggles to raise her head. A scar gleams visibly on her lateral skull, moistening a piece of her soaked hair in a dark crimson. Wayne makes his first step, feeling the small hair on his skin rise to the charge humming on the crowbar’s spikes. His right eyesight dithers, but the morphine in him continues to flow. He stops upon seeing Moreci spew liquid from her nose and lips and shoots an anxious glance at him. She beckons a hand outward, and Wayne winces to the swaying in the stream.
No. Not this time.
The human’s right ear stings, and he follows to the sensation. Wayne’s eyes mount to the floating Oni spinning its way at him. Swallowing, he flings the charging crowbar toward it, and a collision ensues. The sword flies clumsily over his head, and Wayne vaults. The water whooshes. Moreci rushes, and her drape whips in drench. Her mouth moves. Wayne’s chest pounds consecutively as he launches. The pallid sun shines its way over the leaves, obfuscating his view till his fingers touch base at the black handle.
Wayne growls as he dives and plunges with the sword. The blade passes over her last intact arm, severing the bionic component from its host. Moreci’s mouth plummets as the limb drops flat on the river. He straightens the katana, arching his shoulders back for the instant blow. He sinks the ruby blade into the core of her chest, and the world goes silent.
The Oni protrudes pass her body, and Moreci looks up at Wayne. Her face pales, and she gulps, forcing blood to linger from her lips. The human shakes upon meeting her attenuated gaze until she blinks. Sighing, he whips away the sword abruptly and steps back to the fountain of blood flowing downward. The cyborg moans, sinking onto her knees, and he
r chest lands.
Wayne stares down at the sword in his grasp and tilts it. He tosses it aside and sets his rear against the ground, indifferent to the soak wetting his buttocks. The human turns his head to the cyborg croaking softly as if fighting for whatever life she had left. His cheeks sink. The adrenaline loses its effect, leaving him strained and numb. Wayne’s eyelid manages to open slightly, and he glimpses morosely at the cyborg’s blood befouling the stream. Her head rocks in a tilted position, and her armless body heaves in its still position. The human looks upward at the sun briefly, now gleaming than ever, and its shadow sets over his head. He holds his breath.
“You chose this path,” Wayne says abashedly.
His eyes never strip from the renegade who was once his subordinate operative. Wayne’s heart envelopes into a knot, being visually reminded of the discreetness she carried herself in his headquarters. His nose tickled to the strong fumes inside his office, and he raises his chin at the iridescent stains covering her prosthetic hands. There was no other way. This could not go on any longer. None of it.
Moreci opens her mouth slightly, releasing a choke rumbling in her throat as if about to sob. A tinge of vapor scales from her back. Her eyes slant at him, and a blood drop streams pass her eyebrow.
“We’ll…” Moreci gulps. The lethargy in her voice lingers like a broken tune. Silence follows, and she bites her lower lip. “We’ll never be united.”
The last of the air flees its way from the cyborg’s mouth. Moreci’s eyelids seal, and her head slumps sideways. The shallow river skims past her lifeless body, somehow willing to claim her fallen soul into its gates. The blood vanishes. Water beads drip from her face, the only source giving serenity to her corpse. Trees dance dully to the breeze’s gentleness.
Wayne closes his eye and buries his temple into his palm. His blood thaws, sealing him in its frigid sphere. He wheezes until he raises his head to a throng of high-pitch hums. Wayne glosses upward, spotting cicadas gliding peacefully. Several of the insects land on the boulders, basking together in the creek’s shadow despite the grueling minutes that passed.