“Fly back to my planet?” Aiyn stomped forward. “I can’t fly back to my planet, Vax, because your people overran it. The Vax burned our cities and murdered my people even as they fled in transports. By the time the relief fleet arrived, there was nothing left to do but raze the surface and kill the few remaining Vax.” She snickered, but the sound soon grew to a loud laugh. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve already made the sacrifice; merged my body and soul with the nanites. It’s enough. All my testing and calibration. All those I’ve fought have brought me here to face you and destroy you. I will avenge my planet, and save this one from the monster you would become and the other monsters you would summon.”
“Might as well get this shit over. I’m not invading Earth, but I’m definitely gonna kill you for everything you’ve done to me, but especially for Shay, Trey, and Victoria.” James’ hands clenched, his heart pounding. “You shouldn’t have fucked with my woman or my friends.”
Yessss, Whispy hissed in his mind. Sufficient power for advanced transformation.
The tendrils shot from the amulet and spread over James’ chest and arms, forming his metallic silver-green armor. A blade extended from his right arm. Not total coverage, but enough to get the ass-kicking started.
James let out a low growl. “You’re gonna die here.”
Aiyn charged James. He swung his blade as she closed, but she spun aside, avoiding the blow. She arrived at her target and slammed into him, sending him flying backward.
“I’m going to enjoy taking you down piece by piece, Vax,” she shouted.
22
James crashed into the wall with a grunt and fell to one knee. The little pain he felt was easy to ignore. Aiyn’s revenge was more annoying than threatening so far.
Regeneration levels high. Near maximum adaptation already achieved.
“You have no idea how good that felt, Vax,” Aiyn shouted. “I’m beginning to wonder if you’re feeling a little doubt in the back of your mind, a little fear that maybe the great Forerunner can’t win against a mere Shepherd, even one who’s taken such extreme chances. It shouldn’t have worked, you know. One hundred thousand to one chance of an integration this successful, but obviously I’ve been chosen; hand-picked to destroy you. That was why it worked.”
James stalked toward her. “Getting a little ahead of yourself, aren’t you? Not to mention you’re probably going nuts as a side-effect.”
Aiyn snapped an arm up. Golden circles appeared around it, growing brighter over several seconds as the bounty hunter charged her. She released the blast. It exploded against James, sending him spinning through the air, a huge hole in his armor. He landed with a thud in a large pile of fallen concrete and wood.
James’ chest throbbed from the crater in it. More tendrils spread out over his body, weaving a new net of armor over his wound. He growled at the pain.
Moderate adaptation achieved, Whispy reported.
“I’ve spent my entire career studying the Vax,” Aiyn explained before firing a few more blasts. The concrete cover saved James from direct hits, nothing more than fragments and dust raining down on him. “I know everything the Alliance has learned about your vicious, evil race.”
His pain started to fade and his new layer of armor was completed, even if his wounds weren’t fully healed.
James growled and pushed himself up. He shoved a concrete slab out of his way.
Aiyn snorted. “I never thought it’d be easy to kill you, but it’s better this way. I’m going to show you something I learned, Vax.” She aimed lower. Blue circles around her arm preceded another attack.
The latest energy blast struck his leg and sheared off his armor and the top few layers of tissue. He fell to one knee. Another attack blasted another hole and sent a new spike of pain through him.
James rolled behind the concrete and shook his head to clear some of the pain.
Continuing advanced regeneration, recommend extended advanced mode for improved regeneration.
Even in his pain- and anger-addled mind, he understood the problem. Some people could feed their anger with ease, but he’d become habituated to it, making it more difficult to sustain. Being annoyed wasn’t enough for the rage-hungry Whispy Doom.
“My calibration exercises have been pretty useful, don’t you think?” Aiyn taunted. “I wasn’t sure I could achieve dynamic control, but I’m proving it now, aren’t I? Then again, you don’t care, do you, Vax? Your kind can portal light-years across the galaxy. That technology is so far ahead of the Alliance, we don’t even know how to begin to do it, but what do you do with it? Do you explore new worlds? Do you make new alliances with distant people?” The rocks and concrete fragments crunched under her feet as she stepped forward. “No, you appear out of nowhere to lay waste to planets, which you don’t even bother to conquer and make your own. How twisted is that? You kill for the sake of killing. Even a parasite gets something out of their attack.”
Even if James hadn’t been distracted by anger and growing new armor, skin, and muscles, he wouldn’t have bothered with the truth. Did it really matter that the Vax killed because of some sort of pre-emptive defensive religious crusade? It wasn’t his fucking problem.
“I’m more convinced than ever that you’re some sort of ultimate infiltration unit,” Aiyn suggested. “I think the fact that you know you’re a Vax but you’re convinced you’re in control is ridiculous. The Alliance has seen that sort of thing before. Not from the Vax, but if your race is anything, it’s adaptable. Maybe you’re starting to steal from the races you butcher. Is that it?”
With a new layer of armor established, James rose again and stalked toward Aiyn. She fired another blast, but this time it only singed his armor, even if it enflamed the healing wound underneath.
Heavy adaptation achieved.
The shepherd fired several energy blasts of different colors, each darkening his armor less and inflicting only the barest of stings.
Near maximum adaptation achieved.
“Impressive, Vax,” Aiyn hissed. “I see that I didn’t spend enough time on calibration after all.”
James growled. “Now who’s afraid?” He broke into a charge, bringing up his armored fist rather than his blade. She wasn’t the only alien there who wanted someone to suffer a little.
Aiyn didn’t dodge as James threw his punch. His fist smashed into her head, producing a deep indent and sending her entire body toward a crumbling wall. The shepherd smashed into an exposed internal wall, the rotting wood cracking.
“You’re a puppet,” she shouted as she hopped to her feet, her head indentation filling in. “Nothing but a body for that thing to control. It’s only pretending to let you think.”
Kill the enemy, Whispy insisted. Primary regeneration complete.
All of his earlier pain had vanished.
“Don’t you get it, Vax?” Aiyn continued. “The minute that thing was allowed to attach to you, you ceased to exist.” Her arm flowed into a blade. “It’ll be fun to dissect your body. Even if I don’t live that long, the Alliance can get some use out of it.”
James howled in rage and rushed Aiyn again, his blade at the ready this time. He closed the distance and swung, but she parried with her own arm blade and leapt back.
She thrust at him and he slammed his blade on top of hers, knocking it to the ground, where it carved a groove in the dirt- and dust-covered tile floor.
Aiyn retreated, her movements serpentine. “You’re even more dangerous than the typical Forerunner. Your minions from Las Vegas can be forgiven, but what of the others like Shay Carson, who know your true nature? You’ve corrupted them. Made them work against their own planet’s interest.” She waved her blade. “Have you implanted a symbiont in her, too? Even if you haven’t, she seems to know what you are and has chosen herself over her planet. That’s even worse than a parasite. I should have killed her when I had the chance, but given what I’ve seen, she’s probably close. I can finish her off soon enough after I’m done with you.”
Sufficient power for extended advanced transformation.
DO IT!
Armor coated his entire body and sealed his head in a helmet, his field of vision expanding. Claws extended from his hands.
“I will kill you,” James roared.
Aiyn scraped her blade against the tile. “That’s right, Vax! Show me your true power.”
She lunged forward much faster than he’d seen her move before and avoided his swing before jabbing at him several times, but her blade didn’t accomplish much. While it didn’t bounce off his armor, it also didn’t penetrate.
The Shepherd hissed in irritation and somersaulted back several yards on one arm before bringing up both arms and feeding energy into them. James rushed toward her, she had a few seconds to feed her blast.
Her attack struck his armor, exploding and shaking the walls. James stumbled back, only the top layer of armor missing.
Near maximum adaptation achieved, Whispy reported.
“No, no, no,” Aiyn shouted. She rushed toward a hole in the wall to the outside.
James hurried after her.
When Aiyn reached the outside, she leapt up a couple of stories and stabbed into the wall with her blade to anchor herself. With a few quick swings and yanks, she ended up on the roof.
Whispy continued his one-track chanting, and his constant waves of joy over his new adaptations fed his host’s anger that much more.
James grunted and leapt into the air, his armor helping propel him onto the edge of the roof. He landed with an audible thud, knocking loose several pieces of concrete that tumbled to the ground below.
Aiyn rushed him again, a swirling line of white energy around her blade now. She stabbed at his chest, but the attack bounced off his armor. James replied with a thrust of his own, his blade impaling her.
Disrupt her nanites, he commanded. Like you did the Wendigo nanoform.
His opponent thrust at him several more times, but her attacks barely scraped him.
Impossible at this time, Whispy responded. Nanites stabilized by underlying enemy organic matrix.
Aiyn yanked herself off James’ blade, leaving a huge void where it’d been. The wound started to seal, and she took the opportunity to jump backward off the building, pointing both her arms to feed two different-colored streams of energy into a single blast.
James growled but didn’t immediately leap after her.
Her attack discharged and soared toward the roof. It impacted right beneath him, the massive explosion rushing over him and knocking him out of control and into the air. He slammed into the ground seconds later, new holes in his armor and a few wounds underneath.
Regeneration in progress.
James ignored his damage and wounds and raised his own arm, ready to demonstrate his own energy cannon. Aiyn’s head twitched several times, and she fell to her knees just past another hole leading inside the hospital.
I fucking win.
The amulet chanting for death in his head, James took a slow, deliberate step toward the downed alien, growling the entire way. He was going to slice her into so many pieces she’d never regenerate. It’d be more satisfying that way.
No one fucking threatens Shay.
23
When James closed half the distance, Aiyn abruptly jumped up and shook her head. “I should have known from the beginning it wouldn’t be enough. I’ve got nothing left to lose. I might as well go all-out.”
James stepped forward. “Die already.”
“I’m surprised by how much of yourself you can maintain even now, Vax, especially considering how much trouble I’ve had keeping myself together.”
Ripples appeared all over Aiyn’s silver body and joined together. A bright white sheen surrounded her.
James growled and raised his blade. She’d gotten in a few good hits at the beginning, but now he had the upper hand. Her tricks wouldn’t save her.
Aiyn zoomed forward, her movement a blur. She slammed into James before he even registered what was going on and sent him crashing through two walls. A concrete support pillar stopped his flight, but he bounced off and hit the ground.
James stood just in time to be on the receiving end of a powerful jump-kick that knocked him off his feet again. This time he smashed through the concrete support pillar like it was a few inches of wood. Part of the floor above collapsed, burying him in a pile of concrete and wood.
After a few quick thrusts and pushes, James crawled out of the pile, his armor pitted in several places but his wounds only stinging despite the high level of force involved. If he’d been in advanced mode, maybe the attack would have been more effective, but each failed penetration gave him more time to regenerate underneath.
Aiyn’s head and limbs twitched. More ripples appeared, and her light intensified.
“I-I-I’m going to kill you, V-Vax,” she stuttered.
Aiyn charged James again, her speed nearly impossible to track. She threw a powerful uppercut that connected with his helmet and launched him toward the ceiling.
Her follow-up was a two-handed overhead slam while he was still in the air that sent him crashing into the ground so hard, he cracked the tile and ended up embedded several inches, mild pain radiating through his body.
Minor damage, Whispy reported.
The shepherd leapt on top of him, formed her other arm into a blade, and started stabbing with wild abandon. Each blow flaked off some armor and stung, but after a few attacks, additional small tendrils spread to repair the armor. James’ enemy simply couldn’t hurt him fast enough and deep enough to beat his current passive healing.
Some of Whispy’s joy dimmed.
Near maximum adaptation achieved. Utility of current enemy limited. Kill enemy.
James swung his arm and knocked Aiyn off with a blow that sent her flailing backward. She hit the ground and hopped up into a crouch, swaying unsteadily, body rippling and still bathed in light.
“You can’t win,” Aiyn yelled. “I won’t let you win. I’ve been chosen. Something like you can’t win. You don’t have the creativity to win. You’re just a meat puppet for a fake parasitic brain.”
He didn’t respond. Her words barely registered, drowned out by his residual burning anger and the drumbeat of death demands from the symbiont. At least this time, they were in complete agreement about the best course of action.
Aiyn had the advantage of speed for the moment, and if a blade wouldn’t work, it was time for something harder to dodge.
James lifted his arms and extended a second blade on his other arm. He fed energy into both. Green sparks rushed over his blades, building in frequency and intensity.
“Oh, that was a mistake, Vax.” Aiyn’s blades reverted to normal arms. A veritable rainbow of colored circles pulsed over them as she funneled energy into her own blast. “I don’t have to live. I only have to make sure that you die.”
An audible crackle filled the air as his energy built, some of his sparks blowing chunks off the walls. He couldn’t even make his enemy out behind the bright ball of energy in front of her.
The seconds ticked by, and he kept feeding more and more energy into the attack.
The shepherd fired first, but James released his twin beams an instant later.
Aiyn’s attack exploded around him, producing a huge, billowing cloud of debris. He careened through the air, dizzy, some layers of his armor burned or scored off, but almost no holes or wounds.
James lost track of time until he crashed into the hard ground, wood, concrete, and dust raining down around him. His time in the air felt like minutes, even though his addled mind understood it to be mere seconds.
Near maximum adaptation achieved from cross-sampling synergy, Whispy reported. Minimal damage. Regeneration in progress.
His health was irrelevant. The concern was the enemy. She needed to die.
&
nbsp; James stood and stalked through the cloud of dust choking the area in search of his silver-skinned prey. He spun toward a nearby humanoid form, only to realize it was a chance configuration of dust and not Aiyn.
Ten seconds of searching passed before he spotted her lying immobile on the ground, a huge hole in her chest. A few more inches on either side and he would have split her body in two.
Even though Aiyn didn’t appear to be breathing, that didn’t quell his bloodlust. With her modifications, it was unclear that she needed to breathe. Total annihilation would be necessary to ensure her death and end her harassment once and for all.
James lifted his foot, ready to advance, but stopped when he spotted something else.
Aiyn’s face was no longer featureless. The top layer of silver was gone, replaced by smooth blue skin and yellow eyes. She coughed several times, viscous gray fluid coming out instead of blood.
His only response was a long, low, angry growl. The insane zealot had been after him for so long. Now he only needed to finish her off.
Aiyn managed to lift her head. “I’m dead anyway, even if the nanites can stitch me back together. It doesn’t matter, but do you think you’ve won, Vax?” She chuckled, her eyes half-closed. “I’ve tried to prevent collateral damage and honor the Shepherd oaths, but you’ve left me no choice. It’s lucky you picked a neighborhood filled with parasites. Some losses are inevitable in war, I suppose.” The nimbus around her grew even more blinding.
Her threat against the innocent people around the hospital barely registered in his angry clouded mind. Shay and his friends—that was all he cared about. That was why Aiyn needed to die.
Kill the enemy, he thought in almost perfect unison with Whispy Doom.
James lifted his arms again, this time forcing his thoughts toward something other than beams. The now-familiar bright green sparks appeared on his arms, but instead of concentrating them there, he fed the energy between his arms as Aiyn had done. A tiny green dot soon grew into a small orb of energy, then to something nearly the size of his chest.
The Unbelievable Mr Brownstone Omnibus 3 Page 57