Kin of Exile

by Tyler Bunyard

  Karrel approached the entrance, readying his green book for an attack that would breach the steel, sliding doors, when it opened.

  “I guess they never expected anyone to get this far,” Karrel thought aloud.

  The room glowed bright with green lights that were systematically placed along the sides of the circular room. Several unmanned computer consoles had been established a short distance away from the center, and wherever there was not a footpath, wires and electronics were strewn about. In the dead center of the area, there was a three-cubic-inch, semicircle station that was embedded into the floor. In the center of that station, a small cylindrical object illuminated its surroundings with a near-blinding light. Even through the bright light, Karrel could see that the details of the object directly matched that which Johnny had shown to the group. Resting in its station in front of him, was a fusion core.

  With no time to waste, Karrel hurried to the center of the room. The fusion core was only a few inches tall and about an inch thick, but the light that emanated from it made him believe that Johnny’s words were true; it could easily power an entire city. He struggled with finding a release mechanism, unable to see most of what he was doing because of the light from the core itself, but finally he realized that the top of the energy core had what looked like a handle of sorts. After a few moments of experimentation, Karrel figured out the mechanism to release the object. It was stupidly simple. Karrel pushed the cylindrical device further into the slot, and then immediately pulled back on it. The fusion core easily slipped out of its station.

  Immediately, the room’s lights switched from a vibrant green color, to a dim red hue. Surprisingly though, the room did not power down. It made sense when Karrel thought about it; there were multiple cores in the building, and the redundancy made the complex’s energy capabilities well-protected. He looked down at the fusion core that was in his hand. It was no longer illuminating itself, and now looked like an oversized battery.

  A second later, the two metal doors behind Karrel slid closed, barring the exit, and a loud computerized voice announced itself from inside the room, “Device removed. Please state access code.”

  Karrel stared at his only exit, and the thick surfaces that now blocked him from using it. He began flipping through his pages before grunting to himself, “This can’t be good…”

  “Invalid access code,” the computerized voice barked at Karrel, “Applying security measures.”

  Several panels around the room slid open, and the center of the arched support beams that held the ceiling in place opened slightly, exposing small sliding cubes within them. Each of the new devices gave off a tiny red light as they moved into place. All at once, the tiny cubes faced their red lights directly at Karrel and spat a surge of concentrated red light at their target.

  Karrel jumped out of the way, dodging the omnipresent barrage of laser beams to the best of his abilities. A few of the shots hit him, and though the orange light that surrounded his body shielded him from most of the harm, he could feel the singeing of his skin.

  Wrapping the symbols around his fists, Karrel ran in circles around the room. Flashes of light surrounded him, and every few seconds he could feel a different part of his body burn. The orange light that surrounded him started to dim even more. Knowing that he had little time left, he aimed both of his palms at the reinforced doors and unleashed his energy. Twin purple and blue streaks burst forth from his hands, slamming into the doors and exploding with massive power. Karrel ran toward the door’s position, unable to see where it exactly was because of the smoke his recent attack had created. As he approached its position, he could more clearly see his target. A gigantic hole had been punctured through the steel doors, but his attack had not made it all the way to the other side. Singed black metal remained, blocking his exit. Karrel screamed as he sprinted forward, still heading to the now burnt doorway. He jumped with all his might, toward the hole he had made, and dropped his shoulder into the charge. Slamming into the blackened metal, the middle of the doorway bent and then quickly snapped. Karrel tumbled to the floor, bursts of laser beams still following him outside of the power station. Rolling to his feet, he took cover behind the remnants of the sliding doors. He did his best to remain concealed and sucked in as much air as he could to refill his depleted lungs, all the while waiting for some sort of confirmation that he was safe. The lasers ceased firing. He had made it out of the room, alive.

  With a quick sigh of relief, Karrel was back to working his way through the complex’s halls. He needed to find Angel and tell him that he had succeeded. Angel would have no further reason to engage with the Executive, Elizabeth, and the two of them could exhaust the rest of their energy retreating like any sensible person would do.

  There were small explosions echoing down the hallways. Karrel had only just taken notice of them. He assumed that it must be the fight between Angel and Elizabeth, because the halls they had been passing by were utterly vacant, so he began heading to them.

  Karrel was getting impatient as he ran down the halls. He wanted this mission to be done and over with. He screamed out, “Angel! Where are–” when suddenly, the wall in front of Karrel burst apart, sending snapped metal beams and tiny chunks of broken wall flying toward him, while the silhouette of a man was sent soaring through the newly created hole. Karrel ducked out of the way, hitting the deck as fast as he could, avoiding the dangerous projectiles that had been sent his way. The subsequent dust cloud rolled into the hallway, and the aroma of burnt steel and plywood filled Karrel’s lungs.

  Glancing behind him, Karrel could see a dark figure embedded into the wall. Upon further inspection, he recognized the figure. It was Angel. He looked slightly different now, however. He was no longer draped in the black attire that he had originally been wearing. The mask made of smoke only covered half of his face, revealing a severely damaged lip. The shadowy outfit that had clothed his entire body only covered his legs and half of his torso now. The clothes appeared to be attempting to reform back to its original shape, but it just could not extend any further. Most importantly though, Angel was leaking blood on several parts of his body, which was something that Karrel had never seen before.

  Angel wheezed a few times, before sitting up from his throne of broken wall-tiles. He slogged his way back onto his feet and walked as close to Karrel as his tired legs would allow before dropping to one of his knees. Wiping scarlet liquid from his face, spitting blood onto the floor, and putting one of his hands on Karrel’s back, he wearily coughed, “Karrel… We’re screwed…”

  Stepping through the hole that Angel had been blown through, Elizabeth, still dressed in a well-tailored suit with nothing but a few scuffs to show that she had been fighting Angel, happily joined the two friends in the hallway. For a moment, Karrel was happy to see the scrapes on her skirt. This meant that Angel had, at the bare minimum, been able to get through Elizabeth’s BMA-shielding a few times. However, his hope was crushed as a second pair of legs stepped out from behind Elizabeth.

  Revealing herself to the two broken warriors, Karrel could now see another female figure beside Elizabeth. She was barely pushing her early twenties, like her comrade, and was wearing a well-tailored suit, though hers was white in color and had elaborate designs woven into the silk of the outfit. Her blonde hair, barely reaching her shoulders, was well kept and flowed freely. A large, circular throwing glaive rested in her hand, emanating a deep red energy similar to the way Elizabeth’s teal javelin had.

  Puck had warned Karrel not to engage if he found a female human dressed in a suit. He had also warned him that finding a man and a woman dressed in the same color suits would ultimately lead to death. For all of the dangers that lied in front of him, he could not help but wonder if finding two females was better or worse than the latter.

  “I swear,” the blonde dressed in the white suit began. Her voice was happy but serious. “I leave for five minutes to use the restroom and all hell breaks loose.”

  Elizabet
h continued to grin as she nodded at her associate. “You were in there for twenty, Irene,” she corrected. Teal light began to shimmer in her palm, and once more, a javelin made of solid energy formed in her hand.

  The Executive, supposedly named Irene, flipped her blonde hair to the side. “Whatever. How about we continue our fun?” she smiled at Elizabeth.

  Karrel got to his feet, helping Angel back onto his. They were dead men if they did not work together, and Karrel knew he did not have the power to face both of the woman in front of him. “Get up Angel!” he implored, tugging at his broken friend’s arm.

  Angel struggled to his feet, shaking his head as though he was in a daze. “I’m good. I’m good,” he moaned. “I just needed a little nap, is all.” Shaking his body, as though trying to rid himself of his fatigue, Angel readied himself for battle. The black smoke around his body began to reform into his previous apparel, and the hood and mask reappeared, covering the majority of his face once more.

  Karrel felt a little more comfortable having Angel battle-ready at his side, but the fact that a small portion of Angel’s face still had blood trickling down it, projected how beaten his friend really was. It did not matter though. They needed to get away, and in order to do so, they would have to engage.

  “The elevator is on the other side of them,” Karrel whispered to his bloodied friend. “We work our way past them, then we get the hell out of here.”

  Angel wearily nodded and began accumulating and condensing his black smoke into little balls.

  Elizabeth and Irene wasted no more time. They both charged forward, glowing weapons in hand. Angel stepped to the side, forcing Elizabeth to pick a singular target. She picked Angel. Swinging down with all of her might, Elizabeth attempted to pierce him from top to bottom. Angel parried the blow, with wicked fast reflexes and slammed one of the dark spheres he had formed into Elizabeth’s stomach. The teal shielding lit up and Elizabeth was blown a few steps backward, remaining on her feet. Angel pursued.

  Meanwhile, Karrel had to deal with the woman in the white dress. He had already been prepping his attack as the Executive approached. A green ball of light had formed in Karrel’s hand, and the runic symbols representing the variable “Barrage” were swirling around his wrist.

  Karrel’s new opponent charged into melee range. She swiped upward at Karrel, targeting his torso with her red, glowing glaive. Karrel dove back, narrowly dodging the circular weapon. As his back hit the ground, he tossed his green ball behind him, and rolled onto his feet once more. The Executive was not going to let up. She swept downward this time hoping to catch Karrel’s legs, but he was expecting the follow up. Karrel jumped over the attack, simultaneously flipping the pages of his green book. He wrapped more symbols around one of his hands, as his opponent charged in for another strike. Karrel, however, stood perfectly still, confident in what was going to happen next.

  Behind him, the green ball had split into tiny replicas of itself. The copies were no longer bouncing away and had started to propel themselves back toward Karrel’s position. They zipped past him, homing in on Irene. The green projectiles rapidly approached their target, and the Executive was only narrowly able to bring her gigantic glaive up to defend herself. The tiny green spheres smacked into her, blowing up in a barrage of brilliant green bombs.

  Karrel was now on the attack, and he wasted no time. Even though all he saw in front of him was a plume of green exhaust, he knew that his fight was nowhere from finished. His right hand still beaming with the powerful runes around it, he threw a deadly accurate palm strike though the green cloud.

  He felt his hand hit something, and he released the power of his strike. Purple and blue energy burst from Karrel’s hand like lightning, blowing away the green exhaust around him.

  Did he hit? Did he inflict damage? The milliseconds passed by, leaving Karrel in suspense. As the green mist cleared, he felt a pressure around his wrist increase. His heart sank. Irene came into view, and her hand was firmly wrapped around his wrist. She had blocked the assault, and Karrel’s follow up strike had missed, blowing a hole in the ceiling.

  She wasted no time at all, and pulled hard on Karrel’s arm, tossing him over her shoulder and slamming him into the ground. As he landed hard on his back, Karrel saw opportunity. Using the momentum of the throw, Karrel spun along the ground. The Executive attempted to slam her throwing glaive into Karrel’s prone torso, but he was just a tad faster with his action. Sweeping with his legs, he knocked his opponent off balance, dropping her to a knee, and dodging what would have been a fatal strike.

  Karrel kicked back up to his feet. For the moment, his opponent was no longer blocking his path. It was the perfect time to escape. He took off down the corridor, heading directly for Angel and Elizabeth’s ongoing battle.

  Angel was currently wielding condensed black smoke around his arms, legs, hands, and feet, increasing his hand-to-hand potential and allowing him to parry the blows from Elizabeth’s javelin. The dark smoke trailed wherever Angel moved, not unintentionally. Elizabeth was rapid with her strikes; however, Angel was using his powers to its maximum extent. No longer having to engage two opponents at once, he applied his full focus into taking out his opponent.

  Angel would throw a punch, leaving a trail of smoke behind. Elizabeth would easily parry the blow. However, Angel would make use of the black clouds that were now all around him and Elizabeth. The leftover mist from his strikes would condense as Elizabeth’s attention was divided, forming into black, nonreflective spikes. Angel would then extend the solid smoke into his opponent, attempting to stab her from all sides.

  It was a wonder to watch. Even though faced with only one opponent, Elizabeth was being struck from all sides. From the front, she parried the unarmed strikes from Angel, and from her sides and back, the shadows would reform themselves and attack her. Even with this concentrated assault harrowing down upon her, Elizabeth was managing to block the majority of the offensive, while counterattacking whenever she could. The smile from her face had been wiped away however, and her BMA’s shield flickered every so often, when one of Angel’s strikes would break through.

  If circumstances were different, Karrel would have loved to just sit down and watch how the battle played out. Both warriors had excellent martial arts skills, and their movements were blurred from their speed. This was life or death now though, which meant honor had been thrown out the window. Karrel had readied his attack from his green book, holding his palm forward with the symbols representing “Lock” swirling around his hand.

  The attack’s effects immediately took over. A green circle around Angel appeared in his sight, as well as a red circle around Elizabeth. He focused on the red circle, and it lit up in his vision. Five blue lights appeared on each of his fingers. Bearing down upon his friend, Karrel barked out, “Angel! Duck!” He flicked all five of his fingers forward, and the lights shot toward their target.

  Angel, without looking away from Elizabeth, ducked and rolled sideways away from his opponent. The five soaring lights headed straight for Elizabeth. Karrel had fired his attack from too close of a range, and she had no time to dodge. All five of the blue lights crashed into her, exploding with blue energy. Karrel’s speed did not falter. He ran straight to where the blue lights had exploded and jumped into the air, spinning around as fast as he could. As soon as Elizabeth’s figure came back into view, Karrel whipped his heel around at her temple. She already had teal light wrapped around her body, but as Karrel’s heel-hook struck the Executive, the light increased in brightness, flickering ever so slightly. She was forced against the wall, bouncing off of its surface and collapsing to the floor for a single moment.

  Karrel’s own attack had thrown him off balance. He rolled along the ground, scraping his shoulders across the surface. Getting back to his feet as fast as possible, he began sprinting down the hallway. Angel recognized what was happening and accelerated into a sprint as well. The opportunity to leave had presented itself.

  “Which
ways the elevator?” Karrel yelled back to Angel.

  “Take a left!” Angel answered while looking over his shoulder.

  Elizabeth was already back on her feet, and her associate was right behind her, sprinting to catch up with the two boys. The two Executives drew their arms backward, readying a strong throw.

  “Uh oh!” Angel gasped. “Incoming!”

  Karrel looked over his shoulder, and in that instant, he saw a teal javelin and a red throwing glaive rocketing to their positions. He swore, turned around, and brought his green book in front of his body. Angel turned as well, forming a shield of smoke in front of him as fast as he could. Simultaneously, the teal javelin smashed into Angel’s wall, and the red throwing glaive smacked into Karrel’s green book. For a single second, both friends thought they had successfully blocked the blow. The two Executives smiled. Both luminous weapons exploded into bursts of their respective colors.

  Both boys were instantly blasted off their feet. Broken tiles followed the two bouncing bodies, and debris sliced the two companions as they tumbled uncontrollably across the floor.

  Karrel smashed into the wall at the end of the hallway, all of his breath leaving him, and slowly losing consciousness. Angel however, had gotten a footing, and rolled to his feet. In an instant, he was on top of Karrel helping him up. “No sleeping! No sleeping!” he commanded Karrel as he tugged on his arms.

  Karrel shook off the pain and woke himself up. He and Angel were almost at the elevator shaft; it would be anticlimactic to die like this. The two friends once again accelerated into their sprint, trying with all of their might to lose their pursuers. Mid-sprint, Karrel checked his book to make sure there was no damage and was relieved to see that there was not a scratch on it. It seemed as though its indestructibility was still holding.