(A/N: Hahahahaha... Jet reminds me of Neo in this chapter. I just couldn't help but write it this way. Go Jet! You are The One!)

She awoke to total, uninhibited darkness. The right side of her face felt hot and puffy, undeniably damp, causing her to be certain that she was bleeding in some way. Lank hair stuck to it in strands and she peeled it away, hoping that it would help her to see better. No light was present in the wide earthy chamber she was in, almost two miles beneath the earth.

Her body was on the floor and twisted, the girl lying on her stomach and propping herself up by her bare elbows, her warm grey shawl lost ages ago. Where was she? She had not meant to fall into such a stupor causing a faint, and she certainly had not meant to awaken and find herself in the bleak opaqueness of the dark. It was like being hidden in a wardrobe at home, when she and her friends had played fun games of hide and go seek, inside the wardrobe with the doors closed, it had been nearly as dark as this. She remembered vaguely, as if conjuring up the outline of a dream she had had days ago, she remembered waiting for her daddy, waiting in the last hours of the night, and then…

Movement beside her crumpled form. Something long, thin and hairy brushed past her side, feeling like a soft, yet prickly cactus. She had a feeling that those hairs she felt scraping across her arm could easily and swiftly go rigid and sting like poisonous needles. What had caught her? What had grabbed her with arms of cold wire and lifted her up into the dawning air? What was it that had taken her that sounded like high-toned, sped up thunder, like the drone of a strong eagle flock flapping a hundred times within a second?

A deep pulsing fluorescent glow within the darkness. It lasted the duration of a human breath, rising and falling, spreading and then diminishing, but the girl caught a tiny glimpse of the monster that was holding her prisoner, a second of a glance, like a snapshot in her mind. She had seen clear stretched skin over a mottled grey exoskeleton. Gigantic multi-faceted eyes, bulbous, like a pair of living gems. Thin glassy wings, the appearance, if not the colour, of stain-glass church windows. Its wide expansive abdomen created the glow, a monstrous firefly tipped with a needle sharp proboscis.

The girl tried not to help it, but she screamed.

Within the second pulse of the monster's alien yellow glow, she saw its great head cock towards her, the eyes calculating every move that she made. It heard her and looked at her quizzically, like a regular person must feel when the stuffed dinner turkey stands up on its drumstick legs and starts to scream. Those eyes! How many different versions of her was that monster able to see?

She started to scoot her body away from it, her body hale and perfectly capable of standing up and running away, but it would be just too easy for that monster to take two steps and corner her once again, jamming that huge needle-like nose straight through her heart and sucking away all her sweet, precious blood. Her legs became paralyzed at that thought, from the hips downwards and she scrunched up as small as she could go, wondering why the creature had not just eaten her when she was unconscious. It would have saved her a whole world of fright.

A thought came to her during the steady cold glow of the monster's third abdominal pulse, one too terrifying and impossible to consider. She had not been hurt during the time that she had been swept up and away by the beast, but blood flowed freely down her face in a warm lazy stream. She had not done that herself and it seemed unlikely that bumping into the wall of a tunnel would have cut such a sharp and accurate gash across her temple. The creature must have done this, so why?

The answer was obvious. It was an insect, one that drank blood. It probably had billions of children in the darkness before her, the mother monster was going to offer her to them for food, little girl blood replacing sweet mother's milk. It had cut her with one of the prongs on its legs, to draw the blood and call them here. The dinner bell had been rung.

"Oh, sweet merciful Guardians, no…" She whispered, overcome by the sheer impact of her situation.

From the very far end of the chamber a second light flared into existence, this one constant and not beating to a tune of light-and-then darkness like the mother monster's fluorescent belly did. It was far smaller but coloured orange, attached to a stubby wooden stick held by a boy with pale silver-coloured hair. He had stepped through the entrance to the chamber as silently as a phantom, but the bright light he carried immediately gave him away. She recognised him, what was his name again?

"Jet!" She cried, her usually pretty and porcelain-like face ill-looking with terror. She was small and helpless beneath the body of an unimaginable foe, a veritable damsel in distress, but if there was any hope that she could gather regarding her rescue and a safe passage home, she was willing to take it. And she recognised this youth by sight alone, the fearsome drifter who had taken a sickly turn and had been recovering in her village, the friendly outsider. Had he come to save her?

"Jenny!" The drifter called out as an answer, his voice loud and carrying in the empty space of the mosquito den. He was hunched over slightly and dripping with water, she could see, his face was pale and yet at the same time flushed in places, but his eyes, they were hard and firmly set on the happenings of reality. He knew where he was and what he had to do. There was nothing left but to fight it out.

Even though he was breathing in and out steadily, it felt like, to Jet, that he was already holding his breath and was breathing over the top of that one, like his lungs had been packed with cotton or gauze. He could manage no more than quick and shallow breathing, something on the verge of hyperventilation. His chest felt full, completely filled up with the pounding of his heart. It was beating harder and faster than he had ever experienced before. Jet saw this gigantic towering creature and knew that it was for him alone, that it was his battle, his fight. The drifting God who had given him a purpose in life had left him His last blessing, the last bit of fun he'd ever have in combat.

Best not to let such a beautiful opportunity go to waste.

"Time to die, motherfucker!" He roared and charged the monster, cocking his Airget-Lamh in his left hand. He had brought with him only enough ammunition that would fit into the chambers of the gun, as perfectly modified as it was, it could hold no more than six persistent ten second rounds of fire. For a single machine gun, that was pretty damned good, but this was a big foe and Jet had to be careful, cautious. He couldn't just throw his ammunition away.

He decided to start off with something flashy first, to scare away the monster if he could. Jet got into proper range and raised his free hand, gathering medium energy. Heavier air, charged with magic crackled and gave off sparks around his fist. "Inspire!" He shouted, and brought his hand down hard and swift, emulating the strike of a bolt of lightning. The monster flinched when the simple hand motion became reality, a harsh purplish arc of electricity striking it on its abdomen. That'd give it a jolt where the sun don't shine, Jet thought.

The monster's cry was born more from surprise than from pain. It leant down on thin stick-like legs and the little girl beneath it rolled once to the side in the hopes of getting away safely, narrowly missing being flattened by the glowing light sac. She found herself leaning up against the wall and pressing into it, trying to disappear. "Jenny!" Jet called again, sidling towards the center of the den and getting into a battle stance, for armed combat. "Look, I'm gonna try to distract it for you. Try and run to the tunnel as soon as you think you can. If you don't wanna risk running, then creep along the wall until you're at the tunnel, okay?"

She calculated that the quickest way out would be to break into a fast sprint and bisect the area of the chamber. But that would be an excellent way to get herself killed. All the monster needed to do was stand on her. No, she felt far more comfortable with the sneaking option, even if it took awhile longer. She hoped that Jet would be able to hold the beast off until then. "But Jet…" Jenny started. "What about you?"

Jet raised his ARM proudly. "I'll be fine. I've eaten monsters tougher than this one for breakfast. Just run the hell outta here as soon as you can." He looked at her in a smarmy fashion. "Everybody at Baskar is waiting for you to come back."

Her father, had her father set this up, this rescue? Thank God they had had Jet around to come and save the day. Swallowing hard, the girl nodded her head. "I'll creep around the side. I'll be quiet, and I'll try my best. Good luck."

Rearing up, the giant mosquito spread its glassy wings wide, wings that would have reflected and shone like the sun during a bright sunny day. But it was dark here in its home, so Jet could see straight through them, the blinding technique failing. The boy took a firmer hold on his weapon and fired a round of bullets into the chest of the monster, hearing a tinny grating clang as the leaden pellets struck another surface that sounded like thin aluminum, or corrugated iron. That exoskeleton sounded like it was tough, all right.

Its head came down quick and fast, hurling itself face-first towards Jet, who for a nanosecond wondered what the hell it was going to accomplish with a mere headbutt attack, seeing as its gigantic face was nothing more than a pair of soft red eyes. He'd get squelched, but its brain would most definitely die. Jet moved out of the way anyway, watching the creature's move and waiting to see if it would reveal any more of its special attacks.

He heard the air whistle and whoop with a sound similar to the swing of a rapier sword and the mosquito buried its needle-like nose three feet into the hard chamber floor, scarcely a yard away from where Jet was standing. A nasty weapon! It pierced through rock like a dentist's drill, he didn't want to imagine what it would be like to have that thing thrust straight through his body, impaled on the largest needle known to man. Perhaps after that, it would suck up all his blood as if through a straw, the fierce drifter becoming a tasty beverage. Jet glared at the needle, and then back up at the monster again. Avoid the face, got it.

The monster had gotten the needle in easily enough, but now it seemed to be having a fair amount of trouble pulling it out again. It yanked upwards a few times unsuccessfully, then Jet took a chance and kicked hard at the stuck needle in the middle of its length, hoping to snap it in half. It did not yield an inch and refused to break. It felt nearly indestructible, like a real rapier sword. At the very moment that Jet had all of his weight upon the length of the needle nose, the mosquito pulled free and snapped its head upwards again, freeing itself and hurling Jet across the room at the very same time.

Fuck! Jet screamed in his mind and then made the necessary adjustments to his body in order to land with minimal pain, the boy using his own body weight to flip himself over and land in a crouch, absorbing the brunt of the impact with the palms of his hands and his knees. He swore again, this time out loud, for the unexpected flight had forced him to let go of his weapon in the process, or he would have risked landing unevenly and breaking his neck.

The Airget-Lamh was under the monster's face. Panting, Jet looked up and beyond it, seeing Jenny up on her feet and edging along the wall. Bravely, she was doing what Jet had asked her to do. However, when their eyes met she froze, seeing the weapon as well. She was closer to it than Jet was, only a few yards away. If she could just get a hold of it and manage to throw it…

She left the wall and began to shuffle towards it, swaying slightly in her step. With the blood drying on her face, it made her look like an ashen zombie, or a beautiful ghoul. The mosquito, with its hundreds of tiny eyes could see everything in any direction. It saw her move and one back leg came up, preparing to stomp her to death.

"No! Stop! Don't move! Vortex!" Jet cried in a random burst of thought, hardly even aware that he had chanted a spell and moved his arm in a sweeping motion out in front of his body. The mosquito, leaning to the left in the act of raising one of its legs, caught the edge of Jet's spell and toppled over onto one side, landing in a pile of freshly moved boulders. Jenny was blown away by the spell as well, slamming against the wall and crying out in pain. He hadn't meant to hurt her, but he had to get her away from danger in any way that he could. The green gust of wind had cut an invisible path for him to move down, where neither the mosquito nor Jenny could be hurt.

Jet rose to his feet, coughed hard, and then fell to one knee again. It was a deep, hacking cough, the kind that brought blood up through the throat. Indeed he could even taste the slightly coppery tang on the base of his tongue. This couldn't happen now, not in the middle of combat.

My left arm… feels all tingly…

That can't be good…

The outer flesh of his left hand had gone numb. It felt like he was wearing a thick rubber glove, one that clung tightly to his skin. Jet looked at his hand worriedly. He knew that numbness often occurred when the limb in question was losing its proper circulation. But he needed this limb! It was his gun arm, the arm that channeled his spirit and gave him his edge. He had to finish this quick, before he lost feeling altogether.

He clenched his hand a few times, heartened when feeling came back slightly. You can do that for me, can't you? He asked his aching body. You can hold out for just one more battle. Just one more…

A foul, sulphurous smell entered the air and Jet's nostrils. It smelt like a chemical brew, something that reminded him of laboratories and the test tube that he had come to life in. It made him want to gag. A screaming mewl rose and echoed all around him, coming from the monster flailing on the floor. Yellow glowing liquid leaked from its abdomen, gashed open beneath it by the grazing rocks. It must have ripped itself open as it fell.

The drifter moved forward and picked up his ARM where it had fallen. Moaning a little from the ache in her back, where she had been slammed against the wall, Jenny meekly walked towards him. Together they regarded the fallen creature with a mixture of pity and loathing. "Is it over now?" The girl asked of him meekly, daringly hoping that the nightmare could be finished.

"Not yet." Jet replied bitterly, unconsciously rubbing his left arm with a degree of discomfort. "It'll get up in a minute or so. You'd better run while you still have a chance." He looked to the entrance for a moment, where the torch he had dropped still burned, its flame diminishing. The fuel wrapped around the stick wouldn't last forever. "Take that torch with you and get outta here."

"No!" She answered vehemently, gesturing wildly with her hands. Jet noticed it with bemusement and remembered that he father reacted in the same way. "I can't leave you in here with that thing! It'd be no different than you trading your life for mine! I just can't do that, Jet!"

"Then…" The boy began, stepping out in front of her, watching with an eager scowl as the mosquito righted itself with one great heave of its body. It was bleeding badly from its abdomen, but he knew quite well that it took a lot more than that to keep an insect down. They barely even comprehended the meaning of pain. "Get to the entrance and stay the hell out of my way."

She obeyed him this time. She ran.

It had had no victory whilst it stood upon the ground. The giant mosquito stretched its wings open again and beat them hard and rapidly, incredibly fast, causing gusts of wind and dust to swirl around its body in a miniature tornado. The sound that came from the monster was horrific, a high pitched whine that was coupled with a banshee's scream. It reverberated around the room, creating an echo. Jet dug his heels into the earth and stood his ground, his clothing and his scarf being whipped wildly around by the air. Slowly, the mosquito began to rise from the ground, like Lombardia beginning to take off.

Jet shielded his eyes from the dirt flying madly about, almost squinting them shut. He clenched his hand around the handle of his machine gun hard, painfully hard, enough to make him feel it once more. Wiping sweat from his flushed brow, too much sweat, it seemed, Jet felt the beautiful rush he remembered from days long past, of combat, of drifting, and of the paring of life from monotony. The one fragile second, experienced once when the force of the mind, the body and the soul were as one.

The crux. He saw it, drew upon it, and everything was clear.

He dashed forward and seized one of the creature's long spindly legs as firmly as he could, hurling his weight forward and putting his trust into the limb. The hairs along the legs were minute and painful, yet it somehow managed to let him cling there more resolutely, acting like a natural form of Velcro. Wrapping his legs around the cold hard pole and getting the sensation that he was rising along with the monster, lifting him higher and higher into the air, Jet worked hard to pull himself upwards and crawl further along the limb, feeling like a small child climbing a tall palm tree.

The hairs were beginning to catch on his clothing and they tried to hold him there, making it harder for him to reach higher ground. They stung badly whenever they managed to touch bare skin. Eventually he reached forward and pulled himself up with both arms, swinging one leg over and rolling onto the monster's back. He was very nearly blown off immediately, so strong and powerful the beat of those wings were. Jet fell to his knees and continued to crawl forward, keeping his balance in check and feeling like both his eardrums were going to burst.

Something warm and wet slithered down the curve of his jaw. Jet didn't dare to reach a hand up and discover what was there, but he was more than half certain it was blood pouring out of the inner workings of one ear. If he stayed here any longer he'd lose his sense of hearing. As he reached the middle of the insect's back he discovered that it was relatively calm there, like an eye of the storm, but the sound was also at its worst.

Blood dripping down his chin, Jet came to a decision. I can't take much more of this. One more minute and I'll be totally deaf. If I stand up and run into those winds, I'll definitely be blown away. Crawling would take too long, my brain might bust under the pressure. I'll have to…

Suddenly he had an idea. Jet smiled in the midst of the maelstrom.

…Yeah, that might work.

Here goes nothing!

Jet used the very last trick up his sleeve. If this didn't do it, nothing would. The drifter lifted himself into a sprinter's crouch and took a moment to calm his racing heart, to reach into himself and find a form of peace. When the swirling thoughts within his mind seemed to halt and come to a standstill, he acted. Jet dove forwards and felt the air move around him, felt time and space itself slow around his working body, everything winding down, acting in slow motion.

Nothing moved faster than Jet Enduro in the middle of his accelerator technique.

He bypassed the tornado of wind easily, experiencing nothing more than a soft pleasant wind on his face. The mosquito's wings, probably beating a hundred times a second, moved like the oars of a large rowboat, slow and ungainly. It felt like he was floating effortlessly in space, the only thing moving faster than his body was his mind. Jet rolled to the side once in mid-air, just as he was sailing over his enemy's gigantic bulbous head, then drew his ARM as fast as he could, making use of the last five rounds packed tightly into the machine.

The machine gun vibrated steadily in his numbing hands as it fired shell after shell after shell. He was moving forwards too fast to make full use of his gatling attack, so Jet tilted his upper body forwards a little and marked his fall point on the ground beneath him, blowing open huge sores in the back, the front and the underside of the creatures head and neck. Clear optical fluid splashed upwards slowly in little shining bubbles, almost seeming pretty to Jet's eyes.

Take that, bastard. Jet thought in the last few moments of his attack, right before the entire world caught up to him again.

Even when Jet was in top form, coming out of an accelerator technique was like being hit in the face by a wet fish. There really was no better way to describe it than that. This time it felt like reality itself had cracked and broken into a thousand tiny pieces before him, for one brief little second, Jet could have sworn than he had seen the spectral backdrop of the world between those tiny, jagged cracks. White spots of light burst behind Jet's eyeballs, he screamed from the onset of a stabbing pain throughout his skull, and when he hit the floor again, this time he landed on his shoulder hard, hearing a loud, almost watery crack. He had been unable to keep up.

Smoke rose from the barrel of the Airget-Lamh, the machine contented and spent. From above, the giant mosquito's face caved in with a sickening gush of fluid and jelly-like damp grey matter. They had been shot to ribbons. In fact, as the monster wobbled and sunk down onto the floor, its wings and the terrible whining noise going still, the impact far louder than Jet's had been, a metallic tinkling sound was heard, bullet pellets flowing out and sliding onto the ground in a thick puddle. It was dead even before Jet had touched the ground.

Jet and the monster had dueled evenly in the field of battle. The boy had emerged the victor.

However…

Neither of them rose ever again.