A Waken 17.E
The mono-eyed suit reeled back. A force met my sword and drove it back before the edge could cut into his armor. Some kind of forcefield. How does he have a forcefield!?
Leet reacted almost instantly, his rifle swinging at my side. I batted it aside and wound up for another thrust only to again find some kind of resistance deflecting my blade. Not a forcefield. More like interference. Some kind of particle output I couldn't see.
Can he do it?
Unknown.
I couldn't tell. This wasn't mind reading. I could only feel what people put out. Leet wasn't exactly broadcasting a coherent plan… But there was confidence there. A certainty that it could be done.
So I thought.
It was a bit hard to hear him over how loudly his Shard was shouting at Administrator. She shouted back in turn, furious. Hurt. Betrayed. The idea that any Shard wanted to kill the entire Network was alien to her. She'd never thought to see it. Now that she was she lashed out, angry and desperate.
Rejection!
Nudge.
We'll stop him.
Necessity!
I know!
I could feel him grimace as Administrator and I didn't hide our outrage very well.
I felt his resolve grow. A determination that he was right… And something else. Like he was talking to someone? He could feel his Shard there, but it was far too busy shouting at Administrator to talk to him.
I grit my teeth.
Even if he couldn't do it now, he'd find a way. He'd set himself on his course.
Leet's specialty. His only real limit had been that he could only make something once but the suit in front of me now wasn't the same one he'd used before. That one wasn't the same one he'd used in Boston. A second trigger? Didn't matter. Whatever limits he'd had before they clearly weren't the same now. His Shard was cooperating. It was suicidal. It wanted to die. It wanted everything to just stop.
Precaution.
No. He can do it.
I slammed 00's foot down and wheeled back. I grit my teeth harder and resolved myself.
He has to die.
Leet jerked suddenly. Thrusters fired along his suit's waist, legs, and shoulders. His suit rocketed back while raising its weapons.
The GN Drives swung back and 00 exploded forward into motion. The street vanished behind us, leaving a mess of confused and startled onlookers behind.
The com clacked and his voice rang in my ear.
"Taking your revenge for Boston?"
Boston? "You're trying to kill them." Leet's suit landed two blocks down the street. My sword was already swinging for his head. "Over my dead body."
"Figured you knew."
He ducked, his suit moving so fast I hesitated for just a moment.
I'd never exactly told Trevor because I didn't think I had to, but Kimaris was faster than my Gundams. It couldn't fly, sure, and it couldn't break the sound barrier, but speed came with a control issue. I usually had to slow down to fight someone without flailing wildly. Trevor, for whatever reason, didn't have that issue so much. He could move almost as fast punching as he did running, and when he ran he moved.
Leet's suit was even faster.
He punched my blade as it swung over his head. The force rocked 00's arm, sending the weapon from my hand and into the air. A knee struck 00's side and knocked me into a car. The vehicle crunched and crumpled under my weight and then blew back as my thrusters threw me back in Leet's direction.
He stood ready, people scrambling around us.
"Riddle me this, Newtype. Is it you who wants to save them, or your power?"
My brow rose. What did he think that meant? He sounded smug about it, his attention occasionally shifting to Administrator like her outrage confirmed something he already thought. There was that sense again. Who is he talking to? What did they think they knew?
Negation!
No matter.
It didn't change anything.
And then he suddenly felt smugger. Nudge. What?
I wheeled 00 around with a thought, the GN Drives swiveling about to get me behind Leet. He spun in the opposite direction, his shield arm coming up to parry my second sword. His rifle stabbed forward and fired. The energy blasted 00's chest and rolled over the GN Field. It was hot. Very hot, but only the heat managed to make it through the GN Field. The force was completely stopped.
I spun my suit, bringing 00's leg down overhead and slamming Leet's shield down.
Leet fell to one knee, bracing for the blow just as it landed.
That was oddly distracting in some way, but not enough.
With a quick jump from the thrusters, I grabbed my sword out of the air and then slammed myself back down.
I drove the Buster Sword into the ground and opened the Raiser's binders. The Gungnir inside fired straight down, shattering the street and sending asphalt flying up in a wave. Leet's suit was thrown back and I dodged to the side as Squealer drove past me. Her car landed with a crash, the engine roaring while her thoughts cursed me. I ignored her, taking aim at Leet and firing a second Gungir.
He swerved to the side, moving the instant before the weapon fired.
My brow rose.
No time.
Squealer's car whipped around and the engine howled as she started toward me. Lafter dove Kyrios from above, crashing into the hood and sending the rear of the car up.
The vehicle didn't even dent. Squealer pulled back on something at her side and the car exploded with a wave of force that sent Kyrios spinning through the air.
Two more capes tried to flank me. Teacher's. Those who came with Leet to help with the Case-66s. I spun toward one, crushing his collar with the flat of my longsword. The first cape was hit in the back by a particle beam. He screamed and crashed into the crater that was once a street. A stake drove through the forearm of the second, sending her into a wild spin down the block until she collided with a firetruck.
Lily landed on a roof behind me, took aim, and fired.
"What are we doing?" Lafter asked as she righted Kyrios and again intercepted Squealer.
"Taylor?" Lily asked.
I gripped at the armrests inside my suit. There was no other way.
"Leet has to die."
"What?"
"What?!"
I shot forward, 00 ripping through the lingering cloud of debris.
"He's going to kill them all!"
At my declaration, a new alarm spread. Other Shards turned their attention our way, all noticing the shouting match between Administrator and Prototype.
And there Leet was again feeling smug. What—"What do you think you're doing?!"
I swung a sword down.
"What has to be done," he replied.
Leet dodged to the side and fired a barrage from his rifles. The rounds scattered all around me, bursting and exploding against the GN Field. I felt the heat but it was paltry and the GN Field endured.
Incendiary rounds. He didn't come ready to fight me.
"Is this what you want?" Leet called. "What you really want?"
"Shut him up!" I told Veda. He'd probably heard the 'kill him' thing. Great.
"You're being manipulated," he charged.
"Idiot," I hissed. Insinuating that my actions were the actions of my Shard? That's why he felt so damn smug?!
He was the one being manipulated!
His Shard was blaring hopelessness like a fog horn. It was almost as loud as the shouting match with Administrator. He felt it too but paid it no mind. It was just more affirmation to him. A confirmation of the inevitable. And something kept agreeing with him and it wasn't his Shard.
The other Shards were reaching out now, some attempting a less fiery approach than Administrator. Prototype batted them away too. It didn't want to listen. It didn't care to try. It wanted the pain to end.
Leet's Shard didn't care for what any of them said or thought. It didn't believe. The cycle was over and they were all going to die anyway. There was no other way.
"Taylor," Veda warned.
Nudge.
"Newtype!" Leet snapped. "You need to thin—"
I flew past him, throwing 00's full force into the side of Squealer's car. I heard her scream as the forcefield protecting the vehicle shattered and her vehicle careened down the street.
"Fool," I charged.
I dodged left, avoiding a stab of energy projecting from the tip of one of Leet's rifles. He had a beam bayo—My eyes widened as he swung wide. It had started before I'd even begun to dodge but—
Flying over the swing, I brought my sword down. Leet's shield swung back and blocked the blow. He pressed the barrel of his second rifle against the GN Drive over 00's left shoulder and I fired the thruster to the side to avoid the ignition of a second bayonet right into the solar furnace. He spun about, firing a series of shots into the air that sent Lily firing too wide as shots exploded across the GN Field over Dynames' faceplate.
It all happened so fast. In about a second.
Lily fired a series of shots. Leet dodged all of them, and at the same time met a shield bash from Kyrios with one of his own. Improbable.
Who—What—was he talking to?
A combat prediction engine. "Is everyone just ripping Defiant off now?" More. More?!
My eyes widened.
Zero?
Agreement.
Prime Future was focused. I normally didn't notice any of the Shards but Administrator, but inside the field and at this moment she was very present. Her attitude toward what Administrator and I were trying to do was cautious—to be generous—but Prototype's chosen course was unacceptable.
In this, she was behind us.
"Taylor!" Veda repeated.
Around us, people were afraid. Confused. They didn't know what was happening. Many were alarmed that I'd attacked Leet in a clear truce situation, but this was nothing like Boston. Slowly, as they all watched and moved inside the GN Field, their eyes started turning toward him. The Shards realized it first, a chorus of rejections and alarms rising as they realized what he planned to do.
Not everyone understood that. They only saw a fight and heard the noise. When a Ward turned and attacked one of Teacher's capes as he moved toward me, a member of the Protectorate turned to protect him. Police started moving. EMTs. Bystanders. Chaos broke out. Confused thoughts and a flurry of uncertainty.
This wasn't telepathy. For everyone who saw what I saw, there were others who didn't. Others were more alarmed by the alien presence around them. The foreign noise of the Shards who were themselves reacting in more than one way. Some agreed with Leet's Shard. They'd rather die than face the fear of change.
Even now, we still couldn't completely understand one another.
This battle couldn't be fought here.
I charged.
00's foot slammed into one of Leet's rifles as he stabbed at Kyrios. The weapon cracked and he quickly let it go. Its magazine ignited into a flare of blinding light and searing heat. He tried to retreat in the explosion but I gave chase. Lafter batted a flying brute aside and Lily spun around as a pair of capes came up behind her. Jouster and another young cape—a Ward, probably—got involved then, shouting for everyone to stop.
Stopping wasn't an option.
Squealer's car roared back to life and spun its tires into the ground. She charged me and I dodged back from an impossibly precise stab Leet aimed at a weak spot in 00's armor.
There was no way he could know about that.
Flying over the hood of the charging tinker car, I drove the Buster Sword into the hood. The car stopped abruptly, throwing Squealer into the wheel as the engine exploded and the cabin was thrown back and away by some kind of safety device.
Flying through the blast, I grabbed hold of Leet's suit's arm.
The eye locked on me and he started to wrench me loose.
Nudge.
No. We're finishing this right now!
"Door please," I called, "middle of nowhere."
The portal opened behind Leet. He started to react a moment too late. With a thrust of sheer speed, I rammed 00 into his suit and drove him through the portal. Dust and sand exploded as our thrusters fired. 00's arms and Leet's suit's legs strained with a loud groaning sound.
We wrestled, throwing more and more sand into the night sky.
"You're making a mistake," Leet reiterated.
Mistake? I grit my teeth and hissed through my breath. "You're plotting genocide!"
The desert exploded upward. His suit dropped to a knee. One of 00's arms slipped. I blew past him, spinning around and diving through a sand dune as Leet jumped into the air for distance.
I scanned our surroundings. A barren waste of dunes as far as the eye could see. Perfect.
Almost.
As soon as we went through the portal, I felt the GN Field snap back. I cursed, pulling at 00 and forcing the suit up and over a beam of energy that shot out of Leet's suit's shield.
The field had shrunk back to its regular size. Trans-Am was still going, though not for much longer. The field was already spreading again, but not nearly as fast as it had before. The output was still through the roof though.
Fine then.
Affirmation!
Nudge!
I spun 00 into a flip and shot forward like a missile. Leet was skating over the sand, the energy blade of his shield held in a guard position while he aimed his remaining rifle. He was still getting his bearings.
Not that it lasted long.
His shield clumsily parried the stab of my sword and his rifle shot down into the ground. The switch to the sonic cameras only took a moment but it was enough time for him to get his footing. My follow-up swing came from the other side. He ducked under me, swinging to the side and firing again.
I continued to strike, searching for some way through whatever engine he was using to predict my attacks.
I hadn't even realized I was shouting at him.
"Are you insane?! You can't wipe them out!"
"They're already dead," he retorted.
"Liar!"
He sensed them just like I did. Like everyone did.
I jumped up, and when he stabbed his bayonet from behind his shield I swung the GN Drives around. They fired, sending 00 into a corkscrew motion. I swung down and into his side.
He growled. "They're dead and you know it!"
Leet kicked my swords up and then brought his shield down on top of them.
An incredibly precise movement with flawless timing.
What the hell did you build?
"You're going to sit there on your high horse and tell me you don't feel that?!" I snapped. I threw a kick out as the blades crashed into the ground. Leet met the blow with his shield and fired into 00's back. "Misery is misery!"
"Tautology."
"And you reject it!"
"Spare me."
The blasts of energy barely phased the GN Field. It was expanding again, growing in size. How much time did I have left before the Trans-Am ran out? The timer wasn't functioning on my HUD, but 00 couldn't do this forever.
"Look at you," Leet spat. "Waging war on the whole world because no one saved you from some mean girls."
"I'm not the one plotting genocide!"
On a whim, I dodged back. Leet chased me with a trail of energy bolts. His aim worsened as more sand filled the air. I could see him clearly through the dust storm we were kicking up, but he couldn't see me quite so well.
Tracking the light of the GN Drives.
Reflection.
The energy signature. Okay then.
"Genocide?" he scoffed. "They're already dead. They've been dead since Scion died and they'll take us with them!"
"Look that pain in the back of your head in the eye and tell me that's what death looks like!"
I flew around him, darting behind a dune and firing a barrage of GN beams forward. As the shots flew through the air toward the distance, I took a sharp right turn and plowed through the dune.
"They're alive!" I screamed. "You have no right to annihilate them!"
I caught him in his side, barely. Leet recovered and swung his rifle around. My blade cut into the armor of his waistline, and I started to spin the thrusters in the opposite direction to bisect him. Instead, Leet's thruster's fired. The blowback knocked my sword away and I ended up swinging through the air under him as his suit jumped.
"No right," he mocked.
I brought my sword up, settling for the blow I could strike. I cut his other rifle in half in a single swing. The weapon exploded and a brief wave of interference scattered the sonic cameras. I shot forward through the blast, guessing more than anything.
"That's a joke. There is no right to annihilation and they don't need one." Leet landed an inch off from where I stabbed. His suit's elbow struck the longsword and with another precise movement, his knee came up and shattered the blade. "They will annihilate us."
I cast the ruined grip of my sword aside and reached for a beam saber. "Is that what David thinks?"
"David's a fool with delusions of grandeur. He's more like you than me."
Leet charged with his shield forward. I slammed the Buster Sword into it and braced. 00 was driven back but remained upright, and while his shield was trying to bulldoze me down I stabbed with a beam saber for his suit's big red eye.
A beam projected from the tip of the shield, blocking my saber.
In a snap of motion, I lifted off the ground, barely avoiding the blade as he swung it outward.
"At least he accepts that he's destroying it all," Leet snapped. "You? You're stoking the flames and calling yourself a firefighter!"
"Don't deflect," I grumbled contemptuously. Infantile rhetorical bullshit. "You plan to kill them all and you want to lecture me about delusions of grandeur?!"
The dust blew back with a gust of wind. My sword screamed through the air and Leet's beam blade was forced aside as the Buster Sword's edge went right through it. In the instant before my blade would have carved into his chest and ended it, six funnel-shaped canisters shot out of the back of his suit.
I grit my teeth and dodged to the side again as a flurry of beams fired and exploded through the air.
"It's collapsing," he charged. "You know it's collapsing." The funnels spread out and Leet reached behind his back. "What happens when an extra-dimensional super parasite that bends reality implodes?! What happens when they blame us for causing it? What if everyone isn't as forgiving as you?"
His shard surged and static flooded my mind. Administrator batted it back, renewing their argument from earlier. Anger. Rage. Helplessness. Prototype was past all of that. It didn't care anymore. It just wanted everything to end… And it was shouting anger, rage, and helplessness to keep Leet focused on that.
Making sure he heard what he wanted to hear so it could get what it wanted.
I shook my head clear and barely dodged the beams with a mid-air flip. I spun as the funnels tried to encircle me— Nudge—and flung my beam saber into the air. The saber collided with one funnel and exploded, obscuring the line of fire of the second. Leveling my sword at Leet, I boosted through the blast toward him only for an ax to meet my blade and deflect the blow.
"Then fix it!" The Buster Sword's blade snapped open and the stake still inside charged. "You're not creating safety or saving lives. You're butchering and hiding behind fear while calling it necessary!"
I'd fired my weapon as I shouted.
Leet's suit ignited all its thrusters and started skating over the desert. As the stake left the blade and shot forward, a trio of discs ejected from his suit's shoulders. Lightning coursed between them and instead of hitting exactly where his shoulder should be, the stake slammed into a forcefield. One of the discs warped and exploded, but the other two continued floating as the stake was sent careening off into the distance.
Fucking tinkers!
Nudge!
I dodged another volley from the funnels and threw another beam saber into the air to destroy another one. The remaining two drew back, flanking Leet as he charged toward me.
"You think all those people will accept that?" he asked. He reared back his axe with one hand and raised his blade projecting shield with the other. "They don't even accept us, and why should they?"
Swinging about, I closed the Buster Sword and met his charge.
We streaked over the sand, kicking waves up in our wakes before we collided.
The air exploded, his blade blocked by my Buster Sword and his axe blocked by a beam saber. Sparks and heat cracked into the air, shimmering and pulsing with energy as we leaned our heads in toward one another.
"They should be afraid of us," he hissed. "Look at us. This kind of power will destroy the world one way or another!"
"It's not that simple and you know it!"
I threw my head forward, slamming my faceplate into his suit's flattened head. I wasn't fortunate enough for the camera to shatter. He kicked up with one leg, breaking our stalemate and forcing me to fly up to avoid taking an axe to my back.
"It is that simple. Everything else is chaff. You think those things will forgive us for Scion's death? You think the people out there will forgive them for setting the world on fire?! You know it's not that simple. You're the one setting the world on a path to destroying itself!"
The funnels chased me, firing their beams while a second trio of discs ejected from Leet's other shoulder.
"You're taking the easy way out," I accused. I slashed through one of the funnels with my beam saber and ejected a wave of golden GN Particles into the other. It wavered and I shot past it and back toward the ground. "Don't pretend you're brave when your solution is mass murder."
Leet swung about, spinning in place as I hit the ground. The Buster Sword swung into the sand as he dodged away and I drew my second longsword and swung it up from my waist.
He batted the blade aside with his axe. "You talk down to fear when you're full of it."
"We're all afraid!" The longsword's blade snapped sideways and I fired a beam over Leet's shoulder. "Most of us don't murder millions to run from it!"
The sole remaining funnel dodged my first shot and the second. Then it dodged the third I'd tried to get it to dodge into.
Is that prediction system running his drones too?
"It is necessary." I ducked as Leet's axe came down. I forced it aside with 00's arm and then avoided a stab from his shield blade. "David's insane. His plan won't work."
His sword kicked up a cloud as he tried to swing it into my side. I spun in the air, avoiding the blade and finally catching his last funnel drone. The funnel avoided the edge of the blade, but I used the Buster Sword as a paddle and drove it into the ground. Sand might not be rock, but slam a machine into it hard enough and it still breaks.
"Do you even have a plan?" Leet swung his axe when his sword missed. "You're just stumbling around in the dark, led by the nose, hoping there's a light somewhere. And you cling to that."
A quick thrust pushed 00 forward. I brought the Buster Sword back, shoveling a heap of sand into the air as the broad blade blocked his shield. The axe came down again and I parried it with my other sword.
"Arrogant," he said.
"Coward." I slammed the Buster Sword into his side but he'd braced for the blow before it landed. "We're all in the dark, that's no excuse. It's no justification. Make a choice, or get out of the way!"
"I have made a choice!"
"Liar!"
A flurry of blows came. His shield, blade, and axe. My swords. Swings, thrusts, feints, and parries. Thrusters fired back and forth. We weaved left and right.
All the while a sandstorm kicked up around us and our voices rose.
"You haven't made a choice. You're stealing it from everyone else!" Relena's words left my mouth without thinking. "You have no right to steal tomorrow!"
"And when your conviction burns the world?" The electrified discs—having long waited at his flanks as we brawled—swung forward. "If they destroy us after we've lost the chance to destroy them!?"
Nudge.
WHAT?! I glared at Prime Future. Why do you keep—
Leet broke the brawl with a knee. I met it with my own, not taking the bait he'd laid. I broke off, flinging 00 back before the laser cut through the air.
A motorized tricycle tore through the sand, Squealer's hair fluttering behind her as she drove right at us.
How did sh—
More capes emerged from the shimmering portal. That damn mover power.
A half dozen capes flew or ran through, nearly half of them pointing powers my way.
The sand exploded upward. Pink beams shot down from above, blowing one of the capes off his feet and sending the rest scattering. Dynames streaked overhead, firing beam after beam. Kyrios burst through a dune, swinging a shield into a flier's chest and cracking her rips. She was dazed and then knocked out when Lafter grabbed her by the shoulder and slammed her back into the ground.
Squealer turned sharply, rising up in her seat and craning her neck around as the Fangs gave chase and Stargazer slid into the crowd of capes, sabers swinging.
Leet had his reinforcements. I had mine.
Nudge!
What? We can't let him go!
Nudge!
Rejection!
Insistence!
No.
I glared at him as he stared back at me.
He might have a prediction engine of some kind—Zero—but I could read his emotions. With my power warning me, I saw his traps before he laid them just as fast as he predicted mine. We could still win. We had to win.
"You'll burn the world down," he spat, "just to feel better about yourself. They were going to annihilate us. They still will. Just because they're helpless doesn't make them you."
The force of our knees colliding threw us apart. Leet stumbled back and I fired beams from my longsword as I spun away. The discs swung in, projecting a forcefield that blocked all the beams save one. That one deflected and cut a gouge into his suit's shoulder. It sent him tumbling as I continued sailing away over the sand. At a flash of light, I flipped 00 over, avoiding the streak of pure concentrated heat that nearly hit me.
Veda came down, driving Stargazer's elbow into the cape's shoulder. The bone snapped and the limb flailed as he fell. Fang's followed the blow, flaring out around Stargazer and firing in a flurry to drive the other capes back.
00 crashed into the sand, waist twisting as I forced the suit upright and onto its feet. I threw my swords to the right and activated the charging system. Golden light gathered between the blades in a flash while Leet continued to right himself.
"You're the one who has to be stopped," he shouted. "You'll kill the entire world just to soothe your own ego. To satisfy your needs. How do you justify that?"
I grit my teeth. He was deluded. There was no reasoning with him.
Negation.
Yeah.
"Justice be done," I affirmed, "though heaven may fall."
With a single step, I swung both swords at once. A blade of blinding gold light ignited, shooting out and shearing through the ground a hundred feet away. The dune exploded in the distance as Leet's suit jerked, thrusters firing just an instant before the light swung up and cut through the sky, shearing a distant cloud.
He dodged it.
Zero.
That had to be it. He hadn't just created an AI. He'd created a prediction engine that thought. It was the only way he could react so quickly to things I'd purposefully avoided letting anyone see lest the Simurgh somehow get wind of them!
"So you're destroying heaven now?" he laughed.
I swung my blade around, shifting target to a flying brute that was brawling with Lafter. Kyrios took off moments before the beam landed and the light shredded the man's costume and flesh before sending him into a violent roll.
Leet righted himself and I watched—felt—the GN field flutter around me.
I couldn't do that again without breaking it completely, and then what?
"Arrogant," he repeated. "Who picked you to judge the world?"
"I did," I snapped back. "Like you did." This was pointless. We'd go back and forth forever. "Everyone who decided to do nothing and let others choose for them as if none of you ever judged the world."
He laughed, skating his suit into position as I circled him. A cape tried to intercept me but Lafter tackled him. Another tried to shoot but Lily shot first before twisting around to dogfight the fliers chasing her. Squealer and Veda went back and forth, a shield shimmering around the former as the Fangs tried to stun her.
I started to take aim.
Leet's thrusters flared and he charged. "How dare we not go running into the dark with tinker-tech scissors."
The GN Drives ignited, blowing a sand cloud in my wake as 00 burst forward to meet him. "Sitting idle in a world on fire and calling anyone who suggests it be put out prideful."
"Always acting like you're better than anyone else," he hissed.
"Better?" Query? Yeah. "What good are principles that are mere words? Systems that grind underfoot and demand that we abide their cruelty, or we are wrong!?"
Once more he spoke with something. Not literally. It was quieter. Like he was reading something and it was reading him. Was that how Zero worked? Some kind of massive prediction engine for the world? An engine that was doing nothing but telling Leet what he wanted to hear.
Idiot.
"If it is arrogant to tell the world how twisted it is," I charged, "then I am arrogant. If you don't like it, then stop whining in your corner, and do something about it!"
It's all there was. We would never convince the other. This was the oldest story there was, each of us unable to accept the other in a world that could contain us. And we both knew it. With whatever 00 was doing, we'd probably never needed to say anything aloud.
We both knew where we stood.
"You're a fool," he accused. "High on your own righteousness."
I raised my undamaged sword and pointed it at him. "We're all weak."
"Right is right."
"And wrong is wrong."
"And all the pain that comes from what you've done when you're finished setting it all on fire? You expecting everyone to pat you on the back? See all the noble reasons you had for twisting their lives in the blender?"
We parted as a laser shot between us. A cape flipped over the ground and Lafter jumped over our fight to continue hers. Veda swung a saber through the front of Squealer's tricycle, but the vehicle simply shed parts and turned into an ATV that zipped past us.
"If it burns," I replied, "it wasn't heaven."
I planted my feet and held 00 perfectly still, watching his suit and thinking. The discs were back to flanking him, though two were shaking in the air like they might fall. Running out of power, or damaged? Whatever field they projected was strong if it could knock a Gungnir off course.
Leet was different from everyone else I'd fought.
We'd come across one another before, even if we hadn't fought directly. He'd been prepared for me. Maybe my progress had even driven his in some way. His Shard had released many of the shackles on its configuration to get what it wanted from him. Those limits that made Leet's power such a double-edged sword before weren't there anymore.
Uber… He second triggered. He second triggered and his Shard stripped the limits from his power.
Whatever weapon he was building to kill the Network, he could build it. Just like he could build a suit to rival mine.
Nudge.
Right.
I swung my longsword back and fit it to 00's hip. With my freed hand, I took the Buster Sword firmly and raised the blade. "I will not abide hell masquerading as better than nothing."
Leet put his shield forward and held his axe back. "You'll fight the whole world and call yourself righteous."
My lips pulled back in a smile. "The definition of a hero."
"Definition of insan—"
The GN Drives surged and 00 shot forward before he finished.
Leet's suit matched my charge, lifting off the ground and jumping forward with a surge of speed. Twin plumes of sand shot up behind us, and our suits rocketed toward a collision.
I aimed for his heart and he aimed for my neck. We were both gambling then. Our blades versus our armor.
Nudge.
Yeah.
Stupid gamble.
The moment before the collision, I swung the GN Drives forward. I fired a wave of particles that slammed into Leet, arresting his momentum and knocking his suit off balance. His blade arm snapped back, going wide as his shield-projecting discs were thrown aside too. He tried to catch his footing, stopping his suit from tipping over. It wasn't enough. The thrust had knocked him off balance and snapped his arm away from a guard position, fully exposing his chest.
My other thrusters ignited and sent me forward, my blade still perfectly aimed for his chest.
Warning!
I flinched, eyes darting to my left. My blade turned and I swung it up and over my head. A surge of light shot from the blade, a wave of golden light that flung out and met the missiles. The air exploded and fire rolled over the ground so intensely that my mouth stung.
The fuck was that?!
Squealer pulled to the right, driving past me and glaring over her shoulder.
Damnit!
00's feet slammed into the ground. Leet wheeled himself about, taking his chest out of my range, and brought his sword back up.
I stared at him and cursed.
I had him. We had him.
NUDGE!
I blinked, looking past Leet as a brute punched Kyrios and cracked its armor. Above, Dynames spun through a laser shot by one of the capes Lafter knocked down. She dodged right into another that raked over her chest armor, peeling away the paint and scarring the plating. Squealer pulled an oversized gun from her ATV and shot it ahead. A Fang exploded and Veda flew through the blast, drawing a spare saber to replace one she'd lost while I wasn't looking.
…
We can't.
Prime Future insisted. Rejection.
We can repair.
As if to mock me, Veda jerked Stargazer away moments before engaging Squealer.
"Truce!" she declared in a thundering voice that carried over the sands. "The Simurgh is descending." Stargazer's head rose. "An Endbringer attack is imminent."
NOW?!
Around me, all the fighting stopped. Kyrios was embroiled in a wrestling match with a brute. Dynames hovered, rifle pointed one way and pistol the other. Squealer stopped and kept her gun trained on Stargazer while Veda pulled the Fangs back into the ring on the suit's back.
She turned the suit to me.
"Taylor."
This is what you meant. You were trying to tell me she was coming…
Confirmation.
Negation. Administrator focused on Leet, ignoring Prime Future's insistent warnings.
"Where is she?" I asked aloud.
"She is coming down over Eastern Europe," Veda revealed. "Just south of the Baltic."
I glared at Leet.
He really was a brilliant tinker when he put his mind to it. I'd wager that 00 had an edge over his suit in raw output and weapons. He'd developed some countermeasures though. That energy field and that weird field underneath it. Zero. That was bad. It was more than just a combat prediction algorithm. It was an AI trying to predict the world and it was telling Leet what he wanted to hear to a suspicious degree.
He had to be stopped. We had to stop him.
And Prime Future kept insisting, even as the GN Field began to collapse and her presence started to recede. She was almost desperate. We couldn't fight both battles.
…She was right.
Administrator…
Rejection! Necessity!
I know…
If we let him go now he'd iterate his suit again. He'd create better weapons meant for fighting me. A second fight would be harder. Not to mention the PR fallout that would come of my attacking him.
Prime Future was a whisper in my head.
Prioritization.
Leet or the Simurgh. I couldn't do both… Our suits were being damaged. There wasn't time to repair them if they were more badly damaged. One or the other, and this battle was escalating. Leet and I could both summon more capes to our cause.
He's going to kill all of you. I can't let him go!
Agreement!
Victory, Prime Future suggested. War or Battle?
The golden light of Trans-Am finally sputtered out and Prime Future disappeared back into Administrator. The GN Field shook and rippled, returning to its normal shape and intensity. Less than, actually. Output from the Twin Drives was down to sixty percent.
Damn it.
I drew back, lifting off into the air and flying away. I didn't take my eyes off him, wary of an attack from behind.
His suit started sparking from one of its legs. The one he'd used repeatedly to strike me. The blows had taken their toll. That almost made me turn back. Trans-Am was over and the GN Drive's output had tanked, but if his mobility was compromised—No.
We were dealing with the Simurgh in all of this somehow. I couldn't put anything past her. We needed to stay focused on that because that was the battle that needed to be decided sooner rather than later.
Administrator snapped at me.
Rejection!
He needs time.
Whatever he's building, he hasn't even started it yet. The idea is still nascent. We can still stop him before he has a chance to use it.
As I drew 00 back, Dynames and Stargazer began to do the same. Lafter and her opponent broke apart, backing up a few steps each before Kyrios took off and flew to chase us.
This was the right choice.
We needed to deal with the more immediate threat, and protect her target.
We couldn't afford to win this battle and lose the war.
"Get everyone together, Veda." Once I was a few hundred feet up, I spun about and led Stargazer, Kyrios, and Dynames away. "Prepare to evacuate civilians. She's going for Sanc."