To the readers
I appreciate any comments on the story.
Notes
[] are used to indicate stage directions
All dialogue follows a "Speaker: dialogue" format
{} are used for author comments.
SPECIAL NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, assume a character is speaking in their common tongue this episode.
CONTINUE
[Axel takes the key card out of the tower terminal. He peeks over the side just as a Men in Black agent floats up from the other. With his back turned, the agent shoulder checks him and they both tip over the edge. Both slam into the center platform and almost go over.]
Axel: Even if the drones can't enter a tower, I can still deal with a redshirt.
[Axel chamber kicks, but the MIB shifts back. Axel follow up attacks in an exchange. MIB blocks, feints, then goes for an upper cut slash instead. Axel takes it and dead leg kicks the black avatar sending it skidding across the platform, before catching itself just as it touches the ledge.
Axel LP: 90 - 100
MIB123: LP 92- 100
Then the tower's screens flash, go dull, then flicker back to life.
Axel has a realization. Cut to outside where MIB with zweihanders are chopping away at the wires from the tower both above ground and on hoverboards to get at the wires below the plateau.
Axel jabs, wasting the MIB's autododge, and disengages to the tower exit. He starts to pass through it, when-
THUMP
He's push kicked right in the chest. Flies back into the tower and goes down hard. Second MIB enters. Then another floats up from the void beneath the platform. The three surround him. Axel wrestles with the few by the door before they shove him off the edge of the platform. He drags the two with him, but the remaining one is content. It starts to float up to the second story platform.
Outside the tower where the MIB have cut one wire, there's a flash and Axel and the two MIB soldiers appear in a flash and fall out of the cut end.]
Axel: If they get all the wires, the tower deactivates. If they remove the drones, beating them becomes impossible. But I don't have to beat you. I just need to get away.
Axel holds out his hand like he's holding a detonator. Presses a blue part of his avatar's glove twice.]
DEE DEET
Axel: Refraction.
[There's a distant WHIRCHINK and something comes up over the horizon and gets larger as it hurdles toward them. The MIB aren't waiting for it. They rush in. Axel circle kicks out to stall them for a half beat, then scoots back just in time for the weapon to smash into one of them.
KURRM
Axel picks up World Revolving Halberd and twirls it up and over his shoulders into his "ready" stance.]
[William is swinging Ombret around in a circle with his carbon fiber wire. Lifts her up high at the end of an arc-
Beat
-and slams her back down into a crowd of MIB.
KURRM KURRM KURRM
Ombret LP: 90 - 85
With a crowd forming around her, she tries executing a MIB grunt-
SNICK
-but gets no health back from it.]
Ombret: Another dud?
[Immediately has to block zweihander with guillotine.
KLANG
Sparks from them scraping against each other. They break away from their clash.]
William: Smoke screen.
[Ombret flings a circle of flashfire cards and their blast blows the smoke up and dissipates it.
Looks around for William. He was able to get in close behind her.
SWHWING
Ombret dodges his slash and sticks a card on his spiked bracer as it passes by.]
William: This doesn't blow up if I touch it right?
[Ombret waves and teleports away into the crowd. William has a MIB jump on top of his arm to minimize the blast.
William LP: 140 - 110
William gets up, spots Ombret fighting off MIB. He breaks through the crowd. He spots her with a line of MIB behind her.]
William: Blade beam-
[She smiles, teleports. He's standing on top of her beret. She appears behind him back to back and side kicks him. He stumbles through the line of MIB-
-and off a ledge, dropping his sword. She was leading him using teleports through the crowd. She disguised the fact they were near the edge of the plateau by making sure the MIB blocked the view of the edge.]
William: [while falling] Huh? So that's what that feels like. [Whips his wire back up over the ledge.]
[Ombret is looking at the MIB around her when the molten end of the carbon fiber lands and sticks on her jacket.]
Ombret: Hmm? WOOOH!
[Ombret is pulled off the plateau after him.
Falling alongside the plateau wall. Just as they start falling, Ombret shoots the cap off guillotine. William dodges it. Ombret reaches into her faux sleeves for more flashfire cards.]
William: Sulfur shot
[Dart of smoke rips the cards out of her hand.
They reach the bottom of the weave around the central castle. They dodge around the ribbons of light, William by dipping in and out of his Supersmoke orb mode and Ombret by detonating a flashfire card near her, riding the blast.
Ombret gets her guillotine on top of William and is about to pull the trigger.
William curls a finger in.
WHISH
SNICK
The zweihander, its hilt glowing orange and the tendrils on it rapidly disappearing, plunges down after the two toward Ombret's back.
Ombret disengages, her guillotine only cutting the fiber connecting them. William catches the sword.]
Ombret: You are a terrible dancer.
[She slams down beret onto the last of the ribbon bridges and disappears into it. William pulls out of his dive into Supersmoke and releases it into a roll on another ribbon bridge. Stands up on the bridge and brushes himself off.]
William: [While looking around for her] How did she know?
[Ethan's flying between skyscrapers and ancient mosque temples. He sees the ships navigating their way through the web of ribbon bridges. There's already a blockage encroaching on the central castle. Sees a the "line" of ships waiting their turn to enter the weave.
Ethan: [gets an idea] Hmmm.
[And banks his flight to the line-
PRUNG
Gets wings shot out and slams down into a statue garden below.
Ethan LP: 90 - 70
Immediately takes cover behind cubism inspired marble statue of Lovers. Its heads explode.
Without moving around the corner, he carefully slides his rifle out past the statue base's edge. Peers down master rifle sight at a series of buildings across the scattered plateaus. Plenty of places for a sniper to hide.]
Ethan: ESP entity
[His helmet forms around his face. From his POV, a line is drawn from the reticle on his helmet screen to a castle with crenellations. Lots of bumpy outlines. Ethan scopes in, nestles the stock again his shoulder, and fires at where the line ends.
PRUNG
Movement where his shots landed confirmed it's the right person.
At the castle, Jackal takes out All Seeing Eye. It's another type of flying drone, this one with a telescopic lens.
POV of through the scope of her sniper rifle. She sees Ethan's rifle peeking out from behind the statue.]
Names:
-Obelisk
Equipment:
-Master Rifle
-?
-Angelo Wings
Axel: [comms] Where's that new ship?!
Ethan: [comms] I got it. I'm on it. Sniper on rooftop.
Ai: [comms] So you're pinned down!
Ethan: Naw. I can win in a sniper battle. I was trading shots on rooftops on that Bangkok map in Warfield last week.
Axel: [comms] And you died.
Ethan: I was about to win when they called in-
[Realization and dive rolls to the next statue as laser arrows score where he was.]
Ethan: -Air support.
[Odd appears coasting down from the opposite side of the statue garden plateau. He follows Ethan on his overboard as Ethan moves diagonally across the grid of statues to put something between both his opponents.]
Jackal: [comms] Ocelot his equipment is Master Rifle, Angelo wings, and something he hasn't used in my field of view yet.
Odd: [comms] But he stole the wings from Princess with some ability. And she said he used a sword.
Jackal: Then I'll just see what the third one is before he uses it.
[Jackal takes out a purple canister.
Ethan kicks something ahead of him.]
BOOM
Jackal: What was that?
Odd: Let's take a sneak peak at what he's up to.
[Odd has purple flames around his eyes.]
Odd: He's not moving? No he's-
[Odd flies down to the statue Ethan was hiding behind. As the perspective shifts, he sees the hole that was blown in the statue garden plateau with the open air below. Jackal is flying to join Odd on her overboard.]
Jackal: Once we find where he is-
Odd: He's right-
[Ethan comes out of nowhere, slices through her overboard, her leg and her shooting arm and steals her purple vial and rifle leaving her to plummet.]
Odd: -below you!
Ethan: Got your drugs!
Jackal: My arm!
Ethan: SUFFER AS I HAVE SUFFERED. [quick flashback to the golem cutting off his arm in ep 2.] Avatar overlay.
[Gets the flames around his eye. Same style of flames as Odd only his are red and only around his left eye.
Show Jackal's POV again. She's looking at Ethan fly away.]
Names:
-Obelisk
Equipment:
-Plasma Sword
-?
-Angelo Wings
Jackal: HOW DOES HE KEEP SWITCHING!?
KURRM
[Ai falls to a kneeling position with a sword through her abdomen.]
Ai LP: 50 - 45
Ulrich: Why aren't you devirtualized?
[Ai puts her hands together.]
Ulrich: Are you… praying?
[Song voice fills the air. Focus on the spatial spikes Ai has thrown about.
Ai LP: 45 - 22
Ulrich recognizes the song voice and immediately starts to move, but his every limb and head are all pierced by the orange spikes. He can't move.]
Ulrich: What are- How do you have that?
[Ai spots a large shape in the swarm. Pulls the sword out of her body with effort. Jumps back as Jäger resumes their earlier bought.]
[Axel takes out a copy of Ethan's pistol. Fires at the zweihander team. The drones around them clear out to give him a clear shot. They all go down with one shot to the chest, arm, or leg, their zweihanders clattering to the ground.]
Axel: [thinks] Why are they all dying in one hit. That's not convenient that's downright suspicious.
[There's still the last of the two avatars that dragged him outside the tower. It's keeping its distance and shooting at him.
Axel LP: 100 - 94 - 88 - 82 - 76 - 70 - 64
BING
LP has dropped below 70%. Switch to phase 2. {Nothing happens as Axel already has his halberd}
Axel moves in spinning halberd in front of him blocking bullets before slashing the shooter in half.
Axel: [thinks] I'm not healing. The only enemy type I can't heal from are kankrelots and sprites. What does that mean? Why do I heal from some MIB, but not others?
[The MIB with sabers he was fighting before exits the tower. Only it has something yellow in one of its hands.]
MIB123: Avatar Overlay.
[Gets a glowing yellow headband with twin tails from the back. The headband tails were slowly dissolving.]
Axel: Chamber
[Chamber extends his halberd into saber MIB soldier to instant kill it.
Saber shadow MIB: Super sprint
[It disappears from view. Axel spins around to find it stumbling behind him, trying to find its balance.
He and the saber MIB come at each other from opposite directions, him with halberd and it with sabers.]
DEE DEET
Axel: Refraction.
WCHUNK
[The axe heads spin around and Axel's momentum is reversed. The large axe head and Axel spin around and draw a line through its arms and torso. Or it would have if the saber shadow's after image didn't weave a blue contrail away under and around his Halberd shaft. Luckily the shadow landed a bit too far out of reach to counterattack before Axel reset his stance.]
Axel: [thinks] You don't have that ability down yet. It's new.
[Axel stops and lets the MIB come to him at super speed swinging.
He bounces the blade off his handguard, pins MIB's arms and blade with shaft, shoves soldier down with shoulder and locking his leg against the MIB's. A shove and twist to the side. Loses its swords and its knocked to the ground.
It gets up and tries to run.
Axel aims with the pistol. Fires on its back of legs. Takes a shot and goes to stab it with the small axe end of halberd.
KURRM
One of the block ships fly up next to the plateau. Lone Elite steps out and falls into a crouch on the plateau near the temple. Keeping the columns of the temple between him and where Axel was fighting. The drones swarm around Lone Elite and the ship.
Lone Elite sizes Axel up before he takes aim with his wrist, holding up and steadying his own arm as he walks between the columns to close the distance between himself and Axel.]
[Still Posi by Sunrise skater kids starts playing.] {1:20}
[From the statue garden, Odd had chased Ethan to a wide open park bordered by crystal trees. They both flew over and through packs of the MIB soldiers and in their hover carriers. Ethan manifested his thrusters and burst to the side to avoid their attacks as he came close to one of the vehicles. He boosts into the tree line and Odd follows.
{1:35}
Ethan tries to use the trees to break line of sight, but Odd maneuvers around them without crashing. They burst out onto the surface of a crystal lake made of gems instead of water. Ethan kicks up a few crystalline shards as he skims over the surface, but Odd churns up hard rigid waves in the wake of his overboard.
Both Odd's and Ethan's eyes get a flame around them.
Ethan has a monochrome vision of Odd shooting around at the lake's surface trying to get Ethan beneath the water. Odd has a monochrome vision of Ethan bursting out of the water to try and surprise him.]
Odd and Ethan: Well that's pointless now.
[Ethan turns to leave.]
Odd: Where are you going? You think you get a sneak peak for free?
[A random MIB falls out of the sky and knocks Ethan into the lake. The entire vision they both saw plays out. Ethan takes cover from Odd's arrows beneath the arches of an aqueduct carrying the river from the lake to the next plateau over. Odd follows him under. Ethan scraps his hand against the steel of the aqueduct-]
Ethan: Integration!
-And absorbs the bottom of the bridge. The crystal water pours down right in front of Odd. Odd pulls up unsurprised.
Odd: [looking around] Are you trying to get me wet? In this weather? Do you know what wet fur smells like?
[Ethan having doubled back around one of the arches, appears behind Odd. Odd blocks with the flat of his board.]
Ethan: Won't help you.
[Puts palms against the board, Odd fires the bottom thruster on his board. Both go flying back from the recoil, except Odd goes straight into the downpour and tumbles down, lost to sight.
Ethan steadies himself with the wings and switches tracks from the ships he was flying toward to a nearby half constructed building. He passes through the lattice of beams and across the huge empty floor with steal supports everywhere.
BURZINGINGING
Ethan LP: 70 - 64 - 58
Ethan wheels around to see Odd hot on his heels. As they move through the structure, the shadows from the cage of skeletal steel beams race around them. Ethan flies backwards and takes out his master rifle off his back.]
Ethan: You don't plan to fight, but gotta be prepared to put a bad dog down. And yes I know you're a cat! [Aims down sights at Odd.]
[Then one of the shadows moves and curves away from the straight lines toward Ethan.]
PRUNG-
BLADE BEAM
Ethan LP: 58 - 38
[Music cuts out.]
[Ethan recovers from his tumble, rights his flight, and stares at the stump of his arm with glowing red center in the middle of a blue wireframe, then watches as his weapon and hand fall to the ground as the two opponents race to catch up with him.]
William: Super smoke
[Turns into a mote of smoke the keeps pace with Odd on the overboard.]
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