Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance

by Joshua Anderle

  “The test doesn’t only score kills. You also have to factor how quickly you complete your objective, how much damage you take, doing bonus objectives, and all that stuff,” Izzy reminded the large duo.

  “You have to remember that not every team has a soldier or field-action class. What would, say, a mechanic and a medic have to do?” Silas asked.

  “Whatever it is, can’t be that fun.” Kaiden shrugged without real interest.

  “See? Trigger happy,” Marlo exclaimed, heading towards the door.

  “Says the guy who carries around a giant cannon,” Kaiden shot back.

  “Oh, come off it. Let’s get a bite to eat before we head out to workshops,” Izzy suggested from where she leaned against the wall next to the door.

  “I am feeling a bit peckish,” Kaiden admitted.

  “You going to go for more training tonight?” Silas asked him as he shouldered his own bag and walked up to the door with the rest of the group.

  “I’ve got a few points from the last few missions. I’ll go over them tonight while Chiyo looks over records of other Ace-Infiltrator tests to get an idea what we’re in for.”

  “At least one of you is putting in real work.” Luke chuckled.

  “I heard that, tin man,” Kaiden sneered.

  The group walked out of the room and then the gym, laughing and cracking jokes as they prepared for their latest challenge.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Jaxon rolled through the closing doors and Genos dove in behind him. “How much time do we have?”

  “A few minutes at most, kin Jaxon,” Genos replied, venting his machine gun. “I was only able to sabotage a dozen of the guardian droids. They will buy us some time from the scarabs and swarmers, but the numbers are too great for us to deal with them in the long term.”

  “It will be enough,” Jaxon said with determination, venting his rifle and retrieving his hand cannon with his free hand. He turned around and shot a power box linked to a doorway. The doors opened, and Jaxon ushered Genos along. “Go. When they get here, I will take them.”

  “I’m not sure if I can rewire the core in time. And if they are too great in number and defeat you…”

  Jaxon put his hand cannon away and placed a hand on Genos’ shoulder. “You can finish the objective. You are beyond skilled enough to do it quickly. And I am more than prepared for them.”

  Genos looked at his Tsuna clansman for a moment before nodding and handing him his machine gun. “This will aid you more than me.” Jaxon looked at the gun for a moment, then nodded and holstered his pistol and took the proffered weapon.

  Genos turned to leave. “I will keep up with you over the comms. We must be sure to get out of this together.”

  “Have no doubt about that. Now go!” Jaxon demanded, slamming the vent of his gun shut and taking aim at the closed door, awaiting the horde of bots.

  Kaiden looked over his talent options with a sigh. He had four points to burn and was considering his options.

  Beast Master: Increases knowledge of wildlife and their weaknesses in combat.

  Status: 0/5

  “I haven’t run across many guard dogs or attack muskrats in the simulations,” Kaiden said dryly and continued to scroll down the screen.

  Scent Trail: Enhances the ability of smell, allowing the user to better identify and track targets using the target’s scent.

  Status: 0/3

  “That’s…certainly different,” he muttered, looking the talent over with a wary eye. “I wonder if there’s some overlap with tracker and bounty hunter. I’d bet Raul already has this.”

  Deadshot: Increases natural aiming ability.

  Status: 0/2

  “How did I miss that the first time around?” Kaiden wondered as he removed his oculars and looked around the room. A desk stood in the corner near the door, and he got up from his bed, retrieved two empty canisters from a shelf, and placed them on the desk before walking back to his bed. He reached over to his nightstand for the static gun safely stowed in its holster.

  He aimed at one of the canisters, took a deep breath, and centered his sight on the small top of the canister. Carefully, he fired and saw the charge hit just below the top of the bottle, flipping it in the air before it crashed to the ground. He placed his oculars back on and looked at the talent once more.

  “Accept talent,” he ordered, looking at the Deadshot icon. He waited for a moment to feel the same rush he had when choosing his talents back with Laurie. A small vibration followed as he closed his eyes but nothing close to the level of the first time around. He frowned as he looked back to the other empty canister. Taking less time to center himself, he raised his gun again and fired. This time, the charge hit the top of the canister, which flipped in the air and then landed back on the desk, wobbling for a moment before standing still.

  “Huh. Well, it appears I can be an even greater shot than I already am.” He chuckled and placed the gun on the nightstand.

  “Your little bout of target practice is going to get that gun taken away from you,” Chief stated.

  “I’ll tell them the bottles attacked me and it was in self-defense,” he joked.

  Chief rolled his eye. “Of course, the bottles were planning a revolt for centuries. You snuffed out their leaders before it was too late.”

  Kaiden chuckled before leaning back on the bed. “The upgrade wasn’t as intense this time around. Was that because of the talent I chose or simply because I’ve gotten used to it now?”

  “The talents can’t be fully integrated until you are actually in the Animus. A fact you would remember if you actually took the Animus workshops instead of constantly running off to do training scenarios.”

  “That’s what I have you for, to fill me in on all the boring stuff,” he retorted as he slid the gun back into its holster and opened the nightstand drawer to store it once more.

  “Oh, good, I’m a glorified secretary,” Chief lamented.

  “More along the lines of a floating library, but that could work too.” Kaiden continued to scan through the other talent options.

  “How are you trying to build?” Chief asked, appearing in the lenses.

  “What do you mean?” Kaiden asked, momentarily distracted by the question.

  “Your build. It’s a term that means you choose your talents in such a way that you are trying to reach a certain end goal. To be a better fighter, to sustain yourself in the field, that sort of thing.”

  Kaiden mulled it over for a moment before giving a nonchalant shrug. “I guess I’m just trying to be more of a badass than I already am.”

  “You say that so much you make it sound like it’s a profession or title to acquire,” Chief mocked. “Ladies and gentlemen, your entertainment tonight is Kain the bloody face versus Kaiden the southern badass.”

  “You make it sound like that’s a bad thing to aspire to,” he sneered. “I’m a soldier. Every soldier has got to have a little badass in them.”

  “Fine, we’ll go with that. But what, specifically, do you want to be a badass in?”

  “I don’t know. I’m kinda winging this at the moment,” Kaiden admitted. “Maybe work on being a punisher, someone who can really take it to my enemies. Or maybe something like a walking killing machine, nailing hostiles in a swarm of gunfire.”

  “Ladies and gentlemen, Kaiden has decided to take on a new title: Kaiden, the destroyer of worlds.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I get it,” he chided. “Do you have a problem with that? I’m playing to my strengths.”

  “You’re gonna be good at that stuff anyway. Expand your mind a little. That strategic mind talent worked out pretty good, didn’t it?” Chief reminded him.

  Kaiden thought about it. “I guess it did, all things considered. Made fighting Raza and Wulfson more bearable, at least. It’s worked all right during the training missions with Chiyo too.”

  “Then you should focus on that,” Chief declared. “It lets you still work on your fantasy of being Kaiden the
doom lord while giving you a different trick up your sleeve. Diversify your skill portfolio and all that.”

  “I guess it’ll make the Ace tests a lot easier.” Kaiden pondered the options. “But maybe that’s something I should leave for later. I should focus on my own skills for the test tomorrow.”

  “Has Chiyo told you her talents?”

  “A couple days ago. You were there, obviously. You didn’t hear?”

  “I was too busy trying to get into that stupid fox’s systems,” the EI answered.

  “To do what?” Kaiden questioned, looking up at the EI’s avatar.

  “So that we could share information and perhaps get to know each other better,” Chief said sarcastically. “At least that’s what I told him. I wanted to see if I could outsmart that smug vulpine bastard.”

  Kaiden laughed. “What is your deal with him? You’ve only interacted with Kaitō a few times, and you act like you two have a blood feud. Ironic, considering the intangibility and all.”

  “You can’t see it, but that is a devious sonofabitch…I’ll get him, you wait and see,” Chief threatened as he turned a deep shade of hateful red.

  Kaiden continued to chuckle. “Your irrational hatred of him is just damn funny to me.” Kaiden released a couple of quick laughs before turning stone-faced. “But seriously, stop trying to tamper with my partner’s EI. You know how much trouble that would cause?”

  “I wasn’t going to do anything too bad. Maybe delete some memory files or upload a couple terabytes of porn, maybe change his color to pink so that he could be Kaitō the fox princess of the cyber forest. You know, some good-humored pranks.”

  “You know, this is saying a lot about your maturity level.” Kaiden sighed. “I can’t even believe you’re able to try to do that on your own. I guess I’ll have to be more specific in my orders.”

  “I am here to serve, good sir,” Chief bellowed, spinning around in the lens. “And since I am here, and while we’re on the subject, might I make another suggestion for your talents?”

  “Why not?” Chief changed the tab and scrolled down the screen,

  Next-Gen: Increases EI processing, scanning, and hacking capabilities.

  Status: 1/3 (Requires two points to upgrade)

  Kaiden narrowed his eyes. “Hell no.”

  Genos ran down the hall, his pistol in hand in case he should run into any droids along his path. He found the door to the core room. It was thick and durable, so he wouldn’t be able to get through with his pistol. He would have to double back and find the power source and deactivate it. If only he had some sort of large explosive.

  “Intruder at the door to the core room. Intruder! Intruder!”

  Genos looked back to see a havoc-model droid. It stood seven feet tall and was encased in heavy armor. Solid black with a red visor, it sported a chain gun for a left arm and four claws on its right, shimmering with electricity.

  It would do.

  Genos retrieved his hover-board. There wasn’t much room to maneuver, but the havoc-model droids were built for heavy attack and not maneuverability. He merely had to get around it, and he would be in the clear. He raced down the hall toward the droid, put his pistol away, and activated his mechanist gauntlet, a metallic device that wrapped around his arm and held numerous tools for his use.

  The droid’s chain gun began to spin, firing a multitude of bullets at the Tsuna. Genos was able to stay out of the reach of the slugs, sliding slightly to the left as the droid fanned its gun across the hallway. He jumped off his board, and it slammed into the wall and then to the floor. Genos landed and dashed towards the droid, which turned slowly to aim back at him. He slid under the attacker and leaped onto its back. Holding fast with one hand, he placed four of his fingers together. Four panels slid over them on his gauntlet to create a crowbar that he used to pull the back of the havoc droid’s head off.

  “Danger! Hostile tampering with unit,” the droid bellowed, reaching back with its electrified claw to try to grab at Genos. This was exactly what he wanted. He ducked out of the way of the strike, holding on to the droids opposite shoulder as he formed a “C” with the gauntleted hand. The gauntlet created a clamp that he used to catch the droid’s electrified prongs. He whipped it back, then plunged it into the machine’s head.

  The droid thrashed around for a moment as Genos leaped off. The lights behind its visor disappeared, and it fell to the ground. He had to hurry since it would reboot soon. Quickly, he recovered his board and used it to move the droid near the door. He opened the mechanical chest and found its power unit. A small prong appeared when he raised his pointer finger. He used it to move some of the wiring around and then flicked the finger in the air. The prong disappeared, and a power drill took its pace. Genos used it to open a panel connected to the power unit. He flicked the finger again, and this time it changed to another prong with a four-point claw that he used to remove two small nodes in the panel.

  The core began to emit immense heat, and Genos stood up and ran to the end of the hall. He took cover behind the wall and peeked around the corner to see the droid beginning to reactivate.

  “Warning! Power overload. Explosion in—” The droid exploded before finishing its warning. Genos placed his hands over his ears and dropped to his knees as the force of the explosion threatened to knock him off his feet. When it died down, he looked back to see both the droid and the door in pieces. He could have done something a little more subtle, but now wasn’t the moment.

  Conscious of the time, he ran through the doors and identified pieces of several other droids that were apparently also caught in the blast. Maybe this had been the correct option, after all. He saw a large window at the end of the hall. Inside was an orb with bright lights illuminating the space and several large tubes attached to it. This was the core, and the mission was to shut it down before it went critical.

  He ran over to the control panel and saw a warning reading that there were only two minutes until detonation.

  Genos breathed a sigh of relief. Plenty of time.

  He activated the emergency venting and powered down several machines and devices throughout the facility, including the swarmers and scarabs, something he was sure kin Jaxon would approve of. Then he used his gauntlet to pry open the console, extending his finger again and summoning a pair of snippers.

  With extra care, he cut through several wires, causing a slow shut down of the core. Too much at once could cause a power dump and they would be dealing with a different but equally problematic explosion.

  “Intruder in the core room. All guardians requested for defense,” a synthetic voice announced through the speakers above the console.

  Genos frowned. He should have taken precautions. With a shrug, he snipped the wire that allowed the voice to talk. It would still send out a warning, but at least it would be silent.

  He finished his work and watched as the core began to cool. A quick glance at the panel showed the energy draining quickly. It would take a few more minutes, but they were in the clear.

  “Intruder! Intruder! Must eliminate intruder,” a cacophony of several synthetic voices declared. Genos turned to see a small team of six guardian droids coming down the hall. He yanked his pistol out and hid behind an adjacent console. Now, all he had to do was survive.

  As he prepared to turn and battle the incoming droids, he heard laser fire erupt down the hall. Metal hit the floor, followed by the electrical zaps of fried wires. He peeked around his defense to see Jaxon walking towards him, his rifle in one hand and Genos’ machine gun in the other. The guardian droids lay in a heap on the floor.

  “Excellent display of violence, kin. I trust everything went well?” Genos asked as he stood and walked over to meet Jaxon.

  “It certainly went better once the nuisance droids deactivated. Your doing?” Jaxon inquired as he tossed Genos’ machine gun back to him.

  “Indeed. This console also had access to control the droids throughout this building. I had to shut down a few of the f
unctions to cool the core down and figured that would be quite helpful,” he explained as he inspected his machine gun.

  “A sound decision. Although I’m guessing that didn’t include all of the droids considering…” Jaxon motioned at the guardians he had just eliminated.

  “Only some. I couldn’t risk shutting everything down at once.”

  “Understood. It’ll give us something to do as we make our way out of here, assuming the core is deactivated?”

  Genos looked over to the console now pried apart with severed wires strewn about. “Quite deactivated. It’ll take a couple more minutes to power down completely. Would you like to destroy it to be sure?”

  “I’ll trust your judgment. The objective was simply to deactivate it before meltdown, and you accomplished that. We can head out,” Jaxon ordered.

  “Following right behind you,” Genos acknowledged, raising his gun.

  “And Genos? Well done.” Jaxon walked out through the destroyed doors and into the hall.

  “Thank you, and to you as well, kin Jaxon. I am now looking forward to my future missions,” he whispered and followed Jaxon quickly as they began their retreat.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Kaiden sat at his usual table, finishing off his pancakes as he looked around at the couple of hundred students around the plaza. Some sat in groups, talking excitedly, while others scarfed down their breakfast, in a hurry to head to the Animus Center. It was barely past six in the morning, and the Co-op tests had already begun.

  Kaiden tapped his plastic fork against his cup of juice, looking around for Chiyo. It was kind of odd for her to be this late.

  “You ready, partner?” Chief asked, appearing over his shoulder.

  Kaiden gulped down the last bit of pancake. “More than I was for the Division test. But can’t say for sure. I don’t really know what we’re going to be dealing with.”