“At least it’s better footing.” He grunted, rolled to the side, and fired at a grunt who ran down a hill. He heard a beastly shriek behind him and saw a devil bird flying overhead. “Hey, look, it’s our old buddy.”
“Don’t jump on it this time,” the EI demanded.
“I don’t have any grenades this time. That’s a problem,” he muttered, and a laser shot skimmed the side of his mask. “And I have to deal with these assholes.” He turned and fired, taking out an Assault droid as another raised its rifle to fire. A spike suddenly jutted from its head, and it collapsed. Flynn saluted in the distance and pointed to the west.
Kaiden looked over to see Chiyo kneeling by the node. He ran over, venting his rifle along the way as Flynn and Amber distracted the others.
“Hey, how’s it going, Chi?” he asked, his breath ragged.
“I’ve got a direct connection, but it keeps shutting me out of its systems. It’s too fast, even with Kaitō’s help,” she said, her tone annoyed as she kept typing on her tablet.
Kaiden looked up and sent four consecutive shots at an encroaching heavy merc. The first three blasts cracked his armor, and the fourth seared his chest and made him collapse. “You gotta keep an eye out. Screw it, let’s do this the normal way.” He spun around and shot the legs off an Assault droid that tried to ambush them, took his blade and dug it into its neck, and tore out the circuits, deactivating it. “You do your thing, I’ll do mine.” He handed her his barrier projector. “It’s only at eighteen percent recharge. Not a lot of juice left, but hopefully it helps.”
“Thank you.” She took the projector. “I’ll try everything I can. We are not going to lose here.”
“Damn straight,” he agreed. “Chief, help her out any way you can.”
“On it, partner,” he acknowledged. “I’m at your disposal, ma’am.”
Kaiden left them to help Flynn and Amber. After another flash, they were now on a remote island. The ace perched on the edge of a sandbank while Amber and Flynn were knee-deep in water.
“What the hell is this now?” Flynn hissed.
“Something’s in the water, Flynn,” Amber warned. He looked over to see a large shadowy shape flow toward them.
“Ningen,” the marksman shouted. He grabbed Amber and raced to shore, then stowed his rifle and drew his pistol to shoot any enemies blocking their path.
Kaiden fired, covering their retreat as he saw the water surge. A giant pale-white being emerged, humanoid in shape but with large fin-like hands and a lanky body. It reached out with one of its long limbs and tried to catch Amber, but Flynn grabbed her and threw her out of its reach as he fell back to keep himself from getting caught.
The ace ran over to help before getting snatched, held by his left shoulder, and whisked up into the air, dropping his rifle during the ascent. He lashed out before yelling in pain and anger as he felt talons digging into him. He was in the devil bird’s clutches. He considered his options quickly—he had no explosives left, but he did have the cannon. All he needed was to find an opportunity to fire, but he would have to be closer to the ground. If the creature dropped him from too high up it would kill him on impact.
He still had his blade, so he hit the trigger to heat it and sliced at the mutant’s talons. The bird shrieked and released him, but he grabbed the base of its foot and stopped himself from falling. He climbed up the mutant’s leg, trying not to look down as he got as close as he could to the top, slicing at the bird’s wings as they flapped in the air. It wasn’t doing much damage, but it kept the mutant’s attention. The devil bird began to dive, swooping around as it tried to knock him off.
Kaiden held firm as he stowed the blade and took out the cannon. He charged it and aimed at the creature’s head, able to angle the shot as it descended. Holding his breath, he fired and heard a croak and a whimper on impact. The body thrashed around, slowing the fall. When he was close enough, he hopped off as another flash obscured his vision. When he opened his eyes, he was falling toward a spike on the upper half of a wall. Quickly, he charged up a partial shot from the cannon and fired behind him, the force moving him barely enough to miss being impaled before he crashed through the top of a tent.
The ace scrambled to his feet and looked around. They were in some sort of merc camp now. The ningen had disappeared but he saw Flynn and Amber swarmed by mercs of various classes. As he staggered up, he looked at the cannon. The indicator showed low power, so he had to conserve his shots. Regretfully, he put it away and reached for his rifle, then realized it wasn’t there. With a curse, he drew Debonair. As he charged into the fray, he looked around for Chiyo, not seeing her in the field. She must have holed up in one of the buildings.
He slid down and fired six shots at three different grunts, killing them all in a hail of laser fire. His feet found purchase, and he stood and whipped his pistol across the face of a hitman before firing another shot at the exposed head of a sniper. Quickly, he crossed Debonair under his arm and fired two shots into the hitman to finish him off.
Kaiden heard an explosion and turned in time to catch a sniper rifle flying in the air and see Flynn tumbling toward him. He helped him up and gave him his rifle. “You need to keep better track of this.”
“She always finds her way back to me.” Flynn chuckled, nodding in thanks as he took the rifle. “Bastards just keep coming.”
“Where’s Amber?” the ace asked.
“We got separated for a minute. I was heading back but got caught in that explosion,” he explained. “You know how Chiyo is doing?”
“Not really. I wouldn’t say she’s met her match just yet, but she’s having a hell of a time taking care of that Director.”
“Then we’ll keep fighting,” Flynn vowed, reloading his rifle. “Help me find Amber.”
“There she is,” Kaiden said, pointing to the battle medic in the distance. She waved frantically, pointing behind them.
“What’s she doing? She’s completely exposed,” he stated.
The marksman placed his fingers against his helmet, activating the comm. “Amber, what are you—” He looked behind him and quickly pushed his teammate aside.
The ace slid back and watched in horror as a merc with a chain blade sliced clean through the other man, Flynn vanishing as his body was bisected. Kaiden roared in anger as he tackled the merc to the ground, firing continual shots from Debonair into the adversary’s helmet until it began to melt, and blood seeped from the cracks and down his neck. He stood and ran to Amber, who was too distraught to see the merc coming after her with a cleaver. He fired, but Debonair was overheated. Undaunted, he sprinted past her and blocked the merc’s attack using the armor on his arms. He pushed him back, taking out his own blade and parrying the aggressor’s swipe before jamming his knife through the merc’s visor.
Kaiden yanked his knife out and walked over to Amber, then helped her up. “I’m sorry, I should have been paying more attention.”
“No… It’s all right. We can still win this, make up for everyone who has sacrificed themselves so far,” Amber vowed. “We need to get back to Chiyo. The two of us alone won’t be able to continue with this onslaught.”
“No kidding. I don’t even have my rifle anymore.” He growled as he saw some of the tents behind Amber disappear. Mercs in the distance froze, and the sky became a violet color before fracturing like a broken screen
“Kaiden, get back here. It’s almost done,” Chief hollered.
“Chiyo got in?” he asked.
“No, we weren’t able to get through. Even with all of us working together we couldn’t shut it down, but we found a loophole. We’ve been sending junk data and random commands into it, trying to overload it. It’s working, right?”
“Some weird shit just went down so I would say that it is,” he confirmed.
“Then hurry up. Chiyo said that this should expose its core, and we need some firepower to take it—” Chief cut off as the ace heard a loud discharge of static.
“Chief
!? What happened!?”
“Get ba-back,” the EI stammered, his voice fuzzy and distorted.
Kaiden activated his network, locating the building they were in. He and Amber raced over as the mercenary camp around them began to distort and fall away to reveal the original sanctum of the EI Director, now all white. The ground beneath the ace changed to a hard-light bridge as he ran to Chiyo, who was convulsing on the ground . The node was sparking, and electricity snapped and fizzled around it.
He knelt and picked her up but felt pain shoot through his arm as he touched her. “Chiyo?”
“An electrical spike. It fried her. Probably a last-ditch effort from the Director. It didn’t kill her, but she’s out of commission for a bit,” Chief stated, coming back online. “Spiteful son of a bitch. The damage was already done.”
He looked up to see the orb disappear and a small metallic orb with several mirror-like circles adorning it appeared. “That’s it, Kaiden. Take it down, and we win.”
Kaiden dropped Debonair and drew Genos’ cannon, charging up a blast and aiming at the core. As he fired, a Goliath droid appeared, taking the blast and staggering back.
“Goddammit. Just accept your loss, you bulbous ass,” Chief cried. “Move and take another shot.”
“There’s not enough energy for a full blast,” he yelled, holding Chiyo as he walked back while Amber fired at the Goliath with her SMG.
“Then do what Genos does. If it’s still got a little power left, overclock that bitch and make it an explosive.”
“Can you tell me how?” he asked.
“Shut the vent fully, pull and lock the trigger, and deactivate the protection field—small button on the back. It’ll go from blue to red.”
Kaiden followed Chief’s instructions and felt the cannon heating up in his hands. Chiyo stirred, looking up. “Is it done, Kaiden?”
“Almost. Wait here.” he said, laying her down. “This won’t do any good if no one is here to be declared the victor.”
“It’s going to blow soon, Kaiden. Get up there,” Chief ordered.
He nodded, covering his face as the Goliath blasted at Amber. She rolled to the edge of the bridge but remained on it. The ace ran forward and threw himself onto the Goliath. He climbed up, the droid smashing one of its cannons against itself in an attempt to hit him. The ace reached for the hand and leaped. He could hear the cannon snap and whir, and it began to burn his hands through his gloves. His jump landed him on the edge of a pillar, and he climbed up just as the Goliath fired. The blast broke the pillar and sent it crashing into the abyss. Kaiden raced up as the pillar fell, jumped into the air, craning his arm back.
“End this, partner,” Chief bellowed.
The soldier flung the cannon at the core and saw a small image of the Director begin to form. The cannon erupted, catching Kaiden in the blast. As he began to fade away, he could hear the room fall apart and saw the core explode, smiling as another wave burst him apart.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chiyo awoke to see two figures looming over her. She blinked several times before her vision cleared to reveal the worried face of Genos and Kaiden’s grin. “Howdy! Nice of you to come back to us.”
“Uh, my head is pounding,” she muttered. The ace helped her out of the pod. “I don’t know about total score, but you probably do have the dubious honor of being the one who got knocked around the most.”
“I suppose it can’t be you every time.” She sighed and stretched her limbs.
“Nice to see you're still feeling good enough to make snappy comebacks.” He chortled.
“I’m glad that both of you are safe,” Genos stated, clasping his hands together. “I watched your progress on the console, and you did fantastically. Even despite the strange changes, I would have liked to have accompanied you to that island. I wonder what that white aquatic creature was. It looked similar to a beast from Abisalo.”
“You’d have to ask Flynn. He seemed to know enough about it to know to run away,” Kaiden told him.
“I shall bring it up later. For now, congratulations to both of you.”
“We made it?” Chiyo asked.
“Indeed we did.” The ace beamed. “You were pretty out of it for the last part. I heard you took quite a shock.”
“Right, yes. We were sending junk data into the Director, then I felt my body go stiff and my vision blurred. I thought I had been de-synced.”
“Chief says the Director shot you with an electrical spike, probably as some final attack or because it was annoyed that you found a workaround,” Kaiden explained. “Glad you made it, since otherwise I’m not sure if it would have counted as a win. I had to make a suicide charge at the core to take it out.”
“I have to tell you it concerns me that such a tactic is becoming common for you,” the Tsuna noted. “You should work on trying different strategies next year.”
“Says you,” he scoffed. “Considering how you took yourself out? But I do have to say it was some quick thinking on your part. Pretty noble, too.”
“Yes, well, not many options at our disposal,” Genos admitted sheepishly. “I’m glad it saved you. Both you and Chiyo were more important for the mission than I was.”
“Don’t think like that, buddy.” Kaiden clapped him on the back. “You ain’t no wet blanket with a rifle or a cannon, especially when we’re dealing with bots. Speaking of which, thanks for leaving that with us. Was that intentional?”
Genos tapped a finger on his infuser. “Well, before I attacked the droid, I was thinking—” His statement was interrupted by a knock at the door of their private room.
“Who is it?” the ace asked.
“Get your asses out here,” Advisor Faraji ordered.
“I think it’s for you,” he said to Chiyo. She shook her head and opened the door, Genos and Kaiden following. Standing before them were a frowning Faraji and Head Monitor Zhang, an expressionless stare on his face.
“Are we in some sort of trouble” Genos inquired, looking at Kaiden and Chiyo.
“I don’t know why we would be,” the infiltrator said with a shrug.
“So, what do you think?” Kaiden asked, resting his arms behind his head. “First team to truly win the squad test in twenty years. I think that makes three records I’ve beaten? I should get some sort of prize or banner for that. Find a way to hang it in the plaza.”
Faraji’s frown quickly switched to a smile. “I was hoping to make you sweat a little.”
“Might have worked, but the head monitor wasn’t exactly playing along,” the ace pointed out.
Zhang drew in a deep breath. “I prefer to keep things orderly, as you well know. Your excursion through the test was a rather interesting development. With your completion, you jettisoned the remaining students from the test,” he revealed.
“Our bad?” Kaiden said tentatively. “I guess we didn’t think how it would affect the others. But hey, they could have been gunning for the Director too. The only reason we—or I guess I should say, Chiyo—decided to look into it was your cryptic-ass statement during the orientation.”
“Would you quit it?” Akello seethed through clenched teeth and knocked Kaiden in the ribs. “That’s the head monitor you're talking to, and you’re one of my students. Don’t make me look bad.”
“It is all right, Advisor Faraji,” Zhang said impassively. “I haven’t had many personal interactions with Initiate Jericho, but Commander Sasha informed me of his colorful personality.”
“Does he talk to everyone about me?” the ace wondered aloud. “Speaking of which, where is he? I feel like bragging to someone some more."
“You should make your way to the lobby shortly. Most of the Initiates and faculty will gather there. I expect him to show up soon, now that the test has been abruptly concluded.”
“Again with that? Do you want us to say we’re sorry?”
Zhang shook his head. “No. It’s merely a statement of fact. I should say that despite the sudden end for the other init
iates and the change to the points, I am happy to have overseen the first time this event has occurred in two decades.” He turned away from the group and said over his shoulder, “Besides, I have prepared for this eventuality ever since I was an advisor. It’s good that my planning didn’t go to waste.” He went down the hall and headed for the stairs but paused and turned back. “By the way, Kaiden, you should note that you are technically not the only team who won the test. Sorry if that cools you off a bit.”
“Wait, what?” Kaiden questioned, “Who else— Wait, Amber was still there. That means her team won too?”
“You may have struck the final blow, but she and Flynn helped you guys,” Akello reminded him. “You really gonna dispute that?”
He placed his hands in his pockets and sighed. “Nah, they did good work. No reason to not let them have some of the glory. Just be sure you get to work on that banner, all right?”
“Good luck with that,” Akello deadpanned. She turned and beamed at Chiyo and Genos. “Now, on to students I actually like. Well done to the both of you.”
“Thank you, Advisor,” Genos said with a bow.
“Thank you, Akello.” Chiyo smiled. “If we have any sort of celebrations afterward, feel free to join us.”
“Oh, there’ll definitely be celebrations,” Kaiden promised.
“I second that,” Akello agreed “But it’s time to wrap this up for you initiates. Pass through the gate, on to the next level, all that jazz.” She turned and gestured for them to follow. “Let’s go. I’m sure everyone wants to see the winners.”
“Kaiden,” Luke bellowed as the ace walked down the stairs. He turned to see the titan soldier waving from the end of the hall, pushing through the throngs of gathered students. “Gotta keep making the rest of us look bad, huh?”
“I got a reputation to maintain.” He grinned. “Where are the others?”
“Cameron and Raul were behind me like a minute ago.” Luke scratched the back of his head as if bewildered.
“People don’t move out of the way for us like they do for you,” Raul muttered as he and Cameron finally caught up to their bigger teammate.
Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance Page 91
