Her thought was interrupted by a loud explosion but from the distance this time. For a moment, she feared the worst until a message popped up from Chief.
“Do what you need to. Let’s get this bastard.”
Kaiden tossed a thermal up and down in his hand. “You thought that was enough to kill me?” he roared and lobbed the thermal at Dario, who created another wall with his nanos to shield himself from the blast.
“I had hoped not, but I’ve had quite the fun time with your friend,” the man responded. “You keep throwing those at me. I assume your EI has told you about my nanos?”
Chief had certainly done so, but with the vision the EI granted him, he could also see them—thousands of tiny lights filled the sky.
“I imagine you think you can whittle them down. A fine idea, I suppose. I do have a finite amount,” he confessed and created several explosive orbs as he spoke. “But can you do it quickly?”
He arced the orbs toward the ace, who raised the rifle he’d taken from the golem. The missiles flew in erratic patterns in an attempt to confuse him, but he annihilated them with ease before he lobbed his last thermal at Dario. The assailant smiled as he formed another wall to defend himself. When the blast erupted, he dismissed the shield and created more spears but Kaiden threw the rifle itself at him. It glowed red and the man snickered as he quickly remade his shield. He let the overloading rifle explode before he opened the shield to discover that his quarry had gone.
Without warning, he was struck from the side by several blasts that seared through his armored jacket. He moved his nanos to block the rest of the shots, but pain already burned in his side. His smile, however, didn’t falter. He straightened and ignored the blood that ran down his chest and leg as he searched for his opponent.
The ace stood on the opposite rooftop with another rifle and vented it as he raised Debonair. “Will you take this seriously now?”
Dario looked at him. Up until this point, he had merely been the target of a mission. Now, he stood as a worthy opponent. He studied the young soldier with glee on his face. “Magnifico.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“This weak piece of junk.” Kaiden hissed his annoyance and vented the rifle he’d appropriated. “They thought this would be enough to kill us?”
“You severely underestimate the power of that weapon, Kaiden,” Dario responded as he jumped from his perch. His nanos swirled around him. “That or you underestimate the effectiveness of my fashion.” He laughed and traced the folds of his jacket.
“Are you simply taking comfort in the knowledge that you’ll die pretty?” The ace aimed the rifle once more and snapped the vent shut. “I don’t exactly know how you control those things. The gauntlets obviously play a part, but you aren’t moving that quickly, which makes you an easy target once I have that figured out.”
“It takes a fair amount of concentration since I don’t control them by traditional means. You’re quite right on that, mio amico,” the man confessed and twirled a hand in the air as if he tried to pet the multitude of miniscule machines around him.
“Chief, I thought translations were on,” Kaiden murmured.
“He’s speaking English for the most part. I think he simply adds the Italian for flavor or something.”
The ace sighed. “As long as his last words are ‘dammit, I’m dying,’ I don’t really care what language it’s in.”
“Tell me, Kaiden,” Dario began and spread his arms wide. “Have you ever faced an opponent like me?”
“Overconfident jackasses? Yeah, most of them are,” he replied and released the trigger. The blasts struck a shield of amber energy in front of his opponent.
“I referred to my weapon of choice,” the man retorted. “I started this fight with one hundred thousand nanos. I’m now down to about forty-seven thousand.” He glanced at Kaiden’s waist. “You seem to be out of grenades, so I’ll ask again. Do you believe you can whittle down the rest with only laser fire?”
Kaiden’s hope was that Chiyo would be able to find a way around them. He needed to make contact with her, but he had received no reply yet. For now, the best he could do was continue to stall. He fired several more shots and all of them were simply blocked by the shield.
“I should let you know that I can create fields by expanding the energy inside them to one another,” his adversary revealed and clicked his fingers as several blasters formed above him, all aimed at the ace. “Although you seem quite intelligent. I’m sure you’re already aware of that.”
“Why do the guys with the fancy weapons always insist on bragging about them?” he grumbled and vented the rifle as he looked for escape options. “I probably could have, but Chief filled me in plenty.”
“Ah, yes, your EI.” Dario almost purred the words as the blasters above him began to charge. “My boss was quite interested in that.”
“What for?” he demanded. “Are you one of those Arbiter guys Laurie was talking about?”
“Kaiden, you need to retreat,” Chief warned.
“What for? We need to buy Chiyo time.”
“Pay attention. Some of the nanos have broken off and are floating your way.” He peered at small clusters of light that hovered slowly around him.
“They aren’t that powerful by themselves, right? That’s why he keeps making stuff with them.”
“He’s trying to get them inside you, through orifices or wounds,” the EI explained. “They can’t move that quickly on their own. But if he gets enough into you, he can simply detonate them and kill you from the inside. That’s why I said not to use the Battle Suite. The heightened condition gives them much easier access because they’re drawn by the energy.”
Kaiden glanced around hastily and decided he had a few spare seconds. He reached to the back of his belt. “Chief, can shocks do anything to these nanos?”
“They will disable them temporarily. I’m sure he’ll have the ones that are still working reactivate them.”
“That’ll do.” He retrieved one of the two static mines he’d borrowed from Indre’s stash, flung it at the shield, and fired at it to cause it to erupt. The shield protecting Dario shut down and the ace leapt off the edge of the roof, drew Debonair, and fired four quick shots before he fell out of view. He flipped, landed smoothly, and raced down the alley to a central plaza.
A rapid volley behind him confirmed a further attack. He closed the vent of his rifle and rolled out of the way. One of the shots caught the top of his foot and melted away the little remaining armor. He turned and fired at the pursuing blasters and managed to destroy half of the six. The other three spread out and continued the onslaught. A standing billboard would provide some cover, he realized, whether the machines were automated or not. He sprinted toward it while he maintained a steady stream of fire behind him One of his shots struck home, but the scorched nanos simply fell while the rest reformed into a smaller blaster. The mechanicals were persistent even in the face of determined retaliation.
Kaiden made it into the cover of the billboard but the shots penetrated it easily, which wasn’t surprising, but it did serve his primary purpose, which was merely to get out of clear view. He vented his rifle—prematurely as he still had a few shots left, but if he had another opportunity to take a shot at Dario, he didn’t want to risk being overheated. A whistling sound alerted him, and he ducked as two spears tore through the billboard. They immediately disassembled and transformed into bombs.
“Shit!” he cursed and flung himself away as they exploded. He escaped direct injury, but the force hurled him farther down the plaza. With no time to catch his breath, he rolled, slammed the vent shut, and fired at the blasters before they could attack and obliterated them. He grimaced at a field of lights above him that almost covered the sky.
“This is the worst.” He grunted morosely and pushed to his feet to prepare for an attack.
“He might not be very mobile, but if he keeps his opponents at bay, that doesn’t seem to be a problem,” Chief commented
.
“It makes it my problem, though,” he muttered. “Any word from Chi?”
“I just got one from Kaitō. He says she’s almost ready but there’s nothing she can make quickly that will stop them permanently. She’ll release a signal that will pause them temporarily.”
“They’ll only freeze, then?”
“For a minute, maybe.”
He nodded and remained focused on the hovering nanos. “That’ll be enough. Tell her to let me know when she’s ready and I’ll tell her when to activate it.”
Finally, a dozen of explosives formed above. The ace selected the remaining mine. “Hopefully, she’s ready soon.” He threw it as the bombs descended and fired at it seconds before the bombs erupted to release a wave of electricity that surged through the sky.
“Genos,” Indre shouted, temporarily distracted from the droids. She turned quickly and fired one of her EMP missiles into the horde to deactivate several at once as she continued to fire to keep them away from her and the team.
Jaxon roared with frustration as he tried to fire his machine gun, only for it to fail from overheating. He threw it to the side, snatched up Genos’ cannon, and fired at the assassin. The orb-shaped projectiles were easy for her to avoid and she even used her shield to redirect one of them at Flynn, who had prepared to fire. He evaded it with a jump but tumbled from the force when the blast struck the wall.
Yvette drew a pistol and aimed at the distracted Indre. Jaxon prepared to fire but hesitated for a moment, worried she would deflect it again and harm his teammates. He flicked his free hand and his blade slid from its compartment. In a swift, smooth motion, he reversed it in his palm, leaned back, and pitched it at their adversary as he yelled for Indre to move away.
Yvette caught the blade in her free hand as she fired with the other. Indre dove to the floor and the blast sailed over her and struck one of the remaining droids. The agent activated a shield device and held it above her as the assassin and six remaining droids released another round of shots. Jaxon swung the cannon to the droids, charged a shot, and fired at the floor. The blast destroyed four in a surge of energy and the other two were knocked back. Two well-placed shots through the head annihilated them. Flynn had recovered and gave him a thumbs-up.
Indre deactivated the shielding device as she rolled into a seated position and flung it at the assassin, who simply craned her neck to the side to dodge the makeshift projectile. Before the device reactivated, a blow from behind her thrust her forward. She planted one hand on the floor, flipped herself to the side, and retrieved her sword. The weapon swung as she whirled toward the remaining Tsuna in an attempt to cut him down. She cursed when her blade was caught and tried to yank it free from Genos, who grasped it firmly in his claw.
“It is rather fortunate that you don’t seem familiar with my anatomy,” he muttered and crushed the metal before he swiped at her. She ducked under the attack and fired two bolts from her gauntlet at Jaxon. They struck home, but if he was surprised or in pain, he didn’t show it. Instead, he tossed his teammate his cannon as he drew his hand cannon. Yvette responded with a shot from her pistol aimed at the ace’s helmet, which broke the shielding. She prepared to fire another when the pistol burst apart. Shards embedded into her hand through her suit. She glanced up with another loud curse as Flynn readied to fire another shot. Her HUD began to shimmer, and her visuals cut off before a burning pain flared in her back and she collapsed.
Indre stood and shook her arm as static surged across it. “Remind me to configure this gauntlet properly next time. The sucker delivers way too much output.”
Chapter Thirty
“Kaitō, tell him it’s ready,” Chiyo ordered as she raced down the alley. She winced at another explosion. “He had better not be dead.”
“At once, madame,” the EI confirmed. “You’ll have to get quite close, yes?”
“For it to be effective, yes. If I’m more than ten yards away from him, it’ll only last seconds instead of a minute.” As the alley narrowed, she vaulted onto a wall and quickly launched herself off to grasp the edge of a roof. She hauled herself up but was greeted by a blaster aimed directly at her and let go as it fired. Thankfully, she managed to land without injury.
“Mio caro, I wondered where you went,” Dario called. The infiltrator armed herself with her sub-machine gun before she leapt onto the wall once again. This time, she jumped onto the next one and used that to launch herself to the opposite, taller building. She turned and fired at the blaster and the two new ones that had joined it and eliminated them as she landed. In a half-crouch she took a moment to survey the situation. He stood with his arms folded and smiled at her from approximately forty yards away.
At first, she felt a chill when she didn’t see Kaiden, but after another explosion, he lunged from the smoke and landed only a couple buildings away from their adversary. He looked ready to fire on their attacker.
Are you ready? The message popped up on her visor and she looked quickly at her partner. He was focused on her and waited for a response. She nodded and held the Genesis device behind her back. The ace fired a concerted volley as she sprinted across the rooftops. The other man formed a shield to deal with the attack and created blasters and spears to pursue her at the same time.
Chiyo took out a static grenade and lobbed it behind her but was only able to demolish a couple of spears in midflight. The more agile blasters simply moved out of the way. Kaiden’s rifle began to overheat. He opened the vent and drew Debonair to continue the attack and managed to shatter the shield, which was simply replaced by another.
“Kaiden, behind you.” He looked back as a swarm of nanos closed in, no doubt sent to crawl their way into him. With a grimace, he lowered Debonair, walked up to the shield, and began beating on it to catch Dario’s attention.
His opponent laughed merrily. “You really are tenacious, aren’t you, Kaiden?” He raised an arm and a larger bomb began to form overhead. “You whittled it down to twenty-four thousand. That’s quite an accomplishment. I might have had a little too much fun. Most of my work is in assassination, so I don’t really get the chance to enjoy my—”
“Kaiden!” Chiyo shouted and both men looked at her as she raised the device.
“Do it!”
Dario glared at the infiltrator. “You shouldn’t interrupt a good time.” He growled his annoyance and sent a line of nanos toward her. They wound around her, immobilized her, and drew her closer to him. He studied her with a smug smile. “Are you jealous that I haven’t given you your due?” he asked and his eyes glowed yellow. “You played your part well, but there’s a bigger part waiting for you. I’ll thank you properly once it’s done.”
“I should thank you,” she retorted and pressed the switch on the Genesis device. “This was closer than I actually hoped to get.” She sucked in her breath and forced herself out of the nanos’ grip. They broke apart easily and Dario’s eyes widened as he tried to summon more with no result.
He glanced at Kaiden who grinned at him, his rifle and Debonair in either hand, and began to fire. The assassin drew his jacket in close and lowered his head. The hail of lasers pummeled him relentlessly. For a moment, he seemed able to withstand it but was eventually hurled off his feet as his jacket began to shatter in a flurry of sparks.
The weapons overheated and the ace dropped the rifle and vented Debonair. Chiyo walked beside him with her sub-machine gun at the ready. Dario pushed onto his knees. He drew ragged breaths and blood poured from his chest and mouth. Despite this, he looked up with a smile. While obviously weary and haggard, it hadn’t left.
“I’m beginning to see that I may have over-indulged,” he said, his voice weak and labored. He looked at them as Kaiden placed Debonair’s barrel against his forehead. “That was a wonderful dance, you two.”
“You didn’t answer my question.” He shut the vent on Debonair. “Are you with the Arbiter Organization?”
Chiyo glanced questioningly at him, but Dario merely chuckled i
n reply. “A basic tenet of an assassin’s code is to not give up their employer, no matter who they might be.”
“That tells me enough. Although I would guess you did that deliberately. You have a weird code.”
“I’m merely hoping we see each other again,” the man said, and his smile widened. “It’s been a while since I had a battle where I had to actually try.”
“You should have tried harder.” Kaiden sneered and pressed the barrel harder into his head. “You can live a little longer if you tell us why you were after those companies and what you have planned for Mirai.”
“That sounds like such a boring way to spend an evening,” Dario observed calmly. He licked his lips and smeared the blood. “Parties like this should have a grand finale, no?”
A bright flash left the duo momentarily disoriented and they stared around them in confusion. They were back in the checkered room. The ace spun and fired, but their adversary fell back as a small stream of nanos emerged from inside his jacket and formed into a bomb. Chiyo grabbed her partner and jumped back as it exploded. They bounced for a few yards before he found his footing and braced himself to catch her.
Red lights flashed above them and sirens blared. Something dropped with a distinctive clunk and a detonator rolled toward him. He glanced up as a smiling Dario waved at him from an exit on the other side of the room before the door began to shut. He fired but the man simply walked away, and the shots were blocked by the door and wall. With a muttered curse, he forced himself up to pursue, but his legs gave way as he felt a pain blaze in his chest.
“Kaiden, it’s a detonation sequence. The core will overload,” Chiyo warned him as she helped him up. “We have to go.”
He lowered his gun, his limbs trembling. “I know, dammit. I know.” She placed one of his arms around her shoulders and half-dragged him to the door they had entered through.
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 81
