The District

by Skyler Grant

  Wolf wasn't going to let this castle go unguarded, it was too important for his plans and he knew that we had to be here somewhere.

  "A tactical display. I like it. Can you provide targeting information as well in battle?" Sylax asked.

  It was nice to work with someone so focused on the mission, even if she was insane.

  "I can. I'm finding markers all throughout the system indicating that Wolf had taken up residence in his own district and intends to remain there until timers run out and he has total control of the district heads. A bit many for them to be natural," I thought to Sylax.

  "Interesting. The Wolf lays a trap then. We'll spring it then when your associates launch their diversion?" Sylax said.

  That was the plan. Wolf wanted to finish things but he couldn't expect Sylax and her new upgrades.

  41

  Mechos did his part exactly on schedule. What the man lacked in fighting ability he did make up for in technical expertise. On cue several of the gates opened and enemy forces tumbled through.

  It wasn't a transit they appeared to have expected, he must have opened the other end of the portals directly beneath enemy staging areas. I wondered where he'd managed to get the coordinates. Regardless the enemies did not stay dazed and confused for long. Clockwork drones took to the air, blades whirling away.

  The response was quick. I gave this to Wolf, he took the defense of this city seriously and seemed to always have a plan even for unlikely scenarios. Defenders were moving to join with the enemy in such numbers Mechos had to open several new portals just to keep the fighting competitive.

  "We're a go," I thought to Sylax.

  "About time," Sylax said and the world around us blinked away as she teleported. Rather than taking us directly to the Wolf's district we materialized back in her castle near on one of the upper floors and she put a fist through the skull of a Werewolf before he could even make a startled sound.

  "Is now really the time for housecleaning?" I asked.

  "I hate having my home invaded and we need the practice together. Bring me up a tactical overlay and let's shed some blood," Sylax said.

  I updated the map removing the just killed wolf soldier and highlighted the next. Sylax ran instead of teleported to this one, driving a fist into a weak spot I indicated in its armor and driving a fist through so that she could tear out the spine.

  "While I realize you have the reputation as a complete madwoman to maintain, you don't have to actually kill each one in as unnecessarily grisly a manner as possible."

  Sylax gave her answer by gouging out the next ones eyes before tightening her grip so she could wrench the head free.

  "When you kill enough it doesn't just become about the count anymore. It is all about the style," Sylax said.

  All was going well within the castle but not so much elsewhere. A group of the invading drones had snuck past the enemy defenders and were making their way towards a communications tower. Reaching it would allow them to broadcast the cities position which was something we very much needed to avoid.

  I opened a line to Anna.

  "Emma, I see the collar is working," Anna said.

  "Actually I'm riding around in Sylax now and making use of her uplink. We've got a group of drones heading for a comm tower," I said.

  "You're what. No, later. Give me a location and we'll intercept," Anna said.

  "Tower B173"

  "On it. Get out of her the first chance you get. She's dangerous," Anna said.

  I was well aware. Sylax had quite literally torn the arms off of three more werewolves while we'd been talking.

  I killed the comm link with Anna.

  "We're getting near the groundfloor. Not Wolves this time, he must be running out of soldiers. Mechs and golems," I said to Sylax.

  Sylax blinked us out and we teleported into the middle of a group of mechs standing duty in the large atrium that made the main hall. They were ready for us, Sylax took a beam cannon shot directly to the face that burned away her eyes in an instant.

  I could counter for that. I still had the visual data left behind as well as what her other senses were still picking up. Between them I quickly built a reconstruction of the scene and fed it into her visual cortex as a replacement feed. I even marked the vulnerable spots on the mechs.

  It was good that I did. We were jostled by bursts of machine gun fire, slashed with by beam weapons, even stabbed through with a beam sword at one point.

  It was troubling. I'd seen Sylax fight before, and she was weaker than she should have been. With the healing I'd given her we were winning this fight but it shouldn't have even been a contest. I could only think of one explanation, Syalx had lied to me. Her powers from Crystal might not be gone but they were weakened and fading still more as time went on.

  It was no wonder she had been so insistent on this plan, without it she wouldn't have stood a chance.

  Sylax put her fist through the fuel tank of a mech before lifting it bodily and throwing it into the flamethrower jet of another. Both went up in a fireball that sent us sailing across the room to crash against a wall.

  Ruined flesh was already knitting together as what would have been fatal injuries took seconds to fully recover from.

  "As delightful as it is to be a part of you being burned alive, do you mind telling me what is really going on?" I asked.

  "We're kicking ass. A new experience for you?" Sylax asked.

  "We should be. Instead I might as well riding along in an Ophelia with a touch of super strength. They are getting to you. How?" I asked.

  Sylax was a bit slow to answer as a wire golem had unspooled to surround her body in copper string that contracted to cut flesh. It tore her apart before she got a good grip on a bit of wire to wrench the entire assemblage apart.

  "I don't know. I didn't like that Crystal shouldn't be able to sever her power to me but I started to get weaker during the first fight with Wolf. Since then it only keeps getting worse. I think it must be Crash," Sylax said.

  Crash could subvert complex systems. I knew that he had played havoc with mine before, perhaps Crystal and her upgrades were something he could influence.

  "So all of your powers from her are weakening?" I asked.

  "Every last one. I didn't think you'd agree to this if you knew," Sylax said.

  She was right, but I was along for the ride now.

  42

  Sylax set out for Wolf's district. As we were traveling from the central city security was light, our distraction was continuing to do just that and his forces had relocated to fight at the edges of the city where the teleportation gates were located.

  Besides being few in number they were largely nonupgraded. Soldiers in medium army with heavy rifles. It only made them a little less dangerous, a weakened Sylax was easy to tear in half with a burst of machine gun fore for all that she put herselves together quickly afterward.

  Fortunately, her strength seemed to be one of the abilities that was sticking with her the most. I had my theories as to why. Wolf was as much one of Crystal's projects as Sylax was and he seemed excessively strong just as she was. Crash was probably focusing on weakening the abilities Wolf and Sylax didn't share and so things like her incredible durability were lessened while her strength remained mostly intact.

  Sylax finished snapping a rifle in half before driving it's barrel deep into a soldier's throat to send him staggering backwards gushing blood.

  "This is getting boring," Sylax said.

  "Well if it makes you feel any better he'll have his very best guarding the core," I said.

  "Oh good. They'll be fun," Sylax said.

  Perhaps she'd forgotten just how badly she'd gotten beaten last time or perhaps there was more to it. I think she was actually enjoying things being a challenge again. I think she was enjoying actually getting hurt instead of just being the one doing the hurting.

  An armored vehicle pulled to a stop before us and a top mounted beam cannon blasted a hole through our chest. Sylax
responded by ripping free the engine block and tearing the gun from the vehicle with a well-placed throw.

  The center of the district was a squat fortification surrounded by gun towers equipped with heavier firepower by far than anything we'd faced so far. I was a bit envious really, those were what I'd needed in my district to bring down airships.

  "This isn't going to be easy. You've taken a lot of hits so far and done well but I don't think you should chance those," I said.

  I brought up technical specifications on the guns in question to her visual display.

  "Beam, kinetic, power dampening, explosive cannons. Wolf does try so very hard doesn't he. A shame he had to be such a bad puppy. I could use such a tactical mind working for me," Sylax said.

  I wish she'd stop a bit with the admiring and focus a bit more on the killing.

  "He wanted to be prepared for any thought. They're just as diverse in their armoring. Independent power supplies so cutting off their flow from the district power supply won't do it," I said.

  Sylax narrowed her eyes at the towers, "I'm faster than they are."

  "I haven't been seeing it," I said.

  "I've been testing your healing ability. Pick me a target," Sylax said.

  The beam tower was probably the most dangerous. I highlighted it in her visual display and she began to run. It wasn't a lie, she had been holding back until now. A backflip sent her arching over the beam that lashed out towards the ground where she had just been and she drove a fist deep into the tower as she crashed against it. A second leap further up the surface and again she drove her fist into the surface to anchor herself.

  A move to the side and a drop of about ten feet before she anchored herself was needed as a second tower opened fire on us, this time with bullets. They weren't as fast as we were and Sylax was already climbing up the side of the tower to the gun at the top. Once there she gripped it between both hands prepared to wrench it free.

  "Hold," I said. Wolf's security protocols were good but I was better and now that I had direct access I was cutting through them.

  I targeted one of the other towers and opened fire. The beam dispelled harmlessly, they must have designed it to resist the specific wavelengths used.

  "That was underwhelming," Sylax said.

  "I'd like to see you do better," I said.

  Sylax resumed her efforts to wrench the gun emplacement free. It fixed her position and the stream of bullets finally caught up to us and tore us apart.

  Her body started to reassemble itself on the ground. "Well I'm annoyed." Sylax said.

  I wasn't much enjoying the whole thing myself. I did however have a solution. I altered the beam nexus just enough as to change the wavelength. The cannon shouldn't be nearly as efficient now but then I didn't need it to be.

  I had the tower open fire once again and this time the kinetic cannon melted under the impact. Twice more I fired and neutralized the remaining towers.

  "Not bad," Sylax said.

  I was proud of it myself.

  It looked like Anna and her team had handled the attempt to reach the comm tower in the meantime although they'd had to repurpose the tower itself to bombard the drones with microwaves. Well, I couldn't argue with results.

  Sylax went brute force for the main doors of the bunker, punching out the locks and wrenching them aside to fling them into the distance.

  "Tome to kick a puppy," Sylax staid stepping through into the darkness beyond. "Wolf! I'm here for you."

  Lights lit up to reveal the chamber beyond. It was unoccupied except for a single figure.

  I recognized him at once. Baron Wolfson. He had ran my tactical divison for a time on the Powerhungry, the weaker and far more pathetic son of James Wolf.

  It looked as if he'd had some upgrades, his body sporting a new cybernetic arm and what looked like a number of technological implants.

  "My father is out. I'm sure you understand why. I think you'll find this puppy kicks back," Wolfson said.

  If Wolf wasn't in his district even seizing the core wouldn't count. There was no point to this battle but I didn't think Sylax would care.

  43

  Wolfson musculature was well exaggerated over those of standard humanity. It looked as if he had undergone a lesser version of the Werewolf transformation. The upgrades he'd received were a complete unknown, the closest that I'd seen to them were the ones Mechos had used to have in both himself and his followers.

  Perhaps that was possible, the upgrade core that Mechos used to have had been removed from him in some capacity after he had been abducted. While we recovered him we never found what had happened to the core itself.

  Sylax crossed the distance to Wolfson at a run and delivered an uppercut to his jaw with her full strength. It should have been enough to sever his head clear from his body but instead it sent us flying across the room. Even I was dazed from the blowback, it was as if every nerve in her body had been set to fire pain impulses all at once. Sylax was strong but there were limits.

  Sylax collapsed to the ground and Wolfson moved the few steps to deliver a sharp kick to her ribs. His strength wasn't as pronounced as hers, it was enough to break a few ribs but that wasn't anything that didn't heal almost instantly. The nerve disruption was something else entirely, accelerated healing didn't help there.

  "You're tougher than dad said you'd be," Wolfson said as he walked around where Sylax twitched to deliver another kick to her face. "He thought he'd taken away all your best tricks."

  Through the waves of agony it was difficult for even me to think but I had to. How would Wolf have prepared his son for this encounter. Knowing that Sylax liked to get up close and punch he'd prepared to counter those close melee attacks, the pain field was just a good idea against any organic.

  I could give Sylax more abilities but frankly I didn't want to do that. Every new one I gave her would ultimately make her more powerful and I just didn't want that to happen. I didn't see a way around it. I opened a comm channel to Anna.

  "We took out the tower. How is Sylax doing?" Anna asked.

  "Losing. I know, her record in fights is starting to look like your record of successful dates," I said.

  "Wolf is that strong?" Anna asked.

  "Wolfson, actually. I believe he is specifically empowered against her abilities which means we could use some backup right about now," I said.

  "We're near gateway. Send me coordinates and I'll contact Mechos," Anna said.

  That would do. With a gateway they'd be able to get here in a hurry, not that my host was actually in any danger right now.

  Sylax fought through the pain enough to work up to another punch, this one at his groin. It didn't any more successfully than the last and she cried out in agony as a fresh wave of agony swept through her nerves.

  "A groinshot? Really?" Wolfson asked as he kicked her in the face once more. "Why don't you stay hurt."

  He hadn't figured out where she was getting her accelerated healing from. That was good. I was actually learning quite a bit from being in Sylax, more than she knew.

  My testing labyrinths were really all about exposing subjects to adverse and challenging conditions and see how they handled them with their abilities. By observing first hand what they went through and how they faced obstacles I could gain insight on their abilities.

  Sylax only truly had on that I was interested in and it was just about to tick over. A moment later I got a gratifying prompt.

  Research Menu

  "Sylax"

  Subject is the host to an amplification core that allows for the amplification of abilities gained by other means.

  You have analyzed the subject utilizing their abilities and have unlocked one of the following tow upgrades.

  Faster, Better, Stronger

  All of your forces are better than they were. Where random chance is involved in assigning attributes they will fall in the top 20% of projected outcomes.

  Ultimate Abilities

  Your powered agents now h
ave access to an ultimate ability. These are limited in duration and extremely slow to recharge but incredibly powerful.

  My usual approach when choosing between choices like this was to take whatever would offer me more versatility and more consistent power. Flashy choices were very flashy but I had time and I had numbers. At least, I usually had time and I usually had numbers. Right now I very much seemed outgunned and out-powered and that changed my choice around. I selected the ultimate ability.

  Wolfson meanwhile had gotten bored with kicking Sylax around and had opened a comm.

  "Dad. Uh, she isn't dying. I mean I can kick her around but she just heals back. Yeah, yeah she is disabled. Oh, ok. I can do that," Wolfson said. I was only picking up one side of the conversation but I could guess what it involved.

  Disconnecting the line Wolfson came back to kneel beside Sylax. "Ok, so this is what we're going to do. Dad doesn't know why you aren't dying but he worked out this whole trick to deal with Ophelia that involved submerging her in a bath of molten metal. So you just need to sit there and cry until we get rid of you."

  It was a good idea. The specialized grinder I'd come up with to deal with Ohelia was mostly so I could harvest her Biomatter as well as neutralizing her. If not caring about the resources a liquid metal bath was a wonderful choice for a healer.

  Behind Wolfson a portal flickered into life and through it stepped Anna, Hot Stuff, Tara, and Ratticus.

  Wolfson turned to face them and Anna shot him in the face with a shotgun at close range. It didn't phase him any more than Sylax's punches had.

  "I've got this. Your dads a real dick kid," Hot Stuff stepping forward. Wolfson covered his eyes as the blast of intense heat him. I'd expected the energy attack to do something but he appeared unphased.

  "Tell me about it," Wolfson said before hitting the comm, "Scenario Beta."