Flash of the Blade

The train slowed to a stop, and looking at the platform John saw a crowd of guards. Seeing another group made clear that the quality of equipment degraded as they went. These men wore ragged armor and held mundane **** rifles as they stood on a platform of fading white paint. I guess from a purely logical standpoint, if higher numbered districts have less rich people to fund them, it would stand to reason that the guards wouldn’t be as well equipped.

As he looked down at the crowd, three metallic pods identical to the one that bestowed his armor upon him crashed into the concrete platform. Vaguely humanoid drones stepped out, their surface a sleek onyx. Speakers rose from their shoulders, and One’s bassy voice boomed out, “This is official Rider-Waite business. The situation is under control. Please do not interfere, for the safety of the civilians and yourselves.” It cycled through the same message in a couple more languages as John listened to it.

To John’s surprise, the men below didn’t enter the traincar, following the orders of the drones. Giving the men a quick salute, John shakily jetted across the train to the car they had originally encountered the swordmistress in. Halfway across, he had to dodge a laser that burst through the hull of the space he imagined One and Asley to be fighting in. He swung through the hole he had created in the side, but to his dismay Jackie was nowhere to be seen. I wouldn’t have stayed either. One! I don’t have a visual on Jackie.

She hijacked the suit of armor watching her! I need your help now! He felt the panic in the order and rocketed outside and toward where he had suspected them to be fighting now. He came to a stop above it, and Discordance pounded in his head. He floated to the side of the train, figuring the impending danger was obvious. It lessened with his reposition, and a flowing mass of glowing pink petals shot out of the car in front of him, striking the car below him. With a rising slash, it severed the coupler to the car he floated above, the same pink mass then came crashing down, destroying the section of the track the car was connected to.

Shit! I need another second! That attack just took out the carriage behind you two! Hephaestus, are there any people in there? John barreled toward it nonetheless as at least two dozen heat signatures appeared in his HUD. It was too little, too late. He activated Reflex Mode and dove down to catch the falling vestibule, a red-hot laser narrowly missing him.

That’s… not our job! One’s tone demanded John paid attention, but John paid him no mind.

Sir, you cannot both save these people and assist my master. If you do not choose to change course, I will. You cannot be in two places at once, Hephaestus suddenly cold voice rang out as John got under the train car and began to slow its fall. While descending, he moved perpendicular to the car One and Asley were in, intent on joining the battle through the gaping hole in the side.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. The weight of the train car and the lives of the people inside threatened to tear him atwain. “The hell I can’t! Save these people and I’ll save One! Valley, valley, valley!”

The front of the suit opened, and John Jumped to the gigantic hole in the side of the perilous car, charging the rest of his mana into a Fist. He slammed it into the haughty redhead, sending her careening through the metal of the train and into the city below. Pain shot up his arm as he looked to his right to see… a woman clad in form fitting armor with her faceplate half-broken and cuts from scratches to gashes littering the rest of her armor. “One? You’re a hu-”

She cut him off quickly, looking between him and the hole in the wall, “Yes I’m a wo- wait, what were you going to say?”

“Woman, right! That was the part I was surprised by. Say, do you think that punch actually...” he trailed off, looking to the dingy streets below.

Deciding to discard the conversation, she realized his relative nudity. “What are you doing outside of your armor! That may as well have been a love tap to her. It’s well and good if you want to play hero, but not at the cost of the mission.” Small discs formed within her armor and emerged, thinning its protection as they attached themselves to the wall. Stretched thin, her armor resealed itself and changed its shape to conceal her true form once more. “I’ve requested backup. That’s an Ardyn, and I sure as hell can’t take her out myself. We just have to stall until the cavalry arrives.”

“You’re needed in Jarako, an Ace-level threat has been identified. Thought to be a member of the Extinction Kings. One is in immediate danger. With your ability to teleport to those under the same sky as yourself, you’re one of the few that could get there in time.” The Emperor was one of the few people in the organization who Isabelle respected enough to listen to… most of the time. After wasting her talents on the copycat elf, her patience wore thin. She sheathed her sword and rotated the bracelet so that the projection crystal faced her.

“Crystal down means do not disturb. Besides, what’s the issue? Another Knight gone rogue? Remind me again how that was an Ace-level threat, Old Man.” Isabelle strapped the blade to her hip. She was going to go, of course, the significance of getting a request directly from the Emperor twice in as many weeks wasn’t lost on her. “Can’t an actual Ace handle this one?”

“If you’re turning this mission down. I simply reasoned you’d want to be the one to finally bring Asley into-” The smug man was cut off by the realization that the moment he had mentioned the name, Isabelle cast the bracelet off. He watched from the ground as she disappeared.

“Got it. What’s-” His suit had apparently finished its mission safely, as he felt it engulf him from behind. Just in time, as the shorter blade from the woman’s hip shot toward his arm like a speeding bullet. It was only thanks to the blare of Discordance that he managed a second, dizzying activation of Living Tank to save himself. The blade painfully embedded itself into his arm, and in a flash of sakura petals she was there.

“One problem at a time,” she snarled, ripping out the tanto from his arm and bringing her katana up to finish the job in one smooth motion. He used what little mana he had recovered in a surge of Move, knocking her mere inches away, but saving him from her katana swipe. A pulse blast from One knocked him out of the stationary train.

As the jets in the boots kicked in, he heard One say, “Your fight is with me! Leave him out of this!” Another pulse of purple energy surrounded the swordswoman, and at once the tiny discs activated. “Deflect this! Activation Phrase: Sonic Hell!”

Deafening sound emerged from the discs in the walls, hurting John’s ears even through the protection of the armor. Asley immediately grabbed both sides of her head, screaming inaudibly as One cut a hole through the metal floor with a laser embedded in her armor. She began to fall to the ground, deadweight as the armor automatically guided her.

“One is currently ****, and the enemy is not eliminated.” Hephaestus’ words caused John to look from his falling partner to the obliterated train car, where indeed Asley had begun the slow, excruciating process of destroying each disc on her way out of it. “Jackie is reconvening on this location; she’s overriding my security and I cannot stop her. Keep the hostile away.”

John slowly descended, looking at the form of One, who buckled to the ground in exhaustion the second she landed. John decided to join her, and three metal armory pods landed among them. Maybe I could get a new suit of armor. This one won’t hold up much longer.

He heard a thud behind and looked back to see who he assumed to be Jackie. “John, we must run. I’ve seen everything through the camera feed on the armor. You two are no match for her.”

“Damn right!” He watched as Asley hurled her tanto, but Discordance didn’t go off. With a startling realization, he Jumped in front of Jackie. The blade sailed through his chest, missing his heart by millimeters. His health was in the double digits, and he took a potion out of his inventory. Before he could raise it to his lips, it disappeared from his hand. His blood went cold as he heard the cruel voice from behind him, “Thanks for that.”

He was out of health, out of mana, out of shielding, and out of options. Activating Reflex Mode he attempted to turn around and punch through her head. Even with this enhancement, his Agility was no match. He felt nothing but acceptance as the blade sailed toward his armored neck.