Prepare for the Worst

The room fell silent as everyone looked at Ezequiel.

“Which is why,” Ezequiel said, rubbing his chin. “I give everyone in this room the option to walk away if you don’t want this.”

Ignacio raised a hand. “What’s the deal with those four Aspects?”

“They’re monsters,” Beltran said, hands in his pocket, a bar of red light running up and down his britches. “Monsters that make the rest of us here look like puppies.”

“Hey,” Daichi said, placing his hands on his hips with a scowl.

“Sentinels are similar to Golems,” Kiyomi said. “But they’re constructed of man made materials only, like steel or concrete. Titans are giant hybrids that have more abstract types. And Warlocks…”

“You’ll have to see for yourself,” Beltran said. “They control their Aspect outside of themselves. It’s kind of hard to explain. And Dragons, well… they get worse the older they are.”

Ignacio swallowed. “Which should I go for?”

Ezequiel glanced up at him, smiling. “Wait and see, Ace. Whichever is the biggest.”

“No,” Koharu said, flicking her hair from her face. “Whichever is the strongest. Not the same thing.”

Ignacio nodded. “Got it.”

Do you? Something asked from the back of his mind. A lingering doubt.

Blackwell had said that most Aspects were controlled the same way. But what if these were different?

“Does anyone have experience with these Aspects?” Ignacio asked.

Ezequiel clasped his hands together, grinning. “I’ve killed a Titan before.”

“I’ve trained with Warlocks and a Dragon,” Kiyomi said.

“I’ve fought a Warlock,” Beltran said.

“Are there any differences in how they control their Aspects?” Ignacio asked.

“You'd probably have to be one to know that,” Kiyomi said.

Dumb question, he thought.

“Just be careful, Ace,” Koharu said. “Remember you can't absorb more than one Aspect at a time.”

“Unless I have to,” Ignacio said.

Koharu sighed. “If you want to burn, Ace, be my guest.”

“That's not what I said,” Ignacio grumbled.

“Then what-”

“Okay, okay,” Ezequiel said, holding up his hands. “Geez you two, going on like an old couple.”

Ignacio and Koharu exchanged a glance, then looked away.

Why is she acting like this all of a sudden? He thought. I don’t need protection, Celeste does.

“Kiyomi, where are we intercepting?” Koharu asked.

Kiyomi pointed at the trail Ezequiel drew on the map.

“Right there, before the mountain pass,” Kiyomi said. “If we got them in the pass we could be trapped inside the valley. And, they may have Cypher users positioned on the mountain side already.”

Ezequiel nodded, opening his palms. “Any objections?”

“Nope,” Koharu said, the others nodding.

Ignacio shook his head. “Where’s the nearest city?”

Ezequiel snapped his fingers, leaning forward in his chair. “Good question. If we get split up, or…” he hesitated. “Or if we fail, we rendezvous at Thalyssan, right here.”

He tapped a point on the map to the side of the trail he’d drawn, a name tag with an arrow flashing onscreen.

A route. A plan. An escape. A team, and a target. Ignacio sighed.

“That’s all I thought to ask,” he said.

Kiyomi gave him a nod. “Good question, Ace,” she said. “As for transport, Beltran and I will be going in and the rest of you will be entering at our location.”

“Does this mean,” Daichi said, his shoulders lifting. “That I sit out?”

Ezequiel thumped him on the shoulder. “Yes, wolf-boy. You get to stay here and watch us in our Cyphers.”

“So,” Beltran asked. “What’s the attack plan?”

Ezequiel drew a blue circle around the point on the trail that Kiyomi had pointed.

“Koharu weaves a light cage around em.’ Kiyomi casts an illusion into the middle of the payload. While they’re busy fighting the illusion, Ki will drop me onto the carriage with the girl, and I use my Golem to break her out. Beltran will then drop Ace off on the Cypher user who responds with the worst looking Aspect, so that Ace can use his Ronin to absorb it.
“You four will need to distract any Cypher users at the rear of the payload, which is where I will need to escape from.”

“I can use my portals to trap them,” Koharu said, rubbing her chin. “But also segregate the enclosed area into a grid, which will slow them down once you’re on the payload.”

Ezequiel gestured to her with a hand. “Your Captain, ladies and gentlemen. And Daichi.”

“Hey,” Daichi said.

Ignacio nodded. “Is that everything?”

Ezequiel locked eyes with him. “That’s everything, Ace. We're getting your sister back. Today.”

Ignacio removed his visors as the transaction notification turned green.

Daichi nodded, pushing up his black visors. “You really, really didn’t have to pay me, Ignacio.”

“I know where your loyalties lie,” Ignacio said, holding out a hand.

Daichi shook it, lips tightening. “I feel rotten.”

“Don’t we all?” Ignacio said, smiling.

He turned as revving grew closer. The gravbike drifted around a stack of shipping containers, an orange trail of light following.

“Go, Daichi. I’ll be inside in a few minutes,” Ignacio said.

Daichi gave a nod, his thumbs twiddling as he walked towards the Genesys H.Q.

The gravbike zipped towards Ignacio, slowing and stopping in front of him. Thiago pressed the button on the side of his helmet, and the whole thing folded back into the small neck-piece.

He smiled. “Ignacio.”

“Thiago.”

He chuckled. “You seem different.”

“We found Celeste, Tee,” Ignacio said. “We’re going to save her.”

Thiago’s lips moved, but words failed him. “I… all the best, Ace.”

Ignacio held out his arms, and Thiago climbed off the bike. They hugged each other, Ignacio’s arms weaker than normal.

“Thank you,” Ignacio said, “thank you for everything, Thiago.”

“You sound like you’re about to die,” Thiago said.

Because I might.

Ignacio pulled away, placing his hands on his hips. “I need a favour before I go back into the Ethergeist.”

“Anything, Ace,” Thiago said.

“Can you find a couple named Hiroto and Alondra Hoshizora?”

Thiago snorted. “You should know by now, Ace, I can find anyone.”

Ignacio smiled, folding his arms as he lowered his head. “In that case, there’s something I need you to do.”

Koharu’s cyberette trembled as she placed it to her lips. She took a draw on it, her eyes closing as she leaned her head back.

The door behind her creaked open, and she knew Beltran and Daichi’s footsteps before either man spoke.

“We really doing this, Captain?” Beltran asked.

She nodded, staring out the window at a pair of seagulls flying past. They were probably synthetics. Fake, like everything else.

“You’re going to fight Warlocks, Titans, Sentinels, Jotunn and who-knows what else to save a girl we never met?” Daichi asked.

“To avenge the people we lost, Dai,” Koharu said. She knocked on the window with a knuckle, and it tinted black. “You know what stealing the First Nexus from them will do?”

“Get us killed?” Beltran said.

“It sparks a revolution,” Koharu said. “It proves to people that something can be done. That we can fight back,” she said, glancing down at her cyberette and clicking it off. “There are so many people like us, Bel. They’re just hiding because they can’t see another way. Like stars in the smog.”

He sighed. “Yeah.”

Koharu paused, her eyes flickering to Daichi. A pair of black visors rested atop his curly set of black hair. His high jacket was black too, zipped closed. But it had a neon strip running down the side that faded into different colours.

“Dai,” she said. “The second you see his nose bleed, you pull him out. Do you understand?”

He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Yes, ma’am.”

She nodded, sighing. She didn’t want to do the next part. She wished there was another way. But he was the only person left she could hope to turn to if things went wrong. Really wrong.

“And, Dai,” she said, placing her thumb against her forehead. “I need you to contact Kaito for me.”

Daichi frowned. “Kaito… as in, your Kaito?”

“From Specterveil, yeah.”

“For what…” his voice trailed off. “In case you fail?”

She nodded. “Tell him that I’m taking him up on his last offer.”

Daichi saluted. “Yes, ma’am. Let’s hope he even gives me enough time to present our case.”

“And Beltran,” she said. “Look after him for me, please.”

He frowned. “Who?”

“Ignacio,” she said, shrugging her hood onto her shoulders. “When we’re inside, promise me you’ll take care of him.”

Beltran raised a hand from his pocket, holding a red coin. “I can’t do that, Captain,” he said. “But I also can’t deny your orders. So I ask that we turn this to a game of chance.”

Daichi raised a finger. “May I-”

“No,” Koharu and Beltran said.

Koharu folded her arms. “Heads, you make sure he gets out safely.”

“Tails, I make sure you get out,” he said.

She clenched her jaws. She wanted to shout him down, take him apart piece by piece and put him back together so he would just listen. But she could see it in his face; he wasn’t going to budge.

She nodded. And he flipped the coin into the air.