Way Out

Morning of the second challenge

December 11th, 2050

Asakusa Boundary

Ruby finished checking the rooms on the second floor of the building but found no other survivors or an avenue for escape. They could only descend to the first floor.

Together with the exalted police officer Maya, they made their way downstairs while her security personnel Sanae and Hiro carried an injured Yukari close behind. Gen’ichi, unfortunately, was dead.

“You sense anyone?” Maya asked as they reached the landing below. There were a few more bodies—both theirs and the enemy, but none stirred.

“No, but I hear footsteps,” Ruby whispered.

Soon enough, two white-jacket insurgents came in from the direction of the front entrance as if in a hurry.

“What the hell, man?” said one. “What was the commander thinking? He never told us about turning exalted!”

The other one pushed the first hard into the wall. “Commander Kisaragi is simply bringing out the true nature of the so-called ‘ascended’. You saw how they transformed. Monsters are what they are!”

“But he’s turning us! We’re normal human beings, man!”

“It’s a necessary sacrifice for our cause.” The man let go of his comrade then turned towards Ruby and Maya’s direction. “Let’s hurry up before they—”

Maya was quick on her feet. She raised her pistol and let out two precise shots to drop the insurgents on the ground. The weapon’s silencer was effective enough to not cause sound.

Ruby followed suit and checked the direction of the opposite hallway. The map on the wall said there was another exit in that direction.

“I hear more of them near the reception area,” Maya said as she walked back to her. “We’ll go with the original plan.”

Ruby nodded and—

The familiar burst of fire exploded behind her. Maya managed a thin barrier to protect Ruby, but it quickly shattered on impact.

Ruby spun around, shielding her own body with aether.

They have fire-based weapons too? Which poor exalt did they experiment on?

A middle-aged woman wearing a white jacket held the obsidian revolver down the hallway. She fumed at her missed opportunity.

Ruby quickly brandished the aether-weapon she got and let out a surge of lightning.

The insurgent managed to dodge the attack a hair’s breadth away and raised their weapon a second time. Fire erupted from it, like a flamethrower in a long straight line. Ruby raised her left hand and met the attack head-on with her own fire. The impact dispersed the artificially induced aether in the air. Maya was quick to follow with a single shot from her pistol.

“Their fire barely compares to yours,” Maya observed.

“Yeah, well, I don’t have much left in me,” Ruby replied. She looked at her aether weapon, realized it was juice, and threw it at the side. “Make yours count.”

Ruby gestured for the other three to come down the stairs and they all went down the hallway. They made sure to check every open room they passed, so as to not get caught off-guard.

Maya took care of every insurgent they encountered, while Ruby provided support from the rear. They tried their best to not cause too much attention to their escape, but there was only so much they could do. Soon enough, they were all running down another hallway as if their life depended on it.

The exit was close. They reached the back of the building where the door to the delivery area was situated, and there, they found one of Ruby’s blue suits sprawled on the ground with a hole on his chest, the jacket around it scorched black.

Masa lay dead on the ground as rain fell on his lifeless body.

Another one, Ruby thought, pain in her heart. Don’t think. Grieve later. Escape—

“B-Boss,” Hiro started, “I don’t we can just run outside.”

Ruby looked up and saw not one but three people with white jackets next to a large van in the parking lot. One man was collapsed, rattling on the floor, while the other two, an old man and a heavy-set woman have fully ascended, their eyes glazed deeply in bronze. Both were looking at them.

“Any chance they still have no idea what happened to them?” Sanae asked. That hope was crushed when both exalted fiends exploded with aether and bronze smoke as they dashed towards them in a frenzy.

Bang-Bang-Bang!

Maya let out a hail of bullets, while Ruby cut through the rain with an explosion on one of the fiends.

“Let’s focus on one,” Ruby shouted, but unfortunately, the police officer already ran out of bullets. She holstered her gun and brandished her baton.

Dammit, it’s all on me.

“Protect them,” Ruby said. She let out a series of explosions and this time the monster—the old man—wasn’t able to outrun them. He was completely decimated by an array of crimson flowers blossoming despite the rain.

The other monster—the heavy-set woman—jumped straight at Maya and the others, bronze smoke trailing. The police exalt erected a large barrier, probably her last, while the fiend repeatedly charged at it. Each impact echoed like thunder.

“Hey!” Ruby yelled as she ran away. “Over here!”

She summoned more of her flames and got the fiend’s attention. And it learned to summon its own fire because of it.

Dammit, not another Shinozuka!

Also like Shinozuka, the monster barely understood what to do with their power. The fiend lit itself on fire, steaming against the rain. Yet despite that, it still charged at Ruby.

Using her remaining aether, Ruby enhanced her speed and dodged every swing the enemy threw at her.

Roundhouse kick, right jab, left hook. Ruby blocked the another jab with aether-shielded arms, but the force was strong enough to rattle her senses. She was knocked off her feat and fell backwards.

The fiend burned brightly, screaming, thinking it already won. It raised its leg to strike and—

There!

Ruby focused the last of her aether and targeted a specific part of the monster where the aether swelled—its left shoulder. It probably didn’t do so on purpose, but it gave her the perfect opportunity.

The fiend’s shoulder exploded in a fiery mess, pushing it sideways, propelling it in the air, until it fell flat on the ground.

Ruby breathed heavily as rain fell on her. She looked at the others. Maya had put her barrier down. They were safe. They were yelling at—

The third monster—the man rattling on the ground earlier—walked directly between their line of sight, eyes covered in bronze, body smoking.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Ruby muttered. She almost found it amusing. But she was all out.

The monster turned its head towards Ruby and—

A car came out of nowhere and slammed straight into the fiend. It flew across the parking lot and crashed into the next building over.

The familiar figure of a man came out of the driver seat of the car, his coat and funny tie drenched almost immediately by the rain. He breathed heavily as if he couldn’t believe what he had just done.

Kiyotaka leapt out of the car’s backseat. “We need to go, boss,” he said in panic. “There’s still more of them! We need to leave now!”