The Warehouse — District 9
Kazuki was hyperventilating.
His lungs burned, but not from exertion—from shock. He stared at the soldiers across the room. They looked like statues to him, moving in slow, jagged frames like a lagging video game.
[WARNING: NEURAL SYNC UNSTABLE.]
[ADVICE: DO NOT MOVE.]
The robotic voice in his head was loud, but Kazuki ignored it. Panic was the only pilot at the wheel.
"Stay back!" Kazuki yelled.
He took a step backward.
That was his mistake. He treated the movement like a normal step. He pushed off the ground with normal force.
But with the Velocity Core, "normal force" was enough to shatter concrete.
BOOM.
The floor beneath his foot cratered. Kazuki launched backward like a cannonball.
He didn't just step back; he flew.
The world blurred into streaks of grey and blue.
SLAM.
He hit the back wall of the warehouse. The impact crumbled the brickwork, burying him in dust and debris.
"Ow…" Kazuki groaned, sliding down the wall. "I think I broke my… everything."
Across the room, the three Echo soldiers adjusted their aim. They didn't seem surprised. They moved with terrifying, synchronized silence.
"Target is erratic," Unit 1 said. "Engage suppression protocols."
The three soldiers spread out.
Unit 1 fired the plasma rifle again. ZZEWW.
Unit 2 threw a metallic sphere—a gravity grenade.
Unit 3 drew a vibrating, high-frequency knife and sprinted forward.
Kazuki scrambled out of the rubble. The red plasma bolt was coming straight for his head.
He squeezed his eyes shut. Move. Please, just move.
[AUTOMATED DEFENSE: ENGAGED.]
Kazuki's body jerked. It wasn't him moving; it was the suit puppeting his muscles.
He sidestepped the plasma bolt with millimetric precision. The heat of it singed his hair.
Then, the suit forced his hand up. He caught the gravity grenade in mid-air.
[THREAT DETECTED. RETURNING TO SENDER.]
His arm blurred. He threw the grenade back at Unit 2 faster than the speed of sound.
CRACK.
The grenade hit Unit 2's chest plate and detonated.
A sphere of crushed gravity imploded. The soldier crumpled inward like a crushed soda can, armor screeching as it folded.
Kazuki stared at his own hand in horror. "I just… I just killed him."
"Subject is lethal," Unit 1 stated calmly. "Authorization to terminate."
Unit 3 was already on him. The soldier with the knife slashed at Kazuki's throat.
Kazuki tried to dodge, but the adrenaline was fading. The "slow-motion" world sped up. The knife was fast. Too fast.
He stumbled back, tripping over a cable.
The soldier raised the knife for a finishing stab.
Kazuki threw his hands up. "Wait—!"
Suddenly, the skylight above them shattered.
CRASH.
A dark shape dropped from the rafters.
It wasn't a soldier. It was a girl.
She landed between Kazuki and the killer, her boots hitting the concrete with a heavy, metallic thud.
She didn't look like a hero. She looked like a soldier who had gone rogue.
Black tactical jacket. Cargo pants. Fingerless gloves.
And on her neck, faint lines of gold shimmered like broken kintsugi pottery.
Aeva.
The Echo soldier hesitated. "Identify."
Aeva didn't speak. She moved.
She spun, sweeping the soldier's legs with a brutal kick. As the soldier fell, she drew a baton from her belt.
SNAP.
The baton extended into a stun-staff, crackling with yellow electricity.
She slammed the staff into the soldier's helmet.
ZZZKAK.
The soldier convulsed and went limp, circuits fried.
Aeva stood up and turned to Unit 1—the last one standing with the rifle.
The soldier aimed at her.
Aeva didn't dodge. She raised her left hand. The air around her hand rippled, heavy and distorted.
"Drop it," she said. Her voice was cold, commanded by absolute authority.
The soldier's rifle suddenly weighed ten tons. The metal groaned, and the soldier was dragged to his knees by the sheer weight of his own weapon.
Aeva walked up to him, calm as ice, and kicked him in the chest.
The soldier flew back into a pile of crates, unconscious.
Silence returned to the warehouse.
The only sound was the humming of the blue lights on Kazuki's suit.
Aeva deactivated her staff and clipped it to her belt. She turned around slowly to face Kazuki.
Her eyes were sharp, scanning him like he was a bomb that might explode.
Kazuki lay on the floor, covered in dust, staring up at her.
"Who… who are you?" he stammered.
Aeva looked at the glowing silver suit fused to his skin. She let out a frustrated sigh, brushing a strand of dark hair out of her face.
"You're an idiot," she said. "Do you have any idea what you just put on?"
Kazuki blinked. "A… suit?"
Aeva walked over, grabbed him by the collar of the suit, and hauled him to his feet with surprising strength.
"That's not a suit," she hissed. "That's a target. And now every hunter in Tokyo is going to be looking for you."
She dragged him toward the exit.
"Move. Unless you want to be dissected before dinner."
Kazuki stumbled after her. "Wait! Where are we going?"
Aeva kicked the back door open, revealing the rainy alleyway outside.
She looked back over her shoulder, her gold scars flashing in the dim light.
"We're going to the only place safe from time," she said. "Try to keep up, Speedster."
[To Be Continued…]