— Watedia, Ranth 13, 8054 —

“Chaos Arrow! Chaos—!”

The sound of a gunshot rang through the air as a bullet from Gavon’s sniper rifle finally pierced through the energy shields of an SFC Chaostechnic, killing them instantly. But Gavon wasted no time on celebrating the small victory — instead, he manipulated his personal gravity to zip off through the air, just in time to dodge the arrow of Chaos Energy fired off by the late Chaostechnic. The arrow missed him by a hair, but it slowly began arcing around back towards him — Chaos Arrow was a homing projectile, after all — and as such, Gavon quickly dove towards the ground to try and shake the projectile off.

As he dove to the ground, the Arrow flew by him and then impacted the side of a building; he then quickly dodged to the side to assess his situation. Across the street from him was the building that housed one of Tresnon’s shield generators — or used to house, as the building was now a charred wreck from Gavon’s fight with the SFC Chaotics. The mangled and crushed skeleton of a mech laid in the middle of the street, holding the corpse of one of the SFC Chaotics; another corpse laid on the ground under some rubble near the broken shield generator. Over the course of Gavon’s long fight with the Chaotics, he had finally been able to wear down their energy shielding without taking any significant hits himself, allowing him to start dealing killing blows. Of the six Chaotics that had attacked him, three were now dead, leaving only three others to fight him: a Hydrotechnic, a Barriertechnic, and a Spacetechnic.

With that in mind, Gavon continued moving, never once stopping and making sure to frequently and unpredictably change the directions that he moved in. Spacetechnics were capable of teleportation, after all, and a well-known Spacetechnic combat technique was to teleport an object into the body of their enemies to instantly kill them — colloquially known as ‘telefragging’. On top of that, the nigh-invisible barriers created by Barriertechnics were more than capable of instantly bisecting an adult man. And both abilities could pierce energy shields. As such, Gavon’s greatest defense was unpredictable movement — if the enemy didn’t know where he was going to be, then they couldn’t aim their deadly attacks.

Water splashing across his shields reminded Gavon of the third remaining Chaotic, but he merely released an irritated sigh. Damn elementals, he mused as he continued using his own Gravitatechnism to manipulate his movement through the air and around rubble. Always annoying, never lethal — not at this level of skill, anyways. I’ll save them for last.

As soon as that thought concluded, a woman suddenly appeared in the air just a meter away from Gavon. Instantly, Gavon multiplied the gravitational forces affecting the woman to force her to one knee as he reversed and multiplied his own personal gravity, causing him to free-fall into the sky at three times the normal speed of free-fall. The speediness of his response prevented the SFC Spacetechnic from getting an accurate gauge of his position, but instead of turning his gun on the Spacetechnic, Gavon quickly whipped around to the right — where another SFC soldier was peeking out from behind cover. Their eyes were squinted as they looked up at Gavon, as he had made sure to position himself between them and the afternoon sun; he then took advantage of that moment of weakness to fire his rifle at the Chaotic, successfully scoring a hit on their face and knocking them to the ground.

Energy shielding prevented direct harm, however, allowing them to quickly jump to their feet. But while they were recovering, Gavon had dived back to the streets, hiding behind the buildings while he checked his AR HUD for the positions of the enemy Chaotics. They’re converging on the destroyed generator housing… he mused, it’s clear that they’ve lost me. Let’s try the ol’ free-fall trick again, then!

Silently, Gavon turned towards the remnants of the generator, weaving through the buildings of Tresnon to remain hidden from his opponents. Once he closed to within a dozen meters or so of the SFC Chaotics, he slowed himself and then focused on the area around the Chaotics, forcing a sudden inversion of gravity — and then multiplying that inverse force by three. Now assaulted by the force of three upward Gs, the SFC Chaotics quickly began falling into the sky. The Barriertechnic immediately created an invisible barrier to stop themselves from falling, though still struggled against 3Gs of force; and the Spacetechnic quickly teleported back to the ground, removing them from Gavon’s sight. But the Hydrotechnic was scarcely able to save themselves — they surrounded themselves in a bubble of water to try and slow their upwards fall, but Gavon turned his rifle skyward and fired twice, jarring the Hydrotechnic and preventing them from concentrating hard enough to save themselves. Before long, they had turned into a mere speck in the sky… at which point Gavon quickly and instantly reversed the direction of gravity.

Normally, Gavon could apply a maximum gravitational force of 4Gs, irrespective of the natural gravity of his surroundings. On its own, 4Gs of force is enough to make people struggle under their own weight, but it isn’t enough to knock out most trained combatants — and it certainly won’t kill them. And if Gavon applied those 4Gs in an upwards direction, then the net result would be less, as some of the force is canceled out by the planet’s own gravitational pull — which, on Nimalia, was about 1G. Even if he applied his force downwards, he could only achieve a net g-force of 5Gs — certainly nothing to scoff at, but still not enough to disable opponents. Not fast enough to prevent a counterattack, at least. But even so, most people were only familiar with about 1G, and only trained under 1G. So when Gavon suddenly forced someone to experience 5Gs in a free-fall… quite often, they wouldn’t realize just how fast they were falling until it was too late.

And that same fate befell the SFC Hydrotechnic. A mere few seconds after Gavon had applied 5Gs of downward g-force, the Chaotic slammed downwards — and right into the barrier that the Barriertechnic had created to prevent themselves from falling upwards. The raw kinetic force of the impact fully overloaded the Hydrotechnic’s shields, and the Barriertechnic quickly removed their barrier so they could tend to their stunned comrade. But in that instant, Gavon rocketed up into the sky, clearing the buildings and rubble in between him and the enemy Chaotics as he brought his rifle around and fired twice. One bullet pierced clean through the Hydrotechnic’s chest, and the second floored the Barriertechnic, finally overloading their shields. A third bullet a mere second later finally put the Barriertechnic down, leaving Gavon with only one enemy remaining.

This long fight is getting to them. Their coordination is falling apart— though it wasn’t very impressive to start with, Gavon mused as he allowed himself to continue ascending into the air, all while searching for the location of the final Chaotic. That Barriertechnic could easily have saved their Hydrotechnic friend, if they had just made a larger barrier. Did they not think to do so? Were they too fatigued? Or were they simply not powerful enough? None of those options reflect particularly well on the SFC. If all of their Chaotics are this poorly trained, then it’s no wonder their Spacetechnic hasn’t managed to telefrag me, yet—!

A split-second later, the Spacetechnic appeared in the air next to Gavon. Immediately, Gavon altered his own gravity to point sidewards, allowing him to fall away from the Spacetechnic just quickly enough to prevent her from grabbing him. She keeps trying to touch me, he thought, all while whipping his gun around to point at the Spacetechnic — only for her to teleport away before he could fire. This entire fight, she’s only teleported things that she can touch — I had thought that she might be trying to lull me into a false sense of complacency, but the fact that she’s still trying to grab me is a real indictment of her abilities. I suppose the SFC really is a sixth-rate PMC, after all! Now, let’s end this.

Gavon immediately spun around in the air, expecting the Spacetechnic to try and teleport behind him. Indeed, just as he turned around, she appeared in the exact spot that he expected. Instantly, he fired his gun, the bullet slamming into the Spacetechnic’s face to light up her energy shields and send her flying off into the distance. Gavon made to shoot again, but just as he pulled the trigger, the Spacetechnic disappeared; quickly, he altered his personal trajectory once more to fly back up into the sky, this time keeping his path straight in an attempt to bait out the Spacetechnic. And then, a second later, he whirled around again, just as the Spacetechnic appeared in the air next to him — but this time, she managed to dodge his aim, and thus his next bullet. Before Gavon could adjust his aim, she lashed out, grabbing the barrel of his sniper rifle.

Shit—! Immediately, Gavon released the weapon, so as to prevent her from teleporting him and his rifle at the same time. Indeed, as the two began to fall through the air, Gavon’s rifle disappeared into thin air under the grip of the Spacetechnic — and then, some distance away, he could see his rifle appear halfway out of the sandy ground.

But the Spacetechnic remained in the air, falling beside Gavon. Now weaponless, Gavon moved to make some distance between himself and the Spacetechnic. He quickly applied 3Gs skyward to himself, and then 5Gs downward to the Spacetechnic, accelerating her descent to the ground. But then, right as he expected to see her disappear, a metal shield slammed into her at Mach speeds, hitting her hard enough to stun her. Golden static fuzz swept across her body, the tell-tale sign of her energy shielding failing… just in time for her to hit the ground, a fatal impact from Gavon’s 5 downward Gs.

Gavon eyed her for just a second, making note of her unmoving corpse before turning his attention in the direction the metal shield had come from. Running down the street toward him, he could see Austin, Spike, Sky, and Twy; upon seeing this, Gavon quickly descended to the ground to meet them, leaving the Spacetechnic corpse out of sight. “Good throw,” he remarked, passing Spike a glance. “That was you, right?”

“Yeah,” Spike replied. “Thought you could use some help.”

“…Or maybe not…” Twy muttered as she looked at the wreckage around them. A crushed mech, the ruined shield generator housing, and a handful of unmoving corpses met her eyes, prompting a flinch and a grimace. “What happened, here…?”

“I was attacked,” Gavon reported, quickly using his gravity manipulation to bury the corpses under loose rubble — and thus hide them from view. “And I fought them off. It took longer than I would’ve liked, but that was entirely down to their energy shielding. Their actual skills were quite lacking; the SFC is more of a push-over than I expected.”

“And yet, they’re still overrunnin’ the Compound…” Austin muttered.

“So it would seem,” Gavon said, and then looked over the four Earthians. “Now, what the hell are you four doing, here? Shouldn’t you be back at the school?”

“We’re here to help,” Sky replied. “I mean, we can’t just sit around while the city is under attack!”

“That may be, but even so…” Gavon frowned. “The SFC might be easy for me to deal with, but I’m a trained Chaotic with plenty of combat experience. You all are still in training. What would I tell Luke if I let you get into a fight, and you got injured? Or worse?”

“I get that you’re worried, but…” Spike paused to pound his chest once, revealing the telltale golden sheet of energy shielding protecting his body. “I just figured out that I can make shields! These’ll help protect us in a fight!”

“More importantly,” Twy interjected, “we came here to replace the shield generators.”

“Really?” Gavon regarded Spike with surprise. “You can make an entire generator?”

“I made one for the hospital,” Spike replied. “I mean… it took some effort, but I did it. I think I can do it here, too.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Get to it!”

“Right.” Spike nodded, and then moved past Gavon toward the existing, yet broken shield generator. “Hey, Austin! Help me clear some space!”

“Hold on,” Gavon commented, glancing toward the rubble covering the area — and promptly removing it with his gravity manipulation. Within seconds, he created an empty space about the size of the old shield generator. He passed Spike a quick nod, and then turned to look at Austin, Sky, and Twy. “So the four of you are going to take care of the generators, then?”

“That’s the plan…” Austin said uneasily.

“Alright, then…” Gavon looked back at Spike again, watching as he held his hands out towards the empty space. A moment of silence followed, with Spike’s brow furrowing in concentration and effort, and then… right out of thin air, a large shield generator materialized, copying the form of the existing, broken generator — except the new one actually worked. “…Well, I’ll be,” Gavon remarked. “I’d read that he was a Shield Formtechnic, but I didn’t realize it extended to energy shields, as well!”

“I wonder if he can manage other kinds of defenses, too…” Twy mused.

“It’s worth considering, but we’ve burned enough time, here,” Gavon said as Spike joined the group. “I’ll leave you all to it, now—“

“Wait!” Sky called out, just before Gavon could take to the skies. “You should take me and sis with you!”

“He should?!” Twy responded incredulously.

“Yes, why should I?” Gavon questioned.

“Well, I think Austin and I can handle the shields just fine…” Spike said. “Accordin’ to Selind, the SFC and Bleeders ain’t actually botherin’ with the other generators, since they’re already destroyed. So I don’t think we’ll run into any trouble.”

“Hmm… and as long as you wait to actually activate the generators until you replace the entire array, I doubt the SFC or Bleeders will even realize what you’re up to…” Gavon mused. “And so, you think you can spare the twins?”

“C’mon, let us fight!” Sky pleaded. “We can both attack from range, so we don’t have to get close to danger, or anything! Hell, we can both fly!”

“Flying is useful, but it can also make you a target. There’s nothing to hide behind in the sky, after all,” Gavon replied.

“Sky, I don’t know if this is a good idea…” Twy commented warily.

“Well would you rather just do nothing?” Sky retorted. “Spike clearly has things handled, here, and Austin can help speed things up with those copycat powers of his!”

“They aren’t ‘copycat’, they’re Simulator,” Austin insisted. “It’s— it’s different!”

“Yeah, sure. My point is, we’re not even doing anything here to help. But if we went with Gavon, then…!”

“Then we might get ourselves killed!” Twy refuted.

“I won’t deny that it’s dangerous, here,” Gavon said. “However… it is also true that we need all the help we can get. And with the apparent skill level of the SFC, your personal shielding may be sufficient to protect you. For a short time, at least.”

“See? It’s fine!” Sky remarked.

“Don’t get carried away, though,” Gavon interjected. “Even in the safest of fights, injury or death is a possibility. If you’re willing to take that risk to fight for the people of Tresnon, then I’ll let you come with me. But if you aren’t committed, then stay here — because you’ll be dead weight, otherwise.”

“I…” Twy began, only to trail off, a troubled look on her face. She glanced at her sister, who was giving her an encouraging smile, and then at Austin, who gave her a doubtful look.

“…Don’t look at me,” he said, and then forced a smile. “Although… if you lost an arm, or something, at least it would be a good excuse to get cool cybernetics! Right?”

“Austin…” Spike muttered, holding a hand to his face in disbelief.

“…Austin’s argument, aside…” Twy said, her gaze cast downward. “…I… still don’t know if I’ll be useful, but… I suppose it is hard to just stand around, while people are getting hurt, or… worse.”

“If that’s what you’ve decided, then so be it,” Gavon replied. “But I need you to keep your head in the game. From what I’ve heard, you all have been in fights for your lives before, so you at least know what it’s like… but never underestimate the danger in front of you, and always remain on your toes.” He glanced between Sky and Twy. “Can you two promise that, for me?”

“Yes!” Sky replied.

“I’ll try my best…” Twy commented.

“Alright, then.” Gavon gave them a quick nod, and then glanced at Austin and Spike. “Take care of those shields. They might be the key to turning this around!”

“Will do!” Spike remarked. “And Sky, Twy — be careful!”

“Uh, yeah!” Austin quickly added. “Don’t die, or anything, because, uh, that would suck!”

“How encouraging,” Twy deadpanned.

“I suppose it’ll have to do,” Gavon said with a chuckle. He then turned around, slowly levitating as he gestured for Sky and Twy to follow him. “Now, I’d like to pick up a rifle real quick, and then we’ll be going where Selind says we’re needed — so brace yourselves! This won’t be easy!”

---

*

“Look! There he is!”

“Shhh!!” Phoenix shushed, “don’t let them hear us!”

“I mean, I can already do that, on my own…” Conrad commented.

Phoenix turned to give him an irate glare, only to remember that he — as well as herself, Kestrel, and Liask — were all invisible, thanks to Conrad’s powers. In a huff, Phoenix then turned her attention back to where she had been looking: the group currently stood on Tresnon’s western walls, overlooking the ramparts at a small, impromptu encampment. Two gunships laid dormant on the ground, while a handful of individuals dressed in green, brown, and gray robes and overcoats tended to the gunships and what appeared to be a caged arena. Off to the side of the arena was another, smaller cage, and standing in that cage was none other than Pierce.

“…Well, we’ve found him,” Conrad said after a moment of silence. “What now?”

“We rescue him, of course!” Liask insisted.

“How the hell do you think we should do that, huh?” Phoenix countered. “Just look at what’s down there! And given that Pierce is stuck in a cage, there’s clearly some CENT fields down there, so it isn’t like we can just barge in!”

“The shields Spike gave us will protect us!”

“Yeah, but protecting us is meaningless if we can’t actually do anything! You see those guns they have, right? And how they outnumber us?”

“Well… we can’t just stand by and watch! I could distract them, maybe!”

“What, and get captured yourself?” Phoenix scoffed. “A rescue is entirely pointless if one of us just gets captured or wounded along the way. A one-for-one trade, or worse, would render this whole exercise pointless!”

“Then what would you have us do, huh?!” Liask countered irately.

“There’s nothing to do,” Phoenix insisted stubbornly. “Pierce is the one who got himself into this mess. It’s not our responsibility to save him!”

“Harsh…” Conrad responded.

“The only reason he even ‘sacrificed’ himself is because of that damn ego of his,” Phoenix ranted. “He dug himself into this mess, he can damn well dig himself out!”

“That’s no reason to just leave him behind!” Liask argued.

“Why do you even care so much about that bastard, anyways?” Phoenix retorted. “What has he done to deserve your trust, huh? Aside from fucking you?”

“What?!” Liask drew back in surprise, though the motion was lost on Phoenix amidst them all being invisible. “You— what?!”

“Phoenix…” Kestrel muttered.

“Are you seriously just mad that Pierce and Liask are a thing?” Conrad questioned incredulously.

“I just don’t fucking get it!” Phoenix said. “He’s an arrogant asshole! We all know he’s an asshole! So why the fuck is anyone willing to go this far for him? To put their lives on the line for him?!”

“He put his life on the line for you,” Liask countered. “Didn’t he? That’s why he’s down there, after all.”

“That’s—!”

“Look, Phoenix,” Conrad interjected, “I agree that Pierce can be an asshole sometimes. And… honestly, I do agree that a rescue might be too dangerous for us to attempt, but… are you really willing to just let him die, down there?”

“We don’t even know if that’s what the Rokresians are planning,” Phoenix insisted. “We know they want to ‘test’ something on Pierce, but we don’t know that they plan to kill him, or anything. They could just be holding him hostage for leverage over Tresnon—“

A loud snarl, followed by the screech of wrenching metal, interrupted Phoenix’s rant. The group quickly turned their attention back to the encampment, where they could now see a large, wolf-like creature prowling around the caged arena, holding what looked to be a bar of metal in its maw. And streaked all across its snout and down its hide, were telltale metallic streaks — visible even from the top of the wall.

“Infected…” Kestrel muttered.

“Infected…?” Liask questioned. “…Wait, you mean the metallic infection? Really? I’ve heard about that from Trenon, but… here…?”

“You heard about it from Trenon?” Phoenix echoed incredulously.

“Yeah. He said he went on a mission to deal with it, once. But that was years ago, and on a different planet… you’re sayin’ that it’s here? Now?!”

“Sure looks like it,” Conrad answered. “And if you’ve heard of the metallic infection, then you should know that that stuff is deadly — and the fact that it’s here is a big, big problem.”

“Shit…” Phoenix growled. “Fucking, shit…”

“If they have an infected animal down there, then…” Conrad trailed off uneasily before finishing a second later, “…I don’t know if we can handle this ourselves, after all. The infection is nuts.”

“Whole Compound in danger,” Kestrel pointed out. “…Need to stop it.”

“Sure, but us…?”

“If the whole Compound is in danger, then that’s even more reason to act now!” Liask insisted. “We just need to destroy the CENT fields, right? And then we can free Pierce, kill that monster, and leave!”

“Destroy the CENT fields? And how the hell do we do that, huh?” Phoenix retorted. “None of us can attack from range, not through a CENT field!”

“I can throw things!”

“Accurately enough to hit and destroy a CENT generator?” Conrad questioned.

“We have to at least try!” Liask argued. “C’mon! Aren’t y’all supposed to be Pierce’s friends? Why are you so willin’ to just leave him be?!”

“And why are you so willing to put your life on the line for him?” Phoenix pressed. “It doesn’t make any fucking sense!”

“It’s because I actually care about Pierce,” Liask snapped. “…Is this how you Earthians usually do things? You just let your friends die, while you watch?”

“It’s not that simple—!”

“It is that simple! Now, I’m goin’ down there. I’m goin’ to save Pierce. You can sit here and watch, or you can actually try an’ help me, but you ain’t stoppin’ me from doin’ it. So what are y’all doin’?”

“Hmph…!” Phoenix snorted, but turned her attention back to the encampment. The infected beast was still wandering the caged arena, snarling at the nearby Rokresians… all as two of them moved over to Pierce’s cage and began to drag it towards the arena.

“No time,” Kestrel pointed out.

“Yep…” Conrad responded uneasily, and then turned to look at the rest of the group — or where they would be standing, if not for his invisibility. “It’s now or never, Phoenix. So… what are we doing…?”