RAIJI: (Eyes locked on the General, mind racing) "I've got a plan. Use that wall jump for speed. We beat him by being faster than his prediction. Your words: you went so fast you couldn't keep up. If he predicts the future, high speed is a good counter."
KIRO: "That can be done. Maybe... I can throw you?"
RAIJI: (Sighs) "What? No. Fine. Only once."
They moved. A synchronized dash toward the General. Kiro peeled off to the side, hit a wall with a thud, and used the rebound to launch himself at a sharp angle. Raiji sent a wind slash ahead as a distraction.
The General's eyes flicked toward Kiro's unexpected trajectory for a split second. That was all Raiji needed. He didn't attack; he ran a tight circle around the General, a blur of motion.
On his second pass, he leaped toward the rebounding Kiro. At the peak of their jump, Kiro planted his feet against Raiji's and pushed with all his enhanced strength, launching Raiji like a cannonball toward the opposite wall.
Raiji hit the wall and immediately exploded off it, a silver-and-black projectile. Kiro, using the opposite reaction, shot himself off the other side.
They came at the General from two opposite, ricocheting angles, speeds multiplied.
Raiji's blade was a silver line aimed for the General's chest. The General, tracking two high-speed vectors at once, finally showed a flaw. His block was a fraction too slow.
SHINK.
Baneblade bit deep, opening a gash across the General's pectoral. Blood welled. In the same motion, Raiji pivoted and delivered a spinning kick to the General's jaw.
CRUNCH.
The General was launched backward, crashing into the reinforced wall with a resonant BANG.
KIRO: (Landing, a triumphant grin on his face) "I got you! You got hit! For the first time!"
BRIGADIER GENERAL: (Pushing himself up from the crater in the wall, touching the blood on his chest. His red eyes burned with pure, unadulterated fury.) "Ouch. That hurt. You'll both pay for that."
VEYRA: (Walking calmly into the room, surveying the scene Kiro and Raiji panting, the General wounded and enraged) "Kiro, you're still fighting this guy? He should be out cold by now."
KIRO: (Gesturing at the seething General) "That's the thing! I can't punch him! It's not easy! Only when Raiji came up with a plan did we get a hit in!"
VEYRA: "Good. Then I'll join in. What's the plan? Fill me in."
KIRO: "He can predict the future! So we outspeed him. That's the plan."
VEYRA: (A quick, assessing glance at the General, then a nod) "We two are fast. And Kiro is super fast. He'll be in trouble. And you two have the brains back. So this should be an easy win."
BRIGADIER GENERAL: (Eyes glowing crimson, voice a low rumble) "Speak louder. I'm not easy. Whatever you're planning... you three fail."
They moved.
Kiro and Raiji dashed in opposite directions, forcing the General's gaze to snap between them. Raiji unleashed a volley of long-range wind slashes, not to hit, but to herd and distract.
Kiro became a pinball of fury, ricocheting off walls, his path a chaotic zigzag.
The General's head tracked Kiro's next rebound, his body tensing to intercept—
BANG! BANG!
Veyra was already in motion. While the boys provided the flashy distraction, she was running tight, rapid circles around the General, a blue blur. She fired a spread of normal rounds, then a random incendiary shot that burst at his feet.
The General, focused on the two primary threats, was surprised. He brought his arms up, blocking the bullets, but the sudden wall of flame forced him to adjust his stance.
In that instant of divided attention, Veyra leaped. Not to shoot, but to grab. She seized his wrist with her suit-enhanced grip.
VEYRA: "Override."
Her palm, pressed against his armored forearm, emitted a silent pulse of blue light—a concentrated energy burst from her suit.
The General grunted as his cybernetic arm spasmed, the chip's connection flickering. His red eyes dimmed for a split second.
It was all the opening they needed.
Kiro came from his blind spot the one created by Veyra's grip. An uppercut lifted the General off his feet, a follow-up kick to the ribs spun him, and Kiro grabbed his leg, using his own momentum to hurl him across the room toward Raiji.
KIRO: "Raiji! You're up!"
Raiji was waiting, a calm center in the storm. As the General flew toward him, he didn't slash. He spun.
FWOOOM.
His "Mininado" technique erupted, not as a defensive whirl, but as a focused, advancing drill of slicing wind. It met the General mid-air, engulfing him, the countless cuts shredding his armor and battering him before spitting him out to crash against the far wall.
Kiro landed in the center of the room, breathing hard but grinning.
KIRO: "We make a good team."
RAIJI: (Sheathing his blade with a soft click) "Yes. We do."
VEYRA: (Holstering her guns, a smirk on her face) "You two are nothing without the brains." She laughed. Then her smile faded, eyes narrowing at the crumpled form of the General. "...But it can't be this easy."
The General pushed himself up, his uniform torn and bloodied from a dozen shallow cuts and deep bruises. He stood, swaying slightly, his breathing a ragged, heavy sound in the sudden quiet.
BRIGADIER GENERAL: "How... dare you three... destroy my operation here. I was getting good men to work for us..."
KIRO: (Eyes wide) "How are you still standing?"
BRIGADIER GENERAL: (A bloody smile) "I don't go down easy. You're making a big enemy. From the army... and now the Church."
KIRO: "The Church? Why? Aren't they good people?"
BRIGADIER GENERAL: "'Good'?" He let out a wet, hacking laugh. "The plan was to recruit these people, then take Scrap Town next. Wipe out the whole gang, recruit the survivors... then experiment on them. With the Church's help."
VEYRA: (Her blood running cold) "That makes sense. They are evil. Not all of them... I thought Project White was over."
BRIGADIER GENERAL: "It is over. V5 was the perfect product. Had to move on because White wasn't working out. Need the next project... to make a legend come back." His glowing red eyes fixed on them, filled with fanatical pride. "Previous projects ended worse. Or better. Than White. Other than that... you three are the next victims to experiment on."
He straightened, cracking his neck. The damage seemed to energize him, a second wind of pure malice.
GENERAL: "I won't even need Overdrive for you three. I'll just beat you down."
RAIJI: (His hand tightening on Baneblade, voice icy) "This 'White Project' is a problem. But first... you."
KIRO: (Snapping his leg back into place with a grunt) "Not again!" He dashed back into the fray.
RAIJI: (Pushing himself up, winded) "I'm okay. That knocked the wind out of me." He saw the General turning toward Veyra and blurred into a defensive dash.
VEYRA: (Back on her feet, analyzing) "Seems like you're just kicking swordsmen." She shot a glance at Raiji. "Sorry for rushing him, just lost my cool. But I've got a plan." She whispered quickly into his ear.
RAIJI: (Nodding once) "Okay. Got it."
KIRO: "Raiji, fill me in!"
VEYRA: (Shouting to both) "One more thing! Once I say 'shoot,' Raiji, shoot at me with an elemental shot. Trust me."
KIRO: "Just distract him from a distance!"
Kiro dashed forward, feinting high. The General shifted to counter, but Raiji was already moving, unleashing a barrage of wind slashes from the side.
The General blocked the air blades, but the distraction allowed Kiro to land a solid punch to his kidney. Veyra, from her position, fired a stream of normal bullets into the same spot, followed by a gas grenade.
POOMF.
A cloud of obscuring smoke enveloped the General. Veyra kept firing blindly into the cloud, the shots creating noise and pressure.
VEYRA: "Boys! Get ready!"
Raiji, confused but trusting, tensed.
Kiro delivered a heavy, spinning kick that knocked the General stumbling out of the smoke to the side. The General recovered instantly, leaping high into the air to gain a vantage point.
Kiro was faster. He shot upward, intercepting the General from above and slamming him back down to the floor.
BRIGADIER GENERAL: (Smirking as they landed) "You idiot! You'll be shot!" He pointed a high-caliber round from Veyra's rifle was streaking directly toward Kiro's face.
Instead of dodging, Kiro grabbed the General, using him as a human shield.
KIRO: (Shouting) "RAIJI! READY!"
VEYRA: "FIRE SHOT, INCOMING!" She fired not at the General, but at Raiji, who was already in the air.
The round was a concentrated ball of fire. Raiji, mid-leap, raised the Element Slayer. The sword absorbed the fire attack, its runes blazing red.
RAIJI: Now a living, falling meteor of contained fire, he descended. "NOW!"
He didn't slash at the General. He slashed downward, releasing all the absorbed fire energy in a single, pinpoint "Fire Dragon Slash" directly onto the Brigadier General, who was still locked in Kiro's grapple.
WHOOM-CRASH!
A contained explosion of flame and force erupted. Kiro let go and rolled clear as the General was engulfed.
The smoke cleared. The General lay in a smoldering crater, his uniform scorched away, his enhancement chip sparking and dead.
RAIJI: (Landing, sheathing the Element Slayer) "That plan worked. Explain, Veyra."
VEYRA: (Walking over, holstering her gun) "Easy. He doesn't predict the future. He sees patterns. I don't think it's a Cube or cyberware. My brother was talking about something like it before I left... he mentioned 'seeing you, Kiro future movement.' So I connected it to this. Their weakness? If you break the pattern and their line of sight, their prediction goes offline.that was a blank at end"
Then, the General got up.
He barely got up, his body smoking, armor shattered, but his eyes still burning with fanatical fury. "How dare you three... And you, girl! Shooting me with blanks! Making me look like a clown!"
He dashed not with his earlier grace, but with a pained, lurching speed straight at Raiji. Raiji met him, Baneblade flashing, and sliced a deep gash across his already-wounded arm. The General didn't even scream. He took the cut, grabbed Raiji by the front of his gi, and hurled him into the nearest wall with a sickening crunch.
Raiji slumped, dazed, unable to push himself up.
Kiro roared and leaped between them. The General met his charge with a single, piston-driven punch to the sternum. The air left Kiro's lungs in a gasp as he was sent flying backward, skidding to a stop at Veyra's feet.
Veyra backpedaled, putting distance between herself and the staggering yet unstoppable General.
VEYRA: (Kneeling by Kiro, voice low and urgent) "Hey, hero. You okay? I can't believe this guy is still up. But Raiji's out. Too bad." Her eyes met Kiro's, sharp and focused. "Okay, this next one. Trust me. Only attack when I tell you. Ready?"
KIRO: (Pushing himself up on trembling arms, coughing a spray of blood) "Sure... but what are you planning?" He looked at his hands, confusion cutting through the pain. "I'm not healing... it's slowing down. Why?"
Veyra's eyes flickered with concern, but there was no time. The General was coming.
She dashed forward, not away. A flurry of suit-enhanced moves—a kick to his knee, a punch to his bleeding side, another spinning kick. It was a desperate, distracting barrage.
The General swatted the last kick aside and grabbed her ankle with a crushing grip. "You dumb girl. You just fly."
VEYRA: (Ignoring the pain, shouting over her shoulder) "READY!"
Kiro forced his legs to obey. He pushed off, summoning the last of his speed in a super-fast dash.
The General smiled, a bloody, triumphant grimace. He raised Veyra, preparing to use her as a club against Kiro. "Too slow"
His body jerked. A full-body spasm locked his muscles. Arcs of blue electricity crackled over his armor Veyra's suit's maximum-output shock system, activated the moment he grabbed her, channeled directly into his nervous system.
His grip faltered for one critical second.
Kiro was there. Not trying to grab her. Putting every ounce of his fading strength into a single, point-blank punch aimed not at the General's face, but at the sparking, broken enhancement chip embedded in his head.
The punch landed with a sound like a gunshot.
CRUNCH.
The General's eyes went wide. He didn't scream. He just... stopped. The red light in his eyes flickered and died. He released Veyra, his arms falling limp to his sides.
Then, with the last of his momentum, Kiro pivoted and drove a final, brutal uppercut into the General's gut, lifting him off his feet.
The General flew backward, a broken marionette, and crashed into the far wall with a final, definitive BANG.