On the rooftop, the night wind carried the city's chaotic symphony: the flickering neon, the low hum of hoverbus traffic, the metallic rattle of skaters, and the distant, nostalgic sound of synthesized street music. Black stood, a pebble in his hand, staring into the horizon.
Jex's voice, calm and utterly disruptive, cut through the ambiance from behind. "If you hit the bus leaving the Syndicate grounds traveling to Bayrock, I will answer one question you ask truthfully, and also tell you a secret."
Black froze mid-thrust, turning to face Jex. "What hoverbus? What grounds? I can't see anything of such," he said, scanning his normal line of sight.
Jex smiled, a strange, knowing expression. "You are very different from the humans of your generation. You're something beyond time." He moved closer. "You need to see the lines. The energy. The world is more than just bricks and stones."
"Your power came from somewhere, and if you don't show it, no ordinary person would see it, right?" Jex asked rhetorically. "The same goes with everything in the world—their energies. If you're in sync with the energy, you would find what your eyes couldn't with your mind."
"So I just find the energy?" Black asked, suddenly attentive.
"No. You already know the energy. I heard you killed one of Dante's dogs. Try remembering the feeling you have towards The Syndicate."
Black closed his eyes, focusing inward.
"Now try seeing the feeling of the city as you remember."
When Black opened his eyes, the city was transformed. The material world of concrete and glass was overlain by a lattice of pure energy. Everything appeared dark, but its contours were traced in light: red, purple, blue, yellow, green. These colored lines highlighted buildings, plants, and every object. Humans were visible as smoky, colored auras.
Jex continued the lesson. "Now be specific. Remember only the Syndicate and how it felt. Find the line that fits a hoverbus on the grounds of the Syndicate with the feeling you recognize."
Black focused, the grey-colored line of the Syndicate's cold purpose filling his mind. Slowly, he saw a color-lined figure of a bus, filled with different human auras, moving away from the central complex.
"Aim. Shoot!"
Black focused his mind and threw the pebble with great force, his aim guided by the energy lines.
POINK!
The pebble struck the bus's window. A passenger turned, confused, then ignored it.
"I hit the target," Black claimed.
"You did. Ask away," Jex confirmed.
"You're the apocalypse that happened, right?"
"No," Jex replied with an absolute, affirming tone.
"But Orion said... You are chaos. You're the one watching Adam and Eve, right?" Black's face was now brimming with a curious anger mixed with dawning fear.
Jex calmly nodded. "Yes, I'm chaos. Adam and Eve were a real good show. The last time I had real fun," he paused, his eyes distant. "But I am not the apocalypse, nor did I cause the apocalypse. But I watched the whole thing happen and still wasn't entertained."
Black asked the final question, sensing the answer already. "You created Rage?"
"That's the third question," Jex corrected gently. "I am Rage. Now, about that secret."
Black's face lit up.
Jex delivered the blow with a malicious grin. "About that hoverbus you threw that pebble at. Yeah, your friends are on it. They're probably going to die as they walked into the lion's den without the alpha of their pack!"
Black was still slightly confused.
Jex clarified: "I'm saying your friends are on a hoverbus as raiders for the Syndicate."
"AND WHY DIDN'T YOU START WITH THAT?!"
Black, without another word, leapt off the building. He was moving toward the hoverbus, locating it by the distinct aura signature he had just learned. He heard Jex's voice echoing from the rooftop: "I'll be watching you. Better be amusing!"
****
As Black ran, his mind raced. He had to be on that hoverbus. He focused on the energy lines, seeing the gaps in space he could utilize. "If only I could move these lines outta the way!" He reached out as if to grab a nearby aura line. To his shock, the line moved closer to him, and he was violently pulled across the intervening distance.
THUD!
He slammed his head into a building, yet felt no pain. He was much further ahead than before. The attempt to grab the aura line had successfully warped space, pulling him forward—but at the cost of control. "Space warp," he realized. The ability to bend distance itself. Now he knew his path: find a clear trajectory and reach for the aura lines near his target.
With this new skill, Black was rapidly closing the distance. Suddenly, a cold, malignant feeling washed over him. Before he could turn, SLAM!
He stumbled, tumbling away from his path. Before he could regain balance, another hit landed on his side. He felt his rib crack, sending him flying. He could sense the next blow coming, even though he still couldn't identify the attacker. BANG! Another hit struck his arm as he instinctively raised it to block, but it wasn't enough. A relentless barrage of blows landed, breaking his bones in rapid succession.
"Focus, Black! Focus!" he mentally screamed. "All I have to do is focus and open my eyes!"
He screamed aloud. A wave of black smoke erupted from his body, forcing his unseen enemies to skid a few steps away.
"Bounty Hunters," Black uttered, his voice heavy with fury and desperate urgency. "I could swear I don't have the time for this."
The two deadly female hunters were revealed. The first, SKARRA, possessed the tail and segmented exoskeleton of a desert scorpion. Her skin was a burnished ochre, and her movements were low and coiled. The second, Vexia, had unnaturally pale white skin and hair, and her body was covered in quills and spines like a porcupine. They looked dreadful, silent harbingers of death.
They did not speak. They flung themselves forward.
Black knew there was no talking. He drew the short, collapsible rod from his side, extended it into his Arcanatech spear, and swung to deflect the incoming assault.
The fight exploded into a dizzying display of speed and controlled violence. Skarra lashed out with her poisonous, barbed tail. Black, leapt high, executing a turn over the flying spikes. He grabbed Skarra's thick, swiping tail, using it as a momentary anchor, and drove his spear through her spine, the tip exiting her abdomen.
Skarra shrieked, a bone-chilling sound. Black retracted the spear and landed perfectly, facing the pair with a fierce resolve. He had to end this now.
Seeing her partner writhing in pain, Vexia made a horrifying choice. With a burst of maniacal strength, she tore open Skarra's chest and grabbed her heart. Before Black could process the grotesque action, the two women began to merge in a terrifying act of bio-fusion. They combined into one big, hideous being: a four-breasted, three-eyed monstrosity, covered entirely in spikes and ending in a wicked scorpion tail. Purple light glowed between the cracks of the merging skin. They were no longer two hunters; they were an Apex Predator.
Black's obstacle had just become bigger and tougher.
As the hoverbus approached the raid point, the landscape changed to a colossal, looming presence: a gigantic mountain forest known infamously as the Angel's Cage. Bayrock.
The mountain was a site of legend and terror, once known as Kilimanjaro. The old tales claimed it held no monsters, but was instead the prison of an ancient, augmented cannibal tribe and the supposed burial ground of an Angel, who sacrificed itself centuries ago for the sake of humanity. The very air around the mountain was heavy with rumors of ancient malice and trapped power. They are here, at the foot of the mountain.
Inside the hoverbus, Kai heard a frantic voice.
Solon inside Kai's head: Something is wrong...
"What?" Kai whispered, thinking aloud.
Solon: ...
"Solon? Solon?..." Kai spoke to the others. "Ermmm, guys, I think Solon is..."
Before he could finish the sentence, his face twisted into a snarl.
"I'll be taking over now. I'm sorry, Kai."
The Prince of Old Hell forcefully seized control, instantly revealing his dark, original form and surging with cold power, locking Kai deep within their shared psyche. Solon had taken over.