Ianori could feel himself slipping between consciousness and oblivion.  His ears were ringing – sounds around him were hollow and distant, as though he’d hit his head – but the most overwhelming sensation was that of the oily, writhing, slippery feeling coursing over and through his whole body.  In a word…it was as if something was flossing his very existence.  Body, mind, memories, spirit…all of it was laid bare before something infinite.


    And the whispers…  The whispers were without end…and in spite of them, Ianori never felt so alone.


    Though everything he could ‘see’ was black forever, there was definitely the sense that there was something there.  His very being felt like a drop of oil in a vast, abyssal ocean; present, but disparate from the whole, never capable of mixing.


    He thought he could speak, but his mouth wouldn’t move, and in that dread, terrible moment…he realized he no longer had one.  He didn’t even have a body anymore.  Yet somehow, he still felt like he was himself, and capable of reaching into the vast darkness that spread out before him in every direction.  The idea of extending his arm and hand came to mind, and he was sure he could feel that slippery expanse moving across his skin like fog across a morning lake.


    But then…excruciating pain coursed through him; fire and ice in his veins spread out from his heart and leaked through every inch of his core and limbs, up his neck, and finally, burst out of his eyes.


    Seth was the first to recoil at the sight of it; it was like expanding-foam had exploded forth from the Fafnir’s very eye-sockets, except it was moving - billowing, even – until it started spreading out and up, beside the man’s temples.  The way it undulated was eerie; it wasn’t exactly gaseous, but it didn’t feel right to say it was liquid either.  It was just…a thick, soupy, blistering mist.  Dark in color, like coagulated blood, it oozed out of the place Ianori’s eyes once sat, and ‘boiled’ its way up until the wispy tips of it dissipated to nothing again.  In a way, it reminded Seth of how the Limitless-eyes looked when they were activated, except…wrong.  Terribly wrong.


    “M-Miss Ren…!”


    “What?” She craned her head back to look over her shoulder-armor again, but spotted the problem without needing explanation, “Ah shit!”


    Gabriel couldn’t help but look back, but as soon as he did, the entire vehicle jerked from his unintended yank on the wheel in his shock.  It sent everyone tumbling, until he could get the car back under control – and back onto the road.  No one had time for the apologies that followed, so he just grit his teeth and tried to keep his eyes on the road while the back-row’s free hands tried to figure out what was going on.


    Ren squeezed herself through the two head-rests of the middle row, grabbed Ianori’s arm – the man had been thrown so hard by the sudden movement of the car that he’d been flung into the footwell behind the driver’s and front-passenger seats – and heaved him back up onto the cushioned bench.  Seth had scrambled into the back row by then, not wanting to be near whatever it was that was infecting his friend.  Ren just gripped the man’s face to turn it this way and that, “What the Hell is this stuff coming out of his eyes…?” She asked worriedly, brow furrowed…then her eyes widened in shock.


    “R..Re-en…h…he…lp…”


    “Ianori!  Hang on!” She answered.


    Seth ducked-down and covered his head, “Furion, please hurry…!”


    The distraction was the best possible cover – and the worst possible moment – for an ominous weight of malevolence to slide in over the fleeing vehicle.  It hovered above the roof, matching the car’s speed perfectly; a hulking behemoth of metal and ferocity.  With a main body shaped like a thick hornet, it sported two massive arms from the ‘shoulders’ of its thorax, and two smaller ones underneath.  The ‘head’ was flat and elongated, reflecting the light of oncoming traffic on its black, glassy face.  Under its belly was an ‘eye’ similar to that which adorned the front of the district’s flagship; this one, however, was an anti-gravity drive, keeping it elevated without the pesky need for disruptive thrusters.


    Something about the potential of that ‘presence’ sent a shiver down Gabriel’s spine, and it pulled him back from the shock of Ianori’s sudden comment.  He checked the mirrors and looked around, but nothing looked out of the ordinary; at that speed, there was no way for him to catch a glimpse of the people in the cars going the other direction.  If he could, he’d have seen the shocked and impressed faces that watched the ‘weapon’ keeping pace just out of sight.


    Its pilot, however, was ready to reveal himself, and as soon as he was notified that the vehicle’s digital stereo had been hijacked, he let his presence be known, “This is Magistrate Regulus Laurier.  I am communicating to you via one-way audio interface; if you have anything to say for yourselves, save it for later, because I can’t hear you.  You are driving a vehicle that doesn’t belong to you, and are taking it in a direction that is, in a word, suspicious.  You have ten seconds to figure out how you want your stolen transport to stop moving.  Choose wisely.”


    To say that the trio were a bit surprised would be an understatement.  Gabriel white-knuckled the wheel, “What do we do?”


    Ren took no chances, and immediately went for the side-door, “You’re gonna hear two bangs on the roof.  When you do, hit the brakes.” She ordered, and pulled the panel back.  Wind rushed in like a cyclone, and Ren whipped herself out and up with supernatural dexterity.  The door slammed shut behind her, and as she said, two bangs sounded; she crouched down on a knee, and slammed both hands – palms down and forward – into the metal near the rear window.  To her relief, Gabriel actually listened to her, and the car’s back-end suddenly lifted as the entire thing veered to an audible halt.  The mechanized behemoth she’d found flying above their car went flying out in front by a good distance before finally twisting to turn and look back, but just as it did…Ren launched right at it.  The car she’d vaulted from banged-down so hard that the undercarriage smacked against the road with a crunch, only to bounce back up to its normal hovering-height with a bobble.


    “What the fuck was that!?” Gabriel barked in surprise, catching the barest glimpse of the former Fafnir as she literally landed on the mecha’s faceplate and yanked it back around its own neck like a calf at a rodeo.


    “Explanations later, fleeing now, Mr. Gabriel!” Seth countered, “She can handle herself!  Just drive!”


    The mediator grit his teeth and whipped the wheel around far to the right, and hit the accelerator again.  The car went off-road in a wide arc as he steered it around the Magistrate’s mech-fighter and bounced back up to the road on its other side.


    By that point, the strain of the head-yank had forced the Magistrate to collide with two different vehicles that had stopped to try and avoid that very thing happening.  Within, Regulus’ neuroptics let him ‘see’ the area around him in the shape of a dome of interlinked hexagons, giving him a panoramic view of his surroundings.  The twist was still forceful enough to make him drift, though.  He shook his head and swung the left big arm around to swat the Fafnir away; Ren just braced and let it hit her.  The arm bounced, came back again, and this time flew through empty air. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Both the mech and the Knight spun ‘round as they each backed off; Ren landed down the road, opposite the direction the vehicle with her cohorts fled in.  Regulus twisted where his mech hovered and gave the woman a good look, “You’re looking awfully naked down there, with neither blades nor wings.  How do you intend to fight when two of your primary means are unavailable?” His voice boomed loudly from the mecha’s face-plate.


    Ren just lifted her fists up, “I’m more than enough as I am.  Come try me.”


    “I think not, little one.” He answered, much to her chagrin, “That was a good show, though.  Very creative.”  The mech turned again and immediately lifted off, venturing high into the air and well-beyond where Ren was able to go in just a temporary suit.


    “Wh-…hey!  Get back here!” She complained, and immediately started to give chase.  Fafnir were intended to fly though, not run, and while her pace was impressive anyway, it wasn’t enough to catch up to a flight-capable war-machine.  She did, however, have a number of crash-stalled vehicles nearby, and she quickly made for one that was just up ahead.  Without a thought, she tore the driver’s-side door clean off, ripped out the seat-belt strapped across the driver, and yanked him out after.  The other two passengers looked on in terror, and she gave them only two options as she climbed in, “Get out or you’re coming with me!”


    They bailed as she gunned it and spun the vehicle around on its axis to start heading in the other direction.


    Seth had an elbow on the back of the seat as he watched out the rear windshield, and saw the undeniable image of that Kitezan Magistrate’s weapon coming after them again; the subtle blue-white glow underneath of it where the gravity-drive was propelling it was brighter then as it picked up speed, “Mr. Gabriel, it’s catching up!”


    “Let me know when it’s about to get onto us!  We’re gonna do Ren’s trick again!” He answered hastily, “…With any luck, it’s enough to let Ren catch up again.  There’s no way he’s beaten her already.”


    Those terrified green eyes trembled, but kept watch as asked, and just as that massive blue-and-black hornet was within 20ft, he yelled, “NOW!”


    Brakes were hit a second time, and the mecha went careening forward, slamming into the concrete of the road where the car would’ve been if it hadn’t stopped.  Regulus gripped hard with those smaller arms on the bottom of the mech’s chest, and used them to pivot himself around.  For a mercy, there weren’t anymore cars coming from the east, and no one else was at risk of getting hurt.


    “The number of times you can do that is finite, Luminary.” Regulus taunted, and lifted those clawed metal hands from the ragged pavement, “Your next move should be surrender.”


    “…I can talk us out of this,” Gabriel muttered to himself, only to find Seth panic from the back seat.


    “We absolutely cannot talk to that guy!”


    “…Eh?  Why not?  Talking is kind of my thing.”


    “Because as soon as he sees me, he’s going to kill all of us just for the fun of it!”


    “Why you?”


    Seth looked a trifle-more than rattled, sweat beading on his skin, “…Because Magistrate Regulus Laurier is the former general that my father attacked at the parlay 22 years ago!  He’s going to recognize me!  I look just like him, give or take some years and facial-hair!”


    Gabriel gawked, and just as he turned in his seat to glare at the teen directly, his eyes went wide and turned forward again…just as the commandeered car zoomed past them…and immediately crashed into the mech’s head.  Ren herself tapped-down not too far away, having bailed right before the moment of impact.


    She chanced a look at the duo in the first car, “Are you two okay!?”


    “Yeah!” He answered, but then jerked forward in alarm, “Look out!”


    Regulus tore through the exploded wreckage, but instead of just casting the burning heap aside, he flung it straight at the escape-vehicle.  The two collided with one another, and Ren couldn’t even breathe before the Magistrate came for her personally.  Both larger arms came down on her hard, and Ren’s feet dug into the already-torn-up road.  It pushed back until she felt she’d gotten enough purchase to brace, and then deflect.  Regulus crushed into the roadway as she let go and dove forward to roll away.  She had mere seconds, and she rushed for the side of Gavin’s wrecked – and flipped - car.


    The front had been completely caved-in, and Gabriel – crumbled into the bottom of the front seat at a cruel angle - was as unconscious as Ianori, who himself was squashed between the front and middle rows of seats.  Seth had escaped the immediate impact, but that didn’t stop him from getting hurt when the whole car had tumbled onto its left side.  Glass from the window had shattered on the road, and he’d sustained a number of cuts to his head and face.


    “Se-“ She was already hit, as Regulus literally spun from the prior landing with the left big arm stretched wide to swing in an arc.  It hit her directly, and sent her flying into the off-road ravine.


    Satisfied that the escape-vehicle would no longer be escaping, the Magistrate turned his attention to the Fafnir, and watched her struggle to get up again, “You’re not going to win this fight.  Your best option is to give up and be taken into custody.  You’re worth more to me as a hostage than a corpse.”


    Ren spat the grass and debris from her mouth, and pushed up with a painful grunt.  She clasped at her left side; the impact had broken a rib or two, she was sure.  Still, she lifted her hands into a fighting stance, “You know I can’t…do that.”


    “Isn’t your life worth more to you than that?” Regulus was mystified, “Surely you’re not ready to throw it away just to delay what’s going to happen anyway by a mere minute.”


    There was some tragic logic to it, but Ren hesitated anyway.  Her eyes scanned the eastern horizon; where was their help?  Furion, I swear…you may be the last person I want to see right now, but…for Seth’s sake…you need you get your ass out here! She thought frantically.  She clenched her fists a little harder, but then relaxed her stance and held her hands up, “…Fine…”


    The eerie face of the mecha looked on blankly for a moment, then the whole head tilted slightly like a confused dog.  The machination hovered forward a few feet, barely grazing the edge of the grass at the side of the road.  Both larger arms on top were poised and ready; in the ‘palms’ of their metal hands, two orbs of light glowed.  The smaller ones curled up close to that metallic chest like the retracted claws of a raptor.


    There was tense hesitation on both sides.  A light breeze blew through that late-afternoon air.  Smoke from the wreckage of the two vehicles billowed darkly into the sky.  One newly-arrived spectator slowed their vehicle a hundred feet down the concourse; of course, the driver stepped out with their phone to get some souvenir photos.


    A rush of flame belched-forth from the commandeered car as the interior caught fire, and that single sound made Regulus twitch.  Ren launched forward again, only to be grabbed by both of those spring-loaded smaller arms.  They gripped tight and slammed her down, hard, into the ground.  She exhaled a choked breath, and her head wobbled from the dizzying speed and weight of the double-impact.  Her head was spinning and her ears rang…and a blinding pain shot up from her left arm.  The mech’s larger right arm had swung down with such force that crushed straight through her armor – and every bone within 10 inches of her elbow – and only stopped for the resistance posed by the ground itself.


    Then the left arm came up as well, and aimed to do the same thing again to Ren’s right.


    Ren could feel herself fading; hitting her unprotected head on the hard dirt was enough to take her out of the fight, but the blood she was losing now didn’t help.  She could hardly process the sight of that next attack coming…nor understand what it meant when there was a flash of light, and the arm that swung down was suddenly only half of it what it had been a moment before.  The ‘forearm’ of the extremity fell roughly to the gravel with a loud clang, useless.


    Regulus’ whole mech shifted slightly from the abrupt change in its weight distribution, and the face of the thing turned to get a good look at the mechanical amputation it had just suffered.  It lifted its remaining limb up above itself again, blood trickling down from its hand.  Words didn’t need to be spoken for Regulus to express confusion and surprise about that turn of events, but he cast his gaze towards the burning vehicles…and the sight of a formerly-unconscious blonde who had managed to stand inside the wreckage.


    Those bicolored eyes flared brightly with golden light, tails of it wavering gently out to each side. Behind him, the man’s braid came unraveled as his Limitless effect came into full form, lifting his hair up to float above and behind him as if he had been suspended under water.  The hand he held out was bleeding from the injuries of the crash, and it trembled slightly for all kinds of reasons, but when the war-machine turned fully around to face him, that hand lifted up…as did the other, and he spoke a few quiet words, “…Don’t…hurt her anymore…  We…surren…der…”