Chapter 81: No Safe Shadow

"Driver, stop!" Leo caught the seat as a projector swung across the underpass, filling the windscreen with light.

The driver braked behind a barricade while another transport rolled across the road behind them, blocking their retreat.

"Get down under the wheel and stay there until we clear the road."

He pushed the door open as launchers rose above the barricade, throwing nets across both sides of the vehicle.

"We have a tribunal stay!" His partner stepped out beside him, holding her credential where the soldiers could see it.

"And I have orders to clear this crossing," Rhee called from behind a suppression barrier covering the soldiers beside him. "Put your weapons down and step away from him."

She tucked the credential into her coat and raised her gauntlets as the soldiers spread out behind their launchers.

"You heard the terms in the room, and I’m recording this channel."

"Then make sure you get the part where I offered to let you live."

He reached for the shadow beneath their transport, but his step failed against the light covering the road.

’They’ve put a projector under the chassis too.’

A net caught the door beside his shoulder and pulled it shut, dragging its filaments across his coat.

He cut himself loose before the launcher reeled back, leaving strips of fabric caught against the snare.

"Keep moving on your feet!" She swept wind beneath the next net, forcing it against the ceiling above them.

He tried raising his shroud while crossing behind her, but the ether broke apart before it covered his arm.

Kage cried out inside the bond, pushing against his awareness without enough strength to form beside him.

’Stay inside, and don’t come out for me.’

Lumen stood on the transport beyond the barricade, turning the projectors while two throwers advanced under their light.

"Keep the beams on his feet, and leave the woman to the marshal!"

A filament opened his shoulder as he ducked past a pillar, catching beneath the dressing already covering his arm.

"Ah, shit!"

He clamped his hand over the cut while a soldier hauled the cable, pulling him away from the pillar.

’Absorbing the pull won’t stop that wire cutting through me.’

His partner drove her heel into the cable and pinned it, giving him time to cut through the strand.

"Can you reach the lamps?"

"Not with him turning them every time I move, and this ceiling won’t let me climb over the net."

She pushed wind down the passage, forcing the throwers back until they braced their launchers against the barricade.

The marshal signaled behind his barrier, and another net dragged across the roadway between them and their transport.

"Your driver can leave once we have the fugitive, liaison."

"You boxed him in with us, you lying bastard!"

He kept his blade between the filaments while she backed toward a pillar, testing the space above her head.

An attacker came around its base with a baton raised, carrying a union patch over the seam of his vest.

"Lower docks?" He caught the man’s wrist against the blade guard and shoved the baton past his shoulder.

"Whose crew are you on?"

"The one paying me today."

He drove an elbow into the man’s mouth, but the net tightened before he could pull him through it.

The soldier stumbled back behind the mesh while another baton struck through, landing against the brace across his ribs.

He dropped to a knee and caught the road with his palm, holding himself above the filaments underneath.

"Leo, up!"

"I’m trying, just keep that thing off my neck!"

She wedged her forearm beneath the net as it lowered, forcing the strands away while he found his feet.

The gauntlet alarm started against her wrist, carrying through the passage between the launcher motors and his breathing.

"Your coils-"

"I can hear them, and I don’t have another pair in my pocket!"

She planted her feet beside his and shoved both hands forward, drawing air through the opening behind their transport.

The driver flattened himself beneath the wheel as the wind tore the door from its hinges and struck the barricade.

Two lamp housings broke above the throwers, but the operator swung his remaining beams across the gaps they left.

"Hold your line, she’s burning out!"

Her gauntlets seized as she tried to push again, spilling coolant over her wrists while the mesh sagged toward his head.

"No, you don’t get him!"

Her refusal crossed their bond, pulling his attention toward the pouch before he could raise his sword.

Inside it, the lieutenant core came apart while his hand was still reaching for the flap against his hip.

’I didn’t select anything.’

He felt the material pass through their connection as the housings split around her forearms, opening beneath the net.

The fractures closed under circuit lines while the edges reformed, carrying pink light beneath the surface around her wrists.

"What the hell is happening to my hands?"

She jerked against the straps, and a blade of wind cut through the mesh where her fist moved.

It struck the projector array beyond the barricade, severing its mountings and dropping the lamps against the transport’s hood.

[ Reciprocal Bloom ]

[ Partner: Bekka ]

[ Want: High ]

[ Want Focus: Keep Him Alive ]

[ Partner Surge: Skybound ]

[ Bloom: 75% ]

[ Bond Synthesis: Twin Aero-Vortex Gauntlets Rewritten ]

[ Trait: Void-Wind Edge ]

[ Binding: Partner Want ]

[ Material Consumed: Gene-Lieutenant Core ]

’It spent the core before it told me, and she’s trying to get the straps off.’

The operator reached for a backup projector as the light failed, dragging its cable across the vehicle beneath him.

"Don’t let him turn that on!"

She looked from her wrists to the lamp, then launched herself over the net before he could raise it.

Her heel crushed the housing against the roof, knocking the operator from his perch as the transport rocked beneath her.

The throwers fired toward her landing, but she swept her arm across their cables and cut them from the launchers.

He shouldered through the opening in the mesh and caught a thrower’s wrist, folding it until the baton dropped.

"Down, and keep your hands where I can see them!"

Rhee lunged around the barrier with his baton aimed at the swordsman’s neck, forcing the thrower between them.

He dragged the soldier aside and trapped the marshal’s arm, striking his jaw before the baton could come back.

The officer fell against the barricade and slid beneath it, leaving his weapon sparking against the road beside him.

"Your commander’s down, and the lamps are gone!"

The soldiers nearest the launchers ran toward the embankment, abandoning the cables as their partners scrambled after them.

Bekka landed beside the barricade and kicked the marshal’s baton away, watching the retreat until the last launcher fell silent.

"Can you walk?"

He tried to answer while pressing his coat against the shoulder wound, then nodded when she looked back at him.

[ Level Up: 35 -> 36 ]

[ Host Status Panel ]

[ Host: Leo ]

[ Level: 36 ]

[ Rank Equivalent: D ]

[ Physiology: Vorn DNA Fusion ]

[ Active Bonds: Luna / Bekka / Sierra ]

[ Wound: Net Bleed ]

[ Wound: Light Burn ]

’Another level, and I still can’t lift this arm without bleeding through the dressing.’

He retrieved the dropped baton and pushed it beneath the transport, leaving it beyond the marshal’s reach when he woke.

"Driver, can you hear me?"

The man lifted his head above the wheel, looking from the torn door to the bodies beside the barricade.

"I’m charging somebody for that door."

"Send the bill to the man underneath the barrier, and tell the medics where he is."

Sirens approached along the road above them while his partner checked the passage leading beneath the rail embankment.

"We can’t stay here and explain this to another squad."

She held out her fingers to help him stand, keeping the gauntlet turned away from his body as he rose.

He reached toward the strap at her wrist, then stopped when she pulled her arm against her chest.

"Don’t touch that yet."

"Does it hurt?"

She opened her hand and watched the circuits answer, holding her fingers apart until the light faded between them.

"I don’t know what it’s doing."

He looked toward his pouch instead of her wrists, unable to find an answer that explained what she’d just seen.

She caught his collar with her fingers and kissed him, drawing back before either of them could lean closer.

"You’re here, and I need you to keep moving."

They left the driver waving toward the approaching sirens, taking the passage beneath the tracks with the hound sheltered inside his bond.

The detours kept them away from the crossings until the district clock came into view, showing thirty hours remaining.

He stopped beside the clinic approach as an icon appeared at the edge of his vision, waiting for him to open it.

[ New Tab: Create ]

Beside him, she covered the place where the manufacturer’s stamp had been, refusing to look at the replacement beneath her palm.