said.
“The pictures were right,” she
replied. “Are you seeing this?”
Burke still held the gun pointed at
the two in front of him. They weren’t moving and he took the chance to look
them over. They were barely clothed: each wore a torn shirt and pants that were
ripped below the knees. They wore no shoes or socks. The man’s chest was
exposed and looked just as covered with modifications as his face. The woman’s
shirt didn’t cover her stomach and her skin looked similarly strange.
He tensed as she walked toward him.
She took each step as if there was no weapon currently pointed at her, walking
as naturally as any other person on a street during a normal day. Burke
suddenly remembered their names from the news report: Lumen and Shaw. The man
stayed in place a few meters behind the woman.
“Hello, my name is L,” Lumen said.
Burke was about to answer when he
heard a sound like something cracking open and then crunching into place. He
looked down in time to see Lumen’s arm part-way through its transformation. Her
hand split between her middle fingers and then curled open like there was a set
of hinges in her wrists. He saw that her arms were fully prosthetic, just like
his leg, and peeled away to reveal the inner mechanics beneath the artificial
skin. In a second he saw the blade eject out from her forearm to replace where
her hand had been. In another second, the blade was thrust up at his neck and
scraped its way along the armor plating of his aegis. A hot shower of sparks
frothed up from the connecting metal and it was then that Burke shoved her
away.
A warning of damage flashed on the
visor in front of him. Whatever the blade had been made from, it was enough to
take a thin shaving from the outer armor. He looked up to see Lumen once again
angling her head at him.
“Minor damage,” Cass reported.
“She’d need hours to stab her way through us.”
Burke watched Shaw raise an arm at
him from behind Lumen. He saw that the murderer’s arm was now equally changed,
but sporting multiple barrels of a firearm instead of a blade. The bullets
spewed toward Burke before he could get out of the way and he fired back
instead of wasting time trying to dodge the bullets. Cass channeled energy into
as many kinetic barriers as she could, afraid the man’s weapon might be enough
to deal damage to them like Lumen’s blade. The projectiles bounced harmlessly
from the aegis, however, and she soon reverted to conserving the suit’s power.
Unfortunately, Burke’s shots also
ricocheted from his opponent’s armor without any effect. Shaw lowered his
weapon and Burke reloaded his handgun in the same moment. They stared at each
other then, for one absurd moment when neither side knew what to do to the
other.
“What did Spectrum Industries do to
them?” Burke said. “How can their skin be as bullet-proof as our armor?”
“It isn’t. It can’t be,” Cass
answered.
She was still talking when Lumen
broke the momentary truce by lunging forward. She wrapped her left arm around
Burke’s neck and clung onto him. He was too heavy for her to pull onto the
floor but she kept her grip on him as she started to stab relentlessly into his
chest with her bladed arm. Each strike sent a fresh wave of sparks onto the
bridge and a new warning that they were sustaining damage.
Burke twisted his arm so that his
gun was aimed at her despite how close she was. He fired off two shots and they
were lost in the mess of strikes she was pummeling into his chest. His visor
abruptly changed to the video feed from the handgun. He could see two blackened
circles where his two shots had hit into Lumen’s stomach.
“Fire at her again!” Cass directed,
circling one of the black marks with a red reticule. “The same place. The whole
magazine!”
“But—”
“Just do it!”
He followed her orders. Each strike
from Lumen’s blade set his aim off for a moment. He timed two shots after each
of her attacks, firing ten more bullets in
“The pictures were right,” she
replied. “Are you seeing this?”
Burke still held the gun pointed at
the two in front of him. They weren’t moving and he took the chance to look
them over. They were barely clothed: each wore a torn shirt and pants that were
ripped below the knees. They wore no shoes or socks. The man’s chest was
exposed and looked just as covered with modifications as his face. The woman’s
shirt didn’t cover her stomach and her skin looked similarly strange.
He tensed as she walked toward him.
She took each step as if there was no weapon currently pointed at her, walking
as naturally as any other person on a street during a normal day. Burke
suddenly remembered their names from the news report: Lumen and Shaw. The man
stayed in place a few meters behind the woman.
“Hello, my name is L,” Lumen said.
Burke was about to answer when he
heard a sound like something cracking open and then crunching into place. He
looked down in time to see Lumen’s arm part-way through its transformation. Her
hand split between her middle fingers and then curled open like there was a set
of hinges in her wrists. He saw that her arms were fully prosthetic, just like
his leg, and peeled away to reveal the inner mechanics beneath the artificial
skin. In a second he saw the blade eject out from her forearm to replace where
her hand had been. In another second, the blade was thrust up at his neck and
scraped its way along the armor plating of his aegis. A hot shower of sparks
frothed up from the connecting metal and it was then that Burke shoved her
away.
A warning of damage flashed on the
visor in front of him. Whatever the blade had been made from, it was enough to
take a thin shaving from the outer armor. He looked up to see Lumen once again
angling her head at him.
“Minor damage,” Cass reported.
“She’d need hours to stab her way through us.”
Burke watched Shaw raise an arm at
him from behind Lumen. He saw that the murderer’s arm was now equally changed,
but sporting multiple barrels of a firearm instead of a blade. The bullets
spewed toward Burke before he could get out of the way and he fired back
instead of wasting time trying to dodge the bullets. Cass channeled energy into
as many kinetic barriers as she could, afraid the man’s weapon might be enough
to deal damage to them like Lumen’s blade. The projectiles bounced harmlessly
from the aegis, however, and she soon reverted to conserving the suit’s power.
Unfortunately, Burke’s shots also
ricocheted from his opponent’s armor without any effect. Shaw lowered his
weapon and Burke reloaded his handgun in the same moment. They stared at each
other then, for one absurd moment when neither side knew what to do to the
other.
“What did Spectrum Industries do to
them?” Burke said. “How can their skin be as bullet-proof as our armor?”
“It isn’t. It can’t be,” Cass
answered.
She was still talking when Lumen
broke the momentary truce by lunging forward. She wrapped her left arm around
Burke’s neck and clung onto him. He was too heavy for her to pull onto the
floor but she kept her grip on him as she started to stab relentlessly into his
chest with her bladed arm. Each strike sent a fresh wave of sparks onto the
bridge and a new warning that they were sustaining damage.
Burke twisted his arm so that his
gun was aimed at her despite how close she was. He fired off two shots and they
were lost in the mess of strikes she was pummeling into his chest. His visor
abruptly changed to the video feed from the handgun. He could see two blackened
circles where his two shots had hit into Lumen’s stomach.
“Fire at her again!” Cass directed,
circling one of the black marks with a red reticule. “The same place. The whole
magazine!”
“But—”
“Just do it!”
He followed her orders. Each strike
from Lumen’s blade set his aim off for a moment. He timed two shots after each
of her attacks, firing ten more bullets in
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