Yellow plasma met blue in a shower of sparks, the energy swords hissing like angry serpents.
Miles and the Revenger circled each other, boots kicking up dust from the ruined sand.
No words.
Just the *snap-hiss* of blades locking, separating, striking again.
The Revenger struck first—a feint low, then a vicious upward slash that would have split Miles from hip to shoulder if he hadn't twisted aside. His counter came in the same motion, yellow blade grazing the assassin's armored pauldron.
The white cape fluttered as the Revenger rolled with the impact, coming up in a crouch.
Miles grinned as he settled into his stance, "And you're supposed to be an assassin? Kinda disappointing for my first experience with one of you."
The Revenger didn't dignify the taunt with a response.
His next attack came faster—a whirlwind of blue strikes that forced Miles back step by step.
Just as the assassin committed to a killing blow, Miles intercepted with a vicious counterstrike.
---
Inside the warehouse, Sarah's machine-gun arm mowed down another wave of Law's thugs.
Brass casings rained around her as she pivoted, covering the corner where Megumi crouched over Serena's bleeding form, "Stay down!" Sarah barked, laying down suppressing fire.
Megumi's hands trembled against Serena's neck. Her pulse fluttered like a dying bird beneath his fingers, "Stay with me," he whispered, "You're not allowed to die. I won't let you."
He turned wild eyes toward Sarah, "Can't you do something?"**
"Working on it!" Sarah snapped back.
Her arm cannon whined as it overheated, "Didn't expect this many."
The tide shifted when a massive shield-bearer lumbered into view, deflecting Sarah's barrage.
Bullets began finding their mark, picking her synthetic flesh with smoking craters.
Megumi's gaze locked onto stacked explosive barrels in the far corner.
His medical training screamed at him to keep pressure on Serena's wound, but the calculation was simple: no distraction, no survival.
"Aim for the barrels!" he shouted.
"Can't!" Sarah's voice was strained. "Aimbot's busy playing bullet chess with these ass****!"
Then he remembered—the sniper cartridge in his pocket.
Serena coughed blood onto his hands.
"I can do this."
The cartridge clicked into his neck port. The rifle materialized in his grip, its weight both foreign and terrifying. His neural implant flashed:
>> ELECTRIC ROUND CHAMBERED
The explosive barrels gleamed in his enhanced vision. He exhaled—
*Crack.*
The explosion lifted Sarah off her feet. Silence followed, broken only by the retreating footsteps of surviving thugs.
Megumi collapsed, rifle clattering to the ground as his system screamed:
>> SYSTEM OVERLOAD
>> NEURAL ADJUSTMENT REQUIRED
He stared at his shaking hands. He'd just killed people. The reality hit like a sledgehammer—without Miles and Sarah, he and Serena would be corpses.
"Easy, kiddo." Sarah's voice cut through the panic. Her synthetic skin hung in shreds, revealing gleaming metal beneath.
She knelt beside Serena, inserting two medical cartridges into her neck ports. "Time to get you patched up, cutie."
Megumi couldn't tear his eyes from his palms, "I thought... I thought killing would be easier. That it was just part of the job as a bounty hunter...but why do feel so sick?"
Sarah's remaining human eye softened, "That's because you're still human where it counts."
She glanced towards the carnage, "Androids are programmed to protect. Humans are meant to cherish life. But both sides has slowly started forgetting about those two rules."
Her gaze turned distant. "People like you—who still feel the weight of a life taken—are the only thing keeping us from total darkness."
---
Outside, Miles barely dodged the Revenger's whip-slash. Blue plasma seared across his ribs, branding a line of blistered flesh.
"Okay," Miles panted, resetting his stance, "Maybe I underestimated you."
The Revenger froze as his HUD flashed. With a final tilt of his helmet, he deactivated his sword.
"Next time, no interruptions." Then he dissolved into the smoke like a specter.
Miles' comm crackled, "Kids are stable," Sarah reported.
"Okay, we will take them back to our place to for medical treatment. Then we brief Agent J what occurred here." He replied to Sarah before walking towards his hoverboard.