FOREBODING

  Will gritted his teeth as the pulse raced through his body, sending shockwaves through his channels. His energy fluctuated wildly under the assault, and the tiny yellow shards scattered throughout his system shook with the impact.

  "Increasing power," said Dr. Leibowitz. "Set pulse strength at sixty percent."

  Remy adjusted the controls, pointed the key fob at the pod, and triggered it. The second pulse hit Will, and his teeth rattled. He nearly lost control as the yellow shards violently repelled the pulse.

  "The mini shards have meshed together," excimed Remy. "Their fields are acting as one."

  "Increase the power to ninety percent," snapped the doctor. "Hold on, kid."

  Will clenched his fist as he felt the charge building up in his prosthetic. He had barely a second to prepare before the pulse smmed into him, sending shockwaves racing up his body. The wave traveled up his leg and smmed into his head, and Will bcked out for a moment.

  Reeling in his seat, Will spotted green text scrawled across his HUD. He gnced at the graphs of the heterogeneous signatures in his system and noticed that all of them had ftlined except for the yellow mini shards. They held on for a few more moments before colpsing completely.

  With the colpse came the sound of shattering gss. Will felt a chill and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up as the fields broke apart. Something snapped when the connection between the shards broke, and the residual energy from the mini shards bubbled over. Will felt something wild and feral rise up from deep inside his channels, and the yellow signature reared back like a raging beast before striking back at the pulse.

  Warning sirens bred in the pod, and red alerts filled his HUD. Panicked chatter came through the speakers, but Will, still dazed and confused, couldn't make out the words.

  "Etherite... awakening! Shard... shut it down... skill."

  The doctor was yelling something about his original shard. Dazed, Will desperately clung to the doctor's instructions, trying to figure out what he was saying when the world shook around him. It vibrated like a taut string, and time froze.

  Will cursed as he felt the shard's skill activate on its own, trying to pull him into the dreamscape.

  "No! Not this time, asshole!" Will fred his field to the maximum and smmed it down on the shard. The etherite signature faltered for a moment, but then it cmped down even harder, continuing to pull him in.

  Will cursed as his energy reserves drained rapidly, and half-formed images fshed behind his eyelids. Visions came in a torrent—the old capital on fire, skyscrapers toppling, and burning silver streaks falling from the sky.

  The visions flickered in and out, but one particur image grew clearer. A dark fissure in reality tore open in front of him, and Will had a hard time believing this was just a vision. Something emerged from it, the color of bubbling tar, slowly forming in front of him. It boiled into being, feeding off his energy as it grew.

  Will desperately held on to his field, fending off the shard's pull. He watched the writhing mass of bubbling shadow being summoned through the fissure. It expanded as more of it poured into the world. The thing slowly took a humanoid form, and from its shoulder bdes, multiple arms burst out in a spray of blood and viscera. Metal fingers melded with red flesh peeked out from under the shadow, and its psionic field, tasting of crimson, spilled into the world. Eyes wide, Will finally realized who was in front of him.

  "Shit!" Will cursed as he faced the Order of the Revenant once again. Sirens went off in the VR pod as more of the crimson field ran wild in the machine.

  "Increase power to hundred and twenty percent!" the doctor roared.

  Will felt his prosthetic drawing a massive amount of power from the pod. The metal leg shook with the residual charge before sending its field crashing down on the shard.

  The shadowy figure behind his eyelids burst into fmes, and a baleful howl came from the still-forming head of the crimson spider mech before it was sent hurtling back into the cracked fissure.

  The pull from the etherite ceased almost immediately, and Will was thrown back into reality. He gasped for air, fumbling for the emergency lever by his foot. He pressed down hard on the paddles, and the pod hissed open in a stream of mist. Will stumbled out, coughing.

  "Will!" Becca caught him just before he hit the floor. Gasping, he leaned on the pod, taking deep breaths.

  Dr. Leibowitz rushed over and checked his pulse and his shaky field, which was on the verge of going haywire again. It flickered around him erratically as the doctor examined his signature.

  "How is he, doc?" asked Remy in a low tone.

  "This is a lot more complicated than I thought," muttered the doctor. "The printed control crystal has split."

  Remy looked confused, so the doctor continued his expnation. "I mentioned that we printed a yer of crystal over the shard for analysis and ter found it also helped control the shard."

  "Yes," Remy nodded.

  "I suspect only half of the crystal is embedded in your friend. A small section of the artificial printed crystal broke off and is now held by someone else."

  "The Crimson Bishop," Becca whispered.

  Will remembered their time in the exclusionary zone and the battle against the two mechs. Both mechs were after the etherite in the briefcase. During the tussle, the shard must have split, and only half of the crystal must have gotten stuck in his leg.

  "So, if they have the printed control shard—" the doctor continued, "it doesn't matter how many times we realign the signature on our end. They can always start over from theirs. There will always be a backdoor."

  Will breathed heavily as he gnced at the dismayed faces of his two friends.

  "Is there a way out of this, doctor?" asked Becca.

  Dr. Leibowitz looked pained, but Will cut him off before he could answer. "There is one way," he gasped.

  The three looked at him, and Will pressed on. "I have to snatch the control shard from the Bishop."

  Silence fell over the group at Will's pronouncement. Remy rubbed his face, and Becca looked stricken. "Will, that's..."

  Before she could finish, a loud boom sounded in the distance, and the building shook.

  "What was that?" Becca gasped over the rattling mantelpiece. Remy strode to the windows and peeked through the curtains.

  He took a long look outside before he spoke. "Something's wrong. The crowd is very agitated."

  A long beep came from the television, and Remy snapped his head toward the monitor. The screen, which had been pying the local news, shifted to dispy footage from multiple security cameras.

  Will gnced at the live footage and realized it was from the very apartment complex they were in. More importantly, he spotted dark silhouettes breaking into the ground floor.

  Will cursed when he noticed the hint of silver poking out of their trench coats.

  "Cyborgs," Remy spat. "We need to move."

  Will straightened up and gnced at the older man beside him. "Doctor."

  "Yes," Dr. Leibowitz sighed. "I knew this day would come eventually, but..." He trailed off as he stared at Will.

  "It can wait," said Will. "Let's get you out of here alive first."

  Dr. Leibowitz grimly grabbed a dark long coat draped over his armchair and slipped into it.

  "Remy, go with him," said Will. Remy nodded, walked up to the rge windows, and opened them fully. The curtains fpped in the wind as the loud noise from the streets filled the living room.

  "You ready, Doc?" asked Remy.

  "Yes," the doctor nodded with apprehension.

  Together, they leaped out of the window. Becca frowned as she watched them make their exit. When she hesitated, Will gave her a small nudge. She gave him a quick gnce before reluctantly jumping out of the window.

  Will gave the room one st scan before he departed and noticed changes in the security footage. The cyborgs had paused in their rapid ascent up the building and were rapidly conversing with each other. After a furious discussion, the team split off, with one of the rger cyborgs approaching the doctor's apartment while the rest sped off out of the building.

  "Crap!" Will cursed. "How did they know?"

  He stumbled towards the window, and his legs gave out from under him. Will grabbed the nearest shelf, scattering knickknacks everywhere. Before he could steady himself, a loud crash came from the front door. A rge cyborg charged into the living room and spotted Will.

  "Shit!"

  The cyborg didn't waste any time. He raised his gun and fired. Loud bangs filled the apartment, and Will dove behind the coffee table as bullets pinged off his field. It flickered in the wind like a candle about to be blown out and barely blocked the incoming lead. In his desperation, Will grabbed the table and tossed it at the cyborg.

  The gss top shattered as it crashed into the cyborg, but the furniture wasn't enough to stop him. He tore through it, brandishing cws from his mechanized limbs. The bdes made short work of the table before the cyborg charged at Will.

  Will cursed as he dodged the cws. He strengthened his limbs with his field as he ducked and weaved through the gale of bdes, but he knew his resistance wouldn't st long. He was nearly spent while his opponent was fresh out of the tank.

  Will clumsily backed away from the cyborg, narrowly avoiding the swipes. His mind racing furiously, he gnced around the room. There had to be something in here he could use to turn the tide of the battle. If he didn’t figure something out quickly, he was done for.

  Will continued to back away, racking his brain, when his foot caught on something on the floor. With a yelp of surprise, he fell, narrowly avoiding a bde swipe aimed at his head.

  Will crashed to the floor and found himself cornered against the wall next to the VR pod. The thick power cable sprawled across the floor had been the culprit that led to his fall.

  Sensing his chance, the cyborg brought his bdes slicing toward Will's neck, who seemed to be sitting frozen on the floor, staring at the cable. Just as the bdes were about to reach Will, the cyborg noticed the calcuting look in his eyes. He tried to pull his bdes back, but it was too te. The metal cws sliced into the thick cables that Will had raised in front of him as a shield and got stuck there.

  There was a loud crackle as hundreds of volts of current surged through the cyborg's metallic body, flinging him across the room and jerking the cable along with him. The bdes, however, remained stuck to the cable, and he trashed about on the floor as the current continued to flow into him.

  Will didn't wait to see what happened to his attacker and stumbled towards the open window. Just as he was about to cross the threshold, he noticed the key fob that Remy had programmed to control the pulses from his prosthetic lying on the floor. Will grabbed it, and with one st look at his would-be assaint, he leapt out of the window.

  He had to get to Remy and Becca before the rest of the cyborg team. The attack could be imminent, and the clock was ticking.

  JasonCliff