As Chad charged, he switched his grip on his axe to a two-hander. As he reached about three feet away, he slammed one foot into the ground, coming to a sudden stop, and swung the axe like a baseball bat, aiming at the space between us. The erg around his axe grew even more viscous and his motions slowed, despite the straining of his muscles and his charge’s momentum. Finally, he broke through some barrier and the erg bubbled in the air, flashing a blinding orange, then formed into a wide blade that shot forward directly at me.

That blade of energy cracked against my torso, crunching in my armor around my rib cage, sending micro-fractures through the plating and punching all of the air out of my lungs. I wheezed and stumbled back a few steps, feeling that crushing weight digging into my body, before finally stabilizing. A single gash appeared in the armor, all the way across my front, but just shy of cutting through the material. Chad seemed surprised to see me still standing, his eyes and nostrils flaring in irritation. Then he pounced forward, covering the intermediate distance, his axe coming down from overhead.

I lifted my arms up to protect me, angling my shield to catch the blow of his axe. Erg flared and Chad shifted a few inches to the right while still in mid-air, allowing his axe to curve around my shield and catch on the whirring bit of my drill. Sparks flew as the axe ground into the spinning metal, and for a moment, Chad hung in the air, his entire body weight supported by the connection of axe to drill. Then, inexorably, the axe slid through my drill, carving it in half before slamming into my arm, splintering the armor plating there and digging into my arm, only stopping as he hit bone.

I screamed out in pain and yanked my arm away from the axe, the wound smoking and cauterized from the heat of the attack. The limb hung limply at my side, but Chad stared at me, incredulous. Under his breath, he muttered, “How strong is that armor?” But after a moment’s hesitation, he began to swing again. I deployed another wall to get some space between the two of us, but he sheared through the metal with ease.

I deployed a floor segment directly above him, allowing gravity to carry it down.

Chad defied my expectations by not trying to avoid the massive plate falling on top of him, but by cutting upwards at it. Axe met floor and there was thankfully enough resistance for it to be a stalemate. Pain flared in my arm and I clutched at the wound, the meat of my muscle split so fully and tearing further open with every slight motion. I switched out the broken armor plating there for a fresh set, and used that as a makeshift cast for the injury.

I used the brief opportunity that the floor provided to catch my breath, to re-evaluate the situation. The other combatants still hadn’t moved in, but their attention had shifted from confident to uncertain. No longer were they holding back because they knew that their leader would handle things with ease, they were holding back because they didn’t know if they could take me in a fight.

That said, I was essentially out of resources and therefore out of time. Chad’s power boost from igniting his aura was too great for me to be able to counter any longer than this. Once he handled the falling floor plate, he would turn that power onto me and that would be it. I briefly scanned my inventory and switched my spikethrower back into use, preparing for a ranged battle, my only option for survival.

Then my earpiece crackled and I heard Artemis’ voice. “We’re out.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, even as Chad finally tossed the ten foot by ten foot, half foot thick floor segment off to the side, wrenching his torso as he flung it to the ground. It landed side down with a solid thump, before tilting away from him and landing flat with a cloud of dust. “I was going to give you an opportunity to join me, but actually nah.” Chad heaved his breath, glaring at me before once more striding forward. “Just gonna kill you.”

It was definitely time to get out of there. I popped out my wheels and turned towards the wall. Rather than go for the hole, I aimed up with my spikethrower and launched a grapplespike towards the top, waiting just a moment for it to catch. That moment was almost too much as Chad closed in, preparing another chop, but I sped my wheels, pumping power into my lower body as I suddenly sped across the space.

Just before I hit the wall I let out a little whoop, then jumped up while throwing my weight backwards. The wheels caught on the wall and the grapplespike remained taut as I rolled up onto the top and lept over. Shouts sounded from behind me. The enhanced braces of my legs absorbed the impact of the fall. I threw my legs into a skating motion to increase the speed of my flight.

I glanced back briefly, just in time to see six people standing on top of the wall with rifles aimed in my direction. The bullets bounced off of my armor shortly before I heard the crack of the fire, and more continued to come, but I was confident in my armor’s ability to keep them from doing any real damage. I was less confident in the long-limbed but slender man that had poked out through the hole in the wall and who was gaining ground on me as I sped along the road.

I quickly tapped my comms unit. “Hey, I have a trail, seems to have some sort of speed-based ability. I’m going to try to catch up, but if I can catch up, so can he.”

Jen’s voice came back. “Understood. Sounds like Hank, he had picked up a runner path when things first started. Anyone else coming?”

I risked a glance back over my shoulder, seeing this Hank continuing to gain distance, even as the wall became more and more distant, disappearing into sight. “Looks clear.”

“Good.” A brief clattering sounded on the other end of the comms line, followed by Jen sighing. “Artemis is on the damn roof!” Her voice raised to a shout, probably aimed upwards, at that last word. “She’ll provide covering fire when you get in closer.”

“Alright, see you soon.” I tilted my body to increase my speed around a curve, twisting along the path of the former highway. Soon enough, the wall itself was out of sight, and the bus was visible in the distance. I was gaining on it faster than Hank was gaining on me, but that meant that Hank would be able to catch up with the bus in no time if we didn’t stop him.

I couldn’t see Artemis on top of the bus, but that probably meant that the camocloak was working to the desired efficacy, keeping her completely hidden at this distance. Or maybe she was using one of her skills; that made more sense actually. I poured all of my energy into my wheels, taking a skier's position as I angled to close the distance as swiftly as possible, adding on another burst of speed.

The whip-crack of another rifle shot tore through the air, though one much louder than the ones coming from the wall. It sped just over my shoulder and was answered a moment later by an agonized scream. I slowed my motion and spun around to see Hank fallen on the cracked asphalt, clutching at his thigh which was incredibly messed. Like, all kinds of fucked, I could see the bone and all.

I hesitated for just a moment, before stopping my forward momentum. “Jen, stop the van. Do you have any medics in there?” After sending the message through the comms, I walked over towards Hank, examining him further. The bleeding from the injury was slowly coming to a stop, but seemingly from rapid healing rather than from him bleeding out. Other than the pain, he seemed coherent enough.

I kept watch as a young woman hurried up towards us from the bus. We didn’t speak as she placed her hands onto Hank’s injury, though she did glance up to me questioningly. After a moment I nodded, then I felt the erg flow in a far more peaceful way than I had experienced before. It cycled through Hank’s body from the woman’s hands, and he groaned out in pain, his eyes widening for a moment, before his head rolled back, eyes closing. He was still breathing though, and as the woman pulled her hands away, the injury was at least closed, there was probably still lingering internal damage.

Artemis appeared over my shoulder, looking down at Hank. I only jumped a little when she spoke up. “Are you sure about this? He’s one of them.”

“For me, this isn’t about us and them. This is about doing what is right.” I fell silent for a long moment, before motioning for Artemis to help me lift him up. “We have to be able to show compassion even to our enemies. If we don’t, then all we are doing is perpetuating cycles of violence.”

I grunted as, working with Artemis, we slung Hank over my shoulder. “You weren’t wrong to shoot him. We aren’t wrong to fight them. And if this guy starts shit, then we’re going to have to do something about it. This, though, this is a moment for us to help heal some wounds. I’d rather not have to kill everyone working for Chad, even if we have to kill the man himself.”

Artemis gave me a long, studying look, before nodding curtly. “How did the distraction making go?”

“I made a big distraction, also got my ass kicked by Chad. Dude is no joke with those axes.”

She nodded again. “Jen might be able to go toe-to-toe with him, but only with the upgrades you’ve given her. He’s a beast.”

“And he’s going to be coming for us.” I said softly as we returned to the bus. “He’s not going to take this lying down, which means that I’m going to need to beef up our defenses. Also, you two are going to need to be ready for a fight, because it’s going to be us three against everyone that Chad has.”

Artemis grinned and patted the barrel of her rifle. “Well, you know what they say, ‘political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.’” At my sigh, she cracked out a harsh laugh, but one that suited her well.

“First Locke, then Gramicci, now Mao.” I muttered faintly to myself. “And I think that Teldin might have been paraphrasing Demon’s Souls? Though that doesn’t make sense, how could ey know about that video game.” I let out a fluttering breath. “I’ll be happy once all of this business with Chad is wrapped up and I can just rest.”

I arrived at the bus to find dozens of eyes looking at me, coming from a variety of faces of a variety of ages from all backgrounds. In those eyes, I saw expectations, hopes, doubts, dreams, all unfold from that sea into a moment of clarity. I lightly set Hank down onto the floor of the bus and took a moment to prepare myself.

I removed my helmet and tucked it under my arm. My voice started unsteady but built into greater confidence.

“Hello, I’m Placid Wainwright, Factory Manager. I have a safe place for you, but one where you can be the you that you wish to be. Let us build something better together.”