Alien ghost town
Vesta is flying above the city, carrying Kari in her arms. The Myridian girl is so full of joy she could explode any minute. To be up in the sky, literally free as a bird…
Vesta touches the ground a minute later. Max is waiting for them, sitting at the edge of the road.
The girl answers while fiddling with Noriko's green leather jacket. It's too small for her, so she's tying it around her waist.
A duplicate appears in front of her, wearing the same exact pink dress with miniskirt but without the leather jacket, examining the original like she's in front of a mirror. While the two are pondering the possibilities of interplanetary fashion, a second duplicate appears.
Max reveals.
Two new Kari appear out of thin air. They then split into four, then eight, then sixteen and so on, and in a few seconds there's a crowd of Karis marching in the streets.
Each Kari goes her separate way, creating more duplicates at every street corner. The only way to identify the original is the leather jacket tied around her waist.
Vesta is slightly relieved: she though he was going to ask how Kari's clothes duplicate as well.
Kari runs towards the house, leaving Vesta and Black behind and confused.
The city is old, but it looks positively ancient by Earth standards. It's like walking into a Western movie: an endless parade of two-story houses next to a dirty road.
Just then, Kari crashes the window on the top floor. Vesta is ready to catch her, but waits when Kari creates a couple of duplicates beneath her.
Kari lands on her exact replicas, who disappear from existence with a loud pop.
A man smashes through the wall like it was nothing, landing like it was the most normal thing to do. As if it couldn't possibly look more like the Old West, he's wearing a duster and a hat…both worn out like they made it to hell and back.
A dozen swords of red energy appear in front of him. Unaffected by gravity, they shoot out in different directions…even though the stranger hasn't even touched them.
Vesta avoids the blades flying away. Two duplicates help Kari to jump high above them, but as soon as they're hit the vanish like soap bubbles.
Max doesn't need to move. Once he turns his body into light, the blades pass through him without cutting anything.
he answers.
Bright red swords materialize on his back, while Vesta is still holding him. The swords cut through flesh and bone, impaling her on the spot.
Max watches as her lifeless body fall to the ground, spilling blood everywhere. Just to be sure, the stranger creates yet another red sword, thrusting the blade directly into her skull.
Max knows he should be something, but this is the first time he's seen someone he knows murdered in such a brutal yet efficient way. It's just unreal.
Then the stranger turns towards him, taking off his hat to show what would pass for a common human face, if it weren't for the red skin.
Something snaps. Max delivers a massive energy blast; he doesn't know which kind of energy and frankly doesn't care right now.
The stranger effortlessly cuts the energy beam in two. The twin blasts miss Old Man Vor's house entirely, but end up turning half a dozen buildings into rubble.
Even so, the shockwave is enough to shake the house considerably. Old Man Vor loses his balance; if he were a few years younger, he could make a duplicate of himself appear to help him.
Instead, it's a couple of girls that catch him and help him get on his feet.
Vor looks at the girl, stroking his beard. Pink dress, blue eyes, purple hair. Pretty common on Myridia, but she does look familiar.
He walks towards the window, where he can see the red skinned stranger deflecting a barrage of lasers with a shield made of swords.
At the very last second, Max turns his torso into electricity; not only the sword hurts him anyway, but to his surprise he finds himself unable to change again.
Torn is back to Vesta's bloody corpse now, kneeling to grab the blade stuck in her head.
He removes the blade; Vesta opens her eyes. She sits down, examining her current state: her formerly orange tube top is now red with blood, and there's a hole in her chest where the heart should be.
Watching the scene from the window, Kari is glad to see her friend is alive. Old Man Vor is unimpressed.
Just then, Torn's body smashes through the window. Kari's first thought is to create a duplicate to push the Old Man out of harm's way, but she doesn't need to.
Moving surprisingly fast for a man his age, the Old Man ducks the debris and catches a knife from his nightstand.
When Quantum turns back into flesh and blood, he finds the blade right between his eyes.
Torn says, getting back on his feet. Despite flying through a wall, he's just fine.
One duplicate appears to push her away; another one grabs the weapon in mid-air. All of this happened in less than half a second.
the original Kari says.