XX5: First Bolts

A second of silence murmured in the air; Archius watched as without a single nanosecond of hesitation, Kazuki's eyes flickered on with a gold hue. His hand shot down into his hidden holster as he saw two steel objects slowly push out both parties.

Realising what was about to go down, he leaned backwards. Kazuki pulled out his pistol and fired a shot directly into a hooded man.

They fell, but a stray round narrowly missed Kazuki; Archius felt the heat from the plasma round as it passed by. Blood splattered out as Kazuki stood up. Both Archius and Eliza got up as silence filled the air. Everyone around glanced at Kazuki, then at the hooded corpse. Archius silently berated the dead man for ruining a free meal but thought that he should have seen that coming.

"Good grief…" mumbled Archius, under his breath. His mind raced with possibilities… were they tracked? Was there an insider? He'll have to contact Martinez and Sato. Internal security was her strong point, even if he'd hate to admit it.

But mumbling broke into full-blown chaos as a hover-van veered onto the pavement and blew up, sending flames, fragments and heat all around. Kazuki threw the table up. Fragments streaked through its surface and into Kazuki's muscles. Archius grabbed hold of Eliza and threw himself with her behind Kazuki, shit, this was far from preferable, he thought. But it'll be more of an annoyance, he thought.

Fragments struck the table as the smell of death filled the air. Eliza was the first to look out from cover. Blood, corpses and flames filled the street as those unprotected from the explosion covered the pavement floor. Kazuki dropped the table as he took fragmentation to his torso and arms, with a cut visible on his unburnt cheek. The sight didn't phase the two experienced killers.

The streets quickly cleared as the flow of traffic halted. But that didn't stop several more vans from rushing through the pavement, crashing into civilians and swerving past cars. Their doors opened and before Eliza could even take note of them, bullets started to fly. Archius immediately grabbed onto her, tugging her away from Kazuki as a mass firefight broke out. The Contract-breaker ducked behind cover to avoid the spray of frantic bullets.

"FUCKING RUN DAMNIT!" shouted Archius, gripping hard on Eliza's arm as they ran into the now-emptied restaurant. A stray bullet smacked into his shoulder.

He gritted his teeth as he dragged Eliza behind the bar counter within the fancy establishment. This situation was far from ideal. Archius felt the pain ooze. What the fuck is going on? He asked himself that question as he realised that he was now stuck with Eliza.

'Get Eliza as far away from here as possible,' said Kazuki over uplink.

'Dammit… don't die. Or I'll kill you.' replied Archius, feeling responsible now that Kazuki gave him a new objective.

Archius glanced over the counter to see Kazuki firing at an approaching group of attackers before he started to flee. As the group passed by the windows, many of them fell onto the ground. He watched, emotionlessly, as the sting of iron from blood filled the air from their corpses.

How annoying, Archius thought. He turned to Eliza. She was struck with panic and fear as her eyes were wide open. Her lips quivered as she let off a squeal, trying to hold back tears. "T—those people, what just happened?!" asked Eliza, holding back a shriek of fear as she continued to squeal.

He rolled his eyes. Annoying. Was this really the person that Kazuki did all of this for? None of that mattered, for now, he has a mission to uphold. He shook her shoulders, remembering to stay focused and composed "Liz. Eliza. Wake up - stick with me. You can do that, right?"

She violently nodded her head as Archius stood up, walking into the back of the store as Eliza followed. Blood seeped through his shirt and stained his thin jacket.

"Archius… are you alright? Your back—"

"I'm good," said Archius, "Look. Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself—"

He pushed through the back door and entered into an alleyway. He turned to his left, seeing the way out into the streets. Too open. Not much cover. To his right lay the way deeper into the alleys. Wires, holographic posters and trash littered the way as he took the right path.

"—Come. We need to get as far as possible."

"What about Kazuki?!"

"He'll… live." said Archius, "We can't do anything to help him, let's not burden him with protecting us as well."

She followed as the distant wail of sirens filled the backdrop. Though the constant firing of bullets was by far the loudest. Walking through the twisting alleys, Archius eventually stopped at an intersection. Eliza was about to walk past him as he grabbed hold of her.

"What?"

Archius placed a finger to his lips as he dragged her behind the corner. A moment passed as bullets whizzed through the alleyways nearby. Peeking out from the corner, he saw Kazuki run further down the intersection, followed by several figures.

"Shit…" Archius lightly tapped his waist. Of course, this had to be the day that he didn't bring his toys and tools. He activated his ICAPAD and a map of the alleys popped up.

"Hey, why don't we just hide out here?" asked Eliza. "There must be some buildings here that we can use."

"We don't know how many there are… we need to get as far away from here as we can. Kaz is buying us time, let's not waste it."

Sirens hailed from the distance as they got further and further away. She slowly nodded, agreeing with his logic as he sighed. He once again started to walk past the intersecting alleys as one of the stragglers running by turned to see Archius and Eliza.

"There they are!" shouted the straggler as they aimed their rifle up at Archius.

In a split second, he grabbed onto Eliza as he broke into a run. Bullets soared. Luckily they weren't explosive, he thought. But they were definitely high calibre, the bolt in his shoulder blade stung to hell. He gave it a tense glance, he forgot how painful being shot was.

For once, he wasn't in control of the situation. But he removed any sense of panic in his face for Eliza's sake. Twisting and turning through the alleys, Archius ran for what felt like a kilometre as Eliza's breathing became ragged.

The two slowed down as they exited out into a large industrial sector within the district. He tapped his ICAPAD, but nothing shot out, then realised that it had taken a stray bolt to its projector whilst he was running. It flickered for a moment before dying.

"Eliza, you know this area?" asked Archius, calming his breathing as he placed one hand onto his waist, scrambling through his pockets with the other.

"Not particularly…" Eliza trailed off, the distant wail of gunfire etched closer and closer with each passing second. "I stuck more to the roads and rail lines more than anything."

Just as Archius was beginning to regather his breath, figures emerged around the corner of the alleyway, their exospines colour illuminating them. He immediately interposed with Eliza as a bullet meant for her dug into his torso. He fell onto the ground from the pain.

"FUCKING RUN!" shouted Archius, glaring at Eliza. He'll take them on, but he doesn't know if he could. But he was given a mission by Kazuki, and for his own sake, he'll accomplish it.

Eliza faltered and refused, she grabbed onto Archius, dragging him with her as bullets whizzed by. Pure determination glistened in her crimson eyes. Archius looked towards the hooded attackers, three of them in total. He gripped hold of his bobble, untying his hair as it morphed into a throwing knife. As it formed, he lobbed it blindly.

It wasn't an elegant throw, but it landed. Through dumb luck alone, the metal shard dug into the neck of the first attacker. They fell quickly as he slowly watched them die of blood loss. One of the two tried to save their dying friend as the other tried to encourage the previous man onwards. Using this precious time, Eliza dragged herself and Archius around a corner.

A shot whizzed past them as Eliza opened a door into one of the many industrial complexes, dragging Archius into it as she locked the door behind her.