V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T

Chapter 155: Sonic Shadow

02 landed on the asphalt beside 03. The energy barriers were up, sealing the alley next to the town hall in deep red light, a clean white text printed across the surface: CONTAINED AREA, E-POLICE. Human officers worked the scene inside the perimeter. 03 stood at the edge watching them, eyes not moving.

02 straightened and walked toward the human force. 03 fell in beside her.

"Did the security cameras catch anything usable?"

03 shook her head. "Nothing. A blur across the lenses and one thin line of green neon, the blade edge. 05 pulled it frame by frame and that's all there is. It was Obsidian, but we have no image of him that would hold up to anything."

02 scanned the upper windows of the surrounding buildings in a slow loop. "How did neither E-UNIT register his approach? He's carrying additional armor now, he should be slower, not invisible. Is the armor modular? Can he strip it mid-operation?"

"Possibly." 03 had her sniper up, moving across the rooflines. "But he doesn't need to fly anymore. These buildings are close and low, he can jump between them and reach a rooftop without the thrusters giving him away."

"Right." 02 reached the officers. "Dark frame, no lights, small buildings with plenty of coverage. He can operate all night in this city and we won't find him until he decides to surface."

"Captain 02." The lead officer stood and saluted. "We found some details on how the attack was executed."

"Walk me through it."

02 looked at her sisters on the pavement. Her fists closed without her deciding to close them.

"The cuts are precise to the center of each frame," the officer said, crouching beside 36. "Your power systems sit at the back, he knew that and aimed accordingly. This wasn't opportunistic. It was targeted."

The second officer brought up a set of hovering screens. "We pulled all available footage. He wasn't holding position near either of them beforehand, he came from nowhere, moved through both frames, and went north. The whole event took less than two seconds."

"No fixed route," 02 said, studying the blurred stills. "He's bigger than he was, the frame reads heavier in what we can see. But random targeting and immediate withdrawal means he's not working a pattern on purpose. He wants us to waste time trying to predict a rhythm that doesn't exist."

"He's smart about the environment too," the officer added, turning to 03. "Watch the footage again, your units never registered any threat. They were walking normally and then they were down. That means his approach is below their detection threshold entirely." He looked at 02. "Which means—"

"Me or the G-Bots are the only viable response." 02 finished it. "He can't work through Delta's density and Gamma's speed changes the equation entirely—"

Her HUD flashed red.

"Captain!" Gamma's voice came through, distorted by velocity but still somehow loud. "I have the one you're calling Obsidian! He's running the shoreline heading northwest. Should I engage?"

"Yes." 02 was already shifting her weight. "Coordinates?"

"Northwest of the presidential house, moving fast, we're at 600 kilometers per hour and he's holding pace!"

"Hold him as long as you can." 02's eyes went red, the first time since Tau had woken her up. 03 noticed. "03, clear the area units." She launched herself skyward, the force of it cracking the asphalt in a ring beneath her.

03 lowered her sensors. The smile that crossed her face was slow and genuine.

"Calculated warmth my ass, Dave."

Gamma stayed on Obsidian's back without giving him a meter. The beach opened up ahead of them, the same Maridian Sea that touched Theria, wide and dark, the surf reflecting whatever light reached it. Obsidian checked his rear sensors.

The yellow glow was gone.

"Where—"

He looked up.

Gamma was already falling.

Clang.

Both fists to the face. He went into the sand at speed and plowed a channel through it before stopping.

He stood. Green eyes found her. She had pushed him out of the shadows and onto the lit shoreline, the sand slowed him and the light worked against his frame. She'd thought about this.

"You think as fast as you move," he said. "Are you as solid?"

Gamma stopped smiling. She reached over her shoulder and produced two yellow exo-knives.

Seek.

One knife went to his right. He jumped left, then understood what she'd done. Gamma's heel was already at his face.

He crossed his arms.

Clank.

The impact launched him across the sand despite his weight. His right arm's armor took the force directly and shattered from the speed alone. He registered it and started to recalculate. ‘ She has one flaw—'

Gamma was standing at his landing point.

She sent a line of knives at him. He dug his feet in and jumped, she was already above him, legs extended. ‘There is no actual—'

Clang.

Another heel strike, this one straight into his face, drove him into the ground with a sound that rolled down the beach.

His HUD glitched. When it cleared, yellow light was incoming.

She landed on his chest, denting the middle section, and hit him, face, face, face, in a rapid sequence. He reached out to grab her.

She dissolved into yellow sparks.

‘I didn't catch a single vector.’

Obsidian got upright. The armor across his frame was dented in several places, plating cracked along the impact lines. Gamma stood meters away, reading him, calculating her next approach.

He drew the katanas. Dark metal, neon green edges running the blade length.

Then he turned everything off. Eyes dark. Blade edges dark. His frame went to pure black, a shadow with mass, standing in a well-lit stretch of beach.

He pulled the armor off his right arm and threw it at the nearest lamp. The light died. He stripped the left side next and sent it into another. Half the area went dark.

"Let's find out how your sensors perform."

He launched, not straight, zigzagging across the sand, direction changing mid-stride.

Gamma tracked left, right, recalculating. She looked to her right.

The katana's shadow was there, or at least the shadow of it . She bent backward, barely.

She fired her thrusters and pulled up, getting clear of the dark zone. She landed and stood.

Her right hand hit the sand beside her.

The cut had been clean enough that her system hadn't registered it yet. She processed that for a moment, then scanned her surroundings. This section of the beach was all shadow, benches, palm trees, closed selling stalls, anything that could hold a shape in the dark.

She moved between the tents with care, scanning each shadow as she passed.

The hit came for her leg.

Sleek.

She jumped, looked down, her right leg was still on the ground behind her. Gravity and momentum caught up, she crashed hard onto her back, her HUD finally screaming with error codes.

Obsidian stepped out of the dark and walked toward her at a measured pace. Gamma pulled a knife from her shoulder housing and threw it at him. It went into the thick plating and stayed there.

He took it out, looked at it, and drove it through her free leg, pinning her. Then he pulled his arm armor off and brought it down on the pinned leg. The mass of it, already in motion, crushed the joint completely.

He crouched beside her and placed the katana at her forehead.

"Lord Reaper's orders are clean cuts, no suffering." He pressed it forward.

Her eyes went dark.

Her head came to rest in the sand.

Obsidian looked south. A blue light was cutting toward him at speed across the waterline.

He stepped back into the shadows.

"Not yet."