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“Your ship’s current repairs have been distorted by the experiments over the last decade, and now its tendrils have spread within the lowest parts of the city. We have files that show Techrider had been investigating the problems it has caused: the havoc by the displaced creatures, power outages, and most importantly, it’s clogged up the channels we need to be able to leave this planet. We’ve essentially been rooted into place by repairs gone wrong.”

“Can we tear them out? How long has this been going on for?”

“We don’t know much, but from what we do know, it doesn’t look like they can be extracted without making the damage to the city much worse, come on, there may be more answers in the lab.”

We descend deep into the substructure of the city to find Dr. Ravascious Jeer’s secret lab Techrider had triangulated before his recent apparent destruction. In addition to the blueprint to the Empyrean Efflux armor, there is another Spire made out of the same super dense material as the wires from my craft. There are dozens of scientists, sleuths, vigilantes, uniformed officers, and rogue detectives here all mingling about, taking scans and measuring readouts. Everything is connected to these wires overtaking the substructure. Much like the sublab in the Tower, there are also diagnostic screens observing the progress of my craft’s repairs that closely match the real thing.

I burst out of the tunnels and trace the overtaking wires to the source, my craft in Krokodopolis Lab. I do not know why they have made it integrate itself into the city. I rip the direct diagnostic wires off, but to no avail. It’s completely disconnected. I scan the surrounding lab to find more of these wires and discover a hidden room above my craft. Crashing through the floor, I discover a hidden cockpit, sending the repair diagnostic. Siphoning from my craft as an energy source, this Krokodoplis space ship has applied its repairs to amplify the city. Were they going to attempt to use the entire city with the spire to get through my gravity field? I destroy it, and contact the city, but there is no change.

I cannot reverse what they have done, but I can prevent further integration, exploitation. This entire lab was designed for this one purpose. Perhaps it is only being inside of the skull of the labship that is preventing my GS-336 from activation. I explode a hole in the ceiling and use my might to launch my craft into orbit. Before I am able to follow, a voice rings out over comms, it is the short one. Hundreds of portals have erupted across the city, and outpourings of demons spew forth from them. They’re tearing apart the city. Angelguard and the others are already addressing it as best they can, but are already becoming overwhelmed. There’s no telling how long it would take me to dismantle the barrier, and there would be no point in opening the barrier if the city becomes consumed by demons in the process, then it would truly be annoying to get it off of my planet. Even in my current state, I am far stronger than I was when I first killed a Hellbeast. I make my way to the city and as I fly toward the chaos, I hear the familiar rumble of a turbo charged duocycle approaching from the outskirts, converging on my destination.

It was days later that Andrea awoke, back on an operating table. This time was different. She wasn’t being added to, her performance tweaked or her humanity stripped. Instead, for the first time in years, she had it back. The horrors that were taken from her body returned tenfold in the form of mental anguish. She was able to fully feel the emotions she should’ve experienced during her time as The Bodyguard. All at once. She was suddenly able to scream – to cry, to thrash about with all of the hatred, anger, guilt and fear that she’d been unable to feel for so long. She was free. And it was torture.

Every single person she killed – their faces – came to her in a rush. She was frozen in her distress screaming and crying her eyes out as she remembered them all. Footsteps came into the room but Andrea barely acknowledged the two figures that were in front of her. As the tears cleared and her eyes focused, she looked at the pair. One was tall enough to block the light on her right side, and the other, a much shorter one was on her left. Her eyes well up again with joy and recognition. All these years she had thought she had killed her best friends, but here they were, standing before her.

As much of a relief as it was to see those two, it did nothing for the deep well in her soul that came with the knowledge that she had slaughtered all her other friends. She would see their faces every night in her nightmares… For the briefest moment, she was momentarily put at ease by her remaining friends. To feel not only the external warmth from their combined embrace, but an internal comfort that healed wounds she had long forgotten were still wide open. Her friends promised that soon she’ll be able to hug them back – she currently was unable to move her limbs – and began working on restoring their old ally.

It took some time, but with it, she was finally rewarded with a wealth of joy. Eventually, she could see her family in person and after so so long, hold them. Strutts had kept his word and had continued to house them. She knew he was keeping them alive only so he had something to threaten her with. Though he didn’t need to hang them over her head for long before he had complete control over her. When she was ready for it, she was told about the fate of the Executive, and how the barrier finally came down.

With a few more visits to the underground facility she was taken to after the events of that night, the last of her repairs were complete. Then with some physical therapy, she was able to stand. She felt such a sense of relief when she looked down at her hands to see they were no longer cold and metallic razor sharp talons. Instead, she had been fitted with golden, shimmering hands and feet. 

In a mirror, she saw the steel and glass visor that had covered her eyes was gone. What looked back was as close a replicator could make of her old blue eyes as possible. The doctors had worked miracles to reduce her most prominent scars. It brought more tears to her eyes to see herself for the first time in years – the person she was before all the surgeries. A semblance of her anyway. She grew sadder the longer she looked at her reflection. The best doctors could toil away at her skin, meticulously sanding down her physical scars. But it will take more than that to mend her internal scars – the ones on her psyche and consciousness.

It wasn’t the time to wallow in self-pity, however. The City was one in turmoil. She hadn’t been restored to simply admire her regained beauty. The barrier was done with, but that didn’t mean peace was restored. The underground movement was still strong, and there was still much work to be done before the Outer and Inner zones could regain harmony. Though her friends and family said she needed more time to recover, and this didn’t need to be her problem, she pushed back. She had to right the wrongs committed by her. As her old self, she was still determined to help those in need. 

In her first mission back, she tasked herself with one of finding and capturing Executives who went into hiding after the fall of the barrier due to their involvement with it. They were to be seized and interrogated to find out the true purpose behind the diverting of funds and resources from the unfinished zone. Andrea was eager to be on the job again — on the right side of justice. 

Once she was given the all-clear, she stepped out into the glorious sunlight. She stood and soaked in the rays for a moment, appreciating her freedom. Then she spread her new wings and took to the sky. Seeing the world through her own, mostly human eyes, was a wonder. Her vision wasn’t beyond perfect anymore but that allowed her to enjoy the simpler things. Being able to enjoy anything once again was a delight in itself. But with the small highs came even bigger lows.

When she was done daydreaming, Andrea got on with her assignment. Upon seeing her targets, however, recognition was triggered deep within her. An onslaught of unstable emotions that she had yet to gain control over bubbled to the surface. She knew who those people were. They were former close collaborators to the late Executive. Though it reminded her of swooping down and butchering any soul she was commanded to, the action of divebombing and securing these targets invoked a sense of retribution. Her anger controlled her actions as she gathered them up.

Their deaths swiftly followed in the form of unauthorized public executions. The people of the Outer City gasped as the former aristocrats were slaughtered in broad daylight. Of those that were sought out and detained, there were no survivors. Andrea trapped her victims, picking them off one by one, disemboweling some, slicing and dropping others from great heights just to watch their bodies burst. Her team was going crazy trying to contact her but she was blinded by blood-lust. They had lost her to a murderous euphoric rage. Through her radio, they heard the condemned screams. She admired the blood splatters when the bodies hit the ground. Finally, the blood spilt by her hand was for a good cause. That was what she told herself. This was her redemption. 

Her attention was drawn away from the executive she was toying with by the loud sound of a roaring engine. Curiosity or familiarity getting the best of her, Andrea’s eyes followed the sound of the roar. Before she could witness the source, a powerful blast from a scattergun grazed her wings, causing her to drop the magnate prematurely. Ignoring the eventual splatter, she finally laid eyes on him. On the ground, idling beside human remains, was a mechanical man on a duocycle. Her suspicions were confirmed. It was the Shining Booster Techrider! A figure from the past to all those who lived in either part of the city, decommissioned after the night the barrier went up. Somehow returned once the barrier was no more, just as she had been.

Before she could question him, he spoke, “That was your only warning,” He spoke clearly and with unwavering authority, “This is your injunction: Justice is here, cease this slaughter at once, for my Judgement is inescapable.”

In the brief moment he paused for her surrender, she shot up into the air just in time to avoid his second spray of gunfire. Andrea could barely manage a counterattack, instead resorted to enacting a defensive attack pattern as she soared through the city, dodging blasts that were tearing up the buildings all around her.

To make matters worse, soon another thundering engine noise approached, and Andrea quickly realized there was another pursuer ploughing through the parkway after them. The armored man! Why had he returned? She couldn’t question him with now two killers in pursuit. Her anger boiled. She no longer wished to run away. She fought back. She would not die today. Her eagerness to win this time made up for her weaker body. Being blinded by her rage and survival instinct made time for her an elusive thing. Before she knew it, the battle was continuing inside train tunnels.

The last thing she remembered was the blinding light of an approaching train. Then, darkness.

Once more, Andrea awoke on the operating table. Her family as well as her two friends were there when she woke up this time, all showing their concern over her mental state. She let out a sob before breaking down into hysterics. She had been so driven by the emotions she was starved of for years. But now, she was finally free of the revenge that had consumed her heart. With her friend’s and family’s help, she learned to forgive herself and rightly get back on track. She would steadfastly serve her original intent of making a difference to the people troubled by hopelessness and despair. She would be known as the Angelguard who protected and brought peace to the unified city.

The summons slowed over the next few years, until one day an urgent alert opens the steel hatch in front of her, allowing light upon her once more. She took off into the sky with a loud and piercing screech. Pausing in the sun for a mere nanosecond, she peered into the office of Duun Strutts from above, and saw him on the floor by his desk, clutching his arm. Over him stood a figure heavily clad in white chitinous armor that covered his robust figure from head to toe. His helmet had, large, glowing red eyes. It didn’t matter what he was, only that he was clearly her target. She didn’t need to process the situation any longer. She lunged, crashing through the window and impaling the unfamiliar figure and taking him into the sky, away from her master. While smashing this being into surrounding skyscrapers, Andrea picked up a unique energy signature within him thanks to her electronically wired brain. Without need for thought, she was able to disrupt it using the talon impaling his abdomen.

Once she was in the sky, she didn’t need anything so direct as being given an order. It was as if Andrea instinctively knew to take the fight beyond the city and into the unfinished zone. She obeyed the order the instant it was triggered. With the man still impaled on her talon, she took flight at such incredible speeds that windows shattered as she whizzed past the high-rise buildings all around. Andrea left a wake of destruction, using the passing buildings as blunt force weapons, somehow knowing light property damage was not the reasoning to take this fight away from the Inner City. 

Passed the barrier, she detached him from her talon by throwing the man through the window of an abandoned, half-finished shopping mall. She followed him, not sparing him a second to recover enough to retaliate. Grabbing the being who was somehow still alive by the neck, Andrea dragged his body down the side of the building making a mess of the brickwork in the process. Halfway down, she let him freefall, adding to his acceleration with slashes from her razor-sharp talons. His body makes an impact when it slams into the ground. Andrea wasn’t done with him. She took off into the air once more, spinning gracefully before dive-bombing back down onto her target’s dented metal body.

Her arms were a flurry of brutal slashes, effectively tearing off the man’s armor which was getting in her way of doing some real damage. From there, she expected a clean kill. Something had given her opponent a second wind, however. He rose to his feet even after a barrage of attacks that should’ve left him as dust. He counterattacks, impossibly catching Andrea off guard and relieving her of one of her legs. She let out a piercing, inhuman screech of annoyance.

Lacking balance, she shot into the air once more to gain the lateral advantage. But there, with the backdrop of a full moon, Andrea noticed that the shield had come down. She didn’t make the connection between that and her opponent’s sudden strength. Instead, her concern was only the barrier. Something in her programming told her without it, it was pointless fighting the man. A machine brain made the decision to retreat. In the seconds it took to process that all, the man had fired a powerful gravity sphere attack. The minute distraction was not enough to gain the upper hand as Andrea easily deflected it back at him in an impressive mid-air flip and flap of her one wing. She didn’t wait to see if the volley hit. Andrea zoomed off back to the tower.

Her heightened senses alerted her to a presence close behind. Still moving at full speed, she cast a glance behind her to see the man was hot on her tail. He was unusually resilient. A being unlike any she’s encountered before. It was only then did she start to consider he was something more than human. Like her. She would’ve enjoyed the challenge if she was capable of feeling. He was gaining on her, scaling buildings and running along rooftops at a speed that should’ve been impossible. She was almost at the tower, then she would lose him and – 

The man, or whatever it was, leapt into the air with amazing timing and grabbed onto her remaining leg, using it to throw her with incredible force through the roof of Stutts’ tower. The roles were now reversed. This would’ve been an apt time for Andrea to feel a sense of dread, yet even now, nothing… It was his turn not to give her a chance to defend herself. Unleashing his full force, he went for her armor – cracking through it like a nut with an expert dropkick. She retaliated in kind with a slashing of her wing which sent at him a flurry of metal feathers as sharp as throwing knives.

Despite some piecing his armour, he was undeterred. Andrea’s scarred face contorted into something that resembled a frown. She had never met a foe anywhere near this formidable. Her processor brain calculated a tactical retreat would be wise. Her advantage was in the air so that was where she withdrew. She was followed outside but not into the air. The man instead continued to scale the building to the very top where the deactivated Spire stood motionless. He ripped the stilled power conduit from the foundations. Then, taking only a moment to lock onto her position in the moonlit sky, swung the thing at her like a giant bat that sent her back into the tower. By the time Andrea got her bearings, the man had altered his grip on the Spire, wielding it now like a javelin with agile ease.

Her eyes widened as the thing was hurled towards her, filling the whole room and leaving her with no escape route. Andrea attempted to brace herself but that was a difficult task with one leg. The Spire impaled her. Her attacker pushed down and twisted so the thing screwed into the ground – pinning her there while she was blinded by her own blood and oil that sprayed from her ruptured body.

Even her advanced body couldn’t survive that injury. Her regenerative cells couldn’t fix the gaping hole in her torso with the Spire still inside her. As she bled out, her consciousness became a fickle thing to cling to. Andrea watched her target through increasingly blurry eyes. She had failed her master who was now in danger. Attempting to move only elevated the rate at which she felt the life leaving her. Helplessly she watched as her foe – the man or being that defeated her. It should have been impossible. In the place of what should’ve been a sense of despair at her failure, was instead a hollow feeling. The desk Duun was covering behind was tossed aside. Andrea reached out an arm, growing weaker by the second. Though her senses were diminishing, she could still hear the sound of two more people in the room. Her vision was too blurry to make out more than the silhouette of one tall person and one short. They were approaching her but she had lost the cognitive ability to work out why. She let her eyes close and gave into the darkness.