[00] Now Entering Kill Town...

[Kaden]

A cacophonous boom resonated through the ruined district of Central City. At the epicenter of the explosion stood three figures. Well… only one figure was standing, the other two having fallen to a knee, their breath coming in short, tired bursts. Amidst the ruined streets, abandoned cars, broken glass, and crumbling buildings, it would have been difficult to see signs of the battle that had just taken place.

“Oh man, I’m tired,” said Sophia as she dropped to a knee.

“Hey,” came Kaden’s concerned voice in response. He set a hand on her shoulder as he approached. “Don’t push yourself. You’ve been alive for, what? A few hours?”

“Heh. Maybe less.” Sophia shot Kaden a quick smile as she reached up. Her hand hesitated for a moment before gripping the courier’s and gently pulling it from his shoulder. “I’m fine, though. I can handle this much,” she assured Kaden with feigned bravado.

“So,” Kaden continued, though he was slow to take his eyes off of the priestess, “what should we do with him?”

A couple yards off, Vad had fallen to both knees and hunched onto his hands for support. Though it was a rather submissive posture it belied the fire that still burned in his eyes as he met Kaden’s gaze with a glare. If Kaden ever had to give someone points for persistence, it would be that saiyan, no question. Regardless, though, the courier had gone after him for a reason, and Sophia’s appearance hadn’t changed that.

“Why were you chasing after him, anyway?” Sophia asked as she slowly climbed back to her feet.

“He’s a wanted criminal and sociopathic, bloodthirsty murderer.” As Kaden heard his own words, he thought they were better reasons to not follow someone. “It’s not like I was tracking him down or anything, but if he’s standing right in front of me, what am I supposed to do?”

“Look at Mr. Big-Shot, hunting down the bad guys,” Vad growled. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Oh really?” Kaden was the one glaring as their eyes met once again. “Have you killed people? Is it against the law? That makes you a criminal. Most criminals aren’t exactly ‘good.’ You can sit there and waste your time with masturbatory excuses all you want, but it’s not going to change anything. You killed people and you want to just get away with it.”

“Ha! You think things are that clear cut? If someone tries to kill me, I’m going to try and kill them right back. Sometimes, that’s the only way to do it.”

“There’s always another way to do it,” Kaden’s voice grew louder as he continued talking. “Killing someone doesn’t make you strong, or powerful, or… anything. It makes you a coward. It’s easy to just take someone’s life, and only someone too weak to do anything else would think that that’s ok! Each person is free to live their life, you don’t get to decide who lives and who dies.”

“Apparently I do,” Vad snarled back.

Any response Kaden thought he had was reduced to a frustrated series of incoherent fuming in the face of Vad’s unrelenting, unapologetic sneer. It wasn’t until Sophia stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder that the courier took a deep breath and began to calm himself. Vad was hardly the first person he had encountered that challenged his views, but he was unequivocally the most frustrating. Something about the saiyan’s demeanor got under his skin with such effortlessness that it only served to incense the courier even more.

“Just drag him to a police station or something,” the priestess offered. “No reason to ge—“

“Shut up!” Vad barked.

“What?! That’s pretty ru—“

Instead of repeating himself, the saiyan simple shot the most murderous, psychotic expression he had within him. That effectively cut Sophia off. The two humans exchanged confused glances as Vad’s eyes darted about the landscape, ruined as it was. Something about the concern on his face didn’t really put Kaden at ease. Finally the mercenary broke the silence.

“Fuuuuck,” the saiyan groaned. “… we’re surrounded.”

Both Kaden and Sophia exclaimed their surprise at such a proclamation, but it was confirmed shortly. Unbeknownst to either human, a veritable army of robots had circled their makeshift battlefield. Even Vad, a seasoned warrior, had failed to notice their presence until Kaden had stepped off of his soapbox. The courier’s sixth sense, of course, was useless against machines.

With both Sophia and Vad still feeling the effects of their previous fight, Kaden was left to cast nervous glances from one to the other to the robots that peeked out from debris or the rooftops or the alleyways. Everywhere Kaden looked, there seemed to be at least two machines stepping into view. It was not a pretty sight. Sophia was in decent enough shape, but it was clear she was trying to look readier than she was. Vad, on the other hand, had barely made it up to his feet. As the courier inspected the nearest robot, his fears redoubled.

Where ever these things had come from, they didn’t look friendly. They stood roughly six feet tall, and were basically humanoid in construction. Attached to either forearm was some kind of device that looked like it could be extended or retracted at will. From where he was positioned, the courier was unable to determine what the device did. There was nothing to cover their metallic exterior, leaving only polished steel to greet Kaden’s eye. Fixed into their head was a single lens, presumably some kind of camera, the rest of the head was otherwise bare. The courier couldn’t help but wonder why they had even been constructed that way to begin with. Seemed a little superfluous to him.

The most concerning thing of all, though, was printed on their chest. Though the meaning of the engraving was escaped Kaden, the fact that it read “Kill Town: U.R.K.L.E. mk II” didn’t seem like a good thing. Whatever Kill Town was, it didn’t sound like a place he wanted to be. The fact that URKLE stood for Un-intelligent Remote Kill-town Logistical Enforcer wouldn’t have made the situation any better.

“Do you think they’re… friendly?” Sophia asked no one in particular. Her tone made it clear that she was expecting a certain answer.

“Not sure.” Kaden replied slowly.

Letting his eyes dance from robot to robot, the courier came to the curious discovery that they seemed to be watching all three of them. He had hoped, in the back of his mind, that they had just come for Vad. Sadly, it seemed like all three of the people present were of interest to these mysterious… URKLEs. Taking several steps sideways, Kaden tried to keep an eye on as many as possible, hoping to gauge how many were “locked on” to him.

“A third of ‘em,” Vad spoke to the courier, guessing what he was figuring out. Kaden made a mental note of Vad’s tactical acuity.

“Yeah,” Kaden said, running a hand through his hair. “That’s probably not a good thing.”

“So they’re after all of us?” Sophia asked, putting the pieces together.

“Looks like it. I guess there’s any easy way to find out.”

Given that they were completely robotic constructions, it was with a clear conscious that Kaden raised and hand expelled a stream of cerulean energy. The nearest robot was thrown backwards as the courier’s attack tore straight through it. Sophia jumped at the suddenness of the strike while Vad simply watched with a careful eye. All three of them shrank back at the results of Kaden poking the proverbial bees’ nest.

Where the first robot fell, three more stepped forward into its place. At the same time, all the robots began creeping forward, creating an ever-closing ring around their targets. Within moments, Kaden and Sophia stood back-to-back with the man they had just been fighting. Taking stock of the situation, the courier frowned and cursed himself inwardly for what he was about to do.

Both Vad and Sophia were low of strength. Even if their bodies were in fighting condition, both had expended a good deal of their energy. Sophia was a little better off, since she had been the one siphoning Vad’s strength, but that wasn’t very comforting to Kaden. Grasping the priestess’ hand in his and placing a hand on Vad’s exposed bicep, the courier ignored their confused glances and closed his eyes.

Forcing open the seal on his chest seemed to become easier every time he did it, which was fortunate, because he needed to Unlock some of his strength as quickly as possible. As the energy flowed into his body, Kaden pushed it through his hands and into the bodies of his companions. Both Sophia and Vad immediately felt the Surge of ki as Kaden’s ki blended with their own. Unfortunately, the courier had underestimated the speed at which his energy would deplete. Before he knew it, his seal closed off once again, without enough energy to keep it held open.

“Why?” was all Vad said in response to Kaden’s actions.

“They don’t get to decide who lives or dies, either,” Kaden replied. As he spoke to Vad, he let his hand fall from the saiyan. “Call me crazy, but I don’t trust anything that says ‘Kill Town’ to respect the sanctity of life.”

Vad was silent for several moments as he considered the courier words. As Kaden was bracing himself to launch an offensive against the robots, the saiyan surprised him. Vad took three steps towards the robots, shot a glance over his shoulder at Sophia and Kaden, then shot into the air like a rocket. A third of the robots craned their “necks” to follow the saiyan’s ascension, hesitating for only a second before lifting into the air after him. As Kaden watched them, he realized a panel had slid open on their backs to reveal some kind of… jetpack.

“Kaden,” Sophia tugged on the courier’s hand, which still clasped hers. “Any good idea?”

“I wouldn’t call them ‘good,’ but they’re probably better than nothing.” Kaden hastily released Sophia’s hand as he cast a look around. “They’re thin over there, on your left. I’ll punch a hole and you can get the hell away from them.”

“Yeah right,” the priestess shot back. “You think I’d just leave you to deal with something like this? Besides, you saw what just happened, a bunch of them are going to follow me anyway. We’re better off together.”

“Yeah… you’re right.” Taking a deep breath, Kaden paused just long enough to run a hand through his hair. “Ok. Let’s go.”

Shooting forward in the direction he had indicated, Kaden raised a hand a dropped the closest robot with a small burst of energy. Even a small attack took more effort than it should have for the ki manipulator. He cast a sideways glance at Sophia, who had followed quit and fired off a ball of blue ki to down another robot. As he had allowed ki to Surge into her, it had been as though her body began pulling in whatever the courier had to offer. He assumed her ability to absorb ki had… accelerated the process. Whatever had actually happened, Kaden was almost running on empty.

With his thoughts turned inward, trying to figure out how he was going to help push back the army of robots that had been beset upon them, Kaden’s foot caught a rock and he was thrown to the ground by his own momentum. Skidding to a stop, Sophia rushed back to help, dispatching a robot that moved in on the courier.

Flustered by his turn of ridiculously bad luck, Kaden scrambled to his feet, half-running and half-crawling in the direction that had the fewest robots. Unfortunately, that had been in the exact opposite direction of his priestess companion. By the time he regained his composure and realized what had happened, Kaden found himself and Sophia separated by a street full of robots.

Before he could so much as call out to Sophia, Kaden was forced to retreat into an alley as metallic hands swung at him. Ducking under the hands grabbing at him, Kaden summoned forth as much energy as he could, throwing a Salvo of ki in the face of the first robots to enter the alley after him. As he backed into the alley, Kaden waved another hand, and conjured forth a barrier that spanned almost the width of the small space.

Much to the courier’s dismay, the alley ran straight into the back of another building, effectively boxing him in. Normally, blowing down a wall that was already half-destroyed would have been a fairly simple task. His breath coming in short bursts, there was absolutely nothing Kaden could do as he turned back to face the barrier he had created.

Instead of leaping or flying over the courier’s construction robots simply pounded their fists against it. With each dull thud of metal on the courier’s shimmering curtain of ki, Kaden winced. It took only a dozen strikes before the barrier crumbled, fading away to allow the robots to continue their march. A second barrier lasted only a single blow before succumbing to the same fate as the first.

Entirely drained of his energy, Kaden fell to his knees, unable to fend off his attackers. All he could do was watch as an URKLE closed in. The device on its forearm extended, revealing an almost comically over-sized needle. At the base of it, Kaden could make out a vial filled with some kind of green fluid. Crying out in pain, Kaden’s shoulder was pierced by the needle. Fortunately, he would not have to endure it for long. Within seconds, he could feel his consciousness fade.

As he fell to the ground, unable to even keep his eyes open, all Kaden could do was hope that at least Sophia had managed to escape. Even his thoughts, though, faded as a robot hoisted him onto its shoulder and began marching away.