It was high.
Fifty ters at least - as high as the nearby residential buildings. The kind of altitude that should have required wings, or a hover-platform, or so form of Eon-assisted propulsion. The figure had none of those. It moved through the air the way a thrown object moves - pure trajectory, all kinetic energy, no source of lift other than whatever had launched it.
In its hands were two blades.
Curved. Long. Their inner edges dark against the cloud-glow, the outer edges catching the light in sharp tallic flashes. Each blade had a forward-facing spike at its tip, the kind of design that didn't fit any weapon Raizen recognized. Not a sword. Not a sickle. Sothing that operated on principles he hadn't seen before.
The figure reached the apex of its arc, and began to descend with incredible speed.
And in the mont before gravity took it past their roofline, the figure twisted in midair, brought one of the blades down in a circular motion, and hooked.
The forward spike caught the edge of a roof two buildings over.
The figure's montum converted instantly. The fall beca a swing. The body whipped down and around in a tight arc, the blade acting as a pivot, the spike holding the rooftop with the leveraged strength of a climber's tool. The motion was practiced, almost inhuman. The figure released the blade at the bottom of the swing, landed silently on the next roof over, and was already running, catching the blade out of the air. Without looking. Without slowing.
It crossed the next roof in three strides. Vaulted a small chimney without breaking pace. But the pace – it wasn't normal running speed. Raizen had never seen soone run this fast without visible luminite amplification or reinforcent. Its blades were plain tal – no Luminite gem powering them. Reached the edge of that roof, leaped to the next, and was gone - disappearing into the warm-glowing dark of Neoshima's eastern skyline before any of the four people on Kori's roof had managed to fully assemble what they had just seen.
Raizen's mouth was open.
"Did -" Arashi started. "Did that just -"
"Yes" Kori said.
Her tone had changed. The casual neutrality she'd carried up onto the roof was gone. She was leaning forward now, her hands on the parapet, her one visible eye sharper than it had been all evening. Her body had tensed in a way Raizen recognized - the stillness of a Phalanx tracking sothing.
"Who was that?" Hikari asked. Quietly.
"How am I supposed to kno -"
The first siren cut Kori off.
Not from far away. From below - from the streets of Neoshima, three or four blocks east of where they were standing. A Warden patrol vehicle, its lights cycling red and blue, accelerating up an artery road with its siren rising.
A second siren joined it. Then a third.
Within fifteen seconds, the streets had filled.
Not taphorically. Literally. The arteries of the eastern district below them lit up with the cycling blues and reds of patrol vehicles converging on a single point - vehicles pouring in from the central district, from the academy periter, from the surface gates of the Heart. Wardens on foot ran across rooftops in tactical squads, their headlamps bobbing as they moved. A surveillance drone lifted off from a nearby station and scread across the sky in the direction the figure had gone.
The whole eastern half of the city was responding.
Kori straightened up. "All that…" she whispered to herself "Without Eon…?"
"Huh? What?" Arashi asked, squinting his eyes. "Hey, Raizen, did you see-"
Below, more vehicles arrived. The artery was now a long, glowing ribbon of ergency lights, its motion converging toward the area the figure had passed through. Whatever the Wardens had been holding back - whatever protocol was being executed right now - had been triggered by sothing. Either the figure, or the figure's destination.
Raizen looked at Kori.
She was already turning toward the trapdoor.
"Don't. Move"
"What are you doing-" Arashi started.
"I'm going after it"
✦ ✦ ✦
Kori went down the ladder without using the rungs.
She gripped the side rails and dropped, controlling her descent with friction rather than steps, hitting the floor with a soft thud.
The living room was right how she'd left it, but the chilli aroma dissipated a bit more.
She crossed to the television.
The secret compartnt was behind it, set into the wall - invisible from any angle that didn't involve removing the screen. She pressed her palm to the section of wall above the television. The wall recognized her print, the panel slid aside, and the container's interior unfolded into view.
Her knives sat in the centre of it.
There were other things in the container. Pistols. A short-range explosive charge. A knife with spiraling blade. A folding bow that broke down into three pieces and she didn't bother to repair. A Luminite grenade she forgot to put away. A small part of a Phalanx collection who had retired from active operations but not from the possibility of being recalled – just a bunch of equipnt that was kept clean, maintained, kept ready, even when years passed between uses.
She took the chained knives.
Straight blades of polished, silvery Tungsten with handles wrapped in white leather, the tal catching the room's light in pale blue-white reflections – and the soft blue light tint of the Luminite gems sitting at the center of both blades. Each blade was about the length of her forearm. Each handle was sized to her grip. They had been her partners through every operation she had run since she was eighteen years old, and they recognized her – the subtle shift in the tal, the warming and cooling of the handles, the gem waking up under her palms. The edge of her blades began to glow – Eon already channeling along the sharp ends, white-blue light pulsing once and then settling into a steady, dim luminescence.
She was about to close the container... But then she opened it back up and grabbed the Luminite Grenade. The wall slid back into place, and the screen looked like a normal screen again.
Kori walked to the door.
Behind her, on the couch, the slate Raizen had brought ho was still on the cushion, buzzing.
She ignored it.
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