Heart of Darkness (Mute)

[Mute]

The bump knocked his legs from under him and he was sent tumbling across the hood of the speeding car. Its driver accelerated and corrected his course to prevent the newly acquired passenger from falling off the other side. Beneath him, Mute felt the metal trembling with the force of the engine it housed, and he struggled to get a hold on something. The driver, on the other hand, had no such difficulty.

A fist exploded through the windshield, showering him with glass, and that awful iron grip closed around his arm. Mute writhed with pain, and wriggled to rid himself of his tormentor but it came to nothing. He looked up and stared into that featureless alien visage, it handled the steering wheel with one hand and him with the other, the empty face betraying no sense of struggle of fatigue. And yet, despite all its efforts to capture him, it was something else that held its attention.

He glanced over his shoulder with the howl of the monsterous engine deep in his ear and saw, to his disbelief, that the road was coming to a dead end. And, showing no sign of slowing down, it seemed the thing that has been hunting him, this red-eyed machine, had every intention of taking them beyond the percipice and into the darkness below. Shaking off his panic, Mute used his free hand to retrieve the butterfly knife from his jeans, it danced in his hands and opened, the silver blade sung in the wind and was buried into the machine's wrist. He hacked violently at his silent nemesis, for if it was to be his end, he would at least have a souvenier to take with him.

[Zero]

The hand flinched at the injuries but only gripped Mute tighter. Damage could be repaired. Muscles and tendons replaced. Idly Zero calculated the odds of his target surviving the impact.

Insufficient data. This, then, would be an experiment.

The muscle car jolted over a concrete sidewall, crashed cleanly through the guardrail, and demolished a chainlink fence that stood just before the precipice. Then it launched itself over the edge, hanging in the air like a satellite, engine screaming with no more friction under the drive wheels. The car tipped backward delicately in mid-air and began chopping off treetops on its rear bumper.

Zero lunged out of his seat, crashing through the windshield entirely and leaving the car behind, and wrapped Mute in a steely embrace to ensure that, even after impact, his prize wasn't going anywhere.

[Mute]

They twisted slowly on the night breeze as somewhere below them the screeching car trailed away and plunged into the trees. There was silence, a thunderous clunking crash, then there was nothing but the sound of rushing air and the fall. They were suddenly plummeting at great speed, Mute was paralysed with fright, not knowing which way was up or down, and braced himself in the knowledge that escape was impossible and that the impact was very...

The fall was broken. Something hard struck his back, his chest heaved, constricted, and he found himself launched up again, tumbling wildly across a dusty floor while his free arm lashed out in a desperate attempt to grab something. The bare skin on his arms and face was scatched, scraped and lacerated by a rolling blur of murky colours. They struck something, and came to a sudden halt. In the briefest moment of silence that followed, he stared up at the winking stars strung across the open sky and knew he'd survived and that he was about to fight for his life.

[Zero]

The impact broke Zero's hold on Mute. He rolled with his momentum and then stuck out one rubber-soled foot; it scraped like a skidding car tire on asphalt as he skidded across the ground, sending up a thick cloud of yellow dust.

They had landed on the inside of a tall fence topped with barbed wire, and all around them were towering metal pillars in concrete pilings. Above them, lit haphazardly by mounted sodium worklights, was a jungle of rails, cages, cables, and wire, all of it buzzing like millions of angry wasps. It was the sound of electricity running in lethal voltages all around them.

Staring at his opponent some ten yards away, Zero rose to his feet. His armor was covered in scratches and filth, and blood and clear blue fluid leaked from the wound in his wrist where Mute had stabbed him. He reached with his uninjured hand over his shoulder to grasp the hilt of his ninjato. It slid out of its sheath with a palpable hum.

Then Zero spun the blade downward in a brilliant crescent, sending up a sudden spray of sparks. His glowing red ocular never left Mute.

Beside him, a thick metal post shuddered, groaned, and began to fall. Somewhere above them, a wire snapped and whipped snake-like through the air, and the post came hurtling downward toward Mute on the ground, pulling with it a bird's nest of live electrical equipment.

[Mute]

Slow at first, the tower tilted, gleaming like a blade in the moonlight, and swung downwards with a stiff metal moan. He rolled away and was on his feet, turning in time to see it crash with an eruption of golden sparks. The light floated to earth and diminished, and Mute looked beyond at his enemy standing coolly across from him, waiting. The corners of his lips curled: death, it was, then.

And his fear was gone. It had been consumed, eaten, by something dark and terrible. It grew in his belly, twisting and writhing like a demonic unborn, and the red light of hellfire was reflected in the boys eyes as it clawed its way to the surface, hungry. And as the distance between them was closed in a single feral pounce, he saw the weapon in the hands of his nemesis and realised, he was the weapon.

[Zero]

Something had changed. Zero could sense that even as Mute closed the gap between them. He was beginning to understand why he had been given no parameters for this target's abilities: there were no parameters for them. Probably Mute himself had no idea where his own limits lay.

*****Threat level revised: Threat level is variable. Increases as the engagement progresses. Recommendation: end engagement immediately, by any means possible.*****

Zero raised his swordpoint, fully intent on riving Mute through the heart -

The boy slapped the weapon aside by the flat as he came, with reflexes far outside human norms. Then Zero took a blow straight to the chest with force that would have shattered an ordinary sternum. It lifted him into the air and sent him sprawling backwards through a forest of utility poles.

The cyborg crashed from one pole to the next, and his sword severed another bundle of cables, showering him with sparks. Damage readings flooded his optic field, but he dismissed them, leapt to his feet, and searched the debris for his enemy.

[Mute]

There was a whisper of movement. Somewhere above the machine Mute was perched upon one of the damaged utility poles, in his hand he weilded a narrow length of metal which had seen the edge of Zero's blade and in turn it had been given its own lethal edge. He hurled the spear down at his enemy and quickly followed it. Pearly light glistened against his wet teeth as his shadow filled the night sky like some great bird of prey, hungering for its first taste of flesh.

[Zero]

There was no time for anything but escape. Zero leapt backwards, twisting in mid-air as the sharpened edge of painted steel passed within centimeters of his thigh. He landed on his hands like a gymnast and spun to his feet.

He'd earned a moment's reprieve as Mute landed by the spear. Zero reached into his belt, drew three more senbon, and gripped them firmly between the knuckles of his left hand, then shifted his sword grip all the way to the tsuba so he could wield the blade in short, rapid strokes.

Now Mute faced a tiger with claws as well as teeth.

[Mute]

The boy sprung from the ground, ripping the embedded metal shaft out of the floor with a crunch of concrete. He kept low, sprinting at his opponent with a wild look in his eyes, his face a picture of savage joy. The weapon spun nimbly in his fingers then once he was within range, its pointed tip leapt out at the single red eye on the machine's face, Zero responded but the spear was retracted out of range with perfect timing. Mute weaved and spun with relentless speed, his attacks flowed into each other forcing his opponent to react until at last he saw an opening on the outside of his sword arm. The boy lunged for Zero's neck with a thrust of such unbridled force it would surely skewer the machine like a stuck pig.

[Zero]

Zero saw the threat developing and had calculated a trajectory of escape, but he was off-balance, outmaneuvered. He stumbled and fell on the concrete and only just managed to raise his sword, edge-on, against the spear.

Adamantium met steel, but instead of turning aside, Mute's shank of metal split down the middle and curled away on either side of the ninjato blade like wax around a wire until the two weapons were stuck fast together.

[Mute]

Not missing a beat, Mute twisted what was left of his weapon and turned Zero's blade anti-clockwise until its tip struck the floor. Beneath it, he had temporarily trapped his left arm and consequently, the fist full of senbon. Taking full advantage of the opening he had created for himself, Mute raised his right foot until his leg ran almost vertical with his torso then snapped it downwards, the heel of his foot plummeting towards the machine's singular red eye.

[Zero]

CRACK!

Zero jerked away, but not in time to avoid the crushing blow. His optical sensor went dark, then flickered feebly back to life. Static ate at the edges of his perception, and the red optical lens was cracked.

*****ENGAGE OPTIC CAMOUFLAGE.

WARNING: Photosensory network compromised. Adaptive skin cells operating at 68%. Effectiveness of Optic Camouflage may be limited. Proceed?

YES!*****

Zero rose to his feet and shimmered, as if a stream of water were passing between him and Mute. His head, chest, and limbs ghosted in and out of sight, flickering like a faulty television signal - not enough to render him invisible, but enough to break up his silhouette and obscure sudden movements.

He didn't give Mute time to process what he was seeing. The cyborg lunged forward and landed a series of savage blows on the boy, his suit flashing into being with every impact.

[Mute]

The first blow was Mute's fault. His enemy became a warped part of his surroundings; colour and shape became his tools, the element of surprise his weapon. Mute sprung forth, ready to strike, when an anvil fist broke his nose. Through his shimmering vision he saw the arm disappear. Anger, his insides burnt like a raging furnace. Another slither of electrical light. He dodged.

Air raced from his lungs, his body curled, and he stumbled feebly in retreat. His instincts had failed him and the onslaught of violence resumed, beating the strength from his body. The hiss of mechanical pistons, the crunch of flesh and bone under metal, the cracks of scintillating white and blue, bewildered by the melee, Mute's power diminished.

Fear pressed in, forcing him to one knee, and in that moment he knew no amount of willpower, no desire to live and see another day, would save him from death. He had reached his limit. It was the end.

Weak...

[Zero]

A man might have stopped then. He might have seen the light of defiance go out of Mute's eyes and shown mercy, or towered over his fallen foe, gloating in triumph. Zero did none of these things.

Zero seized Mute under the arms in a body hold and forced the boy to his feet. Then the cyborg ran, driving Mute forward before him and straight into an upright steel girder at the base of a huge transformer. He pulled Mute away from the pillar, leaving a stain of blood where his face had struck. Then he slammed Mute into the girder again with a sickening crunch of bone and cartilage.

He would bring in the boy's broken, vegetative husk if he had to. Zero was incarnate proof of what Vanguard would do to reclaim its resources.

[Mute]

The limp ragdoll body suddenly jerked. And again. And again, until it was positively shuddering in Zero's arms. A low rumble, a string of breathy snorts and then, laughter. And from bloody lips curled with wicked glee, rasping and cold, there came a voice.

"So... weak!"

A screech of maniacal laughter, fingers snapped around the machine's wrists and he kicked off from the ground, launching them skywards. When they reached the apex of their ascent, the boy tore free of his attacker and twisted in the air, thrilling at the rush of wind against his face. That laughter again, demented and shrill, it rung into the night as his hands joined in happy union, poised like a mighty hammer over his head. He swung, grunting like a beast, and struck a blow to his enemy's heart.

[Zero]

Zero's vision filled with static. The floodlights around the transformer station were an indistinct wash of light surrounded by pixelated speculars; they winked out entirely every time Zero struck a pylon or a support cable as he tumbled violently back to the concrete earth. A digital artifact roughly in the shape of a human landed some distance away on the other side of a bank of gigantic capacitors.

*****DAMA
*****DAMAGE RE
*****DAMAGE REPORT INCOMING_
*****Visual sensors compromised.
*****Power supply running at critical levels.
*****Numerous leaks in servo motors.
*****Right femur fractured.
*****ComComComComputer mainframe damaged. Building alternate pathways.

Zero writhed, like an insect with one foot in a glue trap, finding his right leg completely unresponsive. Stimuli he recognized as pain filled his sensors as his suit compressed and drew rigid around his broken thigh bone. Now the exoskeleton would support his weight, trading agility for stability.

*****WARNING: Enemy still active. Probability of surviving continued engagement is unpredictable. No parameters exist for enemy's combat abilities.

How do I beat him?

*****Insufficient data. Still reconstructing computational mainframe.

Slowly, agonizingly, Zero pulled himself to his feet and slunk back into the forest of steel beams and draping cables, shrouding himself in shadow. He could not fight in this state, and his optic camouflage would not give himself enough cover to escape.

*****ANOMALY DETECTED IN NEURAL PATHWAYS

Zero flinched. Explain.

*****Unknown programming detected in primary wetware. Origin unknown. Intelligence algorithms. Memory patterns. Incompatible with current software.

The cyborg spotted something protruding from the ground twenty meters away - his sword, its tip buried several inches into the concrete. Slowly he pulled himself toward it.

Access unknown intelligence. Perhaps it can help.

*****Processing. Directive: Survive. Protect. Return home. There are children in here.

Zero limped forward through the electrical morass toward his sword. What was that?

*****There are children in here.
*****ANALYSIS: background noise. Inconsequential.

Zero stopped in his tracks. For the first time in his memory, he was conflicted. But he forced himself to stagger on, beneath a low-slung support, out onto the open concrete and toward his sword, focused on it as if it were a lighthouse and he were a pilot navigating stormy waters.

Analyze. Analayze again.

*****ERROR: Insufficient data. OVERRIDE: Enemy detected. ALERT!

The cyborg lunged for his sword, caught its handle, and swept out of the concrete as a digital blur barreled toward him at the edges of his vision.

[Mute]

"What do you expect to do with that thing, Tinman? PICK MY TEETH!? AH-HAHAHA!"

Zero lunged. The blade parted the boy's hair with a breath of wind, its gleaming tip brushed his nose, caressed his chin and traced a line dangerously down the centre of his torso, scraping against his clothes. He arched backwards like a horse shoe, his feet lifted and the katana passed between his legs. He sprung from the gravel on his hands and flipped, carried ever forward by his own momentum, lifting dust and spattering blood from open wounds.

There was a ping and the katana drooped. Mute launched himself from the blade's edge and his foot connected with the machine's jaw. Again, that shrieking laughter. He spun in the air and landed a few feet from his enemy. Large white teeth shone through a black face of glistening blood.

"Oh, what a fight! THIS FEELS GREAT! I-"

Something was stuck in his neck.

[Zero]

There were two more senbon in Zero's hand. In the moment that Mute hesitated, Zero hurled both of them. One struck his target in the chest, the other in the thigh. But he wasn't certain even that would be enough with Mute in this state.

Zero lifted his sword and charged at the boy as fast as his injured leg would allow, preparing for the clash that would either end him or end his enemy.

[Mute]

He pulled the senbon from his neck and found himself transfixed, oblivious to the pinch in his chest and leg. There was something distantly familiar about the weapon, he turned it between his thumb and forefinger, inspecting it closely. He moved.

There was a wet sliding squeak and Zero came to a sudden halt. The boy's fingers clamped around the blade like a vice and held it fast, his hand was halfway to the tsuba, and the top end of the blade was slick with crimson. He smiled at the faceless monster before him.

"You've tasted blood... now DIE!!"

He raised his foot, buried it in Zero's gut, and watched him fly.

[Zero]

The cyborg rocketed backwards and ragdolled through the chainlink fence into the forest of massive, coiled capacitors. The force of the blow carried him straight into a bank of high-power lines piping electricity to the entire western half of Los Santos.

Spreadeagled, Zero struck two high-tension wires at once. Industrial voltages knifed through his cybernetic armor, filling the air with white sparks and the smell of burning plastic.

The air is full of dust, spinning on the broken shafts of sunlight that beat through the windows. A flashlight beam searches the room, illuminating a dozen bright-eyed, tear-streaked faces.

"Hold your fire! There are children in here!"

One of them stands, a slender, olive face framed by long, black hair. A hand - your hand - reaches toward her. And then her eyes fill your eyes, and there is nothing but pain, mind-splitting, soul-searing agony, her eyes are hot coals and the universe is aflame...


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There was a cybernetic scream, a commiseration of mechanical destruction and human suffering. And then the power broke, throwing half of Los Santos into darkness, and Zero fell from the wires and crashed to the gravel beneath them, silent and unmoving.