By David C. Daoust
The tick, every second it was there, like a clock… he was not sure where it was coming from though. It helped him steady himself, helped him prepare… the wait was the hard part. Actually, he realized, it was the standing still.
Colin Vice was never in such a holo-mech as the one he now occupied- the rules seemed different. And they were, every time he had ever been loaded into a solid-light form, the rules were completely different. He just never realized it before. There was something about being in his normal human ‘copy’, that held him to his normal human ideas of what he could do.
In this form, however, it was apparent from the get go. This form, broke him out of that role. He was a being of solid light; there was no flesh to bruise, no bones to break, no muscles to weary. It was just energy. He could move as fast as he could think, which increasingly, was faster than he would previously have imagined.
This speed came in handy as he battled the Overseer. Again and again, he would streak in like an arrow -or the shadow of an arrow, ‘may be more precise- dismantling his foes latest serpentine form. Then he was back to the wait… finding that tick, the time between.
Being able to move that quickly seemed to pull him up out of the mundane, normal world. Ultimately, it messed with his head. Messed with it, just enough, for him to try and hold on to that tick. It held him to reality. Steadied his mind, made him part of a world he felt separated from.
Until his foe would reappear. Streak back in… he was not alone; the hounds were with him. Very rarely did they get in on the action though. With every swing of his blade, he would sever another metallic limb. It was just so slow… he could not help himself. It was all too easy.
And yet the form was broken. Hitch had mentioned that it was a hodge-podge, half-finished work of art. He didn’t mention, however, that it was not fully connected all the way through. Apparently, the Solid-light engineer had tried to use one of Colin’s normal lattices to reinforce some of the rushed work he did with the ‘Edgewise’ lattice. The form was somewhat altered, merely a silhouette of himself. This, also, did not help to keep him linked to reality. One side would streak off, before the other side got all the information, the shadow in the middle, the silhouette of himself within this massive shadow-monster, did manage to hold it all together, if not cohesively.
Colin was starting to get bored, starting to get anxious for the next foe to appear- he positioned himself closer and closer.
Colin didn’t know how the shadow effects worked, but they seemed to spill out around him. Hutch had compared it to the hounds… his form was definitely different. There were times he could not see through the chaos… luckily, he was fast enough to reposition himself… to get more information… to piece it all together in ways he’d never considered before.
He felt at his most cohesive when he had that target to focus on. That tick was less important- which was good, because the more he fought and the faster he moved, that tick seemed to become farther and farther apart. At times, after a battle, they were so far apart that he felt lost in a void. He had to slow down just to find it.
Ultimately, he was distracting the Overseer while Hitch searched for the server. He needed to buy him time… which meant he should have been toying with it more. He could not control himself; he cut through a dozen forms just trying to keep himself connected to reality.
Colin decided to change tactics, this time when he detected the assault-bot coming in at him, he fell back to the next crossway of the grid-like lower corridors of the station. The hounds, which had been pacing him- waiting for their chance to pounce, fell back with him. The problem? When he reached the crossway, he detected another assault bot coming in at him from the other direction. There was only ever one. Where did the second bot come from? He turned as he detected another coming from the opposite side; a third was charging at him. This changed the game. This made it more interesting. His body moved as fast as his mind, and his now overstimulated mind was moving at a speed that the tick, the tick didn’t even exist anymore. He shot like a bullet, faster than he had as of yet… charged back the way he had come. Led with his jagged blades as he skewered the first one out of existence.
Something more was going on, he wanted to know what. His destination was that factory room floor. The many, many hurdles that suddenly appeared, were bot after bot; each found the edges of his blades.
He broke free of the corridors. Made it back into that factory… a room filled with molten metal and moving machines. The station’s rattling cacophony, strangely silent at the speeds he was currently functioning at.
There was an army awaiting him. An army of serpentine Assault-bots, where there was meant to be one such assault-bot.
Colin was tearing through them, as fast as he could. Darting from left, back to right. Dodging bright white energy bullets and fending off blades coming in at every angle. More than once, was he actually struck, the form however- nullified any pain that his mind told him he should be feeling. He was a maelstrom of shadow tearing through so much metal that the sparks were still flying while the next form fell.
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