Chapter Twenty Seven (a) - End of the Line

The decision is swift. Yuen, thinking it's useless to even hide, lifts up Ikaris' small body and rushes out from the abandon airport. Yuen takes a longer route out the area, avoiding being caught by the ambulance rushing towards the area. Ikaris is breathing heavily, and starts to nudge her head. She is regaining consciousness again, but still too weak to do anything.

The entrance through the fence has been left open; Riota had not bothered in closing it when she snuck in with the van earlier. Yuen sprints through and across the street. Yuen has no desires to return back to his place. If Riota already knew about his past, then clearly his apartment had been sacked by Out-forced. His only choice for the meantime was to find a hiding place within the city where he could attempt some way to reach Midori.

He glances in the night sky and sees the radio station above him. Not the best location for him to be at the very moment, but with this landmark, he knows a few abandon factories he can hide with Ikaris. Yuen releases a stress ball of air and heads towards nearest alleyway entrance. The distance from it is only about five meters.

But then, a truck instantaneously appears above the entrance of the alley and fell. The truck's glass shatters at impact with the hood smacking the pavement first. If Yuen was there just a few second early, he would have been crushed underneath it. Yuen flinches and his body instinctively lowers his head and his body barely moves. Tiny broken glass gazes by Yuen's hair.

"He's already here!" Yuen is about to turn his head to find another route, but hears a pop. The destructive sound similar to the sound of light silk being pierced by iron pipes echoes. Yuen cannot see it, but something has ripped the engine inside the truck.

"Ah!" Destruction occurs in an instant in one explosion. A ground shaking roaring sound erupts out from the truck.

"Gah…Ahh!" he manages to avoid being enveloped in the flames himself, but the shock wave strikes his back and tossing him a meter away onto the pavement. He holds Ikaris as tightly possible, shielding her from the scrap of metal that sliced through his body, but his fingers loses their grip on the girl. It takes five seconds for Yuen to understand everything. He opens his eyes to see Ikaris lying on the pavement, breathing heavily.

"Ikaris!" Yuen moves his battered body and just barely manages to stand up. Dong. A metal shard from a car pierces into Yuen's abdomen from the back.

"AH…!" Yuen feels the inside of his body trembling. He cannot take it anymore; the strength is instantly sapped away from him, and his legs weaken as he tumbles onto the ground.

"That's payback for what you did to me two nights ago. Don't worry though; I'm not as messy as you." A man wearing a dark uniform with blue trimming mockingly says to Yuen. He is unable to even lift his head up but he can see the silhouette along the ground. The man is about fourteen meters away.

He slowly approaching them, switchblade in hand and scraping along any solid object he crosses by. This man is Orin, another Out-force soldier out to capture Ikaris and Yuen. The soldier's method is actually very simple. Since this was teleportation that he had used, there was no momentum in the metal shard that was stuck in his back, but with constant teleportation, the shard was slightly changing its angle every hundredth second only stopping when it drilled deep into Yuen's abdomen.

The terrifying sound of friction echoes throughout his body. Suddenly, a snap is heard. Screech! The sound of air being cut echoes out.

"GAAAA …AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!", Ikaris screams out. Yuen's eye shoots open. With every muscle in his body, he manages to shift his eyes to the left. He cannot see well, but he sees a large puddle of blood excreting out from the girl.

"What the fuck did you just do?" Yuen shouts at the man.

"She's a very special girl you know. No matter how many times I injury her, she always to find a way to get back up, all perfectly normal. That's why I figured by setting a piece of metal at every pressure point in her body, she should be immobile for at least three hours. If not, I can always just add another one. I do have reserves to use on her." Yuen bites his lips.

He could not believe what he just heard, but there was nothing he could do to protect her. His body would not listen to him at the moment. Damn it! Damn it! Why can't I do anything?

"I heard Riota captured you earlier, but seeing how you're standing with Ikaris right now, something must have happened to her, so let's get you out of the picture now so the same thing doesn't happen to me." Yuen thinks about whether his heart is stopping. His body is unmoving. Even then, as he lays down collapsed on all four, only his face moves.

"I'm going to enjoy doing this." You shit, Yuen silently mutters. Damn it! Why does it have to end like this? Laying on the rained ground, Yuen is biting his lips as hard as he can. Suddenly, the piece of metal in his abdomen vanishes. More like it teleported out and back to Orin's hand. At this point, the thing keeping his body from moving is fear, the fear in his heart that he could not do anything.

"I'll think about using this one on you again, but its best serve at your heart. I'll just have to tell them that I couldn't capture you alive." Yuen shuts his eyes. The attack was going to kill him, but even with this threat looming, the only thing that remains in his thoughts is, Everything! She can't die like this! Not after what she did for me! Fuck myself! I'm not letting her taken away, but what can I even do! Damn it, someone.. anyone, save this girl! Yuen holds his breath for the incoming attack. He is going to be killed here and now. The moment the object is placed in his heart, he will die.

Please… someone save her. The rain becomes stronger, but yet nothing came. Ten seconds had passed since Orin's last words, but Yuen still feels the same. No attack was coming.

"What are you doing?" It was not Orin who had spoken those words. It was not him nor was it Ikaris. Someone else was at the scene. Yuen's eye shoots open. In the incessantly falling raindrops, sounding through the dark night streets, her voice drives into the ears of the groveling soldier, Orin, and a wet Yuen who's collapsed on the road. Orin stops his arm and turns his heads towards that voice.

The voice is not more than twenty meters away. It must have come out suddenly from some side road. In a street at night that person is reflecting the light from a streetlight and is vaguely shining. That silhouette has emblem unnatural spiky hair, emerald eyes set onto a light-complexion skin. The clothes were a simple white shirt underneath a black vest and beige shorts.

Yuen, collapses at this point, remembers. That girl…Llyana.

Stay tune for for the second part of this chapter!