A Spark of Sylvan Flame

“Huh? The civvies? Yeah it’s always a bit bittersweet whenever I come across them fighting on their own without Protector gear. On the one hand, I applaud their bravery, and if they’re the right fit they might even initialize,” The samurai grimaces, sighing as she rubs her forehead, “The other side of it that you’ll see is that most of the time, it’s just one lone person with a pistol, standing up to a pack of Threes or something worse. Seeing that always makes me sad, because it’s a story that’s countlessly repeated worldwide.”

Looking directly into the camera, the Samurai’s eyes are almost hollow, their face frigid,  “They often don’t get bailed out by a new friend in their head at the end of things.”

-Informal interview with Shadowtag, 2056

 

Common practice for antithesis raids in our family is very simple. Adults split between the front and rear, teens behind or infront of them, kids in the center. Evie was up in the front, leading us towards the shelter, shotgun at the ready. The three kids were in the middle, nervously looking around. Benny had even held onto his pitchfork he was using to dig up potatoes.

I was bringing up the rear with my baseball bat in one hand and a pistol in the other. Every few seconds I would turn to get a look at the gap in the buildings to see if any antithesis were running directly towards us.

Instead, I saw a few groups of xenos that were definitely not Threes. Ones, Fours, Fives, a few Eights and probably a few cloaked Nines were all rushing towards the finishing barns. No doubt wanting to butcher the livestock in those buildings a bit early.

More importantly, it was a force that was FAR too large for us to handle alone.

“Autumn, call your parents. Tell them what happened and get the rest of the family back here now,” I order, watching carefully to make sure none get too close, “Summer you call Aunt Nyra. We need all hands on deck for this.”

The twins instantly dialed up on their augs, and thankfully Summer’s call went through instantly.

“Aunt Nyra? Spark said to call you and get you to come back,” The girl nervously states, “There’s a monster attack here and we need help!”

She listened to the response before turning to me and whispering, her voice trembling just a bit, “She’s on her way, but it will be a while. She said she had moved to a field further away from her truck and was in a back corner when I called.”

Autumn’s call, however, still hadn’t gone through, and she was shaking with fear. “S-Spark? I can’t get an answer. W-what if something happened I- we need the help, and if it’s just us for a while I-“

I quickly pulled her in for a hug, “Don’t think about that, Autumn, I’ll kill all of them myself before they even look at you, and I have a secret weapon.”

She sniffled, “What secret weapon?”

I look my cousin in the eyes, and grin. “I have Evie here to scare the xenos away with her ugly face.”

That got a few quiet giggles from all of the kids, and a pair of narrowed eyes with a promise of revenge from Evie herself. That glare quickly morphed to fear as she pointed behind me. Turning I saw the worst case scenario, a small pack of Threes had split off and were beelining right towards us.

“My workshop!” I push the kids forward as best I can, “Now!”

We all began running towards the closest building, a space that was definitively mine. My workshop was the place where I worked on any small scale project that wasn’t tuning up equipment. It was my space to go to unwind and bash things together until they worked.

Now it would be our lifeline.

Evie got to the door first and flung it open, “Everyone inside!”

As the kids filed in, I turned to see that the Threes would definitely try and follow us through the door if they weren’t killed first, and I knew that if they were killed, the noise and smell would only attract more. My decision on what I would do was already made. I turned, seeing Evie had been staring at me this entire time. She looked at me with a bitter smile. 

“You’re staying out here, aren’t you?” I nodded adamantly, tapping my bat on the ground. “Fine, you better give them hell.” 

She stepped back and shut the door between us. Knowing that Evie would keep them as safe as possible, I turned to face our pursuers which were about twenty-five meters away.

Gripping the pistol hard in my hand, I raised the gun, causing the familiar reticle overlay to appear on my AR-glasses. The instant I had the leader sighted, I fired. The sound reverberated off the metal wall next to me, fleeing deeper into the complex as the Three’s head jerked back before it tripped over its own feet. 

Thankfully, that also tripped up the three xenos behind it, while two others wove around the pile to either side. Another shot had the left one sprawled in the gravel, and a swing of the bat caved the right one’s skull in, electricity discharging into it, causing all its muscles to seize up.

The last few Threes had detangled themselves from each other, only to find a bullet each in two of their heads. The last one charged again, and rather than waste a bullet on a single fucker, I quickly sidestepped and swung right into the sliding Model’s hip. As the crack of bone sounded out, the alien dog managed to graze me with its claws before it fell into the gravel, sending it everywhere. I wasn’t able to truly celebrate though. Before the bat struck the dog, it had managed to land a few shallow cuts in my side, and they stung. With a deep breath in an attempt to shove the pain down I placed the tip of the bat on its head and let the electricity cook it from the inside.

This whole thing would be fun, if it wasn’t for the spiking worry in the back of my head. This was easy-cheesy now, and might stay that way for the next few moments, but the amount of Models I got a glimpse of would easily end up overrunning me. The unknown status of the rest of the family weighed heavily on my mind as well. The only main upside to this, was that the sight of the electricity working through the floral bodies was almost downright satisfying. Something about it was missing though…

Shit! Focus you ding dong, you’re in the middle of a raid for fucks sake!

I only got a reprieve of about a second before the first One showed up, having heard me shoot its brethren. Determined to put a few lumps in that flat face it had, I choked up on the bat and slammed it right across the pigeons’ maw, sending it spinning off into the gravel.

More were on the way for certain so I quickly went over what I had left. Three extra mags, combined with everything else would come out to forty-four rounds. Quickly inputting the info of my bullet count into my glasses, I considered my situation. I had a decent-ish amount of stopping power against a small group of antithesis, but this wasn’t just a small group. My only hope for survival was if Aunt Nyra got here and bailed me out, and that would only happen if I was able to stall for around twenty-five more minutes.

Not good odds, but at least the others would make it. Which was more than enough for me.

Shaking myself out of those thoughts, I spotted my next opponents, a tight grouping of Ones. I dropped the bat to steady my pistol before I emptied it into the writhing mass. Antithesis bodies rained down, leaving only two pigeons in the air, both of which were way too close for me to reload in time. Deftly, I crouched down while holstering the gun, then grabbed my bat before popping up to swing wildly in the air at the looming threats. To my honest surprise, I somehow managed to hit one dead center, before I dragged it along midair to slam into the other, sending both sprawling across the ground.

Before I could finish them off, the sound of multiple sets of claws scrabbling through gravel alerted me to the other half of this group, the Threes. Pinching the bat under my upper arm,I reloaded the pistol while I backpedaled from the whirlwind of claws tearing their way towards me. Release the empty mag, replace it with another; Easy cheesy. I then hastily fired at the group, tagging one in the head, another in the leg, and riddling the other two with bullets until they weren’t moving anymore. One last bullet in the head of the Three with a broken leg followed by another hit from my baseball bat to the surviving One, which had ended up with a broken wing from when I had rammed its friend into it, left me surrounded by still corpses all over again.

I stumbled over to the nearby wall and leaned against it. That was already way too close. The small flock of Ones drained the clip, and I was lucky with how accurate my shots were so far. All the noise I was making was only sure to draw more attention, as was just proven. Eventually a Three would sneak up on me or something, and that would be it. I needed to buy more time than this!

Interrupting my worsening spiral, the sound of rumbling earth had my attention glued to a nearby corner. As if on cue, two more Threes slid around the corner, followed by a mass of writhing tentacles on four legs. Before they could even start moving towards me, I fired the last four bullets in the mag at the Model Four. It took a few more steps forward before shuddering and collapsing.

The Threes were soon cut down after I replaced the clip again, bringing me down to twenty-four bullets. Obviously upset that their casualty count was as high as it was, two Ones flew up and over a barn to my left to get close to me. Not wanting to give them the satisfaction of making me waste bullets, I picked up and threw a rock at one of the pigeon fuckers to slow it down a tad, before slamming my bat into the side of the other. It went off to join its recently deceased siblings to the left, while the other opened its beak to try and take a chunk of my neck. It got a cylinder of metal and wood caving in the top of its skull instead.

Before I could even so much as celebrate, a noise behind me caused me to turn around and barely raise my bat, before a mass of antithesis flesh slammed into me and took me to the ground. The Three was a squirmy fucker, and as we flailed along the ground, it’s razor sharp claws dug out my flesh at random, sending searing pain up through my spine each time it did. The only thing saving me from those tri-hinged jaws was my bat, which was shoved into its mouth. The electricity coursing from the modifications I made was clearly wreaking havoc on the xeno’s everything.

Finally, after what felt like eons, the Three slumped over, pressing my back even further into the sharp gravel. I released a hiss of pain, and then the gashes made themselves known, causing me to suck in air through my teeth. Before I could even think about shoving the damned thing off, I heard the door behind me open.

“Shitbiscuits.” A pair of footsteps crunched through the gravel until they were right next to my side, “At least you did what I said for once.”

“If you’re just going to stand out here like that,” I managed to force out of my heaving chest, “The least you could do is get this damned thing off me, for goddess’ sake!”

Evie only responded with a scoff before she shoved the body off of me. Unfortunately that only revealed what had to be the closest impression of ground pork my body could manage. My cousin was deathly quiet as she grabbed my shoulders and dragged me towards the open door.

As my boots cleared the doorway with a clunk, I felt something jabbing its way into my head, and before I could even think about swallowing a scream it receded.

System startup sequence initiated…

Loading backup systems…

Calculating Atmospheric Conditions.

Part-Finder System Engaged.

Class XII Vanguard Communication Implant installed.

Connection to Class XII Vanguard Personal Assistant AI established.

Unit designation: ζ-523281-165004-203368 PYRIDAE

User designation: Spark Graham

Finalizing system connection…

Connection integrity confirmed.

System active.

System initialized!

Hello, little Spark. Your recent actions protecting the embers of the future have relit a soon to be extinguished hope, rekindling a small light for humanity. Your shine can illuminate the path that leads your fellows into a bright new future. My name is Pyridae; I shall be your guide and personal assistant in your long journey.

Rise Spark Graham, and take your place as an electrifying catalyst for hope, so you can rain the bolts of your anger upon those that would threaten your world and those that would inhabit it.