Altered Cosmos

Chapter 23; The Silver Ghost Meets A Phantom

Seconds later in a factory-like structure connected to the enemy base, Levi speeds across the road with the bike he swiped burning rubber.

“Where am I?” He mumbled as he looked around the completely abandoned factory and distant forest.

He diverts to the side to avoid a bunch of old machinery before running off a little ramp, propelling him into the air……but as his figure soars through the air, his eyes catch the glimpse of what seems to be…lightning? 

The bolt of red lightning suddenly rips through his bike, causing an explosion that sends him skidding across the hard ground where he manages to recover after several rolls with a slightly bleeding temple.

He then senses the presence of one tron but the energy coming from the figure was extremely powerful and recalls that presence as the one he felt back some hours ago before he lost consciousness. 

The figure’s boots crack against the broken parts of the bike as he moves through the thick smoke…with two red lights piercing through it. Levi readies himself for combat but once the figure steps through the smoke, Levi’s eyes widen in shock…… 

The attire was a complete dark emblem with the Web logo on the chest area, steel armour plating on the arms, shoulders and legs.

And based on the figure’s physical features, it seems to be a lady with a unique gold-black mask on her face unlike the other trons he faced…

But what really shocked Levi was the fact that even though he couldn’t put his finger on it, the lady’s energy seemed familiar to him but all that was confirmed as the lady stood……with completely snow-white hair packed into a short straight bob. 

<A Lightning tron?> Levi thought as she continued to walk forward, an emotionless and cold feeling emerging from her body that made Levi flinch. <I have a bad feeling about this.> 

He instinctively takes a step back and in that instant, she appears in front of him with an incoming kick.

Levi grits his teeth as her foot flies towards his face when he suddenly forced his body to react, instinctively activating his static shell as he ducks down to avoid her kick. The lady gives Levi a hard stare which made Levi flinch again.

<I’ve got to get out of here!> He thought as he sprinted forward, leaving behind a streak of electricity and the sound of thunder as he zips across the road.

<Move! Move! Move!> His mind kept repeating as his entire body moves forward with every energy left in him…

“Futile.” Levi’s heart stops instantly when he hears that feminine voice… and in that split millisecond, he turns to see the female tron just by his side…… red electricity crackling around her body as well.

She reaches out to him and Levi stops, jumping unto a platform and bouncing off it to run across another pathway but he glances back to his fear to see the lady following him closely.

“No way.” He mumbled as he continued to change his course abruptly bouncing from structures to structures… but the lady continues to keep up easily until his body suddenly stiffens as his static shell reaches its limits again.

“Damn it.” He grumbled as he blocked a sudden punch from the tron which sent him flying through a wall and colliding with the ground with a loud crash. 

He quickly flips to his feet as the tron appears in front of him just as he released a wave of electricity that covers his environment in an instant…but the tron charges forward using her hands to deflect Levi’s lightning to both sides, ripping through concrete and wood.

Levi then shifts his footing and began throwing swift attacks at her but she continues to evade all of them while dealing some blows to Levi. 

At one point, Levi deflects one of her kicks and drives his knuckles towards her face but she suddenly spun to the side, smacking Levi across the face with her hand with enough force to send him rolling to the ground.

He immediately gets up and jumps back as lightning bolt fires at the spot he was standing on.

He lands some metres back with a both tired and shocked expression in his eyes because attack she just did seem very familiar to his fighting style…

He then flinches when he realises that she had vanished but his senses spike causing him to weave to the side as an electrified fist whizzes past his cheek.

Levi quickly throws a kick but she vanishes again and Levi jumps up as a lightning attack collides with the concrete.

While mid-air, he senses another attack and blocks with wave of electricity around his arms as a sudden kick collides into him sending him down with another crash.

But the smoke clears, revealing Levi still standing in the small crater formed with a beaten up yet determinant expression in his eyes. 

The lady steps forward, red electricity crackling menacingly around her body. “Why do you resist? You can’t win.” Levi grunts as he charged forward with a swift kick which hits only air as the tron steps back.

But as he lands on the ground, he throws another foot towards her which she dodges again just as Levi fixes his hands to the ground and spins, sending another lightning charged kick but she blocks with a gush of wind upon impact…

She then pushes his foot aside before ramming her foot into his gut which sent him sprawling. 

Levi then flips to his feet upon landing and his eyes widen when he senses another incoming threat and instinctively performs a high-speed spin, creating a quick spiral of electricity around him which collides into the tron approaching from behind.

But she barely flinches as the force sends her feet skidding across the cold ground and Levi turns to her still in his combat stance.

“You are clearly exhausted.” She said monotonously, staring at Levi’s heavy breathing and exhausted body. “Why do you fight?”

Levi grits his teeth and charges forward with enough force to crack concrete as he speeds towards the tron who stands in one place for a moment……before she sighs as she suddenly moves back so fast, it felt like she teleported. 

“Very well.” She mumbled as she stretched an arm out to Levi still in mid-charge and powerful red lightning dances around her fingers before suddenly zipping forward towards Levi who stares at it in complete shock……

Just as he lets out a shout and his static shell activates again, enabling him to turn slightly to the side, allowing the lightning bolt to tear through his shoulder.

He grunts in pain as the spray of blood hangs in the air for that millisecond and he throws out a hand at the tron with a determined smile on his face. <Got you.>

Then Levi’s entire body freezes in fear in that instant as he senses something strange about the tron’s gear and his eyes glance back as the lightning bolt still flying behind him suddenlysplits into five lightning bolts.

All of which instantly change course, turn around and aimed at Levi once again. Levi thought of every possible escape route but all seemed for naught as all five bolts hit his body at once in a flurry of sizzling electricity.

He screams out in pain as the electrical current rips through his entire body, more than he has ever experienced. His static shell immediately dispels and his body freezes in motion. 

<No……way.> As his body fails and began to fall forward, he glances up as the tron zooms toward him with the same cold glow in her eyes. “Damn it.”

A second later, Levi was almost halfway to the ground and the tron reaches out to him as she closes in……

Just as she jumps back as a violet energy blast fires into the ground, creating an explosion between them that sent Levi’s body flying back and his eyes began to close as unconsciousness sets in……

“Levi!!!” He opens his eyes and turns as a pair of soft arms wrapped around him. “I got you.” He immediately recognises the voice and turns to her.

“MJ?” MJ grunts as her feet crashes into the ground, concrete cracking as the momentum sends her boots skidding across the ground with Levi in her arms. 

A short second later, she comes to a stop and she gives him a relieved smile. “Hey.”

Levi’s attention then turns to the tron who attempts to attack them……just as two metallic yo-yos collide into the ground in front of her, causing her to stop abruptly as she glances at Jake some feet away.

Before the tron could make a move, she weaves back as some razor sharp claws whistles past her face. She steps back several feet and looks at Veronica with beastly growl in her breath.

Jake comes up to stand beside her with the two yo-yos tightly held in his hands. But before they attack, a figure drops down in front of them and a wave of relief washes over Levi’s face as the lady speaks.

“It seems you’ve been having fun with my subordinate.” Nina said with a surprisingly angry glare on her face. “You’ll pay for that.”

The tron remains silent and Nina glances at Levi with a little smile and a lollipop stick protruding from her lips. “Sorry, we took so long, kid.”

Levi smiles and Nina nods as she turns back to her opponent. Veronica growls with her sharps claws screeching across the concrete and Jake’s yo-yos suddenly doubled into four as he prepared for combat. 

The tron lets out a sigh and speaks again with no change in her tone. “Very well. If you wish to interfere……” She gazes at Nina directly and her red aura oozes from her body, instantaneously thickening the air. “I have no choice but to eliminate you.”

Nina’s brow creases in concern at the massive aura as well as the sparks of red electricity just as she notices Jake and Veronica about to move.

“Get back.” She said, throwing a defensive arm to them and they were about to retort until they noticed the sudden chilling feeling around Nina. “She’s no joke. I’ll handle this. Protect Levi.”

Jake nods and Veronica sighs as her beastly form resides. They slowly back away and Nina steps forward, completely focused on her opponent before her. 

MJ sets Levi to the ground and he groans as a sudden jolt of pain runs through his still bleeding shoulder.

“You good?” Veronica asked as she crouched beside Levi and he grunts a little as he answers.

“I’ll live.” He then looks at all of them with a both confused and relieved stare. “What happened and where ‘are’ we?” 

Jake folds his arms and speaks. “We’re somewhere off the coast of northern Africa.” Levi’s eyes widen in confusion and Veronica continues.

“After those guys appeared last night out of nowhere. We were caught in an all-out brawl but after some seconds, they just vanished. It took us a while to realise that you were nowhere to be found after that.”

MJ smiles as she squeezes his arm a little. “We tried tracking you but your band was completely cut off somehow. We only got a general location before your signal suddenly vanished……until this morning.”

Levi lets out a sigh of relief and twitches in pain as he speaks. “But how did you get here in time?” 

A sudden boom sound gets their attention and Jake turns to Nina before speaking. “We’ll explain later. For now, …… I don’t think we should to miss this.”

The others stared in awe and shock as both Nina and the tron stand several feet from each other.

Even though, they were completely immobile, their energies collided with each other violently, causing the air to whirl and the ground to rumble……until it suddenly stops as their photron energies fade away abruptly.

Levi blinks in confusion as they were nowhere to be seen anymore. He looks up when he senses the clash and sees both the tron and Nina mid-air.

They both throw a punch at each other, causing their fists to collide creating an explosion of energy that blew them apart.

Nina performs a backflip while simultaneously creating two steel-like handguns in her hands.

She then lands with a thud and points her guns forward just as the tron appears in front of her and swings an electrifying chop at Nina which she blocks with the gun…but the attack slices clean through the defence, splitting the gun in half. 

The tron then attempts to attack again when Nina swings the damaged gun at the tron whose eyes widen when she senses the sudden energy in it and jumps back as the gun suddenly explodes, covering Nina’s figure in thick black smoke. 

The tron glances at her slightly charred attire as she skids to a stop just as several violet energy bullets fired from the smokescreen and the tron speeds away with lightning streaks following her around the concrete as she avoids the fast moving bullets……

Just as she suddenly vanishes and reappears with so much speed that the smoke cloud immediately disperses as she appears behind Nina.

Nina reacts instinctively with a side-step, allowing the tron’s electrified fingers to graze her cheek with a tiny spray of blood but in that moment, Nina’s knee collides into the tron’s gut with enough force to make her groan painfully. 

Nina grunts as she then attempts to swing the butt of her gun down on the tron but the tron disappears instantly, leaving Nina’s attack to collide into the ground, sending debris and dust flying.

The tron appears several feet away but Nina suddenly appears in front of her with another gun in her hand……

“Whoa.” Levi muttered in awe as he just watches the fight before his very eyes with his teammates watching as well.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” MJ mumbled and Jake whistles as their energy continue to spiral around the place, their attacks laying waste to anything that dares to touch them……

“Damn. Now ‘this’ is a fight.” Veronica mumbled and Levi slowly nodded, lost at words as Nina continues to exchange blows with the lightning tron. 

Several energy bullets fly from Nina’s handgun with the enemy speeding and weaving past them all.

Nina then switches to her other gun which fires a powerful blast of energy that causes the ground to shake.

Nina then watches the smoke for movement, when she suddenly senses a threat behind her and vanishes as the tron throws a punch at her afterimage.

Nina then appears behind the tron in that instant but as she aims her weapon at the tron, she realises that tron was also an afterimage and ducks back……but not before a swipe of the tron’s hand, smacks her handgun aside.

Nina then grits her teeth, cracking her lollipop as she throws her other gun up and began exchanging punches and kicks with the tron. 

What really blew Levi’s mind was the fact that the tron still had her static shell around her the entire time but Nina somehow continued to match her speed equally.

Nina grunts as a punch of the tron connects with her jaw but she presses forward, locking the tron’s arm and dealing a kick to her head.

As the tron remained disoriented in that moment, Nina grabs the gun she threw earlier, spins it and sends the butt of the gun into the tron’s mask, cracking it a little.

But as the tron receives the blow, she also adds a little spin, sending one of her feet into Nina’s side…the result was two figures breaking from each other and crashing to the ground. 

Nina instantly springs to her feet with a gun drawn just as she saw a bolt of red lightning heading towards her and she instinctively fires an energy blast, causing both attacks to collide with an explosion of smoke and debris.

Nina spits out the broken lollipop stick and points a new SMG-like gun.

“Alright.” She mumbled as she straightened up and the squad just watches in earnest as the tron prepares for combat as well……just as the tron places a palm to her ear as if listening to a communicator.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Nina mumbled as she fired a barrage of bullets but the tron vanishes again and Nina stops as she looks up to see the tron on the third floor of the structure across from them.

The tron stares at Nina for a moment before turning to Levi……he flinches from the intense glow in her eyes despite being several feet away……and just like that…she was gone……