A van hurtled down the streets of Janaeda. It’s wheels screeching against the road and its engine blaring. Jake was normally a calm driver, but the situation they were in was more dire than could be accounted for. He knew that at any second, Oxe could find a way to contact his forces and get Firil’s grandfather moved. Because of this, he had to break quite a few traffic laws.

“Slow down, you idiot! You’ll only attract more attention to us with your reckless driving,” Sincan blurted out. That man had no right to insult Jake, but he did have a point. Jake eased up on the peddle and slowed down. Firil should have been the one to tell him about his driving, but she was too busy biting her nails. She looked excited and worried all at the same time. Jake didn’t envy her, what with her situation and getting to meet her grandfather again. My old man probably would have taken me to jail himself if he saw me driving like that, Jake thought.

He took turns when necessary. As he was turning another one of these corners, something large landed in front of his vehicle. Strangely, it didn’t feel like something huge impacting the ground, but Jake could see that it was tall. He also remembered who that Gear belonged to. Its purple frame was striking, and its two horns gave it a menacing look. It was Soot, that homlin man’s Gear and the same model as Okshender. Jake clutched at the wheel of the van and glared at the Gear.

It raised its hands towards his vehicle and Jake immediately put it in reverse. The tires screeching coincided with Okshender landing in front of them. Jake heard the sounds of the vehicle door opening. Okshender provided enough cover for them to turn the other direction. “Moris, take the Wheel, now!” Jake shouted and dove out the van. Kos didn’t waste time before jumping out herself towards him. Jake looked back to see a bewildered Moris take the wheel and drive off. He jumped into an alley and listened as the sounds of metal against metal began ringing out.

“You should have waited for us! Tox, come back right now!” a voice shouted into his earpiece. Tox ignored it and shoved it back into his pockets. That gave enough of a distraction for Sincan to make his move.

Okshender eventually pushed Soot back enough that Sincan had a moment to get in. Jake saw as the purple Gear raised its sword arm. “You’re just throwing yourself at me. I’d bet good coin that you’re just masochistic,” a voice sounded out from inside Soot. He didn’t interrupt Sincan while he was entering the pilot seat, Jake noticed. He’s the prideful type. Sincan didn’t reply, despite the taunting, which surprised Jake. He just pulled out a weapon and readied himself.

****

Moris listened intently as Firil gave out the directions. He turned when she ordered and not long after, arrived in front of the hospital. The lights from the front of the hospital poured out onto the dimly lit streets. Moris parked some ways off from the entrance and waited for Firil to get out. Hopefully Sincan could distract Soot long enough for them to Firil to fulfill her plan. This was their last chance at finding a way to bring Oxe to justice. No pressure, right? He looked behind at Nato and said something. “Sorry for not taking you inside…”

Nato perked up and replied, “Would have raised more problems than it solved. Don’t worry about it.”

Firil walked towards the hospital with intent. Before reaching the entrance, she slipped into a space between the buildings instead. Going in wouldn’t do any good without identification. She also didn’t trust her uncle to keep Volt here under his real name. She stopped midway into the alley and looked up at the balconies that jutted out from the hospital building. She took a deep breath and gathered a ring of charges below her. She then looked at her pants and gave them a similar charge.

Immediately, she was catapulted into the sky. For an amateur, this would be life threatening. They wouldn’t have the skill required to leap across the sky gracefully and keep themselves from smashing into the ground. Firil was from the Meyers family, however. Her entire family was trained in this since childhood. She bobbed up and down near a balcony and climbed up onto it. The railing felt cold in her hand as she prepared herself for a different kind of leap. Looking up, she counted roughly how many floors she had passed, and how many more she would need to in order to get to the thirteenth floor. She found the floor she was supposed to land on and locked her sights on it. She wasn’t going to make it in one leap, so she looked down and gave the wall near a balcony a positive charge. She then gave her clothes a negative charge and watched as they started floating upwards.

Charges made by this type of Wheel were weird in several ways. The most interesting way was that they had much more repulsive and attractive force than normal charges. She jumped off the railing and started accelerating towards the spot she had charged. After reaching it, she renewed the charges on her clothing and looked higher up, positively charging the wall again. She repeated this process multiple times and eventually reached the balcony of a room on the thirteenth floor. The lights in this room were on.

She walked inside, making sure the lock on the balcony wasn’t closed. Afterwards, she strolled out silently into the hallway and started searching around.

****

Kos huddled up next to a dumpster as the sounds of battle grew louder. With every bang, she curled up a bit more. Jake was right next to her and looked baffled. “Kos, get out of here. And do it now. I can’t be worrying about you in this fight,” he said quickly, taking no time to breathe between words.

“No, I can be helpful. Just tell me what to do and I can help you and Sincan both take down that purple bastard,” she said.

“Your Wheels are not suited for direct combat. If you go out there, you’ll be slaughtered before you can raise a single stupid illusion!” the frustration in his voice was clear, even to her.

“But I-I can help. If you just give me an ope-“ She didn’t have time to complete her sentence before Jake cut her off again.

“No one cares! Not a single person beside yourself has ever cared about your usefulness. If we did, we’d have abandoned you long ago! Why is it so hard to get that past you? We wouldn’t leave Chosh, Moris or hell, even Sincan behind if we meant it!” As he finished his rant, another loud bang of steel came from around them, and Jake turned to focus on that. He felt bad for blowing up at her, but those feelings could wait for another time.

Soot bent a little to dodge a slash Okshender sent towards him. As he did, Jake noticed that behind his bending knee was a Connector. Just like Okshender’s. An idea began to form. An idea that he would need to execute quickly. The fight was drawing a lot of attention and it would be bad for them if it drew an unsavory crowd.

****

Firil slowly shuffled around the hospital halls, her shoes clicking with every step. She finally found the room she was looking for. 1302. She stopped in front of it and stood there for a second. Her hands were shaking and she couldn’t control them. Her hesitation was brought front and center as she struggled to take another step. Then she remembered that more people’s lives than hers depended on her right now, and that hesitation was suppressed.

The first thing she noticed as the door closed behind her was the fact that there was a derlin man resting on a bed in front of her. Firil let a smile loose on her face, pulled up a chair and sat next to the man. She put her hand on him and nudged him awake. He looked annoyed for a few moments before regaining consciousness and looking upon his granddaughter.

****

Okshender parried another strike from his compatriot. Soot backed off to get away from the precarious situation he was in. Okshender held his blade high and Sincan executed a new trick he’d learned. “Weigh it down, Okshender.”

Okshender held his blade in a specific stance and stood for a few moments. The metal in his hand became denser immediately, and with that its weight increased as well. With that, he could put more force behind each and every one of his slashes. He aimed it at Soot—who noticed what he was doing and left himself open. Okshender went in for the hit but one of his hands got knocked aside nonchalantly by Soot’s hand. Tox laughed as Okshender struggled to hold up the blade in one hand. Soot kicked him in the chest and he fell backwards onto the street. He then proceeded to slash at Okshender’s head, once more cutting off his horn.

“I’ve declawed you before, and I can do it again. Honestly, you’re pathetic as a pilot.” He raised his blade up but was stopped when he noticed a similar red robotic hand aiming for his head. He instinctively jumped back, freeing Okshender, who got back up and into a fighting stance. A crystal structure formed underneath Tox and his senses were addled for a few seconds.

“Pin him!” Jake shouted at the Gear. Okshender relayed the message to Sincan, who nodded in his direction. Soot crushed the crystals beneath his feet and looked back at Sincan. “Oh, you brought friends. They’ll pay for interfering,” Tox said. Sincan clutched his controls and charged at Soot. “I won’t allow that!” They engaged in a clash and took it to the skies, where they continued to break each other apart. Okshender chipped off pieces of armour with every strike. His own frame suffered massive damage from the better trained pilot as well.

Tox was the one to notice Jake popping out of the alley. He aimed his side gun at the lyclan in hopes of shooting him and distracting Okshender. The bullet left the chamber but was unable to hit anything solid—instead hitting the pavement behind him and sending shrapnel everywhere. The illusion faded and Kos clutched at her arm in pain. Okshender took a single opportunity given to him to discard his weapon and grab onto Soot. His arms wrapped around the chest of the purple Gear, constricting the entrance to his piloting seat from opening. His blade fell onto the street below and hit with a audible clang.

Okshender increased his own weight and plummeted back down onto the ground, landing in the street and sending wide cracks going everywhere. Soot struggled on the ground and tried to rip free of the white Gear’s hold, but was unsuccessful. Sincan shouted back at Jake, “Now!”

Jake ran over to the mess of metal and looked around to find the joint he was looking for. Tox struggled to open the pilot door or free his Gear in any way. Jake finally found the Connector and took one of his tools and cut the lines apart, disconnecting them from their presumable power source. Tox finally managed to find free his Gear from Okshender’s hold and threw Jake across the street into a wall. Jake cried out in pain for a split second before falling unconscious. Soot then proceeded to punch Okshender’s faceplate, tearing it off. Okshender and Soot squared off once more, but Sincan noticed through the cameras that his right leg was sagging behind the rest of his body.

“Okshender, we need to get them out of danger,” said Sincan. “Don’t worry, young Sincan, your scalin friend is already dragging the man to a safer position. Let’s take this one down first.”

Sincan focused back on the fight and picked up his blade. With every strike that Soot awkwardly blocked, Sincan felt victory approaching ever closer. He slashed and the other Gear limped on one leg. It couldn’t move out of the way of any more attacks. He kept swinging and swinging, bringing Soot down onto one knee and finally, knocking aside the other Gear’s blade. Okshender made his blade as dense as it could, and slammed the flat of across Soot’s head, dislodging it fully. The head went flying and hit a building before falling back down onto the ground.

“No, NO, NO! How could you!” Soot screamed through his pilot seat. But Sincan ignored the man blaring expletives at him. This one’s for my friend. He wrenched open the door to the pilot. The moonlight streamed in and illuminated the figure of a homlin man in a white coat, whose anger and rage were directed solely at him. He grabbed him in one arm and raised him up.

“I’ll kill you. I swear, I’ll kill you! Don’t think you can run after this. I’ll hunt you down!” Sincan felt nothing but contempt for the man. He wanted to kill him; he really did. But that wasn’t the way. Cervo had taught him the beauty in justice, and he was going to make sure this man did face justice.

“Okshender, shut him up for a while.”

“As you command, my pilot.” Okshender flicked him on the side of the head with one finger and he stopped talking. Okshender set him down and turned back to face Soot. “And what about this one?” he asked inquisitively.

“Cut him to pieces.” Okshender brandished his blade and set to do his job. He chopped off the arms first, so he could wield no weapons. He cut off the legs, so he couldn’t run from punishment. And finally, he skewered him through the heart, so he could do no harm. The bewllan core of the Gear faded and set him down.

Sincan heard a distant voice say something when Okshender finished. “Thank you, my burden is no more…” Sincan’s eyes opened up and looked around. No, that’s for another time. He got out of Okshender and searched Soot, finding the earpiece and a note detailing some modifications made to Soot specifically. He put those away as he heard the sounds of police cars approaching. He hopped back into Okshender and grabbed Kos and Jake from the alley, taking them away on his wings.

****

“Hello, grandfather,” Firil said as she reached out her arms for a hug. Volt looked at her incredulously and put a hand on her cheek. He then pinched it and moved it around a bit.

“Ouch, ow, grandpa, it’s me!” her annoyance poured through. “Had to check, lass,” he replied with a grin. Then, as if filled with a burst of energy, he took her in for a hug. “Oh, I can’t believe it’s really you, my little fairy! Wait,” he paused for a second and held her out, “How did you find me?”

“That’s for later, grandpa.” She returned the hug in full force and stayed like that for a while.

After they let go, Volt was the first one to speak. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t contact you, Firil. That monstrous child of mine wouldn’t allow it.”

“I understand that, grandpa. Nato was the one to actually tell me.”

“That boy always had a good head on his shoulders. I’m sad that he chooses to use it to worry over me instead.”

“Haha, yeah…” Firil retreated a bit into her seat, having nothing to add to that line of conversation.

“Firil, I can read your face quite easily. Tell me, why do you look so…tired?” He inspected her face and saw the same signs he’d find in soldiers. Those being plastered over his granddaughter’s face brought him no small part of sadness.

“I…It’s been so long, grandpa. The things I-no, we have had to face have been uncountable.” In front of her grandfather, she didn’t fear opening up. Her eyes started filling with tears and Volt held her in his hands. “Tell them to me, child. All of them.” And there she did. Every agonizing point in their journey, every stupid self-sacrifice, every single argument they’d had. She spilled them out to one of the only people she knew she could trust not to use them against her.

After finishing, she noticed that Volt’s sheets were stained with tears and looked back up at him. “And now I don’t know what to do. I thought since you made the safe, you would know if there was another password. It was a small hope but it thought…” her voice tapered off from there.

“Don’t look so glum, my little fairy. You are a Meyers, are you not?” he asked. She nodded in response. “We’re born leaders, Firil. Men and women who’ve established a long legacy of perseverance and excellence. And the journey to that greatness requires us to persist through whatever trouble may find its way towards us.” He seemed to puff up as he kept talking.

“We’ve been given the blessing to keep going through those troubles, when others would have stopped. And through those historical victories, every next Meyers has had an easier path on their own journey. If we cannot go the way we want, we find another path. That is the legacy you must uphold.” Firil listened intently.

“And what of uncle Oxe?”

“He, too, upholds this legacy. Though I fear his passions have gotten the best of him, causing him to twist those ideals into a form suitable for himself. I…I cannot bring myself to fully hate him, however. I feel I failed some responsibility of mine by not guiding him correctly.”

“I think he made the choice himself, grandpa. I will bring him down. He had some part in killing people close to me, I can’t let him continue to keep doing acts such as that.” A fiery glare encompassed her face. “I don’t know any other password for the safe. Do you know?”

“Yes, I do. It was my fault for putting pressure on you. I believed you would find it straight away. And if something happened to you, I had the safe put on a timer that would regularly change the passcode. There, hand me that book.” Firil obliged and gave him the book filled with blank pages. Volt picked out a pen and started writing down some mathematical formulas.

“What was the original code I gave you?” he asked her. “12051444,” she answered.

“And this year would be?

“1466”

“Ah!” He began writing down the numbers and splitting them up into groups. After performing some calculations on those numbers, he handed a new code back to her. It seemed to be a jumble of numbers, unlike the previous one which had some significance to Firil.

“It’s just the old passcode with some formulas applied to it?”

“Makes it easy to understand what the current passcode is. I trust my mind is sharp enough that these calculations are accurate. Now, take it and go, Firil.”

“W-wait, I’m sure Sincan can stall for longer, please. Can we talk for a bit longer?” she pleaded.

“I’ll be right here, my little fairy. And even if I’m not, I am sure that you and your friends will have no trouble finding me again one day. Now, go, make me proud.” Firil held the note tight to her chest and nodded. She pulled the door to the balcony open and jumped off the top. Charging her clothes and the ground, she landed like a feather.

She got into the vehicle and started it up before they could talk.

“How was he?” asked Nato.

“Hadn’t aged a day,” she replied. Her phone began ringing and Sincan’s name appeared on it.

****

Firil noticed the top of Okshender’s head over the horizon and smiled to herself. The van came to a halt in front of them and they all got out of it. “You seem quite dower, Sincan.”

“My mood deteriorates during these hours. It also dims when I destroy expensive pieces of technology,” he said with a devious grin. She looked over to Jake to confirm and he nodded.

“Wow…That’s amazing, Sincan. How did you-“

“That can come later. Just know that I relied on something other than Okshender for once. Have you met with the old man?”

“Yeah, I did. Let’s finish this,” Firil replied and turned to the vehicle. Sincan and Moris dragged the safe out the back of it and placed it down on the ground. As soon as they did, Okshender shouted. “Wait! There are others!”

He pulled out his blade—chipped and damaged— and surrounded the entire group. Firil wondered where he’d gotten the instincts to do that, but had no time to contemplate. They were surrounded instantly by a militia of armed forces, holding guns aimed at them. They started firing, forcing the group onto the defensive.

They moved sluggishly and set up some meager defenses for themselves. A smoke bomb hit the middle of the group, slowly streaming out. Okshender moved to cover the group, leaving the safe unprotected. Firil wanted desperately to order him to protect the safe, but she knew it would be a selfish action. Instead, they waited, as more and more bombs were dispersed, blinding them.

Okshender finally let go of them and stood up. The thick mist around them clearing up, revealing the site of the missing safe. Firil knelt down on the ground and roared. She slammed her fist repeatedly into the ground, until it started bruising, prompting Moris to stop her. She looked up at the distant sound of an airship leaving, following the trail to see one up in the sky.

“Stop it…”

“I can’t, young Firil. I need repairs and….” He looked at the note clutched in Sincan’s hand. “We have too many problems.”

****

Shuk drowned his brain in drink, hoping no bubble of conscious thought would peek out of the surface. He drank, and he drank, and he drank. This was until he noticed one figure closing the distance between them. The man had antlers formed into a menacing pattern. He fingered his gun, making sure he had some ammo left incase he got into another mess.

“For a Solik, you sure are a sore sight,” the man said. “Shut up….” Shuk drooled out.

“What would force a man in such a field to resort to drinking. Perhaps the loss of someone precious?”

Shuk had already had enough of him and fished out his revolver, aiming it square at the man’s face. “Get out. Just…I don’t want nothing, get out.” The bartender dropped his glass and stared. Everyone else there also froze up at the sight. Oxe gestured for the man to calm down and he did, moving back and pretending to sort the various bottles he had.

“What about revenge, Shuk Vinters? What if I could guarantee that you would face no action taken against you for that revenge?”

Shuk considered the man’s offer seriously. He put his revolver back into his pocket and stared at his drink.

“You have some powerful Wheels at your disposal here. It would be criminal not to use them.”

“I get it, I get it. Fine, I’ll join.”

“Perfect! Let’s celebrate this joyous union with a toast, shall we?” he again gestured to the bartender to pour them both a cup, which he followed.

“You own this bar, don’t you?”

Oxe smiled a self-satisfied smile. “Yes, yes I do.” They both clinked glasses and took a swig. Oxe smacked his lips and turned towards his new partner. “Now, before we get on with that, I have some snakes who need taking care of.”