Kael's message was a weight in Leo's pocket, heavier than any item he had ever carried. It wasn't an invitation to a fair fight; it was a trap, a declaration that the rules of the sanctioned duel no longer applied. Kael was wounded, his technology neutralized, but he was still Kael. A cornered predator was even more dangerous, stripped of its arrogance and left with only its lethal skill.
Leo piloted the floating platform back through the spaceship graveyard, its single thruster emitting a pathetic hum. Every meter was an agony of anticipation. He wasn't a fighter. He was a courier. But the deal with Griz and Kael's challenge had cornered him. The only way out was forward. He navigated through the silent wreckage, past ship hulls that looked like the ribs of dead leviathans and through debris fields where the emergency lights of ancient vehicles still blinked, trapped in an eternal loop of disaster. The void wasn't empty; it was full of ghosts and unfinished stories.
He reached the plain of twisted metal. The scene was exactly as he had left it, a diorama of silent destruction. And in the center, next to the smoking wreckage of his 'Phantom' scooter, stood Kael.
He wasn't just waiting. He was working. With a panel torn from his scooter, he had managed to open an emergency tool compartment. He was trying to bypass the systems damaged by the electromagnetic pulse, his expression a mask of cold concentration, his fingers moving with surgical precision over the exposed circuits. He was a professional to the end, a man who refused to accept defeat, even when stranded at the end of the universe.
Kael stopped what he was doing when he sensed Leo's approach. He rose slowly, his deactivated energy baton in hand, now nothing more than a metal club.
"I knew you'd come," Kael said, his voice devoid of any emotion. "Your predictability is your greatest weakness, amateur. You always choose the most direct path, the most chaotic one. You don't plan; you react."
"I need the core," Leo said, his voice firm, his own exhaustion fueling a cold determination. He hefted the heavy plasma wrench, his only weapon.
"Many people need many things," Kael replied. "Only the strong get them."
There were no more words. The sanctioned duel was over. This was something else. A scrapyard brawl at the end of the universe, with no rules, no witnesses, except for the silent wreckage.
Kael attacked first, this time without his supernatural speed. It was the charge of a street fighter, fast and brutal. He used his baton not to cut, but to strike, aiming for Leo's knees, a move designed to incapacitate and end the fight quickly.
Leo blocked with the plasma wrench, the impact of metal on metal echoing across the plain. The force of the blow made his teeth rattle and sent a shockwave up his arm. Kael was incredibly strong, even without his tech.
The fight that followed had none of the elegance of their first confrontation. It was an ugly, desperate dance of violence. Leo used his plasma wrench as a shield and a hammer, his swings wide and powerful, but slow, each movement a massive expenditure of energy. Kael was faster, his strikes precise and vicious, hitting Leo's arms and ribs, each impact stealing his breath and leaving dents in his suit.
They separated, panting in the thin air. Leo's suit was dented and scratched. Kael had a cut on his lip, where one of Leo's clumsy swings had grazed him. A small drop of blood trickled down his chin, a splash of color in a world of grey and black.
"You can't win," Kael said, his voice a hiss, his breath forming clouds of vapor. "I was trained for this since I was a child. Zero-gravity combat, energy fencing, hostile environment survival. You were trained to deliver noodles."
He was right. Leo couldn't win in a straight fight. His stamina was fading, his muscles burning. But he didn't need to win the fight. He just needed to win the mission. The core was the objective.
As Kael prepared for another attack, Leo did something Kael didn't expect. He threw the plasma wrench. The heavy tool flew through the air, spinning wildly. Kael dodged it easily, a smirk on his face, thinking it was a final act of desperation.
But the wrench wasn't the attack. It was the distraction.
While Kael watched the wrench fly into the void, Leo ran. He didn't run at Kael. He ran for the wreckage of the 'Phantom' scooter.
"Not again!" Kael yelled, his anger finally exploding, his composure shattering. He chased after Leo, but Leo had already reached the scooter.
He didn't try to fight. He grabbed a sharp, jagged piece of metal from the ground and started using it as a lever, trying to force open the power core compartment, ignoring the pain in his arms.
Kael reached him and grabbed him by the shoulder, throwing him to the ground. Leo fell hard, his head hitting the metal. The world spun, stars dancing in his vision. Kael raised his baton for a final blow, his face a mask of fury.
But as he fell, Leo had gotten what he wanted. His desperate blow with the makeshift lever had broken the compartment's latch. With a hiss of pressurized air, the power core's door swung open.
The core, a sphere of armored glass containing a small, pulsing blue star, was exposed. And it was leaking. Small arcs of energy crackled from its surface, hitting the metal fuselage.
Kael froze, his baton halfway through its swing. He looked at the leaking core, then at the metal ground they were on, his expert mind instantly calculating the implications.
"You idiot," Kael whispered, his face pale, his anger replaced by a genuine fear. "You're going to electrocute us both!"
The metal floor beneath them began to hum, charging with the energy from the damaged core. Leo felt the hairs on his arms stand on end, the air crackling with static electricity.
He had created chaos once again. But this time, he was trapped in the middle of it.
Taking advantage of Kael's hesitation, Leo crawled forward, his hands reaching for the pulsing core. He just needed to rip it out, to get it to Griz.
But before he could touch it, a bright, blinding light flooded the metal plain, overshadowing the blue glow of the core.
They both looked up. Hovering silently above them was a massive, functional Syndicate ship. It was a tow truck, with large mechanical arms and a Syndicate emblem glowing on its side. It had no windows, only sensors and emitters. It was a machine, not a vehicle.
An amplified, emotionless voice echoed from the ship's speaker.
"Syndicate property located. Renegade Agent Leo located. Courier Kael located. Initiating recovery protocol."
One of the ship's mechanical arms descended, not for the scooter, but for Leo. Its three-fingered claw opened, designed to grab and contain.
Kael looked at the approaching arm, then at Leo, then at the sparking power core. And on his face, Leo saw an emotion he never expected to see.
Pure, absolute panic. The tow truck wasn't there to save him. It was there to clean up the mess. And Leo was the messiest part of all. Kael understood in an instant: the Syndicate wasn't going to risk Leo's knowledge spreading. They weren't going to take him in for a trial. They were simply going to erase him. And if Kael was in the way, he would be considered acceptable collateral damage. His loyalty, his perfect record, meant nothing in the face of the risk Leo represented.
The claw arm descended, relentless and fast. Kael, in a moment of pure survival instinct that shocked even Leo, moved. He didn't attack Leo. He didn't run. He dove toward the wrecked scooter, shoved his gloved hands into the sparking power core compartment, and with a cry of pain and effort, ripped the core from its housing.
The energy coursing through the metal floor ceased. The blue light of the core intensified in Kael's hands, his containment gloves the only thing keeping it from exploding.
"If you want your property," Kael yelled at the ship, his voice filled with a desperation Leo had never heard, "you'll have to go through me!"
The claw arm stopped a few feet from Leo, its sensors reassessing the situation. Its primary target was the renegade, but now the elite courier was holding an unstable power core hostage. The cold logic of the Syndicate's machine had encountered a paradox it couldn't easily solve.
And in the middle of this standoff, Leo saw his only chance. While everyone's attention was focused on Kael and the core, he began to crawl away, into the shadows of the wreckage, his mind screaming at him to disappear before anyone remembered he still existed.