Data file R-12: Natural Energy Color

  [When a human enables the energy of a power core, channeling it through their body, the energy is initially the same color as the corresponding crystal. However, in an interesting feat of human nature, the color morphs automatically to a natural true color depending on the person.

  This color, while it can be diluted or blended with multiple crystal combinations, is inherent to the human in question, not hereditary, and never truly changeable. As an added note, this energy color is ALWAYS identical to said human’s eye color. Even in cases of less-common eye colors, such as red, amber, or gray, the energy matches without fail, and any attacks launched from the human’s weapon will take this color.

  Even more intriguing is that power crystals already have similar variations, with rarer colored veins of crystals, including red, black, or gold. The most common colors for power crystals are blue and white, meaning these are often the colors of bullets emitted by machinery, such as scarab cannons or dropship turrets. Should humans interact with the engine directly, the color shifts to a half-and-half split or glows brighter and takes the human’s natural energy color.

  Note from Alyssa: “Siphoning someone’s attacks and sending them back also shifts the color every time the energy changes hands, meaning the human body likely has an energy field of its own that detects when foreign material has been synthesized into it through proper technique.”

  Note from Helios: “Nerd.”

  Note from Alyssa: “Bird.”

  Note from Gears: “Take it outside.”]

  ***

  Rasil looked to the open warehouse door, already knowing who had come to help him. Flakstorm looked too, only to have a large object splatter against his face, sending orange juices flying everywhere. Virus stood in the doorway, holding one of two cantaloupes, the other having just been thrown at Flakstorm. Rasil shook his head slowly. He certainly wasn’t expecting that.

  “I found a crate of fruit!” Virus declared, seemingly unsure why it was in storage there either. “I mean... canteloupes are surprisingly aerodynamic...”

  “Wha—” Flakstorm tried to ask, only for Virus to throw the other cantaloupe with a resounding “YEET!” Rasil saw a chance and dashed to Virus.

  “Got a plan?” Rasil asked, expecting at least an idea.

  “The best plan is to have no plan because then it makes victory seem even more impressive.”

  “Umm...”

  “For real, though,” Virus continued as Flakstorm wiped the last of the cantaloupe juice from his armor, "this warehouse stores weapons, mass-produced things, throwables, so...”

  “There’re grenades," Rasil finished, understanding.

  “But where?" Virus said. Putting a hand above his eyes and looking around. Rasil tapped his shoulder and pointed to a truck parked on the other side of the room. It had markings from the Core Federation and was filled with various bombs and power core batteries. “Gotcha!” Virus shouted. He ran for it, obviously leaving Rasil to distract Flakstorm.

  Rasil could do that, at least. He walked forward slowly, staring straight at Flakstorm and goading him into an assault. Flakstorm screamed, “Numbers make no difference. Two is one. One is two. Humans bring pain! Flameye brings pain! Pain is PAIN!” He pointed aggressively, and multiple drones started firing. Rasil defensively dodged back with each volley, letting the streams of energy slip just around him, but not too far. He needed to keep Flakstorm’s anger on him for a moment. His gun, lifted in front of him, siphoned and blocked the blasts as he strafed side to side.

  Of course, Rasil couldn’t reasonably attack at a range of twenty feet or more, but all he had to do was dodge and wait, while Virus did... something. A beam circled behind him, ricocheting off the floor, so he had to spin and block it with the shinguard on his boots. The energy splashed into the plating with negligible effect but a significant slam of force. The momentum of the impact served as a means to twirl over another volley. Rasil realized he might have to retaliate in a moment if Flakstorm started bouncing more beams, but he patiently waited for a chance.

  The slightest chance would work.

  Fortunately, Flakstorm was angered by Rasil’s avoidance of his beams and ordered the drones into a more passive pattern, hoping to take Rasil down as if the drones were a line of muskets on an open field. Rasil was ready for this opportunity, and waited until they were lined up before dashing forward in a zigzagging pattern.

  Lines were weak; they fell twice as fast as walls...

  The beams fired, and he leapt over the volley, landing on top of a drone. He turned to his right side. A bolt flew from his gun along the line of drones, pushing them all with concussive force and launching them in a pile toward the far wall to his right. One side down, he turned to the left. The drones there fared the same, and Flakstorm’s drone formation left few backups to defend him.

  “No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!” Flakstorm cried. In an attempt to make space, he fired drones up and down to create a plasma wall between him and Rasil, then backflipped with his superhuman agility. The drones closest to him glowed purple, and he began replicating them.

  Rasil siphoned power from the drones that were creating the wall and blasted them apart. Then, he antigravity jumped to Flakstorm.

  Put one hand atop the other.

  Pull in everything you have.

  Rasil’s eyes flashed a blinding red glow over Flakstorm as he used [Shrapnel Frenzy] and blasted the racazoid with the flurry of amplified bolts. Flakstorm magnetically clamped six drones onto each of his arms and held them in front of him. He, despite his confidence, was smart enough to yield against this attack, so he slipped to the side with a burst of his own antigravity. The drones fired again, and Rasil merely countered the beams with his onslaught of bolts, pointing the swirling river of red energy at every enemy he saw. A growing whine, like a metal saw scraping against stone but only growing in speed, churned from the gun’s barrel.

  Flakstorm fired diagonal patterns of beams from above to disrupt Rasil and growled in satisfaction when the critical strike ended. Rasil dropped his right arm limply, exhausted by another use of that attack. He quickly tossed his gun to his left hand and adopted a fencing stance to block more attacks. He was in the process of letting his arm recover when he saw a glowing light.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Virus.

  ***

  Virus had been staring at the truck of explosives as he heard Rasil activate [Shrapnel Frenzy]. “Oh, shoot. I'd better do something. But what shall that be?” Virus pondered several outcomes as he tapped his foot and glared at the grenades. “Wait! I don’t plan ahead! I improvise!” he declared, steeling his arms as he approached. With a mighty clang of metal, he punched the truck in the side and witnessed a glowing light from the batteries as they fractured.

  The grenades had detonated, rather than being thrown. Though it was deliberate, Virus didn’t have time to say anything as the entire truck exploded. The grenades fractured and sent pulses of superheated energy outward alongside a shockwave that pummeled his eardrums. The force shook the warehouse and sent Virus flying back, directly into Flakstorm. He twisted in the air and extended his arms in a dramatic pose. “I’M THE GRENADE!” he shouted. Flakstorm turned to see what was coming toward him, but alas, he was too late! Virus slammed chest-first into the racazoid with blinding speed. Pivoting, he shoulder-checked Flakstorm and gripped the left arm with both gauntlets before tearing it from the shoulder joint. The metal splintered before the precise yet unhindered strength of Virus’s antigravity.

  Flakstorm shrieked in rage, “You human SCUM!” He was thrown backward, his left shoulder entirely gone as he rolled along the ground. Virus landed in a handstand and slid with retained momentum. Flakstorm stood up and summoned more drones, but panicked when Virus was still coming at him.

  “Leave me alone!” Flakstorm cried, ordering the drones in front of him to fire the same finishing beam he had used in their last fight. Virus continued sliding, and roundhouse kicked one drone out of the way before he righted himself. flipped to his feet and held his arms in front of him.

  “Virus! Get out of the—” Rasil started.

  “NO! This is how I win!” Virus interrupted as the beam collided with him. “I don’t get out of the way, ever!” He slid back, still blocking as Flakstorm multiplied his drones and ordered every drone to fire beams at the same target. Soon, there was a swirling vortex of metal before the racazoid, hundreds of drones firing one continuous beam at Virus.

  Still, unlike Rasil’s attempts to block the beams, Virus refused to yield. He shouted with a ferocious determination, “I will not move! I will stand and face anything!” He took a step, moving forward. “What’s more, I will never lose, because I’m too stupid to give up!” Virus’s gloves began to glow, one blue and the other orange, as his energy culminated. His critical strike activated. “[Oblivion Mode]!” he shouted with a roar of electricity. His entire body glowed a mixture of blue and orange as he vibrated with power. The air was blanketed by a haze of heated particles, swirling around Virus in a latent coil power power

  Virus scowled for a moment, betraying his serious side and his anger toward Flakstorm, but then he pulled his right hand back.

  Rasil wondered if he should move to a safe distance.

  Virus boosted forward with a wave of antigravity, holding his left arm in a block and bulldozing through the drones’ beams. He smashed a backhand into Flakstorm after tearing his drones to pieces. Flakstorm fell down and started ordering the drones to replicate, but before he could, Virus moved. With a speed that made the air pulse and burst, faster than Rasil thought was possible, Virus dashed through the air and destroyed every one of the stunned drones. His wake of energy enveloped them as his movement itself shattered circuitry.

  Flakstorm screamed something that wasn’t human speech and turned to Virus in rage. He lifted his intact right arm and swung a clawed fist. Virus stepped in and delivered an elbow to Flakstorm’s chin with his left arm, then drove the right into an uppercut. It sounded like a supersonic missile and cracked the ground around them as it launched Flakstorm into the air.

  Rasil was speechless. Virus flung Flakstorm across the room, dashing with a blur to the opposite wall and swinging another punch to smash the racazoid back in the other direction. He intercepted again and performed a bicycle kick to Flakstorm’s head, bouncing him into the floor with a crunch. Flakstorm tried to get to his feet but was grabbed by Virus, pulled back up, and slam-dunked into the ground, shattering his inner face.

  One move left in his combo, Virus twirled, throwing Flakstorm’s beaten form into the air a final time. He boosted ahead, lifting his leg to the sky until it lined up above Flakstorm. “Here’s a ‘flak storm,’ idiot!” Virus shouted as he drove his foot down into his enemy, and antigravity launched them both straight down. His axe kick splintered armor and broke Flakstorm’s spine before they touched the ground. In that moment, Flakstorm’s screams were matched by Virus’s, and the floor erupted in an explosion upon their collision.

  Rasil shielded his eyes from the heat, seeing debris flying everywhere, flames licking the walls as if to devour the pieces of the two warriors. Had Virus accelerated Flakstorm’s body with antigravity until it ignited the oxygen in the air?! Where had he even learned that?! Rasil’s jaw was wide open in shock, his eyes shaking; he was unsure if they were injured.

  A more important thought came to his mind, though. Was Virus okay? The dust was still clearing, and Rasil wasn’t sure if—

  Oh... There wasn’t a scratch on him.

  The dust cleared, a little antigravity gust pushing it aside. Virus stood triumphantly atop the broken corpse of his foe, holding a clenched fist up in the air. He let out a mighty cry, “I STILL FUNCTION!” Rasil, meanwhile, let out a quiet laugh. Teaming up with this guy hadn’t been so bad after all...

  ***

  Rasil leaned over the bar counter with a relaxed look on his face. Virus sat next to him, downing another shot of beer. Virus’s eyes popped into his periphery. “Dude, I’ll freakin’ buy you a drink. Just ask," Virus said, nudging Rasil’s shoulder. Rasil hissed in pain and pushed Virus’s hand away, still sore from the fight.

  “No thanks," Rasil answered, “I don’t drink.”

  “Then why come to a tavern with me? People usually have to be bribed for this. I mean, I sure give them a reason for the distaste, but... why?” Virus asked. It was a genuine question, no malice to be found in it. Rasil looked straight at those inquisitive, almost innocent eyes, noticing for the first time that Virus’s right eye was blue, while his left was orange. That explained his split energy color, Rasil analyzed. He sighed and gave his answer.

  “I’m bored, and Alyssa won’t arrive back until morning.”

  “Helios and Gears, though," Virus pointed out.

  “I’ll catch up with them. I owe you a lot for that battle, and I’d rather stay here right now.” Rasil clapped his hand to Virus’s shoulder, and an astonished look crossed the mercenary’s face.

  “Are we bros now?”

  “We’re bros," Rasil agreed with a hint of a smile. The two chuckled for a moment, and Rasil added, “By the way, last week, I told Alyssa I love her. We’re gonna try dating, and I figured you should know.” Virus’s eyes lit up.

  “What did she say back? Does Dad know? What did he say back? Are you wanted now? What’s the bounty?” Virus rambled. Rasil backed away slightly.

  He whispered, “She agreed and acted surprised like we weren’t already, though we’re both pretty young. Slick seems happy for the two of us.” At the last line, Rasil waved his hands to indicate that there was no problem.

  “Whew. That’s fortunate.”

  “I know," Rasil nodded. He was relieved there was no price on his head. He rested his head atop his hands and looked around. This tavern was the same one they had kind of torn apart the other day. Despite that, everything was almost flawlessly repaired. It was like the fight had never happened. Rasil thought about that for a minute. If it were that easy...

  “I wonder if I’ll regret this later...” Rasil looked at Virus and said, almost like an order, “I’m still bored. I’ll pay for the drinks.” He looked at the bartender, and slipped a pile of money onto the counter with a nod.

  The bartender counted the cash, saying, “This is over thirty times the—a hundred times the bill for your drinks. Why would you—oh, no.” He ducked behind the counter as he saw what was coming.

  Rasil spun around to face the rest of the room, and drew his gun. “Care to start?” he asked Virus.

  “Tavern brawl!” Virus yelled in support. The two jumped from their seats at the other mercenaries, who had already drawn their stun weapons. Somehow jovial, as if everyone had expected this, the atmosphere hummed with calm amidst the crossfire of way too many bullets. As Rasil blasted concussive strikes through the room, he found himself actually glad to have met Virus. Somehow, the infection had caught him, too, and he had no regrets.

  ***

  [Note from Rasil: “I’m not jumping straight to hiring him, though! He charges a hefty fee for someone who trashes the place every time.”]