XCEL

“Run!” Tegata yelled.

And by god did they run.

Kinuka’s blue-haired saviour, the one that caught Gus Ishimatsu’s punch, picked her up without a word and ran. Tegata grabbed Juusei and summoned his Spire Crane. A gust of wind swept from underneath the shadow's wingspan as the pair took to the sky. Rin put his hands together and drew out a complex frame. He knew this would only buy them a few seconds at most.

“Framework: Stone Tower Penitence Cell!”

The concrete pagoda formed around Gus the next instant, and locked his arms out by his sides. Rin took off, sprinting after their sudden saviour, psychic energy dancing in arcs across his legs.

A roar echoed from within the tower's confines, followed by the smashing of concrete as the man broke free. Gus turned and looked in the direction of the retreating rescuers, face contorted in fury. He looked about to give chase, but faltered after a few steps and clutched at his heart. He coughed and doubled over, fatigued.

“Hoo boy. Look at that,” commented Meguru. He shielded his eyes with one hand, despite the absence of sun.

“Go after them,” Gus wheezed. “This damned scourge is sapping my strength. Don’t let them out of your sight.”

“Got it.” Hideyori Hakana procured two more orbs. He shattered them on the floor, and out came Dentaku Bango and Tsushin Techukara. Both emerged bleary eyed, but snapped to attention at a click of the man’s fingers. He addressed the two of them and Meguru. "You heard the boss. Pursue them, now."

“Me? Go after them?” Meguru looked pained. “No thanks, hat man. I’m going back to bed. See ya.”

Without waiting for a second opinion, he sloped off. Hideyori opened his mouth to say something, but evidently decided it wasn't worth the bother. He turned back to Dentaku and Tsushin.

“You two,” he ordered. “Go. I'll catch up.”

Both nodded in silence and gave chase, following through the hole in the wall. Gus rose to his feet and brushed concrete dust off his suit, thoroughly irked.

“That boy withstood my Overpower,” he commented. Slowly, his frown warped into a grin. “I hadn’t even considered it possible. Who was that boy?”

Hideyori took a while to respond. Gus glared at him. “Well?”

Hideyori tipped his hat low over his face and shook his head. “Don’t recognise ‘em.”

“I see.” Gus eyed him and stroked his chin. “You saw the hesitation on Harigane’s face too, didn’t you?”

“What of it?”

“There’s still hope. It’d be a shame to have to annihilate him at this stage. I want him and the blade brought to me still,” Gus commanded. “The rest of them, do as you like. Is that clear?”

“Crystal—” and in another rush of movement, Hideyori had swallowed himself up into another orb.

* * *

Rin couldn’t believe it. He had to stop himself from looking back. The situation had changed in an instant, and their luck along with it. What had seemed like the end of the line had suddenly turned on its head. Now was their chance to escape, and all of this was due to the large prisoner who had arrived to their rescue, preventing that cataclysmic punch.

“Rin!” Kinuka called to him, hoisted over the shoulder of the mute giant. “Who is this guy?” She didn’t look in pain, just surprised.

“I have no idea!” Rin yelled back. “He was in the prison, just like that Juusei girl!”

There had been no identification on his jumpsuit back in the prison. The trio darted through the tunnels alongside one another, heading in the direction of where Rin remembered the exit to be. It didn’t help that the labyrinth had already shifted to the point beyond recognition. The foundations of the labyrinth kept warping, new walls coming into view trying to obstruct and divert their path. Fortunately for Rin, Framework made short work of those.

“Hey! Who are you?” Rin shouted at the blue boy, to no response. The boy kept running, his arm tight around Kinuka, his expression set in stone. Rin asked again, in case he couldn’t hear over the constant commotion or the blood pounding in his ears, but gave up after the third attempt. Whoever he was, he seemed to be on their side.

It wasn’t long before Rin’s legs began to scream in protest. The terror of the two psychic signatures in pursuit drove him onwards. They had to keep moving. After an excruciating sprint and one final impromptu doorway, they had made it back out of the facility labyrinth. Beyond them awaited the gates, where the party—originally three—had first stood.

“Rin! Kinuka!” A voice came from overhead, as Tegata and Juusei descended on the wing of a shadow. The Spire Crane sank into the floor at the older boy’s command, and they both ran up to the approaching three. The unnamed newcomer slowed to a halt and gently set Kinuka down on the floor. She stepped back, still apprehensive, but thanked him all the same.

“And who is this?” Tegata asked.

“No clue.” Rin shrugged his shoulders. “I broke open his cell, tried to wake him up. Didn’t think I’d succeed, though.” He looked up at him, puzzled. “Totally unresponsive so far.”

“Hey, big guy!” Juusei called up to him. “You got a name?”

The boy simply stared down at her from beneath the curls of blue hair.

“Does he… say anything, or—?” She asked, tentatively prodding him in the chest as though he was going to bite her. “Wow! So muscly!” A mischievous giggle.

No reaction to that, either.

“Whatever the case,” Tegata said. “Can we count you as an ally, friend?” He approached with his hands out. The boy stepped back a little, eyes widening in fear.

“We can trust him,” Kinuka said.

“You’re sure?” Tegata asked.

“He saved my life from out of nowhere.” A tear glistened in the corner of one eye. Kinuka nodded. “He’s a good person, I just know it.”

“Well, isn’t that just touching. Making new friends already? How sweet,” drawled a nicotine-soaked growl from behind them. A familiar figure touched down onto the pavement, and everyone started.

“You really like those sarcastic one-liners, don’t you?” Rin had grown weary of all the dramatic entrances by this point.

The rest were on their guard, but none as much as Blue. Psychic energy surged in a storm around the boy. All turned to stare, then winced as a crushing weight descended over the area.

“What’s gotten into him?” Rin asked. The look in Blue's eyes was ferocious, primal. It wasn’t directed at him, but he felt himself freeze all the same.

Without warning, Blue let out a roar and charged at Hakana. His punch hit a wall, driving a large fissure into the concrete. Everyone took a step back.

“Hm. Almost.” Hideyori was now sitting on top of the wall, twirling the rim of his hat around one finger and gazing down into the crowd. His eyes lingered on the mysterious Blue a little while longer. “I won’t hold you up long; you have about a minute until your friend Bango and the girl catch up.”

“How the hell did you catch us so quickly?” Rin demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know, box boy?" Hideyori grinned, albeit momentarily. “Some advice, though. The Boss won’t hold his offer forever, but he keeps his word. Remember our deal, kid.”

“Deal?” Tegata shot Rin a glare, then back at Hideyori. “What deal? What’s he talking about, Rin?”

“Huh?” Rin froze. “No idea,” he whispered to Tegata. “I’ll play along.” He shouted up at the man, “sure, but only if you keep up your end!”

Two can play at that game, asshole, Rin thought.

Hideyori raised an eyebrow and laughed. “Whatever you say. Don’t blame me when it comes back to bite you, though.”

“Hey, wait—” Rin cried, but Hideyori was already gone. Wind swept through the area, almost as chilly as the three accusatory stares on the back of his head now.

“Something you’re not telling us?” Kinuka started, eyes narrowed.

“Can I shoot him already?” Juusei asked Tegata, pointing her finger-gun at Rin’s head. The boy put a hand out, but didn’t say no.

Rin turned and took a step back. “What are you looking at me like that for?”

“He said something about a deal.”

“What?! I said I had no idea!” Rin looked appalled. “You’re seriously going to believe him over me?”

Tegata blinked a few times, returning to his senses. “That’s right, we mustn’t fight. Hakana was trying to sow seeds of doubt, to try and pit us against each other.”

“Can I still shoot him?” Juusei asked, her aim still trained on Rin’s forehead.

“No. Juusei, put the gun down.”

“Pretty please?”

“I said no.”

Juusei pouted but did as she was told.

Kinuka folded her arms and glared. Rin felt the cold sweat drip down his neck, and avoided meeting her gaze as best he could. “We need to get out of here,” he said. “Like, right now.” He turned to Tegata. “What’s the plan?”

Tegata inhaled through his teeth. “We’ll have to improvise. I never actually expected to get this far.”

“You what?!” Rin and Kinuka cried in outraged unison.

“Don’t worry about it. All we have to do is locate another rift.”

“Like the one at the train station?”

“Exactly. We’ll just go back the way we came.”

“How are we going to break through the barrier?” Kinuka asked. “There’s no way we’ll have time to wait for another train to come and punch us through!”

Tegata faltered. That was a good point.

“I may not have a plan, gentlemen,” Rin said, reaching into his pocket. He drew out a small black object. “But I have an idea.”

“That’s not how the saying goes!”

And they both knew it.

Rin stood for a moment, proud, holding the trinket up in his palm as everyone squinted, confused.

“Rin, what is that?”

"Oh–" Rin realised and rolled his eyes. “Forgot to resize it. Give me a sec.”

He placed it on the ground beside him and stepped back, clapping his hands, the frame sprung back to its original size. A black estate car popped onto the empty road, to a few suppressed gasps.

Kinuka put her face in her hands. “Please don’t tell me that’s the car you tried to steal this morning.”

Tegata looked mightily unimpressed. “You didn’t put it back, did you?”

“Well, no duh!” Rin gestured emphatically between them and the car, almost as though to ask what’s not to like. “I thought it’d come in handy, and look at that!”

“You’re unbelievable.”

“Do you want to walk the rest of the way?”

Kinuka sighed.

Rin then felt the two hostile signatures get closer. “Anyway, it’s this or nothing! Get in!”

Everyone else clearly felt it too, as they bundled on into the car without further complaint. There wasn’t enough space for all of them, and so Juusei opted to sit on the roof instead. Kinuka groaned, mumbled something about hating travelling by car, and transfigured herself into a rope harness to secure Juusei to the roof. Rin was about to get into the driver’s seat, but Tegata stopped him from opening the door.

“I’m driving,” he said.

“Like hell you are! This is my car!”

“Is it?”

“Might as well be! Anyway, where did you learn to drive? You’ve been in prison your whole life!”

Tegata ignored him. “I’m older, and I don’t trust you behind the wheel.”

His tone left no leeway for argument. Before long they were speeding down the empty street away from the facility, a moody Rin sitting shotgun. Tegata, somehow, was a far better driver than he could’ve ever anticipated, and kept his cool at such high speeds. It wasn’t long before Juusei shouted in through the open sunroof.

“Guys! They’re onto us!”

Some way behind them still, another car—this one silver—was gaining rapidly. Rin looked out of his window, cupping his hands around his eyes. Zooming through the black tinted windows, he spied Hideyori Hakana’s silver hair and grin sitting behind the wheel, and the dark-haired girl sitting opposite him. Dentaku Bango’s ire-mired expression glared from the backseat. Rin groaned.

“Light them up, Juusei!” Tegata shouted.

There came a whoop of joy from above, followed by the crack of gunshot and then many more. A faint screech of evading tires came from behind them, as chunks were taken out of the pavement.

Tegata slammed his foot on the brake, spun hard on the wheel and veered a sharp right down a side-street. The car lurched and Rin felt his stomach try and exit through his ears. The station where they’d first breached the barrier into this pocket of cognitive space wasn’t too far ahead.

“Hey,” Rin said. “What happens if we hit another train when we reach the station?”

Tegata didn’t look at him. “We die.”

“How can you say that so calmly?!”

“By accepting—” Tegata grunted, shifting the stick into a mystical new ‘seventh gear’ that had just appeared— “that the reality of not taking the risk is going to be far worse!”

The barrier to the train station was approaching, and fast. Rin lurched forward as he felt a similar shift in space, as everything tilted ever so slightly. “Another distortion!”

“Just in time!” Tegata put his pedal to the metal, and the dash needle quivered. The roar of the engine reached deafening extremes.

Only now, Rin could hear the sound of another train approaching. It sounded far away, but soon, he reasoned, it wouldn’t be if they kept at this kind of speed. “Wait, Tegata! We can’t go now!”

“Too late!”

Rin saw the train’s floodlights burst from the far end of the tunnel, and braced for the fatal impact. It never came. Blue placed both palms on the car’s roof, and a rush of psychic energy enveloped him and everyone else inside the car. Locked relative to their momentum, they crashed into the station, smashing through the ticket barriers unharmed and into the path of the oncoming train. Just like there had been before, the space in the mouth of the tunnel had formed a jarring fracture in reality. Rin clenched everything he had and held onto his seat. An ear splitting crash and the sound of rending metal filled the vehicle for that split second, as the car, temporarily invincible, ploughed right through both the train and the crack in reality in one go.

After a few seconds of dark silence, there was nothing but uncertainty. Well, that and the wall of the train tunnel on the other side, which they proceeded to collide with at full speed.

Since they had approached the barrier at an angle, the front left corner of the car slammed into the brickwork at seventy miles an hour. The impact jolted the vehicle and everyone inside. The shock was accompanied by the most horrendous screech, sparks flying as the metalwork ground itself down against the wall like wood on a belt sander. Tegata yanked on the wheel as the vehicle wobbled from left to right over the train tracks. Rin and Juusei both screamed in either terror or delight, to the point that neither could tell which pitch belonged to whom. Only Blue, cooped up in the backseat, maintained any semblance of calm. Soon the grinding stopped, and they had made it back onto the straight.

“We’re alive! We’re alive” Rin began to chant, panting, almost in an attempt to convince himself of the fact. The car’s headlights—or the one that hadn’t been ground to dust—illuminated the arched walls ahead of them, a further light glimmering hopefully from the end of the tunnel.

Tegata had gone whiter than a sheet, and gripped the steering wheel like a lifeline. “You okay, Juusei?!” He called up and behind him.

“Again! Again!” The girl cried, cackling as though on a roller-coaster. “Faster, Tegata! Faster!”

“She’s crazy!” Rin couldn’t believe it. Tegata shook his head, but ultimately did as she wished, especially when the beams of two additional headlights glared through their back windscreen.

“Unbelievable,” Tegata cursed. “They’re not giving up, are they?”

“They’re right on our six!” Juusei cried. “I can’t see properly; too bright!”

“Hold on!”

Tegata shunted the gearshift and slammed down his foot. The car squealed and Rin found himself merge partially with the back of his seat. The tunnel curved to the left and they followed, the light at the end of the tunnel growing ever closer. The train tracks rumbled underneath them. Rin’s heart dropped to sit with his intestines. They’d managed to survive one train encounter, but who was to say they’d make a second?

“Look out!” Rin pointed.

Another train—real, this time, full of real people—was approaching at speed from in front, horn blaring and wheels screeching as it slammed on the breaks albeit all too late. Tegata, however, only sped up. They broke from the dim and grim of the tunnel and out into the evening sky. The tunnel emerged onto a line sat dead in the middle of two parallel highways heading out of the city.

With the train only a few lengths away, Tegata slammed on the brakes and swerved to the right. The car tilted a full thirty degrees from the inertia, and the tires screeched in place across the metal just as the train came into danger distance. They careered off the tracks and up a grassy slope before tearing through a section of roadside barrier protecting the highway, obliterating the car’s front in the process. Following a miraculous drift that left marks of glory burned into the tarmac, Tegata managed to straighten up yet again and into the lane headed back towards the city, much to the astonishment of the drivers behind them who had just been cut across.

Rin, a hand on his heart—which, miraculously, was still beating—saw the train screech to a halt on their right. He looked to Tegata with eyes so wide he was convinced they’d fall out. “Where the hell did you learn to drive like that?!”

“Intuition,” Tegata said. He cursed soon after, seeing and then smelling the wafts of black smoke drift from the car’s crumpled front end. That wasn’t good.

“Of course it is.” Rin fell forward and let his head smack against the dashboard. He laughed to himself, the sheer absurdity of the situation had begun to settle in. “Where are you taking us?”

“I don’t know—” Tegata grit his teeth and swerved to avoid colliding with a delivery truck he was trying to overtake. The driver voiced his displeasure in the proper fashion. “I thought you had a plan!”

Rin groaned into the dashboard and grasped fistfuls of thick black hair.

Above them, Juusei cried out. “I don’t know how,” she yelled, firing another couple shots behind them, “but JPRO is still on our tail! I can’t shake them!”

Sure enough, the silver car was still hot in pursuit. Tegata swore and shuffled the gearshift, swearing again when he found himself limited to only six.

Up on the rooftop, Juusei was getting annoyed. She tried to shoot the car again, but found her fingers constantly firing duds. A static had filled her head and made it difficult to see straight, let alone line up a good shot. The sensation wasn’t constant, but whenever she tried to shoot, her vision swam and her flow of psychic energy abruptly ceased.

“Juusei,” a distant voice crackled in her ear. A spectral figure’s top half manifested by her side. Muscular and shirtless, it had dark hair, as well as a gigantic gun barrel protruding from the top half of its face, so that only its mouth remained visible. “Something’s jamming your connection to the Eye. Can you hear me?”

“Gunz?!” She cried. “I’m trying everything, but someone’s interfering with my specialty!”

The aptly named Gunz puzzled over the matter. “Have you tried using more gun?”

“I’ve been trying everything!” She cried.

Gunz nodded. “Use more gun.” The manifestation of his spirit then began to flicker, as the static built up in her mind yet again. She winced, the daylight stabbing into her eyes like a migraine.

In the JPRO car, Hideyori grinned and stepped down on the accelerator. Beside him, Tsushin Techukara had both hands on the sides of her head, her third eye pulsing and projecting its interfering ray.

“That’s good,” Hideyori commented. “Keep jamming the gun girl. We’ll catch them before long.”

His grin faded as he glared at Dentaku Bango in the rear-view mirror. “The boss doesn’t take failure lightly, so treat this as an opportunity for redemption.”

Dentaku nodded, and felt his jaw tighten. He wouldn’t let Harigane get one over on him again. Then again, he said that every single time.

“Need some help!” Juusei shouted in through the roof. “They’re gaining on us!”

Rin had already begun to work on something. It was the same modified wall he had used against the Warden. He didn’t expect it to hold. He just needed something to buy them time. Taking off his seatbelt, he stood through the sunroof and called out to Juusei. “You’d better duck!”

She did, and Rin tossed the miniaturised construct behind them. Dragging his hands apart, the frame began to engorge.

“Framework!”

With a clap of his hands, a stone wall two lanes wide and two feet deep dropped from the sky and crashed onto the road, splintering the tarmac and causing a wave of screeching tires and angry horns from behind them.

Only one car refused to slow. With an obstacle that could easily total the vehicle only a yard away, Hideyori didn’t take his eyes off the road, a gleam in his eye.

“Deal with it,” he ordered.

Dentaku didn’t need to be told twice. A punch charged with psychic energy took out a chunk of the roof above him. Dentaku jumped onto the roof and stepped forward, balancing precariously on the bonnet.

He would not fail, not this time.

“Number Theory, Fundamental Arithmetic,” he chanted. Psychic energy surged in a roaring tide through his body, gathering in a yellow aura around one arm. That spectral yellow obelus flashed behind him once more. With a cry, Dentaku thrust his arm forward, striking the wall moments before it flattened the car.

“Division Ten!”

Nine evenly spaced fissures cracked the wall wide open, splitting it into ten column fragments that hit and rolled off the car’s frame before slamming into the ground behind, some rolling over the top and crushing any cars unlucky enough to be trailing too close behind.

“That’s what I think of your wall, Harigane!” Dentaku yelled. A surge of warmth—a surge of pride—glowed in his chest. Nearly losing his footing, Dentaku fell backwards, down back through his impromptu access hatch and back into his seat.

“Stupid Bagel and his stupid numbers,” Rin grumbled. His beautifully constructed obstacle, destroyed with minimal resistance; what a perfect little metaphor. He’d been really proud of that construct, but was now kicking himself for forgetting who was sitting in that car.

The crack of gunshot made him jump.

“I landed a hit!” Juusei let out a triumphant woop at the crack she’d made in the windscreen. She followed up with a further volley of shots, leaving substantial dents in the bonnet. “The jammer stopped!”

“Keep it up!” Tegata yelled. The noise of the wind rushing in through the roof was deafening. “We’ll lose them yet!”

* * *

“Good.” Hideyori grinned. “Not a moment too soon, either. Never thought you were one for close shaves, Bango.”

“My Fundamental Arithmetic only extends to what I can touch,” Dentaku replied. “I had to wait until the last possible—”

The crack of gunshot echoed through the window, and Hideyori swore. Juusei’s bullet had cracked the windscreen right next to the hat man’s face. The following volley added insult into injury, warping the car’s smooth metal.

“What are you doing?” He cursed, shifting gears, swerving to the left to avoid a car sideswiped by their target and tilted in their direction. One hand still on the wheel, he glared at Tsushin. “Keep your Jammer on the girl!”

“Yes, sir!” Thin tracks of tears streamed from the corners of Tsushin’s eyes from the strain of continued output. Nevertheless, she redoubled her focus, pressing her fingers tighter into her temples. “A momentary lapse. It won’t happen again.”

Dentaku couldn’t help but watch the girl. Neither her words nor actions seemed her own. He had seen her outside of meetings. She seemingly had no life of her own, no free will. She responded and did as ordered, but otherwise seemed a husk. A shiver shot down his spine. That couldn’t be natural. What had they done to her? All that made him wonder beyond that was why they hadn’t done the same to him. Perhaps the Glass Eyes’ name was literal: the very price for their failure.

“They’re heading into the city, 7th Eastern Ward,” Hideyori reported. “Likely trying to lose us in the suburbs.” He glanced back at Dentaku. “We need to catch up to them. Work your magic, won’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

Dentaku leaned out of the window. A product of his specialty and his standard psychometry meant he could divine numerical values from all around. They were currently travelling seventy five miles an hour. Their target, eighty. There was a twenty metre gap between them. If they were going to catch up before they entered the city, they’d need a boost of speed. He couldn’t just add to a vector quantity, though; they had to be multiplied! He had to make his use of psychic energy as efficient as possible.

“Fundamental Arithmetic,” Dentaku chanted again. This time, a multiplication. His hand pulsed with psychic energy in a green aura, as he reached out and slapped the cross onto the side of the car.

Velocity, times 1.3!

The car gave a corresponding roar and a lurch, the burst in acceleration slamming Dentaku back against his seat. Hideyori gave a satisfied laugh and stamped down on the gas, now properly encroaching on their target.

* * *

“Jammed again!” Juusei cried, frustrated. “They’re getting faster. I can’t feel any psychic energy at the moment, but they definitely just accelerated somehow!”

Rin bet it was Bango’s doing again. He was watching behind, the silver car, now resonating with the boy’s psychic signature, drew nearer. Tegata had his eyes firmly planted on the road, weaving in and out of the slower vehicles ahead.

Things were slowing down now. This was bad.

They were coming off the highway, the city’s speed limits coming further into effect. Ahead of them was a four-way intersection, the central path leading towards the city centre’s entertainment district. Rin turned around and recognised with a jolt exactly where they were. This wasn’t just any intersection. It was The intersection.

“Tegata!” He shouted, turning pale. “We can’t go through here! Not now!”

“Why?!” Tegata shouted back. “This is the shortest path ahead! We can lose them in the city streets!”

“No, you don’t understand!” A primal shudder passed through Rin as the horrors of the rumour. “This intersection is cursed! We can’t go through here at this kind of speed! Take a turn, anywhere!” He looked to either side and swore. There was no turning, nothing. Only a large set of traffic lights, and their impending doom.

Tegata stamped down on the accelerator as hard as he could. Juusei screamed, a delightful mixture of jubilation and sheer terror.

“Cursed or not—” Tegata grimaced— “We’re going too fast to stop now. Hold on!”