"I-" the polished cream gold armor that was my second skin began to encase me. "-am-" My forearms reshaped into rail guns, charging up in milliseconds. "-Tekeon!" I fired what was unarguably the biggest beams of electrons I'd ever released.

Kazar crossed his elbows in an attempt to block, but he underestimated my all.

Big time.

The blast consumed the other half of the eatery along with him. After the explosion, fire, and smoke danced in front of me. I whipped my head back, the gangsters were holding onto their machine guns with shaky hands. My jetpack popped out and they jumped back in fear.

The burliest one stepped forward and firmed his grip. I gave him a dead stare, hoping he would not be stupid enough to go through with what he was thinking.

"No kill," he screamed. "No cut!"

Unfortunately, others were hyped and took aim at me.

"Take cover." I glanced at June right before they opened fire. According to my wish, Blitz sent out a pulse blast from my armor milliseconds before the bullets hit me, causing them to deflect.

With screams of pain, they all dropped to the ground like flies.

I sighed.

"Jason?" June looked at me like a stranger. So many emotions were flashing across her face.

My heart was heavy. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. She wasn't supposed to find out like this. I wanted to explain everything. I didn't want to lose her trust. Not when she was going away for who knows how long.

But this was not the place. The fire was spreading, the structure was shaking. And deep down I knew Kazar wasn't out of the picture yet.

"You-" I tried to sound composed. "You have to get to the jet. You're running out of time." I took a step towards her but she inched away in her crouching position.

"Please," I stretched out my armored palm. "let me take you there."

She kept increasing the distance between us. My heart panged with every inch. I closed my eyes but perked up at the sound of her sharp scream. She quickly raised her left hand up to her face to examine the new injury.

"June!" My compassion got the better of me, spurring me to stride over to her regardless of whether she wanted me around.

Shards of glass were littered on the spot where she lifted her left hand from. From the spilled salt around it, I could tell that was a broken salt shaker.

I swooped her up bridal style and looked into her eyes through my blue lenses. "It's going to be okay. You're going to be okay."

I aimed at the roof and blasted a hole open before flying through it.

At full throttle, it took barely five minutes to get to the private terminal, north of the city. It was isolated in a forest region and looked almost as large as the average commercial terminal.

Parked in front was Samson Summers' Mercedes Benz jeep. As I touched down a stone's throw away from it, the back door swung open and the charismatic manager came bolting towards us.

"Tekeon," Mr. Samson helped prop June up, staring in horror at the blood gushing down her palm. "What happened to her?"

Standing on her feet, June clutched the injured palm but still had her starstruck gaze fixed on me. I forced myself to look away and turn to Mr. Summers. "Minor causality, get her first aid fast. I've got to go take care of a monster."

"There's a kit in the car," he spun on his heels and sprinted. "June, come on!"

She began to slowly walk backward, her eyes glassier than before. "Jason." She whispered.

Kazar is approaching. Blitz stated. You have to go, now.

"Please," I whispered right before my jetpack charged up. "Don't tell anyone."

Blasting off into the sky, I flew in the direction of the Cross-Bakes branch where I blasted Kazar.

"Jason, there's been a breach at the Villa." Blitz relayed in midair. "The security alarms have been triggered. Kazar can wait, we've got to protect that spaceship part."

I was now flying between a labyrinth of skyscrapers, about to diverge towards the location of my Villa when all of a sudden a vehement roar came from above me.

Faster than I could react, Kazar's enormous claws gripped me and his momentum caused me to plummet.

I barred my teeth beneath the mask. "Not this time."
With the aid of my jetpack's thrusters, I wrestled the Alx in close range until he was the one on a collision course with the asphalt-–a fate he realized too late.

The sound was like the detonation of a bomb when his crimson metal back came crashing through the ground. Cracks zigzagged around the hole of impact and a cloud of dust rose into the air.

Suspended in the atmosphere, I turned on infrared vision to analyze Kazar's state. He didn't stay down for long. Boosting off the crater his fist met my face before I could form a shield.

Dazed, I free-fell for a moment before coming to and attempting to steady in the air with my jetpack. But quick like lightning, Kazar struck me again; smashing me spine first onto a high-rise wall.

As I exhaled sharply, I felt his claw clamp around me before I was scraped all the way up the wall to the rooftop.

"Ah!" I exclaimed when my back collided with the concrete roof. Even for 80% shielding, this was getting out of hand.

The Alx landed with a quaking 'THUMP' and began to advance.

I took a deep breath and did an instant Chinese get-up. Another concentrated beam of electrons fired from my chest. The momentum pushed me back a little, but my feet were buried in the rooftop, so I didn't fall back down.

Kazar, however, was blown away by the surging beam, spiraling towards the opposite skyscraper.

I gritted my teeth. "I'm finishing you off for good."

The fists of my armor shone brightly, charged with enough power to blow up a building. Once they were launched after aiming, the fists bolted through the air to catch Kazar square in the face, exploding on impact.

Using x-ray vision, I could see my opponent buried meters deep into the ground. In the time I had taken to blast off the rooftop and stomp on his chest, my armor's fists had been built back by electron-plates.

"Kazar!" I slammed my arms together, and they fused into a multifaceted plasma cannon. "This ends now!"

I expected him to beg. All villains beg. Or at least tremble. But instead, he chuckled; like he was just having fun.

My blood boiled."Why are you laughing?"

"Jason, Jason, Jason. As we speak, Alain Archer extracts the fourth and final spaceship part needed to start the invasion."

"You have the other three?" Shock washed over me.

A satellite-level laser fired from his chest. I was too close to react before it hit me, sending me up a few feet and then down with a crash. My entire body was thrust into a fit of agony. The light from the blast had painted white spots in my vision, and the impact left me sprawled across the floor. I could feel my bones threatening to break.

"I'm healing you as quickly as possible," Blitz said. "But this caliber of injury will require much more time."

"You have done enough for the human, Rotore." Kazar's voice boomed as he jumped out of the hole and landed in front of me.

My vision was blurry, but I could make out his outstretched palm and the cube-like device that seemed to materialize above it. It was pure white and electricity crackled around it. I was reminded of Blitz's sphere at the alley that night.

"Today," Kazar held the cube with two claws. "I break this unholy union."

He thrust out his arm and blue glowing tendrils shot out of the cube. A chill ran up my spine when the tendrils latched onto me. I felt them fuse with my armor and, like a vacuum cleaner, started a suction.

I screamed at the top of my lungs as I felt a deep split within me. The tendrils retracted sharply, releasing an even ghastlier jolt of pain into my system. Blitz's scream filled the air right before I passed out.

*****

An icy drop of rain splattered on my cheek, followed by another. My eyes fluttered open to see that night had fallen and the weather was drizzling.

Something felt amiss. It wasn't until another drop of rain wet my face that I realized my armor wasn't on.

"Strange." I got up slowly, careful about the minute pain in my joints. "I never run out of power time without using creative beams. Blitz, what happened?"

Fear gripped me as the seconds stretched without a mental response.

"Blitz?" My voice quavered. Still no response, not even a sensation. "No, no, Blitz!"

I flexed my muscles, the default action to activate my armor. But I still saw my bare palms, I couldn't even feel the armor again.

My eyes widened as the truth finally dawned on me. "He...took Blitz."