The Substitutes: Contract

Ego Burst

Kalibrand had chosen a perfect location to contest the fate of the Earth. When researching the coordinates given in the message, Sam had been worried that the invader's lack of local knowledge would lead to them fighting in either the middle of a capital city or the middle of nowhere, but Kyu's presence in the area seemed to have pushed him into finding a space that was not only close to his prey but was also relatively secluded to allow for them to battle in peace. Small stones and grit crunched underfoot as Sam curled his way around the sloping mounds of gravel and sand that had built up around the old depot on the edge of town. The former storehouse for the trains of the local station had been abandoned in favour of a more up-to-date building closer to the platforms, and with there being no need to renovate the area left behind it had been left to shelter stray animals instead as waste construction materials piled up all around, along with more conventional rubbish dumped by careless citizens. 

A dirty fox watched them trudge past from its home of sofa cushions, red fur long since dulled by a long life of living in waste. Kyu wrinkled his nose and complained about selfish disposal methods, but Sam paid him no mind, mentally tracking out the quickest path through the artificial dunes should they need to retreat. Not that they were going to need to. He was going to win, proving the manipulative little whiner wrong about him, about humans, about everything. Once Kalibrand was defeated, that high-and-mighty attitude could be put out to rot with the rest of the trash outside the depot.

As far out as they were from the centre of town, the cool spring evening was much quieter than Sam was comfortable with, the sounds of city life replaced with dim birdsong and the faint clatter of outgoing trains in the distance, as though a phantom carriage had followed them home to rest one last time as Kyu telekinetically picked the rusted lock to allow them access. The inside was just as emptily unwelcoming, a vast darkness stretching back so far that even the specks of light from the holes in the ceiling couldn't illuminate the supporting girders that held the decay together. And somewhere within the black was a metal giant who had summoned him to battle.

"Kyu, could you find a light switch? It should be built into the wall, just come out from here and follow it all the way around."

"Will do. Remember, if you run into Kalibrand..."

"Be prepared to run, I know." Sam snapped, having grown tired of being instructed of all the scenarios in which he should give up. His inability to see more than twenty feet before him was already eroding the confidence he'd spent building up on the trip over, daydreams of Kyu's humility fading out to be replaced by images of invisible enemies swarming beyond his sight.

Kyu sniffed haughtily and padded off into nothing as Sam clipped his phone to the collar of his hoodie, a makeshift torch to light his way if the ceiling lights were too damaged to work. Cursing himself out for not considering the possibility of fighting in the dark, he advanced nonetheless, following the middle set of tracks into the depths, guided only by the shaky patch of light from his breast and the iron pillars either side. But even with markers to guide the way, they were little comfort compared to having someone by his side to talk to, even if they weren't on the best of terms. By the time he'd marked the eleventh girder his heartbeat had grown maddingly loud in his ears, speeding up with every scratch and tick his paranoia forced him to focus on as he whipped back and forth, ready to be ambushed at any second. 

The temptation to call out and demand a confrontation was overwhelming, but he wasn't about to surrender his sole advantage. Kalibrand had thrown down the challenge but had received no indication of when they'd show up, and the element of surprise was the most powerful tool they had outside of the acid orbs. Throwing it away out of childish fear of the dark would be unforgivable. Biting down hard on the inside of his mouth, he took a deep breath to put a stop to his self-destruction, only for it to get stuck in the back of his throat as the shadows before him grew lumpy at the edge of the light. Stinger was snapped up and aimed immediately, the tip shaking as lumps defined into shaped steel, then flashed into full view as the overhead lights kicked into life. Blinded by the sudden rush of white, Sam stumbled back, swinging wildly, only for Stinger to bounce back and stop, then jerk upwards, taking Sam with it and leaving him kicking wildly at whatever had captured him.