[scikaiju]

“Greetings Director," she heard as she entered the building from the gate’s AI. “According to various news reports the weather is particularly lovely today.” She just glanced at the screen on the gate. The system was all controlled by one computer program, which was updated regularly. But every so often, like just now, a vestige of a previous program would pop up. This one was an attempt to make the program more “life-like” and relatable, which was an idiotic notion which was why she nixed it as soon as she was able. “Have a good day,” it continued as she kept on walking.

“Why would anyone think that was a good idea?”, she muttered as soon as she passed the doors into the main complex. A beep made her look at her watch, a message from the AI program, the main AI program. It had found something.

“Excuse me director,” someone started to say.

“Not before my coffee,” she said as she passed. This person simply nodded and backed up to let her pass without another word. Admitted that could have been anything, from something rather trivial or something somebody considered important. Right now what she considered important just became extremely narrow in the past couple of moments.

Word about her and her coffee, like always, had reached whatever hall she was about to enter as while still being cordiale didn’t bother her beyond that. A phenomenon she had meant to study over the years since becoming Director. “”I need a few minutes,” she told her secretary.

“I will divert all calls and visitors until further notice,” was the reply she heard as she entered her office and closed the door behind here

“What do you have?”, she said out loud as soon as she heard the door click.

“As instructed the information was sent to your tablet directly.” At her desk she picked up the tablet and quickly found the report. While she read it the AI droned on, “As you can see everything on Madison Cole indicates that she is completely normal.”

Dropping into her chair she leaned back looking completely relieved, a look that only lasted for the briefest of moments. “That’s probably because her regular doctors aren’t looking for anything out of the ordinary. But given her father’s medical history there will probably be some blood tests in her future at some point. Keep a look out for those requests. We’ll have to sneak one of our people in and acquire a sample of that blood. We can do far more comprehensive tests than they could. Side note, install an agent now just so we can obtain that sample as soon as possible.

“Looking for a possible opening now.”

“Was this it?”, she demanded.

“No director, I have found a couple of items on Marcus Cole as I was also instructed."

“What items?”, she asked and started going through the various files on her tablet, only to stop when a video popped up. “I assume this pertains to Mister Cole?”

“Correct Director Miller,” the AI answered. “This was posted on social media a few days before Marcus Cole officially joined us.” she started the video, “As you can see there is Marcus Cole in a pen with a frightened child and a rather angry looking canine.”

“And why did you think this particular clip was worth my interest?”

“According to the poster and others present, the animal was fully ready to attack the child. But for some reason Marcus Cole was able to keep it at bay without coming into physical contact with the animal.” Playing the video confirmed what she was just told, and that animal was on the verge of tearing into the child until Cole stepped in. The director took a quick breath. “”I only bring this,” the AI went on,” to your attention because of something I noticed based on a report from one of our own men.”

“Noticed what?”, the video changed to field footage from the previous conflict. Here Marcus Cole stepped forward into camera view. “”What did you notice and what report?”

“It would be better if I showed you.” The video from the tablet disappeared from the screen as a section of the wall moved away revealing a monitor that had a video already pulled up. “To highlight what I’m about to say I need to point this out first.” A series of blue lines appeared going straight toward the screen. “This is the projection of the spikes being fired at the repeal squad right before Marcus Cole steps forward.” Several lines would have been kill shots in other situations.

“And after he steps into view?”, she asked.

More lines, yellow this time appeared but they weren’t as straight as the previous one, in fact they seemed to angle to either side of him. “As you can see it appears the Cryptids looked like they were trying not to shoot where Marcus Cole was standing. Although I am not sure why this would be the case.”

“Why would you look for this?”, she asked, clasping her hands in front of her.

“Because of that report I mentioned. One of the men, a Gerald I believe, states that he saw something glowing behind Marcus Cole’s left ear at this exact moment.” Bringing those clasped hands closer to her chin she looked down at her desk and closed her eyes, right where his birthmark was.

“Is there footage of this?”, she asked, trying to hide her trepidation.

“No,” the AI responded way too calmly for her taste. “Should I try and locate proof of this?”

“No,” she said, almost too quickly. Fast enough it might have raised suspicion in someone human. One of the benefits of dealing with the AI, it probably marked it down as a curiosity if anything. “Erase all footage you compiled of this moment. The man who reported the glow obviously had the light in his eyes.”

“Understood Director Miller,” the AI said before the video blinked out of existence as the panel slid back into place. “Is there anything else?”

“Get me an update on the secondary driver. I want to know how fast it can be completed.”

***
“Appreciate you,” Marcus said after the bartender delivered two glasses of beer in front of him. Taking them he turned away from the bar and headed to the corner booth Nate had picked out. One they gave some relative privacy in this particularly crowded environment. He had to sidestep at least once to avoid getting bumped into. Making it to the booth without spilling a drop Marcus dropped into the opposing seat, “Could you find a booth that was a little closer to the bar?”

Simply pointing to the entrance a couple of feet away all he said was, “It was closer to the door, just in case,” and gestured with his phone. In case the Cryptids decided to pop up again sooner than expected. You sure Kat’s not going to mind you coming home a little late?”

“I told her I was hanging out with you. She said we could use the bro time. Besides, I'm still trying to find the right balance of her enjoying I’m there all the time and not driving her crazy with me being there all the time.”

“And yet you worked at the same place,” Nate pointed out before taking a sip.

“She’s more administration,” Marcus quickly said. “I was more…. groundkeeping.”

“A pretty fancy way of saying you cleaned up shit,” Nate said with a smirk.

And he couldn't really argue, ”Quite literally some days. Hell every day. Eh, it was honest work and working around the animals was always pretty cool.” Looking around the bar briefly he leaned in a bit and said, “About work stuff?”

“We should be good,” Nate told him. Actually part of Marcus wanted to believe it was partially the reason why he picked out this particular booth. “Just don’t talk too loud or draw attention our way.”

“So there were no surprises with the armor upgrade,” he said, still he probably said it a bit softer than he actually needed to. “At least that's what I was able to get from the rumor mill.”

“I heard it too,” Nate told him. “The armor upgrade reacted exactly like predicted. Your blood did nothing to alter anything.”

“And it looked like my just activate it and try it idea,” he started to say.

“You got lucky,” Nate quickly cut him off. “That element in your blood is causing glitches in the driver’s system. That could have gone horribly wrong.”

“But it didn’t.”

“Doesn’t matter bro,” Nate told him, tone saying he wasn’t hearing anything else on the matter. Did this poor bastard not learn anything growing up together?

“You know the next time I get any kind of upgrade I’m just going to activate it and not even tell you.” Nate sighed and looked exactly like all the times Marcus kept the argument going despite that tone. “I don’t even know why we’re even discussing it. I mean as soon as that other driver gets going this is going to be your problem.”

“Until then it’s still your problem,” Nate shot back.”And I’m going to make sure you survive it. Speaking of, we’re looking into finding somebody to train you on how to properly use a sword.”

“Why?”, Marcus asked feeling more than confused at this bit of news. And it was, this was the first he was hearing anything about this.

“”You materialized a sword,” Nate reminded him. “You might as well know how to use it properly. That’s all.”

“You stick the pointy end into the other guy.”

“And what are you going to do when that doesn’t work?”

“How many samurai cryptids do you think I’m going to run across?”, he asked, half joking. Although saying it out loud did make him start to wonder about that possibility. On the other hand, maybe learning a couple of things might not be a bad thing.

“I’m just saying it wouldn’t hurt,” Nate went on. “Just expect to get beat up as soon as the higher ups figure out a proper cover story as to why we need a sword master.”

“Would have figured there was a proper term for that outside of ‘sword masters’,” Marcus commented as he looked over one of the menus. Quickly he noticed a QR code in the lower corner. Another one he realized how fast he seemed to be noticing lately. Given how everywhere these things seemed to be, was he really that blind to them before he used the driver? Was blind even the right word? Pointing it out to Nate he went, “You know, ever since smart glasses became a thing I’m surprised they haven’t come up with an app or something to scan these for the driver.”

“Careful bro,” Nate told him. “Ideas like that and people will try and get you to stay around.”

***

Underground there was a scream as several guards tried to keep a rather large example of the Cryptids, a large gargoyle looking one at that, tied down. To the side the Priestess and the cryptid lord, who was flanked by a couple more guards watched the scene unfold. “We tried brute force with the Rider before,” he commented casually, a trait he had picked up after dealing with the human’s attempt to study them during their previous attempt to claim land in the above world.

“This is true,” she agreed while the brute broke free, sending a couple of guards flying back. As one landed by their feet she continued, “However that one was basically mindless, all anger no thinking. The Rider, while dangerous, is still relatively new, not as battle hardened as the old one. I thought it was wise to test him by throwing something similar but not into battle against him.”

“So an experiment then,” their lord said, unmoved as the brute just broke the back of one of the guards surrounding him.

“In a sense,” she said. “The old Rider seemed to change how he fought depending on who we sent to challenge him. I feel it is important to see if the current one has a similar trait.”

“Not just the Rider,” he said,” as more guards were planted into the ground. “The watcher I sent to witness previously indicated The Rider isn’t acting alone, more humans are helping him.”

“There were tales of other humans helping the old Rider,” she countered.

“But this one seemed different according to the witness, as if the Rider was following the lead of this one human in particular. If he saw correctly then this Rider is more of a soldier than a leader.” As soon as he said that the brute took care of the last remaining of the guards keeping him down. The guards flanking the two of them tensed up as the brute turned their way and began to step forward.

The three with him did not react when the lord stepped forward and stood in front of them, not in protection but in defiance. Putting his right hand on his chest he stared the brute down. After several moments the brute stepped back and took a knee, “My lord,” he snarled.

“He will do,” the lord told them. “When my son returns from his training we will fill him in on this human leader.” Looking past the brute to the guard still writhing on the ground, lower extremities not moving on their own. Looking back at his guard detail he made a slashing move. One of the guards nodded then walked over to the fallen guard as the others from this particular group struggled to regain their footing. No one turned away as the guard drove his spear into the chest of the fallen guard, ending his life then and there. Finally turning away the lord said,” Make sure the slaves eat well.”

***
Marcus just hung back, just watching as Nate and the others just threw knives at that photo at that picture of Director Miller that was pinned to a dart board. Actually he was more surprised that Nate was joining in. Of course Nate mentioned that during their Dad's time they had a full color standee of the director of his time. He was even more shocked when Nate supplied proof of said standee. One was apparently saved after all these years.

And the crotch of that particular standee was fucking obliterated. Granted he wasn’t particularly fond of Miller. But apparently that guy was a real asshole.

“You wanna go man?,” one of the guys asked, offering him a knife. And more than a couple were looking at him to see what he’d do

Still he politely declined, “I have no idea how to throw it. Besides Miller would probably walk in as soon as it left my hand.”

“Bro,” Nate said coming over, “she never comes down here. Outside of that one time. And nothing happened to me. But I have a solution.” Walking over to a desk he retrieved a manilla envelope then headed over to the dart board and removed the picture of Miller. That act got a few boos and heckles. “Just wait,” Nate told them while opening the envelope. “The Director herself supplied this one.” Pulling out something he turned to the dartboard and quickly affixed the picture that was inside to the board. A picture of some older guy.

“Who the fuck is that?”, Marcus went as it was nobody he recognized. Everybody pretty much started talking at once. At most he could get out of the jumble that it was a board member. But outside of that he had no clue.

Nate held up a hand to get them to quiet down. “All you need to know that this is the idiot who tried to make that last bit of test ammo permanent. So for the moment the image of the director gets a reprieve.” Marcus still just hung back and watched as the other eagerly lined up to take a turn at the new target. Then he felt somebody grab his arm and pull him forward. Nate pushed him ahead of the line saying, “I think Little Cole here needs to join in.”

“Oh fuck you,” Marcus said being drowned out by the overwhelming cheers from the group. Nate knew he hated that nickname they stuck on him.

“Now it’s simple bro,” Nate said putting the knife in his hand. “grasp it by the blade between your fingers and throw it that way.” Then Nate made a show of making sure he was hiding directly behind him. The others laughed, Marcus not so much.

“Seriously, fuck you.” Still he lined up a shot and let the knife fly. It literally hit the inside corner of the picture, not the exact image but it still hit the picture. Nate and the others actually cheered, for the fact he actually joined in or actually hit it he wasn’t sure. Either way, with a grin on his face, he backed away. But he didn’t exactly return to his previous spot, just sort of hanging around the periphery. He wasn’t going to admit it out loud but after that other driver got completed he was going to miss this a bit.

***
On his throne the Cryptid Lord watched the crowd before him. When some started looking behind him was the moment he knew she was there. Purposely waiting a bit he finally turned his head to look at the Priestess who stood there. His eyes caught those of one of the guards nearby, he was ready for anything she could potentially try. Still he acted cordially while saying, “Is it time?”

“Almost my Lord,” she said. Again he caught the eyes of that same guard who tensed up a bit. The Priestess looked back at that guard briefly. “The experiment is taking longer than I anticipated but I will make it work.”

“I have no doubt in your ability to make it work.” While he was certain none of the others could hear them he still lowered his voice a bit when he added, “Are you finally prepared to tell me what you saw?”

She looked unsure about his question. He always secretly enjoyed it when he was able to catch her off guard. The woman was prepared for almost anything it felt like. “After the last battle, you saw something.” Understanding what he was talking about it looked like she was shrinking in on herself.

“I…. I am still unsure,” she eventually said.

“And you lie. You are never unsure of what you see.”

“I am still studying what I saw,” she quickly amended. “It was about the Rider, and it made no sense. I told you before something new had entered the fray. What I saw, it defies all logic. I need to study it more.”

“Once we have ended the Rider, this Rider because the humans will have another one ready to challenge us. Recent history has proven that.” She only nodded. “Either way what you saw will no longer matter after that. Study what you think you must until that moment but it is not your priority.”

“I understand my Lord,” she bowed and sulked away. After she left he realized he should have pressed her on what she saw that vexed her so. But like he said once the Rider was defeated then it wouldn’t matter.

***
“Here are the test results you were looking for Doctor Gordon,” Nate heard as he entered the lab. He found Gordon sitting at a portable computer station taking those results. What caught Nate more immediate attention was the vehicle with two front wheels in front and a lone one in the back. Well this was going to be interesting he thought as he walked over to him.

“The armor upgrade worked as designed,” Gordon said, not even looking up as he came closer. “Not a variable out of place anywhere. So how in the hell did he make that sword appear?”

“My brother was always pretty good at making people confused,” Nate spoke up to announce his presence. Even though he was expected Gordon still looked surprised to see him standing there. But Nate's curiosity got the better of him as he inclined his head toward the three wheeled motorcycle he was next to, “What’s with the Spyder?”

Gordon looked back at the vehicle then back at him with a grin, “Can’t really call yourself a Rider without a ride now can you.” Getting off the station's built-in seat he walked over just enough to lay a hand on the vehicle. “We’re trying to modify it with a transformation system, so basically this would be the,” he checked some notes on the station, “this can’t be right but it’s better than nothing I suppose. This would be the look in battle mode. The idea is to make it look like a regular two wheeled motorcycle in…. Stand by mode? Seriously people, we couldn’t come up with better titles than that?”

“Ah Doctor,” an assistant spoke up, “you did approve them.”

“Doctor,” Nate quickly cut in, “you wanted to see me.”

“Yes,” he said, picking up a tablet off the station, “I did. And not for this since we currently can’t seem to get the tech for the QScan driver to work like we want it to for this motorcycle. However the tech for the BScan driver should work very nicely.”

“Wait a minute,” Nate said. “You mean that’s going to be for me?’

“The way things are going, yes. I mean unless we get the QScan tech to work and you can convince your brother to stay. But until then we need to get you ready.”

“The other driver is ready?”, Nate honestly wasn’t sure how to feel about this. Yes he was excited since this is what he’s been training for. But that excitement was tinged by some sadness since that meant Marcus would be leaving soon. As much of an annoyance his brother could be, Nate was enjoying working with him.

“Not quite,” Gordon had said as they walked away from the vehicle. “The Director has put more resources into finishing the driver recently so soon more than likely. Still it be better to get this part out of the way. We’re going to need your body dimensions.”

“You didn’t have to do that with the QScan,” he told him.

“No we didn’t,” Gordon quickly agreed, “but this driver is some older tech. The closer we get it to your body type the better it’ll fit and function. So if you would just strip down to your skivvies and step into the scanner here,” he gestured to a tube in the corner, fortunately there was a screen by it, too many eyes in the room for his liking.

“I remember Dad talking about this,” Nate said as he stepped behind the screen. “In his day they had to take a tape measure to make sure his suit fit. Some of those scientists back then had some really cold hands according to him.”

Gordon chuckled at that, “Good thing we progressed since then huh?” Everybody started looking around as a siren started going off

Nate was rushing to get his shirt back on as he ran out from behind the screen, “Raincheck Doc.”

“Naturally,” he responded well after Nate was already out of the room. Looking over at one of the others, “At least he still had his pants on.”

***
Getting out of his car Marcuse quickly spotted Kat sitting at an outdoor table in front of some sort of restaurant. The closer he got the more he could see she was thinking about something that was bothering her. Despite knowing he hadn’t done anything Marcus still tried to think of anything he might have done, or not done. With one, maybe two, things running around in his head he walked over to where she was. “Hey Kat,” he said, reaching her and leaning down to give her a quick kiss.

“Hey,” she said sounding a bit down despite the smile she was giving him.

Taking the chair next to her he asked, “What’s up?”

“Do you remember Zeke?”, she asked looking at him.

Zeke was the old blind horse that everybody at the ranch was taking care of. When Nate popped in one day he mentioned something about Zeke looking like he was on his last legs. “Oh no, when?”

“A few hours ago,” she said. “Doctor Ramirez found him. It hit her pretty hard, she really liked Zeke.”

“Everybody liked Zeke,” he said, Kat just nodded. “Man that just ruined my day.”

“Sorry babe,” Kat told him.

“No,” I’m glad you told me. I can’t imagine getting back to the ranch then finding out then. Is that why you wanted to meet for lunch?”

“Partially,” she told him. “Doctor Ramirez gave everybody a couple of extra hours. Me and a few others think she needed the extra time to compose herself after finding Zeke.”

“Understandable, I think we all got a little too close with Zeke,” Marcus said.

“And since my sister is looking after Maddie this afternoon,” she continued, "and since you and Nate had a little bro time, I figured we could use a little couple time.”

“My car or yours?”

“Stop it,” Kat said giving him a slight shove.

“I was talking about a drive around town. A nice drive.”

“Sure you were,” Kat said with a smirk. Then his phone started going off. “I’m telling you right now I’m chucking your phone into the nearest manhole.”

“They’d find another way to contact me,” he said looking at who was calling. It was Nate, which meant one thing. “Where is it?” Kat quickly lost the smirk she had once she realized what was going on.

“Oh god,” she said looking around.

Nate said,” based on the telemetry from the driver, about five blocks west of your current location.”

“Five blocks?”, he said quickly getting out of his chair and running toward his car with Kat in tow. “Which way is west?” An answer quickly arrived as several police cars turned on their sirens and headed in a particular direction. “Never mind." he said grabbing the handle of his car’s rear door and opening it in a hurry. Reaching inside he tipped open the back pack and retrieved the driver and buckle. Throwing them into the front set he closed the back door and reached for the driver side door.

“Marcus,” Kat started.

“Get in your car and head that way,” he told her while pointing in the opposite direction the squad cars went. “I’ll call you as soon as I can.”

"Be careful," she told him as he closed the door and quickly started the engine. Pulling out he wondered how close he could get before he would have to abandon his car and make his way on foot. And how quick Nate and the others would get there.

***
People were running as a large gargoyle looking Cryptid rampaged down the street. Flanked by other Cryptids who occasionally broke off to go after the slower humans. Death screams filled the air as a line of police officers took position. “How long before SWAT gets here?”, the one in charge demanded.

“Twenty minutes out!,” someone called out. “Those monster hunters will get here first.”

“The professional amateurs,” he muttered. They were doing a decent job at keeping these freaks at bay, but they weren’t official in any way. And just because they were told to work with them doesn’t mean he had to like it, or them for that matter. “Protect the civilians!", he ordered and drew his side arm, took aim and opened fire with the others following suit.

The large Cryptid just stopped momentarily as he felt several small pricks against his skin. He quickly identified where it was coming from.and saw who it wasn't. He was tasked to end the Rider, not these insignificant humans. Looking at one of his fellow ones of the Earth he grunted then motioned his head in their direction. It responded with a gnarly grin then rushed forward and started ripping into the first one it got it’s claws into.


“Shit!” the lead officer cried out stunned by the carnage he was witnessing. Then another one went down with a spike through the heart. He looked and saw the big one go down another street right before another Cryptid was suddenly in his face. He didn’t even get a chance to scream.

***

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” a woman cried out as the group she was in was running for all they were worth. Then some guy to her left cried out right before he disappeared from view, she kept running. Suddenly the person in front of her was yoinked to the ground and she ran into the thing that did it. Anybody who was left, including a woman who locked eyes with her for a moment all looked at a devilish looking monster then ran for her life . “No!”, she cried out then went silent as the monster focused on her. “No, no, no,” she whimpered as she ended up crawling backwards into a wall. The monster slowly stalked her

“Ready,” a new voice said. The monster looked to it’s right, she did so as well. Some guy was running in their direction with some kind of weird belt around his waist and something in his right hand. “Henhin!” he shouted put that thing into the belt then swung his arms out. A giant QR code appeared and he ran through it looking all blocky. Those blocks became some sort of armor as he got close enough to punch the monster as that earlier voice said, “Kamen Rider Aegis.”

***
He got about a block and a half from the target area before he ran into the police roadblock. Fortunately all the police were either paying attention to the fleeing people or looking back to see if any Cryptids were coming so he and a few other dumbasses were able to sneak past. As it was he just went after the first Cryptid he saw and it just happened to be going after a woman, who was still there. “Get out of here!”

The Cryptid recovered faster than he anticipated and grabbed him around the head and shoulders. Or it tried to as Marcus struggled to get it off of him. Finally he won out, picking it up over his head and slammed it hard on the asphalt street. With a bit of rage coursing through his veins he raised his leg up and literally tried to stomp through the prone Cryptid. It made a weird nose that snapped him out of whatever that was and he took a step back and stared at it for a moment. Where in the hell did that come from?

A whimper made his head snap around, that woman was still there. “Would you fucking go already,” he snapped. The poor scared woman just stared at him all wide eyed. “Go!”, he shouted and pointed away from the Cryptid threat. This time she didn’t hesitate and ran for her life. Marcus watched her leave, took one more look at the fallen Cryptid as he headed deeper into the zone. Holding a hand to the side of his helmet, roughly where his ear would be, he said, “Nate how close are you guys?”

His brother’s voice was soon in that ear, “About five minutes. What’s your situation?”

He looked back at the Cryptid, “Just ran into one, saved a woman, but I don’t think it was the leader.”

“Doubt we could get that lucky again,” he said, referencing that weird encounter from a bit ago. “Just a heads up, we’re getting reports of a big one. Like the one at the ranch you work at.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that after big one,” Marcus said as he quickened his pace. “Any idea where it is?”

“Wait a second,” Nate told him. A moment later a map appeared in his helmet’s HUD with a slowly moving dot. “According to the reports we've been getting it might be the leader.”

“Of course,” Marcus moaned as he took a corner that had him facing the dot’s current location. That one at the ranch was bad enough as a solo act, now there was an army behind it. “Get here fast man.”

“Less than five bro, hang tight.”

“Easy for you to say,” Marcus muttered after the connection went quiet. Still he cracked his neck before breaking out into a full sprint. This was going to suck so hard

***
Apparently Nate ended up unintentionally lying to Marcus as the police line already had their way clear. “Light it up as soon as the doors open!” Nate ordered right before the back opened up. “And look out for any shooters in case they upgraded again,” he got out right before the first couple of men started firing. These were just the standards bullets, so at most they would be annoying the Cryptids more than anything. At least the attention would be on them and not the civilians. “Spread out and draw their attention!” They started moving to the side but kept firing. One particularly ugly looking directly in his direction and popped a spike from it’s forearm. “Oh shit,” Nate muttered as soon as he saw it and concentrated his fire on that one in particular as it started running in his direction. The first couple flashes of his life started to come to him right when something dark came out of nowhere and tackled the Cryptid to the ground.

“No you don’t asshole!” Marcus shouted as he pounded the Cryptid’s head repeatedly until it got out from under him and squirmed away. Just by his body language Nate could tell how frustrated his brotther was. Finally that helmeted head swung his way and Marcus went,” You said five minutes.”

“Battlefield conditions change all the time,” was all Nate told him. The phrase time was money was never more truer than in the middle of a fire fight. Marcus jumped to his feet as soon as a small car landed by them. Both of them looked in the direction it came from and saw their target.

“Big guy!”, Marcus called out as he took a step backwards toward him.

“I see it,” Nate told him as they stood side by side. “Uglier than the last son of a bitch too.”

“We got this?”, Marcus said as he held up a fist.

“We got this.” Nate said as he bumped the back of his fist to Marcus’. “Cover him!”, he ordered as Marcus shot forward toward the target. While Nate and those that could pelted the Cryptid with bullets it swung at Marcus. Fortunately, because that blow looked like it would have been nasty if it connected, he was fast enough to duck and roll under the blow. Getting to a knee he quickly turned and shot forward landing his shoulder fully into the Cryptid’s knee causing it to lose balance.

With a grunt Marcus was able to get it to fall as he pulled on the leg. With it face down he quickly jumped on it’s back and started raining down punches at the back of it’s head. “Oh shit,” he muttered as he started to cling on as it got back to it’s feet. The Cryptid started to reach for him but Marcus kept squirming around as best as he could while keeping a tight grip around it’s neck. Then it grabbed the arm around said neck, “Shit!”, Marcus cried out as he was sent flying off the creature. He hit the street, rolling along until he came to a stop.

“Marcus are you alright?”, he heard Nate say in his ear.

“Just fucking peachy,” he said as he got back up. Okay plan A just went out the window, now what was plan B? Wait, maybe… he thought as he looked down at the driver. Swiping it to pull up his latest code he tapped the screen as the driver announced “armor” while several QR codes appeared and started to fly around him before combining under his feet. As it went up his body more pixelated sections appeared before forming more armor around him. Touching the collar around his neck he went, “Let’s try this again.”

Bowling into the Cryptid, something it obviously wasn’t expecting, Marcus was able to knock it off balance again going for a leg to get it on the ground. It was also smarter than it looked, definitely smarter than the last one, as it braced itself quickly and stood it’s ground. Marcus looked up at it and got out a “Fuck,” before jumping backwards to avoid getting grabbed. So this plan was a bust, the armor upgrade didn't make him any stronger than the driver already did. Well shit. Then he caught a glint coming off the edge of the scallops on his forearm. Okay them, modify plan B. He went in again, avoiding it’s limbs until he got in a slash at it’s thigh with the scallops.

The Cryptid howled in pain, giving him another chance to slash it again, this time one the other leg but it wasn’t going down. “Come on you son of a bitch. Fall.” Instead the Cryptid lunged at him. Marcus moved out of the way and got into a position to give it two bloody gashes on it’s back.

“What are you doing?”, he heard Nate say.

“Getting him angry,” he answered while ducking another swing. You get angry you get sloppy rig…,” he was cut off when a massive back hand caught him and sent him flying hard across the street.

“Marcus!”, Nate screamed.

The wall he collided with now had a somewhat circular dent as he dropped to the ground. Slowly getting to his knees he held his head while shaking it slightly, groaning, ”Doesn’t matter if you’re sloppy when you’re that strong, got it.” He didn’t want to even think about how that blow would have felt if he didn’t activate the armor upgrade, because his whole body was hurting like hell as it was. Breathing hard he looked up and saw Cryptids were starting to circle Nate and the others. Then he spotted two posters, both with QR codes, one being highlighted blue for a weapon the other red for an armor upgrade. He looked back and forth between them trying to decide which one as he removed the driver from the buckle.

“Try to concentrate on the big one!” he heard Nate call out. Then immediately pointed the driver at the blue highlighted code. After it was scanned he quickly placed the driver back into the buckle ten swiped until the helmet’s HUD displayed the new code and tapped the screen. Like with the sword a small QR code hovered in the air, he reached through it with his right hand. . It expanded until it covered his forearm almost up to the elbow and his hand. The extra armor and scallops more of less disappeared as some sort of gauntlet took their place. A handle appeared under his palm that he quickly grabbed as it finished materializing. He looked at it briefly, while the entire gauntlet was black, outside of the grey on the handle, there were two obvious looking gun barrels on the top, and what had to be the trigger at the end of the handle by his thumb. “Well this one’s pretty obvious.”

“Try to hold the line!”, Nate ordered, despite knowing that wasn’t going to be possible with the regular ammo they were carrying. This was going to be bad there was literally no way out except back to the truck. So it was either be sitting ducks in the open, or sitting ducks in an enclosed space. A guy next to him went down from a shooter as the men on that side moved to try and close that window. Before he even had a chance to even curse the idea that neither the BScan driver or ammo that was actually useful against the Cryptids was ready, some sort of red blast hit a Cryptid with some sparks as it fell to the ground. Nate and a couple of others looked over and saw Marcus with his right arm up firing those bolts, which also grabbed the Cryptid’s attention. While grateful for the breather Nate still went, “How in the hell do you know how to use that?”

He got off a few more shots before going ”Two barrels and an obvious trigger.” He fired a few more times, “This is about as point and click as you can get.” The big cryptid looked over at Marcus, and actually looked annoyed that he was there before turning to go after him. “Come on big fella,” Marcus taunted as he began focusing his aim at the big one. One of the smaller Cryptids got in front of it. The big one reached down, picked it up and hurled that Cryptid at Marcus. “Fuck,” he grunted as he ducked. He popped up and started firing again and began running toward the big one.

Nate quickly motioned for a couple of his guys to cover the just thrown Cryptid who had hit the ground with a thud and wasn’t currently moving. No point in taking chances.

Marcus didn’t get close to the Cryptid, just trying to run around it while keeping that button pressed the entire time. The Cryptid suddenly lunged at him. Marcus got under that grab and was able to get the blaster under it’s chin and hit the button. The Cryptid clutched at it’s jaw and howled in pain as it rose up. Marcus jumped up and kicked both feet into it’s chest to back it up. Running toward and jumping off a hereby car he snapped off a kick that knocked it even further back. Marcus took the opening to look at the gauntlet one more time, he wasn’t seeing a QR code anywhere so he couldn’t do a finishing move with this. But he still wanted to keep his distance. Swiping the driver’s screen to the right he pulled up a code and tapped the screen. Reaching into the code the gauntlet disappeared, his forearm returned to it’s armoired state and he was now gripping the sword.

Getting only close enough to take a swing and quickly getting out of the way when t reacted he did this several times before quickly backing away. Holding the code on the back of the square hilt the driver scanned it and announced “Unlocked.” The blade ignited in flames he gripped the handle with both hands. The Cryptid charged at him and he held his ground, once close enough Marcus yelled, “Hellraiser Slash!”, and swung up, going through the Cryptid as it passed. The Cryptid exploded before it hit the ground as Marcus stumbled forward a bit. He looked up to see the other Cryptid start to run off.”The big one was the leader, thank god for that.”

“Marcus,” Nate called out as he ran up to him. “What the hell was that?”

“I believe winning,” he got out between breaths. He looked up and saw some of the others pull out a body bag for the Cryptid that had gotten thrown. That made him think about the first one he ran across and his reaction. “Nate, that first one I came across….”

“Save it for the report later. Despite the slight fuck up you did good.”

“Thanks,” he said, heavy on the sarcasm.

Nate wasn’t affected at all. “Maybe you’ll think a bit more next time.”

“Grandpa Joe always said you can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t make ‘em.” Then he remembered something else, “ Hey, anybody see a roughly me size dent in a wall anywhere?”

“Over there man,” one of them pointed.

“Thanks,” he said as he headed over with Nate in tow.

“What now,” Nate asked as they both located where he landed and jogged over.

“I saw two codes, one for a weapon and one for an upgrade,” he explained. “There it is.”

“Why go for the weapon?”, Nate asked him.

At the moment,” he began while removing the driver from the buckle again, “an unknown weapon sounded like a better idea than an unknown upgrade. Man is if this ends up being a strength enhancer I’m going to be so pissed”

“Okay I stand corrected,” Nate said as he started scanning the code. “you can think when you need to.”

Marcus had a comeback just waiting, a really good one. But something about the screen caught his attention. There was literally a quarter, the upper right corner to be exact, of the code on the screen. What in the actual fuck? “Ah Nate,” he said, showing him the screen.

“What in the hell?” he said getting closer while Marcus tapped the driver. “Did you break it?”

“No i didn’t break it,” he shot back. “The blaster loaded up just fine.”

“Captain,” someone ran up to them. “We just got a report, they found a dead Cryptid in the street and are collecting it now. It looks like somebody tried to cave it’s chest in.” Nate blinked a few times before slowly turning his head toward Marcus.

“Oh, now you want to talk about it.”

***
Outside of the lab Marcus had excused himself as Kat called him. Damn it he was going to call her before now. “Sorry the post battle debrief took longer than usual.” Partially because of that weird code error, partially because of what he did to that Cryptid he came across. Maybe leave the latter part out when he told her about his day later.

“The news made it sound like a pretty big one,” she told him. He visibly winced at her choice of words. “They describe this one Cryptid that made it sound like the one at the ranch. And that one knocked you around a bit. So I’ll have some aspirin waiting for you when you get home “

“You are the absolute best,” Marcus said with a grin. “And I don’t want to hear anybody say otherwise. Not even Maddie.”

“Then it’s a good thing she can’t talk yet,” she said with a chuckle. “I’ll see you when you get home. Love you.”

“Love you too.”, he said in return. Ending the call, he wondered how he got that lucky to get her in his life. He was going to have to find a way to make all of this up to her after the other driver gets up and running. Which may be sooner rather than later based on some of the things being said in the lab. He better start planning now

When he reentered the lab Nate waved him over. The director was there looking more unpleasant than usual for some reason. “Look at this,” Nate told him as he pulled up some camera footage on the big screen. Marcus realized what they were looking at, that first Cryptid.

“I told you I don’t know what happened,” Marcus said.

Then Nate cut him off with a surprising, “She looks sort of like Kat.”

“What?”, Marcus went. Nate pointed out the woman who was there, even blowing up the image. “No she doesn’t,” he argued. Outside of the dark hair she didn’t resemble Kat at all. “I literally just left Kat when you called. There’s no way I could have thought that was her.”

“Maybe subconsciously,” Nate went on. “I mean you pretty much tried to go postal on the one who killed dad.”

“So subconsciously,” the director trailed off.

“I’m just spit balling here,” Nate told them. “Trying to make heads or tails out of this.”

“We can’t have him going into that type of rage again,” she said. “Even if it was a Cryptid…”

“He’s never done it before,” Nate argued. “I’ll work with him to keep the temper under control.”

“Again this is going to be pointless after the other driver finally gets the green light,” Marcus cut in.

“I got it,” Dr. Gordon cried out before anybody could say anything else. “That partial code it’s in the system.”

“It is?”, Nate asked. Even the director looked like she was caught off guard by this bit of news.

“So what is it?”, Marcus asked.

“Well details,” he began, “appear to be above my clearance.” He gave the director a bit of a glance before continuing, “But it looks like to be some sort of ultimate upgrade for the QScan driver.”

“So why did a quarter of the code show up then?”, Marcus asked him.

“That part is above my clearance,” Gordon told them. “But there are four of them. I’m speculating that there was so much information it had to be broken up. Once all four are scanned it should unlock.”

“If you will excuse me,” the director said sharply before quickly leaving the room

After the door closed Marcus went, “Anybody else think some digital heads are going to roll?”

“Just as long as it’s not mine,” Gordon said.

“Now I got to hurry up and find those other three codes,” he told Nate.

“Why the rush?”, Nate asked.

“Because your driver is going to be going sooner than later,” was his answer. “And what that ultimate form going to be is going to bug me if I don’t complete it before then “

“Seriously,” Nate said shoving him in the head slightly.

“Oh in case I get a ticket from where I parked from the fight, this place will reimburse me, right?”

“You were five blocks away and you drove?”, Nate said in disbelief.

“I wasn’t running five blocks. Do you have any idea how winded I’d be?”

“Okay, we’re adding endurance training to the workouts,” Nate informed him. Even going so far as to mark something down on a tablet

“I’m not going to be here that long,” he said as they exited the room. “Say, can I get a lift back to my car? You did drag me into the wagon after it was over,” he added when Nate gave him a look.

“Fine,” Nate said with a huff. Although he did have a point.As they left he took one more look back at the body scanner. Like Marcus said, sooner rather than later