Second Genesis

There was a basal sort of violence in Great Udon’s voice. As though a general standing leading the charge toward a sea of blood, those that heard him felt their heart surge, their pores opening up and their sweat forming small beads that quickly evaporated into a steam. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Every one of them thought that they were rightly outraged. Not a single one of them had noticed slight tweaks and electric pulses running through their Nexis Suits.

None except Grey.

...

Grey cut through one building after another, catching odd glimpses of people, or creatures, looking at him from within their stores. Their expressions were hard to read given the distance, but any oddities Grey picked up were quickly forgotten by the echo of Great Udon’s voice.

A gloominess radiated from his eyes.

He honestly couldn’t remember a point in his life where he had ever been so frustrated. Everything in this world was designed to piss him off.

A jolt ran through Grey’s hand, and then retreated. It pulsed again, and it somewhat reminded Grey of watching a cat try to squeeze through a small space. The pulses kept trying, but it wasn’t quite compatible with his body.

’No, it’s just not quite lining up properly.’

Grey shifted the position of the black sleeve over his arm just as it pulsed again.

’Not quite. One more time.’

He shifted again, then came the pulse. This time, a connection formed and Grey felt his heart rate accelerate. He began to sweat more profusely, and the anger he felt from earlier nearly came out in a shout.

However, when he pumped his arms to take another stride, that feeling vanished as the fabric shifted out of the perfect alignment.

A realization hit Grey. ’Those fucking bastards.’

They were using the Nexis Suits to control emotions too?

Grey skidded to a stop as he hit a dead end.

"Fuck!"

He turned back and ran the other way, then took another turn and a gate appeared before him.

Grey hit his full stride, bursting out into a full-on sprint. There were a pair of guards at the door, dressed in plate armor and wielding spears with blade heads larger than even the heads of the knights that wielded them.

They shifted in their positions and looked toward the running Grey as though NPCs in perfect sync with one another.

A bad feeling shot through Grey like a bolt of lightning and he pumped his arms faster, sprinting with everything he had.

His form broke down, his legs overextending themselves as his arms flung wildly to the side. But it practically felt like he was stuck in a running loop, swimming through a quagmire in the depths of his dreams.

The gate doors began to slowly close and Grey couldn’t even believe what he was seeing.

He wasn’t going to make it. The distance was too far, there was just no way.

BOOM.

The heavy doors came to a close and Grey slammed into them several seconds later. He wasn’t even close.

His fists pounded against the walls, but it didn’t even begin to budge. Each door must have weighed several tons.

Grey leapt back, his head looking from side to side. The knights were still staring at him, but it was like they didn’t care enough to make a personal move at all. Or maybe they felt it was unnecessary.

Not having the time to care about them either, Grey’s line of sight finally landed on an outpost. There had to be some sort of hidden mechanism room that controlled the gate’s opening and closing, right?

’There.’

He sprinted to the side, practically brushing shoulders with one of the knights. He found a hidden doorway and grabbed the knob with both hands, yanking hard.

It didn’t budge either.

’Not like this, dammit!’ Grey roared in his mind, but his face had an expression of deathly cold on it. He was absolutely furious and he was channeling it into whatever he could think of.

But internally, a clock was ticking away, and every second he wasted, every heavy breath he heaved out, he felt like he had less and less of those remaining.

...

"FUCK!" Caldrin chucked his headset against a wall.

He had forgotten about that mechanism. What a waste.

The Great Udon was the perfect host for a show like this. The Race he hailed from had very few members remaining, but their special quirks and abilities, well... it could safely be said that there was no better host for the Genesis Games.

The problem was that he was too self-important and almost always stepped over the line. There was a reason he hadn’t been invited to host in so long—and that certainly wasn’t because his fee was so extravagant. He brought in so many fans that money could be easily recouped.

This time, while it wasn’t entirely Great Udon’s fault, it might as well have been.

Now Caldrin’s chances of overseeing a main storyline were being pissed away right in front of him.

...

Zone 234 City.

A young man held up a spear that radiated a white-gold light. Around his neck, a chain and amulet danced, flooding outward.

"Joaquin, is this really the best use of that item? It was so valuable..." a much smaller young man tried to speak, but Joaquin’s glance made him shut up completely.

Joaquin led what was little more than an enraged mob toward a Grey who was just standing in the middle of the cobblestone road. The latter held two axes in his hands, a line of black fabric connecting his two hands.

Grey’s gaze was focused to the ground, the only real sign other than the fact he was standing that he was even alive being his heavy breath. Even now, he hadn’t quite caught it. To the very end, he had tried to find a way, even climbing the walls, but in the end it all ended in failure.

Near the back of the mob, Fitz and Ray followed, the latter with his eyes avoiding all eye contact, and the former blending into the crowd with a feigned fury on his expression.

"That girl didn’t deserve what you did to her." Joaquin spoke in a low voice and Grey finally looked up.

"Shut the hell up."

Grey moved, erupting like a man with not a single thing to lose.