Jak Koke - Stranger souls

The floor tilted abruptly as Burnout's weight came down. The helo sank slightly, then centered as Dhin compensated.

Ryan drew his gun and pushed Nadja to the back of the cargo hold as Burnout tried to grab hold with his other hand. Then Ryan focused his energy, drawing strength from the Dragon Heart, and pummeled Burnout's secure hand with a distance strike.

The extendible fingers bent under the impact, two of them shearing off. A hairline crack appeared in the third, the weight of the cyberzombie hanging by a metal thread. It snapped a second later, and Burnout fell.

Then the cyberzombie's other hand swung around and caught the metal runner. Burnout started to pull his huge body up, and he was looking at Ryan, his eyes narrowing to pinpoints. "You will die, Ryan Mercury," Burnout said. "I beat you once. This time will be no different. And when you're dead, I'll take your magic."

Ryan slapped in his clip of armor-piercing rounds and fired. The first bullet penetrated Burnout's shoulder, burying itself in the synthetic muscles and stripping away some vat-grown skin to reveal shiny chrome beneath. The second missed as Burnout moved, swinging to the side and up.

Standing on the runner now, close enough that Ryan could smell the machine oil, Burnout reached behind his back for an Ares Alpha Combatgun. Ryan pummeled the cyberzombie' s hand as the weapon came around. The quickness of the move took Burnout by surprise. Ryan's foot shot out and connected with the fingers just as they were about to ratchet into full grip. The gun went flying out of the cyberzombie's hand, falling into the canyon below.

Ryan pulled his foot back. I'm faster now. I can beat this mockery of life. Burnout leaped from the runner, intending to land inside the cargo hold. A sick feeling of deja vu slicked through Ryan as the cyberzombie loomed in front of him.

The mountain cliff above the compound framed Burnout's silhouette in burnished red rock as Ryan struck, going for the leg sweep again. But he wasn't going to make the same mistake as last time. When the two had fought in Aztlan, Burnout had simply grabbed Ryan's leg in his unyielding grasp, then tranquilized Ryan with a long, sharp needle that slid out from a compartment in his arm.

This time Ryan changed tactics. At the exact same moment as his leg struck for Burnout's ankles, Ryan used his

telekinetic strike, focusing his energy to bludgeon Burnout in the chest. Trying to knock him backward. Trying to dislodge this unrelenting beast and send him plummeting into the depths of Hell where he belonged.

The cyberzombie lifted his feet to dodge the leg attack, but he wasn't expecting the third strike. For the briefest of moments, Burnout was airborne in mid-jump. Instead of holding on to the helo, his hands reached toward Ryan. It was in that moment that Ryan's invisible pummel landed. Like a ram in the center of Burnout's chest, the power of the Dragon Heart behind it.

The blow lifted the heavy metal body of the cyberzombie and sent him reeling back. He sailed out the open door and fell.

Ryan saw the expression on the cyberzombie's face as he realized he'd been beaten. It was a combination of surprise and admiration. That he had finally met an adversary he could respect. Then the expression changed to one of sheer hatred as a leer flashed across Burnout's features.

The chrome fingers shot out again. Broken off and flailing, the metal snakes flashed toward Ryan. They weren't aiming for the helo's runners. They came directly for Ryan.

He brought up his hands in defense, but realized Burnout's true goal too late. At their furthest extension, the fingers touched Ryan at the waist. They curled their sharp and mangled ends around the nylon net bag that held the Dragon Heart. And when they snapped taut, the whole weight of Burnout's body came down like an anchor.

Ryan jerked forward at the waist, pulled off this feet, flying for the door. He scrabbled for a hold, frantically grabbing for anything. He found nothing but grooved flooring. He fell out the side door, the hot air of Hell baking around him as he followed the cyberzombie down.

"No, Ryan! No!" came Nadja's scream.

The helicopter's runner caught Ryan in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. But it slowed him enough that his hands found purchase, wrapping around the hot metal. Then he slipped over and their combined weight pulled at his grasp.

His sweaty fingers slipped against the metal of the runner. White-hot needles jabbed the back of his hands and arms as he tried to focus, tried to hold on.

"I will have your magic, Ryan Mercury," said Burnout, his voice the grating of metal on metal.

Ryan looked down. Below him, Burnout hung suspended, his metal parts tinged with the pink of the dying sun. Framed by the impenetrable black of the abyss. Ryan felt his fingers giving way, slipping on the smooth round metal as his strength waned.

Then the nylon web bag tore, ripping away from his belt. And Burnout fell into the dark canyon below. He made no sound as he fell. He simply disappeared, a dark silhouette melting into the inky void. The Dragon Heart went with him, his chrome fingers still clutching it. Still gripping the one thing Dunkelzahn said could save the world.

How could this have happened? At the very moment Ryan had finally come to accept that it was his mission to deliver the Dragon Heart, he'd lost it for the second time.

Lethe watched Burnout fall, the creature of metal and flesh plummeting from the helicopter. Holding the Dragon Heart in his cybernetic grip. Taking it from Ryan Mercury, who hung from the runner of the flying machine.

In the astral, the cyberzombie glowed brightly against the dark wasteland of the narrowing cliffs as he fell. The center of his aura was a black emptiness, a void where his spirit should be. Instead, his spirit was diffuse, a dim edge of light along the periphery of his aura.

All around Burnout's aura were magics designed to seal the spirit inside. Those spells were all that kept him alive; there wasn't enough natural flesh left. It was like a boat riddled with holes that had been patched too often and refused to sink only because the pumps continued to work overtime.

Lethe followed Burnout's plunge, watching him bounce off the narrowing canyon wall. Hells Canyon was a giant, wedge-shaped slash in the earth, and at the bottom of the slash flowed the Snake River. It was the deepest gorge in the world-the longest fall. But the walls were angled, not perfectly vertical.

Burnout hit the rock wall again, smashing down on the Dragon Heart still clutched tightly in his mangled metal hand. He bounced off and continued falling. The cyberzombie would certainly die during the fall; he should be dead already. His continued existence was a perversion, a violent abuse of magic that would only lead to astral pollution.

But the Dragon Heart must not be allowed to be lost or damaged. Its magic seemed intact to Lethe as he moved close to Burnout. But when the huge cyborg hit the cliff again, what then? And if Burnout landed on top of it when he

crashed with it on the bottom of the gorge, would the Dragon Heart survive intact?

Lethe could allow nothing to happen to it. He would not disappoint Thayla. The sanctity of her song must be protected from the spread of the dark stain. Only the Dragon Heart could help her.

This perversion of metal and flesh was the only thing Lethe had left. He could not let Burnout die. He must protect the Dragon Heart at any cost. There was only one way he could be certain that all of Burnout's effort, every last vestige of his energy, was devoted to preventing harm from coming to the Dragon Heart.

And if the cyberzombie survived somehow, Lethe could take control of his body and use it to deliver it to Thayla. It was evident that Ryan Mercury could no longer be trusted, despite Dunkelzahn's confidence in him. And despite Ryan's display at the very end, when he seemed to have overcome his internal struggle, Lethe did not trust him. Would never trust him.