...Could it?

  The object was suddenly removed. Darrick thought he heard a soft click echo behind him. It must have been his imagination.

  “N-Never mind that! Just hurry up and get moving!”

  “Okay. Okay. There’s no need to get angry. Ouch! H-hey! Quit tugging on my ear! That hurts!”

  “Shut up! We’re moving!”

  Darrick could say nothing as he was dragged out of his cubicle. Women could be so pushy, he lamented.

  1

  After Kazekiri left to get Darrick, Yumi led Nyx and Caridna to the docking station, which was located on the other side of the headquarters and only accessible by a member of the police. The station was mostly deserted as they rushed through various halls. Their feet echoed along the tiled floor, a burst of staccato noise and offbeat rhythms.

  Nyx followed behind Yumi and Caridna. She kept a wary eye on their surroundings, just in case someone discovered and tried to stop them. However, it appeared that this place really was deserted. There didn’t seem to be a single living soul inside—at least, not on the first floor.

  “How much further is it to the docking station?” asked Nyx.

  “Not much further,” Yumi assured them.

  They turned a corner, but were forced to stop when they realized that someone else was standing in the hallway. Drill-like curls. Ice blue eyes. Fair skin clad in a skintight bodysuit. It was Karen, the commander of the police forces on Mars.

  She stood in the middle of the hallway, her expression blank. Sharp eyes like a blade cut into them. When she opened her mouth and spoke, even her voice sounded emotionless. Nyx was oddly disturbed.

  “Vice Commander Yumi, what do you think you’re doing?”

  Yumi stepped in front of everyone, blocking the path to them as if she was going to protect them. “There’s no use pretending anymore. I already know you’re not really Commander Karen. That might be her body, and that might be her voice, but I know she’s being controlled by you… King MacArt.”

  All of a sudden, Karen’s demeanor changed. A deranged grin spread across her face. Her eyes, which had once been dead, gleamed with a ferocity that reminded Nyx of the predators found on the jungle planet Viidako.

  “I suppose I should have realized you would know what was going on when I saw Nyx with you,” King MacArt spoke through Karen’s voice. “Since you already know my identity, you know that I will not allow you or anyone else to interfere with my plans.”

  Karen, or rather, Karen’s body controlled by King MacArt, pulled out two pistols from her side and fired them off. Nyx and the others dove around the corner. The sounds of plasma bullets hitting the wall echoed down the hallway. Plasteel exploded as plasma slammed into the walls. A loud sizzling sound filled the air as the plasma quickly ate through the plasteel, though the reinforced durasteel underneath held up well to the plasma’s extreme temperature.

  Yumi un-holstered her pistol, checked her ammo cartridge, and fired off several shots from around the corner. Nyx couldn’t hear the sound of a body dropping to the floor. She assumed that to mean Karen hadn’t been hit.

  “You two should keep moving,” Yumi said to them.

  “That’s a good idea,” Caridna agreed. “I’d rather not fight against my sister-in-law. Come on, Nyx. I know of another passage that will take us to the docking station.”

  Nyx nodded and followed Caridna as she took off down another hallway, leaving Yumi to fight against the mind-controlled Karen.

  2

  Kazekiri was worried. She did her best not to show it, but she had expected Vice Commander Yumi and the others to have shown up by now. What was taking them so long?

  “Um, Kazekiri? How long are we supposed to wait here?”

  “Until they show up.”

  “And how long is that going to be?”

  “How should I know?!”

  She and Darrick were sitting inside of his shuttle, which had already been started up and was thrumming with life. While Darrick sat in the driver’s seat, Kazekiri had opted for the back. She rested one leg on top of the other, her foot shaking as if it had a mind of its own.

  Anxiety pumped through her like adrenaline. She was worried about the others. What if they’d been caught? What if they’d run into trouble and been arrested? The police station had been mostly deserted, but that didn’t mean it was completely deserted. At the very least, there were still the cadets, though all of them were likely on the upper floors.

  Just as Kazekiri was thinking of going back inside to search for them, the doors leading into the police station blew open. She could only stare, slack-jawed, at the warped durasteel door. It hadn’t been that thick, maybe ten centimeters at most, but it was still durasteel—the same material used on the hull of starships.

  Two figures burst out and raced onto the docking station. It was Caridna and Nyx, the infamous assassin who Alex had rescued. Kazekiri breathed a sigh of relief, but then she noticed that Vice Commander Yumi was missing and felt her worry return.

  Several more figures rushed onto the docking station, people wearing the uniforms of a cadet. They were carrying standard blaster rifles, which fired low-intensity beams meant to stun. Sirens went off. Nyx and Caridna continued to run, even as they fought off their pursuers.

  “W-what the hell is that girl doing?! How is she doing that?!” Darrick gawked at Nyx, who placed her hands on the ground. Right before their very eyes, several fists grew out and slammed into the cadets, knocking them aside and sending them flying.

  Kazekiri would have answered him, but she didn’t know either. She knew who Nyx was. She knew what Nyx did. However, she hadn’t been told about this strange ability.

  While Nyx took her opponent’s down with strange, mystical abilities, Caridna fired off several stun rounds with pinpoint precision. Each shot hit a cadet in the chest. Each cadet crumbled to the ground as the stun bolts scrambled their body’s ability to work. Before long, all of the cadets were taken out, and Nyx and Caridna entered the shuttle.

  “Take us out of here,” Caridna ordered as Nyx strapped on her seatbelt.

  “R-right!”

  Yanking on the controls, Darrick took them into the air without even questioning the order. Kazekiri grunted as the g-forces pushed down on her. It seemed the inertial dampener hadn’t been turned up to accommodate for such a sudden shift in acceleration.

  “Damn it, boy! Turn that dampener back up!” Caridna snapped.

  “S-sorry!”

  Darrick reached out and fiddled with a knob on the dashboard. Kazekiri nearly groaned in relief when gravity stopped trying to compress her chest like a trash compactor.

  They flew higher into the air before Darrick leveled them out. Cruising near the upper district, Darrick wove between buildings and traffic with the ease of an experienced pilot. Kazekiri still felt nauseous. She grabbed onto the person closest to her, Nyx, and held on as if afraid she might fall out of the shuttle. Nyx seemed annoyed for her part, but even so, she didn’t resist and let Kazekiri cling to her.

  “Well,” Darrick started, “now that we’re in the air, how about you—”

  His words were cut off when several police shuttles flew up alongside them, and a loud voice hailed from a speaker system. “Pilot Darrick Caraoughway, you are under arrest for aiding and abetting known criminals! Return to police HQ and turn yourself over! I repeat, return to police HQ and turn yourself over!”

  “So now we’re criminals?” Caridna scoffed. “Boy, lose these idiots.”

  “Are you sure that’s a good—”

  “I said lose them!”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  Kazekiri screamed as Darrick threw the shuttle into a loop. Her stomach flew into her throat as the world flashed by in dizzying streaks. She felt sick. By Mars. She felt so sick. She wanted to throw up as Darrick juked and jinked, avoiding incoming traffic and buildings as he attempted to lose their pursuers. Instead of barfing, all she did was cling to Nyx like the girl was a lifeline and scream.

  “Could you stop shoving my face into your boobs?” Nyx asked, her voice bland.

  Kazekiri didn’t respond, busy as she was screaming herself hoarse.

  3

  Yumi grunted as she slammed her back against the wall. The loud chugging of twin pistols echoed to her as plasma projectiles slammed into her protective cover.

  Whoever was controlling the commander’s actions was good, really good. They were an excellent shot, had a keen grasp of how those weapons handled, and had impeccable hand to eye coordination. That said, they weren’t Commander Karen. Yumi would have been dead by now if that had been the case.

  “Ha-ha-ha! What’s wrong, little girl,” MacArt mocked her in Commander Karen’s voice. “It seems you’re having problems. Are you overwhelmed? Are you unable to fight back because you’re afraid of harming your dear commander? Ha-ha-ha! You humans are all alike no matter which rock you crawled out from under! It’s no wonder your species is considered the most pathetic in the entire galaxy!”

  Listening to this sycophant was like having someone impale her ears with a durasteel drill. She knew that he was doing it to rile her up, however. It was a common tactic to enrage an enemy and make them prone to hasty decisions, and thus it was easily ignored.

  Yumi listened to the continued chug-chug-chug of twin plasma pistols being fired, waiting until she heard the distinct whine that signified they were out of power and needed to be reloaded.

  Now!

  Darting out from behind the corner, Yumi fired off several rounds from her own pistol, which fired standard lasers. All of her shots went purposefully wide. She didn’t want to hit Commander Karen, but she did want to spook the one controlling her.

  Her tactic didn’t work. It seemed that MacArt knew, or was at least confident that she wouldn’t be able to shoot Commander Karen. He stayed exactly where he was, reloaded, and then took aim again.

  “Ha-ha-ha! Let’s see you scurry on back to cover now!”

  “Shit!”

  Yumi moved faster than she could ever remember, darting left and right as she backed up. Plasma sailed by all around her. The heat from each shot seared her skin, burning through her police unitard and singing the hair on her arms. It wasn’t even that they were necessarily close. They were just that hot.

  Plasma was the most abundant form of matter in the universe. It could be created by heating a gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field. Guns created utilizing plasma were done with gas cartridges. The gas was released into the gun, ionized at extreme temperatures, and then blasted out in the form of a condensed sphere.

  Thanks to how hot the plasma was, it could punch a hole right through a human and even melt durasteel. Fortunately, these walls were reinforced with nearly thirty centimeters worth of durasteel, which meant it would take a lot to melt them. If that hadn’t been the case, Yumi would have been perforated with holes by now.

  Yumi managed to reach cover, but her arms were covered in burns. This was merely due to the proximity of the projectiles. She hadn’t actually been hit. Even so, they still stung.

  “Come on, little girl! What’s the matter? Aren’t you going to help your friend?!”

  Plasma blasted the wall that she was hiding behind. The plasteel was already gone, which meant that if this kept up, the durasteel reinforcement would eventually melt and she’d be killed.

  This is no good. I need to get in close.

  The problem was that she hadn’t had any opportunities to get close. Every time she tried, MacArt shot at her, and this person might not have been Karen, but they were a damn good shot.

  What she needed was a distraction.

  Something to obscure my enemy’s vision…

  Did she have anything like that? Yumi hadn’t been well stocked when she went to Atreyu Academy. She hadn’t believed that she would need a large supply of munitions.

  What do I have on me right now?

  “Damn it, little bitch! I’ve got better things to do than control this damn broad! Get out here and let me shoot you!”

  Yumi kept calm as she dug into her pouch and rummaged around. She felt ammo cartridges graze her fingers. Those would be useless here. There was a small cylindrical device which, judging from the contours was a shrapnel grenade. She definitely wasn’t using that. What she needed… was a… a…

  This is…

  Something grazed past her fingers, a small device with little notches on it. She grasped it and pulled it out. It was a small sphere that fit perfectly on her palm, with a red gauge in the center and a small button on top—a smoke bomb.

  This will work.

  Yumi once more waited and listened. The plasma pistols blasted out slug after slug of superheated plasma. She could feel the wall beginning to get warm, which meant it had already broken through the durasteel of one wall and was splattering against the wall that she was pressed against. Great.

  Chug-chug-chug-chug-whine!

  Now!

  She dashed out from behind the corner, pressed the button on the smoke grenade, threw it against the ground near Commander Karen’s feet, and watched as a massive plume of black smoke exploded outward.

  It engulfed the entire hallway, this acrid smoke. Yumi already knew where her opponent was, or where they had been. She dashed through the smoke and was not surprised when she ran into Commander Karen. The woman’s blank face was particularly disconcerting, especially since she’d been spewing very un-Karen-like invectives.

  Yumi snapped off a high kick that knocked one of the guns out of Commander Karen’s hand. Commander Karen tried to bring the other gun to bear, but Yumi attacked with a palm strike that knocked Commander Karen’s arm high. She then grabbed the limb, twisted her body, and used the commander’s weight against her.

  Commander Karen was swung over Yumi’s shoulder, but instead of landing on her back and having the wind knocked out of her, she contorted her body and landed on her feet. She then tried to aim at Yumi again, but Yumi spun around and launched a reverse heel kick that hit her in the wrist. The gun was knocked out of Commander Karen’s hand and clattered to the floor several meters away.

  “You damn human bitch!” Commander Karen shrieked.

  “Now we’re on my turf,” Yumi said as she launched herself at the commander.

  Commander Karen was an amazing shot. She could hit a five-centimeter target from 1,000 meters away with a 95% accuracy rating using a standard issue pistol. That was why she’d won the Mars Best Shooter contest for the past 10 years in a row. But, Commander Karen had one major weakness.

  She couldn’t fight barehanded to save her life.

  It had nothing to do with physical fitness. Commander Karen kept herself in peak physical condition. It also had nothing to do with flexibility. Few people were more flexible than her.

  The problem was her breasts.

  Commander Karen’s boobs were quite large, about 97 centimeters in circumference all told. With such an insanely large chest, it meant that not only were her breasts in the way, but they also did a lot of unnecessary jiggling, got in the way her of punches, and caused immense stress to her back. Even the inbuilt bras on their police unitards didn’t help with this.

  In short, her body simply wasn’t made for up-close combat.

  Yumi was small. At 151 centimeters in height, and with only a 74-centimeter bust, her body was lithe and compact. To top it off, Yumi did 500 pushups, sit ups, pull ups, chin ups, squats, and lunges. Every. Single. Day. Being a martial arts master who had studied and trained for 15 years in traditional combat also helped.

  When Commander Karen tried to punch her, Yumi moved her deceptively soft arms, not just blocking the attack, but redirecting it. The fist MacArt used to punch with had been swung wide to account for the commander’s breasts. Redirecting such a wide hook was easy.

  Taking a step forward, Yumi placed her left foot directly into the insole of Commander Karen’s right foot. She then grabbed the commander’s outstretched arm, twisted, and then pulled the commander off balance. This time, Commander Karen could not contort her body. Yumi had made sure she wouldn’t be able to.

  Commander Karen hit the ground. Hard. All of the oxygen was expelled from her lungs. Yumi didn’t waste any time. She straddled the commander’s stomach and slammed a double-palm strike into the center of the commander’s torso—the solar plexus.

  When the solar plexus is struck, air is forcefully expelled from the body. She’d seen young men hit each other there as a practical joke. However, if the air has already been expelled from the body, then when the solar plexus is hit again, the person in question will be unable to regain their breath.

  There are three ways to knock someone unconscious: blunt force trauma to the head, a sudden drop in blood pressure, and oxygen deprivation.

  Yumi watched as Commander Karen’s eyes rolled up into the back of her head and her body went limp. She felt bad for hurting her commander like that, but there hadn’t been much choice. If Commander Karen was being controlled, then the best way to wrest that control away from the controller was to knock her out.

  With a deep sigh, Yumi slumped forward, straddling her commander’s legs as her head fell onto the woman’s abnormally large breasts. She laid there for a moment as the adrenaline left her. After taking several deep breaths, she reached up and closed Commander Karen’s eyes, regained her breath, and then climbed off her superior’s limp body.

  “That was an impressive fight,” the voice of Gideon Fletcher came from behind her.

  She turned around and glared at him. “Where have you been? You ran off before any of us could say something.”

  “I had to prepare the hospital rooms, didn’t I?” Gideon shot back with a shrug. “The thing that’s controlling Karen is likely a machine that blocks the signals a person’s brain sends to their body, and then sends out its own signals instead. I’ll have to remove it manually. It’s a delicate operation, so I needed to make sure I had everything ready.”