"Do you think the codes to the lab on Silver Island that Old Sue's given us will still work, ma Agape?" K8 asked her maker while driving back home. Sigi and Gabi were riding right behind us.

"I don't know," Agape replied between a couple of bumps in the road down Naiad's pathway. "To be honest, I think it was just an excuse to get us out of her home. I'm glad she did. I hate her too. I despise her conceitedness as much as her stupid, prideful attitude about her allegedly superior ideology."

"Don't hate her, please, Agape. It's only natural that she felt offended by our presence there," I commented, trying to sound neutral, but Agape's hatred for the old woman felt way too personal.

"Not by your presence, though," Agape replied with some cynicism.

"Don't take it badly, Agape," I tried to reason with her. "She's an old woman who's been forced to live a life in confinement for decades. Her faith in Valentina's ideals didn't falter, but their project got no support from anybody – unlike yours. Maybe she's envious of you. Besides, she's got no relatives, no partner, no children to fill her life. Her disagreement with you doesn't make her a bad person. Nothing that's happened to her or anything she's done so far makes her a bad person. If I were in her shoes, well, I would be cross and disillusioned with life, too."

For a moment, a lame idea crossed my mind: the fact that Agape might have felt jealous of me for positively getting Old Sue's attention. Had Old Sue's lack of desire to meet Agape in person branded her too harshly, maiming her psychologically? I discarded that thought immediately. Agape wasn't a teenager with self-worth or confidence issues.

"I agree with D, ma Agape," K8 replied. "Old Sue's not a bad person. Besides, I think that what has bothered you the most was her pro-peace ideology and the reference to what your name means, ma."

I saw Agape grabbing the steering wheel of the van with a lot more force than necessary. The tendons on her arms were tense like Sigi's when he was angry.

"Bloody hippies," she whispered with badly-contained ire, but she seemed to do it to herself only. She went on in a much more serene tone after that: "Let's do something. Tomorrow night, we go to Silver Island, we explore the premises if the code she's given us still works, and only if we find something worthwhile there, I say we trust her a bit more.

"But coming to her for help once again is out of the question. She's made it crystal clear she hates us and how I think we should approach this conflict with the clones, so there's no point in pressuring her. Besides, I don't think she could be of any use to us even if she had agreed with our ethos. When we win this war, I shall thank her for her help... only if the codes work and if we find something we can use. But that's it."

I wasn't satisfied with that. Agape's hatred echoed in her intonation patterns of every sentence. K8 didn't say anything, she just stared at her maker with a sad expression on her face. The rest of the team remained quiet until Taro broke the ice:

"I do think we are going to find something useful in that secret lab," he said with sarcasm while glaring at me, "and Daphne will try to make sure we can't use it to our advantage, of course."

He was referring to the fact I had discarded the palaeoviruses into the Neon Sea, assuming I would do something similar again.

"ENOUGH!" Agape yelled. "I said I didn't want any more arguments! No complaints! No nothing! I need to focus on the road. The curfew has already started, and clones will be on the lookout for us tonight. So stop pissing me off!"

That was when Agape turned on the radio.

"Well, you've heard it yourselves. Great Apollo's latest press release has confirmed it," a female radio journalist said with a grave voice. "This evening's mass shooting has saved millions of lives."

"Dafuk?!" Taro exclaimed with bewilderment.

"You've got to be kidding me," Nemesis added right after him.

"Great Apollo has just confirmed there were hundreds of rebels ready to strike on Peace Square this evening, during the executions of those of them who had been caught. Our Living God is angry, but he has proven he can keep a cool head under such circumstances by ordering the immediate annihilation of those who were causing havoc in Peace Square."

"Oh, come on! We did absolutely nothing!" Sven complained. "How can this guy turn anything around so that he always gets praised?!"

"I know, right?!" Vera exclaimed.

"Singing the forbidden song has proven them guilty, of course. Some rebels have escaped, and many more might still be alive and hiding somewhere in Thalis. That is why the Great Apollo had ordered the curfew. He has also activated some additional security protocols for tonight and the next few days. We highly recommend not to stay out as of tonight after ten o'clock since the police shall be looking for outlaw activity during the night with the help of special, tech-oriented reinforcements engineered by our Great Apollo."

"Those might be the beasts which Eros warned me about," I said with dread. "The ones Apollo showed him while I was spying on them."

"It's already eleven o'clock, D," K8 told me with worry. "If those beasts are out and about now and find us, we will need to fight against them."

"Security measures aside," the female journalist went on, "the Living God has thanked the brand-new members of the Black Masks, who are still showing support to clone law enforcement and peace-keeping. Apollo is the greatest god that has ever lived. His understanding of what is at stake in our divided society should be praised by everybody. Just as he has just assured us all, his main concern is to keep us safe from these peace-threatening, ruthless killers who believe themselves to be right and have no respect for a properly structured state and its sound legislation."

"That's so... disgusting!" Momo exclaimed. I couldn't agree more.

"And now, the maritime and weather forecast with Heather," the journalist added with a joyful voice.

"Thank you, Jeanine," Heather said then. "We've got two highlights for you tonight, dear audience. The first is the speed at which the Kiss of the Sun is approaching our planet. Not good news as regards this solar flare, I'm afraid. It seems to pick up a lot more speed than expected. It is now assumed to hit us hard in the next few days."

"Great," Agape whispered with disdain and exhaustion. "Now I need to reinforce the alternative network further asap."

"And the second is the fact that the purple-coloured spill in the Neon Sea seems to have shifted right to the centre of that sealed body of water, and also sunk to the bottom. Its purplish glow can be spotted at night from above according to our chopper team, who has surveilled the area only an hour ago, right before the curfew started. Great Apollo has confirmed that climate change is responsible for this change in that already unnatural sea and that he shall work night and day to find a solution to such a key problem, as well. All hail Apollo!"

That hadn't been climate change. That had been me. And its threat was getting bigger and meaner. Oops.

We were about to enter the streets of Dawn's neighbourhood when Agape slammed on the brakes.

"Fuck," she whispered in anger. "Four clone police units."

A few crossroads down the street, I saw four police cars headed our way. They had already spotted us and they were increasing their speed.

A couple of swearwords and a harsh manoeuvre later, a crazy car chase began. The clone cops turned on both the light and sound alarm signals.

"We have to ditch them!" Nemesis yelled with worry. I didn't see Sigi or Gabi. I realised that only two of those four units were chasing us.

"They might already be calling reinforcements as we speak," Cian replied with a deep frown marring his usually-neutral facial features. "We need to shoot at them and take them out of circulation. Get ready. Aim and fire if you get a clear shot!"

All my teammates were drawing their guns and opening the side windows of the van. The back doors of the van had none, and thankfully its doors were bullet-proof because the clone cops started shooting at us from their cars but none seemed to get through the chassis.

A lethal back and forth took place. My teammates kept shooting back at the clone cops and dodging their bullets while Agape was driving madly through the streets of the Dawn and Shell neighbourhoods. Many doors, windows, and God knows what else, fell victims to the crossfire.

None of us got wounded during the chase, the van had taken all the bullets for us. We managed to ditch them, including the new units who had joined the car chase a few minutes later.

I worried about Sigi and Gabi, and what might have happened to them.

We were riding through the Tsu Community's intricate streets a few minutes later, which were full of warehouses and low-income building blocks when I managed to calm down a bit.

I spied out of one of the windows to check whether I could see either Sigi or Gabi. They weren't anywhere to be found.

"Where are Sigi and Gabi?!" I yelled when I couldn't take it anymore. "What if they're hurt? What if they got caught?!"

"They're on their own, Daphne, but don't worry. They know how to take care of themselves," Agape replied. "We need to get back to Dawn as soon as possible."

A few seconds later, I saw a couple of lights riding behind us. It was them. Sigi and Gabi were safe and sound.

I smiled warmly at a fully-concentrated-on-the-road Sigi who had caught up with Agape's van. I stared at his profile while riding. The dim, golden streetlights were cast on his silhouette every now and then in an intermittent way, outlining his breath-taking well-built figure.

We briefly locked our gazes, and he smiled at me.

That was when hell broke loose.

I saw a couple of electric red lights zooming right at me at the speed of lightning. They had jumped over Sigi as if his Duchatti Monstrous and he were nothing.

Everything happened way too fast. First, I saw something dark and long crashing into Sigi's side, making him and the bike skid and fall. Next, I heard a metallic creaking and a loud crash sound immediately afterwards. However, I had no time to scream.

A millisecond later, a loud crash matching Sigi's downfall boomed in my ears. That time it was the van. Metal had clashed on metal in a passionate kiss of death. From inside the vehicle, that awful sound had made me imagine two machines at each other's throats and ripping their metallic guts out.

Agape's van had rolled over and had been crushed against the wall on its left. My limbs ended up tangled with K8's, while my head had got knocked by Momo's feet. Well, the inside of the van was a mess of bodies and limbs since none of us had been wearing any seat belts, which had been removed during the car chase and crossfire.

We disentangled ourselves from each other and managed to get out of the van. I was the first to do so.

I was cautious enough to do it slowly, on the lookout for who had caused our accident. I saw nothing. Nobody. That was odd.

Down the street, I saw that Sigi and Gabi were getting up and starting their bikes with some difficulty. Their bikes' engines were agonising, but they still roared.

I sighed, but I didn't feel at ease. I turned to examine the damage on the van while the rest of the team got out of it. It was still on its four wheels and only partially squeezed at the back. Despite its vertical position, the damage was quite bad. The rear axle was a bit bent, but the van would still run.

A growl startled us before anybody had time to speak.

I turned around and saw how our most recent enemies entered the scene to greet us once more – with their fangs and claws.

Three huge, mechanical wolves were staring at us with their electric red eyes and their graceful yet deadly, smooth bodies with iridescent-coloured, polygon-shaped pieces on their chassis. I could see their true colours under the dim streetlights as they slowly walked toward us then. However, the darkness of the night deprived them of showing the true beauty of their artificial colouring, rendering them as three dark-grey, robotic predators with flashing red eyes most of the time.

It was an engineer's wet dream come true – and our nightmare.

They had caught up with us when their human counterparts, the clone police officers, had failed to do so. They were ambushing us.

Each of their slow steps toward us made me panic. I stared at the hot threads of smoke emanating from their noses and open mouths. The technowolf right in the middle growled at us and displayed its menacing fangs.

When Sigi and Gabi managed to start their bikes' engines, they rode at full speed towards us, shooting their guns at the technowolves. So did Cian, K8, and Taro. Agape got into the van and tried to start it, to no avail. I heard her curse the vehicle and our bad luck over and over.

The technowolf on our right dodged all the bullets and took a gigantic leap to fall on Nemesis, who was frozen while staring at the mechanical monster. She screamed as the monster sank its claws into her chest. Sven, Vera, and Momo drew their guns and started shooting at the beast like mad. But the bullets did nothing to stop it.

The technowolf on our left turned and faced Sigi and Gabi with an imposing pose and a loud growl. The guys kept riding forward and shooting at it, but it was no use. Eventually, the monster jumped over both of them and attacked them from behind.

It shot a claw at Sigi's back wheel and made him skid once more. I feared for his safety when I saw the technowolf sprint towards him while still lying on the ground, with a leg trapped under the body of his bike.

Gabi shot at it with an extremely pissed-off expression on his face before the wolf could get close to Sigi. Gabi's persistent rain of bullets on the beast's forehead seemed to stop it – for a few crucial seconds. Sigi managed to get up and flee towards us during that small window of opportunity.

In the meantime, the technowolf in the middle and K8 were battling each other at an intimate level. K8's resilient robotic arms and hands were locked with the front paws of that mechanic monster in a duel for dominance. I felt thankful for K8's super strength because the bullets didn't seem to work.

Then, I heard a regretful dying cry coming from my right. It was Nemesis. The technowolf on her had sunk its fangs on her right shoulder and neck. I saw her eyes going white and her arms losing all strength. I feared the worst.

Sven kept shooting at the beast with tears in his eyes. Momo and Vera had started panting out of panic, but they were still shooting at it until they had no more ammo left. Cian joined that shooting on our right, while Taro joined Gabi in shooting the one on our left.

Agape was still unsuccessful at starting the engine of the van in the meantime.

I took my Kolibri out of the pocket of my jeans with a shaking hand. If I killed one of those beasts, I wouldn't be taking a life. Only K8 had a conscience, I assumed. But what if they were sentient too?

That situation was what Agape had been trying to warn me about: it was them or us. Not all of us would survive the night. I could be a prey or a predator. A non-violent approach wouldn't save me.

I bit my lower lip while I realised how stupid and naive I seemed to the others, not to mention worthless. The hand holding the gun shook violently.

"Are you alright, Daphne?" Sigi asked me when he had gotten close to me on his bike.

"Sure," I whispered back with a deep frown. "Watch out!"

Gabi and Taro had run out of ammo, as well. That was when the technowolf growled at us in a giggling-like way and sprinted towards the four of us.

I thought the monster could see right through me then as if it could smell both my fear and my lack of confidence at that moment because it was aimed right at me.

The back of my head loudly crashed on the asphalt. I felt dizzy. The world started to spin despite two strong paws holding me down. I heard Sigi's panic-stricken voice, and then a booming melody of thunders deafening me. Those must have been the guys' bullets on the wolf pinning me down.

I focused my eyes ahead of me and, when the world stopped spinning, I saw two red orbs which were hungry for me. I felt the beast's burning breaths on my face. The smoke was stinging my nose and throat. My heart was racing faster than ever.

It was it or me. Who would I choose? Being just a number in its endless list of preys, or a survivor?

Out of pure instinct, I raised my right arm and shot my Kolibri right at the centre of the beast's left eye.

The subsequent howl of pain was blood-chilling. It told us which was the technowolves' weak spot. The beast even lost control of its paws, took a few steps back, and unwillingly freed me.

"Shoot them in the eyes!" I heard Sigi yell. "It's their weak spot!"

I heard all my teammates load more ammo in their respective guns and shoot.

Sigi lodged a bullet in the right eye of the beast in front of me, while Sven did so too to the one which was hurting Nemesis, in both eyes. I stood up despite feeling jittery and got close to K8 while Cian did so too.

That was when K8 groaned and ripped her beasts' two front legs off unceremoniously. The monster fell on the asphalt, completely helpless, but Cian shot it in the left eye nonetheless.

I was about to shoot at the right one myself when Sigi stopped me by softly putting a hand on my right arm. He then shot the beast in the right eye. The way the muscles on his arm got outlined when he had pulled the trigger took my breath away.

The three technowolves were 'dead'. We were all panting, but for K8, obviously, since she didn't need to breathe.

"Finally!" Agape exclaimed then with satisfaction. The van's engine was roaring merrily. "Get on and let's go!"

"Wait a sec!" I exclaimed. I had an idea.

I took my parrot out of a pocket of my jeans, got close to the closest technowolf, and scanned its entire head, hoping to hack its brain activity.

"What are you doing, Daphne?!" Gabi exclaimed while the rest were starting to get on the van. I saw Sven lovingly carrying Nemesis, who was bleeding and unconscious, in a bridal style. "We need to get out of here! Now!"

"Just a sec. These beasts might've had been monitoring the fight," I replied with worry.

"What?!" Sigi exclaimed.

"Their pupils look like camera lenses, look," I added in a hurry. "Maybe the chameleon bugs that Agape's installed in our parrots can hack the data transmission and erase all events, including our faces, from their brains."

Since the chameleon bugs could infiltrate a foreign system, like any nanochip close to the parrot for instance, and delete any exposing information within a timeframe under two minutes, I hoped the parrots could keep us in anonymity. The technowolves' attack had been as unexpected as it had been quick. My reaction had to be like that too.

"Fuck, you're right," Gabi replied with a thunderstruck tone of voice.

I heard Cian reporting my concerns to Agape while I scanned the beast's brain.

"Gotcha," I whispered with a smile on my lips when my parrot made a successful click sound. "Hack the two others! Quick! We're running out of time!"

Sigi and Gabi immediately approached the two remaining technowolves and used their parrots on them. A few seconds later, all hacking had been successfully done.

"Sigi, Gabi!" Agape yelled from the driver's seat. "Take one of these wolves inside the van. Quick, before any more come here. I want to inspect it fully when we get to Amanita!"

They did so while I was getting in the van as well. I sighed with relief. I sat right behind Agape. Then, Sigi and Gabi got on their bikes and rode away with us.

We fled just in time. When we were turning on the corner, I saw a clone police unit and more technowolves arriving at the crime scene.

"Are they chasing us again?" Agape asked me with worry while pressing the gas pedal with brute force.

"No, well, not yet," I replied in a concerned whisper while getting my face close to her right shoulder so that she could hear me better. She didn't take it easy on the gas pedal just in case. "Damn, that was close," I added while staring at the corpse of the technowolf at the back of the van. 

"Thank you, Daphne," Agape replied after a sigh.

"Won't they track this van to you thanks to the make, model, and number plate, Agape?" I asked with worry.

"Nah, I seldom use this van. But when I do, I change the plate. Got a few dozen ones, actually." She realised I was watching that beast intensely when she took a glimpse at me over her shoulder. Then, she added with a sweetness I hadn't heard in days: "Hacking these beasts' brains was ace. What would I do without you, Daphne? I owe you big time, all of us do."

Hello, sugar cubes!

Did you enjoy this action scene? D proved they need her once more. 

Stay tuned to know more!

XOXO

MS