126.

  Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

  I licked sweat from my lip. I spread my feet and readied Grandad’s bat, holding it horizontally between us. The thing that called himself Gas stood impassively watching me with empty eyes, the wind ruffling his grey hair.

  "You said someone assigned me," I rasped. "Who?”

  Gas didn't respond. There was a pneumatic hiss somewhere deep under his cloak, but no other sounds.

  "Was it the Syndicate?" I asked.

  "These are your final words," Gas replied, his voice haunting and inhuman under that mask.

  The sound of his laboured breathing filled the air. It sounded like the machine I had been hooked up to in the hospital. What the hell was under that cloak? I licked my lips and listened carefully. I could no longer hear the squawking whee. Sherbert's wheels, and I just had to pray that my friend got far enough away and stayed away. But Gas hadn't moved to cut him off. He didn't even look like he cared about Sherbert. I was his target, and Sherbert had simply been the bait to draw me out.

  "Were you the one following me?" I asked, trying to buy myself some time as I thought through my options. I could stand and fight, but I had no idea what this Gas creature was, whether he was human, machine, or something else, and I didn't particularly want to find out. I needed to get away but Gas had already proven himself to be a skilful tracker. I couldn't just run. If I was going to escape, I needed to distract him first.

  As if he read my mind, Gas slowly matched my circling, cutting off my escape route up the fire escape. I could hear the heavy clink of his footsteps and the hiss of pneumatic tubing, but other than that, he barely moved. Well, when in doubt, strike first and strike hard. Someone brave had said that once, right?

  I reached slowly into my pocket, and Gas's eyes tracked me with curiosity. I wondered how much he knew about me, how many of my tricks he had seen while following me. Not many, I had to believe. I hadn't fought anybody since becoming aware that something was following me, so maybe I could stun him and run. Maybe.

  I leapt to my left, flinging out a pocket full of coins at Gas. Out of the six I flung, only two went off. I screwed my eyes shut as the dark alley exploded in searing light. I didn't hear Gas react. I didn't hear him scream or cry out, and as I opened my eyes, I saw him standing there, black goggles in front of his eyes. He cocked his head curiously at me, and I swore under my breath. The goggles retreated into his mask with a clicking sound. Of course he’s got light blocking retractable glasses. Why didn’t I think of that?

  Gas took a single step towards me. There was a hiss of pneumatic tubing and suddenly Gas was almost on me. I hadn't seen him move. I'd heard the crunch of gears or something like that, and then he was propelled forward. I narrowly avoided his charge, hitting the grimy pavement and rolling before leaping to my feet and hurling two Bang Rocks at him.

  Gas lifted his cape and turned his face, expecting more Flash Coins, but instead, the Bang Rocks exploded against his chest. There was a puff of smoke and Gas didn’t even flinch. He took a surprised step back and looked down at his smouldering cape curiously. In the brief moment of surprise, I realised I had a clear run at the fire escape.

  I turned and sprinted. I heard the hiss again behind me and then what felt like an explosion, and Gas was suddenly in front of me. I screeched to a halt and stared up at the near seven-foot behemoth, my eyes wide in shock. I swung Grandad's bat at him and hit him somewhere around the hip. But I didn’t hit flesh. It felt like slamming the bat into a fridge. The Rune activated, and Gas stumbled to his left again, just one step, before righting himself. His hand shot out from under his cape and backhanded me across the face. I went flying, my mouth filling with blood. I hit a chain-link fence and toppled straight through it, rolling into an abandoned lot full of weeds and trash.

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  Blinking, I tried to figure out what the hell had just happened, then I heard the heavy crunch of his footsteps. I rolled to my feet, sheathed Grandad's bat, and whipped out my Wrist Rocket. I spat a mouthful of blood and ran further away from the light. Biting down my terror I kept my back to Gas until I heard the pneumatic hiss. I spun and fired, catching Gas mid-charge. I hit him square in the chest again, but his charge took him straight through the Bang Rock, and if it had caused him any pain, he didn't show a sign of it. I flung myself into the weeds as his hands sliced through the air where I'd just been standing. Rolling back to my feet, I activated the Zap Knuck, and squared up to him. The whole side of my face felt like it was swelling, and I wondered if I had lost a few teeth with the amount my mouth was bleeding.

  I lined up another shot and fired. Gas's hand shot out and slapped the pellet away, and in that moment, I saw the light glinting off of metal. What the hell was this guy?

  I fired off two more Bang Rocks, just trying to keep him at bay while I backpedaled through the darkness, tripping over weeds and loose litter. My breath was coming sharply now as I realised how overmatched I was. Gas still took his time. He stalked towards me, batting aside Bang Rocks, taking the explosions as if they meant nothing to him.

  I loaded up my Wrist Rocket again and fired. Gas darted to the left, far quicker that such a monstrously big human being should be able to. Before I had reloaded, he darted, then left, then right, zig zagging towards me. I tried to track him with the Wrist Rocket and fired, but missed badly. It was almost like he was teleporting side to side; I couldn't even see his limbs moving, just the sound of pneumatic hissing as he bounced from left to right, closing in on me. I fumbled for another pellet, and then he was there. His fist came thundering down towards me, and I just about managed to throw myself to one side to avoid it. Then his other hand shot out from within his cloak and grabbed me by the front of my carapace armor, yanking me up, and drawing me almost eye to eye with him.

  He looked even more monstrous close-up. That mask was definitely some sort of breathing apparatus. I could hear it rattling now as he drew breath into sick-sounding lungs. Even worse, I could see all the scarring and puckered flesh around his cheeks. His nose looked like it had been half blown off, and his face was riddled with scar tissue cutting jagged shapes across his skin. His flesh was a horrifying mess of melted wax like skin. I looked down at his hand and saw that it was pure metal, some sort of cybernetic augmentation, although I had no idea the technology had gone so far. The augmentation available for normal people could barely hold a cup, let alone produce enough strength to crush a man.

  I struggled against the hand, but it was immovable. He whipped his cloak back and raised his other fist to deliver the final blow. In sheer panic, I activated the Zap Knuck and lashed out with it, trying to hit flesh somewhere. I aimed for his neck and I think I must have hit his breathing apparatus. There was a spark and then a shower of sparks as power crackled. Burning pain lanced through my hand and the sparks seared my eyes. Gas let out a surprised wheeze. I felt his cybernetic hand twitch, then suddenly fall open, and I fell to the ground.

  Gas stood there for a moment, his whole body twitching as if his circuits had been fried. I wasn't going to wait around to find out if that was the case. I pulled myself up, scrabbled on all fours, wiped a bloody hand across my balaclava, and then pressed that blood against the cloaking charm on my belt, funneling every bit of desperate energy I had left into it. There was an explosion of darkness around me, and in the abandoned lot, I melted into the shadows and disappeared. I looked over my shoulder just long enough to see movement begin to return to Gas's hands and body, and then I took off, running out of the lot and straight to the nearest fire escape.

  I shot up the fire escape, hauled myself over the lip of the building, and then kept running. I didn't know if Gas was following. I just had to get away, and I had maybe a few seconds' head start. I activated my Jet Boots and bounced to the next building, scrabbled, activated them again, and flew to the next one, moving in a frenetic zig-zag pattern, hoping to throw Gas off my trail. I had to get away from him and back to my flat, back to my room where I was safe, where he couldn't follow me. My breath caught in my throat, and my face throbbed. He'd only caught me with a glancing blow, but it felt like he'd broken half of my face. There was no way I could stand toe to toe with that thing; those cybernetic hands would crush me. I needed to get home. Once I was home, I was safe. That's all I kept thinking: I just need to get home.

  Fortunately, I knew the route from Sherbert's house to mine like the back of my hand, and I had several different options. Just in case I was being followed, or he was trying to pick up my trail, I dropped from the rooftops and ran along the riverbank in the darkness, activating my cloak again as soon as I had enough energy.

  Like a rat scurrying around in the walls, I fled home, terrified and in pain, desperately praying he wasn’t following me.