"Window!" Ben hissed, grabbing his backpack. "We go out the window!"

  "The window is sealed with plastic," Vala pointed out, sheathing her sword.

  "Grandma is watching soap operas at max volume," Ben said. "She won't hear a tank driving through the living room."

  Ben ripped the duct tape off the cardboard covering the window. Rain lashed in immediately. The Violet light from his chest illuminated the wet bricks of the alleyway like a rave party.

  "Ladies first," Ben gestured.

  Vala vaulted onto the fire escape. Ben followed, zipping his thick denim jacket up tight to hide the glow. It was the only jacket he owned that was thick enough to mask the light. Underneath, he was still wearing his work khakis and button-up shirt from the shop.

  As his feet hit the metal grate, he heard it. SCREECH.

  It wasn't a biological sound. It sounded like metal grinding on bone. Ben looked down at the alley four stories below. Three shapes were moving in the shadows. They weren't sludge monsters. They were small, jagged, and moved with a jerky, twitching speed.

  "Scrappers," Vala whispered. "Low-level scavengers. They hunt in packs."

  One of the creatures looked up. Its eyes were red camera lenses—just like the drone. It let out a digital shriek. [TARGET ACQUIRED.]

  "They aren't looking at the light," Ben panicked, realizing the heavy denim did nothing to mask the digital frequency radiating from his chest. "They're tracking the Artifact's energy signature! It's a beacon! To the park! Away from the building!"

  [SCENE BREAK: Sector 4 Public Park - 7:15 PM]

  Ben and Vala sprinted into the muddy basketball court. The Three Scrappers skittered over the chain-link fence, surrounding them. They looked like dogs made of knives and old toasters.

  "I will hold the line!" Vala shouted, drawing her broadsword.

  "Vala, be careful!" Ben yelled, backing up against the pole. "Can you handle three?"

  "I am a Princess of the Crimson Verse," Vala scoffed, flipping her sword. "I can handle a legion."

  She lunged at the Alpha dog on the left. CLANG. Her sword sparked against its metal hide. The creature was fast. It bit down on her greave, locking its jaws.

  That left two Scrappers. They ignored Vala. They lunged straight for Ben.

  "Whoa!" Ben scrambled back, tripping over his own feet in the mud. One Scrapper leaped, its saw-blade claws spinning. Ben tried to turn away, but he wasn't fast enough. RRRZZZT.

  The saw-blade caught Ben’s chest. The Chaos Heart protected his skin, but his clothes didn't stand a chance. The blade shredded his denim jacket. It sliced right through the denim and the button-up shirt underneath. Fabric and zipper teeth flew everywhere.

  "My jacket!" Ben yelled, looking at the tatters hanging off his frame. "That was my only heavy coat! And my work shirt is ruined!"

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  "Ben! The Die!" Vala shouted, struggling to shake the Alpha off her leg. "Use the Artifact!"

  "I don't know how!" Ben screamed, dodging a snapping jaw.

  "Strike the Heart! Will it to open!"

  The two Scrappers cornered him against the basketball pole. They hissed, their red lens-eyes glowing. Ben was out of options. He was going to die in a muddy park wearing rags.

  "WORK!" Ben screamed at his own chest. In pure panic, he smashed his fist against the glowing Violet lump under his shredded shirt, like he was hitting a broken TV remote.

  THUMP.

  [USER PANIC DETECTED.] [FORCED ACTIVATION.]

  The Violet light vanished. A holographic wheel exploded into the air above Ben’s head, spinning wildly. The colors blurred. Red... Blue... Green... Yellow...

  Click. Click. Click.

  The wheel slowed. It passed the Blue 14 (The Ape). It passed a Red 20. It stopped on a Neon Green 08.

  [ROLL: 08. ARCHETYPE: SKIRMISHER. FORM: THE MANTIS-STRIKE.]

  The transformation hit him instantly. It wasn't heavy like the Ape. This felt... sharp. His skin didn't turn to rock; it hardened into sleek, green chitinous armor. His legs snapped backward, reforming into powerful, spring-loaded jumping limbs. His vision fractured into a thousand hexagonal screens—compound eyes.

  But the biggest change was his arms. His forearms split open, and two massive, translucent green energy scythes extended from his wrists.

  Ben stood up. He felt light as a feather. The world seemed to move in slow motion.

  The first Scrapper lunged at him. To Ben, the mechanical dog looked like it was moving through molasses.

  "Whoa," Ben’s voice buzzed, sounding like a synthesizer. "I'm... twitchy."

  He didn't think. He reacted. He pivoted on his spring-loaded legs, anchoring his talons into the slippery mud. He swung his right arm in a wide arc. SLASH. The translucent green energy scythe met the Scrapper's poly-alloy neck. For a microsecond, the metal resisted, but the sheer thermal heat of the blade melted right through the armor plating. The Scrapper flew past, neatly bisected, its internal wiring sparking as the two halves hit the mud.

  The second Scrapper hesitated. Ben jumped. His reverse-jointed legs compressed like heavy-duty shock absorbers. When they released, the immense kinetic force sent a shockwave through the ground, blasting a crater of slick mud in all directions. He launched thirty feet into the air, landed on the fiberglass basketball backboard, bounced off, and dove. CRUNCH. The sheer velocity drove his armored feet straight through the second Scrapper's chassis, pinning it entirely into the asphalt.

  He looked across the court. Vala was still wrestling the third Scrapper. "I got it!" Ben buzzed. ZOOM. He crossed the court in a blur of green light. Just as Vala brought her sword down, Ben flashed past her. SNICK. The third dog fell apart into neat cubes of scrap metal.

  Ben stood there, posing in the rain, a glowing green insect-man. "I am... awesome," Ben buzzed.

  [DURATION EXPIRED.]

  The light faded. The thousand hexagonal screens of his compound vision abruptly shattered, snapping painfully back to standard human sight. Ben morphed back into flesh and bone, the sudden loss of the exoskeleton leaving him feeling terrifyingly fragile. The adrenaline crash hit like a freight train. He collapsed hard into the mud, his lungs burning as he gasped for the freezing night air. The heavy rain instantly pelted his exposed skin, washing away the lingering heat of the transformation.

  He lay there for a long moment, simply listening to the rain and his own hammering heartbeat. He was alive.

  Only as his breathing slowed did the cold reality set in. He looked down at his chest. His heavy denim jacket was completely destroyed—reduced to two detached sleeves held on by a single thread. His work shirt underneath was slashed to ribbons, exposing his skin to the biting wind. He was shivering, soaking wet, and caked in thick mud.

  "My clothes," Ben moaned, face-planting into the wet grass. "I have no money for a new jacket. My work shirt is gone. I only have one clean shirt left in my closet..." Ben’s face fell in horror. "...and it's the one Grandma bought me from the thrift store. The one with the parrots."

  Vala sheathed her sword. "You survived. Clothing is irrelevant."

  "It is relevant to my dignity, Vala! I can't go to work looking like a tropical bird!"

  Ben sat up. He spotted a severed Robotic Claw from one of the dead Scrappers. It looked expensive. "Wait." Ben picked it up. "This is high-grade alloy. Maybe... maybe I can sell this to Sparky tomorrow. If he doesn't fire me for wearing the parrot shirt."

  [TO BE CONTINUED IN EPISODE 10]