❝how do you kill a monster without becoming one?❞
In the last city ruled by man, fish soar in the skies above and monsters lurk in the alleys below. Ten years ago, Jase lost both his legs and his mother to one such monster. However, tragedy couldn't...
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There are two ways to define the word ecstasy. The first is an overwhelming feeling of joy. The second is as an emotional frenzy - something that alludes reason. A fish could not fly without its fins. It became stationary. The air stopped entering its lungs and it suffocated to death. In the old days, it was said they hunted fish by targeting their fins. Now say there was a fish who had lost its fins and then, by some miracle - call it god or luck or whatever it may be - had them reattached, which definition of ecstasy would they be feeling?
But Jase was not a fish. He was choking on his own exhaustion. The place where metal met flesh burned. His new legs felt like fire. Even AI weren't pushed this mercilessly. And yet, there was only one word rattling in his skull for how he could describe the feeling. A word he'd seen on the "Word a Day" calendar Huraira had gotten him back in the Academy. She thought it was a funny gift.
Ecstasy.
Was that what the bliss Jase was feeling despite all the pain? He'd been running thirty maybe forty minutes just because he could. He'd forgotten how much he loved to run.
It had been two weeks since Jase's legs were replaced and he was still getting used to the new ones. They were quieter - the old ones had emitted a low hum that followed Jase wherever he went. They seemed lighter too. And, most importantly, they gave Jase three hours a day where he could stand, where he could fight, where he could run.
They worked brilliantly. He and Kova had even completed another case yesterday. Jase even managed to kill the Smile, tying his score with Kova's and earning a free pass on bookwork.
And then... for the first time in ages, Jase had gone running. He wanted to see the limits of these new legs and he found a broken peace that came with running until his entire body burned, as though it was being consumed by flame. Exhaustion was numbing and Jase was addicted to feeling numb. Because he knew if he let himself feel anything, the fragile foundation of his mind would crumble.
It was also for this reason that Jase was late.
So terribly late.
He pushed himself down the long halls of Stingray. He wanted to run through them one day. Today, however, he just wanted to make it to tomorrow. He was utterly terrified of what Kova was going to do to him for showing up almost an hour late. He burst into the office expecting to come face to face with some horrifying evil that'd put even Smiles to shame.
But to Jase's surprise, Kova was asleep on his desk, his hologram on and casting glowing blue shadows on his face. He'd probably been there since last night. But even more surprisingly, Kova had completed not only his own work, but Jase's too, and they'd already been submitted by PAT.
He had done twice what took Jase two days to do in a single night.
Kova really was a demon.
Running his fingers through his messy hair, tangled by the wind and sweat, Jase knew that Kova would figure out he had been late to work. But he now had no right to get mad since he'd been sleeping and therefore not doing any work either.
