The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Polarity

With an eyeblink, Mordecai watched a troubled Jeriko fade into that same swirl of color that announced his departure from the third of his three visions. So engrossed was his mind with the journey that it was about to undertake, that it didn't notice the probe that slipped into his mind to clear a portion of his thoughts. Nor did it feel the copy of Jeriko's mind and essence insert itself into that cleared area.

Not that Mordecai had time to notice: in the next eyeblink, he found himself standing once more in Kendrick's office, the big Brotherhood commander's fist abruptly accelerating towards his face. A tremble raced through Mordecai's body as adrenaline dumped cold quicksilver into his veins even as a rush of endorphins sleeted through him, burning away the pain and ache of his injuries.

The man in black could feel his lips peel away from his teeth in a silent snarl as his body renewed itself in the time it took for Reality to catch up to him. Then he was moving.

Kendrick blinked in surprise as he found his fist abruptly blocked, smoothly knocked to the side by a flawless sweep block, launched by Mordecai's left arm and hand. But the man in black had been unconscious on his feet! How ...?

Then the big man found himself just as suddenly on the defensive, his hands moving fast and just in time to block the man in black's counter attack. It came hard and fast; fists and knife edge hands, cutting hard for his vital areas or hammering at neurological nodes in an attempt to disable him. And, just as he began adjusting to the speed and deadly efficiency of the hands, he found himself needing to deal with lightning-fast reverse crescent, snapped heel and blurringly fast and devastating roundhouse kicks coming from seemingly everywhere.

Teeth grit in a rictus of grim determination, Kendrick took a number of steps back, hands wind milling as he fought to keep Mordecai's deadly blows away from his head and body. But even the most determined defense was no match for the enraged man in black.

Smacking away a darting kick aimed at his throat, Kendrick was off balance and unable to reset his defenses when Mordecai's follow-up, a spinning heel kick, snapped around to catch the big man in the head. Feet staggering back uncertainly, Kendrick fought both his abruptly spinning head and his rebelling body in an attempt to stay upright.

Only to find the man in black stepping in close and hard, face tight. A heavy right hand rocked the big Brotherhood mover back, catching him flush on the point of his chin before a heavy barrage of darting fists hammered into his body, moving too quickly to follow with the naked eye. Each struck like a viper, biting deep into his body with destroying force.

Feeling his strength getting stolen with each blow to his person, Kendrick frantically clawed out with his mind, sending a shockwave snarling past a ducking Mordecai, who stepped back and out of range of the close-range shockwave before it was even launched. Then the man in black was smoothly leaping and diving over the next one to summersault effortlessly over Kendrick's head and land with hardly a sound on top of the big conference table that stood at Kendrick's back.

With eyes clouded in pain, Kendrick tracked the man in black as he soared over his head. The Normal had abruptly achieved superior ground, he suddenly realized with a cold trickle down his spine. If he didn't manage to cudgel his failing body into action in the next few seconds, the man in black would have him, psionic talents or not.

That thought now propelling him, Kendrick willed strength to his weakened limbs and forced himself to ignore the pain of his battered body. And, before Mordecai could launch a potentially lethal blow to the back of Kendrick's head, the blocky mover gathered all of his strength and desperately threw himself backward, vaulting up and over a slashing crescent kick to also land lightly on top of the conference table.