“Flick, what the fuck are you doing here?”

  It was early, too early for someone like Flick to be up, let alone bothering Simon at his bedroom door. The kind of early where it could, legally, still be considered the middle of the night.

  “Hey, it’s not like its unusual of me to be here unexpectedly like this, relax okay?”

  “Its two…”

  “I needed someone to talk to man”.

  “…AM” He didn’t budge from the inner boundary of his room, Simon simply glared at his nightly intruder with early morning disgust. “Could you not have waited until like, I don’t know… next week?”

  “Don’t be a dick Si, this is serious”

  “Alright fine, I was kidding anyway, dingus.” Gesturing him inside, Simon did his routine-like sigh at Flick’s usual antics, “C’mon man, what’s on your mind?”

  Flick stepped inside his friends humble bedroom only to realise it was the same one he had since childhood. Bright blue walls that mimicked the skies of old earth with posters and drawings of all Simon’s favourite things. To Flick, it was like stepping through a portal backwards in time to a place that remained untouched by the pains of growing older. Although, there was an odd couple of doodles here and there that seemed completely new, even to him.

  Singling out one crude dolphin drawing in particular, Flick inquired earnestly, “Oh, I don’t remember that one actually.”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about my guy.”

  “You sure? Coulda sworn that space was empty last time I checked,”

  “Nope” Simon sat on his childhood bed ready to hear out any and all thoughts on his friends mind. All except this particular one. “Wait you’ve been checking my room?!”

  “That’s not important,” Flick coughed, “What is is that I’m almost certain its you that keeps telling me how much I should ‘grow up more’ and yet here is this-“

  Simon frowned, “Flick you should stop now before I put you back in the hallway where you belong”.

  Not wanting to test the patience of someone with so little of it further, Flick immediately did as he was told and sat down opposite Simon.

  “Well…” Flick trembled as he spoke, “I’ve been thinking-“

  “Wow this must be serious then,” Simon, catching the glare Flick shot at him toned the sarcasm back as he spoke next, “Sorry, continue”.

  “… I’m gonna go back out there Simon, tonight.” A serious tension in his face flashed from within, “I need to… bury her”.

  Simon perched up almost immediately, “Her? Wait you mean the founder? Sam? That her?”

  He nodded solemnly.

  Simon shook his head, but slowly came to terms with how persistent Flick would be anyway “…Okay, sure go for it. what could go wrong?”

  “Exactly!”

  “…Except for literally everything. Did you not hear me when I said that Sam was fucking dangerous you idiot!?” He furrowed his brow as he went on, “And now you want to bring her back when we don’t even know what the corpse ALONE is capable of!”

  “No not here obviously!” Flick blurted out, trying as hard as he could to lessen the scientist’s worries, “I’ll just… bury her out there, I guess”.

  There was a brief pause of silence between the two of them, Simon clearly not understanding what he was talking about.

  “Well you know right?” he continued, “there’s snow and stuff out there that can cover her up enough I bet. Oh! And it’d probably be better to bury her with all those ruins right? I mean it’s from her time so it makes sense!”

  Simon leaned in closer, hands on his chin with a worried look in his eyes. “Wait... This isn’t about Sam isn’t it?”

  The silence returned again.

  “Oh for fucks sake Flick! This is about them isn’t it?!” he started to pace around his small room, “You’re trying to get back at SMILE aren’t you?”

  “It’s not like that man,”

  “IT IS!”

  “Oh yeah? And what do you know that I don’t huh?” Flick started pacing in opposition of Simon, the two circling each other.

  “I know enough dipshit; I know what the eyes of my idiot friend looks like when he’s got another vengeance boner-“

  Flick raised his voice as he paced faster in time with his friends walking, “Fuck off! It’s not about ‘vengeance’, whatever that means!” before Simon could cut him off again he continued, “It’s about doing the right thing! They killed her man; they’ll probably kill more people too”.

  Finally getting to speak his mind Simon stopped his nervous walking, “So?”

  “So?!”

  “It isn’t your problem, Flick; it isn’t mine either. You did the same shit with our bullies too, and again with your bosses and your managers and anyone who was even remotely corrupt.” Simon sat himself back down to catch his own breath, “Hell, if I wasn’t my own boss you’d probably try and beat up MY superiors if they were being sketchy.”

  “Is that wrong though?” Flick frowned, “Usually no one does anything to people like this and they get away with it!”

  There was yet another moment of silence, only this time broken up by the panting of two worn out adults.

  He continued, this time much more sombre and melancholic, with the weight of the argument setting in,

  “Listen Si, I’m not trying to hurt anyone or anything if I can help it, I just can’t let this stand,” He scratched the back of his neck in nervous anticipation, still hoping his friend would agree, “You understand right?”

  “…”

  Flick stood in quiet disbelief at Simon’s silence, but also understood why he held his tongue. After all, this is one of the more stupid things he’s done in his lifetime, if not the most stupid one. Even still though, he hoped at least that his friend would support him at least somewhat.

  “It’s not wrong Flick, of course it isn’t wrong.” Simon abruptly stopped as he spoke, swallowing the fear back down into his lungs, “And that’s exactly why you shouldn’t go. Good intentions never bode well, not any more, especially ones made as quickly as yours are.” He frowned, “you’ll get hurt, either physically or mentally. And I’m afraid you wont be able to recover at some point”.

  Flick, practically brought to tears upon hearing such a heartfelt sentiment arise from such a plank of wood, attempted in vain to comfort him, “…I-I’m sorry”

  “Don’t be, nothing you can do about your nature anyway, and regardless of what I’d say, you’d still go wouldn’t you?”

  Flick tried to nod, although only a slight twitch of his neck showed, his mind torn between appeasing his companion’s thoughts and staying true to his own goals. It didn’t matter either way though, Simon knew the answer before Flick could even ponder the idea. What resulted was Simon following up his blatant statement with a burning question that had been on his mind since the start.

  “Why did you tell me this Flick? You leaving I mean,”

  Clearly Simon had realised something that Flick hadn’t anticipated before, as the moment the question escaped his lips his friend flinched almost instinctively.

  “W-well…” Flick muttered, “… I was thinking maybe you…” overhearing Simon sigh again he hurried himself, “Well maybe I thought you could maybe tweak my fusion cutter, maybe?”

  The scientist stared straight through Flick as if to say, are you fucking serious? with his sharpened glass-silver eyes. Those words being held back only by the sheer bafflement he had of Flick’s audacity.

  Sensing this, Flick quickly tried to ease his mind, “Listen I just need you to take off the heat limiter, that’s all, I get that its two in the morning-“

  “Two thirty now, actually,”

  “Fine, two thirty whatever, point is I just need this single mod and I’ll be gone okay?”

  There was a considerable pause between the two of them before Simon even considered responding. The small moment of silence allowed the tension to mellow itself out a bit, a perk of experience from hundreds of arguments before this. The two were back to how they were at the beginning of the night.

  Simon chuckled to himself, “That’s all!? So, what, is there like some big piece of ice you need to get rid of or something?”

  “Oh no its not that at all,” as he spoke he pulled the fusion cutter out his back-holster, ready for it to be modified by an expert, “Imma use this to fight”

  The nervous tension resumed instantly.

  Completely dumbfounded this time, Simon went on, mouth agape, “I’m sorry what?!”

  “It’s surprisingly effective!” Flick flourished the cutter around his index finger, somehow managing to almost drop it, “I-it’s for self-defence though, obviously”.

  “Okay, you know what? I’m not even gonna ask this time, just give me the damn cutter”.

  Simon gestured for Flick’s so called “weapon”, trying with some difficulty to ignore the implication behind the word. In theory Flick was right, SMILE was known to use discarded engine blades of basically every make, there was a high chance at least one of them had a particularly nasty one. So yes, in theory Flick should have something to defend himself, the part Simon struggled to understand was why he decided on a fusion cutter instead of anything else in the world.

  He chuckled to himself as he worked, only someone like Flick would be able to turn something like an oversized lighter into a practical weapon. And only Flick would have the gall to ask for a favour like this in the middle of the night. Of course, all of these thoughts occurred within Simon’s sleep deprived mind as he worked, the ear grating squeaking of metal screws loosening via makeshift tools only slightly keeping him awake. Before he finished however, he made sure to remind himself of the dangers involved with getting too attached to someone. The last thing Simon could do is get too close to Flick, even if meant his friend dying in an ice field somewhere. His duty towards science, towards the future, took precedence over any friendship he could have.

  Even still, as he passed the modified fusion cutter back to Flick he couldn’t help but feel worried. Especially after seeing how nonchalantly he flourished it between his fingers, as if he didn’t just see Simon make it 10x more dangerous than it ever was.

  “Thank you so much Si, genuinely” Flick checked the cutter for any weight imbalance, twirling it across his hand effortlessly. Once he was happy with how little the weight had changed, he went to leave but stopped suddenly in the doorway, remembering one last request he had to ask.

  “Hey actually one more thing, I SWEAR it’s the last…”

  * * *

  After practically being kicked out of the building by his friend, Flick was finally ready to set out once again into the snow void that lay around earth readily equipped with his new music player, now embedded into the frame of his helmet of which he sneaked out for the express purpose of pestering Simon with its modification. With the entire pillar stuck in sleep filled stasis, now was the perfect time to sneak away again and Flick knew it. If there was any opportunity to find SMILE it was right here in the dead of night.

  He figured that SMILE, whoever they were beneath their yellow masks, would be considering retrieving the lost bodies as soon as possible. Similar to the blatant lie Flick told Simon earlier, it made sense to ferry a corpse under the veil of night, which mean SMILE had to be moving now.

  It didn’t take much time for Flick to get back to the platform that he and Sam travelled on earlier on in the day. In fact, with how vacant the streets were at this time of night he didn’t even have to jog to get to his work station before the hour hand of the clocks crossed into three’s threshold, a new record for someone as non-punctual as Flick.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Even still, going down a completely vacant elevator irked him somewhat. Every time prior to this there were always voices surrounding him as the floor lowered, it persisted even when it was just him and Sam. For the first time in the day Flick felt the isolation around him, and it was in this isolation that he understood he probably wouldn’t be leaving it anytime soon. From this point forward, there were only enemies that lied ahead of him.

  As if to answer Flick’s thoughts, once the elevator reached the exit gate’s level a single man stood dead centre, inspecting a suspiciously snow covered Geobike in puzzled bewilderment. Flick recognised the man’s silhouette immediately as it turned towards him, although he desperately hoped that his eyes deceived him. The worker, however, saw Flick just as quickly and wasted no time in calling him out.

  “That you Flicky?!” 206 bellowed up from bellow his daytime victim, “The fuck are you doing here?!”

  Flick twitched ever so slightly out of anger before answering, “Could ask you the same thing man, why are you down here so late?” he had hoped that his words sounded a little bit threatening in the least, however in reality it sounded more awkward and nervous than anything else.

  “I’m on equipment inspection dickhead, maybe check the rota next time you accuse me of something lad!”

  206’s laughter quietened as he dashed his eyes between the snow glazed bike and a fully equipped Flick, using the limited brainpower he had to piece two and two together.

  “Wait… you the idiot who took this out earlier?”

  “What?! No of course-“ Flick tried his hardest to lie through his teeth but was silenced before he even had the opportunity to,

  “Well shit it was you!” in a surprising feat of speed, 206 trampled his way across the room to his victim like a hulking shark in clear water, gripping Flick by the neck against the cold back wall.

  “You trying to get some extra hours in huh? Trying to show us up?!” He chuckled to himself, his laugh being more of an earthy creaking noise compared to that of normal person’s “You better pray our boss goes easy once I report this, that jacket’s mine boy!”

  With both the overwhelming force put on his neck and the freezing breath of lifeless steel burning his back Flick couldn’t even attempt to lie, the overwhelming stimuli being a truth serum for his weak will. “I’m finding SMILE you dick!”

  For a moment 206 froze, the single curse his feeble target threw at him passing by as though they were never said, “SMILE? You’re looking for SMILE?”

  “YES! Now get off me!”

  To Flick’s surprise 206 did as he was told, and in an even more surprisingly calm way.

  “Why?” 206 spoke cold and stern.

  “Why do you need to know?”

  “Just do, why’re you looking for them?”

  Flick hesitated a moment before answering, wondering what conspicuous plan 206 had for him once he spoke, “My… Friend, they caught her off guard and she…”

  “Right, and now you’re getting back at them huh?”

  Flick nodded, “...If you understand then get out the way”.

  Again, 206 did as he was told stepping just a couple feet away from Flick to let him pass. However, once he tried to pass the bully slapped a hand on his shoulder halted him.

  “Flick,” 206 frowned, “My little girl. There was a bombing run, a couple years back now I think, she was near the blast and…”

  He almost couldn’t continue,

  “Listen, kids like you don’t last long, never come back usually. But if you’re serious about this, and if you aren’t believe me I’m gonna kill you myself, take down at least one.” He finally let go of Flick’s shoulder, freeing him from his grasp for presumably the last time, “…For me,”

  Flick couldn’t find the words to respond, entirely caught off guard by how out of character this was for someone like 206. He wasn’t sure whether to comfort the man or reassure him, neither felt like the particularly right option given their history together. It wasn’t just the strangeness of his old bully’s behaviour that rattled him either, it was the implication that Flick would kill someone, and soon.

  Whilst being a harrowing thought in the first place Flick couldn’t parse his mind from the fact that he already had, and yet didn’t even acknowledge it until just now, under the pretext that he’d do it again. What scared him was the fact that his inner morality wasn’t debating whether he could kill again, but when he would have to.

  As 206 wandered off to the end of the hangar bay, feigning ignorance of Flick’s actions in only the most obvious of ways, his prior victim saddled the pipe infested bike and prepared for the journey ahead. Despite Flick’s grieved knowledge of what lied in front of him he continued to push forward as though his actions were preordained. The weight of his past was too heavy to turn away from at this point, at least that’s what the sensation rippling along his skin in rows of goose bumps told him.

  His grudge on the people who killed his new friend had far outgrew that of his guilt-ridden weight, it seeming feather light in comparison. Flick pressed the bumps on his body back into their place with the black skin of the ladybug as it clicked to life, and watched as the gates to the void opened once more.

  It wasn’t long before Flick was gliding over the icy dunes at a steady pace back towards the ruins, the bike being much easier to control when it wasn’t being throttled for top speed. The cruising of his vehicle and the bleakness of his surroundings let Flick reflect on the circumstances that led up to this point.

  Overall this was unusual for someone like Flick to do as, in an almost ignorantly optimistic way, he always managed to ignore the past to focus on the present at hand, and sometimes even the future if he felt motivated enough. Yet, in this plane of shadow and ice, of life and death, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to the words of his friend back home. He never used to worry like that, Simon that is, he was always steadfast in his borderline emotionless nature and the only time Flick had seen him like that before was at the bombing site.

  Why was he worrying now of all times?! He had every right to worry about Simon yes, but why now?! In this moment everything felt fake to Flick, some dream he would wake up from and never have to worry about consequences again. He couldn’t even imagine what being hurt felt like in general, that was how dream like the situation was, and yet he was marching into a hornets nest faster than he could think.

  This was stupid! Unbelievably stupid! And yet Flick couldn’t stop himself, he had to see this through. Although, even on that glistening highway, he couldn’t for the life of him understand why he did.

  The ruins were just peeking over the horizon at this point, the rubble scrapping what was left of the atmosphere into their hollow rooms like giant fractured spoons. Flick swore he noticed footprints on the way there though, sets of footprints that vanished and reappeared miles away from each other and he was certain that meant SMILE were close. He had no idea how the footprints seemed to disappear in one place and reappear in another, but it had to be them.

  The closer he got to the ruins the more he recognised their destroyed surfaces until, eventually, every corner Flick turned presented him with another building him and Sam had previously explored.

  It wasn’t long before the site of their battle emerged from the shadows of the sunless earth, still as decayed as it had been hours ago yet with new, erratic footprints scattered around the entrance.

  Flick parked his bike as soon as the fragmented doorway showed itself, marching towards its innards with mechanical precision and determination. In a bizarre way the building itself showed a disdain towards Flick’s being there again, the ceiling and cracked frames of supports flaking away in chunks to strike him as he explored. He of course didn’t care much for the building’s protests, regardless of how spooky they were in nature, instead Flick checked the walls and floors for any cartoon-esque hidden doorways. He did this, floor by floor, as fast as he could to save oxygen and to maximise his possibility of finding SMILE before they found him.

  Finding a SMILE member didn’t take long for him either, only the corpses of his past enemies didn’t provide much information that he could use in any meaningful way. One thing did stand out however, as the frozen bloodied spot where Sam lied was entirely vacant now. On top of that, one helmet belonging to the shorter SMILE member was torn off and thrown to the side, although that’s about all Flick could parse from the shadowy outline of their body on the other side of the room.

  That didn’t matter much though, his attention was too fixated on what SMILE did to Sam’s body as only one set of footprints lied in her corpse’s stead. Seeing the empty space only added to the whirlwind of emotions and feelings bubbling up inside Flick to a point where he thought his consciousness might slip if he wasn’t careful in keeping his composure. The thousands of theories as to where they might have took the body of his friend, swarming Flick’s mind like bees.

  Whether it had been seconds or minutes he wasn’t quite sure, but soon Flicked resumed scanning the area for signs of his enemy. He decided not to dwell on the sobering thought that Sam’s body was far out of reach now and instead chose to follow the footprints snaking out from where she lied. Tracing the path out of the room and feeling quite proud of the detective skills he garnered from hours wasted inside comics, Flick found himself in the middle of a long and ruined hallway.

  Peculiarly the footprints abruptly ended right where he stood with only the frozen shards of metal wall brackets and chunks of the wrong floor keeping him company. Even if there had been more footsteps for him to track there was no way for him to detect them anyway, the tight space somehow made the simple act of just seeing beyond two feet difficult. With the helmet’s advanced vision on its highest setting it was still hardly enough to be considered visible or even dim, Flick had to squint to the point of exercising the lids of his eyes to see even the faintest of shadows.

  As a desperate way to illuminate his surroundings he pulled the large brake on his fusion cutter, making sure its intensity was only slightly above that of a candlelight, only to find one shadow of metal flinch and suddenly start towards him. It took a second to register that Flick was in danger, or that what he was seeing was on this mortal plane in the first place, but it was already far too late for him to react in any way. In less than a second the tip of a blade was firmly pressed against his chest.

  In a lucky twist of fate Flick managed to stumble himself backwards just before the weapon pierced his fragile ladybug’s skin, slipping over an icy piece of rubble and tumbling backwards, narrowly avoiding his own death by a hairs length. His attacker, not sure if his victim was a brilliant gymnast or an idiot of inhuman proportions, soared right over Flick’s collapsed body with tremendous speed. Skidding along the ground on the other side of the hallway the mysterious man pivoted instantly, poising himself for another attack. The whole exchange was as if a rope of rubber was invisibly attached between Flick and the attacker, leaving barely a fraction of a second as it snapped back to neutrality.

  Flick leapt to his feet as fast as he could revving his fusion cutter into its more combat-oriented spew of flames, ready to parry his opponent’s stab with ease. What he hadn’t anticipated was the sheer abject terror a normal person would feel at seeing a man wield a pillar of flame in his hand, and just like Flick’s prior SMILE encounter the small and nimble frame of his attacker froze up the instant the red glow of fire passed by him. Carrying his spear like momentum downward into the empty patched floor, the short man ducked into a corner underneath Flick brushing past his fusion cutter enough to singe the loose threads of his scarf and stopping on the other side.

  For the first time in the encounter the two looked each other square in the eyes of their respective visors, the fusion cutters blade providing a more than ample glow to identify the attacker.

  SMILE, again they had came back to interfere with Flick’s life, as if what they had already done wasn’t enough. What’s more is that this wasn’t just any SMILE member, but the same one Flick had already fought in the pillar’s ventilation. The man seemed to recognise Flick in the same way, almost as bewildered as he was at the chances of the two meeting again.

  His blade seemed to recognise him too, growling at Flick as it’s master revved it into beastly red life. In the still moment of recollection the two never took their eyes off each other.

  Completely still.

  If one of their breaths shifted to any degree the other would know, and likely attack. A stare down. Except, only one of them felt like they were in any form of danger.

  The SMILE member was first to move from stillness, pointing to his chin in a calm and cocky manner. It took a second for Flick to understand what the man was trying to say, but eventually he recognised it as a declaration. A declaration that said “I’m paying you back” in the same way a sportsman declared home runs, in the Pillars where that ancient sport still remained.

  Flick remembered their last encounter, and how he managed to clip the man’s jaw before he got away. He figured that was where the SMILE member was aiming.

  His small frame suddenly compressed itself and launched towards Flick, like a tightened spring he bounded off of every surface with his engine blade gripped under his offhand arm, positioned to slash Flick once in range.

  Flick wasn’t unprepared however; he had a plan he’d been itching to try ever since he left the pillar and now was the perfect opportunity. He knew what this man’s blade could do, or at least he had some vague recollection of it anyway, and was anticipating the moment his opponent would detach the tip from its hilt to launch at him like a whip.

  This was the move that made most sense to him with his fusion cutter being as hot as it was, being as far away from it was the best move by far. Surely this SMILE member must realise that right? It was a gamble, that much was certain, but it was one that Flick had to take in order to have any chance at survival. Plus, he really really wanted to commit to his idea.

  Flick waited for the man to get within about ten or so feet in front of him, barely moving so that he could analyse the short man’s erratic movements as much as was possible at the speed he was jumping. It was around the eleven feet mark that the man suddenly skidded to a halt, using his momentum like gunpowder and firing his blade off towards Flick’s jaw at breakneck speeds. Even in the void of earth the blade moved so fast that it whistled through the non-existent air, screaming a victorious war cry as it closed in on its victim.

  This was the exact moment Flick was looking for, the moment the sparks left the handle of the man’s blade he leapt up into the air, kicking off the wall to get as much height as he could. If this was an attempt to dodge it was more than successful, the dagger whizzing underneath Flick as fast as it had left its master’s vicinity. However, this wasn’t a dodge. Flick clasped both his hands around the cutter and tensed his whole being in as rigid of a ball his body would allow, putting his weapon over his shoulder as if to swing downward. Turning his cutter off entirely the room resumed to being cloaked in total dark, and in this shroud of black Flick scrolled his “blade” to a setting far higher than it was ever intended to be.

  He breathed a small, shallow breath and pulled the trigger.

  In an instant the room lit up with the ferocious eruption of Flicks blade, a small sun now screeching over his back, deafening anyone who heard its cry. He intended to simply use its power to swipe down with enough force to scorch everything in front of him. However even Flick couldn’t predict the amount of energy this move would generate and soon he found himself upside down, then right side up and back and forth until he lost track of himself. The way Flick was positioned turned the Fusion cutter in a giant jet engine that span him around so fast that the light from the flame became a perfect spiral as Flick shot down towards the man, faster than he could react. The speed was far too much for Flick to handle, feeling all of the blood in his body pooling to one side of his was more than enough to signal him to deactivate the cutter. The moment he did however, he found himself right in front of the SMILE member, who could barely believe what was happening before his eyes.

  Just as fast as the fire had started it was reduced to mere embers, revealing Flick behind its shower of sparks as he retained his momentous spin. In a matter of sheer coincidence his body was turned around so many times that his legs were positioned in the exact place they needed to be for Flick to land. However Flick didn’t want to simply stop as he landed, slamming his foot down past the attacker it was clear now that he was in the perfect stance to strike the man in the chest, his body slanted towards his as though he was already mid punch. Then, summoning all of the momentum from his spinning as he landed, Flick threw his whole body into his right arm shooting it straight into the chest of the short man.

  To aptly describe the force created from this kind of momentum being channelled into a punch would be nearly impossible, the closest imagery being that of a bomb’s shock-wave compressed into the small frame of a piston as it collided with bone. In an instant the SMILE member flew across the hallway and crumpled into the far corner that lied some twenty or so feet away.

  Whilst being the clear victor of the fight, the impact of using that much force as a simple human being was too much of a toll for Flick to handle. He could barely stand up straight enough to walk properly, thanks to the unholy dizziness corroding his sense of balance. On top of that, the g force generated from spinning that fast was enough to bring him near to the point of unconsciousness, if anything he was practically as fucked up as the SMILE member was in front of him. Even so, mustering up as much cocky energy as his weak body would allow, Flick stood upright, and with undeterred confidence pointed his thumb at his chest, the exact place his fist collided with the man.

  The dopamine rush of victory didn’t last much longer than a couple seconds at most however, as Flick suddenly felt a small prick in his neck. He felt faint instantly, the dizziness going much further than simple loss of balance, there were foreign chemicals flowing in his blood.

  Flick tried, as best as one could, to see whoever had done this to him but before he could the world went black.