The crawlspace was a claustrophobic hell of pipes, wires, and darkness.
Kafka moved with a desperate, animalistic scrabble, his two extra Kaiju arms providing a terrifyingly efficient means of locomotion. He used them to pull his body forward at an incredible speed, his human hands and feet scrambling for purchase on the narrow beams. Dust and cobwebs filled the air, a testament to how long it had been since any human had ventured into these metallic guts of the base.
Alarms blared from every direction, a disorienting symphony of his own capture. The metallic tang of his own strange, green blood filled his senses; one of Hoshina's blades had sliced deeper than he'd thought, and a nasty gash was leaking energy and fluid down his side.
'Can't stop. Gotta get outside. Can't let them corner me in here.'
His enhanced senses were a blessing and a curse. He could hear the frantic commands being shouted over the base's PA system, the heavy, thudding footsteps of armored squads mobilizing below him, and something else… a faint, high-frequency whine getting closer.
*FZZZZZZT-BOOM!*
A section of the ductwork ten meters in front of him exploded in a shower of molten metal. Hoshina, impossibly fast, had calculated his trajectory and simply cut through the floor from the level below, his blades slicing through a meter of steel and concrete to intercept him.
"You're fast, Hibino-san," Hoshina's voice echoed up through the newly made hole, calm and conversational amidst the chaos. "But you are in a cage of our own design. Every corridor, every duct, every wire is on our maps. You have nowhere to run."
Kafka didn't reply. He veered sharply to the right, into a perpendicular maintenance shaft, a cold dread washing over him. Hoshina wasn't just chasing him. He was herding him. Like a sheepdog driving a lamb towards the slaughter.
Where was he being herded?
As if in answer, his senses picked up a new, terrifying sound. A low, powerful hum that vibrated through the very structure of the building. It was the sound of a massive weapon charging. He knew that sound. He had heard it many times from the clean-up sites.
Mina Ashiro's freezer cannon.
He was being driven towards the outer wall. Towards Mina's firing line.
'No way. No damn way!'
He couldn't go forward. Going back was a death sentence. That left… up.
He spotted a large, vertical ventilation shaft directly above him, its powerful fans currently idle. It was his only path. With a desperate surge of power, he used his Kaiju arms to punch through the thin metal of the crawlspace ceiling and pull himself into the much larger shaft.
He began to climb, finding handholds and footholds in the access ladders and struts that lined the colossal tube. He was ascending through the core of the building, towards the roof. Freedom.
"Target is in Ventilation Shaft C-7! Ascending!" a voice blared over the PA.
They knew. Of course they knew.
*WHOOOSH-KRA-BOOOOM!*
The world below him became a vortex of destructive energy. Kikoru Shinomiya, her axe's jets roaring, launched herself up the shaft after him. She wasn't climbing. She was flying, using her weapon's propulsion to turn herself into a golden-haired missile of righteous fury.
"KAFKA!" she screamed, her voice echoing up the shaft, filled with a raw, agonized rage. "STOP RUNNING!"
He scrambled faster, the wind from her ascent buffeting him. The opening to the roof was fifty meters above. He could see the faint light. He was so close.
He could feel her getting closer. The heat from her axe's thrusters was scorching the back of his legs.
He had no choice. He had to slow her down.
He stopped climbing, bracing himself against the rungs of the ladder. He turned, facing downwards into the roaring wind and the ascending golden warrior.
"I'm sorry, Shinomiya," he grunted, and channeled his power.
Not into his arms, but into his mouth. He felt the biological structure of his throat and lungs shift, borrowing the anatomy from the jelly-Kaiju, which could project acid. He took a deep, shuddering breath.
Instead of acid, he spat a massive, cohesive glob of incredibly dense, sticky biological matter—a bio-web, Kaiju style. It shot down the shaft, instantly expanding to the full ten-meter diameter, as thick and resilient as steel cables.
Kikoru, ascending at full speed, had no time to react. She flew straight into it.
*THWUMP!*
The webbing held. Her forward momentum was killed instantly, trapping her like a fly in a spider's web fifty meters below him. She roared in frustration, hacking at the thick, rubbery strands with her axe, but it was incredibly resilient. It would take her precious seconds to cut through.
Seconds he desperately needed.
He turned and continued his climb, finally bursting out onto the rooftop of the Third Division base. The night sky was a beautiful, welcome sight. Freedom.
But his relief lasted for a single, fleeting moment.
The roof was not empty.
Dozens of Defense Force troopers, their rifles leveled, formed a perimeter. Armored mechs stood like sentinels. And in the center, standing beside the massive, gleaming form of her custom-built railgun cannon, was Commander Mina Ashiro.
Her expression was not of anger, but of a deep, profound disappointment. She held a radio to her lips, her voice calm and clear, amplified by speakers across the rooftop.
"Stand down, Kafka," she said. There was no 'threat', no 'Jumper'. She used his name. It hit him harder than any physical blow. "It's over. Don't make this any harder than it has to be."
He was panting, bleeding, and cornered. Below him, he could hear Kikoru finally breaking through his webbing, her furious roars echoing up the shaft. Beside him, he could hear the distinct sound of Hoshina's blades cutting a new exit hole in the roof.
The trap had been sprung. He wasn't herded to the outer wall. He was herded here. The perfect kill box.
He looked at Mina. The childhood friend he had sworn to stand beside. Her finger was on the trigger of a weapon that could flash-freeze a city block. Her eyes, filled with a steely, painful resolve, were locked on him.
For the first time since his transformation, Kafka felt true despair.
Jin-Woo could not help him here. This was a prison of his own making, built from his own lies. He could transform fully, fight them all, and probably level the entire base before they brought him down. He could become the monster they thought he was.
Or he could be Kafka Hibino.
With a shuddering sigh that seemed to drain all the monstrous energy out of him, the biological armor dissolved from his skin. The extra arms receded. The green glow in his eyes faded.
He was just a man again. A tired, bleeding janitor in a tattered uniform, standing on a roof, surrounded by people he once considered his colleagues, his friends.
He slowly raised his hands in the universal gesture of surrender.
"Mina..." he said, his voice raw, heartbroken. "I can explain."
From the newly-cut hole in the roof, Hoshina emerged, his blades still humming. From the ventilation shaft, Kikoru leaped out, her axe steaming with effort and rage.
They all stared at the man who had surrendered. The monster who had chosen to be a man.
For a moment, there was silence. The standoff was over.
Then, Hoshina's eyes went wide.
"Commander, look out! Above you!" he screamed.
Kafka and Mina both looked up.
For a split second, Kafka thought it was Jin-Woo, coming to… what? Save him? Intervene?
But it wasn't the cold, void-like presence of the Monarch.
It was something else. A pinpoint of light in the night sky, growing at an impossible rate. It wasn't a Kaiju. It was a projectile. Something had been fired from orbit. And it was heading directly for Mina Ashiro.
There was no time to think. No time for orders. No time for despair.
Kafka's entire body erupted in a torrent of green energy. His full, monstrous Kaiju No. 8 form exploded into being, bigger and more powerful than ever before. He ignored the troopers, the guns, Mina's shocked face.
He had one instinct. The promise he had made her when they were children.
I'll be by your side.
With a roar that shattered every window on the rooftop, he launched himself forward, a hulking black shield of flesh and bone, moving to intercept the falling star. To protect her.