The next morning, the rooftop felt like a different world from the shadowy clock tower. Ophy was already there, a silent silhouette against the rising sun.
"You're distracted," Ophy stated, not as a question. He snapped his fingers, and the training dummies shimmered into existence, not the tar phantoms from before, but solid, faster versions. "What's in your mind Rei?"
I flinched but played it cool, forcing my grip on the expanding pendants. "Just tired. Long night at the warehouse." It wasn't a complete lie.
"The mind is a battlefield, Rei. Don't let your enemy occupy it without a fight," Ophy advised.
The training was grueling. I moved on instinct, my body remembering the brutal lessons while my mind replayed Scorpio's offer. An eternal cycle… Ophiuchus is the key. Phobos urged caution, a constant whisper of doubt, while Deimos reveled in the memory of the swirling zodiac power. I fought harder, trying to sweat out the confusion, but the conflict remained. I said nothing to Ophy about the clock tower, the message, or the invitation that felt more like a prophecy. The stolen papers felt heavier in my jacket, especially a small, hard data card I'd found tucked inside the "Symbiosis Protocol" file. It was labeled with a single, ominous scorpion symbol.
Later that day, the attack came without warning. I was biking through a deserted underpass, the echo of the wheels a lonely rhythm, when a figure dropped from the overpass above, landing with a crackle of ozone. The Rider was encased in sleek golden armor, intricately detailed with patterns of brilliant silver. Massive, curling golden horns swept back from a silver helmet, and the air around him hummed with static electricity. Aries.
"Ophiuchus!" his voice boomed, sharp and electric. "The false sign. Your existence is an insult to the cycle. I will erase you!" He didn't wait for a reply, lunging forward in a blur of silver and lightning.
"Henshin!" I yelled, slamming the button on my phone as I dove away. The green armor materialized around me just as a bolt of lightning shot from Aries' hand, obliterating the concrete pillar where I'd been.
The fight was a storm of raw energy. Every arc of lightning he threw forced me to scramble, the air sizzling around me. My slashes with Deimos were met with crackling energy shields that sparked violently on impact. He was too fast, his movements as quick as a thunderclap. He pointed a finger, and a chain of lightning shot out, wrapping around Phobos and sending a high-voltage shock up my arm that made my systems flicker.
"His power is too great, Rei! We can't get close!" Phobos warned, his voice strained.
"Get close anyway! Overload his circuits!" Deimos roared back.
I tried to rush him, but he vanished in a flash of light and reappeared behind me, grabbing me by the throat. His grip crackled with arcs of raw power, sending paralyzing jolts through my armor. My helmet's interface went haywire with warnings: "POWER SURGE DETECTED. SYSTEM OVERLOAD IMMINENT." I was going to lose. I was going to be fried inside my own suit.
Desperation clawed at me. Scorpio's words echoed in the chaos. The power I offer is real. My hand fumbled inside my jacket, my fingers closing around the cold data card from the stolen files. An idea, insane and treacherous, sparked in my mind.
"What are you doing?!" Phobos shrieked as I pulled out my phone and the card.
"Yes! Use it! Power is power!" Deimos howled with glee.
With my free hand, I jammed the scorpion-stamped card into a port on the side of my phone. A new, sinister button appeared on the screen: "SYMBIOSIS: STINGER."
I pressed it.
Agony ripped through me, a thousand times worse than my first transformation. Black and silver energy erupted from the phone, crawling over my green armor like metallic wasps. New plates, sharp and segmented like an exoskeleton, fused onto my chest and limbs. A long, articulated tail tipped with a venomous green barb sprouted from my back, thrashing violently. The interface in my helmet rebooted, glowing with Scorpio's crimson-red data streams mixed with my own green.
Aries, startled by the sudden transformation, loosened his grip. I landed in a crouch, the new power thrumming through me, dark, venomous, and intoxicating.
"What is this heresy?!" Aries bellowed.
I didn't answer. The venom from my new form seemed to ground his electricity. I blurred forward, my tail whipping around to absorb an incoming lightning bolt. I slashed with Deimos, now coated in a faint green poison. The blade cut deep into the joint of his shoulder armor, and the venom sizzled, not just corroding the metal but short-circuiting the energy flowing through it. Aries roared in pain as sparks flew from the wound.
The power was immense, but it felt wrong, a corruption of my own energy. Yet, it was the only thing keeping me alive. I pressed the advantage, a whirlwind of blades and venom. Phobos and Deimos moved with a deadly new synergy, guided by the cold, predatory logic of the Scorpio data. I parried another electric blast and stabbed forward with my tail, the stinger plunging into his chest plate. His electrical field sputtered and died. With his primary power neutralized, I drove Phobos into his chest.
Aries collapsed, his armor dissolving in a shower of failing sparks as he was forcibly de-transformed. He wasn't dead, but he was beaten, teleporting away in a flicker of golden light.
I stood panting in the silent underpass, the Stinger armor slowly receding, peeling away from my body and leaving me in my base green form. The scorpion data card ejected from my phone, smoking slightly. I had won. But as I looked at my trembling hands, I knew I had crossed a dangerous line. I had used the enemy's power to survive, and the venom of that choice now flowed through me.
The Stinger armor was gone, but a deep, biting chill remained, sinking into my bones. The underpass air, once thick with the scent of ozone and battle, now just felt cold and damp. I tried to take a deep breath, but my lungs hitched, and a wave of nausea washed over me. It wasn't the sickness of exhaustion; it was something else, something alien. It felt like ice water and poison were being pumped through my veins.
My bike lay on its side a few feet away. Just looking at it made my head spin. Every muscle screamed as I forced myself to walk over and pick it up. The pendants, usually a source of warmth and power against my chest, felt like cold, dead stones.
"Rei… are you alright?" Phobos's voice was a faint whisper in my mind, strained and weak. "That power… it felt wrong. It's left a stain on you."
"A stain? It was magnificent!" Deimos countered, though his usual booming enthusiasm was edged with something I couldn't quite place. A hungry, dangerous excitement. "We won, didn't we? That's all that matters!"
They were both wrong. I hadn't won. I'd just survived by making a deal with a devil I didn't know.
The ride back to the boarding house was torture. Each push of the pedals sent a fresh wave of dizziness through me. The world seemed to tilt and swim at the edges, and I had to clamp my jaw shut to keep from being sick. I felt a phantom ache in the small of my back, right where the scorpion tail had emerged from my armor, a ghost of the monstrous power I had unleashed.
I practically fell through the front door of the boarding house, managing to lock it behind me before leaning heavily against the wall, shivering uncontrollably. The house was dark and silent. I used the wall to guide myself up the stairs, my legs trembling with each step.
Once in my room, I collapsed onto my bed, not even bothering to take off my jacket. The cold was getting worse, a deep, internal winter that no blanket could warm. I curled into a ball, my teeth chattering as another violent shiver wracked my body
.
"This is bad, Rei," Phobos murmured, his voice laced with fear. "The venom from that power… it's trying to merge with yours. It's fighting you."
"Then fight back harder!" Deimos growled. "Master it! Make it your own!"
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block them out, trying to block everything out. I just wanted the feeling to go away. I dragged myself off the bed and stumbled into the small bathroom, fumbling for the light switch.
The figure in the mirror was a stranger. My face was pale and slick with a cold sweat, my lips tinged with blue. I looked defeated. Broken. As I stared into my own reflection, my eyes flickered. For a terrifying, split second, they weren't my own. They glowed with the same crimson-red light of the Stinger interface, cold, predatory, and utterly inhuman. I gasped and recoiled from the sink, and just as quickly, they were my own again. But the image was burned into my mind. The power wasn't gone. It was inside me now, waiting.