I don't get it. Old Me said there weren't going to be any consequences if I left The Animatrix in the hands of The Key. He said he never had to worry about The Character, but he must've had zero clues about all these other people testing out the relic.
Faint voices keep entering my hearing, but it's so hard to pay attention right now. I recognize Clyde's voice, but I'm just so sleepy. I can't really concentrate on what he's saying.
Suddenly, all of my vision and hearing come back, and a new stinging sensation in my neck. Clyde's arm is there, and his hand is shaped weirdly. He's holding something. I think it's a needle. He moves, and I feel the stinging again. He injected me with something.
"Wha-?"
"Troy, are you all right?"
"Mm-hmm."
"What are you doing out there? You're letting him hit you with easily dodgeable attacks. That last one nearly knocked you out cold. You got to be more careful than that. Can you still fight?"
I handspring up with this new energy he's given me. "Of course, I can! But, Clyde, there's something strange about his attacks. What he throws isn't what lands. I don't understand it myself, but I'm watching a completely different fight than you are."
"What? I'm not following you at all."
"As I said, I don't get it myself. It's certainly not fair though."
Kay-Oh walked back to the center of the street while I was floating in and out of reality. "I'd say that having your partner save you from unconsciousness is a form of cheating, but this fight would've been too short if he hadn't. I'll allow it. Now, do you still have some bite left, Agent Hearth?"
"You've got a plan, Troy? I don't think you're winning with a simple brawl," Clyde says.
"Give me your smoke grenade, I think I might be on to something."
He gives me a silver canister. All I have to do is pull this pin and throw it away for the immediate area to be covered in a dense cloud of smoke. I'm leaning on faith here, but if I don't try something soon, the next attack might break my ribcage.
"More toys, Mr. Hearth?" Kay-Oh mocks.
"You know every waking moment is playtime for me." I pull out the pin and toss it right in the middle of the street which is essentially our entire arena. The area fills with smoke, and Kay-Oh doesn't try to stop it. I can't see him anymore, not unless I enter the smoke myself and get real close.
"Here I go, Clyde! Wish me luck!" I say and run into the smoke.
"How am I supposed to record the fight with all this smoke!?" he calls after.
I see him, Kay-Oh, standing still with his arms crossed inside the smoke. It's my turn to attack! I jump in quickly, throwing a flying dragon kick into his chest. I land it expertly, but he doesn't move. He doesn't budge or phase or twitch in pain. Did I even hit him? Yes, I did, because if I missed, I would still be flying through the air. How are you supposed to damage this man?
I back up, afraid to try to throw another attack. I wait for him to move. When he comes closer, I see him pull a fist back for an obvious haymaker punch. But is that really what he's going to throw? Then something odd happens inside the smoke.
The smoke is disturbed as his body moves through it. His legs and torso push it out of the way as he walks toward me, but something isn't moving at all. When he is holding up his right hand, the smoke is completely undisturbed except for the gentle wind. All the smoke around the rest of his body is getting stirred and moved out of the way. So why not his attacking right hand?
I activate my supercharge reflexes again to slow time slightly in hopes of getting a better look at this. His movements are slower now in my eyes, but I still can't figure out why the smoke isn't moving. When he gets close, my eyes are fixed on his right hand, and I have to concentrate to not look there.
There it is!
The smoke coming from his left side is moving violently as if a ghost is punching from that side instead. His right hand swings for my head, and I dodge it by stepping to the side. The smoke from his right hand's attack didn't move at all, but the left side of him is ripping through the smoke and aiming for my face.
I put my arms in front of my head and feel a heavy impact. His left fist has connected with my arms, and now the pose his body is in suggests that he was throwing a left punch since the beginning. How bizarre! I don't get it at all!
He pushes me back with pure power behind the punch. He doesn't have normal strength, and I'm sure my body would've broken since the first attack if it wasn't for all of Ispio's upgrades to keep me strong and healthy.
"You've got a ghost fighting for you or something?" I ask.
"You're learning, but no, you're far off the mark. Why don't you hurry up and show me your special abilities and make this fight interesting? This is too easy."
He plants his feet and I see him throw a snapping kick with his right leg. The smoke is undisturbed by his kick, and I barely notice the smoke above his head is ripping apart. He's going for a hammer fist strike again! I move quickly, but my shoulder still feels the impact of the hammer fist. A loud crack happens in my right shoulder, and suddenly, my right arm goes limp! Crap, something just broke!
"That sounded crunchy. Is your right arm out of the game, Troy?"
The nanobots sense my immense trauma and flood my brain with pain blockers. "Ow…just a little boo boo. I'll be okay. Agh, my arm looks like spaghetti!"
He throws a straight punch to my face, but the smoke beneath him is disturbed. I feel my feet getting kicked out from under me by a sweeping leg kick. I fall on my back and watch Kay-Oh raise a boot to stomp on me, but that's not what happens. The smoke says a swift kick to my side is going to happen. I can't stop it. It connects to my ribcage and sends me rolling along the street.
I stop rolling, but I'm still in the smoke. I see him chasing me. Think, Troy, think! I pick a flashbang from my belt and toss it in his direction. I turn over and close my eyes and wait for the loud bang. It booms, and when I turn back over, I see Kay-Oh covering his eyes with an arm and stumbling around.
I quickly launch up and get closer, but not to attack him, just to observe. Even though Kay-Oh is not throwing any kind of attacks, the smoke around him is ripping all over like someone is throwing powerful punches and kicks around his body. Is that Kay-Oh attacking or something else? A kung-fu ghost? He said it wasn't, so maybe it's not a ghost at all.
I quietly study the attack patterns of the ghost punches, and when I believe I can predict one of the movements, I draw my gun and get ready to shoot. I hope I'm right, otherwise, this bullet is flying into the crowd that I can't see.
The smoke ripples where I predict, and I fire. My bullet hits nothing, but it stops anyway and a spurt of blood shoots out from nowhere. Kay-Oh groans in pain, and I see a bullet hole form on his left thigh. He does bleed, but only if I hit the invisible attacking limb.
"What!?" he cries.
"I don't exactly know what just happened, but it looks like you can bleed after all. I shot you in the ghost limb, liar! You said it wasn't a ghost."
He regains his vision and burns me with a menacing stare. "You fool, there is no ghost! Why would I lie about that? Behold, my strange ability! Alternative Punch!"
"Spill the beans, what am I seeing here? Why is it that whenever you punch or kick, it's not the move that actually happens?"
"Maybe you haven't figured it out yet. You witness my body perform a certain motion, but in reality, something alternative is happening. Your eyes will trick you into seeing an attack that isn't happening, all the while the real attack is heading straight for you at the same time."
"Why aren't bullets working?"
"The relic won't allow cheap victories. Think about it, did you easily shoot The Character and end the fight quickly? No, you had to put on some style for your bullets to work."
"I should've brought that damn thing back with me to Ispio. This has gotten out of hand."
"Ispio has no idea what they've stumbled upon. It looks like your smoke trick is wearing off. I don't see another bomb on your belt. Was that your only one?"
Clyde only brought one smoke bomb, there's usually only one moment when it's effective in the situation. Now, we're going to need a whole crate of it, and Ispio won't be able to respond that quickly even with Barry's private jet.
Kay-Oh approaches me, and I holster my gun knowing that it won't be good for anything for now. I need to see his ghost punch again in order for me to damage him, but without smoke, I'm at a loss for how that's going to happen.
I crouch down and pretend to feel the pain in my right arm. He gets closer, and I quickly shoot a kick coming from the ground and aiming for his chin. It connects, but he's unphased. I spring up and unleash a flurry of kicks aiming at his chest and face, and not a single one damages him. I watch him shove a palm into my stomach, but I feel knuckles under my chin. My body lifts up as the strongest uppercut I've experienced sends me flying.
My feet catch me, but I'm seeing double now. He throws a right punch, but a left one hits me. He throws a left punch, but his right fist hits me. Suddenly, I feel several hits in my torso like fifty fists, but he doesn't even move at all. In a mocking fashion, he snaps his fingers, and I feel two fists slam into my chest. Even for ghost punches, those are really quick hits.
I'm pushed onto my back, and I lose feeling in my other arm. I think my heart just stopped! Yep, it definitely stopped beating. The nanobots sense my still blood and apply a massive shock, and I feel my heartbeat start up again. There's nothing they can do to heal me fast enough to keep this fight going. I think I'm tapped out.
Kay-Oh hovers over my body, his arms crossed over his chest like before. "You technically lost by knockout, but your technology keeps you awake and alive. So now I must ask you: do you forfeit?"
"I can still fight!"
His eyes dart to my right arm dangling out and looking like taffy. "I have my doubts. Your right arm will no longer function. Your shoulder has been shattered, your heart has stopped beating for a few moments, and your ribcage is utterly destroyed. A normal person would have died from internal bleeding by now."
"How about we switch to chess?"
"Face it, you've lost. And now you will keep up your end of the bargain."
"Oh yeah, you're going to take something from me. Here, flip me over and you can have whatever cash is in my wallet."
He reaches down and grabs my throat, I feel him gripping the life right out of me. "I'm taking something much more valuable to me than money. I'm taking your muscle mass and calories to feed my own power."
Pain like several stings from a bee starts attacking my throat. It's as if his palm grew a mouth and started biting me. My left arm grabs his wrist, but I'm too tired to do anything about it. In fact, I feel myself getting more and more tired. My arm is heavy and exhausting to keep up, and my fingers lose their grip on him and slide off.
When he lets me go, my whole body goes limp as every piece of me slumps down and seems to melt into the street. I can't turn my head to check out my body, I can't even find the energy to roll my eyes to look around. I'm fully paralyzed, and Kay-Oh's muscles grew bigger and more defined.
Kay-Oh wipes his forehead and looks at Clyde. "Mr. Barker, you may now retrieve your teammate's body."