The Iklwa and the Neutral Zone
King Scipio Okoro vs. Kevin Brashear
The first thing Scipio noticed was the silence. Not the absence of sound, because there was plenty of that. The wind rattled loose sheets of metal on the abandoned buildings, and somewhere in the distance, a piece of machinery groaned as it settled into the dirt. It was the silence coming from the man standing thirty yards away that caught his attention.
Scipio could hear his heartbeat, but it seemed to be coming from several different places at once.
“Kevin Brashear?” Scipio asked.
The young man nodded. “And you’re Scipio.”
“King Scipio, if we’re being formal.”
Kevin smiled. “I’m not.”
“Good. Neither am I.”
Scipio held Chaos Iklwa loosely in his left hand. The black and gold lines of CRAS-10 followed the contours of his muscular body. His bare feet rested on the cracked concrete of what had once been a parking lot.
Kevin looked at the weapon.
“You’re going to need more than that.”
Scipio smiled. “Everybody says that.”
Kevin disappeared.
Scipio immediately reached out with his vector manipulation, searching for the movement that would tell him where Kevin had gone. He found nothing. There was no acceleration, no displacement, and no indication that Kevin had moved through the space between them.
Then something struck him in the back.
Scipio flew through the wall of the nearest warehouse. He crashed through three interior partitions before striking an enormous steel press. The machine folded around him, burying him beneath several tons of twisted metal.
He pushed the wreckage aside and stood.
“Well,” he muttered, “that’s different.”
Kevin appeared in the opening Scipio had made in the wall.
“Had enough?”
Scipio brushed a piece of metal from his shoulder.
“You’ve only hit me once.”
Kevin raised his hand, and the air between them began to distort.
Scipio blinked, repositioning himself above Kevin. He brought Chaos Iklwa down toward the young man’s shoulder, but the blade passed through him as though he weren’t there.
Scipio landed and immediately spun, sweeping the weapon across Kevin’s waist.
Again, nothing.
Kevin looked down at the blade passing through his body.
“You can’t hit something that isn’t entirely here.”
Scipio withdrew the weapon.
“Then I guess I’ll have to figure out where you are.”
Kevin thrust both hands forward.
The warehouse floor erupted, but instead of rising, the concrete and steel stretched outward in several impossible directions. A corridor opened where no corridor should have existed, and Scipio found himself falling through a space that had no discernible bottom.
He extended his arms and stopped his descent.
Or at least he stopped his own acceleration. The space around him continued to change.
Scipio looked upward. The opening through which he’d fallen was shrinking.
He blinked toward it.
For an instant, he felt himself move exactly as intended, but when he reappeared, the opening was even farther away.
“Son of a bitch.”
Kevin’s voice echoed through the darkness.
“You’re manipulating movement inside the space. I’m changing the space itself.”
Scipio stopped struggling.
That was an important distinction. One he needed to understand before doing anything else.
He closed his eyes and reached into the In-Between.
Thousands of possibilities appeared before him. He saw himself accelerating toward the opening and failing. He saw himself attempting to tear through the surrounding dimensions, only to find himself farther away than before.
Then he saw something else.
Kevin wasn’t creating an infinite prison. He was maintaining a connection between two regions of reality. A connection that required his attention to remain stable.
Scipio opened his eyes.
“Found you.”
Chaos Iklwa appeared in his left hand.
He drove the blade into the distorted boundary surrounding him. The first strike accomplished nothing. The second produced a faint blue fracture, and the third sent a tremor through the entire corridor.
Kevin appeared above him.
“Stop!”
Scipio looked up.
“Let me out.”
Kevin extended his hand, and a wave of dimensional force struck Scipio, folding the space around him.
Scipio tightened his grip on the Iklwa and pushed against the fracture. The blade had been forged through his connection to the Boundary, and he could feel it responding to the unnatural division between the two spaces.
The fracture widened.
Then reality snapped.
Scipio shot out of the dimensional corridor and crashed into the street outside the warehouse. He rolled twice before catching himself.
Kevin emerged a moment later.
“How did you do that?”
Scipio stood and brushed the dust from his shoulder.
“Didn’t like where you put me.”
Kevin stared at the spear.
Scipio followed his gaze.
“Oh, you’re definitely going to hate this thing.”
Kevin moved first.
The street split open beneath Scipio’s feet. He jumped, but the ground wasn’t simply breaking apart. Entire sections were disappearing into overlapping pockets of dimensional space.
Scipio blinked toward Kevin.
Kevin vanished.
Scipio landed where he’d been standing.
A hand emerged from empty air and caught him by the throat. Kevin appeared with it and drove Scipio into the pavement.
The concrete exploded beneath them.
Kevin struck again.
Scipio caught his wrist.
For an instant, Kevin was solid.
That was all he needed.
Scipio reversed the direction of Kevin’s descending fist and added its momentum to an upward acceleration. Kevin shot into the air, and Scipio followed.
He caught Kevin around the waist and drove him through the roof of a neighboring building.
They crashed through three floors before Kevin phased out of his grasp.
Scipio hit the basement floor alone.
He immediately rolled aside as a column of displaced concrete appeared where his head had been.
Scipio came to his feet.
Kevin stood across the room.
“You’re strong.”
“Thank you.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“Still taking it.”
Kevin spread his hands, and the room began to fold.
Scipio recognized the effect.
“Nope.”
He launched Chaos Iklwa.
Kevin shifted partially out of phase, allowing the blade to pass through his shoulder. It struck a support column behind him.
Scipio pulled on the column’s vectors.
The concrete pillar ripped free, bringing a large section of the ceiling down with it.
Kevin instinctively raised his arms and shifted the falling debris into another dimensional space.
Scipio was already moving.
He blinked directly in front of Kevin.
His left fist struck the young man beneath the ribs.
Kevin doubled over.
Scipio followed with a right cross that sent him stumbling backward. A knee caught Kevin in the chest, and Scipio grabbed the back of his neck and slammed him into the floor.
Kevin disappeared before the next punch landed.
Scipio struck concrete.
He felt the displacement behind him, but he was too late.
Kevin’s fist connected with his jaw.
Scipio’s head snapped sideways. Another punch struck his temple, and a third drove him into a wall.
He felt the bones in his jaw knitting themselves back together.
Kevin was breathing harder now.
“Why won’t you stay down?”
Scipio spat blood onto the floor.
“People keep asking me that.”
Kevin extended both arms.
The basement disappeared.
Scipio found himself floating in darkness.
There was no ground, no ceiling, and no light source he could identify.
Kevin stood several yards away, suspended in the void.
“This is closer to my territory,” Kevin said.
Scipio looked around.
“Not much to look at.”
“You’re not taking this seriously.”
Scipio turned toward him.
“Kevin, you’ve punched me through buildings, tried to bury me, and dropped me into another dimension twice. I’m taking you very seriously.”
“Then why are you smiling?”
“Because you’re still trying to hit me.”
Kevin raised his hand.
Scipio felt the space around his body contract. His arms were pulled away from his sides, and his legs spread until he was suspended in an uncomfortable position.
He tried to move.
Nothing.
He attempted to reverse the forces holding him, but there weren’t any conventional forces to reverse. Kevin had altered the spatial relationships surrounding his limbs.
Scipio tried blinking.
He felt himself reposition, but the distorted space redirected him back into the restraint.
Kevin approached.
“How’s this?”
Scipio tested the restraint again.
It tightened.
“I don’t want to kill you,” Kevin said.
“Good. We’re on the same page.”
“Then surrender.”
Scipio looked at him.
“No.”
Kevin clenched his fist.
The distortion tightened around Scipio’s left shoulder. He felt the joint dislocate, sending a sharp pain through his chest.
His regeneration began repairing the damage, but the pressure remained.
Scipio closed his eyes and reached into the In-Between.
The voices came.
Not instructions or commands, but knowledge. The accumulated experiences of those who had come before him.
Possibilities unfolded around him.
He could see Kevin maintaining the dimensional restraint. He could see where the distortion intersected the ordinary space occupied by his body, and he could see the small changes that occurred whenever Kevin adjusted his grip on reality.
Scipio stopped resisting.
Kevin noticed.
“Finally.”
Scipio opened his eyes.
“Not quite.”
Chaos Iklwa appeared in his left hand.
Kevin’s eyes widened.
Scipio twisted his wrist until the blade touched the nearest spatial boundary.
He pushed.
Kevin increased the restraint.
Scipio pushed harder.
The blade began vibrating, and a thin blue line appeared along its edge.
Kevin stepped backward.
“What are you doing?”
“Making room.”
Scipio continued pushing, forcing the weapon against the boundary until a crack appeared in the distorted space.
Kevin tried to reinforce it.
Scipio felt the pressure shift.
That was his opening.
His left arm came free.
He threw the Iklwa.
Kevin disappeared.
The weapon passed through the space he’d occupied.
Scipio smiled.
“Got you.”
He hadn’t been aiming at Kevin.
He’d been aiming at the dimensional connection behind him.
The Iklwa struck the boundary, and the restraint fractured.
Scipio tore his right arm free, then his legs.
The surrounding darkness buckled.
Kevin reappeared, visibly straining to maintain the pocket dimension.
Scipio blinked.
This time, he wasn’t trying to escape the entire construct. He repositioned himself across the short stretch of stable space between them.
He appeared directly in front of Kevin.
Kevin raised his hand.
Scipio caught it.
He immediately reversed the movement of Kevin’s arm, pulling it away from his chest.
Then he punched him.
The impact sent Kevin tumbling through the void.
Scipio followed.
A second punch struck Kevin in the stomach. A third caught his jaw.
Kevin tried to phase, but Scipio released him and blinked away before he could counterattack.
The dimensional prison began collapsing.
Kevin had to choose between maintaining the prison and defending himself.
He chose defense.
The darkness shattered.
Both men fell back into the real world.
Kevin hit the ground first.
Scipio landed on his feet.
They stood approximately twenty yards apart, neither speaking.
Kevin’s clothes were torn, and blood ran from his nose. Scipio’s CRAS-10 was scorched, and his regeneration was still repairing the damage to his shoulder.
Kevin wiped his face.
“You’re insane.”
Scipio shrugged.
“Been called worse.”
Kevin raised his hands.
The air began distorting again.
Scipio shook his head.
“Don’t.”
Kevin hesitated.
“Don’t what?”
“Do the same thing again.”
Kevin’s expression hardened.
A massive dimensional opening appeared behind Scipio.
The pull was immediate.
Broken vehicles slid across the ground. Steel beams tore free of the surrounding buildings, and loose debris disappeared into the darkness.
Scipio planted his feet.
The concrete cracked beneath them.
Kevin increased the pull.
Scipio began sliding backward.
He looked over his shoulder at the opening.
He could feel the physical forces acting upon him, and beyond them, the edges of the spatial distortion Kevin was maintaining.
Then he looked back at Kevin.
The young man was standing perfectly still, concentrating on the opening.
Scipio smiled.
He stopped resisting.
His body accelerated backward.
Kevin’s eyes widened.
Scipio reversed his own acceleration and redirected the momentum forward.
He shot toward Kevin.
Kevin tried to close the opening.
Too late.
Scipio blinked.
He appeared beside Kevin and caught his wrist with his left hand.
His right fist struck Kevin in the stomach.
Kevin doubled over.
Scipio turned, pulled him across his hip, and threw him into the ground.
The impact shook the street.
Kevin attempted to phase.
Scipio felt the change beginning and immediately released him.
Kevin disappeared into the pavement.
Scipio stepped backward.
Chaos Iklwa appeared in his hand.
Kevin emerged ten yards away.
Scipio was waiting.
The Iklwa flashed through the air.
Kevin instinctively shifted out of phase, allowing the weapon to pass through him.
But the spear wasn’t aimed at his body.
It struck the pavement directly beneath him.
Scipio used the weapon’s position to focus his vector control on the surrounding environment.
The street erupted upward.
Kevin was forced to move.
He appeared in the air above Scipio.
Scipio had already seen that possibility.
He blinked.
He reappeared behind Kevin, wrapping his left arm around the young man’s neck.
Kevin reached backward.
Scipio tightened his hold.
Kevin began shifting them both toward another dimensional opening.
Scipio recognized the transition.
He released the choke, caught Kevin by the shoulder, and redirected their combined movement toward the ground.
They struck hard.
Scipio rolled clear.
Kevin struggled to rise.
Scipio approached with Chaos Iklwa in his hand.
Kevin raised one arm.
“Wait.”
Scipio stopped.
Kevin was breathing heavily.
“Are you going to kill me?”
Scipio frowned.
“Why would I do that?”
“You’ve been trying to stab me with that thing.”
“I’ve been trying to stop you from throwing me into another damn dimension.”
Kevin laughed despite himself, then winced.
Scipio lowered the Iklwa.
“Can you stand?”
Kevin nodded.
He got halfway to his feet before his knees buckled.
Scipio caught him.
Kevin stared at him.
“You know I could’ve left you in there.”
“Probably.”
“You don’t seem worried.”
Scipio helped him stand.
“I was.”
Kevin looked surprised.
Scipio continued.
“Being afraid of something doesn’t mean you stop fighting it.”
Kevin glanced at the destroyed buildings.
“Your people must be terrified of you.”
Scipio looked around at the devastation.
“No. They know who I fight for.”
Kevin studied him for a moment before offering his hand.
Scipio shook it.
“Your father’s going to be pissed,” Scipio said.
Kevin laughed.
“You know my dad?”
“Not yet.”
“Then how do you know?”
Scipio looked at the devastation surrounding them.
“Because somebody’s got to pay for all this.”
Both men laughed.
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Kevin looked at Chaos Iklwa.
“I still don’t understand how you broke through the Neutral Zone.”
Scipio looked down at the weapon.
“There’s a lot about it I don’t understand myself.”
Kevin raised an eyebrow.
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“Nope.”
Scipio allowed the Iklwa to disappear.
Kevin shook his head.
“You’re something else, man.”
Scipio smiled.
“So I’ve been told.”
He turned and started walking away.
“Where are you going?” Kevin asked.
“Home.”
“That’s it?”
Scipio stopped and looked back.
“What else you want to do? Fight some more?”
Kevin glanced around at the ruined buildings.
“No. I think I’m good.”
“Smart man.”
Scipio continued walking.
Kevin watched him for several seconds before calling after him.
“Hey, Scipio!”
Scipio stopped.
“What?”
“Next time, no weapons.”
Scipio laughed.
“Next time, no dimensions.”
Kevin smiled.
“Deal.”
Scipio shook his head and continued down the ruined street.
He’d fought plenty of powerful people in his life, but Kevin Brashear was something different. A man who could move between dimensions and change the space around him without ever needing to throw a punch.
He’d have to remember that.
Because something told him this wouldn’t be the last time they met.
Enjoy the Ride.
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