The banshee scream of the sirens pierced the smoke-filled air, reverberating against the towering metallic spires of Ark Hyperion—a colossal megacity perched upon the edge of Saturn’s largest moon. Beneath the chaotic skyline of neon holograms and descending skiffs, Mari leaned casually against the cracked railing of a suspended transit platform, her electric-pink bodysuit catching the hi-beams of flying vehicles zipping past. The number “05” glowed faintly on her chestplate, the exosuit warping and conforming to each subtle shift of her ribcage as she took a deep, calculated breath. Behind her head, her hands were locked in a nonchalant pose, but her emerald-green eyes roamed the cityscape like an apex predator surveying its hunting grounds. Confidence radiated from her stance, yet there was a sharpness—something alive, something that waited just beneath the surface of her skin.
“Miss Illustrious,” croaked a voice from a communicator embedded in her right temple. The synthetic accent betrayed its origin—likely birthed in one of the AI-dominated orbital colonies. “Unit 05’s synchronization levels are dropping. You must engage the anomaly now before containment fails entirely. Do you copy?”
Mari rolled her eyes, her breath fogging in the cool, methane-tinged air of Titan. “Oh, copy I do, you walking script. Now, how about less nagging and more action? I’ll handle the damn ‘anom’,” she quipped, her words laced with honeyed sarcasm as she lazily twisted her neck, her collar-length brown hair swaying. From above, incandescent bolts of lightning illuminated the roiling storm clouds that always seemed to gather around Ark Hyperion. The storm wasn’t natural. None of this was.
And then it emerged.
From the depths of the sprawling arcology to her left erupted a bioluminescent horror—a towering quadruped creature with obsidian-like skin veined with pulsing blue lights, its form enveloped by flickering energy spirals. Its elongated, serpentine head scanned its surroundings for prey, before releasing a guttural screech that sent tremors scraping through the metal beneath Mari’s boots. Civilians on nearby platforms screamed and scattered as the creature began tearing through gravity-stabilized trains.
Mari inhaled deeply, the scent of ionized ozone sharp in her nostrils. She adjusted her glove-like gauntlets, where golden conduits shimmered down her forearms, humming with latent energy. With a playful flick of her eyebrows, she tilted her head at the communicator. “Would it kill HQ to send a little backup every now and then?”
“Warlord-class entities like this require Evangelion functionality, Miss Illustrious. No human or drone backup is strong enough,” the communicator stated briskly. It was less an answer and more a reminder of how catastrophically alone she really was in this fight.
“Of course they don’t. Looks like it’s up to me, as always,” she muttered. Her exosuit began shifting, the intricate array of overlapping plates recalibrating and tightening as energy fields flared along her limbs. A faint pink outline shaped like angelic wings stretched momentarily behind her back—a luminous signature that marked her suit as one of humanity’s most advanced weapons. The Evangelion pilots had been legends in the First Interstellar Wars, and she was the last of their kind.
Her body coiled as she crouched, tension rippling through her muscles. Then, she leapt.
The air around her howled as she descended in silence, her pinpoint focus calculating the creature’s erratic movements. The world moved in aching slow motion. Its glowing talons ripped through suspended buildings, sending debris cascading like waterfalls of light. Mari twisted midair, her body a streak of pink and gray against the chaos, until she landed directly atop the creature’s ridged spine with an audible crack!
“Hey there, ugly. Need a chiropractor?” she taunted, balancing with inhuman grace before embedding a blade-like construct that extended from her suit’s forearm into its plating. Ripples of energy arced out in a flash of molten white, and the creature howled, bucking violently in a futile attempt to throw her off.
For Mari, the fight was as much a chess match as it was physical. She danced along its thrashing back, hacking through its defenses with expert precision. Memories surged and interwove into the present—a time when she was assigned Unit 05 fresh from training, tested ruthlessly by war-hardened commanders who considered her just another pawn. Even then, beneath her systematic conditioning, the wild streak was there. She had always fought with fire in her heart and a smile on her lips.
The creature attempted to lunge toward the central towers of Ark Hyperion, its colossal frame dripping with violet ichor from its mounting wounds. Mari skidded downward, launching off its flank into a roll, her suit absorbing the kinetic impact as she fired an energy pulse directly into the beast’s left hind leg. It keeled sideways, roaring its rage into the storm.
But the kill shot wasn’t hers to make—not yet. From her peripheral vision, she spotted distant evacuation shuttles departing the sector. Civilians first. Only once they were clear did commands prioritize lethal engagement. “HQ,” she said, cracking her knuckles, “shuttles clear in forty seconds. Permission to deploy maximum yield?”
“Granted,” the voice replied without hesitation.
Mari smiled wolfishly. The plates on her back opened up, revealing an intricate lattice of luminous emitters. The pink and gray of her exosuit seemed to glow brighter, casting blooming shadows on the shattered landscape even as her voice rang out. “All right, big boy. Let’s dance.”
As the storm above her churned violently, she launched straight at the beast’s heart, the air trembling with the sonic boom of her final approach.
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
The Source…check out the article that inspired this amazing short story: Mari Makinami Cosplay: Futuristic Pink Bodysuit Inspiration for Your Next Costume
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