A Year Ago: Earth Year 2210 A.D.

The cityscape from Ryan's vantage was dark, except for the intersections' Augmented Reality screens, between the housing and shopping blocks, and the blue energy running along the magnetic-levitation lines that crisscrossed the skyline. Great arches spread, the only structures to touch the bottom of Apostle's Level Two. 

Apostle, the Sky-Piercer City, was designed in 10 segments of 100 meters for the primary residential and working areas, along with two other sections of 10 segments dedicated to college and farming/power production, respectively. 

Ryan was shaken awake by the gentle rocking of the mag-lev train as it shifted tracks. As many of the other riders noticed, the unusually large passenger somehow slept while standing against the wall with the help of a polished, dark wood cane. A huge white lab coat covered the twenty-five-year-old from shoulder to knee but failed to hide his misshapen back.

The coat was one of the few things made for Ryan's size, so it went everywhere he went. Underneath the white coat, Ryan wore loose flannel clothing. The plaid clothes were easy for him to move in, and more importantly, change out of. 

Many of the passengers ducked their heads as the giant's own twitched up. Outside the window opposite Ryan,  the interior of Apostle's Level One flashed by. Buildings stretched in a massive cityscape that peaked eighty meters up. Twenty meters farther and the bottom of Level Two's architecture began.

The architecture drew heavily from the concept behind the Roman Arch. 

However, that was only the surface. Underneath, an even larger mega-structure supported the colossal city. Ryan was intimately familiar with its design. 

If I had a tenth, even a hundredth of this city's monthly tax, I could!-

Ryan bit off the thought. It was no use to wish for something so out of reach. Restrictions placed on his bank account prevented Ryan from possessing large sums of money. When he thought about those restrictions, Ryan reached into his coat pocket and stroked an envelope. Inside was his paycheque, about a month of work, printed on a scannable barcode.

All anyone had to do was scan it, and the credits would be theirs, which made it ornery to use. The cheque was archaic and rare. Direct deposit, or even transfer via Com-Ring, was more convenient. 

Ryan's employers would never fork over the extra credits needed to secure transfer checks or pay a courier to take it. 

So the infirm man was forced to ferry it home once a month. There he would scan it into his account shortly before midnight and then order a flurry of items before his account was drained. 

Once the items were on their way and the money was gone from Ryan's account, he could wait patiently for an angry text just after midnight. 

Oh, well, at least I can use the credits. 

Despite how crowded the late-night train was, Ryan noticed a wide berth around himself. He was a regular on the train since it was his only commute to and from work after classes, but his 2.4-meter frame still garnered a lot of attention.

At least there aren't any kids at this time of night. Kids most often wanted Ryan to stoop down to answer their many questions, which the college student couldn't do. 

Unlike other adults, who stared at his back more than his height, kids overlooked his deformity in their awe. Truthfully, Ryan liked little kids because they never judged him based on what he was supposed to be. Kids had their own special, biting kind of judgment that Ryan was mostly exempt from.

A disabled Titan-Class is even rarer than the Titans themselves...

Ryan was pulled out of the self-pity spiral by the train's gentle rocking as it once again changed tracks. The giant youth heaved a sigh, grateful for the distraction from his thoughts.

8 more track changes to go. Ryan liked to use the mag-lev train's rocking as a way to benchmark the distance traveled. On Level One of the Housing Districts, the upper brass at Apostle deemed it unnecessary to install screens in the cheap trains.

The slower and rougher models used this close to the ground and so near the city's edge were often raided by Scavs, who wanted to strip the trains for parts.

His mind on the Scavs, Ryan looked out the train's window into the storm raging outside the city's electrostatic barrier. 

The barrier, which was really just an adaptation of old Tesla-coil models, charged the air with enough energy to charge and repel most extreme weather outside. 

Every inch of the Sky-Piercer city was coated in this energy field, which led the constant lightning strikes down the outer edge of the charge and absorb harmlessly into the enormous school's energy receptors. 

The college district of Apostle used the excess energy in their labs and campus facilities.

Among the many weather-resistant features of the city, it was the most useful in staving off the supercell's devastation. Much of the planet was covered in storms just like this one. 

Even though it was nearly two hundred years after the rain of nuclear weapons erased most of the map, the storms still raged. The world could thank Intelligens Inc. for its final gift to everyone. 

Intelligens Inc. wanted the sole right to modify humanity, though only those deemed "worthy," into a perfect species. They began with illegal genetic experiments and landed somewhere past genocide in pursuit of their vision.

Intelligens Inc. was responsible for the genetic alterations seeded into the general populace which created Titans and the other Classes. Fifty years into the war, which was the product of the company playing god, Intelligens held the Earth ransom in a bid to suppress resistance. Their base on Lunas, the newly-named Utopia that was once Earth's territorial moon, fired an experimental terra-forming device into the atmosphere.

The result was the never-ending storms that destroyed most of the world after it was already nuked to oblivion. 

Society retreated to the stars, where humanity succeeded in colonizing the Moon, now Lunas, and Mars, still Mars, alongside several other moons in their solar system. Earth was a lost cause, and the bunkers were abandoned. 

The same night the device was used, an uprising revealed itself in the Intelligens Army. The Titans, which were the backbone of the Army, revolted against the company. Lead by "The Immortal," the Titan commander who helmed their army since the fall of the World Republic twenty years after the war started.

A large force from the outer colonies, who were sent to suppress dissenters, suddenly attacked the Intelligens base on Lunas. When they approached as friendlies, the ships hovered in sub-orbit, just within the "zone of safety" from the base's orbital canons, and began dropping  Armored Titans onto the battlefield. 

Their own army destroyed them, cutting off the head of the beast fifty years in, but it was too late to stop the terra-forming device. Instead of truly molding the planet, the device was set to destabilize the world's magnetic field, pumping energy to create the raging storms. 

The only good thing the storms accomplished was "eating" the radiation in the atmosphere much faster than the expected decay.

"Scavs" was a general term used to refer to anyone who survived on the planet's surface or below it, before settlers came back down and created the Sky-Piercer Cities. The cities were colossal housing projects designed to endure the storms without issue.

Twenty years ago, nearly forty percent of the world was reclaimed from the storms using the new barrier technology. A banded field, created by multiple Sky-Piercers across vast distances, mitigated the storm's influence to create a habitable region. While not as cushy as living in one of the cities, it allowed the bunker-dwellers to crawl out of their holes. 

That's when the re-settlers discovered that almost everyone went crazy in their hiding-holes, resulting in a post-apocalyptic feudal era where survivors battled for resources. The relief force from the old Intelligens Army, now called the Unification Army, was attacked by the Scavs. The Army's defense was overwhelming. 

Ever since that first altercation, during the initial construction of the cities, the Scavs attacked again and again. 

The Scavs included various bunker survivors, ranging from sort of strange to outright cannibalistic, and remnants of Intelligens Gene Farming camps. Various governments, subject to oversight by the U.H.F., started to reform. 

The United Human Forces, or U.H.F., acted as the new stellar government and used the Unification Army to hunt down these camps and free the surviving test subjects.

Ryan came back to himself, catching his reflection in the train window. A gaunt face with unnaturally black hair and chaotic highlights of white stared back at him. 

Ryan frowned in distaste and stared forward on the train again. He typically avoided mirrors because of his looks. Not that he hated his face or even thought he was ugly, save his condition. Ryan hated what his looks reminded him of. 

Helplessness.

Caught up in his thoughts, since his family was tangled in those horrific events, Ryan realized he missed one of the track changes.  Now he wasn't sure how far he'd gone. 

Outside the city, the supercell raged harder against the barrier. The rain started to get through the barrier on nights like these. It was mostly there for the lighting strikes anyway.

The landscape beyond the city barrier was scarcely visible thanks to the storm. Ryan picked nights like this to bring his paycheque home because hardly anyone went out for pleasure. Other late-night workers were his only companions on tonight's train ride.

Besides, it was more important to Ryan that the streets were clear, rather than worry about getting mugged on a crowded train.

Supposedly all Titans had money, so Ryan was often roughed up for valuables. Since he never carried anything, the Scavs, or other residents, often ran off with his cane after beating him.

It was fortunate that the Intelligens Gene camps never attacked the cities because they'd love to get their hands on someone like Ryan, a second-generation Titan.

Ryan flicked his hand in a practiced motion to summon the AR display from his Com-Ring. The display, designed to look like an early 21st-century smartphone, flared brightly in the giant's hand before it flickered and went out. The neutral blue light inside Ryan's Com-Ring went black.

An EMP! As Ryan's mind already dwelled on them, he realized what was happening before the other riders. At the same moment, he forgot decorum and hugged the nearest support rail.

"Brace yourselves! Scavs!" Ryan's gravelly bellow echoed through his cab, unheard by the other nine cars.

In the same instant, everyone else who had their AR displays out watched them flicker and die. A disgruntled murmur spread through the late-night crowd. A moment later, the mag-lev train's light turned off, and the entire train crashed into the power rails.

The only reason the cars remained on the mag-lev track was a set of reinforced guard rails, which housed the track on either side. The cars slid, crashing into the rails, and their occupants were thrown around like screaming dolls.

Ryan clutched the support rail for dear life, grimacing at the pain in his back. A few moments into their crash-stop, rain began to pelt the train cars. 

The EMP knocked out the nearest barrier generator!  Ryan knew the mag-lev train was still on the outer curve, nearest the Eastern Static Field Generator. 

His mind raced as he considered the options. Most Scav groups couldn't support a sustained EMP, so the power would most likely be back on in ten minutes. This was the work of one of the nearby bunker-dwellers. 

In the early days of city construction, the peaceful groups were absorbed, leaving only the most fractious to spread into the empty bunkers and multiply. 

However, the volatile groups became even worse when they found the bunkers empty of resources. These Scavs were often cannibals or cults that arose in the hundred-plus years these people spent underground.

After they multiplied, brainwashed by their leaders, they raided each other and the city. The old bunkers needed fresh energy cells to power them. Unfortunately for Ryan and the other riders, the easiest source was the cheap mag-lev trains.

Why tonight of all nights?  Ryan lamented his poor luck as people tumbled around his feet. The constant, dull ache in his back flared painfully from the rough movements. Ryan started to sweat, enduring the pain.

Whichever group this was, it seemed they employed the same tactic as Ryan. With the increase in the supercell's activity, fewer people would be out. This meant a lower chance of strong resistance on the trains. 

The mag-lev train took a full two kilometers to stop after the cars started grinding on the rails. By the time the metal cabins coasted to a screeching halt, most of the occupants had recovered enough to stand.

Many nursed bruises and headaches from the rough stop, but no one died thanks to the rail guards.

That might change depending on which group comes through the door. If a cannibal group breached the cabin, it was almost guaranteed they would all die. Hopefully tonight, and not in a meat pit.

A few of the men and women started to discuss working together to resist the attack. Ryan listened with one ear but had a plan of his own. Another group gathered around the emergency door handle, trying and failing to open it.

Odd, that we haven't been breached yet. This group is either sloppy or small. If the Scavs attacking were either of those things, they might have a chance.

Once he was sure he wouldn't fall, Ryan reversed the grip on his immense cane. Most people overlooked the length of the crutch, next to Ryan's bulk, but the 1.2-meter length, 230kg rated cane served as an effective hammer. 

Without hesitation, Ryan shuffled through the crowd, ignoring their conversation, and wedged himself into the people around the emergency release. Even though Ryan was crippled, the crowd around the lever parted excitedly once they remembered a Titan was with them on the train. 

A stranger slapped Ryan's back, "You've got this, tear it open!" More words of support echoed throughout the crowd as they placed their hope on the Titan-Class. The giant suppressed the pain in his back, trying to be grateful for the man's support. 

While Ryan slid his cane's head under the release lever, he considered his plan. The mag-lev train stopped shy of another track change, but the train's deacceleration took long enough to carry them most of the way there. 

Once the riders managed to get out of the metal cabins, they needed to flee, away from the trains and off the railways. A service staircase waited at the rail change, hopefully, only a few hundred meters away from the crashed train. 

Unfortunately, straight-ahead most likely leads to the Scavs, busy with the first or second cars. The long track left them exposed long enough to be picked up by even the sloppiest cannibal party if they tried to go back. 

Even as he started to push, leaning his weight carefully against his cane, Ryan was torn. There was no way he would make it to the last track stairwell in time with his condition. He needed to go forward, past the Scavs somehow. 

With his great height and impairment, the college student would get left behind by the other riders in a mad dash for the stairs. Easy pickings for the Scavs to pick up.

After his weight rested on the cane, Ryan started to push against the cane for real. Even though it was rated at 230kg, the creators didn't intend the walking implement for this.

Fortunately, Ryan didn't need a lot of force. With the sheer leverage he possessed, the giant forced himself through the pain and cranked the lever. Muffled cheers spread through the cabin as the emergency door dipped out and slid away.

Despite briefly being their savior, Ryan was roughly shouldered to the side as passengers started to pour out from the door. The giant didn't mind much, as he needed time to navigate the short drop everyone else jumped easily. 

A few muttered, "Thank you's," was the last Ryan received as the other passengers left him behind. 

Besides, even though he didn't intend to, the others acted as decoys when they absconded first. If the Scavs waited outside the train, he could use the confusion to try and get away. 

Once he was alone in the cabin, Ryan lowered himself gingerly to sit on the edge of the train before he braced himself on the door and frame to slow his fall. Less than half a meter, and the fall still managed to rattle his twisted back. 

As soon as Ryan hit the tracks, he slipped his cane back into his grip and peered around the edge of the diagonally faced train. Bright lights shone through the hail of rain, partially illuminating the other escaping survivors. 

As Ryan shuffled around to the other side of the train, he found the floodlights mostly blocked, so he decided. 

The giant stepped up to the guard rail, 1.5-meters tall and almost a meter wide; the guard rail was hidden in the train's shadow by the floodlights. 

Ryan quickly pressed his torso on top of the barrier and tried to kick his leg up. It took a few attempts and a lot of grunting before the student hooked his leg and dragged his aching body on top of the retaining barrier. 

So far, so good. The giant pushed himself to his knees before using his cane to stand up. Very carefully, Ryan turned around to face the front of the train. Even though the barrier was almost a meter wide, it was treacherous for the Titan to navigate. 

Thankfully, the trains were designed for Titan occupants. Otherwise, Ryan's head would've been visible over the top of the metal cabins. 

Half blinded by the solid sheet of rain slanting in from the edge of the disabled barrier, Ryan moved forward on the barrier as quickly as he dared. Up ahead, on the other side of the train, he heard people screaming and shouting, but he couldn't afford to break his concentration. 

The barrier of reinforced concrete was slippery under Ryan's shoes. When they were in reach, Ryan rested his hand on the side of the train cars to steady himself. 

Minutes into his trek and Ryan forced himself to crouch down despite the pain. Bright lights flooded through the interior of the train car he was next to. 

The car rocked in place as the Scavs and its occupants fought. More shouting and screams poured out as Ryan transitioned to his hands and knees. 

I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. 

Ryan railed against his weakness, but it was all he could do to protect his own life. Without power, electricity, or superpowers, there was nothing Ryan could do to save the other passengers.

As he continued on his hand and knees, clutching his cane in one hand, Ryan's back complained, sending shooting pains into his arms and legs.

Ryan ignored them in favor of survival. Mechanically, he crawled until the giant reached the end of the lead car. By this point, several minutes passed, and the Scavs were breaking into the last few cars. 

Ryan eased himself off the retaining barrier and onto the tracks when he reached the end of his covered escape. 

From there, Ryan muscled his cane under him again and forced his body forward. Other riders ran past the giant, having forced their way through the Scavs. The student hurried away from the mag-lev train as quickly as his body allowed, careful to avoid the power line in the center of the track.

It should have been ten minutes already, no telling when that power line will turn on. There's no way a Scav group this sloppy got their hands on an advanced EMP weapon.

The fact that Ryan reached the edge of the light and into the darkness despite his back was a testament to that.

Slowly but surely, Ryan was left behind by the other escapees. After a few minutes of pushing himself, no one else ran by the giant. He was at the back of the pack. 

Which meant the Scavs were probably finished and would soon sweep the tracks for the escaped riders. 

No sooner had the thought surfaced in Ryan's head when the floodlights started to strobe through the rain and darkness. In his haste, Ryan never stopped to think that he should drop his white lab coat. 

The enormous cloth made the Titan stand out like neon tape on a biker. 

Ryan looked behind him and estimated a kilometer separated the Scavs from the giant. When he stared ahead again, a disturbing situation greeted Ryan.

The other riders who escaped ahead of the giant were clumped around something. Ryan hastened his pace and forced himself into the crowd. A few people in the crowd, likely from his train car, started to make way for him.

When Ryan found the front of the crowd, another locked door waited for him. Three people heaved on the lever to access the service stairwell, but it wouldn't budge. 

Thirty people huddled around each other against the rain, trapped on top of the mag-lev tracks. Ryan looked over the crowd and spotted the Scav Hauler.

The Hauler was a bastardized airship partially powered by a combination of energy cells and fossil fuel jet engines. The floodlights hooked to the outside of its rig illuminated the rumbling amalgamation as it hovered toward the crowd. 

Below the box-like airship, which was covered in excess pipes for the Scavs to climb on, hung the ten fuel cells already harvested from the mag-lev train. 

Determined, Ryan turned back to the door and stepped forward. The giant grabbed the struggling survivors and pulled them away from the door's lever. 

Just as before, the Titan slid his cane's head under the lever and started to push back against it. Exposed to the torrential rain, everyone pushed together as the Scav Hauler approached. 

Even though he fought through the pain, Ryan struggled to open the stairwell door. Harder and harder, the Titan forced himself to put a leg up on the doorframe and kick back against it, practically suspended off the ground from the cane. 

Come on! Am I not even strong enough to open one fu-

His thought cut off as the cane, creaking ominously in Ryan's hands, finally forced the lever to turn. The head slipped out from underneath the lever and sent Ryan tumbling to the ground.

As the Titan writhed in pain, the others forced their way into the stairwell. Once again, at the back of the pack, Ryan barely crawled to his feet and into the stairwell as the Hauler finally caught up.

If the Scavs weren't so near the city's superstructure, they could have opened up the throttle and rounded their victims up by now. Ryan felt lucky that he had several seconds head-start before the Scavs jumped off the Hualer's sides and raced to the stairwell. 

The giant barely used the stairs on his way down. He grabbed the handrail and leaned down as far as he could before allowing his feet to slip down the stairs. 

After all the abuse heaped on his body, the maneuver nearly knocked Ryan unconscious. Just outside, the rumble of the Hauler's engines rattled the concrete and lit a fire under his ass.

 Painfully, the Titan forced himself to repeat the stunt six more times on the way down before he finally reached street level. 

Fortunately, this door was open after the other survivors' egress. The only people at the bottom were a mother and a daughter. The small child hampered their escape. 

Ryan stumbled straight past the pair in his haste as the little girl got on her feet and started to run with her mother. A few meters out of the service door and the pair ran by Ryan. Even with a headstart, the Titan was slower than the child. 

Behind them, the Scavs reached the end of the stairs and started to run into the city. The EMP blast was big enough to darken a large section of the city's Eastern side, so Ryan and the mother/daughter pair were invisible inside the darkness.

How long is this going to last?

The mother tried a few doors ahead of Ryan, attempting to get inside an apartment complex or public works, but the automatic doors were locked down due to the EMP. When a raid happened, the city's last action was to lock itself down.

Anyone left outside during an attack was on their own until the U.A. arrived to drive the Scavs off.

While the mother wasted her time, forgetting the lockdown effect in her panic, Ryan managed to pass the pair.

Ryan knew the buildings were designed in blocks inside the complexes, standing hollow, like an open-air mall. Each of the blocks was its own community inside the city. However, this meant they needed to reach the end of the block to get off the straightaway. 

Ryan was nearly at the intersection, which was lit up in the middle by the AR pillar. The pillar projected news, ads and was the only light still on, warning the residents that the city was under attack. 

When he started to turn the corner, Ryan heard the little girl scream, back in the darkness. The mother's cries joined as she failed to fight off the Scavs. The sound cut through the haze of Ryan's fight-or-flight, forcing him to stop in the rain. 

The giant urged himself to go forward, logic demanding that he survive. 

Two steps in, another scream from the little girl forced him to spin around. The Titan's soft spot for children might get him killed, but he had a plan.

Ryan forced himself forward even faster than he did before, spurred on by something bigger than survival. The Titan shuffled painfully forward toward the screaming until he found the pair wrestling against three Scavs. 

The Scavs wore a mix of patched clothing and jerry-rigged armor. These men were, from what Ryan could see, shaved bald. 

ReClaimers!

A nasty group of supremacists, the ReClaimers were a bunker-dwelling cult that believed if they conquered the land and reclaimed it from the U.H.F. settlers that they would ascend and become gods. 

Their leader was meant to be able to direct the storms to attack their enemies. In reality, the man was likely an Intelligens supporter who spent the last hundred years making a kingdom for themselves.

However, what was important to Ryan was they sometimes traded with the city using credits, and weren't cannibals. He had a chance. 

"Hey!" Ryan's voice came out hoarse, "Hey, over here, assholes!" Ryan shouted as he rushed to the group.

One of the Scavs turned to face him, weapon raised. Ryan couldn't tell if the armament was an energy model or an old cartridge type, but death was death, no matter the projectile.

The Titan raised his hands, "I want to trade!" 

The Scav tilted his tattooed head, "Why trade when I can kill you and take your trade?" 

That was what Ryan was afraid of. 

"I'm a Titan-Class! You know what would happen to your believers if you kill me, right?" Ryan tried to negotiate with the only cards he held. 

The Titans comprised the upper brass of the Unification Army. If and when a Titan was killed, the U.A. fell on the killers, a force of unholy vengeance. After the rebellion, it was revealed the Titans protect each other and then some- something about being genetic slaves to power-hungry overlords. 

If the ReClaimer killed Ryan, he doomed his faction to an incredibly fiery death. Ryan needed the Scav to prioritize his crazy faith.

While the ReClaimer considered, Ryan reached into his lab coat and pulled out the envelope with his paycheque.

"Look, here," Ryan held the envelope up, "Six thousand credits. Enough to buy supplies on the market and worth more than two female believers ever could be." In a society dominated by men, the ReClaimers prioritized strength over all else. The Scavs abused them too much for the girls to grow strong.

The other Scavs whipped their heads around to stare at the envelope getting soaked in Ryan's hand.

Now he had their attention. 

"So here's what I suggest," Ryan continued to press his advantage, "You let those two go, and this is yours." 

Ryan then lifted the envelope with both hands, "If you try to renege, I tear this up right now, and you'll have to kill me for them." 

From where the mother stared at Ryan, eyes desperate and wide, he jerked his head behind him. Slowly at first, and then with speed, the mom gathered the teary-eyed girl and rushed past Ryan. 

"Don't stop," Ryan muttered to the pair as they fled.

Then the Titan started to back up the street, holding the envelope in his hands while the Scavs edged forward after them. 

Ryan was a few meters away from the intersection when he checked to see that the pair managed to get away. The Titan turned his head, and one of the ReClaimers lunged for the envelope in his hands. 

The moment the Titan felt the Scav's rough grip, he ripped the cheque in two, which he planned to do all along.

The other Scavs cried out and rushed him, tackling Ryan to the ground. The Titan raised his cane to protect his head as they started to beat him. One of the Scavs kicked Ryan in the stomach and chest over and over, forcing the air out of Ryan's lungs. 

One of the ReClaimers snagged the cane and pulled it from Ryan's grasp. Without the extra protection, the Scavs beat down Ryan's paltry defense. The Scav kicking Ryan in the stomach started to alternate between the Titan's head and chest. 

The repetitive impacts crushed Ryan's skull against the housing complex wall, producing a sound not unlike a hollow shell slowly cracked. Disoriented and bleeding into his eyes, Ryan tried to curl into a ball.

The other two Scavs forced Ryan's legs to extend and stomped on his knees. The pain jerked Ryan upright for a moment, only for him to eat a kick full-force to his face. If it weren't for Ryan's Titan physique, his knees would have hyper-extended into V's already.

When Ryan felt like he was finally going to pass out from the pain, the light in the district suddenly flashed on. Ten meters from the intersection's AR screens, the light briefly blinded Ryan and his attackers.

The Titan blinked away his blindness against the glare of the bright screens, wiping away the blood in his eyes, and found himself alone. The Scavs scampered back down the road and to their Hauler. 

Ryan lifted his middle finger in their direction and laughed. The laugh turned into a vicious cough as the Titan spit up blood. 

Ribs, probably broken, check.

By all accounts, Ryan's plan was a success. The mother and daughter got away, and he managed to stick it to the ReClaimers and tear his check. Since it was never cashed, the giant could always get another one and chance taking it home on another night. 

The cost of success reminded Ryan that he was still helpless. His great height afforded the Titan a lot of leverage and a good deal of strength inherent to his size, but he could never stand up to someone in a fight. 

Especially multiple "someones."

His body caused him too much pain for Ryan to bear through it and start throwing punches. Any attempts to attack or defend anyone from Ryan were laughably weak. 

Barely able to move, the bloody Titan sat himself up against the housing complex's wall. The part of the district affected by the EMP continued to come back to life around the giant. 

While he waited for the relief force, either U.A. or Apostle's security, Ryan distracted himself reading the notices on the intersection's AR displays.

News about the attack, estimated time for relief forces to arrive, and a few random ads played on the screen. Ryan's eyes glazed over while he read the updates until a flash of color illuminated half the screen.

Surprised that anyone could afford that much screen space during the emergency, Ryan paid attention. 

[Great news for video game fans tonight as we discuss the sudden announcement of a new Virtual Reality MMO. Mon-Tech, the advanced technology revolutionaries, released a teaser trailer for their first game, [Frontier Online]. 

The first feature they announced is that "divers," as the trailer calls the player, will be able to play in their sleep...]

AN:

Thank you for reading this chapter! While it is a little out of order, I hope everyone enjoys the world expanding. Let me know if you see a typo~

I had this section written a long time ago for a future scene, but, personally, I'm not too fond of lengthy flashbacks. Therefore, this chapter is the prologue!

Read ahead on Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/Zelthias_FW

[Frontier Online] Discord Server is online! https://discord.gg/5sqwPeJrYf

Special thanks to Daniel K, Luckyhermit and several new patrons for this week's longer chapter~