A sign, once colourful, stuck out from a pile of broken concrete. The area was mostly a clearing, as it had mostly been carriage parking. There had only been one building in the area, a supermarket. The front wall had caved in, leaving the inside open to the air, although the roof was still mostly there to protect it from the weather. As it was late in the day, the city was already very dark as the tall Wall prevented the city from receiving any direct sunlight for the majority of the day, a condition to which inhabitants had managed to adapt to. Due to the darkness, the interior of the supermarket was veiled by shadows. Zachary, curious of what laid inside, took out and turned on a light core from his backpack and stepped into the darkness. His light revealed the scene inside, which was one of disaster much like anywhere else in the city. Shelves which had been full of stock had toppled, sending their contents sprawling across the floor. All this was covered in a fine layer of plaster dust from the ceiling. Many of the lights which had been hanging from the ceiling had fallen. But there was one thing which stood out from the mess, and that was the smell. It was indescribably horrid: a concoction of rotten meat, off milk, bad eggs and mouldy fruit which was an assault on the nose. Zachary retched at the stench and used his spare hand to pinch his nose.

Recovering from the smell which had attempted to turn his stomach inside out he took a closer look at the goods which had been spilt. Using his foot to nudge aside the covering layer he found a thin layer of sticky sludge covering the floor under the food. A year of rotting had left this disgusting residue across the ground, and it was probably the source of the smell. If Zachary were to recover any food from here, it would have to be canned food.

Suddenly he heard a rustling noise from behind him. Turning, Zachary saw the silhouette of a man crawling through the rubble with the light flashing off his eyes, circling around him at a distance and blocking off his escape. [b][i]Should have just grabbed a trolley from outside and been done with it,[/i][/b] remarked Kaa'is in an I-told-you-so tone.

The man, although his proportions had been distorted from what could be considered humans, snarled at Zachary, the light revealing his sharpened teeth. "So, the prey has entered our nest. We shall eat well tonight." This Conduit unnerved Zachary, but then again so did many Conduits who wanted to kill him. Perhaps it was their combination of an animalistic and sadistic natures. Zachary realised that as Conduits went he was a very lucky one.

[b][i]Zachary, get ready to fight![/i][/b] Kaa'is instructed. Zachary drew back into a longer stance just before the Conduit charged, his long limbs covering the ground between them like a lion charging after their prey. Quickly Zachary grabbed a can of food telekinetically and hurled it at the Conduit at great speed. It struck with a crunch and the Conduit reeled back in pain, the now-ruptured can clattering on the floor. Zachary pulled up another one and launched it again, but this time the Conduit jumped aside with unnatural speed. Zachary hurled two more cans this way, his eyes now streaming as he was no longer protecting his nose from the miasma which filled the building, and the Conduit avoided the projectiles both times. Without warning the Conduit retched and vomited up a slimy projectile which flew towards Zachary. The vomit projectile was mostly reflected by Zachary's kinetic shield, splattering around the ground in front of him, but a few drops drops got through to his shirt where they hissed and steamed.

Zachary looked down in disgust at the powerful acid which was slowly eating through his shirt, but Kaa'is immediately screamed out Zachary's mistake. [b][i]You're not watching him![/i][/b] Unfortunately their opponent was too swift and just as Zachary looked back up the Conduit was upon him, knocking him to the ground and pinning him there. The claws which had replaced his fingers attempted to slash at Zachary, but were deflected by his kinetic shield. Up close Zachary could see in detail the man's features. Something dark and dried, perhaps a mixture of blood, vomit and rotten food, was smeared around his mouth, which was filled with a set of sharp teeth. The man also did not wear clothes, with only body hair filled with grime covering him, and his breath stank almost as bad as the food. But this was no time to analyse, as Zachary could not rely on his kinetic shield alone. Already he was grappling with this monster of a man to hold him back from biting him. Thinking mostly by instinct, Zachary used his magnetic powers to pull his wind cannon out from underneath him and hold it up facing his assailant. The Conduit was about to hurl up another acid ball into Zachary's face when the wind cannon fired. The sound was like a drawn-out gunshot, and the blast of air rushed over Zachary and struck the Conduit square in the chest from almost point blank, knocking him 6 metres away.

No longer pinned down, Zachary quickly scrambled to his feet and held the air cannon with his hands. The Conduit was about to jump at him again when Zachary knocked him down and away with another pulse of high-velocity air, this time slamming the Conduit against a wall. Growling, and reluctant to surrender, he tried again, taking a couple of strides towards Zachary before he fired again, but this time the Conduit side-stepped, avoiding the pulse, and then lunged at Zachary. [b][i]Strike![/i][/b] As the Conduit came towards him into melee range in mid air, Zachary swung out with the butt of his air cannon. As he did this he found that the air cannon moved faster than how he would normally be able to do so, as Kaa'is was using his powers to move the air cannon as well. The air cannon struck the Conduit's head with superhuman force, and the Conduit fell with a crack, clutching his bleeding head.

[b][i]This is your chance, Zachary,[/i][/b] Kaa'is said, [b][i]Put this beast out of its misery, make the world a safer place and stop being a wimp.[/i][/b]

Zachary looked around and saw that there were numerous heavy metal things he could use to crush this beast's skull and kill him. Then Zachary realised what he was thinking and caught himself. Before Kaa'is could do anything more Zachary fired the air cannon at the Conduit, bouncing him across the ground and out of the supermarket building. "Go on, get out of here!" Zachary shouted after him, and the Conduit, ready to admit defeat, picked himself up and scampered away.

Kaa'is tutted in Zachary's head. [b][i]Should have killed him when you had the chance. Now he's probably going to hunt down some poor defenceless family and eat their children.[/i][/b]

Zachary sighed. Kaa'is often found a way to make hard choices seem more painful. "Come on, let's get out of here," Zachary said, picking up his dropped light and walking out of the supermarket into the fresh dusk air. He noticed his heart's thumping slow down as the adrenalin in his system started to wear off, and his breathing was returning to a normal state. Finding and taking a shopping trolley that was mostly intact, he added, "For the record, there aren't any defenceless families in Sovereign nowadays." [b][i]Touché.[/i][/b] "Now let's get home. It's getting late."