A/N: I'm glad to see that everyone was enjoying the updates! I'm actually quite surprised I managed to type almost three chapters in one night, and I wondered why I wasn't able to do that sooner. Anyways, here's another update just to sweeten the deal. Thanks for the reviews!
Maybe somewhere in the back of her head, she heard Darkness screaming at her.
She couldn't tell what he was saying; all she heard was some kind of high-pitched tone ringing in her ears- it felt like it was vibrating behind her eyes.
A cold rush of heat expanded through her body but it felt like it was chilling her instead; freezing her to the core till it was on the brink of shattering into tiny little shards. In the far back of her mind, she felt something snap; she felt something break in some kind of sense. There was some tornado of darkness that flooded through her and seemed to enlighten her senses to a level she had never experienced before. She could almost see every bullet in slow-motion; she could hear every crunch as the bullets penetrated flesh; as they penetrated through the thick chest cavity and erupted out of the back.
It felt like a cold explosion.
And then, in the turn of a second, she felt as though she was on fire.
It felt like her entire outside shell was shedding itself; clothing and gauze burned clean off of her flesh before black leather tied around her slender form. The leather felt like it was suffocating her at first before it tightened just once again and released her afterwards; her body radiated with an odd sense of energy that fueled her and propelled her forward.
Dark eyes looked up towards the wounded, dying creature.
The energy pumped itself into every tiny shell; every tiny shell tore another hole into the creature till it's entire left side appeared to had been blown completely out. A bellowing roar echoed into the sky as the creature rocked back and forth in some failed attempt to regain itself. She tightened her grip on the weapon and felt herself throw her body into a new direction; angling the gun higher till those same bullets were ripping through the Geist's neck instead. It was a horrific massacre as dark-colored liquid spewed out and seemed to flood the streets below... but she found it oddly calming.
She found it oddly... addicting.
The Giga rocked once more before it toppled backwards and cratered itself into the street; the following tremor shook through her body and brought her weakened legs to their breaking point.
She felt herself hit the ground; managing to catch herself on just one knee.
A white flash blinded her and she winced at the light; keeping her eyes closed for a few short minutes before she slowly opened them with caution. The world around her seemed to have frozen itself in mid-motion; the colors turned into a gray-scale like theme; it was soundless; it was motionless.
Where was she?
Are you aware of what the hell you just did?
The sound of Darkness's voice gave her some comfort as she pushed herself to her feet; regaining her lost footing, she impaled her gunrod into the ground for safe measures just in case. She had heard him but... it wasn't from inside of her head... it had been from outside of it instead.
"Darkness?"
She turned at the echo of footsteps and watched as that same, dark shadow of a figure headed towards her. His gait was calmer than how his tone had been; his colorless eyes were narrowed though as a slight frown curved at his pale lips. He didn't look too happy.
Damn right I'm not happy.
His lips didn't move with the words, instead it seemed like he was solely communicating with her with just his mind alone. "What happened? What is this?"
Those eyes narrowed even more and almost seemed to flare outward. Well, let's just say it's a momentary holding place for you and I, so we can speak.
"Why?" she questioned; suspicious of why he needed a place like this to speak with her.
I was getting to that. he huffed. What you just did was trigger what I would like to call a... 'reservation' of power. It's like a small collection of energy I keep in case something happens that would... severely threaten your life. I control it and yet, you managed to break into it instead. That doesn't make me happy.
"That's a bad thing because...?"
Because, if I were to let that reservation rush out all at once... who knows what could happen. It could ultimately destroy this human body of yours, it could give you Omega-like powers, it could... turn you into a mindless killing machine and make you just like those Geist beings only worse. In fact... for all I know, you could somehow manage to wrestle power from myself and ultimately decimate this place. I don't know what could happen and frankly to say, I don't want to. So the next time you... do whatever it was that you did, let me handle it. Until then... I don't feel comfortable allowing you to use 'that' much power for now.
He was putting a restriction on her now?
At this point, she didn't want to worry with it. She just wanted to get rid of the Giga and get Maxwell that help.
Your outfit's better now.
She looked down at his remark and took note of her returned uniform. The black leather fit her like a glove and her outer injuries had been healed; her right wrist was no longer fracture and she had regained her sight back.
It was like she had never been injured in the first place.
I wouldn't go that far but... you certainly look better.
"If we're done here Darkness, then I would like to get back on track to what we were doing here in the first place." Alicia spoke.
Telling me what to do now? he questioned with an arch of a single eyebrow.
"Yes."
"What the hell was that?"
Alicia looked up as the gray-tone melted back into color and the frozen soldiers were... well still frozen to their spots; they were either in shock or just stuck in fear. "What that was... is really nothing of concern right now."
The commanding soldier was caught between looking at her and back at the defeated Giant behind her. He was still trying to figure out what had happened and if his eyes had betrayed him in some sense... it had all happened so quickly it seemed; it took them hours to sink one with a tank and yet, she knocked it out in just minutes. Fingers grasped at his radio once more. "Sergeant... about that medical vehicle, is it ready for service?"
"Marilyn. Marilyn. Marilyn."
She looked up at the repeated call of her name and watched as the dark-haired man walked towards her. Part of her wanted to roll her eyes but the other half was far too exhausted to do anything about it; she couldn't understand why she was so tired though, it wasn't like she had actually done much aside from worry. Okay well that was pretty energy-consuming at her level. One hand slowly ran down her face before she forced herself to converse with the man. "What do you want Butch?"
He shrugged lightly and carefully took the empty space next to her; making himself comfortable against the wall behind him. "Nothing, I just figured since Jackson was on guard duty now, and Dave and Nash were on the rooftops- or what we kind of 'dubbed' the rooftops, that you might get lonely or something. You know, I just thought I could come over here and... make you laugh."
"You're stupid, you know that."
"Yeah but hey, I'm cute when I'm stupid."
A light chuckle escaped her before she could stop it, but at this point she supposed there wasn't much to care for about it. "No comment."
"Oh come on, throw me a bone or something." Butch remarked with his own chuckle; a hand running through his hair. "So... do you think she's going to come back in time?"
She looked over at him and tried to catch a grasp on that just barely concerned look on his face. "What? You're telling me the ever-confident and 'never a care in the world' Butch is actually... scared?"
"I'm being serious here." he replied; although the grin on his face seemed to say otherwise. "I'm just asking."
"It's Alicia and... it has to deal with Maxwell, I think she'll be here in time, yes." Marilyn nodded before she slowly reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry that pretty little head of yours off just yet. Just wait till Maxwell is back in fighting shape and acting like there isn't a sense of danger in this world."
"You're right, we should take advantage of this moment while we have it."
"Butch... I'll give you three seconds to take your arm off my shoulders."
