Battle

This is a whole pile of F*CKING SH*T. Jade and Kish are still back…there somewhere and Nana and I can't get any F*CKING hints to where that CR*PPY phone is! The halls rattle with the battle far behind us now, my balance on the brink of crumbling. Nana pants next to me, which I understand with the long, murky halls that can make a guy or girl claustrophobic in just five minutes. Our feet slap against the cool metal, the fire alarms being activated by some activity back a ways and setting off the ceiling sprinklers. Damp to the bone and our balance even more difficult to control, we slide into a door with '672' in crayon; Jade's cell. I force open the door with my vectors and find Mom, pressing random buttons which alarm the whole room of three; Nana, Mom, and I. I mean random buttons? Get a manual Mom! Well, I wish it were that easy. Red alarm lights spin in the room. The doors lock themselves. The chambers inside explode or open. The containment center releases spikes through the vertical table. Jeez, what were they trying to do assassinate Jade? No, I would never let them do that. Not to Jade, not to Kish, not to Amber and Liz, not to Kota and Yuka, not to Mabel and Chi, not to Nana or Mom, not any of those who don't deserve such.

"Mom, may I ask what the F*CK YOU'RE DOING?" I panic, hands clutching balls of pink hair off my own head.

She turns, smiling like always. "Honestly, trying to find a way to that phone."

I blink. "You know where the phone is?"

She shakes her head. "One of these creatures was designed to track objects."

"Hopefully it's not any of the exploding ones," Nana mutters.

That'd be disaster. Mom giggles. "No, dear, the ones exploding are because they're going to die in several hours without Sapphire or Silver."

I smile. Mom is so nice to everyone. "So, how many are left?"

"Three, but they are all vicious, so I can't really release them to check."

Nana smiles voluntarily. "How can you check them for the ability?"

Mom sighs while her invincible smile is still glued on. "Usually you have to have some wind to calm them down, but I can't get that out of thin air!"

I smirk. "Maybe, or maybe not, Mom, Jade's fan can do that!"

She smiles. "Then one of you has to get that fan, get Jade here, or jet a similar fan."

I volunteer willingly and dash out through the chomping doors. Skidding the turns and skating the moist floor, the trip is somewhat faster to me, but longer to the laws of time. I dig my heel as best as I can to the ground, staring at the battlefield in front of my eyes. Oceans of human blood crash in waves at my feet, explosions and gunfire all sounding, ending with human screams. Jade jumps into the air and slashes at a mass of men surrounding Liz with her fan, the one required. I try to run to her, but Mariko, Silver, and Sapphire come up. Huh, our own little tea party, sipping blood out of skulls and sitting on the dismantled corpses of the soldiers. Mariko laughs maniacally and her vectors fly out, heading for me until Sapphire chomps one of them.

"Who says you get the glory of killing the great Queen of the Diclonius?" she snaps through the shark jaws. "We want to rip her head off to!"

Mariko rolls her eyes. "Why should I listen to you two?"

Sapphire's heart is ripped out, but she just smiles, her Blossom pulsating. "Remember who you're messing with, chick."

Mariko rolls her eyes and starts walking the other way. "I want her head when you're done!"

"Alright, let's get it started then, shall we?" Sapphire chuckles while rubbing her hands together, squatting in the sumo fighting stance. "Silver, you go take care of lettuce head."

My face boils with anger. Nobody calls Jade a lettuce head. I charge with my vectors while she's turned, snapping the Blossom in half. She screams and sapphires (and I mean the actual gems) pour out are mixed in with actual blood. I slash and rip and tear and shred and bite and claw and roar and scream. Lettuce head is like calling this chick an Easter egg; offensive to the highest extent.

"YOU'RE A BIG-MOUTHED, PRISSY EASTER EGG WHO IS GETTING A GUN TO SHOOT HERSELF WITH FOR CHRISTMAS!"

Okay…so she did not like that one. She lunges with her jaws and clamps them over my right forearm, making my screams ring in the halls and bounce back and forth in rapid strikes found in a canyon. I shake her off, my arm a bleeding mess, and glare, my vectors ignoring the pain and swarm at her. They pick her up and she scratches, bites, anything to get out. I rip her arms off and she screams, slamming steel teeth around a vector. I release and wince. How come she can attack the vectors with so much ease? Does it matter? I have to kill this B*TCH and fast! I slam her against a wall and she sputters out: a jaw, two other teeth, something that looks like turkey, and a nasty puddle of clotted blood. I grab her again and toss her up on the ceiling. She hisses and clamps the jaws into the metal, glaring down at me. Liz notices this and crawls up, slamming one of her five-two yard vectors hard on her side. Sapphire screams and crashes hard into the cool floor, something crashing into my own hip. I crash into a wall and open my scrunched eyes to Silver, her hand in the shape of a hammer. She laughs and it morphs to claws, fangs revealing. She charges, but Jade kicks her hard at the ribcage, her wings beating fast. Silver grunts and slides on the floor until her head strikes the wall. Jade lands and turns to me, fangs smiling. I grunt.

"Mom needs you at '672'," I inform.

She nods and flies off. I need to get Sapphire and Silver out of commission before anyone gets hurt. I look over at Liz to see her running for her life in great progress. I leap in front of her and swat at Sapphire, Silver starting to regain footing. I grunt. Do these people ever F*CKING die? Apparently not unless you have a honking bomb inserted into a person's F*CKING BODY! Sapphire snaps her jaws twice and charges, leaping at me with a fist first, but I seize the fist and twist it hard to one side, dragging her to my right and slamming my foot down on her right. She snarls and bites my right shoulder, making me scream and throw her off with both hands. She slams into a wall and

I cover my wound helplessly. My vectors can't come out in a state of pain, and I'm in that state right now. I grumble some curses and swing my leg up at Silver's jaw when she charges, which she learns from my technique and grabs the ankle, jerking it roughly to the left and heaving me to one side. I dodge before she has the chance to break a rib. Instead, rather painfully I might add, I land behind her and seize her head, slamming it into the wall hard with her nose cracking between the force of the wall and my hands. She kicks back at my knee, making an unpleasant cracking sound and backs her head into my face, which should I mention is EXTREMLY painful. I growl and elbow the side of her neck. Liz runs over and jumps on Silver's back, Silver jerking around to get her off. Liz clings on and winks at me, earning herself one of my nods. I draw out my vectors, their power increasing with my dealings with the pain. I push them towards Silver's neck before Sapphire's jaws meet with my hips. I scream and the vectors vanish. I rip Sapphire off and knee her hard in the ribs, kicking her into the mass of battlefield. Wings appear above me and I see a glop of monster like the one Nyuu fought with Jade against. I sigh. I have my guesses that's the monster with the phone's location. I turn to Silver, pain forgotten when I see Liz dangling, and I snap one of Silver's ankles, making her drop Liz. Amber runs over and slides on the ground, catching Liz perfectly. Amber forces Silver's head to quake, and then it explodes, remains of brain everywhere. I squint, but there aren't any vectors. How does she do that? I shake the thought out and elbow Sapphire in the nose making her widen her eyes. Oh yeah…hitting a shark's nose stuns them! I kick her hard in the neck against the wall and lop her head off with a vector. One more tea party guest must be sought out, forever: Mariko. I turn and she's just loping heads off. Liz stands and Amber winces. I turn to her to see her Blossom steaming and bubbling. Rigs pats her Blossom, which I still have to admit, is adorable, and Amber looks up at with her big amber orbs. I swear people probably explode from the amount of cuteness this girl has!

I charge for Mariko, who predicts my attack and slams me hard against a wall. She laughs and her wheelchair floats over, responded by a loud roar and the sudden rush of heat filling the halls. The ceiling crashes down, a large green scaly head reaching out. I can see the snake figure now being used like a small halo. It's Jade, her form getting out of hand. I kick Mariko's wheelchair down and rush to Kish, multiple places bleeding and her upper lip torn off.

"What's happening?" I ask, screaming through Jade's roars.

"This is the 'defensive stage' for most Gem Blossoms!" Kish replies in strained tones. "Amber has it, but only naturals get it!"

I blink. "Amber's a…"

"Natural Gem Blossom, yes she is, because Jade figured out the off-spring!"

I gap. "How…"

"One of the scientists came too close, so she tested it out!"

I nod gruffly. So the off-spring issue has been terminated, and now only lies the issue of Jade's protective stance. I run towards her and pick up the fan, stopping once I see a fan with green string at the end and yellow flowers with a pink center and green vines and leaves around the slates. I blink and pick it up: Lucia. I purse my lips and run forward, scaling a nearby wall and leaping up for the roof, when Mariko slams me into the ground with her twenty-six vectors. I grunt and grab twelve (three vectors in each) and the others I try to grab with my regular hands, which only adds up to a total of thirteen sustained vectors. I roll my eyes and huff, Mariko slamming the rest hard on my body soon after. She pummels me, like when my right horn detached. I thrash and twist and scream and bleed, The fan's gripped hard in my hand. Fire lands in front of Mariko and I look up to Jade, her liquid jade eyes set on us.

"Nobody messes with my sister," a voice growls around her.

I nod and kick up, opening the fans and slicing them towards Mariko, her wheelchair blowing into a wall and a wheel rolling off. She's stuck underneath, panting and furious. Suddenly, the hall grows quiet. No more bullet fire remains, just silent panting and scowling. I look around to victorious Diclonius and Gem Blossoms alike. Amber walks up to Mariko cautiously, kneeing down. I throw my vectors around her to be safe. Liz willingly follows my example and Kish begins to tend to the wounded.

"Mariko…" Amber squeaks, "I might not be like you, but I know what you are doing is wrong."

Mariko stares up at Amber. Mariko's pink orbs grow furious. "What would you know? You're a six-year-old!"

Amber scowls, Rigs also staring at Mariko with the black little marbles for eyes. "Rigs says he doesn't like you're tone, missy!"

Mariko screams. "SEE? SEE? WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW IF YOU TALK TO A F*CKING STUFFED TOY?"

Amber starts to ball, Rigs tight to her chest. "He's not a toy!"

"YES HE IS!" Mariko argues. "WHERE'S THE HEARTBEAT HUH?"

Amber starts to cry, but I walk over. Having fixed him myself, I know every part of Rigs, even the parts I added. I squeeze the center and hand it to Amber, who stops balling and feels the thumps of the fake heart in his little stuffed chest. She smiles triumphantly and points to the source of the beating. Mariko blinks. Suddenly, the rolling of a tank sounds viciously further down the hall. A missile or something comes in contact with the right side of Jade's face, making her eyes widen, her body shrinking down back to normal. She sways and falls down to the ground, limp with a burnt right face. I gasp and run to her, shaking her shoulders.

"Jade!" I cry. "Jade wake up, there's a fight now! Jade! Hey, sis, wake up please! JADE!" I'm sobbing now, shaking harder and harder, the noise growing louder. "JADE! WAKE UP FOR ALL OF US! WAKE UP FOR MOM AND YOUR SIBLINGS! PLEASE JADE, SISTERS FOREVER MEANS YOU CAN'T DIE ON ME! JADE!"

I feel the eyes staring at me, and a wheelchair rolls up. I look up to Mabel, her left eye covered with an eye patch. She cocks a shotgun and points it behind her, shooting at some large body mass of metal. I blink and watch, as a large tank rolls into this hallway. It fires at a large section of children near Amber, the missile disintegrating a foot above. Amber stands and glares at the tank, squeezing Rigs every time the beating stopped.

"Hey," she growls, "you hurt my friend."

The nose of the tank starts to twist round and round, plugging itself it. The exit hatch is jammed and any vents clog up with meting pieces of metal; screaming can easily be heard from out here. Blood splatters on any revealing windows, heat waves visible. Carrots start to sprout up from the metal, which confuses everyone but Amber for a short second. The carrots explain themselves when they explode, following in a chain reaction. Nana runs up a few seconds after, starring at the wreck with Mom soon behind, the phone in hand coated with slim. I hug Jade's shoulders tightly and shake her more, hoping she'd wake up.

"WAKE UP!" I beg. "PLEASE JADE, WE'RE SISTERS FOR LIFE!"

Kish glances over and kneels next to me, placing a hand over Jade's heart. Her Blossom shimmers and a picture appears of a heart, beating extremely fast that it looks like it might die out. This is Jade's heart, and she needs to rest. "The offensive stage is occasionally taken as a last stance," Kish explains. "She was smart enough to stop before her heart exploded."

Amber walks up and places Rigs on Jade's chest, squeezing Rig's stomach and the thump-thump somehow calming down Jade's heart. Rigs pats Jade's head and Amber takes him back up again, rubbing her cheek against the top of the head. Mariko tries to crawl out, but Mom detonates the bomb, her face sad. Mariko gasps, and that's the last we see of Mariko. Dust and ash blow us back, Jade remaining in her place on the floor. I blink at the explosion and look around for several missing faces. Someone taps my shoulder and I turn to Yuka and Mayu.

"We were clearing up the other halls," Mayu explains. "COME ON EVERYONE! THIS WAY TO FREEDOM!"

Everyone smiles and follows, Chi coming up from behind Mayu and grabbing Mariko's wheelchair, the one wheel in a bit of strain. The Gem Blossom smiles and reattaches the wheel, placing Jade in it afterword. I pause. I stare back at Mabel. Her hands look like machinery, and her calf is still missing. They must've added it soon before all of this commotion. She smiles and rolls up.

"You know, I was always jealous of you, even though our time together was short," she admits.

I smile. "Hey, you just wanted to forget the past. There's nothing wrong with that."

We smile at each other and race down the hall. We all reach the door, praying the few of our dead would be praised in Heaven. The ocean breeze blows in our faces, and I stare out at the cliff I used to escape last time. Jade is still asleep, and Mom whistles. A helicopter comes up, Dad in the driver seat. He waves at me.

"Hello Lucy!" he smiles.

I wave back, then run in the passenger seat, hug him, then hop back to allow Mom to sit. I hug both of their necks and sit with my back against the chairs. Kota stumbles in, sitting next to me and Yuka on the other side of me. Nana and Mayu walk around to take account to make sure all the alive are here with us so nobody ends up like Kevin in Home Alone 2:Lost In New York or whatever. I sigh and close my eyes. Peace at last.

One more chapter!