Ragnarok
By: Aviantei
11
Advance
Oliver had hardly adjusted to the pure disorientation of landing in the middle of a highway with no warning from whatever Commander Singh had done before the second shift took him. The world shifted into double for a second, and then he was no longer standing on the asphalt, but instead the grass beside it. The updated gear Singh had outfitted him with displayed that his primary targets of Commanders Orihara and Heiwajima were zipping past, presumably in their getaway vehicle. A fresh indicator showed that one of the BUN targets was much closer by, and he looked forward to the figure several dozens of feet away from him, fiddling with something in its hands.
Ready… Fight!
The voice booming down from the sky was a clear indicator of a Chaos Manipulation, and the readings on his new eyepiece confirmed the fact. The opponent before him was Colleen Metelski, age sixteen. The innocent smile in her CMA profile picture bellied the immensity of her Chaos level of 421. In comparison to the other two, she had the lowest total, but it was nothing like Oliver had ever faced on his own, and a cold sweat broke out over her skin.
He got the sense that Coleen was still smiling, even though he couldn't see her expression from the distance they were at. She shifted her stance and raised a hand, gesturing towards herself, the message clear: Come on, show me what you've got.
Oliver's training kicked his brain into high gear quick enough to assess that she was there to take care of him, along with the fact that Colleen Metelski had enough power to be a hassle if he pursued the others. The quickest choice to complete his orders was to fight, and Oliver took his own defensive stance as quickly as he could.
A smart move since Colleen Metelski had dashed across the dozens of feet between them in a move that wouldn't have looked the slightest bit out of place as a dash animation in a video game. Her punch came with an intense enough force that Oliver was surprised he didn't even flinch as her fist rammed into his block. When she leapt right over his head, her long skirt fluttering with the movement, and kicked Oliver square in the back, he realized that her Chaos Manipulation had shifted things to be like a video game, and one where she knew the controls better than he did at that.
He didn't bother to think things through logically. Catching himself before he went prone on the ground, Oliver spun around to kick directly at Colleen' stomach. She moved enough to not take the full brunt of the blow, but it wasn't a clean dodge in the slightest. What followed was a quick succession of trading hits until they both backed up to give themselves a breather.
Colleen grinned in a way that looked far too predatory for her round face. "Not bad," she said, wiping the sweat off her face. Though they'd both taken damage, there didn't seem to be any blood. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the CMA teaches you how to fight, but you know a bit more than self-defense, don't ya, Oliver?"
Since Karellen Fenlon had known his name, too, Oliver didn't bother to feel any shock at the casual referral. Even if that hadn't been the case, he was far too hopped up on adrenaline to care. "If you're trying to talk, I don't suppose I can get you to give up whatever plan your lot has, can I?" For some reason, his words were far too calm, even for him. What kind of magic had Singh pulled off when she'd sent him there?
"Nope," Colleen said, popping the p. "I just thought I'd give you a moment to adjust. I mean—" her grin came back in full force, the sunlight leaving a harsh glare across her round glasses "—it's no fun beating someone at a game when they don't even know the rules."
Oliver didn't even have time to process how dangerous that mentality was before Colleen was back at him in a fierce combo of blows he couldn't find his way out of. His fight or flight instincts held their own round of combat for a second, and fight somehow won enough for him to stand his ground. Sure, it only resulted in Colleen landing a punch to Oliver's chest that sent him back. That time, he was grateful for the fact that he had landed prone on the ground as a bright white light that had to be some energy beam or another flashed across his vision.
"Oh, shoot, got the timing wrong." Colleen shook out her wrists as Oliver drew himself back up to his feet. She drew back into a stance, a ball of white forming once again in her hands. Oliver took advantage of the open terrain and dodged left before charging at Colleens side from the opposite end of her attack, He grabbed onto her closest arm and yanked it aside, causing the ball to self destruct.
Her hiss was confirmation that she'd taken some damage, but Oliver couldn't afford to stop there, not when Colleen had abilities he didn't. Shifting his weight, he managed to throw Colleen over his shoulder, slamming her into the ground. She choked, but there wasn't any blood. Oliver kept one hand on her wrist and used the other to fiddle with his gear, trying to find the tranquilizer he was supposed to have. Colleen didn't give him the opportunity, wrenching his wrist hard enough that he was surprised it didn't break and setting herself free. In a matter of moments, she'd shifted into a crouch and was sweeping his legs out from beneath them. Oliver landed on his ass in a mix of grass and gravel that coughed up a plume of dust that made his eyes water long enough that he didn't see Colleen's boot until it had struck him right in the side of the head.
His vision blurred worse for a few moments, the resulting spots refusing to fade no matter how much he blinked, and he had only been able to keep himself upright by the chance that he'd caught himself with his aching hand. He blindly grabbed at the air, hoping to at least catch part of Colleen's clothes, but he missed, because she was no longer in front of him.
Oliver wasted precious moments on blinking himself to proper vision, but the result wasn't much different from frantically looking around the blurred scenery of grass and the highway a way off. Colleen had completely disappeared from view, and Oliver's adrenaline spiked ever higher, causing an unmistakable sensation of panic to rush through him. Had she vanished in the same way Singh had sent him to the targets' location? Had she hidden somewhere for a sneak attack? Maybe she'd turned invisible; with so much else that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, it wouldn't be a surprise—
"Come on, don't tell me you're afraid to look up!"
Oliver threw his head back so fast that it felt like he'd pulled a muscle. As her words suggested, Colleen had taken to the sky, though she hadn't sprouted wings or anything else of the sort. Instead, she simply floated there, as if she'd chosen to shrug off gravity's impact for a while. More immediately concerning, though, was that she'd raised her hands straight up, and a massive ball of light was growing right above her open palms. It was obvious that Oliver was the target and that the area of effect was large enough that he'd have no time to dodge, even if he had managed to catch sight of it earlier.
"Look, don't get me wrong," Colleen continued as the ball continued to grow to a size that almost eclipsed what Oliver could see of the cloudy sky above, "this has been fun, Oliver. But I don't have time to play around too much." She glanced up to the energy orb then back down, her smile almost shrouded in shadows. "Sorry, but this fight isn't a best two out of three opportunity. So here comes the finisher!"
In one hefty movement, Colleen had launched the projectile at him. Oliver managed to scramble to his feet, even with the gravel rolling underneath the thick soles of his boots. For what good it might do, he crossed this arms in front of him, deciding blocking had to be better than attempting to retreat and getting knocked straight in the back with a blast that huge.
He didn't get the opportunity to test that theory.
There was a whirring sound so faint that Oliver almost didn't catch it. What he did catch, however, was the vibration against his arms as something on his new gear activated. The brightness of Colleen's attack reached a zenith, forcing Oliver to close his eyes, only for the light to burn red into his eyelids—but no pain followed. Instead, something in his suit triggered, releasing a high pitched whirring noise. The light faded, then the sound, then a fierce thump accentuated by Colleen's loud grunt. The booming voice from the heavens spoke once more:
K.O.!
That was enough to shock Oliver out of his stupor, and he opened his eyes in enough time to see glowing green barrier that had formed around him flicker out. Just as the effect of the Chaos Manipulation had declared, Colleen wasn't moving. His CMA goggles confirmed the same thing once he focused on the interface. Even so, Oliver remained cautious as he moved closer, half expecting Colleen to launch herself in a fresh attack.
Relief and guilt scrambled for priority as his fighting high started to wind down. Yes, he was glad that he had avoided what looked to be a devastating finisher, but that didn't mean he'd wanted to hurt the girl in the process, high Chaos rating target or not. The closer he got, the more vulnerable Colleen looked; she'd landed on her side, dust had stuck to her clothes, and her glasses had gone caddywompus on her face. Regardless, he couldn't afford to leave her armed (in a manner of speaking), and Oliver went to quick work on searching her pockets for anything she had. For the most part, he came up empty, save for the handheld gaming device she'd had before the fight. On the screen were pixelated versions of himself and Colleen, the girl's avatar lying unconscious on the ground. With a grimace, Oliver thumbed the power switch into the off position and stowed it in his own pocket, where it bumped against his DS-shaped Neutralizer.
Ordinary CMA protocol dictated that you were to Neutralize a target at the first available moment, but ordinary CMA protocol hadn't covered any situation like the one Oliver found himself in—he doubted that his Neutralizer could even put a dent in Colleen's four-hundred plus Chaos levels. With that avenue blocked off, Oliver ran his fingers down his neck to activate his communication device. There the crackle of static as the communicator didn't pick up any signal, and then Commander Singh's voice came in with absolute clarity.
"It seems like Heiwajima and Orihara managed to get away from you, hm?" she said with an amused lilt to his voice. Anxiety pushed any and all other emotions out of the way to take center stage, and Oliver couldn't keep himself from swallowing. "Now, don't be so tense. I wasn't honestly expecting you to gather them all in one go. In fact, you did much better than I expected."
Oliver didn't have the capacity to even begin to feel insulted by getting tossed into a failing mission. Even if he did, it wouldn't do him any good whatsoever, and he instead allowed himself to fall into the familiar pattern of reporting to HQ, of delegating responsibility to those above him. "Colleen Metelski is unconscious, and I've confiscated what I believe to be her Chaos Manipulation trigger. The rest are still moving. What should I do next?"
A faint worry started to build up in him, that maybe his next order would be to rush off and get into another brawl with one of the other BUN targets. Even with his near miraculous turnaround against Colleen thanks to his upgraded gear, Oliver didn't think he could handle another stressful rush like that in such a short amount of time.
"Well we certainly can't let a BUN target just sit out in the wild after we've managed to subdue them," Singh said, her voice still in that blend of crisp professionalism and slight amusement. The high quality communications equipment picked up the faint tapping of Singh's nails against some hard surface. "As far as I can tell from their position, the others are going to come right to us, so we'd just be wasting our energy on hunting them down. Tell you what, Oliver. I'll go ahead and send you a ride, and you can be responsible for bringing P4P4H back to HQ. How does that sound?" It was a rhetorical question with only one correct answer.
"Yes, ma'am, I'll take care of it." Though his gear included GPS functionality, he hadn't had any sliver of time to check it since he'd landed, but the process of making it to HQ had to take several hours at most. With far less pressure than had been on him during the fight, Oliver was easily able to find the tranquilizer equipped in his gear. "I'll be sure to keep the target under close watch and make sure she gets back to HQ." Hopefully they could fully Neutralize her Chaos levels at Headquarters and take away the immediate threat. "Should I report to you when I'm en route?"
"Don't worry yourself about that, I'll handle it." While it wasn't the most strategic move, Oliver didn't have any authority or energy to argue. "We'll see each other at Headquarters, Oliver." And without anything else resembling a farewell, Singh cut the connection between them, leaving Oliver with just radio silence and the occasional sound of a vehicle zipping past on the highway. Not wanting to attract any unnecessary attention, he focused on moving Colleen so that they were out of immediate sight of anyone on the road. Thanks to his training, it was an easy task, and he placed her down as gently as he could, not wanting to risk jostling her from sleep.
The peaceful look on her face sent a fresh twist of guilt through his gut, and Oliver had to avoid looking at her as he pressed his closed fist against Colleen's forearm to activate the tranquilizer. She wouldn't wake up anytime soon, and his gear gave an estimated countdown to when she'd need a fresh dose. Not wanting to see the number, Oliver put his sunglasses into sleep mode and settled down on the rough grass beside the girl.
"Is this how we're supposed to help people?" he asked in a whisper, thinking of his mentor. She'd always had an answer, or at least the words to push him in the right direction. But that had disappeared when she'd left the CMA without a warning.
She wasn't there anymore. It was just Oliver, alone and staring up at the gray sky as he waited for his ride.
Seeing as trying to lean back in her car seat and relax wasn't doing her any good, Karellen was almost considering executing a big enough Reality Alter to make her pass out for a short nap. Too many thoughts were racing through her head, including a worry for Colleen, left behind to fight against the CMA. Yes, she had volunteered, but had Karellen made the right decision in letting Colleen go? There were just so many risks, and it would be a waste of her energy just to make it possible to see how Colleen was doing, seeing as their time driving had brought them ever closer to the CMA's headquarters.
The near silence in the car wasn't helping, either. Izaya and Shizuo had chosen to stop talking for the sake of not agitating the other enough to cause issues, and the constant loss of radio signals had left the stereo silent. Karellen had tried distracting herself, but the glow of her phone screen had started to give her a headache, and the ride wasn't smooth enough to make writing or sketching a productive endeavor. Trying to think about anything else for fun just lead back to worrying about Colleen, and the whole cycle got her nowhere.
Once again, Karellen closed her eyes and tried to steady herself. Worrying wouldn't get them anywhere; she'd done enough by using her Alter to give Colleen a boost. And, at the absolute worst case scenario, the CMA wouldn't risk hurting Colleen, because she would be beneficial to what they wanted, that much couldn't have changed since two years ago, it didn't make any sense for it to change—
Something soft pressed against her ear, and the sound of music that came with it made Karellen realize that Jarrett had given her one of his earbuds. The song playing was a K-pop song she faintly recognized from hearing Jarrett play it in the background—not that she knew enough about it to know what the lyrics were about. But she didn't need to for the fresh sound to help put her at ease, especially since Jarrett had put the track on repeat. Soon the song became a familiar pattern, one that kept her thoughts from racing wildly out of control. She had gotten so caught up in trying to understand how to pronounce the words that she almost didn't catch the spoken words from the front seat.
"Well, look at that," Izaya said, his English breaking Karellen from her reverie. She blinked back to the darkness of evening, pulling the earbud from her ear, and Jarrett groaned as he sat back up in his seat. The world around them was mostly dark, but there was a building in the distance, its lights blinking like a beacon. "Our little road trip is just about at an end."
[Author's Notes]
Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest chapter of Ragnarok! We're finally seeing some action up in here!
Thanks go out to everyone who had read this chapter since the last update. I know this fic isn't what you'd normally get out of a DRRR! story, so I appreciate every one of you who gives it a chance. Thanks a bunch!
In any event, this time we get to see someone else's powers in action, with Colleen's Reality Alter capable of creating various video game effects on reality, includin fighting game effects. Of course, Alters aren't all powerful, so this match ended in a loss. Meanwhile, the advance squad is just about to get into CMA Headquarters. What will await them there? Well, that's what chapter twelve is for. Please look forward to it!
-Avi
[05.27.2019]
