Jasdero
We all back away even more. Normally I wouldn't be scared of exorcists, but I never seen so many in one place at once.
There's even more finders. Some are…some have guns.
Big guns.
I swallow, and move closer to David. He bites his lip.
Lulubelle cracks her whip. "Bring it on!"
And the exorcists throw themselves forward.
The force of their Innocence meeting Lulu's dark matter is so strong, it throws me and David to the ground.
David immediately leaps to his feet, and pulls me up too. We jump backwards as an exorcist swings his weapon at us, and raise our guns.
"Load!"
"Red bomb!" The fireball whooshes out, heading straight for the exorcist that's got Lulu pinned to the ground.
Just in time Lulubelle sees it, and disappears in a blur of feathers.
"Wha - " The exorcist she was grappling with staggers backwards, staring up at the pigeon that's suddenly soaring high above his head. Then he's gone, in a blaze of fire.
I get a jolt of pure joy from David, and it makes me laugh. He likes fire a lot. I do too.
But there's no time to enjoy it, because there are still more exorcists to deal with.
One leaps high above our heads, and he's got a sword and long dark hair. He raises the sword high, high over his head, and I start laughing, 'cuz I think this is it, it's the end, me and David are about to get spliced in two -
There's a shot, and the exorcist is thrown backwards. He hit's a tree and slides to the ground, breathing heavily. I laugh at him, but it's not because he's funny, I'm just frightened, and I laugh when I'm frightened, but I don't know why.
Focus, Jas!
We turn around, and Liz is standing there with a smoking pistol raised. She grins at us.
The exorcist runs a hand over his chest, looking confused. "What…just happened?"
"Watch out, Kanda!" screams a finder, and he ducks just as Lulubelle smashes a rock hard fist in to the wood above his head, showering him with splinters.
He rolls sideways, drawing his sword again.
I laugh as he glares at Lulubelle, and shake David's arm. "Look Debi! Him and Lulu have the same hairstyle!"
"Duck, Jasdero!" yells Liz, and I do, and the finder that was about to put a gun to my head is blasted backwards. He collapses unconscious on the ground, smoking.
"Yah ha! Take that!" cheers Patty.
"Take this!" roars the first exorcist, the one with the axe, and he swings it towards Liz, and me and David are about to green-bomb him good, but there's no need, 'cuz Liz suddenly disappears, and the exorcist's Innocence axe is so heavy he overbalances.
Patty appears, and catches the gun that's now Liz. She puts it to the exorcist's head and grins. "Let's go fatal, sis."
"He's a human!" I hear Liz shout.
"He's helping hurt Jasdero and David! Do it!" And Patty pulls the trigger. The exorcist jerks, there's a spray of blood from the other side of his head and his eyes roll upwards as he pitches sideways, dead as a doornail.
David gapes. I gape.
"You said you didn't kill!" he says. "You said that as guns, you could only wound!"
"Yeah?" giggles Patty, blowing smoke off Liz's barrel. "Well big sis lied to you."
David swears very loudly in his head, and it's a pretty bad word, which might be why he didn't say it out loud in case Liz gets pissy with him again, but there's no time to worry about this, 'cuz Lulu is in trouble.
She's taken on the form of a big black tiger, and is surrounded by exorcists and finders. As she spins in the middle of them, her tail catches three finders and knocks them off their feet.
One of the exorcists raises her Innocence, a long shiny spear-thing, but before she can do anything, Lulu twists upwards and shifts into a massive mass of water, covering everyone and everything.
Patty gasps, and claps her hands. "Wooooow! She's so cool!"
"What on earth is she?" cries Liz.
"That's Lulubelle," shouts David over an explosion, ducking as a finder charges towards us and kicking him in the stomach. Patty shoots him in the head as he lies groaning on the floor. "She represents Noah's Form. She can shape shift."
"Wait, there are different Noah types?" asks Liz, as Patty fires shot after shot overhead at the seemingly neverending stream of finders. I hate to say it, but Patty's not actually a very good shot - she just shoots everywhere.
"Yup," says David, and we both duck, sending a blue bomb skywards to freeze two exorcists at once. One dodges, but is knocked sideways by a shot from Patty.
"So what are you two?"
"Bondomu, hee!"
"What?
"Bond."
"David, behind you!" But he doesn't move quick enough, and a finder smashes the butt of his machine-gun into David's face. He pins him down under one foot, and aims down at the back of David's head.
Without thinking, I put my head down and charge right into the jerk, head butting him right where it hurts most.
"Thanks Jas."
"No problem, Debi."
Lulubelle flies across the clearing, and gets shakily to her feet. "Jasdevi, this is getting serious! Where is the Earl?"
"He could be on his way!" shouts back David, but it's hard for him to make himself heard over the noise of the battle.
"Could isn't good enough!"
"Could, would, should!" I laugh, 'cuz it's reminding me of Patty's idea from earlier.
She laughs too.
Suddenly the exorcists fall strangely silent. The dark haired samurai from earlier pauses, sword raised and breathing hard. Lulubelle's given him a slash across the face.
The finders start scrabbling backwards, like rats. One stays put, and he's got a black machine in his hands. It looks like a box, only covered with wires, and with some sort of complicated switch-y thing on the stop.
Lulubelle takes a step back from him, holding her hands up. "Oh come on, you're not really going to, are you?"
He looks terrified. But he doesn't move.
"Don't be stupid, Kristof!" screams one of the exorcists. "You know it won't affect the Noah, and you'll kill us all!"
I look wildly from the finder called Kristof, to Lulubelle, to David, to Patty. "What's going on?"
David starts to laugh. Which is strange. Usually I'm the one laughing when nothing makes sense.
Patty raises Liz again. "What's he holding?"
David laughs harder. "That's a bomb, Patty."
"A bomb?"
"A bomb, hee?"
"A bomb," says Lulubelle. "Just like the one earlier."
I have a sudden vision of my broken legs, of blood, of David's ruined face and burnt flesh and - I push the memory away.
Kristof raises it higher, arms trembling. He's got tears running down his face. "If you…you don't surrender, Noah, I - I'll set it off! I will, really!"
"For god's sake!" shouts an exorcist, moving closer. He's afraid to make any sudden movements though, in case Kristof sets it off. "Think, Kristof, you idiot! We blew the Noah up not ten minutes ago, and look at them! Completely unharmed!"
"Exactly!" pipes up another. "What's more, we'd all be blown to smithereens, since we're only human!"
A thought strikes me.
I look sideways at Patty, who's staring straight ahead at Kristof.
They're only human.
David stops laughing. He stares at me.
Lulubelle snorts. "Go on, Kristof. Detonate the thing! Kill all your friends and save us the trouble!"
"No!" I scream. I - I don't want Patty or Liz to die!
The exorcists, Lulubelle and the finder all stare at me. David raises his pistol and aims it at Kristof. But he doesn't dare shoot. Neither do I. In case the bomb goes off.
Kristof takes a deep shuddering breath. "Actually, this bomb - it…it's constructed with Innocence."
The exorcists stare at him.
Lulubelle takes another step backwards. "It can't be."
Kristof's voice wavers and goes higher, like Liz when she's scared. "It's true, it's true! It's only experimental, but…if I detonate it, you Noah…well…you won't stay unharmed, that's for sure."
"We can't die," yells Lulubelle at him, and she's shaking slightly now. "Put that thing down, or I'll - "
But the exorcists are all suddenly on their feet and running, running faster than I'd ever have thought possible. Kristof hasn't moved, and he starts flicking switches and buttons all over the bomb. "I'll do it! I really will!"
David makes a funny choking sound. "He's going to kill himself to get us!"
"Run, Jasdevi!" screams Lulubelle, and we all turn to start running, but suddenly something grabs my feet and I'm pulled to the ground and I get a faceful of mud.
"Argh!" David slams into the dirt next to me. I look up, and there's a shining rope of Innocence clinging to our feet.
It extends far back to Kristof's side, and there's a tall, dark-skinned woman standing there, the end of the rope clutched in her fist. Two more are stretched far across the clearing, one pressing Lulu into the ground and one wrapped around Patty's legs, holding them together.
"We'll die together, Kristof," says the woman. "Do it!"
"No!" Lulubelle struggles harder.
David kicks his legs. "Fucking Innocence!"
Patty wriggles hard. I open my mouth to tell her it's useless, but then -
She gives one final kick, and the rope falls away from her legs.
That's right.
She's not a Noah.
The same thought strikes David and he stops struggling. "Yeah, Patty! Go!"
Kristof's fingers start moving faster as he works to arm the bomb.
Patty clenches her fist around Liz and starts running.
Towards him.
***
Liz
Normally this kind of thing would bother me, running straight towards a guy who's about to set a damned bomb off, but this time I have no choice. Partly because it's Patty doing to the running, and partly because I'd never be able to live with myself if we didn't do this.
I don't know what rules govern this universe, I don't know why the Noah are so powerful in some ways but so weak in others, but I do know that the bomb can't go off.
Not only would me and Patty probably be killed, but I know that David, and Jasdero, and Lulubelle wouldn't make it either. Whatever this Innocence is, the Noah are clearly vulnerable to it.
Kristof looks up quickly, and an expression of pure fear crosses his face as Patty raises me and tries to take aim as she charges towards him.
At the very last second, the woman dives in front of him and moves her arm sideways in a long sweeping motion. The three ropes, all connected by a single steel handle clutched in her fist, snake through the air and whip Patty in the stomach as one, winding her and sending her flying backwards.
But to attack us, the woman had to release the Noah.
But it's too late.
"Ready!" cries Kristof, and he raises a hand above the bomb, above the red button.
In spite of myself, I mentally roll my eyes. The big red button. How original.
"No!" Lulubelle panics, and disappears skyward in the form of some kind of bird.
"Jasdero!"
"David!"
The brothers turn and start running.
"Patty!" I scream at her. "Run! For god's sake, run! We're going to die!"
In my heart of hearts, I know that there's no way we'll get even twenty feet before the bomb goes off.
Patty throws me down and leaps forward at Kristof.
I shift. "Patty! Don't!"
"Patty?" Jasdero skids to a halt and spins around. "Patty!" And to my amazement, he starts running back, towards the two of us.
Patty's reached Kristof, and she's wrestling furiously with him, despite the fact that he's so much taller than her.
"Stop, Jasdero!" David's running back too, but he can't catch up with his brother. "We've got to get out of here!"
The woman raises her hand high above Patty's head, but I throw myself at her, slamming both fists into her sides as hard as I can. She flies sideways, but recovers quickly, and snaps her ropes across my face.
I don't care.
"Stop him Patty!"
"I'm trying!"
"Get off me!"
"Patty!"
***
Jasdero
Patty's forcing Kristof's arm upwards, and hers is trembling with the effort. I reach them, and smash my fist into his face as hard as I can.
Blood explodes from his nose - like a flower, how pretty - but he doesn't stop struggling against Patty.
He drives his foot into her leg and she staggers, and his arm slips free from her grasp, and his hand comes down towards the button -
***
David
- but Jasdero's there, and he wraps both hands around Kristof's wrist, his pistol falling to the floor, and Kristof yells, blood pouring down his face.
Liz screams as the woman pulls the ropes tight around her neck, hoisting her off the ground.
I skid to a halt, staring madly from where Kristof is trying to hold Patty and Jasdero off with one arm, to where Liz is kicking her legs and slowly turning purple, and I -
***
Liz
- and everything's okay again, I can breathe, as the woman is knocked off her feet by the force of David's foot. The ropes fly off my neck, and I take deep gasping breaths to fill my lungs once more.
But there's no time to relax, because that bomb - that bomb -
***
Patty
- suddenly I'm staring at the sky because Kristof has knocked me straight to the floor. I get up as quickly as I can but he's slowly forcing Jasdero off him, and I scream because -
***
Jasdero
- I stagger backwards, and it's too late, too late, Kristof raises his hand high and brings it down -
***
David
I'm pulling Liz to her feet, but then her hand disappears from mine, and a gun is spinning through the air and Patty catches it and -
***
Liz
- Patty catches me and, moving quicker than I've ever seen her move, spins and fires a shot, just one, straight at Kristof as he pushes the button with the palm of his hand -
***
Patty
- and the box clicks and three massive shafts of light burst free as it starts to go off -
***
Jasdero
- I charge forwards, and I hear myself scream Patty's name, and I hear David scream mine and as the explosion goes off I reach out to Patty -
***
David
- I see blonde hair, long hair, short hair, as Jasdero reaches Patty just as the gunshot reaches Kristof who keels sideways, blood pouring down his head as the world disappears in a roar of white and sound and heat and -
***
Liz
I feel myself spin out of Patty's hands.
***
Patty
Jasdero's arms are flung around me as he tries to pull me to safety but then the world explodes and he's gone -
***
Jasdero
- and there's whiteness -
***
David
- and pain -
***
Liz
- and as I hit the floor, just like that -
***
Patty
- the white becomes black and every sound just disappears as I -
***
Liz
- pass out.