Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the OCs.
"Slightly Damned" – talking
"Rebirth" – thinking
"[Obey]" – Mysterious Cloaked Figure and Auditio talking
Attack! – Special attack in use
*Sound* - Sound effect
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Play Opening theme 1: Harukaze
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Chapter 13: Angel's Fall, Continuing the Journey
The battle was on, as the angel, Fortitudo, fired a blast of fire at the group. Acting quickly, they all evaded, landing on various parts of the ring-like structure in the area. Fortitudo didn't let them sit still as he began snapping at them with his jaws, intending to bite anyone who got too close in half.
"Dude! Mouthwash!" Max managed to say when one attempt got too close for comfort.
"I don't think this guy bothers with that," Shun commented as he fired a few shots at Fortitudo.
"Is this really the time for jokes?" Tsukasa deadpanned as he jumped back from an attempt to bite him. "Create: Steel Bar," he said as several circuits came out of AI, forming a steel bar out of data, which got caught in Fortitudo's mouth, effectively holding it open.
"Personally I think it keeps the mood up, don't you think?" Bayonetta chuckled as she landed in front of Tsukasa, and opened fire with her guns, peppering the inside of Fortitudo's mouth with her bullets, forcing him back.
Roaring in anger and pain, Fortitudo began shooting fireballs at them from both his mouths, aiming rather haphazardly for that matter. However, Umi was already on it. "Sakido-san! Iris-san! Help me!" Umi shouted, while she herself released a curtain of water she had quickly pulled together.
"Right!" Iris and Sakido nodded, as both of them began intercepting any fireballs that didn't get doused by Umi's water curtain, Iris freezing them with bursts of icy breath, and Sakido putting them out with strong gusts of wind.
Seeing that his attacks weren't working, Fortitudo decided to switch tactics. Gathering energy into his mouths, he opened them up, and spewed a torrent of magma from them, hitting the ground. "What the?!" Roland gasped at the sight, not expecting it at all.
"We're dealing with a supernatural creature, one from the afterlife, and a high level one at that. It really should not be a surprise to us," Tsukasa said simply.
"Well, for now just avoid touching the ground if you can!" Shun barked as he dodged another fireball.
"Watch out for lava jets too!" Iris added, as she narrowly avoided getting cooked alive by one of said jets.
"And beware of the angel's weight," Tsukasa said simply having jumped out of the way of Fortitudo trying to ram his entire body into the Rebirth, before he countered with several shots of a gatling gun he materialized. The good thing about the target being so big, it was nearly impossible to miss.
Naturally, this was a fact that had kept the fight more or less in their favor, as the members who used long ranged moves peppered him with their attacks. However…
"Is this even working?!" Sakido growled as she unleashed a Lightning Spell at one of the two heads...only for Fortitudo to pretty much shake it off.
"Definitely," Shun said. "Just not as much as we'd like," he added as he dodged and fired several burst bullets in rapid succession.
Fortitudo roared in anger as the bullets exploded against him, and was soon sent reeling when Roland used the opportunity to get close and deliver a punishing blow to his large face. "Hey Shun, this guy's really tough. A Hyper Burst would be great about now," Roland said, lightly shaking his hand. It seemed the angel was harder than it looked.
"Ah...about that…" Shun grimaced. "Confession...I'm not really at 100%."
"Uh...what?" Max managed to say...right as he dodged another attack.
"Are you okay, Shun-sempai?" Umi asked, sounding a bit worried.
"No, I'm okay," Shun said, as they continued moving to avoid Fortitudo's attacks. "I just...can't use any of my stronger abilities until my body stabilizes. If I tried now, I might just fall apart...literally."
Sakido growled at the tone, the tone of someone talking about the weather, or had simply spilled some milk. She didn't know why, but hearing Shun talk so lightly about his own life...made her angry. However, she held her tongue. She could talk to Shun later, but right now they had to deal with this Angel first.
"Well now, that certainly sounds troublesome," Bayonetta said, having been close enough to hear. "No worries, I think its about time I stopped playing around."
"Playing around?!" Was the shared thought running through the collective Rebirths' heads.
Bayonetta chuckled. Despite her words, she did appreciate them helping her. Sure she didn't actually need the help, but it was still a nice change. With that in mind, she quickly dodged another strike, and activated witch time. Delivering a punishing flurry of blows to Fortitudo, knocking him back and leaving him slightly dazed. Not giving him an inch, she moved forward, grabbed hold of one of his heads, and began throwing him over her shoulder...twice.
"Okay...she was holding out on us…" was the only 'intelligent' thing Roland could say, while everyone's faces were in a very clear WTF expression.
Once Fortitudo was sufficiently dazed, Bayonetta grabbed hold of one of the dragon heads, and forcing it open, twisted and broke the neck, before ripping the whole head off.
"Okay...that might have been a little excessive…" Shun gulped slightly...then they saw what looked like a portal appear under the head, which was then dragged down by a myriad of claws and arms, the head thrashing like it was still alive. "...and now its disturbing…" he grimaced. They didn't need to think too hard about where that portal likely came from.
"...let's just...not think about it," Umi grimaced.
"Agreed," they all said, even Sakido, as she also found the image somewhat uncomfortable. Thought, they did idly notice that several of their canisters on hand had just filled up by themselves.
Fortitudo however didn't seem deterred by the loss of the head, as with his remaining head, he fired a torrent of magma, causing jets of it to shoot out of the ground, once more forcing them all to dodge the attacks. "It does not seem to have fazed him much," Tsukasa observed dryly.
"Well, we'll just have to hit it till it IS fazed," Max shot back with a small smirk, before triggering his Hyperdrive ability...at the same time Bayonetta dodged an attack, activating her Witch Time. "Hah! I knew it! You WERE moving at high speed," Max grinned, as they were both seemingly moving at normal speed, while everything else was frozen in time.
"Oh? That's a surprise. Didn't think anyone other than angels and demons could move in this spell," Bayonetta mused. "Well then, care to join me?"
"Sure," Max said. "But first, let's go Galatine!" he shouted, as his motorbike appeared from its subspace pocket. However, instead of jumping on, Max ran alongside the bike, which broke apart. "Armor mode!" Max said as he threw off his jacket, revealing several mechanical components on his riding suit. Galatine proceeded to break apart, its form shifting and reassembling before attaching to Max's suit. When it was done, Max was wearing a robotic suit of armor, colored white and red with a knight-esque design, though notably more futuristic, especially with the wheels attached to the legs (A/N: the design is similar to the Dot Phasor in Danball Senki Wars). "Here we go!" he grinned under his armor as the wheels started turning at full throttle, propelling him forward even faster than normal, so much so that even with Witch Time, he seemed like a blur to Bayonetta.
"Now that's impressive," she nodded, right as Max tore into Fortitudo, his beam sword easily cutting through the angel's skin/armor. Not to be outdone herself, Bayonetta proceeded to land a flurry of kicks and shots, ending it with a kick powered by her Wicked Weaves, sending a massive foot plowing into Fortitudo's 'face'.
Time soon resumed, leaving the rest of the Rebirths slightly surprised at the sudden change. "What happened?!" Sakido gasped at the drastic change.
"Most likely Max used his Hyperdrive ability to attack at high speed," Tsukasa answered simply. "At any rate, the angel seems to be dazed. I recommend we capitalize on it."
"Roland-san and Iris-chan already beat you to that," Umi said, as true enough, Roland had surged forward the moment he saw the opening, Iris not far behind him.
"Take out the other head!" Roland barked.
"Roger!" Iris nodded, as she inhaled, and then exhaled a frigid breath. Fortitudo didn't get a chance to react, as his remaining dragon head was frozen solid, and a moment later, Roland was on top of it.
"Get out of our way! Sutāsupinkurasshu!" he said, as his foot ignited, before delivering a spinning axe kick to the head, cutting right through the frozen flesh and marble.
Fortitudo roared in anger as he reeled back from the loss of his other head. Taking to the air, he was about to try ramming into the Rebirths but…
"Hey, friendly advice. Don't look up," Max quickly said. Fortitudo actually paused at that, and looked up...right as a pair of black talons grabbed him. It seemed Bayonetta had taken the opening to summon another of her Demons, Malphas, a large crow-like demon. "I told you not to look up!" Max added, right before Malphas began pecking the ever living daylights out of Fortitudo. In the meantime, Bayonetta had used Witch Time again, right as Malphas delivered one last savage peck to Fortitudo's face, causing the angel to ram into the wall, kicking up a massive amount of debris. Taking advantage of her spell, she proceeded to position the various chunks of debris around Fortitudo, and deactivated her spell, leaving the large number of rocks to ram right into the already critically injured angel.
"That's gonna leave a mark," Shun winced when they saw the debris smash into him. "You...don't cut corners do you?" was all he could ask Bayonetta. The shrug he got pretty much answered that question.
"[It was as foretold…]" Fortitudo's voice said, catching their attentions, as Tsukasa had expanded his translator program so that all of them could understand without him having to be the middleman. "[Your power….incredible…]" he seemed to gasp.
"You only realized that now?" Sakido deadpanned. None of them had been around Bayonetta for that long, but all of them knew she was strong. Heck, they were sure even without them around she'd have beaten this angel no problem.
Bayonetta on the other hand latched onto another thing. "Foretold? Explain yourself!" she said.
"[I, Fortitudo, am but a simple sacrifice for the resurrection of the creator]" he said.
"That doesn't sound good," Shun frowned. Whenever strong characters shamelessly call themselves sacrifices, it's usually not a good sign. True enough…
"[May Jubileus, the creator, grace you all!]" Fortitudo proclaimed, before a portal to Hell opened, as several arms grabbed hold of him, and dragged him in, the large angel disappearing from their sight.
"Yeah...that definitely sounds bad," Shun deadpanned.
"How so?" Max asked.
"We just beat the crap out of him, and he wishes for a 'creator' to 'grace' us. Considering this world seems intact enough, how WOULD a creator do their work?" Shun explained.
They thought about it for a moment...before Umi, Max, Roland, Iris, and even Tsukasa, paled a bit at the answer they came up with.
Sakido wanted to ask them about that...but was distracted when all of them, herself included literally started shaking.
"Hm? Are you alright? He wasn't THAT scary," Bayonetta seemed a bit surprised...right before a veritable stream of capsules, all filled up came popping out of their clothes like popcorn.
"T-t-t-that a-a-a-a-angel m-m-m-must have had s-s-s-some serious p-p-p-power!" Umi said through the shaking, before finally it stopped.
"And now I'm sure that was every last capsule we had," Roland blinked, shaking of the feeling as the capsules were automatically teleported back to their base.
As if to answer his question, their UniTs all began ringing, to which they pulled them out, and automatically initiated. Unsurprisingly, it was Neo who appeared in the shared hologram. "I don't know what you guys just did to send this many in one shot, but all I can say is...good job," he nodded in approval. "With this, our quota is more than met. We won't be having any problems in the event the Stillborns hit us with something like before again. You can all return immediately," he said.
"Roger," Roland and Iris nodded. However Shun noticed his teammates, particularly Max and Umi, seemed...unsure.
"Something wrong guys?"
"Well, its good that we finished the mission, but…" Max started.
"Is it really okay for us to just up and leave like this?" Umi finished for him.
"It would be bad...manners to just leave our new ally the moment our work is done," Tsukasa said. Sakido didn't say anything, though inwardly she agreed with them.
Shun looked at them for a moment...before chuckling, a small smile on his face.
However, before he could say anything, Bayonetta herself stepped in.
"Oh, its quite alright. You all seem to be busy with your own problems, so don't let me get in your way," she said.
"Are you sure?" Sakido asked.
"Of course. Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself," she said.
The group seemed a bit uneasy, but ultimately nodded.
"I know I showed up rather late, but thanks for all the help you've given us," Shun said, before extending his hand to her.
"Honestly, you lot were a rather amusing change, so let's call it even," Bayonetta chuckled as she shook his hand. When she did, Shun grabbed on with his other hand, as a light shone inside the clasped hands. When he let go, Bayonetta found a charm-like necklace, one shaped like a golden crown with several small symbols in it. "Oh? And what might this be?"
"Consider it a token of our appreciation. Honestly we don't feel too great about up and leaving you like this, so if you ever need a hand, you can call us with that Summoning Charm," Shun said.
"That's our way of saying thank you, for helping us and being our friend," Umi added.
Bayonetta had a small smirk at that. "Don't know if I'll be using this much, but its appreciated," she said simply. "Now then, I think you all better get going soon."
The group gave their own parting words, before Shun snapped his fingers, summoning the Trailblazer, which beamed them all up.
"Well, there's something you don't see everyday," Bayonetta mused, before looking at the charm she had. "Friends huh?" she mused, remembering Umi's words. "You just might be."
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"Did you all have a good time?" Shun chuckled slightly as they left the world. The ship headed back to Traverse Town.
"I wouldn't call that a 'good time'," Sakido sighed.
"But you all made a new friend, right?" Shun countered.
"Well if that's what you meant, then yeah, we had a pretty good time," Max said, then frowned. "Is it really okay that we leave her just like that?"
"I wouldn't be too worried about her. She's strong. Heck, she could probably give some of us Rebirths a run for our money," Roland said. "If that Angel we fought was as strong as they come, then she'll be fine."
"More importantly, are you all aware of the current situation?" Iris asked.
"What of it? We were only gone for a short while," Tsukasa asked.
"Yeah, but that short while is enough for things to change," Shun sighed. "Unwritten sightings have suddenly increased. As things stand...we may just be heading for another great war…"
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Ending theme 1: Itsumo
Author's Note: Okay, another chapter done. Sorry if this time its a bit short. I had initially toyed with the idea of them helping out Bayonetta a bit more...then I realized it would be unnecessarily long.
I know I only just got back into things, but life has been busy, so once again I find myself having a hard time finding time. But don't worry, I don't plan on taking another 2 year Hiatus if I can help it. Until next time.