Chapter Twenty-Three: Apex
Walking far away enough to ensure we're out of the blast radius is tough on my ripped-up leg, but it's possible. Everyone's shaken up, having killed the leader of a gang that was on the course of becoming an even bigger threat than the White Fang, and that reaction's about expected. So we're just walking for now. Not sure what I'm going to do about this leg, but I guess it can wait until later. As long as I maintain that tear linking my leg's blood supply together, I won't die.
We're silent for the most part as we flee the premises, other than the occasional sniffle from one of the more torn-up members of our teams or the gasps of pain I produce when I step on a point that disturbs the position of my leg. I'm pretty sure this is because none of us know the right thing to say. I sure don't, I feel this is a moment that words might spoil.
We're not leaving the prison quite yet, just moving away from the hall area as to not get caught in the blast. This way we can ensure that fucker's dead. Eadie set Firecracker up underneath that hall, and I know it blasts upwards, not outwards, so we can stay in the prison and check to see if Shiin's body is melting or ripped to shreds. If not, we're chucking her right in the biggest fire possible.
This annihilation of the prison hall also lets us cover up the fight that occurred here. Those who agree with whatever Shiin stood for might flock to support him if the fight was made public, not to mention the fear that would spread to the masses. Eliminating any evidence of what occurred seems like the best option to ensure peace remains the status quo.
Plus, I like blowing things up. Is that so wrong?
We're in Hallway D right now, separated from the hall by a few rows of prison cells. I turn to my friends, all looking a bit nervous (quite understandable in all honesty).
"This should be far enough, I think. Before I press the button, does anyone want to say anything? Like a funeral speech for Shiin? I don't know, anything?"
Everyone's silent for a few seconds, until Weiss raises her hand. "I just want to say that we've done something important here. This was a woman fighting for a cause we know nothing about. We don't know what could've happened if we stood back and did nothing. Never forget this." Everyone cheers at Weiss' little speech.
"Alright, are we ready to blow this popsicle stand? Three..." My finger hovers over the button that triggers the explosion. "Two..." I brush my finger lightly over that button, teasing the possibility of fiery demise. "On-"
I'm slammed into by what I believe to be a metal claw, driving me up against the wall. One of the fingers of the claw moves back and positions itself over my throat, then plunges forward. I place a tear shield in the way of that talon and it harmlessly bounces off it. My jugular is safe, but I'm dazed from the attack. What's going on now?
Doma grabs the claw and crushes it by tightening its grip. Being free now, I fall to the floor and begin running back to the hall. What the hell has happened? I thought we killed that bastard. Judging by the sounds of footsteps behind me, I can only assume the rest of the teams are following me as well.
I enter the hall, or what's left of it. Strange, I don't remember blowing it up quite yet but there's plenty of damage to the infrastructure. Seems like the claw came from a mass of wiring and computer parts that's suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall. The ceiling above it has caved in, and if my eyes aren't deceiving me I believe I can see three drones, seemingly unmanned, flying away from the scene. Fuck.
The mass of wiring and computer parts seems to stir, and the many LEDs on it's body spring to life. I hear a whirring coming from the core of that mess, and out of nowhere a stuttery, robotic voice once again pierces the heavens.
"YOU DIDN'T LISTEN TO ME, DID YOU?"
The wires of the creature's body shift away, revealing a round inner core that the wires and computers have hid. On it there's one screen, showing some kind of audio visualiser technology.
"I AM NO LONGER A PERSON. I HAVE TRANSCENDED MORTALITY. MY CONSCIENCE NOW LIVES ON IN MY CREATIONS. THIS IS MY STRONGEST FORM. MY FINAL FORM. MY MAINFRAME. AND IT WAS BUILT TO BE INDESTRUCTIBLE." The wires fold back over the core and lash out at us. "YOU MAY HAVE KILLED THE FIRST, BUT YOU CAN NEVER KILL THE LAST."
These wires aren't boding well for any of our Semblances, other than maybe Pyrrhas. Not many of us have crowd-control-focused Semblances, so eliminating all these bastards is going to be tricky.
I remember the button in my hand, the one that sets off Firecracker. That might not destroy the core, but it could probably destroy some of the wires that help it to move and attack.
The creature's not in the right position right now, it's moved far away from the perfect blast area and is currently advancing towards us and away from it. We need to push it back to ensure that we can incinerate and annihilate as much as possible. I turn to Pyrrha, yelling at her.
"MOVE THE WIRES!"
She seems to understand, nodding her head. Dropping her spear and shield, I see her close her eyes, focusing intensely. It seems like she's doing whatever she can to maximise the effectiveness of her Semblance against as many targets as possible. I look at Yang, trying to communicate as much as I can through eye contact. She cracks her knuckles, her eyes beginning to change colour and her hair starting to light up.
With one gesture, Pyrrha releases a massive blast of Polarity, causing all the wires to be pushed outwards, exposing the core for just a moment. Yang runs up to said exposed core, Ember Celica in battle formation, and punches that thing as hard as possible. I see the core roll back a metre or so before the wires latch into the ground, anchoring it in position. This is going to be tougher than we thought.
Pyrrha keeps channeling all of her Aura into pushing the creature back. It's slow but it's working, however I'm not so sure if she has the Aura to push it back the whole way.
I feel the anger building up in me once again. I should've known better than to assume that the enemy would only die once! That's never how it works! FUCK!
The idea of analysing the situation and formulating a plan briefly enters my mind, but it's quickly replaced by the urge to rip and tear away mindlessly until there's nothing left of that bastard. Rip and tear and rip and tEar and rip and tear aNd rip and tEar and rIp anD tear And riP ANd tEar aNd RIp anD tEAr AND rIP AnD TEAr ANd RIP AND TEAR
Somewhere in the rational part of my mind I sense everyone in my team taking a collective step away from me. I'm not sure why, but I know that those with their Auras activated can sense the Auras of others. This Aura filling me seems a little different. This was the way I summoned the meteor, but this feels much stranger, like rage and desperation swirling inside me, pushing out any fear.
I summon a single portal above my head, then doing something I've never done before, shatter it into tens of pieces. These pieces morph onto my skin, melding into the shape and structure of my body, covering it in it's entirety. I draw back my fist, and I feel something from a dream dimension stirring, then roaring to life. As I force my fist forwards in a punch, I feel the tear armour around myself dig into that dream dimension, bringing that energy to the surface of this world. My hand surges with energy not seen in Earth or Remnant ever before. It's literally pure energy from my wildest dreams.
My fist connects with the core, and the shockwave produced from the punch causes gushes of wind to rush forward from the punch, blowing the cables out of the way. The shockwave's impact shatters my glass eye inside of it's socket, but I'm not feeling that pain right now. While my punch doesn't make a dent of any kind to the core, I see the robot rock back a few metres, and the high-pitched squeal it's been emitting ever since combat started turns into a low growl accompanied by static. I hear Shiin's voice once again, louder than before.
"THEY REJECTED ME, THEY ALL DID! PUSHED ME AWAY, BEAT ME! YOU'RE NO DIFFERENT THEN THEM! I CAN'T LOSE AGAINST YOU, I REFUSE!" Tendrils lash out at me, but none connect to my flesh. As they strike the tear armour, they disappear into a separate dimension. When the creature removes them, there's nothing there, they've been disintegrated entirely. Raising my foot, I stomp the ground as hard as possible, causing the ground beneath our feet to tremble and quake. I see the tendrils keeping the robot rooted in the unstable ground start to snap or recoil. One punch later and the robot's knocked in the air. Bending my knees, I jump, hurtling towards the core, and kick the panel attached to the core, shattering it and causing the core to dent inwards. Bringing both fists in the air, I spike that robot bastard down, leaving an even larger dent in the chassis. The monstrous creation hurtles to the floor, hitting the old Shiin's corpse and crushing it entirely. I think I dropped that remote that triggered the explosives when I took on the robot, so I just pray that someone presses it before Shiin's new form can recover.
"NOW!" I scream at the top of my lungs, the sound seemingly amplified by the tear armour. Out of the corner of my one good eye I see Blake run towards the button. As she nears it wires lash out at her, attempting to stop her from pressing it. These wires are severed with one swing upwards from Ruby's scythe, at the last minute. Blake picks up the button and slams her fist down as hard as possible.
In that moment many thoughts come to mind, the main one being that we might've defeated the 'first phase' as it were. Other thoughts also come to mind that deserve some consideration, like the fact that I'm in the blast radius of Firecracker, I'm falling to the ground at a relatively high speed and I feel the tear armour begin to fade away. Hmm.
I see part of the ground begin to split open as I fall downwards, then everything goes white.
. . . . .
When my eyes regain focus and my ears stop ringing, I lift my head to confirm that I'm still alive (barely). Seems like Firecracker went off alright, but we might've overdone it. The entirety of the prison's been damaged to some extent, with the hall being completely annihilated and most of the surrounding area being levelled by the blast.
A few small flames litter what used to be the prison, but they're nothing serious. Seems like everyone's fine as well, as I do a quick headcount of the teams as they struggle to stand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and me. Lovely, good to see that.
Considering the lack of massive fuck-off wires trying to strangle me, I'd say our plan worked fairly well. I still can't quite see the core though…
Ah, there it is! It's a little further away from the hall, in a fully levelled area of the prison. All that's left of the wires surrounding the core are a few burnt stubs still attached to certain parts. I get up slowly as not to strain myself, hobbling towards that monster's heart so I can finish it off.
Out of the corner of my one working eye, I see Eadie, Ruby and Yang walking in the same direction on my left. Eadie seems fine, as do the girls, but they weren't caught in the heart of the blast were they? I can only assume everyone's on the right where my eye is gone and my glass eye's been shattered and is digging into my flesh.
We all stand around the core, wondering what to do. It's clearly very strong, even at my most powerful I could only make a dent or two in it. While we're thinking about this, I hear Shiin's voice once again resonate from what's remaining of her strongest creation, garbled and distorted but still understandable.
"YOU WON. I NO LONGER HAVE ANY WAY TO ATTACK YOU. I SUPPOSE YOU'VE DEFEATED ME, BUT ALL I HAVE TO DO IS UPLOAD MY CONSCIENCE INTO ANOTHER ONE OF MY BODIES AND RESUME MY PLANS. THIS BODY WILL EXPLODE AFTERWARDS, KILLING ALL OF YOU. UPLOAD COMMENCING. GOODBYE." At this LEDs that I hadn't noticed before begin to pulse blue and white, and we realise the gravity of the situation.
"There's no way we can break into that robot. Even at Com's strongest he couldn't do it." I hear Jaune dejectedly sigh. "We've lost in the end."
In this moment there are one of two responses from those around me. One one hand a minority have given up, and are standing there' shellshocked. The majority, on the other hand, are attacking the core with everything they have. Shells ricochet off the exterior, slashes and strikes bounce off harmlessly. Me and Eadie are thinking furiously about how to defeat it, as a new, robotic voice counts down.
"TIME REMAINING UNTIL UPLOAD: 60 SECONDS."
Hold on, I've got it.
This is crazy, but it just might work. I can't do it myself, I can't bring forward the strength I did in the first phase, but I can do something else. Maybe I can grant others strength.
"Everyone, move away from Shiin. Now!" The teams look at me, confused as to why I would suggest this, but all oblige, clearing some space between me, Eadie and the core. Now it's time.
With every ounce of strength and Aura left in my body, I create as many portals facing Eadie as possible, each linking to another portal around Vale. Granted I can only place them in places I know about, but that should be plenty.
Portals appear over Beacon, in the city, in the suburbs, bigger than the billboards advertising in the very heart of Vale.
"TIME REMAINING UNTIL UPLOAD: 30 SECONDS."
I can already tell the amount of portals isn't enough, but it's so close to enough. Just a few more well-placed ones and we can do this. I already know what I have to do.
In a split second, the portals holding my leg together disappear. Keeping them up and keeping them in the right shape was a drain on my Aura, and with that little amount left, I place those last few tears in front of as many eyes as possible. I feel my leg start to bleed heavily by this point, soaking the ground beneath me, but I can't give up now.
"TIME REMAINING UNTIL UPLOAD: 10 SECONDS."
"GO, EADIE!"
With the nation's eyes all trained on him, Eadie runs forward at a superhuman speed. His sword was flung far away in the explosion, so he brings his fist back. I don't think he needs it, his Semblance is more powerful right now than mine could ever be by itself. If I'm not mistaken, it looks like Eadie's hand is almost glowing, his Aura overwhelmingly large by this point.
Eadie yells with all his might, and with one explosive movement, rips straight through the core with his bare hand. The force of the movement causes what I think to be a shockwave in the isolated inside of the core. Maybe it's incidental, maybe it's on purpose, but it happened. The sound produced is deafening, wind buffeting outwards. It feels like a scene from an anime or something. I see the core's shell start to crack gradually, like a hatching egg, before shattering, revealing the completely destroyed interior technology lying in a wrecked heap on the floor. The synthesiser's voice whirrs to life one last time, the most destroyed I've ever heard it.
"UP...LOAD...CANCELLED...INDEFINITELY...INTERNAL DAMAGE...TOO GREAT...SHUT...DOWN...COMMENCED..." The last words are too covered by static to hear properly but in that moment, we know Shiin's gone for good this time. Everyone's going to live, I think, as I face everyone and laugh in relief.
Well, maybe not everyone. I don't feel too good. I used up all my Aura creating those portals, so I can't put my leg back together another time. Looking down at my feet, the smile wiped from my face, I realise I must've lost a dangerous amount of blood already. Ah, shit.
Now the adrenaline's worn off, I find myself unable to stand properly, as I fall on my back. In that one moment, I can tell I'm going to die. I guess I should've seen that coming.
My already damaged vision clouds over, becoming misty and unfocused. I can only see a few splotches of colour, like a messy watercolour painting. I bit of yellow here, some red there, a touch of white and black, a tad of green and purple, some pink and orange. Jesus, this painter should've showed more constraint.
The voices that I can hear sound like we're underwater, but I'm pretty sure they're muttering words of encouragement for some reason. Eh, they don't need to worry, I'm feeling alright for a dying man.