I apologize if they all seem pathetic in this scene ^^' I'm not particularly good at writing fight scenes, so... Yeah. Sorry about that.
Butterfly's Wings
"Fuck - Urahara, you bastard, you told me they didn't come out in the day!" Grimmjow bellowed into his Soul Pager. The team of four dived around a behemoth, a towering goat Soifon had managed to lure into an area full of abandoned buildings, one of the more isolated areas of Karakura Town. It seemed that this guy was the only one around their little - or rather, large - burrow of rogue Arrancar; apparently his companions were off terrorizing other regions of Japan. Grimmjow cursed. He had never considered himself a short man - he was actually rather tall, along with fellow Espada and a few of the male Shinigami, but this guy was almost as tall as Yammy, with shoulders just as broad. He dodged a Cero as he waited for the idiot Urahara to reply. And finally he did.
"Sorry, Jaegerjaquez-san! It seems that this guy isn't nocturnal likes his buddies," Kisuke replied over the other end. In fact, the tall, scruffy scientist was ambling around the shop unconcernedly, making pancakes while Yoruichi was perched on the couch watching a program on TV. She was also indifferent about the situation. "We also happen to need him alive...? Actually dead would be fine, but alive would be good for information and interrogations."
"No shit!" Grimmjow yelled into the phone, dodging yet another blast, yet letting out a gasp as a piece of rubble hit him in the stomach. Ulquiorra was watching the goat-man intently with an almost calculating look to his otherwise bland expression. Ggio was charging up a Cero from inside a plain gray building, the window smashed. Grimmjow briefly wondered if the little cat-dude had gotten pricked by any glass pieces before he dodge yet another Cero. Was he only just a distraction? Evidently, because Soifon was nowhere to be found. He supposed it was just another one of her sneak attacks, what with being the damned captain of the assassination squad.
"I didn't think it would be a problem for you four," Urahara snarked, his own Soul Pager pressed against his shoulder by his cheek in his poor attempt to flip the pancakes, there was a hasty curse uttered from his mouth that caused both Yoruichi and Grimmjow to perk up in surprise, but Yoruichi just flicked an ear and went back to watching a violent movie on the small television at the back of the shop. Meanwhile, at Grimmjow's end, several magenta blasts of energy, coupled with a few, evidently larger, green-coloured Cero hit the goat Arrancar, but the man dodged them all. Grimmjow didn't miss how he wore shoes that looked suspiciously like cloven hooves. This guy must have had the grace of a mountain goat.
"You fightin' or something?!" Grimmjow yelled, cursing as he was nailed in the head by a large chunk of concrete, courtesy of the goat Arrancar. "Cero!" he bellowed, firing a ball of crimson energy at the Arrancar. He took a closer look at the laughing Arrancar standing within the rubble. He wore the average Arrancar uniform, and his Hollow mask fragments looked like a goat skull, with curling horns not unlike Neliel's except his horns arched upwards and curled backwards again in a swirl. He had shaggy, dirty-blond hair and a scruffy goatee. Grimmjow smirked to himself. What a pun. Was it intended?
"No, I'm not fighting, however Yoruichi-san just yelled at me to stop bothering you so I shall." And before Kisuke hung up, Grimmjow clearly heard him ask, "Pancake, Yoruichi-san?"
"Son of a - " Grimmjow cursed to himself, but paused just as he made out a black and white blue of movement so fast he thought he had imagined it. Ggio let out a bark of laughter before firing his Cero; his shock had caused him to lose control, but he regained it and fired it just as Soifon darted back into clear view, and once the smoke cleared, the Arrancar was lying in a smoking heap inside a crater in the concrete, battered and bruised. A large black Homonka had appeared on his side, underneath his left arm. Grimmjow didn't miss the small smirk on Soifon's smug face and he glowered to himself.
She regained the bland expression reminiscent of an angry Ulquiorra before disappearing again, but just as she did the goat Arrancar yelled, "Lower your horns, Cabra de Carga!" Soifon was thrown backwards and would have easily smashed through an undamaged part of a building - if she wouldn't have become a pancake - if not for Ggio appearing behind her in a flash and being thrown back by the force of herself being thrown by the blast following the Arrancar's Resurreccion; they both slammed into the building with decidedly less force; Ggio taking the brunt of the blast.
"I don't need you looking after me the same way my idiot lieutenant does!" she sniped, before clambering away.
Ggio gave a loud, exaggerated cough. "Is this really what Omaeda does? Remind me - never again!" Grimmjow snorted before dodging an attack - it would be great if the lovebirds could just stop acting and arguing like a married couple. Ulquiorra had dived down and scored several slices through the goat's Hierro which was further aided by the thick, wiry cream-coloured fur that had spread across his body. In addition to that, the Arrancar had gotten several times more muscular, with larger horns that curled several times before finally arching back - but how? - and cloven hooves. There were tufts of fur lining down his back, and he heard Soifon make a scathing remark on how much he resembled Ggio's Tigre Estoque El Sable before the short - but not as short as her - Arrancar snapped back and told her to shut up.
"Who the fuck are you?!" Grimmjow yelled down at the Arrancar, diving past and slicing him across the shoulder, noticing that the Homonka had disappeared. Evidently Soifon noticed as well, judging from the not-so-discreetly muttered curse.
"Fernando Ramirez!" came the answer. "Former Sexta Espada!"
"The fuck?" Grimmjow dived again, lopping off the short, tasseled tail he sported on his rump. "You mean you're a Privaron Espada? How come we never saw you?!" He didn't miss several black and white blurs of the shrimps as they darted around Ramirez, covering him with cuts that spurted scarlet blood. Ramirez was visibly confused until he spied Ggio for a moment before the shorter Arrancar disappeared and he gained another cut through his fur and Hierro. Already his fur was no longer a dirty-looking cream but splashed with red. In order to land several cuts in quick succession they had to be fast, but to deal more harmful cuts through the Hierro, they had to spend more time and that was evidently not good for stealth.
"Aizen had the nerve to demote us in favour of you petty younglings," was the disdainful reply, "and we deserted him."
"Well, former Sexta..." Grimmjow let loose a flare of blue Reiatsu. "I'm just pretty sure you did a shit job and we were ultimately better!" He was caught off guard as a giant, bright-green Cero hit Ramirez in the back and they were both sent sprawling. Ulquiorra sheathed his sword, and Grimmjo muttered, "Shit..." as he dug around in is pocket and brought out a smashed Soul Pager, wires sticking out everywhere, having been crushed by himself as he was flung back.
"Yes, keep him talking, Grimmjow so I can nail him in the back with a Cero," the former Cuatro said tonelessly - with a hint of boredom, skirting around the fallen and groaning form of Fernando Ramirez, still looking infuriatingly immaculate - Szayel would have been jealous, "but try to think before you talk so we don't have to deal with your idiotic statements."
Grimmjow had a coughing fit before he answered. "The fuck do you mean?" he snarled before coughing again and scrambling to his feet. When Ulquiorra didn't answer he just growled angrily and asked, "So what do we do about the body?"
"How about we take care of her first?" Soifon snapped, and they all whipped around to see a timid-looking girl hiding behind a pile of crushed rubble and dust. Her limbs looked wispy and her features were delicate, and she had shoulder-length hair coloured varying shades of black and orange. Her mask fragments were a small line of ridged bone down her head with two fragile-looking protrusions appearing to be antennae curling forward. Her attire consisted of a thickly-furred collar connected to a short white dress and the same cur around her wrists. The air behind her back shimmered slightly, the shimmering areas looking like large, ghostly wings.
"Her?" Grimmjow scoffed, "She doesn't look much like a threat."
"Hate to agree with you, Grimmjow, but she doesn't look like much," Ggio said uncertainly.
Soifon narrowed her eyes further, and her arm moved too fast for them all to see. A pebble flew past the girl, and she flinched, the shimmering area seeming to fold back slightly, however strange it looked. The other three looked taken aback; even Ulquiorra's eyes narrowed slightly. "She's an illusionist," Soifon murmured softly. In a flash the girl disappeared, her Zanpaktou outstretched and she charged at Soifon at an unnerving speed, only to look down in confusion as her sword only pierced her discarded haori. She twisted around just in time to deflect a strike from Soifon, spinning around and kicking Ggio's blade away, catching Ulquiorra's with her foot and ducking Grimmjow's Cero with a strange grace. Soifon took this chance to score a gash across her hip; the girl winced and snarled, slashing back, ignoring the long, jagged gash in her side.
They all sparred together; at first it was just her and Soifon clashing in a furious dance of flying blades and frightening grace, matched only by the bloodlust on said girl's face as she slammed into Soifon with her sword, the short captain pushing her back almost effortlessly before spinning around and executing a roundhouse kick, launching her into Ulquiorra. The girl held her own surprisingly well, using a mix of hand-to-hand combat and swordplay not unlike Soifon and Ggio's own methods. She attacked Soifon again and Ggio, thinking quickly and, matching the two in their varying speeds, swung his blade downwards behind the girl's back. She let out a shriek as two shimmering orange and black wings materialized on the ground, the illusion broken. They were orange with black veins and outlines, wit dots of white at the tips. She disappeared, reappearing on the pile of rubble she had at first hidden behind, disguising her Reiatsu, and let out a shrieking, high-pitched noise that had them all clutching their ears; Ulquiorra seemed the most affected, probably as bats found high-pitched noises incredibly irritating to their sensitive ears.
While they were distracted, the girl whispered, "Shimmer, Monarca Vuelan!" There was a poof, as opposed to the large blast that Ramirez had brought upon entering his Resurreccion, coupled with a flash of light. They shielded their eyes, and Ulquiorra was the first to notice the wings had disappeared. He opened his mouth to say something before the light disappeared and the girl was flapping her glittering wings, herself resembling a large Monarch butterfly. She had grown an extra pair of arms and her ask fragments arched downwards in a bony proboscis above her real nose and she cloaked herself in the same shimmering visage as before. Soifon narrowed her eyes and before anyone could notice, swung her sword upwards beside the spot where Fernando Ramirez lay, and a bony forearm fell onto the ground.
"I am Danaus Sierra, former Octava and I am leaving," she murmured quietly before picking up an unconscious Fernando Ramirez with the arms sprouting from her waist - her original right forearm was gone, chopped off by Soifon and replaced by the gruesome visage of a bloody stump. She flapped upwards, spun around in a glittering ball of light and just disappeared, just like that. Several microscopic dots of light drifted down, the minuscule 'scales' of a butterfly wing. There was the unmistakable zipping and crackling sound of a Garganta being opened, and all four of them glanced wildly around for it, or even a shimmering, wavering giveaway of the Garganta being cloaked in Reiatsu-infused magic, and Ggio noticed it just before it disappeared. Grimmjow cursed and stabbed Pantera into the ground, cursing again as he noticed he had trodden in a puddle of glistening blood.
"Well, if that wasn't a major clusterfuck I'll eat my Hollow mask," Ggio muttered, to which Soifon gave a murmured agreement and Ulquiorra, an almost imperceptible nod of his head.
-::-
"They escaped?" Kisuke asked, eyebrows raised as he passed Grimmjow an icepack for his throbbing head. Grimmjow snatched it and slapped it over his forehead, sending the shopkeeper a murderous glare in reply. Kisuke seemed to take that as an answer. "Guys, you could have just killed them instead of holding back. I told you that we didn't exactly need to capture them alive, so you didn't need to hold back." They were all in their Gigai, and seeing as injuries appeared on the solid body when they've been sustained in soul state, they were all quite battered and bruised as well as bleeding.
"You only told that to me over this piece of shit," Grimmjow held up his ruined Soul Pager, "and I didn't have enough time to relay the information over to the rest of them before I was fucking hit in the stomach with a piece of rubble the size of my head!" And he gestured to his ruffled blue hair as an example. "A piece of shit that size wouldn't fit through my stomach hole, you idiot." Grimmjow scowled. "Why is that Sexta so powerful anyway? And that Octava!"
"They've had around 100 years of training, of course they'd be stronger," Ulquiorra muttered. His sleeves were rolled up in favour of the bandages around his upper arm. "100 years in solitude with nothing to do, how do you suggest they spend their time in an empty desert?"
Ggio raised an eyebrow. Was Ulquiorra being... Snide? Sassy? It was a change from being his usual, plain, emotionless self but still unnerving.
"Oh, right, sorry!" Urahara busied himself ambling around and serving tea to everyone. Soifon glared up at him from where she was bandaging a bored-looking Ggio's arm. Ggio was absent-mindedly tracing circles on the floor with his foot from the barrel he was seated on - Soifon was sitting cross-legged on a crate behind him - but his movements seemed a little stiff. If he had a heart it would have been rapidly beating at Soifon's brisk but almost gentle bandaging of his arm. He hoped that the perceptive Yoruichi wouldn't notice, what with her annoying tendency to notice everything as he'd realized. Ulquiorra was sitting at the table with Grimmjow, sitting stiffly and silently that they'd almost forgotten he was there, and wearing a sour look, although it might have been the lighting because his expression still looked bland and devoid of emotion.
"And you forgot about the seal placed on us from the moment we walked out of the Senkaimon," she snapped, tightening the bandages a little to tightly in her anger; she seemed to not notice Ggio's wince as she yanked on the bandages. "Our power was only one fifth of what it could have been, and on top of that we were holding back so it would have only been one tenth!" She jabbed a finger at Kisuke. "One-fucking-tenth!"
Yoruichi giggled, which sounded odd in a deep, grating voice, even odder coming from a cat, "Good to see the little bee showing so much emotion!" Ggio and Kisuke snickered in unison at the nickname and she shot dirty looks at the three of them before sighing.
"Tch, maybe I got too carried away by my anger that we actually lost. And didn't get permission to lift the limit." Her discarded haori lay on the floor with a giant rip through the number 2 in kanji printed across the back, and she examined the brand on her shoulder, a Pasque flower. Ggio also sported one on his collarbone, Grimmjow with a crude representation of yarrow on the opposite side of his number 6 tattoo. Ulquiorra's brand wasn't visible, but it was a marigold, representation insignia of the Third Division. Despair suited him, even if it was Nnoitra's aspect of Death. Ggio reckoned 'Fight' suited Grimmjow and Nnoitra better anyway, although 'Seek Nothing' seemed a little depressing.
"Time to record information," Kisuke said good-naturedly. Grimmjow groaned, but Kisuke was quick to say, "Wasn't Cifer-san assigned to record information? Huh? Cifer-san?" For Ulquiorra had disappeared from the table, Grimmjow swearing he was there a moment ago. Kisuke shrugged. "Perhaps Cifer-san also does not like paperwork."
"No shit," Grimmjow grumbled, taking the ice pack off his head to examine it before slapping it back on.
It turned out Ulquiorra was hiding in his room to avoid the work. Grimmjow had found him under the covers with a pile of clothing on top. It was a good hiding place, but not effective against Grimmjow, who had thought he was in his own plain little room and had thrown himself on top of the bed to take a nap, unaware that it was actually Ulquiorra's and said Arrancar was hiding there. The others had realized because of the river of swears and colourful language, as well as Ulquiorra having thrown Grimmjow out and slammed the door. Needless to say, Ulquiorra avoided doing work anyway.
Back at the shop, Yoruichi was curled on the arm of the ratty old couch in front of the TV, watching a news program on the mysterious explosions in the abandoned buildings and snickering to herself. Kisuke had lent Grimmjow several manga volumes, and Grimmjow seemed to be enjoying them. Ulquiorra had finally been forced to do the paperwork, and every so often Grimmjow would look up from his Saint Seiya to have a good snicker at Ulquiorra, receiving dirty looks in response. Yoruichi was slightly miffed that, even though Grimmjow was sprawled out on the couch in front of the TV, he didn't seem to be interested in the news program at the very least. "Don't you want to see yourself on TV?"
"Naw."
Ggio was carefully tending to a cut on Soifon's face, gently placing a Band-Aid on her cheek while Soifon awkwardly tried not to squirm or make eye contact. She refused at first but Ggio had insisted. She fidgeted for a moment as Ggio pressed the adhesive down, then murmured, "Why are you insistent on helping me?" Luckily no one noticed, being immersed in what they were doing. "I-I killed you back at the battle. We tried to kill each other."
Ggio shot a glance at the others in the room and shrugged. "You know why," he said simply, tracing down her jawline with his thumb. Soifon shivered for a moment at the touch, and then Ggio seemed to realize what he was doing, cleared his throat uncomfortably and excused himself, exiting the room. Soifon heard him step down the stairs. Sure, she didn't understand, but she also didn't understand why she enjoyed the intimacy of the touch... or why she found herself wanting more. Yoruichi rose, flicked her tail and padded silently to Soifon's crate and hopped into her lap, allowing the short Shinigami to scratch her behind the ears absently while she purred.
"I never knew you would fall in love," Yoruichi said in a husky whisper to Soifon, fixing her with one intelligent golden eye. "A man, and an Arrancar at that, too."
"I-I'm not in love," Soifon snapped, but quietly enough so that no one else could hear.
Yoruichi flicked an ear. "Lie to me all you want, but don't lie to yourself," she murmured jokingly, then turned serious. "But in all my years of living, I think I'd know about the heart. More than Ulquiorra would, anyway." She eyed Soifon again, and the woman paused in petting her. "If I didn't know better, I'd think Ggio had feelings for you."
"What? He's a Hollow, he doesn't have a heart," Soifon muttered.
Yoruichi just twitched her tail in Ulquiorra's direction. "Apparently you don't need a heart to care about someone. Have you seen Emospada react to Inoue Orihime's name whenever he hears it? That's living proof. But he's accepted Orihime-chan's taken." The cat's expression became nothing short of cheeky now. "But you're still free, so Ggio at least has a chance."
"Oh, shut up," Soifon said, a little too loudly, as both Grimmjow and Ulquiorra stared at them, and even Kisuke popped his head out from behind the wall to stare at her confusedly.