Tekken - Rebellion of Fury

Chapter 36 Heat Haze

Alisa hated this.

She hated Jin. She hated being forced to do his bidding against her wish.

She hated herself the most for trying to kill Bryan, but she couldn't do anything to stop herself.

She hated it all.

Sitting in a cool car as it drove through the middle eastern village, Alisa observed Zaibatsu soldiers rounding up villagers all around the large town. While Alisa was not privy to any information herself, it was impossible NOT to overhear something being said.

Jin banked EVERYTHING on whatever he was looking for, and it was right here in this dessert. Unfortunately they had difficulties finding it and needed someone to show them the way.

There was a pathfinder in the village, the guardian of whatever he was looking for, but she had so far evaded all attempts of capture.

Alisa hoped Jin failed horribly.

Looking over and across from herself, Jin sat silently gazing out the window.

Allowing herself a moment of self indulgence, Alisa watched him, imagining how good it would feel to rip his head from his shoulders.

"What?", Jin suddenly muttered.

Blinking in confusion, Alisa wanted to sink into her seat as Jin fixed her with a cold glare.

"Is there something you wish to say?"

Alisa wanted to scowl at him, but whatever restraints she had in her programming had blocked out much of her facial muscle control.

"No."

If there was one thing Bryan had taught her, it was that words were useless. She wanted to kill Jin, not speak with him.

"Then remove your eyes from me."

Alisa wanted to keep looking at him, if only just to anger Jin, but her programming forced her to do his bidding.

She hated it.

Fixing her stare back out the window, Alisa couldn't help but give a parting comment.

"You know he will come for me, right?"

At Alisa's toneless words, Jin regarded her with an apathetic stare.

"Hm...?"

"He will come for me. Bryan WILL come for me.", Alisa muttered with some amount of satisfaction. "If only to kill me to prevent you from having me."

"You seem certain of that.", Jin droned and Alisa nodded.

"Yes. He will kill me and free me from my programming. Then, he is going to kill you."

"Considering his profile, id think he'd go his own way from now on."

"Perhaps that is what he usually would do, but you have slighted him in a way Bryan hates the most." Alisa smiled inwardly. "He will stop at nothing to kill you."

Jin fell silent for a moment and Alisa felt satisfaction from shutting him up. She wanted to frown however when Jin simply chuckled.

"Well, its a good thing i still have you around then. When the time comes, you will either kill him or weaken him before he kills you. Either way, it will work out in my favor."

Alisa shut her mouth, feeling a raging hatred build inside her.

She hoped with all of her being, that Bryan would free her of this nightmare.

"ETA to PNR, 5 minutes!"

Bryan blinked as the radio buzzed in his ear, barely hearing it over the loud noise of the helicopter they sat in.

Casting a glance out the window, there was just seawater as far as his eye could see.

PNR, 'point of no return', if Bryan remembered the military terminology correctly.

After the encounter in Gargoyle's Perch, Bryan and Raven had linked up with Lars and his forces. Initially suspicions of Raven and his organization's intentions, he quickly warmed up to him with some explanations.

Raven had provided them with a destination which he apparently knew Jin would be near. It was a blank spot on the map, out in the middle of nowhere in the dessert somewhere in the middle east. There was no name to the place and Raven did not care to provide one, but he assured them it was there they would have to go. After a quick discussion about the preparations and the coordinates, they were off quickly and underway.

Unfortunately, Lars and his rebel forces had been exhausted after the latest battle and they needed to account for their casualties. In response, Lars left his forces to gather themselves while sending himself, Bryan and Raven along with a helicopter to see things through, while a small expeditionary force would follow the next day.

Rubbing his temples, Bryan noted they had sat in the helicopter for many, many hours and he seriously needed to stand up soon.

Looking to his side, Lars sat in his combat suit, resting in his seat while Raven did the same which Bryan had done a second ago; calmly observing the sea outside.

Bryan studied Raven for a moment before frowning and turning his attention elsewhere. He was still suspicious, even more considering how little information they had been provided by him. They had a destination and nothing else. Either Raven did not know anything more himself, or he was deliberately withholding vital information.

They didn't even know what they were coming to, be it just sand or armed forces.

Lee Chaolan, after a discreet phone call when nobody else were close, had blessed him in his actions, allowing him to continue going after Jin. While presenting himself with a very calm and benevolent mask, Bryan dreaded the moment he came back to be used for whatever Lee decided. Nobody gets to where Lee was without stepping over and using people around you.

Bryan actually held a tiny hope that whatever happened over the next few days would make him forever removed from Lee's reach. It was a morbid thought, but there it was.

A couple of more hours passed until the pilot in front suddenly yelled over the radio, warning them of the continent creeping up in the horizon.

Looking out the window in curiosity, Bryan gave a deadpanned stare as there seemed to be nothing but sand as far as the eye could see.

"How far away are we from the coordinates?"

One of the pilots looked over his instruments for a short moment before clearing his voice.

"10-15 minutes, its just a bit further inland."

Bryan sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, before frowning.

Alisa.

If Raven was good on his information and Jin would be here, chances were Alisa would be close.

He dreadfully anticipated the moment. While he had once decided to kill the naive young girl after he was done with her, Alisa had wormed her way into his affection and the thought of her dead now sickened and pained him. The only thing which kept him focused towards her end was the small amount of sympathy he had for her.

He knew what it was like to be shackled to someone else's ambitions without regard for oneself. He would never let her suffer such an existence if he could in any way help it.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Bryan bumped his elbow into Lars, waking him into a sputtering confusion.

"Wake up princess, we're there in any moment now.",Bryan muttered with a scowl as Lars nodded.

Minutes passed in tense silence as Bryan, Lars and Raven went over their equipment one last time as they closed in on their destination.

After another couple of minutes, one of the pilots leaned forward in his seat.

"Sir, i think you should see this!"

Upon hearing the pilots call over the radio, Lars leaned forward to gaze out the front window, Bryan and Raven leaning forward to see as well right after him.

"A town...?", Raven murmured, putting a frown on Bryan's face as he confirmed Bryan's former theory on Raven's lack of knowledge.

"A big one by the looks of it.", Lars muttered thoughtfully, scratching his chin. "Put us down a click away from the outskirts so we can get a feel for-"

"MISSILE!", the co-pilot suddenly screamed out.

Swerving the helicopter to the side, Bryan, Lars and Raven was thrown back into their seats where they quickly threw on their safety belts before they'd get thrown about inside.

Some tense seconds followed as the helicopter made evasive maneuvers and Bryan tried looking out the windows to see if he could see anything at all.

A loud bang rang out through the helicopter, shaking everyone about harshly in their seats, before Bryan eerily felt the pull of gravity as the helicopter violently began spinning into a descent.

"We're going down! I repeat, we're going down! Brace!"

Lars and Raven groaned in their seats, clamming onto their seats in a vain attempt to counter the gravitational forces which pulled at their bodies.

As his body was a bit more durable, Bryan simply held onto a railing above with one hand while sitting still in irritated contemplation.

Obviously, the Zaibatsu were already here and they were now already spotted so early on in their infiltration. Bryan already knew he could survive sitting in the helicopter as it crashed, but Lars and Raven...?

"Raven.", Bryan growled, giving the man a glare as he looked back at him in response. "Would you be able to get yourself and Lars down to the ground safely from the air?"

Bryan had no idea about his skills apart from what little he had seen, but he hoped he had something up his sleeve or Bryan would go on by himself if he had to.

Seeing a nod from Raven, Bryan shifted his seated position sideways and inwards into the helicopter, before heaving his lower body towards the door on the opposite side. His foot slammed into the door, the metal briefly protesting before its was ripped off its hinges and sent out into the air.

"What about you!?", Lars screamed out through the howling winds and engines as he and Raven unbuckled themselves, preparing to jump.

"Il be fine.", Bryan scoffed, seating himself as comfortably as he could in his seat. "We will link up later. Now fuck off."

Nodding, Raven grasped around Lars's body with both arms before jumping out of the airplane with a burst of speed. Since the helicopter was spinning, Bryan lost sight of them immediately as the resistance of the wind threw them in a different direction than which the helicopter was headed.

Looking over to the pilots, Bryan gave them a slightly impressed look as they were quiet despite the turn of events. They probably knew they were going to die as the helicopter collided with the ground, but had at the very least decided to go with dignity.

Smirking, Bryan leaned down and grasped under his seat with his hands, pulling out a big, black metal encased box which he seated fondly in his lap.

It wouldn't do for the item he had requested of Lars to get lost in the crash. While he had more than enough other toys brought with himself to keep himself amused, one needed to treat themselves with something special every once in a while.

Casting a glance out the window, he noted the ground coming closer incredibly fast and frowned.

Closing his eyes, he knew this was going to hurt no matter his enhancements.

A minute after the crash, several Zaibatsu military grade vehicles pulled up a distance away from the burning wreck with several soldiers leaving their vehicles with confidence as they inspected the wreck.

"No way anyone survived that.", one muttered as he came to a stop, the heat from the burning helicopter stopping him or anyone else from going any closer.

The commander stood for a moment longer, eyeing the hills around them with narrowed eyes before finally frowning.

"Alright, load up. Get 'Central' on comms, tell them we have a confirmed-"

A metallic groan suddenly interrupted everyone present as one of the helicopter doors was kicked off its hinged and away from the burning wreck.

Quickly forming a line in front of the wreck as they observed a leg draped in military boots and pants stick out of its side, they waited with surprised mutters, disbelievingly observing someone crawling out of the fires.

"Come out with your hands up!", the commander yelled as the figure rose, his lower body hidden in the fallen wreck and fire.

Bryan blinked as he observed the welcoming party with slight confusion, the concussion from the crash still having him slightly dazed.

Turning around to get a better count of the men surrounding him, the soldiers suddenly took a threatening step forward as they observed some large hunk of metal in Bryan's right hand, obscured by the fires around him.

"Sir, drop whatever is in your hands, and walk slowly out of the wreckage!", the commander continued warily. "You're out manned and outgunned. Come quietly and I'l ensure you get proper medical aid and POW treatment."

Bryan frowned at his words before chuckling slightly, shaking his head in his amusement.

Was that some sort of a bad joke?

"Outgunned?", Bryan giggled sinisterly. "Outgunned you say?"

Lifting his hand slowly, Bryan revealed what he held in his hand, mirthfully laughing as the soldiers took a step back.

"PUT THE GUN DOWN!"

"This.", Bryan began with a smile. "Is an M61 Vulcan minigun.", Bryan trailed off before looking away from the enormous gun in his hand, scowling darkly at the soldier at his front. "20 millimeter, capable of firing 6000 rounds a minute."

As Bryan leveled the gun forward at the soldiers, the commander screamed for his men to open fire.

"I am far from outgunned, assholes."

Ignoring the hail of gunfire which pelted away at his skin, Bryan revved up the minigun turret before finally pulling the trigger.

Almost sounding like an extremely loud chainsaw, bullets cut like a blade in the distance as Bryan's enhanced targeting vision easily kept track of the soldiers.

The first one he aimed for was shredded into a cloud of guts and blood, the next simply bisected by the middle by the gunfire as Bryan swiped the aim horizontally for the rest of the soldiers.

Grinning like a madman as the bullet wire from the big backpack on his back kept feeding his minigun, Bryan simply turned slowly while cutting down soldier by soldier in a shroud of blood and guts.

Their vehicles stood no chance, their commander dying in a burst of fire as Bryan's bullets cut deep into the armored vehicle, one of the tracer rounds igniting the fuel tank in a big explosion.

After a couple of more seconds, the screams died down and Bryan released his finger from the trigger, letting the turret whir to a still as he gazed appreciatively at the scenery around himself.

"...I fucking love this gun...", Bryan muttered with an appreciative glance at the mingun in his hand. "If Lars asks for this back, he can go shit on a cat."

Feeling better as the concussion from the crash had faded from his head, Bryan began to walk with determination towards the town.

Jin Kazama and Alisa were next.