Chapter 56: Derailed
A/N: Sorry this took so long. My sister came over for a few days so I didn't really get much time to write. Things happen.
Down the tunnel I went. Played chicken with a train to get to the other side again. Went up through the hole in the ceiling again. Another small group of cats tried to stop me, but I took them out with ease.
I stopped where there was originally a puddle of orange stuff, and surprisingly it was still there. It was like they had no janitors... well, if I were a janitor I wouldn't wanna work here either.
I didn't want to risk staining my sweater, so I smeared some of the grease around with my shoe. I knew the Rumbi would probably clean it all up, but I didn't wanna take any chances.
It did the trick anyway, the Rumbi came rushing over to my location and bounced me up. I didn't stop afterward, I kept running through the train tracks, hopped up to a ledge, and saw many more cats waiting for me, like five.
"Keep running, you two. You're not home yet!"
"Yeah, keep running, coward!" A cat yelled. I then turned around to see a LOT of cats rushing through to get to me. There were probably like twenty or more flooding through into the room and jumping on top of the train to get to me.
"Oh, dear God," I muttered, then barged through the cats ahead of me into the vent.
I saw that there was an opened vent in the floor next to us, and assumed it was the escape tunnel.
I quickly checked for the kid, and saw her weaving her way between the trains. She hopped down the escape chute and so did I.
When I landed, I saw the kid quickly gathering some things around.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
She quickly made a barricade, blocking any chances of the cats following us.
She stopped and took a quick sigh of relief, before turning to face me.
"I'm glad you're okay," She said, then looked right at me and cringed.
"What?" I asked.
"Wh-what happened?!" She shouted, pointing at my eye.
Oh.
"I didn't lose my eye, kid. We're good," I said.
"But what happened? Tell me everything!" She shouted.
I heard thumping coming from the barricade.
"Maybe when we get out of this stupid place," I suggested.
She nodded and we ran. We fell down between two train tracks and ran forward into a larger room with no floor. We jumped and dove before a train to land on another train, then turned around and quickly jumped on the train we originally dodged and jumped across to a ledge.
The path ahead was obstructed by some wood with a glowing yellow center.
I saw some graffiti on the wall in front of us, which showed a cat and the words 'WE SEE YOU'.
"Well that's reassuring," I muttered to myself.
I heard a bang, and the path was cleared. We jumped down and hopped on top of another train. We had to jump around a sign, which was odd as you wouldn't expect people to be down here often... but it didn't matter at the moment.
We had to hop over another small sign, then we saw another train appear from below that we had to hop onto or else we would've collided into a massive sign.
Instead, the kid activated her Dweller Mask, causing a purple wall in front of us to vanish.
Then we had to hop back onto the original train, then we hopped over some small signs and hopped onto the other train in the same jump, landing just underneath an overlooming sign, then hopped back onto the original train to dodge yet another giant sign,then hopped through a purple wall onto the second train.
We then hopped over a few more tiny signs and landed on the other side.
"Phew... what a workout," I muttered.
Up ahead was another situation where we'd have to play chicken with a train, except there weren't any places to hide between where we needed to go and where we were. It'd be very tight timing.
"And it ain't gonna be getting any easier, is it?" I grumbled.
The kid giggled, donning her Time Stop Hat.
"Relax," She said. A train passed, then she grabbed my hand.
An instant later, I was left completely disoriented, tripped, and faceplanted into the floor.
With a groan, I got up to see that we were on the other side. Seemed like the kid slowed down time and pulled me along with her to the other side.
"Ah," I said, "Well, I'm happy that didn't kill me. I guess that's another convenient difference between this world and mine."
She nodded and we walked into the next room, full of, you guessed it, train tracks everywhere.
We were able to climb on top of one train, then jump to the next and the next and make it to the top of the room easily.
We then came at what seemed to be a dead end. There were many powered-off cat rumbis around and a puddle of goop in the center, as well as a cat rumbi poking around beneath a grate in the floor.
"I think we both know what has to happen here," I said, looking upward. Sure enough, large gap in the ceiling.
The kid quickly lured the rumbi out and we hopped on top of it, then dove toward a cat rumbi on a wall and got bounced up higher.
There were six cats waiting for us.
I quickly clenched my baton, but they didn't react. They noticed us, surely, but they just didn't seem to care. Suspicious, given the large bounty we both had.
"I don't trust this," I told the kid.
"The escape elevator's right there. Let's just go before they can do anything," She said, "No reason to fight anyone if they aren't in our way."
"Fine," I grumbled, and we walked toward the elevator.
It opened before us, and it was occupied.
The Empress sat there with a huge, evil grin.
I took a defensive stance, and I saw the kid fall down in surprise.
"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in," The Empress said calmly.
We both stepped backward, but we bumped into something. I turned around and saw that the cats were blocking our exit. We were surrounded.
"This ain't good," I muttered to myself.
"Step inside, won't you?" She asked calmly.
Well, it wasn't like we really had a choice.
I sighed and stepped inside, resting on the opposite corner of the Empress, whereas the kid walked up right next to her.
The door closed, and the elevator began to move. We were sealed in.
"Did you think you'd get out? Both of you?" She asked, then looked at me. "I will be honest, how you managed to break out of my confines is quite impressive. Too bad it only postponed the inevitable, hm?"
I shrugged my shoulders.
"And you," She said, turning to the kid, "Did you think you were smart, little girl? That you could outsmart me, the Empress, and my minions?"
She gave a timid look that said "Kinda"
Empress shook her head disappointedly. "I thought I could trust you two. It's so rare I make a bad investment," She grumbled.
She fumed. I could see her anger building again, and with it I began to get nervous.
"That you'd be so greedy as to steal from me... so bold, for someone so small..." She growled toward the kid, then looked straight at me. "and someone so pathetic."
I frowned.
Pathetic? Where'd she get that from?
She then scratched her head.
"All my fault, really. I should have a better eye for who I elevate," She noted to herself, then shook her head slowly. "You two could have been important people here one day. I was even considering making you my second-in-commands. But you've disappointed me..."
I slowly put my hand on my baton.
"And it's time I cash out."
I braced myself for anything, but then the elevator stopped and the doors opened. I turned around to see two police officers stepping inside. It was getting pretty cramped in this elevator now, but I wasn't complaining.
I don't think there ever could've been better timing in the history of the entire multiverse. Some god, somewhere, was smiling down upon us. Surely.
I looked back at the Empress, and I saw a look on her face that would've made me burst out laughing if the situation wasn't so tense: Surprise and anxiety.
"Oh! Officers," She greeted, failing to keep the anxiety out of her voice. She then rapidly began pressing a button on the elevator wall. "How... convenient. I was just about to get out!"
She then leaned over and whispered something in my ear: "They're a lot harder to get rid of than you are."
It took all my willpower to not burst out laughing. The elevator opened again, and the Empress bolted out of the elevator, but quickly stopped and looked back, giving us both death glares.
"We'll meet again, coward!" She shouted before running away.
The door closed again, and the four of us waited in silence for a minute before the elevator opened again and one of the officers stepped out.
The other officer then turned to us.
"Hey, you two. Don't worry, I'm on the... uh... jewelry store payroll," They explained.
... Wait, this cat was with the Empress?
"... Did something happen while I was upstairs? The boss looked mad." They asked awkwardly.
So they must not have known about the whole... well... yeah.
I decided to play dumb, and merely threw my arms up in an "I have no idea" gesture.
"Anyway, I had something to give her, but I couldn't make the trade with my partner here," The cat said, motioning beside them, "I know she's had you two tracking them down, so take care of it for me."
He then handed me a Time Piece.
"Yep, we'll make sure this gets put where it should be," I said.
The cat nodded.
"Are you getting out for the day?" They asked.
"Yeah, we finished up and we're heading home for now," I lied, "Does this elevator go outside of the Metro?"
The cat nodded.
"Here, let me help you with that," They said, then walked over to the panel of buttons on the wall and hit one of the buttons. The elevator began to move again.
"Thanks," I said.
"... Sooo... you have no idea why the boss was so upset?" They asked.
"Nope. Not a clue. Hopefully she calms down by the time we return," I muttered, "An angry Empress is not something anyone wants to deal with."
The policecat laughed.
"Isn't that the truth?" They muttered.
The elevator doors opened, revealing the outside world.
"Well, here's your stop," They said.
"Thanks," I said, and we stepped out, "I hope everything turns out alright."
"... O-kay, thanks... you too," They said confusedly, then waved as the elevator doors closed.
I took the biggest sigh of relief to ever be sighed.
"I thought we were done for," I muttered, then gave the Time Piece to the kid. "Let's go back to the ship before anything else happens."
"Don't need to say that again," The kid said, and so we did.
We were back in the storage room. Back in the spaceship. And we wouldn't ever have to return to that damn metro ever again.
We returned to the main hub and the kid opened the vault, dumping all nine Time Pieces back where they belonged.
I looked at the giant monitor, which ticked up to say 45/56.
We were like 80% done.
"Okay!" She shouted enthusiastically , "Now that we're back, you have to tell me what happened after Empress took you."
I chuckled.
"Well. Here's basically what happened," I began, "She took me to this surveillance room so she could watch you on the cameras and interrogate me at the same time. I didn't tell her anything. She even threatened to kill me, and I still didn't back down."
That seemed to surprise her.
"Why?" She asked.
I shook my head.
"She put you in danger. There was ABSOLUTELY no way I was going to help someone trying to get you killed. Never," I explained, "But... she had to leave shortly after, I guess to harrass you, and I was left alone, so I used the Shadow Badge to escape. I then had to beat up those two morons who kept taking the Time Pieces from us as they were in my way, then I got back to the main hub and talked to the information guy."
"Oh, yeah! They told me to get to the Bluefin Tunnel to escape!" She said happily.
"He said the same thing to me. Everyone was going after you, so I managed to get to the Bluefin Tunnel easily. But here's where the fun part begins," I said.
"What?" She asked.
"Well... when I went down into the tunnel, three cats were waiting for me just as the Empress put a bounty on my head as well. I took out two of them easily, but the third one, well..." I muttered, "He was some kind of warrior. He told me I was soft, and told me to 'show him my fighting spirit'."
"Weird thing for an enemy to say," She said.
"He came after me with martial arts, kunais, and even a freaking katana 'just' to see what I was made of. I managed to beat him though, and he gave me this cool eyepatch in respect to my strength," I explained, "Seemed like a cool guy though. He did give me that nasty scratch across my eye though."
She smiled. "I think it makes you look tough!" She said, "People will take one look at you and know instantly not to mess with you!"
I smirked, then took a deep breath.
"Well? What do we do now?" I asked.
"It's been awhile..." She said.
"Since?" I questioned.
"Since I beat you at racing!" She shouted.
I laughed.
"Pretty sure I won that time, kiddo," I teased, grabbing her hat and giving her a light noogie on the top of the head.
"Hey!" She shouted, grabbing her hat back, "Well, if you're so sure about that, let's race again!"
I laughed again.
"With pleasure."
A/N: So that's the end of Nyakuza Metro. Next up, the spaceship Time Rifts, and a final return to the Metro for a certain Time Rift. An interesting encounter is sure to follow.
Review time:
Fighter33000: Glad you liked it. I figured that just climbing through the Bluefin Tunnel would be too boring for the Finale, so what better than a fight against an anime cat to jazz it up? Heh. Thanks for the feedback.
EmacSane: Trust me, I was just as amazed when I found out. If you search up 'Gellot A Hat In Time' on youtube, you should be able to find his video about the fight. Although it's not quite like what I made it into. Thanks for the review.
Well, that's all for now. Seeya next chapter, folks.
