Neon Genesis Goonvangelion Book 3: Pointless Kombat
Chapter 7: Paging Escher... / The Infinite Moron
Jared blinked.
He saw nothing. He swung his arms, and came in contact with nothing. No walls confining him; no previously unseen Evangelion pilots slamming into his fists. He heard no sounds, not even that of his own breathing or heart beating. He didn't feel weightless, but he also did not feel an up or a down.
He spared a thought to why the Ninja Vanish maneuver had never done this before. The slowly-growing sense of panic didn't distract him or slow his rational thought process to a crawl. In fact, the panic drove him to think more quickly and more clearly. He could be dying of something he could not see or taste or feel and may only have seconds to stave off the reaper for another day. Before...
His foot hit something, and the sense of motion arrived a split-second later. In a rampaging cacophony of light and sound, he fell up and down and every possible sideways at the same time. The sensation itself stretched time to the breaking point and he was falling for an instant and a hundred years at once. He was still moving and he was laying on cold ground, the taste of old car tire stinging his tongue.
Reflexes honed in a thousand battles rolled him to his feet even as gravity and his inner ear had a knock-down drag out match that threatened to tear his lunch from his stomach. He blotted out the sense of motion as his eyes worked for the moment, and forced his fists into a crude guard while he took in his surroundings.
The view stoked his panic.
He stood in the middle of an empty parking lot, before a convenience store that frequent special appearances in his nightmares. Gravel-clad snow piles framed the lot, snow piles he could draw from memory alone. The pale ghost of a winter dystopia lay beyond. Dense clouds choked the sun out of the sky. Oh yes, and a younger version of himself strode across the lot and entered the convenience store without a care in the world.
Inner ear and gravity had reached a truce, but his lunch wanted out anyway. Gritting his teeth, Jared closed his eyes carefully, fearfully, and counted slowly to ten. When he opened his eyes again, the convenience store, the parking lot, the snow piles, and the blighted winter landscape remained.
"Oh no..."
He pinched his arm-hard-and slapped his face.
"No no no no... NO."
Feeling as coordinated as an animated corpse, Jared strode to the door and opened it silently. An old man closely resembling a shaved gorilla manned the register while Younger Jared looked at the fridge at the back of the store. The old man's eyes were entirely hidden behind bushy eyebrows that had their own zip code, yet he had the air of someone who watched every corner of the store with the intensity of a small business owner on their last dime.
Jared crouched next to the ATM and watched a pair of unremarkable young men enter the store. They moved in utter silence, despite wearing bulky coats and heavy boots.
The goon watched like a man counting his last heartbeats as the pair started robbing the store. While the idiots were shouting at the gorilla dude, Jared grabbed at a nearby candy bar, only to have his hand pass through the entire display. "The fuck?" No-one in the store appeared to hear him.
Thoughtful, he watched the youthful Jared throw a can of chili without beans at one of the robbers, instigating a short but bloody fight. He remembered every blow and awkward dodge with ease; the sudden reveal of the robbers being singularly unskilled ninja; the haphazard way he killed one man with the guy's own sword and when the store owner had put an end to the mess with a shotgun, then pulled out his phone and made a call that changed the course of Jared's history.
The shaved gorilla was on hold, looking at younger Jared. "You from the local college?"
Younger Jared stared at the man as if trying to discern whether he was an alien in a clever disguise, or just an ax-crazy murderer in a clever disguise.
"Hey!" The man snapped his fingers, causing Younger Jared to blink. "You from the local college? Basic Ninja program?"
"What? Ninja? I don't… no, I've only taken a few years of karate. And I think I'm going to sit down over there and throw up."
The man nodded and returned to the phone while younger Jared slumped against the counter and stared at the floor next to him. Face pale, breathing loud over the quiet phone conversation, looking up only when the man leaned over the counter to verify younger Jared was still conscious. "You don't okay?"
Younger Jared glanced at one of the bodies, then closed his eyes. "I'm not doing any better..."
"What is going on here?" Jared wondered aloud, stepping carefully to the two bodies in the middle of the store.
"That is a question I wish to hear answered," Younger Jared said.
Jared froze. "That wasn't in the script." As he looked up, the store around him became less solid, suddenly more like a background painting than a real place, and slid downward. His inner ear complained, and he caught a glimpse of two glowing orbs that he could only describe as sinister peering into his soul.
With a loud 'pop' he was staring at a beige wall tinted with a hint of pink. Just pink enough to induce nausea.
Next to him, the younger copy stared at the same wall with a shell-shocked expression the goon remembered too well from mirrors of long past. He looked around to confirm he stood in a dreadfully familiar hallway. He called that color vomit pink, once upon a time. Labeled doors dotted both walls with a few cheap institutional chairs between.
"Am I in Hell?" He wondered as a nearby door opened.
A tall man in a precisely tailored suit stepped out of the door with military precision in every movement. Following him was a distinguished older man with a thick grey beard who wore a white lab coat and a dark pair of sunglasses with round lenses fitted with dark plastic side guards. Suit had immaculately coiffed hair peppered with gray in that way that screamed 'experienced yet vigorous.' Obviously the man in charge with the million watt smile and the silver tongue. The next man put off a strong mad scientist vibe with a thin mist of white hair on his head and a scraggly white beard covering his face.
Compared to the older men, Younger Jared was a shrimp lost in a net. He stood respectfully and nervously shook hands with the pair.
"Waddell, I'm Richard Hare, director of the Ninja program here," said Suit. He gestured to the mad scientist. "This is Professor Professor, and he's agreed to sponsor you in our fine program."
Younger Jared nodded and looked relieved. "Thanks. Um, Professor...?" He stuck out his hand.
The man nodded, shaking the offered hand with enthusiasm. "Professor."
"Professor," Younger Jared deadpanned.
"Right," the man continued shaking the younger goon's hand.
"No offense, but I'm confused. You're Professor..." Younger Jared made a 'carry on' gesture, his other hand still caught up in the extended handshake.
"Professor. Right." The professor nodded, smoothly finishing the handshake as if everything were clear and settled.
"So, what's going on here?" Younger Jared asked.
Hare cleared his throat. "The ninja you killed in Mr. Estere's convenience store was of the Camina line. They're one of the six major ninja families in the Seattle area, and one of the clan hard-liners." Mr. Hare gave Professor a knowing look at this statement, and sighed. "They will not take this loss of face lightly."
"Ninja families? What loss of face?"
The older Jared sat in one of the Institutional Chairs while the Professor quickly outlined the basic clan structure enforced by the North American Ninja Alliance, the history of the organization, and how it interacted with the general public. Younger Jared was a walking corpse just for knowing ninja existed, but if he enrolled in the ninja program all of that magically went away. Of course, he might sign away his sanity in the process...
"Mr. Estere was a former ninja of the Dylan family. Retired, of course." Mr. Hare added, just as Younger Jared was really putting the pieces together.
"Naturally." The younger goon looked a little green around the gills.
The goon snorted and spoke aloud, although no-one appeared to hear him talk to himself. "I had this vision of retired ninja all over the place; delivering flowers, the mail, silently bussing tables… a lonely ninja under a moonlit bridge, coaxing a mournful dirge from a black saxophone..."
Younger Jared came back to the conversation. "I think I understand. So, being a student now, even though this happened before I was in the program… fixes this?"
"Being a student does exempt you from Blood Feuds, so yes," Professor added.
"Great," Younger Jared deadpanned. "When do we start?" Then he froze in place. Didn't flinch, didn't draw a breath.
"Um, nameless black void, what now?" Jared asked no-one in particular.
Younger Jared moved again, slowly turning to face the goon. Eyes glowing yellow and words tumbling out hap-hazardly, "The memories of this… training, do not exist."
"Classroom stuff." Jared said, holding the unnatural gaze with every ounce of willpower he could muster. "How to make smoke bombs, which arteries are easiest to hit and how to calculate-you know, I shouldn't be telling you about this stuff."
"You never spoke with this one again?" Younger Jared pointed at Professor like a badly animated puppet.
"There were other conversations." Jared cleared his throat. "Professor was unhappy with the state of the Alliance. He thought the lack of rules in fact lead to this kind of problem. He… wanted to reform NANA, just… without another war."
The thing which had commandeered Younger Jared's body watched him with an utterly alien gaze for several eternal moments, then casually reached out and ripped apart reality itself.
Jared found himself standing before a kiosk, unable to command his body to move. His voice, or rather a younger version of it, spoke. He was powerless to stop it. "C'mon... haven't I sacrificed enough chickens? Or whatever you fucking need to give me..." He paused as a mysterious clunk sounded from the infernal contraption. The screen flickered. "Yes... come forth, my class schedule!"
The few students passing by gave him a wide berth as he posed demandingly before the machine. It beeped, clanked, whirred, and threw up an error message.
"FUCK!" He switched to a flawless British accent. "Give me your bounty, bellowing machine of chaos! I care naught for these beeps and errors," He kicked the machine. "Relinquish mine schedule!"
A laser turret popped out of the top of the machine. Students around Jared scattered, while a kunai slammed into the gun. Jared frowned, checking to make sure his own kunai was still in his hand ready for launch. His face fell, and he turned slowly, ready for a fight.
A curvy blonde girl waved at him, clearly presenting herself as non-threatening. After last week's atrocious cold snap, she clearly felt the warmer weather deserved a celebration; thus she was clad in a skirt and thin sweater that was honored to be in her presence.
It took Jared two tries to put his eyeballs back in his head, roll up his tongue, pick his jaw up off of the floor, and adjust his jacket to properly hide his holstered kunai. Failing utterly to look cool, he addressed the bombshell. "So…"
"I'm your campus orientation specialist." She walked past him. "For your information, these things can be dangerous." She poked at the screen a few times and the printer growled threateningly but spit out an almost legible class schedule.
"I know entirely too much about danger."
"Indeed." She stood up straight and squared her shoulders before gracing Jared with a thousand watt smile. A random female student in the background walked into a support column while the blonde offered a hand to Jared. "Melanie Dylan."
"Pleased to meet you," said Jared, shaking hands with the girl.
She released his hand, grabbed the schedule, and gestured to the main doors. "My partner in crime is waiting for us."
"There's more of you?" Jared asked, eyes widening.
"There's a whole department of COS's. Between the two of us, we're half of it."
Jared frowned as they passed through the doors. "The COS being…"
A tall girl with skin the color of chocolate answered him from the steps. "The Campus Orientation Squad. Only Melanie uses that stupid name."
The blonde stuck her tongue out at the black girl as she looped her arm in Jared's. "Jared, this is Cherryl Coughen."
Jared offered his hand. "Charmed."
She shook his hand with authority. "I don't think so. You're Jared Waddell, the most infamous freshman in a century."
Jared froze in the middle of the steps, nearly yanking Melanie off of her feet. "I'm what?"
Cherryl sighed. "He's a little slow."
Melanie looked at Jared like the young man was a crocodile wearing human skin. She tugged experimentally at his arm. "He just started."
"Started what, freaking people out?"
Melanie pouted. "Okay, how did you do that?"
"What? Do what? Will someone please speak English!"
The blond fixed Jared's blue eyes with her brilliant green orbs. "You killed two Basic Ninja graduates with no training or special weapons."
"I didn't kill them! Jerry had a friggin shotgun!" He looked at the numerous students paying him absolutely no attention and lowered his voice. "I defended myself-barely-and as a result of that I have a target on my back. I know almost nothing about ninja affairs and… what is it?"
Melanie lowered her hand. "That thing you just did, when you stopped walking, you-"
"You moved to shift your stance to pull me along, I saw that coming and adjusted my center of gravity so you would be pulled to a halt without disrupting your balance. Anyway, I'm not some kind of savant… what is this time?"
Melanie lowered her hand again. "How could you tell I was shifting my stance?"
"I couldn't take my eyes off of you." Missing her blush, Jared gestured at her for a second, then put his hands on her hips. "You moved your hips, kind of like this. I notice these things-" He looked down at Melanie's hand on his chest. "-and… I…"
"Ahem."
Melanie and Jared jerked their hands off of each other.
"So, he's cute, and I can see you want to fuck him right here in front of the admin building-"
"Cherryl!"
"-but maybe not until Prank Week, m'kay? We've got to give him The Tour and The Lecture, and-"
"Yes!" Melanie declared, taking Jared's arm again. "This way, freshman!"
"There's a tour?" Jared muttered.
"There's The Tour," Cherryl corrected him.
"Right, The Tour."
Jared stumbled and fell as the memory world froze again and he had his own 'body' to control. He rolled into a sitting position on the grass and looked at the sunny sky. "Now what?"
Younger Jared moved to stand before him, eyes glowing yellow again. "Your feelings towards these two?"
Jared kept his gaze on the grass. "What of them?"
The Angel waved its hand and they were in a classroom. Jared and Melanie sat at a table making what was recognizable as a smoke bomb. It waved its hand again and the classroom melted into a fast food joint where Younger Jared, Melanie, and Cherryl were having a bite to eat.
Jared decided that an image of a past self, him, and an Angel wearing his face were two Jareds too many. This was giving him a serious headache. "Are you done yet?"
"Your memories are incomplete."
"Then asking me to fill in the missing bits is kinda fucking pointless, isn't it?"
"No memory is perfect, but time grants... insight."
The Angel rearranged bits of the scene to reveal Younger Jared and and a sleazy man about his age in a cheap suit fighting. The cheap suit used a katana and Jared opted for a bit of pipe and fought defensively.
Jared watched the duel for a moment. "That's Luke. Did Heaven smile on me and let me forget about that asshole?"
The two froze in a clash of blade and tube, and Younger Jared turned his head to look at the goon. "But why are you fighting?"
"In the beginning, he was really just an insecure asshole. He tried to pick on the famous freshman, but we both refused to throw the first kunai. Later, he got paid to make the first move. Hence," He gestured at the scene. "Our first real fight. Luke was here to feel me out under someone's orders."
"Whose orders?"
"Theordore Dylan."
The Angel nodded black obelisks rained down around them, merging together in the span of a single heartbeat and forming a stuffy study that seemed positively crammed to bursting while containing only Younger Jared, a massive desk, and a huge bearded man in an expensive suit. Jared felt the black face mask of his profession twitch nervously in his left hand as the cold green eyes of Theodore Dylan bore down upon him like the headlights of an oncoming truck.
"Mr. Waddell, so good to finally see you in the uniform."
"Um, is that come-on, sir?"
"Ha ha! Waddell, you are too precious."
"Getting some mixed messages here, sir."
"Right. I have yet to speak with Professor Professor about your progress, but my daughter has expressed great confidence in your ability to pass the coming exams. What about you? Do you think you'll do well?"
"I was planning to survive them, sir."
Mr. Dylan smiled, like he'd just found a cockroach in his lunch and knew just how he wanted to squish it. "That would be passing them, wouldn't it?"
Jared felt his face change to an uncomfortable smile. "I believe that's the bare minimum sir."
"Hah! You're an ambitious one. The bare minimum... Let me be straight with you, boy. I know what Professor is up to."
Hopeful, Jared leaned slightly forward. "You do?" He pulled a small notebook out of somewhere and snatched the pencil from behind his ear.
"He's told you, hasn't he?" Dylan plowed on without waiting for an answer. The speech he'd been crafting for months-if not years-now had an outlet. "He plans to destroy the ninja world; erase the great families! Sweep us aside in a wave of blood and fire and replace us with a council of clueless idiots that will drive the surviving ninja out of the business!"
Scribbling with the enthusiasm of a conspiracy theorist in the lizardmen lair, "Golly sir, that sounds needlessly violent."
Mr. Dylan looked momentarily confused before narrowing his eyes at Jared again. "It is! The ninja families know what they're doing. We haven't held the ninja world together in the shadows for more than two hundred years by sitting on our thumbs and talking openly about our business!"
"Definitely not, sir!"
"The Council's job is the reign in the idiot politicians that are trying to drive this country into the ground! Keep them out of our hair!" Mr. Dylan leaned forward, eyes blazing, Fists of Righteousness clenched. "Remind them of who ensures order. If the lumbering idiots in the capital knew how many drug dealers we silenced, or how many communist we convinced to stay out of their field, they would cry foul! They would insist we stop, and then… chaos. Complete and utter chaos. The governments of the world are rotten through. Some days I do wonder if it would be best to stop holding their hands and just let the whole mess collapse under its own weight…" In a whisper, "But no. We actually have morals. We actually understand responsibility. We're out there in the muck and the blood, doing the right thing day after day, for only a meager paycheck and the knowledge that without ninja, civilization would crumble."
The writing slowed. Some of this was not new information. "Gosh sir, that sounds like a real burden."
"It is. Even worse that such a burden demands that I work against a longtime friend. No, Professor's dream of a more powerful North American Ninja Alliance will only bring us ruin, to say nothing of the mess the Ninja Master would make. I dare say the day will come when he rides upon the dogs of war to destroy America again. The day we smash the Alliance, that will be a blood day indeed." Mr. Dylan locked a mad gaze on Younger Jared. "You'll be with us then, won't you? You'll help stand against him."
Jared put away the notebook. "Sir, I'll take one look at that bastard and I'll do the right thing, I guarantee it!"
Mr. Dylan noded, made himself again comfortable in his Huge Chair, and sprouted a small smile. The stuffy lighting in the room actually improved. "So, what's this I hear about you dating my daughter?"
"Rumor and hearsay, sir."
"Of course, she definitely didn't send me two messenger pigeons about it."
"I heard nothing about messenger pigeons, sir."
"Keep it that way. Don't want another clan using your feelings for her as leverage."
"Golly, it would take a real monster to do that, sir."
"A monster indeed, Waddell." Mr. Dylan's jaw fractured, teeth drawn into a black maw like dust bunnies sucked into a vacuum cleaner. In seconds, the whole room was gone, and Jared felt himself standing in a black void.
"Thanks for the gravity, asshole."
The void replied, "You have only two memories of meeting Theodore Dylan. Why?"
"Those were the only two that matter."
"Truth. How do you speak the truth?"
"It's pretty easy, I can probably show you how. But, you have to be able to defend yourself when people hear the truth instead of what they want to hear and start trying to kill you."
"That is not an inevitable consequence."
An ugly couch swooped in from somewhere and caught Jared behind the knees. He sat, rather faster than he wanted, and the couch zoomed towards something at frightening speed.
The couch came to an abrupt halt in a distinctly ugly room. Or, the room appeared to approach him at the speed of the couch. Either way, he was in the room with the sensation of motion leaving his inner ear useless for a handful of seconds.
Younger Jared and Melanie did not appear to notice the rapid shift in location, nor Older Jared's existence. Both remained seated at the tiny apartment's only table, wearing casual clothes and pouring over a stack of textbooks.
Melanie finished writing in a notebook and flipped to a new page. "So? Spill."
Younger Jared looked up from his notes. "About the meeting with your dad?"
"Yeah." She gestured for him to continue.
Older Jared scanned the couch. The ninja outfit was thrown carelessly over the back. Had it been there seconds ago, when this was the Couch of Space and Time?
"He sounded like a desperate man, clinging to old ideals that didn't work when they were brand-new and likely to lead him and his kind to ruin if applied in the modern era. I made an effort to be polite, but it's clear that our truce is a temporary one and crafted out of necessity. We-" Upon seeing Melanie's worried look, he stopped, glanced around the apartment, and coughed discreetly into his hand. "What's wrong?"
"He didn't seem that upset about us having a relationship."
"What? He wasn't upset about that at all! I'm surprised he's not mentally making a guest list for the wedding."
"Um… yeah. So, what this about a truce of necessity?"
"Oh. That. Yeah, your dad is really stuck on clan power and abolishing NANA if the clans get pushed around too much."
Younger Jared kept his eyes carefully pinned to his textbook, and missed several dozen seconds of Melanie picking her jaw up off of the table and failing to form a single word. When she finally found her voice, Younger Jared actually jumped. "He's an idiot!"
"He's from a different generation-"
"An old idiot then! I swear..." Melanie slammed her textbook shut and took a breath to ease her anger. "He knows so little about the history surrounding the Alliance, and he's ignorant of the politics that operate outside of it. He's going to start a damn war…"
"Well, I wouldn't say that."
"You didn't have to. I know he let it slip to you."
"Melanie, all fathers of teenage girls have this, this face they have to put on. They-"
"I am not stupid, Jared." She reached across the table and took his hand. "My father and I have… an understanding. He's not playing subtle games of intimidation-"
"That rant was not subtle. I was there. I took notes."
"Okay, he's not playing any games of intimidation. Did he sound like he was threatening you?"
"Well…"
"Threatening you directly, not implicitly."
"No."
"That wasn't an overprotective father act. We have an understanding, and I know about his occasional rants about the Alliance. I live in the same house, remember?"
"Yeah."
"We're on the same side, babe. You, me, Cherryl, Corey, Professor Professor… heck, half of the Dylan clan knows better than to try and defy the Ninja Master. It's not the Dylan clan versus you, it's a whole lot of us versus father and a few senile idiots that think they know better than the rest of us."
"Good, I'm-"
Cherryl burst into the room. "Okay, laundry's on. What'd I miss?"
Melanie slowly let go of Younger Jared's hand with a smile. "Political intrigue."
"Boring! I thought we were still on history." Cheryl slid into the only available chair and grabbed a textbook.
"Jared had a talk with my father yesterday."
Cherryl looked Younger Jared up and down. "He's in one piece…"
"You know my dad; gave him the whole spiel about the alliance being ancient history and the clans knowing better. I love him, but the man needs to grow up a bit."
"Agreed," Cherryl said with feeling. "Okay, anyone figure out-"
Jared stumbled, not accustomed to suddenly regaining control of his body in that particular manner. He tried to put his hand on the table covered in books but it felt less substantial than a cloud and he fell to the floor anyway. "What the fuck?!"
"This memory ends in an incongruent manner," said Younger Jared from the couch. His eyes were lit with an unearthly yellow glow.
Jared growled. "Don't answer my question by not answering my question, you-"
Robotically, "This is the incongruent segment."
The room was a smoky bar, with a younger Jared casually lining up a shot at one of the pool tables. Professor stood nearby in his usual lab coat and weird glasses, as if they he were about to give a lecture, except he held a pool cue. Younger Jared took his shot, after which Professor resumed their conversation about the current state of ninja politics in North America.
The goon turned around, and behind stood another younger copy of himself, but this one with glowing yellow eyes. "I see."
"Why is this memory incongruent?"
Jared shrugged. "It is import to what happened back then. I think I just fixate on it." Since he could recall every word of this exchange with perfect clarity, that might even sound true.
"I have tasted the thoughts of many of the corrupt children and no memory has this texture."
"Memory has texture?"
"Translation is inconsistent." Younger Jared, with a blank expression on his face, wandered past the goon to look more closely at the pair playing pool and talking about politics.
Professor was winding up his impassioned speech, getting ready to make the sale.
"How many memories have you tasted?"
The younger Jared thing said something, but the garbled response didn't have a sound. Jared blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"
"There is no… clear translation."
"You can't count?"
"Counting events requires a different perception of time than your kind."
Jared blinked. "You don't experience time like… wait, how are you even an Angel?"
"Your categorical title is mostly correct."
"You're Leliel."
"Entity definition, yes."
"I'd almost rather being listening to a lecture-" Jared spent a few seconds listening to where Professor current was in his speech. He was wrapping up the sell, shouting loudly in a bar of indistinct figures that barely seemed to take notice of the raised voices. He blinked, realizing that the surrounding bar was indeed quite indistinct, almost like this was a recording constructed from his memories. Convincing from the right angles, but nonetheless utterly contrived. He brought his attention back to the Angel. "-on how I need to help reform NANA to prevent… You know, it doesn't matter. This is what happened, it's in the past."
"I do not understand why."
"What why? Why what?"
"I do not understand how this leads to this." The angel pointed at Professor, who was finished.
"So?" Professor pressed. "What's the problem?"
Younger Jared stopped avoiding his teacher's eyes. "This will tear apart Melanie's family. Like, literally in some cases."
"Jared…"
"Theodore Dylan is a man is guided by tradition and ambition. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
"You sound like you have all the information you need to evaluate this situation and decide on the best course of action. Therefore I have to reiterate my earlier question: So?"
"This is just a matter of choosing between a little bloodshed and a lot of bloodshed."
"That is much of politics, yes."
The two figures froze, while the Angel walked up to the edge of Jared's personal space and stared at him.
"Well, it's the oldest problem. People are tribal; that is, they have an innate need to have some control-or power-in their society. The alliance was designed to spread this power thinly, but in the years following its creation, power was slowly consolidated from about two hundred clans in dozens of regions, to a few dozen regions with one large clan in each, to less than a dozen extremely powerful clans that operate as if they are one clan. The Ninja Master went from being a figure agnostic to which clan he or she aided to an extension of this single clan. There is no longer a tribe, just a bunch of ninja that take orders from a higher power and project their power onto the common people. Revolt is inevitable. Professor had the brilliant idea to stop the coming war and replace it with limited assassinations to put pressure on the clans to relinquish a portion of their power to regional clans, and so-on. Move some power back to smaller groups."
"This is not the result you experienced."
"No. Someone was smart enough to see our plan coming, and created his own plan to counter us."
"This plan is the activities involving you and the two women."
"In a manner of speaking, yes."
The indistinct background of the bar folded in on itself and unfolded into ribbons in a dozen different colors that spiraled around him and froze abruptly in place. He stood in the center of a rose garden, before a simple concrete bench where Younger Jared sat. The youth appeared a little confused and a little nervous as Cherryl entered the clearing from one of the many small paths.
She sat down clearly inside of his personal space. "So, stud. A sunset rendezvous. This is new."
"Melanie did something today…"
Cherryl turned and snuggled up next to Jared, an arm around his shoulders. "Oooh. Details?"
"I think she's hitting on me."
Cherryl fell off of the bench, miraculously leaving Jared sitting in place, befuddled. "You… you're…" She stood, dusted herself off, and took a deep breath. "Melanie hit on you?"
"Yes."
"Melanie Dylan. Blonde, magical tits, ninja training. You've had kinky sex with her several dozen times; that Melanie?"
"Weird, isn't it?"
"She's in love with you!"
Younger Jared watched the sun set with practiced bravado. Younger Jared, not the sun. Well, the sun set. The hell with it, you know what I mean! "Well, I assumed both robot and pirate infiltration possibilities and took the appropriate countermeasures, but she appears to have not been recently brain-washed or replaced with a clever replica programmed to bring about my demise. The mind boggles."
Cherryl rolled her eyes. "Look, Melanie likes you-a lot. In the time you've spent with her, those feelings got promoted to love. I've been giving you two space so she could make her move. I know things are complicated with you working for her family, but it's not that complicated since you're an outsider… Is any of this getting through?"
Younger Jared frowned, deep in thought. "Melanie…"
"Yes?"
"...Likes me?"
Cherryl sighed. "Yes she likes you! She likes you in bed, at the movies, during dinners, those brief moments between classes in a random broom-closet where you don't quite have enough room and the bell's about to ring and you're not sure if you put a hickey in an approved location-YES! She's head over heels for you."
"I don't follow."
"AAARRRGH!"
"We've had sex like fifty times-"
"Forty-eight, but I'm not counting that elevator ride."
"Agreed. Anyway, we've had sex like fifty times and I never got that kind of vibe off her."
Cherryl re-seated herself in his lap. "Jared. You're a nice guy, a skilled ninja, and you've got a head for numbers; but in the field of romance you couldn't find your own ass with two maps, a GPS unit, a laser guidance system, and a seeing eye dog."
"That's laying it on pretty thick."
"You're thick!" Cherryl chuckled. "Why is this so hard?"
Jared shrugged. "Well, no-one's ever…"
"Liked you? What, I don't count? Huh? The slut's opinion is worthless; she'll bang anything with two legs and a pulse?"
"No! I trust your opinion more than most people… but I'm-"
Cherryl put a finger to his lips to stop him. "Don't. You don't judge your worth in the eyes of others."
"Shmumphnguhughmumphk."
Cherryl pulled her finger back. "What was that?"
"I said, she's making a huge mistake."
"Why?"
"You know why."
Cherryl slid up next to him and ran one fingernail down his collarbone. "She'd only be making a mistake if you threw her aside like a piece of trash. You aren't going to do that, right?"
"I'm dense, not stupid."
"Then there's no problem."
The last sliver of sun winked at them. "Okay. At least I'm getting laid once a week or so."
"Seriously, Melanie likes you. Go on a date with her."
Jared shook his head. "There's really no chance that-"
She poked his forehead. "Do you work at being this clueless? Is it genetic or something?"
The scene ground to a halt, early twilight frozen over the river. The river tilted suddenly, becoming the face of an imposing institutional structure straight out of the nineteen forties. Dark clouds boiled in the sky, and screams of inhuman suffering echoed from a nearby speaker. Jared glared at the speaker while Younger Jared strode up the steps. The kid wore a heavy trench coat over his ninja outfit to ward off the coming cold, and carried a small cooler in one hand. He opened the immense wood and iron doors to the building and walked inside with a shudder.
"I am NEVER going for a Psych degree."
Jared took in the sights, nodding. "At least that was a good decision."
The younger one marched up to the reception desk. Beside said desk sat a short, unshaven man covered in a thin layer of grime. A patch hid one eye, and seven fingers shuffled through the paperwork on the dust-covered desk. As he moved to file some forms, the scrape of a wooden leg issued from beneath the work surface.
"Um, excuse me?"
"Aye? Whadda want, 'scoop?"
"Well, I-"
"Quiet! Let 'scoop finish, I'll get ta ya inna minute!"
Younger Jared looked over his shoulder, seeing no-one. The receptionist made a note, nodded to himself, then eyed Jared again, stopping at the lunch box. "Class?"
"Sophomore."
"Melanie, right?"
"Yes."
The man pointed down a hallway. "She said ya woudda be comin'. 'Ere's a jun'ton down there, take tha fourth passage on yer left, and ya canna miss 'er."
"Thank you, kind sir."
The man nodded as a spider the size of a small dog jumped onto the desk.
"N'ta prob'm!" He bopped the spider on the head. "Down, Herbert!"
Jared ran down the hallway, using a special ninja ability to make it look like he wasn't running. Older Jared followed by closing his eyes and opening them a second later. They were on the grounds near the Psychology building, which was awash in shadows, while the field next to it was technically part of the Earth Sciences plot of land, and was bathed in sunlight. Cold winter sunlight, but sunlight nonetheless. Melanie and Younger Jared had perched on a spare bench. Melanie was in her student gear, although the lab coat and some nifty boots were all one could see as she had it buttoned tight against the chilly fall weather.
"How's class?"
Melanie sighed. "I feel like my brain's been scooped into a blender that's been set to puree."
"I know that feeling. The good news is that they'll pour it back into your head through that hole in a month or so."
She clasped her hands over the top of her head. "They were supposed to close that!"
Younger Jared started laughing with a bite of egg roll in his mouth, promptly choking on the food.
Melanie slapped him on the back. "Spit it out! Spit it out!"
The food flew out of his mouth. He gave Melanie a look of faux horror. "But… but egg rolls!"
She grabbed him by the collar. "You could have died!"
"Only because you're so cute and funny!"
"I only play cute and funny because I love you!"
"I love you too!"
The two stopped, realizing their faces were only an inch apart. Melanie let go and adjusted his collar, witnessing the ninja suit beneath. "Why the Ninja outfit? Stealth training today?"
Jared looked away. "I have a meeting today." Behind him, Older Jared pointed an open palm at the sky and focused on it, even though his attention was equally focused on the conversation at the bench. Younger Jared filled the silence. "Promotion, if things go well."
Melanie smiled. "The apes have pretty level heads. They'll make the right call."
"Apes. Just so you know; I'm stealing that slur against your elders." Jared sighed. "There's talk of a fast-track to Instructor, and then Master."
The girl's eyes got very wide. "That's… great news. Just great." She smiled. "Hey, are you worried things won't work out?"
Jared shrugged. "Just stressed over the thing in general. I mean, it's not like they're inviting me to a meeting to execute me or anything. Whatever happens… I'll be okay." He sighed. "It's just stressful."
Older Jared watched the pair.
Melanie cupped Jared's chin, tilting his head so she could look into his eyes. "Jared, I want you to know that it doesn't matter to me what you do for a living as long as you're happy. I'll love you no matter what."
"Thanks... I... I don't deserve you…"
Older Jared looked away, eyes as wet as his younger counterpart.
Melanie wrapped her arms around him. "No. Don't you ever say that."
"Damn. And here I was going to go off that phrase and kidnap you so I could take you to dinner... I am a ninja, you know."
"Oh no, who will save me?!"
"No one, my pretty! You're all mine! HAHAHA-" His voice stopped abruptly as the wind died. Eyes flickered to glowing yellow, and he stood, body sliding through Melanie's hug like a water buffalo parting fog. "This emotion you feel; you call it loss."
"Yeah, you could call it that. We done here?"
"I am not finished."
"You are. Don't keep pushing. You don't want to see what comes next; and if you force me to see it again… I will unmake you in ways you cannot imagine."
"I believe that to be impossible."
"Try me."
The ground below the pair stretched away, then snapped back towards them and thrust into the sky. A solid stone pillar rose majestically out of a small reflecting pool what is that thing? Do I need to google architectural terms now? while a rose bush maze framed by tall trees surrounded the place.
On top of the pillar stood Luke Agustus Westguard III, holding a confused Melanie in his arms. They would make the perfect couple. His immaculate blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes, and a complexion too perfect to be natural matched her beauty. Now the fine lines of his face stood proud as he ground his teeth together and glared at Younger Jared with contempt. "Not this time Waddell… I have tolerated you for too long!"
Jared squinted, noting that Luke still held that damn rapier. His other hand gripped Melanie by the bicep. No sign of a piece on him. A group of high school girls wandered into the garden as Luke pushed Melanie aside and drew his elegant sword. The schoolgirls swooned as he dove picturesquely off of the stone at the ninja.
Younger Jared took in the armed guards, the innocent bystanders, and the absence of Melanie from the top of the stone pillar, and relaxed.
Luke had reached the ground. "We have met for that last time, beas-URK!" He toppled soundlessly to the ground as Melanie retracted her leg from the debilitating kick. The guards did a double-take, reluctant to remove their sights from Waddell and target the girl smirking at Luke.
"Thanks, baby!" Younger Jared gave Melanie a big smile a thumbs up.
Melanie returned the smile and thumbs up.
Luke snarled from the ground. "I'm… not done yet!"
"Give it up, you Bishonen sleaze!"
"Never, you pajama-clad lunatic!" Luke just barely blocked Younger Jared's sword with his own. "My guards…"
"Jared… don't." Melanie set a hand lightly on his shoulder. "He's not a target."
Younger Jared slowly pulled his sword back, ignoring Luke's smirk.
The bishonen stood and carefully dusted off his immaculate clothes. "Well, now that little dog is properly leashed-"
"Can it." Younger Jared sheathed his sword and took Melanie by the hand. They turned their back on the man and walked slowly away from him and his surprised guards.
"She's not yours, Waddell! She's-" The handle of a kunai was suddenly sticking out of the center of Luke's forehead. The guards took all of one second to react.
Younger Jared and Melanie were already a fading afterimage on ten poorly trained retina.
"Where the fuck did they go?"
Five thumping noises answered the guard, who glanced around to find that his four friends and his principal had collapsed to the ground, right in the center of large pools of blood.
"Oh sh-"
Younger Jared wiped the blood from his sword. "What's wrong, dear?"
Melanie stared at Luke's corpse, her eyes weary. "Are you cursed?"
Younger Jared walked to her, and joined her in looking at the small pistol clutched loosely in one of Luke's hands. "No, I'm lucky in all the wrong ways though. Except one…" He shifted his gaze up to meet her eyes, noticing the lack of a smile on the way up.
"Cursed, Jared."
He shrugged. "That's why I'm a ninja."
Melanie retrieved her kunai.
A dozen faces appeared over the edge of the garden. "Halt!"
Younger Jared did no such thing, a sudden flash of light neatly hiding his and Melanie's escape.
The bodyguards remained frozen in place, faces and various fruits in the place of weapons lit by the flash bomb.
Younger Jared stepped out of the frozen cloud of smoke from the device, the light matching the glow to his eyes. "You recognize her emotional response to killing this one."
Jared looked at the body of an old antagonist. Some days he'd felt like killing Luke would make life a lot simpler, but the man had only been an annoyance. Melanie had thrown the knife, spotting the gun in his hand. Which was impossible, since just seconds before, he'd noticed the man wasn't armed with a firearm. He knew he should have remembered that, remembered the way he was turned so that the folds of his suitcoat made that clear. From where he'd been standing when this had originally happened-where the Angel wearing his old face stood and confronted the man… Jared glanced up, looked at the guards around the edge of the garden. "Yes."
"Did her emotional response trigger your emotional response?"
"Her emotional response puzzled me."
"Puzzled you?"
"I can tell if a person is male or female at a glance. Luke wasn't holding that gun," Jared pointed at the memory of a corpse laying at his imaginary feet. "And yet Melanie killed him as if he did."
"He is not holding a gun?"
"Well, he is now, but he wasn't when she killed him. She murdered an unarmed man and framed his corpse."
"So this created an emotional response?"
"It did."
"Define the emotional response."
"Worry. No… fear."
"Fear? Show me."
"Very well."
This time, stepping into his own feet came naturally, if not with great reluctance. The deep breath before cutting out the cancer. Letting go of the plane to embrace gravity. Gritting teeth, pulling the trigger.
"FRE-"
His hand closed around the handle of his sword before the words were processed by his brain. He cut the bodyguard nearly in half, stopping the man's words and life in a single brutal stroke. Melanie shifted to cover his back, steel flying to stop the lead ready to come at them. In the space of a second, the bodyguards were dispatched, falling down around them. Jared spent a surreal instant watching a severed head blink in disbelief before bouncing off of the ground.
"Jared," The warning, and worry, was clearly heard in Melanie's voice.
His stomach twisted while his body relaxed, ready for the coming battle. "You may have made them angry," he whispered.
A hand grasped his ankle, and he moved as if expecting the attack, slicing off the offending hand with one blade while a small dagger deflected an incoming smoke bomb. The smoke sprayed away from him in a picturesque arc while Melanie hacked through the second and fourth attacks. Then Jared turned, holstered his weapons, and swept them through the shadows to the nearest alley. He could nearly hear the sniper that had drawn a bead on them curse.
"What's the deal now? You'd think the Westguard clan would pin a medal on you for killing that embarrassment. And he-"
Melanie stilled, her breath stopping.
Jared swallowed. There was no need to ask the question. This was one of those 'if you have to ask you know the answer' moments. "What is it?"
She spoke the words, only to confirm the obvious. "We've been set up."
"He was good for something after all," Jared quipped, pulling up his mask. He remembered feeling glad at finally getting a good one in against that walking crime against humanity. A legion of fear quickly trampled that spark of joy out of his mind.
He hit the panic button on the watch-like device strapped to his wrist, and braced to deflect the incoming salvo of throwing stars. The clash of metal spit sparks, nearly pushing him back. He moved through the shadows again, blocked a few punches, tagged someone with one of his kunai, only partially blocked a foot hitting him near the ribs. He had the attacker at the moment of contact, and let one of the kunai fly, watching it hit a masked face before he crashed through a window.
A ninja followed him, painting the room with a small automatic. Jared went through his forms on autopilot, identified the weapon, and closed the gap. The compact submachine gun was jerked out of his first few attacks, but the fifth one caught the forward hand and knocked the gun away. The ninja tried to shift to closer hand-to-hand but his fate was sealed before he moved. Jared smirked as the ninja stepped right into a killing blow that nearly shattered his rib cage. The first follow-up collapsed the man's trachea, and the second drove four inches of tempered steel through his frontal lobes. Jerk, twist, remove. Push the body aside as it slumped, sending the blood spray off to one side.
Jared grabbed the gun, weighed it in hand; maybe ten shots left. He paused to look at a very startled old woman in a business suit that stood in the doorway of the tiny apartment. Briefcase in one hand, keys dangling from the other. A crimson arc of ninja blood lay across her suit and face, running slowly down colorless cheeks to drop from her jawline. Her wide eyes took in the scene with slowly dawning horror.
The goon jumped through the window's remains without a second glance.
A hundred black steel shuriken littered the greenway like dead blossoms. A crumpled body was pinned to the ground in the middle of the greenway by a spear as tall as a man. Jared casually deflected a brace of shuriken, and stepped into the attack meant to blindside him. He caught the sword strike at the attacker's wrist with a burst of fire from the submachine gun. The sword flew free of slack fingers, impaling an approaching ninja. Jared spent a fraction to slam the butt of the gun in the ninja's face, pancaking the warrior's nose with a wet crunch. His free hand slipped into the ninja's garb and extracted a pair of kunai. A third attacker shadow-stepped into his blind spot only to be cut down by another quick burst of gunfire. Jared had a second to perform his own shadow step, reappearing at the far corner of the greenway, near the tower and the roses.
Even as the black of the shadow step technique faded from his eyes, the spied the four attackers already prepared for his arrival. One on the roof above and to his left, firing a grenade at him with a stubby grenade launcher. The projectile rotated slowly as it descended. Another was throwing a kunai from behind a tree to his far left. It would arrive after the grenade but require him to roll fast into the greenway to evade both attacks. Two ninja waited for him, thinking themselves hidden in the trees.
Jared recalled this non-existent moment with perfect clarity. His heart wished to climb into his throat despite his brain shouting that everything would be just fine. There was no decision to make. His actions were written out in detail, months beforehand. Carved into stone. Eternal and unchanging. What was soon to happen would always happen. Always did happen.
He fired at the approaching grenade, missed, but peppered the armed ninja with lead. The gun's action locked in the open position. He flicked one of the pilfered kunai to his left and dove forward to evade both the concussive blast and incoming steel. The remaining kunai he lobbed lightly into the air directly before him, leaving his hands free.
Melanie appeared mid-air, and hit the grenade with the butt of a sniper rifle. Swinging like a baseball player, she landed a solid line drive right towards the ninja planted behind a tree.
The two ninja waiting for Jared sprang their trap. A hail of bullets narrowly missed the gun as he darted left and right at speeds they shouted were 'impossible.' They emptied a clip each, then jumped down while drawing more personal weapons.
Melanie landed and aimed at the tree currently intercepting a grenade.
The grenade exploded, driving out the ninja that ran straight into a bullet. His head jerked to the side and a spray of red plastered the grass on the far side. He fell to the ground like a bag of wet cement.
Jared dodged the chain flail low, then twisted to one side to avoid the nagita, spun on his heel to close the distance to the nagita user while the chain flail came within inches of punching a hole in his chest, and caught the falling kunai with one hand. He caught the nagita's blade in his other hand, pinching the folded steel between two fingers. The ninja using it looked puzzled until the kunai hit him in the neck. Blood sprayed from the wound, mildly obscuring the view of the flail wielder as he brought the weight around for another attack.
Jared blocked with the nagita, letting the weight shatter the haft of the weapon but still miss his body by a few inches. The ninja's mask twisted in a way that communicated a grim smile of satisfaction. A flicker of movement distracted him, and Jared caught a heavy weapon in one hand while he dodged the flail attack. A sword. A familiar sword. He stared at for a moment, then casually sliced off the flail's weight as it came near him again. The projectile flew past his head doing better than a hundred miles an hour and pegged someone in the chest.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR-" The enraged roar ended in a spray of grey matter.
Jared nodded at Melanie, who nodded back from behind the sniper rifle. Then he looked at the ninja stumbling towards him, choking for breath. "Really?"
The incoming ninja opened his mouth, eyes filled with fury, and gurgled something unintelligible.
"Dude, just sit down a take a minute. You're not much of a threat like that." Jared shadow stepped away before the ninja could respond with anything more powerful than a blink, and found Melanie next to him. The apartment building was at their backs. A few cars cruised by them.
Jared pulled his mask up and gasped for breath. His limbs ached, hands numb. The skin on his face tingled, and his sense of balance was a fading memory. The shadow step was an amazing technique, but the energy cost was suitably terrifying. One more and he'd stop being a desperate man and become a notch in someone else's belt.
Next to him, Melanie panted as well. On her feet but only just, she was also alert but hoping the fight was over.
Jared dialed the panic number on his cell, then put the phone away. Help would come, quickly. He glanced at Melanie. "You got anything left?"
"Not much." She made the gesture for backup, and Jared nodded, concentrated on staying vertical, and waited for the other shoe to drop.
A police cruiser separated itself from the traffic and pulled up to the curb before the two ninja. The window dropped. "Get in."
Jared nodded, giving the codeword. "Oats?"
The officer watched him for a second, not responding. Jared dropped and rolled towards the car while Melanie jumped behind the cover of another vehicle. Both cops opened up with submachine guns fitted with suppressors. Bullets bit into Melanie's cover like angry metal insects. A gun poked out of the window, attached to a hand. Jared separated the hand from the wrist with a quick sweep of his sword, ignored both as they clattered to the ground next to him, then plunged the blade through the door. Over the clatter of more automatic gunfire, he heard a grunt, felt the subtle jerk at the end of his blade, and warm blood ran down his steel.
Holes erupted in the door, metal blossoming from the surface with the dull thud of lead punching through the barrier; the other 'cop' was walking his shots through the door towards Jared. Something hit the windshield with an ear-splitting crack, and holes stopped appearing in the door's skin.
Melanie's face appeared from behind the tattered remains of a parked car, then her hand to sign that the other cop had been dealt with. Jared pulled his sword free and rolled to his feet. The windshield was opaque, a narrow hole in the passenger side. The handle of a kunai sprouted proudly from the driver's eye socket. The driver was motionless, a stream of crimson trailing from the violated eye socket down his stern but blank face to spread across his uniform. The ashed-faced passenger was moving his remaining hand slowly towards his belt, desperate eyes locked on Jared. The ninja calmly cut through part of the elbow joint, disabling the arm.
The older Jared, watching and re-enacting the entire memory, mentally steeled himself. He knew he would remember being scared, but he was scared now, watching these moments play out one after another. His fear and the memory of fear ran together, dragging with them a slowly building rage, the sting of betrayal, and a burning need for vengeance.
"The other shoe," Jared muttered. "is the end of the world."
The roof of the cruiser imploded under the weight of a massive ninja landing on it in a crouch. Legs like tree trunks forced the car to absorb most of the force of his landing. Iron guards covered his knees and armored flaps covered the tops of his feet. Balance shifted backwards, too far.
Jared slashed across the exposed flesh above the knee guards even as he spun to one side in a desperate dodge. The giant held a massive war axe, the head nearly as tall as Jared. Black steel tipped with poison, large enough to halve three men in a single blow, and as his stance buckled completely, it plowed into the car like a battering ram.
A ninja sprung his trap on Jared, and their blows met with the sound of shattering metal as Jared's sword cut through his attacker's and sliced off the man's head in one strike. He jerked left and right, then left again, kunai flying by him, incoming death deliveries that punctured the car behind him with a sound like anti-tank rounds punching through heavy armor.
"Fuck, you are-" The attacking ninja's exclamation was skewered by a crossbow bolt to the throat.
The huge ninja on the car roared and Jared dodged again to evade the massive axe aimed to cleave his entire body in two from hairline to testicles. He found himself standing back-to-back with Melanie again. "Hey."
"Hey yourself."
"Guys," Prof said in greeting, coming to a stop a few meters away on his skateboard. A crossbow was at the ready in each hand.
"How many more?" Jared asked. Even as the last word left his mouth, a grenade fell between them and all three were in motion. Prof kicked the skateboard to Melanie while returning fire. Melanie caught the board one-handed and batted the grenade away. Jared stabbed another attacking ninja through the eye, catching the sword aimed at his heart and flicking it away.
The ninja bleeding from the throat stepped out of the shadows with murder in his eyes and lunged at Melanie. Jared charged left, catching Melanie in one arm as he swung at the figure with his left.
The ninja offered no defense, letting the blade cut through his upper arm and across his rib cage, parting flesh and bone like water. The cutting edge stopped on the opposite shoulder blade with a dull thud, and blood gushed out of the cut in his uniform.
Melanie gasped. Her weight shifted, dragging him down. He released the sword. The ninja fell back with the sword still stuck in bone. Eyes dead. No sound issuing from the hole in his throat.
"Jared," A plea.
"Hold on." He adjusted his grip carefully, felt the kunai handle sticking out of her back. A 'bleeder' kunai, little more than a sharpened tube designed to be driven straight to the heart. He knelt in a pool of blood. Warm and rapidly expanding, already too large to save her. "It's gonna be okay."
With one shaking hand, she pulled off her mask. Her cheeks were already white. Eyelids drooped, fluttered, dragged slowly up. "It will." She promised. Her hand came up again, gently tugged on the back of his neck.
He ripped his own mask off, bent at her gentle insistence, kissed her one last time.
She smiled, closed her eyes, and relaxed.
From somewhere, a battlecry interrupted the moment. Rage boiling over, the present Jared and the memory he was bound to stood and faced the attacking ninja. Seeing an easy target, the man came at him wide open. Jared carefully stepped aside the full-power overhead strike, cupped the ninja's jaw with his hand, and dragged the attached head forward with every ounce of his strength. The ninja's feet came off of the ground as his neck snapped without a loud crack.
Jared completed the throw, letting the body sail bonelessly into the air while he evaded a trio of incoming shiruken, then ducked below a massive war axe that tried to remove his head. He rolled away from the axe-wielder, slapped aside a wild kick and returned fire with a hammerfist that folded the attacking ninja like a cheap paperback. The axe came back again, aiming for his head, and this time he bent his body around the blow and delivered a kick to the haft of the weapon that shattered it. The head clipped a piece of abstract art while the huge ninja tossed aside the splinters clutched in his massive hands.
The two glared one another for a breath, then attacked simultaneously. Jared intercepted the leading kick and threw his weight behind a potent sidekick that collapsed the huge ninja's rib cage on impact and sent the man flying a dozen meters away.
Another ninja held his sword, and Jared liberated it with extreme prejudice, even as the ninja's eyes glowed with Leliel's power. Jared intercepted another ninja with the sword.
With Leliel's furious eyes burning in his skull, the ninja spoke. "Stop this."
Waddell didn't stop.
He cut down men two and three at a time. Smashed in skulls. Dropped cars, statues, and whole buildings on trapped ninja. Kunai rained down at him like hail. Explosions tore apart the park, then the adjacent city streets. Leliel's eyes began to burn behind every ninja mask. Fury devolving slowly into horror at the ninja horde pressed into Jared like a bunnies into a wood chipper.
"STOP!" Leliel howled from a hundred throats at once.
Waddell didn't stop.
He slipped between bullets and blades with ease, insubstantial as mist. Men, and pieces of men, fell all across the battlefield in stacco screams, heartfelt prayers, and howling demands for Jared to cease the slaughter. Emergency services began to arrive on the scene. A handful of ninja sank into the battle, taking Jared's side and littering the streets two and three deep in black-clad bodies. Soon, two entire city blocks were ablaze, and the first responders were coming to the realization that war had come to the heart of their quiet little town, and they were bearing witness to only the first skirmishes.
Cops, ninja, and innocent bystanders all shouted at him, to no available. Leliel could reach him with no voice, and as the minutes ticked by and the horde's reinforcements stopped arriving, his insistent demands gave way to bartering, then to argument, then panicked reasoning, then finally desperate begging.
Still, Waddell did not stop.
Every face that he cut down, punched, shot, kicked, and destroyed had the same desperate eyes. A plea for mercy, a desperate apology, sometimes incomprehensible words from a long-dead tongue.
Waddell reacted to none of it, and finally, Leliel understood. It understood in a primal way that it could not communicate, and the knowledge burned as the Lillim meticulously tore the Angel apart from the inside.
Its last coherent thought was one of despair, knowing the Angels were doomed.
To be Continued...
