Translations at end.
"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Nations and peoples who forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."
-Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers, 1987
It was quiet, Feliciano thought, almost too quiet. Well, quiet in the sense that no one was around. Water still dripped from the walls, and there were distant gunshots almost out of hearing range. Every once in a while, he heard the fwoosh of someone teleporting, but never saw anyone. Feliciano would swear he heard scraping, like something sharp against a wall, as they ran out of the Medical Pavilion.
"They probably know what our end goal is, so we're fucked, just so you know," Lena said.
"That's not reassuring," Kiku said, hand tightening on his sword.
"Wasn't supposed to be. This way. Through the Transit Hub and up those stairs." She pointed across the room. "We have to keep going up. At least three floors."
"We're going to die," Feliciano whimpered.
"No, we won't!" Alfred said, "I'm the hero! I'll save us all."
"We're doomed," Ludwig deadpanned.
"Hey!"
"Shut up!" Lena snapped. "Fight amongst yourselves on the surface." Bees flew towards them from up ahead in the hallway. "Fuck!" They started to attack Lena since she was the leader of the pack. "Ow, fuck!"
"What the fuck? What do we do?" Alfred asked.
Kiku pulled out his pistol and shot a Splicer running towards them with a pipe. He jerked back, but continued running, just not quiet as fast as before.
Ludwig thrust his arm out, sending the guy careening back.
A shot rang out behind them, hitting above Kiku's head. Ludwig swung around a thrust his hand again. The guy flew far back into the Medical Pavilion and over some debris left in the middle of the room.
"What is happening?" Feliciano shouted cowering in the middle of the group.
"Get the fuck up!" Lena shouted. "You're the only one without a ranged weapon, so either get one, or cover our backs!" The bees started to tire out and fall to the ground, dead.
Feliciano nodded quickly and stood up, holding the wrench in front of him. He had to stop being so scared. Be scared later. Help now.
"Raaaahhhhh!" a deep voice yelled and threw a large rock at the group.
Lena held up her hand and caught the rock, sending it right back to the Brute Splicer. She immediately sent ice at him, freezing him in place. "We need to move."
The first Splicer ran towards them again and Alfred shot fire at him. He started running around screaming, trying to put out the flames. They weren't the smartest bunch.
They moved further through the room, trying to stay along the walls. The stairs would be the dangerous part. Well, more dangerous.
A large crack echoed around the room. Feliciano looked back at the Brute Splicer. He was breaking out!
"The big guy!" he shouted, pointing.
"America, you have anti-personal rounds. Hit him, now."
Alfred shouldered the shotgun and took aim. Two shots later and the Brute wasn't slowing down. He paused firing and threw fire at it, catching it aflame, then fired the gun again, but missing the target this time.
Ludwig blasted the Brute back into the wall, and he collapsed, dead, still aflame.
A series of rifle blasts came from the entrance to Neptune's Bounty. Alfred and Ludwig yelled out, clenching their shoulder and stomach respectively.
Kiku retaliated with a pistol shot, hitting the guy right in the head. He was down.
Lena moved closer to the stairs and peaked around the edge. Machine Gun rounds rained down on her, followed by a blast of electricity. She jumped back just as quick. A bomb followed right after. Ludwig blasted it away.
"What do we do?" Kiku asked. The bomb exploded on the other side of the room.
"I can blast them back," Ludwig said, clenching and unclenching his hand.
"Light them on fire, first," Lena ordered. "I'll send bees after them, then fire, then blast them. We run up after."
Everyone nodded.
She released the bees and they sped up the stairs. Three Splicers started shouting. It sounded like two women and a man. Alfred looked around the corner and shot flames up, hitting the people. Ludwig blasted them right after, then folded in on himself in pain.
"Go!" Lena, Alfred, and Kiku started running up the stairs.
"Ludwig?" Feliciano asked.
"I'm empty."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't have any EVE left."
"Oh." Feliciano reached into his backpack and pulled out an EVE hypo. He was the keeper of hypos and health kits. "Here. I know you don't want to, but we need you."
Ludwig hesitated but took the hypo and injected it. Feliciano looked away with a grimace while he did that and threw the empty hypo to the floor. He took a deep breath and jogged up the stairs, Feliciano right behind him.
Two pistol shots and one shotgun blast rang out halfway up. When they got to the top, the three Splicers were dead. Lena was going through their pockets and taking any extra ammunition and handing it out. She took the box of bombs and handed it to Feliciano.
"So you're not completely useless. Just don't hit us."
They crept forward, weapons at the ready. Alfred pulled Feliciano towards him and started rummaging through the bag. "Ahimè!" Feliciano said. "Alfred, I could've gotten it for you." He stumbled as Alfred released his hold on the bag, EVE hypo in hand. He looked away as Alfred injected it.
"This was just as easy," he grunted.
Kiku grasped Feliciano's shoulder and gave him a reassuring look. "We'll help them. Don't worry."
Each footstep reverberated around the empty theatre as they made their way across the room to the next set of stairs. Water dripped from an unseen leak and distant shouts could be heard. The stage below was lit up with one spotlight shining down right in the middle. The curtains were still.
"They're all going to be waiting for us at the exit," Ludwig said.
"Not surprising," Lena said, leading them up the stairs. "This area has a lot of places to hide, for both sides. An ambush in the next few rooms will be better." Lena laid down Cyclone traps at the top of the stairs just in case someone tried to follow them up.
They took the open walkway along the back wall of the theatre across and into the upper level of Kashmir's.
Alfred whistled. "This place looks a lot different than before."
"No fuck," Lena said. "There was a big fight. You were in it, remember?"
"No."
"Let's keep moving," Kiku said.
Ludwig was crouched at one end of a hallway, staring down it towards what Feliciano thought was a large open space at the other end.
"There's an elevator in the room down there that'll take us up to the level with the bathysphere."
"I think I hear people," Ludwig said, holding his arm out to stop them walking forward.
"Throw a bomb at them," Alfred suggested.
Ludwig scowled. "That's always your solution, isn't it?" he asked.
Kiku backed away slightly and readjusted his hand on his sword. He never liked being reminded of the bombs that ended WWII.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Alfred pushed towards Ludwig, getting right up into his face.
"Back up, arschloch."
"Oh my god! Are they like this normally?" Lena asked Feliciano. Kiku watched the other duo nervously.
"Not usually this bad," Feliciano said, fidgeting with the bomb box.
Lena scowled and pulled a bomb from his arms, arming it. Feliciano shouted and moved back, pulling Kiku with him. She placed it gently on the ground in the middle of the hallway and backed up. "You should probably send the bomb across the way, otherwise, you'll be blown up," she said, casually.
It did the trick of distracting the two from fighting. Ludwig's eyes widened and he sent a powerful blast at the bomb. It shot down the hallway and exploded in the other room.
The five followed the bomb down the hallway, not wanting to be stuck at the other end after all that. It was a good distraction as any.
Lena sent out another wave of bees and it hit the Splicer in a dock worker's uniform that was running towards them shooting a pistol while on fire. He must've been at the top of the stairs. The shots missed and went wide. One bullet streaked a line across Feliciano's cheek and he yelled out in pain.
A Splicer in a red dress raised a Machine Gun and fired, spraying bullets in their direction. There was no way to block as they dodged out of the way. Feliciano felt a couple bullets go into, and back out, his arm and side. One of the bullets caught the dock worker in the head and he went down. She didn't care about friendly fire, it seemed.
Ludwig sent a blast out, catching a Splicer in a green shirt with a shotgun on the side. He flew back, skidding on the floor.
Kiku raised his pistol, catching a new Splicer, this one wearing a suit and a bunny mask, in the arm as he raised it, causing him to jerk and the attack of electricity missed the group. Instead, it landed in a large puddle of water, electrifying it. Which was inconvenient since the water stretched across half the room and they'd half to take the long way around.
Green shirt dodged around the group of Nations and came at them from behind, closest to Feliciano. Kiku turned to swing with his katana and sliced right across his chest. The Splicer jumped away, towards Feliciano. Machine Gun fire sounded behind Feliciano, followed by a fwoosh of flame.
He screamed and swung his wrench/flag as hard as he could and bashed the Splicer in the head. Green shirt was not quick enough to dodge Kiku's sword a second time and, a moment later, his head was rolling on the ground.
Feliciano breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath and turned around, ready to swing, but Red dress was down. He looked over at the other end of the room where Suit Splicer was. He stared at them for a moment assessing his odds, then bolted to one of the elevators.
Alfred shot flames and a bullet at him and Lena held out her hand, but nothing happened. The doors closed and he vanished upstairs, uninjured except for the one bullet wound from Kiku.
"Fuck. He was too far away. He's gone to warn the others."
"What if we do the same trick with the bomb but use the elevator?" Alfred asked.
"Then we destroy an elevator," Feliciano said.
"There's another one," Kiku pointed out.
Lena hummed. "It could work. They move fast enough. Let's try it."
They made their way carefully around the water and to the elevator on the side. Lena primed a bomb and sent the elevator up. They heard the faint ding and the doors rattling open.
KA-BOM-FWOOSH
The elevator exploded, crashing back down to the floor they were on, metal warping from the flames.
"That worked better than I thought," Lena said. "Should be clear now." They got in a working elevator and the doors shut. "Hopefully."
Feliciano grabbed onto Ludwig's hand and held tight.
They rode the elevator up, cautious as the doors opened, but no one came to ambush them yet. The Splicer caught in the explosion was groaning on the ground, somehow still alive. Kiku shot him in the head, putting him out of his misery.
"I'm going to have nightmares for years," Feliciano groaned, holding his stomach.
"Give me a hypo," Lena demanded. Feliciano's hands shook as he dug one out and handed it to her. She quickly injected it and forced them to move on. "We're almost there." Kiku reloaded his pistol. Alfred took the same moment to reload his shotgun.
They turned the corner to a long hallway. Standing at the opposite end was another Brute Splicer. He roared and charged forward. Lena tried to hit him with ice, but he ran her over before she could.
Kiku shot at him with his pistol, running through the magazine of bullets and not doing much damage. The Splicer started shaking, getting electrified by Lena, then thrown off with a blast.
Something flew through the air and hit the wall behind them, blowing up.
Feliciano flew through the air, screaming, and landed hard on his side. "Che cosa?" Feliciano groaned.
"Vorsicht!" Ludwig yelled and tackled Feliciano. He thrust a hand out behind him and sent back the second bomb heading towards them. It exploded in mid-air. He was up as quick as a flash and sprinting down the hallway, yelling. He tackled the Splicer at the end and bashed his head on the ground over and over until he stopped moving. Feliciano looked away and threw up the meager food in his stomach. This was an awful place.
Fire erupted next to him and he shouted and backed away, hitting his head against the wall. The Brute Splicer was on fire, and somehow frozen. He wasn't moving as Lena sent bolt after bolt of electricity into him. After a few moments of that, he shattered.
Feliciano took a moment to take stock of his friends. Alfred was bleeding from numerous bullet wounds, as was Kiku, but Kiku was also burned down the left side of his chest and arm. His katana was coated in blood. Ludwig limped back over to the group, blood dripping down his hands and breathing heavily. Lena was the worst off of all of them. The blue veins on her face were brighter than normal in the dim light and contrasting heavily with her pale skin. Blood ran down her face from a cut in her eyebrow and a gash on her side.
Feliciano himself had a throbbing head and burns on the right side of his body. He dug in his bag for the First Aid Kits, passing them out, as well as new EVE for the three that used it. He hoped that would be enough since he didn't have any First Aid Kits or EVE hypos left.
One last room and then it was a hallway and the exit.
Bees flew through the air headed straight towards Ludwig. Lena stared at them with a look of concentration and froze them in their tracks and sent a new set of bees towards the direction they came from. The original bees died on the spot.
They were in the lounge now. A woman in a blue dress aimed her machine gun and shot down at them from the balcony. Another man watched them from above. Ludwig retaliated and sent a sonic blast at her. She flew back, but her buddy in the ratty button-up wasn't so lucky and tripped over the railing and down onto the floor below, stunned.
Alfred shot fire at the stunned man.
"Why can't you just die already?" a Splicer with a shotgun yelled and charged them, holding the shotgun high like a club.
Feliciano yelled wordlessly back and swung his wrench/flag, hard, hitting the man in the stomach, and throwing him to the side.
Kiku swung his pistol around to point behind Feliciano's back and double-tapped a Splicer behind him. The same Splicer grabbed Feliciano's backpack and pulled backwards.
"Ahh!"
"Down!" Kiku yelled. Feliciano went boneless and Kiku sliced her head off.
Shotgun Splicer aimed his shotgun at Kiku and Feliciano threw a bomb at his face, knocking him further away. He threw it off, but was still caught in the blast and had to pat his shirt-sleeves off.
Blue dress Splicer looked over the balcony, assessing them, dodged a stream of fire and a bullet from Alfred and ran away, back into the upper level.
Bees flew over from a set of stairs going down and towards the group. Lena blasted them back towards the originator. The bees were disoriented for a moment but turned back to Lena and attacked her again.
"Why do the fucking bees hate me today?" she shouted, swatting at them.
Ludwig grabbed the pistol from the dead Splicer behind Feliciano and fired at the Splicer still on fire. He had been starting to get up. The man dropped and didn't move again. Ludwig used the remaining three shots on Shotgun guy. He dropped.
They stood in a circle, backs to each other and stared out. It didn't seem like anyone else was coming. Lena sent bees out, but they only wandered around the room for thirty seconds before dying. No one was there.
"At least three are still alive," Alfred said.
"For now," Ludwig said. They took a moment and went through the pockets of the downed Splicers, finding two EVE hypos and more bullets. Alfred and Ludwig immediately injected them and lead the way up the stairs to the Welcome Center.
The lights flickered and water dripped, but no one jumped out at them and there were no unusual noises.
"Quick, inside," Lena ordered, pushing them ahead of her into the bathysphere. She stood outside it. "Pull the lever there and it'll send it back to the surface. You're on your own then."
"Thank you, Lena-san," Kiku said. "We're very grateful."
She scowled. "Just get the fuck out. And never come back."
Kiku went over to the lever and tried to make it move. He gestured for Feliciano to try as well, but nothing happened. Lena watched them and pushed her way past.
"Let me try." Nothing worked for her either. "But…what? They worked for me yesterday."
Alfred stepped out of the bathysphere and looked at the screen attached. "It's saying bio-locked."
"What?" she said and moved out to look at the screen.
"Well, I can't have just anyone taking the bathyspheres for a spin, now can I?" Andrew Ryan asked from behind them. They spun around and he stood at the other end of the room, golf club in hand. Blue dress Splicer was standing next to him, machine gun out and pointed at the group.
"Fuck," Lena breathed.
Ahimè!: Dear me!
Arschloch: asshole
Che cosa: What
Vorsicht: Look out