So... I'm currently away from home, and while I remembered to bring my computer, I MAY have forgotten my charger. So, rather than make both myself and all of you wait a whole week to continue the story, I've resorted to using my phone. Unfortunately, the doc manager on ff is NOT configured for the iPhone, so there a few spots that are not formatted properly (including the fact that I'm pitting my author's note at the beginning instead of the end) which will be corrected this weekend once I can get on my computer.
Soundtrack: v=OAbFRNeIfxI
Volume 1, Chapter 14
Escalation, Part 6
Neo
Despite the gravity of the situation, Neo was having the time of her life; fighting side by side with Cinder, against an opponent who was successfully fending the both of them off? It was like a dream come true for the pint sized bundle of terror! The only thing that could possibly make it better would be if she was fighting side by side with her charmer of a partner... But, she supposed, one couldn't always have it all. The plan had originally called for Lee and Neo to deal with the axe-wielding lummox while Mercury and Emerald kept the Schnee busy... However, that plan had gone out the window the moment the axe man had spotted Lee. Not that she blamed him; how were they supposed to know he could apparently detect Dust? Or... maybe it was Aura usage in general? Whichever it was, it had thrown a wrench in their plan, turning a text book ambush into a full-blown skirmish. Which Neo was perfectly okay with; it meant she got to fight somebody who would actually present a challenge. And the situation even got bonus points for giving Lee a challenging opponent too!
"Rrraaarrrrrgggggghhhh!"
Beneath her 'mask' (which was identical to Lee's), Neo giggled silently; speak of the devil and he shall appear! She was so going to tease Lee for that one later. But, alas, she was busy at the moment, so she couldn't exactly turn to see just what he'd done that required such a bestial roar.
"Lee!"
Start the soundtrack here!
Two sets of eyes widened; Neo's, because from the distress in Emerald's shout, things were not going well for Lee. Summer's, because, well...
"Neo?!"
Shit. There went their effort to make sure she and Lee wouldn't be linked to this. Stupid Emerald... Still, even if it seemed obvious that the... vertically challenged person accompanying someone named Lee was most likely the same vertically challenged teenager from a week ago, Neo wasn't about to confirm it for her. After all, there had to still be room for doubt, right? She and Lee had been so nice! As long as Summer didn't get a chance to confirm her suspicion, she'd pretty much have to question whether her logic leap had been correct, or if instead it was just a coincidence that one of her assailants was named Lee and the other one was vertically challenged...
Speaking of Lee... Hmm. Seeing as they had all been busy fighting, she shouldn't just assume Emerald was going to step out to make sure her boy toy was still in one piece and breathing, right? As stupid as the two had started to make each other recently, Neo was relatively certain that Emerald was still smart enough to realize that she and Mercury needed to deal with their own opponent before she could move to help Lee... Which meant it would be up to her.
Neo pushed back against her opponent, while also leaping into a back flip, allowing Cinder, wearing identical outfits to the rest of them but opting to wear only a veil around the lower half of her face, to move in with her twin blades and press the assault. Neo herself used the brief respite to look towards where she'd heard Lee roar... And was alarmed to see him slumped against a tree, completely immobile. Granted, she was too far away to see if he was breathing or not... But she quickly assured herself that based on the sound of his voice, he'd probably just exerted himself too hard and passed out. A theory supported by the equally unconscious yet intact Schnee, not 2 meters away from him. Huh. If he'd expended that much effort trying to bring her down and actually succeeded, Neo imagined that it would have been a lot... Messier. Not to mention she probably would have ended up quite a bit further away, considering the sheer amount of Aural (with a capital A!) power he was capable of bringing to bear at times. Especially if he'd used so much that that he'd knocked himself unconscious. So if it wasn't the Schnee...
Oh. That explained it. Lee hadn't been aiming for the Schnee; he'd gone after the lummox with the axe. And while it looked like the guy had managed to avoid the worst of it (between, as she would later find out, a timely dodge and covering his face and neck with the dual blade of his axe), Lee had still managed to pelt him with a decent amount of stone, visibly tearing up the man's clothes and leaving him with several visible cuts and bruises. However, impossibly, the big bastard was still going strong, despite being battered, bruised, and just a little bit bloody. Which was better than could be said for Mercury and Emerald, the latter of whom appeared to be exhausted while the former was on his last leg after going limb to axe for so long... Pun intended.
No, seriously, one of Merc's bionic legs had just been truncated just below the knee.
"Go! I can handle this!"
Well, she didn't need to be told twice; if even Cinder was worried, the situation was in dire. So with nary a thought for trying to help Cinder any more, Neo drew the dagger from the end of her umbrella and used her semblance for the first time that battle, teleporting to just behind him. However, just as Lee and Cinder had, Neo had noticed that the man could detect Aura... Or possibly Dust itself while it was being used. Either way, Neo decided to play it safe and assume it was Aura. And judging by the fact he was still standing after fighting Mercury, Emerald, and Lee for so long, she was willing to bet his reflexes were going to be quicker than one might otherwise expect. So while she did do the obvious thing and teleport directly behind him, she did not move on to the next obvious action, which would have been to go for the backstab. While the big man whirled faster than his size would suggest was possible, Neo tucked herself into a ball and rolled between his legs, before coming back up with blade extended... Directly into the man's side.
"Ach! Bugger!"
Neo giggled smugly at the man before leaping backwards out of range... causing blood to begin to spurt out from the new hole in his side.
"You little shit! I'll kill ya!"
With her face covered up as it was, the man couldn't see the smug smirk she was wearing... But the flourishing bow she performed should have more than made it clear what she thought of that proclamation; she couldn't have said "well why don't you come try?" any clearer if she had actually said it! Well, okay, that was an exaggeration, but she wasn't about to waste her voice on this oaf. Besides, if the roar of sheer rage he let out before rushing at her was any indication, she'd clearly managed to get her point across anyway.
Neo giggled as she sidestepped the over hand blow, allowing the axe to stick into the loamy soil for a crucial moment while she stepped forwards and thrust her dagger into the man's thigh, just above the knee, before ducking under a backhand. Neo ripped the blade out with a roughness that belied her small frame and sidestepped back in the direction she came from, before slamming a fist forward into the man's testicles, finally causing him to hunch over. With a satisfied giggle, Neo stepped back and away, allowing him to drop to the ground, hands cupping the afflicted area of his anatomy.
Of course he tanks every thing else we could throw at him like a boss, only to be downed by a shot to the family jewels. Tsk. Typical man.
Neo wasted no time in knocking the man out with the end of her umbrella. That taken care of, she glanced over to Mercury and Emerald, assessing their condition. Despite being in relatively decent shape, Mercury would be useless without a leg, and would in all likelihood need to be carried away from this fight... Then again, it could be funny to watch him hop on just the one for a while...
No, bad Neo! Stay focused!
She looked towards the other half of that partnership, Emerald. She... actually didn't seem to be doing too badly, despite the fact one of her weapons was now just a useless lump of metal. Between that and Mercury's leg, Neo couldn't help but wonder just what the hell that man's axe had been made of... But, she quickly shook that thought in favor of salvaging the current situation. Of their team of five, one was unconscious and another in decent shape but with severely limited mobility and thus combat ineffective. She and Cinder were both unscathed... But they also hadn't been making any progress against Summer Rose, who had shown no problems in fighting both of them simultaneously. But could the Huntress handle a third opponent?
"Mercury." She whispered, standing over the male of the duo; as much as she normally disliked speaking, she had no other method of communication she could reliably resort to with her face covered up and unable to express. Plus, it was for a good cause: "Go check on Lee."
Lee, Neo was realizing, was capable of drawing so much uncharacteristic behavior out of her, that she was forced to concede that it wasn't really uncharacteristic of her anymore. Sure, speaking out loud was still something that she would not be doing on a regular basis... But the fact remained that she'd now done so on two separate occasions in a single day, and both had been because of Lee. And despite her relatively... Cloistered life thus far, she was not oblivious to why that was; she loved the man. However, despite harboring a small crush on him, she could not quite say she was in love with him; sure, he was attractive, and she enjoyed spending time with him, but were it not for that, she would say she loved him like the brother she had never had. Which was why she could honestly say she was happy to see that... Whatever it was he and Emerald had going on between them was making him happy. Though she had to admit, she was looking forward to finding out just how awkward their situation would become if and when Lee had to explain to Emerald that he absolutely was not going to have sex with her before she turned 18. Hehe. But before any of that could happen, however, they needed to ensure that they would make it out of this fight, which meant she and Emerald needed to help Cinder.
Neo shifted her goggled gaze (as in, she was wearing goggles, not that she was goggling) from where it had been resting on Lee, and shifted it towards Emerald, who was using the current respite to reload her single remaining weapon... Which, now that she thought about it, explained why she hadn't just shot the big bastard once Lee had managed to break through his Aura. She patiently waited for the red-eyed girl to finish, before tilting her head towards the fight between Cinder and Summer.
Emerald, despite the combination of worry and rage clearly visible in her eyes, nodded in affirmation of the unspoken message. In unison, the two turned, before, faster than the untrained eye could detect, they raced into the fray...
