A Gnosis stood, blocking the only exit from this part of the city. Its black, lifeless eyes twitched from form to form, deciding whom to pick off first. It was a sickening sight, the body of the Gnosis itself looking like the skeleton of a giant reptile long since extinct. It flexed its sinewy hands, unable to wait until a victim was struggling in its grip. Saliva bubbled in its mouth, which was lined with razor-like incisors. If such a creature was capable of any form of emotion, I could have sworn it would have been smiling a wicked grin. It stared at each of us, silently pitting our strengths against our weaknesses to see which would be the easiest fight. And its pit-like eyes stopped on MOMO... just as I had known they would.
Stamping its right foot, then its left, the form of the Gnosis wavered and flickered, so that its true form could not be recognized. Then, with a sudden solidification, there stood two Gnosis where only the one had been. They were identical, exactly the same. Each stared at us, their prey, with a gleam of delight in those dead eyes. With a flash of what seemed like electricity, a spear appeared in the right claw of each Gnosis. And, in a flash, the fight began.
The leftmost Gnosis immediately began speeding to where MOMO and Jr. were crouched. The rightmost headed directly for Shion. The shrieks of the women and the deafening gunshot from Jr. filled my ears. I was frozen in my spot. I drew a complete blank. I heard the metal form of KOS-MOS open fire on the approaching threat, and rapid fire ensued, splitting the air. Suddenly there came a clicking from Jr.'s gun. His ammo was depleted. My body reacted to the threat automatically as a trained response, and I dashed from my spot.
I whisked past KOS-MOS and Shion, as I had only one target in my sight. The spear of the Gnosis was raised, about to attack and slice the diminutive Jr. in two. MOMO's scream penetrated my thought pattern and I faltered for only a moment before I regained control and extended the blade on my left arm.
The crash and squeal of metal on metal sounded around me, and I felt immense pressure against my metallic arm. I gritted my teeth and planted my feet as sweat beads began forming on my forehead. The spear of the Gnosis had collided with my blade, and they scraped against each other as sparks flew from the clash of metal against metal. I was vaguely aware that Jr. was reloading his gun behind me, most of my body and mind trained on keep the Gnosis at bay. Slowly, my blade began to slip, the thin shaft of the spear gaining no traction. Anticipating the next move, I slashed upwards and to the right with the arm blade. The grip of the Gnosis faltered for only a second, but that was all the time I needed.
I rushed backwards, past Jr. to where MOMO sat on the pavement of the road. Without question, I scooped her up in my arms and ran toward the nearest establishment. I had to keep the Gnosis away from her, no matter the cost. It was my mission to keep her safe, but it was also my own will that had made the promise to myself and to the girl that was now sitting in my arms.
"Ziggy, what are you doing?" She called, obviously worried about the others.
"You have to stay out of sight," I told her. "The Gnosis are targeting those with the least ability to defend themselves. It's not safe with the others."
"I can defend myself," MOMO protested, struggling against my grip.
"I only want to protect you!" I said loudly. MOMO stopped struggling, seeing the redness in my face and neck. Her brows furrowed, remembering the words we had exchanged earlier.
"Only... Only because I'm part of your mission," she said softly, averting her eyes to the ground. I set her down a safe distance from the battle, and stared at her with a stark seriousness. Upon seeing the frightened look on her face, I softened my glare.
"Not only because you are a part of my mission, MOMO, but-" I was cut short as the iron, bony grip of one of the Gnosis shocked through my torso. I opened my mouth to shout in pain, but nothing came. The pain was intense, the fingers of the Gnosis closing in, trying to crush my body in its own hand. My senses dimmed, and my vision blurred, cut off from any oxygen. An invidious grin was set on the Gnosis' face as it held me at its mercy. The Gnosis began stomping back to where the others were battling, leaving MOMO where I had set her, her tiny voice calling out against the roar of the flames.
"Ziggy!" I became aware of her calling to me. Then I saw her running after the Gnosis. I wanted to yell for her not to follow, to stay put and stay safe. But I knew that she wouldn't listen to me, even if I'd had enough air in my lungs to tell her. The pink bobs of her hair flashing in the light from the flames, she pursued, shouting to get my attention. Her determination, the painful gleam in her bright eyes, made my own grip on the skeletal hand of the Gnosis even stronger.
With the strength I had left in my arms, I forced the Gnosis' hand open, breaking the two topmost digits off of its hand entirely. It screeched in pain, its wailing piercing my ears. I tossed the two digits aside, standing on the creature's now upturned palm, and leapt towards its neck. I grabbed onto the spindly creature's spine and lifted myself onto the top of its skull, all the while it tried in vain to knock me askew. I dodged a swipe by one of its claws and breathed air into my lungs. On command, my missile launcher materialized in my left hand and I proceeded to fire round after round into the base of the creature's skull. Smoke billowed around me and the smell of powder and singing flesh filled the air. Finally, the Gnosis tripped over its own two feet and fell to the ground, knocking me from my perch and sprawling me painfully onto the ground.
Tiny, cold hands were pressing into the flesh of my face, trying to force my eyes to open. They did, and they peered into the face of MOMO, which was yielding tears once again. The tension in her face relaxed when I opened my eyes, and she even looked as if she could smile. There was a brief pause, and then she closed her eyes.
"But what, Ziggy?" She asked at last. At first, my train of thought didn't connect what she was saying, and then I remembered that before we had been interrupted by the Gnosis, I had been telling her something. I forced myself to sit up, feeling pain and the gush of warm blood from my right arm. I must have landed on it the hardest during my fall from the Gnosis.
"Not only because you are part of my mission, MOMO, but because I care about what happens to you. Not the mission: just MOMO." I touched her elbow with my metallic left hand, and she shivered ever so slightly, as if in fear.
Before I could contemplate the meaning of her reaction, the Gnosis behind us rose from the asphalt of the road with an air-splitting roar. The spear rose into the air to strike the final blow. Ignoring whatever pain I felt, I leapt towards the sitting MOMO and shoved her from the spear's deadly warpath. The weapon dug into the pavement inches from my feet. It rose again and drove toward my heart. I rolled out of the way, hearing the spear point grind the tiny black pebbles under its metal head. It rose; I dodged, feeling the air displaced by the shaft as it plunged downwards, meeting the ground the smallest distance away from my body. As it fell one last time, I pushed myself to my feet and lashed out with my foot, knocking the spear from its only usable hand. It clattered to the pavement, but as I was distracted by the sound momentarily, the creature lunged.
All the air was forced from my lungs as the huge body of the Gnosis collided with mine. We hit the ground at the same moment, the asphalt splitting as our combined weight severed it forcefully. The Gnosis' neck rose, and its jaws opened with a sickening squelch. As its teeth plunged for my body, my hands lashed out and grabbed the top and bottom jaws separately. Its rank breath consumed the air around us, and wet saliva dripped from its fangs as I tried desperately to keep it from consuming me. My disgust was second only to the pain of keeping the creature at bay. My strength was waning, and the wound in my right arm was opening wider, allowing more blood to flow down my arm. I blinked to keep my vision clear, ignoring the slowly growing pool of blood under me. Just then, I felt my right arm give out and the creature's head dove forward.
With a deafening crack, gunfire exploded around me. Bullets crashed into the body of the Gnosis, causing it to raise its head and bray in pain. The Gnosis, being fired upon at two angles, gave up on trying to devour me and leapt from the indentation we had created in the road. It took only a few moments for me to regain my composure and charge from my position as well. As I emerged, I saw that both Jr. and KOS-MOS were firing upon my attacker, and, having two targets, it seemed confused on which to attack. I decided that the two of them would soon vanquish it. I turned my head to see Shion and chaos standing over the ruin of the second monster, its burning carcass lying prostrate in the middle of the street. Shion looked up, saw me, and signaled that both she and the boy with her were fine. I nodded, but took sudden notice of the change in her expression.
"Look out!" chaos shouted. I turned in a flash, the blade on my left arm shooting out and extending before me. I was rewarded with the sound of blade meeting body, the attacking Gnosis impaled upon the blade. It pulled back, roaring in frustration, and Jr. aimed his pistol at the creature's head. Just as it turned to KOS-MOS, its head exploded in a shower of blood, or at least what was blood by Gnosis standards. As it rained down upon us, I shielded my eyes by placing my left arm over my brow and watched as the body fell, dead, to the ground. A sigh of relief shuddered through my frame, and I fell to one knee, the blood still finding a way to leak from my right arm. Before I could try to stand, Shion was at my side, her hand resting on my left shoulder.
"Ziggy, are you all right?" She asked, her eyes migrating to my wound. I nodded, and, with a grunt, pushed myself to my feet.
"I'm fine. Did anyone else sustain any injuries?" I asked, my eyes searching for MOMO.
"Jr.'s got a nasty cut near the hairline, and I think that I might have broken something... Nothing a little nanospray can't help," she added with a weak smile. I looked to see that Shion's left wrist was dangling at an unusual angle, and Jr. raised his hand to wipe blood from his eyes. Not surprisingly, KOS-MOS was untouched, looking as pristine and polished as the day she woke up. I felt the stinging sensation of nanospray on my wound, and I winced. chaos pocketed the bottle of the healing spray and smiled.
"Where's MOMO gotten off to?" He asked me. "I didn't see her during the battle."
"When the Gnosis attacked for the second time, I lost sight of her when-" I didn't need to finish the sentence that was escaping my mouth as MOMO ran between chaos and Shion and stopped next to me.
"We have to get out of this district before the fires get out of control," she stated, out of breath. Had she run all the way from where we were first attacked? "If we get to the Durandal fast enough, I think that they can manipulate the weather controls to put out the fires." Jr. nodded.
"We can control everything from the bridge. The faster we get up there, the faster everything can start getting back to normal." He glanced at me, then his eyes flicked to where the Gnosis had pinned me in the pavement. "Let's go before another Gnosis decides to show up." Hastily, we left for the shuttle pad, leaving the smoldering corpses of the Gnosis behind us. When we rounded the corner that lead to the landing pad, almost the entire crowd had dispersed. Only those who were too injured to walk onto the shuttle by themselves, along with their friends and family, were left. Jr. motioned for all of us to follow him, and we all stepped onto the shuttle. Just before the door started to close, I noticed that someone was not with us. I jumped from my seat.
"Where's MOMO?" I asked. Shion looked around, then poked her head out of the opening to the shuttle. She looked back inside, her eyes resting on me.
"She's still outside," Shion said. I furrowed my brows. Why was she doing out there? Shion turned back to the door and cupped her hands around her mouth.
"MOMO! Hurry and get in!" She shouted. I could hear the mechanisms of the door starting to grind.
"I'm okay! I've got to help treat these injured people. This person's bleeding heavily;" I could hear MOMO's voice come back through the air. I stepped forward.
"I'll stay with her," I offered. Suddenly, the door began to close. Shion shouted back to MOMO.
"All right! We'll come back for you soon!"
If MOMO had made any response, I could not hear it, for the door slammed shut in front of us. A certain sense of doom gripped at my chest, and I was very nearly considering going to ask the computer to open the door and let me out. But the shuttle began to move forward, and Shion forced me into a seat.
"She'll be fine," Shion assured me. "She's a strong girl. Besides," Shion took out some nanospray and handed it to me, "we can just take the next one back to pick her up." I held the nanospray lightly in my hand, unsure of what to do with it. Shion presented her broken wrist. "Would you?" I nodded, taking her hand gently in my own and spraying her wound with the tiny, healing robots. I could almost see them working on her wound, cleaning the blood and mending the bone and muscles. She took her hand back and moved the wrist back and forth with a smile.
"She'll be fine," I repeated to myself, not sure that I was believing my own words.
"We'll just be gone for a few minutes. Nothing could really happen to her." She sat up, the shuttle slowing as it approached the Durandal. "Thank you, Ziggy."
"... It was nothing," I said, staring at the door. Shion was right. Nothing could happen to MOMO. She'll be fine.
Please, God, say that she'll be fine.
-----------------------------------
AN: Thanks, everyone, for showing your support. I know it may sound weird, but the reviews really encourage me to keep writing, and when I get none, I tend to think that no one is reading. But anyway, I'm planning on taking this story all the way up to the end of Episode I. And if I can manage it after the game comes out, Episode II as well. Wish me luck, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Stamping its right foot, then its left, the form of the Gnosis wavered and flickered, so that its true form could not be recognized. Then, with a sudden solidification, there stood two Gnosis where only the one had been. They were identical, exactly the same. Each stared at us, their prey, with a gleam of delight in those dead eyes. With a flash of what seemed like electricity, a spear appeared in the right claw of each Gnosis. And, in a flash, the fight began.
The leftmost Gnosis immediately began speeding to where MOMO and Jr. were crouched. The rightmost headed directly for Shion. The shrieks of the women and the deafening gunshot from Jr. filled my ears. I was frozen in my spot. I drew a complete blank. I heard the metal form of KOS-MOS open fire on the approaching threat, and rapid fire ensued, splitting the air. Suddenly there came a clicking from Jr.'s gun. His ammo was depleted. My body reacted to the threat automatically as a trained response, and I dashed from my spot.
I whisked past KOS-MOS and Shion, as I had only one target in my sight. The spear of the Gnosis was raised, about to attack and slice the diminutive Jr. in two. MOMO's scream penetrated my thought pattern and I faltered for only a moment before I regained control and extended the blade on my left arm.
The crash and squeal of metal on metal sounded around me, and I felt immense pressure against my metallic arm. I gritted my teeth and planted my feet as sweat beads began forming on my forehead. The spear of the Gnosis had collided with my blade, and they scraped against each other as sparks flew from the clash of metal against metal. I was vaguely aware that Jr. was reloading his gun behind me, most of my body and mind trained on keep the Gnosis at bay. Slowly, my blade began to slip, the thin shaft of the spear gaining no traction. Anticipating the next move, I slashed upwards and to the right with the arm blade. The grip of the Gnosis faltered for only a second, but that was all the time I needed.
I rushed backwards, past Jr. to where MOMO sat on the pavement of the road. Without question, I scooped her up in my arms and ran toward the nearest establishment. I had to keep the Gnosis away from her, no matter the cost. It was my mission to keep her safe, but it was also my own will that had made the promise to myself and to the girl that was now sitting in my arms.
"Ziggy, what are you doing?" She called, obviously worried about the others.
"You have to stay out of sight," I told her. "The Gnosis are targeting those with the least ability to defend themselves. It's not safe with the others."
"I can defend myself," MOMO protested, struggling against my grip.
"I only want to protect you!" I said loudly. MOMO stopped struggling, seeing the redness in my face and neck. Her brows furrowed, remembering the words we had exchanged earlier.
"Only... Only because I'm part of your mission," she said softly, averting her eyes to the ground. I set her down a safe distance from the battle, and stared at her with a stark seriousness. Upon seeing the frightened look on her face, I softened my glare.
"Not only because you are a part of my mission, MOMO, but-" I was cut short as the iron, bony grip of one of the Gnosis shocked through my torso. I opened my mouth to shout in pain, but nothing came. The pain was intense, the fingers of the Gnosis closing in, trying to crush my body in its own hand. My senses dimmed, and my vision blurred, cut off from any oxygen. An invidious grin was set on the Gnosis' face as it held me at its mercy. The Gnosis began stomping back to where the others were battling, leaving MOMO where I had set her, her tiny voice calling out against the roar of the flames.
"Ziggy!" I became aware of her calling to me. Then I saw her running after the Gnosis. I wanted to yell for her not to follow, to stay put and stay safe. But I knew that she wouldn't listen to me, even if I'd had enough air in my lungs to tell her. The pink bobs of her hair flashing in the light from the flames, she pursued, shouting to get my attention. Her determination, the painful gleam in her bright eyes, made my own grip on the skeletal hand of the Gnosis even stronger.
With the strength I had left in my arms, I forced the Gnosis' hand open, breaking the two topmost digits off of its hand entirely. It screeched in pain, its wailing piercing my ears. I tossed the two digits aside, standing on the creature's now upturned palm, and leapt towards its neck. I grabbed onto the spindly creature's spine and lifted myself onto the top of its skull, all the while it tried in vain to knock me askew. I dodged a swipe by one of its claws and breathed air into my lungs. On command, my missile launcher materialized in my left hand and I proceeded to fire round after round into the base of the creature's skull. Smoke billowed around me and the smell of powder and singing flesh filled the air. Finally, the Gnosis tripped over its own two feet and fell to the ground, knocking me from my perch and sprawling me painfully onto the ground.
Tiny, cold hands were pressing into the flesh of my face, trying to force my eyes to open. They did, and they peered into the face of MOMO, which was yielding tears once again. The tension in her face relaxed when I opened my eyes, and she even looked as if she could smile. There was a brief pause, and then she closed her eyes.
"But what, Ziggy?" She asked at last. At first, my train of thought didn't connect what she was saying, and then I remembered that before we had been interrupted by the Gnosis, I had been telling her something. I forced myself to sit up, feeling pain and the gush of warm blood from my right arm. I must have landed on it the hardest during my fall from the Gnosis.
"Not only because you are part of my mission, MOMO, but because I care about what happens to you. Not the mission: just MOMO." I touched her elbow with my metallic left hand, and she shivered ever so slightly, as if in fear.
Before I could contemplate the meaning of her reaction, the Gnosis behind us rose from the asphalt of the road with an air-splitting roar. The spear rose into the air to strike the final blow. Ignoring whatever pain I felt, I leapt towards the sitting MOMO and shoved her from the spear's deadly warpath. The weapon dug into the pavement inches from my feet. It rose again and drove toward my heart. I rolled out of the way, hearing the spear point grind the tiny black pebbles under its metal head. It rose; I dodged, feeling the air displaced by the shaft as it plunged downwards, meeting the ground the smallest distance away from my body. As it fell one last time, I pushed myself to my feet and lashed out with my foot, knocking the spear from its only usable hand. It clattered to the pavement, but as I was distracted by the sound momentarily, the creature lunged.
All the air was forced from my lungs as the huge body of the Gnosis collided with mine. We hit the ground at the same moment, the asphalt splitting as our combined weight severed it forcefully. The Gnosis' neck rose, and its jaws opened with a sickening squelch. As its teeth plunged for my body, my hands lashed out and grabbed the top and bottom jaws separately. Its rank breath consumed the air around us, and wet saliva dripped from its fangs as I tried desperately to keep it from consuming me. My disgust was second only to the pain of keeping the creature at bay. My strength was waning, and the wound in my right arm was opening wider, allowing more blood to flow down my arm. I blinked to keep my vision clear, ignoring the slowly growing pool of blood under me. Just then, I felt my right arm give out and the creature's head dove forward.
With a deafening crack, gunfire exploded around me. Bullets crashed into the body of the Gnosis, causing it to raise its head and bray in pain. The Gnosis, being fired upon at two angles, gave up on trying to devour me and leapt from the indentation we had created in the road. It took only a few moments for me to regain my composure and charge from my position as well. As I emerged, I saw that both Jr. and KOS-MOS were firing upon my attacker, and, having two targets, it seemed confused on which to attack. I decided that the two of them would soon vanquish it. I turned my head to see Shion and chaos standing over the ruin of the second monster, its burning carcass lying prostrate in the middle of the street. Shion looked up, saw me, and signaled that both she and the boy with her were fine. I nodded, but took sudden notice of the change in her expression.
"Look out!" chaos shouted. I turned in a flash, the blade on my left arm shooting out and extending before me. I was rewarded with the sound of blade meeting body, the attacking Gnosis impaled upon the blade. It pulled back, roaring in frustration, and Jr. aimed his pistol at the creature's head. Just as it turned to KOS-MOS, its head exploded in a shower of blood, or at least what was blood by Gnosis standards. As it rained down upon us, I shielded my eyes by placing my left arm over my brow and watched as the body fell, dead, to the ground. A sigh of relief shuddered through my frame, and I fell to one knee, the blood still finding a way to leak from my right arm. Before I could try to stand, Shion was at my side, her hand resting on my left shoulder.
"Ziggy, are you all right?" She asked, her eyes migrating to my wound. I nodded, and, with a grunt, pushed myself to my feet.
"I'm fine. Did anyone else sustain any injuries?" I asked, my eyes searching for MOMO.
"Jr.'s got a nasty cut near the hairline, and I think that I might have broken something... Nothing a little nanospray can't help," she added with a weak smile. I looked to see that Shion's left wrist was dangling at an unusual angle, and Jr. raised his hand to wipe blood from his eyes. Not surprisingly, KOS-MOS was untouched, looking as pristine and polished as the day she woke up. I felt the stinging sensation of nanospray on my wound, and I winced. chaos pocketed the bottle of the healing spray and smiled.
"Where's MOMO gotten off to?" He asked me. "I didn't see her during the battle."
"When the Gnosis attacked for the second time, I lost sight of her when-" I didn't need to finish the sentence that was escaping my mouth as MOMO ran between chaos and Shion and stopped next to me.
"We have to get out of this district before the fires get out of control," she stated, out of breath. Had she run all the way from where we were first attacked? "If we get to the Durandal fast enough, I think that they can manipulate the weather controls to put out the fires." Jr. nodded.
"We can control everything from the bridge. The faster we get up there, the faster everything can start getting back to normal." He glanced at me, then his eyes flicked to where the Gnosis had pinned me in the pavement. "Let's go before another Gnosis decides to show up." Hastily, we left for the shuttle pad, leaving the smoldering corpses of the Gnosis behind us. When we rounded the corner that lead to the landing pad, almost the entire crowd had dispersed. Only those who were too injured to walk onto the shuttle by themselves, along with their friends and family, were left. Jr. motioned for all of us to follow him, and we all stepped onto the shuttle. Just before the door started to close, I noticed that someone was not with us. I jumped from my seat.
"Where's MOMO?" I asked. Shion looked around, then poked her head out of the opening to the shuttle. She looked back inside, her eyes resting on me.
"She's still outside," Shion said. I furrowed my brows. Why was she doing out there? Shion turned back to the door and cupped her hands around her mouth.
"MOMO! Hurry and get in!" She shouted. I could hear the mechanisms of the door starting to grind.
"I'm okay! I've got to help treat these injured people. This person's bleeding heavily;" I could hear MOMO's voice come back through the air. I stepped forward.
"I'll stay with her," I offered. Suddenly, the door began to close. Shion shouted back to MOMO.
"All right! We'll come back for you soon!"
If MOMO had made any response, I could not hear it, for the door slammed shut in front of us. A certain sense of doom gripped at my chest, and I was very nearly considering going to ask the computer to open the door and let me out. But the shuttle began to move forward, and Shion forced me into a seat.
"She'll be fine," Shion assured me. "She's a strong girl. Besides," Shion took out some nanospray and handed it to me, "we can just take the next one back to pick her up." I held the nanospray lightly in my hand, unsure of what to do with it. Shion presented her broken wrist. "Would you?" I nodded, taking her hand gently in my own and spraying her wound with the tiny, healing robots. I could almost see them working on her wound, cleaning the blood and mending the bone and muscles. She took her hand back and moved the wrist back and forth with a smile.
"She'll be fine," I repeated to myself, not sure that I was believing my own words.
"We'll just be gone for a few minutes. Nothing could really happen to her." She sat up, the shuttle slowing as it approached the Durandal. "Thank you, Ziggy."
"... It was nothing," I said, staring at the door. Shion was right. Nothing could happen to MOMO. She'll be fine.
Please, God, say that she'll be fine.
-----------------------------------
AN: Thanks, everyone, for showing your support. I know it may sound weird, but the reviews really encourage me to keep writing, and when I get none, I tend to think that no one is reading. But anyway, I'm planning on taking this story all the way up to the end of Episode I. And if I can manage it after the game comes out, Episode II as well. Wish me luck, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!