Chapter 4 – Belated Introductions.
A/N: Short but important chapter ahead, after reviewers of course:
HHH – Man, you're not having a good year this year are you? My advice; if bird flu turns up, go lock yourself in somewhere airtight over winter. BTW; good guess :-).
Ri2 – Cool yes, eerie, most certainly; hopefully, this story (and the next…oops, you didn't hear that) will let a little more info on the dark angel slip.
DH – Good guy/bad girl – been there, read that far too often. How about bad girl with a bit of a heart/neutral, unfeeling guy? Much more fun. Oh, and as for the motive bit you mentioned, see above…
TH – Uh oh, hyper TH (cast and author backs off; author points and shouts). Don't make me get the flying monkeys again!
To her great-grandfather's undisguised despair, fumbling around in the pitch black with a well-muscled bloke wasn't a situation Lien-Da was unfamiliar with. In fact, it was one she normally enjoyed.
This time, however, was very different to anything that had gone before in several regards.
For one thing, though leather had occasionally been involved in her previous exploits, she had usually been the one wearing it. For quite another, she'd never yet had any kind of bladed instrument involved in her previous close and personal games. Above all, however, though she'd often feared for her innocence as she experimented, she'd never yet been fearful for her life as she was now.
The sudden darkness had shocked her, a small squeak of air escaping her lips that she'd had to fight hard to draw back in as the death hug sought to exhaust her supply of air. If the assassin underneath her had been perturbed by the change in circumstances and lighting levels, he gave no sign; still silent, still fighting his way to freeing himself and still crushing the air from her lungs with the legs that were entwined around her waist. I'm going to have a bruise there; she gritted her teeth into a macabre snarl, thinking of Kragok and what this beast had done to him to give her strength in the face of this adversity. Then, from almost directly beneath the fighting pair, the explosion hit with the force of a giant's fist.
That did it; as she felt her body and his lift off the floor, her anger gave way to fear as the bang, amplified by the darkness and all the more terrifying because of it, slammed into her eardrums. She cried out in fear of the unknown, strange weightlessness in the pit of her stomach as, rather than kill, she fought to escape, striking randomly in the darkness that was now spinning all around her, most of her strikes hitting something but failing to do much more than graze her own knuckles; at the acute angle she couldn't get anything behind the punches as the scream of rending, tortured metal filled her ears.
The grip on her wrist suddenly tightened further, the strain more than meeting her breaking point and, with a growl of new fear, Lien felt her hand open against her will. The sound of metal striking metal, the knife clattering away uselessly on the floor somewhere away, filled her ears like a gong tolling for her defeat as suddenly, she felt herself shift, the weightlessness replaced with a feeling of having swallowed a lead balloon. I'm falling, and I don't know how high I am; visions of her spine snapping like a twig, the ominous crunch of breaking bone sent a shudder right through her body, panic rather than hate now lending her strength to squirm and twist in the grapple, fighting desperately to get back on top, land on him rather than the other way around even if, disorientated by the darkness now all around, she had no way of knowing which way she should be fighting.
She could have hung in the air, locked in mortal combat with the soundless alien that had broken her closest relation, for mere seconds or timeless eons; however long it was the landing still came as a shock that made her teeth rattle in her skull. She'd landed on her left side, and not as heavily as she could have done due, thankfully, to the fact he still had his legs locked around her and one of them had cushioned her fall. Now I have to make the most of it – if he gets on top I'm as good as dead; snarling, somehow drawing more energy and fire from her aching body, the commander of the Dark Legion threw herself upwards and around.
Noise demonstrates weakened structural integrity. Evacuate immediate area.
She was successful! The resistance had slackened a little, she could feel him trying to writhe out from under her, the landing must have affected him much worse than her and now, that was her shot. She drew her fist back, feeling the previously unbreakable grip around her waist slough away, just as her ears registered the groaning from a point not very far behind her. That sounds like…; even as she formed the answer there was a further crash from much closer and, with another lurch of vertigo, Lien-Da felt the weightlessness clutch at her once more as the floor she was wrestling on gave way completely; together with her foe and a shriek of terror, she plunged downwards into the bowels of the base she had helped to build.
Evacuation impossible. Ensure stolen weapon recovered.
XXX
Lien was dead, she knew that; in this place of nightmares, she knew she'd fought her last battle and would fall here. Strangely, rather than outright panic and terror, rage against her fate, her mind was clear as a bell. She wasn't going down alone; she smiled savagely as she realised she could still feel her opponent's grip on her arm, so if she was falling, he had to be as well. Kragok, rest well – this guy's going dooowww!
Suddenly a jolt of pain ripped through her shoulder, her hiss of pain measured as her arm caught in some type of protrusion that arrested, but didn't completely stop, her fall. What?; the scientist in her was fascinated, even if it had little data to work with – she could feel warmer air on her cheeks and, as the currents shifted, she became aware that she was spinning in small, tight circles; it's like I'm flying. Out of instinct she looked up, to see only blackness; in the dark her eyes were not meant to see, but as she did, she became aware of a strange sensation on her face; as if all of her hairs were being individually twanged with a minuscule finger; it was unsettling, but not exactly annoying. Slow, rhythmic flaps echoed the beats of her own heart; she sought to place them in the middle of this strange picture, before with a second scream she fell again, the hold on her arm giving way at last. Even as the sound echoed in the dimness, she impacted on the ground with, not a crack, but rather, with a loud splash.
Water; as she flailed to stand up, Lien-Da tried to put together what this meant; there was nowhere in the base that held water of the volume that was, at a rough guess, about enough to submerge her if she lay down. But more worryingly than that, as she stood immobile for a minute, she realised with a thrill that the water level was rising; the room must be flooding, there's nowhere for the water to go but up! Drowning, there was a way to go she really wanted to avoid – the thought of her lungs glowing white hot with pain as she futilely tried to avoid breathing in the surrounding liquid…a chill raced down her spine, panic threatening to break in and take over her mind as she tried to focus on her own breathing, an old technique to let her think logically and clearly in these difficult and deadly circumstances. As her great-grandfather had told her more than once, lose your head, and next you lose your life; right, the water is rising, but only slowly – I have some time; there was a small splash and resultant sloshing noise that hastened her thought; the roof overhead must be unstable, I have to go slowly and carefully; the sloshing noise continued, even after the impact and if anything grew slightly louder; Lien felt that strange feeling again on her face and heard the noises pause before, inexplicably, they started again, seeming to come…towards her.
Goosebumps prickled her skin, hairs rising all over her body as her clear though made a logical connection; it's him. Someone else was down here with her, someone who had attacked her brother and was even now stalking her, seeking to finish what had been started with the Legion. I'm being hunted; panic rose again like a startled bird but she wrestled it down, sliding one foot forwards as silently as possibly underwater, getting into the stance she needed to open up, relying on her ears to hear the noises coming; from there it would be down to guesswork and sheer dumb luck. The taps on her skin now felt ominous and alien; it was like being caressed by a ghost or touched by spirits but she didn't let it put her off; her life might depend on getting this next move right. Her nerves, tautened as they were by her brother's pain, her own war with the on who was coming and this sudden near-death experience, pinged and as a suddenly rush threw up spray somewhere close by, they snapped. Spinning, she threw up her leg to catch the incoming charge, seeking to impale her foe on her foot and as she felt contact, she knew it had worked. Until the contact pressed forwards, gripping her extended leg and heaving backwards; off-balance and arms flailing, Lien was helpless to stop herself falling back with a second splash.
She'd held her breath in case her guess had been accurate and, just her luck, it actually was; the water raced over her body, just deep enough to keep her head submerged as she tried to kick free. She felt a hand grip her leg and move downwards, roughly gripping flesh and her eyes widened in fury and fear; how dare he try…: she was rolled over, onto her front, the movement displacing water up her nose as she still lashed out with her free foot, hands groping in the water for something she could use as a weapon or a lever to pull forwards. Small bits of detritus floated into her fingers, but nothing of merit; as the hand that was probing her slid under her robes, she jerked both of her own, comparatively feeble, natural weapons back to her, lungs finally beginning to ache as being underwater, with her heart hammering blood all over her body, took its toll on her air supply. She reached back, trying to grip her adversary's violating hand, ashamed to be treated like this and powerless to stop him doing whatever he wanted now when, with a sudden snatch, she felt the progress stop. The fur of her back parted as she felt the hand withdraw, dragging with it the instrument that was raking through her fur, something that, she realised with a start, didn't belong to her.
XXX
Weapon recovered.
Jumping away from his prone target, Seraph landed and opened one of his wings, making to slide the recovered knife-stick back into the easy open sheath, just opening the Velcro binding as the Mobian he'd pinned down flung herself to her feet. His keen ears detected sudden heavy breathing, necessary for her body to re-oxygenate itself after their struggle, and sudden, with a hissed hex, she was coming towards him, arm extended quickly.
Weapon recovered. Obey the code.
With this in his one-track mind, Seraph did as he was allowed to do by his psyche; with a quick movement, as though flicking a whip, the vampire bat rapped the oncoming fist with the butt of his knife-stick. Judging by the furious curses and shouts of pain that followed, he'd done enough to make his point.
XXX
Lien thrust her aching, throbbing hand into her armpit, the warmth of her own body helping to numb the pain caused by the impact. Oww, bugger; it was only when nothing followed the attack up that she glared into the impenetrable blackness as her mind made the connection; he never attacked until I did. Even as she thought of this, the example of less than a minute ago flashed back into her head with a vengeance; he had me pinned and helpless, I was there for the taking and all he did was get back that baton of his. Slowly, in time with the pulses of pain being delivered in regular shipments from her hand, an idea began to percolate her mind – maybe, for a reason that she both couldn't fathom and didn't particularly care about, he didn't actually want to fight her? It made sense; after all he could have just drowned her then if he'd wanted her dead and, as this idea had the best possible predictions for her, that the professional killer mere metres away wasn't about to strike her down, she grudgingly lowered her guard. For now.
Silence reigned, each apparently trying to sum up what the situation meant now even if neither of them could see in the darkness. Lien thought furiously; somehow she had to get out of this room as the water level was still rising, and then out of this base; she touched her wrist but already knew what the answer would be. Sure enough, the glass casing was broken; the impact of the flying knife-stick had been enough to shatter her teleport homer and even if that hadn't done it, the submerging would have. We need to make those things water-proof in the future; she filed that away for future deliberation as the tension mounted, quietness gnawing at her along with another of those strange sensations. Kragok's revenge could wait for a minute; her first priority was to get out of here in one piece and, she grimaced as though biting something sour, there was only one conceivable way she could think of to do that,
"Hey", she felt and heard, rather than saw the answering movement; the slight chafing of leather on leather as the neck of his mask moved to regard her, "you got any light?"
The answer was still more silence, but she knew he couldn't have moved; she hadn't heard any water displaced, so he was exactly where he had been before her fist had been tapped. Lien began to get impatient, the water still saturating her clothes chilled by contact with the air even if it provided the answer for the question of where she was now. There was a sudden clicking noise and, after so long in the dark, she was forced to blink and look away as something suddenly glowed a bright, fiery orange, smouldering like a coal as its light highlighted the matt black leather glove it was held within.
Vision unable to function in lightless environment. Ambiance necessary to facilitate evacuation from unsound structure.
This time it was the chemist residing within Lien's academically gifted mind that was impressed; from what she could see, the lighting implement was simply a thin plastic tube with some kind of fragile internal barrier separating two chemical components. A tug on one end had allowed said chemicals to mix together, and the result had been an impressive amount of light being generated from the resultant reaction. Interesting as this was, however, her much more pressing concern was to somehow try and deal with the guy who's silhouette loomed out over the sudden light, the orange playing over the black leather in patterns that reminded her all too ominously of a devil emerging from the bowels of hell. She fought to suppress a shudder; show no fear – show fear and he'll know he's got the advantage; and stood up tall, setting her gaze to where she guessed his head was and speaking in a cold factual tone,
"We need to get out of here". There was a slow nod, the lighting filament setting fire to two deep-set, dominant pits that counted as eyes before, just as suddenly as they'd sprung, they were extinguished, the face jerked back into the darkness as, perturbed by his lack of words, she carried on,
"This room houses the main generators, and they've been damaged", the fact that the water she'd been thrown into was warm had proved that fact; the hydro-electric power generated down here had powered the base and provided the necessary hot water simultaneously, "this room will flood soon, the water's rising. We have to get out of here or we might drown". Again the impassive mask flashed in the gleam of the light, he apparently concurred with her logic before, with a slow, deliberate movement, the light source that illuminated this two Mobian conclave wavered in the air; with a rush of barely contained incredulity, Lien watched as it was brought closer to her.
Light source more efficiently utilised by those unable to compensate for darkness.
He's offering this to me?; once more he'd managed to wrong-foot her; first he spares my life when I tried to kill him, then he gives me this…now where's he going? Her numb fingers snatched at the offered tool all the same; at least with this, she could banish some of her instinctive fear of the dark. She was expecting it to be hot and braced as such, only to feel nothing beyond a pleasant heat that warmed through the chilling water on her hands still; a virtually heatless, undetectable light supply; she marvelled at the simplicity of such a device, and the usefulness of it, especially in the field its owner appeared to inhabit. Speaking of whom; it was only when the sloshing noises paused beside her and a hand gripped her, not roughly, not softly, but a grip all the same, that she was jerked back to the present,
"Hey", she ripped her arm away angrily, still not over the events of minutes ago, "what are you doing; we need to get out of here".
"Yes", the voice reminded her of a rasp; a sinister, efficient tool to wear away the nerves of those that heard it, "follow". So; she summed up the hidden message in those two simple words; he thinks he can rattle me by acting macho, like he doesn't have any feelings for me or anything else – okay tough guy, we'll play it your way for now. After a second's pause, she made her next move,
"Wait", she didn't have to feign incredulity too much; part of her was genuinely curiously, "you can see in this?"
"Yes".
XXX
To say Lien-Da was an unhappy Mobian would be an understatement of mythic proportions; she was cold, wet, knee deep in water, trudging through the remains of what had once been the main generator station of a Dark Legion base that had been built without the permission of Dimitri in the pitch black with only a tiny device emitting about as much light as the average candle to light the way.
And she was holding hands. With the Mobian who had caused all this and, as a final, unforgivable sin, had nearly beaten her twin brother to death.
The only thing that stopped her screaming aloud was the fact that, if she did, she risked shattering this fragile rogue's alliance; she, of course, had plans to do such a thing herself, but not before it suited her, when she had a free shot at this masked freak and could really repay everything he owed to her and her family. She concentrated all her efforts on the little things to keep the stress at bay; trying to guess at which reaction could emit photons of the energy level needed to class as orange or yellow light, attempting to recall the base layout and plot the best, quickest route to the main entrance of the base and, above all, plotting methods by which to get the better of the Mobian who now acted as her eyes. I think I might need to worm my way in; he's hiding something more than just his face with that mask; the female echidna gave where she presumed the back of her guide to be located; a couple of poses, maybe a few hints and I might be able to get through his skin – water breaks rock by lodging in a crack and freezing, that's the way I'll put this cowardly butcher down.
The walked wore on, slow due to the impeding water that was still, ever so slowly creeping up in level; Lien bit down a sigh as she felt it dribble over the hem of her boots and soaked her legs still more thoroughly; another pair of decent shoes ruined – something else on your account sunshine. She glared, raising her eyes upwards as though asking for patience, when with a sudden gasp she groped forwards blindly; the grip on her arm had dropped and, well, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, and who knew what was out there now.
"Where are you?" Her voice was a whisper, more anger than fear involved as the answering whisper filtered back through the inky dark before her,
"Door ahead", there was a sudden splash as he moved off, away from her; she raised her coal still further to see his departing shadow, "I shall open it".
"What about me? You just expect me to sit here and wait for you to do whatever it is you're taking your sweet time over?"
"Yes". Right, now we're getting somewhere; Lien smiled, happy her face was obfuscated by the lack of light as her previous experiences with men had offered her insight into the psyche of that strange, simple species; they know their logic is faultless, but you can tie them in knots when you ask for an explanation of it;
"And just why should I do that? Are you suggesting I'm incompetent?"; a little inferiority complex as well, just to tug on the heartstrings;
"I am aware of your capabilities, but you have no choice in the matter". Ah; her brow knitted a little, she hadn't quite been expecting that for an answer; he's got a point there – I move, I get lost and maybe end up stuck in here. Still, she tried to draw up a bright side from this; the answer had caught her out this time, but it had opened another avenue of attack; he really was a man of few words, so by getting him to talk at every chance she had, she'd be able to chip through his ice-cold front and reach the vulnerable areas hidden by it. And when we hit that; she grinned in savage joy as she pictured breaking this sewer skulker up, one little piece at a time; we start having fun. And well, now was as good a time as any to start,
"Hey", she shouted into the darkness, "what are you doing?" The raspy reply came back, clipped and clinical as all his previous speech had been,
"Opening the door".
"How, the power's out?"
"Hacking"; yeah, that'd do it; she stood still, ignoring the water now lapping around her hips as she mused over what she'd achieved so far; four words in three seconds isn't a bad start. It was only when she reran the words back through her head that the importance of one of them stuck out in her head; looking down with terror freezing her in place, she shouted,
"Wait, stop, there's a…" it was too late; there was a blinding white glare and a jolt of pain through her legs; Lien lost all feeling below the waist and, unable to support herself, pitched face first into the waiting waters.
The anti-tamper device was common to most secure doors in the majority of Dark Legion centres of operation; anyone who tried to cut through and rewire the door control panel tripped a switch that sent a very nasty electric pulse right through them, generated separately by the door itself, enough to knock them out or at least stun them. As her head sank below the water, steel dreadlocks dragging her down, Lien felt a stab of irony; installing those was my idea and look where it landed me. Her hands touched the bottom of this lake and she pushed up, letting the light source go, straining her neck and back muscles, trying to get at least her nose above water, but no, she couldn't do it – with her legs dead, she didn't have much of a hope of managing that aim. The water conducted it right to me; even as she fought to reach air again, trying a few sculling strokes with her hands she found herself thinking of how she'd been hit from all the way over there; the shock should've put me under, well, in a way it has, but at least I'm not unconscious. Gathering all her energy into one spring, she pushed hard off the bottom, aiming to take a deep breath if she broke the surface, just about aware that her dreadlocks were being playfully tugged by a strong current from somewhere before, just prior to her great attempt, something seized her by the back of the collar and hauled upwards.
Proceed following recovery. Obstacle removed from path.
XXX
As Lien-Da coughed and spluttered, wiping the water from her face and eyes, Seraph stood firm, troubled neither by the effort of holding the echidna upright or bracing himself against the tide of water that was now sweeping out of the room in a miniature river. He'd seen the glare of generated electricity race over his damp over, though the shock hadn't been in the order of magnitude needed to defeat his specially engineered leather, but from the sudden splash and swearing he'd guessed his former target hadn't been as well shielded. It was immaterial now; once she regained the use of her legs, the way would be clear for them both to press on. He felt the echidna struggle and tightened his grip still further; by his estimate and having studied the mechanisms of the doors of this base, based on the shock voltage she'd been exposed to she had at least another three minutes to wait before regaining full motor control of her legs.
"Get the hell off of me!" His supporting grip didn't waver, even when he felt impacts on his armour, more taps than anything else as the Kevlar stopped most of the force reaching him, "I…"
"You can not stand".
XXX
Good point; she had to concede that one as, with pins and needles spearing every neurone she had below the level of her waist, life gradually, grudgingly, trickled back down to the tips of her toes. With it came an odd feeling;' the hem of her robes was being rushed along by water, the tide pulling the material with it as it raced away; that fact coupled with the slight rushing noise she could hear allowed her to conclude that, though he'd tripped the safety switch doing it, her partner of convenience for the moment had managed to get the door open. Wincing, she tried to curl her toes and fight down the resulting wave of painful nerve stings; the ramrod stiff grip still applied to her collar not letting up in the slightest as she fought to control her feet once more, feeling strangely like a piece of washing flapping on the line.
"Right", gingerly she shifted her legs back to where they needed to be, "I think I can manage". Slowly reacting to her words, the weight bearing hold dropped lower, slowly releasing her body back to the floor, the transfer smooth and gradual, pausing fractionally at every stage to ensure she was comfortable with the new increments of weight. Finally, the hand withdrew completely and, shucking her shoulders, Lien straightened her again sodden clothes and scowled,
"Great, drenched again and now I'm blind as a bat…"
Technically incorrect; bats have visual capacity but utilise sonar navigation in the darkness.
"…so, get me to the door". She half-expected him to ask for, or demand, a please with that – she knew she'd have no hesitation had the roles been reversed, reinforcing the fact that she was in the stronger position but no, the alien hand touched her arm again and, aside from the occasional puddle, the duo emerged from the main generator room, if not good friends, at least refraining from ripping apart each other's throats, for the moment at least.
XXX
"We need to head upwards", Lien stated as she retrieved the glow stick from where it had been swept into a puddle of water, the orange glow giving the location of their only light source away, "we follow this corridor to it's end and then head right for three; there's a lift shaft there we can shin up".
"No", she span around, angry at being contradicted in her own base and saying as much angrily,
"Oh, and you know the way out better than me do you?" For the third time, the mask burst into fiery flames, the time a burning arm sweeping out to point the opposite way to her intended route; trying to force the cogs to turn, Lien tried to remember what was down that way but, shaking her head, she couldn't. Still, might be an advantage; her quick mind hit on something positive through the fog; if he gets it wrong, I can go in through the mockery channel.
"Fine", her face twisted into an ugly sneer, as though trifling things such as directions were beneath her, "lead on then; you know where we're going from here; what, don't you trust me?" She tried, and succeeded, in looking innocently coy and sharkily disrespectful simultaneously as an arm pointed to a spot by the side of its owner. The mask leant forwards,
"You have the light".
"Oh yeah", she looked at the glow-stick as though a new sun had been born in her palm, "I never realised that before, but anyway, according to you, you can see in the dark, so why do you need it there?"
"I can see", his arm didn't waver as his eyes turned to meet hers; for the first time Lien felt a little uncomfortable talking to this guy; I didn't think he could hold that creepy tone this long – like he doesn't care about anything – he's a good actor, maybe as good as I am; "you can not; guiding you reduces my combat effectiveness".
"You expect someone to jump us, down here?" She folded her arms triumphantly, "newsflash biker-boy; there's no-one here but us".
"Exactly".
There wasn't really an answer to that; as Lien figured out what he meant she scowled and spat on the floor near his feet, bristling at being caught out even as she slowly moved into position alongside her hated team-mate. It was only as they began moving that an idea clicked on in her mind,
"Just a minute", she turned to regard him, the Mobian with no face and, at the minute, no name she knew of, "I can think of a few titles, but what's your name?"
No disadvantage revealing that information. Identity protected by numerous safeguards.
For a second she'd thought he wouldn't answer; if he didn't this was a tempting lure to bite at, but then, just fractionally, his head lowered,
"Seraph". Some kind of angel you are; Lien chuckled, the sound echoing in the steel tunnel, the noise driving deeper under his skin and forcing the crack she needed to make a break,
"What is that, some kind of code for something? That what your boss calls you? Your friends – like you'd have friends? I bet the closest you've ever come to getting friendly with someone was rifling their private paperwork before you stuck a knife in their back".
Incorrect statement. No code or boss involved. Private paperwork used only to gain information. All relationships professional only.
He didn't react, merely standing there, not moving a muscle, somehow soaking up her scorn without trace; Lien found a flicker of admiration lighting up in mind; that sort of thing would have had Kragok up the wall by now. Kragok…; the sight cleared her mind, crushed the spark – she'd never admire this freak of nature, not after what he'd done. Silence, brooding and heavy, fell once more as, in concert, the pace slow as she tried to drop behind him unnoticed and he fell back accordingly to deny her the opportunity. The first steps towards liberty had been taken, but if one of these two had their way, only one pair of feet would make it to the finish line in one piece.
A/N: And what challenges await these two in the future… Oh, just in case anyone's interested in why Kragok was a target, I suggest you read the prologue again, bearing in mind what's been revealed up until now. Remember the code; do unto others as had been done unto you.