Disclaimer: Life sucks more for those bounty hunters. Poor bounty hunters.
Disclaimer's bigger, meaner sibling: Things are going to get messy this time. Don't eat while reading. You've been warned.
Chapter 31: The Storm
The first salvo from the Archangel landed a good hundred yarz from any of his or brother's groups. The heavy shells kicked up quite a spray of assorted rock bits and dust, and also obscured all visual signs of the advancing horde of spiders. Of course, that was no problem for him. He could /hear/ them clearly, the dirge of anger and greed clearly pointing out where they were. Still, despite the growing proximity risk, the front line advance was a lesser threat for the moment.
The persistent glimmers of thought that passed for intelligence among their kind had once again made advancements. The /noise/ among the nest last night was far in excess of what it should have been. It /sounded/ like an entire city instead of the scraggly nest it was, and that did not bode well. They had finally devised a primitive method of jamming psychic contact by having electronic devices screaming out meaningless gibberish, just like a large nest would. He frown deepened as he considered the implications. They could well and truly end his sister's communications with such things, though the more immediate problem was that he would have to get considerably closer to exert control over them. He might even have to touch any that actually had one of the things on their body to establish a link. Just the thought made his hands clammy, as if in dire need of cleansing.
Of course, there wasn't much brother would permit him to do. Brother had very reluctantly recanted on his earlier agreement, allowing him to use some of his mental powers. However, he was still limited in the scope of what he could do- as if making them fall asleep would help in the long run. In any case, it would suffice for the time being. He could accomplish what needed to be done.
Small eddies rapidly passed through his magnetic field. So, they had already started shooting, without even the most rudimentary of ideas on where their targets might lay. Such idiocy... If this was the median quality of the opponent, brother's thoroughly asinine plans actually stood a better than fair chance of succeeding. Of course, that still wasn't good enough despite being better than anticipated. That was why he had made better plans.
"Go. Deal with them however you wish."
The two 'ladies' straightened up, and the mountaintop shook just slightly as the next salvo came down.
At the base of the mountain, there were still a fair number of people present. The majority were hawkers and dealers of various items, drawn in by the scent of money. Not the kind to be gained from a bounty, but the kind gained when there were demands to be filled. After all, a bounty was only given to one person or group, but all persons and groups needed food, water, and ammo. This was, of course, provided that they hadn't planned ahead well enough. Corporal Rand planned ahead well. They hadn't required a single item, and could care less for the bounty. Let the hunters on the hill take the body.
They had quietly dispersed into four man fire teams the last night, scattered to various locations in the city and surrounding terrain. The 3rd appeared to be taking to a long range bombardment, but they weren't actually doing a thing besides making his ears ache. All the shells had fallen short thus far, only serving to kick up a massive dust cloud that hovered around the top of the mountain once the wind stopped blowing it away. That, and subjecting everyone in the base town to the high pitched shrikes as the shells rocketed overhead. At this rate, getting an ID would take much longer than planned, though the chaos he had expected to erupt was also on hold. None of the hunters were about to try running through the fire zone with that sort of bombardment, so it effectively kept the two groups apart. Well, aside from a few that had taken to the vertical ascent on the other sides of the mountain. He would simply watch with his binoculars until the bombardment stopped while Deadeye, the sniper of his fire team, watched through the rifle scope slightly behind him. The other two watched their backs in case of trouble from the encampment stay-behinds. He kept scanning the forward edge of the dust cloud for any signs of it clearing, but only saw more rocks go flying. Wait... There hadn't been any shells passing over at the time...
He zipped back to the spot where the rock had popped up, and could just dimly make out some motion in the thick dust. An outline appeared a second later, and he frowned. They had very clearly counted nine people on the top, and this one didn't match any of them. It was a hulking giant brute of a man, bald, clad in loose black leather that only enhanced the extreme musculature he possessed. However, the most striking feature was the face- as huge as the eyes were, he couldn't see a trace of a feature, as if they had long since rolled back in rigor mortis. Everything else was obscured under the black leather, which would make breathing supremely difficult. That assumed it breathed- the thing was walking death.
"Count seven total."
A quick sweep showed that Deadeye was right on the mark as usual. Seven of the towering monstrosities were up there, all exactly the same. That was a good enough ID for him, as only the Stampede was vicious enough to have monsters like that around. "I'm calling it as the Stampede. Take them all down."
A few whistles were the only sounds made as the sniper rifle spat out rounds. He sent the coded signal to the other teams, and took another look at the lines. All seven of the things were still there, slowly coming down the mountain. That shouldn't be possible...
"It's no good, sir. The rounds can't pierce them at this range."
He swore internally. This had to be the Stampede's doing. Well, at least they appeared to be unarmed aside from massive crushing fists, so the bounty hunters could take care of them. It was a shame that they couldn't do the entire job themselves, but it was only to be expected against someone as destructive as the Stampede. He went back to scanning the dust cloud as it slowly dissipated. It appeared that the 3rd had finally given up on the bombardment, so it shouldn't be much longer before the mountaintop was back in view. He heard Deadeye do a sharp intake of breath, so he dipped his view back down to the toughs. His teeth gritted. The bastards had concealed cannons right in their hands!
"Deadeye, fire at will. Try and make things hard for them until we can target the Stampede!"
There was no response. He turned to the sniper, and noticed that the scope lens had broken. Damn shoddy builds, he would have a word with their supply officer over this. He nudged Deadeye, but the sniper didn't snap out of it. Instead, he just tipped over slowly and a stream of blood poured out of the rifle scope. This time he swore audibly. Something had gone right through the scope and into his eye, and was now likely lodged in the sniper's brain.
"Fall back! Hide among the tents, we've been spotted!"
One of the lookouts wasted no time in dashing for the tent city, but the other remained glued in place, staring open mouthed at Deadeye's corpse.
"I said move it, soldier!"
The man just clutched at his legs. "My feet won't move... I can't even feel them..."
He glanced down, and saw two small red needles embedded in the man's shins. He dove down to yank them out, and just in time too- he heard the rush of a projectile that had just come much too close for comfort. He saw a puddle of red emerging from under the soldier's boot, and looked back up only to wish he hadn't. A massive nailhead stuck out of the man's mouth, and the soldier was clutching at it with one arm while the other arm hung limp. Blood began to bubble up and spill over around the nail, and it suddenly dawned on him just what had happened. He ran for cover- there was nothing to be done for a man impaled from mouth to foot. Though at the angle of entry... the attack would have had to come from practically right overhead. Now swearing loudly, he dove into the nearest cluster of tents and worked his way around under the protectively obscuring canvas. Shouts came from outside the tents, and then a horribly familiar scream of limbs that wouldn't move. Even the non-coms were being slaughtered out there!
He felt a slight rumble, and trained reflexes took over and rolled him out of the way just as the ground exploded. The tent got wrapped partially around him as it was thrown through the air, and he went along for the ride. Another scream sounded, but this one came from no human mouth. He ripped the canvas away from his eyes even as he knew just what he would see. Sure enough, of all the blasted things that could possibly go wrong, here was one of the worst in all of its hundred yarz long glory. The sandworm bellowed again and dove right into another tent cluster, instantly crushing it and anyone who was inside. He heard more of the inhuman screeches, and saw the cursed things jumping up all over the place.
A small gaggle of bounty hunters dashed across the recently-made-open field, practically running over each other. When the leader suddenly dropped, they did run right over him. The abandoned comrade began to pull himself forward, the pure terror driving him to get away. The bounty hunter abruptly vanished as a sandworm dove down, and only a rapidly filling hole remained. This was too much, far too much.
He opted to remain motionless and play dead. The sounds of the rampage echoed from all sides as he forced himself to stay still. If he made it through this, he was going to get the entire goddamn Cavalry mobilized. Someone had to put an end to this. The Stampede was inhuman, and if they couldn't stop him... Then every man, woman, and child on Gunsmoke was as good as dead.
Back on the mountaintop, things were considerably less catastrophic. Not that most up there had any clue as to what sort of wrath had been let loose down below, being a bit busy with the few dozen bounty hunters that had scaled the other faces of the mountain. Meryl Stryfe was one of the oblivious ones due to some slight distractions, such as receiving a number of uzi rounds to the gut.
"Thank goodness for lost technology armor..."
The armor suit had already proven itself twice in under five minutes, turning possibly deadly shots into mere bruises. It hadn't taken long to figure out that she was best off darting between the small boulders littering the summit, then clocking the more normal hunters with the butt of the gun. The built-in taser worked wonders on the ones with mechanical implants, but getting up close was far from safe. All the ones with heavy metal seemed to prefer lugging around howitzers, and she doubted that the armor was good enough to withstand something that would send a car flying. Thus it turned into a mad scramble from rock to rock as each one was either chipped away or shattered outright.
A momentary lull in the fire being directed her way allowed for a quick reload and general assessment of the situation. By her own count, she had knocked out or otherwise disabled twenty three attackers, though there seemed to be no end to the supply. She groaned in dismay when she noticed just how far away from the rest of the group she had gotten. Indeed, all she could spot was Knives. The plant was walking along casually, a plastic easygoing look across his face as the attackers around him just swayed and fell over. "Why the egotistical jerk, looks like he's having a Sunday walk instead of-"¤click¤"-dammit."
She spun around and caught the hunter behind her with a taser to the gut. He slumped over right on top of her, so she shoved him back up and away. Suddenly, the man's form turned to a mere outline as a blinding light erupted around him. There was a spray of red, and her entire body was slapped backward. She skidded along the ground right into a boulder, sending a blinding pain up her left side to join the burning in her eyes. She rubbed them with her one working hand, feeling a wet stickiness everywhere. Vision came back slowly and painfully, and the first thing she could make out was a figure standing over her. The taser came out again, but before she could connect her arm was kicked aside then stepped on.
"Careful, spider. Just because brother picked you doesn't mean you can turn on me."
The weight on her arm lifted and she tried to sit up, only to have white fire rip through her shoulder.
"It's dislocated. Hold still."
Inhumanly powerful hands clamped down on her arm and collar and shoved. She heard the pop even as the pain ripped through her form again, forcing enough tears through to clear her vision. Her eyes cracked open to see him glaring down at her, now with a good honest scowl of disapproval. The dull throbbing that consumed her entire frontside demanded attention, so she glanced down only to have her eyes widen with horror. Everything was red, a terrible rusty red. A sharp intake of breath brought the smell along, and finally overloaded her senses. She rolled on her side and retched, causing the pain to flare up again.
"How pathetic. It's not yours at all. However, it is sickening to see just how far your kind will stoop. Such viciousness... And now, you can't do a thing. You're useless, so why don't you rest while I take over."
Her retort died on the tip of her tongue as a wave of exhaustion overtook her prone form. She could feel him /shoving, relentlessly driving her down. She fought back- she couldn't rest, not now, not with so much at stake... /"Unwise. You are damaged. I am much more capable. Besides, brother has a great interest in you. I will not stand by and let his favorite run off and kill themselves in some noble yet futile gesture once again."/
He slammed her down into the darkness of unconsciousness, then studied her sprawled body while doing the same to anyone else that looked his way. He had intended to let brother keep that two-faced Rem, but she had run off and ruined everything instead, turning what would have been a mercifully swift and painless end to humanity into an agonizingly slow death that threatened to take down his kind as well. Brother's new pet would need watching, her foolish notions were just going to leave brother a sobbing wreck yet again. The things he did for family...
Around the other side of the mountain's summit, another small spitfire was finding out how little bite there was to back up her considerable bark. The bounty hunters were trying to kill them, all of them, and that included her! This wasn't how any of the stories she had heard went... They were the good guys, they should be winning with no sweat, or have the Cavalry come riding to the rescue. Instead, she had fled at the first impact, an overpowering panic sending her to run and hide in a crack under a large boulder. That was where she had stayed, huddled in the shadows while the sounds of fighting outside echoed all around her. She practically crushed her ears and squeezed her eyes shut so hard that they felt like popping, all to try and block out the horrible things going on around her. It did no good. Even blind and deaf, she could still feel the very ground shake from the intensity of the fight outside. She gave up blocking it out, and just held herself while peering out.
He refuge stayed safe for a time, but not forever. A group of about twenty came into view, all with the same dirty travel cloaks and face obscuring dust filters. The black lenses kept peering out, some scrambling up the boulder while others reloaded a small arsenal of weapons. One abruptly dropped back down right in front of her, and before she knew what she was doing, her hand shot out and jabbed the two taser prongs right in the figure's thigh. A hiss came out and the figure went down, then all of the goggles turned her way. Weapons rose in the next instant as a scream escaped her throat, the impassioned wail of someone left alone, utterly and completely alone at the final end, and then-
"Don't touch her, you meanies!"
Heads jerked up just in time to get smacked back down as a trio of stungun bolts pinned six of the masked marauders to the ground. Another one went down as a dropping Thompson clotheslined them as she landed, then the rest of the cluster dropped as they got pegged across the head by the barrel of a swung stungun. The nearby scoundrels dealt with, the emptied stungun took out a few more, literally, when the built up momentum from the roundhouse swing suddenly found itself no longer being curved via a powerful grip- The gun zoomed off out of view, taking the two who had the misfortune to be in the way along for the ride. Of course, all actions produce a reaction, and the sailing stungun sent a tumbling Thompson the other way.
The group, having rapidly decided which lady posed the bigger threat, began to pepper her path with hot lead. The bullets went where intended, but their target was missing when they got there- having used her other weapon as an impromptu pole vault, she shoved off with one arm first and the gun second. The next cluster went down in another clothesline/gun sweep combo, and everyone sidestepped in anticipation of a hearty chuck sending them halfway across the summit. The move proved to be wasted, when instead of turning into another projectile the silver cross clanked open and spat a long streaming arc of goo over the remaining few mercenaries. Most tried to wipe it off right away, but only managed to get themselves completely stuck in the stuff. Others tried to fire, but found that having gunk covering their guns kept them from working.
Of course, one of them just had to have a rocket launcher. The backwash blew a huge bubble in the goo, but it didn't stop it from launching right at the solid rock wall next to her savior. Instead of making a dive for safety- what little there was to be had -she jumped into the rocket's path, pulled off her duster, held it right in front of the oncoming explosive, and yanked the whole thing sideways. The rocket zipped back out of the makeshift sling, now heading up and away to drop well over the cliff edge. The one who had fired the rocket let the launcher slip through their fingers, and soon joined the dropped weapon on the ground. The entire thing has taken only a few seconds to play out.
Milly promptly forgot all about the bounty hunter group as she rushed to her side, questions coming out at full babble. "Are you okay Lina? Did they hurt you? Rob you? Take your pudding! Ooh, they seemed just mean enough to take someone's pudding, yes indeed..."
Whatever else Milly said was lost to her as she gaped at the big girl. She had seen people get worked up into a good rage before, usually with the help of a few bad drinks, but what under the twin suns had that been? It wasn't like anything she'd seen before, and how could it move so smoothly from complete asskicking into concerned doting? Just to top things off, why did it feel so frustratingly familiar?
"Get down!"
Line suddenly found herself flattened against the ground as Milly shielded them both from some bullets with the cross. It clanked open again, this time discharging a large net that tangled up the next three attackers. Milly rolled them out from under the bounder's shade, and it was back to finding a good hiding spot. This time, though, she had someone watching out for her.
Right about the very peak of the mountain, the main focus of all the fireworks was dancing his way through the onslaught. He could have been doing much better, but had to split his focus between the battle and bro. Once he got a good feel of what was happening further down the slope, he very quickly figured out how to yell telepathically and put the newfound skill to use. After all, the sort of skills required for the mass slaughter going on had been directed at him on quite a few occasions- it was the trademark of the Gung-ho Guns. He had assumed that all of them had died once Legato himself had forced a confrontation, but it appeared that he had been dead wrong about that. He had too much to handle to deal with the Gung-ho Guns as well- he needed another option, so he was now /yelling/ his head off at Knives to call them back. Things hadn't gone very well thus far.
"/Of course they can. The agreement was that I not kill anyone, and I have upheld it completely. What my Gung-ho Guns do to fulfill my objectives is entirely up to them./"
"/They're killing hundreds! You knew this is what would happen, and that makes you responsible/"
"/They could have chosen to engage them in a non-lethal manner, but they've chosen to be more efficient instead. Humanity gravitates towards the greatest destruction unless you force them to do otherwise./"
"/You don't know them at all, you've been on your own all this time so you never learned anything about humanity/"
"/Ah, but you're wrong there. I've had my Gung-ho Guns, and they're quite human for the most part. However, I'm inclined to agree with you about not being around them enough./"
"/So you admit that you don't know enough/"
"/Yes. Being among humans has taught you how to fight in a way I couldn't match. Lessons carved right into your body... I've had to play catch-up these last few months, irritating as it ...as. I think ...at y.../"
"/Knives? What's happening? I can hardly hear you/"
Knives came back in, though this time he was having to /yell/ too. "/Range problems. I'll contact you again once I've obtained some... insurance against undesirable possibilities./"
The link cut off, leaving him alone aside from his thoughts and a few dozen bullets every second. Range issues meant that Knives wasn't anywhere close by, and thus wouldn't be able to call off the Gung-ho Guns, but why had he gone off in the first place? What sort of 'undesirable possibilities' were so urgent that bro would run off right in the middle of a titanic clash? He had to figure it out, and quickly, before anyone else got hurt. Man, why did he have to get stuck in the crossfire? He needed a moment of calm to think, or someone else to do the thinking for him. If only- Oh. Oh hell.
He had to end this, right now. There wasn't any time to spare if he was going to catch Knives. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and a very desperate idea began to form. The entire area was littered with spent bullets, and more were arriving by the moment. He could use those, and if he boosted up along with 'it', then maybe... He'd pulled some crazy stunts, but this next one would probably just about top them all. He sent the command, but only so far as to trigger its internal power generation. He was supposed to supplement it, but this time he needed it to supplement him. Time for a little hocus-pocus...
The bounty hunters around him saw a window of opportunity when he stopped in his tracks, and really let loose a barrage at his still form. When he didn't collapse after several seconds of nonstop fire, they toned it down and took shelter, expecting a retaliation of considerable proportions any second. They were definitely going to get something, all right... The bullets that he had slung into the air were soon joined by countless numbers of their brethren on the ground, twisting and turning along the magnetic field lines. With so much metal in the field, he could sense the building currents and the slight yet growing smell of ozone. It started with a few crackles, then a pop or two. The charges built up further, until they were so great that they bridged the gaps between the circling bullets. The transfers cascaded, finally giving him the effect he wanted. The sounds of gunfire died down all across the mountain as everyone's attention became focused his way. He took off his glasses and scanned the whole crowd, letting everyone get a good look. He then took a deep breath, and /shouted/ as loudly as he could, which was pretty darn loud considering what he was hooked into.
"Go!"
Now, there are times when commands are ignored. Sometimes people won't take them seriously, or they think they know better, or they just plain brush you off. However, when a hundred yarz high tornado of lightning and thunder, flaring brighter than the twin suns, formed around someone rumored to be the devil himself, bellows that you should be elsewhere, you goddamn listen. A few hesitated for a moment, but once they saw that everyone else was skedaddling as fast as their legs could move they vamoosed with the best of them. The summit was clear in moments, and the slopes emptied out soon after. He reigned the power in, and let the whirlwind drop as he fell to one knee. "I could sleep for a week..."
Unfortunately, he didn't have a week free. He pulled himself back up and started to trudge down the slope when one of the Gung-ho Guns popped in front of him.
"Aw man, I really don't have time for this... Could you take an IOU or something? I gotta go see bro and don't have time for a proper introduction."
She smiled back at him. "Oh, but we already know each other and the master doesn't want us to fight you. Now now, anyway. Just as well, it's quite a pain finding a good host and settling in."
"Er, yeah, whatever. Well, if you're not here to fight, then why don't you get out of the way?"
"Because the master wishes to be undisturbed."
"Well, tough. So you're just here to slow me down?"
"No, that's his job."
She motioned behind him just as he felt a sting on his neck. He tried to look back, but the ground decided to be funny and turned itself sideways. Things began to get blurry as he tugged something out of his neck. How quaint, an all-plastic tranquilizer dart... A seductive voice broke in, whispering into his ear.
"Now don't you listen to that little hoochee, I'm more a lady than Zazie will ever be. It's been fun Vashy-poo, but since the battle is won we need to be going. Why don't you look me up sometime? Later..."
Sometime later, a groggy wake-up occurred due to a bit of especially rough bouncing. A moment of wakeful confusion was soon replaced with full-born alertness once it was confirmed that this was not where she had fallen asleep- as if it would have been possible to fall asleep with all the bucking and bouncing the motorcycle sidecar was doing. It was as if whoever was driving was driving like a maniac. One glance over showed otherwise- it wasn't someone driving like a maniac, it was just a plain old maniac who happened to be driving.
"Awake already? Tsk, you're quite the handful."
"You don't know the half of it. What's going on? Where's Vash?"
"Brother is fine, and the rest is irrelevant. Now sit quietly."
"Of all the nerve! I'll have you know that... What's going on here!"
The finger she had tried to bring up to poke in the officious plant's chest wasn't getting anywhere. That was because the finger was connected to the hand, the hand connected to the wrist, and the wrist handcuffed to the motorcycle sidecar. She was sick and tired of the blasted things, and Knives was so going to get it now. Just before she could really let loose on him, another wave of exhaustion came over her.
"Damn... you..."
"Quite impossible. Oh, and I do believe-" He reached down and pulled something from her as she struggled to keep her eyelids from closing. "-that this is mine."
The last thing she saw was the sickly sweet grin on his face as he tucked away the gun.
Another chapter, and everything went right to hell! Just about everyone, too, except for 'Zazie'. Turns out we had the wrong soul all along, so we had to send him upstairs... Now to worry, we have plenty of newcomers!
Bounty Hunter Horde: This sucks!
Legato: ¤is laughing manically and waving around a giant foam 'Evil is #1' hand¤
Wolfwood: ...
Ugh, it's way too crowded here.
Legato: I can remedy that... Midvalley, some moshing music if you please?
Midvalley: How is that supposed to help? The mosh pit is way too small.
Legato: Only a matter of correct... packing.
Midvalley: Oh, gotcha. ¤strikes up a song¤
Legato: ¤does the moshing¤
Well, that solves that, if in a rather disgusting way.
Moshed Bounty Hunter Horde: This sucks even more!
Quiet. I need to get on with the...
Reviewer Responses
betsytheripper: Action, with a side of action. You should be full by now, and we had the wrong Zazie down here- t'was just a little kid after all. Now I feel bad about all that suffering and stuff, especially amateur karoke night...
cjflutterbye: No more Knives groupies, just some killing machines now. I'm guessing this leaves Knives as a wallflower, so go at 'em! And it was only two weeks, so nyah!
hope-is-4ever: ¤apologizes profusely for all the sad and horrible things¤
Yma: Sadly, with such buildup I may have set myself up for a fall in the actual fight. I think it's suitably dramatic, but who's to say?
The Mad Fangirl: You spotted it! Free pie! Elendira the Crimsonnail is around, among others. Jolly good time!
Next time: The chase is on, but will Vash catch up in time? Will the Gung-ho Guns cause more trouble? And what interest does Knives have in Meryl? Find out next time, on Trigunball Z!