Meili swatted at Rocket as he climbed up onto her back and perched upon her shoulders. The two of them were sharing her massive mabeast and thus there was plenty of room for him to function without causing her any grief. The young girl hunched forward as they thundered out across the open plain chasing at the White Whale, its harsh shadow cast by the Night Banisher a marker of where it was headed.
"You don't have to walk all over me, ya know!" She shouted.
Rocket stared up at the creature swimming through the sky and the question she asked seem to flow right past him without him giving it the least bit of consideration. He chuckled to himself. "Oh yeah, I'm gonna get me that horn," Rocket muttered.
"Are you listening to me?" Meili asked, looking back over her shoulder.
"Hey kid," Rocket said as he fiddled with the strange weapon that he had brought with him. "You don't have any problem with, um, blood and gore and that kind of, uh, stuff do you. Because if you do I would suggest that you look away," Rocket said.
"I kill people for a living," Meili said plainly.
"Right," Rocket shouldered the weapon he carried. Pushing the boxy thing against his body to steady it and pulling the trigger mechanism. There was a blast of wind as the projectile soared upward through the sky. It let out a loud whistle, the wind cutting around it on its journey upward.
The shot found its mark in the side of the Whale's head, just under the pink rune-like ring that hovered above the creature. Rocket had been going for the horn. A second later the weapon detonated with a massive explosion that caused the Whale to twist its body away from the explosion.
With a thunderous roar, the White Whale dipped down from up high to get lower and the Fang of Iron Mages took this chance to fire a volley of magic into the side of the beast. It cried out again and slammed its belly into the ground dragging itself in a sweeping arch over the field and tearing a wide trench through the ground.
"There's Elsa!" Meili yelled pointing to where the black haired assassin ran down the side of of the whale's body with one of her knives cutting into its skin.
Another figure darted across the open field, black suit jacket rippling in the wind behind him as he moved with his arms thrown back behind him to cut through drag. It was Wilhelm. He leaped through the air and landed near the Whale's tail and began slicing at the creature's body.
Other soldiers fired from the ground with arrows and running by to attack and then pull back. The Whale thrashes and tries to sling its tail side to side and shake them off. And in doing this Elsa is tossed down into the field. She lands in a crouch and it's easy to see that she is coated in the Whale's blood from head to toe. She cackles a kind of blank madness in her eyes as Meili and Rocket move past.
"And she's gone…" Meili said.
"I'm not even going to touch that," Rocket muttered. He lined up another shot, taking aim at the Whale. "I'm just thinking about how cool this is going to be when I shoot this stupid Whale in its stupid face."
He fired the weapon as Meili steered the Wagpig across in front of the Whale. The shot slammed into Whale causing it to cry out and Rocket whooped out a cheer.
Meili shrugged. "You could just kill it or you could try to take that stupid horn off its head and we can see if I can wrestle control away from it," she said.
Rocket's eyes glazed over. "Yeah, think of how much shit we could tear up with that thing. I like how you think, kid."
"Full canvas!" Hollered someone just off to the rear of the Wagpig. Rocket and Meili glanced back to see Wade Wilson and his makeshift boat wagon careening across the glass and bouncing every which way with Wade balanced on the bow shouting at his tiny crew.
"Tow those lines and man the harpoons, you yellow bellied landlubbers!" Wade pointed out toward where the Whale was curving around and about to take flight.
The men under his command grumbled, some of them working to get their weapons ready but the others seemingly confused by what they were being told to do.
"Bosun! Head to the wind! Head to the Wind!" Wade yelled much to the continued befuddlement of his men.
Rocket shook his head. "What is douche-nozzle doing?"
Before this, Wade leading his men in some of the sea shanties he knew. The only one's that he could really get through most of were the one he heard in a video game about a lady with a nice butt and another song that turned out to be the Outkast song Bombs over Bagdad.
The Ground Dragons had trouble getting started with pulling the Pequod due to its weight, but once they started to pick up speed they actually were very quick. Their natural intelligence kept them from just charging right into the Whale and being crushed under it. They curved in a wide arc to come up on the side of the creature.
"Brace!" Wade yelled. "Queequeg, loose the harpoons!"
A single harpoon was thrown sailing through the air to stick into the Whale's side. Then another harpoon. And another.
Wade nodded, lifting his spyglass to his mask even though the Whale was right alongside them. "Oh yeah, I got your ass now Big Bertha," Wade muttered.
"El Huma!" A green, flat nosed Ground Dragon galloped up alongside Wade and his crew with Rem riding in the back of Steve Rogers. She had summoned a cluster of ice spears with her hand raised high and swung her arm in a wild gesture to send them tearing into the Whale. It lifted from the ground trying to get away and from the onslaught and almost pulling the ship from the ground with it.
A green flash of light illuminated the world behind them as a wave of force rippled through the air and sliced into side of the Whale's body letting out a massive wave of blood that splashed down over the open ground.
Lady Crusch held her sword down toward the ground where she had just swung, the blade still glowed a faint green.
"Now, give it everything you've got!" Crusch barked.
The Fang of Iron mages rode in atop their Ligers and used the Whale's still low altitude to leap off of the creatures backs and fly straight at the thing. At their front were the two small beast-twin co-captains, Mimi and Tivey. The white robed mages pounded into the side of the Whale leaving white spears of light sticking out of it before bounding away to seal back down toward their Ligers.
A chain of explosions erupted from these of the Whale that they had attacked just as the creature jerked to one side. Wade grabbed hold of the deck on either side of him, trying to steady himself as the Whale pulled the lines on their spears that were now attached to the boat.
Then the lines broke, cut off by the fire raining down from the magic still hitting the thing. The boat landed crooked on the the car that was carrying it, but threatened to slide of come off if they moved too much more. Wade grabbed hold of a loose spear and raised it up.
"Come on you bastards, do you want to live forever!" Wade hollered before throwing another spear into the thing.
The men seemed confused by his words, but the followed suit by pounding more spears into the Whale's side. Massive waves of magic ripped through the air from Crusch's sword. The White Whale was crying out, reeling in pain and trying to will itself back higher into the sky.
Ricardo and three other Fang of Iron members crossed over in front of the Pequod on the backs of the huge wolf-like Ligers. The animals ran to intercept the back end of the whale, but dropped into a couch right at the last moment to spring forward and run up the tail of the beast. They charged, racing up onto the broad back of the Whale and hacking at the exposed flesh wherever they could in a bid to bleed the Whale of any energy and open it up for more attacks.
At the same time Wilhelm continued his made dash up and down the Whale, zigzagging across to hit the thing with everything he had. When Ricardo passed him, Wilhelm offered out one hand, caught hold of the beastman and allowed himself to be thrown at a high speed toward the front of the beast while he dragged his sword over its back.
Ricardo and the others jumped off as the Whale struggled to make its way up further into the air. With the Whale getting higher into the sky it was also leaving the the area where Wade could still attack the thing. There was nothing to be gained keeping them this close to the side of the beast.
"Hard to starboard! Take us away from it!" Wade yelled pointing off the the ship's right. One of the men climbed to the front of the boat and manipulated the reigns to force the Ground Dragons more to the right. Out ahead Wade could see the other enemy, the people on foot who had been running at them, were starting to close in.
Peter had entrusted the web harpoons to several of Crusch's troops. They were easy enough to activate and the only issue he had run into was finding a way to keep the Whale from puling them off of the ground. Even before he saw the thing he knew stakes wouldn't work, so the design that he came up with was pretty simple: a ball of web would fire out of the back and spread out webbing them to the ground.
One of them alone would just snap, but there were twelve of them total, enough to at least slow the Whale's ascent. The issue was that they would all have to hit at just about the exact same time.
Peter had another concern though, he zip webbed himself over to his Ground Dragon and mounted her to make for the White Whale. He could see Wade and his crew pounding at the side of the beast while Wilhelm cut and stabbed his way across the Whale's back. The other soldiers were moving around the thing, taking their attacks as they could but being cautious.
Good, the Whale didn't seem to be mounting the defense that they thought it would. It seemed that catching in unaware really had been just what they needed. Peter had kind of seen the fog in action. He had died because of that fog. Now he wondered why the mabeast didn't deploy that defense.
It could be that it needs something else to do it, space, darkness, or that there is some kind of cost to its mobility or drawback to it. Maybe there was just a start up cost or something to doing it. The fog had covered a wide area. Perhaps it just needed time to ready itself for all of that. If that was the case they needed to have brought the thing out of the sky before it had a chance to turn the tide with the fog.
Then there was the problem of the riders out across the field coming at them fast. Peter glanced up to see someone standing in the grass, their hands down at their sides and their arms dripping with blood.
Elsa.
She wasn't hurt, Peter could tell because she didn't really sustain wounds that happened to her. Peter rode up along side her, keeping his distance as he stopped just past her so that she could see him.
"Elsa? Are you okay?" Peter asked.
She touched her chin with one bloody hand. "Warm. So warm…" she muttered.
"We need you back in the fight. We've got Witch Cultists," Peter started. "Hey!" He aimed his hands at her and fired two webs, one at her face and the other at her feet. In her stupor she managed to cut through the one headed for her face the moment that it made contact, but the one aimed lower, at her legs, wrapped its way around and bound her up so that Peter could pull her down into the grass and lay her out on the grass.
Elsa lifted her head, grass sticking to her face. "We need you in this," Peter said. "Get it together."
She climbed to her feet, pressing her hands down into her lap as she tried to stifle whatever it was that she was feeling. Peter didn't want to dwell on it. Then she turned to look at the robed people closing in. "The Witch Cult?" Her voice had regained its presence
Peter scanned the horizon, the suit picking out points of movement. "There's only about twenty of them and—" Peter stopped as he couldn't understand exactly what he was seeing. It was some kind of mass like a liquid moving out in front of the Witch Cultists. "There's something else."
"You and I should be able to take care of it," Elsa said climbing onto the Ground Dragon and fishing her other knives out of the saddle bag.
Peter steered the thing out toward the open field, past where everyone was still taking shots at the Dragon. He passed Steve and Rem as the shield and morning start bashed against the Whale's side causing blood to rain down that Peter had to swerve to avoid. Right when he whipped to the side he got a burst of sensation from his Spider-Sense just in time to reach up and catch a crossbow bolt right in front of his face.
He cast it aside.
"What do you think?" Peter asked. "We just meet them head on?"
Elsa stood up on the back of the Ground Dragon, somehow managing to balance in high heeled shoes. "You go low and I go high," she said before bounding up to hit the side of the Whale running. She passed over the top of it.
Peter stopped the Ground Dragon and webbed himself under the Whale to pass between it and the ground before bounding up into the air from where he landed with a handspring. He met one of the cultists with his fist slamming into their face.
"What's the rush, gentlemen?" Peter asked as be bowled the cultist over and kicked two others tumbling back into the grass.
An instant later Elsa landed, catching a thrown dagger and whirling around to throw it into the chest of another person and cause them to stumble into the grass clutching at their body. She licked her lips. "So many delicious bellies to open," her words turned to laughter.
I guess it's good that she's on our side, kind of.
Peter's Spider-Sense flickered to life as something cold bound itself around his leg and worked its way up. "Whoa! What's this?"
He was lifted into the air by what looked like a tendril of water. There was a faint voice that sounded like it was coming from one of the cultists, but it was displaced and hard to track. "This is as far as you go…"
Peter struggled, breaking free from the grasp of the water only for it to reform and continue to try and cover him. It lifted him high into the air as the White Whale finished passing over and he was looking straight up into the blazing Night Banisher. He went to fire the web shooters, but the water was bound around his wrists tugging at him and the web's lost momentum coming out and were pretty much useless for pulling himself away.
Then something whoosed under him, ripping through the water at the source and cut him free so that he dropped onto his back right before the thing had time to cover his face. He bounded up to hear a metallic clang and looked over to see Elsa had caught Steve's Shield.
On his other side Steve and Rem were racing up with Rem whirling her Morningstar off to her side like it had all of the weight of a yo-yo. She twirled it at her right then her left, crossing over with it to kick the ball straight out and take the head off another attacker.
"Witch Cultists!" Rem yelled.
Elsa smiled, examining the shield she had caught and brought it up to bash one of the cultists in the head with it. Then she flung it back to Steve. He clamped his hands down on the top and bottom of the shield to catch it. With a devilish smile Elsa rushed in to carve her way through more of the cultists, slicing through one at the stomach and bring her blade up and through another one's neck.
"What's that water creature?" Rem asked, ignoring Elsa's rampage through the cultists.
"Some kind of spell—I think?" Peter said.
"I've never seen a spell like that," Rem replied.
"Here it comes!" Steve hollered just as the water snaked through the air. He held up his shield and it slammed into it. The sound that it made against the shield was a hollow impact noise that rang across the battlefield. But then it began to wrap around the surface of the shield and creep around it on all sides.
Steve drew the sword at his side and swiped through the water, trying to cut it off from the source in a desperate bid to sever whatever was controlling it. When the sword passed through, the water formed back in around it.
Thunk!
Thunk!
Peter fired a pair of web bombs into the mass of the thing, they didn't work under water. Not because they wouldn't trigger, but because when they did they would go nowhere due to the density of the water around them.
When the bombs burst none of the webbing touched Steve, instead spreading through the living mass of water until it was forced to pull back with the cloudy contamination of the webbing swirling around within it.
The tendril of water broke apart, splashing to the ground in a thousand small droplets. Then it gathered back into a long, snake-like shape before breaking apart again.
Without the more dangerous distraction of whatever this water creature was, the group was able to finish off the last of the Witch Cultists with Rem dealing the final blow to the group.
As the last cultist sunk to the ground with the sound of rattling chains sliding over through the grass undercutting the wet thud of its body the Whale circled back overhead and there was a brief shadow that passed over them as it sped past. Blood rained down from the assault that the others were keeping up on the beast.
It had to be tiring soon, right?
Then, as if the person had always been there a cloaked figure stood just out ahead of the group. From the way that the clothing wrapped against her body in the harsh wind it could be seen that this was probably a woman. In her hand was an elegant long sword that shimmered against the light of the light of the Night Banisher.
"Uh, guys?"
"I see it Pete," Steve said.
"You think she's one of them?" Asked Peter.
Rem sniffed the air. "She smells like…death."
Elsa was already dashing for the newcomer, crouched low in a run with two blades held in her hands and ready to strike. She closed the gap before any of the others could protest with her blades flashing out wildly at the cloaked woman. With each attempt the woman ducked, bobbed, and weaved out of reach. The strikes narrowly passing by her face, even when she couldn't have seen what Elsa was doing.
Then she parried Elsa's blade just right to push it up and away from her own body while at the same time stabbing Elsa in the shoulder.
Elsa stumbled back holding the arm and Peter waited for her to leap back into action. The cloaked woman waited too as Elsa pressed her hand to the wound and came away with thick, red blood. Her cheeks were red with delight. Elsa's exposed shoulder was still bleeding. Either she wasn't willing it closed or something was stopping it from healing.
"Now this is interesting," Elsa said.
Sam Wilson dipped down, following along side the Whale. The beast was fast and nimble enough that he had to expend a little effort to follow its movement well. If Wilhelm lost his footing someone needed to be there to catch him. The Whale had dipped back down and was dragging itself along the ground in an effort to lash out at the soldiers and break up their lines from the look of it.
Sam glanced down to his side where Wade and his crew were piloting their boat right alongside the Whale's massive form. He gestured for them to pull the boat back, waving his arms wildly to signal for them to maintain a distance.
"You'll have to use your words, Sammy!" Wade yelled. "I don't speak bird!"
Sam zipped down alongside the boat. "Spearing that thing while you're on its side is just pissing it off. It's going to tail slap you," Sam yelled to Wade.
"Have a little faith, Sam!"
"You're not one to produce miracles!" Sam yelled back.
"Oh I fucking got something for him," Wade muttered as Sam pulled back away from the ship.
Wade was walking across the deck, patting his men on the backs and congratulating them for coming this far. He walked to the back of the boat where the covering had been and began to pull at and wrestle with the tarp that strapped down.
"You can't possibly be this goddamn dumb, Wade," Sam yelled.
"Don't underestimate me!" Wade hollered back.
Sam flew up slightly higher, trying to get a little above the Whale and the carnage it was causing down low. There was dust and rocks being kicked up by how it dragged its body. From this height he could see that there were deep cuts and gouges running every which way on the beast. There was one thing that he didn't see: in his bickering with Wade he had lost sight of Wilhelm.
He searched the back of the Whale for the older swordsmen only to find him standing near the Whale's eye and using his swords to steady himself at the angle. Running while dragging the sword, Wilhelm circled around the eye in a glorious shower of blood as he sliced the eye free to fall to the fields below. It landed near Steve, Peter, Elsa and Rem.
A series of explosions down the side of the Whale's flank rippled through the air and caused Sam to pull up some. He looked down to see Kate Bishop using some kind of magical trick arrow from the back of a borrowed Ground Dragon.
Sam checked to make sure Wilhelm was still upright and through the smoke he saw the older man climbing up onto the back of the Whale as it began to climb higher. "This stage of the dance has ended, but I will take one last thing to remember you by…"
As the Whale climbed higher, several things happened all in the blink of an eye. Wilhelm got a running start and dove into a high speed fall from the Whale's nose with his blade held out to one side. As he dropped, he cut into the Whale's horn and cut clear through it severing it at the stump. A hair's breadth later there was thunderous boom that rocked the entire battlefield. Sam barely had time to search for its source while he was racing to catch Wilhelm when a black projectile tore into the side of Whale leaving a massive wound.
Sam glanced back to see Wade standing on the back of his boat, with one foot propped up onto of a CANON. He was waving his tri-corner hat above his head and shouted.
"It looks like Free WIlly's got a new blow hole!"
Sam caught Wilhelm and pulled him up and away from the chaos. The old man looked up, not at all surprised to see Sam. "What was that sound?" Wilhelm asked.
"A kind of metia that fires a projectile it's called a canon. And I don't know how the Hell Wade has one."
Before the Whale can climb out of range, harpoons fly up and skewer it in the side, only these have thick streams of web out behind them to hold them to the ground. There are enough to them that it tugs the whale and it unexpectedly shifts its weight.
The massive horn dropped to the ground causing everything nearby to tremble. The Whale struggled, pulling against the web so hard that they are stretched from their original thickness, about as big around as a grown man, to being as thin as an arm.
"We need to get clear, there's no way that's going to hold!" Sam yelled. "And when they snap…even if they are just webs there's a possibility that they could cut right through a person because of the force."
The thunderous sound of Wade's weapon was still rung in their ears despite the fact that Rocket and Meili were riding the Wagpig at a distance from most of the commotion. The young girl had reached up to cover her ears from the force of it.
Then came the moment she'd been waiting for. The horn crashed down into the field ahead of them. The Wagpig sped up to close the gap, galloping across the field as Rocket loaded another one of his strange weapons and circled around her to get a better shot.
"You don't have to crawl all over me, you know," she said.
"You're blocking my shot and you're not nearly as stable a place to stand as Katie," he snapped at her.
She turned her nose up at him as they neared the Whale. There were long strands of something holding it back, tugging it toward the ground. Meili had been late to this whole ordeal and most of what she had known was what Elsa had hastily explained to her.
The Whale let out a pained cry that shook something deep inside of Meili, it was like her veins and bones were trying to rattle their way out. She stretched her hand out toward the sky, reaching for the Whale and trying to grasp at the invisible force that allowed her to take over the beasts.
"Something's wrong…" Meili said as if each word were a struggle. "I can…its will…it's different…"
The Whale's cries became more frantic and something about it changed, its remaining eye rolled back into its skull, flicking and flinching until it rolled back around but was red and blood shot.
"Hey kid, I don't think you're going to get it," Rocket said to her, but she could barely hear him. It was as if his voice was so far away. She knew that what he was saying warranted a response.
"Just a bit further…I can do this."
There were some mabeasts that Meili couldn't control, but it wasn't a matter of size. There was just something else about them. And the control wasn't so much a complete control their mind as much as it was a controlling their actions. They still retain their own will under, but it felt different when she was just unable to control a mabeast. In those cases nothing would happen and they were just immune.
The White Whale was different and she had to keep pushing. She had to keep going to see if she could do it.
Rocket crawled down in front of her. "Hey, kid, you okay?" He said as he landed just in front of her lap on the back of the Wagpig's neck. "Whoa! You're not looking so hot," Rocket said.
Her head was light now and the shrill cries of the Whale caused her to tremble.
"Your eyes are red and your nose is bleeding you have to give it up," Rocket said.
Meili touched her upper lip and the moment that her fingers felt the warmth and wetness she knew Rocket to be telling the truth. She held her hand out in front of her face, glancing down at the blood. And then slumped forward against Rocket and the mabeast.
"Whoa, hey, if you pass out will this thing keep being obedient or uhhh," she could feel Rocket pushing against her, trying to lift her weight off of his.
"Oh shit…" Rocket said.
The screech that the Whale emitted was doing something deep inside of Bucky. It was like nails on a chalkboard only that it seemed to be causing a kind of deeper physical pain. His teeth hurt, the fingers on his right arm trembled. It took everything in him not to collapse, but he could already see that there were some who had it worse.
Soldiers were sprawled across the grass writhing in pain. Some of them raked their nails across their own skin leaving a body trail behind in their wake. Struggling against whatever it was that was happening, Bucky made his way to one of the men.
"Cut that out! Fight it, come on, fight it!" He said trying to pry his hands away from his own face.
The White Whale's horrible song ended with the thing rolling and flipping through the air in a panicked dance.
Bucky felt the wind as Sam landed along side him, letting Wilhelm down in the process. "You okay?"
"Doing better than some of these people," Bucky said.
"Weird," Sam said as he rushed to help Wilhelm right himself. "It's hardly having an effect on me. Like, sure, it's loud and annoying but…"
The shadow of the Whale stopped dead above them, it's massive body nearly drowning out all of the light from the Night Banisher. Sam, Bucky, and Wilhelm glanced up at it hovering overhead.
"Well damn, that didn't go as planned," Ricardo rode up on his liger with Chloe close behind on hers.
"It seemed like most of hits were right on target," Bucky said. There was a sense of order returning to the people who had been with some people needing the help of a mage.
"Yeah, that's the issue," Ricardo explained, "We thought that would bring it down."
The Whale had only stopped for a moment when the huge gill like flaps opened all over its body. They resembled a kind of pale, milky eyes blinking open all across the beasts skin. All across the open field people were just beginning to cove, further out Bucky could see Steve, Rem, Peter, and Elsa facing down someone in the field. Like many others they seemed to have gone down because of the Whale's cry.
"What's happening?" Sam yelled.
The bloodcurdling screen sounded again, rocking everyone and causing Bucky to drop down onto his knees. Wilhelm dug the tip of his sword into the ground to support himself.
"Something is wrong…" said the old man.
Peter braced himself with both hands in an effort to push himself back onto his feet. The creature's cry was soaked in desperation and something that Peter didn't expect to feel from what he thought seems to be a mindless beast, fear. The swordswoman before them waited, silently standing there and watching them as they suffered from the effect of the sound that the Whale made.
Beneath the sound, rising from deep within his chest Peter could feel something else reverberating through his body: His Spider-Sense.
Somehow it hadn't triggered when the Whale screamed the first time, but with this second screech there was something different. Even from this distance he could see that the Whale was changed, openings had formed all over its body. Then, jets of thick billowing fog erupted from the openings all over the creature. Though it sat stationary the fog began to sink down and cover the battlefield.
The Night Banisher's light was muffled as the fog danced around them. Elsa was seemingly the least affected by the effect of the Whale's cry and she was the first one to notice.
"Where did she go?" She asked pointing to the spot where the cloaked woman had stood moments ago.
Steve motioned. "We have to move—they may need us back there," he said motioning for them to head back toward the center of the battlefield. They raced through the fog with shadows and forms seeming to appear out of the mist around them. It was hard to tell if it was all an illusion or if it was really there.
Peter and Steve were still having a hard time moving, but their determination kept pushing them forward. Rem was similar to Elsa in that she didn't seem to be as bothered by the sound. The fog moved in as if to lick at and touch them, Peter didn't think this was the same as the fog that they had spoken of causing you to forget. If it were he would have already forgotten.
Or would he? He had remembered Emilia even when May hadn't.
That didn't make sense to him and even as he was trying to figure all of this out he could hear screams through the fog now. The gallop of Ground Dragons boots hitting dried ground. A man toppled into the path in front of them, rolling out until he was flat on his stomach.
Peter jumped down with the intent to help him and jogged up to the man. "Hey, are you okay?"
The solider screamed and pushed up onto his knees and elbows only to start battering his head against the ground over and over. Half crying, half laughing the man continued his self flagellation as Peter walked forward smoothly.
"Cut that out," Peter said. "Someone—"
Peter glanced back only see that he was alone. The fog had closed in behind them. Did that mean that the others had…
There was not time to think that way, Peter webbed this man to the ground to keep him from hurting himself and pressed on through the fog. There were sword strikes now and the sound of metal on metal like there was fighting nearby. Could some of the cultists made it and pressed in close to attack under the cover of the fog?
A hollow metallic, unmistakably the sound of vibranium on metal rippled though the fog.
"Steve?"
Peter turned and ran in that direction, passing more soldiers struggling against their own bodies to stop the effects of the sound. He webbed them up as he passed. He couldn't stop, he had to regroup with everyone else and find out what was happening.
"Karen, can you get me a, uh, sound analysis to judge what kind of distance that sound is away from us?" Peter asked.
The suit's AI piped up. "About ten meters dead ahead," she said.
Peter could see her now, it wasn't the other cultists. It was just the cloaked woman in black with her sword. Rem had backed up some, but was still in sight range and using her ball and chain to fight from a distance. Steve and Elsa were in close working in tandem to block her hits and try to strike. Though they were able to keep her sword from touching either of them, they were unable to break her defense.
Using his momentum to jump higher, Peter leapt off of the ground and webbed down on either side of the woman to pull himself in too fast her to counter. Or so he thought.
When he was in mid air, his feet aimed right for her face as he rocketed at her, she turned and sliced out at the last second. Peter let go of the web, letting himself drop out of range enough that he still kicked her under the arm but avoided the blade. She bounced across the gras, landing face down in the dirt and losing her sword. It was close enough by that she got a hand on it before Peter could web it away.
"Peter!" Rem shouted.
"I'd say that's pretty good timing," Steve said.
Peter shot a glance to Elsa. "Your arm, is it still…"
Elsa was grinning ear to ear. "My wound is still very much there—I don't understand why but I'm as excited as you to find out," she said.
The swordswoman climbed to her feet wordlessly and assumed a rigid, practiced stance. Her hood had slipped off of her head in the fall and Peter could see that she was—gorgeous. It was the only way to describe her. She had deep blue eyes that were visible, even at a distance. Her hair was long, past her waist and bright red. She didn't look like a witch cultist, or what Peter had imagined them to look like.
In fact there was something almost familiar about her.
"So you're the one making all the fuss," Rem shouted. "No matter!" Rem slung the chain as she charged forward and when the spiked ball had reached her side she jumped and kicked it toward the red haired stranger.
As if it were no matter to her, the woman used her sword to catch hold of Rem's chain, wrapping the blade in the length of metal right near the end where the spiked ball was. Before Rem could really judge what was happening, she jerked the blue haired maid forward and punched her sprawling out into the grass at her side.
Elsa tossed a kukri up and caught it. "I hope you boys aren't looking for a fair fight," she said.
Steve threw the shield spinning right at the woman's mid section and she batted it down so hard that it bounced flipping into the air. By the time that Peter had jumped up to try and kick her, she was already using the Steve's shield to deflect his feet and block the attack.
Peter wasn't done, he stuck his feet to the shield and shifted his body weight to tilt the shield and get a clear shot of her face. Then he unlocked a torrent of web into her eyes and at her foot sticking it to the ground.
Good, that seemed to have surprised even this woman.
Using the motion of her stumbling back, Peter flipped into the air and wrenched the shield out of the woman's grasp as he did. That was when Elsa and Steve rushed in past him lashing out with sword and daggers to try and score a crucial hit against her.
Despite the onslaught, the woman had managed to keep her sword. She lashed out at them as they moved in, causing them to dance back out of the way. Elsa barely blocked the tip of the blade this time. The swordswoman sprang back and weaved side to side to avoid Elsa's thrown knives. How was it possible that she was good enough to fight while her eyes were completely covered?
Some element of whatever she was doing did seem to strain her as the moment that she could, she widened the distance between them with a dash and scooped up one of the blades Elsa had tossed and used it to cut the web away from her eyes.
"Don't let the weapon cut you," Elsa warned.
They traded shots with the woman, but had to fight cautiously and take only the most calculated risks. She had proven that she was at least as fast as they were. The only thing that kept Peter safe was the fact that he could sense an assault before she fully committed to it.
Because of this he tried to take point on this fight, first using the shield he had stolen back to bat the woman back with it before he passed it back to its rightful owner.
"Ul Huma!"
Rem was still on the ground, but she had rolled over onto her chest with her arm outstretched in a desperate bid to use what she could of her skill with water magic to help. Huge spiked pillars of ice erupted from the ground with their sharpened tips headed right for the mysterious swordswoman.
To her credit the swordswoman hopped onto he dull side of one the spikes, then leapt back over them onto the subsequent ones behind it until she had dropped out of sight behind them.
"Who was that?" Steve asked.
"She's not—"
Peter didn't have time to finish the thought, he moved to push Elsa and Steve back. His lips hadn't had time to fully process what was happening or even keep up with his mind or the signal he was getting from the Spider-Sense.
The redhead burst through the ice with a horizontal slash of her sword, her speed and force of movement caused a current of air around her that pushed the fragments of ice out and away from her person. There was a flash of light, reflected off of her blade and Peter knew there wasn't time to dodge or move this time. In a desperate bid, he reached up and clasped his hands together around her wrist to hold her back.
"What?" Peter said. Elsa and Steve had fallen away from where he and the woman had landed. He was down on his back with her laying on him, his hand locked around her wrist to stifle her movement. In a contest of endurance he could usually prevail, but how much was left in this woman.
Karen spoke into his head. "Taking into account the differences between Lugnica and Earth gravity, this woman is exerting approximately thirteen thousand seven hundred eighty-nine point four-nine Newtons of force.
"Gee, thanks Karen, next time could you just deploy a countermeasure?" Peter said grunting through his reply.
"Right, Peter."
The emblem on the chest of his suit popped off and launched up, hitting the swordswoman in the chest and sticking to the part of the cloak right below her neck. It seemed to dig in then violently shock her. The suit's insulation protected Peter enough until the woman could no longer hold herself up and she just toppled over to the side.
"I didn't know I could do that," Peter said.
Steve had gone to get Rem and Elsa moved to stand next to Peter. "Can you bleed out?" Peter asked her.
Elsa shook her head. "Death wouldn't allow me such a simple end." Her breathing was strange and hard, he thought that it might have been because she had exerted her self, but Peter slowly came to realize what it really was.
"I do like how this wound keeps me warm," Elsa added.
"Right—" Peter turned his attention back to the swordswoman laying on her back, she had pulled the spider-emblem off of her chest now and was getting to her feet. "Wow, who are you lady?"
She looked at Peter, her blue eyes solemn and serious as she met the gaze of the eyes of his mask. He wasn't sure what he expected, though he was partially sure that she wouldn't even be able to speak. When she did her voice melodic and measured—the voice of someone of high birth. It kind of reminded him of Emilia's.
"Theresia van Astrea, an Inquisitor with the Witch's Cult representing Patience—"
The recognition that Peter had sensed there, he could see now that it was Reinhard. It made sense too. The red hair, the blue eyes, even the shape of her face and some of her stances were reminiscent of the Sword Saint that Peter briefly fought alongside.
This was Reinhard's mother, Peter guessed. Though she was beautiful, he guessed that she could be old enough to have a child Reinhard's age. Peter could hear the Whale now, people were screaming nearby and the fog seemed to have them pinned down, like it was working in conjunction with the swordswoman. Peter held up his hands in protest.
"Wait, wait—" Peter hollered.
"Van Astrea," Steve repeated.
"She's got to be, she's Reinhard's mother," Peter said.
"Why would you do this?" Rem asked.
Theresia brought her sword up readying it for another attack. "Because I've seen the error of my ways and have come to embrace—"
Something large and glowing hit Theresia in the dead center of her stomach so fast that it carried her back off into the mist. Elsa, Steve, Peter, and Rem all glanced back to see Rocket come strutting out of the smoke and fog holding a weapon that was slightly longer than he was tall.
"Whoa-ho-ho-ho, did you you see that shit?" Rocket said as he popped the gun open and shoved another one of his weird magical rocks into the chamber. "Probably should have tested that first—I probably could have…melted all your skin off. Yeah, anyway who was that broad?"
"We, uh, think Reinhard's mother," Peter said.
"Damn, that's crazy. Hey, you want to help me move the kid back here—the one what controls all demon beasts. She's a bit heavy for me being on account that she's larger than I am. I dragged her as far as I could."
Rocket lead them back through the mist toward where he had left Meili. She was close by and resting comfortably on the ground with a small satchel for her head to lay on and she wasn't alone. Wilhelm and Crush were there at her sides with Ferris, it looked like they had just reached the girl because Ferris was getting down next to her presumably to heal her.
Crusch brought her sword up and slashed out on either side of where they stood sending out a wave of forceful wind that pushed the edges of the mist back. Wind magic, Peter wondered if she could teach him to do that same trick.
When the fog was blown back, they could see the extent of the fight, there were scattered men and Ground Dragons all over, Peter spotted his own as she trotted up to him and pressed her face to the side of his. "Wow, okay, you missed me already huh?"
"Commander," Crusch called to one of the men who was jogging up to, he was in full armor and looked hardened enough to have seen a few battles in his time. "Any idea of the damage thus far?"
"I had two groups of twelve and now we're down to eighteen men total," he said.
"Any idea which men?" Crusch asked.
"No—no, I can't seem to recall," he replied.
"A group of magic users from the Fang of Iron is missing too, but no one knows who they were, just that there were four," Ricardo said from the back of his Liger. He was riding through the group surveying things.
Crusch shook her head. "We didn't think that it would have this kind of longevity, especially after a few volleys of attacks," she said.
"But it would make sense that it is tough," Steve said. "If no one's defeated it before and it clearly isn't very bright. Otherwise it would have used the fog to scatter us right away and pick us off."
"Hm," Crusch said.
"I think Captain Rogers is right, it must be acting solely on instinct," Wilhelm said.
Peter didn't know if he should say something or not, he didn't know the status of Wilhelm's relationship with anyone else in the family or that much about the man other than he was out to avenge his wife.
"With us gathered here like this we're sitting ducks," Steve said.
"Ducks?" Asked Crusch.
"We're grouped too tightly together and if the Whale hits us right it could wipe out a swath of us at once," Steve explained to her.
"Let's make ourselves a less appealing target then," Crusch said with a nod. "I want some of the able-bodied to the wounded back to the base of the tree and we'll work on tending to them there."
Peter got it, with their backs against Flugel's tree there would only be a hundred eighty degree approach that the White Whale could make on them. It at least allowed the creature to be watched for more easily.
"Set up a triage—" Steve said, but then he seemed to remember that he might have to explain this concept. "Treat people according to degrees of urgency and injury."
There were general signs of agreement from those within earshot as they ran to gather up the wounded. Elsa had been watching as Ferris worked over Meili, lying there like this, she looked more child like. Peter wondered why she would choose to involve herself with something like this.
"Where are Buck and Sam?" Asked Steve.
"Katie is missing too," said Rocket.
"Sam dropped me off before he and Bucky headed out to find more people, but the fact that you remember them is a dead give away that they're alive at least," Wilhelm said.
Wade had seen where had felt the jet of fog blast past the back of their boat, nearly taking them down with it. He was at the helm…er reigns steering the Ground Dragons while his men had mostly sheltered in the back of the ship. He needed them up and calling out what they saw, he needed them to be ready for when the white beast again.
He glanced back, shaking his head. "Look, you can't run from the wind. You trim your sails, face the music, and keep going!" He said.
"Er, uh, question Captain, what's that mean?" Asked the man that Wade called Starbuck.
"I don't know, Starbuck," Wade said. They had stopped protesting the names long ago by now. "I heard Jeff Bridges say it in the movie 'White Squall'."
Wade moved away from the reigns and walked back through the boat. "Stubb, take the helm," he said. As Stubb went to pass him, Wade grabbed the man by the shoulders and spun him around so they were looking each other man to mask, then Wade dragged his fingers down the man's lips. "Steer her true, old friend."
Stubb gave him an odd look before turning to head for the front of the boat.
"Why did you touch his lips like that?" Asked the man he called Pip. Wade had forgotten their real names by now.
"Homoeroticism, fan fiction audiences can't get enough of it," Wade declared as he he rested his hands on his hips. The men whom he had given new names and created a whole story around had also learned to ignore anything out of the ordinary that Wade said.
"Alright, get me within a rhumbof that white bastard and I'll do the rest." Wade got down over the canon began to ready it and. Really all that he had to do was lay his hand on it for this to work.
"Wow, was that a racist thing to say?" He wondered out loud.
"Wade, we need to clear the area, the visibility is too low out here," came a voice shouting from above him.
"Oh, Sam. I thought you were the voices in my head again," Wade said.
"It's too hard to see out here Wade and that thing seems to be able to—teleport inside the fog or something. It's like it's everywhere at once."
"Don't you worry Brown Bear," Wade said. Then he spotted two figures through the fog running toward the boat. They turned sharply and caught a rogue wave's worth of rocking before the seas of the cart beneath them calmed. "Oh look it's Katelin and James. It looks like they're in a hurry to get somewhere—Must be Midnight Madness at the Melvyn's."
Kate Bishop and Bucky were running toward the boat, but were too slow to actually intercept it. Still, they were moving very fast. Wade watched as Kate turned back and fired an arrow behind them. It erupted into a ball of flame that burned away some of the fog and then Wade could see the great maw burst through the smoke and fire. The White Whale's mouth was already open and ready to gobble up Kate and Bucky.
"Hard to port, give me all she's got!" Wade yelled. The boat jerked so that they were lined up with the Whale, Kate, and Bucky. Wade pulled out a zippo lighter and lit the fuse at the top of the canon.
"It's headed straight for us!" Yelled Queequeg.
"And this is headed straight for it!" Wade said as he bumped his crotch against the back of the canon just in time for it to fire in a burst of head and black smoke. Unfortunately for him it rolled back and beamed him between the legs.
Wade doubled over in pain as the canon shot whistled through the air and hit the Whale dead in the face and made it veer off course from catching Bucky and Kate. The thing let out a massive screech though and as Wade climbed up against the side of the railing he spotted it on a collision course with them.
"Brace!" Yelled Stubb as he twisted the reigns to guide the Ground Dragons out of the Whale's path. Sam was forced to pull back as the creature passed right in front of the ship, its huge red eye moved around searching the ship in what seemed like general curiosity.
It passed them and moved into the fog on the other side of them. "Ha, let that be a lesson to you. And remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Deadpoo—"
Behind them on the same side the Whale had just come from there was a cry and the Whale appeared out of the fog. It was right on their tail and in a prime position to adjust to any angle they were able to steer in.
"Wade!" Sam yelled.
"I see it, I see it!" Wade replied. "Men, abandon ship oof!"
Sam caught him from the side and carried him away as the Whale flew over and slammed its tail down on the boat and cart causing them to explode into splitters and cloth. The men he had brought with him flattened along with their Ground Dragons under the tremendous weight.
Sam and Wade fell out in the grass and came to a stop. Slowly Wade moved away from Sam and moved to twist his neck back straight. There was a loud crack as it had broken in the fall. It would be fine now. He turned and looked out across the the wreckage of the boat and cart.
"Do you think I can get my deposit back?" Wade asked.
Sam looked up at him with a face that said he clearly didn't find that funny.
The Whale seemed to be off in the fog, at least long enough for the army to loosen up and spread out while some of them carried the wounded off of the battlefield and back to Flugel's Tree. Peter, Steve, Rem, and Elsa had stayed behind in this open area with the remaining defenders. Rocket had moved back to the tree to reload on magic stones for his weapon.
Wilhelm and Lady Crusch were working to assess some of the troops as there were those who refused to leave the fight despite their wounds. All of this happened very quickly though and the area looked completely different with Crusch and the other wind users pushing the fog back before it could close in too much.
"We're just waiting for the Whale to show up like this," Rem said.
"Yeah, I don't like it one bit," Steve said.
"What do Witch Beasts eat?" Elsa joked. "Maybe we could lure it in."
Peter heard someone coming through the fog at their back, it was too quiet to be the Whale and his Spider-Sense could still be depended on to warn them. He spun around to see Wade, Sam, Bucky, and Kate walk out of the fog. "Guys, they're back," Peter announced.
"Yeah, we're back—with some pretty freaky news," Sam yelled.
"I don't know, things are pretty freaky as they stand right now," Peter said.
They jogged to get to the others faster. "It really doesn't make sense, this damn thing is able to move through the fog I think. Almost like a portal or something," Bucky said.
"You guys mess with portals?" Peter asked.
They all stared at him.
"Right, umm did you three happen to see a pretty lady in the fog with like a sword and this sort cloak thing on?" Peter asked.
"Is this the time for all of this?" Sam asked.
"Probably not," Peter said.
The others were talking, arguing about the possibility that they had underestimates something or missed some crucial thing that had helped the Whale stay alive this long. Even now it hadn't been smart enough to use all these abilities until it got desperate. Either it was hubris or the Whale just wasn't bright.
"Wilhelm," Peter had moved away from the others and found his way over to Wilhelm. The old man was near Crusch vigorously wiping his swords down with a cloth. "Mister Wilhelm, did you have a daughter?" Peter asked.
"Daughter?" Wilhelm repeated.
"I mean, I guess she would be Reinhard's mother. She looked just like him," Peter explained. "Except a woman."
Wilhelm lowered his head. "Louanna Astrea?"
"I saw her, before the fog she showed up and then fought us after the fog appeared," Peter explained.
"Louanna Astrea has been in a deep slumber for going on seventeen years, but she is my daughter by marriage alone. I am the father of Reinhard's father, Heinkel Astrea," Wilhelm said.
The false sun of the Night Banisher broke through the fog enough to bathe the ground in white light again, though it was still muted through the clouds. Peter shook his head and then he heard the Whale's cries again. It looked like their moment of rest was about to end.
"Soldiers, ready up!" Crusch yelled. "We only have one chance at this, we can't afford to retreat now. Not when we've probably come closer than anyone has to vanquishing the White Whale!"
A cheer went up from the people gathered around the area, the few of them close enough to hear her. She looked at Wade.
"Where's your boat," Crusch asked.
"The Whale crushed it," he replied.
Crusch glanced down at the ground. "All we can do for now is press on and see this thing through."
Wilhelm stood with Peter, the confused look on his face growing into a worried one. "You said this woman looked like Reinhard?" Asked Wilhelm.
Peter nodded. "Red hair, blue eyes, she looked older than him and she even had some of the same sword stances I had seen him use—she was super pretty, like distractingly pretty. Sorry, maybe I said too much."
"Red hair…" Wilhelm said.
"She said her name was Theresia."
Wilhelm froze, his blue eyes wide. Then the whale cried again and most of the people on the battlefield moved to cover their ears and cower. Slowly they realized that the creature wasn't using the ability that had made it feel like layers of their minds were being peeled away. It was just calling out. And then there was another call echoing it. And another.
No. Peter thought.
Wade clapped his hands. "Look who's back for round two," he said. "Alright, let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown."
Peter ran up next to Wade and the others, tilting his head back to look into the sky and confirm his suspicions. They all looked up into the brightness of the Night Banisher.
"That's a pretty neat trick…" Bucky said.
"So that's how it was everywhere at once," Sam said.
Crusch and the others were seeing it now, it made sense, though when had it happened. Peter guessed that the fog was solely a tactic meant to disorient. But it needed the fog not only to confuse its prey, but to hide its numbers. Over head, swimming through the air lazily with the Night Banisher blazing over head past them and through the wispy fog they could be seen in one place for the first time.
Three White Whales circling overhead like vultures circle their prey.