Picking up on materials for clothing had been rather easy for the most part, but it took time. Arturia and her siblings spent about a week or more going to different shops for gaining the right material for a body suit, not to mention that Arturia herself needed to be examined on how her body was proportioned. Along with having to go to some shops, they had to watch seamstresses online on how to cut cloth, how they pieced things together, and how they created a coherent whole from a pile of fabric. They also tried on getting different kinds of sunglasses, looking for just the right lenses to keep the sun at bay and still allow even nighttime light through, and along with concealing her rather distinct green eyes.
But as they began to put the costume together, there was a new challenge of having to sew the suit, and with Jeanne in the house it made it a bit difficult to continue making progress but they finally managed to pull it off for about another week or so. Arturia was impressed with what they could pull off, though it wasn't exactly what she envisioned it to be, it was something she would have to go with for now. Technically they could try to step up further to make the suit more complex, but that would take too much time and Jeanne might eventually catch something going on between them.
Arturia was in her room, looking at herself in the mirror to take a good look at herself. She had to say that they did a pretty good job in concealing everything about her appearance, from her toes to all the way to her head, even her eyes were well hidden. The costume consisted of a hooded suit that was white from head to waist, black from the waist down. She wore a mask that consisted of bug-like lenses with black outlines. In hindsight, the body suit she wore wasn't very much impressive, considering it was mostly made by amateurs themselves. Maybe she could make modifications that would alter her appearance for her own style someday, but that would have to wait for another time, as this was all she could afford for now. While time was spent on making this thing, she still took time for herself to give herself some type of training to experiment with her powers more.
Although if she were to have one complaint, it was more so that her dick still wasn't exactly fully hidden like she thought it would have been. If she were to ever have an erection from being aroused or by something else, it would easily be shown by anyone… and it would certainly raise questions and get major clues who she was… which she hoped that would never be the case. So yeah, she would want some modifications on the suit later on.
"Well then…" Arturia put the hoodie on top of her masked face. "Let's see what I can do with this."
New York was a city of over 8 million people, and some writers have depicted that each person has a story of their own that circulated around them. But none have been stranger than rumors spreading about a strange vigilante who'd begun to appear around town.
There has been all sorts of news spreading around about this vigilante. A Korean grocer and his wife have been robbed by a couple of thugs, only to see some kind of net drop over the robbers as they reached the street before someone or something stopped them.
Alerted by ringing alarm bells to a jewelry store being robbed, police were stunned by what they found there. The two thieves, strung up like flies in a spider web with a 10 foot span across two light poles.
There have been few more instances such as those. Papers were beginning to pick up on the strange stories that occurred, and began to pick up on names for the vigilante that came by. One particular instance that stuck by was "Ghost Spider".
The papers weren't the only things that were getting picked up on, the people on the street were also picking up on the strange events that went by, and there were mixed reactions on the commentaries they gave, some ranging on positive, negative, neutral, or just choosing to doubt the situation.
Arturia was picking up on the comments by every step she took by. She was teased by Morgan when they guessed if she was a human or not — when they were by themselves of course.
With all that was happening with Arturia spending the amount of time she was in her suit, she made sure to focus on her other half of her life. That being to look over for a job application so she could still look for a career to find herself in. Though it had taken a while before she managed to find one that peaked her interest the most, and that being a bodyguard to work with the Yggdmillennia family.
Except that bodyguard job didn't just revolve around just standing around and checking areas for anything suspicious, this involved far more than that. At first she didn't really understand why a family as huge as that contacted on having security for them, but Arturia quickly figured out it was from a massive loss they recently had, that and along with the current head, being Fiorre, strapped into a wheelchair. It was no wonder why they needed security. And they were serious when they meant security, as this job did require teaching martial arts for those who were willing to participate. Arturia gladly did so, being eager to be in such a unique job.
Once getting in, Arturia was required to pass a series of tests before she could get to join in. And once seeing her skills being displayed, there hadn't been much of a problem for her to pass with some of the training she had into using her powers properly. And so Arturia passed, and she got fully accepted into having the job, to which she became ecstatic about. She was not the only one though, as there have been others before and after her that got accepted. Since there were many among them, they had to be split into different groups with one teacher per each, and they were given different schedules on when to show up on time.
So as of this moment, Arturia was by herself, being engaged in a sparring match against the teacher she was picked to be with and her group. The teacher she was with went by the name of Xuanzang Sanzang. Sanzang is a woman of average height, with long dark brown hair with bangs covering her forehead, her eyes were rosy pink. Her outfit consisted of a white jacket with yellow markings on it, and underneath it was a blue shirt, along with having a set of dark purple pants.
Arturia threw a backhand at Sanzang, who ducked her head before grabbing Arturia's wrist and landed a backhand of her own at her face. Arturia tried to counter by hitting her back with her fist, only for Sanzang to deflect the fist headed at her and counter by performing a spin roundhouse kick at the other side of Arturia's head, to which Arturia raised her left arm to block the kick. Arturia started to get pushed back as Sanzang leaped over at her and started to unleash a variety of kicks at Arturia, who kept on trying to block them with her arms until she got kicked in the face and got pushed back on the ground.
"That should be quite enough!" Sanzang landed on the floor, putting her arm behind her back while waving her other arm forward, showing a grin on her face. "Though your form still needs much work for desire, you are showing progress in improvement!" she eagerly exclaimed.
"I'm glad to hear that." Arturia replied, with Sanzang giving her a helping hand to stand up, which she accepted. "So, am I free to go now?"
"Well of course!" Sanzang enthusiastically said, putting her fists on her hips. "This should be your last session for today. Your assistance will no longer be needed until you come by the same time as tomorrow!"
"Right…" Arturia nodded her head before she glanced down at Sanzang's chest, noticing her large G cup breasts. She made a small blush in doing so, and tried to focus back on looking back at her teacher, to which Sanzang got in front of her, lowering herself to look at the teen's face in curiosity.
"Is something the matter?" Sanzang asked, making Arturia look at her slightly surprised. "You seem a bit distracted now. Is there something bothering you?"
"Erm — no — nothing at all." Arturia backed away a bit, and tried not to look down at her breasts again. Though she had to say, upon getting such a close look at the woman's face, she really was gorgeous. "I-I just lost a bit of thought, that's all." Arturia started to walk out of the room.
"You better not be like that for the rest of the job!" Sanzang turned around to look at the young girl and gave her a strict glare. "If you do, do not expect me to go so easy on you!"
"I won't! I promise!" Arturia left the room she was in before closing the doors, sighing to herself. "Geez, I really need to keep my hormones under control…" she murmured to herself before walking away.
Honestly this job was great for her. It's been almost a month since she applied to this, and despite having superior power compared to ordinary humans, Arturia was aware that she lacked proper fighting skills and experience. And for the past month she learned how to hold herself back, suppressing her strength and speed to a proper level where it was necessary to do so, just so she didn't cause any serious damage, or worse even kill someone. The job filled the role of improving her fighting skills. And Arturia was pleased by the improvements she was making.
Weeks have gotten by relatively quickly, with nearly being 3 months ever since Arturia graduated from high school and started her vigilante business. So far everything ran by smoothly, albeit with minor complaints of the heat getting to her with the costume she wore, but other than that there haven't been any major troubles that Arturia encountered, unless counting the petty crooks she's been stopping for a few months. Along with keeping her job stable for the most part while having to apply for college next.
So as of now, Arturia was taking her time in enjoying herself, particularly spending time at a restaurant as to where Irisviel was working by. She sat by herself, and ordered some food before digging in. There weren't many people where she was at, after all why would there be? Most people would have to get ready for the World Unity Festival that would be coming up very soon in just a span of a few hours.
Arturia finished eating her 4th meal for today, and she thought that would be enough to keep up her increased metabolism from the spider bite. She turned her head to look over at what Irisviel was doing… though she couldn't help but notice something was off with the adult woman. It wasn't anything particularly bad, but her body language more so showed that Irisviel seemed more… tense? Arturia wasn't very sure but it looked as though the woman was just tired. Maybe she was assuming things incorrectly, and while there wasn't any obvious suspicion of danger, Arturia was still trained to detect something that's still remotely suspicious.
That was when a phone call rang in her pocket, and Arturia picked up to see who it was. She was surprised, and somewhat confused that it was Fiore, her boss, calling her. Arturia accepted the call and put the phone on her ear. "Hello?" she greeted, but still wanted to know why Fiore was calling her.
"Hey, Arturia, sorry if I'm bothering with anything you're doing, but you're gonna have to come back to the Yggdmillennia right away." Fiore said, making Arturia be confused.
"If you don't mind me asking, why is that? Is there something wrong?" Arturia asked, and truth be told she was a little annoyed that her freetime had been interrupted just to be called to get back on the work.
"Well there's nothing particularly wrong per say, it's just that we're gonna have to make final preparations before the World Unity Festival starts." Fiore answered.
"Why do I have to be the one…?" Arturia grumbled under her breath, leaning her elbow onto the table
"Who said you were the only one? I contacted Bedivere and the others to get here as well. So just get your suit ready and get over here, pronto."
Arturia sighed, knowing she didn't have much of a choice but to obey. She was gonna be having a really busy day today. "Alright fine, I'll get there as soon as I can."
"I apologize if I am bothering you with anything you were doing. But I do promise you that the festival will be a great experience for everyone else." Arturia could practically just imagine Fiore making that sweet lovable smile of hers on the phone, that smile just somehow affecting everyone else that made Fiore just look so sweet. "This is all I wanted to say."
"Alright, I'll get there." Arturia replied, just before Fiore ended the call.
After the end of the phone call, Arturia paid for the bill on her food right before she left the restaurant. As she was walking away from the place, she could see Irisviel walking away, though her footing was going by faster as if she was in some rush. Arturia wanted to check what was the case with the woman, as she started to walk by faster. "Hey!" Arturia called out to Irisviel. "What got you in such a rush?!"
"What is it now?!" Irisviel snapped as she turned out to glare at whoever was bugging her now, only to see it was just Arturia. Once realizing who she snapped at, both of them widened their eyes at what happened. "Oh, uh… it's just you…" Irisviel looked down, feeling embarrassed at her behavior.
"Uh… are you alright?" Arturia asked, still being a bit taken back by Iris' outburst. Usually when the two of them left like this, they would just be having small pleasant talks with one another, but as of today the talk was not pleasant.
"It's uh… nothing to be concerned with." Irisviel began to walk away again. "I'm sorry for the outburst."
Arturia began to go after her. "Has something been happening to you? It's just that... I-I couldn't really help but notice you've been kinda tense lately. Also I kinda thought you would have left a little more late?"
"They released me from my shift earlier today." Irisviel only answered the second question.
"Alright… but that doesn't really answer on if something's been going on with you." Arturia remarked, as she continued to persist.
"Wait, is that what you think is happening?" Irisviel tried to put up a smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make it seem like that. It's just that I've been feeling stressed with my work lately, since my hours have gone up for the past week now. But thankfully after this my hours should be back to normal in about a day or two. Sorry for that short outburst."
"Oh... Well I guess that explains it. You probably have a lot on your mind right now..." Arturia replied, and it was then that she gained an idea. Morgan kept on teasing about her crush on Iris, and with this chance it seemed almost perfect to ask her out. Well not necessarily ask her on a date, but just so to spend more time with her. After all, Iris has been in their neighborhood for over a year now, she might as well ask, even if she does get rejected in the process. "But uh… maybe if you don't get so busy, we could get to do stuff together. How does that sound?"
"Do stuff?" Irisviel looked over at the teen girl. "What do you mean?"
"Well it's just... I was thinking with how stressful your days are going, I just wanted to help you cheer up, and by doing that I was thinking of doing some activities together. I mean… if you want to that is…" Arturia suggested.
Irisviel thought about it for a bit, maybe she could try to relieve herself from some stress at least. "Well... I suppose having some fun wouldn't hurt anyone. But right now... I just need to collect my thoughts. Maybe some other time, alright?"
"Sure, that sounds good enough." Arturia replied, giving off a grin.
"Right…" Irisviel then gave off a small grin. "We can try to think of it as our little dates."
"D-Dates?" Arturia had a blush shown on her cheeks. "Wait, I-I didn't mean it like that, I was just—"
"Relax, I was only making a joke. There wasn't any need for an overreaction like that." Irisviel replied with an amused grin.
"Erm… right…" Arturia scratched her cheek as she looked down at the floor. "Silly me…"
It seemed like half of New York was out at the World Unity Festival, held in the heart of Times Square on a pleasant late night. Many have stood around to groove onto Macy Gray singing "My Nutmeg Phantasy", others milled around to enjoy the food and drinks, and others walked around in appropriate country costume dresses from around the world. For Arturia, she wished she could just go down there and just be having fun like everyone else was down there, but alas she needed to stay up at the balcony with Diarmuid and another bodyguard with them, just so to guard Fiore and Caules.
But man it felt as though this festival was lasting for an eternity, despite it only lasting for mere hours, so it felt as though time was being slowed down instead. Yet despite how long this festival lasted, everyone else was just as lively as when they started. Arturia was hoping that this would end soon, with her mind becoming tired from the mentality of the festival.
"Don't worry, I know you would rather go jump over there with others than to stay here and protect me. In fact it wouldn't really be so bad if all of us could join there… but that wouldn't be very professional of us, would it?" Arturia turned her head to look at Fiore with a surprised look on her face. "It's fine, but still… isn't all of this beautiful?" Fiore beamed down at the streets below. "I think a break like this is something all of us needed, at least for the experiments…"
Arturia did think about it, and honestly she could see why Fiore would cast an event like this. Being the main head of a family like the Yggdmillennia would have to put a ton of pressure, even though both of them were similar age.
That was when Arturia felt her body tense up. The same danger sense that she always had when there was danger. But this level of danger she sensed was on a whole other level compared to anything she previously sensed. Arturia got to the front and looked frantically at where the danger was at.
Others have picked up on Arturia's behavior, noticing her frantically looking around. "Is everything alright?" Caules asked, looking down below at the streets. "Are you seeing anything suspicious?"
"No…" Arturia gripped on the ceiling she hung onto. "It's just... I get this weird sense that we're in some kind of danger."
"Danger?" Caules looked all over as to see what Arturia was talking about, but he couldn't see anything that was remotely suspicious. "Are you sure about that? I don't see anything wrong, though it could be because there's so many people down there…"
"I'm telling you that something isn't—" from the corner of her eye, Arturia could see something crouching as it was seen on a building not very far from where they were located at. It was so dark that no-one would have been able to see it except her due to the enhanced vision. 'What the hell is that?' she thought. "We have to get out of here!"
It was then that a pair of purple energy-like lasers were shot from a distance, and they were fired beneath the balcony that all of them were on. The balcony itself has split apart, and it made everyone who was standing on it fall down in the air, waiting for moments to hit the pavement on the ground and meet their demise… for most anyways. Fiore thought of a quick action in her mind, putting on her Bronze-Link Manipulator on her hand before a surge of mechanical spider-like limbs came out from her back, acting as an exoskeletal mecha-armor. "Grab on!" Fiore exclaimed, as she got out of the wheelchair. The first 2 limbs caught Arturia and her brother, right before the other 2 served as their safe landing. Fiore's mechanical limbs have landed on the ground, and thankfully served as their impact without much issue.
Fiore's other limbs let go of Arturia and Caules before they hit the ground, but they quickly got back up. When they tried to regain their sense of what just happened, they became shocked when they saw a pair of dead police officers laying in front of them while the crowd was trying to run away. And what stood on top of those dead bodies was none other than Darnic himself, who held a rather drained body before tossing it aside.
Fiore and Caules couldn't believe it, and Arturia was far more confused as for who this was. "Well, well… it's been a while since we met. I see you two have been rather busy, but which one of you have taken my place?" Darnic looked over at the shocked siblings, as he more so looked at Fiore. "I apologize if I haven't really kept up with the news much, but at times it became a bit difficult to keep a low profile and fill my hunger while I'm at it." he began to walk toward them. "I doubt Caules would be able to last for long, which can only mean that you were the one to take my place as the head of Yggdmillennia, Fiore. And at such a young age as well. After all, you always wanted to be next head since you were far more eager."
"Uncle Darnic…?" Fiore just wanted to believe if this was some nightmare that she was having. Memories from the night where they were at Quest began to surface, and the voice she heard before passing out.
'Darnic?' Arturia turned to look at the vampire walking where they were at. 'The previous head of the Yggdmillennia? Wasn't he presumed missing months ago? How is he back? And more importantly, what the hell happened to him?'
Darnic stopped walking when he got halfway to where they were at. "I would have congratulated you, if not for the fact that everything you're doing is an utter waste of time. All you're doing is adding yourself unnecessary pressure, wasting all your time on tinkering machines and make competition like some rats to scrap over garbage and see who gets to come out on top for a military contract. I was supposed to aim for your heads with those blasts just now, but my aim is very difficult to control whenever I fire those off."
"What the hell is wrong with you right now?!" Caules began to argue. "She's been doing nothing but to help the company you started ever since you disappeared! After all the work, you just go ahead and spit at us!"
"And I thought that everything I previously had was all I wanted, but the conditions and the forsaken restrictions I was on drove me mad. But ever since I acquired power more than I could ever have in my wildest dreams, I don't need to worry about silly things such as that anymore!" Darnic wore a large grin. "I surpassed my limits as a human and became something—"
It was at that moment that Fiore's mechanical limbs began to fire gun shots all over Darnic's body, causing holes to appear on them. "You talk too much…" Fiore glared at Darnic. "I don't know who you are, but you are clearly not the same uncle I once admired. You're nothing more than a power hungry fool now. Not to mention you're trespassing my property, so I'll have to eliminate you here."
To her surprise, Darnic's body only started to heal, covering up all the holes in his body where they once wore. Arturia clenched her fists in worry, knowing that whatever this thing was, she was the only one who could take him on. "Fiore, Caules, let me take care of this…" Arturia stepped between the siblings and the monster. "I'll stall time for you two to get out of here, or maybe evacuate the innocents if you can."
"Are you out of your mind?!" Caules asked in shock. "You can't possibly take him on by yourself!"
"I said I'll stall for time, not have a fight to the death." Arturia took off the first layer of her clothing, revealing a set of black leather clothing, with a protective purple vest on top of that, added with more equipment than she already had. She took off a pouch and revealed a combat knife. "My job was to protect you, and I'm doing just that. Leave here while you can. The others should be here to help me as well…"
Fiore nodded her head, albeit she was hesitant with her bodyguard's decision. She merely hoped she would make it out alive somehow. "I understand, but don't do anything too reckless that'll get you killed."
Arturia merely nodded her head. 'I just hope they don't come for my aid. I'm the only one here who can take him on.' she could see that Fiore and Caules were running away to help evacuate everyone. 'Still, I was kinda hoping that I could get to use my new suit. Although…' she prepared herself in a fighting stance. 'Something tells me I shouldn't be pulling my punches against this guy. Whatever he is, he's clearly not human.'
"You really think you can let them escape easily?" Darnic was just prepared to charge right at Arturia first. "You dumb little girl! Who do you think I am?!"
'There's an opening at his gut!' Arturia quickly reacted by ducking down as Darnic leaped at her, right before she thrusted the knife through his stomach, but the knife in itself completely broke. Darnic continued to go after Arturia, who barely managed to get away before Darnic's hand pierced through the walls as she dodged by instinct and with the help of her danger sense. 'What was that?! The knife broke like it was paper! But man, he's so fast! It's just ludicrous!'
"Hold it right there!" Arturia widened her eyes when she saw the other bodyguards, those being Bedivere, Gawain, and Agravin. "You move even one centimeter further and we're going to blow your brains out!" Agravin threatened Darnic as all of them pointed their guns at him.
Darnic turned out to look at the pests who bothered him with an annoyed look. Arturia was starting to get worried for them now, trying to think of how to get them out of here without being harmed, but she would be looked as crazy in doing so. "Annoying little shits…" Darnic murmured in annoyance before he was walking toward them.
"We warned you about this!" Gawain exclaimed before he started firing at Darnic, who already got in front of Gawain before picking him up by his color and throwing him away, with Gawain's back hitting against a car and knocking the wind out of him.
Agaravin was about to shoot at Darnic as he turned around, but Darnic merely backhanded Agravin away from him, breaking his nose in the process before he got sent flying and rolled over on the ground before he passed out. Finally, Bedivere tried attacking him directly with a combat knife of his own, but Darnic merely grabbed Bedivere by his right arm and threw him aside, badly hurting the limb despite barely even touching it.
Arturia clenched her teeth before she started running at the vampire. "That's enough!" she lunged at Darnic at full speed ahead, and managed to get directly in front of him before she punched him in the head at full strength, sending him flying away.
Darnic flew backwards through a pyramid of champagne glasses, on a buffet table, and finally crashed against a lamp post which made the force of the blow snap in two like a twig. Darnic grunted from the blow, but nonetheless he got back up from it like nothing happened. 'No human could ever hit me like that.' he proceeded to dust himself off. 'That girl…' he looked back to see where Arturia was at, still getting ready to fight him. 'Whoever she is, she clearly isn't a normal human if she could hit me like that. She clearly has powers of her own, but what kind? Oh well, I suppose it doesn't matter. Whatever she hit me with, it would take far more than that to defeat me!'
Arturia widened her eyes when she saw Darnic coming at her at speeds she's never seen before. She managed to leap towards her right when he thrust his hand to go through her body, but Darnic didn't stop his tempo as he continued to come after Arturia, this time sending a roundhouse kick to her head. Arturia raised her arm to block it, and when the kick came in contact with her arm, she yelped in pain from it. Arturia tried to counter back by ducking down and making a sweep kick, to which Darnic jumped over to her and went ahead to kick her in the back of her head.
Arturia gasped when she felt the blow connect to her head, sending her rolling on the ground. She was grateful that her body had been greatly improved, otherwise she would have long since been dead by now. However it was clear whatever she had on her tool clearly wasn't enough compared to raw power Darnic had. She could see Darnic coming right at her to finish her off, but Arturia leaped ahead at Darnic, kicking him in the chest with both her feet.
Now the two of them were standing face to face at one another, right before their next round of combat began. Darnic attacked ferociously, and Arturia was doing her best to stay on her feet. But the blows that Darnic was giving her were rather painful on her body. Arturia managed to kick Darnic on his hip, but Darnic was able to keep up easily, as he sent his fists to keep hitting whatever spot could come in first at Arturia's body. Arturia blocked Darnic's knee when it came to hit her in the stomach with both her hands, and she tried to duck lower before kicking his leg, and managed to make him lose his balance in doing so. Arturia wasted no time, and went ahead to kick him on his hip to send him away from further.
Arturia got back up again, feeling frustrated at how this was going. 'I'm hitting him with everything I have, yet he just keeps coming back like nothing is happening!' she saw Darnic immediately coming after her again, hitting her once more, with Arturia coming in to block the blow, and yelped from the pain as she got sent flying back. 'But he doesn't really seem to know how to fight. I am more skillful than he is, not to mention my danger sense thing is working in overdrive, it's the only reason why I'm even able to dodge his attacks. Although it does help that his attack pattern is predictable!'
"I have to say... I am rather impressed on how you're managing to survive for this long." Darnic grew a smirk as he readied himself once more. "You are clearly not normal if you're able to keep up at a level like this."
"Are you really gonna stand there blabbering your mouth all day, or are you actually going to take this fight seriously?" Arturia glared at him as she prepared herself to form a stance. 'Judging by everything that's been happening, and with the fangs he showed… he would have to be a vampire. Never thought I would have been up against that… although for the questions of how and where he became like this will have to be saved for some other time.'
Darnic scowled at the girl. "You seem to be quite the type to savor a quick death headed for you. If you want to die that badly, then I'll gladly give it to you!" he exclaimed before he leaped right at her again.
'If he is a vampire, then that puts me at a major disadvantage.' Arturia thought as she rolled sideways when Darnic swung his kick at her. 'Only weaknesses that come in mind right now would have to be the sun, or some holy water, or garlic, or whatever if we're going by typical vampire mythos.' Arturia then swung her fist at Darnic, but to her surprise, Darnic caught her attack with his bare hand and threw her hard enough that she crashed against a wall on her back. Arturia groaned from the pain, and started to get back up. It was then that she saw a police car that stood next to her.
"You shouldn't lose your focus now!" Arturia widened her eyes when seeing Darnic got in front of her, backhanding her in doing so before crashing on the ground. "If this is really all you're capable of, then I'm quite disappointed." Arturia's lower lip was shown to be bleeding from the blow handed to her, along with suffering a pair of bruises. She went to pick from one of her pouches and grab a gun before pointing it at Darnic. "You really think a silly toy like that can even hurt me?!"
Darnic thrust his hand forward to end Arturia's life, but it was then that Arturia moved her body as some motion blur, making brief images wherever she went, along that her speed took a major increase as well, albeit for brief moments. Darnic was left stunned by this sudden ability, and it gave Arturia the timing and precision needed to shoot bullets at the police car, or more specifically the gas tank itself, shooting it multiple times before her speed returned to normal and landed on the pavement once more.
"I'll admit that move of yours did catch me off guard, just what was that anyways? For a brief moment your speed just increased exponentially… but oh well, all you're doing now is delaying the inevitable." Darnic said, as he got to Arturia's side once more. "Whatever that last ability of yours was, it sure as hell didn't do a whole lot to…" Darnic could see that Arturia hasn't been listening, instead she kept on firing the bullets. "Would you quit that?!" Darnic kicked the gun away from Arturia's hand. "Don't you get it already?! Your last efforts were nothing more than futile!"
This was where Arturia began to chuckle. "Ya sure about that? I think that moment was all I needed to guarantee my survival."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Darnic demanded to know.
"I wasn't really trying to shoot at you earlier, I was more so trying to shoot at that car, or well… its gas tank. I mean, why would I even think that bullets would work on a vampire? Since you clearly are one, I figured that might have been my way to survive this." Arturia replied as she began to notice liquid dripping from a hole she previously shot at.
Darnic widened his eyes when he began to hear liquid dripping from behind. The vampire turned around to see that Arturia had indeed been right, but he still didn't understand what the purpose of that was. Darnic became distracted from the noise, and that was all Arturia needed before she flipped herself in front of Darnic and kicked him with all the strength she could muster, which successfully sent Darnic crashing onto the car that was already started to get ignited by the flames before it exploded, engulfing Darnic by the flames.
Arturia watched all of that happening as she started to get back up. 'You really should have been paying attention as for what I was doing.' she thought to herself, grunting as she held her wrist. 'The gun I shot with now held tracer bullets, and shooting those at a car with a gasoline tank on it was a hope of winning this fight, since normal bullets wouldn't really make cars explode like that, as there would have to be a spark before an explosion happens. But still… is he dead now? Did it work? Also, what the hell was that last move just now? That never happened before…'
It was then Arturia could see Darnic coming out from the explosion, but his entire body had been caught by the fire. "AAAAAAAAAUGH!" Darnic was screaming in agony as he held his head from the excruciating pain felt. Arturia could clearly see that her plan did indeed work. "DAAAAAMN YOU!" Darnic glared at the teenage girl, being filled with nothing but hatred and the murderous intent. "DON'T THINK THAT THIS IS OVER!" Darnic screamed out at the top of his lungs, right before he lunged at Arturia in order to burn her as well, but Arturia made a backflip to stay away with what little energy she had left. Darnic yelled out from the pain he felt. He couldn't take it anymore. He had to find something to extinguish himself with, as he wasn't sure if he would be able to survive this. So with that said he turned around and leaped far in the air.
Arturia sighed in relief, being glad that her plan worked and managed to force Darnic to retreat. Although she did hope that the flames would eliminate him before he could find anything to wipe the flames from him. She briefly debated to herself whether or not to follow him, but chose not to as she accomplished her duty as a bodyguard. She decided to check on the others to see how they were doing.
However, all the beating she tried to endure the whole time was becoming too much for her body, so as a result she collapsed on the ground and lost her consciousness.
Arturia started opening her eyes, as she now regained consciousness. Her eyes scanned around to see where she was at, and soon found out that she was lying on a bed as she was in a medical bay. She groaned when she felt pain shot through her body. Though she became surprised when she saw Fiore, Jeanne, and Morgan being right next to her bed.
"Good to see you're finally up and about. How do you feel?" Morgan asked as she sat on a chair, with Jeanne standing next to her right, and Fiore managing to find another wheelchair as she was next Morgan's left.
"I… could be better…" Arturia replied, flinching when she felt the pain shot through her again.
"You shouldn't really move around so much. You took quite a beating out there…" Fiore remarked, and Arturia did lie down as told.
Arturia turned her head sideway to look where the other girls stood at. "So… what happened to the others? Are they alright?" she asked, remembering how the other bodyguards intervened in an attempt to stop Darnic, only to fail and get injured in the process.
Fiore seemed a bit hesitant to answer, as she bit her lower lip. Arturia didn't like the waiting. "Agravin and Gawain sustained bad injuries handed to them. It's nothing life threatening, but… it's really going to take quite a while for both of them to make a full recovery, at least for a month, possibly much longer. So until then they won't be able to do anything. Bedivere sustained a bone fracture on his right arm from his encounter with Darnic, so we're gonna have to repair his arm with our tech as much as we can if he were to continue his job." she informed her bodyguard. "You have the least amount of injuries compared to others, but it is clear your body is under strain. So all you need is to rest a little bit."
"Oh... I see then…" Arturia couldn't help but feel pity for her colleagues, wishing they didn't help her out in the first place. Sure they did have good intentions, but it backfired on them. She turned to look at Morgan and Jeanne. "But hang on a minute, where's Kay at? How come he isn't here?"
Jeanne shrugged her shoulders. "Busy at work. He did hear about what happened since I told him on the phone, but I reassured him that your wounds weren't anything too serious."
"Well that explains it…" Arturia remarked.
"Although… we're not exactly finished just yet." Fiore looked over at Arturia's sister and cousin, and Jeanne looked back at her cousin's boss. Morgan just seemed to be confused with the looks that were given. Then all of them just looked at the wounded Arturia.
Arturia was confused with the looks that were given to her. She looked at Morgan for answers as for what this was for, but her sister had no idea what was happening either. "What?" Arturia asked, being confused as why she was looked at, with the silence becoming uncomfortable. "What's with the looks?"
"I think you might wanna give an explanation as for how you managed to stand out for so long against a vampire." Fiore remarked as she folded her arms.
"Uh… what do you mean?" Arturia asked in confusion.
"Forgive me if I do sound accusing but… it's just rather strange how you were able to stand your ground so well like that." Arturia was about to speak up, but Fiore put her hand in front to finish what she was saying. "Now I do understand you are well trained in martial arts, and while I haven't seen everything that was going on, I am by no means a fool. My Bronze-Link hardly did any damage to my uncle, and yet you were capable of sending him flying through tables. The other bodyguards got taken out easily, yet you were the only one that could still fight on… even though you were getting beaten up more times than the others have… and somehow able to move, let alone fight."
Arturia gulped, now starting to understand where Fiore was coming from. She was getting closer and closer to figuring out who she was. And that was the last thing she wanted right now. But why the hell was she talking about this in front of her family members? "Well… what can I say? I guess it was the heat of the moment that got to me?" she tried to form an excuse, but nothing valid was coming to her.
Fiore didn't like this, scoffing at the excuse. "Oh don't kid yourself. You were having trouble taking out your teacher, let alone beating against a vampire of all things. You even sent him flying by punching him!"
Arturia knew she was in deep trouble now. Perhaps she did show a bit too much more than necessary. But what other choice could she have? There was no time at all to change into her suit, and even then it would be suspicious where she was at during the entire chaos. And fairly enough, she too would be suspicious if she saw her employee suddenly fight something supernatural all of a sudden… that could also shoot some laser beams out of his eyes…
"Oh come on already." Jeanne was leaning onto the chair Morgan still sat at. "At least try to make some decent attempt at lying. You're only just digging your own grave at this point, miss little Ghost Spider." Arturia looked at her agape, and Morgan herself was rather shocked as well. "Oops, guess I blew that one."
"Ghost Spider?" Fiore looked in wonder. "You mean that vigilante that's been roaming around?" she then looked back at Arturia. "You were her? I mean I was suspecting if you had some superpowers, but I wasn't expecting you to be a vigilante…"
Arturia sighed in frustration. "Alright fine, you win. I am the Ghost Spider. I honestly have nothing to put on any good lying. I'm not a spy." she looked back at Fiore and gave her a small glare. "But why were you just telling this in front of my family members?"
"I mean don't you think that your family deserves to know if something is happening to you?" Fiore remarked.
"And how the hell did you figure out that secret?" Morgan pointed her finger at Jeanne. "I thought we were hiding it well?"
Jeanne began to giggle to herself. "If you think you hid it well, you really need to do a much better job than that. You don't really think I haven't heard your conversations downstairs? Or some webbing left at the house? Or finding the costume? If you're curious to know, I knew about this for a couple of months by now."
"If you knew all along then why didn't you say anything?" Morgan asked.
"And why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Jeanne looked over at Arturia.
The blond teen sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. Believe me I wanted to tell you... I-I just wasn't sure when I should. If you wanted to know, couldn't you have come to me and talked about it if you knew?"
Jeanne shrugged. "Eh, I just wanted to know how long it would take till either you, Morgan, or Kay knew that I knew. Forgive me, but it was rather amusing…"
"Arturia…" Fiore turned back to look at her employee. "Did you by any chance see where Darnic has disappeared off to? You were the last person who saw him."
"Uh…" Arturia started to sit up, feeling that her body was starting to feel better now. "I have no idea to be honest. He was heading somewhere from where I was at. That's all I could remember before I passed out. That's about it…"
"I see… but be honest with me… do you think you could beat him?" Fiore asked.
Arturia became hesitant to answer. "I... I really don't think I can. I fought him with all the strength I had in me…" she looked at her hand. "But it just wasn't enough…"
Fiore stood silent before she made a sigh of her own. "I see then… though if you're wondering about your identity, we swear that we won't tell anyone about this unless it's to your consent. You'll still have your job in case you were worried. If you're worried about the innocent people, don't worry, most of them weren't even focusing on you at all, they were in a frenzy panic state and just wanted to get out. For those who did, even if a little bit, you made Darnic appear weaker than what he actually was. To them you appeared as a well trained martial artist and made it look as though thag was the only reason you handled him by yourself."
Arturia sighed in relief. "Thank you, Fiore, I appreciate this."
But she was still worried… what's gonna happen next?
In the middle of the night, Darnic was seen walking among the rooftop of a ruined building, being all by himself as he managed to get away. He limped forward, his body feeling weak with all the jumping and running he's been doing to get away as far as possible.
Darnic got to his knees, taking heavy breaths from the exhaustion he felt. It was truly blissful that he had vampiric regeneration at his disposal, but it took so much out of him just to be healed properly like this. Even as of now, his body still sustained burns, although nowhere near as much when it did before. There was no way anyone could track him from where he was at now. Unless the girl somehow managed to give out a clue.
"That girl…" Darnic started to get up again, gritting his teeth in anger as he remembered the fight with the girl he fought. He couldn't believe he needed to retreat all the way here just so to recover. Who was she anyways? She couldn't be any older than a teenager. "Who does she think she is… making me retreat like this…" he started to walk forward, leaning himself to a large statue, that being multiple times larger than his size. "Who even is she? I don't remember ever meeting her, that's for sure…"
His plan backfired by her of all people, she was just a stranger to him. His plan had been to sabotage the World Unity Festival, and by doing so he would have killed the new head of the Yggdmillennia, just so to show his incredible power, and prove he no longer needed to rely on anything that was previously related to his past. He would climb himself to higher surger of power and crush those who dare to oppose him.
But it all failed, and all of that being foiled by one person, and a little girl no less. It infuriated him he was stopped the way he was. "Damn…" Darnic gripped onto the statue with his bare hand clenching it tightly, and it easily caused large cracks to appear on it. "Damn!" Darnic stopped leaning onto the statue, and just began to kick the statue. "Damn, damn, damn!" a few of his kicks caused the cracks to spread by a large margin, the statue already on the verge of falling apart with just a few kicks. "FUCKING HELL!" Darnic screamed in rage, his last kick just destroying the large statue completely, as it bursted apart into tiny pieces.
Not to mention that since he caused such a dramatic appearance, it would definitely cause a lot of attention given to him by the public stunt he pulled and give much wanted attention from the news and media alike. Darnic started to take deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. "Calm down… throwing a tantrum like this isn't gonna do you any good… calm yourself…"
He tried to calm down as he told himself. He needed to think. Alright, so that little plan of his may have backfired, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. But it still infuriated him that he was stopped by that girl… who clearly wasn't normal if she could do damage against him. She clearly had powers, but what those were remained unknown to him. Although… he had to give her some credit, she certainly knew how to fight and stood her ground well despite the beating she took.
Darnic took another deep breath before looking at the skies from above. "It would certainly be handy if I knew that girl's name… but as of now I practically know nothing about her. I don't know who she is, but I'll get information… and the next time I see her, she won't be so fortunate to defeat me." he remarked with a smirk shown on him.
However… As it stood right now, he needed to recover his strength first. And only then would he come to strike once more.
Alright, about bloody time this thing got released. And no, I haven't forgotten about this story at all, it's just that I was getting rather busy on doing other stuff, and not to mention that my pacing has gotten slower for me for some reason, feeling as though I've been slowing down. But nonetheless, I hope the waiting was worth for those who do like reading this story, and I would really do appreciate if you could give me your honest thoughts of what you think of this story so far. Since I only had 2 comments made so far, and would be interested to know what you think of this.
I kinda could have made this chapter longer, but I think this is about as enough as it can get. Also if you got curious on what move Arturia performed at the last minute of the first fight with Darnic, I actually had her use the "Hyper-Sense" ability that was used for Spider-Man: Edge of Time game. Honestly I always found that move to be really interesting, and I don't think that enough people tend to talk about that one. Although this isn't something that Arturia can just use fully, as at the moment it only acts as a quick burst as a last line of defense at most.
I'll see of all you next time.