Delta blinked as she felt a pair of eyes looking directly at her – briefly observing the train car, she saw Ix hastily look away the moment she turned her head in her direction, bouncing her foot as she did "Ix?" She asked, the somewhat chubby woman turning her head back as if she hadn't already been staring "Are you alright?"
Ix looked away for a split second before answering with "Eh...yeah, yeah I'm good." Her eyes glanced up to the green messy tentacles on Delta's head before resuming eye contact.
Delta looked up to the bits of tentacle she could see in her upper vision "Is something in my hair?"
Ix shook her head ridiculously fast "No! No! Sorry, just, green hair...reminds me a lot of mine and Rem's Mum."
Delta slowly nodded, thinking back to her talk with Rem yesterday...if that was truly yesterday. She slowly opened her mouth and asked "Is she…?"
Ix's slow nod and long, deep sigh gave Delta the only answer she needed.
"She was nice, though." Ix said, leaning back in her seat "Kind, always knew exactly what to say and she was a total badass." She then gestured to her snoozing sister, who was stretched out across the opposite seats "Sis looks a lot like her...just with ginger hair and a ponytail." A soft smile appeared on her lips "We do miss her...she would have loved to see her grandkids."
Delta slowly nodded, fiddling with her loose, messy strands of hair as she did. Just then, the train zoomed through a barely illuminated station; though Delta saw something in it. Staring right back at her in the few seconds was a person with silver hair and a metallic body, completely caked in a rainbow of blood. Ix glanced out of the window Delta was staring at, eyebrow raised before shrugging. She then took note of Delta's shocked expression "What? You see something?"
Before Delta could answer, a thunderous BANG echoed throughout the entire train – although despite its volume, Rem didn't stir at all. Ix and Delta shot to their feet as heavy footsteps began to rapidly approach, the source blasting through the carriages and anything that got in their way until they burst into the carriage the women were in, revealing themselves to be the very same person Delta had seen on the platform.
"DAD!?" Ix shrieked as the cyborg leapt into the air, a murderous grin on his face with his blood-soaked sword raised above his head. Ix jumped away as he smashed the sword into the floor before kicking her father away into the wall, yanking his sword out of the ground and clutching onto it. The cyborg let out a primal grunt as his single eye gleamed with a red light "MARCUS! CUMBER!" Ix screamed down the train" STOP THE TRAIN! NOW!"
After only a few seconds, sparks began to fly from the screeching wheels as the train began grinding along the rails, the screeching send a cold chill through Delta's teeth…
The cyborg screamed as he charged for Ix, reaching out for his sword. In the blink of an eye, Ix was across the carriage, glaring at her father. The silver haired menace then lunged for Delta, the young Octoling barely bringing her arms up in time to guard from the kick – the hard metal sent an incredible surge of pain through her forearm – and it was only made worse by his continued assault until Ix grabbed the cyborg and wrestled him away from her, her arm firmly locked around his neck.
"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, JACK!" Ix screamed as loud as she could, throwing the sword away, which planted itself into a seat. Grabbing Jack's other arm, Ix tightened her arm around his neck, only for her dad to hurl her into a wall, her size creating a dent in the metal. Jack ripped his sword out of the ground and with a menacing cackle, his voice echoed throughout the mist the train had screeched its way into.
"DID YA MISS ME, GIRLS!?"
A bullet when whizzed right by Delta and into Jack's chest, Marcus emerging from the other end of the carriage carrying pistol, which he blasted bullet after bullet from into Jack, sending the psychopath reeling. The train then jolted to a complete halt, throwing everyone to the ground. Rem, however, just rolled onto her side.
With an ominous red flame encompassing him and his manic smile remaining plastered upon his face, Jack barely even moved his arms as he stood back upright, Ix keeping an angry glare on him as she stood. As Marcus and Delta got to their feet, the blue haired inkling held her hand to her side, briefly glancing over her shoulder "Stay back." She then slowly returned her stare to Jack "I'll take care of him."
Ix slightly bent her knees, hands clenched into fists as she too was surrounded by a faint blue flame radiating off of her. Jack cackled as he pointed his sword toward Ix "You're going to try and stop your own Dad, eh?"
Without a word, Ix blasted him at supersonic speed, the resulting sonic boom shaking the train cars apart from such an incredible release of energy. Smashing through the walls of each carriage, Ix eventually smashed Jack out of the back of the train, the two of them sliding to a halt dangerously close to an opening to the previous void of mist they were in. Jack snarled as he threw Ix off of him, flipping backwards as he got up and landing neatly on the rail, suspended above the nothingness by just the strip of metal. Ix looked over her shoulder for a second, seeing Delta and Marcus watching the standoff from the train, but in her moment of distraction, Jack slammed his foot into her, sending her straight into the wall of the tunnel. Blood splattered on the floor as Jack slashed across Ix, leaving a large gash over her stomach. A furious gleam shined in Ix's eyes as she smacked the cyborg away before yanking herself free. Falling to her knees as she hit the ground, a stronger flame appeared in her hand before she slapped it over her stomach, hissing, growling and yelling as steam came from the burning wound – as she stood up, it revealed her wound closed yet skin burned – the blood, however, still fresh, dripped down her body and stained her shirt a deep crimson.
"You're gonna pay for that!" The woman snarled before ramming into Jack once more at full speed, her father letting out a pained shriek as he was thrown to the ground as if a god themselves had thrown him from the clouds to the cold, hard ground. Ix smashed her foot into his chest, her blue flames crackling wildly. As Jack brought his sword up to slash her once more, Ix nonchalantly grabbed it like it was nothing, wrenching it out of his hand and tossing it aside, where it planted itself into the wall. Jack's reaction, however, came in the form of a continued manic smirk; his arms suddenly melted down into a swarm of metal particles before reforming into blades of their own.
Ix's surprise lead to her being booted off her downed foe, Jack lifting himself up as if an unseen force was pulling him up via strings attached to his body "Kehahaha...surprised?" His long tongue dragged along his bottom lip as he spoke.
Ix cracked her knuckles and rolled her neck "Now I guess it's time to get serious if you've gotten yourself some upgrades." Her flaming aura burst out, transforming itself into crackling electricity all over her body, releasing a tremendous scream as she lunged for Jack, who in turn responded with a furious yell, his cybernetic body gaining a crimson glow. As the two of them clashed, their colliding attacks shaking the entire tunnel, Delta, Marcus and C.Q Cumber could only watch the battle from the smashed up train...Rem, however, was still fast asleep and barely stirring besides a slight shuffle and a kick so strong it smashed the handle where her feet were to bits.
"So that's their Dad?" Cumber asked, a spike of his extending as if to stroke his chin if he had one.
Marcus nodded in reply, his scuffed clothes blowing in the light breeze of the tunnel "That's Jack alright. And from the looks of it," he squinted his eyes on Jack's sword, scratching his cheek as he examined it "Yup...he's our guy."
"Ngh..." C.Q Cumber's body completely spiked up as a cold chill ran through his translucent blue, purple and slimy skin "Wasn't expectin' a cyborg to be making the rounds in this place."
Marcus was about to cross his arms until he spotted the two fighters preparing for extremely powerful punches. Before either of the other two knew what was going on, Marcus screamed "GET DOWN!" as he grabbed onto them and yanked them to the floor, the resulting ground-shaking shockwave rumbling throughout the entire tunnel, dust and small rocks shook free from the top of the long, claustrophobic darkness. Back in the train, Rem just groaned and put her arm over her ear.
Jack's metallic claw-like fingers dug into Ix's shirt and he threw her over his shoulder like she was nothing, Ix spewing out a pool of blood on impact with the ground. A large cloud of dust kicked up from the ground as Jack smashed his fist downward, Ix's movements going still…
Delta let out a gasp as she clapped her hands over her mouth as Ix froze, Marcus immediately pulling her close in a tight hug.
What they couldn't see was Ix's furious glare into her father's eye past his fist that was held tight in her own hand. The metal screeched Ix's fingers dented it, the blue fighter pulling her father down to the ground before slamming her fist into his cheek at full force, Jack's crimson glow vanishing in an instant, barely visible before he was sent flying through the wall, creating a huge crater in it.
Delta slowly removed her head from Marcus' chest at the sound of the loud THWACK from Ix smashing her fist into her dad's face, her eyes lighting up upon the sight of Ix standing triumphant, even if she was battered, cut and bloodied.
"Last chance, Dad, quit it before you end up as a head again!" She shouted into the hole...and received silence.
Until loud, ragged breathing echoed through the tunnel.
"Where the hell did you learn to punch like that?" Jack's raspy voice came from the darkness of the impact zone, soon followed by loud grunting and groaning as he wrenched himself free from the hole, dropping down to the floor as he finally pulled himself free from it.
Ix appeared in front of him in a second, gently catching him in her arms as he fell "You're alright, you're alright..." She said in a soothing, warm tone "Don't worry."
Jack's hand clacked against his forehead as he put his palm to his head, groaning out "Where are we…? What's going on?"
"Long story. But we were looking for you the whole time." Ix replied, keeping her arms wrapped around her weakened parent.
Jack let out a weak "Heh...you're just like your mother." And with that his whole body went limp, his youngest daughter struggling to hold up his weight for a moment before summoning her strength back "Ngggahh...there we go." She grunted as she hefted him over her shoulders in a fireman carry, casually approaching the rest of the group. They briefly exchanged a glance, then Ix looked to the train, then back to the group "Buggered, isn't it?"
"Well, these carriages are, at least." Marcus looked back down the train "Looks like everyone's already moved up to the ones that didn't get destroyed, though."
Cumber grumbled to himself before speaking, "Ix, you're going to have t' wreck these ones, yeah? You are one of the two that destroyed 'em..."
"Yeah, yeah I know." Ix waved her hand as she approached "Move aside, I gotta get him down somewhere. You ever carried a cyborg?"
"No." Marcus shook his head.
"Then you don't know how heavy one is." Ix casually forced her way through the group, Delta keeping her eyes fixated on the fainted cyborg...to see the thing that created a slaughter she was born into the aftermath of right there and so...peaceful – her mind couldn't name the feeling.
As Ix slumped Jack down into an empty seat, Rem finally began to move, looking over her shoulder at Jack with her somewhat colour-drained eye, then up at Ix "Hey." She said in a tired grunt, nodding her head slightly "He alright?"
Ix nodded "Turns out he was the one behind all the slaughters."
Rem looked back at the sleeping Jack, narrowing her eyes at his scarred chest before shrugging it off "Hm." She then put her head back down, immediately going back to sleep.