A Waken 16.12. S
William Manton was long accustomed to his routine.
The sensation of being in two places at once, having two minds that shared the same space, was familiar. With Casey, he ripped and tore. With William, he shadowed. One enacted a bloody madness on the world. Casey lived so long as she could do as she pleased. The other watched and remembered. Remained quiet and hidden.
Part of the routine, more often than he ever expected, was giving directions.
"Down this way and then take a left," he pointed.
"Okay." The young man nodded and pinched his chin as he peered through the window. "Know what all that is about?" He nodded toward the dome of warped space in the distance. "Some kind of cape fight?"
Manton glared at the dome. There had been something about that in the news. One of Bakuda's creations. Had she created something that could destroy Casey too? He'd tried to direct her back in but the barrier only ever turned her back around.
Even with his power, he couldn't penetrate the space.
He wasn't sure what had happened to force him out of it either. One second Casey had been reaching for Bakuda, and the next she was gone. That usually only happened when Stratos got a good shot at her and that hadn't happened in years.
"Who knows," he grumbled.
"Well, we weren't sticking 'round anyway. Get and go I guess." The boy pulled away from his car and waved. "Thanks, mister! Stay safe."
"You too," Manton replied.
Two younger boys ran after the older as he started back the way they came toward a jeep hauling a container. Brothers traveling together? They didn't seem to appreciate one another. No one appreciated what they had until they lost it.
They had to be made to appr—
"Hey old man!"
Manton turned and noticed the phone in the boy's hands. Hadn't he said he had no phone?
"When you see the angels, tell 'um Tekkadan sent ya!"
Before another thought could cross his mind, William no longer felt Casey.
In an instant, a black void swirled and pulled him in, crushing William Manton, his car, and the street into a ball the size of a pinky tip before shunting the compressed mass into an empty universe devoid of all life. A reality where the Earth was destroyed in its infancy, and humanity never began.
Shino tossed the burner phone over his shoulder and gave Aston and Danji a high-five. "Hell yeah! Good job slipping the bomb under the car. Slick making it out like you'd lost your ball."
Aston's hand remained in the air. "So, that guy was The Siberian?"
"That's what Orga says," Shino confirmed.
Behind them, Biscuit crawled out of the back of the jeep and took the driver's seat. He started the engine and rolled the vehicle forward as Shino, Aston, and Danji ran to meet him.
"That's it?" Biscuit asked, leaning out of the window.
"That's it! We're heroes now!"
"Doesn't the Siberian have a huge bounty on her?" Danji asked.
Shino blinked. "Does she?"
"Think so," Aston answered.
"So…" Shino's grin broadened. "We're rich heroes! Alright! Even better!" Going around to the back of the jeep, Shino pulled the trailer doors open. "Time to show off."
A Waken 16.12.O.1
The moment Orga saw the bomb go off, he turned. Even if the Siberian reached her projector, Stratos' power had been able to damage or destroy her before. Veda rarely seemed to get those kind of things wrong. The most difficult to deal with member of the Nine was dead.
Now he needed to deal with the second and third.
He'd seen Newtype—Taylor—use their power before, and they'd let him use it when he tried to go to one of the boats abandoned out in the bay.
Hopefully they didn't balk at where he wanted to go.
"Door," Orga called, "directly behind Jack Slash."
He pulled back the slide on Mikazuki's gun and stepped through the portal as it opened.
He only registered Forecast's screaming for a second. There wasn't time to fret. Now was a time for focus.
Pressing the gun to the back of the man's head, Orga pulled the trigger.
Jack Slash's body jerked, and then spun as his head snapped forward. Orga slammed his foot into the back of the killer's leg, pressed forward, and fired again. Veda said Bonesaw 'enhanced' the Nine, but Orga didn't believe for a second anything she did made a point-blank shot to the head not jarring.
Orga shouldered Jack Slash. Firing into the psycho's cheek, he grabbed Forecast and threw her back into the portal. No Siberian in sight. She was dead. That only left Bonesaw.
The girl was staring ahead, despite the gunshot. He didn't know what she could be staring for. It didn't matter.
He just needed to shove her through a portal and they could deal with her later.
Behind him, Katz and Ban ran through the portal. A four-legged robot attempted to jump onto Ban's back, but White leaped into the tackle. The two robots collided and rolled back through an open door into the house.
Bonesaw snapped around as they tackled her. Orga's heart sank as her hand moved in a sudden motion, plunging the needle in her hand into Ban's collar.
"Door," Ban snarled, "Kyushu!"
His arm began spasming as he pressed a shoulder to the tiny girl's frame and shoved her toward the portal. Ban got her inside and started to fall through himself. Katz started to pull back but Bonesaw's arms suddenly spasmed and extended. It snaked around his throat and drew him back.
"Wait," Orga begged.
Katz started to fall and he smiled. "See you 'round boss."
Orga stared as the portal closed, taking all three away.
That wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to be—
Orga flinched as a blade cut across his cheek. Spinning around, he shoved Jack Slash against the balcony railing and pressed the gun into his gut.
"Die already."
He pulled the trigger and kept pulling. The gun rang out. Jack Slash grinned and gasped with each blow. He brought his knife around and Orga caught his arm and threw a knee into the man's groin. It wouldn't kill him. Forecast had warned him of that. Guns wouldn't be enough to kill any of the Nine.
But it didn't need to kill him.
The bullets only needed to slow him down.
When the gun clicked Orga reared his arm back and slammed the weapon into Jack Slash's nose. He didn't give a shit who had powers. Jack Slash wasn't a brute and no one just shrugs off three gunshots to the head, eleven to the gut, and everything else Orga could hit him with.
Another portal opened, and the rest of Tekkadan poured through.
"Out of the way Orga!"
Orga threw himself to the side, spotting White battering Bonesaw's robot repeatedly with a beam saber as he hit the floor.
The gunfire was loud. Shotguns. Rifles. Pistols. The clatter of thunder and the splintering of wood showered all around him before something cracked and Jack Slash went over the side.
"Follow him!" Orga roared. "Don't let him reach cover!"
Tekkadan surged, lining up along the edge of the balcony and firing down. Pushing himself to his feet, Orga ran for the stairs with half a dozen behind him. He reloaded his pistol on the way down the steps.
When he kicked the door open Jack Slash was thrown back onto the porch steps.
He tried not to think about Katz and Ban. He was supposed to shove Bonesaw through, not them. She was too dangerous. Too dangerous to fight. Too dangerous to kill. Dumping her on Kyushu was the best he could come up with. Someone with the ability could deal with her there without fear of collateral damage.
Once again, someone jumped in to take the risk for him.
"Forecast has you pegged." Orga leveled the gun, his voice cold. "You're predictable after all."
He started firing, stepping through the threshold and to the side. The others followed and the volley of fire threw Jack back onto the lawn. Those above began firing again, shredding the man's body inch by inch.
There was something off.
The bullets hurt him. They spilled his blood, but that's about all they did. Forecast mentioned Bonesaw enhancing the Nine with her tinker-tech.
Well, no one's immortal.
The bullets kept firing until they were all out of ammo.
Then they reloaded and fired again.
After the fourth volley, Jack Slash stopped moving.
"Don't buy it!" Orga ordered.
They unloaded again, and after he'd emptied his pistol, Orga started forward. As soon as the last shot was fired he grabbed hold of Jack's knife and yanked it away. The man was still alive, though he didn't have much of a face left. The skin was peeled away all over, scoured or outright torn off. The muscle beneath was bruised and swollen, held in place by some kind of gray mesh.
His eyes watched Orga move even as blood leaked all over his face.
Orga pressed his foot down on Jack's wrist, loaded his gun, and pointed it at the man's head.
"Pin him," Orga ordered. "Search him for more blades."
He couldn't help but feel a little resentful. They'd poured at least four hundred rounds into the man. He was still fucking alive.
"Don't know you," Jack gurgled. "That was"—he coughed some blood from his lips—"nove—"
Orga shot him in the mouth.
"You could at least beg or something." Glancing to the side as two boys went fishing through the cape's ruined clothes, Orga shouted, "Someone call Katz and Ban!"
"They're not here?" Hush asked.
Heads turned, looking around.
Orga grimaced. "They shoved Bonesaw into the portal themselves."
At least three phones came out and started dialing.
"Awful you—"
Orga fired again, this time hitting Jack in the eye. To his surprise, while a trail of blood spurted from the socket, the eye remained intact. "I said shut up. I don't want to hear your voice right now."
It wasn't the plan.
He was supposed to push Bonesaw through the portal. Kyushu was the most barren place he could think of. Hardly anyone lived there, and even if they dumped her in what remained above water, she wouldn't be able to move around. Everything that wasn't underwater was half-sunken. She'd be isolated there, long enough to think of what to do about her.
Killing her wasn't an option. Forecast said too many people died if Bonesaw was killed. They didn't have any secure cells or isolated places to put her in short order. Dumping her out in the middle of the water too far away to swim was the best he could come up with.
Newtype could almost certainly figure something out. Jack was what had Forecast and Veda worried and he was dealt with. But Katz and Ban…
Orga closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his forehead. "Damnit."
Katz and Ban were dead.
They spent their lives making sure she went through that portal and that Orga didn't get any closer.
Dammit.
Two more.
Two more dead because he couldn't think of anything better.
Orga opened his eyes and put another bullet in Jack Slash's head for good measure. Fuck him. He was going to die anyway. No way in hell Orga was risking someone like that coming back to haunt them. The world would be better off anyway.
Another portal opened behind him, and Orga looked back as Forecast dragged her injured leg behind her.
"You don't need to be here," Orga told her.
"It's fine," she said. "The Siberian?"
"If she were alive we'd be dead. Shino got the master, and by now they should be"—Orga turned. The warped space was gone. The bombs didn't last that long, but they'd lasted long enough here. "I don't imagine Shatterbird has long to live."
Heads turned, following his gaze.
The cape loomed overhead, staring down at them. Forecast had mentioned her being obsessed with Jack Slash in some kind of creepy romantic way. Figures she'd come this way as soon as the Vista bomb wore off.
"I hope you're all ready to die," she called.
The boys around Orga looked back and forth and then started laughing.
"Sure, why not?"
"Shocked I made it this far, you?"
"Yeah. How the fuck are we still alive?"
Orga scoffed. He threw his head back, glaring up at her. She was the kind of cape he particularly disliked. She sounded like Lung. Newtype had called Lung a coward, and that seemed to fit.
A coward, hiding behind power.
She sneered at them and their laughter. "Ants—"
Raising his voice, Orga shouted. "What do you think about that, Mika?"
A steel post shot through the sky, trailing rusted link fencing behind it. The projectile pierced Shatterbird's side and came out her back. The woman's head snapped around, watching as a shadow fell over her. A white and blue suit grabbed her by the leg as it fell and dragged her down.
Shatterbird screamed as the suit slammed her into the ground. A clawed hand rose and drove into her chest. The other grabbed the post. Pulling in opposite directions, the horned machine ripped Shatterbird apart, splattering itself in blood.
Mika never was one for subtlety.
The Gundam rose a moment later, head turning to look back with a single red eye.
A rattling sound filled the air. The windows in the house shook and Orga started to shout a warning when it stopped.
Barbatos' foot came down atop Shatterbird's head, crushing it into the ground.
A speaker clattered, and Mika said, "Sorry. I couldn't find the speaker."
A Waken 16.12.A.1
Alice scrambled back, throwing a grenade from her coat as she retreated. "When did I last mention I hate this plan?"
"Thirty-three seconds ago," Defiant recalled.
"Well I'm mentioning it again."
"I've noticed."
March continued humming as she advanced. Crawler caught the grenade with a 'ha' and it exploded in his hand to no effect.
Looking him over, the hero formerly known as Armsmaster was ragged. His armor looked like a rush job at the start, and now it looked like scrap. His fancy knife wasn't even doing the cool red-black particle effect anymore.
Looking down at herself, Alice wasn't any better off.
Forecast had said she shouldn't bring anything too good, and she was thinking she should have ignored that idea. All she had left were a pair of bumblebees, some standard explosives—her standard that is—and something that wouldn't remotely help in their situation.
She'd run, but her boots were out of charges by the time the Vista bomb wore off.
About the only bright side was Shatterbird skipping out as soon as she could. Downside being she'd probably gone right to where Forecast was trying to distract the rest of the Nine Shitsticks. Kid had balls of steel, but Alice was wondering how exactly this plan was supposed to come together.
"Don't suppose you got any surprises left," she mumbled.
Defiant scowled. "Unfortunately."
"So much for the fancy program telling us what the assholes are going to do," Alice grumbled.
"It's not the program," he corrected. "She's making her movements moment to moment. When we try to counter what she's going to do, she changes it."
"Yeah," March laughed. "I decided not to make dexterity a dump stat!" She pouted and glanced up. "Though I could swear I had you a few times. Something…" Her eyes scanned left and right. "Feel like I'm forgetting something."
The Haros surrounded them, though only one still had a weapon. March had destroyed two and Crawler mangled another. Red's machine only had one arm, and Green's had a bum leg. Maybe if they'd had a half-dozen more of the things they'd have more options.
Bakuda hated admitting it, but Crawler was too tough. Nothing they threw at him seemed to have any effect anymore. March—whoever she was—was just bullshit.
And ugly as fuck.
"I'm bored," Crawler announced as he wiped his hand in the air. The other arm was slowly growing back, not Lung fast but fast enough he could probably use it. "You don't hurt anymore."
"Come on," March sang. "They gave it their best!"
"Don't care."
"You need to learn to enjoy the little things in life."
"Don't care."
"You should take that act on tour," Alice suggested. "Maybe team up with Louis C.K.."
"He's funny," Crawler stated bluntly.
March shrugged. "Meh."
"Still bored," Crawler added.
"Do you want to torture them or something?" March asked.
"Not really."
Alice reached into her coat. She was out of anything that could really hurt them, but maybe she could slow them down. Depending. She wasn't exactly eager to bite it on movie night. What kind of girl would stand up Biscuit? Even his name was sweet. And despite thinking his suggestion a bit dumb, that bomb might be the only shot out now.
"Well, Beardmaster—"
"Don't call me that."
"Whatever. All I've got left is—"
The ground exploded as something crashed into the street. March turned curiously, then threw herself back in a Matrix dodge—fucking show off—as a light pole swung out of the explosion. Crawler grunted as it shattered against his flank, giant limbs twisting to turn.
Two red eyes glimmered from inside the smoke and then a horned head broke through and steam howled from vents on the head and torso.
Alice blinked. "A Gundam."
"Chariot's?" Defiant questioned.
Alice had seen that Gundam and it wasn't this one. The shape was slightly different and the head had freaking horns, not antennae like Newtype's suits. Its armor was mostly white with stripes of red and blue—
Alice blinked at the icon on the shoulder.
Iron flower. "Tekkadan."
Crawler snarled and hissed a stream of fire into the air. The suit barreled through the blaze unfazed, reaching a hand into his mouth and pulling hard.
Alice gaped. "Mikazuki?!"
The suit's head turned. Crawler jerked and it looked back before pulling. Flesh tore and Crawler howled as his tongue came free and blood splattered into the air. The suit skated to the side, dodging a thrust from March.
"Hey," Mikazuki finally said.
Alice leaned forward, still gaping.
Who the fuck put the tykebomb in a Gundam?!
Crawler growled deep in his chest, a twisted grin coming over his bleeding lips. "That hur—"
"Forward, forward!"
The Tierens charged, slamming into Crawler and toppling him over. Mikazuki's suit spun about, throwing Crawler's severed organ at March. She cut it in half and Armsmaster tackled her from the side while she tried to dodge the blood splash.
"Bakuda," Mikazuki called. "You have the bomb Biscuit suggested?"
Alice blinked and pulled the device from her coat. "This one?"
"Get ready to use it."
Wait. "What—"
Engines roared from up the street and Alice's head snapped around as two jeeps pulled onto the road dragging small trailers behind them. Shino hung from the side of one as the doors swung down.
"Fire in the hole!" he shouted.
Instantly, the Tierens pulled away from Crawler. Mikazuki retreated and Defiant's jetpack threw him into the air.
Shino pumped his fist in the air and roared. "Mega galaxy cannon"—god that sounded stupid—"FIRE!"
The Gungir's fired, rocking the trailers and shattering the road in front of them.
Alice was thrown to the ground by the wind and the only sound she could hear other than her own 'gah' was Crawler screaming bloody murder.
The stakes pierced his body all the way through—eight of them. Two others missed, burying themselves into the street before and behind Crawler. Shino jumped down from his perch, detached the cables tying the stakes to launchers, and shouted, "Let's go!"
Alice blinked.
Cables tying the stakes to the launchers?
Armsmaster landed clumsily across the street and Green turned around to fire on March. The bolts of energy clattered around her as she danced away, falling further from Crawler.
The jeep's engines roared and its wheels screeched against the pavement.
"That hurt!" Crawler roared.
The changer started to rise, still impaled by the stakes when Mikazuki came at him from behind and rammed a fist into his skull. The monster cape grunted and Mikazuki began pummeling his head with punches and elbows. While the changer's limbs flailed, the jeeps started dragging him by the chains.
"Bakuda!"
Alice turned as Biscuit came to an abrupt stop beside her.
"Have that bomb I suggested?" he asked.
Alice stared and held it up.
"Good," he said. "Get in!"
Alice needed a moment before complying, and when she did she said, "We're going to have a chat about truth and honesty when we get home, Pillsbury!"
Biscuit smiled nervously. "Yes ma'am."
Climbing onto the passenger side step, Alice grabbed on as Biscuit lurched forward.
Crawler left a bloody swathe in his wake as the jeeps dragged him down the road.
"Switch," Mikazuki called. He drew his suit back from Crawler and spun around. "I'll deal with her."
Grabbing a piece of rubble from the ground, he chucked it toward March. The Tierens swept past him.
"Good luck, good luck!"
Alice watched as March ran back and Mikazuki chased. Another jeep came around a corner to pick up Armsmaster. The Gundam and March vanished onto the next street.
"Mikazuki knows what he's doing," Biscuit said. "He's never lost."
He'd never gone head-to-head against a cape before. Everyone loses sooner or later.
She was getting sentimental.
Turning forward, Alice weighed the bomb and spotted the small craters left by the Gungnir's firing. "Right there?"
"Right there!" Biscuit confirmed.
Crawler recovered, shaking his head and crying. "That hurts!" He laughed.
"Creepy shit isn't he?" Alice asked.
"A little," Biscuit agreed. He turned the wheel sharp and Alice held on tight as he swerved behind Crawler and ahead. The jeep behind them followed and the Haros guided their Tierens at the end of the column.
Hefting her bomb, Alice waited a few more seconds before throwing it into the crater.
"Cover your ears, Pillsbury!"
Biscuit swung the jeep around, nearly throwing Bakuda off. The vehicle lurched to a stop and he covered his ears.
Even with her protection, the boom was shattering and left her with a small ringing in her head.
The ground blasted upward, shook violently, and then crashed down into a pit. The jeeps kept going, dragging Crawler into the blast even as several of the cables snapped. The changer's hands scraped over the ground, his face bloody and laughing as he vanished into the blast.
"Now what?" Alice called out. Admittedly, she only made 'the Shaker' to see how deep a hole she could make.
Her question was answered when a cement truck barreled down the street in reverse.
She recognized the Turbines' logo on the side and there was a girl grimacing as she drove it back.
Biscuit shook his head and groaned. "That was loud."
"Yup!" Alice shouted.
She stepped down on wobbly legs. Another cement truck followed the first, and as the debris all settled and the smoke cleared, she saw two more on the other side of her giant pit.
The remaining cables stayed taut, engines rumbling as the jeeps continued to pull.
The vehicles lurched forward suddenly, and Crawler began crawling out of the hole.
Maybe she hadn't made it deep enough.
"Stay down, stay down!"
The Tierens swooped in from behind, all three leveling Gungnirs down. The arms of the weapons snapped back and the air cracked again as the stakes slammed into Crawler's body. The changer roared and laughed again, and the Haros reversed.
"More!" Crawler cried. "More!"
"That's just fucked up," Alice noted.
"Yeah." Biscuit stumbled out of the jeep shaking his head.
Defiant came up behind the Haros, looking down as the Tierens pulled Crawler one way and the jeeps another. Between them, the changer remained pinned in the pit, unable to escape either way as the cement trucks raised their drums. The cylindrical containers pointed right into the sky and unleashed a torrent of gray slop into the pit.
A portal opened and Orga stepped out of it.
"Since when can he do that?" Alice asked. Did Orga trigger?
"Oh, that's Doormaker and Clairvoyant's power," Biscuit answered. "They're capes from the Sanc Kingdom."
Alice tilted slightly. "The fuck did I miss?"
"Forecast said that her plan was never going to work," Biscuit explained. Alice started toward the pit and he followed behind her. "She said 'capes can't beat Jack Slash.' Something about how he always knew when capes were coming after him and how."
That...sounded like a thinker power. Jack Slash had a thinker power?
"So," Biscuit continued, "she told Orga her entire plan, and he assumed she wanted him to do something about it. But she didn't know what. That way she knew something was going to happen but not what, so Jack Slash wouldn't figure it out."
Jack Slash could counter capes, so the little precog got a bunch of non-capes to kick his as—"Wait."
Alice spun around, glaring down at Biscuit. "Was I a distraction?!"
Biscuit grimaced nervously. "I guess so?"
Alice glared. "You're paying me back for this."
"Yes ma'am."
Orga stepped out to the edge of the pit and peered down as Crawler was buried.
Reaching for his pocket, he pulled out a phone and dialed a number.
"Mika, Crawler's trapped. How are you doing?"
A Waken 16.12.M
March flipped another rock into the air, only this time Mika punched it with Barbatos' fist. The stone shot back and exploded, throwing March into a feet-over-head roll.
He was getting tired of that trick.
Mika swept to the right. March threw herself out of the roll with one hand and swept her blade over the ground. The street exploded and Mika drove Barbatos through the explosion. He swung a hand down, and when she stepped out of the way he threw a leg out.
He grimaced as she leaped over the limb.
Did she see the future?
Every attack he made, she started moving before he'd even made it.
"Annoying," Mika whispered.
"March has an enhanced sense of timing," StarGazer explained in his ear. "Very enhanced."
Mika replied with a monotone 'kay. An explosion ripped through the air behind them, blowing a wind through the street. Mika lunged, swinging as March stumbled. She found her balance quickly and rolled out of his swing.
"You need to watch out for her sword. She has a striker power that can penetrate most protections and cause explosions."
And she blew things up.
Capes were such cheaters.
Spinning Barbatos around, Mika dodged a thrust from her sword and shot his elbow back. The suit's elbow. It felt like his. Moved like his. He knew his own arm remained still inside the machine, though.
It was a strange sensation, yet exciting in a way too.
The speed and the power. The sense of invincibility. He felt like he could do anything.
March ducked under his elbow and rolled forward. He tried to catch her before she got back to her feet, but she thrust her sword up and warded him away.
"Has anyone pointed out that you look vaguely sinister?" she suggested.
Did he? "What's sinister?"
The girl started, as if not expecting that response.
Reaching back, Mika pulled a fence post from the ground and threw it forward. Barbatos shot the post so hard, the grass on the ground below blew back. March wheeled, turning her body to the side as the post barely missed her head.
Mika swung another post around as a bat, sweeping for her legs. She swung her sword forward, cutting it in two and then detonating the rod in Barbatos' hand.
Drawing the arm back, he feinted as two swipes cut through the exploding cloud and skated to the right as March thrust forward.
It was weird moving over the ground without walking or running. Chariot had told him to try using skates, but he found balancing hard.
Barbatos didn't move like that though.
In Barbatos, it felt more like swimming. Maybe. It was still different.
He could feel the flow though, if he focused. Watching his enemy, moved as they moved. Dodging out of the way of her thrusts and swinging for her unguarded sides. Retreating when pressed until she ran out of breath. Charging while she recovered and forcing her back.
All the while she kept cutting, exploding the ground and anything he tried to hit her with.
He couldn't see the others anymore. If they followed the plan, Crawler should be getting buried by now. Orga said they couldn't kill him with his power, but Mikazuki figured even a strong cape had to breathe.
No one can breathe through concrete.
He didn't think that would work with this one.
Enhanced timing. That's what StarGazer said, but Mika didn't really know what it meant. She was really fast, he guessed? She seemed really fast. He certainly knew what 'penerate defenses' and 'explosions' meant.
He'd seen her do that. Staying away from her sword seemed kind of smart.
He swept Barbatos back and away, aiming his right hand for a mailbox behind him. March ran a circle, stepping onto the abandoned street where she swung debris at him with her sword.
He'd seen that trick before.
Ripping the mailbox free from the ground, he threw it forward, catching two of the rocks as they exploded. He ducked under the third and charged as it detonated behind him.
"You know," March called. Mika swiped at her with his right claw and she jumped atop an old car. His left claw came from the other side and she cartwheeled over it. "I'm getting the sense you might be a little slow."
"Maybe," Mika admitted. He wasn't that smart, but he already knew that.
Mika stomped Barbatos' foot onto the car's hood. March stumbled and he aimed for her leg with a punch. She slapped the roof of the car and threw herself over him. He ducked to the side, grimacing as her sword swung through Barbatos' shoulder.
"Ejecting," StarGazer told him.
Something mechanical clicked and Mika skated away before the piece of armor exploded.
March flew back from the blast, caught herself in another handstand, and then flipped to her feet.
"You do know what the definition of insanity is, right?"
Mika spun Barbatos around and grabbed hold of the car. "No."
He heaved the vehicle forward, forcing all of Barbatos' power behind his impromptu battering ram. When March dodged, he let go and swung around Barbatos' foot into the car's side. The door crumbled under the force of the blow, but flung sideways with the force regardless.
March jumped over it like an acrobat and then danced out of the way of his next punch.
"You're not giving me much banter to work with here, big guy." She dodged his follow-up attempt to grab her and thrust her sword at Barbatos' exposed shoulder.
Mika ground his teeth and eyed the shoulder in the cameras around him. "You talk too much."
March scoffed. "Newtype quips all the time!"
Mikazuki kicked a large rock, sending it clattering down the road. "She's funny."
He wasn't used to fighting like this. He could feel the flow of it and Barbatos always moved like he wanted to. There weren't any complicated instructions or anything. He wanted to move and Barbatos moved.
But not feeling the air around him, hearing all the sounds; it was different. He had the jets, but using them for more than big jumps was a bit much. He couldn't move the same way Chariot did in Kimaris.
He needed to make sure Crawler wasn't giving the others trouble, and check on Orga. There wasn't time to waste with her.
Mika glanced at the exposed shoulder again.
Fine then.
Batting a few exploding rocks away, he skated close to a house and ripped one of the columns from the porch.
Throwing it forward, it broke into two pieces mid-fight. March dodged one and started to kick the other away.
Mika charged again, swinging wide this time. She moved exactly as she had before, using her hand for balance as she moved awkwardly and avoided the telegraphed punch. When he shot Barbatos' knee forward, she put a foot against it and pushed off. She thrust her sword in counter just like she had before.
Except this time Mika didn't dodge.
He winced in preparation for a stabbing pain in his shoulder, but it never came. The blade raked over the under armor as he grabbed onto her arm. His other hand went straight and caught her head between its fingers.
March froze, one eye peeking out from between the fingers. She threw her feet forward, slamming them against Barbatos' chest and pushing back. Her eye kept glancing at her sword, but Mika pulled it away where it couldn't cut him.
Why didn't it cut him?
Eh, no matter. His grip remained firm.
Finally. "Got you."
"Tell me about it!"
Mika glanced down.
Imp jammed her knife deeper into March. "I've owed you a good stabbing for what you did to Tats. Merry Christmas!"
March's flailing continued and Mika shook as an explosion rolled over Barbatos. A sharp pain stabbed into his shoulder, but he knew pain. This wasn't much. Her sword cut too shallowly.
Something clicked in his ear, and Orga's voice came from the suit.
"Mika. Crawler's trapped. How are you doing?"
Mikazuki smiled. "I'm done here, Orga."
He killed the line and closed his hands into fists.
A Waken 16.12.O.2
Stepping out of the truck, Orga walked up the path to the house. "It's done," he called. "Crawler's buried in cement, March is dead, and the Siberian is a hole in the ground."
Forecast kept her gaze fixed. "That's it then, the Slaughterhouse Nine are finished."
Finished? "We can't find Burnscar. No sign of her." Orga frowned. "Bakuda and Armsmaster"—Defiant, Shino clarified—"said they lost sight of her during the fight."
The girl before him shrugged. "She's dangerous, but not as much without the Nine to goad her on. We'll find her if she turns up causing trouble."
A shrill laugh drew Orga's attention to the mutilated form bound on the ground. They'd tied his arms thrice and behind his back, and his legs too. Unless he had more powers no one knew about, there wasn't any way for him to escape and he'd run out of anyone to rescue him.
So why the laugh?
The blooded head of Jack Slash lifted. "Keeping secrets?"
Forecast crouched, bringing her head level to his.
"I can tell you a secret," she whispered.
"Another surprise?"
"Three Thrones, nine Tierens," Forecast said. "Put a Gungnir on all of them, and Veda could have wiped you all off the face of the Earth in an instant. The only one who could possibly survive that barrage was Crawler and Veda won't have a hard time with him alone."
Orga's brow rose. He had wondered why they needed help. She'd said capes couldn't beat Jack Slash. He didn't know why, but StarGazer wasn't a cape. If they really needed the Nine stopped before they could enact any plans against Brockton Bay, why not have her do it?
"You're a very good liar," Jack Slash gurgled.
"You know I'm not lying," Forecast retorted. "You're wondering why not just do that."
Forecast leaned forward, her body tensing up as weight fell on her injured leg. She maintained her balance though, saying, "Because people already expect great things from Veda.
"She's an AI. She fought Leviathan on her own. She beat Alexandria. She and Taylor are practically Dragon's successors. People expect the unexpected from them. Their entire resume is doing things no one thought they could do."
She rose up, stumbling for a bit as she put weight on her injured leg again. White rolled to the side and buoyed her, though Orga doubted it helped much.
"There's more to be gained from wiping you out than adding to their resume," the girl continued. "People would be happy about it, relieved. They'd probably get a parade. And then people would move on. You'd be nothing more than a footnote in their story."
Even with most of the man's face torn away, Orga thought he saw a scowl. Jack's eyes were red but mostly intact and those would be projecting blades if they could.
"Some capes were here to fight you, but they didn't beat you. The Slaughterhouse Nine got beat by a bunch of wharf rats with no powers." At that a few laughs and cheers went up around them. "And I'll bet that's going to get some people to wonder how powerless they really are. So look at it this way, Jacob. I'm doing you a favor you don't deserve."
She lowered her voice and Orga needed to lean in to catch her words.
"You're going to be remembered forever," she told him, "just not in the way you expected."
Her voice lowered then and Orga barely heard the rest of what she said. Her tone surprised him as the words came out. They were soft, kind. He'd swear she felt sorry saying them.
"You won't be left in the dark again."
She turned quickly with that and hobbled away from the man.
Orga gave Jack Slash one last look, and then turned away.
"Building us up a bit, aren't you?" he asked.
"Just rubbing it in his face," she replied. "He has it coming."
"Then you don't need him anymore?"
There was a momentary pause, then, "No. We don't need him at all." Her head turned, and through her eyeless mask Orga felt her looking at him. "He has to die. No prison. No Birdcage. If anyone can find a way out, it'll be him. This won't work twice."
Well, that just left how to kill him.
That would make Orga nervous, but Jack Slash had a kill order. Anyone could kill him and not a tear would be shed. "Got it."
He let her hobble off to a seat someone had pulled out. Biscuit hopped out of the jeep with a first-aid kit and went toward her, pointing at her leg as he approached.
Turning back toward Jack Slash, Orga found it hard to say.
They beat Jack Slash? The Slaughterhouse Nine? Nonsense. All they did was show up at the end and mop up... Not that anyone would see it that way. He didn't really know how they'd see it, but not like that.
Nodding to the boys standing guard around Jack, Orga pulled Mikazuki's gun from his coat.
"Here to shoot me a few more times?" Jack asked.
"Nah." Orga lifted the gun, feeling the weight of it. "I don't think I like guns." Speaking of which, "Dump all the guns in the shed over there. If anyone asks, we found them."
Laughter erupted again and some of the stronger guys started collecting the weapons. They ferried armfuls to the shed and dumped them inside. Orga doubted anyone would question them that hard, but he didn't want to make more trouble for Naze and the Turbines. They'd stick to their story and ridiculous as it was, no one could prove otherwise.
Hush came up behind him, looking down at their 'prisoner.' "What about him?"
Jack Slash didn't seem very afraid in the face of death. Good enough. Orga might feel bad killing someone who was afraid, even if they were a psychopath.
Killing him was a question though. Hundreds of rounds didn't do the job. No way to know what other tinkering Bonesaw might have done. Shatterbird was definitely dead, but Orga wasn't eager to tell Mika to crush another head.
He felt like there might be a line there best not crossed.
Killing in a fight to survive was one thing, but an execution? "Get a bomb from Bakuda. Something that'll wipe him out no question."
Hush nodded and ran toward Shino's jeep. Orga stayed to keep an eye on Jack.
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed behind him, and he felt the vibrations in the ground under his feet.
Barbatos' shadow fell over his back. "Couldn't find Burnscar," he explained. "I looked."
"She'll turn up. We should focus on what to do about Bonesaw now." Orga smiled, bowing his head in relief. "How you doing Mika?"
"M'fine," he replied.
Yeah. Yeah, Mika was always—
Orga turned and froze. "Mika?"
"M'fine," he repeated.
Orga's heart raced and his jaw slackened. "How bad is it?"
"It's nothing." The suit's head turned to the damaged shoulder. "I think Chariot might be mad at me, though."
No it wasn't. Even with the suit splattered in gore from the fighting, Orga could see the armor blown away over the collar. The right arm hung limply at Barbatos side, and fresh blood ran down the suit's chest from the gash.
Orga stumbled around, searching for a latch or something. "How do I open this?" The suit's head lagged, and Orga shouted. "Tell me how to open this!"
"Orga," Mika complained.
White bounced forward, leaping from the ground to the top of Barbatos' back. The robot reached down and pulled something. The suit's chest fell forward and the torso split.
"Mika!"
White swung around, examining the wound as Orga climbed up to reach him.
Mikazuki sighed and looked away.
"This injury is serious," Veda stated. "But not life-threatening."
"Told you," Mika mumbled.
"He's fine."
He turned, glancing toward the ground and found Imp leaning against Barbatos' leg. Orga flinched, wondering when disembodied voices would stop surprising him.
"March was gonna stab him real good," she said, "but I stabbed her where she deserved it at the last second."
Looking at Mika's shoulder again, Orga scowled. His shoulder was swollen and red, but…not bleeding. The blood all over Barbatos wasn't his. March's?
White leaped away and Veda said, "Please exit Barbatos. We should apply ice and check for dislocation. I can deliver a Helper."
Orga dropped down and helped Mikazuki out. "Sorry."
"Feel like napping," Mika commented. "Fighting capes is hard work."
Orga nodded. He repressed a shake as he dropped back down to the ground. When that didn't work, he grabbed his wrist and tried to obscure it.
Katz and Ban. For a moment, he'd thought he might lose Mika too. Stupid of him.
Mika would always be there…
Until he wasn't, anyway.
A Waken 16.12.A.2
"You knew?!" Alice snapped.
"This is why we believed it unwise to tell you," Dickmaster said.
Yes. Dickmaster. Because he was a dick.
"This is what I get for teaming up."
"I didn't know what would happen either," Dickmaster pointed out. "Forecast made a convincing case that anything capes knew, Jack Slash always seemed aware of on some level. It explains a great deal about the Nine's"—he scowled as the jeep came to a stop—"resilience, over the years."
So, the only way to beat him with certainty was to get a bunch of not capes to do it.
Fucking hilarious, if it had happened to someone else.
"How long do you think Crawler has?" Alice asked.
They'd left his cement-filled pit behind. The Turbines girls were pouring another layer of cement on top of him to be extra sure, with the Tierens standing watch.
"It's possible that will not kill him," Dickmaster revealed. "He may adapt to an oxygen-depleted environment as he has many others. However, I find it unlikely he will be able to crawl his way out of a cement slab anytime soon."
Alice blinked. "Did you just make a pun?"
"The Protectorate can secure this location, and without the rest of the Nine to support him, it will be possible to create a more permanent solution to Crawler."
"You made a pun!" Alice grinned and pointed. "Admit it! Felt good didn't it? A little hero-on-villain-on-asshole banter."
He pushed his door open and stepped out. "I don't know what you mean."
"You made a pun! I heard it!"
Alice hopped out of the jeep and stretched. She felt sore as fuck, but beating the Slaughterhouse Nine was one hell of a workout. Distraction or not. Though Biscuit was still getting an earful.
"What about Burnscar?" Alice whispered.
"Labyrinth made attempting to rescue her 'payment' for her assistance," Defiant answered.
Little hustler. "And if that doesn't work?"
"We cross that bridge when we come to it. Objectively, Burnscar was safely contained for years under strict supervision. It may be possible to do it again."
Looking around, she spotted him standing with a group of others.
Alice approached with Defiant, calling, "So where's Jack Fucking Sl—"
She stopped, staring at the Gundam that had fallen out of nowhere earlier.
The right shoulder was mangled up pretty badly. The suit was open and the area where she assumed the pilot sat was empty.
Rushing forward, she came up behind Biscuit and found an empty patch of grass with a rumpled blanket.
"Where's Mikazuki?" she asked.
Biscuit raised his head, somber. "Orga and StarGazer rushed him to a hospital."
"His injuries?" Defiant asked.
"StarGazer said he'd be okay," Biscuit answered. "He just dislocated his shoulder."
"He's fine"—Imp sat atop the Gundam like it was a throne—"they're all being spoilsports!"
So, not dead then. The lot of them looked pretty down for a diagnosis of 'going to make it' but—Orga ran off to get him into a hospital? Dislocated shoulders were bad but bad enough for Orga to rush him to the ER personally in the middle of all this?
That wasn't right.
Alice glanced around, but the long faces weren't enough to tell her what was really going on. She just had a feeling. Orga should be here right now. Mikazuki had been roughed up before. They'd never panicked over it.
Orga had never dropped everything to take someone to a hospital before.
"Sounds like he'll be fine to me," Alice grunted. "Quit your moping. You guys just killed the Slaughterhouse Nine! You should be partying!"
"Indeed," Defiant agreed. "March?"
"Mikazuki said he got her," Shino answered. "Crushed her head."
"After I stabbed her," Imp added.
"We should double-check," Defiant said. "Make sure his injuries weren't for naught."
Shino got a group together and they loaded into a jeep to go check the body. She didn't think Defiant had any doubts. He was being nice. Giving them something to do that would help reassure them.
"Sappy bastard," she commented with a shake of her head. Shifting her attention to the task at hand, "Where's Jack Fucked in the A?"
"Over here." Biscuit pulled his cap down and led her up to a beat-up house. The lawn looked like something showered it with bullets. Probably because they did.
Forecast was there, standing over an absolute wreck of a man with Hush and half a dozen others. To her right, she could see a red stain on the ground covered haphazardly by a tarp. She figured that's where Shatterbird bought it.
"That him?"
His eyes turned toward her, and she saw something familiar there. He reminded her of her shitbag father.
"Yeah," Alice decided on her own. "That's him."
"We were hoping you could just send him off," Biscuit explained. "Fighting for our lives is one thing, but execution..."
"I get it." Pulling out one of her Bumblebees and some tools from her belt, she started working. "Let me cook something up and we'll write these assholes off." Minus Burnscar, of course. Oh, "And what about Bonesaw?"
"She's stewing on what's left of Kyushu," Forecast explained.
Ah, clever. Hundreds of miles from any cities, and did anyone even live in what was left of Kyushu? Pictures sure made it look like a half-sunken tomb. They couldn't exactly leave her there for long though. That would bite them in the ass for sure, but she'd sit tight for a few hours at least. Long enough to come up with some way to deal with her.
As for Jack Slash, Crawler might have adapted to the Crystallizers—no idea how he managed that—but Alice was betting Jack couldn't.
She considered making a quip about mounting his crystallized corpse on a trophy wall, but yeah that was a bit morbid even for her.
Only took her a good twenty minutes—and some cannibalizing from her launcher—to get the bomb ready.
"Welp, I'd say it was nice to know you, but fuck you." Alice tossed the bomb into the living corpse's lap and waved everyone back. She set the time for fifteen seconds just in case, with an emergency cut-off also just in case. "So, any last words?"
All the bloodied face did was stare.
Ten.
Eleven.
Twelve.
Thirteen.
"Should have killed Riley."
Forecast flinched. "Wait."
The bomb exploded before Alice could stop it, and they were left with one unspeaking Jacksicl—Alice stopped that thought. Also too damn morbid.
"So..." She glanced down at the precog beside her. Her face was hidden behind a mask, but the air around her looked awfully cold all of a sudden. "I'm hoping he was just fucking with us?"