Disclaimer – All characters and dialogue present in the anime and manga Burst Angel and Burst Angel: Infinity are registered trademarks and copyright of Funimation and studio Gonzo. All characters and dialogue not used within Burst Angel belong to me.
A/N: This is one heck of a chapter, the core of which was never intended in my original outline! But it merely integrates ideas, rather than having separate, unrelated events.
Thanks to Dr. F. M. Obsessor, Yutaan, darkness1216, Spookyteddy, DezoPenguin, JakeDavies, Metroidvania, and The Rising Tide for reviewing last chapter. You guys are awesome!
And who says Yoko and Amy are out of the picture? ((laugh))
"Jo… Keep fighting."
Meg, Episode 24, Angels, Explode!
Chapter Six: Cyborg Grudge
Meg stared moodily up at the white-washed ceiling above her. Fifty four insects had gotten themselves stuck in the paint job up there. There were three spit balls and oddly enough, one and a half scuff marks. The redhead sighed lightly, a little glad that her ribs weren't as tender as they had been when she'd first awoken. Still, it didn't hurt to be careful about these things. Doctor Irukon was hardly going to release her from this godforsaken infirmary if she re-cracked a rib from just sighing.
It had been three days. Three days of goddamn nothing. No visitors. No news. No Sei, no Amy. Just Doctor Irukon's persistent and irritating questioning, regularly spaced meals and the occasional check-up. Sometimes Meg slept, but more often than not her inner turmoil kept her wide awake, even in the dead of the night. Thoughts about Jo, the sickening photos. Thoughts about Yoko, how Meg had royally screwed everything up yet again-
Meg's lips thinned in disgust with herself. Jo had never been as weak or pathetic as Meg was feeling right now. She would have already stormed out of the infirmary, given Irukon the finger and told Sei to put her to work. But as restless as Meg was feeling, she had a hunch that Sei wasn't about to take that kind of attitude this time around. And Amy would give her hell over it…
"Three goddamn days. Amy could have at least put me at ease about the photos, instead of leaving me here to stew…" Meg grumbled under her breath, pausing. There was no sound from the doctor's office around the corner. Finally, no sound. Blessed quietness, huh?
With a stir-crazy growl, Meg eased the sheets from her tender body. She cursed quietly as pain flashed through her ribs and bicep but continued doggedly. She couldn't stand being cooped up in that place any damn longer. Grinning to herself, Meg swung her legs over the side of the bed and grabbed the clean red jacket draped over the chair next to the bed. Shrugging it on, a slight wave of nausea blurred her vision for a moment, and the redhead cradled her bandaged head in her hands for a moment. Perhaps getting up so quickly wasn't the best of her ideas, but she was hardly in the mood to stop now. She blinked furiously to clear her vision before padding over to the window overlooking the port.
The Elizabeth, though easily capable of flight and complete submersion, usually docked in the Port of Tokyo when Bai-Lan had business in the city. Meg wasn't sure how Sei had procured the permits to operate from the port as a… 'special interests syndicate'. Frankly, she reckoned it had something to do with Takane Katsu. For a woman of the law, that psychotic biker sure had her rebellious moments.
Meg pushed the infirmary window wide open, taking in a deep breath of fresh air. The cold sharpness eased her mind somewhat, the rhythmic lapping of the waves on the Elizabeth's bull soothing her soul. Below her, she could see some of the more ranking members of Sei's organization scurrying around. The centre of operations for Bai-Lan was merely one hundred feet away from the airship – Sei claimed she liked to maintain a healthy presence at the site of her organization. With what Meg learned had happened Don Laoban's leadership five years ago, she could hardly blame the woman for being slightly paranoid.
A jeepload of Bai-Lan squad members pulled out from Bai-Lan building, and Meg heartily wished she was going with them. Anything at all would relieve the utter boredom of just lying in the infirmary bed day after day-
Meg patted her jacket pocket compulsively, smirking as she felt the cardboard pack still in there. After a little bit of rummaging, she drew a single cigarette from the pack – her smirk grew wider.
Perfect.
Meg withdrew her lighter from her other pocket, and with a hurried look back at Doctor Irukon's office, Meg lit the cigarette and drew a deep breath in-
Only to start a coughing fit again, the burning sensation in the back of her throat making her wheeze. Of course, inhaling as much putrid smoke as Meg had would still have its effects.
"Tch..." Meg rubbed her bandaged forehead in distaste, tapping the ashes free from the still-smouldering smoke. "Figures."
She watched dispassionately as another carload of Bai-Lan operatives screeched away, wondering where they were going. She took another lungful of nicotine, her need to calm her fraying nerves starting to outweigh her need to breathe properly.
"Ms. Mitarai, I would ask you again to stop smoking in the infirmary," a polite, if dreaded, voice complained from behind her.
Meg sighed. The gig was up.
"Come to stop my evil habits, Doc?" Meg turned, regarding the white-coated doctor with a cool eye. "Ain't gonna work."
The doctor straightened his square-rimmed glasses, a cold smirk on his lips. "I know a hopeless case when I encounter one, Mitarai. Never fret about that."
"Tch. Release me to active duty then, Doc. It'd be easier on your poor, abused soul." Meg flicked the smouldering cigarette butt out the window, savouring the flash of annoyance in the doctor's blue eyes. Proper bastard that he was-
"Of course. When you are properly healed up, you may leave. By all means, don't bless me with your charming company a moment longer," the doctor said, scanning his chart a moment.
"Mild concussion. Three cracked ribs. First degree burn on the cheek, second degree burns on the hands. Chest infection from the smoke inhalation, and slight burning of the air passageways. Cut in the scalp. Superficial cut over the righteye, and a bullet wound in the bicep that turned infectious," he sighed. "By all rights, you should have died like the rest of the troops. You should be grateful that your injuries are minor as they are."
Meg closed her eyes for an instant. "I'll be grateful when you let me outta here. I'm going stir-crazy."
Doctor Irukon paused, looking up from his chart. "I am only doing my job, Ms. Mitarai, so that you may go back to yours at full capacity."
There was another tense moment of silence.
He pinched the bridge of his nose before readjusting his glasses. "As it is, I see no further reason for you to be forced to stay here. However, I require that you report to my office for daily checkups and after any missions, for at least the next week."
Meg raised an eyebrow, unable to believe it was that simple. This was a Bai-Lan employee, after all. Snakes, the lot of them…
"And that's all? No promises to behave? No threats to strap me to my bed if I strain myself?" Meg asked warily. There was no way in heck Doctor Irukon was giving up this easily.
The doctor smiled humourlessly. "That, Ms. Mitarai, is up to you."
Sei didn't look as nearly surprised as Meg had imagined when the redhead barged into the command centre of the Elizabeth, merely raising an eyebrow at the overly-dramatic entrance. Striding to Sei's right hand side, the mercenary quickly scanned the command centre's screens to gain some sense of the situation. Neither of the three others seated in the command centre looked up at Meg's arrival, and she squinted at the screens a bit more. Amy, Nana and Hachi seemed to be neck-deep in some strange binary code that all looked like gibberish to Meg-
The redhead slouched, feeling a bit useless.
"Well, I don't have a damn clue of what's going on," Meg sighed, rubbing a hand through her hair sheepishly. "Care to fill me in, Sei?"
Sei's dark eyes darted over to Meg for an instant, coolly appraising the redhead.
"Amy is using Nana and Hachi to track something," the Bai-Lan leader said slowly, crossing her arms over her breasts as she stared at the screens. "It's considered one of our top priorities."
"Cool…" Meg paused, waiting for Sei to clarify. When the woman remained silent, Meg pressed on again. "So… what is it?"
Sei gave one of her more mysterious smiles, tapping the side of her nose. "It has… something to do with the video stills that you had Amy bring me."
Meg's eyes widened in shock. "You mean you're seriously trying to find Jo-" the mercenary's demand was quickly reduced to a coughing fit, almost doubling her over in its intensity. Amy raised her eyes from her screen, giving the redhead a concerned look.
Sei waited for Meg's coughs to die off before she answered.
"Yes, Meg. That is precisely what I'm trying to do." Sei's smile became slightly sad, her words a little bitter. "Do you really believe that after seeing those photos, that I would simply ignore them? Like some shameless and ungrateful dog?"
Meg halted, her mouth half open. Perhaps she had believed that. All she'd really been expecting was Sei to give her time off so she could hunt down RAPT and pull Maria's lungs out through her nose-
"Of course not!" Meg stammered out, scratching the back of her head furiously as her face flushed. "I mean, you care about Jo too, right?!"
The Bai-Lan leader nodded and turned her gaze back to the monitors. For a moment, Meg thought that that was the end of what Sei had to say on the subject.
"…I owe Jo my life, so finding her is the least I can do. We both want her back, Meg." Sei's voice was very quiet, almost so quiet Meg couldn't hear. The redhead clenched her teeth, staring at her heavy boots. Sei was right. Sei was always right.
Meg's throat constricted painfully as she ground out, "So what do we do now?"
Sei's expression was grim. "We play the waiting game and hope that Amy turns up something."
Meg bowed her head in assent, her mind in turmoil once again.
Damnit Jo. Hold on.
Deep within the Elizabeth's dark hull, two Bai-Lan agents stood around, bored out of their minds and shivering from the residual chill from the cold storage. One of them lit a cigarette, the other sipped a hot coffee. A light job, an easy job.
…a job that was more boring than being chained to a desk. At least then he'd actually have something to do instead of standing around, guarding an effing dead body-
"Who the heck puts guards on a dead body, anyhow?!" The man swore to himself quietly, taking a deep breath of smoke. Man, smoking was the only thing to do in this place. Except for maybe fucking-
"You know how the leader is. Spends manpower on the strangest of intuitions." The woman sipped her hot coffee, scuffing her boot on the metallic floor of the hold. "Bah. At least she's not as buried in tradition as the Don. Sei Laoban at least is a little more proactive."
"Proactive to the point of being paranoid over dead bodies. Man, I thought Mitarai took this ugly fucker out? It's not like Kruegar's gonna get up and go zombie on us." The man snorted at his own sense of humour. He could see it now, the dead rising to claw its way out of the locked hold, him saving his lovely partner and becoming the hero of the day-
"Hirao says he almost got a clear shot of that bastard, but the smoke was in the way. None of the other snipers got a shot in, so it had to have been her. Guess it's just another notch in the belt for Mitarai…" the woman murmured, draining the Styrofoam cup of its contents and crushing in her gloved fist.
The man took a lungful of smoke, shuffling from foot to foot in an effort to keep warm. Something to get his blood pumping didn't seem like such a bad idea… he eyed his partner speculatively. She wasn't too shabby for a Bai-Lan agent – nothing on that hot little hacker on Laoban's personal team, but still. He could bear it.
The shrill sound of a pocket alarm went off in the darkness, and the woman's fingers quickly withdrew her cell phone. She grunted as she disabled the inbuilt alarm, climbing to her feet and stretching.
The man laughed. "You seriously set a timer for this? Oh man, that's unreal!" His mocking laughter earned him a sharp glare, but he didn't care. The alarm meant that this godforsaken shift was nearly over. Man, he was ready to go out and hit the closest buffet bar after this hell.
"We check the body, then we wait for our relief to stop on by." The woman rolled her shoulders before slapping the button to open the hold door.
"Psh. What a stupid order. Of course the body's gonna be there. Seriously man, what the heck is Laoban thinking?" The man commented as the pair of them entered the cold storage hold, scanning the dark corners with flashlights to check for any intruders.
As if there's really gonna be any.
The mangled body of Edward Kruegar lay on the metal slab, motionless. Just has it had been every other effing time they'd checked on it. What, was Sei expecting someone to come in and nick the body? Geez…
His partner wandered over to the body, running the torchlight over him quickly.
"Everything's in order with this guy. Nothing suss. Over," the woman spoke into her communication piece, receiving a garbled confirmation of something. She smiled. "Time to get outta this freezing hell hole."
Then, she frowned, staring at something on the slab. The man turned to go, only too eager to get out of there. Let the next sentries deal with whatever shit she'd found-
"Hey, wait a minute," she murmured. "That blood. It looks-"
That was when he saw Kruegar's eyes snap open.
Meg intently watched Amy's fingers dart across the central keyboard, frowning to herself. Amy had some wicked skills in hacking and searching through computers, but RAPT was probably pulling out all the stops to keep themselves from under Bai-Lan and the Hanshin-Tokyo Police force's watchful eyes. To be frank, the odds of locating Jo in good time… it worried her. More than she cared to admit aloud, anyhow.
Pausing in her search, the hacker shot Meg a sharp look out of the corner of her eye. Amusingly, Amy was blushing heavily from Meg's unashamed scrutiny.
"You mind not cramping my style? Your big fat head is distracting me!" The teen pouted, outright glowering at Megand crossing her arms over her chest.
The mercenary raised an eyebrow in response. "Gee, someone's touchy today. Were you up too late playing Dragon Bomber Brothers?"
The look became withering. "I was up all last night searching for RAPT-" Amy's voice was getting heated when Sei cut in with a smooth command.
"Meg."
Sighing, Meg rubbed a hand through her bangs. Sei had a point; bothering Amy now would only set back the mission. She was just so damn eager for information. Any information would do! Just so long as she didn't feel so useless-
The speaker on Nana's desk crackled briefly, and the catwoman disengaged from Amy's exhaustive search to answer the comm. device. Meg could just make out the message if she strained.
"Everything's in order with this guy. Nothing suss. Over."
"Return to your post, and the next squad will relieve you," the pink-eared neko replied briskly, turning her attention back to the search-screens. Meg was mildly impressed, but half of her wondered what Sei was up to, and what exactly these guys were watching.
If it were anything entertaining, Meg would have to have a word with Sei about letting her join! The redhead frowned and looked up at the screen.
She sighed, leaning against the wall. Amy's eyes narrowed in annoyance as Meg, smirking, sighed loudly again.
"Meg-" the hacker warned, but as something beeped to life on the screens, her tirade was cut off. Frowning, Amy brought the alert up to full screen, silently taking in the details. Meg followed suit, raising an eyebrow. Apparently, something had breached some electrical field in the Elizabeth's hold.
"Hey, Sei? Seems like something's gone wrong with Kruegar's body," Amy called out loudly to her. Meg froze, a little confused. The Bai-Lan snipers had taken out Kreugar; why did they need to watch over a dead body? Agitated, Meg crossed her arms over her chest and ignoring the slight twinge in her ribs.
"Is it serious?" Sei asked, her tone level. The woman crossed her arms over her chest, her forehead creased in a worried look.
Amy stretched, making a grand show of cracking her back. "Naw, those thugs you call agents probably just tripped it again on their way out. Morons."
The relief on Sei's face was palpable, and Meg wasn't sure why. It was really starting to bother her.
"What exactly is so important about a dead body, anyhow?" she ventured, shooting a sidelong glance at Sei. "I mean, those snipers got him."
"What, indeed," Sei murmured, her eyes fixed to the screen. "I was asking that same question, not three days ago."
Meg closed her eyes, praying to some god – any god – for the patience to deal with her boss' usual games. Damn Sei and her damn question dodging. "Then what's going on?"
There was a moment of silence, and Meg almost laughed. Was Sei trying to be melodramatic or something?
"After a look at the body, Hachi ascertained that Kruegar was hardly a normal RAPT prisoner." Sei's voice was laden with meaning, and Meg's eyes widened.
Not this shit again. Her hands clenched into fists so tightly that she felt her knuckles crack. Not RAPT and its goddamn monsters.
"In any case, Ormicon have expressed interest in the body, and I suspect they may try to take the body by force-"
The rest of Sei's statement was lost in the massive roar of an explosion. Meg fell to her knees as the explosion rocked the airship, her teeth clenching in agony as her head slammed into the side of Sei's command chair, agony nearly splitting her ribs. Sei, seated in her command chair as she was, escaped the brunt of the force. With dazed eyes, Meg stared at where Amy was pushing herself up from the keyboard, touching a hand to her head and her fingers coming away bloody-
Get a grip on yourself, Meg! The quake from the blast seemed to die quickly, and with a trembling hand Meg forced herself to her feet. A wave of nausea hit her again, darkening her vision for a moment before she righted herself. She didn't wait for Sei's orders, and she didn't look back as the alarms began to screech. As she sprinted from the command centre, murderous rage seared through her soul. Ormicon was going to pay.
You hot-headed fool! Sei internally ranted as she watched Meg vanish from the command centre, far too late and far too shaken to yell for her to stop. We don't have the intel on the situation, and you're charging in? It was that sort of behaviour that gave Meg a name as a rash and impulsive agent. Anybody other than Sei would have fired her lose-cannon ass for some of the stunts she had pulled.
With a tangible effort, Sei forced her uncharacteristically wild thoughts down, compressing them until they were all but gone. Instead, she pushed herself up off the chair, thankful she'd been seated when the blast hit. Even if it still felt as if her joints were quaking with the blast.
"Nana! Status report!" Sei ordered the cat-woman to her left.
Wordlessly, Nana's fingers raced furiously over the keyboard, crimson warning signals lighting up the command centre's screens threateningly. As Nana brought up the video feed from the hull and the overall status of the Elizabeth, Sei cursed. With a sinking heart, she already knew what had happened. The body was gone.
The area displayed on the screen came through as warped and fuzzy, but even through the grime caked to the camera lens, Sei could make out that the entire wall of the cold storage hold had been torn apart by the massive explosion from before. There were the two smoking bodies of her agents strewn about the hold, mangled far beyond individual recognition. Sei frowned – there appeared to be a number of other bodies, those that did not bear the Bai-Lan insignia.
"But why would they take out their own men?" Sei murmured to herself, barely audible over the whooping of the alarms, and crossed the floor quickly to Amy. The girl had barely reacted since the blast had hit, which was worrying. The teen normally was buried in binary code in situations like this-
Sei reached a hand for Amy's shoulder, shaking her gently. The teen groaned loudly, wiping her bangs from her forehead with a crimson-stained hand. The bangs were slicked with blood, the Bai-Lan leader realised in alarm.
"Amy, what happened? Are you all right?" Sei asked loudly, gripping Amy's shoulder hard.
"Cracked my head on the edge of the keyboard…" she muttered as she roused from her stupor. Her dark eyes were slightly unfocused. "M'alright."
Sei cursed silently. Whoever had done this – be it Ormicon, RAPT or, god help her, the Hanshin – was going to regret assaulting the Elizabeth and injuring her agents. Amy was like a sister to her, and the agents they'd murdered in cold blood just now – Sei's jaw clenched. She had already lost so many of them in such a short time.
"You're certain?" Sei quickly passed her a handkerchief from within her sleeve, letting Amy mop up the blood with it. Scalp-wounds tended to bleed a lot…
Meg won't be able to handle Ormicon on her own. She's good with her guns but she'll be hopelessly outnumbered. Sei's mind raced, trying to salvage the situation from the utter disaster it had become.
As Amy nodded, Sei came to her decision.
"Amy, I want you to recall Hirao's squad. They're the closest squad we've got… Meg needs backup in taking out Ormicon's thugs."
Meg's ribs were agony again as she jogged down the narrow hallways of the Elizabeth, blood pounding in her ears and her mouth dust-dry. She had no idea of who the enemy was here, and as the smoke in the air grew thicker and heavier her throat began to burn. Her breath caught in her throat as her lungs tried to reject the acrid air. Just a bit further, just a bit faster –
As Meg rounded the final bend to the hold, she reflexively drew one of her modified Desert Eagles from her holster, looking down momentarily to check the magazine. Full, of course. Sei was always thorough with Bai-Lan's armoury and supplies.
She slowed to a halt as she came to the barred, iron doors to the hold. The sealing and locking mechanisms appeared to have been blown by whatever blast had rocked the Elizabeth, so even in her weakened state she was able to unbar the doors and heave them open. Smoke, thick and black, billowed out of the storage room as the redhead gasped and fell against the doors. Her breath catching in her throat, Meg straightened, raising a Desert Eagle.
The storage room was silent, save for the crackling of torn electricity cables. Meg's teeth clenched as she eased her head around the corner, her entire body prickling. Bodies were strewn all over the scorched floor. Even though the uniforms were blackened by the blast, only two of the bodies bore the Bai-Lan crest. Her eyes narrowed from behind her goggles. The hull had been blown clean off, but who were these people?
Sei's words from the command room came back in a rush. Were these guys really from Ormicon?
The hair on the back of her neck rose, and Meg slammed herself to the ground just in time for the flurry of machinegun fire to pass above her. Swearing, she turned the fall into an off the shoulder roll that put her back behind the iron doors.
Oh man, what the hell was that?! More Ormicon thugs?! Meg scowled, rubbing her arm with her free hand. But… none of the bodies in the storage were equipped with machine guns.
This is so confusing. Maybe I should have waited for the intel…
The click of steel-shod boots on iron made her eyes widen as her assailant approached the doors that shielded her. Meg's grip on the Desert Eagles tightened, her scowl deepening.
A softly sinister chuckle reached her ears over the crackle of electricity. Her skin crawled, her mind racing to remember where she had heard that laugh before –
With an almost sonic speed, something slammed into her jaw, knocking her to the floor. Meg groaned in agony, blinking furiously to clear her eyes from the sparks dancing before them, only to find herself being hoisted roughly to her feet by her jacket. Meg forced her dazed eyes open and stared her attacker in the face.
The unbalanced grin on the partially ruined face caught her completely off-guard.
"You!" Meg's mind spun. Kruegar. Kruegar was dead, she'd seen the shot that had taken him out, she'd seen him fall damnit-
"And here I was thinkin' you'da forgotten me!" Kruegar whispered before dissolving into a fit of cackles. The man lifted her clean off her feet with a strength that seemed inhuman, and slammed her into the iron wall. Meg choked back a scream as her ribs burned once more. Once again, she forced her eyes open.
"How could I forget a face as ugly as yours?" Meg gasped out. Oh god, she just wanted to surrender into darkness and forget all about this new nightmare.
Kruegar cackled. "I guess that makes us one fer all, eh?" His voice lowered dangerously. "I coulda sworn I'd killed you in that blast, yet you still managed to get back up." Meg could feel his fist tightening in her jacket. "I feel like breakin' this tie we have goin', missy."
Meg forced herself to laugh despite the panic that threatened to leave her a gibbering mess. "Is that right?" Kruegar must have the weapon concealed in his left sleeve, the one hidden from her view. He must. "Well… I'm only too happy to comply!"
With a yell, Meg brought the Desert Eagle still clenched in her good hand up to eye level and emptied half a magazine into the bastard's head. Kruegar convulsed, his head snapping backwards as he was forced to release Meg.
Kruegar seemed to shudder again… and then snapped his head around to face Meg, his mouth forced into a demonic grin. Half his face was missing, torn away by the bullet that by all rights should have killed him. It exposed the cybernetic parts that encased Kruegar's skull. Green blood leaked down what was left of his face, flowing freely from a crack in the skull plates above his temple.
"Why hello there, Mitarai." The madman's face twisted, revealing mandibles large enough to completely slice Meg's arm off. Kruegar spread his arms wide, as if inviting her to his creepy little party. The redhead backed away warily, her mind racing.
RAPT. RAPT made this man… what he is. Meg realized with sudden clarity, bile forcing its way into her mouth. So this had been what Sei had meant about 'not normal'. But she must have been sure he was out of commission… or had he been? The events of the Ormicon mission seemed so fuzzy now…
She didn't hesitate, unloading five bullets from the other Desert Eagle into Kruegar's torso. The grin flickered into a frown briefly as his body jerked again, green blood still running freely from the creature's skull. Meg's eyes hardened. The experiment was far from invincible in spite of the bizarre enhancements RAPT had given him during his imprisonment. Her eyes darted to the security camera nearby. Surely Sei was watching this, sending backup, thinking of some plan-
Without warning, Kruegar lashed out with a rapid combination of knife-hand strikes aimed to cripple, if not outright kill. Meg ducked under the quick succession of blows before ramming her booted foot into Kruegar's gut. Her gloved hands came in behind Kruegar's sweaty neck, gripping with vice-like strength before slamming the flesh part of his half-ruined face into her waiting knee. The cyborg grunted, righting himself with a sickening ease. Her breath hitched painfully, white hot daggers of pain seeming to shoot through her side. Meg blocked his retaliating punch, dodging backwards and around, ever mindful of the fire and smoke, boots slipping in the ash and sweat beading on her forehead.
Kruegar let out a blood-curdling scream, his eyes rolling into the back of his head – a terrifying demon. Meg's teeth bared in a snarl.
It had been a long time since she'd been afraid of RAPT's demons.
She dodged to the side as Kruegar lunged for her, unceremoniously reloading each gun. The Desert Eagles in her hands were trembling as she raised them, firing off a series of shots towards the insane experiment. His body shook with each impact, forcing him back a step, then two. Meg's jaw firmed, her eyes narrowing behind the darkened lenses of her goggles.
Kruegar was not invincible, but Meg was hardly equipped to deal with a RAPT-brand cyborg. She was certain Sei would bring in the backup, she just needed to last until that time. Buy them time to get there.
It seemed like an impossible task.
Kruegar righted himself, wiping green blood from his chin.
"They are right to fear you," he whispered, moving back several steps towards the hold's doors. He cackled. "Why don't we play in earnest, Mitarai?" He spread his arms again. "Show me what you've got, bitch, or you ain't never gonna beat her."
Meg's mind blanked, before she saw red.
Maria.
"Her?!" she demanded, advancing. The world seemed to grow hazing around her. There was only her, Kruegar, and the information she needed. It was all that existed. "What do you know, Kruegar?!"
"MITARAI! GET BACK!" A voice roared from behind her, and instinctively, Meg whirled to face the intruder. A boy in full Bai-Lan riot gear had a high-powered rifle cocked and trained on Kruegar's head. Meg's eyes widened.
No. Not before he tells me everything!
"Stand down!" Meg screamed, lunging for the gun. The boy stepped neatly to the side, pulling the trigger. There was a feral growl from behind her, and Meg spun to find Kruegar – the man was gone.
The boy swore violently. "You fool, Mitarai," he spat. "I could have had the bastard, had you not interfered."
Meg resisted the urge to reach out and strangle the boy. She didn't care who this cocky little arrogant fool thought he was-
Every second she spent here taking revenge on this idiot for disobeying orders was a second Kruegar got further away. She cursed, shoving her way past the boy and into the scorched hold. In the near distance, she could see the smoking wreckage of three cars. He was getting away, but a being of destruction shouldn't be too hard to follow. He was leaving quite a trail for her.
"I'll deal with you later," she told the boy venomously, before leaping from hole in the hold and giving chase to the insane cyborg.
The boy slammed his fist into iron walls, shaking with rage. With an effort, he took two deep, calming breaths and activated his radio.
"Hirao here," he growled. "The cyborg target's fled, and Mitarai has given pursuit. Requesting permission to pursue."
"Damn it all, Hirao!" the Bai-Lan leader's voice crackled in his ear. "He activated?"
"Affirmative."
There was a few seconds of silence that Hirao could have sworn were filled with voiceless curses to every god Sei knew of, and then curses to a few more.
"Report to the hanger. NOW, Hirao! Ormicon's hired some thugs and I doubt they'll be wanting to let go of the body they'd wanted so badly a few days ago."
Hebared his teeth in frustration. "And the cyborg?" It was difficult to keep his voice level when he was feeling so much anger. Ungrateful redheaded bitch… Couldn't she see that Kruegar had been about to open her up a new asshole?!
"Meg can deal with him. I trust her capabilities."
Like you trust mine? I'm the best damn agent you got, Sei. Why compromise yourself with that loose cannon who can't even follow the simplest of orders?
His mouth twisted in distaste. Laoban's favouritism of Mitarai was truly sickening at times.
"Ma'am," he grunted in acquiesce into the radio, before shouldering his rifle and began to make his way back to the hanger.
Meg slowed to a jog as she reached the construction zone. Five years after Jo and Maria's cybot battle there, the area still hadn't recovered from the sheer carnage the pair had wrought. She forced herself to smile, despite the agony in her ribs. It was probably just as well they'd come to a mostly uninhabited area. Maybe Kruegar wasn't as mad as she'd been told.
Of course, he could always have dragged your ass out here so that when he kills you, he can do it slowly; no interruptions, just you and him… the more morbid part of her brain told her grimly, as she wearily scaled a mangled slab of concrete while adjusting her goggles. She released the safety on her Desert Eagles, every fibre in her body straining for some sort of sign to tell her where that cyborg menace was hiding now…
Cement crumbled to her right. Meg's gaze snapped up and fixed on the mound of ruined building, one Desert Eagle locked on to whatever had made the disturbance. She could have sworn she heard a snicker of laughter, close enough to make the hair rise on the back of her neck.
From somewhere in the construction sites, she heard Kruegar laugh harder as she whirled, trying to find the source of his voice.
"RAPT would sure laugh if they saw you now!" the madman crowed, the mocking laughter seeming to come from all angles at once. Then the voice lowered into something more sinister. "They'd sure be laughing at me…"
Meg smirked and lowered her gun. If he was going to be like that…
"Tell me, Kruegar. Why exactly would RAPT be laughing at you?" she asked the flitting shadows around her, raising her voice loud enough for Kruegar to easily hear her. "More like they'd be sick to their stomachs."
"It's so easy to be the sarcastic cynic, isn't it, Mitarai?" The unseen cyborg whispered to her right, though he wasn't there at all when she turned. "They'd be laughing to see what they've done. Sadistic bastards that they are."
"No disagreements here," Meg nodded, still searching for the enemy, her eyes roving the shadowy shells of the buildings. "You're one fucked up guy. So it was RAPT who did this? They were the ones who turned you into… this? While they had you imprisoned?"
"Falsely imprisoned," the cyborg corrected, before chortling again. "Why, could it be more obvious, Mitarai? Do I need to spell it out in the sky? Or do I just need to spell it out in Maria's blood?"
"Would be a nice gesture," the wary mercenary agreed, before her eyes hardened. "So long as you let me draw the blood myself."
The shadows flitted to her right, and Meg's eyes narrowed to slits. She thought she had it figured out, now. Pattern of movements, speed, location –
"Ah, the little bird has fangs. No, Maria's destruction is mine and mine alone."
"Then why were you after President Morholt?" Meg demanded, frustrated. It didn't make any sense. If there was anyone Kruegar should be taking vengeance on, it was RAPT. Not Ormicon! Unless his maddened delusions had extended so far that he no longer was able to tell friend from foe… or did he think that the plans Morholt had carried would help bring him back to a normal life? Meg's eyes stayed fixed on the shadows at her right.
"You followed me here to find the answers to your RAPTy little questions. You should be wary of what you learn – she's gunning for you, she's gunning for me, she's gunning for life-" Kruegar broke off into a sing-song voice, muttering intelligibly beneath his breath. "And now, little Mitarai, you kill or be killed. Because that's the way they told me it would have to be!"
The hair rose on the back of her neck.
Meg stepped quickly to the side as a hail of machine gun fire tore through the air where she'd been not half a second before. She raised both Desert Eagles in a fluid motion and drew the trigger, firing two shots apiece into the place where she knew Kruegar had been hiding. There was a roar of surprise, and she knew she'd shot true. Green blood splattered the rubble as Meg streaked forwards, ignoring the agony in her ribs and shoulder again.
The cyborg rolled out of the way, the remaining half of his human face blown completely off and exposing the metal horror beneath the flesh. It was all knives and mandibles and twitching eyes, all fixed on her as he surged to his feet, the torn off sleeve of his coat revealing the machine gun anchored to the stump –
Meg dodged the next volley of bullets easily, slamming her metal-shod boot into the side of Kruegar's face and launching him several feet backwards. Panting, Meg reloaded the Desert Eagles and pounded forwards, pistol-whipping Kruegar across what used to be his face and firing at point-blank range into Kruegar's chest. She just had to hit the central core that gave him his power, she thought desperately as he launched himself at her with an ear-shattering howl, parrying his strikes with her Desert Eagles and firing deep into his body again and again and again…
He's just not dying, she realized desperately as she pivoted to avoid the rain of machine gun fire that Kruegar had managed to get off in spite of her constant attacks. Damnit, I can't keep this up, not as injured as I am-
Then it happened. Just a miniscule too much balance on one foot, just a little too much momentum trying to carry her forward and suddenly she was off balance, struggling to right herself in the sliding rubble.
Her mind screamed at her body uselessly-
-suddenly she was staring at the sky, something huge locked around her throat and agonizing fire all through her body. Her exhausted mind struggled to right itself, struggled to remember what had happened.
Memories hit her light a mallet. He was finishing the job with his hands, choking the life out of her as she stared at the sky, unable to bear seeing the terrifying mandibles working hungrily in his cheeks as she died. Her gloved hands clawed uselessly at the iron flesh of his arms, Desert Eagles hurled far away and no use at all any more.
"Kill or be killed, Mitarai," the cyborg informed her again. "Those are the rules…"
The iron hand tightened around her neck, and Meg's vision blacked temporarily.
"DROP THE GIRL NOW!" A booming voice broke through Meg's oxygen-deprived stupor, and her eyes snapped open. In spite of her blurring vision, she could make out figures in riot gear, bearing the symbol of Ormicon…
She gurgled weakly, clawing again at the iron muscles that held her, and suddenly she crashed to the floor, the vice around her neck suddenly gone. Heaving in deep breaths and coughing, Meg stared up at the cyborg.
"So, you guys wanna come play too, eh?" Kruegar demanded, that strange, hollow laughter sounding yet again. "Sorry! Maybe next time!"
She wasn't sure what he did as he slammed his whole fist into the ground beneath them, but a dull roar filled her ears. The stone and cement seemed to turn to liquid around them, crumbling and falling. She barely registered that she was plummeting into some undefined darkness, and then there was nothing but blessed stillness and freedom from the agony of her body.
A/N: Keeping in mind that Kruegar is batshit insane, I suspect that this last portion of the chapter might have been confusing. It's intended to be – you haven't got all the cues needed just yet. This I confirm – Kruegar was experimented on during his time in the RAPT prisons, much the same way Akio was in the anime. He was released not long ago from the hidden prison, and is quite clearly driven insane by his experience. He threatens Morholt for some unknown reason, and is killed. Bai-Lan recovers the body, and thinks nothing of it. Just another body of a terrorist. That's when Ormicon ask for the body, and this prompts Sei into ordering a look into Kruegar's body. They learn that he has cyborg enhancements, but he has not activated. He is not considered a danger – yet. Kruegar activates when Ormicon come to claim the body, and wipes out the guards and Ormicon hired thugs both – that's when Meg arrives.
This will all be clarified later in the story, but in the interests of third person limited narrative, I couldn't have Meg knowing all of this at once. So I hope any questions have been answered by this explanatory A/N.
As usual, reviews are much appreciated!