The Red Queen Chapter 6: katabasis


"Mizuchi, what the hell are you doing?" her voice was low, sharp. Dangerous. Gold glinted in her eyes behind the rabbit shaped face plate. Mizuchi hadn't gained any combat abilities. Only one in a few hundred did, to be fair, and those that were gifted with such power were welcomed into the Rabbits. They were the Gold Clans elite, the strongest, more than a challenge for the best of the rest of the Clans.

Mizuchi looked over at her, his smile never leaving. She found that she hated him. Underneath him was a little girl, totally unconscious, dripping with water. Not just any girl, it was Honami's niece. Anna. That girl the Reds had come asking after.

It wasn't uncommon to find children here. Her own brother had developed his powers as a Strain he was a mere nine, and Zuri, a young telepath that now oversaw construction, had begun exhibiting her abilities when she was a toddler. There were plenty of children who exhibited superhuman abilities.

The uncommon, the disgusting part of the scene, was the burn marks on her arms. The water dripping out of her mouth. Kaida's fist clenched at her side, the other hand moving to pull the sword out of her hip. She pointed the gleaming tip at Mizuchi's throat.

The lab around them was perfectly white, except for the blue water in the tank Anna floated in. Mizuchi stood out of his spinning chair, narrowed his eyes at her but didn't lose his smile.

"I'm taking Anna now," Kaida's voice shook with her fury, "And your head."

"You couldn't even if you tried," his smile turned nasty. "I'm the strongest of the Gold Clan, you won't beat-"

She cut him cleanly, from hip to shoulder. Blood sprayed out over her hands, soaking her long black robes and the perfect white floor. Mizuchi stumbled back. Kaida went to scoop up Anna, but pain shot through her arm.

She hissed, drawing back to find a dart embedded in her arm. She ripped it out and looked over at Mizuchi. Gold had encased his body and before her very eyes the horrible wound she had inflicted repaired itself. Mizuchi stood straight, not even a scar to show for her troubles. In his hand was a tranquilizer gun, one of the handheld ones they used for dangerous Strains.

Kaida pressed the sharp blade of her katana against her arm, above the impact of the dart. Maybe she could drain out the poison before it got to the rest of her system.

Mizuchi lifted the gun again and she sidestepped the next dart, lunging to drive her sword into his guts before she cracked him across the face with her elbow. With her other hand she pointed, gathering a golden light to the tip of her finger. It shot off like a bullet, through his lungs, threw times. Blood poured around their feet. Mizuchi cracked her across the head with the gun and she stumbled, the world swimming.

She straightened up in time to knock another dart away with the blade of her sword.

Mizuchi stood between her and the girl, totally unharmed. The only remains of her attack were the tears in his clothes. Worse, she was starting to get dizzy, blood flowing freely from her self inflicted wound. This was bad. This was so bad.

Mizuchi brought his wrist up and spoke into the radio embedded into the watch.

"Attention all Blue and Gold Clansmen! There is a rogue Rabbit in the facility. I Repeat, and rogue Rabbit had infiltrated the center."

He turned a smug smile on Kaida. The knowledge of what she had to do made her sick to her stomach.

She turned her back on the little girl, and ran.