11. Relocation, Relocation, Relocation
Kyon and Vita ran – not in any particular direction, but simply away. The corridors had changed from five-star-hotel luxury to stark, metallic functionality, like what he imagined the inside of a high-tech military base looked like. There were signs at the junctions, but none of them seemed to point anywhere useful. Maybe some people could have constructed an elaborate escape mechanism out of Store Closet X-76's medical supplies and cleaning equipment, but Kyon wasn't one of them.
"At least they don't seem to be chasing us anymore," Vita commented.
A series of harsh, metallic clangs sounded from an interconnecting side-passage, growing steadily louder until an armoured behemoth hove into view. It was easily eight feet tall and inhumanly broad, holding an enormous, boxy cannon in its gauntleted hands. Its head was obscured by a stylised helmet that vaguely resembled a howling face.
"You... just had... to say... it, didn't... you?" Kyon wheezed.
The apparition snarled something unintelligible, and levelled its gun at them. To the student's terrified eyes, the barrel seemed to stare, becoming large enough to fit his head inside.
Vita brought her hammer into the guard position, and a grating, robotic voice came from the weapon's stubby head.
"Panzer Hindernis."
A geometric shell of red light appeared before her, just as the monster opened fire. The corridor was lit by a barrage of detonations that seemed to go on forever... but when the smoke cleared, Vita was still standing, the barrier cracked but unbroken. She held out her hand, and a row of iron spheres appeared from nowhere, suspended above the ground. Kyon, standing behind her, couldn't see her face, but knew that it was wearing a diabolical grin.
"My turn."
"Schwalbe Fliegen," the hammer announced, and she swung it into the waiting balls, encasing them in ominous red energy and propelling them forwards.
The monster stopped trying to reload and attempted to dive out of the way, but the corridor was simply too narrow. The projectiles turned in midair and slammed into it with the force of cannon-shot, knocking it backwards and cracking its armour.
Vita didn't give it a moment to recover, charging forwards with her hammer raised.
"Tödliche Strafe!"
The blow landed with an enormous explosion, sending the monster skidding away on its back, trailing bits of armour. It came to rest against the far wall, still smoking slightly.
Kyon peered over her shoulder. "Is it-?"
"Unconscious. Should be out for a few hours, though. Space Marines are tough sons-of-bitches."
"Ah... your surname. Is it Rassendyll, by any chance?"
"No. Why the hell would it be?"
"Never mind, just checking." Suppose you're more of a Sapt anyway. Good grief, now I'm getting the narrative all muddled up... is this what shellshock feels like? Fascinating.
She looked at him oddly for a moment, and then glanced at the signs on the intersection. "Good news, kid. Observation deck this way. Observation deck means windows. Windows mean a way out."
"Eh? How? Don't tell me you're planning on us jumping out of-"
She indicated downwards, and he saw that she was hovering several inches above the ground. "Next question?"
"Retracted."
"Good. Let's get going, shall we? Oh, and if you look up my skirt, I'll stick Graf Eisen where the sun does not shine."
"What? Why would I want to?"
"Crap – that reset de-aged me again, didn't it? I swear, kid, you do not know what frustration truly is until you've gone seven hundred years without hitting puberty."
Kyon had to smile at that. "Trust me – it's overrated."
"Given that this one involved me getting turned into a brainwashed, homicidal slave, you might have a point. Like I said, let's go."
She floated off in a manner that made Kyon acutely conscious of his aching legs. He staggered after her, wishing for one insane moment that the SOS Brigade's cross-country session had contained less Mikuru-retrieval and more actual running.
As they approached the observation deck, they heard more heavy footsteps similar to those of the Marine Vita had defeated. She held up a hand.
"Hold it, kid."
They stood there for a few moments, before she spoke again in a low voice.
"Shit – it's a full combat squad. No helping it, this is going to get messy. Close your eyes, kid. I don't want you to see this."
Kyon did as he was told, and heard the voice of her hammer, Graf Eisen, again.
"Raketenform."
For good measure, he put his fingers in his ears. That didn't block out everything, though.
After the commotion had died down, he removed the fingers, opened the eyes, and walked into the room. It was huge, several stories high, with balconies and walkways obscuring much of the ceiling. One wall was entirely comprised of a glass window overlooking n enormous, cavernous space in which distant, winged figures soared with liquid grace. In the middle of the deck Vita was leaning on her hammer, panting. Leaned against the walls were the bodies of five Marines. Two were in good enough repair to presumably be unconscious. The others... weren't.
"Wh-what did you do to them?" he asked.
Vita looked up, her face grim. "I'm a killer, kid. It's what I was designed for. Hayate helped me a lot, and I try to avoid it when possible these days, but sometimes... sometimes, you have to go back to your roots."
She pointed up at the walkways. "Clear a few of those away, would you? I need some elbow room if I'm going to get through that window."
Oh, right, the Cricket. He opened fire, taking chunks out of the masonry and getting driven to his knees by the recoil in the process. Vita rolled out of the way as a particularly large piece of debris fell dangerously close.
"Not now, you idiot! Wait until I'm clear!"
He winced. "Oh, damn, sorry, I wasn't thinking..."
"That much is evident," she grumbled, brushing lint off her shoulder. "Can you try it again, please? Without almost crushing me this time."
"Got it."
A few dozen blasts later, and the obstructions were cleared, creating an impressive pile of rubble on the floor. By now, Kyon had seriously started to wonder about the Noisy Cricket. Where does such a tiny gun keep all that ammunition? Does it ever run out?
Beside him, Vita gave a satisfied smile. "That's better. Stand back, kid – I'm going to make us an exit."
She climbed to the top of the rubble, absently kicking one of the unconscious Space Marines in the head as she went by. Once she reached the summit, she regarded the window for a few seconds, before swinging Graf Eisen in a wide arc that looped all the way around her body.
"Zerstörungform!" it announced with metallic satisfaction, and its head reshaped itself in a flash of red light.
The new form resembled an enormous, blocky, drill-tipped missile, bigger than Vita herself. Not that that stopped her from carrying it with almost the same ease as when it had been about the size of a croquet mallet, though. She leapt into the air and raised the monstrous hammer above her head, its handle stretching and head expanding to an impossible size. Suddenly, Kyon understood very well why she had wanted some space cleared before she tried this.
"Destruction Hammer!" she screamed, and brought the weapon crashing downwards.
The window was clearly made out of something tougher than glass – diamond, perhaps, which would certainly be in-keeping with the gods' fondness for ostentation. That didn't save it, though. Engine flaring and drill spinning, the missile-hammer smashed into it, and after a moment's resistance, it gave way in a rain of broken panes and glittering shards.
Happily for Kyon, he had managed to retrieve his jaw from the floor before she turned around.
"Impressive," he said with forced nonchalance.
Vita managed a dainty midair bow as Graf Eisen returned to its usual form. "Why, thank you, kind sir."
She drifted down, turned her back to him, and indicated her waist. "Hold on tight, kid – things are going to get a little bit bumpy."
Kyon knelt down and put his arms around her, feeling intensely awkward. "Are you sure you'll be able to lift both of us?"
"Unless you were downing lead weights for breakfast, shouldn't be a problem," she replied. "Then again, given the hospital food..."
They lifted off, and the student learned another important lesson – namely, that eight-year-olds, no matter how inhumanly strong they happen to be, are not naturally-suited for having your entire body-weight hanging off them. An intelligent designer, he thought, would have given them handles somewhere around the kidneys. He held on as tight as he could, ignoring the dull pain in his arms, and hoped fervently that he wasn't doing something ghastly to her internal organs in the process.
As they flew into the cavern, Kyon took the opportunity to look around. There was something weirdly organic about the place, as if they were in the stomach of some leviathan. Structures hung from the ceiling like stalactites, and the walls had an odd, shifting appearance to them, as if they were home to uncounted millions of tiny (or not-so-tiny) creatures. There was a strange, clammy yellow mist in the air that obscured the most distant reaches of the cavern, and he couldn't help but wonder just how big it was.
You could fit an entire city in here. Another glance at the buildings both above and below. Maybe they did.
"What's the plan?" he asked.
"The gods told me about this place," Vita replied. "They called it the Geofront, an enormous artificial cavern under Tokyo-3 that got turned into a military base by the old regime."
"Tokyo-3?"
"Think they got a bit careless with the first two. Point is, it's supposedly not that far underground. If we get to the roof, we might be able to either find an exit or make another one of our own."
"Sounds good to me. Hey, what are those big black clouds up there?"
"They're... not clouds," Vita replied slowly. "Holy shit, incoming!"
The nearest 'cloud' approached with unnatural speed, resolving itself into a mass of the airborne figures he had seen through the window. Kilted, shadow-faced male figures sent bolts of energy from crackling staves in their direction, whilst red-skinned, leather-winged she-daemons (presumably Maria's 'sisters') and skeletal, mangy crows the size of condors swooped in close, axes and talons at the ready respectively.
Vita dodged, dived, and rolled out of the way, almost dislodging Kyon in the process, as the assembled daemons' maniacal laughter screeched in their ears.
"Your gun!" she yelled. "Give it to me!"
Don't ask for much, do you? He reluctantly unwrapped one of his arms from around her, wincing as his abused muscles protested once more, and fumbled in his trouser pocket for the Cricket, praying that it hadn't fallen out during the flight. Eventually, he managed to grab it, took it out, and placed it in her outstretched hand... just as one of the monstrous crows forgot what species it was supposed to be and stooped into them like a raptor.
Kyon lost his grip, tumbling away with a startled curse. He flapped at the air, more to show willing than out of any serious hope that it might prove useful, and managed to end up facing downwards, watching the distant cavern floor rise to meet him.
Not that anyone intended to let him reach it, though.
A cluster of daemons detached themselves from the main swarm, flying beside him with mocking catcalls. One of them circled beneath him, the darkness that obscured its face yawning wide. It rose (or maybe just slowed down), rushing towards Kyon with its taloned hands outstretched as if attempting an embrace.
Desperately, the student punched downwards, his fist striking where the creature's nose should have been and sinking into the encroaching blackness. It came into contact with... something, and the daemon screamed, falling away with its limbs flailing and its kilt flapping around it.
He stared at his arm, faintly relieved that his hand was still attached to it, as the other daemons closed in, snarling. Of all the ways I expected to go, being torn apart in midair by warped sentient manifestations of human emotion was not one. Funny, that.
Explosions sounded around him, the shockwaves battering every part of his body that wasn't already sore, as the creatures were plucked away one by one. From behind, he heard Graf Eisen's mechanical voice.
"Pferde!" it spat, and Vita was there beside him, effortlessly snapping off shots with the Noisy Cricket.
"Can't leave you to your own devices for one moment, can I, kid?" she asked with a grin. "Grab on now – that face of yours is ugly enough without being splattered across a hundred-metre radius."
She moved in closer, and Kyon did as was suggested. "Thanks, Vita." That's right... mock the guy who's falling to his death. It's not as if he minds or anything...
"No problem. Looks like we're going to have to abandon our plans for the old up-and-out, though; there's just too many of those daemonic fuckers around the roof. Time to get... creative."
At that, the student squeezed harder. He would have closed his eyes as well, but fascinated horror and the rushing wind forced them to remain open.
They swooped between two of the ziggurat-like structures rearing from the ground, sparkles on their surfaces resolving themselves into a barrage of projectiles and energy bolts that streaked past them like horizontal rain. Vita didn't bother with her shield, evading the defence systems' attacks with eye-blurring speed as Kyon flopped behind her like a partially-unfastened rear bumper. Gouts of flame appeared on the ziggurats' upper terraces as the Cricket found its mark.
They descended further, the incoming fire lessening as they left the guns' field of traverse. Soon, they were skimming barely a couple of metres above the rocky ground, the huge buildings drifting by on either side like mountains overlooking a valley.
"Are we still being followed, kid?" Vita asked.
Kyon looked back. "Yep. Three big swarms, right behind us."
"Great. What did we do to them?"
"Umm... try to escape from prison, killing, incapacitating, and otherwise injuring several of their compatriots in the process?"
"I mean apart from that!"
"Insult their dress-sense?"
"When did we do that?"
"Right now. Blue-and-gold kilts? Really?"
A snigger. "I could get used to having you around, kid. Hey, is that what I think it is?"
They flew into a depression between four of the smaller buildings that looked to Kyon's eyes like a gigantic drainage basin. A moment later, he realised that that was precisely what it was. Unpleasant greenish-brown stains streaked the sides, and the grate at the bottom was large and imposing enough to resemble a castle's portcullis. Vita dove in for a landing, settling down with military precision. Her taller passenger, meanwhile, was deposited in an undignified heap behind her, further ruining his clothes.
Lovely – more bruises, he thought sourly. Amazed she hasn't used me as living ammunition or something yet.
"Try to get that gate open," she ordered. "I'll hold them off."
The energy shell reappeared, just as the surrounding emplacements opened fire on them. Kyon crawled over to the grate, looking for a handle or pulley system. All he found was an engraving on one side, eroded but still readable.
'Speak the name of the Queen of Plagues, and enter. Invite her into your heart, and she shall protect you from what lies within.'
And they can't use normal safety notices because...? "Vita, any idea who the 'Queen of Plagues' is?"
Her voice was strained, distracted. "Well, Reigle's their goddess of disease and despair, right? She'd fit. Make it fast, kid – don't know how much longer I can keep this shield up."
"Gotcha. PRAISE REIGLE!"
There was a weird lurching sensation in his stomach as he said it, and the grate began to creak open with glacial slowness, releasing a gust of foul-smelling air.
"We're clear!"
"Glad to hear it. One sec – I'll be right with you."
The daemons had arrived, boiling over the lip of the basin like a tidal wave. The shield vanished, and Vita whipped her hammer to one side.
"Gigantform!" it roared, and the head transformed once more, this time into something as large and blocky as the earlier drill/rocket affair but still recognisably hammer-shaped.
Vita extended a hand, and another iron sphere appeared in front of her, much larger than the ones she had used against the Marine. She drew back Graf Eisen, before slamming it into the projectile with a titanic crash.
"Kometen Fliegen!"
The ball, now a bolt of dull red fire, impacted in the midst of the approaching swarm, creating a huge explosion that blasted bits of daemon and pinwheeling shrapnel all over the place. As the survivors reeled back, stunned, Vita ran towards Kyon, grabbing his wrist and dragging him with her into the waiting darkness of the drainage chute.
So we're trying to escape through an underground flue that may lead nowhere at all. Great. Wonderful. If our next obstacle starts calling himself 'Rupert of Hentzau', I'm going to scream and start attacking things at random.
Author's Notes: Because I thought this fic needed more magical backside-kicking and shout-outs to nineteenth-century literature. Don't judge me.
