A/N: And here it is, the last chapter of Disc Error. I really, really slacked off doing this one, but this is the only one i had to edit because i was very unsatisfied with the ending. Some of you might notice some inconsistancies in the end, but its worth fixing the ending for it. And no, i won´t make a final chapter, this is it- no hentai chapter following, there was some hentai content after this but it was anything but good, and i have no intention of recreating it.
In any case, thank you for reading Disc Error, and thank you for your continued support. I`ll be making new Blazblue fanfictions in the future, i hope.
"It's the sound of thin walls, Mister Reaper." A familiar, unwelcome voice calls. From a divot in the ceiling where a hole has been punched clean through to the next floor, Terumi peers down at the assembled party, smile wide and glinting in the dim light. "The sound of neighbors knocking in the dead of night, knocking on your bedroom door. Strangers wandering, wanting in, to finally take their fill. It always comes back to hunger, don't you know? The imperative to take. Beyond desire, beyond need. Instinctual."
He rolls down the split in the roof and falls down to the floor, landing with careless grace and swaying back to a stand, doffing his hat with a wide smile. "But then you were never much of one to be educated, eh, Ragsy?"
Ragna snarls, a hateful, dark sound that ripples like a revved engine. Bloodscythe hisses off of his back, the blade snapping out. "Terumi." he rasps.
"A master of the obvious." Terumi replies, rolling his eyes and seating himself upon a wrecked desk, crossing his legs. "But who are these others? Not you -" he cuts off Makoto with a wave, "You're dead weight. Shut up and be quiet until someone manages to find a use for you."
Makoto's face darkens dangerously. Her knuckles pop.
Caelica stepped out from behind Bullet, her face deadpan, then slowly turning into a glare.
"Kazuma. You`ve gotten taller." She said, without hate, but without joy as well. So long as he kept his distance, it was going to be alright... she didn`t feel uncomfortable so long as he wasn´t right next to her.
"What happened to Trinity? Probably didn`t work out between the two of you if you`re still going around killing people alone."
Bullet raised her eyebrow, her Armagus ready to go, as she glanced over to Caelica.
"You two know each other?"
Caelica nodded once.
"My sister put him under a spell that forced him to listen to her orders... after he killed Jubei`s brother first. Without that spell the six heroes would probably only be called the five heroes."
Neon, in the meantime, had his rifle at the ready as he tapped into a radio device.
"Hey, Koko? Something nasty with green hair and a black suit just popped up. Permission to engage?"
Kokonoe`s voice gasped on the other end of the line, then a short, mad laughter was heard from her.
"Hell yeah, engage! Shoot the son of a bitch down, Neon!"
A smirk formed on his face.
"Will you go out with me if i do?"
"No." Was the obvious answer. "But maybe i`ll build you a girlfriend, Frankenstein."
"Close enough." Neon mentioned, then cut the line off to take aim at the sharp dressed man.
"Trinity." Terumi says, inflectionless. "Last I checked, her soul was in three pieces in some wrecked little kid's body. Her going through puberty four times is amusing but not really the type of horrible suffering I'd have preferred her endure." He shrugs, loose and lazy, then folds his hands in his lap as he glances at Neon. His face turns disgusted. "More chaff."
He makes a sharp, clawing gesture, and the roof caves above the android as a familiar blue-haired form sunders it, his eyes blank with fury and the soul-drowning effects of Phantom. ""▂▃▃▄▄▅▄▅▂▂▃▃▄!" Azrael howls, a bellow beyond mere sound or words, a deathly din, and hurtles into Neon with all the force of a meteor. Wicked red energy crackles around him in an aura of malice made material, imposed upon the world via sheer cruelty.
"Now that I'm unlikely to be interrupted." Terumi continues, turning back to face Ragna and the rest. "I only really want one thing." He points a long finger at Caelica with a smile. "You, little baby, get to come with me. Kokonoe's cute, but this plan - it's not amusing me. It's really not amusing me. No one stays dead in the Shift, I get that, but you are an anachronism I personally put to rest a decade ago. You need to stay in your closet, baby doll. No one wants you anymore."
There is a loud click. "Restriction 666 released." Ragna growls, seithr spilling around him in ever greater currents as his arm begins to seethe, losing cohesion and becoming a great mass of bubbling energy. "Dimensional Interference Field Deployed. BlazBlue, Activate." He raises Bloodscythe. "You can't have her."
Terumi rolls his eyes.
"Shit shit shit shit shit!" Neons body, though made of bulletproof materials and resistant to much abuse, was sure to break under the conditions of Azreal`s attacks. Though he could dodge his initial attack, the mass of a man is already thinking ahead, driving him towards a wall. Not a good thing.
"I`m warnin`ya, Azreal, i don`t wanna get on Koko`s bad side, but if you`re gonna-" he had to hold his sentence to block the massive fist of the brawler with a strike from his rifle butt - "-keep attacking me like this, i`m gonna have to take you down!"
Firing blindly at his attacker, too busy dodging his attacks to use his scope, Neon contacts Kokonoe again.
"Kokonoe? Code red, code red, code red! Azreal is attacking me now- i have no idea why! Orders?!"
"Shit!" Was the response, along with the noise of her hitting buttons. "He`s... he`s not responding! I can`t shut him down!"
"Well that`s just fantastic." Neon groaned, testing the function of his hand after he got hit by Azreal in the lower arm. "Can I take him down then?"
"No! I still need this moron, you know?!" Despite her protests, Neon had drawn his sidearm, a pistol with more or less the same properties of his rifle, only downscaled and much less powerful, and fired off two shots to the brute`s chest.
Bullet cracked her knuckles. Despite never seeing him in combat with activated Azure, she heard the reports from the masses what a monster he could be... she didn´t want to get inbetween two monsters at the same time. "Ragna... i`m gonna protect her. You take care of Terumi... i can`t possibly keep up with you." Saying this, she dragged behind her and retreated towards the back of the room, where they came from- intending to return to the surface and lock Terumi in on the way out.
Azrael shrieks his rage again, totally incognizant of the bullets now studding his chest and steaming in the implacable grip of his Prowler Field. He lifts a steel bench made to seat a half-dozen people in one hand like it's a bookend, and then begins to swings it at Neon with terrifying force. His berserker state prevents any real skill or cunning from being used, but the brutal strength involved in every swing makes that a moot point - one good hit would vaporize anything, and indeed, any obstacle in Azrael's way is annihilated and sent flying as he rampages towards the cyborg.
Ragna opens his mouth to snarl something else when Ouroboros launches up out of the floor, having burrowed through the concrete behind Terumi's back where he sits. The Reaper barely gets Bloodscythe down in time to block, and his hasty guard is still rocked by the blow, enough for the tip of Ouroboro's hook to sneak up and jerk down right on top of the handle. The chain retracts and Ouroboros hauls Bloodscythe low, nailing it to the floor with a resounding clang and sending Ragna to a knee. He hisses and looks back up -
"Jayako Houtenjin!"
Terumi's foot soars into Ragna's crouching jaw and cracks it. Bone splinters as he's hurled upwards, blood spurting in his mouth as he very nearly bites his tongue in half. His brain rattles in his skull and he is unable to respond as Terumi follows on his advantage further by somersaulting with Houtenjin's momentum, flicking both of his knives out and gutting the Reaper with two vicious slashes across his midsection. More blood spills, is thrown across the room, as Terumi touches down, light as a feather, catches Ragna's hand as he reflexively twitches towards the cut, spins, and delivers a perfect shoulder throw, dropping Ragna with brutal force right onto the point of Ouroboros where it still shackles Bloodscythe to the ground.
It bursts through his chest, and Ragna jerks, both hands grasping the point where it spears through his sterum. Bloodsmeared, glassy eyes glance up at Terumi, who laughs.
Terumi turns away and shrugs at his companions, smiling amiably. "Well that wasn't much of a -"
"Dead Spike."
The bloodied, broken, impaled form of the Grim Reaper is swallowed by one of his own characteristic demon heads, that rises from the floor and gulps him and his blade whole before vanishing.
Terumi blinks at the tremendous bloodstain where his foe had previously laid. " . . . Huh. Well I can't say I expected that. Ragna, bushido samurai! Must be taking after Hakumen and his -"
"Dead Dragoon." Ragna's voice spits, and the same demon head vomits him back out, Bloodscythe's sword form in hand, directly into Terumi's personal space. The fallen Hero has all of a quarter-second to process this before a knee connects with his face, shattering his nose. Ragna's hand clamps onto the back of Terumi's head for stability - incidentally grinding his knee into the fragments of the man's broken nose - and then brings the hilt of his blade down on top of Terumi's head, cracking against the dome with a horrible hollow sound. But then Ragna loosens his wrist as the swing continues, and Bloodscythe's blade slams into his foe's skull. Weight, inertia, and hate-fueled strength wrench Bloodscythe past. The blade shears off the front half of Terumi's head. A veritable swarm of soul energy bursts forth and sink into the weapon.
The sundered body staggers backward, rent mouth and tongue gaping in the red mess. Ragna, brutalized, takes two long steps backward, and lets the stolen soul-bits begin to work their magic on his body, closing the hole torn in his chest, his ruined face, and the gaping incisions of his abdomen.
Terumi's body feels at his face. Pokes at the wagging tongue. It shrugs. Wags a finger at Ragna. And then with an eye-burning blur of green and the hiss of seithr, the carcass of his head splits open like a ripe seed, the outer skin vaporizing violently. Beneath lies - Terumi. Unharmed, but for the green drops of something that boils at his skin, leaving red, irritated trails where it touches.
"Y'ain't done that for awhile." Terumi murmurs, touching his cheek and flipping off one putrid green droplet. It lands on the floor and begins to hiss as it eats through the concrete "Glad to see you ain't losing your touch."
Ragna spits in Terumi's face. The Hero laughs, lightly, as the saliva evaporates under the intense radiation baking his body. "Eloquent as ever in your spite, little Ahab."
Wheeping in the sight of the massive weapon of the massive man, Neon probably felt fear for the first time. But he probably experienced it before, prior to being dead.
"Woah- are you compensating for something, my man? I can tell you, Kokonoe can fix tha-a-a-a-at!'"
He had to lean backwards, then roll back to avoid a massive swing aimed for his head.
"Jeebus...!"
From the ground, he fired a total of ten shots at the bench, all of which flew straight through the metal- however, his plan, to cut it down to size, failed miserably as the target was constantly moving and it was more difficult to aim from his position than he liked. Even for a computerized sighting system, he wasn`t perfect.
Grunting as she reached the back of the room, Bullet unpacked her sports bag and withdrew an old missle launcher she haggled off of the arms dealer, loaded with a rocket.
"Caelica, get back, this thing will be nasty behind me." Saying this, she quickly armed the warhead and aimed it at Azreal`s giant weapon.
No sooner that the witch ran aside, the trigger was pushed. Unlike in Hollywood movies, it didn´t give off sparks and firebolts paired with a slow moving rocket- instead a small explosion was spawned inside the tube, followed by a second, more powerful explosion a fraction of a moment later- it shred the bench to pieces at about the place where Neon hit it at, causing the top half to fall off and land on the ground.
"Oh, hey, thanks Bullet!" Neon called over, then got back on his feet to reload his weapon- something he had to do occasionally if he didn´t want it to turn up useless.
However, the armor piercing copper charge failed to hit Azreal who had flinched backwards at the sight of the explosion.
"Keep your fucking head down and shut up." The mercenary muttered, then kneeled down, aiming the muzzle upwards- it seemed like she actually knew what she was doing.
"Caelica! I need another warhead! ...Caelica?!"
As Bullet didn`t specify where the witch should run off to, Caelica was running across the room, then stopping in the middle and picking something up from the ground- further inspection confirmed it to be a notebook.
"I got it! Thats it! Thats my father`s log!"
Unaware of the dangers that surrounded her, she hugged the book and hurried back to Bullets post, who by this point had simply succubed to her fate and was in the middle of loading a new rocket by herself.
Azrael flinches and stumbles back as his bludgeon detonates in his hand. He hisses something furious and unintelligible, and then turns to hurl the jagged half-a-desk at Bullet, returning the projectile favor. Rather than pursue her, he returns his attention to Neon, and makes use of one of his own abilities - slamming his fist into the ground, he forces a slab of stone up from the ground directly beneath Neon, then hurls himself forward into a vicious axe kick without waiting to check the results of his first hit.
Terumi's eyes flicker to Caelica. Ragna reacts instantly, blazing foward on a Hell's Fang that burns out halfway and leaves Ragna free to spin into a revolving slash at neck level. The Hero casually slides beneath the slash and kicks Ragna in the back of the knee as he spins, tripping and throwing the Reaper to the ground. Opponent temporarily disabled, Terumi launches Ouroboros directly in front of Caelica, barring her path and burying the hookhead into another desk past her.
"Heads up, little sis!" He calls, and hurls one off his knives at her face - but that's just a distraction, as his other hand retracts Ouroboros, dragging the impaled desk directly towards her at vicious speeds.
"Woah!" Suprised by the sudden change of tactics, Neon is caught off guard briefly and the rising stone wall knocks him over- as he rolls away to dodge the second, more brutal attack, his shoulder isn´t quickly enough- Azreal`s axe kick smashes his elbow and a good part of the lower right arm, sending a gush of oil coming from the grey and black insides of his fleshy exterior. Rather than bleeding out, however, the "wound" seals nearly instantly by closing a valve connected to the muscles.
"Shit~ I guess sniping him is out of question now." Neon comments, jumping back on his feet and tossing the rifle behind him. "Alright then... lets see if i can still do CQC without killing myself."
Taking a quick step forward, Neon roars out a battlecry while he directs a punch aimed at Azreal`s heart- in mid flight, an iron spike extends from his knuckles as his close combat weapon.
Caelica`s eyes widened. His first snakehead was just a hair away from eating her face, and it stopped her dead in her tracks.. the knife then forced her to kneel down if she didn´t want to get decapitated, but the desk flying at her was... something else entirely.
"Uh...uhahaaa!"" She cried out, getting up and attempting to get out of the way- before a massive shoulder rammed her aside.
Bullet had rushed over and knocked Caelica out of harms way, the table hitting her hard in the back as a result.
Biting her lip hard enough to make it spew blood, she propped up on her elbows and got back up into a crouch... from where she triggered the missle launcher that was lying beneath her, propped up on a piece of debris and conviently aimed at Terumi`s direction.
"Just make your mother proud and die!" She grunted, her bloody fist gripping the grip and pulling the trigger.
Azrael roars and charges straight into the spike, catching it in his own shoulder - the same one he'd just butchered on Neon, in fact. He smirks into the cyborg's face from close range, then reaches up and takes hold of his neck. Then, the berserker squeezes.
Terumi rolls his eyes again and chains straight up, leaving the rocket flying at Ragna, who had been chasing the Hero. Ragna doesn't stop either - instead, he cocks his sword back and howls, "Inferno Divider!"
The peerless defensive move smacks the projectile upward, spiraling woozily. Terumi spins as his chain-aided ascent reaches the peak of its rise, and has all of a second to attempt another chain grab, but having been deployed twice in a single second, Ouroboros fails to respond to his call, recharging in its pocket dimension. The RPG smacks into his side and detonates, dismembering him in a spray of explosive fragments and blood. The concussive wave slams Ragna back into the floor, and he coughs harshly, lungs still repairing the damage done to them. Still, he throws a thumbs up at Bullet in lieu of a verbal response.
Azrael's face goes slack at the same time as his grip, as whatever Terumi had done to his mind weakens abruptly.
Bullet coughed up a bit of blood as she was about to rise from the ground, Caelica was quickly to respond and aided her with some healing magic that made it easier for her to breath and stand up. Some things were easier to do without a broken set of ribs.
"R-Ragna.. Lets get the fuck out of here.. We got what we came for, the rest is up to Kokonoe to figure out." She coughed up, resting her hand on the empty launcher tube, Caelica hurrying her to move before Terumi once again regenerates his body.
Neon looked down on Azreal, who seemed rather confused as his grip was growing weaker.
"Oh, hey, Azreal... you mind putting me down, buddy? Its getting kind of chilly up here."
He said, his fist still buried in his shoulder while the other dangled down from a set of fibreglass wires and remains of his muscles.
Ragna grits his bloodied teeth and spits again to the side. He sheathes Bloodscythe and skulks over beside the other two girls with a scowl. "He'll be back." he mutters, spiking his hands into his pockets. "The only damn good thing about Terumi. I get as many chances to kill him as I want." Ragna's lips twist in a parody of a smile. "Lucky me."
He rocks on the balls of his feet, restless, until Caelica finishes her treatment, watching the green-tainted blood that was all that remained of Terumi slide ever so slowly across the floor, heading towards a frothing bubble on the floor. "You might want to hurry up. I'd give the fucker eight minutes before he's back. Meanwhile."
Ragna turns and slides into a perfect three-point Hell's Fang that cold-clocks Azrael, sending him to the floor in a lump. "You good, Neon?" he asks, patting the cyborg's good shoulder once, rough, before he turns back to the rest and glances about with a frown. "Where the fuck's Makoto?"
Faint footsteps precede a panting, bloody Makoto emerging from the wrecked checkpoint at the entrance to the containment sector, who waves a dog skull half her own size at the others. "Sorry." she calls, seating herself hard against a wall. "I . . . hah . . . had to even up the score."
Bullet huffed and stared over to her lover, slapping him on the chest.
"Christ, you`re a masochistic man. I don`t ever wanna do this again, and you`re just asking for more."
As her hand was met with a squishy texture rather than a normal skin one, she grimaced and quickly pulled her hand back.
"Eh, Caelica, you might wanna heal him first."
Nodding, the witch let go of Bullet and hopped onto Ragna, clinging to him like a Koala and stroking his chest with healing touches.
Giggling, she purred a bit.
"Thats the advantage of being a healer- regardless of our relationship status, i get to touch you wherever i want~"
Neon, in the meantime, looked at his right arm with its broken shoulder and destroyed elbow, then nodded at Ragna.
"I would be a crappy soldier if i would complain about this. And i`d be an even worse android if i was able to feel pain, so... yeah, i`m just peachy, all systems go. ...all except the communications array, we need to head topside before i can hail Kokonoe to get us out of here."
Bullet crossed her arms in front of her chest and nodded in agreement.
"Right. Lets head topside before this asshole decides to go for round two."
Ragna look down at the red coating on Bullet's hand now, having slapped her hand directly into his open chest wound. "Please don't do that." he says, a disgruntled look on his face. "That kind of hurts."
Then he suddenly has a shoulder-monkey, again, and Ragna staggers for a moment before he catches his balance again. "What the hell is it with people jumping on me today?" he asked the room at large, automatically tucking an arm underneath Caelica so she doesn't fall off. "Do I look like - well. No, I know I look like a scratching post. Nevermind." The Reaper shrugs it off, carries Caelica over to where Makoto is seated, and offers his other hand down to the exhausted beastkin.
Makoto looks up at him with crinkled eyes. "Don't think ya got room for two there, Mister Reaper."
"Get up before I use you as a floormat." Ragna replies, tired, but hauls up Makoto without dropping her and sets her on her feet. Then he turns and glances back at Neon and Bullet. "Come on, let's get going."
Makoto limps over to Bullet's side and sheepishly offers her the disconnected pin to what had been a grenade. "Took a note out of your book. And your bag of tricks. Sorry."
Bullet gave her a thumbs up and showed the detonator to a claymore mine inside the bag.
"I`ll put the rest to good use and try to bury this bastard here. See if it does any good. If it doesn`t, then at least it`ll keep people away from this place."
Rushing up the stairs and up the ladder, Neon contacted his superior catgirl and reported a sucessful mission, then requested a quick extraction..
"Alright, she`ll send a drone carrier over. Should be here in a couple of minutes," Neon said, climbing up the ladder with one arm... at the ground level however, a group of NOL officers greeted the battered group of renegades.
Bullet, despite the day she was having, grinned and cracked her knuckles in anticipation.
"Okay... Ragna, Makoto, lets go for another round."
Three hours later, after a five minute fight, one hour of flight and nearly two hours of decontamination, the group found themselves in Cyborg lab number two, one of the sterile, all steel constructs of Sector Seven`s secret headquarters. There, the resident catgirl scientist had Neon tied down onto an operating chair, with most of his synthetic skin ripped off of his arm as she reattached his bones to their sockets and replaced the ripped muscles with new ones. Despite his nature, it looked very humanlike- if one could overlook the fact that his muscles were black bundles of carbon fibre pressure vessels, his bones made of dark grey titanium and his nerves translucent fibreglass cables.
She was silent for most of the operation, requireing total concentration for the sophisticated procedure, but as all the things were at their right place again, she locked his arm into a special 3D printer/welder that automatically attached a new skin, complete with thousands of sensors, to the android.
Kokonoe then turned to Makoto, Ragna, Bullet and Caelica and frowned.
"Alright, so what the hell went wrong? I just asked you to retrieve a book, you look like you`ve reenacted Alamo."
Bullet groaned at the pun and crossed her arms. "The librarian wasn`t very friendly."
"That fucker was there." Ragna replies, from where he is lying flat on his back across a triple set of chairs. One of the drawbacks of the Grimoire was the tremendous strain it put on the user's fatty storages, burning up thousands of calories with every use and leaving him feeling like he'd just deepthroated a vacuum. "Terumi. Had Azrael like a dog on a leash, set him on us. Had that suited dog guy too. What was his name, Makoto?"
Leaning against the base of the chair that holds up Ragna's feet, Makoto is amusing herself by poking Ragna's legs and seeing what spots make him twitch. "Varwald." she answers, and prods the hollow of his knee, provoking a jump. She grins up at him. "Ticklish?"
Ragna pushes the beastkin's head lightly and glances back to Kokonoe. "That's a hell of a lot of firepower that fucker put together, Kokonoe. Whatever you're doing, he's onto it."
"Terumi`s always one step ahead. I`m used to it." Kokonoe groaned, wiping a strand of hair out of the way. "I`ve settled on doing things that aren't predictable for that- like asking you to retrieve the log and leave the seithr bomb behind."
Caelica cringed, being reminded of the dangers that were now buried under tons of rock. "Yeah, that thing is staying down there. Permenantly."
The catgirl shrugged in return, turning on her heel to grab a new lollipop from a box nearby. "Whatever. With our technology today, an infant could whip a thing like that together... if he had a few billions to spare. I don`t need it, i`ve got nukes." Her left eye glanced over her shoulder at Caelica. "But what i do need is the book itself."
The witch froze in place, even more so than before. She was decidedly against giving her insight on the dangerous projects her father had founded, but she was family afterall. "...for what purpose?"
"Pages 64 to 78. Exact blueprints of Prime Field transplants and genome strings for Units 5 to 13." Kokonoe answered, deadpan and quick. "We already built an artifical cauldron- the Idea Engine, and Silver Hakumen is already in rough prototype phase. As i said earlier, i`m not interested in the seithr bomb, and the Lynchpin can stay where it is for all i care- it would destroy our planets economy in a heartbeat. The only thing i`m really after is the files on the Murakumo project." The catgirl turned to the mercenary, reminded of the fact that she originally stood against her group. "By the way, Bullet, what do i owe you for your help?"
Bullet huffed and shot a glare at the catgirl. "You don´t owe me anything for the book, i did that for a friend of mine. What you DO owe me for is for the bruises and scratches i got from Azreal. I`ll give you a discount for that- a comfy bed, a change of clothes and a long, cold shower to get all this dust out of my hair."
In the meantime, the hissing and sparking of the 3D printer ceased and Neon`s arm was freed again- curiously, he stood up and balled his fist and waved his arm around a bit to see if it was working, then gave Makoto a grope of her left breast. Satisfied, he smiled at Kokonoe for her handiwork.
"Works like new. Thanks a lot, Koko."
"You need to learn how to bargain, Bullet." Ragna grumbles, digging around in his pockets. He produces an assortment of small objects, ranging from notepads from the desks to sample jars to test logs to microscopes, and sets them up on Kokonoe's desk haphazardly. "While I was down there I grabbed some more stuff. Dunno how much any of this is worth but should sell for something to somebody. Even if it ain't you, Koko Puffs."
Makoto stares up at Ragna. He fidgets. "Well how the fuck did you think I made a living? Selling toasters door-to-door?"
She sighs and pats his leg. "It's okay if you're a kleptomaniac, Ragna, but you should really stop trying to fence your loot like this."
Kokonoe eyed him with a grumpy expression. "What, do you want pocket money? You guys got a credit card from me, remember?" She huffed and turned to Neon. "Now why the fuck did you do that?"
The android smiled back at her. "Makoto is the only one i can really do this with. If i grope Bullet, she`ll destroy me, if i grope you, you`ll destroy me, if i grope Caelica, Ragna destroys me. Besides, she`s the fluffiest- i dunno if Bullet`s are just too firm for my taste or if she has a mega-bra, but they never seem to bounce all that much."
The mercenary popped a vein on her forehead. "Its called a kevlar corset, you dimwit. I was prepared for the worst." Groaning once, she turned away from the Professor and her creation. "Well, i´m done here, so enjoy your loot, Kokonoe."
The catgirl shrugged, keeping her anger at bay. "Caljun will show you a room. We`ve got some spares in the D-wing. Now, Ragna..."
She turned her attention to the renegade, then looked cluelessly at him.
"Have you seen Noel anywhere? Ever since she returned from a scouting mission two days ago i didn´t see her face once. If anything, she should pop up once her 'knight in shineing armor' decides to drop in."
"I'd like funding that doesn't come attached to your apron strings, yes." Ragna replies dryly. "No offense, but when - not if - I manage to piss you off, I'd like to have something to prevent me from sleeping on the street again that night." Then he turns and promptly pokes Neon in the eye. "And quit staring at her. Or I will dig out the other one and tie your boots together with 'em."
Makoto glances down at her bosom and frowns. "You have really cold fingers, you know that? And that actually hurt. Watch it, okay?" Folding arms over her chest she pouts, turning her head away. "We're kind of sensitive there, so you know, don't just go grabbing."
Ragna stares at her. "That was totally, totally unnecessary information. I'm going to my room to wash off the blood, and then I'm calling Noel."
Kokonoe glared at Ragna, then huffed and returned to her other projects... such as the log that was sprad out on the table.
"... alright. Shouldn`t be too hard." She muttered to herself, although Caelica managed to hear it as well.
"...what are you planning to do?" She asked, coming up behind her niece to look her over the shoulder. "Building another one isn´t going to solve anyone´s problem."
Shooting a glare at Caelica too, the catgirl sighed and slapped her hand onto the desk.
"I know. Murakumos are flawed by design and frankly, even as weapons they`re pretty hard to use. ...I just owe someone a life i wish to give back. Reviving someone from death itself only to get her killed because your plan was a desasterous failure... thats crossing the line. She never asked for it, i just gave orders... and she had to pay the price, not me."
Meanwhile, after Kokonoe`s assistant Caljun Faycott showed her a guest room -and warned her that Kokonoe`s means of good will usually implied she was going to ask them more favors later- Bullet stripped out of her blood stained, ripped clothes and hurried to get under the shower. Despite the decontamination, it felt like her skin was tingling and itching everywhere from the dust. That really wasn´t anything she would want to experience again.
But it helped Caelica, and for that she would risk lung cancer from irradiated dust any day.
Freshly showered and attired in something beside his regular coat, Ragna fidgets at the door to Bullet's room beside his and shoots a glance at Caelica, who is still following him around. "Can I get some, you know, privacy for this? We just -"
Caelica giggles at him. "I knew you two did something in that tent, though I didn't know how much. Single or a double?"
Ragna gapes at her, then scowls. "That's really none of your business. Mostly kissing anyways."
The witch hums in gentle amusement and leans against the wall besides Bullet's door. "Well, you're still young so far."
Hearing the noise outside, Bullet decided to let her hair dry off as it was- she just quickly ran through it with a towel to stop it from dripping, then put on a shirt and some pants and headed for the door to see what all the fuss was about.
Opening it, she could think of a few things. Like Makoto eavesdropping on them… instead, it was the young Miss Mercury.
"Hey. I thought you were gonna call your friend first." She adressed Ragna, suprisingly softly.
Then the mercenary girl took a step forward as if she was going to kiss him right there- instead she just poked Caelica`s cheek with a finger.
"And eavesdropping is a bad habit. You should feel ashamed." This, she said in her ususal tone.
Caelica rolls her eyes. "I wasn't trying. You guys made it too obvious for me not to get invested… and besides, I still have a crush on him, you know. I don't really care what you two get up to, aside from - well - applauding." She smiles a little, a much more honest happiness than the usual bubbly cheer. "It's warming to see. And dream about. Guess it reminds me of my big sis."
Ragna shakes his head at Caelica's words and turns back to the other woman. "I tried to call Noel, but no signal. She's turned it off for something. Or forgotten to charge the damn thing. She does that a lot." He throws up a hand in impatience, evidencing that this isn't an uncommon occurrence. "I'll try again later. Or just set Kokonoe on her, Noel doesn't stand a damn chance against the Puss in Boots."
Again on cue, Kokonoe called Caelica, whom had gotten one of their radios now too.
"Hey, auntie. Ragna`s with you, ain´t he?! Noel just reported in... 20 miles southeast from here, from a public phone booth." Her voice reeked of furstration and supressed anger. "Apperantly her shoes had become untied, she tripped and broke her phone. Without its GPS she got lost and was looking for a phone because she was too shy to ask strangers to make a call. I`ll send Tager over to get her- should only take about thirty minutes."
Without waiting for a response, she continued.
"Don´t bother looking for me though- me and Makoto are gonna be busy for the next twelve hours or so."
Bullet smirked at these news, locking glances with the swordsman. "Well, thats thirty minutes to mess around- good enough for me. Might be a bit awkward for Caelica at first, but i`m sure we can include her too. Us young people are creative."
Her smirk turned into a grin.
"Or what were you gonna do, with the both of us freshly showered and me-" she stroked his cheek with two fingers, leaving a glistering trail behind; "still this wet and out of breath?"
Caelica sighs at the teasing and raises her radio for a moment. "I hear, but when she gets in you should just give her a room for the night, I think I'm going to be busy. Just saying." Then she reattaches the radio to her belt and flicks the switch off, depowering the device, before planting both hands on her sides. "So, how serious were -"
She stops as she realizes Ragna has already closed in on Bullet, arms slipping around the bronzed woman's waist, and lowered his head to take her lips in a firm kiss. His possessive grip rests low above her hips, and he pays no more mind to the witch`s inquisitive stare than he would a fly. When Ragna pulls back, he shifts sideways a little to lean against the doorway as his eyes simmer. "I thought I'd come here and show you the benefits of a man who doesn't get tired."
Caelica lets out a teasing whistle.
Now a bit more out of breath than before, Bullet`s grin grew devious and she couldn´t resist to bury one of her hands in his hair.
"Oh man. Is that a christmas present? Cuz i could swear its spring outside."
She licked over his lips, coating them with her taste before claiming them in a kiss, not as long as the one Ragna gave her, but with good intentions in mind.
Purring lowly, her free hand stroked over his waist to his hips, keeping him where he was until further notice. Resting her chin on his shoulder, she leaned over to breath in his ear.
"So, seriously now? I mean, i don`t have problems with two people but you seem like a guy who's too honest for his own good. Just saying."
Ragna leans his head against Bullet's, speaking low enough that even Makoto's sharp hearing could not avail her. "My first girl was a Kaka." he answers, wry and faintly smug. "It was a wild introduction. By the time I left the village some friends got involved." He shrugs in that totally satisfied way some men have a habit of doing, and slips his hand beneath Bullet's tush, lifting her up against him without so much as a grunt, as his other hand steadies the small of her back. "So, sorry. I'm already pretty well corrupted on that score."
He carries Bullet back over the mantle of her room and turns to raise an eyebrow at Caelica. "You coming in or what?" He grinned, winking a little bit.
Caelica, blinks, beams and laughs wickedly as she scampers over the door, throwing herself upon the bed with a light bounce. "Oh, I'm all over this." She sighs gustily.
Bullet let go of Ragna for a moment, stepping aside to shoo Ragna in, then closes the door behind him and locks it twice- better safe than sorry.
"You don`t impress me, Ragna. I had a foursome once." She replied, smug, but not unamused. "I`ve never heard anyone brag about having had a Kaka, though."
She chuckled, then stepped over to the bed- in slow, smooth movements- before plopping unceremonically down, face first, then rolled over to grin at him.
Her hair was a bit messier than before, her left arm was buried in the sheets while the right was hanging over the edge of the bed- but the look on her face confirmed that she had everything under control.
"We`ve got room for one more, big guy."
Ragna hums in acknowledgement, stepping out of his boots as Caelica kicks her shoes off. He strides over to the bed with a smile and promptly takes a kneel before it, kissing the inside of Bullet's knee before creeping up her body with patient dedication until he lays atop Bullet, elbows supporting his weight to either side of her head. "Try to keep up, then." He sinks lower into another kiss, seeking out Bullet's lips instinctively, as his hands tangle in her hair.
The end