Hello Everyone! I am so, so sorry this ended up taking over a year! I wouldn't be surprised if you thought I had given up. For those of you still reading and waiting for this after all this time, thank you so much! I'm glad you've enjoyed it enough to keep waiting for it.
As a bit of explanation, when I started writing what I thought was going to be "the last chapter," I figured it would be maybe a little bit longer than the average chapter. But, since this is my first real piece of writing I've actually released, it spiraled out of control. I kept thinking of more things to add, or changing things a bit because I didn't like how they turned out, or skipping little connecting bits to finish later, and by the end of it all I'd ended up writing 60 pages worth of stuff, which I think we can agree is over one chapter's worth of content. As such, I decided I'm going to split it up into three chapters, though I'm still going to post them all at about the same time, since making you wait longer than you already have seems cruel. I hope I got rid of any continuity errors or typos, but I sadly can't guarantee that.
Anyway, I've probably taken up too much of your time already with this preamble, so I'll let you get to the story. If you have the time, I'd recommend reading at least the last chapter, since it kind of picks up in the middle of things.
As always, thank you so, so much for reading, commenting, favoriting, and enjoying. Hope to see you here for the next one, though I'm definitely not going to be attempting something this ambitious for a while.
Previously on The Nine Red Men Incident: After being separated across Gensokyou by Merasmus, the RED team managed to regroup, with a few allies, and took off for the Hakurei shrine (where Reimu had encountered one of Gray Mann's Spybots that seemed unable of killing), where they knew Merasmus would be. Once they arrived, however, they'd found that Merasmus had simply been trying to invite them to his wedding to Mima. After settling the misunderstanding, and once the Oni caterers, Byakuren, and a few others had arrived, the ceremony commenced. Right before the "I do's," the ceremony was interrupted by Gray Mann, who, with the help of the wizard Caucior had broken through the barrier to try and get the Australium Merasmus had used to pay Reimu for renting the shrine for the wedding.
"Yes, you are," Merasmus replied, while everyone else was too stunned to act.
Grey Mann's smirk transformed into a scowl rather quickly. "Yes, I kind of thought I was."
"Then why did you ask?" Merasmus said.
"Oh never mind," Grey Mann said, stepping slightly to the side as the sound of metal feet became clearer, until a group of robots began marching through the portal behind him.
The Soldier's eyebrows rose in fury. "YOU!" he yelled, attempting to grab his rocket launcher off his back, only to realize that it'd been removed to make room for his suit.
"Do you know him, Soldier?" Merasmus asked.
"No, but I know those robots," he said, frantically searching for his shovel.
"Now that you mention it, they do look familiar," Merasmus said, putting his hand on his chin. He looked around at the RED team members, before realization dawned. "Oh, they look like all of you! Are you a fan of theirs?" he asked Grey.
Grey's eye twitched dangerously, before a broad smile formed on his face. "Congratulations. That is perhaps the least accurate thing I've ever heard." Merasmus deflated slightly. "In any case, give me the Australium," he said.
"Wha- how do you know about that?" Merasmus said.
Grey rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter, what matters is that you give it to me. Now," he said, raising a hand and causing the battalion of robots to point their guns at him.
"What? Do you know who I am, mortal?" Merasmus said, a look of fury forming on his face, Mima sporting a matching look.
"Yes, I do. Merasmus the Wizard. Former roommate of the Soldier, owner of the Bombinomicon, enjoyer of carnivals, former debtor to the Japanese Mafia, and winner of the Spirit Magician Conference talent competition three years in a row," Grey said.
"Wait, what was that last one?" Merasmus said.
"That isn't the point. The point is, I know who you are, and you don't intimidate me in the slightest. So Give. Me. The. Australium," Grey said, his eyes narrowed.
"I will not," Merasmus said, sternly. "And not just because I don't have any anymore."
"Oh yes, who has it now? I believe it was Miss Reimu" Grey said, looking around. "If you would be so kind as to give it to me, I will leave immediately, and we won't have to see each other again."
Reimu raised an eyebrow. "Or else what?"
Grey smirked. "Oh, well, allow me to show you," he said, snapping his fingers. A robot came forward, holding a monitor that seemed to be connected back through the portal. He turned the power on and, after hitting it a couple times, it began working properly.
The monitor revealed a squadron of Spybots who, having found their way into the human village, snuck into the school building, in which Keine was sheltering her students from the fighting that was happening outside. She stood guard in front of the schoolroom, her face a picture of grim concern, while she clenched and unclenched her fists. One of the Spybots detached from the rest of the squad, going invisible, while another walked clear into Keine's view. Her eyes narrowed. "Leave this building. Now," she said. The robot stopped moving, but didn't leave. "This is your last chance." It remained still. "Very well," she said, before she let loose a flurry of danmaku at the robot, which bounced harmlessly off, causing Keine to nod to herself. "I thought so." She rushed forward and grabbed the robot, twisting its arm and leg in such a way that it collapsed to the floor. She was about to drive its head through the floorboards when there came a scream from inside the classroom. Cursing under her breath, she jumped back up and ran into the room to find two Spybots pointing guns at the children she'd been protecting.
"Cease attacking or the children will be killed," the robot said. A look of pure anger crossed Keine's face, but she nodded stiffly. The robot beckoned for her to stand with the children, and she did so, murmuring comforting words to the group.
Grey turned back to face the crowd, who stared at him with a mixture of disgust and anger. "Will you force my hand?" he said.
"We didn't discuss this," Caucior said, under his breath.
"You bastard," Mokou said. "If anything happens to them-" she began.
"Yes, yes," Grey said. "If you stand down, they won't be injured. I don't wish to hurt them, but this is simply the fastest path to achieving my goal."
"Coward," Heavy yelled, as he formed fists with his hands.
"Call me what you want," Grey said. "But give me the Australium." Reimu let out an irritated grunt and grudgingly began to walk into her shrine. "Where are you going?" he asked.
She glared at him, before pointing at her shrine and continuing to walk towards it.
"Very well, then," Grey said. "I suppose I have your answer." He turned to the camera holding robot. "Kill the teacher," he said.
Mokou let out a howl of rage and rushed towards Grey, flames engulfing her body, while Reimu turned back to explain. Through her rage, Mokou began shooting large swaths of danmaku at him, but they seemed to disappear before they made contact with the robots. Grey gestured to a pair of Sniper bots, who trained their sights on her head and fired. Though Mokou was fast, she wasn't fast enough to dodge the bullets that tore through her skull, and though her momentum carried her forward slightly, she toppled over and skidded on the ground, stopping a few feet from where Grey was.
Everyone save Reimu, Marisa, and Sukasa stared at the body in shock. The Pyro walked forward in a daze and crouched next to her body, staring at the still-burning flames. "A shame. Still, I trust I have your attention now?" Grey Mann said, ignoring the glares he received. "I would prefer not to have to hurt anyone else," he said.
"That was unnecessary," Reimu said. "I was getting the Australium."
Grey shook his head. "Perhaps you should have made that clear."
"Monsuier Mann," the Spy said, suddenly behind Grey with his knife to the man's throat. "I believe you have neglected to call off your robots in the school. If you do not, you will certainly be the next to go."
Everyone's eyes were drawn to the screen, where the robots were advancing on Keine and her students. "You're bluffing," Grey said, his eyes narrowed. "If you kill me, you die too."
"Perhaps," the Spy said, shrugging. "Perhaps not. Regardless, death would be worth it to stop this atrocity. Now call them off."
Grey blinked, then smirked, lowering his voice to a whisper so only the spy could hear him. "You've always struck me as a smart one, Spy, compared to your peers." The Spy eyed him warily, though he did look slightly pleased. "Tell me, do I seem like the sort of person who would just walk in to a dangerous situation like this?" The Spy's eyes widened as Grey began to laugh, a mechanical buzz beginning to creep into his voice.
"Merde," the Spy said, jumping back from what he'd assumed was Grey Mann. The disguise fell, and where Grey Mann had been standing there stood a Spybot, the only thing marking it as special the antenna on its head.
"And I don't appreciate threats," the Spybot said, pointing a finger at the Spy, who hastily pulled out his dead ringer just before the rockets would have blown him up. "And I believe it's probably too late for the teacher now, sadly," he said, turning to the screen, drawing everyone else's (save the Pyro's) to it as well.
On the screen, Keine appeared, separated from the children, while a firing squad of Scoutbots circled appeared in a circle around her, about to fire. Keine shouted something to the children, who tearfully backed up, until eventually one of their backs hit the far wall.
At which point, two machine guns dropped down from the ceiling and began mowing down the robots. The firing squad was ripped to pieces before even one of them could pull the trigger, and they saw Keine dart towards the children. Then the robot with the camera was hit, and then they could only see the bullets flying through the air and hear the sound of bullets hitting metal. They heard a couple rockets fire, and a saw a little smoke appear, but after what seemed like an eternity, the bullets stopped. There was the sound of footsteps, and Keine's face appeared in the screen again, her expression a mixture of anger and relief. She drove her shoe through the camera, causing the screen to turn to static.
Dell and Nitori traded smirks as the Spybot that Grey was talking through spat out incredulous sounds. "When'd you install that?" she asked.
"When she was distracted by the stuff you'd added," Dell said. Nitori snorted and shook her head.
"Don't know why they actually managed to shoot real bullets 'stead of that fancy other stuff though," Dell said.
"Probably the spell that wizard's using can't distinguish between their machinery and your sentry's," Nitori said.
"Huh. Too bad I'm out of metal," Dell said. "And that I don't have the time to make up for the lack of dexterity with this thing," he said, waving his gunslinger around, "and try and make one a' my level threes."
"Wish I'd brought some more from my workshop then," Nitori replied, though she was still frowning. "Bigger question is, how'd he know where those kids were, and how'd he get those robots there so quickly? I doubt he's been here before." Dell furrowed his brows and rubbed his chin.
"I wouldn't'a put it past him to open a bunch'a small openings and see where they led first. Get the lay of the land, and all that," Dell said. "S'what I'd do, anyway."
Nitori's eyes widened. "That's," she said, pausing to look for Reimu. "That's bad. That's really, really bad."
"How come?" Dell said.
"Think about it like this: Gensokyo exists as an air-filled balloon floating in a bunch of poisonous gasses. If you make a tiny hole in the balloon, the poison will slip in slowly, in a way that can be controlled, but the more holes you open, the faster it'll seep in," Nitori said.
"And since he opened so many holes," Dell said, a grim look on his face.
"Yeah," Nitori said. "Normally there's someone who can go around and seal up the holes, but since there was that big hole you all fell through a while ago, I don't know if she can help."
"Fascinating," the Medic said, behind them, causing them both to jump in surprise. "Vhat kind of poison is outside, in zhis analogy? Is it mustard gas? Arsenic? Or is it more targeted? For instance, one vhich is easily broken down by a healzy liver, but not zhat of a drunk's?"
"Oy," Tavish said, taking a swig of the sake that the Oni had brought before breaking the bottle over the head of a robot. "I can hear ya jus' fine, ya know!"
"I am avare," the Medic said, nonplussed. "I did do your hearing test back vhen you joined, you remember?" Tavish sighed and shook his head, as he attempted to beat the robot to death with the remains of the bottle.
"I'm not sure what any of those are," Nitori said, confused, "but it's the kind that will kill everyone in the area, though us youkai will feel it first. Only the most powerful youkai can survive outside at this point, and that won't even matter if they're in here when it collapses."
The Spybot, which had been translating Grey's furious ranting until this point, turned to face the group again. "Fine," it said. "We do this the hard way." As it spoke, there were faint tearing noises, and flashes of light appeared in the sky above Gensokyo, out of which the blue-grey glint of the robots could barely be seen. Nitori staggered and dropped to one knee, while Dai fell unconscious to the ground, Cirno barely managing to stay up next to her. Even some of the Oni seemed to be moving slower than they'd been, and Patchouli had collapsed, coughing, to the ground. "If you won't give me what I want, then I'll just have to take this entire land."