Chapter 11
Kagari was… confused.
Why had she done that?
She didn't dislike Black Rock Shooter.
So why had she tried to run her through with the sword?
She took her!
Oh yeah.
That.
She had to take her Fair Lady back.
Mato was… intrigued.
The wound on her chest hurt.
But at the same time it didn't.
It almost felt like it wasn't her pain.
Not all of it anyways.
It took a few seconds for her mind to catch up to the fact that her blood was blue.
It probably shouldn't be in her right lung either.
She had barely dodged Chariot's blade, taking the cut to her side instead of her heart. She was having trouble breathing and went to the pot next to the elevator to cough the coppery fluid out.
Right as she reached it, the door opened.
She turned to see Yomi and opened her mouth in greeting, only for her to cough blood onto her face.
She felt reality slip away as the world turned black.
But she did not stop moving.
Mato Kuroi was inert for eleven seconds before her eye was set alight. She stood easily, ignoring her friends' protests, and walked to the coffee table, leaving a stream of blue blood onto the carpet.
"Mato!" called her mother, "Sit down! We have to stop the bleeding! Yomi! First aid kit, NOW!"
The rest of the adults were trying to restrain the aggressor, failing miserably due to their wariness of Kagari's sword that they kept at bay with whatever
"Mato, sit down, NOW!" cried her mother.
Kagari raised her sword against her own mother.
And the sound of a cannon shot shook the tower.
Mato stood slowly as if weighed down as the poorly formed cannon she had summoned fell apart.
Robin was more than a little annoyed at the moment. What was the source of his annoyance? That would be the idiotic policeman in front of him.
"Why didn't you say that the HIVE was pulling the heist!?"
"Well, we didn't think it was important," he stuttered, "we can take care of the regular thieves just fine, you know. We figured you'd suppose it wasn't a normal robbery."
Robin had to admit the man had a point. The Titans rarely took care of regular crime unless the police explicitly asked for help or one of them was on patrol. This particular robbery had been timed to take place in the fifteen minute period between Raven's and Beast Boy's shifts, meaning that they had been planning this for some time.
At the moment Starfire was trying to land a hit on Kid Wykkyd while Mammoth took on Cyborg and Raven kept Gizmo away from his sensitive circuitry. Robin could only assume that Billy Numerous was bagging the cash inside the bank, hopefully with Beast Boy running interference, as he dodged yet another hit from See More's laser.
It was in the middle of this that his communicator decided to start ringing.
Now, in polite company one would stop what he or she is doing to allow their companion time to answer the telephone before engaging back into their activity.
Unfortunately, the T-Coms are technically not cellphones and supervillains are rarely polite, as See More demonstrated by blasting Robin through a wall with a particularly powerful laser.
The Teen Wonder grudgingly answered his communicator.
"What!?"
"Mato and Kagari went crazy and are fighting in the middle of the lobby!" cried a hysterical woman on the other side, one of the parents he assumed, though he'd be hard-pressed to figure out which one, "There's blood everywhere!"
"WHAT!?"
Robin cursed under his breath. Just what they needed.
He needed to get someone there, stat.
"BEAST BOY! Let Numerous go and get to the tower!"
"Wha-oof! Why!?" cried the green changeling into his com.
"Chariot and Rock are duking it out in the lobby!" he cried back as he dodged a laser and threw a freeze bomb and See More, "Just get over there!"
"Why can't Starfire do it!?" replied Beast Boy, his voice suddenly turning into an odd squawk at the end, having turned into an emu for some reason that Robin daren't ask.
"JUST DO IT!" he yelled, "The bank's money's insured anyways!"
"Fine, fine," replied the grumpy green teen as he turned into a wolf to make it out of the bank, then turned into a gorilla to backhand Mammoth into the wall, and finally turned into a hawk to fly away.
The sound of steel scraping and crashing against steel filled the air. Everyone not directly involved in the fight had taken refuge in the nearby hallway, Mr. Izuriha fanning his wife that had lost consciousness at the thought that her formerly frail daughter had tried to kill her. Yuu and Yomi had gotten separated from the adults and had hidden in the elevator that had been taken out of service due to the cannon shot from Mato.
Haha Kuroi was terrified.
Her daughter was wielding the Black Blade in a manner that suggested years of training despite the fact that she had never held one before today. She was moving at speeds that she wasn't sure were humanly possible.
And her eyes.
Fire and glow aside, she had never seen her daughter's eyes like that. The cheer that she was so used to seeing had been replaced by a calm and stoic fury that sought nothing but the death of her opponent.
She would never again take Mato's eyes for granted again.
The two were at a stalemate at the time. Steel shrieked against steel as the metal was scraped, chipped, broken, and reformed before being subjected to the same punishment over and over again.
Chariot bore nicks and cuts from the Black Blade, as well as scrapes on her metal legs and arms. The worst was a gaping wound on her shoulder that freely bled gold onto the carpet.
Mato was in a far worse condition.
The first hit had weakened her as she lacked the full range Black Rock Shooter's enhanced healing abilities. The wound no longer bled but had not closed. A new cut on her cheek marred her face and her left arm had already been broken by a hit from Chariot's shield. It hung limply to her side as more cuts were added by the sixth sword the wheeled girl summoned.
The Black Blade was chipped, but had yet to be broken.
Yomi didn't like the look Yuu had on her face. It somewhat reminded her of the time she had tried to sneak into the T-Sub only to blast a hole into the wall with a torpedo.
"Yuu," she said, "whatever it is you're thinking of, don't."
"I think I might be able to transform if I use Saya-chan's watering can," she said, "it's crazy, but why else would that thing be here?"
"And then we'd have three out of control otherselves to deal with."
"Nah, I'm used to it. I could probably control it from the get go."
"I'd rather not risk it," insisted Yomi, "we should just stay here until-."
Yuu was gone.
A quick search confirmed her fears. Yuu was hiding behind the couch as their two friends tried to kill each other.
She quietly snuck around it in a manner that almost had Yomi humming an action movie's song. She had to suppress a gasp when the Black blade cut through the couch right above the small girl and lopped off a few strands of Yuu's hair.
The short girl finally reached the gothic watering can…
…right as a green flying reptile crashed through the window.
The pterodactyl quickly turned into a massive gorilla and pinned the quarreling girls to the ground, only to lunge back when both retaliated by slashing their swords across his arms.
It was a fight for all after that.
Beast Boy rapidly switched from animal to animal as he tried to attack the girls. Mato and Chariot clashed as they continued to dodge all manner of claws, fangs, and tentacles.
Mato parried a sword strike from Chariot as Beast Boy turned into a cheetah and ran into her. He almost pinned her down but had to roll out of the way of Chariot's blade, taking Mato with him lest she be decapitated.
He turned into a massive python halfway through the roll and lunged at Chariot, biting down on her left shoulder and rapidly coiling his body around her. He had hoped to knock her out and take care of Mato, but the blue-eyed girl had recovered and he had to let go and turn into a hummingbird to avoid being sliced by the Black Blade.
He rapidly turned into a human, hoping to call them down since he couldn't fight them both without hurting them.
"Dudettes! Chill!" he yelled, "What is up with you two?"
They lunged at him.
Beast Boy smartly turned himself into a snail and was merely swatted away by Chariot's sword. He crashed into the wall next to the hallway where the parents were taking refuge. He hastily transformed back and took a second for the tiny Starfires to stop hula hooping around his head.
"Dude, what the heck happened here?" he asked as the two warriors crossed blades again, "they're out for blood!"
"I don't know," said Mr. Izaragi, "Kagari just came in and attacked!"
"She was walking so we first congratulated her," elaborated Mrs. Izaragi, "she didn't even look at us! She just took out that sword and stabbed Kuroi! She'd be dead if she hadn't dodged!"
"Chariot's mind is melding with Kagari's," said Saya, "the two sets of memories must be unstable or are confusing her. She might even think she's back in the Otherworld! Either way, we need to calm her down before she kills someone!"
"Where are Yuu and Yomi?" he suddenly asked upon noticing two guest were missing.
"They're hiding in the elevator." Said Mrs. Takanashi.
They looked over and noticed Yuu was missing. The lone remaining girl pointing to the couch where Yuu was holding Black Gold Saw's watering can above herself.
"YUU! DON'T!" cried Saya.
Beast Boy reacted immediately and turned into a wolf to take the can away. Yuu, however, heard Saya's cry and turned around, taking the tackled to the chest.
The watering can fell from her grasp and the water fell on them both.
"This is not good." Said Saya as the two began to writhe in pain, the water steaming away as if it was boiling.
The sound of shifting metal soon filled the room.
Author's Notes: Faster than I expected and as you can see the fecal matter hast struck the air circulation apparatus. Anyways, I need some advice. What do you guys think BB's Otherself should be called?
Oh, and someone asked about Lady Ying Fa. She's not exactly an Original Character so much as she is the potential that I see in a largely underestimated character. I mostly wanted to mention her to demonstrate other fandoms that are involved in this universe (all U1 stories are in the same universe) but she might make a cameo later.