As the group moves as one heavily-armed united front, Duke is feeling pretty confident that no one would want to fuck with them. It's unfortunate, then, that this poor Sensei was still not used to the standard Kivotos way of living.
"Hey look, a heavily armed group of students and an old guy!" one delinquent shouted as she stopped beating on a car window with a lead pipe. "Let's just go wild and shoot at 'em!"
"Yo, wait, Arane! The dude doesn't have a halo!" her delinquent friend provided, a pilfered half-frozen hot dog in one hand and a lukewarm Modela in the other. In other words, she was the most delinquent out of that entire group.
"Eh? Really?" Arane squinted as she made to pick up her minigun. "Oh shit, yeah! He doesn't!"
"Do we...shoot him?" another delinquent nearby scratched her head. Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, she wasn't actually a delinquent. She just liked the aesthetic and found a place to belong. She was set for a date with a delinquent friend tonight (fingers crossed something more), and tried to keep the guilt of her life of deceit from eating her alive.
"No, what- fuck no! We're dropouts, not murderers!"
"U-Uh, yeah! Yep! Knew that!"
"Hey!" Mutsuki shouted back. "We can hear you!"
"Oh yeah?!"
"Yeah!"
"Fuck you! You're short and I do not like you!"
"..."
Quickly whipping her HK MG5 off her back, Mutsuki popped off a dozen rounds into the girl, who quickly fell off her perch on top of a car with a pained cry.
"..."
"...Mutsuki."
"What?" Mutsuki looked back at Kayoko. "She started it!"
"Oh for- get to cover!" Rin shouted, and Duke's group snapped out of their bit and quickly took position as gunfire roared out and over them. Naturally, the delinquents had numbers on their side, shoddy skills with a gun be damned, but the Schale-bound squad proved vastly superior in skill and picked them off one-by-one. Regardless, the sheer volume of gunfire headed their way guaranteed a swift KO for any student who was dumb enough to wade out there without any protection.
Any student who was not named Haruka, because the girl must have thought that charging ahead and firing wildly at the closest delinquents was a hilarious way to give Duke a heart attack. Granted, she ate ammo like it was brunch and didn't seem to have much of a problem, but it was still his student (his first student, honestly) getting shot to shit.
"What the hell is she doing?!" Duke hissed as he watched her tank whole magazines of ammo. "Aru, Rin, pick off the heavier guns! Mutsuki, fire support!" Duke vaulted across the hood of the car he was using as cover and drew his M4A1. "Hold on, kid!"
"Fuck it, he whipped it out first!" one delinquent cried out, pulling her SMG up and towards Duke and spraying a wild volley of bullets.
A wild volley that almost entirely managed to miss Duke...save for a couple that simply plinked off of his fabulous skin and rock-hard muscle.
"...What," the girl flatly stated, before being taken out by a burst of bullets targeted at her vitals.
"What," Aru concurred with the random lowlife. She was going to dramatically call out for Sensei, but that action got into a car crash and died horribly the moment he just...decided not to get hurt.
"What?" Duke raised a brow at the pause in the fight. "It hit my Ego bar."
"Your what now?"
"My Ego bar," Duke repeated as if it was obvious. "You know, that regenerating health shit that was all the rage back then? Kept it as a souvenir, damn thing came in handy after all."
"...Shit, can you teach us that?" one delinquent called out, groaning disappointedly at Duke's casual shrug before groaning in pain as the man shot her.
"Sen- what- but- you know what, fine," Rin angrily sputtered, because what the fuck was an Ego bar anyway and who cared that it directly went against reality as she knew it-
Kayoko rolled her eyes at the melodrama, popped out of cover and domed a gawking delinquent herself. She freaked out over the ammo thing earlier and everyone sans Rin basically gaslit her into thinking he had 'comically large pockets'.
Comically large pockets.
Guess who's laughing now, assholes?
"Amazing, Duke-sensei!" Haruka squealed, picking up a screaming delinquent, smashing her into a mailbox, and then picking her back up and throwing her at a distant victim. "I-I don't really understand it, but doesn't this mean you can f-fight with us?"
"I feel kinda bad shooting girls who should be my students, but yeah," he grumbled, snapping his rifle up to shoot the last delinquent's hands with a crisp BRA-RA-RA-RA-TOOM. She dropped her shotgun with a hiss...and said merciful act was almost immediately invalidated as the crack of a sniper rifle hit the girl so hard she flipped midair and hit the ground face first.
"That's the last of this group, Duke-sensei."
(A clean shot! Praise me, Sensei, praise me!) Internal Aru preened like a peacock as External Aru let out a sinister chuckle under her breath. Duke sighed and sent a thumbs up behind him anyway, and Internal Aru fist-pumped.
"Alright then ladies, let's converge for a quick check," Duke called out, doing one last sweep of the area and finding no delinquents lying in wait for an ambush. The ones who were still around were either in too much pain or too unconscious to do much anymore, and Duke tried not to feel too bad for them.
"Everyone got enough ammo?" A chorus of nods answered him.
"Anyone got wounds we gotta look at?" A chorus of small 'no's and head shakes answered him.
"Mine," one delinquent deliriously called out, and she was summarily ignored. Well, aside from Duke dropping a water bottle near her hand.
"Alright then, let's...get going."
Falling into group formation, the Schale Squad were able to run for at most two minutes before coming into contact with yet another wave of delinquents.
"Well, well, welly well well then!" their apparent leader screeched from atop a mountain of trash, a rocket launcher slung over her shoulder and the one eye shown out of her broken motorcycle helmet twitching. "I thought I heard gunfire in the distance! You think you wet-behind-the-ears rookies can take on our bulk? Our mass?! Our thick fighting spirit?!"
"What is she talking about?" One delinquent behind her whispered.
"I dunno," her friend shrugged. "Last I checked she had like, a whole tube thing of Mentas and a Diet Bepsi, PhD."
"...How is she still fucking breathing?"
The girl wordlessly tapped her halo.
"Hey," Mutsuki hopped onto Duke like a koala and shimmied up to his ear to whisper. "Hey, pssst, Sensei."
Duke blinked, staring into her eyes and performing some kind of mental shrug. "Yeah?"
"I've got a great idea. Y'know how she's busy evilly monologuing right now?"
"...Looks more manic than evil, but yeah?"
"I'm gonna throw this bag at her and her goons. Gimme permission to fire?"
"Uh," Duke took one look at the girl, foam dribbling out from under her helmet while her clearly concerned friends were trying to get her to step down from her atop her throne.
"Thaaaanks!" Mutsuki cheered, taking her duffel bag with one hand and hurling it at the ranting girl. She caught it just as expected, turning it around and around like a rabid chipmunk trying to open an acorn.
"I'm onto you! This bag was sponsored by the shadow clubs, and I'm gonna prove it, baby! My name is Takahashi Tomoe, and I've got the eyes of a tiger! I know you're turning the frickin'-"
Whatever insane thing that was about to dribble out of her mouth was promptly interrupted by Mutsuki's bullets impacting the bag, causing the thing to erupt into a brilliant explosion that sent the whole group of delinquents flying, the payload so potent that some of them went screaming over buildings and out of sight.
"Wooo! Got the whole group of them! Am I cool, or am I cool?" Mutsuki giddily laughed, turning back to the group at large.
"...I feel like if we just gave them a couple more minutes, they would've taken that crazy girl to the hospital or something."
"I felt a little b-bad for her?" Haruka meeped. "I-I've...been there..."
"Hm," even Rin looked a bit troubled. "Perhaps I'll have to discuss with the rest of the GSC on holding citywide seminars for mental wellness. I'm sure shooting them in the head isn't helping..."
"Oh come on, seriously?!" Mutsuki cried as she looped around to Duke's back and hung on with upset-child-at-the-supermarket energy. "Can I get a win today? Any win?! Sensei, please!"
Duke sighed, a bit of his soul leaking out with the breath as he pat her head with his other hand. "It was a neat boom, kiddo."
"Thank you! That's all I ask!" she cheered, nuzzling her cheek into the side of his neck.
Is this what you were expectin' if we had kids, babe? Duke thought to himself, the group once again moving as Aru tried (and failed) to extract her friend from his back. Still, he thought with some fondness as the two old friends bickered, it wasn't like he disliked it or anything.
"The Schale club room is just up ahead," Rin helpfully pointed out, and Duke had to admit that the towering, gleaming white building was a thing of beauty.
"Whoa..." Aru breathed, still hanging onto Mutsuki by the scruff of her neck. "Now that would make for a great office space."
"Let us not drop our guards just yet," Rin muttered, keeping her hand on her Deagle. "The main opponent, Kosaka Wakamo, still remains. She isn't a repeat offender for nothing, after all."
Haruka shivered.
"S-She sounds scary..."
"Please. Stop. Talking."
Himari merely tittered in her hand as Wakamo made to slip into Schale, having slung the sickly yet borderline-omniscient charming yet unfallibly kind girl over her shoulder like the world's most egotistical bag of potatoes. She had broken the girl's toy chair and crushed the wristwatch controlling its finer functions soon after finding her, which earned her a pout. Not like Wakamo cared, she had some fun to deliver, and the girl was just so weak without her little toy that it made it easy to do whatever she wanted.
If Akeboshi Himari could be right about one thing, it was that she was indeed frail.
"My apologies, but you're just a touch different from my normal crowd of admirers back at Millennium. It's surprisingly refreshing! Why, just think of the scintillating conversations we've been having!"
"You have been barraging me with your many achievements while making fun of this...Rio...girl," Wakamo hissed, and she was certain she didn't get it wrong despite her brain pretty much melting out of her ears. The Fox of Calamity thought for sure that the reality of the situation would dawn on her hostage eventually, that they weren't actually friends despite her being friendly because it was an intimidation thing and she didn't want to listen to her inane babbling and-
"You were welcome to interject at any point. In fact, you did at approximately-"
"Shut up already!" Wakamo exploded, the eyeholes of her mask glowing red-hot as she glared at her hostage, tail puffed up angrily and ears twitching. "You irritating pest, shut your mouth before I shut it for you!"
"...I'm sorry," Himari replied softly, and the rest of the trip down the hallway was spent in a tense quiet. Whatever.
...
Whatever!
It was better quiet, it gave her time to hear her own voice. All she had to was set up these bombs inside the building (which surely had something important in it) and be done with it.
She cared not for other people and their feelings. She lived for anarchy and destruction! Life was a game of hedonism and momentary pleasures! Once she was done here she'd move onto the next, and the next, and the next...!
Kosaka Wakamo chuckled to herself, the sound rebounding off the walls and offering her nothing in response.
As the Schale Squad approached their objective, mowing through more than a fair share of plucky delinquents, they finally had the heavily-fortified entrance in sight.
"That was...actually somewhat draining," Kayoko huffed, popping out an empty mag from her P30L and inserting a fresh one in. "Is everyone alright?"
"I-I don't feel too good," Haruka whimpered, and Duke's heart went out to her as he looked over the fresh cuts and bruises she sustained from the previous fights. Apparently, while the girl had the constitution of an armored car even by Kivotos' standards, the injuries were starting to pile up and the girl's ability to take to the frontlines inversely went down with it. Still, it did little to dissuade her; she might've just complained about the pain, but she had no actual intent to give up her role.
"Hang back, okay?" Aru put a concerned hand on her shoulder. "None of us really have the supplies to patch you up. Gah, that damnable Chinatsu would have been useful right about now..."
"I-I...!"
"Haruka," Aru stated, voice taking on a stern edge. "I don't want to make it an order. Duke-sensei...?"
"Come on, kid," Duke nodded, putting a gentle hand on her back and pushing her back a bit. "Do it for us?"
"...Okay. I'm s-sorry for worrying you two..."
Aru shook her head. "What good is being sorry when you've done nothing wrong? Go to Kayoko and Mutsuki, go on."
The girl stumbled away, and Aru let out a tired sigh.
"The chains 'a commanding, huh?"
Aru briefly glanced at him. "Haruka's driven by a need to feel useful and wanted. It's driven her to do...and say...many extreme things that make me worry about her. I think she's just started to realize that we all love her regardless but...it's not my story to tell. Sorry, Duke-sensei."
"Don't sweat it," Duke grunted, swapping out the M4A1 for his Bennelli SUPERNOVA. "We all got some rank-ass skeletons in our closet. Yer a good boss, Aru. Helluva lot better than some of the suits I knew back home."
Aru snorted. "Thank you, Duke-sensei. I fight to make sure that no one can ever take advantage of them...as you surely do with us, hm?"
Duke huffed, but nodded with a smile. He was about to respond when a klaxon started blaring around them, and the girls quickly fell into battle positions as the street rumbled ominously.
"Oh, damn it all!" Rin growled. "Crusader Tank! Spread out, now!"
No other words were needed; Aru and Duke quickly dived behind cover as the tank slowly rolled up, crashing through barricades and sandbags as though they were pebbles in the road.
"Surprise, assholes!" one delinquent gleefully shouted as she and her group moved forward in front of the tank, waving her SMG at the group as her friends giggled. "Hope you're ready to-!"
A bag landed between the group.
"...I mean, this is a well-made bag but can I finish my-"
The payload in the bag detonated at Kayoko's shot, knocking some to the ground and sending the rest flying in every direction. Up ahead, Aru quickly sniped three more SMG delinquents and took them out instantly, leaving the tank to rumble forward with malicious, mechanized intent.
That tank gun is stubby as hell, so it's range can't be too hot, Duke thought to himself as he analyzed the situation on the fly. Might be able to weave around a shot or two and get in close to blow the puppy to hell 'n back. I can't let it target the students!
Growling, Duke pulled himself up with the SUPERNOVA and the tank gun focused on him-
"I said...lemme finish," A delinquent on the ground muttered as she drew a Saturday Night Special from a tiny holster under her skirt. "Get fucked."
With a wicked grin, she fired at the one person not behind cover, fully relishing the Crusader's distraction.
"Agh!" Haruka squeaked, stumbling. Moments later, her eyes widened and she made a decision.
The tank gun swiveled in her direction-
"NO!"
"HARUKA!"
-and fired just as she dove away from Kayoko, drowning out Aru and Duke's screams in smoke and flame. The shell hit the youngest member of PS68 dead on, drawing an ear-piercing howl of pain from the girl as she was sent flying through the air before smashing into a car, the panicked screeches of the alarm and the rumbling of the tank being the only sounds in front of Schale for a few eerie seconds.
Haruka's halo winked in and out of existence before fizzling out entirely.
Duke Nukem ROARED and charged the tank, leaping as the tank gun once again swiveled-
PAK, PAK, SKREEEEEEEEEE-
-only to be bent shut once Duke got his hands on it, twisting it to the left before outright snapping it off in his rage. Immediately, the tank's AI stopped priming the next shell and instead opened two hatches on the side, revealing twin machinegun turrets-
KRNCH, KRNCH-
-that Duke did not even give the dignity to prime, mercilessly folding the guns in on themselves with a mighty boot and a meaty swing of his fist. Now completely out of offensive options, the tank made to disengage with a quick burst of speed before Duke quickly grabbed at the plating and climbed, reaching the hatch on top and ripped it off with little effort.
"You wanna see me mad, you little fuck?!" Duke snarled, tearing his coat and tie off so it wouldn't get in the way. "Congrats, you've got a front row ticket to your goddamn funeral! I ain't gonna stop 'till your Skynet ass is BEGGING to die!"
With that, Duke went up to the main console, tore open a small hatch underneath, and began ripping wires out with absolutely no concern as to what they did and why they were there. When he inevitably ran out, the console beeping in manic protest as systems rapidly shut down, Duke simply got up and smashed his fist through the keyboard and tore out more before outright smashing the console itself with his other hand. As the tank itself began to rumble, Duke quickly hopped up and out of the tank before its ammo overheated and exploded, a spectacular K-Kill that under any normal circumstance would've been a thing of beauty.
Taking a look around the street, Duke found that his students had extracted Haruka from the car and had torn strips of their clothing off to act as makeshift bandages. Tears streamed down Aru's face as she clutched the small girl, Kayoko's face white as snow as she held her boss' other hand while Mutsuki scrambled to get back to them after raiding a nearby store for basic medical supplies. He couldn't see the full extent of the damage as Aru's body covered hers, but he was able to see Haruka's burnt clothes and bloodied cloth on her legs.
The delinquent who had shot her in the first place had been knocked out cold, welts placed along her body that certainly weren't there before. It might've made him a bad Sensei, but Duke decided to pretend it was a trick of the mind and moved to assist Problem Solvers 68.
Rin, dirtied with a grim expression herself, stepped in front of him to gently place a hand on his chest and push back. "She's not dead, Sensei, just seriously wounded. A normal student can recover from a tank shell, and Haruka is most definitely sturdier than the average. Schale's medical facilities are top of the line, she'll be fine once we can move the GSC's medical team in, but you have to go and save the Schale building."
"But-!"
"Wakamo is surely there already! If you don't go now, all of the President's work and all of ours will be for naught!" Rin hissed. "Just go! We can take care of Haruka!"
Duke took a look at PS68, took a look at Rin, and took a fortifying breath before sharply turning around and stomping off to the front doors.
"I trust ya, Rin. I'll get this sorted ASAP, so call up that med squad."
"Understood, Sensei. Take this," Rin handed him a small radio, "and good luck."
As Duke pushed the doors open, he greeted the darkness of the Schale building with a determined scowl.
"Duke Nukem don't do luck. He just gets shit done."
Wakamo let out a frustrated snarl as she recalled her final moments with her hostage.
"I've set up the bombs. They'll be going off in half an hour, which by then I shall be long gone."
"I see. It seems I'll just have to rig up something to deactivate them, and given my nearly deific intelligence, it won't be long~!"
"Tied up as you are?"
"Sure. I can muster a burst of strength and use my feet."
Wakamo snorted. When she had attempted to put the girl on her own two feet, she could stand for maybe two minutes before her wobbling became too much, her body simply too weak to hold itself up without her precious chair.
What a fool. A fragile, deluded fool that she had deposited on the sofa as soon as she could.
"Ugh," she had groaned then. "The best part of setting these bombs is that I do not have to deal with you any longer. Goodbye, Akeboshi Himari, it really has not been a pleasure."
"...Goodbye, Kosaka Wakamo. I hope your destruction, fraught with loneliness, brings you happiness at last."
Happiness...at last?
She was happy! This made her happy! What an idiot. What an absolute fool Akeboshi Himari turned out to be. She didn't understand her at all, and of course she didn't, the moron simply babbled on about herself before Wakamo scolded her like the child she was. What an idiot!
Akeboshi Himari had fooled everyone at Millennium into believing she was a genius, but she didn't understand her heart at all! She wasn't lonely! She didn't need anyone!
Wakamo gripped the edges of her mask so hard they creaked, breathing hot and heavy as she violently kicked her hideout's shoddy bed. She had an explosion to look forward to, so she totally did not waste any more time on the subject of her hostage at all.
She didn't need anyone.
"And then that off-green one, Duke-sensei."
"And...done. Whew..." Duke took a breath as Himari let out an earnest 'hooray' at the final wire snipped. "How the hell did she set this many damn bombs?"
"Drive," Himari shrugged, giggling. "Drive to get away from me, most likely."
"Eh, ya seem nice enough," Duke shrugged, gently setting the deactivated bomb down next to the ten others. At the compliment, Himari seemed to visibly revitalize and smugly grinned.
"Well, I am a sickly super-genius girl who has a soul as noble as the heroes of yore, Sensei," Himari boasted, wiggling as Duke undid the binds around her hands. "It is no wonder that a girl with evil in her heart could not stand my saintly aura."
"Sure," Duke amusedly rolled his eyes. Himari was a bit of a narcissist, but she at the very least didn't pair it with putting anyone down. If anything, she wanted to bring people up with her. "Let's go with that."
"Yes, let's. Now then, if you wouldn't mind, may you please carry me out?"
Duke raised a brow. "You alright?"
"Oh I'm just fine. It's just...I may not have been entirely lying when I said that I was sickly," Himari gave him a self-deprecating grin, "my body is not quite as strong as one may expect, given my dazzling looks and wonderful complex- eek!"
Himari squealed as Duke easily picked her up and held her in a princess carry. "Good?"
"G-Good," the super-genius squeaked, burying her head into her Sensei's shirt. Unfortunately for her, her ears had turned pink.
"Duke-sensei, status report," a radio on his hip ground out, and Duke fiddled with it before clearing his throat.
"Bombs down, can ya wheel in lil' Haruka yet?" he asked, a bit of desperation leaking into his voice as Himari glanced curiously up at him.
"We can, but systems remain down. See if you can find a tablet in the Basement, it is called the Shittim Chest. I believe the President left it for you as she knew you'd be able to use it...at least, I think."
"You 'think'?"
"I...cannot shake the feeling that I am forgetting something. Someone...nevermind, it's not important right now. Use the tablet to give the GSC authority over Sanctum Tower, and we can begin fixing Kivotos' problems for the moment. I have faith in you, Sensei."
"...Thanks, Rin," Duke muttered, moving Himari to one arm while shuffling around a few papers, before finding the tablet in question. Gently placing her back down onto the sofa, Duke sat next to her and flicked the tablet on, Himari shuffling closer to him to stare curiously at the thing.
...
Connecting to the Shittim Chest...
Please enter the system password.
"Hmm," Himari muttered, a dainty hand cupping her chin. "Had I the tools, I could try to run a hybrid brute force attack. Or, maybe if the GSC at large used this, perhaps I could engage in some...under-the-table credential stuffing. What do you think, Sensei?"
Duke, as if driven by some unknown force, let his fingers move on their own.
We thirst for the seven wailings.
We bear the koan of Jericho.
...
We break the chains that bind them.
...
...
Password accepted. User identified as Duke Nukem. Confirmed.
Welcome to the Shittim Chest, Duke Sensei.
Converting to operating system ARONA for biological authentication and generation of official transfer certificate.
The world went black.
A/N: Sorry for the late release! Tried out The First Descendants with my friends, fun time. Like Warframe but less crushing apathy towards older content and less random shit thrown into it like it was Duke Nukem: Forever (lmao).
In other words, first review! Thanks for the kind words, it's been a while since I've written seriously and it does the heart good to be regarded as a hidden gem. I'm sure there are other good crossovers out there for good ol' Duke, I must admit I've never really checked...
Since I'm just putting this on every chapter, check out the AO3 version of this story for the full AN if you're interested! I love cutting corners (except when writing these chapters, apparently)!