Chapter 8: Our fight for Sunny skyscraper
Note: Readers please listen to Krazy Ivan Power Struggle while reading this.
I am able to hear the Leanbox soldiers talking to each other, as I sit in the room where Uni has set up her PSP.
I notice one of the soldiers getting out their radio, as they talk to their boss. Who the boss is I don't know.
"Mam we have breached the city walls in PS3 City, and we have reason to believe that Lady Black Heart may be here in Sunny skyscraper." The Leanbox soldier speaks calmly.
He then listens to her response.
"As you wish but can we please have reinforcements? We have lost a lot of troops just trying to breach their gate." He pleads after which he listens again.
"But we can't capture Lady Black Heart, unless you bring in reinforcements." He pleads even more.
I think she's yelling at him, even though I can't hear her voice.
"OK we'll do our best to catch them, out." He holsters the radio.
He then turns and talks to another soldier.
"I tried talking to her but she won't listen, she says we got more than enough troops to do this." Says the radioman.
I find it interesting that they're as baffled as we are, about the lack of support and reinforcements. As I said before maybe they're either over confident, or there could be another reason. But it's interesting to know that they're baffled, then again they're just soldiers which makes me wonder: are they just soldiers following orders, or more?
"Don't worry we will have victory tonight, what we have now should be enough, besides which we have kicked their asses in the last war, we'll do it again in this battle. Hopefully the capture of their CPU will ensure the defeat of Lastation once and for all." The soldier reassures everyone.
"Yeah you're right. OK boss what's the plan now?" The radioman asks.
"Simple we all find a lift and storm the top floor, then we try and find out about the layout of this place. My gut feeling is that Lady Black Heart is up there. Let's go!" The leader order.
With that said me and Noire head outside to intercept.
"I'll keep you two informed by radio." Uni called out to us, only for us to thank her for her help.
When we're in the corridors with our troops I then give an order.
"OK I want you lot to split up and go outside every lift on this floor, OK?" I command.
They all rush to various lifts, including us.
"OK! They've all entered every lift in the ground floor, they're gonna go up in unison." Uni informs us via radio.
This is perfect as we'll be able to ambush a group of them at once.
"OK. Keep me updated." Noire replies.
With about 40-50 troops around each lift, we all feel confident that we can win this. I feel ready as well, no signs of worry at all. There's no way they can inflict casualties in this firefight, considering they haven't shot at any of our shields.
"Apparently in Nameco the Leanbox troops are using the lifts as well. In fact they're all going up now." Uni informs us.
"OK." Noire responds. She stretches her left arm out, uncoiling her arm like before and snaps her fingers.
"OK the lifts have stopped." Uni informs us.
Noire does that theatrical yet sexy performance again.
"OK now the lifts are dark even the ones with a view, but the cameras have magnetic vision switched on." Uni says.
Noire does that…. you can probably guess.
"OK now the people inside are getting wet." Uni reports to us.
"OK, try and enable me to communicate to the Leanbox troops in the lifts. I want to try and speak to them." Noire commands.
After getting confirmation that she's able to do this, Noire then starts to speak to them.
"Soldiers of Leanbox this is the CPU of Lastation. As you may know many of your comrades have gave their lives, in an effort to enter our city. Do you not think that this battle isn't worth it? Do you not think that too many lives have been lost needlessly? We have no hatred towards any of you who fight for your nation. I have no desire to fight this war or slaughter any of you. For that reason I and my people would love for you to surrender to us. We have no interests in harming you, or keeping you prisoner or even making you work for us. We just wish for you to stop fighting us, so that no more innocent lives is to be taken. I will allow the lift to go up, but you have until then to decide but please surrender, we have no interest in killing you what so ever." Noire speaks with such emotion and passion, as well as genuine sadness over the loss of life.
After her speech she does what I like to call her finger snap of doom. She does it again which I think is to turn the sprinklers off, and to send the lifts up.
It's awesome how she cares about everyone, even those that are enemy soldiers. I can only hope that they will surrender.
"OK Noire the lifts are going up, they still have their guns in their hands. They don't want to surrender. They're not even discussing the issue which makes it even more horrific." Uni reports sounding concerned and frustrated.
"Indeed, while I admire them for fighting to the death, I do wish they'd not force us to kill them." My CPU speaks to her younger sister though she sounds quite frustrated.
"OK everyone get ready, as they're all going up in the lifts. Just to inform you I have given them the chance to surrender, they probably won't but don't shoot them unless they're armed OK?" She orders to our troops on this floor via radio.
And so we all aim our guns at the lifts and wait as the lift comes up, it's not long until the lift opens. I really did hope that they wouldn't open fire and would have their hands up, but sadly this is not to be and they tried to shoot us, but the Leanbox soldiers get massacred as they're shot a few times by our guns. All of them fall down dead, as their bodies have blood gushing out of various holes, not to mention them being soaking wet from the sprinklers. Noire does 2 finger snaps of doom, the first is to get the lights back on and the second is to dry the water in the lifts.
After the shooting we spend a short while feeling terrible for this, as well as frustration for them not wanting to surrender. I do my best to keep going but it's hard to ignore this, and I think this is taking its toll on the soldiers as well as our CPUs.
"Hey Noire why don't we send the lifts back down and then ambush them downstairs, second floor." I suggest.
"Good idea." Noire says to me, before she then gets on her radio.
"OK I want you to send the lifts back down." Noire says on her radio.
As she gets into the lift with me, she presses the 2nd floor and then ground floor.
"Wait here guys, we'll be back." I say to them only for them to have nodded in response.
It's not too long until we reach the 2nd floor. We quickly get out and make our way to some stairs. The thing is we don't go down the stairs; we wait by sitting on some rather comfortable gaming chairs next to some stairs. Noire then sighs and I think she looks rather upset.
"What's wrong Noire? Is it the amount of casualties we've inflicted on them?" I ask as she looks a bit glum.
She turns to face me and I can sense the sadness in her beautiful green eyes.
"It's the fact that lots of people are dying in the name of Vert. I hate the fact that we have to kill lots and lots of innocent Leanbox soldiers, just so Lastation can survive. I'm bothered by the fact that Vert wants to defeat us, instead of just getting along. This isn't what I want, I want to be a CPU that helps lots of people not kill them. Why is she doing this? You know, I am sure there was a time when we all got along, me, Blanc and Vert, we used to get on really well, a pity it never happened here." Noire says sadly.
An idea then springs into my head after hearing her frustration. I then give her a hug out of comfort and in an attempt to cheer her up, I notice how really warm she feels. She hugs me back in a loving, caring manner. I can understand the pain and stress, it amazes me how it doesn't affect her job performance what so ever.
"Maybe that could be it, maybe Vert just wants to watch the world burn, which could explain her tactics. Or maybe she may look and sound like Vert but she may not be Vert, if that makes any sense." I suggest to her.
"Oh yeah, yeah." Noire nods.
It is then I come up with what I like to think is a good idea.
"I got an idea, what if we could fight Vert and if we win she'll have to stop fighting. I'm sure you'll win. You must be very powerful if you're a very good CPU to your people." I propose.
I can tell the idea is good with Noire as she smiles, I'm sure she's willing to take up any chance to end the war, providing it's not horrific of course.
"Sure but we should do it tomorrow. This is because I agreed to meet Heihachi Mishima tonight to discuss the technology he's working on. In other words I need to meet up with him so we can have some troops to help defend Lastation, but I need to meet him tonight though." Noire explains smiling.
I nod in response; it's not long before we can hear footsteps approaching fast.
"Be advised Noire they're coming up the stairs, all of them." Uni warns us.
"OK thanks." Noire replies to Uni.
"Don't worry Leanbox troops, I'll find a way to bring you back to life so that we can live in peace once more." She speaks out loud.
We both get up, she points her mini gun down the stairs, and I stand with her back to back, with me looking at another flight of stairs taking comfort in how we've got each other's back.
It's not long before I hear the mini gun spinning up, and firing lots of bullets rapidly as they hit various soldiers. I manage to take them all out with a 40mm grenade although the thing is, there was only about a dozen of them there.
"Be advised you got about a hundred guys coming up along a flight of stairs, away from you two." Uni warns us.
"OK thanks." Noire says as we swap positions.
Like Uni said they come charging in, only to be mowed down by Noire's minigun. I see quite a lot of blood gushing out of their various holes as they fall to the ground, not to mention their body parts being ripped up and scattered all over the place. I find myself worried that this is a sight I'll never get used to seeing, it's very horrific. I just keep thinking how the sooner this battle can be won the better.
"Be advised, they're all advancing on this floor." Uni informs us.
I like how she's always informing us of their movements, she's very great. We've not been caught off guard yet.
"OK thanks we'll go up the lift then." Noire replies as she reloads her mini gun.
As we go in one of the lifts she says this to me:
"Black if you reload your gun while there are still some bullets left, you'll just put in enough bullets to reload, so don't worry about wasting ammunition by reloading, OK?" She advises me
Just like what happens in video games, great.
"Sure thanks for the tip, Noire." I respond.
I reload my gun and Noire is correct. I had about 19/1700 and now it's become 100/1619, the reload was almost instantaneous as well thanks to the dual mags.
"I think we should wait till they come, then can we kill a few and then we can go up to the 26th floor." Noire suggests.
"Sure no problem." I agree. I thought I'd be exhausted both physically from the running, and emotionally from the carnage but I'm not. In fact I feel as though I know what I'm doing. As of now I can hear footsteps approaching, It's not long before I see quite a few soldiers walking, almost patrolling on this floor. When they get within range we open fire, but there wasn't many to kill only about 20.
With that brief fire fight over, Noire presses 26th floor and the lift shuts. Almost instantly we reach the floor and wait outside the lift.
"Uni, do you know what the Leanbox soldiers are doing right now?" Noire asks her.
"I think they're looking around for a map or something." Uni answers.
"OK let me know if you know anything more." My CPU requests.
"OK sure." Uni replies.
Once again we sit on some gaming chairs. Noire looks at me; I guess she wants to talk again.
"You're OK Black?" She asks this with a smile on her face, and I know she's looking out for me.
"Yeah I'm fine, in fact I would probably find it fun if it weren't for the fact we're fighting Leanbox troops, and slaughtering many of their innocent soldiers." I reply sounding a bit down over the enemy soldiers.
"Same here, I can't wait until I am able to get my hands on those responsible. I don't know if Vert is doing this on purpose, or if she is mind controlled by someone else, I dunno. Still, let's see how Parasoul and that are getting on, I hope they're alright." She speaks before talking on her radio again.
"Hey Parasoul how are you getting on?" Noire asks.
"We're getting on fine; we haven't had any fighting apart from them going up in the lifts and us ambushing them. However me and Peacock have harassed them a few times, the thing is they are all climbing up the stairs now, and I believe they're at the 30th floor." Parasoul explains.
"Oh, that's interesting." Noire replies calmly.
She then does her theatrical finger snap of doom.
"Hopefully that will stall them, glad you lot are ok, you're doing great OK out." Noire says before holstering her radio.
She then looks at me again smiling, almost flirting. She must know I find her to be very attractive. For the first time I'm starting to think that this awesome relationship we have is about to become romantic. I'd like that, I've always found Noire attractive and it would complete it if we were both to fall in love. I think there is something special about her anyway, from what I remember before coming here.
"We need to spend time together to get to know each other, or so we can catch up." She says smiling with affection.
"Yeah agreed. What are your hobbies?" I ask while nodding.
"Oh lots of hobbies: driving my future proof Bugatti, playing on my future proof PS3 capable of doing everything, training, cosplaying, watching my landmass, spending time with my sister Uni, beating up villains, meeting my fans. Well they're citizens of Lastation but I call them my fans because they feel that way. It's amazing, they love me so much and I love them back. And now a new hobby, which is spending time with you, there's something unique about you." Noire speaks casually, and I notice she's flirting with me again.
I enjoy her company, I enjoy it a lot. I can imagine doing lots of fun things together.
"Ideally we need to get time to do these hobbies." I say to her.
"We will, hopefully I'll get to show you some more of Lastation tonight." Noire replies smiling with pride.
I look forward to that idea, it is then for some reason that I notice something that could do with explaining.
"Great, I couldn't help but notice that when we got back in the lift there was no blood what so ever, but the bodies are still there how come out of curiosity?" I ask her.
"For some reason they disappear over time, unless of course you want the blood to be there for certain reasons, like evidence for various stuff." She replies to me.
"So it's disappeared because I don't want the blood to be there?" I ask her.
"Yeah, the bodies remain so we can preserve them, so they can be revived later and there's no blood so we don't need to clean up the place." She nods, I can sense she's happy with the way it works.
I remember playing some game where I shot a wall and I remember seeing bullet holes, but after sometime the bullet holes vanish.
I notice Noire getting out what looks like a tub of cream.
"Just to let you know I'm gonna put some cream on you, don't worry it's actually nanobots. Nanobots that are able to alter the appearance of your clothes, as well as repairing or cleaning them very quickly. They can even alter your hair as well.
They'll need some programming by me to do that but they're very good. You won't even feel them, I have them all over my body. In case you're wondering why I have to put it on, it's because I have to since they respond to me." Noire explains to me as she got some cream out of the tub.
A cream full of nanobots eh? It does remind me of sun cream that fades away, but still protects your skin from the sun.
"Very nice can they do anything else?" I ask her.
"Yeah they can even heal any wounds you have, although some will take longer than others. The thing is though as of now, they will only respond to me and my finger snap of doom. But since we'll be together I don't think it will matter." She explains with pride while smiling.
"Sure put some on." I point at my face being as that's the only part of my body not covered.
She puts the cream on my face. As odd as it is her hand feels very warm, soft and soothing despite the claws on her hand, then again it confirms what she said about friendly fire, and I have experienced this before.
"This cream is another thing we developed, and like the atom manipulator machine I asked the public what they think of the device. They approved, as it'll mean you can get changed in an instant, and you're able to change your appearance too. It'll also mean they'll be no need for medical cream or bandages, making it easier to heal yourself in combat.
Of course we have only managed to develop some for myself as well as Uni. Not to mention you need to wear a special outfit like I am wearing, that can be moulded into any shape or any colour or become any material, or even be one that looks like one material but feels like another.
We were working on finding a way of making the nanobots more affordable as well as the suits, as of now though only me and Uni have it.
The good news is that we have already found a way of making nanobots, that never break down and make no errors at all, but they still need to be programmed along with the suit. So I have yet to develop it so it becomes easier to be programmed, as well as insuring nothing can go wrong in case a mistake happens. Though there's never been such an incident I still require more tests." Noire explains as she checks there is enough cream on my face.
I felt her hand and I felt the cream which again felt comfortable and soothing. But I notice the cream for one second and then it disappears.
"Let me guess, you ensured no negative effects will happen when it's developed. This is because the people that make and sell clothes, as well as people that make and sell cream will have developed it, and they will do experiments with the nanobots. This ensures they can do many more different clothes, and heal different injuries as well as doing them faster.
Plus which the clothing manufacturers will be mass producing the suits, with the help of machinery." I speak casually.
"Yep, I always think of everything. There has never been a riot, or a crime committed or a single complaint what so ever. No one is poor, or suffering or homeless, or even hungry because of me. Everyone is incredibly well off in Lastation and they love me for it." She says with pride as she does her finger snap of doom twice.
"OK. I guess you have done something to my appearance, what have you done?" I ask her.
"I've merely made all of your clothes completely water proof so they'll always look dry. As for the spilt water? Don't worry about falling over it because it's all to do with the friendly fire being impossible, as I've ordered the water to be spilt so only the enemy can trip up over it but allies cannot." She explains to me.
"Nice." I reply.
Like I may have said, Noire definitely seems to be based on how I want her to be: attractive, smart, takes care of everything, takes care of everyone, always trying to flirt with me, friendly, hardworking and caring. Yeah I can see why everyone loves her as their goddess, and why she is considered to be the ideal goddess.
Uni then speaks to my angel Noire on the radio.
"Be advised they know the control room is at the 500th floor and they're heading there now." Uni announces.
"Thanks, OK get everyone assembled and send them to the 501st floor." Noire responds, as she finishes talking on her radio.
My goddess does the finger snap of doom twice.
"Dunno why but I like it when you do that. Have you had the buildings programmed to do stuff when you finger snap or something?" I ask her.
"Yeah something like that, the buildings are programmed to do certain things when I snap my fingers. Although I got to be thinking what I want and it's mainly electronics which include: the power being on and off and other electrical devices such as sprinklers and locks. In fact I just turned on the sprinklers in the stairs making them very slippery, and also locked the control room." Noire replies, explaining to me.
"I can also snap my fingers when I have planted explosives or shot an enemy with explosive rounds." She says further, as she gets on her radio again.
"Uni, what is the location of the Leanbox troops in Sunny?" Noire asks her.
"Between 22nd and 25th floor, they're falling all over the place due to the sprinklers." Uni informs us.
"Good, this will slow them down; let us know if they're close to the control room." Noire orders.
"OK, sure." Uni replies sounding happy.
Note: Readers please listen to Krazy Ivan Grunge Prayer
"OK let's go." Noire says as she gets up from the chair and so do I.
We surround the stairs with our backs to the wall, as if we're ready to breach a door.
I can hear the Leanbox troops constantly falling over, due to the stairs being very slippery. We wait patiently as they reach our line of sight.
Noire looks at the wall as do I, by automatic I now have magnetic vision on. I can see about a dozen Leanbox soldiers walking precariously due to the slippery floor, they are close to our line of sight; it takes a short while due to them having to walk slowly.
It's not long before there is a decent amount of them walking up the stairs and that's when we strike.
Oddly enough I feel as though time has slowed down, as if we are breaching a door in a video game. Upon killing them all, they fall down the stairs with quite a few limbs all over the place, as well as a few bones sticking out of them. Not to mention there's quite a bit of their blood splattered everywhere.
Due to the panic, a few of the soldiers lose their footing causing them to fall over, knocking a lot of the soldiers down together. This is down to there being loads of them on the stairs in the first place.
Once we killed all the soldiers on that flight of stairs, time then goes back to normal. I found that to be quite a surreal experience. It is then Noire gets on the radio.
"Attention all units in Sunny, attention all units in Sunny. I want some troops in the lifts and for them to ambush them at the 24th floor sector 5. Retreat when you got the ones at the 24th floor, but only attack those at the 24th floor. Don't get bogged down, hit and run!" Noire commands on the radio.
"So where are all the various sectors?" I ask her.
She then turns to face me smiling.
"This building is split into 9 sectors, every sector has 4 lifts and 4 flights of stairs, they're all numbered 1 to 9 with 5 being at the centre. And they're ordered the same way as like a phone when you call someone, we're in sector 5 right now." She explains to me.
We rush down the stairs as if they're not slippery. As we reach the 25th floor we notice them all lying in pain due to some of them being crushed, or their various limbs aching from hitting the floor, tripping over due to the wet floor.
"This is Lady Black Heart, Lastation's CPU. If you lot surrender I will promise to look after you, you will be treated well. Please you have lost a lot of your allies in this battle, I do not want to kill any more." She speaks with genuine passion as well as desperation.
Unfortunately they all said never. When my CPU has finished they reach for their weapons in an attempt to shoot us, but we just shoot them down.
After which I see what must be dozens of bodies all over the floor, with their blood oozing out. Once again they refuse to surrender, and once again we were forced to kill them. I just don't understand why they won't surrender? We have no interest in fighting them, and them dying doesn't seem to mean anything to me. I wonder whether that's why they do it, so that we have lots of blood on our hands. It's very sad and I guess this will continue throughout this conflict, unless we can at least capture some Leanbox soldiers alive, where they won't need to die so needlessly. It doesn't just bother me though, as Noire is looking more depressed as each situation like this occurs.
"I wouldn't have shot them if they offered to surrender, despite having no prisoners in Lastation; I would have taken care of them. In fact I would love for them to be taken away from this conflict, where the probability of them dying is certain." She says this to me again with sincerity, as she checks for survivors, but unfortunately there are none.
The fact that there's no survivors makes my goddess sigh with grief.
"24th floor sector 5 is clear, no casualties. We're retreating back to the 51st floor now." A soldier says to Noire on the radio.
"Copy that, well done." Noire replies smiling.
Uni then speaks to Noire on the radio.
"We have a bit of a problem; the Leanbox soldiers have now reached the inner perimeter control room in Nameco." She informs us with concern.
"In what sections?" Noire asks her.
"All sections, there's about a thousand in each section." The candidate answers in a sadder tone.
"It's OK Uni. I want you and a few soldiers to stay here, get everyone else in Nameco we can ambush them there." Noire orders.
With that knowledge we all go to Nameco via the lifts, after Noire does a couple of finger snaps of doom. With luck the Leanbox soldiers in Sunny will take a long time getting to the control room. I hope it's the case because then we can deal with the Nameco threat, before mopping up the last of those soldiers, before they can reach the control room. I guess even if a lot of enemy troops have died, I can at least be pleased in how as of yet no one from Lastation has died in this battle. But it does not make the carnage any easier at all.