Chapter 9:
"…Kugh…! Hey, Cap, can we get out of here? I can smell the blood in my tongue" a solider asked his Captain.
"Yo! What the fuck you doin with all this mess huh!?" another soldier asked.
"…A bit of sightseeing" I answered. Well, that is true.
I'm surrounded by 5 military men, 4 of them have their rifles pointed at me. While the other one, seems to be a Captain based on their interaction, only has a handgun pointed at me. Since I haven't moved from my spot, I'm still beside the mountain of corpses.
"A bit of sight se-! Cap, can I shoot him? I want to fix his head right now" hey hey, come on now. Has no one ever told you that such a medieval way of fixing mental illness never really worked?
"Let me in on this action. In more ways than one this guy looks real fucked up" another soldier steadies their aim at me.
"…Such slander, ever heard about innocent until proven guilty?"
"Innocent my ass, I bet you're the type of mad man that parades his kills like a Sunday night special" such baseless insult. I only know a few people that does that. And they all said that it isn't worth the time and money.
"So, mind explaining this piece of artwork?"
"I just happen to be passing by"
"You expect me to believe that? No ordinary passerby is going to inspect this dump"
"I'm no ordinary passerby then"
"Why your mo-!"
"Calm down. He'll be dead anyway, right Cap?"
"I'll let you guys have at him later. In the meantime, I do have a couple of questions though…" the Captain walks up to me. His locked onto me with great interest. As if stripping me off my clothes. I take his gaze straight on.
"So… Mister Passerby, what's your name?"
"Mike Mendoza" I lied.
"So Mr. Mendoza, we seem to be in the wrong side of the conversation here. Wanna explain to us why you're in this dump?" dump again. So, was I overthinking my conclusion earlier?
"I told you sightseeing. I just happened to be passing by is all"
"Hrmmm… Well, want to tell me who this person is?" the Captain pulls out small thin object from his chest pocket.
"Tell me, who do you think she is?" he turns it around, showing me a photo of som-!
The photo shows a person, at the park eating with somebody with brown hair that's out of frame. That person has short lilac hair with bangs that reach down to her collar bone and purple eyes. She wears white hairclips in the shape of D-pads and around her neck is a choker that has a light blue D-pad symbol on it. She wears a mostly white hoodie dress that has a light purple hood, strings that look like controller plugs, and two huge purple and white pockets with purple D-Pad symbols on them.
There's no mistaking it… that's my wife.
"Well?"
I overclock my brain.
Shit. It's obvious they want to get a reaction from me. If you randomly ask someone about someone that's popular, the most obvious answer you'll get is: 'Oh, it's actress A, yeah I heard of her'. But that's different when you're asking someone related to the person questioned. At the very least tell-tale signs, such us a bit of stuttering at the beginning of the answer, makes it really obvious that you know said person on a personal level.
So why are they asking? Are they looking for her? Or are they after something else. I'll have to probe them to get a better idea.
"Isn't she the CPU?" I answer neutrally.
"And? What else?" what else you say?
"Well, she looks cute. Guys like you with certain questionable fetishes might fawn all over our dear Goddess and buy all her merch"
"Hey, watch your mouth!"
"I said later, Martez!" the Cap shouts at Martez.
"Really? Nothing familiar about her? Family of sorts?" what is he on about? Is he assuming that someone is deranged enough to think of the leader of a country is his girlfriend or something? No. He's after something. For now, I'll probe him more.
"Nah. I'm not that of a fanboy. In fact, I'd say I consume my daily dose of our dear Goddess by a healthy amount"
"Oh? 'Our' eh…" his voice suddenly change, the shine in his eyes tells me everything that I need to know. It's like he found it. He found the lost City of Atlantis. Or found new tombs in the Great Pyramids.
"Cap... is he…?" seems Martez also understands.
"Just like in the description. Ok, you have permission to shoot Martez. Also, tell the General we found 'Mystery'." what? Description? What do you mean description? I'm being hunted down? By who? The mole men? The squirrel army? The IRS?
"Oh don't mind if I do!" I can hear Martez's rifle, an M4, steady itself at my head.
Shit! Do I get shot? It's a viable strategy. But without control of the situation, I'd most likely won't be able to do much. And wait a minute. Shoot me? Why do they want to shoot me if they're hunting for me?
Based on the earlier exchange, it seems that they're gunning down Planeptunians innocent or otherwise. Look at me, I don't have a weapon on me. The Kevlar armor I wore earlier isn't even on me now since I needed to be buoyant in the river earlier.
And also, why do they want me dead if they're hunting for me? Surely, they'd have to cuff me. But shooting me? Does someone want my head or something? I'm on a bingo book of sorts? Or maybe…?
As I think, I see Martez's finger squeezing his rifle's trigger.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
I quickly duck and turn towards him, before any of those bullets hit my head. I take a quick scan of my area. Right in front of me, is Martez, his M4 way off mark. There's 1 by the pile of corpses, another by the edge of the riverbank road. The Captain and the last one is behind me.
I put power into my legs and push forward.
"Wha-!?"
"Martez!" one of them shouts.
"-! Kh!"
Martez came back to his senses. But he was a moment too late, I'm already dangerously close to him. He tries to run away; his rifle is useless in close range. I grab his vest, pull him in, and then palm strike his chest.
"KA-!"
The force pierces his armor, his face showing excruciating pain, I can feel his ribs breaking down as I push my hand. Because of the force of the strike, his feet is off the ground and being pushed away. I think fast and take the Glock 19 pistol from his front holster.
"MARTEZ!" the one that's besides the dump of corpses readies his weapon.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
I instantly overclock my brain and see the bullets flying towards me.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
The rest of them fired off their weapons. I quickly take a look at the Martez's body, he ain't dead but his knocked out. He's a bit too far away to use as cover. I roll forward ducking under their lead. As I roll, I point the Glock towards the soldier that just shouted Martez and pull the trigger when my gun aims in between his eyes.
*BANG!*
Without looking if the shot landed, I recovered from the roll, point the gun towards the road that has a different elevation and shoot the knees of the soldier by the road.
*BANG!* *BANG!*
He crumbles underneath the weight of his upper body.
"SAM! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"HEY! HEY! HEY!"
The Cap's right hand man's emotions took him over, he charges at me as he takes out his knife. Feeling sorry for this guy, I barely did anything and shoot his abdomen. Specifically, I shot his liver. He falls where I stand, holding his gut while keeping himself awake. I then point the gun over at the Captain.
"Goddammit! Okay biuddy! Calm down we can talk this over!"
"What do you mean talk it over? I'm tired, I need to sleep, I'm frustrated, and annoyed. If anything, I'd literally kill anything to get some sort of break"
"Okay fine! Whatever! We'll let you go…"
"Yeah. I don't think I'll do that"
*BANG!*
"Kh…!"
I shoot his thigh. Pain instantly rushes over to him like a wave as he collapses to the ground. He holds his thigh for dear life as I walk over to him…
"Goddammit…! -!" and point the barrel of the gun on his head.
"Now it's time for me to ask questions, who the hell is looking for me?"
"A-and why should we-!"
"Am I talking to you?"
*BANG!*
The Cap's right-hand man speaks up, and in my annoyed state of mind, I shoot his leg to shut him up.
"AAAARGH…! AH FUCK!"
"Geo-! Okay, okay. What do you want to know?"
"Who's looking for me? Answer clearly because I am really pissed off right now"
"It's orders from the brass we were just given a description on who to look for"
"And that description would be? C'mon, c'mon do you really need me to ask you one-by-one here?"
"We were told that if we randomly ask a Planeptunian about Purple Heart they'd answer as if they're the current Goddess"
"What do you mean…?" so is Neptune not the current Goddess?
"Purple Heart isn't the current Goddess anymore" the moment he said that an image flashed before my mind.
"…!" I instantly grab his knife that's strapped onto his right thigh. Crouch down close enough to almost kiss him, while I point the knife right on his chest, and the gun on his head. My blood boils. My heart pumping at speeds that will give anyone a heart attack.
"Tell me everything you know! What the hell happened to my wife!?"
"Your-!" I put pressure on the knife. It instantly pierces through his armor and skin, inching closer to his beating heart.
"Don't have fucking time for your stuttering mess! Tell me everything now!"
"Th… They were killed! By the previous Goddess!" Killed!? What the fuck!? What the hell happened here!?
"Who is it!? Who fucking killed her!?"
"It was…!"
*SQSSSSSSSH!*
"This is the true power of the sword. Impressed?"
"Oh? Come on now. Instead of crying, why not take this opportunity and learn?"
The world underneath is on fire. A representation of hell brought to form. The usual chatter, the usual bright city, the usual merry voices, the usual laughter, the usual cheer. Now replaced with laughter from monsters that seemingly mocks the peace.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
*GUHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!*
*HEHEHEHEHEHE!*-*HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*-*HWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!*
"He…-!"
*SQSSSSSSH!*
*GUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*
*BAM!* *BOOM!*
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
Explosions all around, fires burning, screams of fear. Red, and orange bathe together like a pair in a ball. Monsters eating, squashing, drinking, ripping, gnawing, vomiting, chewing, swallowing. Citizens running. Drowned by the laughter of the monsters.
The City Guard tries to fight off the monsters of red and black. While not outnumbered and not outgunned, the monsters were nimble as a fox. Eating the forces away as if they were food given by the high heavens. Their maniacal laughter indicates how happy they are.
Citizens try to fight them off, locking themselves into buildings. But they are no mere monster. They easily brake through every barricade, resistance, gunfire, explosion, anything the populace throws at them. No matter how much they resist, their fate is set inside the monster's stomach.
"Oh my, oh my. This is worse than Planeptune. Look at all the blood that a single human body can hold, it can literally paint the next obra maestra. Oh look, someone's spine is about to get ripped off. Amazing. Simply amazing"
"What? No appreciaton? That's no good. Dare to enjoy through death, I say"
"Still, I'm not a fan of Mina asking me to do this. But then again, it is all the more worth it to signal my Brother that I am here. Hehe…"
"Why you ask? Oh, you know why…"
"This is the result, of your everlasting peace"
A/N: FF keeps resetting the fic's cover. Not like much red eh?