The next morning they drove into a train-yard, huge warehouses and piles of shipping containers surrounded them, Multiple train-tracks ran through the desolate area along with the remains of articulated trucks and train carriages.
"So the train is coming along here?" Yuu asked as Momiji guided them to the correct track.
"Yeah, it should be along in a few hours." Momiji told her nervously.
"So you rip up the rails first then we assault the train?" Mato asked.
"That's the plan." Yuu confirmed swapping bodies with Strength and using her massive hands to tear the rails out of the ground. After clearing just a few metres of track, Mato's arm exploded in a shower of blue blood, a second later they heard the gunshot in the distance. The wounded Otherself looked down at her severed limb with annoyance as Strength picked up her and Momiji and bundled them into a nearby building.
"What happened?" Momiji asked fearfully.
"Sniper." Mato replied. "Someone does not want us on that train."
"Or someone confused you with Black Rock Shooter." Strength suggested before sighing. "This is gonna get confusing if we stick around her, how about we call her Empress? It seems to be her name as well."
"Why would someone think I am her?" Mato asked.
"Because you're identical, aside from your hair length and clothing. I wouldn't be able to tell you apart from just looking at you and I've known you for most of your life!" Strength pointed out.
Mato pointed to the large fiery crown around her head. "She does not have this."
"What's up with that anyway?" Strength asked frustratedly. "You've never explained why your eye burns in the first place, let alone how it somehow creates a ring. No Otherself I have ever encountered has parts of their body on fire!"
Mato shrugged, her arm still gushing blood. "I do not know, maybe it is just my excess energy."
"Mato I love you, but now you and Black Rock Shooter are the same person, it's confusing as fuck to know who you are talking about." Strength groaned.
"S-shouldn't we d-do something about that?" Momiji said quietly as she pointed to Mato's arm.
Strength waved her off.
"It'll be fine." She said dismissively. "Otherselves can heal rapidly, and this one just needs to find her arm and reattach it."
Mato nodded and cautiously left the building they were taking shelter in.
"About the train…" Momiji started to say.
Strength looked at her and smiled.
"Don't worry, we're still gonna help you." She reassured her.
"Found it." Mato said, walking back in holding her trophy aloft.
"That's great, can you still use it?" Strength asked.
Mato nodded and placed the severed arm back onto her stump, minutes passed as the skin rapidly healed before her eyes.
"Your healing has gotten even faster." Strength commented.
"Now what do we do?" Momiji asked, not taking her eyes off the pale teen's arm.
"Now we wait." Mato said.
After two and a half hours, the three felt the ground rumbling which was quickly followed by the sounds of engines. Mato and Strength both peeked out of the door and spotted the train racing towards them, alongside a small army of buggies, trucks and flying robots.
"That's a shit-ton of security for a handful of girls." Strength said. They watched as the train slammed on its brakes as it approached the missing section of track, a handful of small grey spider-like drones flew out of the train and hovered over the broken rails. A white beam of energy shot out of them and the two Otherselves could see the steel rails slowly growing out of nothingness.
"Shit!" Strength hissed. "They're repairing the track!"
"Can you take care of the engine?" Mato asked.
"I'll try, but I'm guessing those drones would be able to repair it and who knows how many of them the train has." Strength replied.
"I will take care of the escort, take out the engine then get the girls out." Mato said.
Strength grinned.
"Looking to give your new body a test drive?" She said.
"Something like that." Mato said, drawing the BRSBLADE from her back and summoning her pistol. The flames around her head and at her calves flared up as horizontal buzz-saws at the soles of her boots, created from her own life energy, sparked up and glowed an intense blue causing Mato to hover several centimetres off the ground by the extreme air pressure generated.
"Show-off." Strength muttered with a smile. "Alright, get out of here. Some of us have work to do."
Mato nodded blankly, using the intense air pressure generated by the blades spinning at her feet as momentum, she rapidly slid away as if she was on ice.
Think she'll be okay? Yuu asked from inside Strength.
Are you kidding? Did you see her? She's gonna decimate any idiot who crosses her. Strength answered. I'm more concerned about what to do about the train engine.
Knock it over. Yuu said.
What?
Tip it over, train can't move if there's nothing to pull it. Yuu explained.
Fucking thing must weigh at least a hundred and fifty tonnes. Strength replied, breaking out into a run as she noticed the repair drone had almost finished with the track. She charged straight at the side of the huge locomotive as fast as she could and hammered both fists into it, creating a massive dent in the side. She leapt away as robots and soldiers from the Educational Institution opened fire at her. The Otherself grabbed one of the buggies and threw it at the train where it exploded, blowing a hole in the side.
Mato sped towards the train's escort of trucks, the saw blades propelling her along faster than she could ever run. She skated through dozens of robots, slashing them with the super heated edge of her large two-handed sword. As she passed close to one of the trucks she held out her blade and allowed the dazzling white edge to melt through the wheels, the tyres popped almost immediately, pelting Mato and the surrounding soldiers thick pieces of rubber. She span on the spot, crouching down and firing her pistol at any soldiers still standing before skating off at high speed.
Strength tore out a large component of the train engine and threw it at some flying robot drones who had gotten too close for her liking, confident that the train wasn't going anywhere for a while she climbed up onto the roof of the huge machine and ran along its length, firing her fingertip machine guns wildly at the escort troops on the ground below her. The Otherself spotted Mato to her right as the pale teen effortlessly ripped through the remaining forces, ignoring the heavy gunshot wounds being inflicted on her.
Shit, she might be even tougher than Insane Black Rock Shooter. Yuu said.
Strength could only agree as she reached the last carriage, the one Momiji said contained the other girls.
Fuck, I'm not gonna fit in that gap! The Otherself thought to herself.
"Mato!" She shouted, looking around for her friend.
The pale teen skidded to a stop beside the carriage and looked up at her blankly.
"Cut the coupling!" Strength shouted, pointing down at the thick metal latch below her. Mato didn't respond, instead speeding her way towards it and thrusting her glowing edged sword into the dense steel. After a few seconds of jiggling the super-heated, translucent black blade, the last carriage was detached and the fiery teen raced off.
Strength dropped to the ground and after opening her extra arms she slowly pushed the carriage away from the rest of the train, her extra arms slipped and crushed the rock beneath her as step by step she slowly gained speed. After many minutes she judged she was far enough away from the battle behind her and ripped open the entire side of the carriage revealing an empty area separated down the middle by a row of bars place vertically, on one side sat a huddle of four girls wearing the same gas masks and clothes as Momiji and on the other was two oversized baby dolls. Strength hopped up and approached the girls slowly, holding her massive hands out to the sides.
"I'm not going to hurt you, I'm here to get you out." She said gently. As she did so, childish laugher, heavily distorted and mechanical came out of the two dolls behind her. It took Strength a second or two to realise that the laugher was getting faster and higher pitched.
"Fu…" Strength started to say as she leapt to cover the girls with her arms while the entire carriage exploded, sending the Otherself into the scared girls. Seconds later, after the fireball had ended, the white-haired teen opened her eyes and looked straight into burnt and bloodied brown hair. The stench of burnt flesh and hair choked her and stung her eyes. She carefully tried to stand up only to find out she had been pinned to the ground by something painful through her abdomen. As she opened her giant right hand she felt something wet and sticky inside it, she hesitantly looked at it and saw blood, red blood and unidentifiable gobbets of meat and scorched white rags.
"Oh fuck, no, no no no!" Strength cried, reaching behind her and ripping a steel pole from her back, causing the girl she was laying on to move slightly. Standing up, she found two more girls below her left hand, seemingly unharmed but unmoving. Looking down, the girl she had been on top of had a large wound in her pelvis and a large pool of blood surrounded her. Quickly looking back at the carnage behind her, she swapped places with Yuu who ran over to the unharmed girls and felt for a pulse at their necks. She let out a breath of relief when she found one and then started running her fingers through their heads, checking for any injuries.
What's the point of all this security if they were willing to blow them up? Strength spat, burning with rage.
"Maybe, they didn't want anyone else to have them?" Yuu answered with a shaky voice.
That's insane! Strength argued.
"The Colonel did call them a cult." Yuu pointed out tearfully. She sat back and let out a small sob. "It's happening again isn't it?" She said. "The killing, the war. Everywhere we go, this is all we find."
That's not true, the reality with the small, multicoloured ponies didn't have a war going on. Strength said calmingly.
"One reality out of so many, and it was peaceful until we arrived." Yuu said sadly. The sounds of battle stopped suddenly and shortly after Mato skated over to her. The Otherself looked over at the two unconscious girls, the dead girl and the collection of blood and gore. She turned to Yuu confused until she saw that her dress and legs were coated with a thick layer of red blood and gently placed a metal hand on her friend's shoulder.
"It was an accident!" Yuu sobbed, letting her emotions out. "We tried to protect them! I swear!"
Mato moved her hands quickly.
Yuu looked at her blankly for a few seconds before Strength translated.
She said they would all be dead if it wasn't for you.
"I'm sorry, I'm not thinking straight." Yuu cried. "I've seen dead bodies before, fuck, I've seen killing and death so much I hardly care any more. I don't know why this got to me."
The saws at Mato's feet stopped, dropping her to the ground, and her flames became smaller.
"It is because they were innocent, we only got involved with combatants, soldiers or constructs." Mato said, using her voice, cracking slightly. "The deaths of innocents always hits harder, especially when they are so young."
"When did you get so wise?" Yuu asked, slightly taken aback from hearing Mato speak aloud.
"About the time I gained Insane Black Rock Shooter's memories, I did have several thousand years to work through them. You will get though this, just like you helped me so many times in the past. I am here for you." Mato said.
A small smile crept onto Yuu's face.
"So you did learn something then?" She said.
"I would not go so far, but you would make a good counsellor." Mato replied, speaking telepathically again.
She looked around at the devastation.
"We should get these three out of here, there are plenty of vehicles they can use." Mato added as she reached down and held out her hand.
After Mato had used the extreme heat from her sword to burn off the white paint from one of the buggies, they loaded up the two unconscious girls and watched as Momiji drove off.
"I hope they make it safely, wherever they end up." Yuu said swapping bodies with Strength.
Mato nodded, then patted her friend on the arm.
"We should go, we need to catch up with the others. They might have a better idea where to find the Educational Institution." She said.
"You wanna go after them?" Yuu asked, surprised, as they walked to their own vehicle. "I'm not complaining, I wanna rip their fucking throats out, but I thought you would be wanting to join back up with Empress and help them out."
"They are killing innocent people, somebody has to stop them." Mato stated. "Then we can help the others."
Let's get going then." Yuu nodded.
Hours later, as the sun had started to set, Mato and Yuu walked into a campsite filled with dozens of identical tents, they wandered through the neatly laid out rows looking for the commander. Eventually they found a soldier on guard duty who pointed them in the correct location.
"So let me get this straight." Yuu said after getting a brief histort lesson. "Thirty years ago the humans of this world built an artificial intelligence which then turned on humanity and has been trying to exterminate everyone ever since? And nobody expected this? Nobody put fail-safes in its programming or the actual thing itself?"
"It would appear so." The Colonel said.
"This is what happens when no one reads fiction properly." Yuu groaned.
"Regardless." The Colonel said, continuing his explanation. "The A.I., Artemis, is building an orbital elevator to the moon, we only have a month until it is completed…"
"Bullshit!" Yuu interrupted. "The moon isn't in a geosynchronous orbit, it would only last two or three days before it breaks."
"And whatever is on the moon will have that time to come down to Earth." The Colonel said.
"That's extremely inefficient." Yuu thought aloud. "There's enough raw material on the moon that it could just be launched into space, especially considering the lack of atmosphere and the lower gravity." She paused before realising. "This Artemis thingy. isn't bringing anything down, it's sending stuff up."
"But what? What could they need?" The Colonel asked, surprised he didn't realise this sooner.
"That, I couldn't guess at. We've only been in this world for two days." Yuu shrugged. "Besides, that isn't the reason we came back, we want to take out the Educational Institution. We need your help in locating where they're based."
"There are more important…" The grey-haired man started to say.
Yuu slammed her fists on the table, heavily denting it, her eyes held a dangerous glint.
"They blew up those girls!" Yuu shouted. "They had a small army defending the train and when they lost, they blew them up." She slumped back in her chair. "I only managed to save two of them." She added sadly.
Mato, who had stayed silent up until now, stepped forwards.
"We do not need your permission, Colonel, we need the location of the base." She stated.
"We don't know where it is." The Colonel admitted after a moments deliberation. "All we know it it's mobile."
"Mobile? What the fuck does that mean?" Yuu demanded.
"We've spotted it on occasion, it's some sort of land based aircraft carrier." The Colonel explained.
"What the fuck?" Yuu said again. "So where does that leave us?"
"We should go with them, more than likely, we will encounter the Institution again. We may be able to get the information from one of their troops." Mato suggested.
Yuu looked up at the roof of the tent and sighed.
"I guess that's the best plan." She rubbed her face with both hands. "Fuck I'm shattered, is there anywhere I could crash for the night?" She asked the Colonel.
"Wait a minute, I didn't give permission…" The Colonel said.
"I haven't slept in two days, today was just fucking horrible and I've just about had it with this world already. Where's a fucking bed?" Yuu growled.
"You can bunk with Monica and Empress." The Colonel said, slightly taken aback. "I'll get someone to show you."
"Thank you." Yuu said, sliding her chair away from the long table, she gave Mato a tired smile before walking out.
"Something else I can help you with?" The Colonel asked impatiently, running a hand through his short messy grey hair.
"You have great hatred for the Institution, why have you not pursued them yourself?" Mato asked.
"There are bigger things at stake here." The older man said gruffly,
"You would put aside your personal feelings for your mission? Your emotions imply a deep personal vendetta against them." Mato stated.
"What the fuck do you know about my feelings?" The Peacekeeping Corps commander snapped.
"I am an Otherself, we can feel the emotions of others to help lessen the burden to our human companions." Mato said, matter-of-factly. "So I do know a great deal about your feelings."
"I'm not about to explain myself to you." The Colonel said finally. "If you don't have any other business with me, get out!"
Mato nodded, understanding she had crossed a line and departed. Outside in the cool night air, she wandered aimlessly through the neat rows of tents until she came across Black Rock Shooter's trike. She walked up to the machine and placed a hand next to a line of lights that displayed the colours of the rainbow.
"Are you awake?" Mato asked.
After a few moments when she didn't get a response, she started to walk away, only for the trike to yell after her.
"Hi, hi! Did you want to talk?" The trike said happily.
"Why did you not answer me?" Mato asked.
A long moment passed before the trike replied.
"Hey now, it's rude to stare. What's wrong?" The black machine asked.
"Can, you not hear me?" The Otherself asked.
When she didn't get a response she tried again, clearing her throat.
"Can you hear me now, Black Trike?" She asked.
"Yeah!" The trike said cheerfully.
"I was wondering if you could answer some more questions about Empress." Mato requested.
"Oh sure! I'll certainly try my best!" The trike replied.
"If Empress is not an Otherself, how is she able to summon the Rock Cannon?" The pale teen asked.
"Oh! Do you mean her Coil Gun?" The trike said.
Mato nodded.
"Okay! Well it isn't summoned, it's created using hyper compressed material stored within her body." Black Trike answered.
"And she can create one whenever she wants?" Mato asked.
"As long as she has enough material available!" The machine chirped.
"Are there any others like her?" The Otherself wondered.
"Hemiteos Units? I only know of Strength and Dead Master, but there might be others." Black Trike said.
Mato suddenly felt very heavy, as if the Earth's gravity had been doubled, or her bones had been replaced with lead.
"Dead... Master." Mato said haltingly, her lungs apparently having difficulty working by themselves. "She is here, in this world?"
"As far as I know." The trike answered.
"It has been many years since I have seen Dead Master. I think, I would like to see her again." Mato said nervously as her eye flared brightly before dimming again. She sighed and sat, cross-legged, on the ground next to the trike and leant against it, looking up into the cloudy night sky.
"I miss the stars." She said to herself.
Shortly after sunrise, the entire camp packed up and headed out in multiple Humvees in a similar desert colour to the one which the Colonel was in. Yuu had claimed the small platform at the rear of the Colonel's car as her own and was busy mumbling to herself. Mato had requested to ride with Black Rock Shooter again, the Hemiteos Unit had agreed despite Mato sensing her unease about being close to her exact copy. The large convoy rocketed through the dusty grey wasteland, a flat empty desert of rock occasionally broken up by the odd bit of debris or boulder, over to the far distant right of them stood a mountain range, faded in colour from the many kilometres between them and the convoy.
"Colonel! We're picking up a vehicle rapidly approaching from behind us!" Mato's radio earpiece said, crackling into life.
One of the soldiers had given both her and Yuu a radio to keep in contact with.
"Is it the Unmanned troops?" Mato heard the Colonel reply.
"Unmanned troops?" Mato asked Empress.
"The robots the A.I. Artemis uses." Empress replied.
"No, it's a person on a motorcycle, they're moving at extreme speed towards us!" The male replied.
"Profile recognised!" Black Trike said excitedly. "It's Dead Master!"
"Shit!" Mato heard the Colonel exclaim.
"What the fuck? We were just talking about her last night!" Mato said.
A large black bike, longer than the Colonel's Humvee launched into the air from a nearby ridge and landed in the middle of the convoy next to Mato and Black Rock Shooter. Mato stared at Dead Master in shock, she had her signature horns but instead of being skeletal and green, they were black, blocky and mechanical. Long, bright green hair framed her pale delicate face, she wore a skin-tight grey bodysuit with a short black jacket over the top and red high heeled shoes, almost like ballet heels. The Otherself turned and looked at Yuu briefly and saw her friend staring at the newcomer slack-jawed.
"Wow." Was the only thing Mato could say. She heard a conversation being held over the radio but her focus was purely on Dead Master.
"Empress!" Dead Master yelled happily.
"You are… Dead Master." Empress responded.
The green-haired teen looked at Mato.
"And who are you? I saw you before." Dead Master asked Mato. A few seconds passed before Mato spoke, she looked at this version of her old friend and at the machine she rode on, noticing the extremely long gun barrel.
"You were the one who shot me." Mato said coldly.
"Yes, I thought you were my Empress. But I realise you are not." Dead Master replied. "I don't harbour any ill intent." The new Hemiteos Unit said, looking at Empress. "Because I love you!"
"Love?" Empress responded. "Is this that 'sex' thing?"
"...What?" Both Mato and Dead Master said at the same time after a few seconds of silence.
"I was taught about sex last night, by them, over there." Empress said, pointing at both Monica in the Colonel's Humvee and Yuu, standing on the back.
Mato shot Yuu a confused glance.
We talked and explained what it was! Yuu quickly signed.
"Those whorish sluts…" Dead Master muttered to herself, angrily glaring at Monica and Yuu. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"We can talk about this later." She said, forcing herself to be calm.
"Anyways, Empress." She continued. "We're both suffering from memory loss, right?"
Empress nodded, while Mato just continued to stare in amazement. Although the hair and horns were different, this worlds Dead Master looked exactly like Yomi, albeit without the glasses.
Yomi. Mato thought. I miss you so much, I hope you survived somewhere, somehow. She was torn from her thoughts as Dead Master suddenly stood up on her bike while it was still moving. A few tears ran down her cheeks as she closed her eyes sadly.
"So that's why…" She said, before opening them and gave Empress a crazed look. "I'll kill you anyways and put you out of your misery!"
"What the fuck?" Mato said in shock, surprised by the sudden change of emotion from the woman.
"Then I'll die with you! Your corpse will provide a lot of comfort before I depart from this life!" Dead Master said, speaking with an intensity that surprised both Black Rock Shooters. The green-haired girl licked a razor sharp, thin mechanical finger then ran her hand down her body until it reached her crotch. Her knees trembled as she remained standing on her vast black bike. While Empress looked at Dead Master impassively, Mato couldn't help but blush furiously, never taking her eyes off of her old friend's copy.
What the fuck is wrong with me? Mato thought.
"In order to cleanse me of my suffering, you plan to destroy me?" Empress asked.
"Exactly!" Dead Master said happily.
"You came all the way here just to say that?" Empress asked, slightly confused.
"I didn't have chance to say it before." Dead Master answered, looking at Mato whose face went a pale blue. "I mistook her for you. I attacked too suddenly and didn't have time to explain anyway."
"That is okay." Mato found herself saying.
"Since you now know the situation, you'll hand your body to me, won't you?" Dead Master asked Empress.
"Dying like that is wrong." Empress said after a long moment.
"What's wrong? Don't you want to grant my wish?" Dead Master asked quietly.
"It's not so much that I don't want to grant it." Empress said diplomatically. "It's just that it's wrong, I think I'd rather die on my own terms."
Dead Master sighed sadly. "So you choose violence." She said, coldly.
"Wait!" Empress said as Dead Master sat back down on her bike, holding down the brakes and rapidly falling back behind the convoy.
"What the fuck was that?" Yuu yelled into her radio. "What the fuck just happened?"
Mato turned her head and shook it in confusion, her face still a light blue.
"Oh no, Mato, don't. It's not Yomi, you know that right?" Yuu reminded her.
The Otherself looked behind her and saw the bike veer off to the left and ride up a nearby cliff where it stopped. She barely had time to form a coherent thought when the sound of a jet engine whooshed overhead. A small object flew above her and launched a barrage of missiles at Dead Master, hiding her from view as explosions rocked the mountainside.
"Jet type drone spotted!" Crackled Mato's radio. "It's attacking Dead Master! Open fire!"
The many vehicles in the convoy turned their turrets towards the attacking jet and started shooting, Yuu swapped places with Strength, transforming her hands into oversized Vulcan cannons and added her firepower to everyone else's. More explosions shook the mountain before more missiles, aimed at the convoy, ripped into the ground, decimating their numbers.
"This is fucked!" Strength yelled, as the Humvee violently swerved. "How the hell is this thing firing so accurately at that speed?"
An explosion threw Black Trike into the air, throwing off Empress and Mato, they hit the ground hard, momentum flaying off large portions of skin and muscle for both of them. Another missile hit the ground in front of the Colonel's Humvee, doing the same to Strength who spat insults in mid-air at the offending jet. The teen looked around as she stood back up, her vision slightly blurry, and raced over to the car, seeing the Colonel crawling out of it. The older man pointed his rifle at a young girl wearing barely anything, just a long white tabard over a very skimpy bikini, armoured gloves covered her hands and arms and her feet looked like they had been replaced by a pair of jointed metal spikes.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Strength shouted as she saw the leader hesitantly lower his weapon.
"It's- It's Charlotte!" the Colonel stammered. "H-how?"
The Otherself looked over at the blonde girl, her bangs covering her right eye as she walked towards Empress who was lying motionless on the floor.
"Fuck!" Strength spat. "Who's Charlotte?"
"M-my daughter, I thought she was dead." The grey-haired man said in disbelief.
"Well she can't be that dead." Strength growled.
"Wait!" The Colonel said, grabbing her shoulder. "Don't hurt her!"
Strength looked at Charlotte who was stamping on Empress's head then back at the Colonel. "She's just wiped us out and is about to kill Black Rock Shooter!"
Suddenly an angry roar made everyone pause.
"Empress is mine and mine alone!"
Strength spotted Dead Master standing a little apart from them, holding two large curved blades.
"Get your filthy feet off her!" Dead Master screamed, throwing the blades at Charlotte. The girl raised a large shield she was holding towards Dead Master, a hail of bullets spat out from the bottom and tore through the blades and the green-haired girl's leg and arm, then in a blur of motion, Charlotte was in Dead Master's face and kicked her to the ground. Strength was about to intervene when a black and white object blurred past her and rammed into Charlotte, knocking her over and stood between her and Dead master.
"I will not allow. You to hurt. My friends!" Mato growled, drawing her sword from her back, her speech becoming halted. Charlotte raised her shield again as Mato stalked towards her and fired. Bullets ripped through Mato's body, bright blue blood sprayed out of the wounds as the Otherself continued to march forwards, barely even registering her injuries.
"Mato!" Strength screamed. "That's not Yomi!"
"Do. Not. Care." Mato replied, swinging her sword into Charlotte's shield, the translucent blade easily melting through the large weapon. She thrust her clawed hand out and grabbed the girl's face, the razor sharp metal cutting deep through the girl's reinforced skin. Charlotte whimpered in pain as the pressure on her skull increased.
"Mato! Don't!" Strength shouted, holding the Colonel back with a giant hand.
Mato didn't respond as she continued to try and crush the girl's skull.
Dozens of memories flooded Yuu's mind inside Strength, one stood out to her in particular, the words of a young Auror in London, lifetimes ago it seemed.
"Black Rock Shooter Beast!" Strength screamed.
Mato shot Strength an evil glare, the flames from her eye and calves flared, causing her tiny skirt to flutter in the superheated air.
"Put her down! She's the Colonel's daughter!" Strength bellowed, pointing her fingers at the enraged Otherself.
"Jet." Mato simply said, as she threw down the blonde to the ground. Strength nodded, hurling herself at the wide aircraft the girl used to fly over and attack them, she landed heavily on it and proceeded to hammer her giant fists into the lightweight material, ripping it in two and flinging the parts hundreds of metres away from each other. Black Rock Shooter Beast stood over the girl, one hand wrapped around her neck and the other at her belly, pressing into the hard skin.
"Master Smiley will kill you!" Charlotte gasped.
"Where?" Beast demanded. "Where. Is. Leader? Where. Is. Base?"
"I'll, never…" Charlotte choked.
"Where?!" Black Rock Shooter Beast bellowed, her flames becoming white hot. Strength sped over to the Colonel who had his rifle aimed squarely at Mato.
"Don't, you'll only piss her off." The tanned Otherself warned, forcefully lowering his weapon. "She's angry, the rescue mission didn't go as planned and, I think, there are some unresolved issues with Dead Master."
"She knows Dead Master?" The Colonel asked.
"She knows our Dead Master who isn't the same as yours, Mato's very emotional at the moment, she's confusing the two, I'll explain later. But for your sake, don't intervene, you won't stand a chance against her." Strength said as she cautiously walked towards Black Rock Shooter Beast.
"Mato, please, calm." The Otherself said slowly, opening her giant hands. "Dead Master is safe, Charlotte is defeated, you are not at risk. We have a chance to make everything right." Black Rock Shooter Beast snarled in her direction, before turning her attention back to Charlotte. Strength spotted Empress out of the corner of her eye raising her Coil Gun towards Mato.
"Stop! Put it away!" Strength bellowed too late. The Coil Gun fired, a white-blue beam of light spat out and carved a neat hole through Mato's upper torso, evaporating her right shoulder and part of her ribcage. Mato staggered back, her severed arm still attached to Charlotte's neck. She looked down at where her shoulder used to be, pressurised blue blood drenching her face and body.
"Fuck!" Strength cried, launching herself at Empress. Knocking her down as the BRSBlade flew harmlessly overhead. She felt a skeletal, clawed hand rip through her hood and tear a huge chunk of hair and skin from her skull. Black and white blood poured from Strength's face on to Empress's as the Otherself looked down at her.
"Go help Dead Master, I'll deal with Mato." She said. Empress nodded and crawled out from beneath the massive hands. Strength tried to get up when something hot, heavy and spinning ripped through her leg, she felt sharp claws cut through the flesh at her back, trying to get to where her spine met her metal tail.
"Get the fuck off me!" Strength bellowed, viciously swiping behind her with a mammoth fist. Blood ran down her dress and legs as she stood up, Yuu screamed and cried in her head, disorientating her as Mato attacked again. The slim, pale teen's hand gripped the side of Strength's head, her evilly clawed thumb thrust straight into her eye as Strength let out a scream, echoing Yuu's. Sharp iron spikes from Mato's knee tore open Strength's stomach before the Otherself had time to think or react.
"Mato stop this." Strength coughed, spitting up black and white blood. She weakly pushed Mato away, the pigtailed teen landed gracefully on her buzzsaw blades several metres away and stared at her.
"Slow. Your mind." Strength wheezed. "You're emotional, stop and think, this isn't you."
Mato paused, and tilted her head.
"Atta, girl." Strength groaned, spitting blood again. She weakly nodded in the direction of Empress and Dead Master who were currently hugging. "Look." Mato turned to look at the pair, her flames died down and the saws at her feet dissipated. A small smile crept on to her face which stayed on her face as she looked back to Strength.
"You did that." Strength coughed. "You kept Dead Master safe so they could have this moment."
"What. Have. I. Done?" Mato asked, looking down at her sole remaining hand.
"I think you've discovered why Otherselves stay emotionless, Mato. We not supposed to have human emotions remember?" Strength said, looking over at the Colonel scooping up Charlotte in his arms. "Although we've managed to reunite him with his daughter, so it wasn't a complete disaster."
"I am. Sorry." Mato said slowly regaining her speech.
"It's fine, I'm like you, these injuries are nothing." Strength shrugged painfully. "You're my oldest and best friend, Black Rock Shooter, if I don't look after you then who will?"
Mato smiled sadly.
"I am always causing problems for you." She said.
"Yep." Strength said brightly. "You're a massive pain in my ass, but I love you, ya dipshit, I'll always be there for you." She grabbed her friend in a fist and brought her in for a huge, crushing hug.
"You good, for now?" Strength asked.
Mato painfully nodded as she felt her ribs breaking.
"Alright, let's go check on everyone." Yuu smiled, putting Mato down and guiding her towards the Colonel and the Hemiteos Units.
This might be a problem. Yuu said.
I know, I couldn't keep up with her. She made me seem as slow as a human.Strength stated.
Is this her awakened form? Black Rock Shooter Beast? Yuu wondered.
I don't know, how could Saya know about this? Strength said. What I do know is that we are the only one's who have ever fought Insane Black Rock Shooter to a standstill, but just now? Against this new form? I didn't even know what was going on.
If this happens again, we're fucked. Yuu stated.
Strength could only agree.