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I rolled up on Seventh Heaven with a backfire or two from my bike. It was starting to become familiar to me. I walked inside to see Avalanche around and getting ready for the operation.
I handed Bisque his new weapon and harness and he grimaced. He took his current one off and put on the new one. "Any advice on how to use it?"
"No. It's a gun. I don't like guns. What's hard about point and click?"
"More than you think," he returned. Fair enough. A lot went into a sword fight, too.
"So… what's the plan, Cloud?" Wenge asked.
I pulled my explosives from behind me and juggled them a little.
"Should you be handling explosives like that?" Wenge asked again.
"Probably not. But I'm not a little bitch. I'd survive. The plan is to set the deck on fire and teleport onboard with Neo. We let them evacuate, we kill robots, we put a hole in the hull. Pretty simple."
"No killing," Bisque said.
"No killing," I agreed. "We'll make that shit look easy, too."
"Let's just hope Taurus agrees," Jasper muttered. "He was insisting on being involved when he was last here."
"Good. We could use another killer on deck," I said.
"No killing?" Wenge asked. His voice came out a whinge.
"No killing, but," I drew out the noise, "we could always use another professional. Y'all are amateurs. You could die. Taurus will take a bite out of those robots, chew on 'em, and spit them out."
"Well aren't you Mr. Take Charge," Jasper came up and wrapped a hand around my neck and pulled herself close to me.
"Well I have to be. None of you know what the fuck you're doing and could die." I disentangled myself from her and stepped to the side. Her aura at that range tasted of blueberries. It was a delicious flavor, though, not one I would have thought myself partial to.
We wouldn't be a good idea, Jaune. Remember that. You're probably not a good idea for anyone.
I let the self depreciating thoughts rule me. It was better that way. I allowed the familiarity of it to relax me. Someone getting close to me like that had made me tense.
Neo waltzed up from beside me and put both her elbows on the counter and leaned her head down on her hands.
"Are you feeling alright Neo?" I asked.
She gave me a tired thumbs up. She might just be sleepy. She'd be awake when it came time to work.
"So how have you been handling the training?" I asked.
"I'm sore." Wenge stretched. He twisted side to side.
"You're a monster, Cloud," Jasper informed me. "What's a girl gotta do to make you take it easier on her?" Her fox tail swished behind her in red and white. Up and down it went. I tried not to stare at her behind, or close to it. It drew the eye, though.
"Not ask me for help with it for one. You think you're up for this? Not too beat up?"
"I'm all ready," Jasper said. She flexed a bicep at me as though that would prove it. I chuckled a little at her antics.
"Me too," Wenge echoed her. He didn't flex, though.
"How about you Bisque?" I asked.
"I'm green. This ought to help. Thanks Cloud." He checked the chamber of his new pistol expertly. He was getting used to the new mechanisms as we spoke.
He examined the loaded magazines and strapped them to a bandolier on his person.
"I have more ammunition for it. You shouldn't need it for this operation. Leave most of the robot killing to me, Neo, and Taurus."
"Hey Cloud, you're not really, um, going to kill Taurus are you?" Wenge asked.
"I might have to. He's unwilling to play the game."
"And what game is that? The drug game? We don't play that either," Jasper said. "You haven't threatened to kill us yet, though."
"You still play along with it. You play the information brokerage game. You still play like your lives matter and you don't kill just because it might be the easiest option. Taurus doesn't. It's his way or the highway. That makes him unreliable for anything other than his agenda."
"I think I get it," Bisque said. "You can't threaten him. You can't barter with him. He's not like you. You're willing to compromise. He's not."
"Exactly. He doesn't do business. I do. A lot. I trade favors, I sell my skills. He's not about that life."
The bar door jingled and Taurus came striding in. His white mask on, katana by his side.
"Speak of the devil," I said.
He snorted. "What's the plan to take down the ship?" He asked. No beating around the bush. No chit chatting. He was straight to the point.
I held up one of the explosives. "We've got two of these. We're going to plant them on the inner hull." I flicked open the map of the ship on my scroll and showed the group where we'd be setting up the bombs. "I go in first with a fireball to set up the evacuation of the people onboard. Then Neo teleports the rest of you to the deck. One of us stays behind and watches the vehicles. That'll be you Wenge."
"It would be easier and quieter to kill the guards. They'll set off an alarm. We'll only have minutes," Taurus growled.
"Which is why we'll work fast. Neo will teleport us back out. Once we reach the rendezvous point, that is. Here near the command deck."
I pointed out the deck of the ship I was referring to on my map.
"We fight through any machines that stay onboard and get in our way. In and out, five minutes."
Taurus looked at my face and that of Avalanche. "It would be easier to kill the crew."
"No killing. None," Bisque said. "This isn't the White Fang. This is Avalanche. If you can't handle that, you're out."
He had guts talking to Taurus like that. Adam could rip his guts out and show them to him. The only thing stopping him was a tenuous alliance.
"Anyone I knock out will go down with the ship when we sink it. It would be more merciful to kill them," Taurus said. I winced. I'd used similar logic before. It wasn't a far leap for me to see his side. And the operation would be easier if we killed the sentries. But Avalanche had rules and I made the plan live within them.
"We'll give them plenty of time to get off the ship. We've got a teleporter on our side," Bisque shot back. Adam hunched over his weapon like he might draw it. He coiled like a spring, ready to strike with alarming speed. I made myself stand relaxed. If he attacked I'd just have to deal with it.
Neo had spun around on her stool when Adam had walked in. She gave a slow barely perceptible nod when she was brought up.
"Very well," Adam grunted. He uncoiled slowly. But he was no less dangerous. I was sure he could draw his weapon fast enough.
"Then it's settled. We'll only have minutes between when the fires start and emergency responders show up. We'll need to be fast and split up. Neo and Bisque will make up one team. Jasper, Taurus, and I will be the other."
I gave one of the bombs to Bisque. "The bombs are both hooked up to my scroll. I'll set them off once we're clear. Any questions?" I asked.
No one had any. They just stared at me in silence.
"Then let's get started."
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The smog of the town refracted the sunset. Casting red and orange light all across us as we drove. Me and Neo were on my bike and all the others piled into Avalanche's truck.
When we came up on the docks I jumped off the bike and hung in the air. I crushed a dust crystal and cast a fireball forward. It splashed in and through the top deck of the ship we were targeting. The White Whale was bold across its side. Its name wasn't the important part of the story. The cargo was the real focus.
Almost immediately an alarm started to blare and red lights flashed in a cyclic fashion that glinted mutely compared to the fading dusk sun.
I didn't land back on the bike with Neo. Instead I glid forward on the air currents and landed on the deck of the ship. I hid behind a mooring station as people rushed past my hiding place and off the ship. Some took to the plank that led down to the docks and others made for the lifeboats.
I let them past me without making a sound from where I hunched down. There was a shattering sound as Neo appeared next to me with Bisque, Jasper, and Taurus.
The alarm wailed for a moment and no more people came rushing up. Machines began to come from beneath the deck and put out the fire with extinguishers.
Adam snarled and rushed them. He cut through them with ease, sheathing and redrawing his weapon as he moved. I got my first look at his style then as he side-flipped in place and cast his blade through the machines.
I gave them all a nod and we worked our way beneath deck. Our two parties split up.
We came across more of the small humanoid mechs and I crushed them with my bare hands where they got in my way.
I drew my long sword and I stabbed through a robot's head. I swung to the side as much as I could in the tight quarters and cut another in half at the waist.
I kicked another to the ground as I descended the stairs and I crushed its chest under my boot. These machines really stood no chance against me. Most were still armed with fire extinguishers rather than sleek Atlesian rifles. They reminded me of ants. They were responding to only one emergency at a time.
It was easy to destroy these smaller robots and there wasn't really the room for bigger ones beneath the hull.
I came across our planting location and began to plant my bomb. I set it against the outside hull and pressed a few buttons on it. A green light flashed and it was good to go.
We ascended back through the ship once more. We got to the command deck and here there was room for larger mechs and for fighting.
I slashed my way through a robot and felt my semblance activate. I pulled my shield from my back. The titanic broad mobile cover allowed me to protect myself from a firing squad of robots and make my way up on them.
I cut through wave after wave of the Atlesian droids. A massive spider bot dropped from the ceiling. I flew at it and Cross-Slashed it before it could do us any real harm. It fell into smoldering pieces with the wires exposed and flickering.
An explosion rocked the ship and I stopped moving. Something was wrong. The ship began to tilt. Something was beyond wrong.
We fought for a moment longer and Bisque came up on us. He was carrying Neo who was singed and soaked both.
"Your bomb went off on her," he said. "I don't think she's going to be able to teleport us out."
I rushed over and put a hand on her face. "Neo…" I murmured.
She opened one eye and looked up at me. She rubbed her face into my hand and sighed a little. She'd be okay. She'd have to be.
A thousand apologies were on the tip of my tongue. I fucked up. I thought my bomb was set up fine but instead it just went off. There was some irony in this. In her getting hurt instead of me when I was the one who deserved it by screwing up.
"I'm sorry," I whispered to her.
She smiled and nodded.
I deserved to be the one hurt. I'd been so flippant with those bombs. Instead it was Neo who took the explosion. It should have been me.
She leaned into my palm firmly. I drew back. I felt shaky.
"Keep carrying her. We'll make for the docks. Past the fires-"
"You turned on us, I knew you couldn't be trusted," Taurus prowled up on me nice and slow. More like a cougar than a bull. He had his hand on the hilt of his weapon but it still wasn't drawn.
"Me?" I asked. "How would I benefit from our plan getting fucked. The part where I almost lost Neo? Damn it!"
The ship tilted a little more. Taurus's footing remained sure.
He growled and paced into my range. I stepped back and fronted on him. I drew my broadsword against him.
He slashed at me, drawing his weapon from the scabbard lightning fast. I blocked and activated my semblance. I swept upon him with a glowing blue light.
"Wait, you two! We're still on the freighter. The whole thing is sinking, can you really afford to be fighting?!" Jasper called out.
"Let's find out," I whispered.
"I've had enough out of you, human," he said.
Our blades met between us in rapid horizontal strikes. He quickly sheathed his sword and drew it out again in a dancing fast motion which swept all across my body as he side-flipped in place.
I blocked it all. Then I hit him with my baseball style swing, shoulder to waist with my hips turned into the motion and a shout on my lips.
The blow sent him flying back when he blocked it. And he'd been upside down in mid flip as I swung it at him.
He landed neatly despite the brutality of my attack. He pulled his sheath from his side and fired at me. Shotgun pellets buzzed past my head and I floated into a roll. My hand outstretched to get a grip on his collar.
He backed up and swatted at my hand with his blade and twisted. He fired off two more shots from his shotgun. One hit me in the shoulder and made me falter and the next hit me in the stomach and made me gasp.
He sheathed his weapon and blurred at me in a wide strike in the tight confines of the ship we hardly had room to fight like I wanted and our blades scored trenches in the metal around us.
I front-flipped in a tight fashion and brought my blade down on him in a wave of blue. He stepped to the side but I side kicked him, then I roundhouse kicked him, then I brought my blade around at his head in a tight arc which clipped his stomach and made him grunt.
He slid back and I approached him with a back flip. It was an empty hop, all aggression with zero commitment. He held out his blade partially sheathed to block but I just landed in front of him and waited for his block to drop.
Then I Cross Slashed him. He wasn't ready for it. They never were ready for it the first time. He blocked the first two lightning fast slashes. But the next three lit him up. It flung him down the corridor of the ship and deeper inside.
He approached me again, faster this time because I didn't have Limit Breaker. He unsheathed his blade as quick as a bullet and slashed at me. Then he slapped me in the face with his hard sheath.
I growled and pressed on.
"Go. Take Neo and get yourselves out of here," I ordered. She was at the forefront of my mind. My slip up could have killed her. Even as I fought my mind raced to find the point where I might have fucked that bomb's construction up.
It must have been somewhere and it must have been costly.
It was distracting me in this life or death battle.
"But-" Bisque started. He and Jasper hovered to the side of Adam's and my battle.
"Don't worry about me, just go! Get Neo somewhere safe. Tell her I'm sorry."
I held my ground and Taurus's and my swords met a half dozen times in a matter of a second. Then we seemed to pause with his blade sheathed once more, me with my weapon back over behind my head, ready for a massive overhead.
Then we flickered out again and that impossible moment broke. He came at me from the side. I blocked and sent my blade in a wide sweeping diagonal cut.
He deflected it and came back at me in an overhead slash that tore into the ship above his head. I countered and riposted but I was finding the amount of room I had to move within the bulkheads lacking. I slashed at him diagonally and he twisted to the side and put a firm boot against my chest. He pushed against me.
I stumbled back a step. The ship tilted more to one side as we fought. I came at him again with my enormous weapon making his look like a toothpick. I cut at him twice horizontally, once from each direction. He blocked both by holding his weapon vertically and shielding himself behind it.
He sheathed his weapon and drew it once more in a flash and came at me with a narrow front-flip. He cut me shoulder to hip and I was forced back a little more.
I gave a narrow rolling side-flip. I slashed at him again and cut his chest once more. I tore at his red aura. Ripping away at it, I landed neatly on my feet inside of his range.
He cut me a half dozen times. I had over extended and his cuts came like flashes. They swept over me from seemingly every direction.
I got out of it by kicking him hard in the side of the knee. He came twisting down and I kneed him in the face hard. Unable to bring my weapon to bear against him I grabbed him by the collar and threw him up into the bulkhead and slammed him down into my knee.
I charged in place for a moment. Storing a little bit of time away where I saw the opportunity, I hesitated mid-fight.
I dragged my weapon around and he slashed forward knocking it aside and cutting me across the chest again.
At that moment I became Limit Broken. We'd traded enough hits that I crossed the damage threshold alarmingly quickly. I came at him in my Limitless state. He swept under a bulkhead, around and stabbed at me. I easily blocked to one side. He furiously cut at me and I blocked each and every single one of his strikes in turn.
He did a tight back-flip and slashed at me. He caught me across the chest and ripped a chunk of my aura out. He shuffled back a step.
Then I Limit Break blade beamed him. He quickly sheathed his weapon and left it partially uncovered. He absorbed it into his weapon. The energy went from deep blue to crimson. It crackled for a moment.
There was a moment where he grinned at me beneath his mask. In that second I knew I'd fucked up again. Maybe just as bad as when I got Neo hurt.
He lit my world up.
Taurus slashed at me and released a beam of red energy that washed through the bulkheads and my aura. The world was painted red and black for a terrifying moment as he slashed forward.
It opened my chest and pierced right through my aura. It left my golden aura bubbling off to the side of the cut. The attack flung me back and my head slammed hard into a wall.
The ship was sinking quickly now and I was bleeding all over the floor. I drew my scroll and with a press I set off the second charge as Taurus paced towards me like a tiger.
The explosion shook the ship once more. Taurus stumbled. It was enough.
And like that I ran. I flew away and up stairs. I made it to the top deck with Taurus hot on my heels. I hovered to the slipping bow and I jumped. I floated away, my half cape fluttering behind me.
I flew all the way to one of the buildings near the docks and collapsed on a roof.
I watched Avalanche's truck make it's get-away. They left my bike behind. That was fair enough, I suppose. I felt a touch delirious. Blood loss can do that to you. I examined my chest wound. I'd probably need stitches. It would have been worse if not for my armor.
I was slipping into unconsciousness. I tried to hold on desperately but I was hurt pretty badly. I leaned against a wall and I collapsed.
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-WG