And here we see Lady Nagant win the John Wick Animal Care Award. Let's give her a round of applause ladies and gentleman!
It was the afternoon. The forest was calm, the animals making little noise while a breeze rustled the trees. However, the guards had been alerted to a possible intruder who had fought their best assassin. Now was the time they needed to be extra careful.
Unfortunately, Humarise's type of recruits weren't exactly the thinking sort.
"I still can't believe I made that shot." one of the guards said.
"Please. That mutt was only like, twelve meters away! You can brag after hitting a harder target!"
"Oh shut up. You're just jealous because you can't hit the broadside of a barn!"
"You shut up. Say, you think the boss's will be mad?"
"Nah, they don't take that seriously. Only ones who'd object are the Chosen Ones or Beros."
"She takes everything seriously."
"Yeah, I know. She won't just shut up and take orders. Always got to be asking questions…"
"So annoying. 'How do I properly follow the path if I don't understand?' Pfff! All we got to do is obey Humarise, they never scold us! Guess we're smarter than her."
"Yeah! We get praised and we get to kill stuff!"
"Yeah. We're unstop-"
BANG
One of the guards fell to the ground.
The other looked to his companion, noticing the red stain on the wall behind him. "What the-"
He turned around to see a pair of vengeful eyes glaring from the brush. A quick thought of danger went through his mind just before her high caliber sniper round.
Lady Nagant hadn't exactly been quiet. Any moment they'd come flooding to the door. Nevertheless, as she walked to the door with the same nonchalance as walking to get her prison food. "Seriously? I've broken into drug dens with better security. While the guards were high!"
Lady Nagant rolled her eyes at the dead idiots. She then waited a few seconds, before smirking as she pulled back her elbow and created the biggest gun she had.
"Open Sesame."
Lady Nagant blasted the door off its hinges, sending it flying back several feet, right into a waiting crowd of enemies. They tried to recover, but Kiana fired several shots in rapid succession, each shot killing several enemies.
One of them survived long enough to get his bearings and snarl at Nagant, his teeth taking on a distinctly canid look. Nagant leaped up, activating Air Walk as she kicked him in the face. As she got behind him, Kaina grabbed her hair with her fingers, rolling the pink and purple together. She popped out her gun, loaded it, and pointed it at the survivor's head. He had only a moment to panic before Nagant fired, using her gun with Air Walk to fly like a rocket.
Nagant flew around the corner, gun aimed. And two more bite the dust. Nagant heard footsteps behind her. She fired a shot, but it bounced off a cultist with limbs that turned to stone. Nagant ducked under his punch, then positioned herself in front of a fusebox. "That it? Geez, even your guys' heavies are disappointing."
With a roar, the Humarise goon punched, driving his hand through the box. However, the electricity didn't bother him. "Hehe, foolish intruder. Did you really think it'd be that easy to knock me out.?"
"Kinda. And you didn't disappoint," Nagant said. She jumped on his back. He was about to grab her when he noticed the live grenade at his feet. "Oh cra-"
One explosion later and he lay groaning on the ground next to the shattered stones that were once his legs. Nagant hurried around the corner. A door opened, and a goon lashed out with a knife. In a single knife, Nagant ducked the knife and kicked him in the chin. Knew practicing high kicks in prison was a good idea. She then shot the cultist in the head.
She came upon another door and opened it only to hear a thunder of footsteps coming her way. Nagant closed the door and waited. Soon it opened. She pulled the pin on a grenade and handed it to the guy in front. "Here, hold this."
She shoved him inside and stepped away from the door as it blew off its hinges. Too easy.
The group kept coming, despite Nagant killing the ones in front. Nine of them by her count. Nagant loaded three shots into her gun. Bang! Bang! Bang! Each shot went through multiple bodies, taking down the entire group. One or two were still alive, but immobilized. One grabbed Nagant's boot, but let go after she introduced said boot to his face. She picked up his submachine gun and sprayed into an opening door. The door behind her opened. She let go of the submachine gun with one hand, then touched her shoulder to bring out her gun. She fired the sniper rifle and walked away, barely giving the dead enemy a second glance.
Nagant rushed down the halls, taking full advantage of Air Walk. Anyone in that gray jumpsuit the fighters wore, or ones in robes who tried to resist, she killed.
It was horrific. It was brutal. It was her specialty.
Botan curled up in a ball near the back of her room, waiting for it to end. She heard people running and shouting, something about an intruder attacking the base. More importantly, Botan heard the near constant gunshots ringing out, punctuated by the occasional explosion.
Botan wondered what it could be. Police? No, Humarise had them firmly in its pocket. Heroes? Maybe, but this sounded awfully…lethal for a Hero. Villains? Probably. They'd angered the wrong villain group and who'd sent an assassin to kill everyone.
Botan got up and tried her door, hoping to go help the other quirkless people, or at least die with them. Unfortunately, it was locked. With nothing to do but wait for it to end, Botan sat on her bed and fantasized about what eldest daughter would be doing now. She'd be in her thirties, hopefully with a lovely life of her own. Not consumed with the manipulationgand murder that had stolen Beros, nor imprisoned like Botan. Instead, living a happy life of warm hugs, smiles, and-
Nagant drove a knife into a cultist's throat, then sent a bullet through another one's head. Kaina leaped off the wall and kicked another's neck. Nagant spun around and shot another, causing his skin to lose its chameleon properties. Probably should've ditched the robes.
Three more came at her. One threw a tornado, another summoned monsters made from ink, and the third levitated boulders. Nagant used the tornado's winds to evade the boulder, only to find an ink lion lunging at her. Nagant ducked under its claws, sliding just in front of an ink bear. She'd be in trouble if it weren't for one thing.
While dodging the lion, Nagant had managed to load her gun.
Nagant pulled back her elbow and fired right through the bear, hitting the cultist who summoned it. As the other cultists turned to look at him, Nagant leaped over the lunging ink lion, firing another shot into the summoner's head. The ink monsters collapsed into a large black puddle that mixed with red. One of the survivors launched another boulder at Nagant, but it was too late.
Nagant's bullet killed him too. She ducked around the flying boulder, then grabbed his head as she used Air Walk to swing around him. His neck snapped and the tornado disappeared.
Nagant heard more approaching. As a group of five rounded a corner, they pointed their machine guns at Nagant. "You can't kill us-"
Nagant fired a bullet that ricocheted off the wall, hitting three. One of the unscathed ones looked at his companions in shock, while the last one opened fire. "Eat lead!" she said while Nagant ducked behind cover. Following the sound of gunfire, Nagant fired a shot through the wall. A body slumped to the floor.
Nagant chambered another round. Using Air Walk, Nagant leaped out and aimed. The remaining cultist opened fire. However, he'd been aiming at chest height, which Nagant was above. His companion suddenly shot up, gun in hand. "Aim better bi-"
Unfortunately for them, Nagant was a very fast reloader. In a second, both had lost their hands and one foot. One of them companions tried to get back up, but Nagant put him down. She rounded a corner just as some more goons did the same.
Nagant threw a grenade, beaning one of the goons in the head. He bent over to pick it up, but it went off, killing him and his friends. Nagant picked up one of their submachine guns and gunned down two more goons, before leaning out of the way of one trying to stab her.
The cultist raised her knife to stab Nagant. This time Nagant grabbed her arm and drove the knife into another Humarise goon sneaking up behind her.
Nagant then jumped off the wall and kicked her opponent in the face, shot the foot off one coming around the corner, then finished off the knife woman with a bullet to the chest. An individual in a white robe lunged at Nagant, but she simply grabbed him and slammed him head first into a wall with a loud crack.
She then used her submachine gun to shoot several more. Footsteps echoed behind Nagant. She fired her sniper rifled without even turning around. She looked back just to be sure. Another dead cultist.
Nagant couldn't resist rolling her eyes. At this point, she was starting to wonder if these guys were uninformed about the state of the battle, utterly fanatical, or just plain dumb. Seriously, most enemies would retreat from her very presence by this point. Heck, she'd played video games with AI less overconfident than these morons!
"Kill the unclean one! She is no match for-" BANG!
"Filthy outsider! How dare you-" BANG!
Seriously, it was getting old.
"Damn you!"
"Brother Kai, you musn't swear! We shall defeat her with-"
BANG! BANG!
And most weren't even good at fighting! Sure, these scumbags were fine when murdering adorable puppies and stealing cute children, but put them against a real assassin and most just dropped like rocks. Nagant heard footsteps around the corner at the end of a long hallway. She fired a bullet which curved.
"Brother Goro! You musn't fear!" someone said while Kaina aimed at the wall with an armor piercing shot. "She is but one measly impure one, no match for-" was all the guy said, being no match for a bullet.
She rounded the corner where this Goro pointed a gun at her (aimed slightly to her left in his panic). "What are you doing this for?" he said.
"One," Nagant said,. "You stole an innocent kid and his dad hired me to bring him back. Green hair? Curly?"
"The Messiah? He's far away from you! You'll never find him! Not even I know where he is!"
"Ok, that brings me to my second reason. Your guards killed a cute dog."
He stared for a moment. "A dog? Seriously? Isn't killing seventy seven people over a dog a tad excessi-"
BANG! "No."
Around that time, the few survivors finally gave up. Nagant accepted their surrender, tied them up, then got directions to the quirkless prisoners. Nagant marched over there to see if Midoriya was actually gone, and if so if there were any clues where he'd been taken. The path involved stepping over a lot of dead and wounded.
"Water…" one said, raising a bloody stump that had been one of his wrists. "Please…"
Kaina stopped. She loomed over the once proud goon, causing him to shrink away. Then she took out her canteen and gave him a sip. He took a gulp before she lifted the canteen away. She then tossed a bandage at him, so he could keep from bleeding out.
After all, the battle was over. Killing them while she was alone and they were trying to kill her was one thing. But after it stopped, when they were just a bunch of wounded men and women clinging to life? That was different.
Kaina found the area. Sure enough, all the doors were locked. Protection from her. Lucky for the people inside, she had no grudge with them. If the boy she came for was truly gone, she'd set them free and let them go to the Heroes. It was a quick drive. They'd be fine.
Kaina walked to the nearest door and, using a chain of keys she'd taken from one of the dead, unlocked it. Inside, a woman with mint green hair started from her bed. Kaina stepped into the room.
The woman's eyes widened. "Y-you…!"
"I'm not here to hurt you," said Kaina. "You can come out. The fight's over. I'm letting you and the others go free."
"O-ok," the mint woman said. "B-but what are you doing here?!"
"Your bosses stole a kid with a very resourceful father. He got me on the case." She stepped out, the woman following.
"O-oh. So you're a Hero?" the woman said with a hint of excitement.
"Not anymore," Kaina said as they passed one of the bodies.
"Oh."
Kaina let all the other ones out too. They slowly shuffled out, unsure how to react. More importantly to Kaina, none were All for One's kid. Kaina growled in frustration. She then said to the assortment of white robed people. "Has anyone seen a kid with curly green hair? Middle school aged, very babyfaced?"
The mint woman piped up. "He was just here! They took him to their main base!"
Kaina stepped toward the woman. Everyone except the woman backed away. "Where is their main base?"
"I-I don't know," the woman said, looking ashamed.
"Where does Humarise keep their files?"
"I-in the records room. But they won't have anything that will lead you to their base! They're very careful about its location!"
Kaina scowled. She'd have to find another lead to find All for One's kid. Nevertheless, she made her way down the hall, hoping the records might give her-
"Wait!" the mint woman said. "I might have something that can help!"
Kaina turned back.
"S-so…you said you used to be a Hero," the mint woman said as they neared the records room. "What happened?"
"Me and the boss had a…difference of opinion," said Kaina.
"W-what sort of difference?"
"He wanted me to do things I didn't want to. I resisted."
"So, you became a mercenary?"
"No. He threatened me so I killed him. Then they threw me in prison. Then I was broken out by a Villain so I could retrieve his kid."
"Oh." The woman frowned. "How does a Hero just kill a man so easily? Shouldn't you be used to…saving them?"
Kaina let out a bitter laugh. "Let's just say the industry has a bit of a secret underbelly, and I was smack dab in the middle of it."
"Oh." The woman seemed sad. "Are you…ok?"
Kaina shrugged. "Ok as I can be. I'm not in prison, and rescuing a kidnapped kid is a pretty good mission. Don't like my client but doesn't change the job."
The mint woman stared uncertainly at a corpse just outside the door.
"It won't make you feel any better, but you should know: I invaded this place alone. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't afford non-lethal take downs."
The woman looked a little relieved about that. However, they'd reached the records room. Inside, Kaina rifled through the various letters for the postcard the woman mentioned. Finally, Kaina found it.
It was a postcard from the woman's daughter. Beros. Kaina frowned. The sniper Kaina was supposed to kill. Kaina decided not to tell the woman that.
The card was standard for a cultist, angry rants about how gaudy the place was, proudly declaring the card was shoplifted, saying she only got it because her mom loved the cathedral's flowers etc. Well, Kaina was sure the mint haired woman would appreciate it. She loved her daughter enough that she still wanted to "save her" however that worked. By contrast, the thing that interested Kaina was where it was from.
Otheon.
She had her location. "Thank you for your cooperation," she said to the mint woman. Kaina turned to leave, but the woman grabbed her arm.
"Wait!" the mint woman said. "Y-you're going to Otheon, right? I can help!"
Kaina looked back at her. She was middle aged, clearly not athletic, and looked like she hadn't seen the sun in years. "How exactly?"
"I know things about Humarise! Things I might not remember off the top of my head! Also, this can't be legal right? I can corroborate your story if anyone questions you! Please!" The woman had a hint of desperation in her eyes.
Kaina considered it. On the one hand, she preferred not bringing anyone else, especially someone who knew little of infiltration and combat. On the other, the woman had a point. She was a valuable intel source, and potential alibi. Kaina narrowed her eyes.
"Please," the woman said. "I want to help my daughter."
"Wait here."
Kaina went into another room and called All for One to report. He seemed to enjoy her descriptions of carnage a tad too much. At the end, he relayed her to his expert in fake IDs.
Kaina opened the door. The mint woman nervously watched, waiting for her answer. Kaina jerked her head, a signal for the woman to follow. The mint woman's eyes lit up. "Thank you!" she said. "I'm Botan Yamada. Pleased to meet you…?"
"Lady Nagant was my Hero name."
"Nice to meet you Lady Nagant!" she said.
Kaina nodded. After getting a photo to use for a fake ID, she sent the woman's name to All for One's fake ID expert. She soon got the ID and a booked a flight. When that was done, she rode away, taking Botan, with her.
Hope you enjoyed! Reviews make me smile!