Asterisk 2 - (Arknights, SI)
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Getting chased around by a fire-wielding murderous bitch is not how I expected my day to turn to.
Then again, I would hardly say I expected the rest to happen. The Doctor was coughing violently as I kept on running, him bleeding due to having several cuts on his body and missing a limb definitely was to blame but... fuck, I can't patch him up even if I knew how to.
Not with this 'Talulah' being surprisingly relentless in her pursuit. I had a headstart, but it was clear that it was getting smaller the more I moved with my back burdened by the dying Doctor.
Despite his conditions, the guy was coaching me on what I had to do - take quick turns into corners, lessen the time I spent in a straight path, and turn to sides of the path that could cover my back with obstacles.
After all, the dragon-bitch was not tracking me down with just a sword- she could hurl flames at me, and I got too many close calls to say I was doing well. While I didn't get set on fire, I was feeling the heat. Literally. I was sweating a storm between the intense chase and the outrageous heat caused by the intense fire attacks.
This wasn't... working. I had a limited stamina, my adrenaline was running out, my heart was drumming like crazy to the point I worried of suffering a stroke or something with the kind of stress I was putting on myself and...
I had to improvise for a different option.
I thought about it through the whole chase. Hiding in one of the cars? Talulah was destroying any that got within her reach. Hiding by the corner? She was looking around for traps. And then, the final idea: what about shops? Sure, I could hurl ourselves into a random open buildings, but those hardly had any cover to hide our frames. A shop would offer enough space with its counter, and surely this city had some.
Technically yes, but those I found had been ravaged by the city-wide battle and disaster. It took a while to find the best place to hide, which turned out to be a fucking toy-shop.
Half the place had its front wall torn apart, but the counter had survived and there were some charred boxes over it. I felt my blood pumping rapidly as I pushed for a second wind, bolting with renewed vigor as I dove for the place and ran around the corner. I slammed down, uncaring of the fact it hurt like hell to fall head first with someone resting on my back and... I waited.
I ignored the pain, gritting my teeth and waited as my ears caught up to what I needed to hear to feel safe. First being Talulah's approaching and her... stopping for a moment. She definitely looked around, fire briefly bathing over the shop's exposed front but stopping by the counter. I felt relief sinking in as I heard her moving and... walking away. Two minutes became five and then ten.
"T-That was smart," The Doctor muttered, and I felt my body hugging the floor as he shifted away from my back and rested against the counter. I slowly crawled up to do the same beside him and... he chuckled. "C-Can I say I didn't expect us to- to survive?"
"Trust me," I muttered breathlessly, still trying to catch my breath. "I am as surprised as-"
I couldn't finish that sentence as the Doctor had his gloved hand touching my lips. Part of me wanted to jerk away as I felt a searing pain coming from that but...
"Stay," He muttered seriously, blue eyes aimed at my lip as he studied the injury I got from crashing on my face. "I-I think I have enough to patch you up in my bag."
"W-What about you?" I asked, recoiling from that sudden interjection.
Instead of speaking up, the Doctor fished a small bottle and downed two pills from it. "This should- should slow down the bleeding. Now, it's your turn."
I rolled my eyes, and it took a monumental effort to not twitch as he started to press some wet bandage over my lip, making sure that I was clean and then medicated before applying a bandaid over the bust area.
"There we go..." The Doctor sighed in relief. "Now... we can't stay here."
"The radio doesn't work," I pointed out, checking the device Ace gave me and it was still buzzing static shit.
"That's- that's because the Reunion had set up jammers. It's possible... it's possible that Ace didn't know that."
"So?" I asked and the man huffed.
"We are close to one of Chernobog's exit points. It's... possible that Talulah already thinks we left from there," The Doctor explained. "If- If we make it there, then we can use the flare in my bag to get the rescue team's attention."
That sounded good for me and-
"John... another thing."
I turned to him. "Yes?"
"Are you... are you alright?"
...
"What?"
"Do you feel like your body is weaker or... that you have some strange 'sickly' sensation around your lower abdomen?"
I frowned. "No... should I?"
"Maybe. But this... if this isn't the case then it's possible good news. I will explain once we get out of the city."
Slowly nodding, I felt ready to go and, much to the Doctor's chagrin, he was once more on my back. We were soon stepping out of the shop and the Doctor directed me to the exit point.
The walk was tense as, by his own admission, there was a chance Talulah could be patrolling the area before leaving back to her base. Which meant a potential chase may ensue if we stumbled on her and she noticed us. Overall, the entire process was surprisingly quiet and tame. The chaos around us felt now less relevant to me than it was now. I knew that there weren't spooky monsters around and that the worst threat was limited in her capacity to hunt us both.
The stroll finally took us to destination. The road led out of the urban area and into a path leading out of the city itself. We stopped for a moment as the Doctor retrieved the flare. He was faltering for a moment but he aimed upward and the blue flare exploded to the sky.
The light was intense enough that it had to gain the attention of this 'rescue party'. I have to say that the experience I just went through left me a bit jaded towards good news, but I was surprised and delighted as I saw a second flare came along mere minutes after the one we deployed. This one coming from a closer area, and... red.
"D-Doc?"
"Lay low," He muttered, confirming that this wasn't the response we had been waiting for. I did as he said, but this didn't work this time around.
A squad of masked mercenary donning black and red outfits soon approached, and their leader, a young woman with white hair with red horns spotted us almost immediately. She had those giddy red eyes and murderous grin- fuck, don't tell me that she is a baddie. How come all crazy girls are rallied her to try and kill us?!
"Oh my, what do we have here!" She exclaimed as she approached us, her men having their guns aimed at us. "A Doctor and a civilian. And here I thought that Talulah would have done quick work with you both."
"Hello... W."
W? What kind of name is that?
"And if it isn't Sin~! Long time no see, and here you are, missing an arm, a crippled mess and... getting carried around by another guy. And here I thought that you swung a certain way."
The woman then turned to look at me. "And what about you? Are you perhaps lost? Did you miss your mommy or-"
"No," I interjected, facepalming and she frowne.
"No?"
"Look, I get it. This whole act is nice and all, but I think I get what's going on and I am not playing this game," I muttered with some annoyance. "You acting cuckoo, your men trying to pull a 'we are professional but we have been ordered to not shoot'-"
"John-" The Doctor tried to warn me and I snorted.
"Look, can't you see it? If she had wanted to kill us from the get-go, she would have. No questions asked, and that's not to say you can't get validated for that but... let me ask you this?" I turned to the confused W. "Are you Talulah's pet dog?"
Her mouth opened in shock and then she snorted. "Of course not."
"Do you condone what the hell happened here? I doubt there were just adults that died, but I know for a thing it takes a special kind of monstrosity to accept what occurred to children in this city."
...
"I guess it was excessive. And? What is your point?"
"You want to let us go. You just want to leave a message or something, so, let me be honest here, the guy here is bleeding out and we can't engage in some nostalgic talk of the past," I pointed out strongly. "I understand you have your own schedule to follow, but I can assure you that whatever message you want to deliver ain't going to stick if the Doctor dies bleeding out."
...
...
W... laughed. Loudly.
"You- you are-" It took her a moment to keep her giggles under control. "You are insane! I never thought I would have stumbled on a man as mad as you. But you are right, makes sense that the Doctor is far from good shape to get a beating so... tell you what."
She walked up to me. "Tell me your name and I will let you both go."
"...John Bukharin."
"Nice to meet you, John, and... I hope to have the pleasure to kill you next time."
She walked away and then gestured in the distance as an armored vehicle was approaching. It had an emblem similar to the one on the Doctor's jacket - the Rescue Party.
"Your friends are coming along and, I hope you will survive long enough so I can met you again, John. Alas... it's time for me and the boys to leave. Good day, Doctor- I hope you don't bleed out like a coward."
And she walked away, leaving me utterly baffled by the madfuckery that just happened. Still, all I could think of now was that the rescue party was now there and-
And that I was now getting hauled into a 'safer place'.
AN
I have to be honest, I haven't thought until I was writing on how to handle W's personality in this AU. Especially since Guin made it clear that Theresa is evil in this timeline. So yes, this W will go a bit OOC since she is aware of the flaws of Theresa but she still 'respects' her to some extent.
Now, next time will see... John meeting the old cat doctor! And Amiya!