Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its associated characters. The characters in this writing so far are mostly original characters, but I make no claim over the existing characters.
Chapter 9
Discoveries
"Lieutenant Amber is dead." I told Captain Stone regretfully. In my heart, I didn't want to believe it, but the visions that were plaguing me had been right about everything else so far, and even if I discounted them there was no way that the Lieutenant would have been able to escape Hyperion hunting him in an open forest.
Captain Stone breathed in sharply, closing her eyes and physically flinching slightly at the news. She exhaled slowly, then reopened her eyes and fixed me with a withering stare in the rapidly fading light.
"Elaborate." She ordered.
I decided it wasn't a good idea to try to discuss seeing visions, so I stuck to the facts I could prove.
"Our convoy was ambushed by Hyperion and Athena, Lieutenant Amber drew Hyperion away to try to give the rest of us a chance to escape, but there's no way he survived."
"So you didn't see him actually die?" She demanded. "You're just making assumptions, and you want me leave him out here by himself?" She held out her hand and a small purple spark, barely visible even with the fading light, leapt out from it. Her hammer spun and flipped through the air back to her hand from where it had been laying after dispatching the last Grimm. She looked away, up the road to where we had been ambushed several miles back, as if intent on going to rescue Lieutenant Amber, then suddenly seemed to remember that Wilks and I were also present. Her eyes narrowed again, and she jabbed a finger at me.
"Hyperion only captured David because of you." She said accusatorily. "He wanted us to hand you over to him in exchange. I told him no, told him that we wouldn't hand over one of our own." She said, pointing a judgemental finger at me. "The least you could do is get up off the ground and help me save him." Wilks raised a shaky hand, as if seeking permission to speak.
"He's been paralyzed ma'am," He said shakily. "shot through the spine. That's why we weren't able to make it back to Argus before nightfall." She took in the bullet hole in the fabric of my collar, noting the awkward angles that my limbs were splayed at and pieced together what had happened to me.
"Dammit," Stone swore under her breath. She looked between the two of us, trying to judge how to keep us alive while she searched for the lieutenant. Wilks was still dripping blood slowly past the tourniquet while he worked to wrap the wound with a bandage from his medical kit. Meanwhile I was still frustratingly incapable of movement. Wilks shifted, trying to sit up properly, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was becoming pale as the blood loss hit him. Her eyes shifted rapidly between Wilks, myself, and the road where we had been ambushed, until she finally came to a decision.
"I hope you're still out there David." She muttered quietly. Then, after a pause. "And I hope you'll forgive me." She turned, collapsing the haft of her hammer down and storing it on her back. She reached down and picked me up by the rescue handle behind the collar of my armor, then hefted Wilks up over her shoulder and set off at a steady jog towards Argus.
I lost consciousness again as we traveled, awakening only after we had arrived back at the military base on the northern coast of the city. The sun was rising in the east as Wilks and I were loaded into the back of a Bullhead, and I spotted Captain Stone striding purposefully away while calling out for ground transport. She walked gingerly now, and I could see numerous untreated wounds oozing blood into the white fabric of her damaged scout armor. Clearly getting Wilks and I back to base had been a harrowing ordeal.
A pair of doctors tried to convince her to allow them to treat her, but she brushed them aside, looking for an unoccupied vehicle. Just as the back ramp was closing I saw Lieutenant Rivers approach her, his left arm in a sling, and take her by the shoulder to lead her towards the entrance to the base hospital.
The doctors inside the Bullhead I was on were quietly discussing treatment for Wilks and I. One of them reached out and pulled the release on the straps of my armor, sliding the chestplate off as they set to work stabilizing my spine.
Fear!
The belt shouted as it was removed from me, and I tried fruitlessly to reach out and protect it, but my body failed to respond. A moment later one of the flight doctors administered a sedative, causing me to fall into a deep dreamless slumber.
-/-
When I awoke I was in a clean hospital room. I began the now almost ritualistic process of trying to move my limbs, and was pleasantly surprised when my head shifted slightly. I was prevented from exercising the full range of motion by a brace on my neck, but it at least responded to my commands.
I inhaled deeply as I awoke, then dropped into a coughing fit as the air hit my dry throat.
"Ah, he awakens!" A kindly older voice said from beside me, and I twisted enough to see an elderly man with a dark complexion sitting beside me in some sort of mechanical chair. He had a name tag that read Polendina, Pietro, MD. But he was dressed in a casual earthy toned sweater and vest combination, with a grey flat cap on his head. I got a better look at his face as I managed to complete the turn, noting his friendly expression, graying beard, and small rim glasses.
"Doctor?" I managed to scratch out between coughing fits.
"Easy there son." He replied, his voice was remarkably warm. He pressed a lever on the arm of his chair, and it strode over to where a pitcher of water and some paper cups were sitting on a small desk. He poured a cup and rode back over to hold the cup up to my mouth, allowing me to drink in small sips. The coughing subsided finally, and I managed to breathe more easily.
"Thank you." I managed to say after a moment.
"It's no trouble." He replied in a friendly tone, "Welcome to Atlas General Hospital, you've been here a few days." He resumed typing away on a terminal that was hooked up to some sort of equipment rigged to my hospital bed. After a moment he drove his odd mechanized chair to the doorway. The sound of the mechanical legs dropped away as he approached the opening. He handed a small note to someone outside the door and drove back over to his terminal.
Lieutenant Eugene Rivers poked his head in through the doorway as the Doctor rolled back to his computer. The Lieutenant was dressed in his casual PT uniform rather than his fatigues, and his left arm still rested in a sling, though he also now sported a cast on the arm as well. He waved with his right hand, then gave me a thumbs up, which I managed to weakly return. My muscles felt like jelly, and I was remarkably uncoordinated.
The Lieutenant backed out of the doorway and I was left alone with the doctor while he continued to work. I reached a clumsy hand down to my waist, and was disheartened to feel that my belt was missing. I had no clue where it was, or if I would even be able to get it back, though if Team SAGE was still around then I hoped one of them had bothered to hold on to it.
Eventually I managed to sit myself upright in the bed, looking over to where the doctor was still working quietly.
"Were you the one who fixed my spine?" I asked. He shook his head, then removed his flat cap and rubbed his arm over his forehead in what looked like a frequently practiced gesture.
"No, I'm afraid I'm not much of a surgeon." He replied with a self deprecating tone. "My specialties lie more towards the study of aura, and of the soul in general. I consult for Atlas on some of their projects. I was asked to help investigate the phenomena around your aura and how it seems to present itself." He pushed the terminal slightly away from himself and fixed me with a wide smile.
"Who knows?" He asked. "This may even help me with a project I've been working on."
"My aura?" I asked, concerned that an expert may discover that I hadn't actually unlocked my aura. If Team SAGE learned about it, then it wouldn't be hard for them to come to the logical conclusion that my powers were exclusively from my belt. I didn't understand everything about how my belt worked, but given that I had seen no evidence of magic anywhere besides my own equipment and that of Hyperion, it seemed wise to keep that information to myself.
"Yes," he replied in a friendly tone, "According to the report that Captain Stone filed upon her return to Atlas, you manifest aura in a manner that hasn't been seen before. Since I study aura and other aspects of the soul the report was forwarded to me." He spun the monitor of his terminal around to face me.
"I've been collecting data over the last few days while you were in recovery from your surgery. At first I assumed there was something wrong with my equipment, perhaps damaged in transit or poorly reassembled, but now I believe I have come to an accurate conclusion."
"And that is?" I asked pensively.
"You," He pointed towards me. "Do not have a soul."
I blinked.
"What?" I asked after a long moment. He nodded in agreement with my confusion, then pointed to some numbers on his screen that meant nothing to me.
"That's not the entire story." He elaborated, "But it does seem to me to be the most important and relevant piece of information for you." He flipped the screen back around and pulled up a different set of data.
"You see, you do have some small sliver of a soul, but I don't believe that it is actually yours." I struggled to grasp the concept, looking at him in confusion, so he continued speaking.
"I only managed to find that small piece of soul because of my work on another device, one meant to take a soul from one body and combine it with another in the new body. It seems to me, based on what I am seeing here, that a sliver of someone else's soul has been implanted into you. However, that in itself is actually less interesting than the fact that your own soul seems to have departed your body, or perhaps you never had one to begin with."
"So…" I asked. "What does that mean for me?" I asked lamely, trying to wrap my head around this new information.
"Well," he replied with a tone of intellectual curiosity that belied the devastating implications he was revealing to me. "Clearly you are no worse for wear due to your lack of a soul. You seem capable of living, breathing, making decisions, and according to the reports from Captain Stone you are even capable of fighting, and quite well at that. I theorize that you may lack some aspects of the normal human experience however."
"Like what?" I asked. He shrugged in reply.
"I don't know, I was hoping you could tell me. My colleagues and I theorize that the soul is the source of our desires and aspirations. More practically speaking we have been able to determine that it also contains at least some portion of our consciousness, including memories. It may be possible that your lack of a soul is one of the contributing factors to your memory loss, though I suspect that the head trauma is still directly related." He pushed his chair away from the terminal, leaning forwards and resting his hands on his knees.
"So," he continued thoughtfully. "I suppose the question is if you have experienced anything abnormal regarding your thoughts, desires, or memories."
I thought for a moment, unsure of what I wanted to tell him. He seemed nice enough, but revealing information about having visions of Hyperion's actions couldn't go well for me.
"If it makes you feel better," He offered. "I don't work for the Atlesian military, and I am under no obligation to share anything you tell me with them. In fact, medical privacy laws would prohibit me telling them anything private you decide to share with me unless I thought you were a danger to yourself. The good Lieutenant Rivers is also blocking the doorway with his semblance in order to give us privacy from any unwanted listeners."
I took a long breath, thinking through my options, then ultimately decided to trust him, for now. He was certainly my best hope at learning anything more about myself.
"Alright." I began. "Obviously I wouldn't know if my 'human experience' is different than others, but I do know that ever since I woke up in Argus I've been experiencing weird visions. It's like I'm a different person entirely, even though I still feel like myself." He frowned at the contradiction, but motioned for me to continue.
"It only happens when I'm either asleep or unconscious. Though I didn't experience any while I was out for the surgery, which was apparently several days ago."
He nodded.
"It was eight days ago." He informed me. "Your spinal cord had healed, but the nerve bundles inside were incorrectly connected, leading to your paralysis. It took multiple days and several surgeries to correct it. I'm glad to see it took, I know more than most how difficult being unable to walk can be." He gestured to the mechanical chair and I winced slightly, feeling a twinge of awkwardness that I had been able to recover when he clearly had not been so fortunate with whatever affliction he was battling.
"I wouldn't be surprised that the visions stopped while you were anesthetized." He continued, stroking his chin as he thought. "General anesthetic interferes with the brain's ability to form memories, so even if you were seeing these visions it is extremely unlikely that you would remember it. Please though, can you describe them in more detail?"
"Right," I said awkwardly. "Well, when I see these visions it feels like I'm living someone else's life, but it's the same person each time." He cocked his head slightly to the side, having now pushed his terminal away completely to focus on what I was telling him.
"Who is it?" He asked.
"I think it's Hyperion." I answered truthfully. "And that scares me."
He nodded quietly, giving himself time to think. Eventually he spoke again.
"It seems that my involvement in the investigation of your missing soul is fortuitous." He declared. "As I think I may have accidentally contributed to your situation."
I frowned. "How so?" I asked.
"Well," He reached up and adjusted his spectacles. "Some time ago Hyperion came to me, asking for my help to improve Atlesian powered armor designs. The military was shifting away from the powered armor concept to focus more on autonomous units, and he wanted my expertise in prosthetic engineering to help design a faster and more reactive system to allow soldiers to remain just as dextrous in their armor as they were outside of it." He looked away wistfully, remembering the project.
"At the time I was working on building that same device I mentioned earlier, the one to transfer a soul between bodies. Memories are a key aspect to the soul. If one's soul were to transfer to a new host, then their memories would also transfer. Having a soul split between two hosts could theoretically allow memories to be shared between the two at will. It's possible that Hyperion, or whatever his real name is, stole the plans and used them to impart some of his soul into you. For what reason I can't say, but I am sorry if your situation is somehow my fault."
"Huh." I replied, unsure how to feel about all these revelations. I took a moment to try to process the emotions I should be feeling. I should probably be feeling some sort of anger or resentment at my situation. Hyperion, an enemy, had implanted part of his soul into mine, apparently removing or destroying mine at the same time. That did help to explain why he had gone through the trouble of kidnapping Lieutenant Amber to try to get SAGE to hand me over to him. He probably wanted me back for whatever experiment he was trying to run.
Sensing that I needed time to process the new information, Doctor Polendina said his goodbyes and left me to my thoughts, promising to return the next day to continue our conversation.
-/-
Despite the anger I should have been feeling, all I was really experiencing seemed to be a feeling of bitter acceptance. Perhaps I had already known and made my peace with this information, but had forgotten about it when I was wounded. At the very least however, this gave credence to the visions I had been having. If they really were the memories of Hyperion, then I could rely on them to accurately feed me information regarding his activities.
Regardless of the reason I felt such a strange calmness, there was nothing I could do about it now, and I needed to figure out my next steps. I required two things, my belt, and to get out of this hospital.
My thoughts were interrupted by Lieutenant Rivers re-entering the room, attempting to wave off two hospital guards, one male and one female, who were evidently attempting to cajole him into something. Eventually he acquiesced, withdrawing a scroll from the pocket of his PT uniform and taking a photo with the two guards. He typed on the scroll for a moment, then collapsed the scroll and placed it back in his pocket. The two guards shook his hand, then both gave him a cheerful thumbs up and took up their original positions outside the door.
I frowned at the intrusion, then weakly held up my arms to sign "What was that?" I had memorized simple expressions and common words in sign language during my time around Team SAGE thus far, but the Lieutenant still did me the favor of painstakingly typing out his words on his scroll, then making the sign motions with his good hand.
"The good doctor asked me to block the door so you could discuss something privately. I had to keep the guards busy and distracted inside my Cone of Silence, so I took a page out of Sergeant Green's book and just lost at gambling to them for as long as I could." He smiled sheepishly. "I didn't have much cash on me, so I had to pay for that last round of cards by tagging them on my Atlasgram account."
I gave him a flat look, then motioned for the scroll. "If you don't want to tell me then that's fine." I wrote back.
He looked mildly taken aback at the insinuation he would lie to me, then tapped a few icons on his scroll, bringing up the post he had just made. True to his word there was a picture taken and tagged with the two guards. What really caught me by surprise was the follower numbers on his account.
"Over a hundred thousand followers?" I asked, "Are Grimm hunting videos that popular?" He shrugged sheepishly, then flipped through some of his posts to show me his page. There was a noticeable gap in his posts during the period in which he had been deployed to Argus, but to my surprise videos of Team SAGE fighting Grimm were not present. Instead his profile seemed to not even acknowledge his status as either Huntsman or military officer. I raised my eyebrows higher than I thought was even possible, then tapped out a message on his scroll.
"Makeup tutorials?" I asked incredulously, "Seriously? A man of your talents?" He gave me a light hearted shove with his good hand, then typed out a response.
"You're just jealous because you've got a face that not even makeup can save."
-/-
That night I dreamed again for the first time since I had been loaded onto the medevac Bullhead. I dreamed that I was landing my own aircraft, and was making my way through Atlas on foot. I stepped gingerly around a group of passersbys who seemed oblivious to my presence, my vision focusing on street signs as I navigated.
I could feel myself holding onto another person, and my hand gripped their shoulder as I steered them, but I couldn't see them when I looked. Together we strode around the city at an aggressive pace before arriving outside of Atlas General Hospital. Invisibly, we climbed to the roof of the hospital where I finally released my semblance and we both sat for a moment to allow my aura to recharge.
My friend, a young man around my age with a shaved head and a short brown beard looked at me.
"What's the confidence level we're operating on here Gary?" he asked.
"99%" I replied. "One of the helpers saw his name popup on the in processing list here and pulled his records. I know which room he's in, it should be relatively easy to get him out." He nodded, then sat back to wait. It would be another ten or so minutes before I had enough aura to feel comfortable breaking in.
I awoke, gasping for air and drenched in sweat. He was here, Gary was on the roof, and he was here for me. I stumbled to my feet, I had spent the day regaining control over my limbs, and it was going well, but not well enough that I would be running around anytime soon. Being paralyzed apparently had rather severe long term consequences. I grabbed my scroll, texting Lieutenant Rivers with shaky fingers.
"Hyperion is here" I said "Send for help, I'll try to head him off." I silenced the scroll and stuffed it into a pocket of the hospital gown I was wearing, then headed out into the hallway. One of the guards on shift stopped me with a hand held out towards me.
"Specialist" he said "You need to stay in your room please, it's for your own safety."
"I need to go," I replied, trying unsuccessfully to push past him. "You need to listen to me, I need to go now!" I shouted. The two guards started trying to wrangle me back into my room when Lieutenant River's Cone of Silence enveloped us. With his good arm he pulled me free of the guards, then motioned for them to draw their weapons.
Confused, one of the guards drew his sidearm, which Rivers took from him. He pocketed the pistol in his light PT jacket then motioned for a knife. Once he had it he used it to slice the cast off of his arm, wincing as he flexed his hand and elbow. Aura users healed faster than most people, but his arm still hadn't fully recovered from being forcibly reversed at the elbow. With two hands free he chambered the pistol, then took the guard's ammunition belt and strapped it around his waist, motioning for us to follow him.
We were moving down the hallways towards the stairwell, when suddenly the lights went out. Red emergency lighting snapped on a second later, and we picked up our pace until we were practically running down the hallway. My lack of coordination slowed us as I fell behind the others.
Rivers held the door to the stairwell open as I sluggishly jogged my way towards it. As I reached the stairwell I heard gunfire erupt downstairs, it sounded like pistol fire to me, but was quickly silenced. We emerged silently from the stairwell onto the ground floor. Lieutenant Rivers led the way, slowly opening the door and clearing the hallway we emerged into it. He stepped out into the hallway, then dodged to the side as an Atlesian Soldier flew past him, bouncing off a wall and rolling to a stop further down the hallway. Rivers brought the pistol up and fired silently at someone down the hallway out of my line of sight, and the soldiers and I rushed out to join him.
Down the hallway the man I had seen in my dream stood, lifting a security guard by the throat. A small royal purple glow transferred from the guard into the man and the guard fell limp. The young huntsman dropped him to the floor in a heap.
"Oh shit!" The guard next to me called out, "Thanatos!" He also leveled his weapon and began firing, joining in with Lieutenant Rivers. The low caliber civilian grade bullets bounced off of Thanatos' royal purple aura shield, casually fizzling against it and dropping to the ground. He squared up in a fighting stance, but relaxed when he saw me behind the firing line, waving and calling out.
I couldn't hear him with Lieutenant Rivers between us, but I began backing up. Thanatos blinked as a bullet caught him in the face, then rushed towards our group. He took a running leap, hands extended outwards trying to catch hold of Rivers and the other armed guard. The lieutenant twisted and dropped beneath his outstretched hand, bringing the knife he held in his off hand up to slash Thanatos' arm.
Thanatos' aura flickered as his aura blocked the blow, then surged brightly as his other hand caught hold of the soldier, who had been too slow to avoid the attack. The same bright pulse of energy left the soldier and he dropped, his strength drained in an instant.
"Oh, hell" I exclaimed, backpedalling away. Thanatos kicked the limp body of the soldier across the hallway to hit the other guard, using him as an improvised weapon, then turned to face Lieutenant Rivers. For his part, the Lieutenant smoothly stood, reloading his weapon using his injured arm, then resumed firing as he backed away.
Thanatos dodged and twisted, bringing his gauntlets up in a flurry of blocks to deflect most of the shots as he closed the gap between the two fighters. Most huntsmen weren't fast enough to reliably block bullets, but it seemed that Thanatos had stolen the speed and strength of the guards he had fought, allowing him to anticipate Lieutenant Rivers' aim and place his metal gauntlets in the way of Rivers' line of fire.
He reached out again for the lieutenant, who leapt up and kicked off the wall to avoid his grasp. Rivers tumbled backwards down the hallway, landing awkwardly and rolling back to his feet. He continued back pedaling and dodging backwards towards the lobby as they fought, until finally Thanatos caught hold of his clothing, then dragged him back into a grapple. Their auras flashed brightly as Thanatos drained the power from Rivers' aura, and with his injured elbow Rivers was unable to escape the hold.
"Hey!" I shouted, having stumbled my way into the lobby. "Let him go!" I threw one of the knives the guards had been carrying at Thanatos, only to watch him catch it in his left hand. He looked at me, confused.
"What the hell Grayson?" he asked silently from within Rivers' cone of silence. I stood up straighter, gathering myself despite my lingering weakness. "I said," I repeated more forcefully, emphasizing my words so he could read my lips. "Let. Him. Go."
A bright light flashed through the glass doors of the hospital lobby, and Rivers twisted out of Thanatos' grip, taking advantage of his left hand being busy holding the knife I had thrown. He rolled away from Thanatos, gray aura flickering, as a car slammed through the glass with a loud *Crash!*
The car soared through the air, slamming into Thanatos and carrying him backwards into the back wall of the room. The car carried through the wall part way, pinning him in the hole it created. The driver and passenger doors opened, and out stepped Captain Stone and Sergeant Green. They wore formal Atlesian uniforms, likely having just gotten out of some important event.
"We got your message" Sergeant Green called out, signing it as well for Lieutenant Rivers' benefit. He opened the back door on the passenger side, then withdrew a weapons case, tossing it to Rivers. He shrugged at me,
"Sorry bud," he remarked "Ain't got one for you." With that, he slipped out of his formal jacket, then unbuttoned the cuff links on his sleeves to roll them up to his elbows in anticipation of a fight.
Captain Stone came around the other side of the vehicle, reaching within her white formal jacket, and withdrawing her hand to reveal that she was holding my belt. She glanced down meaningfully at the magical belt she now held in her hand.
"I've got questions about this thing Specialist, I hope you have answers" She said. I took the belt gratefully, clasping it around my waist and feeling the power surge through me.
Family, New Friendship.
"I hope I have answers too." I replied. A moment later the car shifted, then slid backwards, the locked up wheels squealing on the smooth flooring of the hospital and leaving distinct tire marks. Thanatos emerged from the hole the car had created, a pissed off expression on his face.
"Alright" he asked, "Which one of you dead motherfuckers was driving?"
Team SGE leapt into action in a blur of motion, I took a step back while I felt the power and healing from the belt flow through me. Captain Stone led the attack, swinging wildly with her hammer and forcing Thanatos to side step. He reached out, trying to tag her with his draining semblance, but Sergeant Green's sword flashed in between them, batting his gauntleted hand away from Captain Stone.
Red plasma streamed from the edges of his sword in blinding arcs as he placed himself between Thanatos and Stone. Thanatos squared off, then released a flurry of blows towards Sergeant Green. The sergeant sucked in a breath and held it, activating his semblance.
He twisted and turned around the punches, using his sword to gently redirect attacks that came too close without overbalancing on his swing. His precognitive ability thrived in a one on one scenario, allowing him to dodge or block every strike even against Thanatos' enhanced speed. Captain Stone charged to the side, sweeping low with her hammer and creating space for Sergeant Green. Green stepped back, releasing his held breath and allowing oxygen back into his lungs while he relaxed his precognition.
Thanatos pulled back from Captain Stone, then switched tactics. Short barrels emerged from his gauntlets, and he fired off rapid shots towards Captain Stone. The captain blocked a few of the shots with the bulky head of her hammer, but more went through to damage her aura shield as she rushed to close the gap.
A silent shot rang out from Lieutenant Rivers and a high caliber round flew through the air, narrowly dodged by Thanatos. A second and third shot forced him to drop into a defensive stance, using his gauntlets to block the attacks. Stone and Green pressed the attack, flanking Thanatos and attacking him from both sides. Green's sword flicked in and out, lightly damaging Thanatos' aura as they fought.
Now fully recovered, I watched in awe as the team of operatives worked together in nearly flawless unison, their whole energy directed towards their opponent. Unfortunately, all of us missed it as a door flew open and an invisible presence crossed the room, slamming into Lieutenant Rivers. Distracted trying to check if Rivers needed her help, Captain Stone failed to dodge a hit, and her purple aura flashed strongly as her energy was drained.
Thanatos immediately used his newfound aura reserves to blitz forwards, landing another half dozen hits on Captain Stone before Sergeant Green managed to drive him back. While they fought I searched the room for signs of our invisible opponent, my belt surged with power and I felt my senses sharpen strongly.
Anger, Vengeance.
I spotted a small piece of paper on the ground shift as an invisible air current passing over it caused it to move. I pointed my finger at the place where I hoped my target was standing and shouted "Get him!"
Wrath!
Came the answer from the belt, as a thin green ray sprung from my finger, striking the invisible target and causing a bright fizzle of energy.
Hyperion's invisibility fell as his aura cracked and shattered in a burst of Cherenkov blue energy. His aura must not have had an opportunity to fully recharge after he had used it to get to the hospital. He stumbled backwards, his expressionless black helmet snapping away from Lieutenant Rivers to lock onto me. A thin line of smoke trailed up from my finger and as we stared each other down.
"LIWI?" he asked, and I heard a hint of almost desperation in his voice even through the filter in his helmet. "Grayson?" I leveled my hand at him again.
"That's right." I told him with determination and confidence I only half felt. "You want me? Come and get me." The belt fired again as Lieutenant Rivers regained his feet. This time a shotgun of orange fiery rays sprayed out from my outstretched hand. Only one connected, but it threw off Hyperion's balance and scorched his armor as he brought his rifle to bear. I dove for cover as a hail of shots chased me, tucking and rolling behind a reception desk.
One shot caught my leg, causing me to spin awkwardly as I rolled. I checked for bleeding, but noticed that the injury was only a welt, consistent with a rubber bullet. I emerged from cover in time to see Lieutenant Rivers swinging into Hyperion's back with his weapon in halberd mode. His weapon bit deeply into the armor plating, and Hyperion grunted, snapping his weapon into a spear and lashing out with a series of quick strikes.
Rivers' gray aura flickered, dangerously close to shattering. I took aim and fired again, my intentions intuitively understood by my belt. This time a bolt of frost lanced outwards and caught Hyperion mid swing. The frost was partly deflected by his armor, small gray runes flashing on one of the armor panels, but it still injured his leg, forcing him to dance backwards away from Lieutenant Rivers with a slight hobble.
"His armor has magical protections" I whispered to my belt as it built its power back up "Can we do anything about that?"
Affirmation. Confidence.
Rivers continued his attack with a series of slashes and thrusts, the range of his halberd equaling Hyperion's spear. Hyperion twisted around a thrust, closing the gap and delivering a solid stab into Rivers' chest. The lieutenant's aura shattered in a silent explosion of translucent gray shards, then Hyperion's uninjured leg swept outwards in a vicious low kick to take out his knees.
Rivers fell as his legs were stolen out from underneath him, raising his weapon above him in a desperate attempt to defend himself. As Hyperion brought his spear down for the killing blow I slammed into him, my undefended shoulder bruising and breaking against his powered armor. Energy surged from my belt in a sort of inverse wavelength to the protections from his armor and I could see the magical defenses flicker and fail as the runes were disrupted.
With my uninjured left hand I swung a hook hard into where his jaw was covered by his helmet. Concussive power surged through my fist and launched him backwards away from Lieutenant Rivers. He flew across the room to crash into a wall, knocking over a row of chairs and falling awkwardly amongst them. I reached a hand down to help the Lieutenant to his feet as my other shoulder popped itself back into place, the healing from my belt surging with full force.
I could tell the belt was giving me it's all, but was more than halfway out of its energy reserves. Apparently the offensive magic it was capable of drew much more of its power than simple healing or enhancements.
My attention was drawn to the other end of the room where Thanatos had Captain Stone in a chokehold while fending off attacks from Sergeant Green. The Captain's purple aura shattered as the last of her energy surged into recharging Thanatos' own aura. I pointed towards Thanatos, indicating that Lieutenant Rivers should join that fight, then turned back to finish the fight with Hyperion.
I was caught flat footed as a spear flew towards me from where Hyperion had landed. It struck me in the chest hilt first, the sharp end pointed away from me despite the javelin style throw. The unexpected blow caused the belt's protective spell to crack and fizzle, and some of the energy carried through to knock the wind out of me. A half second later one of the chairs Hyperion had crashed into flew across the room to slam into me. I staggered back, trying to regain my combat stance as I breathed heavily. Hyperion slowly approached me from across the room, he muttered a phrase under his breath and his weapon leapt through the air back to his hand.
"What's going on here Grayson?" he asked in English through his heavily modulated helmet speakers. "I'm trying to get you out of here man, what gives?" I snarled, then pointed my hand and fired another beam of green energy. He anticipated it, slipping to the side and allowing it to fly past him to disintegrate a large section of the wall behind him.
"What's going on," I replied, still trying to catch my breath as I wheezed out the words, "Is that I'm going to make you pay for what you did to my team, for what you did to me, and for what you did to Lieutenant Amber." He stopped, confused.
"I'm sorry what?" He asked, "Grayson it's me, Gary."
"I know!" I shouted, firing another burst of scorching rays. This time two of the rays slammed into him as he evaded the third and staggered backwards.
Revenge!
The belt shouted with glee. Sirens sounded outside the shattered glass doors of the hospital as Atlesian police arrived on the scene, more huntsmen teams couldn't be too far behind. Hyperion's helmet turned towards the opening, then rapidly shifted to check the status of the fight between the other huntsman and operatives. Thanatos was currently in the middle of a headbutting war with Captain Stone while they fought for control of her hammer. It was unclear who was winning. Rivers helped Green back to his feet, then they both rejoined the fight against Thanatos.
"Time to go!" Hyperion shouted in English, then sprinted across the room towards me. I brought my hand up to fire again, but he ducked smoothly under it as a beam of frost lanced across the room to impact the room behind the wall I had previously destroyed. I tried to dance backwards out of his reach, but he caught hold of me and tackled me out through the broken doors to the hospital. We emerged into the cold night air, but adrenaline kept me warm as I struggled against his grip.
"The itsy bitsy spider…" He recited under his breath, then he switched his grip on me to be more supportive and strode directly up the outer wall of the hospital, using the magical grip of his armored boots to find purchase on the otherwise smooth vertical surface. I tried to break loose, but he broke out into a run, and once we were above the third story I was forced to hang on or fall to my death.
Hyperion jogged up the side of the building, clutching me by one arm and my hospital gown, then leapt up and over the side of the roof, setting me down and allowing me to stand on my own feet. He spoke in English again to someone else, presumably his partner downstairs.
"I need a distraction, lead SAGE away and meet at point three in thirty minutes." I pulled back my fist to hit him again but he quickly used his grip on my gown to pull me into a grapple. We wrestled for a few seconds, but with his strength amplified with both his aura and his powered armor he quickly overwhelmed my defense and advanced his position.
He pulled me into his guard, driving us to the ground and sitting on my chest to pin me in place. He leaned onto me, using a free hand to reach back and rip off my belt. With an electric pop the belt came loose, and he threw it away from us to land on the side of the roof. I tried to wriggle my way out from under his weight, but he reared back and delivered a swift punch to my face, slamming my head back and causing my nose to start bleeding profusely as my vision swam.
"Ah dammit" he said, then held out a palm and chanted "Rain rain go away." a familiar healing magic flowed from his palm while a series of golden runes lit up along the glove, and the bleeding stopped.
"What the actual hell?" I asked.
"Don't look at me," he said, reaching up to remove his helmet. "You're the one that said we should base the new magic words on kids' games and fairy tales." With a soft click his helmet detached and he pulled it free. I froze in shock at what I saw.
He looked identical to me, though clearly had not been taking care of himself lately. His brown hair was several inches long, whereas mine was cut short, and it was matted and plastered to the side of his head with sweat. He hadn't shaved in weeks and the patchy facial hair he was growing looked terrible. His similarly brown eyes were tired and bloodshot, and there was a scar running along the right side of his chin that I lacked. His face held a mixture of anger, confusion, and relief as he looked at me.
"Now," he tossed the helmet aside, then released me from the grapple and stood, offering a hand to me. "Let's talk."
