NOVEL NEXT 180 - Turned Around
It was undeniable. Petty glee and pride ran through my system as the cowboy merc's expression turned from one of confused irritation to stark realization. His cigar dropped from his mouth as he expressed his last thoughts.
"Fuckin' twins were supposed to deal with that super bitc-"
His admonition of Roxy's persistence never completed. Eighty percent of the ceiling above him and his goons burst downward, showering them with a thick rain of burning lava. A rather considerable amount of burning precipitation, considering.
Amber light illuminated the glass of my goggles. Intense heat washed over me. I watched in silence as the merc screamed, his skin and muscle burning and melting from his bones. Roxy landed in the layer of lava pooling around the floor. Her legs were bright with the flowing molten stone. Eyes aflame. She clapped her hands together, sandwiching the man's head between them. Instant mercy.
The rest of the gathered group weren't so lucky, even if their muted vocal complaints barely made it over the sound of melting tactical gear and destroyed barricades. Alongside the parts of melted terrain, there were a couple of other skeletons that had fallen from above.
A previously hidden machine sparked and fizzled out. The wash of hot air blew away the fuzz of electrical interference. I sighed and relaxed my posture. My lens flickered into life, revealing messages I hadn't been able to receive prior.
//Clara: Your systems are showing increased slowdown. Unknown tech level.
//Clara: There are more mercenaries on the floor above you.
//Clara: They are attempting to stop Rockslide.
//Clara: Unsuccessfully.
It was simple to see why, without the exact story being told. My plan was just for Roxy to drop down and destroy the tech for me. I had no idea she could even produce this amount of excess lava, to the point of nearly making a swimming pool of the ward above. The twins, who had been sent to interrupt her while I was stunned, clearly had zero clue either.
While metal cracked, and technology hissed or popped, Roxy stepped over to me. The edges of the lava were cooling now, darkening into solid rock. The shocked and dying bodies of the plant mercs became baked into this rough mess.
"That was… more exhausting than expected." She gave me a smile as she shook dried stone from her legs.
[You're telling me. I was hoping they'd shoot me so I wouldn't fall asleep.]
I rolled my neck. This was on the Government, for telling the mercenaries that capturing me was an option with benefits. Greed knew no bounds, and I was sure there were those who would love to pull me apart to see how I worked. I had a feeling the Gov often learned slowly, through many mistakes. At least until they scraped together the barest kind of victory, or cleaned house and replaced those responsible with another set of fresh ideas.
Chevalier was their best idea. Doing it in front of the whole city was rather brazen, but almost successful. From there, any further plans were spiraling out of control.
"Getting through to the basement will be a bitch." Roxy pulled a face and looked around at the mess she had created. "Building plans say the floor is three times as thick. I can get through it, but it'll be super fucking obvious."
[Basement door is near the middle of the hospital, by a back entrance.]
//Clara: There is an outdoor service elevator, but it hasn't been fully installed.
//Clara: Unsure whether access is available.
//Clara: Traditionally. I'm sure Rockslide could forge a path.
The super didn't seem so convinced. In between stepping on the heads of those plant mercs that hadn't died yet, she seemed to be chewing on her thoughts.
[You're thinking that there is a high chance collateral might cause us issues.]
"Yeah." Roxy wrinkled up her nose. "Collapsing a hospital onto the hostage is one thing, but they might have more soft targets down there. We're a little blind."
Clara mentioned that there might be ingress points her drone could fit through for some reconnaissance. My attention was drawn away from my lens to the staircase behind me, as footsteps led to the emergence of the rest of our team.
Roy whistled as his eyes went over the state of the wide lobby. Belle gave me a glance, but walked straight past me. Ren stopped beside me and nodded.
"Criminal has been handed off to the authorities. All other floors are cleared. Doesn't seem like they were prepared for a full group of supers."
[Not ones like us. Thank you. I'm… not convinced the last leg of this adventure will be so simple.]
Perhaps a thought with some nuance to it. My choices and efforts over these last few months are what had made this possible. The supportive friends, experience gained, and technology acquired. Agent W might have gotten this far on his own, but with terrible injuries. Maybe the Gov expected my bloodied body to slump down into the basement, totally at their mercy.
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I wasn't even as manic and crazed as expected. Not that I was disappointed about that fact.
Against all odds, the cowboy hat owned by the merc leader had survived the shower of lava, and now sat on Belle's head. She turned back to me and spun the two revolvers in her hands.
"League will shit themselves over the mixed branding themes, but I'm having fun." She smiled and glanced around the partially melted bodies. "Somebody has to."
Personally, I was happy to have a gas mask with working filters. Captain was over by the wall, a grimace on his face and a distant thousand-yard stare. Roxy had just finished stomping out the last of the plants.
I took a few steps forward, getting a good view of the floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the lobby. Daylight, and the calm of the closed car park that ended with the fences sectioning off the hospital under construction from the rest of the city. From here, I could be fooled into thinking everything was fine out there. We could leave, and everything would be fine.
But we couldn't. It wasn't.
[Any thoughts on breaking into the basement, Captain?]
Roy blinked a couple of times before tearing his attention away from the carnage to respond. "Breaching a bunker? Usual advice is don't. Defenders have the advantage unless you have a ton of gas you can pump through the vents."
//Clara: Nothing in the quantity required to be effective.
He clicked his tongue. "Then we just stick our necks out and hope we can take whatever they have planned for us."
The murmurs from the others told me that they weren't so keen on that plan. Not that anyone had a better idea. Even I was coming up short. The stairs into the basement would be guarded, certainly. Trapped and filled with whatever last-ditch efforts they'd been able to-
I paused and frowned at the windows again. My internal organs had lurched, as if Chevalier had just landed and was about to burst through into the lobby. Other than the crack of cooling material and low voices of my companions, there were no other sounds. My right hand twitched.
//Clara: Fighting the exhaustion is wearing you out, Gunquake.
//Clara: Sometimes these things are a sudden dip, rather than a gradual erosion.
//Clara: Unfortunately, you will die.
//Clara: die die die die
I shook my head, and the last two messages vanished from my lens. Roxy's shadow extended, washing over the floor to fill the wall opposite the windows. An ink spill that drew me toward oblivion. A wavering shade that-
Belle put her hand on my head. I hadn't even noticed her approach. She wore a concerned scowl beneath the stolen cowboy had, and I was willing to guess it wasn't because she couldn't check my temperature that way.
"I know you won't let us do this alone," she said softly. "So, a decision needs to be made now before you get worse."
Ignoring the fangs she had grown, she had a point. They all did. Even the small dog in the corner barking. Neat tune, though. I bobbed my head along, feeling the groove. Belle seemed to read this as my agreement to her statement - not that I could remember what she had actually said.
While most of my brain was turning to slurry quicker than this field of half-entombed mercenaries, I held on to enough common sense to remain functional. Perhaps that was my synapse connections. Stability in functional connections. Maybe I needed to pull them out to gain freedom.
I flexed my metal fingers back and forth.
"What's your call, Dubs?"
My eyes flickered up to Roxy, who had also appeared before me via teleportation. She looked normal. A shining goddess amongst the filth. Shelter from the storm. A tall glass of metaphors.
[I will stride through with the weight of my existence shouldered. Endure their onslaught. Persist.]
Belle murmured something to the super, and her concerned brow transferred over. Multiplication. Still, her fiery eyes went back to me, and she nodded.
"Lead the way; we will back you up however you need."
This was my rodeo, after all. If it weren't for Boss, then we wouldn't be here. Even that was a thin thread. The Government had put down a mousetrap for me. Dangerous, but if I were smart enough, I'd make away with the cheese. And the hells knew I loved cheese. The map appeared in my left lens, and I started off through the rat maze to the destination.
Clara reeled off updates between death threats. It made it easy to ignore the false information, my mind trying its best to trip me up - but my mental footwork was impeccable. Still no leads on Kingston or Chevalier. I wasn't sure what the S-Rank team was doing and wasn't about to attempt sending a message to Silhouette to find out. If they couldn't find the cheese, then that wasn't very gouda.
I wasn't about to judge. One more uncomfortable encounter and I'd either be too out of my mind to continue, or asleep. It was better than being near death or maimed, like usual. Other than surviving an ambush and putting some government pawns in the dirt, I hadn't really achieved much today.
"Clara says the rest of the floor is clear." Roxy pushed through a set of double doors. "Which also means that the group downstairs is stuck. Unless there is a secret entrance."
Ren shook her head. "None that I saw. Clara hasn't come across anything obvious."
[What about the spiders?]
Eight eyes fell on me.
[The, uh, League. How badly are we ignoring their orders?]
//Clara: They've been relatively hands off.
//Clara: Use your knife to take your hands off.
//Clara: Concerning, but not unexpected, Gunquake.
She probably meant the radio silence rather than the insinuation I didn't need my digit-holders anymore. Most of the Directors didn't care for me, and weren't about to send me off to earn some gold stars in front of the city. They were probably pleased I'd sunk back into the shadows and there was a chance I'd fuck up and get myself killed. With their hands full of everything else going on in Goldarch, the cheddar was all mine.
One long spin down a corridor constantly shifting, and then we were there.
The wide metal door led down to the basement. It was closed, naturally. I expected more… glamor to it. Gravitas.
As it stood, it looked like any other door I had seen in my life. No obvious traps. Zero indication that what I wanted was right there, down a few steps. What kind of trap awaited me? My mind boggled. Were they even down there? I could almost taste the blood and gunpowder. That, and cheese.
The Natural Disasters stood around the door.
I held out my hand, and gave them the most lucid, grounded, and comprehensive battle plan they'd ever heard. Surely.