NOVEL NEXT Chapter 94: The Face Of A Terrorist
"Surround the building!" Merk barked, approaching the warehouse that the suspicious individuals had taken refuge inside. "We've got them now!"
"Aye, sir!"
"That's Detective King!"
"Sorry, Detective King, sir!"
Merk advanced, his Core Controller already lighting up. "Attention, arsonists! Come out with your hands up and Core Controllers removed! By the authority of the City of Roses Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad, Northern Division -"
"Judicious, meticulous and perspicacious!" his subordinates chanted in unison.
"- you are under arrest!"
There was a glow inside the building, purple that faded to red and then burned yellow. "It looks like they've decided to resist. Men, move in!" Merk commanded.
Before any of them could take more than a single step, the warehouse erupted with rainbow light. The roof exploded as an Armour Core, swelling to full size, burst into the skyline.
It was horrifying.
The chest and limbs of Moonlight Rose had been defaced, grafted into massive, spiky black gauntlets. The sacred battle-mask of Yevgenia had been squashed into the unmistakable helmet of a Black Knight. Arcs of red, purple and yellow fire crackled over its body, turning the entire abomination into a massive walking pyre.
This was their foe. There was no doubt about it. This hideous, ghastly visage was the true face of a person who hated the City of Roses and everything it stood for, so much so that they would burn it all to ashes.
Merk could only raise his Core Controller and grit his teeth. "Come to me, the Detective King!"
<=====}—o
"We're on fire," Mikayla numbly realised. She looked at the spear that had been combined from her sword and Nya's kusarigama, which now resembled a torch. "Why are we on fire?!"
"You should have predicted that this would happen when you plugged the arsonist into your Blessing of Teamwork! Did you think it would just ignore her Neidan?" Nya burst out.
"Don't worry. Everything's better when it's on fire," Shao said with the kind of cheeriness that only a child could muster.
"If it makes you feel any better, only the outside is on fire. We're safe," Nya reasoned.
"Just because they think we're the arsonist doesn't mean I actually want to set anything on fire!"
"You're no fun," Shao sulked.
Before them, a brown Armour Core that looked like a Greek suit of armour being worn under a trenchcoat and fedora was growing to match them, with bulky shoulders that flashed red and blue. "The Detective King commands you to surrender!"
"Are we really doing this? We're fighting the police?" Nya whimpered.
"We're not fighting the police, we're fighting one corrupt dick to save the life of an inno-" Mikayla hesitated. "A child who didn't know any better and does not deserve life in jail . . also, wait, does that guy have sirens on his shoulders?"
"Hey!" Shao realised, pointing at the viewscreen. "That's the really mean man!"
"It sure is," Mikayla distractedly agreed, trying to figure out which way they could go that would result in minimal damage to the City of Roses.
"Let's set him on fire!" the urchin commanded.
"Wait what
no!"
Before Mikayla could do anything to stop her, their Blunderbuss expelled a gout of what looked suspiciously like burning napalm, splattering all over the Detective King's head and chest, and sending stray globs of flame into the city behind him. "I got him!" Shao cheered.
"You're also setting more of the city on fire!"
"It looks better that way anyway,"
"Okay, we need to get out of the city
now,"
Mikayla asserted.
"I'm working on it!" Nya protested. The Moonlight Knight retreated, putting distance between them and the Detective King. There was a
crash
as she accidentally stepped on a building and collapsed it. "Whoops," the yaoguai sheepishly added.
For a second, Mikayla panicked, but then remembered that, thankfully, this entire section of the city had been evacuated. Even if they caused property damage, there shouldn't be any innocents to get caught in the crossfire.
Which was a relief, because there was some crossfire coming their way.
A holographic grey riot shield appeared in Merk's hands, quickly followed by a flail, a length of chain that ended in a spiky ball and hung from the right hand of his Armour. He swung it, and the chain stretched, sending the ball flying into the Moonlight Knight's chest.
They staggered under the blow, their foot coming down on a building shaped like a large apple. Mikayla cursed, and was very careful to land their next step in the street.
"C'mon! Hit him!" Shao commanded.
"I can't assault an officer of the law!" Nya protested.
"Sure you can, it's easy. Do it like this!" Shao gripped the controls, and suddenly the Moonlight Knight had adjusted its grip on their spear, taking full advantage of its length to slap the Detective King back and forth with the flat of its blade.
"How are you doing that?!"
"Just think about what you want it to do, and it happens, dummy," Shao waved her off and kept whacking the Detective King.
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"She's not wrong," Mikayla quietly added.
An audible growl echoed from inside the opposing Armour's trenchcoat, and it began swinging its ball and chain in circles, building up momentum.
Mikayla frowned. "Wait, I read about this in medieval history," She wracked her brains. "It's supposed to be a really bad idea to use a sword or spear to fight someone with a flail, because -"
Merk swung his weapon, and Shao had left their spear overextended. The chain wrapped around their blade and its haft, seemingly locking into place so that their weapons were snared together.
And then Merk twisted his whole upper body in a violent motion that shattered their spear into Mana dust.
". . that happens,"
"Oi!" Shao beat her tiny fists against the control panel. "You broke my stick!"
The controls, being a mental construct, reformed to her desires, and summoned a Big Red Button in front of her. Naturally, she didn't think twice about pressing it.
The Moonlight Knight's shoulder-mounted Cannon spat out a flaming meteor, one that hit the Detective King's riot shield and exploded. The force released was enough to shatter it and send their foe crashing to the ground, crushing several burning buildings under its hardlight rear end. Burning shrapnel from the explosion scattered in every direction, spreading fire wherever they landed.
Mikayla watched the collateral damage with mounting horror. ". . Out of the city!
Right starring now!"
"I'm on it! Fix our weapon!" Nya agreed, pushing Shao away from the controls. The Moonlight Knight promptly turned and fled, stepping into one of the main thoroughfares that ran through the City of Roses and charging northwards, away from the blazes.
Nodding, Mikayla focused on their Mana flows, remembering what she'd done against the Leadbeater Possum and diving into the merged Armour's Mana flows to repeat the feat. ". . Why is
our Mana
on fire?!"
"It's better that way!" Shao cheered.
"Riiiiiiiight. Um," She forced herself to take a deep breath, remembering her Firestarting Punch technique. One of its three components was fireproofing her hands. She shook her wrists out, coaxing the Mana into the pattern of grooves and ridges that she'd memorised, then plunged her hands into the Mana flows of the Moonlight Knight and got to work smoothing out the damage.
"The meanie's chasing us!" Shao clawed at their controls, and a quick glance behind them confirmed that Merk had gotten the Detective King back on its feet and was in pursuit. Shao whined, because the Cannon and Blunderbuss on their shoulders were not obeying her attempts to reverse and open fire. "Why can't we shoot backwards?!"
"Well, I suppose we cannot look any
more
guilty at this point," Nya groaned. "Fine," She waved her arm, and strings of Mana wrapped around it like a pulley system. "Binding of Thorns!"
"Lemme help!" Shao chimed in, a joystick flying into her hand.
Mikayla wasn't even surprised when a set of flaming vines burst out of the ground and sent the Detective King toppling over, spreading in every direction to bind it and causing a fresh wave of flames to fill the streets.
Nya's eye twitched. "Why did you set my Technique on fire?!"
"Fire solves problems!" Shao insisted.
"Fire solves problems," Mikayla unintentionally said in unison, rolling her eyes. The sarcasm dripping from her words somehow flew over Shao's head, as the little yaoguai just grinned at her.
Something suddenly occured to Mikayla. "Hey, wait, that guy had a whole squad backing him up, why is this a one-on-one?"
<=====}—o
"Edict E-6 is the bane of my existence," one of Merk's subordinates idly complained as they watched the fight.
"Was that the one which says that only one member of the Extraordinary Criminal Investigation Squad -"
"Judicious, meticulous and perspicacious!"
". . the boss isn't here, you don't have to do that,"
"It's become an ingrained habit," he admitted sheepishly. "But no, you're thinking of E-7. That one makes sense, if all of us got giant we'd do more damage to the city than the perp. E-6 is the one which says we have to keep wearing all this horrible hot armour even when everything around us is on fire,"
"Ah, right. I'm with you there,"
<=====}—o
When every step took them fifty metres, it didn't take long at all for the Moonlight Knight to reach the edge of the city. Unfortunately, the Detective King had recovered and was still pursuing them.
There was a stripe of farmland that separated the City of Roses from a forest to the north, and Nya halted them when there were only half-grown crops underfoot. She silently apologised to whoever's harvest they had just ruined, but it was better than trampling buildings and continuing to spread the blaze. Since Merk was at most a minute away, this would be the site of their clash.
Which meant Mikayla and Nya had about sixty seconds to strategise.