There is Light In the Darkness
The Outlaw diligently types on the typewriter on her desk, transcribing a perfume ad from the nonsense language of the East to the textual version of her Western tongue. Her hat covered her eyes as her fingers worked quickly, having adapted to the clerical work of a civilized world. As much as it went against her nature, a lot of women in the East were professionals such as this: support positions that left hard and dangerous labor to men.
Her fashion had adapted as well, her white blouse's high collar decorated with a simple brooch of a painted wildflower her scant friends at the office had insisted would make her look nicer as the sleeves on her forearm were puffed out, a pointless luxury back west. Her skirt was long and colored in mint green with a paisley design while even her boots bore a small heel and embroidered flowers on the ankle. Her hair was tamed in a low, tight bun she had finally taught herself to do free of her angel's assistance.
As the lunch bell rang, she finished checking her work and headed up to the building's roof, The failed remains of a garden that some fool tried to make before realizing the smoke in the air even killed all but the most resilient plants. The Outlaw sees her Angel fly up to meet her as a faint smile appears on her face while they share a meal, the angel brings her some ladies' fashion magazines to peruse while she eats some peppered jerky.
"The ladies at the store I got these at said they'd be happy to have you come by and be fitted for a dress for the Pageant! While we might have to eat a bit less for a while, we could rent fine jewelry to appear with finery without bankrupting ourselves too" he says as he kicks his legs and flutters his wings. The Outlaw's usual stoicism is broken by her guardian angel's generosity in helping with something she expected out of his skillset, but it seemed the world of ladies' fashion was something he navigated better than her.
She hugs him, and he wraps her in one of his wings. She cuddles closer to him, lifting her hat to reveal sparkling eyes and an overexcited smile. A part of her wants to stay like this forever as she feels a dirty truth ready to come out: her quest to kill her past, that they are both skipping meals to fund it without her angel knowing the true intentions behind it.
Maybe he'll understand this as divine retribution for trying to get her back into the life he rescued her from, that one-legged man elder who wanted to hire her wouldn't be happy till he had her by the neck and bound him, willing or not.
Right as she opens her mouth though, he looks toward the door to the roof, seeing it start to open. He flies out of sight as the Outlaw scrambles for her hat, adjusting it quickly while her most consistent friend comes up, her doll-jointed fingers and tinted ivory skin clicking as she steps closer to her quiet friend: she was strange even by the East's standards given her mechanical nature. Her glass eyes blink as two others follow her, a shy girl from her department with blue hair and oddly mesmerizing eyes, and an almost ridiculously strong-looking man with black hair who managed to jam himself in a suit to do sales work.
"Come this weekend, would you like to go take an exam for a state license? We're all quite new and the fare there would be less if we split it 4 ways" the living doll says.
The Outlaw looks away for a moment but sees her angel give her a thumbs up from his hiding spot as she picks a feather out of her hair. She nods to the others, going with them to book Omnibus tickets for the trip with their meager allowances and wealth combined.
Sally awoke from her nap on the way to the Tokyo testing grounds with a feather in her mouth: She spat it out and adjusted her hat-veil combo as she sat up, Noah's larger wings wrapped around her to keep her warm. It was mid-October, and it was still possible to earn a provisional license, it just meant going on weekends and losing more time to plan 1-D's attempt to win the festival. It was her only way to be free of Desolator, to hunt him down and make sure he was incarcerated or killed.
She looks toward Noah's beaming smile: not wanting to think about the other issues in her life and building up more pressure in this test than there already was. She was betrayed out of her first chance by a bug-themed Ninja Judas, but today she was only taking it with 3 other members of her class.
Ashleigh had come alone and seemed happier for it as she listened to music while watching the gloomy urban sprawl out of her window. The last thing she needed was Mio around to mess her head while trying to get this done.
Seeing McCarthy so cozy with Abrams was normal, not to say she NEEDED Imai to come to watch her. He'd been practicing for the festival as much as he was studying class materials, which was a lot. It would have been unreasonable to ask him to spare a day off just to comfort her and put an expectation on him like that.
Still, she couldn't shake her underlying fear of McCarthy: Even with Abrams around to keep her from finally snapping fully. She'd rant to anyone who would listen that during the maze exam, Hoge used her as a distraction to slip by Impakt, a story nobody could confirm, though the only one in the class with the courage to think Sally was saving face and express it was Inigo: It earned him more friendly fire from the gun nun while training than he usually got. Even the American's name was scary: Last Rite sounded like religious serial killer or villain more than a hero's callsign.
Seeing her with her boyfriend was like seeing those videos of big cats being cute around their handler: for the moment she looked sweet, but one false move and she is back to being a potential danger.
Takara cradles a camera drone on her lap while she sits perfectly upright, wearing a navy blue suit for the exam as she looks at Sally and Noah: She'd been over a lot more to Sally's place as of late to help her clean, as she was often complaining about being very busy. It also gave her a chance to watch some cartoons in the background with Sally to offer context for some of the more American aspects of things. She had wanted to be around for the first exam in Nagoya, but her creator said there were legal issues, and she would have to stay behind. She was overjoyed at finally being able to show off her training, even if she only had four friends to access as sources of power.
"Are you nervous, Takara?" the drone says, the voice of Reika coming through as she works in her lab.
"Yes, but that is only natural in this situation, correct?"
"Indeed, this is a big day for both of us. I'll be keeping an eye on everyone, but I'll have a special eye for you"
"Thank you," Takara says, her digitized voice projecting a feeling of appreciation toward her creator as she hugged the drone and drew some wary eyes from the other passengers due to her being a robot talking to another robot.
A part of her feels... warm: usually this was a a sign of overheating and would have her creator take a look at her, but this felt emotional. She's reminded of Sally's fiery complaints and speeches, her stubborn and bull-headed tone. She looks over to the other students from her class on the train: Ashleigh reminds her of snow, cool and furtive whereas Jugo is like loud and energetic thunder with the same effect of fear when he decides to use his power.
She opens some of her vents to vent the physical heat out while trying to center herself: Today would require focus and trust with her friends and being hesitant was not what she was taught a hero should be.
Jugo couldn't help but feel hyped: This test wasn't some big puzzle, or at least he hoped it wasn't. He'd be able to do his "walks" legally now, maybe even smoke out some real villains to test himself against once he kicks this test in the ass! The company wasn't his usual training partners: Sally had a phobia to a real fight since she relied on knocking you out with her guns before you even got close, Ashleigh's quirk forced her to get a victory in under a minute, and Takara was almost as much of a wildcard as Chris in how she fought. They'd help for sure though: with all the hospitalizations even Sally was talking more candidly and hanging out with people besides her boyfriend.
Everything was coming up Jugo today, and he had a good feeling it would continue like that.
Noah let the other spectators have his close-up seats to the town-scale testing site: It only seemed right given the fact the whole thing was going to be seen on TV screens anyway. He said another prayer for Sally: she had the drive to righteous work but had a hard time with the maze in Nagoya. He should have insisted on sticking with her instead of having her run off.
Her side of the story was more chilling, and he wanted some way to prove to Sally that she was misinterpreting the situation so the rivalry she had with Hoge could end: Wrath and Envy were deadly sins and a more judgemental part of him saw that in his girlfriend. Hopefully, she'd find success in appeasing those demons to leave her alone for Christmas.
"Excuse me, Mr. Abrams?" two men in identical suits say to the short, winged boy. He looks up at them and greets them politely
"What can I do for you?" the angel asks
"We’re from a Hero Agency, and wanted to know if you could tell us about Last Rite: She's a prospect we’re considering"
Noah's face brightened at a chance to help Sally with her aspirations: "Of course"
Sally messes with her hair in the girls' prep room, unsure of whether or not she has time to braid it. On one hand, it would be out of her way, on the other it would be easier to grab and restrain her if some smart-ass kids wanted to fuck around and find out. She wanted to avoid firing on other students if she could, even if a part of her knew she could get away with it as a friendly fire incident so long as nobody got killed.
Noah was here: now was not the time to give in to her demons, especially with a provisional license on the line. God might take that chance away if she has too many thoughts of sin and vengeance.
The Rules for the exam(or at least the rules meant to affect how they act during the test..) were displayed on screens near the water cooler:
-The Objective was to reach 50 Points by the end of the 5-hour test.
-Point can be obtained in two(Listed...) ways: Either by defeating roaming robots or by rescuing mannequins.
-Robots come in three varieties: Small ones worth 1 Point, Medium ones worth 5, and a few large ones worth 10 on their own.
-For every rescue of either a student or mannequin, you gain 5 points.
-Intentional destruction to the site incurred a 5-point penalty per instance, while friendly fire resulting in the incapacitation of another student incurred a 10-point penalty.
Additionally, Sally heard some of the other girls in the locker room chatting about some pro hero she'd never heard of coordinating the drones. Apparently, he was a bug mutant of some kind with crazy mechanical skills. Then it hits her to look through her bag and hope she has the foresight to pack Chris's book of hero stuff: Its saved her ass on quizzes before and now it would be even more needed to know what she was fighting. She adjusts her tights as she reads, her Shiketsu hat worn over her veil and the jacket worn over her tunic.
Compound sits in a dark room with computer monitors, his large insectoid eyes scanning the custom screens that give him a constant view of the testing sight. His fingers type quickly coding in automated orders and conditions: what students to hunt down, which ones to run from, and which ones to bait down to the sewers. He'd been tasked with playing the "villain" here, decided primarily because he was in the area and didn't have a loaded schedule. Most of the robots the testing sight had on hand were good enough, sturdy worker-bots armored up to be more of a challenge to the elementally inclined students. He'd taken the liberty to equip tranq dart guns at low dosage: This was a test, not an arrest.
His camera drones were already at their vantage points, transmitting their camera feed to him and the supervising body which would assign points: His only real goal here was to be a menacing presence and make sure these weren't just dumb robots. The test was supposed to be looking for courage and intelligence when approaching dangerous situations, rather than encouraging them to just rush ahead and destroy everything like a pubescent tidal wave.
A voice comes in through the intercom, a woman with a tired voice.
"Compound: our plant in the students figured out they know you're running the show"
"It'll be fine Sakagi-san, if anyone finds me I'll make sure to give them a real test of courage"
"...How many of your personnel drones do you have down there?"
"About 20 Wasps, 30 Horseflies. All entrances are monitored, got traps set to incase some kid with a magnetic quirk gets too close and figures out what's going on"
"Just remember a lot of these are washouts from Nagoya: I wouldn't expect total genius from this lot"
"I mean we've got some UA and Shiketsu kids in here..."
"Once again: It's the washouts," the woman says wearily as she closes the channel
The fly-man scoffs a bit, some acidic saliva splashing onto his arm sizzling harmlessly into his carapaced body: He was a washout by the time his antennae came in when he was four. If anything, these kids had even more experience than the ones that got through Nagoya and an even greater drive to take risks to pass. He didn't just take this job so he could make rent this month, he wanted to test the modern freaks of the hero school abilities by some of his metrics.
If anything, the sheer variety of quirks will be great training data for his newer AI frameworks and drone models.
Sally felt her heartbeat in her throat as she and the others from Shiketsu waited behind the sealed doors, desperately trying not to be the first ones to admit they were scared. Inside she was screaming at herself every lesson she had learned since arriving in Japan: Use rubber bullets on organic targets because the hunting laws here assume you are a brain-dead retard, don't turn your back to your classmates for too long when shit hits the fan, and that the organizers always had secret objectives lined up. Even as she ran through it all in her head, her heart felt like she assumed a line of Hiro's Cocaine felt. She had a headache, she was tapping her foot nervously like the autistic kid in middle school with the big overbite that she secretly found kind of cute. Her thoughts were a sawed-off shotgun spread of random anecdotes, repeated like a mantra of why she was doing this.
Ashleigh looks at Sally sympathetically: "It's alright McCathy, you're well suited to this test" she says trying to shrug off her nerves. Mio did absurdly well on her provisional exam and got through the first time, and she just wanted once to not let Mio have another piece of superiority over her.
"An anxious mindset will likely lead to worse performance, Sally-chan. I can administer encouragement protocols should you need it" Takara says cheerfully
"N-Not here and not now!" Sally says as she looks at the competition. Lots of the other students from other schools were grouped up with their peers as well, looking at the other schools with suspicion. The only person alone was at the back, a shady-looking boy in back with a stocky build and hair that stuck up like a lightning bolt.
He flexes a whirring metal arm with unnatural speed, noting down the reaction time on a clipboard board and doing some jumping jacks. He mutters to himself as Sally paces near enough to hear his voice: it sounds like the narrator of a 20th-century alien invasion movie with American Candance but spoken with the accent and language of Japan.
Jugo does one-armed pushups on the ground as either a distraction tactic or to get himself pumped up as clanking can be heard on the other side of the door: The robots must be ready and everybody can tell.
[https://youtu.be/AWuDqCtoo7s?si=a3P9u8uvizb2nII6]
When the door finally opened, all hell broke loose: and it only opened halfway! People climb over each other to scramble inside, some willing to push others and exchange one or two blows before they seek rescue targets or robots to slay. Sally walks along the wall while taking a moment to survey the battlefield for a good sniper's nest. She spots a 2 story building with a ladder on its side and a shed on its roof. While Takara advances slowly with Sally, Ashleigh does her best to keep up with Jugo, who is already wrestling a loader bot twice his size while waiting for Asheigh's quirk to go off.
Sally and Takara move from cover to cover, avoiding bursts of airsoft pellets and tranquilizer gas grenades. Takara had listened to Sally's suggestions and memorized some hand signals that Sally used to communicate in loud, chaotic situations like an urban firefight and followed the nun's lead. While a pack of UA kids with fancy costumes seemed to be setting up a kill zone that baited robots in with illusory copies of a pink-haired girl, they were able to reach the ladder.
Takara motions for Sally to climb first, the android's hand shifting into a small mega-man style buster. Sally takes her chance and climbs to the roof, hearing Takara's gunfire rip through some swarming robots as the main lane of fire UA had set up begins to falter under BB-machine gun suppression. What’s more troubling are the riot shield and syringe gun-wielding bots pushing up on their position, covering grenadiers who were already preparing to flush the Tokyo natives out of their fox hole. Sally takes a precision firing stance in response standing with her legs squared and her left arm bracing her right elbow. She fires a 3-round burst of 55.6x45 into one of the heads of one of the Riot bots, tearing it off in a mess of wires and sparking metal. She prepares to switch targets before the bot manages to keep walking, rotating to a large body to fire a needle at Sally's position. She manages a roll-out of the way as she tries to focus on the minimum muzzle velocity she needs to break through that chest armor after firing through the slit in his heavy ballistic glass shield. She lies on her belly as she lines the shot up, only to notice Takra go prone beside her.
The gynoid's eyes glow as they scan the riot bots and move Sally's right wrist so she fires at a more critical part of the riot bot who is halfway to reloading his syringe gun. One moment of hesitation on Sally's part is enough for the grenadiers to get close enough to make accurate throws, smoking out the UA kids in sleeping gas as the two other riot bots move in to put them down for a chemically induced nap. Sally fires in panic, scraping a wide gash in the riot bot's side as it approaches her slowly, missing its vital components. Sally shakes her head as she notices a little bright-colored horsefly watching her from the other side of the roof. She doesn't have time to pay it mind as she starts spraying the riot bot’s shield with 9x19mm shots to force it to block, creating a window for Takara to land a burst of 5.7x28mm rounds through the riot bot’s CPU, its mechanical guts sputtering and scattering as its planned shot toward Sally instead shatters a window below her. Sally gives a thankful thumbs up as she looks where the gynoid girl shot and plans to replicate it for instant takedowns.
On the ground, the situation was worsening: The UA Killzone fell completely as a smaller group ambushed the small fry robots trying to rally around the riot bots or go after some in the back with long-range tranq rifles and trying to set up morters. Sally and Takara make quick work of the second towering riot bot before Sally the characteristic ting of a bouncing grenade. She slams her body into Takara as she tries to evade the blast, catching some of the sleeping gas in her mouth before coughing it out as hard as she can.
Takara was warm to the touch as she braced herself so as not to fall two stories off the building that was their nest, offering Sally her hand: "Grab on Sally-chan! I will rappel down safely!" She says in her forcibly loudened voice. Sally hesitates for the slightest moment before her ear catches another dangerous sound: the quiet but noticeable descent of a mortar. She grabs on desperately as Takara's left hand dislocates from her wrist, a steel rope quickly unfurling and allowing a safe descent. Sally catches sight of the structure below and quickly prepares a 12 Gauge buckshot round to fire through a sliding door, Takara harmonizing with a roar of 5.7 while she stands still to retrieve her hand. Before the armed infantry bots that came to flush them out even had a chance to look at they were scrap metal.
While the two hunker down on the first floor of the building and scope out the scene, the big scientist boy with crazy hair is using his arms as shields to cover him while taking the fallen UA kids to safety.
Or at least trying to: he seemed to have forgotten where he was going to take them as he waited for the machine gunners denting the widened surface of his right arm while waiting for the MG's to overheat or run out of ammo.
"Cover him! I'll suppress the gunners, you go for kill shots!" Sally says, concentrating and finding a round that won't break her arm when fired suppressively, going back to the classic 9x19 Parabellum as Takara nodded, her right buster arm's barrel extending and widening to accommodate 12.7mm rounds. While the nun laid a layer of suppressive fire to keep the robot gunners in cover, she shouted toward lighting hair: "THIS BUILDINGS SAFE! HAUL THEM HERE!" she says in loud, almost strangled Japanese to be heard over her gunfire. Takara's unerring shots found target after target while Sally could already feel the exhaustion of suppressive fire hitting her, even with small rounds being fired. She steeled herself as the boy managed to understand her well enough to all 4 of the gassed-out UA kids inside, a moment of quiet setting over the three conscious hero students as the gunfire for the first time in 5 minutes stopped.
The two recruitors, men who introduced themselves as Tanaka and Kuroki, were stunned at the description of Sally that her boyfriend had given them.
"She can be angry and petty, but.. those faults are what make her human. We are made with faults because we are beings born of original sin, and can only improve as we live on" he says with a flutter of his wings.
"And the friendly fire incidents?" Tanaka asks
"Sally will grow out of it, Noah has faith she will" he says while watching the cameras focus on her covering for a rescue operation, holding a strong front in a very chaotic mess of a firefight.
Kuroki adjusts his sunglasses: "Still.. would you not say she's dangerous to be around? Even in America a quirk like hers should have been controlled rather than trained" he lets slip, earning a glare from his partner.
"Sally's made mistakes... but.. Noah know's shes a good person looking for redemption for her sins. I know she can seem unflattering, but she's very nice once she stops thinking your her enemy"
Tanaka adjusts his tie: "And would you describe her as paranoid?"
Noah squirms a bit, being forced to tell the truth by compuslive quirk: "Y-Yes, Noah has been told about.. lizard people running banks alot. Its not her fault though!"
"How so? Tanaka asks
"She.. grew up in a small town called Conrad, in Montana. She talks alot their militia's and distrust of the US government, and I think she see's all of Japan as having it out for her" he says, his wings drooping a bit
"But Noah has seen her true face, the one that wants to help and defend people with all her God-given might, so p-please, consider her for the person she will become, not what she is now" he asks in a pleading tone to the recruitors as they look at eachother for a moment.
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Abrams. She'll be a strong contender at the very least" Tanaka says as he and his partner move out.
"Your welcome!" he says as they walk off. He sees Sally on the cameras, hunkered down inside of a house with Takara and large, brawny doctor with wild hair who checks some rescued students for vitals. He smiles and says a small prayer for the groups success.
Ashleigh is practically pulled along by Son Jugo as they chase after a large robot that is in emergecny repair mode. The black-haired boy turns back to the smaller girl:
"When!?" He says impatiently
"Now" Blackout says, the machine going dormant for a moment. Jugo releases his hand, leaps in the air, revs up a heavy punch right through the robots chest. The sparking wiring drips out like a deisemboweled camper's guts in a slasher movie
Ashleigh puts her hands on her knees and breathes hard whole theirs no threats around to open up for elimination.
"Next time.. just let me sit still.. and stare at it" She says to her ostensible ally.
"What if he turned corners? We can't let that kind of monster get away without a good pummeling!" The tall boy says with a flex of his arms, Adreniline keeping his feelings of exhaustion away as long he was moving.
Ashleigh sighs as she stares at a a bug in the distance, the things dropping out of the air after a minute. She picks it up curiously.
"Its a robot fly.. that means the girls in the locker room were right.." Ashleigh says with a sigh.
"Right about what?" Jugo says, turning around
"Compound, that mutant bug hero that does the airplane ads? He's running the show"
"Nice! Wonder where he is so we can clash fists!"
Ashleigh sits down in the street, trying to get her bearings: "Please, can we just focus on the actual objective? She says looking around for rescue dummies.
"Come on, I gotta top Cain and Myoga's badass takedown during the Nagoya exams! I heard they were playing that footage on TV shows!"
The boy runs off, his begrusging wrangler following as the boy chased the sounds of pellet guns and metallic footsteps.
The big scientist kid goes about methodically checking each student for conciousness, releived they were all alive as he rest alongside Sally and Takara for a moment.
"Thank you for the cover, Sister" the boy says to Sally and her robot pal
"D-Don't mention it, that formation should have spread the second they brought the riot bots out..." Sally says partly to herself
"Tactical assessment agrees with Sally-chan: small, mobile squads work best to defeat heavily armored but slow entities such as tanks or armored walkers. The 763400 Riot control robot was designed as such a tool for the purpose of resisting low-to-mid caliber gunfire and improvised explosives with a robust self repair mode to prevent loss of the unit against the deadly and/or destructive quirks
"..Yeah, what she said" Sally says as she adjusts her veil.
The boy clears his throat as his goggles shine under overhead lights peaking through the windows: "Allow me to introude myself as Bionis! The Machine Man of the Future!" he says with a strongmans pose, his confidence causing Takara to clap and Sally to narrow her eyes.
"Last Rite, Gun quirk. She'd Android, can copy her friends quirks" Sally says
"So your like Takara? All robot but the brain?" the American asks
"Not quite, my body simply does not suffer the same difficulties with tissue and cybernetic rejection as other people, thus allowing me to an example of what is possible when men and machine meet on good terms!" the boys says
Sally touches one of his metal fists, seeming suprised: "{Real-ass steel, damn}"
"Excuse me? My english is quite poorly trained sadly, do I remind you of a strong dam?"
"Y-Yeah, sure" Sally says. She looks around at the scarred battlefield and the relative calm that they have now. It was all too good to be true, and if her dads advice on clearing urban areas was right(And it has been so far) then the rest of the enemies forces are hiding while they plan a surgical strike. That compound guy is clearly well versed in tactics, which meant she had to assume he knew the same stuff about urban warfare she did.
https://youtu.be/XwnLCjYaXGY?si=Fhrvb2RBg55XDQxM
She gets a headache from overthinking the whole situation, comforted by the metal hand of the suited gynoid.
"Our wisest move may be to set up defenses and wait for a counterattack in a defesnible location" Takara says, something the whole group of three can agree on. Bionis uses his strength create window barricades out of rubble, nailed on by Takara while Sally keeps a look out on the roof.
The hackjob fortification passes Takara's standards of defensibility right as .50 cal round finds its way into the head of a recon android with a long range syringe gun: Its mechanical carcass falling off a building and smashing into a hundred pieces: "INCOMING! RIGHT IN FRONT!!" Sally yells as the sound of automatic syringes guns is preceded by smoke grenades and sniper fire, with Sally herself only avoiding getting tagged by a syringe with a lucky roll onto her stomach.
A floor below, Bionis fights in melee with brute force, rending the machines apart as he coughs up the smoke. Takara moves between the raiders, ricocheting shots while using thermal vision to aid in her firing. The smoke masks much of the combat bots movements: military training targets designed to mimic the movements of a real human given guns plugged in to a compatible aimbot. The cyborg and the gynoid fight back to back while Sally attempts to stop more from entering the fray with shots while searching for any effective cover from the snipers looking to make her organic frame take a nap.
But luck always runs out; at least Sally only fell two stories onto dirt from a bad tactical roll right onto her dominent right shoulder. "{FUCK!!}" She yells in pain while biting onto her lip to keep from making anymore excess noise. The fight inside is going no better as Takara is engaged in melee by three military training bots, each attacking in unison to strike her critical joints and wear down her armor.
Bionis see's two options for rescue, and has more faith in the robot girl to hold her own and find a way out of her fight as he drags Sally into an enclosed building, his metal arms and legs getting pelted with sniper fire. Sally tries to shoot them while being dragged, managing to hit one even with a busted right shoulder. The cyborg boy rushes in scoops up the UA kids, refusing to leave patients behind as small gurneys open up on his back to lay two of them on, the two carried by hand: This stretches the bionic rescuer to his(and his augements) limits in terms of carry load. Right as Sally is about to relax, Takara throws herself outside through a nearby window, followed by a volley of syringes and a gas grenade.
Sally forces herself to move, cradling her shooting arm as every step hurts more than the last. By the time the trio realizes they're circled in, on all sides and their about to be gassed out like rats, Sally looks under her: A manhole.
"BIONIS! OPEN THE SEWER!" She shouts spraying loosely with her left arm to kick up dust and deny lanes of fire in the three alleys that boxed them in. with Takara trying to patch the holes in suppressive fire. Bionis hefts the manhole open with herculean strength and ushers the girls in as the gas grenades finally get thrown.
He barely gets down into dark and unused sewer tunnels before he is put to sleep, all the UA kids on his back or in his arms as he quickly seals the manhole: "Android, Do you have a blowtorch by chance?"
"Affirmative. What do your require of my maintinence functions?"
"Seal the manhole, then we need to run" Sally says, predicting the boys words
"The Sister is quite right!" Bionis says as he jumps down. Sally feels the pain in her right shoulder catch up to her, leaning against a wall as she takes deep breaths.
"I'll need to treat this, Last Rite: You could get a compound fracture if we don't secure it now" Bionis says, taking a sling out of a compartment on his leg armor and affixing her arm into it, then securing it with a strap around the chest.
"I can't shoot lefty nearly well.." Sally grumbles before seeing a gruesome sight
Takara gets a cable on her spine cut by a lucky swipe of the military bot's combat knives, leaving her body in freefall to smash against the concrete below.
"Signifigent damage sustained, task done" she says, imitating sounds of pain.
Bionis holds Sally down as she tries to jump up in shock: "{TAKARA! NO!!}"
Sally starts to tear up and hyperventilate. She couldn't do this without help, with a broken shoulder on her shooting arm, tired, and lost. She needed her utilities. She needed her trust.
"Backup systems fully operational: Damage assessment is critical, but salvagable" The gynoid says
"Sally-chan, I am not deceased yet, so please do not mourn. My head can maintain a 48 hour long charge until my creator can supply me with a backup body" she says to Sally, who is just now wiping her tears away.
"But.. we're lost.. trapped.. they'll find their way down here and put us down like wolves!" Sally says, her voice indicative of pure panic
"A hero never gives up where their is hope, Sally-chan. I can still access sensory, calculation, and suggestion protocols without my body"
Bionis looks Last Rite in the eye: "Were not done yet, you can still move, yes?"
Sally nods, gathering a combination of internalized rage and holy purpose as she looks at a camera mounted above them.
At Noah.
At her Guardian Angel.
She stands with the help of Bionis: "Lets go, we've gotta find how to get out of here" she says firmly, using a carbiner clip to affix Takara's head to her dress belt as the gynoid went into full sensory mode, her eye lighting up like lanterns in the dark sewers beneath the town testing site.
Agent Law paces around the mens bathroom of the viewing area while Agent Waver watches him with irritated eyes behind his shades. Both of their ties are loosened after sharing a short few words on what exactly they heard about the second American of Shiketsu's class 1-D from the one person that all their intel pointed out as being the best source on mental state. Noah Abrams was her study partner and likely boyfriend(In conflict with explicit school rules).
"The kid can't lie, Law! He is physically incapable of it and he told us about the friendly fire! That confirms the nurses reports of rubber bullet injuries caused during exercises!"
"Against students specifically trying her patience, where she didn't go for a live round to the leg or shoulder: we know her grades are better than Sampsons and her connections in Conrad can't.. give her ideas all the way out here"
Waver points at Law like with an accusatory finger: "But she could reach out: we have her ISP's records of what she plays and at what times: Old Shooter games at high traffic times in the USA. She would give ANYTHING to go back home for a few hours, even her sleep!"
"Would you really put it past her to snap one day? Maybe it's the day she gets held back a year, maybe it's the day someone takes messing with her too far, maybe it's the day her boyfriend leaves for some years-long mission trip in Africa, it doesn't matter: She's a walking stick of dynamite that will harm everyone around her when her "saintly" patience finally breaks!"
"...You read her file, right? Highly religous, Bossy Introvert, Paranoid tendencies. No mention of any kind of psychosis that would drive her to commit a mass shooting"
"I realize you think nailing a future school quirker might get you a promotion and fancy desk: It won't" Law says with mounting entrenchment in his argument.
"So you admit I'm right? That she's going to do it?" Waver says with a mean-spirited chuckle.
"No, I don't. Your making the worst judgement of her character you can either because she's American or because of her record".
"She's a murderer and a vigilante! The only reason she's our problem now is because someone at Shiketsu owed a hero being deliberated on by the US SUPREME COURT a favour!"
"Would you rather she have been shoved on suppressants and thrown into Juvy with kids twice as bad as her? Kids that would see even her weakened state and find the best shooter in the state, and then fill her head with worse ideas than militia tactics?"
"She's not off the deep end, so we report that she isn't going to jump off."
Waver kicks a stall door loudly: "We'll see if your seniority holds sway when we turn this in: I've seen enough false alarms in my career to see someone who never should have been allowed to use their quirk" he says, walking out to get some fresh air.
Agent Law takes a moment to cool off himself, tightening up his tie: He'd read between the lines with Sally. She was no hotshot American terrorist in the making, the sheriff's report of the scene described her as in shock like she didn't realize she had lethal rounds loaded. She made a mistake and had every chance to just fight the system in a years long legal battle thanks to Windrider's lingering fortune and connections.
But she chose to call the United State's bluff: that a girl from a backwater town with more headlines about job losses and secession debates than anything else could possibly have the talent to make it through one the most rigerous hero programs in the world. She took an entire year off of school to learn the basics of Japanese exclusisvely to make this point and all of Conrad pooled what money they could so she could have a reasonable place to live in Japan. She stepped into a world that cared to understand her as much as she cared to understand it back, yet in just a few months is heading up 1-D's school festival.
He looks at himself and imagines thinks from her persecpetive of she must think of his work: He's a fed, the kind of person her town's militia would scare away with implied threats and gun shows. They're snooping into her life and making assumptions about her simply because of what they fear and assume she might do. If he had to profile her as anything, it would a be a troubled youth with a community that believes she's more than 4 guns on a torso.
He washes his face and lets the water droplets drip, going back to face the music and change as many tunes as he could with Waver.
Ashleigh had been noticing less robots watching them in the distance the more bugs she crushed as they followed the noise of heavy foot steps. Everything was quiet now, meaning they were part of the lucky bunch of students that didn't go down to the tranq snipers that seemed to infest this place like cicadas in the summer. Jugo had been pushing forward more than her and making her keep up or face down the robots alone: He was the one who could smash them apart so she really only had one choice.
As the two hid below front desk of a cafe the large footsteps they'd been chasing had started quaking the ground. The two peak out, even Jugo wanting to size up his opponent before he charged in. They looked upon a modified cargo-hauling robot which had at least 15 students in nets as he waited by a sewer manhole. All of the students were gassed out, many by syringe, though Ashleigh could recognize the distinct look people trying to rid their system of sleeing gas before falling asleep.
The two looked at each other for moment as the manhole opened, a worker bot seeming to want to shuttle the captured students down into the sewers.
Or would be had the worker bots head and right forearm not been drop kicked off in a flash. The giant cargo-bot stared toward a girl banging two pots together to force it to pay attention attention to her:
"COME ON! SHOW ME YOUR WAR FACE!!" She taunts, staring at the colossal machine with a cocky smirk on her usually anxious face as she occupied the machines attention and prepared to roll out the way of whatever offensive measures it had prepared.
A group of snipers come out of a vent hatch on one of the rooftops, seeming unsure of wheather to shoot at the saiyan boy charging up a blast of energy to blow through the cargo bots armor or the girl using some kind of visual quirk on the giant. By the time they've chosen to focus on Jugo, he's already using the hole he burned through the giant robot as cover from their volley.
Then then giant fell, its knees locking up as a safety measure due to Ashleighs quirk going off. While she makes a run for the netted students she could reach Jugo tore the sniper team apart with ease at close range, their firing solutions unable to calculate fast enough to stick the black-haired boy with any sleepy needles. Jugo quickly goes to making sure the giant is out of commission, with the guts of its torso not housing its CPU he focused on charging up a ki blast for melting the head off.
He was in his element as some infantry bots tried to get a bead on him, simulated gunfire all around him, the thrill of battle keeping his adreniline pumping, the charred and torn metal proof of his power. By now most of the ground forces in the area, including harrying copter drones had focused on closing in on the boy and ending his run of the test. Even after taking a 2 shots to the back he only felt the tranqulizing poison a little bit as the ki blast loosed from his hands. The head of cargo bot didn't even have time to be removed from the body, simply being turned to ash as he was knocked off the mechs shoulders. The copter drones closed in on him, but between the pain of landing on his left shoulder and still needing to throw some rubble to knock a drone out of the sky he saw the timid Ashleigh Katsuragi stunning the crowd that had been firing on him.
Ashleigh could feel heartbeat steadily rising as she tried to maintain the effect as long as possible on the crowd of infantry: She'd never pushed her quirk this long and on this many targets. She takes deep breaths in sequence to try and distract from her insitcnt to blink and ruin the effect. She had no idea if Jugo would even be to move after taking multiple syringes to the back and a fall, but this manuver needed her whole concentration. One blink and she was facing down a firing squad.
Her eyes burn.
Her eyelids twitch.
Tears start flowing in a desperate attempt to lubricate her eyes.
She feels her focus slip for a moment, but is grabbed by Jugo the next second and all but thrown into cover with all the students he rescued in the coffee shop kitchen: One entrance, one exit, all the same door.
Ashleigh blinks rapidly and takes a panicked breath as she hears the robots outside organize into new formations.
"We put up a barricade and outlast them" She says to Jugo
"Way ahead of you" he says covering up any windows or slits into the kitchen with stacked furniture and ripped out appliances
Ashleigh maintains her focus on the one entrance, preparing a broomstick to push any grenades thrown inside back out after remembering how hot a live grenade was to the touch.
The siege had begun; now it was just a matter of outlasting the test or the robots grenades.
Last Rite, Android, and Bionis walked the dark sewers, Sally's usual shooting arm in a sling and her left forced to pick up the slack as Takara's head hung off the belt cinching Sally's waist while scanning the environment. Bionis huffs due to carrying 4 people at the same time.
"Come on! We can't be slow or they'll figure out where were are" Sally hisses at Bionis quietly while looking forward, her eyes stressed to keep looking through the dark.
"Note: Use of visual communcication, IE body language highly recommended over vocal alternatives" Takara say as quietly as her artifical voice can manage.
Bionis points to the head and makes a thumbs up toward Sally, who look back his way: She quickly tilts her head down while aiming her clumsy arm toward his right shoulder and into the tunnel behind him. A 5.7mm round flies through the air and hits a concealed infantry bot, another burst finding 2 helidrones that were behind him also torn apart by the high-velocity round.
Bionis moves from his crouched position as Sally's arm barrel smokes: She looks down to see thumbs up emoji appear in Takara's eye before the image is replaced with a sonar interface. The group had been frequently harried by small squads that either Takara was able to catch on her system or Sally able to pick out from the slightest sound or glint of metal in the shadows. The pain from her shoulder had only sharpened her insticts like a starving wolf's: But everything has a limit. Sally finds hers when she sees another manhole, an escape form the nightmare scenario they were in. Everyone that was organic was tired, Takara was a head on her belt, and they couldn't just leave the UA kids and not get a serious demerit.
The idea of escape, of finding a building to hole up in till this was over was tempting the mind of American and the cyborg equally. Takara switches her eye function to flashlights: Alhough her two exhausted companions are not seeing them, she can see two wires that will be broken if the manhole is opened. The gynoid panic on how to get this message out quietly, and comes up with something.
- .-. .- .--. / --- -. / -- .- -. .... --- .-.. .
While Sally climbs the ladder, Bionis's ears perk up! He gently grabs the girls leg and forces her off the ladder, stacking her on top of one of the gassed out UA students while making shush sound and pointing at the wires. Sally looks angry at him for a moment then squints at the trip wires herself. She gulps and takes a deep breath, patting the top of Takara's head and giving Bionis a thumbs up, a gesture he returns with a wink.
The group keeps moving, every step only making them more tired as they followed where the flies were going. It was something to follow, and it was better than wandering around in circles waiting to get ambushed. What they saw ahead of them was the central dry cistern. Barely concious students trapped inside lightly electrified animal cages. The hive of copter drones and metal flies did not make their escape look any more likely. The real wonder was the enclosed command center in the flow control room, a man with bug features shfiting his eyes from monitor to monitor before settling both on the group of and grabbing a microphone:
"Ah, you've found my lair! Impressive, perhaps we could work something out, young heros?"
"I know you quite exhausted: Theres a service elevator to the surface behind me. Pretend you never saw this, and my drones will let you walk away with your rescue points"
Sally grits her teeth and growls, her eyes narrowing on the bug-man as she responded with a burst of gunfire getting stopped by the ballistic glass that guarded him: He noticed the rounds were rubber tipped.
"We didn't come this far to take a deal with beelzebub!" Sally shouts as she slides down the free-firing 9mm at the swarms of drones.
"I can get the cages open! Just keep the drones off of me!" Bionis says as he stacks the UA kids he was carrying in his arms onto his back-gurneys to free up his hands.
Sally's aim is stunted by the severe pain in her shoulder, but starts to get dulled: "Utilizing limited opiate injections: Do not break your arm under illusion that you are not in pain" Takara says as she uses her eyes to dazzle the drones cameras and buy Sally time to dodge and find cover between bursts of fire.
Noah watches as the cameras focus on Sally dancing between tranq darts and cover like she could read the future, her holy firepower taking 2-3 drones every burst. He kneels to pray to God, making the sign of the cross before speaking his humble requests.
His prayer is rushed, desperate, and pleading: that God grant Sally his providence in her trial, that all the students be rescued from the bug's clutches, that Ashleigh and Jugo can hold on long enough to keep their rescues safe.
As he opens his eyes, he sees a few others pray as well, copying his form. Its a scene he could not have been more overjoyed to have inspired in others.
He watches Sally without hope, but assurance she would conquer this and prove herself a savior of others instead of simply being a weapon to be feared. An Angel of kindness and diligence as opposed to one that presides over death.
[Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DPOSPbBfPU ]
Sally could swear she was seeing the tranqs fired before they came out of the barrels of the copter drone's guns, even where they were going. Every movement was swift but short to avoid exhuation as the edges of her vision seemed to widen and let her see the formerly invisable. The sloppy and rushed set up of the command post allowed Sally cover as she borrowed Takara's preffered armor piercing round for blasting the through the drones housing. Her left hand felt numbed, curled into their aiming position except for when she needed to dive or roll. She could only assume this what cocaine felt like.
Her shooting was almost automatic as the low thump of her heartbeat was in her ears, refusing to let the adreniline rush that posssessed her to end. The once numerous crowd of at least 20 drones had had been shot apart to five, with 3 perishing in a burst of 5.7x28 rounds. After diving behind cover and blind firing at the last two, she hears a wall break open like a killdozer slammed through it. Her instinct make her cease firing, leaving her unable to confirm the deaths of the last two drones: Bionis was already half way to getting the student hostages to the maintinence elevator, she couldn't stop now.
"Recommened caliber for penetration of heavy land-vehichle armor: 50 BMG with explosive tip" Takara says as Sally has her look around the corner and analyze the monster which came to greet them.
A voice comes alive over the remaining speakers, shouting exctiedly: the Bug hero was ecstatic: "Military grade armor, duel automatic gas grenade launchers, targeted less-than-lethal cannon capable of firing through concrete, EM shielding, and custom firewall: The Tarntula is gonna make one hell of meal out of you!" he says, reveling in his chance to use his toys for fake evil.
"Recommendation-"
"Evasive tactics" Takara and Sally say in unison, the girl talking a moment to feel her rapid pulse at her neck and steady her breathering. The sound of the grenade launchers firing proved to be her signal to get moving faster.
The spider-tank moved faster than she predicted, near missing her with a ball of rubber about the size of a whole hand before she realizes she won't be getting a chance to breathe, and that two nimble copter drones were after her. She looks to the head on her belt and consider throwing it: It would be a distraction, enough for her to blow the legs off the tank and land a killing blow before she ran out of calories to shoot with. In the brief moment where she considers the tactic, she feels like her soul was coated filth. The gun nun shakes her head to remove the disgusting idea.
Her backup plan is much worse.
She dives out of cover and moves toward the command tower: It was impenetrable, she had tried a 50 cals against the armor and unless she wanted to break her left arm firing with abandon into it it wasn't getting breached. Instead she makes the spider tank maneuver with her to the supporting base of the command tower, and right as she sees hears the grenade launchers reload she stands right at the base of the tower. She holds a firing stance and mutters a prayer as a ball of ballistically-powered rubber flies her way, and she tests her reaction time against it
The ragged nun hits the deck rapidly, like a scared child during a lighting storm while the ball of rubber bounces of the command tower's pillar and leaves dent the size of Kaylee's fist before flying back at even higher speeds toward the spider tank: It bounces off the carapace and blows a huge dent into the thorax mounted cannon. The shot richotes back on more time and bends one the legs enough that tips over. Now unable to move and seemingly without its ability aim a straight shot, she notices the two copter drones flying for a salvo, and greets them with her own before crouching down readying her left arm for the pain of firing an explosive .50 BMG right through the spider-tanks main body.
The noise is deafening.
The Pain is barely felt through Takara's numbing injections and the effect of adrenaline on her body.
She was desperately hungry.
The round boars the armor, is stopped halfway, and blows is primary control mechanisms like a grenade releasing its shrapnel. Sally covers her ears and hits the floor, muttering catholic and protesetent prayer in desperation to not be a victim of CPU parts flying into her gut.
She gets one good look at the tank, more than destroyed and its controller stammering. Her legs don't want to work now, her mind is wracked with the pain held back by opiates as the words don't get translated in her mind. He sounds impressed, almost thankful despite her blowing up tank like a defecive Sherman on D-Day.
The world goes black for a moment as her body demands rest. This moment lasts a long while.
Noah had been sitting by Sally's bedside with Bionis for some time, the cyborg boy and the medical staff assuring him she was just suffering from extreme exhuastion and anemia caused by excessive quirk use. He knew enough to know that was nothing good, but kept praying while the nurses watched over vitals and Shiketu's doctor was reportedly rushing over to heal any permanent damage after seeing the stunt Sally pulled on TV. Even Noah hadn't considered using the robots main weapon against it in such a risky way. Takara's head had already been retrieved, though she printed out a note through her mouth that would explain to Sally the results of the test.
Ashleigh looked dazed and was blinking alot while Jugo was talking ceaselessly about their survival of the cafe siege.
"And then they just shut off, like a switch got pulled somewhere" Jugo says with a huge smile.
"Because Compound probably saw that his game was up after Sally blew the tank up... and that he ran out of robots to keep himself safe." Ashleigh says, looking toward him.
"Thanks for keeping the bots at the door stunned while I replaced the window-stuff, by the way.. I probably would have gotten grabbed without that" Jugo says to her with a genuine smile of appreciation.
"Its only because of your strength that could fortify such that kitchen, we owe each other a lot for our passing" the blue-haired girl ways with a weary smile and offering a fist bump. Jugo accepts and very lightly taps her knuckles with his own.
"Mr. Abrams, you have nothing to fear: She's beeing hydrated and given nutrition through the IV's and should be awake soon" Bionis says
"Noah is thankful for you keeping an eye on her, Sally gets so reckless it makes Noah.. really worried about losing her" Noah says, his anxieties bubbling over after having seen the harrowing gamble on the screens.
"She is quite couragous, though the chemical encouragement was likely what was keeping concious through the pain of sliding rolling with her injured arm"
"...Is it broken?" Noah asks, hoping for a miracle.
"No more than what Shiketsu's doctor can fix easily, though I would reccomend informing her teachers that she should sit out of target practice and field exercise to allow her left arm barrels to harden and for her right arm to stay in a sling for at a week"
Noah nods, making note to try and be assertive for the inevtiable complaints from her. She could'nt get hurt like this consistently, it already hurt seeing his other classmates getting hospitalized, but Sally was a suffering soul who already fought for redemption daily in a forign land knowing full well the alternative was Juvenile Hall. Even with his father pledging himself to her case when the time comes that she graduates and must return to the state of Montana to resolve her legal issues, she still fought like a starving honey badger for right to be a hero.
As the angel-winged boy prays over her as he had fro his other injured classmates, Bionis's lens's light up:
"Ah! She;s coming to!" He says, shushing Jugo as Ashleigh zones out to her music and takes a cat-nap.
The Outlaw awakes in a hospital room, laying down on a bed with IV's in her. She feels tired, sluggish, and sore as she looks down to see right arm in a sling and her left feeling weak and fragile. She turns her head over and sees her angel praying over her injured body, his words too beautiful to comprehend in her shocked state. A doctor with arms of steel moves a finger in front of her face and seesm releived when her eyes track it easily.
The doll-girl was gone after being broken, and the large ape-man has to be stopped from patting her on shoulder with a reminder that its unhealed and broken. The nervous blue-haired girl listens to music and rests, her eyes flitter open for a moment and meet the Outlaw's.
By the time Sally finds her voice, she realizes she isn't dreaming.
"Did.. did we pass?" are her first, nervous words.
Noah smiles and hands her Takara's note. Sally tears up reading, the feelings of gratification and accomplishment being expressed before she does so facially.
"That thing you did to the tank, It was inspired!" Jugo says, giving her a thumbs up.
"Y-Yeah.. just maybe try somethign less suicidal next time your facing a tank barrel down, okay?" Ashleigh cautions in a comedic tone
"We passed with top score for rescuing to the whole field, Last Rite, I couldn't have done it without you and Android" Bionis says with a hardy thumbs up and the hint of a smile under his lab coat.
Noah hugs Sally and wraps his wings around her. She returns the gesture and lets her tears of joy by doused the feathers of angel.
Elsewhere, in a non-descript government building in Tokyo, Agents Law and Waver meet with a person they did not expect: the American Ambassidor to Japan in the flesh.
He stares at the agents, his eyes covered by an opaque mass of gathered light.
"John Gilbert Abselum, Pleased to meet you both Law and Waver"
"I hear you two are heading the case with 1-D under the allegations of vigilantism, correct?" he says in stiff, formal Japanese
"Yes sir" both agents say, still very much at odds with eachother.
"Well boys, I want to remind of the stakes this has for the USA: You might know some of our further territories want to follow Alaska in seceding from the US of A. A girl named Sally McCathy happens to be their rallying flag in the northwestern states of the union"
The two agents nod in understand: Law narrows his eyes at the politican while Waver focuses.
"Keep an eye on her call me at the first hint of her getting back to her routine. She wins this, this proves vigilantes like her can repent outside of our system with every ability to break out: Plus she might have invaluable intel on Windrider and his domestic terrorist operation that we want" the American continues in a more dour tone.
"Are we clear on this?" he says, shining the rays of light stored in his glasses up further at them. Both agents nod and whipe out their sunglasses.
"If I may, Ambassador Absilum... the case against Windrider is merely pending. He has not been formally charged with anything" Law says.
"Is the suspiscion not enough for people like him? Your in intelligence so you should fugitives like him are too clever to get caught without playing dirty. I'm not letting some delusional hero reduce us down to 48 states" Absilum growls
"As you should, Ambassidor" Waver says with a pointed look toward Law.
Law holds his gaze against Absilum's bright glasses: "{We will investigate and act in accoradance to the extent with which the law of Japan sets forth for agents within our field]" he answers evasively, the government double talk have an angering effect on the American.
"{That girl's a goddamned monster in the making: and if you think talking english is gonna help you seem like you have any choice in the matter, then I reccomend firmly pulling your fucking head out of your ass and smelling the coffee}"
"{Sally McCathy represents a whole movement in Montana now: people make bumper stickers with her face on them and politicans and judges are already getting their opinions on her ready when she comes back with a lawyer or in suppressent cuffs}"
"{She fails her probationary period, or I will make for damn sure you both clean toilets and sort mail for the rest of your careers}"
Law and Waver give a nod to the man as he leave, taking his coat and leaving an silently furious Agent Law and silently terrified Agent Waver in his wake.