Read Re:Apotheosis :: Chapter XVIII – Ambush (2/2)

Aquila let the rings of swords shift, giving Selena her shot. Selena snarled and leapt at her, striking with her knife. Aquila caught Selena’s wrist with one hand and her throat with the other, her grip tightening on both.

“Super-soldiers used to be so much more impressive,” Aquila mused as her grip tightened on Selena’s wrist. Selena grunted in pain as her bones cracked and broke, dropping the knife. “More drive to succeed. Harder to catch. That said, you seem overpowered – let me help you with that. Forty-sixth stage of creation!”

A blast of energy ripped through Selena, restoring her to her original character description, back before she had been turned into a super-soldier. Aquila let go of Selena’s wrist and reached into her jacket pocket, plucking out the jamming device and crushing it in her hand. Then Aquila smirked and dropped her. As Selena fell, Aquila sent down a barrage of swords to follow her. Selena landed with a scream and a sickening crackling of bones, the swords striking the ground around her and exploding into shrapnel towards her. Selena screamed again. Aquila followed them with two more, impaling Selena in the gut and shoulder and pinning her to the pavement.

Aquila turned to face Balthazar, hovering nearby, his face drawn and pale. “You’re late!” she declared with a smile as her rings of swords resumed their normal orbits. “I seem to have broken your toys!” She looked down. “They don’t appear to have been very good lackeys, though. I could kill them for you – it would be no trouble at all!”

“That’s not necessary!” Balthazar shouted, holding up his hands.

Aquila cocked her head. “We’re here to do a trade, aren’t we? The life of your...whatever they are to you...for the return of my friend. But, I’m being impolite – I haven’t provided you with proof of life. Forgive me!” She reached out with her power and twisted the swords in Ken and Selena’s guts, making them scream. “There, see! They’re still alive...for now. Return my friend and I’ll leave you with enough time to heal them. I’d be quick to decide if I were you, however – blood loss can be such a fast killer.”

Balthazar gritted his teeth. “Agreed. Natsuki will be released!”

Aquila bowed with a flourish. “A pleasure doing business with you, Balthazar! Do not ever cross our paths again.”

With that, she descended to the level of the street, a couple of blocks away. She didn’t dismiss her swords until she touched down. Then she unbuttoned her coat and leaned with her back against the wall. The screams of her victims echoed in her ears. She closed her eyes, willing them to pass.

They didn’t.

Aquila took a deep breath, stepped away from the wall, and went to find Cap.

“They’re heroes,” Cap hissed, wiping away Aquila’s tears. “They’re tough. We don’t need to kill them – we can just hurt them a whole lot. Let’s show them what we can really do. No holding back. I’ve got the magic punk.”

“Okay, superhero,” she said, a cruel gleam lighting up her eyes. “No holding back.”

Aquila stepped away and rose into the air. Cap turned to face Darius.

“How are you against magic?” Darius asked, raising his hand. A glowing barrier surrounded him.

“You know, you’re the second person to ask me that since I got here,” Cap said. “Let’s find out!”

He slammed into Darius’s barrier at the speed of sound, driving them both through the wall of the building behind them. Darius hit the floor in front of them, gasping.

“I was once known as Captain Infinite,” Cap growled, grabbing Darius and throwing him into one of the interior walls, cracking a massive hole into the drywall. “I was a superhero! I saved people!”

Darius raised his hand. A blast of energy hit Cap square in the chest. It didn’t even push him back. Cap grabbed Darius by the collar and lifted him into the air.

“And the reason I lost all that is because of your war!” Cap roared, throwing Darius through the far wall into the alley beyond. Cap stepped through the debris to find Darius staggering to his feet.

“You’re a tough one,” Cap said. “I was expecting to have broken most of your bones by now.” He hit Darius with a blast of his laser eyes, knocking the wizard back against the wall of the alley. Darius raised his hand, a bolt of blue energy striking Cap’s chest with the force of a speeding transport truck. Cap found himself thrown into the street.

Cap accelerated to the speed of sound, hitting Darius in the chest and driving him into the back of the alley, slamming him against the wall with enough force to crack it. Darius slumped down. Cap gave him a quick look – out cold, with a bunch of cracked ribs, but alive, and with no organ damage.

“You really are tough,” Cap muttered, taking a deep breath, and then looked around and frowned. He was at least two blocks away from the ambush. He stepped back out into the street to get his bearings. The streets were silent – whatever fighting Aquila had been doing, it must be finished as well. He started to walk back towards the intersection where it had all started.

He was halfway there when he heard Yuri behind him, shouting “No, wait!” He spun just in time to see her diving between Darius and himself, taking a bolt of blue energy in the chest. The force of the blast threw her to the ground where she lay, crumpled.

Cap’s eyes widened. “Yuri, no!” Behind her, Darius stared with shock and disbelief. Then he began to sprint away down the street, ducking around the corner of the nearest intersection. Cap raced to Yuri’s side, scanning her with his enhanced vision.

“Oh no,” Cap breathed. “No, anything but this! Atria, please tell me you can hear me!”

“I can hear you,” Atria’s voice said over the earpiece. “What’s happening?”

“Yuri’s been hit!” Cap declared. “She’s unconscious, with broken ribs, massive internal injuries and internal bleeding in her chest.”

“What?” Atria demanded. “Damn it! Alright, the medics and ambulance are on their way. Use whatever training you’ve got to keep her stable!”

“Our position is...I don’t know our position!”

“The earpieces have a tracker,” Atria said. “We have your position. You just stay with Yuri and do what you can for her.”

Cap placed his hand on Yuri’s unmoving shoulder. There was nothing he could do – just trying to roll her onto her back could make the internal bleeding worse. “Please don’t die,” he begged. “Please, stay with me...please...”

Natsuki arrived at the intersection just in time to see the fight start.

At the far side, she saw Ken parrying a barrage of swords, moving so fast all she could make out was a blur. Then the swords exploded into shrapnel, forcing him to his knees as he screamed in pain. Faster than she could blink, two swords slammed into his shoulder and gut. He toppled onto his side.

“I’d suggest staying down,” Natsuki heard Aquila say. Then she heard a delighted laugh, filled with malice. “Did Balthazar not tell you what you would be fighting? You face a god of destruction!”

A wave of nausea ripped through her as she looked up into the sky. Aquila was there, but not the kind, good-hearted Aquila she had known. Instead, it was the villain from her war, reveling in the carnage, nothing but cruelty and malice.

“And you face a super-soldier!” Natsuki heard Selena shout, followed by a din of gunfire. She spun to look, but Selena was already gone, longswords impaling the ground where she had stood.

“Super-soldiers used to be so much more impressive,” Natsuki heard Aquila say from above. “More drive to succeed. Harder to catch. That said, you seem overpowered – let me help you with that. Forty-sixth stage of creation!”

Selena hit the ground hard in front of Natsuki, her arms and legs bent at unnatural angles, and screamed. A ring of longswords slammed into the ground around her, and then exploded inward. Selena spasmed, screaming, her sides matted in blood. Her eyes met Natsuki’s, staring at her with helpless terror. Then her body spasmed again as longswords impaled her in the arm and shoulder, pinning her to the ground as she gasped.

Natsuki looked on in horror as she heard Aquila’s voice from above. “You’re late! I seem to have broken your toys! They don’t appear to have been very good lackeys, though. I could kill them for you – it would be no trouble at all!”

Natsuki shook her head, looking from where Ken lay on his side to Selena pinned to the ground, and back again. “No, Aquila, please stop!” she opened her mouth to say, but nothing came out.

“That’s not necessary!” she heard Balthazar shout.

“We’re here to do a trade, aren’t we?” she heard Aquila declare. “The life of your...whatever they are to you...for the return of my friend. But, I’m being impolite – I haven’t provided you with proof of life. Forgive me!”

Natsuki shuddered in horror as the swords impaling Ken and Selena in the gut began to twist. Both of them screamed in agony. “There, see!” Aquila announced. “They’re still alive...for now. Return my friend and I’ll leave you with enough time to heal them. I’d be quick to decide if I were you, however – blood loss can be such a fast killer.”

“Agreed,” Balthazar said. “Natsuki will be released!”

“A pleasure doing business with you, Balthazar!” Natsuki heard Aquila declare. “Do not ever cross our paths again.”

Natsuki shook her head and fled down the street. As she ran, she heard Cap scream in anguish, “Yuri, no!”

Natsuki stopped in her tracks. Then she turned down a side street and raced towards the sound of Cap’s voice.

She rounded the corner to find Cap kneeling over Yuri’s crumpled form. “Please don’t die,” he begged. “Please, stay with me...please...”

“No!” Natsuki heard somebody say, and then realized it was herself. “Not Yuri!”

Cap startled and looked up at her. “Natsuki!” he cried.

“I escaped,” Natsuki said. “They were going to ambush you, and wanted to warn you, but I was too late! Please say she’s going to be okay...please!”

Cap shook his head. “I don’t know. It depends on how quickly they can get her to a hospital.”

“Cap, I took care of the other two,” Natsuki heard Aquila say. She spun to see Aquila crossing the empty street. “Natsuki! You’re here!”

Natsuki shuddered and recoiled from her. “I saw...I saw...”

A look of anguish crossed Aquila’s face. “You saw the fight. I’m so sorry – I never wanted you to see the villain come out...I never wanted the villain to come out again at all!” She stepped over to where Natsuki was standing, Natsuki shaking her head in terror. “When we get back to the others we will talk about this, and I will explain everything,” Aquila declared. “And if when I’m done you decide you never want to see me again, I will understand and accept that! I will–”

Two gunshots rang out.

Aquila tumbled forward, falling against Natsuki. As Natsuki held her, she felt a warm, thick fluid matting the back of Aquila’s coat. She looked up to see Harry across the street by an alley, half-hidden in the shadows, safetying his pistol and saying, “Got her.” Then he disappeared into the shadows.

“No!” Cap howled, dashing over to where Natsuki stood holding Aquila in shock. “Atria, Aquila’s been hit too! Two gunshots wounds to the back...oh God, one is in her spine, and the other has hit an artery in her lung!”

Natsuki began to shake as she realized what had happened. Balthazar had let her escape. He had needed somebody to distract Aquila at the end of the fight, when her guard was down, so that Harry could take his shot. He had let her see the map with the ambush plans, the map with every position but Harry’s, so that she would know where to go. And Harry’s job...

...Harry’s job had been to tail her.

Natsuki looked down at Aquila’s still form as she held her, staring at the blood coating her hands. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. All she could do was stare at the blood as Cap screamed, “Where is that fucking ambulance?”

NEXT: “Casualties”