Monster

 

POV Airo

“Did you get em?” Airo asked over comms, and all he got were a few grunts and then a roar of bike engines.

He made a mental reminder to give 012 a good ‘scolding’ after the battle, and at the same time leapt out of Bessie. Moon had parked her in a corner of the manufacturing district, away from the prying eyes of the many cameras dotted throughout Nexus, and Scythe had joined them, although Woodsy was still nowhere to be seen.

“Tentee,” Airo said, gripping his teammate’s shoulder, “I’ll leave the manufacturing plants to you. Don’t get killed.”

“Leave it to me, boss!” Tentee chirped, matching Airo’s ever-present grin. “Booms are my thing.”

Then he caught Avoma’s eye and the smile melted off his face faster than butter on a hot skillet. Instantly, Avoma seized the opportunity and in a once in a lifetime moment of excitement (albeit sadistically) he laid a hand on Airo’s shoulder.

“You can leave him with me,” Avoma said, his tone making it clear he was not having an argument.

It was unclear whether or not Airo actually believed Avoma would take good care of Tentee or he too wanted to see him suffer, but he agreed readily. The twins, Deathly and Deadfire, went with them because they had said in unison that they had nothing much better to do.

“And the rest of us,” Scythe said, from he was sat on his board hovering midair about five feet off the ground. “What’s our move?”

“We’re going to open the main gate,” Airo replied cheerily. “From the inside. We’ll probably encounter a bit of … turbulence along the way, but otherwise should be quite the easy feat, no?”

A moment of silence. Then,

“What?” JJQ demanded, her arms folded.

“It’s impossible that the Ghost Father or whatever hasn’t thought of that possibility if the attackers are already inside his crib,” El Casio agreed. “He’ll have like, thousands of goons sweeping this whole place out soon so I don’t even know if we can make it out of this factory zone alive.”

“I doubt it,” Scythe dismissed. “These aren’t highly trained Imperial soldiers, these are still run-of-the-mill backstreet criminals, even if they’re the strongest cartel in the Poor West. The most skilled among them will still be mediocre at best excluding the Ghoulfather himself.”

“What he’s saying is that we can just sweep through them easy,” Airo picked up smoothly. “We don’t have much else of an option than to do what we can before the others arrive, don’t we?”

There were murmurs of general agreement and then nothing else was said.

 

Tentee, Avoma, and the 008 twins headed off towards the main drug manufacturing plants, armed with a body's weight in explosives. Everyone else (with the exception of Woodsy who was still nowhere to be seen) fanned out through the streets and tunnels of the manufacturing district, traversing the hundreds (and increasing) of marauding guards sweeping through the place in twos or threes. Airo, naturally, ended up with JJQ and Relic, who were arguably his closest friends within the force with the exception of  Avoma, who was his informal but indisputable right hand man who'd stuck with him since the very beginning - since the hole in the ground. The three of them hurtled through the narrow, cluttered passageways filled with empty metal barrels and piles of discarded waste, JJQ and Relic sprinting to keep up but still falling short of 002.

"I would ask you to slow down," JJQ mumbled, tossing the stray strands of hair that were getting in her eyes aside. "But I for whatever reason I feel like I'm going to get ignored."

"Good instincts!" Airo agreed cheerfully from ten metres ahead, locking his spear under his arm. "Better get ready!"

Relic hefted his huge chrona-charged hammer onto his shoulder as the first clump of henchmen appeared up front. Their eyes met for a split second then Airo was past the first one, slicing the guy clean in half with one fluid movement of the spear. He followed up instantly with a thrust to the chest of the next, then JJQ flew past him and ripped the next two to ribbons with her shortswords. The passageway opened up a little and the three of them were able to fight shoulder to shoulder for a few seconds, and then the final guy, rifle aimed at Airo's face, had his head smashed clean off his shoulders by Relic. Pausing for a second, Airo glanced back at the mangled corpses splayed over the ground behind them.

"Grab those mags," he said, spying a couple poking out of pockets. "We're bringing out the guns."

Retracting his spear into a two-foot-long steel tube and slotting it into the holster on his back, Airo unclipped his simple chrona rifle - the most 'mundane' weapon in all of Erisen.

"For a guy who built a whole ass brutal army camp complete with bioengineered monsters, you'd think the Prince could afford slightly higher-grade weapons," JJQ sniffed, slotting two mags into the inside pocket of her jacket.

"He was working on a limited budget," Relic replied. "The whole of his remaining fortune went into funding the Facility, which is impressive considering he's in exile."

"Let's not talk about that place," Airo interrupted. "And focus."

 

Honestly Airo felt nothing slaughtering the criminals that were flying at his face constantly. Every single one of them had probably killed someone innocent in their lives, and they were the worst kind of worthless trash that no one would give jack shit about if they were to die in a hole somewhere. There was nobody to miss them if someone put a bullet through their heads. As in 'feeling nothing' that he didn't feel any hate or enjoyment killing them either. After all, he couldn't exactly look down at the guy glaring back up him just then and think that he himself was any better than them. He too had the blood of countless people on his hands, people who would've had wonderful lives with their families if they hadn't been pulled into the Facility. If they hadn't met him.

"I hope you're born in a better place in your next life," he told the guy on the end of his gun, and then pulled the trigger, blowing his brains out across the ground.

They'd just cleared out another group of scumbags, this one the largest yet.

"We can barely get a breather," JJQ huffed, nudging a corpse with her foot. "Does the Ghoulfather not value their lives at all to keep hurling them at us?"

"Hmm," Relic said, taking a quick swig from his flask of water. "Do you wonder why there is neither a deputy position nor executive positions in the Nexus cartel? Because the Ghoulfather sees all his subordinates as equal - they're all subordinate. He feels no need to share his position with anyone else. The stronger ones are just stronger. That's it. There is only one leader in Nexus that all of them follow without question and with unwavering loyalty and that's him."

"And that's enough," Airo agreed.

None of them mentioned it but they all thought the same thing. 'One leader'. They all thought of Sword.

 

It was at that moment that Airo's foot snagged on something he hadn't noticed was there. He glanced down, thinking it was nothing. A bike handle. A trail of scraps. His eyes followed the trail around a corner. Blood. His feet moved on their own. Turned around the corner.

"…shit."

JJQ caught up. Silence. Airo dropped down.

"Hey!"

Among the ruins of a shattered, burning bike, Woodsy was leaned against a wall, head bent, blood dripping down his face and down his neck. A shard of metal was stuck in his side. There were several holes lining his arms and legs, pouring out blood. Airo grabbed his face and slowly lifted his head upright.

"Ugh!"

A spurt of blood escaped from 012's lips, and a pair of bloodshot eyes struggled open to meet 002's.

"Watch… out."

 

If he'd moved a split second later, his head would've been reduced to a puff of red mist on the spot. Luckily, 002 prided himself on his ridiculously monstrous instincts, and the metal ball barely grazed the side of his head and smashed into the wall behind Woodsy, reducing it into a pile of rubble. JJQ scooped him up in the nick of time, and Relic also appeared around the corner.

"Take him and go for now," Airo said, voice deadly calm as usual. "Get to the gate and meet up with the others, anyone who's still alive."
"Yes."

JJQ turned and dashed away, followed by Relic.

 

Airo looked at the brute of a guy standing in front of him who'd appeared from the shadows. He was built like a tank, and he was wearing a grey military jacket over a blood-red shirt. A golden chain hung around his neck and dark sunglasses covered his eyes. In one hand, he held a chain as thick as an arm, on the end of which there was a ball of steel about as large as a beach ball. He was whirling it around like a piece of string, though.

One… two, three, four… six attackers total, including fatty here in front me.

"I'm gonna fold you in half, little man," the pig said.

"Funny," Airo said. "If we're talking about folds, you have more than an origami crane."

He figured that wasn’t the right answer because the next instant a lightning fast barrage of missile-like swings came rushing for him.

Keep calm. You are 002. Keep calm, and predict it all.

The balls hit nothing but air and the wall twenty feet behind him, except for the single one that scraped the side of his head again, opening a small gash.

"Light that bastard up!" piggy bellowed.

Airo's eyes flicked in all directions. Five attackers had appeared out of nowhere, all of them armed with rapid-fire guns.

"Ah right," he said. "I'm finally alone so… I can let loose a little  guess?"

A hail of bullets rained down upon him from all directions. And with nothing but his spear, like a miniature tornado, his arms moved in a whirlwind of blurs. The barrage came to an end and was left with a stunned silence. A thousand deflected bullets clittered to the ground. A giggle escaped from his lips.

That old habit's coming back.

The worst, most terrifying smile stretched across his face. And the worst, most terrifying laugh escaped into the air. The six people who heard that laugh that day instinctively realised… that the 'person' in front of them at that moment was nothing like the biker they'd ambushed a few minutes ago.

 

This was a 'monster'.

 

Before they could even react, he was gone. The first two gunners dropped instantly, their feet severed at the ankles.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGH!!!"

As they writhed around on the ground in pain, the third gunner's spine was bent like a twig from a kick that felt like a tank shell. The pig hurled the wrecking ball forwards, only to find it cut clean in half by a normal steel spear. It crashed to the ground behind him. The final two gunners had their heads slashed in half and they were dead instantly.

"And last but not least," Airo grinned. "We have fatty."

He gripped each of his hands, and crushed it in his own. Before a scream could even escape his mouth, his lower jaw was ripped clean of his face. His stomach was slashed open and his intestines started leaking out all over the ground. His arms were twisted like a knot. His legs were bent upwards at a right angle.

"I would love to hear you beg to be killed," Airo said, panting and wiping blood off his face. "But unfortunately, you can't. Well, you'll die without me having to help you even more, so how about we just count this as assisted suicide?"

He didn't say anything more, and turned away from the six corpses.