The Key 

POV Airo

By the time he got to the North Gate, all hell had already broken loose. The Pharo Force members present were fighting a ridiculous defensive battle in a semicircle of barriers around the Gate, which had had its guards completely cleared out by their joint efforts. The problem was that they were now being swarmed by two thousand enemies and Airo had two mean-looking bastards standing in front of him.

If Nexus had ranks, these guys would be the executives, I suppose. Same with that fatty I just… ‘removed’.

One of them was your typical wannabe street gangster, except unlike a typical wannabe street gangster Airo could tell he could pull his own weight. He had a neon purple mohawk and a bunch of piercings, and a black leather shirt with the sleeves ripped off. He was wielding a crude makeshift weapon – a heavy metal stick with a bunch of knives and nails bound in a ball on the end – a weird-ass looking mace. The other guy, well, he couldn’t exactly be called human. He’d clearly made a bunch of body modifications using advanced chrona tech, and honestly Airo was pretty sure he’d got them in his grandmother’s garage using old vehicle parts. His whole body was encased in metal scraps with only a large bald head to be seen, and he stood almost eight feet tall. His spine was more curved than 024’s whip when it was sheathed on her belt, and it looked like he never slept painlessly. His huge arms and legs were as thick as cannon barrels and studded with metal rivets and bolts that barely held him together. As ridiculous as he looked, Airo figured one direct hit from those metal fists and he’d be dead in an instant.

“You’ve got guts taking on Nexus,” mohawk said, twirling the mace and shifting his weight. “Are you Imperials? Or sent from another cartel?”

“I wonder,” Airo grinned.

Mohawk sped at him, dark red eyes glinting wickedly in the sunlight, and the two clashed in a flurry of blows, sparks flying.

I should deal with these two quickly so I can go back up the others…!

Suddenly, Mohawk backstepped and a flash of blue light appeared behind him. Airo barely dodged the mini missile and it exploded behind him, reducing a small building to rubble, and the metal gorilla guy reloaded the cannon in his arm.

This guy’s ranged, and mohawk’s close combat. Not what you’d expect.

Then metal gorilla thundered forwards alongside mohawk and a huge fist narrowly missed Airo’s head. As he dodged backwards, mohawk swept the mass across his leg, slashing a bloody scrape over his thigh. Airo shrugged it off and landed a kick across Mohawk’s face before being pressed back further by the metal gorilla’s wild swings. Ducking under one, Airo thrusted at his chest but the spear simply bounced off the metal plating.

“Can’t pierce me with that toy,” the gorilla grinned. “I’m gunna turn you into paste.”

“Is that a promise?” Airo smiled, lifting an eyebrow.

He jumped over the next swing up onto gorilla’s arm before he could even react, and ran along it like some sort of ninja. He planted a foot firmly on gorilla’s shiny bald scalp and flipped over – at the same time planting both hands on either side of his head. With one sharp motion, Airo twisted it a hundred and eighty degrees and snapped the neck cleanly, landing with a light tap as the now dead gorilla crumpled to the ground with a boom.

“What the-“ mohawk began, clutching his broken nose.

Airo pressed the advantage, and the two of them clashed again in a whirlwind of attacks, mohawk keeping up with him surprisingly well. It wasn’t until Airo fully shifted his weight into his bleeding leg on instinct that he lost balance for a split second and mohawk caught a glancing blow to the side of his head with the mace, and blood flew, pouring down the other side of Airo’s face.

“I got y-“

Airo locked his main arm with his spear and snapped it cleanly.

“AAAAGH!!”

Then with a quick, sharp upwards knee strike to the hand he disarmed mohawk easily, and the mace landed with a clang behind them.

“…shit!”

Airo slammed his forehead onto mohawk’s already bleeding nose and then split him vertically in half with one fluid movement.

“’Shit’ is an ass thing to have engraved on your gravestone,” Airo snickered. “Not that you’ll have one anyway. No one’s gonna remember you, trash. Cuz anyone who still does will be dead by tonight.”

 

It was a few minutes later that the entire north side of the fortress was lit up with a magnificent blue explosion that tore through a quarter of the manufacture zone, and Tentee, Avoma and the twins stumbled out of the streets to join the group defending the Gate, where Airo had also arrived.

"That was quite the boom!" Airo yelled above the din of debris crashing down across Nexus.

"Thanks, Mr Pointy!" Tentee shouted back grinning stupidly as he vaulted the barriers and dropped down next to 002.

"What happened to you?" Avoma demanded, looking Airo up and down, who had blood pouring down his face and down his leg.

"Nothing, just fought some guys," Airo replied dismissively.

"Then what happened to him?"

Avoma nodded at Woodsy, who was leaned against the gate with bandages hurriedly wrapped around his injuries. He'd been hit pretty bad - but was still conscious.

"I got caught off guard," Woodsy muttered.

"He got his ass beat embarrassingly," Zak translated.

"And by a fatty that puts even 028 to shame," Airo added.

"Hey!" Relic protested, ducking down to take cover from an explosion near him.

"More importantly," Deathly said, reloading his rifle after emptying it into the attackers. "Did you guys figure out a way to get the Gate open?"

"It's the kind that slides from below upwards to close," Airo explained. "I don't know though, maybe we need the key."

"Copy that," a voice warbled faintly over comms.

"Who was that?" El Casio asked.

"No clue," Lee said unhelpfully.

Airo grabbed his mouthpiece.

"Who's this?" he demanded.

The voice replied, this time a lot clearer and a lot more familiar.

"The Key, ya Stick of Disappointment."

"For fuck's sake," Airo cursed, slamming it down. "Why him of all people?"

"Better MOVE!!" Luc bellowed into his mic. "The door's coming down!!"

 

There was a rather quiet bang on the other side of the gate as Luc's truck hit it and stopped right in its tracks.

"I did tell you," Swifty's voice said.

There was an awkward silence.

"Some key," Airo muttered.

"Open the door poke-stick," Luc said, voice deadly quiet. "Before I throw you at it."

"That's your job, dumbass!!" Airo yelled, completely abandoning the fight to argue, leaving Avoma to fill in for him. "You said you were the key!!"

"I AM the key!!"

There was a thump on the other side of the gate again, this time even quieter. And then -

"Ten outta ten landing," Dobo congratulated.

"If the truck didn’t work did you think you would?" Swifty snorted.

The two of them, alongside Swono had arrived with Luc.

"Was that the grand plan, O' Mighty 'Key'?" Airo snorted, shooting two thugs without looking. "Hope the door would open out of pity?"

"You're the one inside!!" Luc yelled, scrambling to his feet. "You open it!! Isn’t that what you're supposed to do!? Open the gate from the inside to let the main force in!?"

"Yeah, but YOU said YOU were the key to open this damn thing!!" Airo snapped back.

"Yeah! The metaphorical key!! Like, the 'key to victory'! Not like an actual key with functions!"

"Can see that," JJQ mumbled.

"So you full body tackled reinforced alloy with metaphorical confidence," Airo sighed incredulously.

"IT'S WORKED BEFORE!!"

"ON DOORS SHIT-FOR-BRAINS!! NOT ON MILITARY-ISSUE GATES!!"

"Want me to like, make it go boom or something?" Tentee asked.

"NO!!" about five people yelled at once.

"Just get out of the way," Airo told 004. "The 'Stick of Disappointment' will do it himself."

"Sure, Toothpick Supreme," Luc said defiantly, folding his arms across his chest, then grumbling under his breath, "Stupid overbuilt hunk of metal… bet Airo bribed it to humiliate me."

Airo bounded up the wall, finding footholds the size of ping pong balls until he reached the control box halfway up which had been cleared out by a fly-by from Scythe, who was now raining bullets down on the enemies attacking them. He examined the control panel and then promptly smashed his spear into it.

There was a faint buzz and sad click from the gate. Nothing else.

More silence.

"…Was that it?" Luc asked, feigning curiosity. "Did it sneeze?"

"It's jammed," Airo said flatly, ripping the whole control panel out the wall.

"Wow. Incredible," Luc snorted. "Truly, the Stick of Disappointment has struck again."

"Shut up meathead! You thought your SHOULDER would work!!"

"Because I… BELIEVED in myself!!"

"It's because Woodsy's so fat he's crushing it," Airo snapped, glaring at Woodsy, who was leaning against the gate bleeding out.

"Yeah, he's gotta be crushing the mechanism with his spine or something," Luc suddenly agreed.

"Don't… you dare blame this one me," 012 managed. "I am literally dying of blood loss."

"Then don’t bleed all over the gate's… pressure seal."

"This is not how engineering works-"

 

POV Tentee

While Airo and Luc continued to bicker back and forth, Tentee sidled over to the gate and pulled open the circuitry box.

"Huh, this switch is blinking," he muttered. "Probably bad."

"Need help, chief mechanic?" Swifty asked him over comms, from where he was hanging half out of Luc's truck.

"Yeah," Tentee replied, squinting at the complicated circuitry. "Can you open a bit to the left there?"

"It's not budging."

"Just hit it with something. It's how Luc does it."

"I have just the right thing."

Swifty got right back in the truck, backed it up, and drove it full speed right into the side of the gate. Luc somehow didn't notice at all, but the other two started getting interested.

"Got it."

"Nice. Now, you should see under the panel there's a bunch of red wires and a thingy that looks like half a microwave. Smells like shit,"  Tentee said, as he tinkered around in his side with a multitool.

"Ew. Ew - yeah I see it."

"Rip it out."

"'Kay."

Swifty wrapped the wires around his hand and promptly yanked the mechanism out of the wall with a shower of sparks. Tentee finished up on his side, and with a mechanical groan and a few more sparks, the gate slid downwards into the ground to reveal an appalled Luc and his truck. There was a quiet thump as Woodsy fell flat on his back.

"Did he just-"

"Don't say it," Airo sighed.

"Just in time too," JJQ agreed. "Take a look."

Airo dropped down from the command box, and Luc's group trundled in, exchanging quick greetings. Then all eyes turned to the enemy, who's relentless gunfire had stopped. They were retreating.

"Where're they going?" Luc demanded, mashing his gauntleted fists together. "I wanted to bash some heads."

"I don’t know,” JJQ breathed collapsing against the barricade and panting, her gun leaking smoke and blood seeping from injuries. “But I’m all for taking a breather.”

“No can do,” Airo replied, clapping his hands together. “Now that meathead’s here, we can push forwards.”

“I’m not sure,” Vedix said uncertainly, checking his ammo. “It’s weird or me that they suddenly retreated when if they kept coming they would’ve definitely had us beat.”

Airo paused.

“Maybe… there was a bigger threat,” he muttered.

“Who’s a bigger threat than us?”

“I have several ideas.”

“What so they’re just leaving us be?”

“I doubt it,” Moon disagreed. “If they all left us then I’m assuming something else will come take their place.”

“Less yapping,” Luc said loudly flexing his fists. “I’m craving blood.”

 

“Have the attackers still not been taken care of?” Ghoulfather asked, as he pulled on his white jacket. “The ones in the north.”

“No,” the henchman reporting back to him replied. “They’re resisting much better than expected and a couple of our more prominent members have been defeated. The North gate was also blown open and more of their reinforcements arrived.”

“Hmm,” Ghoulfather mutter, touching his chin. “Any idea which faction they’re from?”

“None yet,” the henchman responded. “They’re too crude to be imperial guards but too skilled to be from another cartel. And we’ve never seen their faces in any records before either.”

The Ghoulfather did not respond, and took a sip of alcohol from his glass.

“I’m going to move out soon,” he said. “And also, I heard that the ones fighting the intruders pulled back to the East. Why is that?”

“Ah, because those ‘beasts’ were released in the north…”

“That’s not good enough of a reason,” Ghoulfather dismissed. “Why didn’t they just fight alongside the beasts?”

“There was an incident in the east…” the henchman swallowed. “About six hundred of us were heading towards the North… when we suddenly lost contact with them. The last thing heard was ‘who are you?’. So we’re assuming there’s a force strong enough to have wiped them out attacking the east. We’re yet to see who they are though.”

“…interesting,” Ghoulfather said. “That’s where I’m going to go. Jay, come with me.”

“…yes,” Jay, the reporting henchman, replied.

  

POV Airo

They’d moved into the underground of the factory zone, a dark place filled with metal tubes and the only places to stand were the grating walkways that snaked through the machinery, suspended. Airo had just arrived at a door, gone through, and come to a landing of a set of stairs – with flights going both up and down. There was a second door to the side, and he was just about to poke his head through when it opened and a flood of thugs poured through.

“Well, well, well,” said the one that was clearly the leader, a tall muscular guy with a load of tattoos and a scar of his right cheek. “Look who have here? A poor bastard walked right into my hands?”

“Oh?” another voice sounded.

Another troupe of goons appeared in the flight of stairs leading upwards and stared down at them.

“Jerry, you’re too?”

This guy looked like a toad, with eyes way too far on the side of his head, and Airo was just about to make fun of him when the door he’d literally just come through opened again and was filled up by more goons. And in the next second, the stairway heading downwards was filled with people too, all yapping to each and leering at him.

“…what the hell?” Airo asked.

Most of the were unarmed, but their fists were all like rocks. The few that were armed all carried blunt weapons. The second he saw them Airo knew that these were the punks that went out punishing random civilians – the lowest kind of weak trash that absolutely no one gave two shits about if they died. Besides, he wanted to enjoy himself for a bit anyway.

“All of you shut up and just come at me,” he said.