Dasneaky
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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I mean the Geneva convention where invented because of them lol
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Only Human (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI)
- Thread starter BakaSmurf
- Start date
Slamm-O
Versed in the lewd.
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The only one of them took a city in WW2
Ace of Scarabs
Polish my soul gem, you reprobrate~
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Seems like everyone is self-sabotaging with all that jinxing going on 
crazygrox
Experienced.
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Has anyone got a good guess why Red Hood a and the past commander had a breakdown in their relationship and stopped being close friends?
My best guess: Commander refused to get augments to complete some task and/or to not die if he tried to have sex with her. And maybe something about how he did that came off to her as a rejection?
Also I don't really trust Enikk. At least partly because
But also because she misled the commander to believe that all five of the surviving councilors were present to be assassinated, when she should have known that three were elsewhere and unable to be assassinated, because the death of the last three seems too much like an orderly transition of government to be unplanned(leaving the question of whether it was planned all along, or planned after the initial failure), and because she was presumably the one holding on to the commander while he got amnesia(it makes me think there's something that he would be observant enough to figure out if he had all his memories, so his memories were deleted for a reason).
My best guess: Commander refused to get augments to complete some task and/or to not die if he tried to have sex with her. And maybe something about how he did that came off to her as a rejection?
Also I don't really trust Enikk. At least partly because
I read something that she's the one selling out Nikkes to be corrupted by Chatterbox in order to get the thing to prevent the Raptures from attacking the Ark.
It also occurs to me that the discrimination against nikke may be created by her, both the prevent the central government from using them as militarized police and to help cripple military effectiveness, and if the astonishingly poor skills and training of Commanders is deliberate, this may be a further effort to reduce the apparent threat posed by the Ark to raptures, to make the ark a lower priority. And to prevent commanders from effectively questioning the appearance of corrupted Nikke from inside the Ark.
I also remember reading that Marian isn't actually dead, she apparently pops up again as a corrupted rapture commander and the group has to try to cure her.
But she was actually shot in the head, her reappearance makes a lot more sense if the Nikke-execution handguns aren't actually able to penetrate the armor around a nikke skull, and instead just send a knockout code, and the protocol demanding the abandonment of corrupted corpses exists to allow raptures to capture intact nikke brains.
It all strikes me as almost-too-directed to be unplanned. Institute a government that's good enough to prevent humanity from going extinct, but isn't good enough to make humans seem threatening to raptures, pay protection fees to play for time and build up numbers and industry, have that second coming of the commander guy who defected to eden scout out what might actually be required to make a fight of it on the surface once you think he has a small chance, have our commander show up again to draw in other significant individuals and factions when it's time to make a more serious attempt.
I also remember reading that Marian isn't actually dead, she apparently pops up again as a corrupted rapture commander and the group has to try to cure her.
But she was actually shot in the head, her reappearance makes a lot more sense if the Nikke-execution handguns aren't actually able to penetrate the armor around a nikke skull, and instead just send a knockout code, and the protocol demanding the abandonment of corrupted corpses exists to allow raptures to capture intact nikke brains.
It all strikes me as almost-too-directed to be unplanned. Institute a government that's good enough to prevent humanity from going extinct, but isn't good enough to make humans seem threatening to raptures, pay protection fees to play for time and build up numbers and industry, have that second coming of the commander guy who defected to eden scout out what might actually be required to make a fight of it on the surface once you think he has a small chance, have our commander show up again to draw in other significant individuals and factions when it's time to make a more serious attempt.
Dasneaky
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Bro don't get my Hope's up that smuf posted again
Last edited:
Chapter 44 - …For Now
BakaSmurf
Only Human, After All
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===
Chapter 44 - …For Now
===
With a heavy, pained groan, Joe was set down a fair way's away from the ongoing battle. No pleasantries were exchanged, just curt words of instructions shared between soldiers. Now wasn't the time, and so, Snow White left Rapi to defend Joe while she rushed back to support Scarlet.
There, leaning against the side of a building which had once been a bank, Joe sat with his hand set over his aching chest - his ribs, to be more specific. Chatterbox had, intentionally or not, pressed Joe's modern AR-15-like rifle which he kept slung across his torso, into his chest when he'd been grabbed like a stress ball. Which had fucking hurt. The man wasn't sure if he was fine, or just wasn't aware if he'd cracked a rib on account of an adrenaline rush, but either way, holy shit he wasn't having a good time.
"Commander!" Rapi immediately dropped to a knee and set a hand on his shoulder once Snow White had rocketed back the way they'd come. "Joe, I-" her breath audibly hitched. "I-I'm sorry…" regret worn plain on her features, she was being unusually expressive.
Joe, however, was just confused. "I'm the one that fucked up, Rapi," he asserted as he reached across his chest to set his hand atop hers. "Intel is literally my entire goddamned job in and out of battle on the field. I'm the dumbass that should be apologizing to you."
Consternation writ large on her face, Rapi shook her head in protest. "No! I'm supposed to protect you, and-"
"And you can hardly do that when I shit the bed and fail to do so much as a cursory scan of the field, can you?" the Commander interjected, tiredly grimacing at the little blonde. "It was my fuck-up, Rapi. Not yours…" Glancing down the street Snow White had charged down, Joe sighed heavily before directing the Nikke as he released her hand, "On guard, now. Chatterbox isn't down yet, and we know that bastard's gunning for me in particular."
With a determined nod, Rapi rose to her feet, brandished her anti-Tyrant rifle, and seemed to brace against the world itself, her expression uncharacteristically fiery.
Having no intention of distracting her further, Joe fell into silence as he simply remained still, lest he risk potentially aggravating an internal injury he may or may not have.
The rising chorus of gunfire mixed with explosions announced Anis and Neon's arrival on the scene, and after a time, the sounds of battle tapered off. Shortly after that, Snow White, Scarlet, Neon and Anis came barrelling down the street, the other members of Counters rushing right for Joe.
"Commander!" Anis cried, lips drawn into a heavy grimace. "Are you okay!?"
"Did you seriously stab Chatterbox in the eye?" Neon, meanwhile, eagerly inquired. "That's so cool, 'our Commander made a Tyrant scream in pain with a knife! What has your Commander done lately, losers?'" she asserted and declared to an imagined audience with an excited pump of her diminutive fists.
"Seriously!?" Anis immediately rounded on the silver-tressed shorty. "We just watched him get carted off by a Tyrant, and that's what you focus on-"
The usual bickering was firmly cut off as Snow White shoved her way past the two, immediately dropping to a knee alongside Joe, staring at him with incredible intensity.
There was a beat before Joe spoke up first, a small, uncertain smile worn on his face. "...Hey, Snow," he quietly greeted the stark-haired woman. Not quite sure just how to speak to her yet-
At once, Joe was engulfed in a tight, almost desperate hug. A shuddering, hitching breath made way for a heavy, singular sob. Snow White had grabbed and was clinging to him. "Joe…" she all but mewled out. "Commander…!"
Burying her face in Joe's shoulder, the Commander had a clear view of Scarlet behind her, a contented expression worn on her features at the sight. "Long has it been, Commander," the swordswoman mused happily. "Yet, all these lifetimes later, still, thy remain… Truly, a man of miracles thy are." She then looked aside at Rapi, who was pointedly remaining quiet, visibly uncomfortable with the affection and familiarity on display.
That certainly caught Anis and Neon's attention, the pair immediately and sharply meeting each other's gaze, having been staring at the exchange between Joe and Snow White with wide, startled eyes.
Luckily, the plan was to let the pair in on what was going on at this point anyways, so…
Returning the hug with a small, somewhat strained chuckle, Joe noted: "Okay, girls… looks like we found the White Pilgrim, and even a plus one," he declared to Counters, gesturing at Scarlet with his chin, while patting Snow White's back for emphasis. "Mission accomplished. Let's not push our luck and head back, yeah?"
After a few moments, Snow White pulled away, once more intensely staring at Joe. After a beat, she grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him onto his feet. Though there was still discomfort in his chest, there was no agony, so he was probably not suffering from any broken or cracked bones. Immediately, reaching over to her hip, Snow White undid a strap of some kind and-
Presented Joe's old swords to him, an expectant look on her face.
Yeah, right. She had them back during their first encounter with Chatterbox, hadn't they?
Looking at the familiar old blades, secured in their black, worn-down Kydex scabbards. The weapons were ancient now, yet held strong, as they damn well should have, given that they were overbuilt to be effectively indestructible unless abused beyond the point of reason.
Joe traced his hands over the now bare metal hilts of the swords, the black leather wraps having likely long since been worn clean off, being organic material than had been exposed to a century's worth of hard life on the surface.
The kopis had been special to him in particular, and he felt no small amount of relief and joy to see it again. Yet…
Taking the forward-curved cleaving sword in one hand, Joe used the other to push the leaf-bladed xiphos back to Snow White, whose expression was deeply confused.
"This one is special to me," the Commander declared as he couldn't help but grin at the familiar weight of the steel in his hand once more - "But that one… I only got it because I thought it looked cool. So, I'll take back the White Reaper's Talon, but I think the White Reaper's Incisor is more yours than it is mine now."
Blinking once in surprise, Snow White's lips parted for a moment, before she replied in quiet understanding: "'A sword should be named in honour of its accomplishments, not whimsy.'" A sentiment Joe had held and freely expressed whenever someone would ask what his blades were named - indicative of the fact that, yes, she knew Joe well, as expected at this point. Yet more evidence that they had a history together; himself and Goddess.
Drawing the xiphos back and returning it to her waist, Snow White didn't protest, and set her hand to rest on the butt of the sword which had served her for an entire century with a firm nod, to which Joe did the same. No more words on the matter needed to be exchanged as Scarlet looked over the proceedings with a deeply contented smile.
Neon and Anis had gone completely wide-eyed, visibly overwhelmed by the implications going on in this interaction. After a few moments of little other than the wind to break the silence, Snow White then spun on her heel, advanced on Rapi, and just as suddenly latched onto the shorter blonde, eliciting a small gasp of surprise from her.
"Red Hood…" Snow White quietly whimpered. "Sister… I missed you," again she buried her face in Rapi's shoulder, "Thank you, for protecting our Commander on your own, for so long… You don't have to bear this responsibility alone anymore. Never again."
Needless to say, Rapi looked more than a little overwhelmed and uncomfortable, given that she… well, unlike Joe, she didn't even remember what little Joe did. But, it wouldn't be right to take this moment from Snow White, and just let her have her reunion, at least for now, before the bandage had to be ripped off.
Notably, Scarlet had a fair bit more restraint, keeping her feet planted, she seemed content to just take in the sight of the moment.
After a long pause, Snow White very gradually released Rapi, who would not, or could not meet the larger Nikke's eyes.
"...I'm not mad at you, Red Hood," Snow White asserted gently. "I'm sure there was a reason you disappeared. I'm sure you didn't abandon us. The fact that you've protected Joe all this time is proof of that."
Okay, yeah, this was starting to get really awkward-
"Snow White," Scarlet interjected. "Consider, perhaps, that this is scarcely the proper time or place for this parlay," the grey-haired swordswoman suggested to her compatriot.
Closing her eyes and letting out a bone-deep sigh, Snow White nodded once. "Right." At once, she spun in place to face Joe once more. "Commander… Scarlet and I were here hunting Chatterbox. But, now that you're here… what is our next objective?" she asked simply, looking to him for orders alongside Scarlet.
Taking a moment to centre himself, Joe nodded simply. "Our objective was to find you - Scarlet's presence is something of a bonus, but, either way, we were only prepared for Chatterbox if we had to fight the bastard. Now, we're here to make a proposition: join us-"
"I would accept without hesitation," Snow White immediately replied, not missing a beat as she did so. "But, we should involve the others in this discussion first."
Blinking, Joe the implications of that hit Joe like a brick. "'The others…' the rest of Goddess is alive too?"
"Wait, GODDESS!?" Anis jumped in place and immediately screamed at the top of her lungs.
"...Oh," was Neon's far more muted, visibly stunlocked response, in contrast.
"Near the Ark, yes," Scarlet answered, paying Anis and Neon's responses little mind. "They were meant to wait for the opportunity to track and contact you, Commander. It seems, however, that you managed to evade their watch in tracking Snow White and I here to this Arctic wasteland."
Giving the messy-haired blonde and the firepower-obsessed weirdo an apologetic look, Joe made a point to address them: "We intended to tell you both only after we had… y'know, proof," Joe informed Anis and Neon. "Sorry, but, it seemed obvious that neither of you would have believed it if we'd told you ahead of time-"
"So you are the Legendary Commander!" Neon suddenly blurted out in a great realization. "You and Rapi are actually the reason the Ark didn't collapse ninety years ago! That was all true!"
To which both Rapi and Joe went pale in the face, staring in muted horror at the smallest present Nikke.
There was a beat wherein Neon realized she'd just projected that realization aloud. With a small, deeply self-conscious chuckle, she admitted: "I kinda forgot to turn off my smart glasses last night, and they picked up you two's conversation…"
Silence reigned supreme as the entire group stood in utter silence - save for Anis, who had curled up into a ball on her feet with her hands digging into her scalp, emitting a quiet, but very high-pitched scream at these revelations and confirmations.
"...Commander," Scarlet spoke up again. "We shall discuss these things as a squad united, not before," she dictated. "Long have we wished to know the fate of yourself and Red Hood. But Snow White and I shan't be privy to this knowledge before our sisters. Let us hear your tale together, as a squad reformed, and not a moment before."
Letting out a very strained breath, Joe nodded once. "Y-yeah… that sounds like a good idea. Alright then, let's-" pausing, he considered the plan as it was, and wondered aloud: "Should we bother going to the Northern Base now…?"
To which Rapi answered. "I don't see the point in doing so, Commander," she declared as sternly as ever. "The only reason we were headed there to begin with was to attain information on the potential whereabouts of the White Pilgrim. Given that we have already encountered her, doing so would be redundant at best. We should simply retrace our steps back to the insertion point where we arrived, call transport, and return to the Outpost. Doubly so given that Chatterbox has been driven off and is logically unlikely to attempt another attack immediately after the first ambush failed. The longer we dally here, the more time we are giving the Tyrant to recuperate and make another pass at us."
Nodding in acknowledgement of Rapi's assessment, Joe replied, "Yeah, given that the weather's clear today, we should be able to make it back to the drop-off for extraction well before the end of the day too if we just go straight back…" clapping his hands together, he continued. "Okay then, let's mosey on back the way we came and-" the Commander paused, the incredibly intense stares Snow White and Scarlet were directing Rapi's way being immediately apparent the moment he glanced over the group as a whole. To say nothing of how Rapi immediately and harshly retreated in on herself at the renewed attention, once more averting her gaze from her former squad mates.
…Yeah. That was the first time Rapi had properly spoken up, and in so doing, revealed that her militaristic cadence sounded nothing like Red Hood, the rabble-rousing idiot gremlin woman of Goddess.
Just as the atmosphere threatened to grow uncomfortable again, Anis sharply rose to her feet, and started trudging through the snow back the way they'd come without uttering a word. Eyes fixed forward, she marched with a mechanical focus very out of character for her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was likely terribly overwhelmed by this influx of information, and wanted to get away from the over-stimulation and back towards the familiarity of the Outpost as quickly as possible.
"...As Scarlet said," Joe began as he started off after Anis with a gesture for everyone to follow. "We'll discuss everything with the rest of the squad present. For now, let's just focus on getting the Hell out of dodge."
"...Fair enough, Commander," Scarlet spoke up as she about-faced and began marching on as well. Snow White's gaze intensely lingered on Rapi a fair while longer, though she did turn and start off just the same as everyone else. Neon gave Joe an apologetic look, sheepishly heading out too.
Joe hesitated long enough for Rapi to start walking, falling into pace with her as she did so. "Hey-" he started.
"Not now, Joe," she cut him off, however.
Point taken. She clearly needed some time to process shit herself just the same as everyone else.
So, choosing to focus on perhaps doing his actual job as the squad's Commander this time around, Joe fished the drone from his harness, and tossed it up into the air to get it started-
And watched it promptly arc through the air and plummet into the snow just ahead of Anis, who yelped and jumped at the sudden jump scare.
Everyone stopped and turned to look at a wide-eyed and confused Joe, to which Rapi noted with some measure of embarrassment: "...Alva Particle density is still high enough to disrupt low-level electronics, Commander. The drone won't work until we make our way to a less densely concentrated patch."
"...Oh," was all Joe said in response as he sheepishly shuffled forth to scoop up the drone and return it to its dedicated pocket, hoping that the reddening of his face would be attributed to the cold, even as Scarlet visibly, but silently chortled at the display.
How embarrassing.
"Commander Pholus!" Fucking Chatterbox called out from atop a distant, tree-topped hill. Brazenly announcing its presence with no apparent hesitation whatsoever. "A question for you-" A series of high-velocity bullets immediately screamed out and tore into the sophont Tyrant, blowing large chunks of its body clear from its catoonishly hyper-masculine form.
Pausing for just a moment to audibly chuckle, it give little indication that the momentary assault had so much as inconvenienced it.
"I have nothing to say to the Million-Dollar Chimp beyond a suggestion that you go fuck yourself!" Joe shouted back as he flipped the Rapture the bird. "Girls, fire at will! Put that fucker down!"
No protest was offered as all but Scarlet immediately unloaded at the beast. The swordswoman placed herself between Chatterbox and the Commander, clearly intending to serve as Joe's shield so long as the Tyrant was out of cleaving range.
Amidst the chorus of gunfire, Chatterbox leapt to-and-fro, the environment around it being shredded by the bullets meant to put down Tyrants, uproariously laughing all the while. Despite facing down three members of Goddess, despite having previously fled to avoid conflict with the group, here it was, now suddenly entirely without an apparent care in the world as it narrowly avoided being turned to a red mist by the combined attack. "Refuse to entertain my invitation or otherwise, I am serving precisely the role I needed to with this exchange regardless!"
That, notably, gave Joe pause, and he couldn't help but ask with anxiety rising in his gut: "You- What?" He called out, "What do you-"
"A distraction!"
At once, a high-pitched whine was audible from high, high above, and with a stone dropping into his gut, Joe noticed that the squad was all bunched together out in the open… "SCATTER!" he cried out as realization struck him.
Scarlet's arm hooked around his gut as g-forces once again acted harshly upon his limited human form, yet Joe was intensely grateful for it this time. The ground the squad had been standing on exploded in a flash, a flash which did not subside in the least - and it took but an instant for Joe to recognize that they'd been fired upon from the sky with a beam weapon.
Coming to a skidding halt, Joe tracked the beam skywards alongside Scarlet, and his eyes went wide at the sight above them, even as it blotted out the sun as though intentionally.
An airborne Rapture, one purely mechanical in nature. Humanoid from the waist up, and bearing segmented wings which jutted from what looked like great jet turbines - the laser cannons which had just fired on them, going off of the way they glowed and smoked. The two arms it had terminated in what looked like some kind of railgun on one appendage, and a fucking energy sword on the other. Below the waist, the machine had a great tail not unlike a mermaid's, though lacking in fins, rather than legs.
From this stark white mechanical devil, Joe felt a terrible sense of overwhelming oppression and malice, a hatred and desire for bloodshed, suffering, and a will to inflict it which washed over him in a sensation he could only describe as preternatural. At once, Joe realized that, while he thought he'd known fear before… no, this feeling that ran clear through his body, a chill he'd only ever previously experienced in nightmares purged from his memory by his own mind to preserve him… this, this was fear.
"Oh- oh no, that's…!" Neon started as she rose to her feet, having leapt out of the beam's impact radius alongside everyone else.
"Another Tyrant-" Rapi started before the colour drained from her face and she corrected herself. "-Titan-class! That means-!"
"Heretic!" Snow White outright snarled in open fury, clenching her teeth hard enough that were she human, she'd have surely cracked, if not outright shattered a tooth.
As though responding to the declaration, the machine lowered itself closer to the ground, taking up a hovering position over a still gleefully chortling Chatterbox - all the while, it's torso unfurled and opened up to reveal…
A woman. A- A Nikke. The machine wasn't a Rapture - it was a piloted mecha. Standing from her seat, the figure rose to look over the brim of the cockpit, looking over the collective squad of Counters and a portion of Goddess with a smile that seemed far too gentle and genial for the raw, supernatural malice she emanated.
As all Nikkes were, even from a distance, Joe could tell that she was gorgeous - but moreover, her appearance was striking, if only because of her inexplicable resemblance to 2B, the character from NieR Automata. Her moderately long hair shone like silver in the high Arctic sun, framing a hauntingly, oddly familiar fair-skinned face which was itself shielded by a black, armoured visor which hid her eyes from view. She wore a dress with dark sleeves, puffed shoulders, a black brassiere piece which transitioned into a white, silken skirt which was only just long enough to cover her crotch. Joe thought she was wearing tights, but he couldn't make out any finer details of her appearance from this distance, and Holy Mother of God, he hoped and prayed that he wouldn't be able to any time soon.
"So," the rogue Nikke - the Heretic started in a sugary voice, a voice that sent chills down Joe's spine for so many innumerable reasons - least of all being the intense, palpable aura of incalculable hatred which projected off of her and continually struck him like stormy waves. "These are the troublemakers that have been hurting you, Chatty?" she inquired downright sweetly, without a solitary ounce of anything but downright affection.
"That is right!" Chatterbox eagerly replied. "None other than Goddess Squad, no less! At least, part of Goddess!"
With a hum, the Nikke continued. "Mn, well, harming my-" a duo of thunder cracks sounded out, and after a disorienting moment, Joe processed that he'd just heard two back-to-back sonic booms. The first, a shot taken from Snow White's gargantuan anti-Tyrant rifle. The second…
The hostile Nikke slapping the fucking bullet out of the air, her arm still outstretched as she continued to smile ominously at the group.
"-sweet little friend," she continued without missing a beat, demonstrably entirely unbothered and unshaken by what had just happened, and what she'd just done, "will hardly do at all! Why, I'd say that it's downright upsetting, knowing that a group of common ruffians has been abusing my friend…"
Chatterbox continued to laugh rapturously, clearly and ruinously entertained by this ongoing development.
"Wretched cur!" Snow White called out furiously. "Vile creature, betrayer! Judas! Abominable Heretic! You've turned on our purpose, you've spat on every sacrifice we have ever made as Nikkes! You've allied yourself with the Raptures! You've betrayed mankind-!"
"As they well deserve!" The Heretic declared pointedly. "Which you, of all people, would know, wouldn't you? After all the Ark has done to Goddess… I pity you, you know! Like a beaten dog tucking its tail between its legs and continuing to beg for affection from its shameless, remorseless abusers… have you no pride? None at all-?"
Another pair of thunder cracks. Another shot fired by Snow White, the bullet, this time, backhanded away by the Heretic, just as casually and effortlessly as before.
"Scarlet!" Snow White cried out over her shoulder. "Take the Commander and run! Now!"
At that directive, one of the laser cannons immediately shifted to focus squarely on Joe, who god damn near shit himself in response. Needless to say, Scarlet did not lunge for Joe, a gun pointed right at his head as it was. Even Rapi, who had looked like she was about to leap for him as well, was frozen in place by the sight.
Notably, there was a lull in the exchange. Everything fell silent for a moment, little other than Anis and Neon's terrified mewling audible and-
"Commander," the Heretic repeated the word, attention shifting to Joe, seeming to stare at him directly for a few moments. "Commander… Commander, Commander… Commander," she repeated the word a few times, her voice rising in inflection each time before she suddenly leaned forward on the brim of the cockpit's opening, and…
The hatred, the fury, and malice, the wish, the desire to inflict unspeakable suffering, the oppressive, nightmarish aura… vanished, all at once.
There was another beat as Joe blinked in uncomprehending confusion, sweat pouring down his forehead at the inexplicable development, and it was Chatterbox that broke the silence.
"Modernia?" The Tyrant inquired of the Heretic, evidently named Modernia.
"Hehe…" In response, Modernia giggled downright girlishly, tilting her head at Joe and grinning widely. "Commander… Commander…" she continued to repeat the term, seeming to fixate entirely on Joe as she did so. "Chatty," she spoke up properly again. "The Commander… He's special. Don't harm a hair on his head."
"As was the plan all along," Chatterbox declared in affirmation, huffing in preparation.
"Good!" Modernia cried out cheerfully, waggling her fingers Joe's way as she continued to single him out, focusing entirely on him. "Slaughter the rest," she commanded the Tyrant happily even as she dropped back into her seat, the cockpit of the Titan-class closing around her once more, Chatterbox booming out in laughter as it became clear that a fight was at hand.
A fight Joe could only hope and pray they were prepared for.
Chapter 44 - …For Now
===
With a heavy, pained groan, Joe was set down a fair way's away from the ongoing battle. No pleasantries were exchanged, just curt words of instructions shared between soldiers. Now wasn't the time, and so, Snow White left Rapi to defend Joe while she rushed back to support Scarlet.
There, leaning against the side of a building which had once been a bank, Joe sat with his hand set over his aching chest - his ribs, to be more specific. Chatterbox had, intentionally or not, pressed Joe's modern AR-15-like rifle which he kept slung across his torso, into his chest when he'd been grabbed like a stress ball. Which had fucking hurt. The man wasn't sure if he was fine, or just wasn't aware if he'd cracked a rib on account of an adrenaline rush, but either way, holy shit he wasn't having a good time.
"Commander!" Rapi immediately dropped to a knee and set a hand on his shoulder once Snow White had rocketed back the way they'd come. "Joe, I-" her breath audibly hitched. "I-I'm sorry…" regret worn plain on her features, she was being unusually expressive.
Joe, however, was just confused. "I'm the one that fucked up, Rapi," he asserted as he reached across his chest to set his hand atop hers. "Intel is literally my entire goddamned job in and out of battle on the field. I'm the dumbass that should be apologizing to you."
Consternation writ large on her face, Rapi shook her head in protest. "No! I'm supposed to protect you, and-"
"And you can hardly do that when I shit the bed and fail to do so much as a cursory scan of the field, can you?" the Commander interjected, tiredly grimacing at the little blonde. "It was my fuck-up, Rapi. Not yours…" Glancing down the street Snow White had charged down, Joe sighed heavily before directing the Nikke as he released her hand, "On guard, now. Chatterbox isn't down yet, and we know that bastard's gunning for me in particular."
With a determined nod, Rapi rose to her feet, brandished her anti-Tyrant rifle, and seemed to brace against the world itself, her expression uncharacteristically fiery.
Having no intention of distracting her further, Joe fell into silence as he simply remained still, lest he risk potentially aggravating an internal injury he may or may not have.
The rising chorus of gunfire mixed with explosions announced Anis and Neon's arrival on the scene, and after a time, the sounds of battle tapered off. Shortly after that, Snow White, Scarlet, Neon and Anis came barrelling down the street, the other members of Counters rushing right for Joe.
"Commander!" Anis cried, lips drawn into a heavy grimace. "Are you okay!?"
"Did you seriously stab Chatterbox in the eye?" Neon, meanwhile, eagerly inquired. "That's so cool, 'our Commander made a Tyrant scream in pain with a knife! What has your Commander done lately, losers?'" she asserted and declared to an imagined audience with an excited pump of her diminutive fists.
"Seriously!?" Anis immediately rounded on the silver-tressed shorty. "We just watched him get carted off by a Tyrant, and that's what you focus on-"
The usual bickering was firmly cut off as Snow White shoved her way past the two, immediately dropping to a knee alongside Joe, staring at him with incredible intensity.
There was a beat before Joe spoke up first, a small, uncertain smile worn on his face. "...Hey, Snow," he quietly greeted the stark-haired woman. Not quite sure just how to speak to her yet-
At once, Joe was engulfed in a tight, almost desperate hug. A shuddering, hitching breath made way for a heavy, singular sob. Snow White had grabbed and was clinging to him. "Joe…" she all but mewled out. "Commander…!"
Burying her face in Joe's shoulder, the Commander had a clear view of Scarlet behind her, a contented expression worn on her features at the sight. "Long has it been, Commander," the swordswoman mused happily. "Yet, all these lifetimes later, still, thy remain… Truly, a man of miracles thy are." She then looked aside at Rapi, who was pointedly remaining quiet, visibly uncomfortable with the affection and familiarity on display.
That certainly caught Anis and Neon's attention, the pair immediately and sharply meeting each other's gaze, having been staring at the exchange between Joe and Snow White with wide, startled eyes.
Luckily, the plan was to let the pair in on what was going on at this point anyways, so…
Returning the hug with a small, somewhat strained chuckle, Joe noted: "Okay, girls… looks like we found the White Pilgrim, and even a plus one," he declared to Counters, gesturing at Scarlet with his chin, while patting Snow White's back for emphasis. "Mission accomplished. Let's not push our luck and head back, yeah?"
After a few moments, Snow White pulled away, once more intensely staring at Joe. After a beat, she grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him onto his feet. Though there was still discomfort in his chest, there was no agony, so he was probably not suffering from any broken or cracked bones. Immediately, reaching over to her hip, Snow White undid a strap of some kind and-
Presented Joe's old swords to him, an expectant look on her face.
Yeah, right. She had them back during their first encounter with Chatterbox, hadn't they?
Looking at the familiar old blades, secured in their black, worn-down Kydex scabbards. The weapons were ancient now, yet held strong, as they damn well should have, given that they were overbuilt to be effectively indestructible unless abused beyond the point of reason.
Joe traced his hands over the now bare metal hilts of the swords, the black leather wraps having likely long since been worn clean off, being organic material than had been exposed to a century's worth of hard life on the surface.
The kopis had been special to him in particular, and he felt no small amount of relief and joy to see it again. Yet…
Taking the forward-curved cleaving sword in one hand, Joe used the other to push the leaf-bladed xiphos back to Snow White, whose expression was deeply confused.
"This one is special to me," the Commander declared as he couldn't help but grin at the familiar weight of the steel in his hand once more - "But that one… I only got it because I thought it looked cool. So, I'll take back the White Reaper's Talon, but I think the White Reaper's Incisor is more yours than it is mine now."
Blinking once in surprise, Snow White's lips parted for a moment, before she replied in quiet understanding: "'A sword should be named in honour of its accomplishments, not whimsy.'" A sentiment Joe had held and freely expressed whenever someone would ask what his blades were named - indicative of the fact that, yes, she knew Joe well, as expected at this point. Yet more evidence that they had a history together; himself and Goddess.
Drawing the xiphos back and returning it to her waist, Snow White didn't protest, and set her hand to rest on the butt of the sword which had served her for an entire century with a firm nod, to which Joe did the same. No more words on the matter needed to be exchanged as Scarlet looked over the proceedings with a deeply contented smile.
Neon and Anis had gone completely wide-eyed, visibly overwhelmed by the implications going on in this interaction. After a few moments of little other than the wind to break the silence, Snow White then spun on her heel, advanced on Rapi, and just as suddenly latched onto the shorter blonde, eliciting a small gasp of surprise from her.
"Red Hood…" Snow White quietly whimpered. "Sister… I missed you," again she buried her face in Rapi's shoulder, "Thank you, for protecting our Commander on your own, for so long… You don't have to bear this responsibility alone anymore. Never again."
Needless to say, Rapi looked more than a little overwhelmed and uncomfortable, given that she… well, unlike Joe, she didn't even remember what little Joe did. But, it wouldn't be right to take this moment from Snow White, and just let her have her reunion, at least for now, before the bandage had to be ripped off.
Notably, Scarlet had a fair bit more restraint, keeping her feet planted, she seemed content to just take in the sight of the moment.
After a long pause, Snow White very gradually released Rapi, who would not, or could not meet the larger Nikke's eyes.
"...I'm not mad at you, Red Hood," Snow White asserted gently. "I'm sure there was a reason you disappeared. I'm sure you didn't abandon us. The fact that you've protected Joe all this time is proof of that."
Okay, yeah, this was starting to get really awkward-
"Snow White," Scarlet interjected. "Consider, perhaps, that this is scarcely the proper time or place for this parlay," the grey-haired swordswoman suggested to her compatriot.
Closing her eyes and letting out a bone-deep sigh, Snow White nodded once. "Right." At once, she spun in place to face Joe once more. "Commander… Scarlet and I were here hunting Chatterbox. But, now that you're here… what is our next objective?" she asked simply, looking to him for orders alongside Scarlet.
Taking a moment to centre himself, Joe nodded simply. "Our objective was to find you - Scarlet's presence is something of a bonus, but, either way, we were only prepared for Chatterbox if we had to fight the bastard. Now, we're here to make a proposition: join us-"
"I would accept without hesitation," Snow White immediately replied, not missing a beat as she did so. "But, we should involve the others in this discussion first."
Blinking, Joe the implications of that hit Joe like a brick. "'The others…' the rest of Goddess is alive too?"
"Wait, GODDESS!?" Anis jumped in place and immediately screamed at the top of her lungs.
"...Oh," was Neon's far more muted, visibly stunlocked response, in contrast.
"Near the Ark, yes," Scarlet answered, paying Anis and Neon's responses little mind. "They were meant to wait for the opportunity to track and contact you, Commander. It seems, however, that you managed to evade their watch in tracking Snow White and I here to this Arctic wasteland."
Giving the messy-haired blonde and the firepower-obsessed weirdo an apologetic look, Joe made a point to address them: "We intended to tell you both only after we had… y'know, proof," Joe informed Anis and Neon. "Sorry, but, it seemed obvious that neither of you would have believed it if we'd told you ahead of time-"
"So you are the Legendary Commander!" Neon suddenly blurted out in a great realization. "You and Rapi are actually the reason the Ark didn't collapse ninety years ago! That was all true!"
To which both Rapi and Joe went pale in the face, staring in muted horror at the smallest present Nikke.
There was a beat wherein Neon realized she'd just projected that realization aloud. With a small, deeply self-conscious chuckle, she admitted: "I kinda forgot to turn off my smart glasses last night, and they picked up you two's conversation…"
Silence reigned supreme as the entire group stood in utter silence - save for Anis, who had curled up into a ball on her feet with her hands digging into her scalp, emitting a quiet, but very high-pitched scream at these revelations and confirmations.
"...Commander," Scarlet spoke up again. "We shall discuss these things as a squad united, not before," she dictated. "Long have we wished to know the fate of yourself and Red Hood. But Snow White and I shan't be privy to this knowledge before our sisters. Let us hear your tale together, as a squad reformed, and not a moment before."
Letting out a very strained breath, Joe nodded once. "Y-yeah… that sounds like a good idea. Alright then, let's-" pausing, he considered the plan as it was, and wondered aloud: "Should we bother going to the Northern Base now…?"
To which Rapi answered. "I don't see the point in doing so, Commander," she declared as sternly as ever. "The only reason we were headed there to begin with was to attain information on the potential whereabouts of the White Pilgrim. Given that we have already encountered her, doing so would be redundant at best. We should simply retrace our steps back to the insertion point where we arrived, call transport, and return to the Outpost. Doubly so given that Chatterbox has been driven off and is logically unlikely to attempt another attack immediately after the first ambush failed. The longer we dally here, the more time we are giving the Tyrant to recuperate and make another pass at us."
Nodding in acknowledgement of Rapi's assessment, Joe replied, "Yeah, given that the weather's clear today, we should be able to make it back to the drop-off for extraction well before the end of the day too if we just go straight back…" clapping his hands together, he continued. "Okay then, let's mosey on back the way we came and-" the Commander paused, the incredibly intense stares Snow White and Scarlet were directing Rapi's way being immediately apparent the moment he glanced over the group as a whole. To say nothing of how Rapi immediately and harshly retreated in on herself at the renewed attention, once more averting her gaze from her former squad mates.
…Yeah. That was the first time Rapi had properly spoken up, and in so doing, revealed that her militaristic cadence sounded nothing like Red Hood, the rabble-rousing idiot gremlin woman of Goddess.
Just as the atmosphere threatened to grow uncomfortable again, Anis sharply rose to her feet, and started trudging through the snow back the way they'd come without uttering a word. Eyes fixed forward, she marched with a mechanical focus very out of character for her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was likely terribly overwhelmed by this influx of information, and wanted to get away from the over-stimulation and back towards the familiarity of the Outpost as quickly as possible.
"...As Scarlet said," Joe began as he started off after Anis with a gesture for everyone to follow. "We'll discuss everything with the rest of the squad present. For now, let's just focus on getting the Hell out of dodge."
"...Fair enough, Commander," Scarlet spoke up as she about-faced and began marching on as well. Snow White's gaze intensely lingered on Rapi a fair while longer, though she did turn and start off just the same as everyone else. Neon gave Joe an apologetic look, sheepishly heading out too.
Joe hesitated long enough for Rapi to start walking, falling into pace with her as she did so. "Hey-" he started.
"Not now, Joe," she cut him off, however.
Point taken. She clearly needed some time to process shit herself just the same as everyone else.
So, choosing to focus on perhaps doing his actual job as the squad's Commander this time around, Joe fished the drone from his harness, and tossed it up into the air to get it started-
And watched it promptly arc through the air and plummet into the snow just ahead of Anis, who yelped and jumped at the sudden jump scare.
Everyone stopped and turned to look at a wide-eyed and confused Joe, to which Rapi noted with some measure of embarrassment: "...Alva Particle density is still high enough to disrupt low-level electronics, Commander. The drone won't work until we make our way to a less densely concentrated patch."
"...Oh," was all Joe said in response as he sheepishly shuffled forth to scoop up the drone and return it to its dedicated pocket, hoping that the reddening of his face would be attributed to the cold, even as Scarlet visibly, but silently chortled at the display.
How embarrassing.
"Commander Pholus!" Fucking Chatterbox called out from atop a distant, tree-topped hill. Brazenly announcing its presence with no apparent hesitation whatsoever. "A question for you-" A series of high-velocity bullets immediately screamed out and tore into the sophont Tyrant, blowing large chunks of its body clear from its catoonishly hyper-masculine form.
Pausing for just a moment to audibly chuckle, it give little indication that the momentary assault had so much as inconvenienced it.
"I have nothing to say to the Million-Dollar Chimp beyond a suggestion that you go fuck yourself!" Joe shouted back as he flipped the Rapture the bird. "Girls, fire at will! Put that fucker down!"
No protest was offered as all but Scarlet immediately unloaded at the beast. The swordswoman placed herself between Chatterbox and the Commander, clearly intending to serve as Joe's shield so long as the Tyrant was out of cleaving range.
Amidst the chorus of gunfire, Chatterbox leapt to-and-fro, the environment around it being shredded by the bullets meant to put down Tyrants, uproariously laughing all the while. Despite facing down three members of Goddess, despite having previously fled to avoid conflict with the group, here it was, now suddenly entirely without an apparent care in the world as it narrowly avoided being turned to a red mist by the combined attack. "Refuse to entertain my invitation or otherwise, I am serving precisely the role I needed to with this exchange regardless!"
That, notably, gave Joe pause, and he couldn't help but ask with anxiety rising in his gut: "You- What?" He called out, "What do you-"
"A distraction!"
At once, a high-pitched whine was audible from high, high above, and with a stone dropping into his gut, Joe noticed that the squad was all bunched together out in the open… "SCATTER!" he cried out as realization struck him.
Scarlet's arm hooked around his gut as g-forces once again acted harshly upon his limited human form, yet Joe was intensely grateful for it this time. The ground the squad had been standing on exploded in a flash, a flash which did not subside in the least - and it took but an instant for Joe to recognize that they'd been fired upon from the sky with a beam weapon.
Coming to a skidding halt, Joe tracked the beam skywards alongside Scarlet, and his eyes went wide at the sight above them, even as it blotted out the sun as though intentionally.
An airborne Rapture, one purely mechanical in nature. Humanoid from the waist up, and bearing segmented wings which jutted from what looked like great jet turbines - the laser cannons which had just fired on them, going off of the way they glowed and smoked. The two arms it had terminated in what looked like some kind of railgun on one appendage, and a fucking energy sword on the other. Below the waist, the machine had a great tail not unlike a mermaid's, though lacking in fins, rather than legs.
From this stark white mechanical devil, Joe felt a terrible sense of overwhelming oppression and malice, a hatred and desire for bloodshed, suffering, and a will to inflict it which washed over him in a sensation he could only describe as preternatural. At once, Joe realized that, while he thought he'd known fear before… no, this feeling that ran clear through his body, a chill he'd only ever previously experienced in nightmares purged from his memory by his own mind to preserve him… this, this was fear.
"Oh- oh no, that's…!" Neon started as she rose to her feet, having leapt out of the beam's impact radius alongside everyone else.
"Another Tyrant-" Rapi started before the colour drained from her face and she corrected herself. "-Titan-class! That means-!"
"Heretic!" Snow White outright snarled in open fury, clenching her teeth hard enough that were she human, she'd have surely cracked, if not outright shattered a tooth.
As though responding to the declaration, the machine lowered itself closer to the ground, taking up a hovering position over a still gleefully chortling Chatterbox - all the while, it's torso unfurled and opened up to reveal…
A woman. A- A Nikke. The machine wasn't a Rapture - it was a piloted mecha. Standing from her seat, the figure rose to look over the brim of the cockpit, looking over the collective squad of Counters and a portion of Goddess with a smile that seemed far too gentle and genial for the raw, supernatural malice she emanated.
As all Nikkes were, even from a distance, Joe could tell that she was gorgeous - but moreover, her appearance was striking, if only because of her inexplicable resemblance to 2B, the character from NieR Automata. Her moderately long hair shone like silver in the high Arctic sun, framing a hauntingly, oddly familiar fair-skinned face which was itself shielded by a black, armoured visor which hid her eyes from view. She wore a dress with dark sleeves, puffed shoulders, a black brassiere piece which transitioned into a white, silken skirt which was only just long enough to cover her crotch. Joe thought she was wearing tights, but he couldn't make out any finer details of her appearance from this distance, and Holy Mother of God, he hoped and prayed that he wouldn't be able to any time soon.
"So," the rogue Nikke - the Heretic started in a sugary voice, a voice that sent chills down Joe's spine for so many innumerable reasons - least of all being the intense, palpable aura of incalculable hatred which projected off of her and continually struck him like stormy waves. "These are the troublemakers that have been hurting you, Chatty?" she inquired downright sweetly, without a solitary ounce of anything but downright affection.
"That is right!" Chatterbox eagerly replied. "None other than Goddess Squad, no less! At least, part of Goddess!"
With a hum, the Nikke continued. "Mn, well, harming my-" a duo of thunder cracks sounded out, and after a disorienting moment, Joe processed that he'd just heard two back-to-back sonic booms. The first, a shot taken from Snow White's gargantuan anti-Tyrant rifle. The second…
The hostile Nikke slapping the fucking bullet out of the air, her arm still outstretched as she continued to smile ominously at the group.
"-sweet little friend," she continued without missing a beat, demonstrably entirely unbothered and unshaken by what had just happened, and what she'd just done, "will hardly do at all! Why, I'd say that it's downright upsetting, knowing that a group of common ruffians has been abusing my friend…"
Chatterbox continued to laugh rapturously, clearly and ruinously entertained by this ongoing development.
"Wretched cur!" Snow White called out furiously. "Vile creature, betrayer! Judas! Abominable Heretic! You've turned on our purpose, you've spat on every sacrifice we have ever made as Nikkes! You've allied yourself with the Raptures! You've betrayed mankind-!"
"As they well deserve!" The Heretic declared pointedly. "Which you, of all people, would know, wouldn't you? After all the Ark has done to Goddess… I pity you, you know! Like a beaten dog tucking its tail between its legs and continuing to beg for affection from its shameless, remorseless abusers… have you no pride? None at all-?"
Another pair of thunder cracks. Another shot fired by Snow White, the bullet, this time, backhanded away by the Heretic, just as casually and effortlessly as before.
"Scarlet!" Snow White cried out over her shoulder. "Take the Commander and run! Now!"
At that directive, one of the laser cannons immediately shifted to focus squarely on Joe, who god damn near shit himself in response. Needless to say, Scarlet did not lunge for Joe, a gun pointed right at his head as it was. Even Rapi, who had looked like she was about to leap for him as well, was frozen in place by the sight.
Notably, there was a lull in the exchange. Everything fell silent for a moment, little other than Anis and Neon's terrified mewling audible and-
"Commander," the Heretic repeated the word, attention shifting to Joe, seeming to stare at him directly for a few moments. "Commander… Commander, Commander… Commander," she repeated the word a few times, her voice rising in inflection each time before she suddenly leaned forward on the brim of the cockpit's opening, and…
The hatred, the fury, and malice, the wish, the desire to inflict unspeakable suffering, the oppressive, nightmarish aura… vanished, all at once.
There was another beat as Joe blinked in uncomprehending confusion, sweat pouring down his forehead at the inexplicable development, and it was Chatterbox that broke the silence.
"Modernia?" The Tyrant inquired of the Heretic, evidently named Modernia.
"Hehe…" In response, Modernia giggled downright girlishly, tilting her head at Joe and grinning widely. "Commander… Commander…" she continued to repeat the term, seeming to fixate entirely on Joe as she did so. "Chatty," she spoke up properly again. "The Commander… He's special. Don't harm a hair on his head."
"As was the plan all along," Chatterbox declared in affirmation, huffing in preparation.
"Good!" Modernia cried out cheerfully, waggling her fingers Joe's way as she continued to single him out, focusing entirely on him. "Slaughter the rest," she commanded the Tyrant happily even as she dropped back into her seat, the cockpit of the Titan-class closing around her once more, Chatterbox booming out in laughter as it became clear that a fight was at hand.
A fight Joe could only hope and pray they were prepared for.
Slamm-O
Versed in the lewd.
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She is the sort to scream it from the roof tops.
Nomad-117
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Having reached the end of Chapter 44 I realize that Chatterbox just made a pun here... he needs to fucking die.
With that said... this is going to turn into a bloody mess isn't it? Not just because of the whole combat thing going on right now, but rather because of all the emotions flying about now and soon after.
That said... wonder what Goddess will say about Joe's tactical decision to sway Nikkes to his side by seducing them and actually building up healthy, romantic relationships with em.
crazygrox
Experienced.
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So there are potentially two things to do that might turn this fight around, either figure that someone on or related to goddess squad might be able to repair Rapi if she goes all-out and give her the order to do so(though that's dubious and might rely on Dorothy, depending on how things work out).
Or figure out that
Modernia is Marian, and do something involving her affection, her submachinegun, or my suspicion that Commander Handguns can't actually penetrate Nikke skulls, and instead the impact sends a shutdown code, and hope that the corruption involved an oversight and failed to remove the shutdown system.
BoundlessVortigern
The Wayward
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They're either going to be unamused, confused, or probably envious with a good number of them lmao. Either way, holy shit we finally got Marian/Modernia on the scene and she's as crazy as can be. Thankfully she still loves the Commander, so Joe's mostly as safe as can be...I think. Probably going to get locked up in a basement somewhere if Doro doesn't just do that herself when she finally sees her Commander is alive.
Dasneaky
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Why not all three at the same time?
Ace of Scarabs
Polish my soul gem, you reprobrate~
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Neon now part of the conspiracy, lol. They're going to need to get Ingrid's help to secure Neon's silence
Slamm-O
Versed in the lewd.
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They do have snow white with them they could tell Neon she is a genius weapons engineer and she will make her a custom gun.Neon now part of the conspiracy, lol. They're going to need to get Ingrid's help to secure Neon's silence
If she keeps her mouth shut.
Chapter 45 - Look Up to the Sky
BakaSmurf
Only Human, After All
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===
Chapter 45 - Look Up to the Sky
===
As Modernia faced the combined wrath of almost the entirety of the rag-tag squad with relative ease - Chatterbox was being harshly reminded that Scarlet was a Tyrant killer.
All on her own, the white blur of a Nikke danced and zipped and lunged and cleaved. For as nightmarish as Chatterbox had seemed, Scarlet demonstrated that the Grimms were legendary for a reason. No support, no back-up, no help. None was needed, none was requested. The swordswoman made the towering Tyrant look like a stubborn gnat rather than the Nikke-destroying monster it actually was.
The keening song of her blade cutting through the air produced a veritable chorus from but a single source - smiting chunks, large, small, and everything in between with each step, bob, and slide, flesh shorn clean from Chatterbox's body.
Joe's oh-so-limited human eyes couldn't keep up with the display. Chatterbox was fast, but in the same way that a charging bear was; trackable, easy to follow, if not necessarily react to, yet absolutely terrifying nonetheless. Scarlet was, in contrast, so terribly quick, that much of the time, the man could only make out a literal blur striking out at the Tyrant. Snow mixing with tainted ichor was repeatedly kicked up with such force from the sheer velocity produced by her movements, that it almost produced a small, localized blizzard around her; so intense was her capacity for unrelenting speed.
The Commander was, simply put, in utter awe. Chatterbox continued to fight, and continued to regenerate freakishly fast. Yet it wasn't enough. The beast was being single-handedly, gradually, but certainly overwhelmed by a lone woman wielding a 'mere' sword. What damage Scarlet took, in contrast, was minor; scratches, bumps, bruises... nuisances, at best. For as amused as Chatterbox had seemed at first, anger and naked frustration rapidly took that entertainment's place.
To say that the great, overly talkative monster wasn't much of a threat to Joe at that moment, would be an understatement. Scarlet was simply too powerful in her specialization for there to be a true contest between them.
In sharp contrast, Modernia was toying with the rest of the squad.
In much the same way Scarlet snapped and zipped around her opponent with an ease which borderlined on contemptuous, Modernia, encased in her great and terrible mechanized armour, did much the same.
The Titan-class did not seem to possess the same capacity for raw, lightning-quick acceleration which Scarlet enjoyed, but it didn't need to. It simply outright teleported. Tens of metres at a time, it would avoid an awe-inspiring shot, a bolt of energy, supersonic rocket-propelled explosive, or a fiery tracer round which might've done real damage to it. Soaring, rolling, spinning and bouncing about, the machine seemed to command the sky itself, all the while striking out in turn, Counters and Snow White desperately throwing themselves about to avoid suffering catastrophic damage. It would be a pitiful act of impotent rebellion to describe the Heretic as anything other than an uncontested airborne monarch.
Where Scarlet's display filled Joe with hope and certainty, Modernia's overwhelmed him with looming dread. Though she could not avoid each and every shot taken, those which landed did not strike with enough authority to bring her low. If anything, she was entirely unperturbed by the resistance set against her ironclad rule of the aurora-laden heavens above. So unbothered, that she projected a cheery tune over her armour's speakers: a gentle, pleasant humming that chilled Joe's bones clean through to the marrow.
In a single scene, Joe could see both the reason why the Grimms were considered mankind's greatest hope, the mightiest warriors of humanity to have ever walked the planet's surface… and why the Raptures dominated that same surface in such a hopelessly uncontested manner in the present day. Why making heroes of legend themselves, forging a myth to stand against the encroaching dark hadn't won them their horrible war.
Victory was not the domain of the human race, when even Goddesses struggled so terribly against the mightiest of their foes.
Missiles beelined towards Snow White, who, rather than scramble aside to escape the inevitable explosion, or shoot them down… Charged, bent her knees like coiled springs, and jumped at the missiles the size of human torsos. Then, with all the ease of a child playing hop-scotch, she used the oncoming missiles like stepping stones to close distance with Modernia's Titan.
Snow White's cannon, Seven Dwarves charged, trembling in the stark white Nikke's hands all the while as power and energy built up within the great weapon's body. All even as Modernia had immediately shifted her attention upon launching the rockets at Snow White, thinking nothing of those who stood against her. A Grimms, treated as an afterthought.
With a series of cascading explosions following in her wake as the warheads she'd jumped off of ineffectually struck the Earth below, Modernia distracted by a few of Rapi's .50 Ultra rounds landing true, Snow White drove the barrel of Seven Dwarves into the open gears and mechanisms linking the Titan's arm to its body, and pulled the trigger.
The extreme-intensity energy beam projected from the weapon erupted like a blinding ray of light from the sun: splitting upon striking the innards of the mech, reflecting off of metal and deflecting back onto yet more gears and key connective mechanisms in but a single instant. Enough to sever the Titan's arm, as well as one of the energy cannons being blown off via collateral damage by a deflected beam.
Pointedly back-flipping off the mech with a purpose, Snow White only barely avoided the flame-like blade of the machine's energy sword screaming out at her. An aggravated huff projected from the Titan-class as its wings were blown off by a number of grenades launched by Anis at the same time.
"Seriously? Annoying…" Modernia grumbled even as she rapidly teleported away multiple times in a row, creating distance between herself and the squad that had managed to land real strikes upon her, the machine's ability to fly not at all outwardly impacted by the loss of its wings. "I forgot I was dealing with Grimms. I got careless." The remaining beam cannon began to visibly power up and charge to retaliate, "I suppose I'll-" as another supersonic grenade struck the connecting strut holding said cannon in place, and it promptly tumbled down to the snowy ground uselessly. "-Well, now I'm just annoyed."
Snapping to and charging at Anis, the messy-haired blonde's eyes became unto saucers as she scrambled and flipped into a somersault - just managing to clear the blade which would have bisected her outright. Yet, avoid it she did, in a display that inexplicably exceeded anything she'd managed up to that point before.
Carrying forth on forward momentum, Modernia let out a low growl, spinning in place and trying to carry the swing of the energy sword clear around to catch Anis before she could repeat the evasive manoeuvre.
Neon interjected by dive-tackling her teammate out of range of the slash, the platinumette catching herself in a roll and landing on her knee. She immediately shouldered her machine gun and unloaded on the Titan, the monstrous flame produced by the muzzle flash of the high-explosive armour-piercing Ultra rounds dwarfing that of a common 5.56mm report.
Neon's tracer-laden aim was shockingly true and keen, striking at the joint between the sword and the arm it was connected to - immediately causing the energy beam to pulsate and audibly wind down as sparks flew from the connective joint. She'd managed to at least damage whatever internal cable was powering the weapon, diminishing and damaging it.
"Seriously!?" Modernia cried out in open frustration. "Those two aren't even Grimms! What's going on here? Why are all of them doing so much better than they should be!?"
One slip-up was all that it took to grant Counters and Snow White the chance to create a series of openings, and in so doing, the Nikkes demonstrated that even a seemingly invulnerable enemy had weak spots to exploit. And Modernia, it seemed, was very easily annoyed and distracted.
A critical flaw for a combatant, to say the least. Bad for her and Chatterbox. A spark of hope for the good guys. Joe would be damned sure to give Neon and Anis no small amount of praise for doing real damage to a motherfucking Heretic-piloted Titan. Quite the stark difference from how ineffectual they'd been against Chatterbox back in Vancouver.
Following a strained cry of agony, one of Chatterbox's comically massive arms soared into view, crashing through a snow drift like a runaway tree, causing Joe to duck and scurry back, given how damned close it had come to colliding with him. Scarlet came to a harsh halt alongside Joe just after the dismembered limb, adjusting her oversized kasa with a small huff, quickly giving the Commander a wordless once-over, seemingly to confirm that he hadn't been hurt.
"-Chatty!" Modernia called out, her Titan-class immediately spinning in place and bee-lining for a seemingly severely injured Chatterbox.
Thus leaving herself wide open to another shot from Rapi - the round from her anti-Tyrant rifle being placed just so as to actually sever the sword from the arm entirely. Modernia did absolutely nothing to avoid this, and in fact, did not acknowledge it at all. Quickly enough, Chatterbox had been scooped up by the Titan-class, zipping away to create distance between them and the Nikke squad.
Coming to a stop to look back over the rag-tag band of misfits, Chatterbox was hanging from the Titan-class's chest with its remaining arm, covered in gaping, open wounds that highlighted just how outclassed it was against Scarlet in a straight fight.
In a dazzling flash, all of the debris and damaged pieces from the Tyrant and Titan erupted in what looked the part of a flash burst of plasma, incinerating anything Counters and the Pilgrims may have been able to scavenge from them in an instant.
Modernia, in an almost pouty voice, declared: "I got careless today and forgot that we were dealing with Grimms, and Chatty got hurt because of it. Next time, we'll be prepared, though."
"All of this juicy combat data!" Chatterbox called out uproariously, not seeming particularly perturbed by the stump and gushing wounds Scarlet had left it with, all things considered. "I promise to put it to good use in preparation for our next dance, Goddess!"
The Titan-class began to turn away, but slowed, its single, visored eye focusing on Joe with no small amount of longing hesitation, to which Modernia called out: "...You've already waited this long. A little bit longer won't be the end of the world, right, Commander? So, goodbye… for now." she sweetly said, her question clearly rhetorical, given how the Titan-class immediately zoomed off like a rocket before anyone could react - Chatterbox chortling gleefully all the while, the Tyrant's impossibly bassy voice echoing off into the distance as it tapered off into silence.
There was a Hell of a beat in which everyone just remained rooted in place where their feet had been set. Nobody even seemed to breathe for what felt like an eternity. To say nothing of how Joe didn't even begin to know how to parse any of what had just happened. Least of all how inexplicably... familiar Modernia seemed to be with him. Until…
"...Am I… Wait!" Anis cried out, her voice hitting a pitch heretofore unheard. "Did- did we just drive off a Heretic!? Without suffering any injuries!?" Outright dropping her grenade launcher, Anis started patting herself down in plain disbelief. "Bullshit! No way! That's not… I'm not hurt!? I'm okay? Am I seriously okay for once!?"
"BOOYAH!" Neon just jumped in place, cheering and dancing in response to their victory. "That's what it means to face the overwhelming might of superior firepower! Even Heretics fall before the power of… Firepower!"
After a few long moments, Rapi, Snow White, and Scarlet all let out a collective breath. Scarlet was the first to speak up as she sheathed her massive sword. "This erstwhile inkling in mine bosom…" she set her now free hand over her chest, closing her eyes with a wistful sigh. "This surge of strength and will… I've ill recalled the feeling these long years apart…"
"...It's almost intoxicating, so invigorating…" Snow White asserted, taking a deep breath as she relaxed. "My heart feels so… strong… Like nothing could stop me..."
Rapi, meanwhile, while almost looking like she was fighting off a high that might've been on the verge of rendering her light-headed, beelined for Joe. "Commander! Are you okay?" she asked, seemingly about ready to lunge out for his hand.
"I-" Joe sputtered out, more than a little overwhelmed given everything that had just happened. "Y-yeah, I-I'm fine." He assured the little black-and-red bedecked blonde. Hell, he'd barely moved from the spot where he'd been standing when this whole encounter had started.
As relief washed over Rapi, Scarlet and Snow White ambled over to the pair, satisfied smiles in place on their faces. "I could stand against all the Raptures in the world, with you at our back, Commander," Snow White asserted. "Even a Heretic is nothing with you here again."
"The most trying of battles are made but minor hurdles with thee at our side, Commander," Scarlet declared with a wide grin. "Let us away to strike down the Rapture Queen! With ease shall she fall before mine blade!"
Looking deeply confused, Joe looked around, visibly bamboozled, utterly perplexed. "...But… I didn't even do anything!" He cried out, spreading his arms wide for emphasis given that, indeed, he'd just sort of stood there being overwhelmed by everything going on, like a potato.
Scarlet and Snow White blinked, looking at Joe with no small amount of confusion themselves. Sharing a look between each other, the two looked to Rapi… who was herself giving the pair an uncertain look.
"...Joe," Snow White started, "You… have you forgotten-?"
"Commander, we should exfil as quickly as possible," Rapi firmly interjected, stepping closer to Joe with a grim expression worn on her grumpy features. "There's no telling what else may appear out of the blue to endanger you out here. Quickly, while there are no imminent threats!"
Not waiting for a reply, Rapi grabbed Joe by the hand, and started dragging him off back the way they'd originally come on arrival. However… "No!" Anis called out with a downright feral look on her face, causing Rapi to sharply stop, turn, and stare in stupefaction. "We just sent a Heretic and that damned shitter Chatterbox running with their tails tucked between their legs! They're scared of us! Let's go after them and put them down!"
"Yeah! They aren't so tough after all!" Neon agreed, bouncing on the balls of her feet in place with her little dukes raised, visibly jittery as all get out. "Let's go after them and make them eat their words! Show them what happens when you mess with our superior firepower!"
"Are you two crazy!?" Rapi demanded, glowering at the pair. "We just-"
"No, they're right," Snow White cut the little blonde off. "Rare is the occasion that a Heretic flees from battle with even an entire battalion of Nikkes… we should hunt them down and finish them off, Commander. It cannot be overstated how much of a boon it would be for mankind to eliminate one of those blasphemous traitors! Hundreds, if not thousands of Nikkes lost, tortured, tormented, slaughtered, their sacrifices having meant nothing, their duty spat upon by the soulless Heretics, for little other than base amusement… We can avenge them, and deny the Raptures two important assets in one fell swoop."
"Snow White and I are in concert on this matter," Scarlet declared matter-of-factually. "The eagerness of thine squad is understandable, and they are correct: fleeing as though we had not overcome the Heretic would be the height of folly."
"Commander!" Rapi rounded on Joe, visibly aggravated by the arguments made by the rest of the girls. "You're in danger out here, you saw yourself how the Heretic focused on you! We need to get you back to the Ark, to safety!"
Looking between all of the present Nikkes, Joe chewed on the inside of his cheek in consideration, responding to Rapi's point with one of his own. "Until?"
Blinking, Rapi cocked her head at Joe in confusion.
"I'm a Commander, Rapi," the burly man asserted as he adjusted the collar of his jacket to break the chill, Arctic wind hitting his neck. "If Modernia is going to be hunting me, then I'm going to be critically endangered even more so than usual with her in the picture. We just pushed her back, her and Chatterbox together. They're on the back foot and-" Joe looked back over the group, gesturing over them all for emphasis. "We're good on ammo?" He received nods of affirmation, then looked back to Rapi. "-Weakened. We can still fight, we aren't even winded it seems like. We go after them, and if we can catch up to them, press the advantage we clearly have, we end their threat right here and now."
"It's too dangerous!" The little blonde protested, getting very uncharacteristically emotional as her voice pitched up in tone. "I already failed you once, I'm not doing so again-!"
"Rapi!" Joe cut her off, firmly planting his hands on her shoulders, a small, hitching breath catching on her lips as she looked up at him with wide, glimmering ruby eyes. "Calm. Down. You, I, and everyone else here is a soldier. Facing danger is what soldiers do, and in this instance, for once, we have the advantage. An advantage you want to squander for some misguided intent to protect me in the short term. We aren't in Vancouver, this isn't like the first time we fought Chatterbox."
Removing his hands from the little blonde's shoulders, he transitioned them to cup her cheeks, emphasizing his point as he continued.
"We got this. But I need you to breathe, stop, and think, instead of feeling. You're smart, you're calm, you're rational and grounded. That's what I need right now, Rapi. So please, take a step back, and be the rock I know you are for me right now."
As he'd made his point, Rapi had reached up and set her palms atop Joe's hands, and rather than snapping at him or letting her emotions continue to get away from her, she stopped, closed her eyes, and took a long, deep breath.
In the midst of this, Snow White and Scarlet, once again, shared a very intense look of unease and low-key dread, though neither spoke up, allowing Joe and Rapi to continue unimpeded.
After a few long moments, Rapi opened her eyes again, now once again as focused and clear as ever. "You're right. We have a chance to eliminate a Tyrant and a Heretic, and are as best equipped and prepared for such an encounter as the Ark's forces could ever hope to be. And the Heretic outright dictated that you not be harmed… You're all right. We can, and should pursue and eliminate these threats to the Ark while we know we may be able to destroy them. As is our duty to mankind."
At that, Joe gave Rapi a small, satisfied smile as he retracted his hands, the little Nikke's expression becoming as stony and firm as ever. Looking back over the rest of the squad, he nodded, and declared: "Well then, girls… reload your mags, and let's hunt us down a Heretic."
Chapter 45 - Look Up to the Sky
===
As Modernia faced the combined wrath of almost the entirety of the rag-tag squad with relative ease - Chatterbox was being harshly reminded that Scarlet was a Tyrant killer.
All on her own, the white blur of a Nikke danced and zipped and lunged and cleaved. For as nightmarish as Chatterbox had seemed, Scarlet demonstrated that the Grimms were legendary for a reason. No support, no back-up, no help. None was needed, none was requested. The swordswoman made the towering Tyrant look like a stubborn gnat rather than the Nikke-destroying monster it actually was.
The keening song of her blade cutting through the air produced a veritable chorus from but a single source - smiting chunks, large, small, and everything in between with each step, bob, and slide, flesh shorn clean from Chatterbox's body.
Joe's oh-so-limited human eyes couldn't keep up with the display. Chatterbox was fast, but in the same way that a charging bear was; trackable, easy to follow, if not necessarily react to, yet absolutely terrifying nonetheless. Scarlet was, in contrast, so terribly quick, that much of the time, the man could only make out a literal blur striking out at the Tyrant. Snow mixing with tainted ichor was repeatedly kicked up with such force from the sheer velocity produced by her movements, that it almost produced a small, localized blizzard around her; so intense was her capacity for unrelenting speed.
The Commander was, simply put, in utter awe. Chatterbox continued to fight, and continued to regenerate freakishly fast. Yet it wasn't enough. The beast was being single-handedly, gradually, but certainly overwhelmed by a lone woman wielding a 'mere' sword. What damage Scarlet took, in contrast, was minor; scratches, bumps, bruises... nuisances, at best. For as amused as Chatterbox had seemed at first, anger and naked frustration rapidly took that entertainment's place.
To say that the great, overly talkative monster wasn't much of a threat to Joe at that moment, would be an understatement. Scarlet was simply too powerful in her specialization for there to be a true contest between them.
In sharp contrast, Modernia was toying with the rest of the squad.
In much the same way Scarlet snapped and zipped around her opponent with an ease which borderlined on contemptuous, Modernia, encased in her great and terrible mechanized armour, did much the same.
The Titan-class did not seem to possess the same capacity for raw, lightning-quick acceleration which Scarlet enjoyed, but it didn't need to. It simply outright teleported. Tens of metres at a time, it would avoid an awe-inspiring shot, a bolt of energy, supersonic rocket-propelled explosive, or a fiery tracer round which might've done real damage to it. Soaring, rolling, spinning and bouncing about, the machine seemed to command the sky itself, all the while striking out in turn, Counters and Snow White desperately throwing themselves about to avoid suffering catastrophic damage. It would be a pitiful act of impotent rebellion to describe the Heretic as anything other than an uncontested airborne monarch.
Where Scarlet's display filled Joe with hope and certainty, Modernia's overwhelmed him with looming dread. Though she could not avoid each and every shot taken, those which landed did not strike with enough authority to bring her low. If anything, she was entirely unperturbed by the resistance set against her ironclad rule of the aurora-laden heavens above. So unbothered, that she projected a cheery tune over her armour's speakers: a gentle, pleasant humming that chilled Joe's bones clean through to the marrow.
In a single scene, Joe could see both the reason why the Grimms were considered mankind's greatest hope, the mightiest warriors of humanity to have ever walked the planet's surface… and why the Raptures dominated that same surface in such a hopelessly uncontested manner in the present day. Why making heroes of legend themselves, forging a myth to stand against the encroaching dark hadn't won them their horrible war.
Victory was not the domain of the human race, when even Goddesses struggled so terribly against the mightiest of their foes.
Missiles beelined towards Snow White, who, rather than scramble aside to escape the inevitable explosion, or shoot them down… Charged, bent her knees like coiled springs, and jumped at the missiles the size of human torsos. Then, with all the ease of a child playing hop-scotch, she used the oncoming missiles like stepping stones to close distance with Modernia's Titan.
Snow White's cannon, Seven Dwarves charged, trembling in the stark white Nikke's hands all the while as power and energy built up within the great weapon's body. All even as Modernia had immediately shifted her attention upon launching the rockets at Snow White, thinking nothing of those who stood against her. A Grimms, treated as an afterthought.
With a series of cascading explosions following in her wake as the warheads she'd jumped off of ineffectually struck the Earth below, Modernia distracted by a few of Rapi's .50 Ultra rounds landing true, Snow White drove the barrel of Seven Dwarves into the open gears and mechanisms linking the Titan's arm to its body, and pulled the trigger.
The extreme-intensity energy beam projected from the weapon erupted like a blinding ray of light from the sun: splitting upon striking the innards of the mech, reflecting off of metal and deflecting back onto yet more gears and key connective mechanisms in but a single instant. Enough to sever the Titan's arm, as well as one of the energy cannons being blown off via collateral damage by a deflected beam.
Pointedly back-flipping off the mech with a purpose, Snow White only barely avoided the flame-like blade of the machine's energy sword screaming out at her. An aggravated huff projected from the Titan-class as its wings were blown off by a number of grenades launched by Anis at the same time.
"Seriously? Annoying…" Modernia grumbled even as she rapidly teleported away multiple times in a row, creating distance between herself and the squad that had managed to land real strikes upon her, the machine's ability to fly not at all outwardly impacted by the loss of its wings. "I forgot I was dealing with Grimms. I got careless." The remaining beam cannon began to visibly power up and charge to retaliate, "I suppose I'll-" as another supersonic grenade struck the connecting strut holding said cannon in place, and it promptly tumbled down to the snowy ground uselessly. "-Well, now I'm just annoyed."
Snapping to and charging at Anis, the messy-haired blonde's eyes became unto saucers as she scrambled and flipped into a somersault - just managing to clear the blade which would have bisected her outright. Yet, avoid it she did, in a display that inexplicably exceeded anything she'd managed up to that point before.
Carrying forth on forward momentum, Modernia let out a low growl, spinning in place and trying to carry the swing of the energy sword clear around to catch Anis before she could repeat the evasive manoeuvre.
Neon interjected by dive-tackling her teammate out of range of the slash, the platinumette catching herself in a roll and landing on her knee. She immediately shouldered her machine gun and unloaded on the Titan, the monstrous flame produced by the muzzle flash of the high-explosive armour-piercing Ultra rounds dwarfing that of a common 5.56mm report.
Neon's tracer-laden aim was shockingly true and keen, striking at the joint between the sword and the arm it was connected to - immediately causing the energy beam to pulsate and audibly wind down as sparks flew from the connective joint. She'd managed to at least damage whatever internal cable was powering the weapon, diminishing and damaging it.
"Seriously!?" Modernia cried out in open frustration. "Those two aren't even Grimms! What's going on here? Why are all of them doing so much better than they should be!?"
One slip-up was all that it took to grant Counters and Snow White the chance to create a series of openings, and in so doing, the Nikkes demonstrated that even a seemingly invulnerable enemy had weak spots to exploit. And Modernia, it seemed, was very easily annoyed and distracted.
A critical flaw for a combatant, to say the least. Bad for her and Chatterbox. A spark of hope for the good guys. Joe would be damned sure to give Neon and Anis no small amount of praise for doing real damage to a motherfucking Heretic-piloted Titan. Quite the stark difference from how ineffectual they'd been against Chatterbox back in Vancouver.
Following a strained cry of agony, one of Chatterbox's comically massive arms soared into view, crashing through a snow drift like a runaway tree, causing Joe to duck and scurry back, given how damned close it had come to colliding with him. Scarlet came to a harsh halt alongside Joe just after the dismembered limb, adjusting her oversized kasa with a small huff, quickly giving the Commander a wordless once-over, seemingly to confirm that he hadn't been hurt.
"-Chatty!" Modernia called out, her Titan-class immediately spinning in place and bee-lining for a seemingly severely injured Chatterbox.
Thus leaving herself wide open to another shot from Rapi - the round from her anti-Tyrant rifle being placed just so as to actually sever the sword from the arm entirely. Modernia did absolutely nothing to avoid this, and in fact, did not acknowledge it at all. Quickly enough, Chatterbox had been scooped up by the Titan-class, zipping away to create distance between them and the Nikke squad.
Coming to a stop to look back over the rag-tag band of misfits, Chatterbox was hanging from the Titan-class's chest with its remaining arm, covered in gaping, open wounds that highlighted just how outclassed it was against Scarlet in a straight fight.
In a dazzling flash, all of the debris and damaged pieces from the Tyrant and Titan erupted in what looked the part of a flash burst of plasma, incinerating anything Counters and the Pilgrims may have been able to scavenge from them in an instant.
Modernia, in an almost pouty voice, declared: "I got careless today and forgot that we were dealing with Grimms, and Chatty got hurt because of it. Next time, we'll be prepared, though."
"All of this juicy combat data!" Chatterbox called out uproariously, not seeming particularly perturbed by the stump and gushing wounds Scarlet had left it with, all things considered. "I promise to put it to good use in preparation for our next dance, Goddess!"
The Titan-class began to turn away, but slowed, its single, visored eye focusing on Joe with no small amount of longing hesitation, to which Modernia called out: "...You've already waited this long. A little bit longer won't be the end of the world, right, Commander? So, goodbye… for now." she sweetly said, her question clearly rhetorical, given how the Titan-class immediately zoomed off like a rocket before anyone could react - Chatterbox chortling gleefully all the while, the Tyrant's impossibly bassy voice echoing off into the distance as it tapered off into silence.
There was a Hell of a beat in which everyone just remained rooted in place where their feet had been set. Nobody even seemed to breathe for what felt like an eternity. To say nothing of how Joe didn't even begin to know how to parse any of what had just happened. Least of all how inexplicably... familiar Modernia seemed to be with him. Until…
"...Am I… Wait!" Anis cried out, her voice hitting a pitch heretofore unheard. "Did- did we just drive off a Heretic!? Without suffering any injuries!?" Outright dropping her grenade launcher, Anis started patting herself down in plain disbelief. "Bullshit! No way! That's not… I'm not hurt!? I'm okay? Am I seriously okay for once!?"
"BOOYAH!" Neon just jumped in place, cheering and dancing in response to their victory. "That's what it means to face the overwhelming might of superior firepower! Even Heretics fall before the power of… Firepower!"
After a few long moments, Rapi, Snow White, and Scarlet all let out a collective breath. Scarlet was the first to speak up as she sheathed her massive sword. "This erstwhile inkling in mine bosom…" she set her now free hand over her chest, closing her eyes with a wistful sigh. "This surge of strength and will… I've ill recalled the feeling these long years apart…"
"...It's almost intoxicating, so invigorating…" Snow White asserted, taking a deep breath as she relaxed. "My heart feels so… strong… Like nothing could stop me..."
Rapi, meanwhile, while almost looking like she was fighting off a high that might've been on the verge of rendering her light-headed, beelined for Joe. "Commander! Are you okay?" she asked, seemingly about ready to lunge out for his hand.
"I-" Joe sputtered out, more than a little overwhelmed given everything that had just happened. "Y-yeah, I-I'm fine." He assured the little black-and-red bedecked blonde. Hell, he'd barely moved from the spot where he'd been standing when this whole encounter had started.
As relief washed over Rapi, Scarlet and Snow White ambled over to the pair, satisfied smiles in place on their faces. "I could stand against all the Raptures in the world, with you at our back, Commander," Snow White asserted. "Even a Heretic is nothing with you here again."
"The most trying of battles are made but minor hurdles with thee at our side, Commander," Scarlet declared with a wide grin. "Let us away to strike down the Rapture Queen! With ease shall she fall before mine blade!"
Looking deeply confused, Joe looked around, visibly bamboozled, utterly perplexed. "...But… I didn't even do anything!" He cried out, spreading his arms wide for emphasis given that, indeed, he'd just sort of stood there being overwhelmed by everything going on, like a potato.
Scarlet and Snow White blinked, looking at Joe with no small amount of confusion themselves. Sharing a look between each other, the two looked to Rapi… who was herself giving the pair an uncertain look.
"...Joe," Snow White started, "You… have you forgotten-?"
"Commander, we should exfil as quickly as possible," Rapi firmly interjected, stepping closer to Joe with a grim expression worn on her grumpy features. "There's no telling what else may appear out of the blue to endanger you out here. Quickly, while there are no imminent threats!"
Not waiting for a reply, Rapi grabbed Joe by the hand, and started dragging him off back the way they'd originally come on arrival. However… "No!" Anis called out with a downright feral look on her face, causing Rapi to sharply stop, turn, and stare in stupefaction. "We just sent a Heretic and that damned shitter Chatterbox running with their tails tucked between their legs! They're scared of us! Let's go after them and put them down!"
"Yeah! They aren't so tough after all!" Neon agreed, bouncing on the balls of her feet in place with her little dukes raised, visibly jittery as all get out. "Let's go after them and make them eat their words! Show them what happens when you mess with our superior firepower!"
"Are you two crazy!?" Rapi demanded, glowering at the pair. "We just-"
"No, they're right," Snow White cut the little blonde off. "Rare is the occasion that a Heretic flees from battle with even an entire battalion of Nikkes… we should hunt them down and finish them off, Commander. It cannot be overstated how much of a boon it would be for mankind to eliminate one of those blasphemous traitors! Hundreds, if not thousands of Nikkes lost, tortured, tormented, slaughtered, their sacrifices having meant nothing, their duty spat upon by the soulless Heretics, for little other than base amusement… We can avenge them, and deny the Raptures two important assets in one fell swoop."
"Snow White and I are in concert on this matter," Scarlet declared matter-of-factually. "The eagerness of thine squad is understandable, and they are correct: fleeing as though we had not overcome the Heretic would be the height of folly."
"Commander!" Rapi rounded on Joe, visibly aggravated by the arguments made by the rest of the girls. "You're in danger out here, you saw yourself how the Heretic focused on you! We need to get you back to the Ark, to safety!"
Looking between all of the present Nikkes, Joe chewed on the inside of his cheek in consideration, responding to Rapi's point with one of his own. "Until?"
Blinking, Rapi cocked her head at Joe in confusion.
"I'm a Commander, Rapi," the burly man asserted as he adjusted the collar of his jacket to break the chill, Arctic wind hitting his neck. "If Modernia is going to be hunting me, then I'm going to be critically endangered even more so than usual with her in the picture. We just pushed her back, her and Chatterbox together. They're on the back foot and-" Joe looked back over the group, gesturing over them all for emphasis. "We're good on ammo?" He received nods of affirmation, then looked back to Rapi. "-Weakened. We can still fight, we aren't even winded it seems like. We go after them, and if we can catch up to them, press the advantage we clearly have, we end their threat right here and now."
"It's too dangerous!" The little blonde protested, getting very uncharacteristically emotional as her voice pitched up in tone. "I already failed you once, I'm not doing so again-!"
"Rapi!" Joe cut her off, firmly planting his hands on her shoulders, a small, hitching breath catching on her lips as she looked up at him with wide, glimmering ruby eyes. "Calm. Down. You, I, and everyone else here is a soldier. Facing danger is what soldiers do, and in this instance, for once, we have the advantage. An advantage you want to squander for some misguided intent to protect me in the short term. We aren't in Vancouver, this isn't like the first time we fought Chatterbox."
Removing his hands from the little blonde's shoulders, he transitioned them to cup her cheeks, emphasizing his point as he continued.
"We got this. But I need you to breathe, stop, and think, instead of feeling. You're smart, you're calm, you're rational and grounded. That's what I need right now, Rapi. So please, take a step back, and be the rock I know you are for me right now."
As he'd made his point, Rapi had reached up and set her palms atop Joe's hands, and rather than snapping at him or letting her emotions continue to get away from her, she stopped, closed her eyes, and took a long, deep breath.
In the midst of this, Snow White and Scarlet, once again, shared a very intense look of unease and low-key dread, though neither spoke up, allowing Joe and Rapi to continue unimpeded.
After a few long moments, Rapi opened her eyes again, now once again as focused and clear as ever. "You're right. We have a chance to eliminate a Tyrant and a Heretic, and are as best equipped and prepared for such an encounter as the Ark's forces could ever hope to be. And the Heretic outright dictated that you not be harmed… You're all right. We can, and should pursue and eliminate these threats to the Ark while we know we may be able to destroy them. As is our duty to mankind."
At that, Joe gave Rapi a small, satisfied smile as he retracted his hands, the little Nikke's expression becoming as stony and firm as ever. Looking back over the rest of the squad, he nodded, and declared: "Well then, girls… reload your mags, and let's hunt us down a Heretic."
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palacesound
𩆖𩆖𩆖
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Bond levels, son!
BoundlessVortigern
The Wayward
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Sssssssssh, be vewy vewy quiet. We're huntin' down an oversized ape and a new (well, not so new) waifu. Also, Scarlet and Snow are definitely seeing that something is wrong here and that Rapi's not exactly Red Hood lmao.
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VATSTeen
Experienced.
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If the unease both Pilgrims have seeing Red Hood now would make them waver, imagine them being told your beloved commander pulled a Dorothy, succeeded beyond her wildest imaginations, died and his partner losing her literal mind?
Please don't cheat us out of a reaction from the Goddess squad
Please don't cheat us out of a reaction from the Goddess squad
palacesound
𩆖𩆖𩆖
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"THINKING, INSTEAD OF FEELING? SMART?! CALM??? RATIONAL, SCARLET, HE JUST CALLED RED HOOD RATIONAL—"
"Look, Mind Switches happen."
VATSTeen
Experienced.
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On the other hand we know those two will absolutely go after Joe the moment they are healed up. They will not stop unless we stop them dead.
Or at least until Marian's faceplate is broken
Slamm-O
Versed in the lewd.
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Joe is going to go after these two like a honey badger that's just been kicked in the nuts.
Still though you can see the unease growning with Scarlet and Snow. I really am not looking forward to them finding out what exactly happened when Joe went into the Ark.
Still though you can see the unease growning with Scarlet and Snow. I really am not looking forward to them finding out what exactly happened when Joe went into the Ark.
Dasneaky
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Prolly will go nuts and side with dorothy for touching there commander. And I can smell the squad drama already from here can't wait till smuf does something completely out of left field and then does a bait and switch. Can't wait for more keep it up Smurf.
VH777Dragon
Versed in the lewd.
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So the commander aka Joe empowering Nikke's the closer he is to them emotional is canon in the fic ?
Power of friendship for the win!!! !!! We going full shonen here!!
Edit: he's totally going to get moderia to change back to Marian by the power of love calling it now.
Power of friendship for the win!!! !!! We going full shonen here!!
Edit: he's totally going to get moderia to change back to Marian by the power of love calling it now.
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Nehef
Versed in the lewd.
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- Sep 3, 2022
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I only want to see one thing in this story scenario.
The Doro (after knowing shikikum is alive) and Isabel (post shikikum meeting) interacting.
As the double jumping brazilian samurai Ost once said:
"THERE WILL BE BLOOD-SHED!"
The Doro (after knowing shikikum is alive) and Isabel (post shikikum meeting) interacting.
As the double jumping brazilian samurai Ost once said:
"THERE WILL BE BLOOD-SHED!"
VillainousArk Grebin
Getting out there.
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- Jan 21, 2024
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I get the distinct feeling that they're gonna get their ass's kicked to the moon when they catch up to Modernia and Chatterbox
NooneImportant
Know what you're doing yet? Because I don't!
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Canon to the game, too. Lampshaded in I think the main campaign?
Dasneaky
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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- Jul 30, 2021
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Bond levels bro. Be important