*BEEP*
Merrion (thinking): What was that?
Merrion panicked upon hearing that familiar noise of a communicator, almost dropping her multitool. At first, she thought that the sound had come from her own communicator, before she realized that the sound had, in fact, come from a more distant point of origin. Suddenly, the room echoed with two deafening bursts of sound that made her ears ring and her teeth gnash in pain.
Merrion's ears perked up and she scoured her memories for a similar sound that – yes, it was exactly the same timbre and resonance as the gunfire she had heard back aboard the Mahoney's cargo terminal, back when she and Edmund had first encountered the chain-user – no, where they had first encountered Anant, unbeknownst to them.
Merrion (thinking): Backup? Gotta take advantage of this!
As her ears rung with the sound, Merrion quickened the pace of her sawing. The sound of her escape attempt, which up to this point had progressed slowly as not to draw attention to herself, were now concealed by the numerous loud crashes, bangs and shouts that resonated from the other end of the room. Fibers weakened by the blade of the multitool began snapping one by one and eventually the combined tension that Merrion was exerting upon the rope overcame its material integrity. The rope came undone, and Merrion was free!
The noises from the room's other end continued, and Merrion, never one to let an opportunity go to waste, immediately decided to make a break for it. Stealthily, she moved past the first box that obscured her line-of-sight to the rest of the room, following the path that Seung and Anant had taken after they had left her tied to the cargo frame's pillar. Merrion peeked out from behind the second box, checking to see if her captors were nearby. The escape would be short-lived, indeed, if they were there. Beads of nervous perspiration trickled down her forehead and soaked into her shirt, which was already wet from the poor ventilation at her end of the room, combined with her continuous and careful sawing of the rope in a controlled manner.
To her surprise, neither Seung nor Anant were within eyeshot, although the noises continued. Another gunshot rang out, and amongst the noises, Merrion was sure that she heard a familiar voice shout out, for just a moment. Sticking to the shadows, Merrion snuck her way over to the cargo frame holding the cryocasket, keeping a low and crouched posture to reduce the chances of being discovered. She gripped her multitool in her hands with its utility blade extended and locked into position. The tip of the blade shuddered ever so slightly from her anxiety and exhaustion as she crept along.
Merrion's ears perked up as she picked up two voices coming from behind the cargo frame to her left. As she neared the far end of the stack, where the cryocasket rested, she peeked around the edge gingerly to ascertain the origin of the noises. To her shock and horror, not only had the backup been defeated, but Edmund had been the backup! Merrion watched as Seung kicked Edmund across the face with his boot in exactly the same way that Edmund had kicked Seung back aboard the Mahoney! Seeing this pain inflicted upon her partner made Merrion seethe with indignant rage. She gripped the multitool in her hand tighter, her nails digging into the flesh of her palm, and she clenched her jaw, her teeth gnashing together.
Merrion watched as Edmund appeared to talk to Anant, who had his back facing towards where she was. Seung was standing to Edmund's left, perfectly positioned to spot her if she were to try and cross from her current position over to the next stack of boxes. His face, although twisted into a disgusting smirk, did not appear to be speaking anything to Edmund.
Merrion (thinking): C'mon, move already you creepy ganger!
From her vantage point, Merrion saw Edmund speak, presumably in response to something said by Anant, which was quickly followed by Seung leaping from his position to grab Edmund, turning his field-of-view away from her!
Seizing the opportunity that had just presented itself, Merrion crossed over from her current position to the other stack of boxes in a single fluid motion, making no sound aside from the whooshing of the air as she moved through it. Turning left upon reaching the wall at the far end of the room from where she had been held captive earlier, Merrion found the remains of the box that Anant had been manipulating with his chain earlier. It was now in a more terrible state than when she had last seen it, with its metal panels warped and holes seemingly punched through it.
Merrion (thinking): Did Edmund do that? He must have put up one hell of a fight!
Merrion spotted a Verdict lying abandoned on the floor to her left. She moved to pick it up, recognizing from the weight that it was almost empty. A single round, jammed into the firing mechanism, remained within the weapon.
A sudden roar of pain coming from where Edmund had been caught Merrion's attention. Using that terrible noise as cover, Merrion quickly cleared the weapon and reloaded the gun with the single, final round. The firing mechanisms of a Verdict were locked to authorized users only, but anyone could clear and reload them to make regular maintenance easy to execute.
Holding the Verdict in her left hand by the slide, Merrion inched along the shadows cast by the stacked boxes, past the wreckage of the box, until she neared the entrance of the room. Suddenly, Seung began walking away from Edmund towards where she had been held captive!
Merrion (thinking): Damn it! They're going to realize I've escaped!
Edmund: "YOU BASTARDS!"
In that instant, Merrion realized that if she left Edmund behind in this situation, she'd merely be swapping places with him. She would live, and more likely than not, he would die. This was no better than the situation she was initially in, and Merrion could not bear the thought of having Edmund die for her sake.
Merrion (thinking): What have I been training for? What have I been working for? Can I truly find my place amongst my colleagues if I leave one of them, my mentor, to die just like this???
…
Merrion (thinking): Can I truly fight injustice if I have to trade in his life for mine?
…
Merrion (thinking): Can I truly live up to his expectations if I let him die LIKE THIS?!!
Merrion steeled herself and bet everything, her hopes and dreams, her life and his, on a single throw. Stepping out from the shadows within which she had sought cover into the light, Merrion locked eyes with Edmund. The instant their eyes met, Merrion tossed the gun through the air, aiming ever so slightly downwards to compensate for the centrifugal rotation of the vessel. As the weapon soared in a distorted arc through the air, Merrion took the deepest breath in her life and let loose an ear-piercing shout, timed to coincide exactly with the weapon reaching the vertex of its arc –
---
The instant their eyes locked, Edmund saw it. The madness in her green eyes, and the rage that burned in them. It was exactly the same as hers. Their eyes burned with the same passion.
Edmund (thinking): You're the splitting image of Camelia…Merrion. No wonder…
Edmund watched as Merrion planted her feet into the floor and twisted her entire body back. She wound up her left arm with his Verdict gripped in her hand and tossed it across the empty space that separated them using the momentum from her full-body throw! He saw her scrunched-up eyes and her wide-open maw as she shouted –
Merrion: "COME AND GET ME, YOU CHAIN-BASTARD!!!"
Anant and Seung both fell for the bait, their heads turning to see where the noise had come from, completely missing the firearm arcing through the air! Edmund readied himself, breathing in deeply and tensing up every muscle in his upper body to cope with the strain he was about to impose upon himself.
Edmund had never mentioned it to Merrion, having never thought to do so. His arms were artificial. To be exact, both his arms were artificial prostheses connected together by a central frame that wrapped around his (wholly-organic) upper body. The protheses were normally limited in their output to baseline human levels, enabling fine motor control, and preventing Edmund from injuring others by accident. However, if the situation called for it or if he was under extreme stress, Edmund was fully capable of utilizing the maximum output of his arms.
This was terribly dangerous, as the momentum from one of his arms accelerating and decelerating at maximum output could easily transfer through the frame and damage his body if done without consideration. However, things changed if he could anchor the other arm. The momentum of the uninhibited arm's movement could transfer through the frame, sparing Edmund's body the worst of the aftereffects. Things also changed if both arms moved in exactly-opposing directions to cancel out the overall momentum, like the exact situation he was currently in.
Edmund exhaled sharply as the ropes exploded off him with a terrible snapping sound, his arms breaking free from beneath the bindings. With his newfound freedom, Edmund caught the Verdict soaring through the air with his right arm. As his thumb contacted the Verdict's scanner, the internal mechanisms immediately activated. Words were projected into Edmund's field-of-vision, and the firing lock to prevent unauthorized use disengaged with an audible click.
<
<
At this knife-fight range, he couldn't miss.
No, he wouldn't miss.
Bringing down the Verdict, firmly gripped in his hand, Edmund squeezed the trigger and fired off the final round he had available. The bullet, exiting the barrel at nearly the speed of sound, was perfectly aimed to hit Anant and incapacitate, if not outright kill him. Instead, a shower of sparks, coming from the round seemingly deflecting off thin air, burst into view between Edmund and Anant –
Anant: "AAAAAHHH! My – my MY EYEEEEE!!!!"
Anant screamed as he staggered backwards with one hand covering his right eye as the sound of rattling once again filled the air. Edmund smirked, realizing that even though the shot had been intercepted by that annoying chain, at least one of the fragments of the bullet must have hit him. He leapt to his feet, holstered his empty Verdict, and readied a punch aimed directly at Anant's head, which was intercepted by Seung charging directly at him! The two men tumbled to the floor together in an intermeshed tangle of limbs and muscles, throwing up a cloud of dust from the impact.
---
Merrion breathed heavily. Her hastily-made plan had succeeded in all aspects. Edmund was now no longer outnumbered, and Anant was partially incapacitated by the last bullet. Now the only problems that remained were that she and Edmund would need to deal with Anant and Seung, respectively.
She watched as Anant staggered about on his feet whilst in the distance Seung and Edmund furiously grappled, each trying to subvert and incapacitate the other in an intense and chaotic exchange of blows, strikes, grabs and dodges. Even though she was far faster than Edmund, seeing him fight for his life against that hulking beast of a man made her shiver with fear.
Merrion (thinking): If that were me, would I even last a minute?
Anant had stopped staggering about and was now facing Merrion. His posture was limp like a mannequin with its strings cut; arms dangling and knees slightly bent with his head tilted upwards. A crimson streak marked his right cheek, drawing a line straight down to his jawbone, and a single drop of blood was gathering at his chin. Like a red raindrop, it departed from his chin and hit the ground, exploding into a viscous sanguine stain upon the floor of the room.
A new sound, like the creaking of a rusty door hinge, started to fill Merrion's ears. It was mixed in with the sounds of the furious brawl between Seung & Edmund and the rattling of chains, and it took a few precious seconds for Merrion to realize that it was laughter. The maddening, discordant and unexpected sound rattled in her skull, and distracted her so much that she barely noticed the black dagger streaking towards her like a missile!
Merrion dodged the weapon easily, bobbing and weaving about with her own blade firmly grasped in her left hand. When dodging was unfeasible, she parried the incoming projectile with her own blade, sending a shower of sparks flying out at the point of contact. The black dagger, suspended in the air by Anant's invisible chain, slashed and stabbed at Merrion, driving her backwards. Now standing upright but with his head still tilted backwards, Anant slowly approached Merrion.
Anant: "It – it seems that – that I've made a mistake – hahaha – in letting you live! I should have DISPOSED OF YOU FROM THE START! YOU…HARBINGER OF MISFORTUNE!!!"
Blood trickled from Anant's chin in a slow but regular rate, splattering upon the ground with each step taken. For each step backwards Merrion took, Anant advanced forward by a single step as well. Merrion started to notice that the speed of the black dagger was decreasing ever so slightly. Parrying and dodging the blows was starting to get easier.
Merrion (thinking): Is he getting tired?
At the same time, Merrion's fatigue from having to maintain her fullest concentration on her opponent was starting to get to her. Her muscles were starting to cramp up, and her breathing grew rough and ragged.
Anant: "You DAMNED FIDDERS keep getting in the way!"
Merrion: "Tch!"
Anant: "JUST DIE ALREADY!!!"
With Anant's final shout, the black dagger accelerated straight towards Merrion's face. Merrion dodged effortlessly, feeling the slight wave of pressure as the dagger cut through the air past her right ear, slicing through a few stray strands of hair left behind by her sudden maneuver. The sound of rattling filled her ears, and purely by instinct, Merrion reached up with her right hand and made contact –
The ebony links of Anant's chain immediately manifested, tracing a gentle curve from beyond Merrion's ear to Anant's back. Merrion heard the sharp sound from the impact of metal on metal behind her as a black object arced through the air. The black dagger had been knocked loose from the chain holding it by the impact, and it was now flying freely in the air between the two combatants!
Anant: "NO! The PROOF OF MY RESOLVE!"
As if completely fixated upon his now free-flying weapon, Anant desperately scuttled about with his arms outstretched trying to catch the weapon. Merrion, who was still in contact with the chain, seized the opportunity and charged forward with her hand sliding along the unmoving chain! At the exact same moment that she entered melee range, Anant caught his black dagger in his outstretched hands and slashed at Merrion, who barely reacted in time and deflected the sudden attack with a slash from her own multitool's blade!
The two weapons clashed, and the combined force of the impact sent both blades flying out of their wielder's hands and clattering to the floor. Merrion saw Anant turn his head to follow his weapon, and at this range she could clearly see his face, which was a portrait of horror. His right eye, completely wrecked by Edmund's gunshot, was naught but a raggedy red and white chunk still moving about within the socket in sync with the movement of his intact left eye. Anant's gaze was still fully fixated upon his weapon, and Merrion, having willingly discarded her blade, threw a desperate final punch straight into the bloody remnants of Anant's right eye!
Merrion: "EAT THIS, YOU CHAIN-BASTARD!"
Merrion was a smaller-than-average woman, but she was by no means weak or lacking in strength. Against an opponent only slightly larger than herself, she was perfectly capable of going toe to toe with them. There was a sickening crunching and splashing sound as Merrion's clenched left fist crashed into Anant's right eye in a corkscrew punch! Blood and ocular viscera mixed together into a pink goo splattered out from the point of impact, and the force sent Anant staggering backwards, only barely remaining upright.
Merrion (thinking): Damn, he's more resilient than he looks!
Merrion gritted her teeth, disappointed that her punch had failed to cleanly knock him out. It was evidently clear to her that despite what she thought, the stress of everything she had been through had clearly had a greater effect upon her than expected.
???: "That's enough, ANANT!"
A sudden voice, its depth of tone and dignified timbre sounding extremely familiar to Merrion, spoke out to them. Both Merrion and Anant froze in their tracks, and turned to face the unknown speaker –
---
Edmund and Seung grappled with each other, rolling about on the floor as they entered and escaped from headlocks, armbars and submission holds, their skin slick with sweat and smeared with dirt and grime.
Seung: "You're a FEISTY ONE, ain'tcha?!"
Edmund: "Grrr!"
Even with the power available to him in his arms, Edmund wasn't able to just freely let loose. He might be able to throw a punch or grab with inhuman strength, but there were inherent mental blocks that prevented him from simply doing so. Operating a prostheses was inherently different from simply moving one's own arms and legs, and while Edmund had plenty of time to get used to his, it was in stressful situations like these that the limitations of his artificial limbs truly manifested.
Seung, being completely of flesh-and-blood, had no such inhibitions nor coordination issues. Whilst Edmund grimaced from the strain and stress, Seung kept a massive grin on his face, almost as if he were enjoying their melee struggle. A sudden opening presented itself, and Edmund disengaged from his grapple with Seung, returning to an upright position and creating some distance between them.
Edmund (thinking): Shit, this jacket isn't letting my arms cool down fast enough!
In their continuous switching back and forth between the dominant and disadvantageous positions, Edmund felt his arms begin to overheat from their continuous use at above-baseline levels. The heat started to flow through the central frame and into Edmund's flesh, manifesting as a slightly warm sensation. Edmund knew that if the fight didn't end quickly or if he didn't remove the jacket in time, the sensation of warmth would soon become an unbearable searing pain.
Distracted by the concerning warmth pouring through the central frame, Edmund was unable to dodge in time as Seung charged towards him –
Or rather, he would have been unable to dodge, if something else hadn't crashed into Seung, knocking the hulking brute into a nearby cargo frame.
Seung was completely silent from the impact, which had knocked him unconscious, half-buried in debris. The something in question extracted itself from the wreckage it had crashed into, and Edmund saw that it was a quadrupedal machine with smoothly flowing curves around its almost feline frame. A single glowing lens was present where its head should have been, and an elegantly stylized snake coloured in shades of black and blue coiled around the extent of its chrome body, the unmistakable insignia of the –
???: "What the HELL are you doing here, Edmund?!"
Edmund jumped at the sound. It was a voice that he knew very well, having spent many years with at a young age. He had last heard this voice only a day or two ago in a smoky basement room aboard the Mahoney, together with Merrion –
---
Anant: "Omar!"
Even with his face ruined by the impact from Merrion's punch and his destroyed right eye, the look of incredulity upon Anant's face was clear as daylight to Merrion. Standing next to Omar was Edmund, who had thrown off his jacket, with steaming vapor rising from his exposed arms. The room was quiet again, with only the dull humming of machinery punctuated by intermittent voices.
Omar: "Stop this madness at once, Anant."
Anant: "You have no authority to tell me to do anything. Ever since I became a captain, I've –"
Omar: "You were expelled from the syndicate for a reason! We had a deal so we wouldn't get involved, but you had to go and take their offer – do you know what you've done?"
Anant: "Expelled? What…oh, so it was you…were you working with that Camelia too?!"
Omar: "Camelia –"
Anant: "I thought you were different, Omar, but in the end you're just another part of this wretched society! You were a proud captain of the Void Mambas! I respected you…served you loyally for years…and YOU SOLD OUR HONOR TO WORK WITH THESE WRETCHED FIDDERS!"
As if completely dismissing the words shouted at him by Anant through his tear-filled eye and ruined socket, Omar pointed his thumb towards Edmund, his dark-coloured eyes still fixed upon the one-eyed lunatic before them.
Omar: "I've heard enough from him. You're the chain-user they're looking for. Just stop already. Nothing good will come of involving yourself with them. What they desire isn't something that concerns the likes of us –"
Anant: "They took me in when YOU abandoned ME! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO COMMAND ME! You're not my captain anymore! Have a taste of the power that THEY GRANTED ME!"
Anant threw his arms forward towards Omar and Edmund. The two reflexively braced themselves in anticipation of an impact, but to their surprise, nothing happened. Only the dull thrumming in the background persisted, and the telltale rattling which Edmund and Merrion had both associated with the chains was nowhere to be heard.
Anant: "– wh – what – What – Why – WHY? WHYYY??!!!!"
Omar and Edmund gave confused glances to each other as Anant buried his face in his shaking palms, screaming in rage all the while.
Omar: "Oi, what's going on, Ed? Isn't he the chain-user you spoke of?"
Edmund: "He's…not using the chains? But that can't be? Did – did something happen during the fight?"
The screams of rage died down as Anant collapsed down to the floor in a kneeling position. Tears streaked down his cheeks, with those coming from the remnants of his right eye mixing with the pink goo that used to be his right eye. With a look of pain and anguish upon his face, Anant turned to face Merrion, who returned his gaze with only cold revulsion.
Anant: "You…you did this to me, didn't you? WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?! CAMELIAAAAAA!!!"
---
Merrion: "I simply punched you. Get bent."
Merrion heard the question, but she did not understand the implication. As far as she knew, she hadn't done anything out of the ordinary to Anant. Her left fist trembled, smeared with a terrible combination of dust, grime and blood, and she was feeling terribly exhausted from all the fighting she had to do today. The exhaustion was of a similar magnitude to the fatigue she felt when she had fended off the intruder in Edmund's apartment. Gritting her teeth, Merrion walked over to the fallen blades, picking up one in each hand. She had expected Anant to make a fuss when she grabbed his black dagger, but he was strangely docile. Merrion couldn't help but feel revolted at this pathetic sight before her.
Merrion: "So, this is the extent of your…resolve. How disgusting."
Anant remained silent in response to Merrion's remark. Meanwhile, Edmund retrieved a handcuff from a pocket within his discarded jacket and proceeded to secure Anant's hands behind his back while Omar and Merrion watched.
Edmund: "Stop moping already and get up."
Edmund grabbed Anant's cuffed wrists firmly in his hands and pulled him to his feet. He turned Anant to face towards the tunnel entrance, then turned his head to face Omar and Merrion.
Edmund: "Sorry about this Omar, but can you and your construct help watch over Merrion until I return?"
Omar: "What am I, your babysitter? And what about Seung?"
Edmund: "If he wakes up, knock him out again, I guess?"
Omar: "Heck of a plan, Ed, heck of a plan."
Edmund: "Thanks Omar –"
Omar: "Don't thank me, I didn't choose to come here. The husky bitch cashed in a big favor. I merely decided to come here myself, that's all. I didn't do this for you."
Edmund: "Thanks anyway."
Omar: "Stop that alrea – ED!"
Edmund: "Huh?"
---
While watching Edmund and Omar talk to each other, Merrion couldn't help but feel that their dynamic was similar to that of close friends, or perhaps, even siblings?
Merrion (thinking): But they look so different though!
Merrion was reminded of her missing roommate, Maria. The two of them had a similar dynamic, which Merrion had greatly enjoyed. That she hadn't thought about Maria at all in the two days since her suspected kidnapping hurt Merrion greatly. After they settled this case, perhaps she could persuade Zora to let the two of them take over the work on finding Maria. It was a hope that she held on to with –
– suddenly, Merrion felt all the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as a sudden rattling noise manifested out of nowhere.
Merrion (thinking): No, it can't be!
Before she could open her mouth to shout, words with a similar intent and urgency to them echoed out in Omar's voice.
Omar: "GET DOWN!"
As Merrion crouched down together with Omar, she watched with widened eyes as Edmund's forearms were snapped in half, seemingly severed by an invisible object! The sudden disequilibrium threw both Anant and Edmund off balance, and they stumbled forward and backwards respectively before collapsing to the floor.
Crudely-severed internal circuitry and electromechanical mechanisms in Edmund's arms sputtered showers of sparks from the exposed stumps. All the while, Anant laughed loudly whilst being jostled about by something invisible. He was still cuffed with Edmund's severed hands firmly grabbed onto him while lying on his side, laughing loudly and madly. In the distance, a similar impact severed the feline construct guarding Seung in half, and both crooks were rising up into the air, buoyed in invisible cocoons as the rattling noises in the air intensified to a feverish pitch.
Anant: "Do you see it now, Omar?! THEY look after their own! They can do what you NEVER COULD! THEY'RE HERE FOR US!"
As Merrion heard the words cackled with vitriol and madness interlaced together by Anant, she recalled the cryocasket sitting in the cargo frame in the distance.
Merrion (thinking): Multiple chains?! If they can – No! They're going to get it too!
She knew she was too far away to do anything, and yet, she felt compelled to stretch out her left arm towards the cryocasket, as if that would do anything beyond being a fruitless gesture. Even so, she still stretched out –
A strange heat burned from Merrion's palm along with a rattling sound in her ears as a length of chain exploded out from her palm, travelling only a short distance before collapsing limply to the floor; its silvery links vanishing into dust as quickly as they manifested. The inexplicable sight and experience stunned Merrion, and she could only stare blankly as another surge of fatigue overwhelmed her. As she collapsed to her knees, her sight fading, Merrion's ears rang with the fading rattling of distant chains and the cackling laughter of a madman –