Chapter 17

 “Um… none of this makes sense.” Said Oryn, scratching the back of his head. Wasn’t he supposed to be a resident here? Why did he seem lost.

“Is there a problem, sir?” HK brought up the obvious, maybe she was just overthinking it. “You seem… confused.”

He growled and turned to face her, “I’m fine!” He snapped back, then resumed looking around like a lost lamb. “Okay that’s Mr Abernathy’s place… but that can’t be right.” He mumbled to himself, the confusion and concern evident in his voice, he probably thought he was being quiet but HK could hear every word he was saying.

Naomi’s overly loud yawn caught the attention of the two of them, “I’m bored.” She leaned against the wall of a storefront, eyes half-closed. “Can’t we just quit already?”

“Excuse me?” Oryn rounded on Naomi. “We’re in the middle of an emergency, does it look like we have time for a break?”

“Ehhh, can’t someone else do it? This isn’t even really our problem.” She complained like a whiny child, almost like she was trying to get a rise out of Oryn intentionally. But what purpose did that-

Then she noticed Naomi’s hand, closest to the wall. To the outside observer, it would look like she was just doing random hand stretches. However, that was a lie. Her sensors found a reference to the shapes and sequence of Naomi’s hands; it was an archaic form of sign language that could be used one-handed. It wasn’t useful for prolonged conversations, but if she was using it, then it was highly possible that she didn’t want someone to know what she was trying to say.

Her software got to work translating the message she was trying to get across. “Danger. Nearby. Look right. Secret.”

HK pushed her hair past her ear, hoping that it would disguise her gaze falling upon the reflection in the store window, displaying the other side of the street. She scanned the alleys, and roofs, but she wasn’t detecting- she paused. Her gaze fixated on a figure obscured by the fog. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, but it was impossible to see its features like this. It lurked and observed the argument between Naomi and Oryn with interest.

‘Standard predator tactic, it’s looking for the weak link. Ah, I see, Naomi is trying to make herself seem off-guard, try to draw it to her?’ HK signed back with her hand facing away from the creature in the fog; “Spotted. Target. Plan?”

“Secure. Human. Leave. Me.”

HK placed her hand on Oryn’s shoulder in the middle of his attempt at verbal evisceration at Naomi’s complete laziness. “Just leave her, she’s always like this.”

“What? But aren’t we supposed to stick together? That’s what your commander said, wasn’t it?”

“She said to get you to whatever functions as your manual warning system. Naomi’s just gonna slow us down, so we can just leave her here.” Without waiting for him to protest she just forced him to move away from Naomi. When he tried to turn back around or look back at her, she tightened her group and shot him a look. “Pick up the pace.” She said while keeping an eye on the reflective surfaces, tracking the figure as it moved to get into a ideal ambush position.

Naomi leaned against the wall, eyes shut, and arms to her side. She sighed and whined, “why’s it gotta be me who does this? I’m so tired, and just wanna sleep.” She slumped lower onto the wall.

‘She’s over-selling it.’

It seemed unlikely that the predator wouldn’t see through an obvious trap like that?

Suddenly a second figure kicked off from the edge of the roof. Just a vaguely humanoid shaped like a blur, rocketing straight for Naomi, hands outstretched, its razor-sharp appendage mere inches from Naomi.

The last thing the figure would see would likely have been the trail of light from Naomi’s glowing golden eyes as she moved at the inhuman speed of a Gatekeeper.

There was no flourish or unnecessary movements, no drawing out the kill, just a quick, efficient decapitation. The figure’s head slid off its neck and rolled onto the ground as its body carried out the last, panicked actions before slumping against the wall.

It wasn’t over yet though.

The first figure leapt from the building, raptorial appendages functioning as arms raised over its head, bearing down on Naomi’s back.

The links between Naomi’s mechanical tail segments glowed and extended, her mechanical tail shot to life, then furiously whipped down at the figure! Bones cracked and splintered as its body was crushed between stone and metal. It twitched, and tried to stand, but like a spear’s tip, Naomi’s tail pierced straight through its skull.

Suddenly, Oryn’s shout drew HK’s attention. She turned to see him recoiling from a figure sprinting down the alleyway. She pushed him aside while withdrawing her sidearm from its holster in her leg, the holofield of her outfit shimmering as she did so.

It was too close, it swiped at her from an overhand strike.

Click

She felt a click in her mind, the image before her took on a bluish hue as the creature seemed to move so much slower. She could now see its vaguely humanoid shape, but that was about all it had in common with a normal human. This creature looked as though someone had turned a person inside out and pulled its bones out of its stumps for arms to resemble raptorial appendages. Its face was a twisted, ugly thing, crazy and bloodthirsty with a y-like incision in place of its mouth.

She felt no fear, nor pity for the horrid figure. She didn’t really feel much of anything really, maybe it’s because of the slowness of the world around her? It gave her time to think, to look at the creature, to feel nothing for it. No, the only thing she really felt was a pain in her head as the colors of the world started to blur.

She stepped forward, positioning her arm to block it from hitting Oryn, and with the cold efficiency of a mindless gun, she placed two shots in the chest and then one beneath the chin.

It flailed its arms uselessly trying to get at her skull, she pushed it off to the side, watching it crumple and twitch. In her one act of mercy for the wretched thing, she fired one last round into its skull.

Time resumed and she suddenly felt the world shake, but no, that was just her. She stumbled but caught her footing, her hand moved to her head to stop the pounding.

Her gaze drifted to Oryn on the ground, other than clearly being shaken up, he seemed uninjured.

Dragging the two corpses along, Naomi rejoined the other two. “Enemy attack.” She stated the obvious, then pointed to the two she killed. They were dressed in tattered rags much like the one HK killed, but there was a difference. In the two she killed, a piece of metal had been grafted into their flesh.

“What’s that?” She asked while searching her records for a matching image.

“The Oath of Nemesis.” She said dryly, tapping the remains with her tail. “They’re terrorists, operate in cells, their members all have sworn oaths to kill the ones who’ve wronged them, at any costs. In exchange for helping other members obtain their revenge.”

Everything she said was correct, the record confirmed it. Though, it didn’t mention anything about the oaths, it just said they were mass-murdered terrorists allegedly acting out of a sense of revenge.

‘Now’s not the time to question that. Focus on the here and now.’

“If they’re here…” Naomi trailed off, her tail becoming slack.

“Then they’re probably here to kill someone? Then you think this fog and these… things are connected?”

“Probably.” She then pointed to the one HK killed, “this one’s not a member of Nemesis. Probably one of the villagers then?”

“Is… is that…” Oryn started up, his voice trembling as he spoke. “Th-The body is twisted and mangled but… this kinda looks like Nona. She was a villager here, ran a bakery near the southern wall.”

Naomi stared at him, face an imperceptible wall, she was always so hard to read, but she was likely considering the dire possibilities this new information could mean.

“Are you sure this is her?” HK asked.

“Well, like I said, she didn’t look like… this, obviously. But, I’ve known- knew Nona since we were kids, I’d never forget her face.” He choked back tears, and his breathing started increasing. “What the hell is going on? Is this an enemy attack? Well, of course it is, but who was it? New Genesis, the FSA?” He was clearly panicking and trying to make sense of things. It was a strange thing to watch, she knew that her lack of emotions was likely due to her nature as a Gatekeeper, but she wondered if she’d be in the same state as he were the situation reversed?

Naomi sighed, walked past HK, lifted Oryn up to his feet and dragged him over to the shop. The door was locked so she smashed her fist into the door and unlocked it from the other side.

“Hey, what’re you-”

She shoved Oryn past the threshold and placed her hand on the doorknob. “Shut up, wait here, we’re not done yet.”

“What? Are there more of them coming? I-I can fight you know, I’m not someone who needs to be protected-”

“Stop talking.” She shuts the door behind her. “You’re too weak, so stay here and survive. We’ll kill the enemies and come right back.”

Oryn had more to say but Naomi just turned her back on him, returning to where HK stood.

From out of the alleys, on top of the roofs, out of the houses, and everywhere else, the same figures started appearing out of the fog. HK counted several already advancing, but there were likely more.

“You’re not a BloodLass anymore.” Naomi said while the mechanical claws overlaid atop her hands like before.

“Eh? Ah, right. Yeah. Guess not.” For some reason, she felt that the loss of her newbie title should’ve been more eventful. She felt disappointed. “Guess all that’s left is a real name then?” HK was not a proper name, after all.

Several seconds passed between them in total silence.

“.....How about Hanabi?” Her golden eyes began to glow again.

“Why Hanabi?” She quickly checked the ammo in her gun, confirming that the ammo counter in her field of vision and in the magazine were equal.

“...No reason.” With Naomi, that was likely true.

“Hanabi… it’ll do.” Hanabi took aim, and pulled the trigger.