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"I am insulted," interrupted V2, "that you would compare me to that barely-sapient amalgamation of scrap and code." V2 stared down Akira, thoughts racing through it's mind. "That thing- V1- is my predecessor and inferior. To state that we are exactly alike is to not even consider our purposes."
Limbo. Gluttony. Violence. The glow of the moon, sun, and eclipse. These flashed through the mind of the machine as it spoke. "V1 was built for war. It was built to destroy. It was built to sneak into enormous city-machines and rip them apart from the inside." An image of an Earthmover came to mind, the six-eyed centaur robot staring at an unseen enemy.
"I was made to protect. To guard against incursion, against crime and villainy- I was built for security. Policing. Have you not dedicated yourself to the same task, Officer Howard?" V2 blinked here, glancing at the officer's uniform.
"In our first interaction, I threatened you, but chose to spare you. Had you encountered my predecessor, it would not have threatened you- it would simply have fired. The thought of mercy would not have even passed through it's mind, for even a fleeting moment."
"So, please, before you go on about how I am exactly like my predecessor, please consider the fact that you are still alive."
While these negotiations were going on, Ice was perched in a prime sniping position. Bow and arrow drawn and prepped, they were hidden behind a pillar of the bank and a desk, aimed square at the head of the robot. Quake was behind a doorframe, carefully listening to the conversation between the two. The pair were reserve, holding back in case things got deadly. Quake had their arms crossed, focusing carefully.
Emotions on both ends, Frisk and Akira. Headway not being made either way. No clear path forward. But when V2 spoke, things got further intriguing. Threaten? The other robot did two surprise attacks without speaking at all. That did sound drastically different.
"...It's right."
Quake walked out, finding it time for him to enter the conversation.
"He did exactly as you said. Everything you said about V1 was correct." He continued. "But you said V1 was capable of sneaking into city-machines and tearing them apart from the inside. We suspect that may be exactly what you are doing with this team though. They are capable of stealthily taking out concentrated foes through extreme intelligence. I want to believe you, but we need to clear out this doubt. Can we access your hardrive and see what happened these past few days? I know that's rather personal, but it would give you concrete evidence of your innocence...if you are."
It was here that Veetoo finally stepped into the conversation. Akira’s drawn assumption about him and the other robot had clearly offended him enough that he was done allowing Frisk to try and defend him. The other robot, he called Veewun...
...
Ohhhhh, okay, that made sense. V1 and V2. Robot names.
Of course.
Duh.
...
V2 carried with him a degree of sass as he verbally fired back at Akira. Maybe he was even feeling a little petty. Still, it only strengthened what Frisk had said. Regardless of the topic, he clearly had emotion. That wasn’t a program, programs as she understood them (which seemed to be similar to Akira’s perception of them) couldn’t get offended and sassy in a context correct for that response.
It was here that someone else decided to step into the conversation. Boboiboy... well... one of him, anyway. Frisk wasn’t familiar with this one. Would he get offended if she called him Bo? She didn’t know this one’s name, so...
Big-gloves Boy (his new official name) confirmed what V2 said, but then took a clear stance on Akira’s side of the fence, asking for access to the robot’s hard drive...!? That felt really invasive to the teenager. At least it would be consensual, if he agreed, but...
This other robot, V1, had been encountered by Officer Howard, Mr. Miracle, and Boboiboy. Like how Ghiaccio had been encountered by her team... which could only mean...
Frisk looked around quickly, in case she’d missed someone, but she didn’t see Terrence. No Tracy or Kiwi either. They were still out...? This V1 sounded dangerous, and Ghiaccio hadn’t exactly been an easy opponent in any way. Logically, there would be another of these special Sumeragi goons out where T had gone.
Ugh, okay, one thing at a time. First this V2 situation needed to be put to bed, preferably with them as a unit and not fractured like before. Sumeragi could capitalize on it pretty easily if V2 was left alone again. Even with Amaterasu watching over him, Ghiaccio could probably take them both out with some effort, and that’s assuming he’d fight them alone. Splitting up during those hours of vulnerability was just begging for something bad to happen.
Once this situation was done, or at least put on hold, she’d head on out to get Terrence. Make sure nothing... bad happened.
Akira Howard -Sapporo Bank-
"Is being human a crime?!"
Akira recalled what V2 initially said about wiping out all humans where he came from. About how he was inclined to do it again. She couldn't get past it. Boboiboy emerged and asked to see his hard drive. It was a good idea, but the officer's mind was set. Her eyes narrowed.
"You admitted to me what you did. You're not a protector, you're a monster."
The Legionnaire tensed, and her hand moved to her X-Baton. She'd let V2 make its choice while she semi-intentionally escalated the situation. Whether it wanted everyone to see its horrific memories, or give up and attack, Akira was ready.
Terrence "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Two Of Us" Boom
Terrence watched as the small army of penguins leaped into action against Bark. Slashes, shurikens, shield bashes- all seemingly on the receiving end of some kind of boost in might via the magical aid of the cleric and mage penguins. They were all one cohesive unit, swarming and closing in on the bear all at once with their attacks, and yet… Bark seemed to have a pretty good answer for ‘em, that being ‘them hands.’
The enemy was coming toward him now, looking pretty unstoppable right about now, but Terrence had a big advantage over the polar bear- rather than trying to kill this person, Terrence only needed to render Bark unable to make them leave. Appreciative that he didn’t have to be the one to make the first move in this standoff, the boy let out a slow breath as he was charged toward, carefully rising from his kneel, hand at his side.
Bark was close, and then closer. His mighty footsteps made the ground tremble slightly, the shape of the room becoming even more clear- the positioning of the enemy mapping itself out perfectly Terrence’s mind.
The enemy was powerful, and his ability to react and adjust to attacks on the fly was impressive, given his bulk- but Terrence had trained extensively for moments specifically like this, split-second collisions with a foe that could very well decide the outcome of a battle.
“Strong as you may be- my crew and I are getting out of here!”
He could feel his SOUL ignite, Bravery coursing through his arms and legs as his hand grasped his katana hilt, being drawn as he made his lunge forward, using magic both internal and external to physically push himself toward the approaching Bark. Just as his propulsion brought him before the polar bear, the blade emerged- a flowing ray, but it lacked the usual orange flair of his arsenal. The blade, this time, was a vibrant cyan.
The motion was simple- ducking so as to avoid a potential meaty swing from one of Bark’s arms, followed by an upward slash, with enough forward momentum to spare to bring the two of them behind one another- while the slash itself would be plenty painful if Terrence got all of it, it wasn’t a killing blow, nor was it trying to be- nor was the blow itself the meat of the tactic anyway. In truth, Terrence was aiming to temporarily embed the cyan magic into Bark’s body, a temporary wound that would linger while the Stealth Squad, ideally, escaped. With cyan magic’s unique ability to damage that which was in motion, Terrence hoped that such a wound would motivate Bark to sit down and stay still for a while and not chase after them during the imminent escape.
…Sort of like a more painful version of Magic Jail, come to think of it. Terrence had considered going for the painless version, but that didn't work quite as well if the opponent had the grit to power through a layer of magic and eat the damage on the way out, which Terrence suspected Bark did. Attaching the magic to the enemy directly was more reliable.
The drones weren’t going to make this easy even if Terrence’s plan went as well as possible, beginning to rain down plasma bolts- once he and Bark had their backs to one another, Terrence felt the sting of a few drone's shots against his Bravery-enhanced skin and quickly decided that that was plenty, opting to repurpose the cyan magic of his weapon into a brand-new shell- after all, it had been a whole forty-five seconds since he’d gone for that… but hey, it was a stellar technique when your enemies just loved to spray nasty energy attacks on you from above.
Before Veeto—V2 was even allowed to answer Big-gloves Boy, Akira became more unstable and accusatory. “Is being human a crime!?”
She called V2 a monster, and reached for her weapon.
“Are you serious?” Frisk glowered. She’d been pretty level this entire time, arguing her point, not exactly showing any strong emotions the whole time for the sake of coming across as reasonable. Yet being ‘reasonable’ didn’t seem at all to be what Akira wanted. It was clearly meant to be her way or the highway.
“You’re really going to initiate a fight right here? With everyone still inside? You don’t think Sumeragi won't notice? This whole time, we’ve been the ones attacking them, putting them on the defense - what do you think happens the moment they know where we are, and where to strike? You think they’re just gonna send one guy? How about Blade, V1, Ghiaccio, and all their other Falcons at once? Supported by an army? You wanna risk that? You’re a cop, so act like it and stop making this your own personal... vendetta. If you attack my friend, I’ll be forced to defend him.”
Frisk took a step forward, moving herself in front of V2. “Look I get it, you’ve got a lot of pain and trauma. But you’re not the only one, so stop pretending you’re the only person in this room who’s experienced anything. Stop acting on your fear, and start thinking with your head.”
Boboiboy wanted to remove V2's hard drive and watch it's memories. Look through everything. Not a bad idea. While total removal was impossible, V2 would likely be capable of connecting to some kind of screen and displaying it's memories on there. While much of it was corrupted, the important bits- the Long Night, the New Peace, and the failed Scrapping- were all there.
"Is being human a crime?!" shouted Akira, pulling the machine away from it's thoughts. "You admitted to me what you did. You're not a protector, you're a monster." The police officer reached for her weapons, clearly preparing to fight the machine. V2 was about to respond to her provocation when Frisk spoke up.
Frisk explained how it would be a terrible idea to start a fight here, where the Sumeragi could plainly see and send all their forces. She declared that if Officer Howard were to attack V2, then she would defend them. Frisk took a step forward, moving herself in front of V2, who was incredibly surprised by this.
As Frisk continued to speak, V2 began to think. Letting everyone see their memories would silence any claims to the idea that they had unnecessarily attacked Humanity. At the same time, however, there was no possible way that Officer Howard would see anything that Humanity had done as wrong whatsoever.
"You asked if being a human was a crime," began V2, "But I must ask you the opposite- is it a crime to be a machine?"
As Akira continued to escalate the situation, putting a hand to their baton. Quake squinted slightly, putting his own hand up to her cautiously, then up to Frisk.
"Remember, a fight inside the party is exactly what Sumeragi wants. We want to avoid playing into their hands, the cool headed approach is the best option we have. If V2 breaks that, then that's when we know he's not to be trusted. But for now, let's maintain the peace, officer."
Frisk had some sizeable points herself. They all had their traumas to be sure. Akira's wasn't small either, nor could it be easily ignored. nobody's could. To Quake, their side of space had many AI with expression, two of which even became a close friend of his, family even. So he wasn't put off by the unknown nature of robotics and their heads. But that being the case...
"V2. As for you..." Quake started, extending an earth clad glove to him. Why don't you come with me and help me prove you innocent. I understand if you want to keep some things private, so you can just let me know which memories we should avoid. We'll make this the least invasive as we can."
Mr. Miracle
It appeared his own words had fallen almost entirely on deaf ears as a squabble broke out between his allies. On one hand, Terry wanted to say something but just had no clue exactly what - sure, fighting V1 now made him wary of the superior instance but not outright fearful since it.. well, it didn't kill them in their sleep yesterday, right? That should account for something. On the other hand, he did always just sitting back and watching moral arguments spin out on their own, so.. that is exactly what he did.
Hagen levitated on upwards and away from the whole argument a bit before it had really started to escalate, watching the entire debacle go down with keen interest but unwillingness to actively participate. No, instead, he took off his top hat briefly, reached within, encircled it with his fingers - and true to his magic, the inside appeared to just fill itself with sweet, buttered popcorn all hot and ready, pulled from.. someplace. He did have that cinema in mind that was near his own resting place back in his world, so.. the employees were probably wondering why a small portion of popcorn had just vanished into thin air. Literally, too.
The entertainer moved to lie down midair as if resting in an invisible couch, lazily tossing popcorn down his gullet, using his magikinesis to catch the few that failed to land their mark to set them on the right path again. Boboiboy made a pretty good idea actually to prove which side was right in this whole 'V2 is evil' debate, and even the machine itself seemed to agree on the matter. Terry was about to scoop up another handful into his mouth - before his fingers touched fabric again. A glance down told him his hat was already empty again.. oh, classic theatre magic. The popcorn buckets somehow emptying before the main event even started. With a soft sigh, he had flipped his headpiece back over his dome before speaking out his piece.
"For what it's worth, our scarlet friend here is right. I personally fought this 'V1' and I can confirm it barely hesitated for a moment to answer an initial question I'd asked before it started unloading on me-"
He paused near instantly, realising that his wording was incredibly horribly put. Miracle had gone stiff like a statue for but a brief few moments, eyes wide like a fish pulled on land before he attempted to correct himself with silent hand gestures, as if goofing off with them would give a more concise explanation of what he meant than his own words did.
"..before it started shooting all over the place-"
Terry had flung his arms so quickly behind his head in absolute shock over what just came from his own vocal chords and tilted back at such speeds that one could have easily mistaken that pop from an airpocket in his spine to be a vertebrate breaking free from its skeletal prison.
Damn you, mental fatigue.
Out of all the things the exhaustion from the day could have done to him, why did it have to impact his ability to mentally sound out words before he vocalised them? Just, why? Miracle then had promptly thrown his arms up in exasperation and puffed out a long, defeated sigh as his hands moved to wave towards the direction of Boboiboy.
"..I'm just gonna say I agree with your plan and leave it at that. I'm too tired to argue any more for the day."
Akira reddened as Frisk replied with venomous words. Her hand moved off her baton almost immediately. She was speechless, her silence being filled in by the others.
"I'm not the bad guy, Frisk! That robot claimed they'd killed people before!"
Her heart was beating faster. Akira was defensive now, Frisk having struck some kind of nerve. She couldn't being herself to entertain Miracle's interjection in the emotional state she had arrived at.
"My only concern right now is to keep you and everyone else safe. You brought a suspect into a building of unarmed civilians. I'm not trying to start a fight, but I'm always ready to end it as soon as possible. That's my job. The only one not thinking with their head is you."
Frisk's hurtful words, inciting Akira's acute stress response, caused her to want to verbally retaliate even further, but the officer wasn't immature enough to make a personal attack on the teen. After that final statement, Akira didn't push any further. She hadn't answered V2's question, but with his words, in combination with his general laxness, caused the officer to become conflicted once again. As she thought it over, she gladly let Quake take over the situation. She would still be ready if a fight broke out but... she needed to think for a minute.
Akira only grew louder, more emotional... Frisk was striking a cord somewhere in there. Last time, she’d talked about something that made machines go haywire in her world. It had been enough to make the teen sympathize with her and reduce her level of apathy. This time, Frisk was defending her new friend.
Akira rejected Frisk’s words totally, at least verbally. She did physically back off, reducing obvious signs of hostilities, so at least that had worked. She rebounded one of the girl’s comments back, however.
“Maybe,” Frisk said, still a little tense from her readiness to defend V2. “But V2 placed his trust in me. I’m placing my own in him. So maybe I’m thinking with my heart, not my head.”
Miracle’s interjection had gone over Frisk’s head. She didn’t understand the unintended innuendo and just interpreted it as tired awkwardness.
Big-gloves Boy’s suggestion seemed reasonable to Frisk, and V2 didn’t seem to dislike the idea. Frisk turned her head toward the boy. “Officer Howard and I will stay here and... wait for you guys, ‘till you’re done. That sound fair?” She turned her head to Akira. “No biased parties. Bo- uh, sorry, I’m not sure what this version of you is called- is a neutral party... mostly. So whatever he finds, we’ll make a decision. And if it’s not favorable for my case... then fine. I’ll rescind and understand. You’ll do the same, if it’s the inverse?”
Boboiboy - an unknown variant- offered to view V2's memories, Miracle interjected with an awkward statement as to how V1 would not show mercy, Akira doubled down and declared that Frisk was not thinking through bringing V2 in, and Frisk said that V2 should be trusted until their memories were scanned. Overall, things seemed to be going well.
V2 turned to Boboiboy. "I think going through my memories would be excellent. While total removal of my hard drive would be impossible, if anyone has a screen, I could connect to it and display my memories." While Hell and much of the Scrapping would be incriminating, all V2 would need to display would be the initial stages.
Seems as though everyone came around to the idea eventually, even the previously quiet miracle chimed in with support in his own way before retiring for the evening. Upon Frisk seeming to close this with V2's affirmations, Quake nodded, raising a hand to her in a motionless wave.
"Quake. Bo works, I can go by that as well." He smiled the issue off politely, not too concerned about identity. "I saw you had a phone before, would you mind if I borrowed it? I'll give it right back."
Frisk gave a nod and pulled it out. "Sure, Quake. Try not to break it... or wipe the memory on accident or something... that data we just got is on it." With that, she handed the device over.
Thankful for her help, he nodded and turned around, going in to tap the device to make sure it was charged, but it didn't seem to turn on. That's when he looked to his arms. Touch screen. Rock gloves.
"...Ah."
Letting one of the gloves disperse and crumple onto the ground in a pile of purple and orange stones, the now de-gloved hand clicked the device on, turning it towards V2.
"Alright big guy, shall we walk over to that corner while we set you up?"
He pointed towards a secluded area of the bank behind the glass where the tellers usually worked. He just hoped Akira and Frisk would get along in their absence...
V2 Sapporo Bank, Afternoon
Boboiboy- Quake- got a screen from Frisk, who called V2 over. They arrived at a secluded area behind some glass, and V2 connected to the device. Quickly sorting through available applications, the machine found a video player, and connected the player up to it's audiovisual memory. They had to make some adjustments, but they got it working. The footage began to play...
V2 Berlin Mover, Morning
"REPEAT: ALL MACHINES ARE TO REPORT TO THE CITY SQUARE," called the Loudspeaker as V2 made their way to the center. In the wake of the Final War, most of humanity had moved to the Earthmovers, but after they had died of starvation- the sunlight no longer providing them enough fuel as the Long Night came- their wrecks were scrapped and used to build new cities.
The Square was where the maintenance shaft to the Earthmover formerly was, and where the defense system had stood. Now, there was a crowd of machines, more deadly than the defense system ever had been- and yet, they did nothing. Arriving near the back, V2 took up seat next to their predecessor, V1. "Do you know what's happening?" asked the more advanced model.
"No," admitted V1, "but I doubt it's good." A human stood behind a lectern, looking distastefully at the group, flanked by guards wielding magnetic rifles. V2 looked around- and found the exits blocked by more guards. They couldn't escape. Surely, all the machines in the city had to be here by now. What could they-
The man behind the lectern pressed the button, and the floor electrified. The machines were hit with a pulse of electricity which stunned them, sending them to the ground. The humans wore insulated boots and were unaffected as they waltzed into the crowd of machines, now dazed on the floor, and cuffed each one.
V2 awoke to find themself in a line of machines, and held by 2 guards. They looked ahead. Directly in front of them was their predecessor, and in front of them was a sentry. Beyond that, a line of machines, ending at a Streetcleaner. Their flamethower pack removed, the environmental recovery machine was tossed into a glowing pit. An incinerator.
They looked at V1, who looked back. Speaking at a volume too low for humans to hear, they discussed the situation.
"I told you it was nothing good."
"How do you think we get out of this?"
"I can't break these cuffs. But you have the Knuckleblaster. You could do it."
V1 was correct. Silently charging up their left arm, the red machine pumped 2 shells into it- and BANG! the cuffs were broken. Punching the guard on on the left, V2 grabbed their predecessor's cuffs with their right hand and broke them against their knee. The lighter machine grabbed the guard on their right by the throat and threw them into the guard on their left.
Turning to the guard on their right, V2 grabbed their laser rifle and pulled it into their hands, before shooting the guard in the face. One of the guards behind them let go of their charge- a Gutterman, which took 8 guards to hold, and attempted to fire at the red machine, but V1 dashed towards them and punched just over V2's left shoulder, hitting the bullet and sending it back at the guard.
V2 quickly thanked their predecessor, before they returned to freeing the others. The guards had seen them by now, but so had the other machines. The Gutterman whirred up it's machine gun and began killing it's guards, while the sentry had kicked it's guards away and had begun sniping the ones behind it. The prison break was in full swing.
V2 Sapporo Bank, Afternoon
V2 paused the footage. "Is this enough?" asked the machine, hoping that footage of the attempted genocide would be sufficient.
It seemed as though it was true what they spoke of much earlier: V2's origins were dark. But all the causal death in feed were beyond his expectations. It certainly didn't look Sumeragi...he wasn't made by them? V1 and them seemed to have a history, maybe he only hunting the team out of associated to V2 rather than working for Sumeragi. In either case, V2's origins weren't on the enemy's side.
"You must have went through a lot. More than most should be expected of them. I'm sure many choices of yours weren't moral, but you were stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm not about to judge you from the moral standards of someone not from your world. You survived all that V2, and you don't have a heart filled with hatred. My heart goes out to you."
Putting a hand on their shoulder, Quake gave a soft smile, tilting his head a bit. V2 seemed to be an ageless GI, fighting an endless war against a system that failed him. It sounded rather lonely and endless. It was surprising that he hadn't turned out to be an exterminator or a callus pragmatic machine.
"It's enough, V2. I won't tell anyone about what I saw. You can tell them yourself if you want to. It's your story. And if you ever want to...talk about any of your experiences, I'm always here to listen, okay? Now, let's go back out there."
Carefully disconnecting the device from V2's specially designed attachments, he got up and walked back around from their private segment of the bank. Making his way back out to the pair and a dog waiting on him, he gave a single look back to V2 before bringing himself before the pair of awaiting judges.
Akira Howard & Frisk Dreemur (co-written by comic) -Sapporo Bank-
At Frisk's question, Akira turned to look at her. She was calming down now, but her eyes betrayed that she was still not happy with this situation nor the SOUL-user's conduct. She nodded, agreeing to Frisk's terms. The officer would respect the result of the evidence reviewal. She had no personal bias against the machine- well, that was a lie. The NEURON agent's first impression had been staring down the robot's gun barrel, but most of her reasoning had been surrounding the safety of others. If that somehow turned out to be on faulty premises...
Akira looked at her Legionis. It was ready to go at a moment's notice, should V2 choose to attack. She had a growing gut feeling she had been wrong about all this, but her brain couldn't make sense of why the robot would have said humans 'all had to go' if it wasn't just like the Chimeras.
A nod was better than nothing. Frisk let out a brief sigh, feeling the tension in the air start to disperse. It had been thick as mud just seconds ago... once again, a compromise had been reached. The difference this time was that there would be a conclusion. No more kicking this down the road.
Akira had gotten really worked up about the whole thing. While Frisk hadn't shown it quite as outwardly like the officer, internally she'd started to get a bit riled up herself. She just couldn't grasp why Officer Howard was so deadset against V2. Sure, he'd threatened her when they'd met, that was established, but a majority of Frisk's friends had been similar stories. Papyrus had gleefully kicked her butt the first time they'd met, then tenderly left her with food and water in his shed to wait for her to come back and challenge him. Her own adopted father had killed her in quite a few timelines. Now he'd put his life on the line in a heartbeat for her, no matter the circumstance.
There was something holding Akira back. Frisk wasn't sure if the officer would be forthcoming with the extent of her trauma, and at the moment, it probably wasn't very appropriate to start asking super personal questions like that.
As Quake and V2 moved away for the kid to review the footage, Frisk swayed on her feet for a moment, unsure where to park herself, before she decided to lean against the wall near Akira, making sure not to get too into her personal space. Five foot distance sounded like a good limit.
"Hey uh..." Frisk began. "Look, I don't think you're a bad cop or anything. I know you're just trying to do the right thing and protect people. It's probably pretty frustrating having some kid you barely know bringing around a death machine like he's a lost puppy, huh?" She gave a small chuckle at that, hoping to lighten Akira up a little.
Akira's head jolted to look at Frisk with widened eyes as she attempted to make casual conversation. She gave an awkward smile and joined in with a forced chuckle of her own. She was surprised by the gesture. The task force captain recognized this as some sort of apology, and though she appreciated it, she would have to take some time to cool off completely before she could accept it completely. She avoided eye contact with the teen to look in the direction of Boboiboy and V2.
"And I'm sorry for yelling at you and... your puppy. I know how hard it is to hear someone say bad things about someone you care about."
"To be fair, he did point a gun at you and threaten your life," Frisk said, humored that she'd gone along with the puppy analogy. It was even funnier because Amaterasu was RIGHT THERE! "I guess I'm a little desensitized to that kind of stuff... where I'm from, a good portion of my friends tried to kill me when we first met."
The Legionnaire frowned a little at the mention of their meeting again. The words V2 spoke then were like how Akira imagined a Chimera would speak if they could. Yet when Frisk mentioned most of her friends tried to kill her, Officer Howard's head snapped back to face the girl, face riddled with concern. "What- are you... okay??"
"Huh?" Frisk looked back at her. "Oh, uh, yeah... it's kind of a rite of passage to friendship with monsterkind."
Akira likely knew nothing about monsters, outside of a more derogatory idea, so she was quick to add onto that. "I think I mentioned before that monsters exist in my world. Tempura, back at base, is one of them. They're made almost completely of magic, and until a few years ago... humanity had trapped them underground for over a thousand years. I fell into their home, and..."
This was maybe a lot to get into, she'd be better off just simplifying it all.
"Well, they warmed up to me pretty quickly. I had to give up most of my power to break the barrier trapping them, when the volcano they were living in erupted. My mom and dad were actually the king and queen!"
Akira's jaw dropped a little listening to Frisk's story. It all sounded like a fairy tale, but it was all real to Frisk. ...If she was telling the truth, that is. It was all still a little hard to grasp for the officer, but she had only just discovered magic yesterday. And at this point, she was beginning to wonder if she was the only one that came from a world where humanity wasn't involved with race wars.
That's when Quake came back, supporting V2's side.
Working for Sumeragi wasn't the question, but whether he craved bloodshed. She was beginning to see a pattern, and she might have guessed the answer, but, to confirm, she straightened up and requested elaboration.
Quake chose his next words delicately, as to keep V2's own struggles something they had under their control.
"A world where...luxury of choice wasn't there for him. There were no winners." He started. "And that he can finally choose, he chose to help us, no matter where we come from or our backgrounds. If they, after all they endured, still select the path of openness, then that speaks volumes to me."
Ice, still in his sniper position sighed, letting his weapons dissipate in fading cyan hues as he slumped over behind the desk he was in, laying on his back and shutting his eyes.
Akira Howard -Sapporo Bank-
Quake chose his words delicately, and Akira frowned. The vagueness was concerning, Boboiboy was hiding something. The officer wanted to know what he had seen even more now but she trusted Quake. Even if this cautiousness made it seem like he didn't trust her. That hurt a little. The conclusion from all of this was that she had been wrong.
Akira looked down for a moment. Her eyes drifted up and over to V2. An apologetic, thoughtful look. Then, she turned and walked out the door of the bank, deactivating and storing her Legionis in the process. She'd formally apologize to the machine later, she needed to reckon with her shortcomings by herself for the moment. Before she would disappear completely, she called back over her shoulder:
Was that it? Was this whole ordeal finally put to rest?
...Hm, probably not entirely. Akira didn’t seem completely satisfied, even a little suspicious, though perhaps Frisk was imagining that. The officer honored the agreement, opting for some alone time, claiming she’d be nearby. It would probably be best to let her have that alone time, right now.
Frisk wasn’t ignorant to Quake’s caution either, but it made sense. It had been established since yesterday that V2 was a killer, and humanity was gone in his world. 1+1... but Frisk had been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, which only strengthened after working alongside him that day. Quake’s choice words only emboldened that benefit in the doubt.
She could draw her own conclusions. It was V2’s business, and what he’d shown Quake had convinced him, so at least for now... until maybe something else came up... they could put this all behind them and move on.
Plus, it was nice to finally have a chance to talk with Officer Howard, even if it was for a moment. Outside of that, they’d only really interacted when V2 was the topic. Needless to say, that didn’t really condone a friendly work environment.
Hopefully things would be more cohesive and united from here on out.
Once Akira was gone, Frisk turned to look at Quake. “Did Terrence’s group come back? I don’t see them... they’re not with the others in the back?”
Quake shook his head. “No, sorry. Not yet.”
Frisk pursed her lips before she raised her hands to her face and rubbed at her eyes for a moment. “Okay... I’m gonna go look for them. V1 attacked you guys, and we were attacked by Ghiaccio, which could only mean they’re getting the same treatment. Maybe they got the nastier one... and Kiwi isn’t much of a fighter... I need to make sure they aren’t dead or... worse. Whatever ‘worse’ could even be... hey, you don’t know if there’s any working cars around here, do you? It would be great if I could get to them faster, and I’m NOT the long-distance running type.”
Amaterasu turned to look at Frisk strangely as she let out a constrained laugh, still on edge from the sensation of evil that wafted from Frisks only moments prior. It had gone away, but now that Ammy had been exposed to it, she could still sense traces of it within Frisk.
Amaterasu was notably less energetic as the group approached the hideout, idly listening to Frisk and V2 converse. The way they spoke, exchanging vows of trust, was incredibly contrary to the foul energy she sensed in both. Amaterasu felt confused, far too much to stop V2 from following them into the hideout. Once they did though, the wolf goddess lightened up, briefly breaking away from Frisk and V2 to run around the other group, celebrating that they appeared okay. A celebration was quickly cut short as Akira immediately-and understandably-objected to V2's arrival.
Sitting between both girls, Amaterasu looked between each side, head tilted left and right as she listened to them argue. Frisk seemed to genuinely trust V2, but Akira remained stubborn. Aside from herself, Akira seemed to have the most vitriol against the robot. The debate swiftly grew bigger as V2 and Quake gave their takes. Things escalated further and further...and Amaterasu began nodding off, laying on her belly and lazily looking left and right one more time before falling asleep.
~~~
Amaterasu's eyes flickered open, and the wolf yawned as if she had awoken from another thousand-year sleep, despite her nap lasting only a few minutes. Things had finally cooled down, and it seemed the group had decided place tentative trust on V2 for now.
Amaterasu had no objections. She still didn't trust V2, not fully anyway, but the robot had assisted them in the mission without any hint of defecting or murderous intent, even as he was frozen solid by Ghiaccio. No demon could resist such temptation, not without disintegrating soon after. And more importantly, Amaterasu could more easily look after the group if they were in one space. She couldn't very well kick out Frisk and V2, after all.
With the debris broken to rubble, the Polar Bear lunged towards Penguin Cleric and Mage. The other members of Penguin Brave were too extended, and Tracy’s gamble that Terrence would have been able to stop Bark from making it to her Penguins had failed. Bark grabbed the pair of Penguins, smacking them into each other. The Penguins squawked in pain, before collapsing into dazed heaps, complete with little birds floating around their heads.
Bark fought back against Squire and Ninja's attacks. The Polar Bear's punch struck Penguin Squire's shield, and while it was a powerful blow, the shield did not crumple. It glowed with a magical red aura, and Squire was sent flying back from the attack. At the same moment, Penguin Monk emerged from the Control Room, carrying the unconscious form of the Sumeragi Executive overhead. It spotted Penguin Squire flying overhead. Reacting quickly, Penguin Monk jumped up and aimed a kick at Penguin Squire, knocking the knight back into the Antechamber.
Penguin Ninja landed in front of Bark, its sword at the ready. Bark barreled towards him, and the Penguin Ninja froze. It stared up at Bark in horror, and the polar bear delivered a powerful kick to the Penguin! Penguin Ninja squawked in pain, flying into the air- before with a poof of smoke and snow, there was something else in its place. Where Penguin Ninja once was, an ice statue resembling the ninja was in its place. The ninjutsu decoy technique! In a puff of smoke, Penguin Ninja appeared above Bark. It attempted to land on Bark's back, attempting to stab into it with a pair of icy kunai.
The duelist had started to back into the hallway when more defenses came online, a laser turret and flying drones. Tracy turned to face the machines, and gestured towards them.
"Face-down card, reveal! Nightmare Penguin!" Tracy said. The face-down card flipped up, and a new monster appeared in a flash of light. It was a large Penguin, nearly 5 foot tall, dressed in a suit and top hat. In a flash of light, Nopenguin's effect activated from the grave, and the smug, sign-weilding Penguin appeared next to the dapper bird. A gust of icy wind blew through the Control Room hallway again, focusing on the Laser Barrier. Nopenguin's sign glowed and a red 'X' appeared over the turret. With a pop, the weapon seemed to blip out of existence. The Flying Drone attempted to open fire. Penguin Nightmare laughed, creating a strange energy field that blocked the blasts. With the appearance of the well-dressed Penguin monster, a strange shadowy energy began to swirl around all of Tracy's monsters. Her water monsters got a little stronger!
Tracy drew another card as Penguin Squire rushed around Bark and Terrence's fight. The Squire froze when it caught sight of the unconscious forms of Cleric and Mage.
“Wak wak… WAK WAK!” Penguin Squire let out a war cry! Penguin Monk, hearing the cry of rage, dropped the unconscious Sumeragi Exec and stared down Bark with fury. Penguin Monk slid towards Bark, aiming a kick at the back of the bear's leg, while Penguin Squire rushed at Bark and attacked with his sword, moving with surprising speed and attacking with a flurry of razor slashes!
"Burning..."
In the hallway, Tracy set a card on her duel disk and gestured towards the flying drones. Nopenguin skated towards one of the drones, jumping up and smacking it with its powered up sign! Tracy picked up the unconscious Penguin Mage, and grabbed the unconscious Penguin Cleric by their cloak. Hopefully they could head out the way they had came in, and that those guards were still in that magic prison Terrence had created.
"C'mon Terrence!" She called out, sliding the unconscious Penguin Cleric on the ice created by her Eisbahn card. Tracy paused, looking back to Bark, then called out to the bear. "Sapporo Station! The slums outside Sapporo Station! You'll see what we said is true!
Lookie here, me remembering Zombino.
The Chainsaw Sentry unit slashed down towards Zombino, and the zombie monster quickly sidestepped the attack. The monster stayed close to the machine, using it as cover against the ranged attacks of the other enemies. With a powerful slash of its ax, it smashed through its chainsaw arm. Zombino jumped up, stomping on the head of the damaged Chainsaw Sentry and smashing his ax into the Flying Drone that flew too close.
Zombino launched itself off of the Chainsaw Sentry, narrowly dodging the missile that exploded into it. It threw its ax, smashing it into head of the Gatling Sentry. Zombino landed on the ground and sprinted towards the group of five soldiers that had accompanied the Gatling Sentry. Plasma bolts struck Zombino, but they barely seemed to slow the zombie monster as he continued his charge. He slammed into the first soldier, bowling him over, and throwing a powerful punch at the second. Zombino fought his way through the squad, reaching the destroyed Gatling Sentry and recovering its ax.
It seemed to be having a more rough time, letting out a low growl as it turned to face the other Sumeragi Troops.
He knew Akira had a motorcycle, but the odds of Akira complying with Frisk of all people right now was going to be slim after the bitter pill they swallowed. Maybe he needed to talk to her one on one after this, but that was a matter for another time. The second option was...him. Quake exhaled calmly, mentally preparing himself.
"I have an idea. Just give me a second please."
Quake walked over to a side of the bank away from Frisk briefly. Looking over to where Ice was doing Overwatch prior, he found the arctic elemental passed out sleeping on the floor. Quake shook their head, hoisting up Ice by his hood using his index finger and thumb. Upon hoisting him up and pausing for a second, he brought his fellow elemental to his chest, the two disappearing into each other, Boboiboy taking their place.
Okay, it's just going to be a quick trip, nothing too bad. ...Zzzz
"Okay, so transportation huh..."
Clicking a setting on his power watch, he looked as the tornado themed icon snapped into position.
.
..
...
To Frisk, they'd see a hue of cyan light in the distance. Then all of a sudden, a rush of wind would fly as a new elemental of Boboiboy would appear from the other side of the bank. They were riding a blue and cyan hoverboard that matched their own colors as they rode the wind through the air, making a curve and drifted up next to Frisk, cutting it close to hitting her as he swerved a foot from doing so. The wind themed elemental gave a broad grin and winked at her.
"Hey frisky business! You ordered one speedy trip? I'm Cyclone, and I can take you as far as you wanna go! Just hop on my board and we'll go speeding off faster than any little car! Oh! And you can tell me more about you along the way and I can tell you about me and stuff!"
Cyclone was chomping at the bit to talk, like they had a lot they wanted to cover while they were out here. He had a certain spark in his eyes compared to others, a natural curiosity.
Quake had an idea, asking for a moment before he sauntered off. Frisk gave an understanding nod, and he departed. Her gaze then shifted toward the only other two in the room: Amaterasu and V2. The dog had been acting a little funny right up until arrival, then she’d acted like a dog again.
Could she sense Chara? Or the dark reflection?
Frisk glanced out of one of the bank’s windows, seeing her own reflection in its window, a very faint visage of herself. It was difficult to tell, but it seemed to be staring back.
She looked quickly away.
“I’m glad that whole thing is worked out,” the teenager told V2. “I mean... I’m sure that doesn’t mean it’s gone completely... but this is a step in the right direction.”
It was here that, after a limited window for V2’s response, a gust of wind blew, drawing her attention from the robot, and ANOTHER Boboiboy appeared. How many was that, now? Blaze, Thorn, Quake, Thunderstorm, Bo himself... likely another one or two she’d so far missed... she hadn’t really had the opportunity to get to know any one of them, but she was personally liking Quake right now.
She brought up her hands, taking a step back reactively as the new boy swung himself around, coming dangerously close to hitting the teenager. She almost summoned her shield on instinct, but at his stop, Frisk gave him a funny look.
He introduced himself as Cyclone, and he seemed a LOT more energetic than the other ones she’d seen. The closest would have been the main personality of Boboiboy. Blaze had been (surprise surprise) a hothead, Thorn had been overtly innocent, Thunderstorm had been like...
... ...
Quake was focused and introspective, and now Cyclone here seemed overly friendly and excitable. Like a puppy.
...Oh man, not another puppy analogy. Amaterasu was still RIGHT THERE!
Admittedly, Frisk was still a bit tired from the last mission. Mentally from the stress of it and getting that intel, not to mention the gymnastics just employed to get V2 finally accepted into the Sumeragi Strikers, and physically from Ghiaccio. Her patience was a little drawn right now, so hopefully she wouldn’t get snappy with Cyclone, he seemed nice.
A wind-enhanced hoverboard was probably better than a car anyway.
“Okay,” Frisk replied, giving a casual shrug before joining the kid on the free space of the hoverboard, wobbling for a moment before she grabbed his shoulders like the handlebars of a motorcycle. “Do you know the way?”
Quake was now on V2's side. He chose to keep what exactly happened a secret, which did create some unnecessary distrust... but the more the machine thought about it, the more they appreciated it. Akira would likely have attempted to come up with a reason for what humanity had attempted to do, leading only to more strife.
Speaking of Akira, they were leaving. The officer clarified that they would be nearby, and V2 presumed this to mean that they were not leaving permanently, but rather had some reason to separate from the group. Frisk spoke with Quake regarding the other group, which still had not returned, and Quake left, presumably to get something. It was at this point that Frisk spoke to the machine.
“I’m glad that whole thing is worked out,” the teenager told V2. “I mean... I’m sure that doesn’t mean it’s gone completely... but this is a step in the right direction.”
"It will certainly take some time before Officer Howard trusts me fully, but we should be able to avoid any actual conflict for now."
Before Frisk could respond, a gust of wind blew, and another variation of Boboiboy appeared. Judging from his appearance, the gust of wind, and the name "Cyclone," this was likely a wind variation. He was incredibly excitable and talkative, riding on top of of a hoverboard. They couldn't all be stoic like Quake, V2 supposed.
"Think so, my intuition is pretty good!" Cyclone laughed before turning a bit to his left and waving. "Bye V2! See you in a bit!"
With that, Cyclone revved up and then sped out of the bank. The wind rushing through his hair somehow didn't knock the hat off of his head, which seemed firmly placed. Flying up in the air upon exiting the bank, they got a bird's eye view of a portion of the city. Putting his index fingers and thumbs together like a portrait photo in front of himself, he closed an eye and looked around with it, scanning across his surroundings.
"Let's see...if I were a factory where would I hide..."
It wasn't exactly hard to spot. It was a rather tall structure that stuck out like a sore thumb. Surrounded by many structures in a state of decay like museums and supermarkets. That place in particular looked charred, but there was no mistaking it - that was their target.
"That's it? That's the factory? Sheesh, if I wanted to see a broken home I should have taken the day off! Ha!"
He gave a laugh, slapping his knees and nudging Frisk in the ribs.
And they were off - Frisk’s grip tightened on Cyclone’s shoulders (hopefully not too painfully) as she held on at the sudden movements, trying not to get thrown off as she closed her eyes tightly. As they rose into the air, Frisk had to put one hand on her beanie to keep it from blowing off as her long hair billowed out wildly behind her.
She had flown before, this shouldn't be so surprising, but not having her wings active was like shedding a layer of confidence, not to mention she wasn’t in control with this.
They came to a pause at the top of their arc, and Frisk opened her eyes. Cyclone pointed out what was probably their destination. Frisk didn’t know it herself, she would have resorted to directions from Chara to find it, like the data center before. “I guess... so...?” Frisk frowned as the last part of Cyclone’s words registered.
She winced at his humored jab at her ribs.
Trinity would enjoy this hoverboard flight a lot more than Frisk would. For some reason, upon thinking of the girl, Frisk suddenly got a daredevil’s idea as she leaned forward, squinting toward the ground. “Think you can weave between all those cars without crashing?” she challenged.
Gradually, tensions had begun to escalate – fueled by not just concerns for the group's safety, but personal traumas on either side of the argument. With Quake's help, however, the issue of V2 seemed to have been mostly resolved. Akira stepped out to cool off a bit, while Frisk headed out alongside Cyclone to search for the yet unaccounted-for team. That left only V2, Miracle, and Amaterasu still in the bank.
After a brief moment of quiet, there was the click of a door, and out from the out-of-sight break room came Kohaku and Kane, with Maria and Kyota respectively following close behind.
"Guess all's well that ends well," Kohaku sighed in relief, looking around the room. "Though, I didn't expect them to go out again so soon."
"It makes sense that they'd want to check in on their allies," Kane remarked. "With that transformation of Boboiboy's, it shouldn't be long before they reach their destination. Let's just hope they're doing alright..."
Kane looked V2 up and down for a moment, both somewhat curious about his past and still somewhat wary of the machine. Only natural from a military commander. Kyota walked out from behind the man at that moment, a smile on his face.
"I bet they are, bro. Trust me, they've got Terrence out there, and that dude's top contender for 'coolest guy around'!" he said, before he looked to the robot. "V2, yeah? You've got some catchin' up to do if you wanna be up there too. Maybe officer Howard'll like ya better if you really show those Sumeragi bad guys who's boss!"
While he spoke, Maria stayed right behind Kohaku, not even daring to look in V2's direction. Her face half-buried in her mouse plush, the girl looked over to Miracle, timidly giving the magician a small wave. She then noticed Amaterasu, eyes widening at the sight of the wolf. Slowly, she began to step towards the goddess, periodically glancing at Miracle as if to get reassurance on the canine being safe to approach.
After Kyota had spoken, Kohaku promptly extended a hand for V2 to shake, offering him a smile.
"Well, in any case... it's nice to finally meet you, V2!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" To say there was at least one of the stealth squad in a panic would be a little bit of an understatement, Kiwi not very much enjoying all this fighting and getting fired at by drones - But that didn't mean the Bard was pointlessly running around, no, that would be downright silly!
Instead, they were singing- Yes, singing while screaming - Or more accurately, making a melodic sound out of their own screams. It was chaotic, and disjointed, like cycling through a wheel of choices at a rapid pace, but it was a musical sound nonetheless. This...mild panic, as it were, may not have been more than wild flailing considering the wildly waving arms of Kiwi, but it ultimately had its own (incidental) purposes.
As Kiwi dashed - No, pirouetted quickly (Somehow, it was faster than his normal running) - to stay behind Tracy and her newly summoned creatures, the sounds the bard generated created a chaotic burst of wind, pulling Terrance towards the fleeing group with wind in order to speed him up - Though it wasn’t loud enough to overshadow Tracy’s statement directed at Bark, thankfully, though a small piece of the sound made its way to Bark, as if to try and relieve the bear of the pain from Terrance’s cyan magic, almost divine in it’s relief, as soon as he would be too far behind to easily catch up with the team. Not to mention, it aided to block some of the attacks from the drones with sudden clumps of energy blocking, if any got past Nightmare Penguin’s own barrier, as unlikely as it was.
“Think you can weave between all those cars without crashing?” Frisk challenged.
Cyclone perked up, looking to the side at Frisk, who was peering down at the cars at the ground. A glint hit his eye, his face showing earnest eagerness all over it.
"Think? Think?? Hold on tight and keep your peepers wide open!"
Air pressure built from underneath the board, an audible humming heard as Cyclone bent forward in a ready position. With a boom of speed, they shot diagonally down towards the street, cyclone throwing his arms behind him as they sharply descended.
A graveyard of cars was before them, littering either side of the road. They were speeding towards a derelict truck looking like they would smash right into it. With a deft move of his feet, he pivoted the board to strafe and glide across the truck, using it like a halfpipe to glide to another car, bouncing to and fro car to car like a scrapyard skatepark! Just a bit forwards, there was a pileup of cars, abandoned and stuck in traffic, only about three feet between them for a long stretch.
"Oh yeah, we are doin' this! Let's get more extreme up in here!"
He knelt down, lowering his profile as he gripped the back of Frisk's hands. Speeding up drastically, a white air trail was beginning to come from them from how the board was cutting through wind as they thread the needle in the divide. He accelerated more and more, getting faster and faster as it seemed his board would strike a car at any given moment.
"This is way too easy!!" He teased. "Let's try something new! Try not to puke!!"
Still holding on tight, he swerved his hips and his feet, pulling his and frisk's hands inwardly and the board began to spin with them on it. The board revolved and revolved, spinning the pair like a drill through the urban jungle. A blue light hue formed across the drill inexplicably.
"Hahaha...hahahaha!!"
At the end of the strip was a turned over limousine, as the drill approached, it lifted just slightly, Cyclone's board using the turned over car as a ramp, throwing the pair up into the sky! The revolving slowed before Cyclone threw his hands to either side of him, breaking the blue veil over them. A sonic boom sounded from their location as wind dispersed, the board now completely level.
"Hahaha!! Now that's freedom!!"
That's one thing he put above all else. Freedom. Letting loose like this, no other elemental or person to tell him no. It looked like for a moment he seemed to forget Frisk was right there still before he snapped out of his trance. Looking to the side, he flashed a grin.
Frisk almost lost her grip, despite bracing herself, as they shot downward at the speed of sound. To support herself, Frisk summoned braces over her legs, latching her more safely onto the board as she grit her teeth tightly, eyes watering.
She’d stuffed her beanie into her pocket a second beforehand, saving it from getting lost.
As Cyclone moved, Frisk tried to mimic him, shifting her weight with his. They skimmed against a truck, Frisk grunting before they whipped around to bounce from vehicle to derelict vehicle. “Oh yeah, we are doin' this! Let's get more extreme up in here!” Cyclone shouted as Frisk tensed up. They were approaching a particularly thick build-up.
As Cyclone lowered, Frisk did as well, summoning a face shield for herself (stupid to not summon one a lot sooner). The red mask protected her eyes, giving her a better look at what was coming. “Oh shit-”
She hunkered lower. Still, she tried to mimic Cyclone’s movements. Being dead weight on the board could hinder him, so trying to move with him might make his job easier. She hoped, anyway.
Then they started to spin. Frisk didn’t notice she was holding her breath as they swirled through the air, the air crackling behind them as they broke the sound barrier. Holy shit this was fast...! Jumping from car to car in a high speed chase suddenly seemed a LOT less impressive.
They cleared through the scrapyard of old cars, turning into a drill before they deflected off of an overturned limo, blitzing up into the sky, finally slowing down. It was rattling, exhilarating, almost intoxicating.
“Hahaha!! Now that's freedom!!” Cyclone was particularly pleased with how that had gone, and in the moment of respite in the air, Frisk pried her hands off of his shoulders. Her heart was hammering practically in her throat, but she’d be a liar to say she hadn’t liked it.
Helps that they hadn’t actually crashed. That would have made things more difficult to enjoy.
“How was that?” Cyclone asked, turning to look at her.
Frisk did what she could to try and straighten her long hair. It was all poofy and windswept now. It’d take forever to get flattened again. “Wow...” she huffed, shaking her head. “Scary. Really scary. But... kinda cool, too.”
Much of the group had left, leaving only the existing resistance fighters, Miracle, and Amaterasu at the base with V2. The machine briefly considered leaving to get more fuel, before remembering that since... whatever it was Frisk had done, their tanks were near-full. Figuring out exactly what had happened would be-
A problem for later, as V2 was being spoken to. "V2, yeah? You've got some catchin' up to do if you wanna be up there too. Maybe officer Howard'll like ya better if you really show those Sumeragi bad guys who's boss!" The speaker was a human child. Male, blue eyes, brown hair, scrappy appearance. Rewinding the audio, V2 realized that the human was talking about "coolness." Whatever that meant.
The machine considered responding, but decided against it- another human was coming up to them. Female, hazel eyes, similar colored hair, and very limited clothing. For some reason. She extended her hand towards them for a handshake. "Well, in any case... it's nice to finally meet you, V2!" the human smiled.
"Likewise, miss...?" V2 replied, taking her hand and shaking it. The machine's grip was probably lighter than it should have been, as they were very much avoiding putting too much force on it and damaging her hand. It would not make a good impression on the team if the first thing V2 did on entering the hideout was breaking someone's hand...
Bark the Polar Bear -Control Room Antechamber-
The penguin ninja poofed into thin air, the bear instead kicking a log. He wasn't unfamiliar with the technique, having tangled with Espio and the rest of the Chaotix before. That left the question of where the penguin would reappear, but Bark had a pretty good idea. Looking up, he swatted at the penguin descending on him before it could even get close.
Though the attack failed, it left an obvious opening that one Terrance "Quick Draw" Boom took advantage of. The Hooligan tried to twist away from it, but the cyan blade carved through his side regardless. Bark slowed to a stop, and then dropped to a knee. It hurt, but a quick glance showed that there was no blood.
With another flash of his mitts, a sheet of ice shot across the ground, aiming to entrap the squire and monk penguins, as well as T. Boom. The slash wouldn't hinder him. No, it just drew out more adrenaline from the bear. He stood back up and whirled around with the intent to smash both fists into Terrance's shield and slam him into the wall.
She held on really well, didn't even wobble to fall off. She was resilient, and her answer only solidified that thought in his mind. He beamed her a grin.
"Heh! Knew you'd liked it~"
The air themed boy inhaled, getting a lung full of fresh air up in the sky. Sighing a lengthy exhale, he plopped down on the side of the board, his feet dangling off it as they coasted towards their destination. Kicking back and forth, he tapped the side of the board, beckoning her to sit down too.
"Ahh...while we get a bit to catch your breath on that, why don't we chat a bit? I think a bit of a casual convo would be a nice pace breaker. Besides, nobody up here to judge us, right?"
She watched blankly as the kid... proceeded to sit down, gesturing for her to do the same. Frisk glanced back towards their destination, unaware of the fight happening right outside of it. A conveniently-placed five-story building currently blocked the view of that.
They needed to get to Terrence and the others... but...
...
A part of this felt nostalgic.
Frisk slid her legs off, plopping down beside Cyclone as she looked over the city. This was the first time she’d really looked at it... not focused on a destination, but seeing the city itself. It was huge, vast, and... kind of sad.
She felt like this was a dream, more than before. In everything Frisk had experienced in the last four years, things just didn’t feel... fantastical anymore. They just felt normal, or even boring. But she dealt with it, lacking the choice to change it. That was for the better...
“If you could go back, would you change it?” Asgore had asked her.
Her words had been “no.” They seemed to please Asgore; instill a sense of pride. But did she even mean that? If she had control over the timeline again, could she... would she...?
She missed the fun adventure that had been her under tale.
But she’d seen every avenue it could offer.
All of them...
What if this was all more than some elaborate dream?
She lowered herself down right next to him, the pair suspended over the city below. A bit of silence followed as they took it in, marinating in their own thoughts until Cyclone broke the silence.
"You know, I've been meaning to ask." Cyclone started, giving a smile without looking at her. "No, I'm not about to ask your favorite color."
He chuckled, looking off in the distance of the city as the board coasted toward their destination.
"...What is your life like? Do you think it's the life you want?"
He continued to avoid eye contact, fixated on the city below. He knew as an elemental, he wasn't supposed to be going down this train of thinking, but being up here with Frisk, he felt as if it wasn't such a bad idea.
Whoa, loaded question. Even beginning to answer that... where to start?
“I guess my life is... my job...?” she screwed her face up a little, not liking the choice of word. “I mean- I don’t know, it’s complicated. It’s not exactly the life I’d want, but if I don’t live it, then things get bad. So I have to do what I do if I want the world I care about to stay intact.”
That was probably the vaguest way she could have put it. Having no context to what this ‘job’ was, Cyclone undoubtedly wouldn’t really get the intricacies. Frisk had been a peacemaker among monsters, then their ambassador. She relinquished that role to Asgore, only once peace was certain on the surface. Then she just...
...
Four years on the surface, and almost all of it was a vague, hazy memory. She could remember meeting and befriending Terrence and Gregory, could remember the first time she dated T, all the time she spent among her friends, just... getting to be a kid, and go to school. Was that what she wanted to get back?
Or did she like the change the Messiah had brought on...?
Until Toriel’s death, life had felt like a blur, and a dream. Even more of a dream than this one right now. Then it was as though she’d woken up. Shed away the layers of vulnerability and weakness that she’d grown. She’d been a sobbing, shaking child when her bland, mundane world came down. It took a little bit of time before she... woke up.
What was even the world she truly wanted? To live back underground, where everything stayed the same, and she knew every route of every possible action and reaction? To exist in the same monotony and repetition that Flowey had? Or to live on the surface before the Messiah emerged, just... moving with the motions, playing nice with everyone, saying the right things and doing what was expected of her? Or how about the world as she knew it now, where every single day was a fight for one thing or another, where she was unsure if an old friend hated her, and if a new enemy could even become remotely spared and shown mercy?
The answer was... probably none of those.
She didn’t know what she wanted.
Frisk was just used to living for others at this point.
“What about you?” Frisk asked. “You’ve got like, a Ben 10 watch or whatever but you just turn into... elemental versions of yourself? With distinct and separate personalities?”
That answer was deeply familiar. Living for your job or else things go sour? BoBoiBoy did that exact same thing...Cyclone felt it on a different level. Despite the deep resonating it had, he responded with a smile.
"Ha, I get what you mean."
The idea of a life was a funny one. As an elemental split, he never had the opportunity to pursue life despite being gifted it. Attached to Boboiboy, nobody asked questions about it, like that was his gimmick. Always being attached to someone else. So hearing about the lives of others gave him insight into what that would even feel like.
"Sorta! If you want to call it that."
Gripping the watch carefully, he titled his head, looking at the active tornado symbol slotted on the watch's face.
"There's seven of us. You met most of them. They say we are supposed to be part of his ego, split amongst us. But is that all there is to it? The others don't really ask that question because they are afraid of what answer they'd get."
Glancing at Frisk from the corner of his eye and back to the city, he knew one thing. Kiwi, V2, Akira. Frisk seemed to have something deeper about them, he couldn't explain it in a way that sounded rational.
"Choosing isn't something isn't a luxury I've had. Looks like we both are stuck a bit, aren't we?" He eased with a smile. "But let's say all of a sudden those responsibilities KABLAM! Went away, what would you be doing instead of what you are obligated to do?"
Mr. Miracle
The moment things seemed to have settled down and everyone's gone on to do as they had in mind, the magician practically plopped out of the air like Icarus hovering near the sun's gleam for too long. His body only hovered briefly to slow his descent before he landed softly on the floor. Not exactly the comfiest of places to lay down on, but after the kind of day he's had? Undoubtedly better than having no resting place at all. In his mind, Terry already begun to recap everything that's happened so far:
So first, some random space-time thingimajig brought him here alongside things from all kinds of realities. Brought into a world where those with powers took up arms against those without, culling them like it was that damn movie, what was the name.. Purge..? Yeah, that was the one - just, a lot more organized and effective instead of being pure anarchy.
Then during his first nap, he had a talk with magic strangers living in his brain like it was some kind of mental airbnb. Strangers that looked an awful lot like silhouettes of his siblings, sure, but strangers still.
Finally, the events of today; exploring a crashed space station- shuttle- whatever, he couldn't be bothered remembering right now. Barely escaping from a lapis-painted murderbot. Sending a mother-daughter duo out into the ruined horizon all alone in the hopes they weren't going to get picked off by some random Sumeragi Patrol. Had a near-heart attack when he thought Boboiboy had been slaughtered during his time away, and a near-second one when Akira was also just gone.
And then there was the whole debate with Mr. Magnets-for-Hands.
Overall? Pretty.. interesting day. Not great, but interesting.
Finally, Terry sat up from resting on the cold ground to where Maria was looking between him and that white wolf.. dog.. thingy. Some kind of canine he was pretty sure, just not exactly what kind. The performer dusted himself off as he stood again before taking a brief spin as his cloak covered his body - switching back into his civilian clothing within a mere moment of being out of sight for everyone. His cloak he had tucked away into his collar as it disappeared straight after before he glanced back to Maria.
"I'm sure it's fine." Hagen finally responded, nodding between her and Amaterasu. "They went with the others after all, there's nothing to be afraid of."
"Oh geez, silly me. Guess you don't actually know any of us Minos around here." the teen said, letting go of V2's hand. "I'm Kohaku! Over here we got Kyota, Kane, and Maria... huh?"
When she went to gesture behind her, Kohaku realized the little girl was no longer there. Looking to her left, she spotted Maria now across the room, right next to Amaterasu now that Hagen had egged her on. Without warning, she put a hand on the wolf's head, slowly petting Ammy. Her eyes glistened as she did so.
"So... fluffy..."
Seeing this, Kyota ran after the girl. "Hey, no fair! I wanna pet her too!"
"Play nice, you two," Kohaku chuckled slightly, watching the boy already begin to pet Ammy's back. "Sorry, we don't really see many animals around here."
She brought her focus back onto V2. "So you're a robot, huh? What's that like? Do you get any physical sensations, like temperature or texture? Or can you do crazy calculations in your head? I actually do a lot of work with machines and other stuff I find around the slums, but I've never been able to talk with one or know what they're thinking... um, but fancy as you are, I bet I can work something out if you need a tune-up or something!
Armament Factory
Nightmare Penguin came out to play, working together with Nopenguin to banish and destroy the Barrier Laser and one of the Flying Drones. Seeing the destruction, the remaining drone switched targets to Nopenguin, firing bolts of plasma in its direction. Thanks to this, Tracy was able to drag both Penguin Mage and Penguin Cleric towards the door to Assembly 1. Hoping for a clear path out of here, she opened the door.
On the other side, Tracy could immediately spot the four Gunners that they had encountered earlier, still confined by Terrence's Magic Jail™. Next to each pair of Gunners were a chainsaw Sentry Unit and a Grenadier, with the sentry units attempting to slice through the magical blades. One of the Grenadiers had a hand up to their helmet, likely communicating with someone else about the issue, while the other one tried to wedge the blades apart with his energy shield.
The newcomers weren't facing towards the door at the moment, and the path to the staircase on the other side of the second floor seemed to be clear. Through the wide gap in the walkway at the center of Assembly 1, Tracy could make out a swarm of Sumeragi units moving about. A good deal seemed to be headed to the front of the factory complex, while others were running around through the factory, no doubt searching for where Terrence had gone following his earlier stunt.
Outside the factory, Zombino kept up the fight – though damage was continuing to rack up on him. The monster had dealt with both Sentry Units and the arriving squad of soldiers, though the numbers were once again rising about as quickly as they'd gone down. Two more Gunners and a Grenadier ran into the fight, firing their respective projectiles at him, while an approaching blaster Sentry Unit periodically shot fireballs in Zombino's direction.
Shortly afterwards, a Bomber flew towards the monster. Some of the units began to make some distance as the machine arrived, for it would quickly begin to drop explosives on top of and around Zombino.
Cyclone made it clear what he and his... counterparts were, confirming them as split personalities, or ‘egos’ from Boboiboy. They were part of Bo, but also wholly their own people. It kind of reminded Frisk of how she and Chara had operated back underground. Neither of them had really been able to figure out where Frisk began and Chara ended. Not like now, they’d grown familiar with each other enough that they could separate from each other. Frisk could recognize when her own internal thoughts were her own, and when they belonged to the shaytan.
The dark reflection, though... that thing was completely new. It wasn’t until Frisk’s Determination had increased that it had appeared (Chara had made sure to indicate it was her DT and not her LV that had grown in that instance). Frisk still wasn’t even sure how her Determination had grown, simply interacting with an ancient monster puzzle about Orion Dreemurr, but it had. And now she had that dark reflection to worry about.
With those two, and the melted man (who did literally nothing), Frisk’s mind felt kind of crowded, but she was still short of three entities to match what Bo had in his head. She’d go crazy with that many people in there.
“Choosing something isn't a luxury I've had. Looks like we both are stuck a bit, aren't we?”
Cyclone said that with a little too much excitement. Frisk wasn’t about to outright say it, but choice really... was better in hands that weren’t her own. When she had the power, to make decisions on her own, to change things to her whims, she’d abused that power. She didn’t want to go back to that. She was scared of having that power again... as convenient and helpful as it would be.
The kid’s question also stumped Frisk a bit. Without a responsibility, what would she do? Underground, after she’d made her promise to Sans, her responsibility had been to use her power for good. Then she’d lost it, and her responsibility became integrating monsterkind on the surface, then setting an example for human-monster relations and just being a good kid for everyone else. Now her responsibility was dismantling the Messiah.
Her responsibilities had grown to define her. She struggled to imagine herself without them.
...
...Would it be selfish to say that maybe she wanted to finish her Homecoming dance with Terrence...?
He always made it feel like she didn’t need to be responsible by herself. He’d always had a knack for shouldering her burdens along with her. Nobody else really did that, not in the way he did.
“I’d tell Terrence how I feel. And this time, I wouldn’t take it back for anything.”
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