Chương 114: Enigma
[January 20th]
The press had already written of the four's presence by the next morning, and they set out badged on one avenue as Matoi checked videos online.
"Someone recorded your Solar Beam." muttered Matoi, showing it to Mia. "With music, apparently."
"Er, with music?"
"'With a noose around your neck! Knowing that you can't be tamed! What's mine is mine - what's yours is mine!'" said Matoi's phone.
Matoi shook her head as she shut it off, and in the next instant -
- the four slammed against the right wall, and a purple serpent burst out above in a rain of concrete, enormous fangs seeking their heads -
- but ghastly hands threw concrete chunks in to its maw; gagging as it staggered, it burst fully out of the wall and leaped across the street -
- just in time for Mia to disintegrate the wall, four safe as they stood normal again, eyes on their foe on the other end, enormous purple serpent with a shimmering outline.
"Remember." said Matoi, and Mia nodded.
"Yes."
Ahead, the serpent hacked up a purple globe to its left & down the street; the four felt a vague pulling force, and as their eyes turned -
- they saw every car nearby sucked in to the globe's vortex, tornado spinning & spinning as it hacked another globe left -
- and the spectacle began anew on the other side, dozens & dozens of cars spinning with the speed of light around -
" - Worldwide!"
- but two walls of blue flames burst up from the ground; and in to the blue went the cars, flashes of purple as their gasoline hit it, serpent smashing through the wall at its back & slithering inside the three-floor restaurant. With no time to waste, the four started rushing towards it, civilians screams starting as it slithered to the center -
- and the four winced as they came inside, corpses turned inside-out & serpent at the other end, sixty feet separating them & it still. Hacking one purple globe in to the roof, the four braced themselves, and in the next instant -
- they flipped upside-down and slammed in to the ceiling, boots on the roof -
" - gravity." droned Matoi, obviously. Mia nodding, a single fire scarab burnt a hole at their feet -
- and the four were launched in to the second-floor ceiling, grunting as they landed upside-down again -
" - it - it has something on the roof?" said Mia, seeing the serpent slither away below, lost sight as Marisa nodded -
" - is it, like - maybe it's leaving us for another Revenant?" she winced -
" - got an idea." muttered Samuel -
" - Boudoir!" shouted Marisa, aiming her palms up (but really down); a strand erupted from her gloves -
- and the three laughed as it hit her face, strand reabsorbing in to her traditional dress.
"I don't know what you were expecting." laughed Mia, relevantly.
"Uh, go ahead." chimed Marisa.
Samuel nodded as he stepped away, Outcast's armor readied as he stomped -
- and the next scene was instant. Chunks of concrete burst out of the ceiling -
- and ghastly hands manipulated them in to midair platforms, four nodding as they leaped as fast as they could back down, constant flying concrete keeping their path steady as they rushed back down to the first-floor, upside-down but moving freely now. They saw the serpent's tail peeking out of the kitchen door ahead -
- and disappear within as they rushed up, constant set of ghastly hands drawing their path as Mia burnt down the door, and as the four rushed in to the kitchen -
- they saw their rightside-up foe on the other end, hall of knives & cutlery flanking them as they rushed down, snake slithering as fast as it could away and starting to gain speed.
"It's trying to outrange me." sighed Mia; more projectiles flew towards them, but a cloud of scarabs devoured every last - " - I don't know how the gravity - if it could counter my beam, either -"
" - there's a better idea." muttered Matoi, more projectiles flying towards them again -
- and Mia nodded as a set of shockwaves blasted every last metal piece together, lasers welding them into one solid line, shockwaves keeping the spear at their side as the beast slithered against the right wall. Bashing its tail against the wall, it slithered out of the aperture to the street beyond, and as they turned out to face the hole -
- they saw their foe thirty feet away & starting to flee out of range -
" - Wedding!" "Worldwide!"
A final shockwave blasted the spear in to the beast -
- and the keen end impaled straight through its maw, blood bursting as the metal extended towards Mia's blade -
- and a bash of her electrical sword blew it in to a dozen chunks of gore, nothing left but a still-beating heart as the four fell to the ground again, purple entrails turning flesh-colored.
"Too strong." winced Mia, relevantly.
The four sighed as they stood, Boudoir healing their wounds.
"…Should we destroy it?" panted Marisa, and Matoi's head shook.
"No. We need to find the source of these."
They soon met with the city's Revenant-certified coroner, the still-beating heart still on the morgue's table.
"Unfortunately, I can tell you this isn't a normal Revenant. You described a Revenant that can turn its host into a serpent, correct?" (They nodded.) "That isn't this Revenant's ability. As I'm sure you're aware, there's … particular proteins produced by exspiravit bacteria that allow us to, mostly, determine its ability. This Revenant has the ability to control and talk to animals."
"What?" said Marisa.
"And even worse, I doubt anyone will take it -- so we may never know what they have to say." He frowned. "Still, it doesn't appear to have any physical tampering done to it. I trust your observation, of course, so what it may be is it was tampered with by another Revenant. Perhaps it reverted to its natural state upon the death of the host. I-If you could, I'd almost prefer you destroy it."
"We might." said Matoi. "Do you have any clue as to its origin?"
"I'm not terribly aware of … Revenant-related news, as you might guess. Though I heard the Revenant facility for this region was attacked a month ago. I'm not certain if any Revenants were taken."
Matoi stared at the Revenant for a few seconds. "I suppose we'll investigate there, next."
"It's a ten minute or so drive, I believe. It isn't very far."
"Marisa -- take the Revenant with us and destroy it if we're attacked."
"Valentine's Day is coming up." muttered Marisa, setting the still-beating heart in a Boudoir-pouch.
The Revenant storage facility for the region was built on an air strip in Rockfield that had once been a military base. No cars were allowed past the gates, and they met privately with the guard, Chimera. Matoi explained, somewhat carefully so as to not let on much, that they were investigating the Revenants which were stolen here the month prior. Here was what Chimera replied:
"I can't divulge any information to you without a federal warrant."
"As far as I'm aware, facility guards are allowed to divulge such information if they so choose. They're former students for a reason."
"The operative word there is choose. I have no obligation to you, or any other student."
Matoi gazed at him. She felt like a lion circling another in a colosseum. "I-"
"-I'm a national level threat." interrupted Mia. "I'm sure I fucking outrank you."
He gazed at Mia. "I have no idea what that means."
"I- what? It's how the government ranks heroes. How could you possibly not know about it?"
"If this is some blustering attempt to intimidate me through the threat of your scarabs, I can assure you it isn't working. You're speaking to a former student yourself, as I'm sure you're aware. One who might take offense to treatment similar to that of an organized criminal."
"I never accused you of being an organized criminal. Perhaps you're disorganized."
"Merely because I choose to keep confidential in my personal and professional matters. It's a wonder your academy has so many nascent fascists, with such great respect you have for standard legal processes. You've become so engrained to shortcutting the law that a man expressing his own civil liberties becomes evidence of wrongdoing, to you, in-and-of-itself."
"There are some civil liberties I know exactly when to disregard."
"So you think of yourself as an arbiter."
Mia looked off. "I find it interesting that you mentioned my scarabs, earlier, given I haven't shown or mentioned my Revenant once. It's almost as if you predicted we would be here."
Chimera was stoic.
"Did you?"
"You recently had quite a destructive fight in this area, as you might recall. It's my job to be aware of such things."
"I'm sure you keep very aware of them." said Mia. "I'm sure you know of the recent student deaths in the area, as well, or the immense harm such Revenants can pose to civilian victims if someone continues delaying our investigation."
"If you had any evidence for your ridiculous insinuations, you would have presented it by now." he said. "Victims? Don't be so melodramatic. Since you failed in intimidation, you now attempt to draw upon the basest emotion - pity -- in your misguided effort to uncover some 'deep secret' you think I must be hiding. It might surprise you to learn I don't share the same communal values as you do. My duty is to myself, and my sole existence. It was how I operated as a student, and why I refuse to be involved in student investigations as a professional now. I've done very well for myself following it."
Were this any other novel, Mia might have exploded on the prick and ingratiated him with some Urasaria values. As it is not, and as with life's small indignities, she simply accreted it as another lash upon her human animal, and hardened her rebellion against such an image.
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