Chapter 34
“Kelman Utop,” I said aloud as we sat at a dinner across the street from the address in the black book. “Crime Lord, and also a local hero.”
Mallogory chugged her drink and tossed it over her shoulder with a belch, “Even evil pricks can do some good, I guess.”
“Is this guy evil, or is he just evil in our story?” I ask as I finish off another soda and toss the can over my shoulder as well.
She just shrugged as she lifted a plate of food to her face and began to dive into it, “Does it matter? He has a chain of thieves that steal shit, and he has our device. That’s enough for me.”
“You got a point,” I say as I eat an entire burger in three bites.
Turning to me, she shoved some food into her mouth and spoke with a mouth full, “It’s been way past five hours, think Lance is doing anything to help?”
“Probably, knowing him,” I replied with a shrug.
“Ladies,” a male rat in a fancy suit said as he stepped up to our table, looking displeased. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“What? Why?” I ask, chugging another soda and tossing it behind me.
“Because of the mess,” he deadpanned.
“It’s not that bad,” I say as I turn and see two large piles behind our chairs; just cans, glass, plates, and silverware. “Ah, that is a bit bad.”
“Please,” he pressured, gesturing towards the door.
We looked at each other and chuckled sheepishly as we slowly stood up.
“Right, no problem,” I say as I put my hoof on the orb a waiter offered to me, paying our bill.
As we stepped outside, I chuckled. “I think this town is a bad influence on us.”
“Or we’re a bad influence on it,” she offered as we walked across the street to the large building with a statue of a firefighter outside it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ayla waving at me. Looking over, she made a strange gesture pointing up.
What?
She sighed and appeared next to me. “Can’t you see it?”
“See what?” I said aloud, causing Ayla to stop and look at me strangely.
“Eh, Ayla, my Ego weapon is trying to tell me something,” I say, getting a nod of understanding from Mallogory.
“The Ego attached to you and everyone else. Do you see it?” she asked, waving her hoof around us. “I couldn’t see it till we got closer to this area.”
“No,” I replied, seeing nothing around us. Not even Ego… which is actually a bit weird to be honest, as ever being we’ve come across at least has at least some amount of Ego emitting off of themselves.
“My Ego weapon is telling about Ego being attached to us,” Mallogory said, frowning.
“Mine too, but I can’t see it,” I replied, sighing.
She looked around, crossing her arms, “this is getting annoying now.”
Ayla stepped in front of me and lowered her head down to mine, “Let me share my vision with you.”
We touched heads and she phased away, seeming to become a part of me. NOt like fusing, but similar. As soon as she did, the world around me changed slightly; the sky went from being bright and sunny to dark and gloomy, with dark tendrils pouring down from the sky like arms, latching on to everyone in sight. Even the two of us.
“What the fuck?” I asked, confused at the sight.
“Are you seeing this too?” she questioned as she looked around, her eyes glowing slightly.
I looked up, “You mean the dark sky with the tendrils coming down and connecting to everyone?”
She turned to me, smiling, “Things just keep getting more and more interesting.”
“What’s the point of this though?” I asked as Ayla pulled out of me, returning my vision to normal.
“It’s stealing your Ego very very slowly,” she replied, then frowned. “And it’s influencing your actions, lowering your morals and bringing out the worst in you.”
Upon hearing this from both of our Ego weapons, Mallogory and I looked at each other smiling widely at each other.
“Questionably moral citizens!” she cheered, clearly overjoyed with this change in the situation.
“It all comes together!” I replied, the two of us giddy with excitement.
Turning our heads to the massive building before us, we now felt a new sense of purpose.
“We’re the good guys again!” she commented, clapping her hands together loudly.
Not wasting any more time, we gleefully danced over to the front doors of the building, getting strange looks from everyone around us.
Once at the front doors, a security guard stopped us.
“Hold it, employee’s only on the weekends,” he said, stepping between us and the door.
Mallogory started to say something, but I held up a hoof.
“No problem,” I say, pulling her away as we walk away from the front door.
“What’s the problem? We can take his skinny ass!” she said, pointing back to him.
I shook my head, “Now that I know something is affecting our morals, I think we should be more careful at what we do. No need to hurt an innocent security guard just doing his job.”
Behind her, I saw a kid run up to the security guard and ask a question. But the guard turned and tased the kid, causing him to run away screaming.
“Actually, I don’t think these guys are all that innocent,” I say with a frown.
Ayla appeared next to me, smiling widely, “I can block it, since I don’t have to worry about you using me in combat. With your little bet and all.”
“Ayla is saying she can block it, what about yours?” I asked, getting a nod in response.
“Is that breaking the rules?” Mallogory asked, unsure.
I thought about it, then shrugged, “I don’t see how. It’s not US doing anything, just our Ego weapons dealing with a mental attack. Sounds fair?”
She hummed to herself before just shrugging, “I say it’s fair game.”
“Sweet. Ayla, go for it,” I say, getting a wide smile in return as she faded away.
Then, as if a heavy blanket was lifted off of me, everything became clearer. My mind suddenly felt lighter, which I hadn’t even noticed till now.
As the veil was pulled, I sucked on my teeth loudly, “Oh boy, we REALLY went a bit crazy, didn’t we?”
Mallogory stared at me wide eyed, nodding, “Oh yeah. This place is no joke!” But then she went back to smiling, “which means we now have a real evil villain!”
“Fuck yeah!” I say as we clasp hands, giving each other a determined look. “Let’s get this guy!”
Returning to the security guard, he placed his hand on his gun, “Didn’t I tell you no entry?”
“You did,” I say as I approached, then moved in one quick motion, spinning on the ground and bucking him straight in the face.
He slammed into the wall and went limp, unconscious.
“Don’t kill the security guards,” I say as we push through the door. “Just in case they are indeed innocent of all this.”
“What about them?” she asked as we entered a lobby filled with at least fifty well dressed, and armed, rats, all just hanging around doing whatever they wanted.
“Eh…” I started, unsure as they all turned to face us. “Hey guys, just here to see the boss.”
We both slowly walked forward, walking into the middle of the lobby. None of them moved to stop us, just watching us in confusion.
“Yep, no need for violence,” Mallogory said nervously as we slowly made our way through the lobby to the elevators on the other side of the room.
As we neared the elevators, they opened and even more well dressed rats stepped out, these ones looking meaner than the ones around us.
“Kill them,” a voice suddenly boomed over the buildings intercom system.
It all happened very quickly; everyone around us began to draw their weapons, and the two of us sprang away from each other, weapons coming out as well.
The lobby filled with a symphony of gunshots and screams.
I slammed into the nearest rat, flipping over him as I fired away, dropping someone with each shot I took. Using my wings to keep propelling myself around, I slammed into another rat, using them as a launch board as I jumped towards another.
They all followed me with their guns, unable to actually hit me as I sprang around the lobby frantically.
On the other side of the room I heard the booms of Mallogory’s hand cannon as she sliced her way through the crowd.
One of the rats I sprang off of grabbed me as I hit him, holding me in place. A nearby rat pointed his gun at me and fired, but I luckily was fast enough to block the bullet with my metal leg. I responded by putting a hole in his face, then spreading my wings, breaking myself out of the grip of the rat holding me as bullets began to riddle the area around us.
I used him as a meat shield as I dived behind cover, reloading as I did so.
Opening my pocket dimension, I pulled out two more grenades and pulled the pins, giving them a toss towards the rats taking cover behind tables. Two explosions scattered the survivors and my well placed shots finished off those lucky enough to escape the shrapnel.
Jumping out of cover again, I fired away as I slid sideways across the ground. As I slid in behind cover on the other side of the room, I found Mallogory using a rat as a weapon as she swung him into another, sending both into the wall.
She sprang to the cover I was behind and got beside me, reloading her revolver.
“This is fun,” she commented as she closed the revolver and cocked the hammer.
I looked over our cover and saw just five more rats moving around, trying to get ready for us.
“Want to just run for the elevator and kill them as we go?” I ask, getting a smirk in response.
With an excess of flair, we flung ourselves over the wall we were behind and fired away as we sprinted across the room.
The remaining rats were quickly killed as we reached the elevators and jumped in.
“Which floor?” She asked, looking over the well over a hundred buttons lining the wall.
I scanned it quickly, then smiled, “Penthouse, of course!”
As we began to ascend, the elevator music kicked in.
We stood there, the music filling the silence as we moved slower than I'd of liked.
“It’s pleasant at least,” she said, nodding along.
I just shrugged and pointed to my head, where my own music was filling my head. “I prefer my own.”
“Wait, you’re listening to music right now?” she asked, eyes wide as she looked at me.
This caused me to chuckle, “Yep! I have an implant that plays music all the time. I usually change it depending on the situation, but I keep it going at all times.”
She turned to me, looking extremely excited, “I have one too!” Pointing to her head looking more happy than I’ve seen her, “I keep it playing music all the time! But mine changes on its own instead of me having to do it myself, but it’s always playing the perfect song for the moment!”
“You’re kidding me!” I say with equal excitement. “Do you have your own battle theme too?!”
“Yes!” she yelled happily as I stood on my hindlegs and we locked arms as we danced around in a circle. “It really keeps me hyped up!”
“This is amazing!” I cheered as we danced around together. “We need to swap music later!”
“Hell yes!”
The elevator jerked once as we continued to rise up.
We blinked at each other, remembering where we were, then smiled sheepishly.
We were ten floors away from the top.
“Follow my lead,” I said as I jumped up to the roof of the elevator.
Shortly after that, the doors opened, and bullets came flying in through the door, shredding the walls.
“Stop firing, they’re not in there!” a voice called out, causing the gunfire to stop.
“Shit, they must have gotten out on one of the other floors!”
“Check the camera’s!”
As they argued, I pulled the pins on all of the flashbangs, and a single grenade, held in my wings, and tossed them threw the door below us.
Screams were heard, followed by a few bangs and a loud boom.
Mallogory and I dropped down from the roof of the elevator and sprang through the door, firing away at the rats who had set up a barricade in the hallway outside of the elevator.
Jumping over the makeshift barricade, we sprinted down the hallway, eying the door at the end that looked to be the penthouse itself. Armed rats were coming out of doors all around us, but we just dropped any that stepped out.
Bullets flew around us as more appeared behind us. I jumped forward and spun, sliding on my back as I fired behind us, quickly dispatching the ones behind us. Flipping myself over, I resumed my dead sprint behind Mallogory.
Nearing the door, I propelled myself forward with my wings, shooting past Mallogory and blowing through the door. I took the door off the hinge and skidded across the floor on the other side, a few rats opened fire on me.
I rode the door across the ground, blasting away as I did so.
Mallogory burst into the room, revolver blowing away the few I missed.
Everything stopped as the last rat fell, leaving us alone in a large open living room.
“Huh, that was easy,” I say as I stand up, looking around for anyone else.
“So you’ve killed your way to my home,” a voice called out over the speaker system. “Why don’t you put your weapons aside and enter my office, we can talk this out.”
Mallogory looked at me, smirking as she holstered her gun. “He wants to talk civilly.”
Returning her smirk, I put my own gun away and we moved towards the one door that could lead to an office.
Stepping inside, we were met with a lone suave rat standing behind a desk with his hands clasped behind his back, looking out a window at the city below.
“Ladies,” he said, not turning to face us. “You’ve been busy, getting into my business, killing my men,” he turned to face us, revealing what could be considered a handsome face, “and terrorizing children. Tsk tsk.”
“Yeah, well you kind of started it,” I retorted as we walked closer, going to either side of his desk, forming a kind of triangle as we all looked at each other.
He pulled out our communications device and placed it on the desk, “One of my followers started this, and if you’d come to me directly, I would have returned this without a problem.”
“I doubt that,” I say with a sly smile. “We entered the building mostly peacefully, and you ordered everyone to kill us.”
“I did,” he said calmly, putting his hands behind his back again. “Because I thought you were unreasonable, what with all the killing you’ve been doing.”
“Keep your hands where I can see them,” I say in a commanding voice, my old police instincts kicking in.
“I have a bad back, this helps the pain,” he replied just as calmly. With a gesture of a single hand, he pointed to the device and took a step back. “Now, take this thing and get out of my tower.”
Mallogory slowly stepped forward and reached out, grabbing the device.
Before either of us could react, his right hand flashed to his side, Ego exploding from his body, as he fired a gun. Mallogory’s head snapped back as she stumbled back as he turned to me.
But I was already flying towards him, faster than he could react as my Ego grabbed hold of him and I slammed into him. He yelped in fear as I bucked him into the air, then flexed as all of my blades came out.
With a roar of anger I turned into a tornado of death, pulling him in just like I did with Leem. But unlike Leem, this guy couldn’t regenerate. Blood and gore sprayed all over the room as I pulled him into the vortex of death I’d become.
As I came to a stop, I landed on his desk, breathing heavily as I turned to Mallogory with dread. Just to see her sitting there, looking amused as she stared back at me. A little black spot was on her bone shield, which had stopped the bullet completely.
“Looks like I win,” she said as she stood up, touching the mark the bullet left. “Fucking bastard actually caught me off guard.”
Seeing her up and talking brought immense delight to me as I stared at her, breathing very heavily as my adrenaline crashed.
She blinked at me, and then smirked, “What? Seeing me get shot in the face scare you?”
“Yes,” I answered simply, causing her smirk to fall away.
We didn’t say anything else, just looked at each other in silence, both of us covered in gore from my attack.
Blood rained down on us from the ceiling, making little splashing sounds around us.
“What music is playing now?” she asked softly.
A small smile danced onto my lips as the music in my head played softly, “A sappy love song.”
“Same,” was her response as we continued looking at each other.
Then I couldn’t take it any longer and jumped from the table, landing in her arms as we pushed ourselves into an embrace, lips coming together. We squeezed each other as she spun us in a circle, not breaking our kiss.
The blood continued to fall like rain around us, almost like an old romance movie ending.