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Chapter Twenty Nine
Squelch
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Hawk’s feet landed with a crunch on the upper level of Oroshimachi station. The security gate he smashed through offered little resistance, but as he lifted his head up towards the panicking crowds around him, Rook appeared, disappeared, reappeared, and disappeared, popping in and out of existence at high speed as the amount of people in the building slowly decreased.
Realizing a moment too late what was happening, Hawk flew directly upwards and crashed down through the floor, busting up the wiring and sending the lights into disarray. On the lower level he was barely able to witness the last of the concerned citizens be whisked away, leaving him alone in the dark with only a pillar of light above him and a few distant bulbs still operating out of the dark.
“What did you end up swapping with?” He continued to grin, unfazed by the removal of civilians as he slowly glanced about. “You’d need something to swap back with each time you disappeared.”
Rook stepped out of the shadow, lifting a crushed can in his hand and holding it aloft as he spoke. “I gave you plenty of opportunities before now. You could’ve walked away, gone and lived whatever it is you calla life somewhere else. You could’ve escaped after that plane crash you caused.”
“No I couldn’t.” Hawk smiled. “Just as you are bound to destroying me, so I am bound to the eye. What it sees is what I see. What I do, it does right alongside me.”
“The eye’s that determined to eliminate us, huh?” Rook sighed, pocketing the can he held as he started slowly trudging forwards. “And you get all that information from a marble you keep in your pocket?”
Hawk raised a finger towards the right side of his mask. The eyes of the scowling mask were so large they almost entirely covered the twisted eyebrows, which peeked out from behind them in the middle. Each one had a tiny pinhole for the actual eye and a pattern of lines making them appear more like ancient mechanical dials.
“The eye is my eye.” His teeth shined in the limited light. “What did you think when your boss broke his oath and murdered me? Did you or any other member of your group stop to consider what might’ve happened to those eyes after the explosion? If any of them might have happened to slam into someone else’s skull?”
“What?” Rook stopped in his tracks. “Dude, I barely knew what was happening at all. I didn’t even know anyone died there, aside from Wild and Rikuto. If this is some kind of grand revelation, I’m not following.”
“Ah.” Hawk paused for a moment. “I guess the eye interfering with the mask you stole from Know kept that bit of info hidden, along with who knows what else. Which should make killing you at least somewhat interesting.”
“I doubt it.” Rook folded his arms. “I think I’ve got you figured out.”
Hawk darted forwards, but quickly decelerated after suddenly appearing where Rook had been standing. Turning around, he slowly drifted up to Rook and viciously tore the air with a powerful hook, but found the attack swiping through the space where Rook was supposed to be. He was immediately returned to the spot he had originated from in time to connect with a sharp elbow from the Wild Mask that moved him not at all.
A quick followup was met with the same retort, Rook swapping their positions long enough to allow the attack to miss and returning him in time to feel the full force of another swing. Hawk doubled his speed; Rook compensated. The faster he went the faster Rook kept up, until both were moving at such a fast rate they melted into a blur. As the attacks became more and more focused on his mask, Hawk resigned to covering his face with his forearms as Rook kept up the beatdown at the same blinding speed.
Suddenly zipping backwards, Hawk darted forward at the same speed he had been punching at, with Rook just as quickly swapped places with him, turning around as the Pangolin pulled himself out of the cratered wall he had just finished adding his own touches to.
The discordant roar of a subway train horn echoed through the building. Hawk grinned even further, flying at Rook and prompting him to swap places yet again, except this time he tore through even more security gates and down a rather wide set of escalators. Rook followed the diagonal path as quickly as his abilities would allow him to, knowing that, much like the train at the last station he battled at, the incoming one had orders not to stop. However, as he flew past more ruined gates ans turnstiles, he barely had time to spot Hawk floating above the tracks with the most devious air possible as the front of the speeding train was about to collide with him.
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“Hey. Get up.”
Pakka reeled back, gripping the sides of his head as the box of toothpicks spilled onto the floor. Tone slowly turned his head towards him, blinking for a couple of seconds before speaking.
“Not for another thirteen seconds.” He glanced up at the massive fish, as it slammed against another one of the massive statues and threatened to crush Odgu in between. “Thought you would’ve run off by now.”
“You wouldn’t know what it’s like-” Pakka moped mostly to himself, but in an instant Tone was on his feet, glaring down rather sharply at the cowering Pangolin with white-hot fire burning in his eyes. Most of the thirteen seconds was spent maintaining the ferocious attitude, but he ended it by rapping a forefinger against the cheek of his metal mask.
“Yes I do.” He strode past Pakka, flexing his knuckles and rolling his neck. “Our little quarrel can be resumed after we’ve ensured this building isn’t about to collapse. Get your toys ready.”
Odgu whirled out of a tangled mess of koi, one of his wings crumpled badly, barely able to stay aloft as he teetered about. “That thing’s already weakened both of the major supports. If it takes them down, this whole building will tip forward and collide with the rest of the city.” His inhuman hands tightly gripped the remains of what had once been known as a katana, now battered and chipped so badly it barely resembled anything at all.
“On me.” His wings fluttered violently as he ascended again, the koi’s glassy eyes locking onto him and rushing forward with considerable speed. Tone braced himself, flexing the powers of his mask even as Pakka held a toothpick aloft, looking for a solid opening. The fish responded by darting towards Tone, clamping its comparatively tiny jaws around him, and smashing through the glass.
Usul turned towards the sight of the massive koi winding up the side of the building, showering glass in all directions. Before his gaze returned to where Ren was hiding, the leader of the Wild Masks was back on his feet and in plain view.
“Wait,” Ren held his hands up in supplication as Usul’s gun was leveled at his head. “There’s still civilians inside. Let her go so she can help them, okay?”
The look of apathy that rang out from the hollow eyes behind the skull-shaped mask didn’t last very long. With a resigned blink he dropped the mechanical stomach, Race instantly dashing off. Ren tried not to look in the direction of the three lines she had scratched into the asphalt.
“As if I care the least about that.” Usul slowly drew out a second gun, tapping the safety off with his thumb. “Oisim gave us no special criteria. Civilians who get in the way and get killed are no concern of mine.”
Ren’s hand felt for the radio. Both guns locked onto the motion, but he tapped it all the same. “Where you at, Corey?”
BANG
“Corey??” Ren looked towards the hotel. The glare made it impossible to see the elevator. Looking up, there was a noticeable absence of giant fish flying about the hotel, yet the windows showed considerable damage, with several cratered areas indicating signs of impact.
“Sounds like Corey’s gotten himself into trouble.” Usul snorted. “I guess that was the last civilian to worry about.”
Flying into a rage, Ren gripped his bat and flew forwards, Usul’s guns lowering as he approached. Three vicious strikes cut the air as Usul backpedaled and leaned away from them at speeds faster than the attacks moved at. Another one swept across the entire area of his body, which Usul dropped to avoid, and a strike at the ground where he resided ended in the slippery character pushing away with both hands, using the motion to land back on his feet in a squatting position.
“Done yet?”
Ren closed the gap again, sending a strike towards the now ascended Usul’s skull-shaped mask, grimacing as the bat collided with one of his guns and let out a metallic clang on impact. Two more body strikes encountered more impacts against his semi automatic firearms, and so did every subsequent attack that followed. Usul moved rhythmically, following every attack with considerable grace as the frustrated Ren failed to get a leg up.
Finally, after a particularly wide swing that barely touched the gun that blocked it, Usul struck back, slamming the side of his gun into the side of Ren’s head and firing. The thumb of the hand that held it had levered Ren’s mask ever so slightly off his face, and the slide’s movement knocked it away
The kick towards his stomach was slower, but Ren’s head buzzed too much to react in time. He ate the impact, rolling with the momentum and landing on his knees. Some noise was occurring inside the building, but he didn’t dare remove his gaze now.
“This would have been so much nicer for you if you didn’t bother showing up.” Usul leveled one gun at Ren’s head. “Now that I’ve got your mask, you’re as good as dead.”
Usul paused for a brief moment, looking down a split second before the ground exploded.
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Tone’s eyes shot back open.
The jaws of the koi were clamped tightly around his waist. It was making significant progress up the side of the tower, occasionally veering into the side of the building and crushing the wall somewhat, showering finely-powdered broken glass in all directions. Emergency systems inside the building were going haywire, the fire sprinklers on several of the floors spewing water in all directions. This seemed to embolden the giant fish, as the slight contact with water motivated him to crash into the side of the building even more.
“Wait!” Tone gestured to the approaching Odgu, whose rage-reddened eyes glowed out of the darkness. It took him a moment to slow his impending approach, his one crinkled wing making maneuvering exceptionally difficult.
Tone looked back towards the bizarre teeth of his opponent. One wrong move, from either him or Odgu, could make the creature suddenly decide to bite past the gentle force it now gripped him with and cut him in half. With the top of the hotel fast approaching, there was little time to think of any kind of response while the koi’s priorities were distracting it.
BANG
The bullet tore through the gelatinous eye of the monster, dissolving its brain in an instant. As it plummeted out of the sky, Tone fell from its grip but whirled about to clutch the scales on its head, Odgu dropping faster to meet his speed and grab onto him. The master of the Pangolins could not pry him off, however.
Growling, Tone’s mask pumped a tremendous amount of force into the falling leviathan, and its scales began to rattle. More force was pushed, and the tissues across the dead fish began to gurgle and groan. Still not enough; it wouldn’t be fast enough to take affect before it collided with the ground.
An inhuman hand touched the back of his head.
For a fraction of a second, Tone almost forgot where he was, the difference so immediate and so noticeable. Then he threw himself back at the monster, no more distractions preventing him from leveraging the full power of his mask against the fiend. Wavering for a moment, the air around him warped and bubbled before the entire fish suddenly disappeared.
With his wings beating furiously, Odgu veered up as fast as he could, the force generated by his wings scattering the loose dirt and stones in the parking lot as Tone’s feet scraped against the ground. Shooting forward, he swung back around through the hole in the building and circled a couple times to lose his momentum.
As soon as Tone was released from his grip, the Wild Mask growled furiously, tensing all the muscles in his body before looking up in shock at the peculiar insect. “How did you do that?”
“It’s not a favor, believe me.” Odgu landed, trying to sheathe the katana and giving up after it proved too mangled to fit in its sheath. “I saw how much pain you were in. You needed the help.”
“I see.” Tone’s back straightened as he glared down from the bottom of his eyes at the giant cicada. “It’s too bad we’re operating at cross purposes. As long as you keep trying to oppose us, I’m going to have to kill you.”
“You’re going to attempt it.” Odgu rolled his neck, gripping his katana with three of his bizarre hands. “Ready when you are.”
All but one of his hands dropped the katana and clutched the sides of his head as Tone flexed the power of his mask, sliding his hands back into his pockets. The crumpled wing buzzed right alongside the functional one, however, and Odgu righted himself with little effort.
“That’s…” Tone mumbled.
“Any one frequency can be canceled out with another.” Odgu snorted, clutching the katana with four hands this time. “Pakka, go ahead and rejoin Usul. There won’t be any difficulty taking him out-”
“Odgu.” The voice of Pakka whimpered, prompting Odgu to violently snap towards him. He was standing at an odd angle, very slowly lowering to his knees, held aloft by a number of protrusions that erupted from his shins and dug into the floor, cracking the expensive tile and tunneling down as far as they could go.
“No! Nonono! Kid, listen, you gotta fight it!” Odgu darted to his side, the katana falling from his grip as he approached and wedging itself into a crack in the tiles. “You gotta fight it! You have to push back; don’t let it win!”
“Here,” Two of his inhuman hands shakily caressed his crumpled wing, pulling it out into a more natural shape until the motion was interrupted by several sharp points in between Pakka’s shoulderblades suddenly tearing through the back of his hoodie. “No, no! Pakka, you gotta focus on this, okay? Hold still.” Two of his peculiar hands gripped the sides of Pakka’s cranium as he made contact with his own.
“Odgu.”
The leader of the Pangolins felt Pakka’s hand in between them. It slowly pushed Odgu’s head away, the youth’s eyes barely capable of looking at his superior from under his tipped head. “I’m out of time. You made it last much longer than I deserve.”
“You’re not out of time.” Odgu growled, swatting his hand away only to realize it was much more rigid than it had been previously. “I won’t let that happen, kid. You’ve got more years ahead of you than you realize.”
“Perhaps I do.” Pakka’s voice grew softer as his hand slowly retracted towards his chest. “I may be here for a long time. But you’ve done your part.” His eyes looked up towards Odgu with a weary air. “There’s no going back now.”
“You can’t give up.” Odgu hissed, wrapping one of his odd hands around the wooden one Pakka kept close to his chest. “You can’t. Don’t throw away all that I’ve done for you. This isn’t the end.”
“You’re right, it isn’t.” Pakka’s eyes looked back down at their texture turned from glossy white to an earthy brown, crinkling with bark-like creases and cracks. “You’ll have so many things to experience, so many lives to change. You’ve got… So much more to do, boss. I won’t burden you anymore…”
“You’ve never been a burden.” Odgu looked down at the tendrils that had shattered the floor. “Saving a poor kid from the fate he got himself tied to was the only reason I joined the Pangolins. You knew that from the start, even if you didn’t say anything. I only wish I could’ve done more.”
“Pakka?” Odgu’s head tipped upwards. The protrusions that broke from Pakka’s spine had twisted about and ended in several branches, each one covered in delicate leaves. The large, gnarled bonsai he had transformed into now sat motionless at the base of the stairs, framing the massive tiger which towered above it.
The fire sprinklers kicked into gear at last, dousing the room in a light shower from the distant ceiling far above. Tone stood, watching as the giant cicada slowly lowered himself to the ground, one inhuman hand still in the motionless grip of the silent tree. The sound of the ground outside suddenly exploding failed to catch his attention.
A large hand rested on his shoulder. His eyes met the tired stare of Oisim, the water running down his bald head and slowly rinsing off the makeup which covered his insidious tattoos. The giant strode past him, towards the front of the building, and was immediately flanked by Shusui and Bekko as he exited it, the former cradling an arm that appeared to be broken.
Tone slowly turned back towards where the leader of the Pangolins had knelt, the battered katana left cradled in the gnarled wooden hands which extended out from the ruined hoodie.
He tapped the radio at his hip. “Two down.”
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