Rise in Revolution (Chapter Forty-Five)
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Chapter Forty-Five
Outnumbered
Edge of the sector, Sector TZI. April 4, 2272. Time instance 842N.
“Remind me again what kind of power you have?” Nine looked at Jase oddly as they walked. Kyir stood on her other side with his arms crossed, looking at Nine with an unreadable expression.
“Shapeshifting.” Jase sounded irritated. “Did you not get that the first time?”
“I did. I just thought I misheard.” That was a lie. Nine knew what she had said- he simply hadn’t believed it. “Shapeshifting isn’t...I didn’t realize it was an actual magical ability that some people are born with. It’s not in the Mainframe’s database. There’s not a single shapeshifter registered.”
“They weren’t exactly common to begin with,” Kyir told him. “And they probably either died in the invasion or are out there somewhere, like Jase was.”
“How does it work?” Seven asked, never even glancing their way as he scanned the area over and over again for threats. His voice was quiet and he occasionally told them to lower their voices as Kyir and Jase had told the whole story of finding her out in A4.
“The shapeshifting?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I mean, I change into the form of an animal. It’s not a hard concept.”
“He means: what’s stopping you from becoming a dragon or a cyborg or something that could completely destroy the Mainframe?” Nine translated, earning a slight nod from Seven.
“I can’t shift into anything I haven’t bonded with.” Jase said this as if it was obvious. “My soul hasn’t bonded with a dragon’s, or a cyborg’s, or whatever. I don’t think I could become a cyborg even if it had, though? I dunno. Maybe. I should try it sometime.”
“What can you shift into?” Nine asked her, raising an eyebrow. “And how does this soul-bonding stuff work?”
“A lot of stuff. Nothing too useful against cyborgs though.” Jase shrugged. “And it involves finding a dying creature and binding its soul to yours. Then you can shift into it. It doesn’t really work if you killed it yourself, though- it won’t want to bond with you.”
“Can you change what the animal looks like? For example, could you become a red fox instead of a tan one?”
Jase shook her head. “No. I bonded with a tan fox. I’d need to find a dying red fox.”
“Hm. Sounds like a power with limited uses,” Seven noted.
“What power isn’t?” Jase demanded. “Even your cyborg bullshit isn’t the best for every situation.”
“Such as?”
“What?”
“Such as what? What situation are the cybernetics not effective?”
“A scrap heap, for one. A room full of magnets. Anytime you need to use magic,” Jase suggested. “Nothing’s infallible.”
“Except your ego,” Kyir quipped.
Jase grinned evilly. “Except that,” she agreed. “Nothing wrong with being confident.”
“That’s a word for it,” Tanadin muttered. She had been silent up until this point, more focused on watching the area around them nervously. “I’d prefer to say-”
“INCOMING!” Seven bellowed, raising his weapons and firing at a small group of flying cyborgs that had appeared ahead. The entire rebellion opened fire, only starting to hit once the cyborgs drew closer.
“Two five thousands!” Nine’s warning was immediately followed by anti-magic blasts from the previously mentioned cyborgs into the non-cyborg crowd. The flying three thousand units opened fire on the rebellion as well, but mostly flew between the five thousands and anything threatening them while they focused on the spellcasters.
Nine growled as he missed every shot, deciding to switch to melee and taking off as his blades extended from his arms. Beside him, Jase’s body was wrapped in some kind of dark, swirling vortex. It was enough to startle him mid-takeoff, but not enough to make him fall. He hovered as soon as he could, watching in surprise as the vortex faded and left what appeared to be a large winged snake with dark green scales in its place. It shook its head and took off, circling once around Nine before flying towards the enemy cyborgs.
Nine shook off his confusion and followed, noting that other Steelwings were taking to the air as well. The snake tilted its head slightly to look at him with bright, burning eyes- an unnatural green-yellow color, blazing and standing out against the darker scales. She opened her mouth briefly, showing folded fangs and a forked tongue, before darting away from the bullets headed their way. Nine flew downwards, ignoring the sound of a couple hitting his back and being stopped by his armored trenchcoat, before moving up with blades at the ready to slash at one of the five thousand units.
It kicked him away, shooting at him with one of its regular weapons, before hissing in pain as some kind of green liquid splattered across its skin and wheeling around to fire an anti-magic pulse at Jase. It struck her but didn’t seem to do anything, just making her shake her head at the light before hissing back and quickly flying away before the other cyborgs could shoot her.
Nine swung one of his blades at it and it spun, parried, and dropped as a bullet impacted the base of its skull.
Caroline waved before turning and going after one of the three thousands, Nine shaking his head and not far behind.
It didn’t take much longer for them to dispatch the rest of the cyborgs. Nine landed next to Seven, who looked annoyed at his lack of wings, and watched Jase spiral down and transform back into herself.
Kyir grinned and hugged her tightly. “I’m glad to have you back.”
Jase hummed.
“What was that?” Nine asked her, motioning vaguely at the sky. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”
“An acidic wind serpent. They’re native to the jungles of South Karavia. The electric variety is in Doravia, but I figured fuck that, I’m not going into a desert full of small venomous shit just to become a flying snake. They were a pain in the ass to find.”
“My mother helped you out, if I recall,” Kyir mumbled.
“Yes, she did. As did my dad.”
“Which one?”
Jase looked at him like he was stupid.
“Yeah, that’s fair.”
Nine left them to converse and went to go see the damage to their forces.
He wasn’t terribly optimistic.
~~~
“I hate five thousand units,” Geluu decided as Shawn helped him get to his feet. “I really, really do.”
“You’re lucky to be alive,” Neves told him. “If it had hit you directly-”
“I would have been fine. I’m only half elemental and wasn’t transformed anyway. Just hurts like a fucking bitch.”
“I've never noticed anti-magic effects hurting,” Shawn said, frowning. “Why would it hurt you?”
“I’ve got a magic core. Anti-magic pulses cut off a certain amount of access to it and that hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Ow?”
“Ow,” agreed one of the earth elementals as he lay on the ground. “Could you maybe help me up?”
Neves reached down and helped the elemental up, supporting his weight until he could stand. “Thanks. Wasn’t ready for that.”
“Who would be? Damned five thousands.” Neves crossed his arms. “Anti-magic is cheating.”
“Nothing’s cheating in war, kid. Just playing dirty.”
“You sound old,” Neves complained.
“I am old! And I’ll kick your ass!”
“You’re maybe fifty.”
“Are you saying I look old? I won’t stand for this kind of slander.”
Neves shrugged. “What are you going to do, freeze me? There isn’t anything you can do to me.”
Geluu raised an eyebrow. “Do you have your anti-magic crap on?”
“No, why?”
Geluu grinned and made a hand motion. Neves squawked as ice encased his torso, locking his arms to his sides. “Hey! Hey, no! Not funny! Let me out!”
Geluu snorted. “I think it’s funny. What about you, Shawn?” He turned and saw Shawn struggling to hold in laughter. At the quizzical expression on Geluu’s face, Shawn lost it, needing to lean on him for support until he calmed down enough to keep his balance. Geluu eventually freed Neves and rolled his eyes at his muttering. “Oh, calm down. It’s not like I hurt you.”
“Fuck off, old man!”
“Oh no, what will I ever do. Someone called me, an eighty-three year old man old. How will I ever survive.” Geluu’s voice dripped with sarcasm. Neves crossed his arms and stalked away, grumbling about elementals and old people.
“How did you do that?” Shawn asked after a moment.
“Do what?”
“Freeze him directly like that.”
“He didn’t have the usual cyborg anti-magic thing up, so I could affect him more directly. It takes some practice to do it as quickly as that.” Geluu shrugged. “I’d teach you, but you need to focus on things you can use against regular cyborgs for the moment.”
“Damn.” Shawn looked disappointed.
“Hey.” Geluu put a hand on his shoulder. “How about this. Once this is all over, I’ll teach you anything involving ice magic that you want, okay? Including how to freeze your friends but not hurt them.”
Shawn grinned. “I’d like that.”
“I figured you would.” Geluu grinned back at him, distorting the scars on his face. “Let’s go see where we can help out, hmm?”
~~~
“There’s too many injured!” Nine argued. “We need time to let them heal and rest. We should make camp now and march on TZI in the morning.”
“We need to at least know what we’re up against,” Seven protested. “We should just get close enough to see.”
“No. The approach on the city is too open. We’ll have no cover,” Geluu growled. “Send a few advance scouts. People that won’t be noticed. Meanwhile, we need some patrols set up around here. We need advance warning if any other cyborgs are sent our way. We don’t have any kind of visual on TZI until we go around the northern mountains. Scouts can get into visual range and back before we leave. Get some volunteers.”
“It’ll be hard for them to be undetectable,” Nine muttered. “We might have to settle for some seven thousand units.”
“Jase,” Tanadin suggested. “She can’t fly quite as quickly but she can get way closer. She can probably get into the city itself if she shapeshifts into a small bird or something. One of the cyborgs could carry her out if she’s small enough and then she could move in.”
Nine, Geluu, and Seven all stared at her momentarily.
“Brilliant.” A grin spread across Geluu’s face. “Absolutely brilliant. To have a shapeshifter with us...truly, we have a gift.”
Seven shrugged. “They probably know we have her, so they might be suspicious of any animals acting unusually.”
“Jase knows how to blend in,” Tanadin assured. “She’s confident, not stupid. We’ll just have to ask her is all.”
Nine, Tanadin, and Geluu exchanged nervous glances.
“So,” Nine said slowly, “who’s going to ask her?”
“Not it!” Tanadin said quickly, with Geluu only a split second behind her. Nine echoed their words and the three of them turned to Seven, who blinked curiously.
“I guess Seven’s asking her if she’ll be a scout for us,” Geluu decided.
Seven got to his feet. “Okay.” With that, he left to go find her.
Tanadin grinned, laughing quietly. “He’s great, isn’t he? No sense of fear.”
“Hmm. He’s going to get himself killed one of these days,” Nine muttered.
“If he was a normal person, I’d agree. But since he’s Seven…” Geluu trailed off, drumming his fingers against his leg. “I’d say he can do just about anything if he puts his mind to it.”
“And has someone to help him deal with other people,” Tanadin put in.
“And that,” Geluu conceded. “He definitely needs that.”
~~~
Outside of the TZI main city, a small bird- a shikra, to be exact- flew overhead, drawing closer and narrowing its eyes slightly at what it saw. It dipped its wings and flew lower, eventually perching on the edge of a building and clacking its beak quietly at what it saw.
There were, in Jase’s words, a definitive fuckton of cyborgs. She couldn’t identify all of the types, but considering how many miniguns there were, she guessed that it was bad news. They had both flying and ground units watching the north- the only way that the rebel forces could come from. She shook her head slightly and took off, wheeling around and flying back towards the Steelwing scouts that had come with her.
This wasn't going to end well.
no subject
Date: 2016-08-02 10:10 pm (UTC)Ahhhh, so that's how it works.
It kicked him away, shooting at him with one of its regular weapons, before hissing in pain as some kind of green liquid splattered across its skin and wheeling around to fire an anti-magic pulse at Jase. It struck her but didn’t seem to do anything, just making her shake her head at the light before hissing back and quickly flying away before the other cyborgs could shoot her.
Interesting. So due to no data on shapeshifters being in the Mainframes database the anti-magic weaponry the Mainframe has developed is not effective on shapeshifters. Hmmmm....
Geluu grinned and made a hand motion. Neves squawked as ice encased his torso, locking his arms to his sides. “Hey! Hey, no! Not funny! Let me out!”
Geluu snorted. “I think it’s funny. What about you, Shawn?” He turned and saw Shawn struggling to hold in laughter. At the quizzical expression on Geluu’s face, Shawn lost it, needing to lean on him for support until he calmed down enough to keep his balance. Geluu eventually freed Neves and rolled his eyes at his muttering. “Oh, calm down. It’s not like I hurt you.”
Oh look it's a Neves-icle XP
There were, in Jase’s words, a definitive fuckton of cyborgs. She couldn’t identify all of the types, but considering how many miniguns there were, she guessed that it was bad news. They had both flying and ground units watching the north- the only way that the rebel forces could come from. She shook her head slightly and took off, wheeling around and flying back towards the Steelwing scouts that had come with her.
This wasn't going to end well.
Well........fuck >.
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Date: 2016-08-02 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-02 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-04 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-04 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-04 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-04 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-04 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-03 01:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-03 03:14 pm (UTC)Probably.
Maybe.
It's hard to know with that guy. :P
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Date: 2016-08-04 01:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-04 02:56 pm (UTC)