6:06 PM

Diana

Placing my hands over the steel latch, I tensed a thick current through it as my mind began tugging at it. Belle stood a generous amount away, proven wise when I pushed just enough Warp Energy to rip apart the steel and send the latch flying high into the sky like a frisbee.

"I'm going to hope that doesn't land on anyone's head." Belle said much to my chagrin as he dropped down. I'd already confirmed a lack of Neuroframes detected down below and in fact, a large group had moved outside and were no doubt searching the perimeters. Inside, much of the security infrastructure was defunct and I sensed almost all of the electricity was being redirected downstairs into whatever hell-demented lab was at work here.

My mind flashed back to the same lab where I'd gone to save Yvette.

I moved past it, I wouldn't let history repeat itself. As we stayed hidden and searched for a way downstairs, I finally caught sight of the central rail-way station where numerous monorail tracks were laid about and a few abandoned train carts lay motionless. All unpowered.

All except one.

It was the same time I'd made that realization that the train's door opened from the side and out walked that same metal man wearing the trench-coat and hat. His eyes — crimson panels of light in a metallic face — turned slowly across the field, searching and scouring as I hid under the window.

His voice radiated anyway, and in my direction. "I can see both of your dumbassess, one silver-haired woman and the other's a pale-blonde haired man. Diana Ulrich, come down here… and your partner doesn't get involved in this."

I stilled, and Belle reached for my arm as he shook his head and mouthed 'no'.

"It's the lady's choice." The metal man shouted out, and I could feel his orientation. He was looking through the walls, looking at us.

"I'll be fine." I whispered back. Belle looked conflicted, but gave in and let go of me.

"Establish a Neuralink." He tapped his Frame, and I responded by accepting his transmission. The shriek of information pierced my skull, and with a faint blue glint in his eyes Belle nodded. {I-I'll provide suppressive fire if anything goes wrong. Not sure if my toxins will work on h-him though.}

Standing straight up, I leaned over the railing and dropped down. My two guns ready and my third waiting patiently for its fangs to bite steel. The large steel-built man, upon closer inspection, was terrifyingly dense as my Domain cast over him. He had an entire Special Op's squad worth of electronics built into him, it was so dense I wasn't even sure if he was human. Rather, it made more sense that this was a drone being controlled offsite.

"Do you know who I am?" His mouth curled to a smile.

My ID scanner flowed over his form, and-

Error: You do not have access to this information.

That was far from a good sign, it meant he was someone even the SIO shouldn't be involved with. He let his finger rest on the trigger of his stowed pistol. I wasn't familiar with it, but it was thick, complicated and just a little less denser than he was. Just trying to separate the various magnetic fields dancing around his body was giving me a headache, I'd never felt anything like him.

"A Metal Heavens bastard dressed up like he's in a Los Diablos music video." I coldly responded as we slowly took stock of each other on opposite sides of the railway.

"What did you say?" His teeth screeched against one another. "I just wanted to see how the two of you compared, but maybe it's time kids like you learned to respect their seniors. But also, be honest with me, how much punishment can you take? Think you can survive a bullet to the head?"

That was… a strange question to ask. I wasn't one to back down, however. "Feel welcome to try. Hit me hard, hit me fast, you'll be the one to break. Real smart of you, made of metal and fighting someone who uses electricity."

He chuckled, and both our weapons drew against the other in the blink of an eye in this standoff. My Leizhou shot a fraction first, erupting out a thunderous blast of a blue pellet, and his revolver shot not one moment later. His bullet struck through the electrical shell of my shot, the streak of metal grazed my face, and blood drew down my cheek.

My assailant grinned, metal teeth eagerly grinding in anticipation as he blew smoke off his revolver's barrel. He shot out thrice more by fanning the hammer, and my neurons — as amplified and multiplied as they were — struggled to predict their paths. The bullets moved unnaturally. Curving, straightening, and piercing, I let one pass through my leg and another strike and break against my forearm's bone while the third grazed against my ribs.

If I hadn't been snacking on metal that deposited through my bones, my ribs would have been pierced. In that time, he increased the distance between us as his arm morphed. Steel plates pulled back, wiring buzzed, and a barrel formed where his hand was. A rifle of some kind.

That had to be avoided.

Electricity burned through me, stray sparks latching onto the steel tracks around me as a storm brewed through my legs. The world blurred as a deafening rang blew out. I was in the air now, and half of my calf had been blown off, but the pain was cut off by the power thrumming through me.

Lightning travelled through the path of least resistance. Blood and flesh was difficult to get a proper cling onto, which was why I'd focused on the bullets buried in Medasi's leg. On the other hand, this metal demon was a walking conductor of my wrath.

I unleashed my storm's fury upon him, Gold raging into an inferno as a thick snap of angular blue cracks battered into his body. Molten lines drew upon the steel plating of his body as they deformed, but only slightly. He grimaced before those scarlet eyes widened with what I could only see as glee.

"Now that's worthy of a Gold!" The rifle lurched up, but I hadn't let my attack come out from only one angle. Twin blasts from my pistols struck his arm, and I engulfed the demon with my Domain. His rifle aimed and fired regardless, but the slightest telekinetic tug sent its aim an inch past my body.

I landed beside him, and his left hand twirled his pistol's sight back onto me, but if there was one thing I could rely on… I was faster than a hunk of metal. Wind whipped as the narrow stream of fiery iron chased me while I slipped behind him. A drone like this must be controlled through a network. Once I fried enough systems in this droid that the transceiver burnt out, their controlling Adapter would be left with nothing.

It was a precarious dance; I was just a little bit faster than this drone's ability to turn around, and so I kept on striking pellets of energy deeper into its dorsal plating. "Huh, I kinda expected more than a game of hide and seek." The drone clicked its 'tongue'.

Then his back split apart. For a moment, Deja vu hit me of the few images I'd had of Dreadwire with his four large arachnid limbs, long and dense with a practicality to tear his enemies apart. This drone's dorsal limbs were different, as two lanky skeletal arms extended out and were barely larger than a human's leg.

They both ended with gun barrels. Cursing under my breath, I protected my head as they unleashed a spray of disorganized gunfire in my direction. It wasn't to the same caliber as his pistol or rifle, having not entirely pierced through my arms or legs once I hardened them.

But strangely, none of them went for my torso or chest. Why?

They suddenly stopped firing, and the drone scoffed as he stared up his shoulder with contempt. "Fuckin' 'ell! How did he get them so precise!"

So Metal Heavens was trying to copy Ripley, then. I shouldn't be surprised, his Shardware had taken the entire city by storm.

{D-Diana!} Belle shouted through the Neuralink. {That's not a dro-ne, I can hear blood flowing inside of him. A-an incredibly small amount.}

Blood? Metal pellets squeezed out of my body as flesh plugged their holes. For a moment, the drone… no, the Adapter stared at me expectantly. He could have gone for killshots but he wasn't…

The Uncaged. They had orders not to kill me nor Ripley.

And a body like that, it was too similar to how Mr. Skeleton operated. Somewhere in there was human flesh, and attached to it would be a BUG. An Implant whose memory Ripley could read. Ammo clips detached from my belt and floated into the air, I swiped my pistols to load them and the demon responded by rotating the barrel on his rifle-arm which sucked in a new stream of magazines.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Our weapons fired once more.

All three were aimed at myself, my weapons electrocuting my own flesh. My body ached as my muscles felt like molten steel ran within instead of blood, thunder rumbled in my bones and my skin took an almost ceramic-like texture. The iron rod shot from his rifle struck underneath my clavicle, exploding through my lungs and carrying on behind me.

Those wounds knitted back together with agony, and I burned that pain into action. I felt it, a small spark of thought circulating in his body. A central organ from which he coordinated his attack. A brain, located where his heart should be.

I'd struck plenty of electricity to charge his body. As he grinned and took aim of his next shot, I stretched my Gold into a thick blanket across his steel. His grin dropped, and his metallic plating shivered. I wasn't powerful enough yet to lift what felt like more than several hundred kilograms of metal all at once, but I could shift it around.

His shot missed me as I bolted for cover behind the discarded train coaches and he exchanged his slower rifle for his left pistol. He fired more shots at me that struck through the cover and into my non-vital flesh. I gagged in pain. It was okay, I let them strike through me. If he wasn't going to take this seriously, then that was his problem.

My thoughts shrieked through the Neuralink. {Th-think your spores will be effective on him?}

{Depends-s on how much he filters the air his blood receives. He was smoking w-when he came in. Means he allows some particulate matter to pass into his bloodstream. Even if we administer it to him, its effect-iveness depends on his Tier.}

{And other plants of yours-s?}

{Got some ideas. I'll w-wait for an opening.}

I'd read Belle's files, he was crafty and capable. Being unique was the thing that separated a SIO Investigator from a normal one, and I certainly had my own share of outlying capabilities. Hidden behind the train coaches, I struck zaps into the electromagnetic tracks underneath them, once upon a time they'd been strong enough to catapult these several tonne trains to hundreds of kilometers an hour in just a few seconds.

Now, most of those functionalities had been stripped away to insert into scrapsharded weapons. But the gross material remained. It was highly conductive, and a perfect tool. And the train coaches were largely made out of the same material, as more bullets struck through to chase me down, more scraps of metal littered the floor.

And when I felt the demon reload his weapon, I called for them under my song of Gold. Emerging up, I held a javelin wreathed in glowing and snapping potential — and I unleashed fiery strength as all of the absorbed kinetic energy from those bullets carried into my throw.

I'd gotten quite used to doing this by now. It was a devastating force, a veritable lightning bolt of steel that the demon simply caught with his left hand to prevent it from impacting his chest. Yet, he failed to notice the single non-scrap component embedded in the spear.

A hollow-burst round from my Magna Gresault. All of the concentrated force turned into an explosion of steel the moment the javelin's momentum ceased. As the dust cleared, his left hand was mangled and unfit for wielding that pistol which left him with only the rifle-arm to attack me with.

A canister struck the demon's shoulder, one of Belle's. It burst apart with a red mist that fed the seeds within, which expanded into an overgrowing mass of vines that surged like hungry snakes around the demon's right half and ensnared his shoulder, roots growing to suck on the metal.

It was some specialized Imperium plant they used to extract metals from the ground, one of their 'Green Mining' initiatives that mass produced Yttrium Steel.

My Gresalt was already aiming for a second round towards his chest when I first felt it. His Silver Warp Energy. Unburdened strength erupted through his arm which tore through the vines with a simple raise.

His Energy was a wildfire compared to my candle-flame, duller but magnitudes larger. I fired anyway, but I knew my shot had failed when the rifle that had only used single shots so far let out a spitfire of iron. Six shots let out in a single breath, each aimed at a different direction.

The first struck my hollow-burst round, the bullet exploding in the air. The second broke my wrist, the third shattered my knee and the fourth grazed my hair. That last one had been a warning, but the other two bullets were what I was worried about.

They were aimed up at where Belle was.

{B-Belle? R-r-respond… Respon-!}

{H-he missed. Bul-bullets nicked my cheek. One-one for each side.}

My knee was fixing back into shape when a rifle tucked under my chin, the metal man's grin wide and menacing. "I thought you were supposed to be something, Silvereye. How are you ever going to beat Soul Killer?"

What? I don't know what gripped me more. Rage or pain. Both burned.

Both ignited.

Fire Tendency is now Bronze IV

I let my Gold char my body into cinders, my sputtering Energy dwindling as a violent flash of power ripped through my body. All of my wounds bubbled and bones snapped into place as lightning tore into the air and metal. With a snarl from my thoughts, the barrel of his gun bent upwards and my palm connected with his chest. I drove everything into this last attack.

I felt his brain inches from my gaze, insulated from my lightning, so I tried to crunch his chest into itself.

He punched me in the ribs. Bones screamed as the blow sent me slamming into a freight car so hard the metal folded around me and bones cracked. That was a hard hit… that was a fast hit.

"Oh shit." The demon muttered, slowly walking over to me with two broken arms that he raised up like he'd offended me. "Shit, didn't mean to punch you like that!"

He was apologizing for… punching me? I weakly gripped my gun, but my wounds were refusing to regenerate now that my Energy was drained. Shit, I probably had internal bleeding too. With blood in my mouth, I raised a trembling hand up to point the Gresalt at him.

He did look at the gun with a little bit of wariness. "That's the only good fuckin' weapon you have. Why didn't you start with that?"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" I coughed with a mouthful of blood.

"Relax. I'm with-"

"Hands in the air!" Belle shouted. He was standing behind the demon with his rifle pointed at the metallic man's feet, where a canister had rolled to. "Or I'll see if you can handle neurotoxins capable of dissolving a Datadelver's mind."

"Won't do shit to me, I'm made of metal." The demon callously responded.

"That's a bluff." Belle fastened his aim.

"It'll melt your friend's brain too." The demon pointed at me with his bent barrel-arm.

I didn't wait a second. "Do it. Belle, do it!"

He shot without hesitation, but the hunk of steel was quicker, a gun barrel appearing from his knee and striking the canister's metallic edge so precisely it flung into the air and away. "Can't let you do that."

I rose to my feet; the steady dribble of Warp Energy was returning some semblance of strength to me. "Fuck you! I don't care if you're working with Skeleton, Soul Killer or Dogwhistler — I'll kill you!" A single step had me falling down.

But if I couldn't stand, I'd crawl, and if I couldn't crawl I'd-!

"I'm with Dreadwire." The demon said.

Belle scoffed. "Like that changes anything."

"It does." The demon sighed. "Tell 'em. Diana."

I stilled, the Gresalt still heavy and present. "I don't know what you-"

"Diana Jones. That's what you want to be known as, but the fuckin' media's touting you around with a name that was forced onto you." The demon looked upon me with… sympathy? "I know what that's like. I'm with Dreadwire, and Missy."

The demon approached me, and lent me his broken left hand like it was an offering. "Name's Diamante. Sorry for punching you."

"You fucking shot me!" I wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but this bastard was going to pay for this.

"You looked like you could take it. Honestly just wanted to see if you're as tough as he is. Or his mother. I told him to contact you to stay put, but one of you didn't listen."

When Diamante said that… it made sense. Ripley had also tried to contact me, and I faintly remembered Archangel handing me a file that mentioned Diamante as one of Missy's allies…

I scrolled to see the message.

[Yo, hold off on investigating that Steelgrounds place for a bit. The Iron Devil isn't the biggest fan of Metal Heavens so he's going to knock on this Raiden guy's door. Don't worry, we'll be in contact with you as to not disrupt your police investigation :3]

Oh.

"Why would Diana have anything to do with Dread-" Belle froze, and I saw him put the pieces together in his gaze. I was Gold. Dreadwire was Gold - and speculated to have the twin of my Implant. I was one of the last persons to have left the club that night, I had been there when the MAL died so I was most liable to know where the BUG went. "Diana, do you know Dreadwire's identity?"

"No."

"You're a terrible actress."

"I really don-"

"One of my Mutations allows me to tell when someone's lying. Hypersensitivity to body language. Your eyebrow curls a little when you lie." He pointed to his own. "You really think they let me into the SIO just because I could just grow plants?"

Oh, oh shit. I'd lied a lot to Belle. I'd lied to almost everyone lately. Did he know, did they all know?

Diamante snickered. "As amusin' as it is to see Spec Op's this dysfunctional, you do remember you all snuck into a criminal organization's main base of operations and they were all expecting me to kill you, right?"

Belle grunted, "I know. There's about fifteen coming up from under us and another twenty behind us."

"Light work." Diamante shrugged. "But let's be efficient, I can work something out with them."

"Work something out?" I steadied myself up by gripping Belle's arm. "No."

"I agree." A new voice called. Belle's aim was already on sight as an entourage of heavily armed gangsters walked out with the most lightly armored of them speaking. Bronze, a mutant, Tier II. He let his strength leak out so easily.

A blue mask covered his face, and his eyes were slim like a feline's. "Iron Devil, we had an agreement."

"Well, the silver-haired girlie has an agreement with a friend of mine. Would only make things more complicated." Diamante took a comfortable step forward. "Metal Heavens and the kids. Your lives... or my money. Should be an easy decision. At least with the cash, you'll be able to run with your tail between your legs, pussycat."

Those eyes on the masked man's face turned feral, he unsheathed a katana from his side and raised it towards us — a small click on its hilt sheathed it with an electric veil. "Alternatively, I'll prove that we are not to be taken lightly. I will claim the lives of both of you... and be crowned as a legend in this city."

"You're Raiden?" My hand gripped Belle's arm tightly, but not for support.

"I am. Deserve to know my name before I claim yours."

"You kidnapped those kids for Metal Heavens?" I began to draw from Belle. Bronze Warp Energy flooded through my hands and churned under my Golden will into the rumbling engine of my heart.

"I did what was necessary." His body began to grow, claws ejecting from his hands, black and white fur spilling across his head and arms.

I'd heard enough. My Domain expanded and gripped onto his sword.

Fire Tendency has reached Bronze V

His transformation stopped mid-way; a blade lodged into his neck even while he'd still gripped it. My fist squeezed, and the blade spun out of his claws.

Raiden's head flew into the air.

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