Alright. Let's see now. What's next... Reece thought to himself as he walked down the city streets. It was a bit of a gloomy April afternoon & another one of those days where he had to go out & procure a few missing supplies for his current projects. So far, things today have been fairly uneventful, which was always a nice change of pace, to be sure.
".....Aagh!.....What the?" He thought he was paying enough attention to the path in front of him, but apparently not seeing as someone just ran into him. Thankfully, he managed to keep himself upright without much effort, but the other person wasn't so lucky, crumbling to the ground in front of him. He reach out a hand towards them - or, rather, her, now that he could get a better look at her - & was met with a slightly awkward hand grab as he helped her back up.
"S-Sorry!" the mysterious girl said as she brushed off her simple, turquoise dress. Before he could inquire any further, though, she pushed on past him & ran away.
"Hey, wait!" he called out, but she didn't respond & simply turned down an alleyway not too far away.
...Wonder what that was all about? As if on cue, a rather large, dark, conspicuous van made its way around a nearby corner, stopping right in front of said alleyway. A few quick moments later, a slew of people slid on out & made their way after her.
...Well, so much for that, then. Reece, as covertly as possible, ducked down a different alley & contacted Serah.
"What is it this time?"
"What, can't I call to just say hi?"
"No, because you're you & only call me when you need my assistance."
"True, true...so yeah. I'll send you the location. Be around there in...10, 15 minutes, maybe?"
"Gotcha."
"Good...& also one more thing."
"What is it?"
"...Ready your blaster when you get there."
".....Really?"
"Yes. Just trust me...You'll know who to hit."
A mild breeze, flowing atop the buildings, causing Reece's cloak to flutter a bit as he watched the scene below him transpire. Using his left arm, he scaled the buildings & followed the girl from earlier through the alleyways from above as her pursuers, most notably a rather large, fairly muscular man, gave chase. It didn't take long before she was backed into a dead end, though, leaving it all up to Reece to try & infer from just their movements the best moment to strike. After about a minute of the man & his entourage inching ever closer towards her, he reached for something on his back.
...Alright. Here we go. This was the moment. With one quick motion, Reece leaped down off the building, landing right in-between the two parties, his sheathed sword Wyrmlysp already in hand.
"Well, well. What do we have here?" the burly man gruffly called out. Meanwhile, the girl merely gasped.
"Oh, y'know. Just your worst nightmare." The man & his crew burst out laughing.
"Ahh, man. You had me worried there for a second, but if you're really gonna use cheesy lines like that, well..." He stood there laughing for roughly half a minute more before reaching behind him & drawing his own weapon - a giant, mechanical-looking hammer. "...Now I suggest you leave, boy. Now. This doesn't concern you."
"It does now." Reece responded, readying himself to strike as the man before him did the same.
"Don't say I didn't warn ya." Motioning to his men to stand back, he steeled himself, staring down Reece for a brief moment before lunging forward. Reece moved swiftly, his blade ready to intercept the incoming attack...
Splat!
Before he could move his body forward, a sharp pain shot through his chest. A short gasp was all he could manage as he looked down upon the many rivers of green flowing smoothly down his body. The source of the would itself, the epicenter of it all, sticking clean through his chest...
A hand.
A woman's hand.
Turning his body partly in order to see behind him, his eyes rested on a metal tube trailing from his body, leading all the way into the arm of the girl behind him. Her face was almost entirely shrouded by her hair, apart from an unsettling, devilish smirk.
"& he said this'd be difficult." she said in a voice that didn't seem to quite fit with her body. "Ha! So pathetic!"
"Pathetic indeed." The man lowered his weapon & casually closing the gap between him & Reece, clearly no longer feeling threatened now that he was kneeling & clutching his chest for dear life. "Nothing personal, kid. Just business."
"..........Heh." As this dastard raised his hammer up for a fatal strike, a small chuckle escaped Reece's lips.
"...Huh?"
"NOW!!" In one swift motion, he gripped the hand sticking out of his chest & yanked it even further through. The pain was excruciating, but it was enough to knock her off balance.
CRASH!!!
Before she could reorient herself, a shot echoed through the alleyway, piercing directly through her head & scattering thousands of metallic & electronic pieces everywhere. As she crumpled into a heap, her yelling & screaming completely mangled & static-drowned, a figure dropped down from the sky, slicing through her limp, elongated arm.
"You alright?" Serah straightened herself up, calmly reaching her free hand down towards Reece while gripping her trusty naginata in the other.
"Not especially, but when am I ever?" Using her arm as support, he pulled himself up & pulled the remains of the robo-woman's severed arm out of his chest.
".....Hmph." She gave him a bit of a glare before readying herself for further combat against their remaining assailants. Likewise, he took hold of Wyrmlisp once more & even ejected his other blade, Deus, from his left arm, adopting his standard dual blade stance in the process. His breathing was somewhat staggered, but his wound was already starting to show signs of slowly healing.
".....Get 'em!" The beefy, now quite aggravated man (who'd just stood there dumbfounded during this whole episode) finally called out, ordering his men to go on the offensive. The dynamic duo wasted no time fighting back, taking on the hoard without too much issue. Reece primarily focused on the big guy himself while Serah took care of most of the mooks.
"Guess you shouldn't've underestimated me, huh?" Reece grinned a cocky smile as his blades clashed against his opponent's hammer.
"...Hmph. Rookie mistake. One that I plan to rectify!" He flipped a switch on his hammer, causing it to whir to life. Reece steeled himself as the mallet swung against his swords once more, only this time with a lot more force behind it.
"Who the heck even are you guys?"
"Heh. Wouldn't you like to know?" This kind of response aggravated Reece...even if he didn't really expect to get an actual answer in the first place.
As those two went at it, Serah did a pretty solid job fending off the cavalry, knocking them down one by one. However, during a brief lull in the action, something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention - motion coming from the ruins of the android girl on the ground nearby. It took her a moment to realize what she was doing, but by then, it was nearly too late. Somehow, in spite of its now-mangled appearance, the machine was able to open her non-severed arm up, unveiling a sort of laser rifle aimed straight as the unsuspecting Reece.
"NOOOOO!!!" Not really thinking clearly, she leapt forward in-between the two right before the laser fired.
"Serah?!" Upon hearing his ally scream out followed by the sound of a blaster, Reece quickly pushed the giant out of the way & turned, ready to react in an instant. What he saw instead, however, was Serah, barely taking the brunt of the shot with her arm. As the sounds of the impact blared out, her arm couldn't withstand such an immense force any longer than these few brief milliseconds, & it very quickly burst, shattering into yet another mess of machine parts. She couldn't help but let out a scream, crumpling to the ground as she clutched her sparking stub of an arm.
"SERAH!!!!!" With an incredible burst of strength, her shoved his assailant aside & rushed over to where Serah was kneeling, tears glistening on her face all the while.
BANG!!!
As he bent down to grip & examine her arm, a shot rang out. Seconds later, a sharp jolt of pain emanated from the other side of his chest. Bringing his hand up to that area left it completely soaked green.
"...Eugh." Turning his head to this sound behind him, Reece saw the big man, holding a legitimate handgun in his free hand. "Hate these things.....but oh well. Gotta do what you've gotta do sometimes. Now. Just give up, kid." He kept the gun trained on Reece, ready to fire again at any moment.
As Reece stood there, stunned, the clouds above finally gave way, coating the battlefield in a steady rainfall. A mixture of emotions swelled up inside of him - sadness, pain, fear, etc. However, a rather familiar sensation bubbled up among them all...
Rage.
Pure, bestial rage.
Through heavy, methodical breaths, his body began to change. His wounds healed up much quicker than before, completely sealing up as his skin became overrun with jet black scales. The tips of his fingers & toes sharpened into claws. From his back sprouted both a tail & a pair of wings.
"...What the hell?" The man simply stood there, unsure of what to make of the scene taking place before him & the monster completed his transformation, pointing his lizard-like head upwards & screeching into the sky with a primal roar. During this, the mangled, robotic remains fired off another shot towards the once-Reece beast. The shot barely even made a dent in his newly-hardened hide, however, & in one swift motion, he dashed over & crushed every last moving bit underfoot.
".....Nnnnngh..." Not sure what else to do, the man fired another round. However, as one might expect, it did absolutely nothing except draw the beast's attention. As he began slowly stepping towards him, snarling all the while, he kept on trying, shooting over & over until his clip was empty. None of the bullets did anything at all aside from lightly scraping his scales. Before he had a chance to reload, the monster was already directly in front of him. He grabbed the gun with his non-robotic hand & crushed it with ease before ripping it free from the man's grip & giving a loud, threatening roar right in his face.
"..........Damnit!" With that, he turned away & left down the opposite end of the alley, gesturing towards his men to follow suit.
Reece, still seething in anger, didn't move until the final hostile left the area. Upon ensuring the place was clear, he made his way back over to Serah, still keeled over in pain from earlier & sparking even more intensely thanks to the rain. He kneeled down to her & gripped her shoulder in a manner that, in spite of his currently-reptilian appearance, was meant to be comforting. While tears still streamed uncontrollably down her face, intermingling themselves with the rain water, she did crack a slight smile before finally passing out. Using his draconically-enhanced strength, Reece took her (& whatever other parts of hers he could scrounge up) into his arms, spread his wings, & soared into the sky back towards the mansion.
"..........Mnnngh?" Serah's eyes fluttered open, slowly & steadily as her system began reassessing herself & her situation. The last thing she remembered was watching Reece chase away those bad guys before blacking out due to her arm pain & the shock it put on her system. It was her first experience with an injury so severe; needless to say, she now hoped to never experience something like that ever again.
Quickly looking around the area, she realized she was back in the lab. Specifically, she was laying on her operating table, the restraints shackled around her arms & legs. They weren't exactly pleasant, but she didn't particularly mind them given that they were meant to prevent any sort of severe damage to herself or her surroundings in case something went wrong during one of her repairs/updates/etc. & made her go berserk. On the note of repairs, she noticed her completely destroyed arm had been neatly fixed & replaced. As much as she could given the restraints, she moved it around a bit to confirm everything was in working order, which, as expected, it was.
"I see you're awake now." The voice belonging to Reece reached her ears. She turned her head towards the location it came from & found him back into his non-transformed state sitting at his primary lab computer, his gaze not shifting from the giant monitor in front of him. On it seemed to be numerous maps & data files, but it was tricky to tell at the position Serah was currently in. "Everything in working order?"
"Yes. Everything appears to be functioning properly.....Thank you."
"No prob...Now then..." He walked on over & undid her restraints, then stood in front of her, a look of anger plastered on his face. "What on earth were you thinking?!"
"...Excuse me?" She sat up on her table, somewhat confused at his outburst.
"Why in the world did you do something so stupid?!"
"...You mean saving your life?"
"You say that, but c'mon. You know me! I could've dodged or handled that blast easily!"
"...Well, maybe...but..."
"But what, exactly?!"
"I just didn't wanna see you get killed, okay?!" Her sudden outburst shocked the both of them.
".....Look. I know that with your weird mutation that you might as well be immortal. But even so...The thought of seeing you get seriously maimed while I just stand there & do nothing about it..." A tear wells up in one of her eyes.
"...I just wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let that happen..." Reece tried to make a comeback, but the words seemed to stick in his throat. His expression softened as he plopped back in his chair & sighed.
"Look...I'm sorry...It's just...No matter how tough you are, you'd still go down much easier than me. &, well...I don't wanna lose you, either...You're pretty much all I've got, after all..."
".....Reece..." The two sat in somewhat awkward silence for a few moments until Reece swiveled back around to his computer.
".....So.....Any idea who those guys were?" Serah inquired, finally getting back on her feet & walking over to the computer.
"I have an idea, yeah...though I'd rather confirm my suspicions before saying anything for certain."
"Fair enough, then." Even from close up, she still didn't quite understand what Reece was doing apart from potentially trying to search for some specific global location data.
"...Oh yeah, by the way...How'd you realize something was up, then?"
"You're referring to when I called you before all that went down, right? Well...Truth be told, I didn't, really. Or, rather, I didn't quite know what was going to happen, only that something was...off. Y'see, it may be pretty subtle, but thanks to you, I know what an artificial grip feels like." He flexed his hand a bit before continuing. "...but yeah, I decided to call you in just in case. &, well, you know the rest."
"Ahh. I see." She looked down at one of her hands & flexed her fingers. It always felt weird being called artificial, no matter the context, even if she'd somewhat accepted it at this point. "...Well, think that'll be it, then. I'll let you know if anything's up with my systems & get out of your hair for now. In fact, think I'll go make dinner. How does mac 'n' cheese sound for tonight?"
"...Are you seriously asking me that?" he replied with a raised eyebrow & a slight smirk.
".....So, you don't want mac 'n' cheese, then?"
"Oh, no, I never said that. What, are you crazy? Of course I do. Just feels kinda odd to hear given everything that's happened today."
"Hehe. Yeah, true...Well, I'd better get started, then!" With that, Serah turned & walked towards the stairs.
"Oh, & as always, remember not to skimp on the cheese variety!" Reece called out while she was still within earshot.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You don't need to tell me every single time." With a bit of a laugh & a smile, she headed on upstairs to the kitchen, glad that things seemed to be getting back to normal.
"....."
"....."
".....Sooooo...Did you call me here for a reason or whatever? Cuz I've got better things to do than sit here for hours doing nothing."
"It's only been five minutes..."
"Well, that's four minutes too long, if you ask me."
"Yes, yes. Look, I called you here so that I could have a word with you...Both of you..."
"...Huh?.....Oh, you're referring to that idiot & that thing you had us go out & take care of, aren't you?"
"Who you callin' an idiot?"
"Well, speak of the devil...& just like someone like you to be late, too."
"& what the hell's that supposed to mean?"
"It means exactly what it sounds like, meat-head."
"...Hmph...Well, at least I'm not the one who botched the mission."
".....Ex-cuse me?! You did not just blame me for that!"
"Well, to be fair, I'm not the one who spent half of it out-of-commission."
"& just whose fault is that, hmm? Whose the one who just stood there like a fucking moron & let them smash up my beautiful new toy?! Hmmmmmmmm?!"
"Okay, okay, settle down, you two. Silence, please."
"Well, whose the one who escalated things at the end there, huh?!"
"Oh, please, how the hell was I supposed to know that was gonna happen?"
"Oh, I dunno. Use your big, genius brain? Which, if your machine broke that easily, you might wanna use more often."
"..........That's it!! I'm gonna fucking-"
"He said.....SILENCE!!!"
"....."
"....."
"Thank you, Zuga...Now, then. Aaron. Juel. I'd advise you to set aside whatever differences you may have as soon as possible given that you'll, in essence, be working together from now on."
".....She started it..."
".....Hmph..."
"...Glad that's settled. Now then, as for your previous mission. You both did...quite exceptional."
".....Wait, what?"
"...We did? Didn't you want us to, like...take those guys out or whatever, though?"
"Well, yes, I'll admit that had you actually done that, it would've certainly helped a great deal...but given who you were up against, I expected this outcome."
"...So you mean to tell me you sent us on a suicide mission?!"
"No, not at all. Think of it more like...a test, of sorts, as well as a means to show you what you're going up against...Of course, now that you know, you're free to back out, if you so wish."
"Hey, you're the one payin' me. I'll do whatever you need of me....Besides...I've got a bone to pick with that little shit..."
"Same here, pretty much...Hehehehehe...Just wait 'til they see what happens when they ruin one of my precious toys~"
"Well, that's good, then. Until I give you your next orders, feel free to do whatever you want & remain on standby. For now, you're dismissed."
"Yes sir!"
"Yes sir!"
"....."
".....Tell me. What do you make of all this, Zuga?"
"...Hmm? About what, exactly?"
"About what we're doing here. What's your take in all this?"
"You already know my answer to that. I'm just in for whatever seems the most exciting."
"Ahh, yes, yes..........You wish to fight him again, then, don't you?"
".....Hmph. I certainly wouldn't mind it...though I can sense that he's still very much inexperienced at this point. Destroying such an opponent is hardly worth the effort...no matter how exhilarating it may still be."
"Fair enough. You'll get your chance someday, though. That much, I'm certain of."
"I have no doubt about that, sir, & believe me, I can hardly wait."
"Excellent.....You're free to go now as well, by the way."
"As you wish."
"..........Reece, was it? I look forward to seeing just how far you think you can come."