Bring The Heat

68. Skin VS Steel Pt 2 (CB ARC 17)

Considering his options, X9 decided to adopt a more serious line of thinking. He'd pick off BM quickly, so as not to leave any loose ends whilst attacking the other two.

He jumped up and started to dash towards BM, who had collapsed at the end of the hall. As soon as Rebound realized what was going on, he started to dash across the ceiling towards the two, but he was too far down.

As X9 approached him, BM's mind raced. He was weak and dizzy from blood loss, and couldn't think too fast - but he could still remember a lot of the stuff he could do from before!

He slipped off his blazer, reasoning that due to the fact he was on the ceiling and X9 wasn't, that any attack would be from an awkward angle. When X9 reached BM, he jumped up for a punch to the head, but BM flung his blazer forward at his arm.

X9's arm became tangled, and BM clung to it with what little strength he had left, suspending X9 off of the ground. He flailed at BM with his destroyed gun arm, but it was to no avail. With one foot in the grave, the bastard was still fighting...

X9 looked back to see that Rebound was almost upon them, and quickly thought of a plan, lifting his head as high as he could.

"Y = 3.65" he hissed. The old Y layer was replaced with a new one, this time about a foot off of the ceiling. Rebound and BM were both dragged into the new Y layer, and X9 laughed once more as BM dropped him, making himself fully vulnerable.

But as he tore the blazer from his arm, ready to kill BM, Rebound's ball smashed into the side of his head, throwing him against the wall. It bounced back into Rebound's hand, who had managed to hold onto it even when being dragged by the Y layer this time.

As soon as she realized the Y layer had changed, Wren hopped to her feet and sprinted down the hall. Rebound reached down and she grabbed his arm, dragging him to downwards gravity alongside her.

As X9 clambered to his feet, Rebound threw the ball once more. X9 tried to catch it, but it bounced out of his palm and straight into his face, knocking him back against the hall's end wall.

X9 swiftly decided that he could kill BM at any point, and the two healthy attackers were the ones he should focus on.

And so he flipped backward into a handstand lowering his eyes to floor level.

"Y = 0.3!" he exclaimed, but as soon as he did, both Wren and Rebound jumped. The new Y layer shot out about a foot off of the ground, and under their feet entirely, and they both fell to the ceiling, stumbling briefly as they ran. X9 jumped into the air, yelling "Y = 3.3!" at the peak of his jump. The new Y layer shot out about 2 feet from the ceiling and both Rebound and Wren jumped over it again, flipping to the floor.

The hallway was simply too tall to trap them reliably - it was 4 meters tall, and placing the Y layer in the middle would allow them to approach from either side so long as they ducked slightly, but they could jump over almost anything else. It was time to get smart...

X9 flipped onto his head again.

"Y" he yelled, faking out Rebound and Wren, who both jumped. If he could've grinned evilly, he would've. Right as they began to descend helplessly back to the floor, X9 started to set a new Y layer.

"Y = 0.-" he began to say, but was cut off halfway through. BM had grabbed one of his legs and pulled him upwards, changing the Y value of his eyes as he registered it, and invalidating the command.

Before X9 could retaliate, Rebound and Wren finally reached the end of the hall. Rebound slammed into him and grabbed his remaining arm, and Wren smashed into his front.

As he was fully restrained, right in front of her, Wren felt the rage that had welled up for her tormentor over the past 24 begin to overflow.

She started to punch him repeatedly in the face, smashing her fist into his steel skull over and over.

"W- Wren!" Rebound cried out as she busted her hand more and more, slamming her bloodied knuckles into X9's head. She couldn't feel the pain.

Eventually, she stopped, seeing that her hand was getting seriously messed up, and X9's skull was only lightly dented. But she still felt uncontrollable bloodlust for him.

She leaned down in front of him, staring right into his eyes.

"Y =-" he began to utter, but she grabbed his head and shook it like a snow globe.

As X9 groaned electronically, Wren smiled a wide, sadistic smile.

"What was it you said you were gonna do to me? 'Tear me in half'?" she jeered wildly, jumping up and grabbing X9's top half. With gravity and her weight working one way, and BM and Rebound pulling the other, X9 strained painfully, but didn't break. This only made Wren even angrier.

"Tear off my limbs?" she exclaimed, slamming her foot against the shoulder of what remained of X9's gun arm, and tearing it off with brute, spiteful strength as X9 screeched. Rebound gave her a concerned look, but Wren was too enveloped in her power trip revenge to notice or care.

"And- oh, what was the last part?" she asked rhetorically.

In desperation, X9 tried once more: "Y =-", but was quickly cut off by Wren shaking his head again.

"Oh yeah! I remember!" Wren yelled in anticipation of her final blow, "FEED THEM TO MY FRIEND!? WELL, LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE DYING ALONE, SO I'LL JUST GIVE YOU THAT ONE TOO!"

Wren screamed a primal cry of rage as she stabbed X9's own arm through his skull like a blade. BM fell roughly to the ground, but all Wren could focus on was the dying buzzing groans and crackles from X9.

Panting heavily, she reveled in the cathartic release of her bloodlust, and howled once more with ecstasy.

"Wren!" Rebound exclaimed, in a commanding tone this time. She looked down to see him at BM's side - slouched against the wall, BM was pale, bleeding heavily from his stomach lacerations and original wound, and seemed barely conscious. The sight of BM in a state like this sobered her up instantly.

"Go and see if you can do anything to get the hangar shutters up! It doesn't matter if someone's out there, we'll kill em too! BM needs help RIGHT NOW."

Suddenly plunged into fear, Wren ran off to the hangar.

Rebound looked back at BM.

"You're gonna be just fine, big guy. Lemme get you something from the medbay."

"Wait..." BM muttered weakly as Rebound started to go, "come here."

Hesitantly, Rebound returned to BM's side.

"If I don't make it... I want you and Cece to take charge. She knows my accounts, my-"

"What the fuck are you talking about? You're not dying." Rebound interrupted, but began to tear up slightly despite his assurance.

"Just do as I say, ok? Now go and get me some bandages... or a hell of a lot of painkillers, at least."

Getting more and more scared of losing BM by the minute, Rebound started to head to the medbay again.

"Wait..." BM muttered once more.

"Jesus christ, what?"

Rebound's voice was quivering as he asked this.

"I want you to know that I thought of you like a son, ok? I loved you... you were always so hard on yourself, but I was proud of you every step of the way. You were, consistently, the best young man I ever had the pleasure of knowing, yet you always beat yourself for top spot, every time you got better. Every. Single. Day."

Rebound couldn't contain his sobs anymore, and broke down in the hallway as he ran off to the medbay.

-(WREN)-

Wren slammed her fists helplessly on the second layer shutter. She hated being without her power! She hated it so much... and now she was gonna lose BM!

She beat up the shutter even more as she started to cry, but was quickly interrupted by a voice behind her.

"Wren?"

Turning around, Wren saw Mariah, supporting a very badly injured Cece.

"Wren, you better get that open quick. I'm not sure how much time she has."