CHAPTER 26 - Song of the Siren

Endless calculations streamed past Gene's mind within his Third Eye. Faster than he could perceive, a plan unfolded like an origami figure. There were precious few seconds to execute it before they were devoured. They'd have to work together. 

Every one of them.

Raising both sets of four arms, the Judicator slammed those house sized fists back into the arena floor. The shockwave nearly knocked them all off their feet. The beast released another indomitable roar and lumbered forward down the field toward the Misfits: their doom approached.

Gene spoke loud and clear; "Luna, take Kazuna to the furthest end of the stadium: shield her. Make sure nothing gets through while they're in their meditative state. Kazuna, keep the Judicator in place. I don't want that thing to gain another yard." Kazuna and Luna swiftly sprinted across the white powdered sand.

"Midnight," Gene commanded, "You're our defensive linebacker."

"What's a linebacker?" The Dracon mused, showing the slightest hint of being terrified beyond comprehension.

Gene held her shoulder, snapped Midnight out of her shock, "Dragon up, stay in the air, and you don't let that thing get past that line in the sand. Whatever you can get your hands, feet, or tail on, you aim for those eight eyes and blind it. Understood?"

Against her nature, Midnight actually gave a more than half-hearted salute. With a graceful leap, she unfurled her leathery wings, and twisted up into the air. Compared to the Grand Judicator, even in her dragon form Midnight was barely an eighth of the kaiju's size. However, her speed, flight, and pyromancy would be sufficient to hold the line. At least for a minute.

Karma was next; "You and I are headed up to those rafters hanging from the ceiling. We find a way to dislodge the whole thing from the ceiling and bring it down on top of that thing's head." With a chopping gesture, the assassin acknowledged his part in the plan to Gene.

Last on the list was Marth. The crazed look in eyes had not subsided. Doubts continued to gnaw at Gene's mind whether he could be trusted. There weren't any other options. Gene would have to extend trust and hope for the best.

Gene reached up and grabbed Marth by the collar of his tunic; "You see that beast? It came from the ground. We're gonna send it back down there. Hold your ground on the starboard side of the stadium. You don't cede a millimeter of ground." Marth nodded along as Gene gave the final order; "I want a hole melted in the center of the stadium and I want it done yesterday!" There it was. That steel expression changed into a triumphant grin and Marth bolted for the bleachers like a freight train.

Unarmed, overpowered, and against all odds, everyone had their objectives. Gene would have trust, have to hope that they worked out as intended. It was a tall order, but he couldn't afford to let doubt weigh him down. As Karma and Gene sprinted to the port side of the stadium.

Glancing over his shoulder, Gene saw Kazuna's astral form materialized again before the Grand Judicator. It stood nearly as tall and the semi-transparent image of Kazuna's body flexed its arms then grew another pair to contend with their opponent. Planting her projections feet in the sand and grappling the arms of the great beast, Kazuna held her ground.

As the two towering figures grappled one another, waves of sand flew across the stadium. The dust storm was sufficient to conceal what must have appeared to be two specks that ran across the sand. It also helped Gene and Karma identify the limits of the invisible barrier. Of course, Karma quickly realized, "This isn't sand: its bone. Bone dust."

Gene didn't have time to wretch. He dusted himself out, spat out the remains of the fallen that had drifted into his mouth and looked up. There was no signs of electrical interference above the two and a half meter vertical wall. Gene could clear it easily. So could Karma, utilizing his incredible agility, a well timed leap, twist and flip, the Nina pushed himself up and over the wall with centimeters to spare.

                [Scanning:/ Acrobatics - Configuring... (Vec.x15y2.5z3) Exporting data:_Engage!]

Gene's inner eye copied and calculated the assassin's movement and before he could comprehend what he was doing, he'd already flung himself up and over the wall. Karma didn't have time to stand around and pretend to be impressed. They had nearly five flights of stairs to sprint up and no time to spare. He hadn't had the time to test the physical limits of this new body. No time like the present, Gene thought, pumping his arms to catch up with Karma.

"What are we gonna do about that?" Gene huffed out as they approached a glass partition that measured about forty centimeters thick. It was the last line of defense between them and an absent crowd.

Karma said nothing. He planted his feet, squared his shoulders and dropped his center of gravity. Drawing in a breath, the assassin held his palm against the dusty glass. Then, as he exhaled, Karma thrust his right hand into the glass. A three meter hole exploded inward sending glass crackling across the concrete floor.

With a crack of his bloody knuckles, Karma replied, "We get the job done."

Almost matching pace behind Karma's lightning fast speed, Gene and the assassin bounded up nearly 2,000 stairs to the top tier of the stadium. Some frantic free climbing up the side of a concrete support pillar finally got them up into the rusted rafters. Down below, both Karma and Gene witnessed the battle between two titans.

Kazuna was holding her own, but the beast had more technique than initially given credit for. It knew that the golden astral projection wasn't real. It wasn't attacking. It was simply trying to plow past Kazuna's projection in order to get to the real thing. It was adapting. Evolving. Sprouting out from its back with a grotesque series of pops and crunching bone, two more limbs rapidly grew out from the Grand Judicator.

Equally wide, clawed and webbed, the two new arms were longer than the others, more maneuverable. They were used to alternately swat away Midnight's attempts to dive in and take out its eyes and grapple the astral giant. She'd only managed to impale and sear three of its eight eyes. If Midnight made one wrong move, she'd be out of commission. If their support were to fail, that would leave Kazuna to take a beating unimpeded and Luna as the last line of defense.

With its hideous screams, the beast continued to writhe back and forth, trying to throw Kazuna's projection off balance. Despite not using any vocal or facial cues, the strain on their monk was telling. Occasionally, small patches of the projection would flicker in and out like radioactive cancer.

Another link in their chain had also faltered. Although Marth had managed to get past the electric barrier, he'd been standing about fifty rows up in the center of the starboard bleachers and stood perfectly still. His hands were held out at chest height, palms up. That's when a sliver of hope was restored. Gene's enhanced vision saw the spell he'd been casting. Then, he no longer needed any enhancements to see what he'd been working on. Rapidly growing from the size of a basketball to a semi-truck, was a golden glowing orb of molten concentrated hellfire.

With a deep guttural shout, Marth rocketed the sphere forward through the glass and deep into center field. It splashed down and engulfed the Judicator's feet, melting through flesh, bone, and cybernetic skeletal supports. There was a symphony of pain like thousands of blue whales being slaughtered. It was loud and terrible and shattered glass arena wide.

Karma's ears bleed.

Midnight was blown backward, spiraling down back into the bone dust on the arena floor.

Kazuna's entire astral form flickered out and back into existence.

Marth wasn't done. Once it was conjured, he had full control over the hellfire until he decided to snuff it out. He pried his hands apart as if pushing against an invisible force. This action spread the molten magma further outward, engulfing the hind legs of the beast completely. Visibly, the Grand Judicator began to sink, but it also continued to rapidly grow limbs; thin, support struts that kept it upright.

Gene had to end this: quick.

The text display in Gene's peripheral continued to rapidly feed him data. Up ahead, the connecting supports for a massive monitor display held a monitor consisting of four separate digital screens. The whole display was roughly six thousand square meters. The box itself weighed close to four hundred tons. If they could drop this makeshift anvil from a hundred and thirty meters above the monster's head, it may be enough to incapacitate their foe or at least slow it down. Of course, the beast would have to remain directly below them to fall for the trap. But, that hope continued to wane.

Despite the lower half of its body sinking further into magma, the Grand Judicator pummeled the hundred meter tall ghost of Kazuna. The sheer dizzying height was enough to buckle Gene's knees. Space flight was fine. Terrestrial heights were entirely different. Combined with the ever growing lake of hellfire below them and howling kaiju terror gripped him with both its icy hands and continued to squeeze its fingers into Gene's rib cage.

Before succumbing to vertigo, Karma pulled Gene forward by his shirt; "On your feet, Gene-san, we must uncouple those suspension cables," he pointed above their heads. Then, the assassin leapt up further onto the thick metal cables that held the monitor bank aloft. Gene watched, nauseous, as Karma's feet wrapped around the steel girder nearest to the anchor point of the first eight cables. Rolling off to the side, held up only by his thighs, Karma hung inverted. He looked straight down over twenty floors above a colossal monster and field of bones.

Swallowing the bile that gathered from his fear of heights, Gene climbed the closest cable and positioned himself beside the anchor point. He hadn't really thought this through. Gene had experimented with his strength, breaking through concrete walls and ceramic floor was one thing. Bending steel may be punching above my weight class, he thought.

[Analyzing:/ Engineering.indx - 'Retrieving...' (Display) Display Data:_Step 1...]

In Gene's periphery, his Third Sight projected step by step instructions on how to engage the manual release mechanism. He dexterously followed the steps. Across from him, Karma had apparently figured it out on his own. Focusing his energy as he had with the glass barrier, the assassin struck the steel chains. It took more than a single strike, but a loud metallic CREEK, SNAP, and POP nearly caused Gene to loose his grip. Karma had obliterated the first anchor and made his way over to the second.

Likewise, Gene labored to unlatch the manual release and-- Success. The massive steel cable below him slipped out rapidly falling and flailing against the side of the monitor. Sparks cascaded outward and over the kaiju, Kazuna's projection, and the lake of molten magma.

Midnight was back up in the air. She'd taken a beating, but was unrelenting. Utilizing a broken pipe, the winged Dracon dove down again and lanced another eye socket. With the amount of pain the Judicator was experiencing, what was another eyeball at this point? Pain wasn't the point of course. A blind opponent was always preferable than one who wasn't. There was also a chance that if it were truly blinded, that armored head covering would retract. Maybe the six of them could actually kill this thing? All these hopes and more were enough of a distraction for Midnight to miss the skeletal arm that was swinging down toward her.

She barely managed to dodge the first, but the second hand struck. Midnight was once again knocked aside. Rows of bleachers exploded into splinters and collapsed under the weight of her armored body as she landed. The dracon girl coughed out bone dust that had now clouded the entire stadium like a fog. Not only the stadium, but her mind was blanketed in fog, in fatigue. Everything felt broken, but Midnight had to get back up.

Midnight had to keep fighting.

Gene managed to unlatch his third cable.

Karma was on his fourth.

One more to go.

That's when the worst happened. Once Midnight was out of the air, it was exactly as Gene had feared. The Judicator continued to pound, unrelenting into the Kazuna's projection. Like sheets of ice breaking off from a glacier, the hard light construct began to fail. They had seconds at best. Both Karma and Gene attacked the last cable connection when that golden glow from their monk's astral projection faded away.

Their monk was down.

Even halfway submerged in essentially a lake of boiling plasma, the Judicator remained undaunted. With an ear splitting series of POPS and the thunderous tearing of flesh, the monstrosity discarded the back half of its body. Like a lizard shedding its tail, the Judicator used its forelimbs to propel it forward as the rest of it sank back, melted into the magma.

Marth appeared to be aware of the situation, pushing his hands forward, expanding the lake of fire forward toward the rear of the stadium, closer to their teammates. This once again caught the beast in the molten fire pit. It slowed some. Enough of it remained under the monitor that now remained suspended by a single thread. But, if it should shed any more of itself the Judicator would be within striking distance of an unconscious Kazuna and Luna.

It's at this point that Gene was aware of a new urgent message in his Third Eye...

[Concussion Canon Activated: Targeting reticle initializing_ STANDBY://Charging_80%]

Gene's grip slipped. It felt as though his left arm had suddenly been disconnected clean off from his elbow. It didn't hurt, but the absence of a limb that had been there moments ago was distressing. Almost as distressing as hanging twenty floors above the ground, above a monster, above a lake of fire. Then Gene made the mistake of watching the deformed mechanical monstrosity emerge from his arm: rather, what his arm had become. Identical in form to those RAN Androids on Heimdal Station, Gene's own body had once again betrayed him. He was reminded that a part of him was nothing more than a weapon created by a sociopath.

But this was still his body. Gene was in control. He must remain in control. There were lives on the line and whatever sacrifice needed to be made, Gene would make them. He blocked out the pain of what he'd become, and closed his eyes. Gene focused on the memory of firing his Castor Pistol at Jenkins. 

He did not aim with his hand, Gene used his mind.

                      [Concussion Canon Status: CHARGED_ ]

He would not kill with his gun, Gene killed with his heart.

                    [Concussion Canon Status: Target Acquired.CMD_Fire!]

The Judicator was not distracted as the multi-ton monitor fell from the rafters. In fact, it attempted to catch the massive weight out of the sky with the skeletal arms mounted on its back. The attempt was futile. Both hands snapped under the weight and the monitor forced the creature to sink further into the magma under the colossal weight. It was pinned, but the abomination was not yet defeated.

That's when a new peril dawned upon Karma, "For gods' sake. He'll bury us all. Gene-san, Marth has once again lost control--" He pointed down at Marth levitating a half meter off the bleachers.

Like a shuddering earthquake, Gene felt the entirety of the stadium shift and crack. Marth hadn't just been expanding the diameter of the hellfire, he'd been increasing its depth. Their samurai had created a sinkhole perhaps two kilometers deep. In minutes the entire arena would be too unstable to remain standing. It would fold in on itself with the six of them trapped inside.

Gene quickly scanned the stadium for Midnight. She was still grounded, limping her way toward Luna and Kazuna. Together the two girls desperately carried their unconscious Monk from the field.

Midnight hobbled forward and attempted to take flight carrying both Luna and Kazuna under each of her arms. With considerable effort, she made it off the ground, but the nearly dissolved Grand Judicator had enough strength left to swipe its remaining rear arm up at the Dracon. One of the claws sliced through the girl's left wing, tearing it clean off. A howling scream pierced Gene's heart as he watched all three fall into the bone dust, barely clearing the molten lava.

"MARTH!" Gene screamed in desperation, "Help them!"

The Samurai did not hear. Or, he chooses not to obey. Marth remained transfixed by the hell fire. Not simply captivated by its glow and rising temperature, but Marth's aura actively melted the area around him in an ever expanding sphere. With a wave of his hands, he summoned missiles of hellfire into the flanks of the Judicator indiscriminately. Molten shrapnel nearly hit a downed Midnight, still reeling from the fall and her severed wing.

Cackling, Marth taunted the Judicator, "I fear no creature, nor beast! I am Marth Yagami, demon lord, and you will fall by my hands!" It was clear even from up in the rafters, their ally had become overwhelmed with the sudden surge of power. Marth's lack of control would be The Misfits undoing, but ultimately it was Gene's responsibility, his failure. He pushed Marth too far and now--

"Gene, above us," Karma pointed to the pipes above them as they ran toward the other end of the rafters. "Do you think she'd be able to do it?" Copper pipes snaked their way along the entire length of the roof in a grid. He could see the condensation drip. Plan B began to take shape.

"Go!" Gene shouted to Karma. The assassin could reach Luna quicker. He must. Gene would have to believe that Luna would have the strength left to pull off something on such a large scale. In the blink of an eye, Karma had already closed the distance of fifty meters to the edge of the catwalk. A series of flips, wall jumps, and twists landed the Assassin back on the stairs, as he ran down flights of bleachers to ground level in a blur.

It would be up to Gene to get Marth's attention.

Without focus...

...Without precision...

Their last stand would end in absolute failure and come at the hands of one of their own.