Last chapter, the battle between Quilline, Amandeath, and Elio versus the death family consisting of Endeath, Zerendeath, and Urdeath began.

With Elio, Zerendeath, and Urdeath being long ranged fighters and backup- this left Quilline and Amandeath fighting against Endeath in close quarters, while trying to avoid Urdeath's energy attacks and Zerendeath's sensory manipulation at the same time.

While during the confrontation Endeath managed to knock Amandeath out as well as disorient and injure Quilline, Quilline was able to gain the upper hand after targeting Urdeath before Endeath could stop her. This resulted in Urdeath being brought down to the ground where he was left at Quilline's mercy, in which he was able to slice off her arm- but he paid for it with a shot to his face which shattered the mask that was properly protecting his head before... now Urdeath is left defenseless on the ground in front of Quilline.

Quilline's P.O.V.

I continue to teleport Amandeath all around me after I step right in front of the downed Urdeath and aim my gun at his helpless, terrified, and tear-filled face.

"Quilline- listen to me. You win, we surrender. If you spare my son, we'll leave you all alone." Zerendeath says shakily from wherever she's hiding, as she seems to turn off her Blessing as the purple smoke around us disappears. Guess she's trying to prove her point about surrendering. Hehe- oh... guess I should ask something before I screw this up.

"Your confident tone has sure changed now, hm? Guess mama bear isn't as feisty as they say. Anyways, bring me Elio- then we'll let you leave. I know you probably dealt with him already, one way or another." I lie, he's probably fine considering he can use his Blessing to track where anyone is at all times- which obviously would've let him run away from any danger. But in the slight chance they did get him... better safe than sorry, I need the hacker boy after all.

"We don't know where he is- all I can say is that we didn't try to hurt him ever since he launched those grenades at my husband. Urdeath tried to hit him with an energy blast to scare him off, but I believe Elio dodged it. Quilline, this isn't worth i-"

"Why isn't Endeath attacking me? Because your son is nearby and would get hurt in the explosion his Blessing makes? What would stop you all from going after us once you save Urdeath then?" I cut her off and ask... not sure if that's even an important question but, I want to try and squeeze out any information I can here.

"Correct. Quilline, you're severely injured- this isn't worth the risk. Just walk away." The man himself replies, just like Zerendeath I can't see him though- he's hiding behind cover somewhere as well. Tragic. Ah well-

Bang!

"NO!" Zerendeath screams after I blow Urdeath's brains out onto the road beneath him. That sure was a durable mask to take multiple of my and Amandeath's shots before it broke though, maybe I'll try and interrogate the two survivors about it if I get the chance.

"Shall we continue our battle then? You want revenge, don't you?" I ask with a grin, if they DO come after me I'm honestly a bit scared but- I have the feeling that isn't how this'll go... and if I'm right this'll feel SO great.

"...No. Just... just go. We will be taking the body, however." Endeath says, HAHA- I knew they'd weasel out of this. Let's see how far I can push my luck~

"Kk- I'm taking Urdeath's head though at least. Need to show it off to Prisila to give her a good scare for betraying me. Gotta show her how she's gonna end up soon too, you know?" I stake my claim.

"NO. That we won't accept, and are one-hundred percent willing to die for. Urdeath was an arrogant idiot, but he was still my son who's body I can't let you disrespect. No matter the cost." He says firmly... shoot. Ah well. Yeah, I'm not fighting for this, he isn't wrong that this is too risky for me now with my arm gone. Oh! I can still bargain here for something at least though.

"Such familial love, makes me a bit jealous. Fine fine, but only if you tell me this- who made your clothes? Or more specifically your masks? They seem like the kind of quality even I'd want to buy, and that's saying something considering like you saw, I'm already quite indestructible." I rub more salt in their wounds.

Endeath replies after a pause while Zerendeath starts to cry which sounds ever so sweet, "...We have a private contractor to make our equipment for us, and we pay them extra to make sure they work for no one else but the Death family. Now leave before we change our minds and end you, subhuman monster."

I think to myself with a pout, "Lame answer, least I made him lose some of his cool though. Speaking of which,"

"Alrighty. COOLIO! If you're around, we won, and are getting out of here. Track the tech in my body to meet up with us in a few minutes, I'm sure you recognize me based on the currents inside me alone now." I shout out, using his nickname just to be extra safe- but honestly even if someone was nearby, it's not like they could call the Hopian Army since Elio would've already shutdown their phones- or any phones around us. Or drones even... man I love this guy, let's me be so much more reckless.

Anyways- I bend down to pick up my arm that got sliced off, turn around, and start to triumphantly skip away while laughing with glee and teleporting Amandeath's unconscious body along with me in random patterns to make sure that no one can shoot her.

20 minutes later...

***

"That was a nice shot with the grenade launcher, by the way." I compliment Elio after he arrives in our "hideout", AKA the men's washroom of an abandoned and broken into convenience store. Sure is handy having so many shops up and leaving now due to crime.

"Thanks, I guess. Damn- is Amandeath ok though?" The robo-boy asks with concern as he bends down to brush some hair off of the sleeping beauty's face as she's lying on the dirty floor next to the toilet with her mouth gaped open as she snores.

"She's fine, her cybernetics would fix up any internal and external injuries of hers very swiftly. I'll start slapping her around if she doesn't wake up in a few minutes though, then we'll head to wherever your parents are." I say as I start to tap my foot on the floor impatiently. I have so many un-fun things to do today, getting my arm reattached being one of those things now. I'm not used to just doing errands after going on such a big hunt... argh! The pros of cons of team members. They bring you opportunities and sometimes even help, but they hold you back with their own needs. Just like my old squad did back in the day, but alas the past is the past.

***

I ended up having to slap, and taser, Amandeath to get the girl to wake up- but she finally did, and so we headed out after explaining to her what happened, with Elio being our enemy-detector as per usual along the way to his parent's apartment. Did have to teleport a few people around that we saw on the street though to give them a scare and get them to run away, before they were even able to see us. Elio also shut off any of their phones just to be extra safe in case anyone put two-and-together and realized it was me regardless though just to be extra safe.

Anyways though, for the most part we were able to travel through back alleys and empty streets so we were fine despite our nasty injuries making us look suspicious even with our disguises on. Funny enough my decapitated arm wasn't included in those suspicious injuries, since I realized I could just drop it in my weapons-shack from the teleporter pouch on my hip and grab it later when I'm ready to reattach the thing.

"Guess I might've looked like I had a noodle arm though with my sleeve just hanging down..." I giggle as I jiggle my arm-stub to wiggle around the empty sleeve of my Hoodia like it's a tentacle, heh...

Oops- got distracted, Elio's starting to talk, "..You good by the way, Amandeath? I know you're probably a bit drowsy after getting knocked out but, you still seem more down than usual." Elio asks after we arrive at the hidden black-painted steel electronic backdoor that leads into the old garage that's at the back of the hundred story high apartment.

Clearly this apartment is meant for registered citizens, wonder if his parents will even be able to move and run around then if they're like most of the other registered citizens on this continent... hopefully they can, this'll be boring otherwise. Anywho Amandeath replies to Elio's concerns,

"Oh. Don't worry about me, just feeling a bit bad for my little sis is all. Urdeath was a cunt but, still he was probably the only person somewhat close to Mildeath's age that she was able to talk with. It's pretty lonely growing up in an environment like my parent's place, especially as an only child. Dunno, I could just be trying to make myself feel bad since I'm trying to change and all... yeah, dunno. Ignore me." Amandeath gives her lengthy reply, and Elio says back,

"Sorry to hear that. Think me and you might be going through some similar guilt in that case though. I'll let you know if what I'm about to do here with my brother helps any." He finishes with a sigh after he uses his Blessing to unlock the backdoor, which we all promptly enter inside of.

After some scouting out and leading us around the nearly empty garage made of cement, we find the apartment's dusty and clearly unused staircase, and start walking upstairs... this should be fun.

***

Elio's P.O.V.

After climbing up many, MANY stairs which luckily no one ever really uses due to most of the people here having major weight problems- we reached the floor of my parent's apartment, 89. And after a bit more sneaking and with me turning off any security cameras or alarms in our way, we arrive at the entrance to my parent's place... that same stupid welcome mat is on the floor outside. Go figures... what else hasn't changed about this place I wonder? Probably everything is the same.

I try to prepare myself for what's to come, "I'm probably gonna open that door to be greeted by the same old crappy overbearing parents, who act so polite to everyone else aside from their own kids, who they expected academic perfection from. The same parents who mocked and made fun of any their kids hobbies that they didn't think were "useful". The same parents who PROFITED off of my brother's suicide attempt by going on some TV-show talking about the "miracle" of his survival and the progress of his recovery, even though my parents were the ones who broke him enough to make him want to shoot himself in the first place."

"...Fuck. I'm not ready for thi-" I try to say but of course Quilline knocks on the door before I can even finish, asshole! She just rolls her eyes as I glare at her- but I don't have much time to glare as I can already hear someone fiddling with the door from the inside.

The door opens,

"Hello- wait... who are you three?" My 'Dad' responds in his gross white robe after he fully swings the door open, and gets a good look at all of us.

"It's me." Is all I say so that I can have a bit more time to get my thoughts in order, but those three words alone cause the man's eyes to open wide and for him to grit his teeth in anger.

"Fucking- what are you doing with my son's voice?! Damned monster! Honey, get my pistol!" He shouts as he tries to slam the door shut, but Quilline sticks her foot in the door which stops it dead in his tracks.

I try to think of a way to mock him- there's so many ways based on that response alone, but I think I've got the best one. "So you still kept the pistol, huh? Even though it's what Xalen used during his attempt? You're disgusting. Bet you still show it off to people too, don't you?" I say as Amandeath helps me push the door open, my "Dad'" tries to push against us but- with my metal body and Amandeath's cybernetics he doesn't stand a chance- the loser actually stumbles down to the floor after we push it open enough.

"H-how? How do you know that? Who are you?! What do you want?!" He pleads as he tries to get up from the tile floor near the entrance of the apartment but, the geezer can't even do that. Seems like he's gotten unhealthier since I left. Good.

"I know that because I used to be your son, asshole. Got my soul transferred into a new body after I got killed. Funny, you pushed me and Xalen so hard to be engineers- yet you know fuck-all about even the very basics of soul tech yourself. Anyways, I'm not here to complain- I'm here to talk with Xalen whether you like it or not. Where is he?" I command, but before he can respond my mom runs into the entrance hall with that same fancy golden and white pistol in her hands which she's pointing at us now.

"Get the gun." I say as I nudge Quilline's hip, which immediately makes her teleport my mom right in front of us- in which Quilline grabs the barrel of the gun and rips it out of her hands. My mom then screams, but I shut her up quickly by shoving my hand over her mouth and pushing her down to the ground.

"Play ball, and we won't hurt you depending on what Xalen tells us. So answer me, where is he?" I ask with anger filling my voice as I stare down at my mom's terrified brown eyes, but I manage to keep my tone down just enough regardless.