Fan Fic: Contamination

[Sagasu]

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Kangae staggered backwards after receiving another blow, willing his numb arm to move again. Ms. Jibun sighed and let the saber's tip rest just above the flawlessly white ground, this was the third time her student had let his guard down while casting. The Newman righted himself and brought himself back up in a defensive position, ready to try again. Martha took two steps forward before lashing out again with her weapon, then smiled when he step forward and brought his cane down to parry her slash with a shower of sparks. Continuing on his motion, he brought the other leg forward and let his unoccupied hand create the simple foie symbol and let loose with a moving mass of incinerating power.

Side-stepping the attack, his teacher freed her weapon from his with a quick flick of her wrist and then promptly severed his hand. He has guts, he just needs to learn to use them. The pain he felt, while no more than a aching throb, was still incentive enough to avoid damage at all costs. Kangae now knelt, though she didn't fail to notice the cloudy look in his eyes which meant he was still channeling energy somewhere. This realization caused her to throw herself flat upon the ground, the reward of her instinct was rewarded by the sight of a glowing GIfoie symbol ignite and spew out smoking spheres of fire overhead. These bobbing flame wraiths soon danced away from sight, leaving her to recover from her fall. A none to gentle pat on the side of the head told her that she had been careless, the sight of the Newman sitting up with his weapon at her neck confirmed this

"Careless." He said, now that it was his turn to grin.

"Look whose talking." She replied, indicating the stub on his right hand

"You could have lost your head, if my weapon wasn't a stupid walking stick that is."

They unplugged shortly after this, and took a short break for refreshments. During this time, there was discussion over what type of simulation would be the most practical for the possible upcoming situations. It wasn't everyday that Kangae was allowed full access to the large VR database, and he wanted to make the best of it. The Newman had selected a file that was meant to be a test for hunter graduation, after some persuasion Martha had too, accepted his choice. The basic objective was to evacuate a child from a building teeming with hostile men armed to the teeth, the best part was that they didn't know he was there yet, and it was perfectly acceptable to kill most everyone in sight. After some more conversing, it was agreed that they were to co-op the simulation, but would also need to look after two children.

After receiving some tips, the two of them logged into the virtual reality system again. They appeared in the middle of a jail cell, and immediately the stench of dirty bodies and sick prisoners assailed them. Behind them was the two timid kids that they were supposed to 'save', clothed in dirty rags, Kangae supposed the atmosphere was meant to make you feel sympathetic towards them. The Newman prevented himself from staring at his companion for too long, the black and red HUnewearl costume now just pointing out her ample curves instead of hiding them in her usual attire. She held in her hands a replicate model of an Asuka, wide twin blades shaped like scimitars except glowing a orange-red hybrid. In his hand, was the trusty cane. The FOnewm didn't find it even remotely fair that she was to receive such elegant weapons while he was stuck with the one he had nicknamed the Nut Cracker, but decided that this wasn't the time to complain.

Stepping forward, he winced due to the echoing click his clogs made against the cold cement floor. Behind him, the child also moved forward a step, while the other remained motionless. Now his Newman ears were attracted to a second noise, the scuff of boots coming their direction. Ahead of them was a prison door, hanging wide open. Jennifer merely nodded to him, and he let a grin crease his face. Two foie symbols prepped in his hands, he boldly exited the cell with a leap. There was one guard not ten feet from him, and another just a little behind this. The closest one fell with a gurgling hiss, the fresh aroma of burned flesh filling his nostrils, Kangae failed to his his second target. The man raised his rifle with one hand while scrambled for his radio with the other, failing to notice the HUnewearl who had crept to the side and was now lunging at him. One of the twin Asukas twirled in its deadly arc, cutting him down cleanly across the face and chest with a pleasant hum of the photon blade striking an object.

Some noise had been generated, but not enough to alert anyone at a distance. Other prisoners either moaned for help, gaped in terror, or retched their guts upon the floor at the hideous sight.

"Forget them." Jennifer stated, speaking the for the first time since they had been there. Kangae nodded, while it did prod at his conscience some, it didn't make a difference in this situation if they were to attempt to free them or not. The Newman removed one of the guard's belts and clipped it around his waist, just in case there was something there that they would be needing later. He also took the man's gun and put the cane in his newly acquired waist wrap, figuring it would definitely prove its worth. They had entered a long hall of prison cells, which they made their way down and into a corridor. The floor now switched from concrete to cut, white stone that traveled on for a good distance. A man was coming their way so the FOnewm dropped to one knee and took quick aim with the weapon, then fired. It wasn't a clean shot, took him through the chest and splattered blood all over the walls.

"Where'd you learn to shoot?" Jennifer asked, somewhat surprised he could handle a gun at all. Kangae shrugged,

"Its just a rich boy's hobby." He shrugged, it was the truth. His family used to be quite wealthy, since they got quite lucky in the buying and selling stock business. But then they made a bad investment, which lead to their inevitable fall. After this they could barely afford to send him to the hunters academy, a day his proud family lineage took a heavy blow. The man had screamed when he had been shot, and such a noise attracted much attention. Another guard rounded the next corner before they did, and met his fate in a similar fashion to the one before him. Peering around the bend, Jennifer confirmed that this lead to a short, empty hall that would take them to a large set of double doors. They listened at this, and pulled themselves back quickly as three armed troops them open and herded inside. Seeing a man's guts plastered to the floor and two children merely standing there shaking but to scared to move, the reinforcements decided to call for more backup, and proceeded to creep down the hall. Kangae and Jennifer had been forced back behind one of the green metal doors, the Newman while quite conscious that she was somewhat pressed up against him, chose this time to spring out and burn one guard and kill another. The HUnewearl quickly followed up by sliding a long photon blade across a somewhat crispy neck and splitting the final's skull with the second Asuka.

"When they bring in the androids you won't be able to just fry them off like that."

"I know" Kangae replied, hefting the rifle into a more comfortable position in his arms. Together they entered another series of rooms and hallways, with the grim knowledge that they had several more floors to clear before getting to the finish. I.E. The getaway contact. The first group of seven men was quickly cleared by a blast of RAfoie, the explosion creating a rumble in the ground and a long line of charred wall and cremated bodies. Just shaking her head the HUnewearl pressed forward, knowing her use would come in at the end. Finally reaching the first flight of stairs, there was a group of three militia class RAcasts waiting for them. These where loaded with photon launchers, and apparently weren't to worried about damage to the building. The FOnewm lured them over to the corner of the corridor with pop-shots from his rifle. The first fell somewhat easily to Jennifer's deadly assaults, even the Newman had to admit that he was impressed with her performance. But the second came on to them a bit to fast and fired off two rounds from its launcher before they could disable it. Both children were taken by the second shot with a sickening mix of blood and curse words from the newman.

When they had logged out again, Jennifer sighed and made nothing more of it than that. Kangae was insistent that he wanted to retry the simulation again, but Martha pointed out that they had already spent way more than their allotted time and won the argument. When they reached 'home' Ms. Jibun explained a BEE message that she had received when they were in VR.

"The first of the wave of the black spiders will reach us by tomorrow evening, so naturally just now the public have been notified that they'll have to hole up in their homes by noon tomorrow. The Pioneer 2 doesn't have really much in the way of weaponry, just a few military units and such, but nothing compared to what's on its way."

"The first wave? How many of these things are we expecting?" The FOnewm asked, somewhat startled by the turn of events.

"Hundreds, who know how many." The teacher replied, not even capable of preventing the despair from creeping into her voice.