It was just like playing a piano.

Noel's fingers danced across the holographic keys as images and input boxes flashed on the screens for mere seconds at a time - far too quickly for any normal person to retain the information, but for a Cogitant like her it was a simple matter to retain it in her memory.

She was in her element.

Her Aether, too, was running through the system - inhabiting it, like a person might put on a costume. Climbing into the open system and puppeteering it from the inside. She was all but in control.

Warily, she turned her head towards the gap in the railing where Marie and Skipper had fallen through. There'd been some noise in the seconds since they'd gone down - gunshots and smashing steel - but since then, nothing.

Who had won? Had there even been a winner? There was a non-zero chance that both combatants were now unfortunate piles of meat at the bottom of the chamber. It would be a fitting end for that irritating man, at least, and she didn't know Marie well enough to mourn her.

The cyan Aether stopped trickling from her fingertips into the machinery, and a grin spread across her face. She was in. Excitement racing through her veins, she turned back towards the console, leaned forward to look at the screen, and -

- and a stun-bolt zoomed past where her head had just been, fizzling away uselessly as it hit the wall.

"Step away from there," said a serious voice from behind her.

Noel sighed as she turned away from the console, hands held over her head. This whole 'holding her at gunpoint' thing was starting to get a little repetitive, truth be told.

Dragan Hadrien stood there in the open doorway, pointing two stun-pistols at her. He narrowed his bright-blue eyes into a glare.

"Where's Skipper?" he snapped.

-

"Where's Skipper?" he asked reasonably, keeping his pistols trained on Noel. Even if her body was surrendering, he couldn't be sure what other measures she might already have put into place.

Noel nodded towards a gap in the walkway's railing, where the metal seemed to have bent outwards. "Last I saw," she said, with more than a hint of smugness. "He was headed down there."

Right. "You're not strong enough to take out Skipper," he said. As much as the man was annoying, Dragan couldn't deny his considerable abilities.

"You don't think so? Why don't you jump down and ask him?" Noel's voice was sickly sweet, like rotten strawberries. Dragan could hear it, though; she believed she was telling the truth.

Whatever. Skipper couldn't be dead. He wouldn't die in such a stupid way.

He jabbed one of his pistols in Noel's direction. "Come over here," he said. "Slowly, with your hands over your head just like that. One move I don't ask for and I shoot."

Noel sighed. "Okay, okay." And with that, she began to walk, the sound of her footsteps against the metal walkway echoing throughout the chamber.

Alright. He had Noel. That was a victory, if nothing else - he'd knock her out and restrain her, then take her and Reyansh to the security gathered outside. Easy peasy.

But Skipper…

"You know," began Noel - only for her speech to trail off to a halt as a stun-bolt whizzed past her ear, centimeters from her head.

"I didn't ask you to talk," glared Dragan. "Just keep walking."

Noel came to a stop right in the middle of the walkway, still meters away from Dragan. Her arms flopped down from atop her head, falling to her sides. A smug smirk played across her lips, inspiring a flare of angry heat in Dragan's head.

"Don't try and be clever," he said, training his pistol towards her cranium. "One last chance. I'm shooting at the count of three."

That was a lie, of course. He was shooting at the count of two.

Noel raised a defiant eyebrow.

"One," he said - but the next number was replaced by an involuntary scream of pain as something hot collided with his back. His pistols slipped from his grip as the force of the impact sent him falling forwards, his face colliding with the metal walkway beneath as he met the ground. Bright-blue Aether zapped around him involuntarily - his Aether automatically trying to defend him.

What had got him? What had happened?

Noel chuckled to herself - she hadn't moved from where she'd been moments before. "Ah, I love that," she sighed. "That's great. That's the moment where you realize I was in control all along. It's the best, you know?"

Body shaking, Dragan turned his head to look in the direction of the projectile. A drone was floating there, out in the darkness, plasma still dripping from its shotgun - but it was an official security drone, not one of the custom ones Noel had been using before.

Realization dawned. He was too late.

"You seem to be getting it," Noel giggled, spreading her arms wide. As if on cue, the countless compartments lining the walls opened as one - and from each of them, a security drone just like the one that had shot Dragan emerged, coming together to form a veritable constellation behind their new master.

Hundreds, Dragan realized. There were hundreds of them.

"You shouldn't have taken me so lightly," Noel said, hand on her hip, laughter still in her voice. "This is what happens, you know? It's just no good."

Dragan planted his hands on the ground to push himself up. He could feel it - his Aether had protected him from the worst of the blow. He'd been sent flying, but the plasma wasn't eating through his back. So long as he avoided the drones' shots, he could still fight.

He glanced at the cloud of drones as he rose to his feet. Oh, hell. Who was he kidding?

"You seemed pretty eager for me to surrender before," said Noel, cocking her head as she smiled sweetly. "Why don't you try it out for yourself? You might take a shine to it."

Ah, gloating. He knew it well.

He spat on the ground in front of him, blood mixed in with the saliva. Like hell he'd humiliate himself in front of a brat like this.

Noel's smile spread into a grin. "You sure? I'll give you three seconds."

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Dragan braced himself for the incoming attacks. The technique he'd come up with might have been able to help him if it were only one or two shots, but against hundreds he was just as helpless as anyone else.

"One."

He could run for it. That was an option - the open door was still behind him, after all. But that wouldn't solve anything. It wasn't as if Noel was trapped in this room - the drones could chase him down and kill him in whatever venue they liked.

"Two."

Maybe Bruno or Ruth would come and bail him out of this. No, no, he couldn't rely on that - they'd be dealing with Sait and whoever was going after him. For all he knew, they could be in worse trouble than he was.

It was hard to imagine worse trouble than facing down a literal army of trigger-happy drones, but still.

He could…

He could…

He couldn't think of anything. His train of thought reached the end of the tracks - and beyond that was only a terrifying void. Was there nothing he could do?

There wasn't.

He gulped, squeezed his eyes shut - and then, he realized that it had been quite a while since Noel had said 'two'. Cautiously, he opened one eye again.

Noel was still standing where she'd been before, but her demeanour couldn't have been any different. Her teeth were bared, face twisted in an expression of pain, one hand pressed against her temple as if to keep it from falling apart. The other hand was planted against the console for support.

"No," she hissed. "Not now…"

A chance. He didn't quite understand what he was seeing, why Noel had paused her countdown, but it was a chance all the same. He'd be an idiot not to take it.

Dragan lunged forward.

The plasma came down like rain, the drones closest to him automatically firing as he made a threatening movement. He managed to duck under the first volley, Aether sparking around his body in a panic, but against the second round of shots he wasn't quite so lucky.

He felt plasma pass over his hair, singing it, and the smell of burning filled his nostrils and clawed at his throat. As the shot moved through his Aether, though, it was as if he could taste it, tendrils of his Aether scanning through the projectile as it entered such close range.

If one was watching carefully, they might have seen the plasma shot vanish in what looked like a fizzle of blue electricity.

As he doubled over, coughing overtaking him even as he ran, a second shot struck him in the back of the leg, sending him collapsing down to the floor - where his momentum sent him sliding right to Noel's feet.

She stared down at him, one hand still planted against her temple, pupils dilated with outrage.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she snarled, giving him a vicious kick in the ribs - one that came with an audible snap from something inside him. "Who the hell do you think you're running at?! You think I'm that easy, huh?! You think I'm nothing?!"

More kicks came, one after another, striking at Dragan's torso with all the strength Noel's small body could muster. Even with her tiny frame, the pain of the strikes was unimaginable - Dragan hacked up what he'd eaten earlier that day onto the walkway in front of him, only to recognize with faint dread the taste of blood that came along with it.

"Yeah," growled Noel, crouching down and slamming Dragan's face into the walkway by his hair. "Not so smart now, huh? Not so clever? Shut the fuck up!" That last scream wasn't directed at Dragan, but at the monitor behind her.

It was almost time, Dragan realized faintly, slipping in and out of consciousness. He'd run towards her with a plan in mind. He was sure of it - he was brilliant like that.

He just needed her to come a little closer.

Even the slightest movement was excruciating, but Dragan persisted all the same - and twisted his mouth into a smug grin. He spat, and a splash of blood landed on Noel's hand.

For a moment, she stared at the blood in mild surprise, blinking slowly as she took it in. Then, the hand holding onto Dragan's hair began to shake, slowly, roughly - a tempo of utter fury.

With a jerk, she pulled him towards her by the collar, her red face inches from his own, her teeth bared in an almost inhuman grimace.

"I bet you think you're pretty clever," she hissed, almost silently. "But I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill you right now. There won't even be a corpse, not a fucking corpse, nothing left of your fucking head, I'll kill you."

She was working herself up into a lather, an unfortunate feedback loop of anger empowering anger until all sense was abandoned in favour of pure rage. Dragan mumbled something inaudible through cracked lips.

Noel shook him violently. "What was that?!" she screamed.

"G-Gemini…" Dragan mumbled.

She cocked her head, her eyes narrowing slightly. Some kind of sense was returning to her, some natural suspicion that should have already been ringing alarm bells. "Gemini?" she said slowly, eyes flicking around the chamber as if to look for some trap he'd placed in advance.

"...Shotgun."

There was a sound like an explosion - and a second later, Noel went flying backwards, slamming against the console behind her with such force that the controls burst out in a shower of sparks and glass. Drops of loose plasma burnt at the metalwork.

Noel screamed as she worked herself free of the controls - not just from frustration, but from pain as well. A huge burn was covering her left eye - there was no doubt that she was now blind on that side: the eye wasn't even visible anymore, just an angry red wound.

She moved her left arm to cover the wound on her face - only for her scream to trail off in shock as she realized that that arm now terminated as a burning, uneven stump just above her elbow.

"What did you…?" she muttered, staring at her arm, adrenaline giving her a moment of lucidity. "What did you do?"

Dragan still lay on the ground where she'd left him, face half-pressed against the floor - but he still looked up at her and grinned, teeth stained red with his own blood. "Told you…" he said. "Gemini...Shotgun." It wasn't a special attack if you didn't give it a cool name, after all.

To be honest, he hadn't been sure if it was possible until he'd actually done it. He'd had to actually take a shot from one of those plasmabolts before he could record an incoming attack in his Aether - and then manifest it to throw it right back at Noel.

Gemini Shotgun. Recording a projectile, empowering it with your own Aether, and firing it off with extra strength.

Wasn't bad for someone only half … half-conscious…

Well, thought Dragan as his vision began to grow increasingly dark. Maybe a little less than half.

-

Noel collapsed, supported only by two drones that held her up with rudimentary graspers. Cyan Aether sparking around them, they lifted her up off the ground, her lopsided figure twitching as she kicked at the air in frustration.

"Kill him," she breathed, staring at that bastard Hadrien, her commands spreading out through her Aether. "Kill him! All of you - kill him!"

Her drones moved as one, pointed their guns at the unconscious Hadrien and - as one - fired.

The plasma rained down so quickly and so fiercely that Hadrien's carcass was obscured by smoke and steam, radiating out through the chamber at incredible speed. Noel twitched as it buffeted against her body - the pain from her missing arm now beginning to make itself known, a prelude to agony.

She had to get out of here. But, but but but, she had to see Hadrien dead first. She'd only be satisfied when she saw the wreckage of his corpse.

A feral grin on her face - from pain just as much as glee - she leaned forward as the smoke began to clear.

Her heart dropped.

"I’d say you won that one, kiddo," said Skipper. He was standing right in the doorway, the unconscious Hadrien strewn over his shoulder. "Psychologically, at least - I mean, she seems pretty mad, yeah?"

The entire walkway had been melted away by the plasma - but Skipper had somehow rushed in and grabbed Hadrien before she'd even noticed. And he'd done it with one arm.

Skipper straightened up, grinned at Noel - but the humour from his eyes were gone.

"You wanna be mad at someone?" he said, slowly pointing his finger towards her. "Then be mad at me. Let's see how that goes for you."

An awful cracking noise escaped from Noel's throat.

Skipper winked. "Yeah?"