Khutulun

Thankfully she had already dealt with any obstacle that could hinder their escape. Even so, she somehow felt that something was wrong, her instinct told her so. She glanced at Mochizuki Chiyome, noticing that her carefree air was nowhere to be seen. Whatever was going on, she felt it too.

Khutulun focused her senses, gaining as much information as she could from her surroundings. Her neurons firing even faster than normal to process the influx from her enhanced perceptions, trying to come up with a solution to her uneasiness.

The masked woman pushed her companion, making her stumble back. Before she could ask any question, a blade appeared where she was. A few milliseconds later, the walls were blown apart and a tall figure emerged from it. Using the dust as a smoke-screen, both of the female Unknowns jumped back, creating some distance from their aggressor.

Soon the figure came into sight. It was a tall humanoid android, approaching two meters of height. His whole body was covered head to toe in what Khutulun thought of a weird mix of a black coloured Andanced Bomb Suit and a full plate armour. Every step of his cracked the floor below his foot. The blade which he tried to use to kill Chiyome retracted back into his forearm. The metallic glin from inside its visor made her know that whatever was under all that was not human, at least not wholly.

“An Iron Soldier!?” Muttured Chiyome, her eyes wide open in shock.

Khutulun had heard of them before. Her brother and the Grinning Devil had fought them in battle before, though at the time they had told them they were nothing to worry about. Obviously what her brother said about a fight was always underestimated, so that was hardly good information to make her battle plan on. She looked at the Soldier up and down, trying to analyze as much as she could before this fight truly began.

Its size and armor would make him slow, so moving around him would be a good idea for now. It was of utmost importance to not get hit by one of his strikes, that blade could easily cut through bone as it was butter. Khutulun glanced at her partner, but seeing Chiyome frown, the masked woman knew she had to act alone for now. First step would be to check how fast and durable it was.

She drew her knife. It was unfortunate that she did not have time to sharpen it since the last battle, but she was sure it would last for another without any problem. It was just that she wanted to keep it in perfect condition. Else it would break like last time and…

Khutulun shook her head. No time to get lost in memories, she had a fight before her. As soon as her focus came back, the Iron Soldier left hand flared up with electricity, coursing up until his whole arm was covered by this blue-ish like veins. It pointed its palm towards the both of them and a bolt of lightning flew from it, targeting the both of them.

As electricity was traveling through the air, Khutulun knew that she could not dodge it. Her armor vest was resistant to such attacks, but that did not mean impervious. Her whole body would size up the moment the electricity traveled through it, and that would spell her death in such a battle.

Something flew from behind her, interrupting her train of thoughts. The chair on which Chiyome was held crashed against the bolt of lightning. Splinters of wood and electricity exploded around them, illuminating the room. Khutulun felt someone grab her by the arm and pull. She did not resist and immediately started running beside the Last Ninja.

“Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit!” Mochizuki Chiyome’s mouth was running too, with a variety of insults that Khutulun herself saw as very fitting for the situation.

Soon after they turned the corner, they heard his footsteps. It was not as fast as them, but for something its size it was quite fast. The problem was that it was slowly getting even faster, the time between each of his steps stomping the ever breaking floor, becoming shorter and shorter. They had to find a way to flee before it reached them.

“WHERE IS YOUR BOYFRIEND!?” Shouted her companion frantically.

“He is not my boyfriend…” Her muttering was quickly interrupted again.

“NOT THE DAMN POINT YOU TSUNDERE! WE NEED HIS HELP!”

She was not wrong. The Grinning Devil would have already found a solution to this little Iron Soldier problem easily, but he was not here. Khutulun was sent here; she did not know if he knew about the presence of this monster in this facility, but she knew that he trusted in her abilities to successfully complete this task. She would deal with it herself. One way or another.

They reached the control room. Khutulun immediately typed on the terminal a command to shut down every door of this facility. This would buy them at least a few precious minutes. In the distance, she heard the sound of something heavy crashing into one of the metal doors. It reminded her of a truck losing control and hitting the first thing unfortunate enough to appear before it.

“Come on sis!” Shouted Chiyome from the vent behind her. She had already caught up to Khutulun's plan. This building did not have a modern aeration system, it mostly cycled the air from outside to the inside, and the opposite. Fortunately she had memorized the various vent placement so that they could easily get out.

She grabbed the Chinese-Japanese woman's hand and both started crawling as fast as possible, sometimes leaving dents with their elbows and knees. After the Iron Soldier broke down the door to the control room, quiet ensued. This made both of the ladies a bit uneasy, especially since they were quite close to the exit. They accelerated even more, not caring anymore if they made too much noise.

“We are s-” Before Chiyome could finish her sentence. They felt the vent all around them shake. Then they fell for but a second.

Khutulun turned to look behind her. In the distance, she saw the Iron Soldier with a section of the vents in his hands, the metal bending easily under his grip.

“OH SHIT, OH FUCK!” Some Japanese escaped from the Last Ninja’s lips.

Chiyome used all of her limbs to stop her from falling into Khutulun and then into that monster. The Iron Soldier, seemingly smirking under his visor, aimed his palm towards them. Both of them could feel the slight electrical tingle on their skin becoming slowly more unbearable.

“HOLD ON SIS”

Khutulun soundlessly grabbed onto her calf, her grip slightly deforming it. Electricity and steam started manifesting from Chiyome. A few moments before the bolt of lightning hit them, they were both flung outside the vent. Unfortunately, the bolt followed them closely and burned Khutulun’s legs up to their knees.

But she did not have the time to feel pain, the exit vent was already located some 20 meters of the ground floor. Now that they flung so high, thanks to Chiyome, they were at least double that height. Normally it would not be a problem for her, but her current condition meant that she had to improvise.

Her eyes spotted a withered tree by the side of the road that may be of help to her. Khutulun started planning in her head the movements needed to fall as safely as possible, but before she could ready her body, a roaring wave of flames impacted her. Her gloves, clothes started melting, grafting itself to her skin and her mask started to melt away.

Moments before the flames touched her, she turned her body sideways and put her arm forwards toward the raging orange inferno. Her only remaining, usable arm was used to try to stop her fall by hanging from one of the tree’s thicker branches. The strength of her fall was just right for shoulder to dislocate and her tendons to rip. Fortunately her muscles kept their grip, albeit very weakly, enough to break her fall.

Her skin, if it could still be called so, flared up in ways that reminded her of her childhood. Looking around she saw the people running about, some even stepping on them. They would work as good cover. She focused on accelerating the healing on her legs. In the span of a minute she was already running, but her mind was running on fumes, she was slowly approaching her physical and mental limit.

“You look like ass, sis!” Shouted Chiyome from one of the neighboring rooftops.

Khutulun glanced at her and she chuckled. The Last Ninja had even less luck than her in regard to the damage she had received: one of her hands had melted into a weird shaped shovel, her legs were still scorching red and dripping down from where she was.

“The pot calling the kettle black.” She did not even deign to look at her more than necessary. They had to go to a safe place before the damn Iron Soldier reached them.

“Where is it?”

Sharpening her hearing, she could not pick up the heavy and easily recognizable footsteps of the Iron Soldier. Whatever was stopping it, she could ponder on it later, for now she was just thankful. Her mission has been somewhat a success. Khutulun exchanged a nod with Last Ninja and started running towards Legion’s apartment.

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Hakan “Hákon” Gundersen

A cold shiver brought him back from oblivion. His eyes opened wide open, ready to jump at the first enemy that he saw. Unfortunately his body did not respond as well, his grip slipping, allowing his body to fall back in the strange bath somewhat filled with a crimson liquid. Another shiver encompassed his whole body, awakening the hidden pain that his body was suffering. He looked down at his hands, or a hand and a wrist to be more exact: the skin was ruptured in several places, leaking precious blood, but his palm was fully red.

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He drew breath from his nose and immediately the nauseous smell of blood almost made him pass out again. Hakon grit his teeth and powered through it. If he lost consciousness now, he would most likely bleed out like a pig. He could not allow that, he still had a job to do.

Grabbing some of the torn pieces of his pants, Hakon tried to make a make-shift bandage with them. He was not trained in first aid, like most of the Lion’s Share members since he was not originally a soldier. But he knew that he needed to put something against the bleeding wound, making some pressure. He did just that, albeit very roughly; he was not used to doing such things with only one hand.

Taking some deep breaths, he grabbed the edge of the tub and pushed himself upright. The MK I Vanguard Human Enhancer that he took should have been enough to even jump out of it easily with just the strength of his arms, but he underestimated the sorry state of his body. He fell with a loud thump inside the tub, hitting the back of his head on the wall behind him. His hands grabbed his head and Hakon grit his teeth in silence with closed eyes.

After the pain subsided he opened his eyes again and he immediately sprang back into the wall.

“Now, now, do be more careful…” - spoke horned figure - “... I still need to pick your brains for a bit.” He could feel the amusement from his tone of voice.

“Grinning…Devil.” Hakon was able to mutter between gritted teeth.

“In the flesh!” He adjusted his vest and faked dusting it off. The man loved theatrics.

A thousand thoughts were running in Hakon’s mind, but before he could even think of what to say, the Devil preceded him.

“You have…10-15 minutes before you bled out, any last word?”

“Is..Ana…safe?” Saying even a single letter was quite the toll for Hakon.

The Grinning Devil did not answer. Rumaginning through his pocket, he brought out a white pill and gave it to Hakon, who hesitantly received it.

“Pain killers… should help with your speech a bit.”

Hakon looked at the colorless pills with squinted eyes. He swallowed them dry and immediately regretted it. His throat was so dry that he was sure that the taste of blood overflowing to his mouth was caused by it. The Devil stood there with a metal canteen by his side, which he covertly hid inside his jacket.

“Dunno about Anna, did not check on her.” He answered tapping with his index finger on his chin.

“You are lying.”

The Grinning Devil stopped tapping and stared straight at him. It looked like his smile started to widen, as if amused by such an accusation.

“Maybe.” He said coyly.

Knowing that they had a contract ongoing, Hakon felt that the Devil was just playing with his feelings. The man was a trickster, but he had one of the cleanest records and never failed a contract, so he was reassured. At least, that is what he told himself to be calm.

“You had a crush on her, Hak?” The masked man asked suddenly.

“What? No.” Hakon did not even stutter or hesitate.

His relationship with Ana was more complex than that. But he did not want to explain such a thing to him.

“No? I thought she was a stand-in for Agnes, am I wrong?”

“...”

Of course he would know about his fiancee. Truly, there was little, or even nothing, that one can hide from the Devil.

“No, no one can replace Agnes.”

“That so? Cannot forget your AI chosen partner~?” He provoked.

“SHE WAS NOT-” Blood started filling his throat, not allowing him to finish. Hakon started violently coughing, dirtying his clothes with even more of the precious red liquid. Only after his fit stopped did he speak again.

“You know…nothing…NOTHING of me!”

“True,” - He said with a shrug - “I just know that you are an escapee from the Nordic Union, and some other tidbits.”

“...”

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, the Grinning Devil spoke again.

“At first I thought this attack was orchestrated by the Chinese, but now I have my doubts. I even thought that dear Heimdall wanted one of his sheeps back, but considering you are still here, that leaves only one…”

The Devil did not finish the sentence, but he knew who it could be.

“The Black Hand…” Hakon muttured.

“Bingo!” The Devil pointed at him with both of his index fingers.

“But…why?”

“That, I hoped you had some theories about.” He said, crossing his legs.

Hakon had a gut feeling that told him that if he did not tell him something that interested him, or that he did not already know, this Devil would leave him to die here. So he racked his brain for anything that could be useful, as hard as it was in his current condition.

“The Caliphate…” Hakon then whispered.

The Grinning Devil stood silent for a few minutes. Not only that, even his body was as rigid as a statue. The Nordic escapee started to fear that he had just put the noose around his neck.

“Shit…” Muttered the masked man.

Hakon frowned, gritting his teeth, and got ready for whatever would happen.

“Sorry, something is happening… you said the Caliphate is in cahoots with the Black Hand? Why? Didn’t they hate each other about the whole androids not having the same rights as human debate?”

Hakon opened his mouth to answer, but he felt his eyelids weigh down and his tongue heavy. Nonetheless he still responded to the Grinning Devil.

“The Church… is preparing for a… war…” As soon as he finished the phrase, he lost consciousness.

His last thoughts were about his long gone fiance. The beautiful time they passed while breaking some of the rules set up by their AI Overlord. Most specifically, he remembered when Agnes brought him a tourist guide of Russia. Everything that was not checked by the AI could not be read, in fear of spreading foreign propaganda, or so it said. She immediately fell in love with it, for it was something that was outside of the walls set by Heimdall. So Hakon planned to run away with her, so that she could explore all of the world if she desired. With careful planning and some well placed bribes, they were able to escape.

After some days of traveling they both fell sick. Their bodies, having grown up in an almost sterile environment, could not handle the now irradiated and changed Europe. Fortunately, they were found by a wandering patrol of Russian soldiers, so they were able to get some medical attention. Unfortunately, Agnes' frail body was not able to battle the sickness and she succumbed to it.

He now, finally, would be able to reach her. He had to tell her about many things, of places and people he saw. And ask for forgiveness for what he did all this time after she passed away. Hakon hands were bloody, such was the way of the world nowadays, but still he regretted it. Deep inside he hoped that this life did not change him in such a way that she would not recognize him anymore.

With his final spark of consciousness he thought of Ana. The poor sheltered princess, daughter of a tyrant, but that rejected what she was and fought for it. She would not let others define what she was. or let them tell her what she should or could do. It reminded her a lot of Agnes’ character, maybe if they were luckier… their daughter would have been like her? His train of thought did not continue anymore as the last spark was extinguished, leaving only darkness to reign as the supreme ruler inside poor Hakon’s mind.