"Who are you?! Hands up!" a soldier yelled, accompanied by his allies.
"Relax. We want to get somewhere safe...as you can see, we've been through some major shit already." Anya pretended.
"Turn around, hands up!" the soldier insisted.
The three did as told, not to arouse any more suspicion, showing clean backs, without any weapons inside or outside their clothing, having two soldiers scarily approaching them to search them up close.
When they were done searching, relaxing from their stressed state. Still, the soldier pointed the gun at them as he was high on his guard, not relaxing like the others. Taking a particular interest in Anya, he pointed his gun from their general direction directly to her, having their eyes met with one another. He made a swift move with his gun at Anya, knocking her hat off as she jumped back from her reaction. Anya then exhaled deeply as she looked around the area, realizing that most of everything they did to set up was completely useless as soon as that happened. Lass started moving in aggressively, judging purely off Anya's reaction.
"A demi-human?! Bring Gaz in to profile them!"
"What, just because I have a tail and ears, it makes me a target?" Anya tried to save it, glaring at Lass from behind her and signaling him to stop.
"You're an Obsulyte user." the soldier realized, starting to once again, shake with fear.
"And? Look, we just want shelter like everyone else here-", she started approaching him.
The soldier interrupted her, "Stay back! Back!"
From his loud yelling, a bunch of other soldiers and other people holding firearms appeared, all readying themselves as their eyes locked on the three, particularly at Anya, who was at the center of the group and had a gun pointed at her.
"Look, we just came here, we were searched, and we are unarmed, what more do you want?" Anya tried to save it again, moving calmly closer.
"Stay right there dammit! Please, stay right there!" the soldier yelled.
"I know I'm a demi, yes, but still. Relax. It's not even guaranteed...90% chance, you know it."
The soldier locked on, "This is an Oasis Eagle Mk.3, stop! It can hurt you and it can kill you! Please, stop!"
Anya lowered her ears in fear, "Holy shit, Lass. He was right about-Wait, dude, don't use that-", she lowered her hands.
"Sorry!" the soldier lifted his shoulders, looking away."Anya!" Ikarisa yelled as she looked at Lass gazing back at her.
The moment Anya lowered her hands out of fear of what she was facing, the soldier's stress took over completely and discharged his gun. A very loud shot was heard throughout the area, as Anya fell backwards, hitting the ground. Blood was smeared all over Lass's face as he saw Anya fall to the ground after a loud scream. The soldier dropped his gun and teared up right after, with Ikarisa falling in on Anya and Lass kneeling on the ground before them. He was paralyzed as he saw Anya on the ground, feeling the blood rolling down on his face as if his sense of touch magnified a million times.
Unable to move and simply staring at her, it was almost as if he was about to break down in tears himself, rather than actually burst and annihilate his targets in front of him. He didn't know why, despite seeing her in such a hurt state not so long ago, by his own hands no less, he was frozen more than before. Living into his nightmare, the silence in his ears was broken by none other than Anya herself.
"Shit! Gah...damn, big guy! Snap out of it!" she yelled.
Lass looked at her, "What...happened?"
"Shoulder, shoulder!" Anya covered her shot shoulder.
Ikarisa held her on the spot, "Lass, please!"
"What do you want me to do?!"
"Pull the bullet!" Anya yelled.
"What?!" Lass looked at her shoulder in horror.
"I can heal her and mitigate it, but I need the bullet gone from inside!" Ikarisa yelled.
"Wait, no, I-", Lass freaked out.
Anya slapped him, "Stop being a little bitch and do it!"
Lass reached inside the bullet hole in Anya's shoulder and tried to grab the bullet. Without the use of precise tools and expertise, he forced an even heavier scream to come out of Anya as he reached in.
Before he could reach around, Anya's shoulder turned into a stomach in his eyes, before he pulled back in fear again, rolling back before Anya started to cry after the second shock. He grabbed his head and backed into a corner nearby, unable to help in his friends' most dire time. Anya's pain and tears turned into rage, as she clenched her teeth and grunted, seeing Lass rolling away from her. Everyone simply watched them all, the soldiers backing out without firing any secondary shots, spectating in horror about what their comrade had done, not intercepting or otherwise trying to better the situation.
"Fuck it!" Anya grit her teeth as she forced in her other hand, plunging it inside as a stream of blood gushed out.
She teared up even more, having her instinctual actions cause even greater pain. She twisted her finger around the bullet hole before locating the bullet inside. Unable to bear it anymore, she plunged a second finger inside, her voice cracking as she cried loudly. Ignoring the pain, almost as if her hand had a mind and acted on its own, she kept going.
Grabbing the bullet, she forced it outside of her in an instant, having Ikarisa immediately going on the offensive, and rapidly beginning to heal away all the pain from her. Despite the grueling pain, the healing all but took a second from her powers, having Anya's shoulder healed up and the pain gone in an instant right after. She then let Anya rest on her hands before she rolled to the side, pushing against the ground with both her arms. Although her shoulder had been healed, she kept on panting and grunting rapidly, as if her brain hadn't processed the healing effect yet, still in shock at everything that had happened.
Ikarisa exhaled deeply as she finally took control of the situation and managed to heal Anya back up, while Lass still remained in shock. Yuno, thankfully, snapped him out of it.
"Lass! It's ok! She's fine!" Yuno yelled.
Lass came back to his senses, "What? What..?" he looked at Anya, her glaring at him with sheer anger.
"Anya, I..."
Before he could say another word, Anya got up off the ground, took off her blue jacket, with all that she was left with being a bloody white shirt and approached the crying soldier, grabbing him and violently throwing him on the ground. The rest of them all just sat there and watched as Anya got on top of him and began landing strong blows, one after the other. The soldier's crying was mixed with the gurgling of his blood, as his mouth and nose began to bleed profusely.
"Who do you think you are, asshole?! Who?!" she punched the soldier in the face, "Illegal guns?! Huh?! Why, just because I was born with a tail and ears?! Golver you son of a bitch!" she punched him again, "Does that ring a bell? Does it?! You think you're someone?! You think you will ever be something more than a speck of dust when compared to me? Jackass!" she got up and started kicking the soldier, "Take it, bitch! Thinking just because I wanted to talk that I was weak! Making me feel that same burning sensation-", she kicked him again, "Amplifying it-", she kicked him harder, "Hurting me for no reason-", she kicked him even harder, "All because you just saw my ears and tail and you thought I was different?!", she began crying as she continued kicking him, "If you think that I'm so different then go get humped by a dog instead of hurting one you shit bag!"
"Enough! Anya, enough!" Ikarisa stepped in.
Grabbing Anya by both shoulders, Ikarisa dragged her away as she too teared up, the now bloody mess of a soldier pleading and saying sorry over and over again as he coughed up blood. Finally detached from each other, the rest of his friends approached him and started nursing him, dragging him away from the scene, until the last bit of screaming from his pain and tears was gone. Anya was left behind, placed on a bench a little bit further away from Lass as she calmed herself down, exhaling deeply as she looked around to see everyone going away slowly and leaving them alone.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
A lone man started approaching them all by himself, unarmed and with a sort of happy expression on his face. Lass walked and sat by Anya who still was a bit tempered and grunting silently.
"Plan didn't work. But at least we're alive." Lass sighed.
"I guess so...man. That shit was...it was."
"What the hell happened? How did you..." Lass worryingly asked.
"Special, anti-Obsulyte user guns. I'm sure you know about them already, given that it's your job. That model of gun he had was with a mag with special bullets. One bullet inside the main shell goes through the body, leaving a special bullet inside on contact. And the special bullet causes a heaping, god-awful pain.
I've seen a couple of them in circulation on the black market sites that I browse sometimes. We can take more hits than your average bozo, but with guns like that, with their strength and design to inflict maximum pain...yeah."
"Browsing illegal websites too now?"
"Just use a special browser and an IP randomizer. Don't need to be a genius. And I'm serious big guy...that hurt so, so much. I knew I was gonna be fine with injuries from you, given that I know my limits but...that scared me. That....that scared me." Lass rested his hand on Anya's shoulder, "Sorry I wasn't decisive enough."
"I'll get over it, I always do. And I don't really expect you to help fix my mess every time. At least you tried."
"On another note." Lass inhaled deeply, "I told all of you morons! What the hell?!" he emphasized his words.
Ikarisa looked away, "Yeah...you kinda did tell us."
"Time was against us, who knows if we were ever going to see someone else breathing air in this city again?!" Anya corrected him.
"You were about not to be breathing in this city anymore. God, you know what, screw voting. Next time, we're going with my plan, ok? Ikarisa had hers, Yuno just had his, and I sure as hell ain't letting Anya pick hers before I do mine. I wish for a clean, non-eventful and perfectly executed plan, for once."
"Fair's fair, I guess." Yuno echoed. Ignoring him until he came up to them, the man finally reached their side of the open area. His physique was anything but similar to the previous soldiers, this one looking being way older and well-built. His clothing consisted similarities with the other people that were in the open area just before, with the same corporate suit, although this one being of a different company, evidenced by the logo on his jacket.
He approached them calmly with both his hands very well visible from quite a distance away, signifying the peaceful nature of the approach. And as he finally went up to them, enough for them to notice him, he then greeted them in the same calm tone as he approached them before with.
"Hello, you three. I don't believe we've met. Gaz Matune.", he extended his hand.
"You pull one gun out of your ass, I will pulverize you." Anya leered at him.
"I understand your concerns...I was called to profile possible undercover cops, you three, but taking a look at you now, I don't think that's even the case. And I already saw what happened with the young man before."
"So you're some sort of leader then? Watching that guy get his ass beat half to death?" Lass looked at Gaz.
"It was one of those cases where I chose to act, I was sure to cause more harm than good. The not-good part is that you could have easily recovered, summoned weapons and justifiably retaliate against everyone else. The gun he used was indeed targeted at a certain spectrum of people, and I know the extent of pain they can cause, but I would like to clear the air now and say that it's also justified. We all are businessmen and women, not fighters.
Most of us are inexperienced in the field, even fewer of us are demi-humans and a fraction are Obsulyte users. With the army against us, consisting of Obsulyte users only with far greater means to an end, everyone is actively scared more of any outsider that is a user, for obvious reasons."
"So your resolution was to arm yourselves with weapons as mean-spirited as those?" Ikarisa said.
"That boy especially, has messed up recently. He allowed a similar case as you three, undercover police, to infiltrate our base. The police is also working in unison with the army, and before we knew it, a lot of us were detained and taken away.
It was natural for him to react that way and for your friend to retaliate as such. I would like to end that subject here, if possible. It's not worth to specifically focus on something so severe like our mutual first impressions, when I'm pretty sure you all came here to work alongside us. That is, if you are the three that Reingard send a message that would pass by, for diplomatic reasons. Your friend is fine, you're all breathing and there's no more commotion, which clearly means that there's no reason for leering, sarcasm and as such. Be at ease, we are still human, demi or not, user or not."
"So that's the way you realized we were not against you? Pictures?"
"Not exactly. I put one and one together with several bullet points you did wrong.
For starters, had you tried to infiltrate, you would never send a demi-human along, because that would immediately raise suspicion. For two, you tried to hide that fact by tucking your tail and wearing a cap? With a fully suited corporate uniform? Really?"
"I guess I should've taken the violence route." Anya sighed as she whispered.
"And three?" Lass curiously asked.
"Yeah, you do realize that you are wearing an XL corporate uniform. A -women's- corporate uniform, right? I doubt infiltration tactics would employ that too." Gaz looked at Lass.
Anya held in her laughter as she softly smiled, "Wait, really? There are men's and women's separated uniforms?"
"Umm...of course? Considering that your friend lacks a certain two assets, I have no idea why he's wearing that with such space designed at the front."
Lass facepalmed, "Hey, Anya."
Anya turned to face Lass sitting beside her, "What is-guh!" she got punched by Lass's entire arm, getting knocked back behind the bench.
"That.", Lass angrily mumbled.
"I also don't take it professionals would use such behaviours." Gaz giggled.
"You don't say." Ikarisa looked at them with a straight face.
"Just take me in and let me get another suit, for -men-," he emphasized as he looked back at Anya.
Anya recovered, "Wait, dude, seriously. I literally had no idea. But saying I don't like how it came down to you cross-dressing, I would be lying but I'm not complaining. Will make for good fan content later down the line, I'm sure." she thought.
"Can we shoot her again?" Lass proposed.
Before he could say another word, a loud explosion was heard, not that far away, as a big cloud of smoke rose up into the air. Looking at their back, they all faced the direction where their mecha horses were resting, they soon realized what the meaning of that explosion was.
"Dammit! Quickly, get back", Gaz showed them a nearby headquarters.
"What the hell? Is it the army?!" Lass looked back.
"It's another raid, and we need to get into position. You, kids, go inside and take cover, we will handle it" Gaz signaled with his hand behind him, having multiple soldiers rush outside into formation.
"Guys...I lost signal with the horses!" Anya said.
"Wait, what? Our stuff!" Lass yelled, "What happened to the mecha horses?!"
"I would think that they don't quite "exist" anymore.", Anya put her phone away.
"Wait, what?" Ikarisa worryingly said.
"Whatever the hell that was, it was strong enough to...you know."Unhorse" all three "horses".", Anya said with a straight face.
"Oh, wow. Holy shit." Yuno echoed.
"Gaz, is it possible for us to assist you? I and Lass are Obsulyte users too, we can help!" Ikarisa suggested.
"Do what you must, kids. We are in this with way more young souls than you three, so join them if you want!" Gaz fell back to the soldier's formation.
"Time to cosplay as heroes, I guess?" Lass took off the jacket, being left with only a plain shirt.
"Whatever we do, we chose to do it. So let's get on with it." Anya cracked her fists, "Don't mind using my hands."
"Ok. Let's take the side route. We reach the horses again and recover our weapons, hoping they are intact. Let them take some fire in first and then we turn around and immediately start barraging them from both sides when we get armed again." Lass instructed them.
"Risky. What about requesting arms from the others?" Ikarisa proposed.
"The others need proof of how we are not against them. Having Anya beat the shit out of one of them until they saw the light is not exactly good bargaining for having them give us weapons...it's complicated. But we can't play kindergarten with Gaz and poke his ass in the middle of this hell to convince them to like us. He somewhat accepted us, now we need to prove it to others. Plus, you all heard me a second ago. We're going by my plan!" Lass leads the way.
"I'm down on that then. Right behind you!" Ikarisa followed along side Anya.