Fragments of wood rocketed across the room, bouncing off the opposite wall. A few of the sharper pieces even buried themselves in the wall, more than half of their lengths disappearing into the white, veneer-like surface.
“What the fu—”
“You murdered my son! Left him to be…”—She heaved a sob, her face a mess of tears. It was the woman who had fallen unconscious upon hearing of her son’s death earlier—“to be eaten by that freakish, abominable cult of lunatics.” She looked both ready to kill and ready to faint again.
“N-No, we-we didn’t!” Michael stammered. “It was already too late when we got there! It really was!” He was afraid, but his fear made him look guilty.
Sonja had stepped in front of Heath protectively, drawing her thin blade in anticipation of a confrontation. In the blink of an eye, the woman vanished with a boom only to reappear in the middle of the room, fist caught by Atla’s palm. As if she had expected it, the black-haired woman’s other fist came up as well, slamming into Atla’s side and sending her flying through the wall, an explosion of dust and debris covering Eik’s suite.
“Menka, please,” Atla coughed as she stepped out of the hole in the wall. “This is not right and you know it. They are representatives of new and important allies. You heard what Taf and Gillimi said. It was too late before they were even—”
“Don’t you say that shit to me, Atla! You’re almost as guilty as them. Why did you send these weaklings instead of someone we know? The Alliance promised they’d do whatever they could to—” the woman named Menka screamed, falling to her knees as her voice became a whisper. “Now my son is dead and I can’t get him back.”
Suddenly Gillimi’s red-skinned father appeared in the broken doorway, assessing the situation and joining Atla but taking a more physical approach.
“I can’t let you do that. They saved my daughter’s life,” he said, seizing the mother by the arm. Gillimi’s frightened face peeked around the shattered door frame, followed closely by Taf who couldn’t seem to decide between open-mouthed curiosity and discomfort. Taf’s family came into the room as well, the space suddenly very full.
“And they killed my son! Only you got your child back! I can’t forgive this!” she screamed. With an abrupt movement, she tore her arm free of the Gillimi’s father’s grip and disappeared in a blur. In the next moment her fist, covered in a blue, whirling soup of energy was right in front of Eik’s face, the shock wave hitting him before her punch ever did. With a shrill noise like broken glass, only centimeters from his nose, her fist halted completely as it came into contact with some kind of force field erected around Eik’s body.
A bald man was walking into the room with an arm raised towards Eik, his palm glowing the same gentle orange as the force field that protected him from Menka’s attack. He was dressed in a red uniform.
“Menka Tokanami, stop your foolish conduct this instant,” he boomed in a thick, regal baritone. “I will not allow you to tarnish the reputation of the Nidafjeld Alliance by assaulting our new associates so brazenly and blatantly.”
The woman spared him a furious glance but kept beating relentlessly on the barrier, each hit of her super powered fists sending ripples of crackling light down the otherwise invisible protective screen. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she wept, her face locked in an expression of pure madness.
“Menka Tokanami!” the bald man shouted, voice resonating like a stage actor. “With the authority granted to me by the 11th division of the Department of Internal Conduct of the Nidafjeld Alliance, I, Goran Gehun, vice leader of the 6th squad, demand that you lay down your arms and surrender yourself to my custody!”
If the guy wasn’t actively trying to save his life, Eik would have found his mannerisms to be infinitely annoying. She didn't even have any weapons to put down. As it was, however, he hoped he might get a chance to buy the man a box of chocolates or something if the crazed woman didn’t succeed in turning him into a red mist.
She continued to ignore his words as her punches grew more desperate while sweat sprung out on Goran Gehun’s forehead, his clenched jaw exposing the toil it truly was to attacks her attacks like that.
“Menka Tokanami!” he shouted, the theatrical tone suddenly absent.
Webs of cracks began to appear in the barrier as Menka’s onslaught only increased in intensity. Eik knew his time was almost up, but he didn’t even dare to move for fear of somehow interfering with the protective skill deployed across his body.
Atla and Gillimi's father exchanged glances as they coordinated a take down. Eik hoped they would hurry it up.
He glanced back at Sonja and Michael whose faces had gone pale. Heath still sat unresponsive on the couch, slumped comfortably across a sea of throw pillows. If the mother had been in her right mind, she would probably have given up on him in favor of his friends, but he had stood closest to the door so he had been chosen as the first victim.
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Frozen in place, a terrible urge struck him. Rationally, he knew it would do no good against an opponent of her caliber, and that, more than anything else, it would likely only stoke the fire of her anger even further. Even as Eik questioned his own sanity, he prepared for a counterattack against Menka’s unflinching bombardment. Standing there, defenseless and offenseless, completely passive as deadly attack after deadly attack rained down upon him, awoke an unbearable restlessness and unease in him that coaxed him into action.
For some reason, he had never thought to consume his own toxin like he had so many others, and now that the Profound Toxin was flooding his mouth, emerging from his tongue, he could conclude that he never would again. Extreme bitterness was the only appropriate descriptor he could think of. He wasn't affected by the toxic properties of it, but perhaps he could learn to be.
As his mouth became filled with the blue liquid to the point where his cheeks distended like balloons and it ran down his chin, he drew in a deep breath through his nose and locked eyes with Menka. With as much force as he could muster, he spat the entire payload into her face, the luminescent substance invading her eyes, nose, and open mouth. Where Goran had failed to derail her single-minded madness, this most certainly did.
She reared back like a frightened beast, scratching wildly at her eyes as she screamed shrilly. A deep sense of satisfaction engulfed him as he watched his own efforts bring her down, although it wouldn’t last long.
Gillimi’s father and Atla seized the opportunity to overwhelm Menka, understanding that a physical conclusion was the only way to end it. Taf’s mother and sister also jumped in to assist with the takedown while Goran released the barrier skill in favor of a control skill that looked a lot like Michael’s new Bind, glowing vines of light slithering up from the smooth floor boards to wrap around her neck, torso, arms, fingers, legs, feet, and even eyes.
Skills activated one after the other with no way to know who was doing what in the chaos, but seconds later, when everybody but Atla stepped back from Menka, the grieving mother had fallen unconscious.
Goran called in four more uniformed individuals, presumably his subordinates from the 6th squad of the 11th division of the Department of Internal Conduct of the Nidafjeld Alliance, all clad in the same red hues as the vice leader but with a slightly altered design. He ordered them to take the mother away.
When her form disappeared through the destroyed doorway, carried by one of Goran’s people, the strength left Eik at once as he collapsed backward, stumbling over a low living room table and falling headfirst into the throw pillows on the couch next to the unconscious Heath.
“Eik!” Michael shouted, healing ability already glowing in his palm as he ran for his friend.
Eik waved him off, trying to get his anxious heart under control with deep breaths. “I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m not hurt. That barrier… really saved me,” he gasped and looked up at Vice Leader Goran who nodded back.
“What in the hell was that?” Sonja roared with uncharacteristic fire, regaining her composure impressively quickly. “We fulfill the selfish request of the Alliance to the best of our abilities, bring back three children, who you foolishly sent there, by the way, from a cannibalistic death cult from another universe, and the first thing we’re thanked with when we get back is a flagrant murder attempt? What kind of shit show are you running here, if I may ask?” For an F-ranker scolding a whole room of people at B-rank or higher, she was really going at it hammer and tongs.
A few of them looked amused, some taken aback by the outburst, while others had the decency to show shame. Taf looked like he was developing his first crush.
Atla stepped forward from where she had assisted with the handoff of Menka Tokanami and bowed deeply. “I would like to extend my deepest apologies to all four of you for this intolerable incident, both to you as representatives of your world of Earth, but also as four esteemed guests of ours who have regrettably been treated in a way that should never have happened and never will happen again,” she recited, as if from memory.
Eik didn’t buy it. While he didn’t doubt that the murder attempt was an unforeseen occurrence, he just couldn’t make sense of Atla’s remorseful response when taking into account the relative insignificance of Earth compared to the sheer enormity of the Nidafjeld Alliance. It didn’t feel like they should care this much about an insult to a new world.
“What’s going to happen to her now?” he asked nodding in the direction of the doorway.
Atla exchanged quick glances with Vice Leader Goran before answering. “None of us here can really say that with certainty. She will be put through an extensive legal process to determine the most appropriate punishment for her crime.”
“And what reparations do you intend to offer us for this incident?” Sonja asked more directly than Eik might have dared. The grins that popped up on the faces around the room seemed to approve, at least.
“I—…” Atla hesitated, her eyes once again seeking advice from Goran, who answered in her stead.
“We will, of course, ensure that rightful compensation is provided in addition to any rewards for the successful rescue operation itself.”
Eik looked over at Sonja with an expression of tentative approval. It would be stupid to push this further than their position allowed. Who knew how far that tolerance for the antics of a bunch of F-rankers truly stretched. Her eyes seemed to agree.
“She won’t come after us again, right?” Michael asked, raising his hand like a schoolboy.
“They’re a minor family,” Atla said flatly.
Eik frowned in confusion. “That’s not what he asked.”
“Don’t worry about a minor family,” Gillimi’s father chimed in.
“Why shouldn’t we worry about a minor family? How strong are they?”
The red-skinned man bobbed his head from side to side as he thought. “One or two A-rankers at most, only a few B-rankers as well.”
“A-rankers? Are you bonkers, man?” Eik blurted before he could stop himself.
“Nothing will happen, Eik. I promise,” Atla said as Mikla walked in with a face that could not possibly have looked more surprised if the whole room had been filled with mewling kittens dressed in little tuxedos. “Good timing. We shouldn’t keep you here any longer after all you’ve been through. You deserve to go home and relax a bit,” she said and gestured for Mikla to rip open a fracture.
As they were essentially shooed through the fracture, Heath’s massive body slung over Eik’s shoulder, he couldn’t help but wonder if they would ever see anyone from the Alliance again after this. The coming days would be busy regardless.
Eik’s life seemed to have become a game piece for people magnitudes more powerful than him over night. At this point, he wanted nothing more than to get home to his cat and sleep for three days straight.