The following day, Mia had pulled in to one town and burrowed in to one neighborhood. She had read online it was a gated community, filled with small business owners and temporarily embarrassed millionaires, buying houses that many would be paying off for the rest of their lives.
"Pretty nice place." muttered Yuruko as they stepped up to the front door of a three-story home.
Mia sighed as she knocked. "If it isn't him, I have no idea who else it could be."
"Just have to deal with that if we get there." nodded Samuel, and the door opened to a middle-aged & balding man.
"Yes - oh, God, what is it?" he sighed, seeing their badges.
"You're Edgar Gray's father, correct?" said Mia.
"Yes. Necromaster, Edgar Gray, yes yes. I was just on the phone with a client, so if you've come to -"
" - we need to speak with you." said Mia and he sighed.
"Give me - one minute, then. A few minutes to close something. Assuming you're not here to bitch at me."
"…er, we're not." she said, sensing a hostility in him that Aimee said her family had. "We needed to ask you some questions."
"Fine. Come inside - I'll finish my phone call and speak with you after."
The four followed him to the dining room, and he stepped in to one room over. As they sat down, Mia saw a Third Reich flag before he closed the door.
"…uh." said Yuruko. "You saw that shit, right?"
"…I did." frowned Mia, now knowing why.
"This feels like a trap." muttered Serena and Samuel glanced back.
"Going to guess his son is like this, too."
"It would be a motivation to assassinate me, at least." muttered Mia. "Because I'm a lesbian."
"…uh." Yuruko frowned. "…I mean, that makes sense, but… why now? Why uh, only you?"
Samuel paused, wanting to add that it would've made more sense last year - after all, Boudoir had been colored lesbian pride most months - but he held back as the women spoke.
He didn't do so out of a feminist principle - he wouldn't have called himself one. He was too wedded to masculinity, taking pride in the ideal he had reached that a young Samuel had admired in comic books; but he knew his talents, and there was little need to speak now when Mia & Yuruko were smarter than him anyhow. In highschool, he had brute-forced together furniture in to configurations that the manufacturers never intended, and had resolved then he was better strong than smart.
In his first-year, Matoi had recognized these traits and changed his training for it. Though there were sessions where he would redirect acid she had ordered from Yuruko, there were many more where she corroded eight-inch deep holes through Outcast's armor, and both would marvel the next month at how quickly its durability rose. Funny how now, the first-year Matoi seemed so much more exaggerated than in his second & third. Either he had matured or he'd grown just as crazy.
Eventually, he mentioned Marisa, and Mia paused as the man came back and sat down.
"Yes, where were we. You wanted to ask about my son?"
"…yes." murmured Mia, sitting up. "Edgar Gray. Necromaster. Correct?"
"Correct. Why are you asking?" Sensing it, he held his hand up - " - you can't tell me."
"Is he still alive?"
"As far as I know, he's dead."
"As - as far as you know?"
He spoke with some difficulty. "Yes. I-I assume he killed himself, but your academy doesn't do a good job of notifying parents. The press heard about it before I did."
"…uh, he killed himself? Was there anyone that could have taken his Revenant?" said Serena.
"I-I doubt it. Have - have Necromancer's constructs shown up?" (Serena glanced at Mia, who nodded.) "He had a good enough reason to run away, but I doubt he did. All down to one fucking article. One fucking article was all it took to ruin his career. I still get horrible people coming by about it."
"What article?" said Mia.
"Most publications pulled it. Typical media - they won't ask for permission, they won't apologize, and four years later they'll act like it never happened. Journalists are all fucking scum. A young man signs up to help his country - to keep his country safe - and -"
" - what was the fucking article?"
" - there's no need to be hostile. I've done nothing but cooperate so far, haven't I? I mean, really, you barge in to my home unannounced and expect me to fucking relive something like this? I barely want to talk to you to begin with, but I know you would beat it out of me regardless." His head shook. "I have a copy of it, if you'll let me go get it."
"Fine. Go." said Mia, and he sighed as he stood and went back to his room.
"Is this fucking guy a Nazi?" whispered Yuruko, relevantly.
"I have no fucking clue what article he's talking about." whispered Mia. "I didn't find anything."
"Here." he said as he came back with drier eyes, handing them a cutout newspaper. The four read over it, and the more they read, the angrier they got.
"...he was in a fucking border patrol militia?" said Serena.
"Don't be so melodramatic. He was helping out law enforcement, yes. It wouldn't be needed if they were actually allowed to do their job properly."
"I - what?"
"Again, he was never violent towards anyone who didn't deserve it. They came in to the country illegally. Even if they were legal, they're still not American, and they never will be."
"Excuse me?" said Mia.
"I'm aware you're homosexual. I wouldn't expect you to understand something like that - actually having pride for the country you work for, wanting to keep it safe rather than just collecting a paycheck. Just like with Edgar, you already have some fucking box you're shoving me into in your head - of a Nazi or a white supremacist or whatever, when that couldn't be further from the truth. I know very well how he was treated at that fucking school."
"Did he also have a swastika on his wall?" said Samuel.
"What, the flag? I have plenty of country flags. Let me illustrate something for you - why Edgar did what he did. Let me - let's say you have a choice between two glasses of water. One of them is pure. The other has about - let's say thirteen percent shit in it. Which one are you going to -"
"- you can't fucking drink pure water." said Mia.
"It's obviously a metaphor. He figured it better to -"
"- I don't give a shit what your fucking - what your fucking metaphor means. You can't fucking compare people to -"
" - to what, to shit? I could've used any other substance, really, or I could've pointed to a multitude of statistics that show that this, this mass importation we have is nothing good. Especially for women, I might add, and homosexuals. I would think that -" - he sighed at the four's expressions. "...regardless. I'm sure the women raped in Germany would be glad to hear you're defending migrants. I'm not about to get in to a debate with a bunch of fucking teenagers. Is that everything you came to ask about?"
Mia glanced at Samuel and nodded. She had considered it before, but never found an acceptable target for it.
"Worldwide." she said, and in the next instant -
- an electrical current knocked him unconscious as she stood.
"I don't want him squirming for this." said Mia, and her tone made even Serena uneasy. "Samuel. We're going up to the roof."
"Wait, what?" said Yuruko as Samuel scooped him up, and the four walked outside. Stairs formed under Yuruko's boots as they walked up to the roof. "Please tell me we're killing him."
"Not yet." said Mia, one icicle forming as Samuel laid the man down. "We still need to lure his fucking son out."
◆◆◆
An hour later, the four stepped inside, still hearing the impaled man screaming on the roof.
"Cops are probably gonna come soon." muttered Yuruko, relevantly.
"Good." said Mia. "They can explain it to the press."
"Mind if we go destroy that?" said Samuel, gesturing to the bedroom. Mia nodded and the four went inside, line of country flags on the wall. Purple flames disintegrated the swastika on the wall, and she sighed as she heard a knock at the door.
◆◆◆
He had felt seven of Necromancer's constructs slip between his mind's fingers; Mesmer had dissipated once its leashes disappeared. It had taken months to cultivate these Revenants, and there was a fear he hadn't felt against opposing hosts in his student years. He had imbued first in to Jakuze and now in to Mia, this powerful but powerless dyke who taunted his efforts to murder her, this animal who had disintegrated any pretense of hesitation on his part to slice her throat and watch his blood fill her eyes.
He stomped out of his room, and the door shattered as he slammed it shut.
◆◆◆
The next morning, Yuruko was in the living room stitching the father's wound. Mia had frozen his lips shut after the neighbors had complained of noise, and their cruelty had already gone viral. She had let her mother know the reason - her father would imagine a good one until she could visit him.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"Time to get more time in the sun, dipshit." said Yuruko, and Samuel came over with the others.
"I doubt he's far." murmured Mia. "If he was tracking us, he already -"
- Serena out her hand to her mouth and the four paused. They heard footsteps in another spot in the house, and Samuel grabbed Edgar's father as the four huddled up. Mia planted one scarab on the wall, and in the next instant -
- an icy prison surrounded them just as the walls burst in to purple flames, and acidic explosions burst out in the next instant, shockwaves blasting through the entire house with the walls melting and the four laughing inside as they heard someone screaming outside, entire house reduced to rubble and collapsing all around them -
" - Worldwide." laughed Mia as the explosions cleared, and their frozen walls went down -
- to find themselves standing on top of the ruins of the home, torn lawn up ahead with the road beyond -
- and Edgar staggering back only a hundred feet away, hand shielding his eyes as the explosions still erupted; his father started thrashing in Samuel's armored arms -
" - guess he really didn't know." muttered Samuel -
" - time for Techies, dipshit!" shouted Yuruko, relevantly, and in the next instant -
- an explosion underneath Edgar blasted his right arm in to the sky, blood raining out of the grisly limb as it flew above, shrieking as he stumbled back.
"Don't do Blast Off." winced Serena, relevantly.
"Uh, I'm not gonna risk suicide vests -"
" - stay focused." winced Mia, blood raining up above from a lacerated sky, then growing spikes as they fell -
" - Outcast!" shouted Samuel; ghastly hands redirected the blood away -
- but in to a thousand droplets they burst then splattered all over the four, growing spikes as they hit Mia's left arm and dug inside; beside, Yuruko's revolver dumped six shots towards Edgar 100ft away -
" - Necromaster!"
- and a ball of blood burst up ahead of him to block it; in to the liquid went the bullets, bursting in to a thousand drops and flying towards Mia -
- but a swift wall of purple flames disintegrated it & the bullets still inside, Mia muttering to Yuruko as the four stepped back - " - don't use your xenocyclin shots until -"
" - I - sorry, yeah." she winced, free hand scrunching as she reloaded, Edgar shouting ahead -
" - I DID MY FUCKING RESEARCH, YOU KNOW! WORLDWIDE - BLACKBURN - FOR MEDICINAL USE ONLY, OUTCAST! I'VE BEEN WAITING THREE FUCKING YEARS FOR -"
- Mia's left arm shot for Serena's neck -
- but a swift set of internal scarabs disintegrated Edgar's blood in her possessed left arm, and streams of fog refilled her limb anew, Mia relaying quick his blood could possess limbs. Father's head on Samuel's chest, he started thrashing against his armor -
" - go ahead." said Mia, and in the next instant -
- Samuel threw him to the ground, and in to a bouquet of bones & blood he burst. They saw Edgar's face full of rage ahead as he picked up his decapitated right arm, screwing it back on his stump as Yuruko dumped another ten shots towards him -
- but the next scene was instant. His skin & bones ripped open and peeled away -
- dodging the first ten as he started stomping forward.
"Should get closer." said Samuel, but Mia's head shook.
"Not yet - he knows our Revenants better than we know his."
"Cheater." muttered Yuruko as Edgar dodged another twenty shots ahead; she reloaded and dumped one shot behind his mangled body -
- and the explosion staggered him forward; another explosion staggered him back -
"Blackburn!" "Outcast!"
- and the next scene was instant. A stream of fog flew in to the road and corroded a hole, ghastly hands guiding it for its underground trek, and in the next instant -
- a jet of acid shot through Edgar's body from below -
- but he swept with the speed of light back, stomping in to the hole that'd been left behind; a skeletal limb burst up ahead of Serena and bashed her right leg -
- snapping it backwards & out of her skin; she hit the ground screeching, fog focused on healing her wound as Samuel stomped the bone back down in to the ground, grunting with his weight keeping it down -
" - it's - pretty fucking strong -"
- Mia saw Edgar's skeleton drop out of his skin ahead, realizing it first, she shouted - " - BACK!" as she dragged Serena up & the three rushed back, and in the next instant -
- a cage of bones burst up around Samuel, and a geyser of blood claimed his armor from below, spikes growing & starting to fight through the unnatural metal -
- but the next scene was instant. A pillar of purple flame claimed his body -
- but Mia sighed as the heat only dissolved the blood but barely melted the bones, and in the next instant -
- a pillar of ice burst up below her feet, then a cage of bones burst up where she'd just been, narrowly dodging it with her new height. A puff of purple disintegrated the ground beneath Samuel; in to the sudden burrow he fell, Yuruko warning him to watch out for mines as he started his own burrowing underground, and Mia leaped back to the ground and stepped back with Serena & Yuruko -
- then realized they'd lost sight of Edgar ahead; the ground rumbled at their left, and in the next instant -
- bits of skin & blood oozed out of the ground at their right, and three geysers of peach-colored liquid shot towards them -
- but Mia & Serena swept back to dodge it, peach-liquid solidifying as soon as it hit Yuruko and trapping her to the ground. Setting her hand to it, she started thrashing -
- and to her left, Edgar's full flesh & blood burst out of the ground, fully reforming with a monstrous hand that shot right for her eyes -
- but a blue beam ripped his arm clear off as Samuel burst out of the ground behind him. Edgar turned and swept underneath one Outcast-punch, body peeling open again -
- and the next scene was instant. Skin & bones & organs melted in to liquid as he hit the ground, and the wave of entrails & gore started swimming away; behind, Yuruko snapped the geyser like a twig -
" - glucosepane." she winced- " - there's crosslink breakers, at least-"
"-mines?" said Mia quick, seeing Edgar slither in to another house's lawn ahead -
" - MEDICINAL QUEEN HAS ALREADY TOUCHED THAT LAWN!" shouted Serena, relevantly; Yuruko hit her detonator -
- and one scarabmine froze half of his liquid body solid in an instant, other half breaking away from the pack and slithering in to the house, body reforming to a top half with Edgar crawling like a zombie through the front door. Mia's scarabs already replenished, the four rushed in pursuit. As they passed by the frozen lower half, Mia threw another swarm of ice in to it to keep it at absolute zero, and as they went past the house's side -
" - wait, shit -" panted Yuruko, pointing left; Mia realized it first, and the two ran together along the house's left wall, coming in to the backyard -
- with an outdoor pool only 50ft away, Edgar's top half just about to hit the water; but the next scene was instant. A cloud of ice scarabs flew ahead and Yuruko dumped buckshot in to it, projectiles freezing in to flying icicles and hit the pool -
- and froze the pool solid just as Edgar's face smashed right in to it; he kept crawling desperately as Mia rushed up 30ft away, sweeping her palms forward -
" - Solar Beam!"
- but the next scene was instant. His body melted to liquid and dripped in to the ice -
- and Mia laughed as her quintillion-volt ray entered the pool; she heard him shrieking as it entered his mangled body, and she leaped in to the pool as she disintegrated the ice without a single ash left -
- and turned back to see his gore plastered all over the walls, still shaking & twitching, separating to try to disperse the electricity; above, the other three rushed up to the pool as all the gore solidified and shot towards Mia -
- but streams of fog filled them with gasoline; in to purple flames she burst -
- and the entrails retreated like a kid's hand over a hot stove, shooting to the northern wall, top half of Edgar reforming as he climbed out of the pool, still-beating heart attached out of the grisly aperture.
'...It scars the heart, too?' thought Mia. 'I never noticed.'
- and a sniper's Xenocyclin round shot right through it in a burst of blood & arteries -
" - N-Necroman-ster -" he panted as he hit the ground bleeding, and the next scene was instant; two women appeared ahead of him -
- and a set of red tendrils threw him with the strength of a million right and through the house; the second one sung her lungs dry -
- and Mia climbed out of the pool just in time to disintegrate them both without a single ash left, glancing right as her & her three saw the hole Edgar's flight had left through the house, fully healed body hitting the pavement 200ft away, blood scraping and coating the road as he rolled & rolled. The four spoke as they ran.
"Don't - don't touch that, the blood." said Mia, and a path of ice formed ahead, four rushing on to it. "Yuruko, er, just - just be careful with Xenocyclin."
Yuruko nodded, and they saw Edgar back in to another home's yard 100ft away -
" - next time, wear safety goggles!" she shouted, relevantly, and in the next instant -
- a cloud of fluoroantiamonic gas claimed his body -
- but Yuruko sighed as she knew it didn't kill, his skin adjusting & morphing within the poison cloud even as it burnt holes through him -
" - Solar Beam!" shouted Mia, sweeping her palms forward -
- and his body reformed wildly just in time to dodge the blue beam as he slipped out of the poison cloud, shouting once she'd snuffed it - " - you have - TWO HUNDRED FUCKING REVENANTS - I'VE BEEN FIGHTING FOR FOUR YEARS LONGER THAN YOU!"
- just in time for another cloud of poison to claim his body, blood leaked out of his ears as he staggered, liquid trying to absorb the acid, then shooting towards the four -
- but ghastly hands threw it right back to him, and one bullet entered the cloud -
- for an explosion blasted him clear through one house and another, Serena shouting " - goodbye, shithead!" as they rushed in pursuit again, ice path underneath their step as before.
"Nearly out of mines." muttered Yuruko. "Gonna have to rebuild all this shit."
"After we all say goodbye to this shithead." nodded Samuel, and the three tried not to laugh as they rushed through the second house, clear hole that'd been left by Edgar's flight ahead and Edgar staggering one arm down & 50ft away, and as the four rushed outside -
- the next scene was instant. A decapitated arm grabbed Yuruko by her labcoat from behind, hair extending around her neck and slitting her throat -
- but streams of fog filled her wound with steel, blood unable to permeate through as Samuel ripped its grip off of her; ahead, Mia saw Edgar rushing towards them, and in the next instant -
- his decapitated arm burst in to a cloud of blood, blinding the four -
- and Mia felt his monstrous hand burst through her stomach and out her back; her eyes burned purple and cleared her vision as the infection writhed towards her heart -
- just in time to see an Outcast-punch smash his skull in half 10ft away; she gagged as she disintegrated the foreign liquid, Edgar's skull reforming and another decapitated arm shooting for her behind -
- and a full dose of Xenocyclin buckshot blasted his chest just as its monstrous fingers dug in to Mia's neck, trying to snap her spine -
- but streams of fog filled the hand with liquid nitrogen, and a swift ice scarab froze it solid; it was still thrashing even as its temperature dropped, Mia's vision darkening as more blood claimed her eyes -
- and feeling his forward punch go through the previous wound -
- right in to a cloud of ice scarabs that froze his hand solid and slowed it instantly, temperature rapidly dropping as more fog filled him with nitrogen, another Xenocyclin buckshot that blasted his right leg clear off -
- and a final electrical swarm dug in to the grisly wound and knocked him unconscious.
◆◆◆
Edgar awoke bound in an underground room. Purple liquid was dripping down his chest and the four were standing over him.
"N-Necromancer." he panted; one construct appeared behind Mia, and in the next instant -
- it crumbled to dust as she laughed. "You still have your Revenant, don't worry."
"Yep." chimed Yuruko. "Covered your heart in Xenocyclin. Didn't even have to get your Revenant removed."
Mia stomped on his knee and bent it backwards. "Now. Why the fuck are you trying to assassinate me?"
He gagged out a few slurs until Mia kicked, shattering his leg. Bones and blood dripped out.
"I can do the same thing I did to your father." said Mia. "Start fucking talking."
"I-I fucking found out what you did." he said. "I-I fucking found out what you did to Laura, and -"
" - who the hell is Laura?"
"J-J-Jakuze told me what you f-fucking did to her - what you fucking made him - all of it!"
"Jakuze?" said Mia, glancing back to her three.
"No idea." said Serena.
"The p-person you had - you had to take the blame for it." he said. "After - after you fucking killed Laura, and -"
" - I've killed over two hundred people." said Mia. "You can't expect me to remember all of them -"
" - AUCTIONEER!" he shouted and Mia froze. "Y-Yeah - I can fucking tell you remember now, you worthless f-fucking cunt -"
" - Worldwide."
- and one scarab froze his mouth shut, three glancing at their leader.
"Who's Auctioneer?" said Samuel.
Mia pinched her temples and closed her eyes. "… Auctioneer. Auctioneer was - she was a professional hero that I murdered."
"Wait, what?" said Serena. "You never -"
" - I - because it wasn't, of course I didn't -" - she paused for a while, one eye open. "…she was trying to blackmail Aimee. She was trying to blackmail Aimee in my first year, and I murdered her."
The three paused. Samuel liked Mia more for it. She was a woman where legality made no judgment of wrong or right, keeping her own view that couldn't be swayed by opinions or laws.
"…fuck." muttered Yuruko.
"…you know." said Samuel. "Hirogane said something about Ryumi getting in to legal trouble…" The four laughed. "Guessing it must've been pretty bad."
"I… yes." Mia's head shook. "I'll - I'll tell you about it after. But there was some student who took the blame for it. Jakuze." Her eyes fell on Edgar. "Worldwide."
His frozen lips melted to boiling pink, and he screamed in agony as Mia stood over him again.
"I never fucking asked Jakuze to take the blame for it." she said. "I had no idea who he was until the next morning."
"B-B-Bullshit. I-I-I fucking t-tortured him for so long to g-get him to fucking g-give you up -"
" - and I have no idea how he knew, either - but if both of you are dead, then I don't care. Laura deserved to die, and so do you. I don't give a shit if she was your friend." She looked towards her three. "Time to go."
"Bye, dipshit." said Serena, stepping out with Yuruko. Mia nodded to Samuel and he followed them out.
"…w-w-when," gagged Edgar, " - w-when I-I-I fucking get out -"
" - I hope you do. You're a thousand feet underground. You have one week before you die of dehydration. You know where to find me."
She went past the doorway and turned, seeing Edgar break out of his restraints, then running towards her. He was a few seconds away when a cloud of fog blocked him in with a steel wall, and Mia laughed as she heard him screaming on the other side.
[END OF ARC: RAISE THE DEAD]