Zakki = Mewn
Vince = Alexia
[5273]
Vince = Alexia
[5273]
The lanky youth flopped back in the passenger seat of his low-slung Rolls-Royce and sighed. He felt totally wrung out after his pursuit and destruction of the larger of the two Titans that had been captured by the Ishikawa Group. There were days he wished that he was an accountant or some minor government functionary and not the Director of a branch of Cerberus Corporation. Other people had no idea what a stressful day at the office meant. The young agent who was assigned as his temporary driver glanced over at him but thought better of making any kind of comment given the look in the young man’s emerald green eyes. He just asked, “Where can I take you, Shihara-san?”
During the course of the last mission there’d been an idea forming in Zakki’s head and now he decided to bring it to fruition. He said, “Take me to Sengaku-ji Temple.”
The agent gave him a quizzical look but again concluded that saying anything was probably not a wise course of action. He simply swung the massive nose of the car out into traffic and did his job. As the pale young man was whisked through the streets of the city he stared out of the window lost in thought. He was thinking about one young shinigami named Alexia and the request he’d made of her. He wasn’t sure if using her to help him destroy the smaller of the two Titans was wise or not but her help might prove invaluable. It would also save him expending more of his agent’s energies. Circumstance hadn’t given him time to plan the first creature’s demise but with no reports of the smaller one’s activity he had a time window to work with.
Eventually the car came to a silent halt outside of the temple grounds and the tall youth instructed his driver to wait. He sprang out and made his way swiftly to his destination. The gnarled, ancient pine tree sat watching over the graves of the famous 47 ronin and it was there that he tied a simple message written on a piece of cloth. This was how he’d agreed to communicate with Alexia. The message read, “Meet me here at sunset today.”
It was the second day of the week and that was the time they’d decided she’d check for messages at the temple. All the pale ghost of a young man could do now was wait for his shinigami friend to appear (or not) at the appointed hour.
Once the sun began to lower, Alexia appeared as if on cue. The Senkaimon had dropped her off at the base of the hill, and she had to hike her up to the top. She was expecting nothing on the tree as usual, but was surprised to actually see Zakki standing there.
“And here I thought you’d forgotten about little ol me. If you’ve been standing here all day its a wonder you haven't gotten a tan,” she joked.
The pale youth laughed at Alexia as she appeared before him, “Tan? Me? You must be joking. No I just arrived a minute or two ago. I’ve got a problem and I think you can help me with it.”
It felt so odd to be here in this sacred space actually speaking to a spirit of the dead. It wasn’t that Zakki had any particularly odd feelings about the shinigami generally but here it seemed different. He shook off the deep sense of smallness in the universe and continued, “I’ve got Tita...er...Hollow I need to track down and kill. My team of agents is too tired to assist me so I thought of you. As I said before I think we can handle killing dead things just fine. It’s the living we need to avoid.”
Pointing towards his waiting car the tall young man said, “I have a general idea of where to start tracking it so if you’ll come with me we can get moving.”
The Director of Cerberus Tokyo lead his Death God friend to his car and gestured for her to get in. He mused, “Do you have any memory of riding in a car?” as the two of them climbed in. The driver looked alarmed for a moment but a sharp look from Zakki stopped him short. He had his instructions and now he was going to carry them out. The car slid away with a soft hiss and into traffic smoothly.
“You need to kill monsters and you thought of me. I don’t know if I should be offended or flattered,” Alexia said with a smirk on her face.
She followed him to the car, a nice-looking Mercedes Benz.
“I’ve ridden in one before. Father had limos though,” she said.
The driver looked at her with a bit of worry, and she winked at him before getting into the car. The interior was quite roomy, her eyes exploring the works.
“I suppose this comes standard in your group? Poking humor aside...why do you need my help?” she asked.
As they moved through the bustling traffic of Tokyo the ghostly pale youth explained his reasoning to Alexia, “While we certainly have the ability to track hollows and kill them, you’re an expert. I mean your whole reason for being is to fight the damn things. Why should I waste my time bumbling around when I’ve got resources like you.”
Zakki smiled wryly at the girl next to him and said, “You need to see how us humans work anyways.”
The car slid to a stop outside of an old neighbourhood with it’s traditional houses and the tall young man smiled, “This is where we get out. Let’s track that thing down!”
They clambered out of the car and it slid away from the curb again and left them waiting to begin their hunt.
“I know you aren’t telling me everything. You wouldn’t have needed me for something as menial as knocking off a hollow. So start talking, or I can just leave you on your own,” she said as they began to walk.
Due to her decision to not learn kidou, she wasn’t as adept in sensing reiatsu as proficient kidou users such as Adelaide. So they’d have to get a lot closer to the target before she could take action.
“Someone who means the world harm captured the hollows and they escaped. Me and some of my allies tracked one of them down and killed it. However in doing so I exhausted most of those allies and I couldn’t recruit new people fast enough to go after the second one. You were available, you know how to kill hollows and I’ve seen that I can trust you when things get rough.”
“Zakki the last time you told me it was someone who meant the world harm, I ended up in prison. So I’m sorry if I don’t feel all that trusting with the drip-drops of information you feed me. For the last time, I’m not asking you to share all your organization’s little secrets, I just want to know what I’m getting myself into. Now who was capturing these hollows, and what were they intending to do with them?” she asked.
There was a part of Zakki that wanted to snap at Alexia and ask her to quit questioning everything but that was extremely unlikely to produce positive results. He sighed, “I think I can tell you about that without giving anything away. You remember the man we captured in that incident at the hotel? His little group of nasties were the ones that somehow got control over the hollows. I have no idea how they managed it but there you go. I think they had a specific goal in mind but in all honesty we don’t know exactly what it was yet. My best guess is that they were going to use the hollows as some kind of terrorist weapon. Something went wrong and they were released before the Ishikawa Group was ready. That’s where we stepped in..”
Now Zakki shut his eyes and reached out for the threads of energy around him. Having located the dark ribbon of power that indicated the presence of a hollow he motioned the girl to follow him as he began moving into the narrow warren of alleys and side streets that made up this ancient neighbourhood. The tall, lean young man moved cautiously with his senses on alert for the slightest movement or twitch that might indicate the presence of the creature.
“Perhaps their idea was to let them loose on your group. They probably want their boss back, after all. When will these stupidos learn that you can’t control monsters?” Alexia said as she kept pace.
Zakki laughed and shook his head, “Apparently they never learn their lesson. Human history has been the process of people finding new monsters, trying to tame them and losing control of them. I hope some day it stops.”
“I’m not going to ask what you did with that man you took. I can only assume its something he deserved,” she said.
As they stalked quietly through the ancient houses their pace was steady but not rapid. There was the hint of a ribbon of energy that indicated the Hollow they were chasing down and the lanky youth began to follow it as he added, “Oh he’s getting what he deserves alright. No fear there.”
Her eyes looked up and down the buildings. The streets were only filled with cars driving back and forth, but there wasn’t any life in the streets. No children playing on the street, no flower shops, not even an ice cream truck. This place just looked sad.
“So besides our little fling in Cape Town...have you been anywhere else?” she asked.
The Director of Cerberus Tokyo shook his head and said, “No I haven’t been anywhere other than on a mad chase for the first Hollow through Tokyo. How about you?”
He added, “I think we’re on the trail now Alexia.”
“I’ve been getting around. Cape Town, then India, and most recently Rome. At the rate we’re going, I’d say the bad guys are going to run out of monsters pretty soon,” she said.
With any luck, that statement was probably true. The duo’s conversation was broken up by a howling screech, presumably coming from their target.
“Sound like that means one of two things. Either something bigger found our target, or the target found something to eat,” she said, breaking into a jog.
It didn’t take the long-legged young man to lock onto the ribbon of energy and once he did it took him even less time to break into an easy, long-legged lope that ate the distance easily. He may not have been quite as fast as Alexia with her enhanced abilities but most humans would have struggled to keep up with his jogging pace.
They turned a corner and stopped dead. The chitinous, shelled hollow with it’s thousands of legs and centipede-like rear section was sitting in the middle of the road chittering to itself as it closed in on an unsuspecting Advent who clearly wasn’t aware of her abilities and stood dumbfounded in front of it.
Without hesitation Zakki unleashed two glowing orbs of plasma into the side of the thing. His eerie glow enveloped him in a veil of stars as the terrible power he held in his body turned the air into molten death. He shouted at the girl, “Run! Just run!” and two more swirling balls of molten atoms collided with the creature and began burning through its shell.
Alexia had to wonder if this hollow was a relative of the beast she’d killed on that cargo plane a while back. As the female advent ran by, she examined the creature from...well what she assumed was head to toe. Its armored exterior, while being slightly burned away from Zakki’s initial attack, was already beginning to reform itself. That had the potential to be really annoying.
“And this was the smaller one? Can’t imagine what the bigger one was like for you,” she said as she drew her blade.
The tall youth shrugged and smiled his crooked smile, “Oh we managed to barely scrape by killing it you know. I mean it isn’t like I have any resources or anything. Enough chatting! Now it’s time to give our friend here something to think about.”
Manifesting his first stage of awakening left his pale flesh covered in the swirling shapes of galaxies as a glow of radiant power filled the air and a pair of icy green eyes regarded their enemy coolly. Beside him he heard Alexia readying herself.
“Chill to the bone, Kōri no jotei,” she declared, the nine-foot weapon forging in her grip.
The skittering, scuttling creature had spun towards them and was coming at them in a rush. Again the particles that composed the air around them were agitated violently by Zakki’s incredible ability to manipulate the building blocks of the universe and two more pulsating orbs of plasma flew towards the thing but it kept on coming.
Leaping out of the way and landing on a high wall the Advent shielded himself with a cocoon of pulsating energy that would repel his enemy’s attacks. His voice echoed out to Alexia as he said, “Time for you to do your thing!”
“My thing? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Alexia responded as Zakki leapt out of harm’s way and made her the prime target.
As it charged her she jumped upward. At the same time the hollow lowered its head, which ended with her landing on top of it. She stabbed down into its head, dragging her blade along its body. As she did, she could hear the chattering of something beneath its surface.
“A bug filled with bugs. Perfect,” she said, reaching the end of its body before jumping off.
“Ugh,” she said with disgust as the end result was witnessed.
A white pus-like substance oozed out of its open wound, filling the gap and hardening almost instantly.
“Going to take a lot more than a few scratches and burns, Zakki,” the Duelist called out.
The lanky youth furrowed his brow and said, “Well it’s going to be burns for a bit until I get the full extent of my power working for me. But the more times I use the plasma on this thing the more it will be damaged. Besides, Alexia, it produces this stuff called radioactivity and that’s gonna mess with bugface there big time!”
Zakki wondered if perhaps his companion knew about radiation and was about to be horribly offended but now was no time for considering feelings. He sent more pulsating, deadly orbs of pure energy in the thing’s direction. The atomic structure around them violently agitated as they flew and the Director of Cerberus Tokyo sent them in low to strike at the thousands of creeping legs that propelled their enemy.
But even as he loosed his orbs at the creature it retaliated with a spray of caustic acid from some gland hidden underneath it’s body. The lanky youth’s fast reflexes had him bringing his energy shield to life but not fast enough. Some of the burning acid hit him across the arm and chest and he cried out in agony as it burned into his flesh. Despite the searing pain that felt as if his chest was being torn off he managed to raise the shield to prevent any more damage. His knees went weak and his head began to spin from the pain but he gritted his teeth and stayed upright.
The ugly being had a surprise for Alexia too. As it threw the acid at her a long tendril of sticky, mucosal slime shot out and wrapped itself around her leg and began to yank her toward itself with terrifying strength and rapidity.
“You’re telling me you have to warm up before you do anything big? What a rip-off,” Alexia said as the Advent delivered his next attack.
The creature’s counterattack was rathering sickening as it spewed acid and goo towards both fighters. Zakki was hit first, and it became obvious that touching it was a big no-no. As the attack came in her direction, she forged a small wall in front of her to block it. However once it made contact, it quickly eroded the barrier. Immediately afterward the tendril of slime wrapped around her leg and tugged hard, the Duelist falling to the ground, though she managed to keep her grip on her weapon.
It quickly began to reel her in, its horrendous underbody chittering with legs as it seeked to do ungodly things to her. There was undoubtedly some sick creep who could make this into a weird fantasy.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” she said, jabbing her blade into the nasty material.
It froze over rapidly, and a swift slash latter her bonds were broken. She quickly scrambled to her feet as the bug bastard spewed even more acid at her. Just before she jumped upwards, she could feel it ooze beneath her feet and her sandals vanished almost instantly.
She landed on one of the shorter buildings, frowning as she looked at her bare feet.
“You get your chest melted, and I lose my shoes. I think I came off worse,” she called out.
“You try having half the skin on your body burned off and tell me you came off worse! Jesus that fucking hurts!”
Instead of swearing powerlessly at the ugly creature there was a familiar tingle in the Director of Cerberus’ body that told him he’d be able to exact some deadly retribution for the hollow’s brazen and foolish attack on him that would make mere words fade to nothingness in comparison. The atmosphere in his immediate surroundings found itself bombarded by a concentrated dose of energy that agitated it into violent action. Atoms collided and at the precise moment of their highest impact Zakki shouted to Alexia, “Get down now! Don’t look!”
All at once the entire world erupted into blinding light as Zakki drove a violent reaction into explosive life and blasted their attacker with the sere wind of radioactive death that he created from the spiritual force of his body. A tremendous amount of energy filled every spare inch of the world for a moment and then everything went still.
Upon Zakki’s warning, Alexia dropped to the ground, already suspecting what she would see for the third time: a really big bright explosion. Even though she closed her eyes, the blinding light seemed much more...powerful than the last time she’d witnessed it.
In a flash it was over, and the Duelist got to her feet, noting that the area around her was a lot more singed than how it started. If the neighborhood hadn’t been so dead, she’d have been worried about the collateral damage. But a couple of damaged buildings seemed menial compared to the-
“Oh damn,” she said, looking upon what remained of the target.
Though mostly incinerated by the plasma release, there was an abundance bugs crawling across the ground, desperately trying to reach one another in an attempt to reform itself.
“You know, one might call this overkill,” she called out, hopping down to street level.
Many of the creatures had been turned into either ash or puddles of goo, so she had to watch her step. A manicure of bugs is not what she wanted out of this mission. She aimed her released weapon at the remaining bugs, icicles carving through the weak survivors.
“You owe me a new pair of shoes,” she said to Zakki, still trying to be humorous about his wounds.
Hopefully he wasn’t too mad about his wound.
It had almost been too easy and it made the pale youth wonder why that was the case. On the other hand it had been much smaller and weaker than the one he’d had to tackle with Richard and his team of agents. The lanky young man was constantly underestimating his own powers and this was the result. Still he hadn’t minded Alexia tagging along, even if it had been largely pointless to have dragged her into this situation.
He was about to turn on his heel and walk away but there was a brief flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye. There was also the spiritual pressure that seemed to be coming from behind the corner of a house. Zakki began to take a few steps towards it but the bearer of that energy had other ideas. There was the sound of hydraulic pistons being compressed and a gigantic metal skeleton moved into view. The pale young man’s eyebrow slowly rose as memories seized him. The metal monstrosity facing him was the one Emily had used to toss him around like a rag doll when she’d kidnapped Yusuke so many years ago. It was being piloted remotely because there was no sign of anyone controlling it from the cockpit.
It came towards them and a barrage of energy exploded from the cannons mounted on either arm. Zakki dove to one side and rolled behind a convenient house. He only hoped that Alexia would be able to get out of the way in time to avoid being singed. He cursed himself as he moved. The whole goddamn thing had been a trap.
The battle was over. As Alexia cleaned up the stragglers, she felt a signature suddenly appear into their radius. This was odd, as it seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Why it had it chosen now to appear? By the time she turned around to even lay eyes on the new arrival, its attack was flying toward her. The Duelist threw herself to the side, the projectile making contact with the building behind her. Glass and concrete flew in all directions from the explosion, kicking up debris into the air.
“Just the hollows, huh Zakki? I didn’t realize we also had to deal with giant robots of death,” she called out.
“No one told me about this thing still being around! I’ve had it used against me before but this time I think I’m ready for it.”
Experimentally he flashed his arm out quickly and barely avoided the cannon fire that scorched past it. This thing was clearly good at targeting, It would make simply standing in front of it difficult. If the lanky youth could manage to ramp up his power to full capacity he had a trick for it but that wouldn’t happen right away.
Even shielded he didn’t want to find out exactly how much energy each of the shots carried although it seemed that he might still have to risk it. He had an idea that would trip their little friend up. All he had to do was get close enough to Alexia to tell her. This would require a distraction.
There was a tree overhanging the area where the robot stood and with his typical accuracy Zakki used two energy orbs to strike a branch. The moment that heavy chunk of old wood fell onto the robot he sprinted the distance between himself and his shinigami companion and narrowly avoided the cannon fire that he drew once the machine had untangled itself.
Hurriedly he whispered to Alexia, “Can you ice up the area underneath it? I’m willing to bet that if we can get it to move quickly on that ice that we’ll have it on it’s side in no time!”
“So your plan is trip the giant walking death trap? I’m curious to know what exactly you’re going to do to it afterwards, but we’re pressed for time,” Alexia said.
She peeked around the corner, seeing the fallen tree already being turned into dust by the mech. Reaching out with one hand, though not exposing it in the open, a small circle of ice forged in the street. It didn’t take long for it to be shot by the cannons again. The purpose of it though was to see how fast it targeted and fired. She didn’t want to toss her weapon out there casually. The Duelist repeated the process a few more times, counting the seconds in her head.
“Okay...we can do this. The bot targets in about two to three seconds and fires a second and a half later. We’re gonna need a consistent target so...you’re going to have to get out there. Keep its eyes, or whatever it has, on you. Clear?” she said.
“Clear. I’ll draw it’s fire. Just do what you do and try to make sure I don’t get fried. Once you’ve done your bit I can finish it off.”
The shimmering shield of radiation that had served him in good stead for many years came to life as he began to ready himself for the sprint across the open space. Speed was never an issue for him but he didn’t relish becoming a crispy critter. He was fine when he was the one doing the crisping but this was a different scenario.
He launched himself across the space as fast as his potentiated powers would allow him and felt the impact of the thing’s weaponry against his shield. It deflected the blasts as he dove behind a building and waited for Alexia’s next move.
As the advent prepared for his rush, Alexia quickly made her way up the building they had been using as a...brick shield? Whatever the pun, she scaled the fire escape, still wondering how gods of death weren’t able to use shunpo vertically. They have spirits that gave them powers of all shapes and sizes, yet we couldn’t jump up?
“Submit all complaints in writing,” she muttered as she waited for the opening.
While the mech was intimidating in its size and power, she could see its major flaw was the pause in its attacks and targeting. For one it could only fire at two targets at most, and even then it needed to have them in sight. It had an open cockpit though, so she assumed there was normally someone in control of it. Who had control of this thing, and why did it want Zakki dead so badly?
“Well let’s topple it and then we’ll find out, now won’t we?” she said, aiming carefully before throwing her zanpakuto in a guided arc. It plunged into the ground beneath the mech’s...feet, slowly turning the battlefield into a practical skating rink.
“Hopefully its not wearing spiked boots,” she joked.
The monstrous robot lurched forward as Zakki stopped dead in front of it. He was right at the edge of the ice and clearly the operator of the machine hadn’t been able to react in time because the robot took a step forward onto the ice. There was clicking and whirring as it tried to compensate for the sudden loss of traction on the ice but it was too late and one leg slid gracelessly out from under it and sent it sliding and toppling over onto its side.
As it fell the lanky, tall young man sprang into action. His entire body was a shimmering mass of pure light as he shaped the stuff of the universe into molten spears of glowing energy. The release of power from the molecular fusing of particles sent a shockwave through the surrounding area as he formed and then flung these plasma spears to pin their assailant down. The plasma burned and destroyed the weapon arrays mounted on its flanks and left it laying in a seemingly helpless heap on the ground.
Cautiously the pair approached after Zakki gave the all clear. He looked analytically at it and over at Alexia as he moved closer. He said, “Why don’t you give it a poke with that weapon of yours. Let’s see if we’re safe to have a closer look.”
The robot actually slipping on the ice looked almost cartoony, but the spears forged by Zakki were no laughing matter. It was nice to see him throwing something that wasn’t radioactive balls. Alexia saw as Zakki signaled an all-clear, but was still hesitant she hopped down to approach. She had resist the temptation to laugh as he suggested she poke the thing with her zanpakuto.
“Is that your technical opinion? I don’t know about that, there’s a cliche in which giant death machines tend to kick in some self destruct function after they-,” she described before the duo began to hear a repetitive sound.
“Oh you got to be kidding me,” she exclaimed, already beginning to cautiously back up.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
“I think its time to leave,” she said to the advent, as her pace now scaled to a run.
As he backed away quickly an unexpected sound filled the air. In spite of everything Zakki was laughing. Emily was, at the very least, gifted with a sense of humor. Of course it would have to have a self-destruct mechanism. When they were a safe distance away they turned to look and what they saw was strange to say the least. The whole robot seemed to be slowly dissolving into a pink cloud of smoke. There was no explosion or anything dramatic. It just vanished and when the cloud had dissipated there was a small puddle of molten metal.
Turning to Alexia he said, “Well I guess we won’t know who was driving that damn thing quite yet. I’ll have to find that out on my own.”
In a more conversational tone he added, “Do you have anything else you need to do on Earth or are you off back off to...what was it again....Rukongai? It was nice to have you along Alexia.”
Alexia felt dumbfounded...what had this all been for? She couldn’t even respond to Zakki’s words for a brief period as the ridiculous conclusion ran through her head. Eventually though she was able to forge some words together.
“I don’t even know what to say about what just happened. I’m not sure if I want to know who was responsible for that, because it seems like they have a twisted sense of humor. I am perfectly fine with the fact that the hollow is gone and the mission is completed. So unless you feel like telling me anything, like are you from another planet, the name of your group...things like that, then our business is concluded. And no, I’m not going to a hotel with you,” she said.
Zakki laughed for a moment before adding, “I wouldn’t consider going to any hotels with you ever again. I’m not an alien and no, I am not telling you who I work for, that’s st not my style. However I am thankful for your assistance. I couldn’t have done this as easily as I did without you. Thank you.”
Bowing to the shinigami the smartly dressed Advent pivoted on his heel and stalked in the opposite direction with his typical cat-like grace. He wondered what expression Alexia had on her face but he didn’t turn around to find out. His burns were starting to throb painfully and he wanted to get home and get them treated.
“Don’t worry I’m sure they make a cream for those kind of burns,” she called out to him as he walked away.
While she was ready to return to the Seireitei, a prickly feeling under her feet reminded her of something.
“Hey, I told ya you owe me a new pair of shoes,” she called out, taking off after him.
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