|
Suddenly Memories: Ren
By Dac
The three of them were tossed into the air and landed on the concrete. Puma landed evenly on his feet, but Ren and Tack were not so lucky. Ren dissipated into oxygen as she fell, and Tack exploded into sand. Both of them pulled themselves together, but Tack was cross-eyed and panting on the ground. Puma looked over the railing at their pursuers, who were taking aim with the shockwave cannon as Ren shook Tack roughly.
“Come on, tiny,” she growled. “Pull it together. We need to get out of here!”
“I love you,” moaned Tack deliriously. “Be my girlfriend.”
Ren tossed him to the ground in disgust and looked over at Puma, staring at the cannon with a look of adoration.
“It’s beautiful,” he said softly. “Look at that device. Absolutely beautiful.”
“GET DOWN!” she cried, tackling him to the ground. Another blast sailed over their heads, ripping the railing to pieces and cracking the warehouse wall behind them. Standing up, she dusted rubble off herself, shaking her head disdainfully. “Are you two going to be any help at all? Or are both of you just going to jerk off over what you’re staring at?”
Puma glared at her. “It’s good technology down there.”
“It’s not what Qwirtle wanted,” growled Ren. “We’re here to find some technical gear that will help you send us all home, not a giant fucking gravity gun.”
“Well we didn’t get that,” said Puma.
“Then we need to get the fuck out of here,” said Ren. “Come on.”
She seized his arm, but Puma pulled away angrily, glaring at her. “What about that?” he demanded, gesturing to the cannon.
“You’re not taking it home with you, if that’s what you mean,” she snapped.
“That’s not what I mean, no,” he shot back. “You’re just going to leave it here for them to use?”
Ren mulled it over for a moment and looked over at Tack, who was making a sand angel on the ground in his own sand deliriously. She tried not to laugh and stared coldly back at Puma.
“Yeah,” she said. “Is that a problem?”
“You bet your ass it is,” said Puma. “That thing’s evil. Brilliant technology, but evil. We’re not letting them use it.”
“Who gives a fuck?” snapped Ren. “It’s not our problem, Puma. Let’s get out of here before...DOWN!”
Another blast shattered the supports for the walkway they were standing on. They crashed to the ground, Tack giving a shriek as he slid to the floor, and regathered behind some crates. Puma glared at Ren.
“You gonna fly away, gas girl?” he growled. “I’m pretty sure it’s our problem now, if it wasn’t before. Tack and I can’t get out of here without trying to get past that thing.”
“Shut up,” snarled Ren. “I’m thinking.”
***
“Shut up, I’m thinking,” she growled.
Powerbomb leaned against the railing, his eyebrow raised. They were standing on top of the reservoir outside the city limits, looking down at the shed below. It looked innocuous enough, but Ren was scowling, trying to figure out a way inside before raising the alarm among their quarry, but her condescending partner was getting on her nerves.
“Well, let me know when you think of something,” he grinned. “I’d love to hear what you come up with. You ever hunted like this before?”
“All hunts are the same,” muttered Ren. “It only matters what side of the fence you’re on.”
“Hah!” laughed Powerbomb. “Right. Keep telling yourself that when they have their weapons aimed at your face.”
“Weapons,” sneered Ren derisively. “I can turn into gas.”
“These are hero hunters,” Powerbomb sneered right back. “Before they went rogue, their job was to hunt down superhumans. They put DarthJ3sus in the infirmary when they took off without so much as breaking a sweat. They know what they’re doing.”
Ren looked over at him, smiling coldly. “You think you’re better than me,” she said. “Is that why Data sent you out with me? To indoctrinate the new recruit?”
“Something like that.”
“Well let me ask you something. If you’re so good, why not go Godzilla on their arses, step on their building right now?”
“They’ll be ready,” said Powerbomb. “They already know we’re here. Their gear will have lit up like a Christmas tree the minute we got close. They’re waiting for us to make the first move.”
Ren stared down at the shed. “Really.” Her mouth twisted into a cold smile. Powerbomb watched her closely, frowning suspiciously, when she leapt off the reservoir. “Let’s not disappoint them!”
“Oh damn it!” he cried. “Ren, wait! Stop!”
***
“No wait! Ren!” shouted Puma, but it was too late to stop her. She vaporised before his eyes and shot over his head, headed straight for the crew manning the giant cannon. They were aiming the gigantic barrel downwards and rotating the entire turret around towards the crates the others were crouching behind. They didn’t even see her drift over them and rematerialise behind them. She crouched behind another crate and sized them up. The crew was small, only five people, but she knew the situation was about to devolve into an even bigger mess; she couldn’t hear if an alarm had gone off, but either way the booming of the cannon would bring all the security personnel in the facility down on them.
In that case, they’d have to be dealt with quickly.
She stepped out from behind the crate, walked calmly up behind the men, and snapped the nearest one’s neck. The others didn’t notice, but after she ripped the knife out of his belt and buried it in the next one’s neck the remaining men tried to pull out their handguns. Before they could aim, she dissipated again into a green cloud and swept towards the main gunner. He swept his hand in front of his face, trying to clear the gas away, but to no avail. The others held back from firing while she surrounded their friend, but a few seconds of coughing and spluttering later, he fell to the ground at their feet.
They opened fire at her and she had to laugh. The bullets passed harmlessly through her as she hovered there, sizing up the last two. Once they realised bullets weren’t doing anything, both men went pale. One froze, staring at her in shock as though only just realising what she was, while the other broke and ran. Her gaseous form tensed in mid-air and then shot after him, leaving his accomplice standing mutely in shock. She chased after the man and solidified above him, dropping on top of him and sending him crashing to the ground. He raised his head when she kicked roughly at his face. He made a dull choking sound and fell again.
She turned towards the last man, still motionless at the base of the cannon, staring at her. She stood up and stalked menacingly towards him. He did not move. His skin had gone grey and his eyes were blank. She walked right up to him before he moved at all, and when he did it was merely to sink to his knees. Taking his gun, she pistol-whipped him on the spot and left him lying there, unconscious.
She studied the cannon’s control panel hurriedly, but the layout was completely foreign to her. It was a series of buttons and coloured switches, none of which were labelled very well. There was a screen as well, with a diagram of the cannon accompanied by a series of arrows and symbols. She stared at it all incomprehensibly, trying to figure out if there was a kill switch or something she could do to disable the whole thing, when there came a cry from behind her. The door to the rest of the facility had burst open and men were pouring into the room.
“Damn it,” she muttered, and shot the panel repeatedly. It hissed and sparked every time she did, but the machine’s audible humming died down. She sighed in slight relief, but another shot rang out from behind her and she twisted in sudden pain. Clutching at her ear, she felt blood on her fingers. Turning, she saw a dozen men approaching her from behind, all with guns drawn.
“Drop it!” one of them shouted.
She tossed the gun to one side, breathing heavily as they all approached. Her eyes scanned them all quickly as they approached slowly. She picked the one who had given her the warning shot, his face pale and lined with scars, his gun smoking slightly. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on him, and he tensed in response. She drew her lips back, baring her teeth in anger, but the guards didn’t falter in their approach.
Rapid gunfire echoed throughout the warehouse from somewhere to her right, and several of the men fell to the ground, crying out in agony. Instantly, Ren vaporised and shot off the ground, startling the few guards who still had an eye on her. She sped over to where the gunfire was coming from and found Puma standing atop a pile of crates, firing a submachine gun into the guards below, who were scattering for cover before trying to return fire. Ren materialised on the crates behind him and stared up at him. He didn’t take any notice of her, still firing into the men below.
“YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STAY WITH TACK!” she screamed over the gunfire.
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE IN MORE DANGER THAN HIM, PERSONALLY!” roared Puma in response. “YOU’RE WELCOME, BY THE WAY!”
“IT’S UNDER CONTROL!”
He gave her a withering look and leapt off the crates, reloading in mid-air and landing smoothly on the ground, firing short bursts at the guards still scrambling for cover. On the crates above him, Ren cursed and dissolved, flying down behind them and picking her targets.
***
She slowly seeped in underneath the front door of the shed, taking in her surroundings and her targets. The hero hunters were clustered around in small groups. There were eleven in all, spread out through the shed, talking in voices too low. She slowly crept in, flying up behind the nearest one. He continued talking to his friend, oblivious, as she silently drifted forward. At the last second, his friend looked suspiciously over his shoulder, and she lunged forward, engulfing both of them. They began to choke, clutching at their throats, as the others looked up in alarm. One of her victims blundered sideways and out of her reach, and she ignored him, focusing on the other, whose face was going dark. He gasped for breath but only sucked in gas, and fell to the floor. His eyes rolled back and his tongue fell out as he dropped, and Ren turned towards the rest of them.
She started slightly. They had all pulled on gas masks.
She hovered uncertainly as they stared at her, their faces hidden by darkened visors. For a moment none of them moved, and then two of them picked up some long, cylindrical tubes. Ren went for the door when one of them fired the tube and she was hit by a blast of compressed air, slamming against the wall and billowing outwards. Dazed even in her gaseous form, she regathered just as another blast hit her. The two hunters advanced while the others hung back, watching. She gasped with pain as blast after blast knocked her around, and she materialised without thinking, stunned. She fell to the ground and coughed up blood, and the two men were upon her.
“The Leader’s making them even stupider,” one sneered, his voice distorted through the mask. “A headfirst assault? Really?”
“Trying to catch us offguard?” laughed the other. “Look how well that’s turned out for you.”
She kicked the second in the groin and he grunted with pain, twisting away, when the first gave her a vicious backhand, and the other eight joined the fray, each of them kicking her viciously. She tried to dissipate, but one of the compressed air cannons caught her and she rematerialised again, unable to hold her gaseous form together. The men slowed their assault as one of the men came forward with a can of gas and a cigarette lighter. She raised her head, blood streaming down her nose, as the man approached.
“We were prepared for any of you to come after us,” he said softly. “Even you, gas girl. Now let’s see some gas burn.”
The men held her down as she started to struggle, staring at the can as he unscrewed it. His face still obscured by the mask, he took slow, deliberate movements to open it, and closed the distance between himself and Ren even slower. Bending down, he stared into her face, and she saw only her own reflection in the dark visor. She spat blood over it and the man straightened up, lifting the can to pour.
There was a sudden crash the entire shed seemed to rock. Several of the hunters, including the man with the can, dropped what they were holding as they looked around in sudden, tense surprise. Ren tried to pull free from the men holding her, but they held their grip firm. Another resounding crash shook the building again, and then came a third which ripped the whole roof free. Everyone looked to the sky in amazement as the roof flew away, but the sky was suddenly obscured by a huge figure glaring down at them.
“That’s a field goal,” boomed Powerbomb. “Your play.”
The hunters cried out as he swept his hand into the cabin, scattering them. He scooped up Ren and one of the men holding her and moved swiftly backwards, tossing the hunter off into the distance as he set Ren on the roof of the reservoir.
“If you’re quite done trying to kill yourself, I’ll take it from here,” he grunted.
She tried to say something bitter in response, but only succeeded in hacking up a cough, doubling over as more blood emerged from her throat. Powerbomb shook his head dismissively.
“Meh, you’ll be fine,” he said. “Unless your rack’s fallen off, I don’t think there’s much to worry about. I’ll handle this. I mean, I have to, now that I’ve made myself a giant fucking target for them! That’s what I get for saving you, I guess.”
He stomped back towards the shed, where the hunters were climbing over the walls. Ren managed to count seven of them as they emerged, each of them wielding grenade launchers or similarly outsized weapons. Ren managed a weak smile and forced herself through the pain to dissolve, and she flew back into the firefight.
***
Puma fired swiftly into the guards, cursing under his breath as he looked around for Ren, trying to spot where she’d flown off to. His eyes flew back and forth as he edged behind cover, keeping the guards pinned down. Ren watched from behind the guards as they tried to sneak around past him, but he always spotted them and fired warning shots to keep them back. They were spread thin, but Puma was struggling to keep them at bay. Ren watched and moved around to one of the other men, landing boldly behind him. He turned at the noise, but she dropped a knee into his face. He fell backwards as she snatched up his gun and sneaked around to the next lot. Two men were crouched, preparing to vault their crate and open fire, when she came up behind them and smashed their faces into the crate. Both fell with bloody noses, stunned.
“REN!” he heard Puma cry. “Where the fuck are you?! Let’s go!”
She looked up in time to see another guard emerge from cover in a panic, and Puma put a bullet in his hand and leg. He fell to the ground, his gun out of reach, but the distraction was enough for the remaining guards, who all emerged as one. Puma pivoted, trying to take them down without killing them and successfully dropping three, but there was still too many of them.
A bullet passed through Puma’s calf and he fell to the ground with a cry of pain. Ren stared in shock as Puma dragged himself behind cover as the three remaining guards advanced on him. One sprang around the crate only to see his hand blown into pieces, leaving him to crawl away in shock; the other approached more warily after that. He jumped over the crate and Ren heard a cry of pain from behind it, followed by a clatter as the man kicked his gun away. She could see the man standing upright, his gun aimed at Puma, still out of sight. Cursing, she dissolved on the spot as the man called out.
“I have your friend, little girl!” he announced. “Come out now or I’ll shoot him!”
“Go fuck yourself,” spat Puma bitterly.
The man punched him in the head and knocked him backwards, glaring down at him.
“If you want to talk, answer me some fucking questions,” he said, digging his gun into Puma’s brow. Puma winced as the hot barrel burnt his skin. “Who do you work for?”
“No one you know,” hissed Puma.
“Don’t get smart with me,” snarled the guard. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“At the moment?” grinned Puma. “Trying to leave.”
The guard punched him again and Puma grunted as the man stood back up, looking furiously around to see where Ren was. She was nowhere in sight, even as the man cried out again.
“You’ve got ten seconds, girl!” he roared. “Nine. Eight. Seven. Six...”
Puma looked blearily up at him, but the man’s voice trailed off. Puma’s eyes widened as something hazy wrapped around his head and the man began to have trouble breathing. His own eyes flew wide and were inexplicably bloodshot. Puma shoved him away and he stumbled, spitting blood as he went. The haze he sucked straight in with every inhalation and his skin seemed to go gray. He fell to his knees and stretched a hand out pleadingly to Puma, who recoiled in terror and disgust. Blood dripped from the man’s nose, mouth, eyes and ears as he collapsed to the ground, his arm still outstretched. He gave a few more patchy gasps before he went still.
The haze seeped out of his nose and Ren slowly steadied herself above the man, swaying slightly. Puma stared up at her in horror as she stood up straight and looked down at him disdainfully.
“Come on,” she growled, as though nothing had happened. “Let’s go.”
She seized Puma by the arm and he tried to pull away feebly, but she got a tight grip and dragged him away.
***
Powerbomb shrank to about half his gigantic size as he ran back towards the hero hunters. One of them fired a shell at him as he ran. He dodged to one side and jumped at the offending hunter, landing on the ground in front of him as he batted the man to one side with a hand as wide as the man was tall. Ren, flying overhead, watched as he swept dirt at the nearest hunters, while the others ran back to put some distance between them and the giant Guardsman. As she watched, she spotted some of them pulling off their gas masks to take better aim, and she moved in for the kill.
Powerbomb didn’t even notice her, focusing on two more hunters running for the base of the reservoir and chasing after them. He ignored the two Ren was already shooting straight for as they attempted to reload, which suited Ren just fine. Neither of them were holding the compressed air cannons either, which made it all even better. She materialised behind them and jumped on the one at the rear. Before he could react, she forced his arms downward and pulled the trigger. A round from his grenade launcher slammed into his colleague’s back, ricocheting off to explode somewhere else, but hitting him with enough force to drive the air from his lungs. He fell to the ground, stunned, as Ren dissipated and enveloped the head of the hunter she was grappling with. Panicking, he ripped out his gas mask and pulled it on, but Ren had already allowed herself to be inhaled, and after a moment the man fell to the ground.
She materialised as much as she was able within the confines of the mask until her expanding solid form snapped it loose and she fell out onto the ground. Panting and looking up, she saw Powerbomb, blood running down his arm, trying to catch another hunter at the reservoir. He raised his fist and slammed it down on the top of the reservoir, and the crashing noise echoed around the plain. She watched as Powerbomb savagely backhanded the man and sent him flying. As he sailed through the air, movement caught her eye and she looked over at the roofless shed. The four remaining hunters poured out and ran straight for Powerbomb. She squinted, trying to make out what they were holding, and felt a chill run through her.
Two of them stopped and slammed their weapon into the ground while the others continued running for Powerbomb. Ren forced herself to stand up, but could not warn Powerbomb in time. Just as he turned towards them, they fired the mortar shell directly at him. It caught him in the shoulder and exploded. He let out a bellow of pain and fury that rattled the trees behind Ren, and he staggered backwards into the reservoir. His shoulder smoked from the blast, and blood spilled profusely from the wound. The hunters frantically reloaded as Powerbomb struggled to stand up again. They fired another shot, which flew harmlessly over Powerbomb’s head. He took an unsteady step forward, but by that point the other two hunters had scaled the reservoir ladder. Between them they carried a huge length of chain. As Powerbomb, still unsteady, leant on the reservoir wall for support, they hurled it with all their strength and looped it around his neck, swapping sides to keep it there. Powerbomb let out a huge choking noise just as the mortar fired another shot, which ripped his hip apart. Crying out even as he choked, Powerbomb collapsed backwards into the reservoir wall, which cracked under his weight. He blindly broke through the roof and sank beneath the water, the chain still tight around his neck, as the mortar operators loaded once again.
Ren appeared above them and kicked them both savagely in the face. Bending down, she ripped the mortar out of the ground and threw it aside, stamping on the faces of both hunters. They did not move afterwards. Raising her eyes to the reservoir, she could see no sign of the two who had looped the chain around Powerbomb’s neck; they must have sank with him. She dissolved and flew to the reservoir as fast as she could, where not even Powerbomb’s legs were visible above the water any more. If he was even still conscious, Ren couldn’t tell. Her mind flashed back to Celtic, and something he had once told her about hanging people.
“Always put the rope around behind their ear,” he said. “That’s the best spot to try and break their vertebrae, which gets the job done quicker and there’s less need to worry about strangulation. Sometimes it’ll also kill the jugular vein, which is your back-up kill method. Remember, behind the ear.”
She landed on the edge of the hole he’d made and stared into the water, where his dark form seemed to still be grappling with the chain around his neck. He seemed to be shrinking to try and dislodge it, but he was weakened from his wounds and the lack of air. His neck wasn’t broken, at any rate, but he was drowning even as he was being strangled.
She took a deep breath and dived into the water, dissolving into oxygen as she went. Forcing herself through the water, even as her own density pulled her upwards, she reached Powerbomb’s face and forced herself into his lungs. She only hoped she hadn’t arrived too late. If she had eyes, she would have closed them, waiting silently.
There was a sudden rush of air around her and she found herself expelled in a gust. She was outside again, above the water, and Powerbomb was below her, coughing and spitting. It had worked, apparently. He was normal sized and had dragged himself onto the roof of the reservoir, coughing and spluttering. Ren was panting herself. She stared over at Powerbomb as he collapsed, unconscious, and rolled onto his back. She looked around to make sure none of the hero hunters were approaching, but all she could see were motionless forms on the ground far away.
She let out a sigh of relief and looked up at the sky.
***
“How much did I miss?” groaned Tack, rubbing his head painfully. Puma handed him a wet rang and he slapped it on, sighing in relief.
“A lot,” replied Puma. “You were pretty much senseless for a while there.”
“Shit,” said Tack. “Was there a fight?”
Puma looked over at Ren, who was standing next to the door with her arms folded. Ren glared at him, but Puma stared coldly back, his earlier horror given way to something else, something she couldn’t identify. She rolled her eyes and walked out into the next room.
“You could say that,” she heard Puma say. “Just get some rest, I’ll be back in a minute.”
Ren kept walking, but she could hear Puma limping after her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw his face, distrustful and unpleasant as he came up behind her. She bit her tongue so as not to insult him outright, and simply shrugged instead. “I already told you, I’m not injured,” she said evenly. “It just nicked my ear.”
“I don’t care about your ear,” he replied. “Sit down. We need to talk.”
“No we don’t,” said Ren. “We went in, couldn’t find what we wanted, so we fought our way out. I’m not injured, so we don’t need to say anything.”
“Sit down,” snarled Puma, shoving her into a chair. She slapped his hand away but it came right back again, seizing her shoulder. Puma stared into her face, acid pulsating through his gaze. “I want to know how many people you killed back there.”
“What do you care?” growled Ren.
“You killed people. In cold fucking blood. That’s what I care about. How many?”
She raised her eyes and met his, her gaze just as venomous. She had never seen Puma this angry, but then she’d never felt this angry herself.
“Right back at you, Puma,” she snapped. “How many did you kill?”
“None,” intoned Puma flatly. “I aimed for the legs and only shot them when they came at either one of us. I shot to wound and that’s all I did, but you... you stepped right out there and snapped a guy’s neck. You stabbed another guy. Hell, I was sitting right there as you fucking entered a man’s lungs and choked him to death! What the fuck do you call that?”
“I call that getting the job done!” roared Ren, standing up and shoving Puma back. “You said we had to keep the weaponry out of their hands! What did you expect me to do, swear at them? I did what I had to do!”
“By murdering them?!” demanded Puma. “Is that what it takes to get the job done?!”
“Hey, don’t you go growing a conscience on me now, Jiminy sit-in-your-room-playing-with-computers! You spend half your life not even aware that the rest of us exist, and you wouldn’t give a shit if we lived or died! Why the fuck do you care about them?”
“HOW MANY, REN?!” he roared.
Ren stared back at him, her eyes dark. He was panting furiously, his face locked into a fearsome snarling mask. Her eyes, in return, were barely slits, scowling furiously at him.
“I wasn’t counting,” she said, and she stormed off before he could respond, slamming the door behind her, leaving Puma to seethe. He stared at the closed door as though he wanted to kick it, but after a moment he turned and walked back to Tack. On the other side of the door, Ren moved slowly up to the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Leaning over the sink, she looked at her reflection in the mirror and splashed some cold water on her face. Breathing slowly, she closed her eyes and sat down on the floor. She sat there for a long time, as silent as the room around her, while her mind simply repeated the same word over and over in her mind.
‘Four.’
***
She stood at the doorway to the infirmary. In one bed DarthJ3sus was asleep, snoring soundly, but she ignored him as she walked in, making her way up the end to where Powerbomb was thumbing through a magazine. He looked up as she approached and his eyes narrowed. They faced off for a minute, each silently daring the other to look away. Eventually Ren spoke up, shattering the silence.
“How are you feeling?”
“Fan-fucking-tastic,” said Powerbomb coldly. “How are you?”
“Fine,” she said. “I was discharged this morning.”
“Good for you,” he said, and went back to his magazine.
She remained where she was, silently watching. He pointedly ignored her for several minutes until finally her stare got too much for him and he looked up irritably.
“What?”
She stared at him for a moment expectantly, but he just glared at her as she waited. Several uncomfortable minutes passed as she waited, but what she was waiting for, Powerbomb couldn’t figure out. Eventually he rolled his eyes and went back to his magazine. Ren waited for a moment longer before hanging her head and trudging outside. Powerbomb muttered something under his breath as she went, and Ren closed the door silently behind her. She went to the nearest bathroom and splashed some water on her face, and took a deep breath. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and stared for a moment. She looked pale and her eyes were darker than they usually looked. She took another breath and tried to think of a number, but nothing came to mind. She wondered to herself, did she lose count because the number got so high, or had she ever really counted to begin with? She thought about it for a long while, but no answer ever came.
1/9/2012 2:49:33 AM
Comment on this fan fiction!
|
|
|
