Foxtrot Nekropolis

Chapter 1

You know, Wynn gave the vitae a lot of s**t for, honestly, everything. They were a barely-cohesive group of almost disconnected people working together due to dubious circumstances against a foe that they really had no way of really beating, only suppressing. And they were all tryhards — the costumes were evidence enough'a that.

But even still.

It felt really f*****g good to finally run freely.

With the laughter spewing freely from their lips like acid and the adrenaline coursing through their blood giving them that same addictive rush of righteousness, the figure clad in liquid shadows ignored the burning buildings below and let themselves soar through the skies once more. It felt great to return to the field, to ditch the collars of their so-called life and get to taste the rush once again.

Oh, how they'd missed this — the sensation of freedom that nothing but the skies could bring them. This adrenaline, this permeating sensation of etherealness… it made it all f*****g worth it. Even being up at six f*****g AM.

Jumping nimbly across the distance between two buildings with a twirl, Fuhsaz gave themselves the time to thoroughly enjoy the jumping and dodging and everything else under the sun that they could taste.

This, they decidedly though, landing nimbly and breaking into another sprint, was life.

Of course — the small horde of half-destroyed robots trying to kill them and everyone else in town would most likely disagree rather strongly. But, as their maman used to say, c'est la vie; not like they'd gain anything from trying to convince 'em not to, right?

"Took you long enough, Fuhsaz!"

Aaaaand there went their good mood.

With a wry smile on their face of soft features and a quirk of their eyebrows that could be seen even from underneath the mask that covered the upper half of their face, covered only by long white locks of hair that fell over a pair of intense golden slitted eyes that looked remarkably relaxed, the Vitae known as Fuhsaz approached their team in carefree steps.

Behind them, a building went up in emerald flames. Boom, they mouthed, and the beautiful light show that the destruction birthed was a show to behold.

"Yeah, yeah," Fuhsaz spoke, waving Sunburst's clear irritation away with a dramatic hand, "I know ye missed me, sweetcheeks. Here now, ain't I?"

Sunburst — an apt name — was an impressive figure and a half. Clad in a suit of medieval armour made from actual silver, carrying a zweihander sword around and standing at a whopping 194 centimeters tall, she was the type of lady who'd probably never gone unnoticed in her life. With ebony skin and silver hair that flowed like liquid, well, silver, Sunburst had a s**t ton of admirers.

Fuhsaz just thought she was fun.

To mess with, that is.

"You're late," Sunburst repeated, a scowl on her lips. "If you intend on staying on this team —"

"I know," Fuhsaz replied promptly, absent-mindedly raising their left hand. From their shadow, a spike of liquid purple erupted with the speed of a gunshot, impaling a humanoid robot that had been about to stab them through the head. It fell to the ground in a heap, its head now a pile of scattered scraps. "Not all of us live nearby, you know."

She hummed, irritated. Sunburst fancied herself the leader of Aether's vitae. The poor woman. She'd be the first to go. Having experienced her leadership firsthand, Fuhsaz knew it to be effective, if a bit shortsighted. It worked. It's not like they were superheroes.

The two people beside Sunburst were just as irritated. Starstruck and Prometheus were the most recent newbies to the team; Starstruck looked like she was barely outta college, while Prometheus was not really a newbie to the industry; he'd gotten his ass kicked in Aether-2 and gotten a bad rep, so he'd decided to skip town and come here instead. Turn over a new leaf.

Prometheus was good. Starstruck was… well, she had the spirit.

Fuhsaz gave them both three months, tops.

"Fine." Clearly not, going by Sunburst's irritated expression, but it'd be hard to call them out for not living in an expensive part of town. Instead, the woman lifted her Zweihander and, without as much as flinching, struck with it to the right — taking off the head of a bot that approached.. "Did Apollo brief you into the situation?"

Fuhsaz's nine fox-like tails waved carelessly behind them. On closer inspection, one would find that they were made of the same, goo-like liquid shadow material that all of their attacks used — but from a distance it just looked quirky.

"Nope," they replied, stepping away from her for a moment. Mm. Five bots already had joined them on the rooftop — how… quaint. The scrap piles really thought they could rush 'em, huh? Faulty programming. With a snap of their fingers, the five were destroyed by spikes of liquid shadow. "Haven't heard a word from 'em."

"Damn it," Sunburst muttered. "Fine, here's the deal. Another raid's going on. Robots this time."

"Oh, really? Golly gee, I'd never have guessed!"

"f**k off." My, she really was grumpy today, mm? "They're coming from the south and west, out of those portals once again. Our job is to clear out as many as we can until the expedition team is here. Protect the civvies and the whizzes. Starstruck, I need you out there. Scout for Apollo, Orion, Peacekeeper and Blue Stripes; I know for a fact they're around, sent them out just four minutes ago. Prometheus, you're on escort duty — get the civvies to shelter while we fight."

If they died to these dumb excuses for a robot, they deserved their lot — no, what were they thinking. Fuhsaz was a whimsical little dickhead, but they weren't about to kid themselves. Sometimes, all it took to end up dead was one missed step.

Also, they felt kind of offended that Sunburst thought she had to tell them not to let innocents die. What kind of vitae would they be if they didn't try to keep damage to a minimum? They may think the job is f*****g pointless, but they were still going to f*****g do it.

With a mocking salute, they nodded with a grin.

"Aye, aye, cap'n."

There's something she's not telling me — the thought sprung up in their head within a moment's notice. Analysing her body language for a moment or two, Fuhsaz couldn't help but agree — the way she shifted her weight was a dead giveaway. A bit of torture should loosen her up.

… Shut. Up. EBON.

They wouldn't be arrested if she was never found.

Fuhsaz's smile strained a bit.

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Shadows whirled, swirled and screeched as Fuhsaz reached out their hands and closed them both into fists, pulling at the pool of darkness that had been quietly gathering at the feet of s particularly bulky robot.

These things weren't uniform — they had all sorts of shapes, sizes and specializations. Really, the only things they all shared were the general appearance and the fact that they all looked like they'd been salvaged from Savage's Junkyards by a really intelligent one-year old.

— Whoosh!

They instinctively let their knees drop to f**k under a right hook from one of the burly bots, having been a little too focused on the group of five or so that was giving Prometheus some trouble. The thing had the audacity to try and land an uppercut next, as if they weren't able to dodge that. Sidestepping the thing was easy, pushing against the broken concrete of the pavement below with their heels and skidding back a few feet.

Snap! With a dramatic twirl and an appropriate snap of their fingers, they reached out and bent their wrist upwards. The Sídhe within, though dormant, reacted accordingly — and six spikes erupted violently from underneath the brute, impaling it in all sorts of ways.

It was almost funny. It's limbs were all messed up, and a shadow stake went through its 'crotch' and came out on top of its head. With a dry chuckle, Fuhsaz took out their sunpad from under their vest — ready to snap a picture that was sure to get them clout on the net.

The robot's head moved. Stared at them. The blue X on it started to accumulate plasma.

Oh, hell no.

With another snap, the spikes expanded, and the brute was imploded — metallic shrapnel forming a beautiful rain of iron that composed an interesting image, when put together with the dramatic background of a city of silver and gold set aflame and put to ruin.

Apocalyptic, almost. Terrible. Beautiful.

Looking around at the fallen robots, Fuhsaz couldn't help but wince.

Their composition was mainly human-like. Two legs, two arms, a torso, five fingers on each limb, etcetera. Aside from the fact that their heads had nothing but a big blue X from which the aforementioned laser beams were fired, there was another oddity about these particular bots — they looked reeeeally scuffed up.

I'm talking missing limbs and half-destroyed heads and exposed wiring and all other types of machine gore.

They wondered what would be done with these things after this was all said and done. Probably nothing; the agency liked to quarantine extradimensional stuff for like ever.

— more robots. God f*****g damn it, how many of these were there? As they enveloped their hands in shadows and punched a hole through the heads of three fumbling bots that'd approached them, Fuhsaz tried their best not to panic.

Don't think about the endless horde of killer robots, foxy. Think of something else. Anything else. Please.

And then — Their prayers were answered.

"This city belongs to the light!" Came Sunburst's voice, echoing between the buildings and collapsed debris as she fought, and Fuhsaz resisted the very, very intense desire to groan. The panic was gone, though.

"For f**k's sake," they called out, slamming a boot through a robot's head and pushing two others aside with arms made from shadows, "Stop f*****g roleplaying, you weirdo!"

Sunburst turned back to glare at them, an offended look on her burning eyes as she wielded the huge zweihander with one hand. With impressive dexterity, she dismantled three robots in three clean strikes, slicing each vertically exactly at the middle.

"For the last time, fox, I told you it's for mora—"

"If you say it's for morale again," and they had to stop speaking for a moment to punch another robot away from a child, pushing said child aside and signaling with their sunpad for Starstruck to come pick him up. Kicking a second robot down the large staircase, they continued: "I swear to god, if you break out the power of friendship next, I'm coming over there and —"

Crash!

The sound of concrete shattering as Sunburst grabbed a robot by the head with a triumphant shout and slammed it into the ground, shattering more concrete.

A flash erupted once again as another bolt was fired, but Sunburst managed to deftly duck under it — using her lowered position to break into a rush that ended with her sweeping four robots' legs in one fell swoop. As a fifth tried to stab her in the back, Fuhsaz quickly rose a hand from the shadows to grab at its ankles and pull it down, sinking it into the shadows and destabilising it.

They saw a house explode in the background, as a result of the missed bolt. Robots started to converge at Sunburst, swarming her in an oddly organized way despite their almost zombie-like movements. The more she destroyed, the less she could move.

They were backing her into a f*****g corner.

"Oh, stop being such a — s**t! Fuhsaz!" Sunburst screamed. Aid!"

The sound came from 34° to their right and approximately 30 feet. That was where they had to run.

Fuhsaz was moving before they knew it, having delved into a nimble, mad sprint that had them flipping and jumping over any robots between themselves and Sunburst. It took little more than five seconds for them to reach Sunburst, who by then was struggling to get enough space to strike, struck from all sides by robots.

That was the thing with them — Fuhsaz's ability was versatile, but they ended up lending themselves s lot better to taking out groups of enemies at once. The liquid shadows were frighteningly powerful, but they took some concentration and a bit of time. Meanwhile, Sunburst's Sídhe, Dullahan, was very much a single-target sort of skill.

And if one called for aid, the other would answer.

Snap!

The seven robots who'd been attacking Sunburst were very suddenly and very violently impaled, enraptured and thrown as far as they could manage. Landing nimbly and with a little pirouette just beside the tall woman, Fuhsaz sent her their most charming grin.

"You called, mademoiselle?."

Sunburst grumbled something at that, but didn't answer immediately. She merely kicked a few cleaved-through robot hulls away, clearing some space up for herself.

"...More bots coming. 5'o clock. En Garde, fox."

A disgustingly bright flash of blue flared up as a laser bolt was fired by some robot somewhere. The flare turned warmer when a building on the next street was struck and exploded violently, filling the streets with the sounds of screaming and falling debri.

Sunburst's expression became tense, and Fuhsaz saw her hand tightening painfully around the hilt of her Zweihander. They could relate; the very same sound had made them instantly feel as if they were going to puke.

But they kept their cools, even in front of that — and the 29 robots charging at them, some of them already charging up their lasers.

"I can't take them all out. I'll go for the ones that are charging up, and cover you while you take the rest out. Deal?" Their voice was… softer, now. More serious. There was a time and a place to f**k with Sunburst. This was not it.

"Got it." She spoke, readying her Zweihander.

"On three." The fox-like vitae whispered, watching the blue lights grown more intense as the wave of robots rushed ih. "One, two, three —"

Three things happened.

First — 9 stakes rose from the ground, skewering the nine robots that had been charging up the laser beams of f*****g doom responsible for most of the destruction around town. This time, they made sure to destroy the heads.

Second — Sunburst kicked off against the concrete in a leap so powerful that the pavement was completely shattered under her heels, raising her sword above her head.

Third — a split second before it was destroyed, a robot fired a laser beam.

You know.

Time is an interesting thing. It exists in that gray limbo between a solid, fixed reality and a projected concept humanity had composed. In Fuhsaz's experience, it was a consistent, permanent, persistent thing — a fourth dimension that remained itself regardless of outside factors. Our perception of time could change; time itself couldn't give less of a s**t about anything.

But f**k if it didn't look like it slowed down when the blue light flared, expanded and coalesced into the bolt of plasma that was fired. Destruction made physical; it really wasn't that different from sunbolts fired from weapons of their own, which was something they ought to look into.

For now, though — they watched it soar through the sky, knowing full well that they weren't fast enough to stop it.

And then they watched Sunburst use her sword to swat it aside anyway.

As another faraway building blew up from the reflected bolt, Fuhsaz let themselves sag in relief before jumping back into the action — diving over Sunburst as the woman landed with a wide cleaving arc of her Zweihander, hands on her shoulders to propel themselves forward in a dropkick that struck two robots at once.

Then, kicking off of the robot's chin onto a spin, they extended the tail appendages they carried around — using them as stakes to strike at five of the robotic menaces at once in an arc that emulated Sunburst's own strikes.

"Sorry, burstie!" They chirped. "Didn't think it was going to —"

"I know," she interrupted, sounding constipated. "And I don't blame you. Keep your wits up. I suspect this is going to take a while."

Man.

All Wynn had wanted to do was enjoy their f*****g café. But that was fair enough, they supposed —

The two of them were the only things standing between the civilians that were being evacuated and the swarm of killer robots, after all. Speaking of which…

"Say, Burstie? Now, this fox doesn't mean to sound rude or anything, but… Where the f**k are the others?!"

They couldn't help but ask, condensing a sphere of burbling shadows between two palms and firing it like a projectile at a cluster of robots that was trying to climb the stairs as a unit. The explosion that came from the impact was beautiful, as usual.

But they had used ≈ 10.4% more energy than necessary and failed to properly utilise it in the attack, making it remarkably wasteful. That was fine; they couldn't expect to be perfect every time. They just had to get better. Also, shut up, EBON.

Sunburst, it seemed, was faring about as well now that she could actually move— with her sword in one hand and, well, a free hand, she was able to cause remarkable damage. You'd never think a sword of all things would be useful, but…

I mean, to be fair, they still thought she'd be better off with a machine gun on the other hand instead of using it to punch s**t, but whatever.

"How the f**k would I know?!"

Team leader, everyone.