Operation Bottled Fury: Part Three
Ayame quickly grabbed her pulse rifle and switched on her shadow armor, just as half a dozen people, all with uniforms with the EXALT insignia on them, walked into the room. She could see that two of them were the usual clones, but the other four were different. Mercenaries? PMC soldiers, perhaps?
Ayame crept behind one of the pods as EXALTs slowly looked around, curious about the Psi lab. She carefully pulled a knife from her belt. I'll have to do this quickly but carefully. I'm severely outnumbered, but have them by complete surprise. Ayame's eyes darted across the room, taking note of what everyone was doing, where they were, how close they were to each other, and any opportunity to... There! She quickly but silently sunk behind one of the clones. A hand over the mouth and a quick jab between the rips, and he was done. She shoved him into the partially open pod, and slunk back into the shadows.
Another opportunity quickly opened up. She approached a female PMC, steadied her knife, reached out, and stopped dead in her tracks as the woman turned around, pointing a gun directly at her face. "Damn, these gene-mods are useful," she said in a thick British accent. "Drop the cloak, or I fire." Ayame did as she was told, deactivating the shadow armor and carefully placing her rifle and knife on the ground before standing up. "That armor of yours is pretty good too, love. Perhaps I could..." the woman studied Ayame's face. "Eris? Is that you? I thought you died with the rest of the gang in the states!"
Ayame grinned. "Hey, Demeter. Small world, huh? I don't suppose you'd let me off the hook for old times sake?"
Demeter's eyes darted towards the X-COM insignia on Ayame's uniform, and shrugged. "Sorry, love. Professionalism and all that. Besides..." She jabbed Ayame hard in the gut, bringing the Asian woman to her knees. "I still owed you that one for my daughter."
Ayame wheezed loudly, barely choking out, "Your... daughter... came to me... couldn't... deny her... a good time..."
Demeter smirked. "Always the defiant one." She turned to face the rest of the room. Taking a moment to notice she was missing a clone, she glanced at the other one, who looked at a small device and nodded at her. "Alright, we know someone else is hiding in here. Someone with a large psionic energy signal. Come out, and you'll be taken captive. Stay hidden, and we kill her, then shoot up the room."
After several seconds of silence, Demeter scoffed and pulled out her sidearm. As she raised it to Ayame's head, Death dropped the illusion. The rest of the group cautiously stepped forward, there hands raised. The EXALT's kept most of their focus on the cloaked figure. Ayame, Death said privately. When the opportunity arises, I should be able to disable everyone. I just need to wait until enough of them...
Death was silenced by a violent whack to the head by Demeter's rifle, flooring her. The mercenary woman yanked off Death's hood and laughed. "You selling yourself to the aliens now, Eris? You're even easier then I thought."
Ayame shook her head. "Not as easy as you are, or so I've heard from a number of men around the various bases I've been to."
Demeter quickly turned her pistol towards Ayame, putting a bullet through both of her legs. "Never could learn to shut the fuck up, could you, love?" She said loudly, both from anger, and to be heard over Ayame's cries of pain.
"Enough, please," Jean insisted. "You said you'd take us alive. We're defenseless now."
"True," Demeter answered. "And I am usually a woman of my word. But there are six of you, and only five of us. There were six, but I'm guessing Eris killed one of ours and stuffed him somewhere. I'd kill her for it, but if I did that, she'd never learn. So..."
Demeter lifted her Gauss rifle, firing at Jean. He was knocked to the ground, not by the round, but by Jeanne shoving him out of the way. He looked in horror at his sister, lying on the ground with a rapidly growing pool of blood around her. "No!" He rushed to her side, lifting her head into his lap and futilely trying to stop the bleeding from the massive hole in her gut. "Jeanne, no, please! You can't!"
"I... I-I'm sorry, I... I... slapped..."
"No, please, you can't do this!" Jean insisted. "I can't do this without you, I... I'm sorry I... I love you, Jeanne please, I..."
"I... I love..." Jeanne's eye fluttered close, her body going limp. Death starred in horror at the scene before her.
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"Mother! Mother, no, please!" The small Ethereal pumped all the energy she had into her biokinesis, trying to stop the bleeding, but she wasn't strong enough. The older Ethereal gently ran her hand across the child's face before it fell to the ground. The child still tried to save her, still infused her energy into the older Ethereal, despite it being over.
Stop this idiocy, Jan’tiala. She is dead. Now, get back to your room!
"Mother, please! Please, don't leave me like this! PLEASE!"
ENOUGH! The other Ethereal in the room extended his hand, renching the child away from the corpse. She wasn't even your mother. She simply provided the DNA to create you! She experimented on you, just like everyone else, until now, when she turned her back on the Path!
"By trying to save me!" The young Ehtereal screamed. "By trying to get me away from you! She was infinitely more of a parent then you could ever be, father!" She spoke the last words like they were a curse.
Enough of this foolishness. Take her back to her room, and this time, kill anyone who tries to visit her without clear authorization.
As the imposing Ethereal's personal guard dragged her away, the child extended her four arms towards the dead Ethereal. "Mother, no! Please! MOTHER!!!"
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Death's eyes glowed with a raging fury. As her power rose, the bracelet sent torrents of electricity through her body, but she ignored it. Recognizing the danger, Demeter sceamed, "KILL THEM!" The EXALT troops opened fire. Time seemed to slow down as Death raised her arms, four sheilds appearing before the twins, Jake, Jessica, and herself. Demeter screamed in fury as she rushed the Ethereal, a large combat knife in hand. She plunged it forward, and Death raised her arm, allowing it to stab through her wrist, as well as the bracelet. Her energy freed, she swiped her hand to the side, the EXALT's weapons flying out of their hands. As they reached for their sidearms, Death shoved Demeter back, the woman landing next to a very angry Asian woman that proceeded to wail on her. Death extended her hands again, and the four other enemies dropped, one's heart being crushed, one's brain shutting their body down, one's ignited in flames, and the final one shooting himself in the head.
Death rushed to Jeanne's side, and placed two hands on the bullet wound, one over her heart, and one on her forehead. The Ethereal's hands glowed a bright green as she desperately worked to bring the woman back from Death's door. When it didn't seem to work, she pumped more and more energy into it, her skin rapidly fading from a light black to a sickly grey.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but was likely less then a minute, Death collapsed to the ground, barely breathing. Jessica and Jake rushed to her aid as Jeanne's eyes slowly opened, and Jean burst into tears, wrapping his hands around her and sobbing loudly. M ... Mémé dit salut," the French woman whispered.
Ayame delivered one final hook that knocked Demeter out. She let out a sigh of relief, looking over the carnage. Unable to move on her own, she simply laid back, and waited for the eventual help to arrive, Jean staying by his sister, Jake patching up Ayame's legs as best he could and watching Demeter, and Jessica watching over the young Ethereal.
