Eri Kamei vs. Morning Musume

[ferrar1]

great updates, i missed this fic completely !!

[meowchi]

Aya Matsuura
Rockfort Prison, "Battle Arena" (Lower Levels)
October 9, 3:55 PM



Aya cried for a while, and rocked herself back and
forth for a while, dully aware that he'd just done a very
Big Thing—as far as lifetime experiences went, there
was the small sh** and then big and then capital B Big.

There were some things that just changed people forever,
and this was one of them. She'd had to kill her own father.
Both her parents, good people who meant no harm, were
dead. That meant there was no one in the world who
loved her now, and it was that thought that kept repeating
itself, making her cry and rock back and forth.

It was thinking about the katana that finally snapped
her out of the private emotional hell he was in, that made
her remember where she was and what was happening.
She still felt entirely terrible, aching inside and out, but she
started to tune back in to his environment, wishing that
Eri was with her, wishing for a glass of water.

The Katana. Aya rubbed at her swollen eyes and
then sheethed the slim metal from under her belt, staring
down at it.

It was stupid, unimportant—but somewhere
in the back of her mind, she'd finally connected
that when she'd taken the ancient sword off the wall,
that was when she'd been locked in and the heat had
gone on. It had been a trap... and as far as she could
figure, the only purpose of a trap like that was to keep
someone from taking the weapons.

Which means maybe this is useful for something besides
killing.
Yeah, it was gilded and cool-looking
and probably expensive, but the Tomokos obviously
weren't hurting for money ... and if the sword had some
kind of sentimental value, why was it being used as
part of a trap?

She decided that she wanted to go back and take a
closer look at where it'd been hanging, see if putting
it back did anything. It was a ten-minute walk back
to the mansion, tops, she could be there and back in five;
Eri would wait for her if she got back first.

And if I stay here, I'll just keep crying. She wanted,
needed, something to do.

Aya stood up, feeling shaky and kind of hollow as
she brushed dirt off her pants, unable to avoid looking
over at where her father had died. She felt a rush of relief
when she saw that Eri had covered her up with a
piece of tarp. Eri was a great     ... though for some
reason, Aya suddenly felt kind of weird about her, about
telling her all that stuff. Aya wasn't sure how she herself felt.

She stepped outside, and was vaguely surprised to see
that she wasn't in the front yard of the training facility.
She was also vaguely surprised that in the small, highwalled
square hehad walked into was what appeared to
be a WWII Sherman tank. Giant, mud-crusted treads,
revolving turret with huge gun, the whole deal.

She might have been interested earlier, or at least more
than just a little surprised— there was no reason at all for
there to be a tank at the Rockfort facility— but now all
she wanted to do was check out the katana trap, see if she
could at least contribute something toward getting them
off the island. She felt kind of bad that Eri had been
stuck with finding and questioning the Risa      by
herself, since it was her idea and all.

On the other side of the tank was a door that did open
into the training yard. At least her sense of direction
wasn't totally blown. It seemed darker than it had ear
lier; Aya looked up and saw that the sky had gone
cloudy again, blocking the sun and blue. She was
about halfway across the yard when she heard thunder,
loud enough that the very ground seemed to quake a little
beneath her feet. By the time she reached the other
side, it had started to rain again.

Aya stepped up the pace, hanging a right at the exit
and jogging for the mansion. The rain was heavy and
cold, but she welcomed it, opening her mouth and turning
her face to the sky, letting it wash over her. She was
soaked in just a few seconds.

"Aya!"

Eri.

Aya felt her stomach knot up a little, turning to watch
Eri approach. She caught up to her outside the door to
the mansion's grounds, wearing a concerned expression.
"Are you all right?" Eri asked, studying her uncertainly,
blinking rain out of her eyes.

Aya wanted to tell her that she was aces, that she'd
shaken off the worst of it and was ready to get back to
the zombie smackdown, but when she opened her mouth,
none of that came out.

"I don't know. I think so," she said truthfully. She managed
a half smile, not wanting her to worry too much but
not wanting to talk about it, either.

She seemed to understand, swiftly changing the topic.
"I found out that the Tomoko twins have a private house
hidden behind the mansion," she said. "And I'm not a
hundred percent sure, but the keys we're looking for
might be there. I think there's a good chance."

"You found all that out from your friend?"
" No- The infirmary." Eri replied quickly, rain soldering down her chin.
"Risa's still a priority but I'm sure if we get that plane
into the air, it'll be easier to find her-"

Aya nodded, and there was a thunder strike, forcing her to
speak over the booms.
"So where'd you get all that info from? A survivor?"
Aya asked doubtfully. It was hard to imagine
that a Niita employee would give that up to the
enemy.

Eri hesitated, then nodded. "In a roundabout way,"
she said, and Aya suddenly had the impression that there
was something Eri didn't want to talk about. Aya didn't
push it, just waited.

"The problem is getting to the house," Eri continued.
"I'm sure it's locked up tight. I was thinking we might
poke around the mansion a little more, see if we can find
a map or a passage ..."

Eri pushed her dripping bangs out of her eyes, smiling.
"... and, you know, get out of the rain before we
get wet."

Aya agreed. They went through the entrance to the
manicured grounds, stepping over a few corpses along
the way. Aya filled her in on her idea about the katana,
which she thought they should definitely pursue—although
Eri also pointed out that with the Tomoko family
running the island, Niita's cute little puzzles didn't
necessarily need to be logical.

They stopped at the front door to do what they could
about their clothes, which turned out to be not much.
Both of them were drenched, though they did their best
to squeeze out the excess. Fortunately for both of them,
their feet had stayed dry; wet clothes were a pain in the
a**, but trying to get around in squelching boots seriously
sucked the root.

Weapons up, Aya pushed the door open. Shivering,
they stepped inside—
—and heard a door close, upstairs and to the right.
"Niita," Aya said, keeping her voice low, "betcha
money. What say we put a few holes in his sorry a**?"

Aya started for the stairs, the question rhetorical. That
loony craphound needed to be     , for more reasons
than Aya could count.
Eri caught up to her, put a hand on her shoulder.
"Listen, some of the stuff I found back at the
prison ... she's not just crazy, she's seriously deranged.
Like serial killer deranged."

"Yeah, I got that," Aya said. "All the more reason to
take her out ASAP."
"Just... let's just be careful, okay?"
Eri seemed worried, and Aya felt protective all of
a sudden, big time.

Oh, yeah, Niita's going down, she thought grimly, but
nodded for Eri's sake. "You got it."

They moved quickly up the stairs, stopping outside
the door they'd heard close. Aya stepped ahead of
Eri, who sterned an eyebrow but said nothing.

"On three," Aya whispered, turning the knob very
slowly, relieved that it was unlocked. "One—two-three!"
She shouldered the door, hard, bursting into the room
and sweeping with the machine pistol, ready to shoot
the first thing that moved—but nothing did. The room, a
softly lit office lined with bookshelves, was empty.

Eri had gone in and turned left, past a couch and coffee
table on the north wall.

Disappointed, Aya stepped
after her, expecting another door to another hall, so sick of
the stupid mazes all over the place that she could just sh**—

She stopped and stared, exactly what Eri was
doing. Perhaps ten feet away was a wall, a      end—
with one slim space set in a plaque at about chest
level, indentations shaped like a sword.

Aya felt a flush of adrenaline, of victory. She had no
rational reason to believe that they'd just found the way
to the Tomoko's private residence, but she believed they
had, anyway. So, it seemed, had Eri.

"I think we've got it," Eri said softly, "betcha money."

[lil_hamz]

Woah that's a lot of updates. Is school not as busy these days?

I'm glad Eri and Aya are together, at least they aren't alone. I wonder if Risa will meet up with them soon. I liked how you have the little avatars at the start of each chapter

[JFC]

She stepped inside to search it, drawn toward a small heap of miscellaneous objects on one of the couches—and her breath caught in her throat, her eyes widening.
Thank you, Niita!

Couldn't help but think "IT'S A TRAP!" when I came across this part. Either that, or Eri had actually hit Niita during that firefight and the latter had just hurriedly emptied out her pack to treat her wound and left the rest behind thinking that Eri would be right on her tail.

She could hardly believe her luck. Changing out of her clothes into this cool looking special agent looking thing was one thing, but it was also an incredible relief to find more ammo.

More ammo is always good (at least, in this particular situation it is). Can't wait to see how the others react when they see Eri in the new outfit. Hopefully they don't mistake her for one of the infected prison staff.

-the heavy rattle of the closing shutter whipped her around, the moment of happiness blown as the corridor, her exit, was blocked off with a thundering crash.

Dang it. Trap. I knew it.

She only regretted that she hadn't had time to return to her private residence, to watch the entertainment with her sister—although that had turned out to be advantageous, as well, a silver lining.

So Niita's sister IS still here as well, eh? Wonder what she's up to?

There were thirty of them at Rockfort, half of those in stasis, though Niita had only been able to account for eight of them since the attack—

So Niita's still conducting her experiments at a time like this? Boy, she really HAS gone loco.

...

Attack? By whom? Zombies that had gotten loose?

This isn't the rat I'm after, to my demise... Niita scorned.

"To my demise"?
Demise = death, therefore "to my demise" = "to my death".

Perhaps you meant to say "to my despair"?

Fujimoto. Only she is compatible.

She wants Miki???   But wait a minute, how would she have known that Miki was even going to be remotely near the island?

...

Don't tell me she intentionally shot down the plane they were on in order to get Miki? If she did, then she really messed up, considering that Miki's dead.


And just how the FRAK does she know that Miki is "compatible" anyways?!?!?

Niita leaned in eagerly, changing the angle for one of the cameras, watching as the doomed girl raised her weapon, taking careful aim in spite of her hopeless position—

—bam!

...

 It all happened so fast, so violently, it was like watching a fountain geyser suddenly explode from a still lake. The eyes. She went for its eyes

Smart move Eri. It can't strike out half as effectively with it's huge arm if it can't see.

The window, Niita answered herself, watching in horror as her young angel of death candidate, Matsuura, threw herself into the camera shot, firing two handguns at once, blasting at the startled creature—

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! AYA CAME BACK!!!

That sniveling maggot! Eri has what is rightfully mine!!

Wait, now ERI is the one that has what Niita wants? I thought it was Aya that had it. Just what IS it?

" Aya-san ... if you hadn't shown up when you did . . ."
"Forget it," she said, shrugging. "We're even now."

MATSU-KAMEI!!!

Eri nodded, fascinated in spite of herself. "What about the sister?"

"I never heard much about her, except she's some kind of shut-in," Aya said. "No one even knows what she looks like. I think her name is Kasumi... Tomoko, maybe, I don't remember. Why?"

Hmmmmmmmm....I see at least 2 possibilities here:
a) the sister is actually dead, and Niita has her corpse locked up in some room, where she still talks to it
b) the sister is even crazier, or has even become a zombie/mutant herself.

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!



Oh, and Aya being all "special forces" is HAWT!

Aya raised the machine gun and was about to fire when Eri tapped her arm, moving to stand beside her. "Watch," she said, and pointed her 9mm at the zombie group—not quite, she saw, Eri was aiming low at something just past them—

—and pow,BOOM, three of the creatures went down, blackened and smoking. Behind them, what was left of a small, obviously combustible container, only jagged curls of splayed metal surrounded by a smudge of toxic smoke.

Yet another smart tactical move by Eri. Why use up several bullets taking out each zombie individually when you can just use one and take them all out at once?

Eri, practically screaming her name—and Aya saw that the zombie was almost on top of Eri, its gray fingers closing around her torso, pulling her up to its drooling, bloody mouth.

Aya screamed, too, opening fire, the thunder of bullets ripping into her father's face and body, tearing him away from Eri.

Oh....no.

*AYA'S STORY*

Oh crap, she's eventually gonna turn, isn't she? 

Kiyoshi Sekai
Rockfort Prison, First Floor (West Wing)
October 9, 3:01 PM

HOLY SHATS!!! He's STILL HUMAN!?!?! O_O

Suddenly, a light, small but penetrating—and thereshe was, standing in front of him like some dream. A girl, the one from before- Risa? no- not the same girl, but she was alive, holding a lighter up in the air. She left it burning, set it on the desk like a tiny lantern.

Strange, I don't recall Eri having a lighter.  Geez, I hope it's not Niita and that he just didn't recognize her because he's delirious.

"The guillotine," he said, blinking up at her, trying not to slur his words too badly. "Infirmary's behind it, key's in my pocket... supposed to be secrets there. He knows things, puzzle pieces ... you know where's the guillotine?"

The girl nodded. "Yes. Thank you, that helps me a lot. You rest now, okay?"

WTF they have an ACTUAL guillotine? I guess they'd need it to dispose of test subjects that hadn't passed mustard.  Still though, pretty morbid, though not entirely surprising given Niita's wacko-ness.

Now just...who is "he"?

The man had been right about secrets. Eri stood at the end of the hidden basement corridor, steeling herself to open the unmarked door in front of her

Oh thank goodness it was indeed Eri that Kiyoshi saw.

The room was strangely elegant, the muted lighting coming from a hanging chandelier. The floor was tiled, with a runner of finely woven carpet leading from the door to a kind of sitting area on the other side of the room. There was an overstuffed velvet chair and cherry wood end table there, the chair facing out so that someone sitting there would be able to see the entire room ... which was worse than she could have imagined, it looked like a dungeon, something you'd see out of an American horror film.

Sounds like Eri found a torture room, possibly even that "special room" that Niita had thought of earlier when she thought she had Eri in her trap.

The book was actually a journal, leather bound with thick, high quality paper. The inner cover proclaimed that it was the property of a Dr. Leo Athens, no title or inscription otherwise.

"He knows things, puzzle pieces...", Eri recounted what the wounded man had said.

This Athens guy the one that Kiyoshi referred to? Sounds like he was involved (pretty heavily, in all likelihood) in the experiments being done here. But then, where is he, or what happened to him (assuming that he wasn't the corpse that Eri found 'scared to death')?

*ATHENS' JOURNAL ENTRIES*

As disturbing as they are, it's still probably helpful to give Eri another person's viewpoint/POV/observations of Niita.  The part about "worshipping" Kasumi is curious, but it could also come in handy.

The Katana. Aya rubbed at her swollen eyes and then sheethed the slim metal from under her belt, staring down at it.

Oh, don't tell me...

...

Should she examine the hilt?

She decided that she wanted to go back and take a closer look at where it'd been hanging, see if putting it back did anything. It was a ten-minute walk back to the mansion, tops, she could be there and back in five; Eri would wait for her if she got back first.

Hmmm...potentially good idea, but can't help but worry that she might set off another trap, and that this time Eri wouldn't get there in time to save her.


The fact that we haven't heard from Niita in a while is also worrisome, since it means we don't know where she is or what she's up to.

[heyyouhiya]

Ok sooo...I've been planning on reading this for a while and finally got around to it (better late than never right? lol)
I must say that I completely love it!
All the suspense and stuff really gets you hooked
can't wait for more =D

[meowchi]

Eri Kamei
Rockfort Prison, Niita's Hidden Mansion
October 9, 4:39 PM



OH, WOW. THIS IS... WOW, ERI THOUGHT.
"Wow," Aya whispered, and Eri nodded, feeling entirely
out of her depth as she took in their new environment.

Had she said serial killer crazy? More like a serial
killer convention.

There'd been another puzzle after the katana had
opened the wall, having to do with numbers and a
blocked passage, but they'd ignored it completely—
with both of them pushing, the passage wasn't blocked
for long. Outside once again, they could see the private
house, perched on a low hill like some brooding vulture
in the pouring rain. It was a mansion, really, but nothing
like the one they'd just left— it was much, much older,
darker, surrounded by the decrepit ruins of what had
once been some kind of a sculpture garden.

Stone cherubs with blind eyes and broken fingers watched
them wend their way toward the house, gargoyles with
eroding wings, shattered pieces of marble underfoot.
Creepy, definitely... but this is so far beyond creepy,
it's not even in the same category.

They stood in the foyer, unlit but for a few strategically
placed candles. There was a smell of must in the
air, an old smell like dust and crumbling parchment. The
floor was plushly carpeted, what they could see of it, but
so ancient that it had been worn threadbare in many
places; it was hard to make out any color beyond "dark."

What had once been a grand staircase was directly in
front of them, sweeping up to second and third floor balconies;
there was still a kind of shabby elegance to its
time-blackened banisters and sagging steps, as there
was in the dusty library to their right, in the faded, ornately
framed oil paintings hanging from flocked walls.

The word haunted would have described it perfectly
... except for the dolls.

Tiny faces stared out at them from every comer. China
dolls of fragile porcelain, many of them chipped or discolored,
dressed for high tea in water-stained taffeta.
Plastic children with roll-open plastic eyes and pursed
pink mouths. Rag dolls with strange button faces, bits of
stuffing poking out of withered limbs. There were jumbled
piles of them, stacks of them, even a few featureless
cloth babies impaled on sticks. There was no sane order
to their placement that Eri could see.

Aya nudged her, pointing up. For just a second,
Eri thought she was looking at Kasumi, hanging from
the eaves— but of course it was another doll, life-size,
this one dressed for her bizarre lynching in a simple
party dress, flowered hem floating around her slender
synthetic ankles.

"Maybe we should—" Eri started—and froze, listening.
Aya held out her arm in front of Eri, forcing her to stop. "Someone’s coming-"

The sound of footsteps- running footsteps, behind them- filtered into
Eri's ears, and they both turn to face the incoming unknown, guns raised.
It sounded irate, the precision- sloppy- each step
rapid and harsh as it closes in-

" Don't shoot! " A female voice was followed by a surprisingly happy, upbeat laugh which Eri immediately recognized as-

Risa? Eri thought, and and before she could complete her thought-

"Well look who it is-" Aya whispered, dropping her guard as
Risa came into view, running towards them.
"Saves us the trouble huh turtle?"

It seemed like slow motion as Risa ran- she was dripping wet, dressed in the same get up as Eri, black ops outfit,
apparently she probably found it by chance, she held no weapons, in her hand at least-
but propped against her back like
a backpack was a huge gun, probably an AK-47, the same kind of gun the hijacker had,
and clipped against her belt were what looked like to be grenades, 4 of them, 2 on each side.
She wasn't bloody, which was a good thing because it meant she wasn't hurt.

"You- risa?!"
Eri's jaw literally dropped to the floor- thoughts rummaged across her mind, making her numb, unable to speak,
paralyzed by shock, not able to convince herself that the girl running towards them,
the loving, caring girl, and most importantly non zombie, is Risa.
"Eriii!!!" Risa plopped against Eri with open arms, the momentum knocking her back, but luckily Aya
broke their embraced fall with a simple outstretched arm.

"I can't- believe-" Eri struggled to say the words, her eyes widened and her posture
as stiff as a bolt as Risa held on tight, burying her wet face against Eri's already damp shoulder.
Her gear bumped against each other, making clinging and clanking noise, but it was all
overshadowed by Risa's laughing and smiling, and apparently she couldn't find the words either,
because no one said anything for a moment.

"I saw you," Risa finally said, trying to catch her breath, peering at Aya and eventually Eri. "Both of you-
into the other mansion- gosh I thought I'd never catch up!"

She takes a step back, arches slightly forward and props her hands against her knees, still trying to catching her breath.
"Why didn't you yell for us?" Eri asked, stepping forward leaning over to look at Risa's face.

Aya shook her head, crossing her arms. "Turtle, think about it-  lightning, rain... Thunder?
Little hard to yell over that."

Eri couldn't think of anything to say, but nods, and tends to Risa, placing her hand on Risa's hunched back.
Even though it was only during the day, the weather seemed coincidentally
crappy, given the occasion of course- cloudy, gloomy with a storm just starting.
"We need to meet up with the others," Risa says, regaining her breath and posture, reaching for a dark boxy object- a walkie talkie, clipped against her belt. "Come on, I can contact em with thi-"

"That's gonna have to wait," Aya takes an abrupt step forward, suddenly glaring at something above- the stairs."and I'd hate to break up the little reunion, but we've got company-"

She begins to fire, short bursts from the weapon echoing in the room as Eri turned to follow Aya's gaze- something- no someone on the 3rd floor- the balcony- just
in time to see Niita taking cover behind the left corner wall, her posture as if she'd just thrown something-

"Grenade!!" Aya screams, and Risa, already following the trail of the flying explosive with her eyes,
tackles Eri, knocking them both away as Aya leaps in the other direction, and just as they all hit mid-air,
the thing explodes just feet away, throwing them like lifeless ragdolls in a dryer.

Eri crashes into a nearby pillar, smashing her hip against the hardened marble- she
winced as the sharp pain engulfs her lower torso- a deafening ring in her ears blocks out
all sound, the sheer bass of her heartbeat the only vague audible sound she recognized.
Smokey pieces of dry wall and rocky concrete follow soon after, pouring down on her like rain-
stupid- wasn'tpayingattention-

Eri knew she had to get up and fight back. But the only reflex her body could do is curl into a fetal position- an attempt to cover herself from the ground to air debris. She waited for another explosion, and she heard faint blasts- probably gunshots- and with that revelation, Eri waited for the metallic crafted bullets to pierce her now sweaty skin, waiting for the pain she expected-
-but instead she felt hands, warm hands- tugging at her uniform- Eri looks up-

Risa's frantic face comes into view, peering down at Eri, yelling something, and it translates as a faint sound. Eri didn't move, she couldn't- the stabbing pain paralysed her hip, but Risa kept tugging and Eri noticed a thin trail of blood streaming across Risa's face- coming from her forehead, a gash on her forehead  and suddenly Eri felt a surge, a surge of emotion, a surge of adrenaline, the sight of her friend
bleeding triggered something in her that she couldn't control and-

"Nngrh!!!"
Eri scowls angrily as immediately pushes herself up, the momentum drafting aside Risa's tugging hands- Eri's body tense and eyebrows stern- ignoring the sharp internal pains stabbing her- and she ran, dashing towards the stairs, looking up at the spot where she'd seen Niita.

More gunshots erode all around her, she didn't know who was shooting, so she kept running- hopping over smoldering rubble and fire- reaching the stairs and not stopping to take a breath- even though the smoked fumes made her dizzy, and halfway up the stairs she realized she lost her weapon, but she didn't care- her mindset was in her legs now, in the pounding brass of each footstep towards her goal.

"I got ya covered turtle!!" She heard Aya scream from somewhere- followed by a couple of pistol shots, and she didn't notice it before, but her hearing was coming back.

Eri reached the top, making a sharp left- sprinting down the balcony, numbly following the wooden guard rails that protected her from falling down- she was a few hundred feet up, spotting the shining blasts from Aya or Risa down below who was providing cover fire, she couldn't tell, and Eri kept on running- keeping her eyes set on the corner wall, where she assumed Niita was pinned down. More gunshots from below the balcony, piercing that very wall, dry wall flying in all directions, displaying rigid, abrupt bullet holes piercing painting as see fit, and Eri figured they had the crazy doctor pinned down- because she didn't see any counter fire-

Eri was getting close, so close the ricocheting bits and pieces hitting her-
-and suddenly appears Niita, rising from the corner, smiling- Niita's eyes hidden from the aiming stance of her sniper rifle pointed at Eri- the incoming bullets from Aya slamming against Niita's torso, forcing Niita into a twisted, macabre back and forth movement, but not doing anything to faze her- bulletproof vest- and Eri tries to stop herself, but she was going to fast, too quick to halt-
she'll shoot me before I can even do anything

"Eri- DIVE!" Risa screamed, somewhere close behind, and Eri didn't think twice- she dove, throwing her weight and momentum against towards the only place she could- the drywall, knocking herself through the plaster and just as she landed there was another explosion- the volume of it shook the room she was in, the narrow blast throwing Eri away- plaster from the decorated ceiling once again coming down on Eri.

There was no pain- other than the ringing tone brought back to her ears- and this time, Eri just wanted to sleep-
she didn't have a choice, her eyelids weighed a ton and her sight began to turn black.

The darkness overwhelmed her If there were gun shots, she couldn't hear- and if there were more explosions, she couldn't hear that either.
No matter, she thought to herself, not caring- finally closing her eyes- not caring if the person scrambling towards her was Niita or not. Just sleep now, just sleep...

[KonaKaga]

Why is is that right after Eri and Risa meet that the really bad things begin to happen?

Risa's frantic face comes into view, peering down at Eri, yelling something, and it translates as a faint sound. Eri didn't move, she couldn't- the stabbing pain paralysed her hip, but Risa kept tugging and Eri noticed a thin trail of blood streaming across Risa's face- coming from her forehead, a gash on her forehead  and suddenly Eri felt a surge, a surge of emotion, a surge of adrenaline, the sight of her friend bleeding triggered something in her that she couldn't control and-

Go Eri! Fight for Risa!

Well, at least I know that Eri's not going to die or anything, I mean she is one of the main characters...right? maybe you're planning to kill her at the end...
Seems like Eri's become a bit distracted ever since Risa arrived But who wouldn't be if you just met up with one of your best friends after them leaving after you were attacked by terrorists then you left to find them because you got worried and then you went on a grand adventure with zombies chasing you as if you were a stick and they were a dog but with a more deadly intent and the person behind it all is a complete wacko who wants humanity destroyed? Just an everyday situation...
I now see your reasoning. I shall be waiting for your next update 

[meowchi]

Risa Niigaki
Niita's Mansion, 3rd Floor Master Bedroom
October 9, 5:15 PM



The dolls watched Risa in silence, staring
after her with lifeless eyes, keeping their vigil and
their peace as they probably had for many years.

She looked down at Eri, her friends’ head propped against a
decorated pillow she'd found amongst the debris-

Risa never felt closer to Eri; ever since they started doing
those Hakkan segments, than when they
were together during their off times, where they'd
laughed and joked. She felt close to her now,
too, but was also deeply distraught by her own anger, wanting
desperately to make Eri wake up. It was her
fault, after all, that Eri is unconscious.

"... There's no body," Julia said, stepping through the
new hole in the wall, tossing the assailants sniper rifle
against the ground-, and in spite of Risa's shame, she couldn't
stop watching Eri with worried eyes, as Eri gracefully
breathed in and out, each breath faint and fragile. "Niita must've
survived that blast- which I'm not entirely sure how anyone that
close could eve-"
Julia stops talking and steps over, glancing at Eri and eventually Risa, noticing her displeasure.

"Look, you did what you had to do," Julia continued. "If you hadn't
thrown that grenade... Well, y'know."

"Let's not go into details—"

"Right, right..." Julia said sharply. "Listen, I'd hate to be a stickler, but
we really have work to do."
Risa was aghast, getting up and stepping towards
Jula. "Are you crazy?! Julia- I am NOT leaving Eri here."

Risa glared at her for a moment—then sighed,
shaking her head. She stepped back towards Eri, her gaze soft
and loving once more.

"You worry too much," Julia said. "I never implied anything
about leaving. But- unless you want to stay on this island, I suggest
we do what turtle and I came here to do- find those proof keys."

Risa's eyes widened, her face confused. She turned toward
the Julia, slender arms crossing against her chest, waiting for an explanation.
"Proof keys?"

Julia filled her in on the crazy twins- Niita and Kasumi, but most importantly her discovery of the seaplane,
which she thought is their only chance at this point— and that to
actually get into the plane, they need to get past a security measure which
involves those three keys.

Risa uncrossed her arms once Julia finished explaining. "Well if Eri agreed to do this, than..." she paused.
"...than I'm all for it too. Mind if I tag along?"

Julia scoffed. "You kidding? Ms. Kamei there would kill me if we left you- I'm still not entirely sure if I should run from Niita or
from her."

With that said, Risa panned back down at Eri- and call it crazy but it looked like Eri
was grinning, a faint grin, but a grin nonetheless.
"I hope you're right about this Julia..."

"Aya," Julia said, and when she couldn't think of
anything else to say, she repeated it. "Aya."

"...Pardon?" Risa said, wearing the
same dumbfounded expression as before.

Julia walked over and kneeled beside Eri,
shaking her head, almost as  if she regretted the name.

"I don't understand..."

"My name is Aya," Julia said standing up. "Long story. Turtle can explain it
to you better than I- when she wakes up I mean."

For a few seconds, they just stared at Eri,
Risa thinking about how this Niita had blown up, if she were killed. It had been so pathetic, she'd almost felt bad for the lady.

don't think about it, Risa thought. remember, she tried to kill you
first.
Risa shook herself like she'd had a sudden chill and
got them back on track. "We'd better look for those keys
before this Niita of yours comes back."

Aya nods toward the narrow ladder at the head of
the bed. It led up to an open square in the ceiling. "I'm
going to look up there, you check around here."

Risa acknowledges in return, and as Aya disappeared through the
opening in the ceiling, she wish Eri good luck and started to open drawers and
rifle through them.

"You wouldn't believe what's up here," Aya called
down, just as Risa discovered a drawer full of silky lingerie,
panties and bras and a bunch of other stuff she
couldn't begin to guess at.

"Ditto," Risa called back, wondering what lengths Niita and Kasumi
had gone in terms of pleasure. She decided she
didn't really want to know.

She heard Aya thumping around overhead as she
went to the dressing table and started to dig. A lot of
makeup and perfume and jewelry, but no proofs or emblems,
not even a house key.
"Nothing yet, but... hey, there's another ladder!"
Aya shouted.

Good thing, Risa thought, finding a box of stationery
with little white flowers on the paper. She was getting more
nervous about Niita coming back, the mystery of whether or not
she was alive or dead, ate at her brain, and she wanted to get out
of this freaky room of sister psychosis as soon as possible.
There was a tiny white card on top of the stationery
envelopes. Risa picked it up, noting the strong, feminine
hand.

Dearest Niita— you are the brave, brilliant soldier,
ever fighting to reinstate the Tomoko name to its former
glory. My thoughts are with you always, beloved. Kasumi.

Ick. Risa dropped the card, making a face. Was it just
her, or had Niita created a seriously unnatural relationship
with her sister?

Yeah, but if you think about it more, it'll engrave onto your mind
like a buck naked ... Tsunku. Double ick. Again, Risa decided
she'd rather not know—

"Risa! Risa, I think I found them! I'm coming
down!"

Overwhelmed by an instant rash of hope and optimism,
Risa grinned, turning toward the ladder, the
words music to her ears. "That's great news!"

Aya's shapely legs appeared, her voice much clearer,
and Risa could hear the same excitement in Aya's response as
she quickly descended.

"Yeah! There was this little
merry-go-round up there, and an attic room above that—
oh, and you gotta check out this black widow key—"

An alarm suddenly started blaring, echoing through
the giant house, loud and insistent. Aya jumped off the
bed, holding three proof keys and a metal object
in her hand. They locked gazes, exchanging a look of
confused fear, and Risa realized she could hear the alarm
outside, too, with the hollow, metallic sound of an announcement
being made over a cheap sound system. It
sounded like it was being broadcast over the entire city.

"What's going on?" A faint voice asked, confused and dazed-
and they both looked at Eri, whom was propped up by her elbows,
tiredly looking on. Eri rubbed at her head and grimaced.

Before either of them could say a word, a calm voice
began speaking through the bleating sirens, cool and female,
the voice of a recorded loop.
"The self-destruct system has been activated. All personnel
must evacuate immediately. Deactivating, and releasing all locks.
The self destruct..."

"That b****," Aya spat, and Risa was already right there
with Eri, helping her up and silently cursing Niita—but
only for about two seconds. They had to get to that plane.

Eri looked distraught, but was otherwise fine- she didn't appear
to have any injuries, but one of her arms were pretty bruised up.
"Can you walk?" Risa asked, dusting small debris off of Eri's shoulder.
Eri cringes, taking in a deep breath. "I'm fine- how long was I out?"

"Long enough. Go," Aya said, scooping up Niita's rifle and
putting her hand on Eri's back, urging Risa toward the
door. Aya quickly began preaching on how Niita's Rockfort Training Facility and Detainment
Center—the place where she had grieved her
mother and lost her father, where the last descendant of
the Tomoko line had quietly gone mad—was
about to go bye-bye, and she didn't particularly want to
be around when it did.

Risa peered at Eri and from the look of her expression, didn't need any advice on the matter. Together, they hustled through the door and ran, leaving the sad
remnants of Niita's twisted fantasy behind.

[meowchi]

Optional Background Music:

[youtube=425,350]Dfo8T_Bux54[/youtube]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aya Matsuura
Common Mansion, Lobby
October 9, 5:47 PM



"The self-destruct system has been activated. All personnel
must evacuate immediately. Deactivating, and releasing all locks.
The self destruct..."

The repeating voice of doom started to annoy her.

After leaving the private mansion, they ran back into the common mansion, eventually reaching the door to the
lobby and Aya took the lead, making a sharp right on the balcony towards the stairs- shooting the zombie with precision that surprised even herself,
just below the staircase, against the wall- blocking their path, and Aya deliberately forced herself not to look at the now slumped body beneath the windows that faced south.

It was a young woman carrier and she was pretty sure that she'd
known the girl—a secretary/receptionist who worked at
the front desk on weekends, Mary something. The lobby
faced the entrance gates to the courtyard; they'd
have to pass within a few feet of the corpse, but she
thought she could avoid looking too closely if they—

CRASH!

Two of the windows imploded, a driving rain of
glass spraying over the receptionist's body, shards of it
slicing at their exposed skin. In the same instant, a giant
black mass was hurled inside, bigger than a man, as
big as—

"Ohmygod- it's found me- RUN!!" Risa screamed grabbing Eri's forearm, forcing her along.
Eri gasped by reflex and said a bunch of gibberish that Aya didn't
understand and it was all she had time to say.

"What the f*** is that?!" Aya thought and screamed at the same time.

"Monster- horrible- Mr. Sweat" Risa replied, much in a panic, and Aya and Eri didn't think twice about
questioning her- from the
tone of her voice, it seems like Risa had met this thing before..

They sprinted down the
stairs and took a hard left, barely avoiding the monster, and Aya glanced at the entrance they had to go through, but couldn't, and Risa lead the way, slamming into the nearest door, opposite of the entrance, while behind them, Aya heard crunching glass as it rolled to its feet, heard the ugly opening note of its single- minded cry,
"DDDDDIiieeEEE—"

They ran, Aya suddenly realizing her hand was numb from gripping too tightly to her weapon-

“Eri- take this!” and Risa snatched the extra pistol from beneath her waist pack's strap, and tossed it to Eri- they dashed through the corridor to
the next door, through that into another corridor.
Aya suddenly realized they were sitting ducks- they were in motion sure, but none of that mattered if they had no idea where 'here' was.

Aya sped up to meet Risa side by side. "Any idea where we're going?! We're dead meat if we keep running like this!"
Before Risa could could open her mouth to reply-

Eri hastily dashed in front of them, taking the lead. "Follow me!" she shouted, glancing back as they ran.
"this way!!"

Risa slowed down to better position herself and Eri took a sharp right as soon as they were inside the nearest door and debris blurred
past, chairs and shelves and an overturned table spattered
with the blood and fluids of at least two bodies,
their sprawled bodies reduced to obstacles in her path.

"Bodies up ahead!"
Eri leaped over the twisted legs first, Risa following,
than eventually Aya, hearing the door
open, no,disintegrate behind her, a roar of splinters
and cracking wood that couldn't drown out the thing's
fury.

"Gogogofaster—" Risa blurted, showcasing a little panic.
Aya leaped over a fallen chair, grazing her shin against a splintered high point.
"Argh- godda***t!! Just what did you do to piss this thing off?!"

Risa was intent to reply and Eri was already shouting. "Door coming up-!"

“Turtle- clear a path!”
Eri sped up and Risa slowed down, escorting Aya's own footsteps; they had to make room for each other to plow through the door evenly.

"It's all you Eri!!"

Eri braced herself and hit the door running, ignoring the dull blossom
of pain that enveloped her bruised shoulder, twisting to
the right as they pounded into another long, darkened hallway.

Shhh-BOOM!
A flare of brilliant light and smoke jetted past them, almost hitting Aya,
blowing a jagged, burning hole in the floor not three
feet to their left. Shards of blackened marble and ceramic
tile flew, exploding up and outward in a fountain
of noise and heat.
"Jesus christ- That thing is armed?!" Aya yells, screaming through the smoke. "When were you planning on telling us?!"

Risa cupped her nose and mouth, muffling her response. "Should- should I tell you my life story too-!? Just keep running!!!"
"Almost there-" Eri gasped, ignoring them and leading the trail.

"Turtle-" Aya rasped, fighting against her breaths. "-down this corridor leads back into the lobby!!"
"I know- I KNOW!"

Eri coughed violently because of the smoke and they ran faster, down the adjacent hallway Aya spoke of, than finally, they piled back into the lobby, tired as hell, but still sprinting.

The entrance gate came into view, getting closer, bigger, to freedom- or at least, farther away from this 'Mr. Sweat'
and Risa suddenly spoke up, remembering that she'd dead-bolted the entrance to the mansion, the
realization like a punch to their stomachs. They'd never get
them open in time, no chance—
—andBOOM, another blast from what had to be a
grenade launcher or bigger, close enough that Aya could
feel the air part next to her right ear, could hear the
whistle of incredible speed just before the front doors
blasted open in front of them. They hung drunkenly on
bent hinges, swaying and smoldering as Eri ran
through, with Risa and Aya following closely, the sky cool, stormy, dark and wet.

"It's right behind us!!" Risa screamed, shouting over the thunderous rain, blaring alarm and still smoldering rubble, pumping her arms furiously, but gaining no speed.

"DDDDIiiieEEEE!!! "
Close, it's too close- DO SOMETHING

Instinctively Aya sacrificed a second
of speed to leap to the side, bringing Risa and Eri along with her, kicking away from the flooded ground, dimly aware that the  two Musume's yelps were shocked
and loud. Even as they landed, splashing into a huge puddle of rainy muck, the monster blew past them, barreling through the space they'd occupied
an instant before.

Its momentum carried it
several giant steps away, it was fast but too heavy to
stop, its monstrous size giving her the time they
needed. Without wasting another second, Aya helped Eri up as Risa took hold of  the soaked AK-47 off her drenched back.

She turned and Aya motioned the direction they needed to go, they took a sharp right, Aya leading the way, and eventually they reach the metal gate leading deeper into the courtyard-
where the kennels are, and once they were through, Risa rammed the AK-47 through the gates' hoop handles, both of them cracking against the
barrel before she had time to let go, hard enough for
Aya to realize that the gates wouldn't hold for very
long.

"Wait- don’t leave it!?" Eri asked, rather than stated, stepping towards it,
but Risa stops her.

"no ammo-"
"I have Niita's rifle," Aya interrupted, pointing at the barrel strapped along her back. "Let's go-"

Eri nodded and behind the gates, the monster screamed in animal
rage, a demonic sound of bloodlust so strong that
out of the corner of Aya's eye, Risa shuddered convulsively.

It was screaming for her, for them,
it was the nightmare all over again, they were marked
for death.

She turned and ran, following Eri with Risa close behind, its howl fading into the dark behind them as they ran and ran.

[meowchi]

Eri Kamei
Rockfort Prison, Dock
October 9, 6:01 PM



Their run to the plane was a blur—a mad dash out of
the Niitas' terrible home and down the rain-slick hill,
to the mansion and down stairs, the meeting with 'Mr.Sweat', the nickname
Risa had given it, down more stairs to a
tiny dock where Aya called up the submarine. Every
step of the way, the alarms drove them faster, the continuous
vocal loop reminding them of the obvious.

Just as they were climbing out of the sub, the bland
female voice stopped repeating itself and began a new
message—and though the words weren't exactly the
same, Eri had a sudden vivid memory of the plane crash, of
sitting on a plane seat as her conscious self-destruct
loop had announced that the end was near.

"The self-destruct sequence is now active. There are
five minutes until initial detonation."
"Well, that blows," Risa said, the first thing anyone had really said
since the Mr. Sweat encounter.

And in spite of Eri's
fear that they wouldn't make it in time, in spite of her
exhaustion and the horrible memories she knew she'd be
taking away with her, Risa's deadpan utterance struck
her as hilarious.

It does blow, doesn't it?

Eri started laughing, and though she tried to put an
immediate stop to it, she couldn't quite manage. It
seemed that even imminent death couldn't stop the giggles.

That, or hysteria had turned out to be a lot funnier
than she would have expected... and the look on
Risa and Aya's face wasn't helping.

Hysterical or not, she knew they had to move. "Go,"
she choked, motioning them forward.

Still looking at her as though she'd lost her mind, Aya
Reluctantly lead the way and Risa grabbed Eri’s arm and pulled her along with them. After a
few stumbling steps—and the realization that her laughing
fit might kill them all—Eri got hold of herself.

"I'm okay," she said, breathing deep, and Risa let her
go, a look of relief crossing her pale face.

They ran down some stairs and through a kind of underwater
tunnel, their rain drenched feet squish and squashing, and as they reached the door at its end,
the computer informed them that another minute had
passed, that they had only four left.

If there'd been any
chance that she might start laughing again, that killed it.

Aya and Risa pushed the door open and jogged left, Eri following, all of
them leap-frogging over a trio of dead bodies, all virus
carriers, all in uniforms. Eri suddenly thought of
the contacts she'd made, and her heart twisted. She hoped that
someone had gotten her emails- her dad, her family, the
international governments- anyone who can possible lend a hand ... but she couldn't kid herself about her chances.

She silently wished the emails luck
and then let it go, following Aya and Risa through another door.

Their journey had ended in a huge, dark, metal-lined
cavern, a hanger for seaplanes, and their hope of escape
was sitting right in front of them—a smallish cargo
plane floating just beneath the grid platform they were
on. Not far to the right- stormy, blue pre-evening light defined the
giant gateway that opened into the sea.

"Over here," Aya said, and Risa followed, hurrying toward a small
lift at the edge of the platform, one with a standing control
board. Eri joined them, Risa fumbling the three
damp emblem proofs out of her drenched pack.

"The self-destruct sequence is now active. There are
three minutes until initial detonation."

The control board had a panel on top with three inset
hexagonal spaces. No one said anything as they each grabbed a proof key and together, they pressed all three of them home.

Oh, please, please please please—

There was an audible click —and the panel's switches
lit up, a deep hum coming from the body of the standing
machinery. Risa smiled and laughed- a bit of relief and panic, and
Eri realized she'd been holding her breath when she was suddenly able to
breathe again.

"Hang on," Aya said, and swiped her hand over the
panel, flipping them all over.

With a small jerk- almost making Risa lose her footing, the lift began to lower at an angle,
as the plane's rounded side door opened, folding down
to create a stepladder.

“This is great,” Risa says, not really acknowledging anyone. “really, really great-“

Aya didn’t say anything, and neither did Eri- she was too much in a surreal moment- it felt like it was all happening
in slow motion, a kind of unreality to it as the lift met
the base of the steps, jerking again to a stop- once again tripping Risa’s posture; and it was hard
to believe that it was finally happening, that they were
actually going to make it off this cursed island.
To hell with believing it, just go!

They boarded the plane, Aya running forward to get
it flight ready while Eri and Risa quickly checked out the rest
of it—a large, mostly empty cargo area constituted the
bulk of the plane, sealed off from the cockpit by a
soundproof metal hatch. There weren't any creature
comforts beyond a closet with a port-o-john behind the
pilot's seat, but there was a footlocker at the rear of the
cockpit that contained two plastic gallon jugs of water,
much to Eri's relief.

Though muffled, they could still hear the recording
resonating through the hanger as Aya found the controls
for the door, the hatch lifting and sealing as the countdown
went to two minutes. Eri and Risa hurried to her side, Eri's
heart really starting to pound, and from the looks of Risa, so
was hers; two minutes was nothing.

She wanted to help, to ask what she could do, but
Aya's full concentration was on the instrument panel.
She remembered what she'd said about "iffy" flying
skills, but since Eri didn't have any at all, she wasn't
complaining.

The seconds ticked past, everyone stayed speechless, not wanting this
moment to be the last 2 minutes of their lives, and Risa embraced Eri, and Eri had to
force herself not to start babbling nervously, not to do
anything that might distract Aya.

The plane's engines had been rumbling, the sound
getting steadily louder and higher-pitched, Eri's
nerves tightening to match— and when the dreaded
computer female spoke up again, Eri found herself
holding onto Risa- so tight her hands began to numb.

"There is now one minute until initial detonation.
59 ... 58 ... 57 ..."
What if it's too complicated, what if Aya can't do it?
Eri thought, fairly certain they were about to explode.
"44... 43..."

Aya straightened abruptly, grabbing a gear shift-looking
thing to her right and nudging it forward before placing
her hands on the yoke. The engine sounds got much
louder, and slowly, very slowly, the plane started to move.

"You two ready yet?" she asked, a grin in her voice, and
Eri and Risa nearly collapsed with relief, their knees weak
with it.
"30 ... 29 ... 28 ..."

The plane edged forward beneath a low metal bridge,
close enough to the door now that she could see small
waves breaking against the metal siding. There was a loud
thump over head, as though the bridge had scraped the top
of the plane, but they kept moving, slow and steady.
"17 ... 16..."

As Aya steered into the open water, the countdown
reached ten ... and then was too far away to be heard,
as the engines got impossibly louder and they picked up
speed, the smooth ride turning bumpy as they started to
run over the waves. There was just enough bursts of lightning in the
now blackened, evening sky for Eri and Risa to see the island's shore off to their right,
rocky and treacherous. It was still hard to see, due to the thick raindrops pelting against
the cockpit- but from what Eri could make out, there were low cliffs bordering much of Rockfort,
rising up out of the water like
rough fortress walls.

Right before Aya started to pull back on die yoke, to
lift the speeding plane up and away, Eri saw the first
explosions, the sounds hitting a second later—a series
of deep, thundering booms that quickly grew distant,
dropping off as Aya gently raised them up.

As the cargo plane took to the air, giant billows of
black smoke rose into the early dawn, casting shadows
over the disintegrating city. Flames were catching
everywhere, and though she didn't know the exact
layout of what she was looking at, she thought she saw
the Rockfort prison tower being gutted by fire, an immense
orange light rising up behind what was left of the
mansion. There were still structures standing, but immense
pieces of them were suddenly missing, blown
into rubble and dust.

A moment passed, and Risa laughed wholeheartedly and pats Aya's head repeatedly, and Eri took a deep breath and let it out slowly, feeling
knotted muscles begin to unclench.

It was all over.

A city lost, because of the scientific integrity
Niita continued to violate, because of a moral
vacuum that seemed to be an elemental component of
her policies. Eri hoped the tortured, twisted
soul of Niita Tomoko had finally found some kind of
peace ... or whatever it was she truly deserved.

Risa couldn't stop laughing. "Are we really flying? That's amazing!"

Aya joined in, "What's amazing is how happy you can get! Now did I say this can work or what!?”
Risa was too caught up in the moment to reply properly, skipping towards Eri with
embracing arms, and she didn’t let go- burying her face into her friends’ shoulder, muffled laughter, and teary eyes.

“So, where are the others?" Aya asked casually, and drawn back
from her wandering thoughts and an ecstatic cuddling Risa, Eri turned her head
away from the side window, grinning, ready to shout in relief.

Aya caught Eri's gaze with hers, also grinning—and as
they looked into each other's eyes, the seconds stretching,
it occurred to Eri for the first time that Aya really cared.

After what they'd been through together,
she felt very close to her in a way that was
solid, strong, an affection of friendship that seemed perfectly natural
and...

"Let’s contact them! They’ll be so, so, so happy to hear us! " Risa exclaimed
excitedly- finally breaking away from Eri, plopping herself into the co-pilots seat, unclipping the wet 2-way radio from her belt.

Eri broke the eye contact first, looking away. They'd
been free and safe for all of a minute and a half; but it wasn't over yet,
the others were still on the island.

"Hitomi, this is Risa, do you read me? Over!" Risa holding the radio close to her mouth, eagerly waiting for a response.

Aya and Eri looked on, all waiting for a response, but nothing was heard besides
bursts of static. Risa tried again, in a louder voice this time- but no avail- and Eri felt the same woe she’d felt 99% of her time on the island.

Another try, and Risa stared at them both.
"No response…"
She peers out the window, a little worried.

"Prolly too far away. No worries. I'll bring us over the shoreline and-"
Aya returned her attention to the controls, looking a
little tired—and there was another thump on the roof,
like back in the hanger.

"What is that?" Eri asked, looking up as though she
actually expected to see something through the metal.
Risa stood and began examining as well.

"No idea," Aya said, frowning. "There's nothing up
there, so—"
CRUUNCH!

The plane seemed to bob in the air and Aya hurried
to compensate, Eri lost her footing, dropping sideways, saving her fall with her palms, and Risa instinctively looked behind
them. The destructive sound had come from the hold.

"The main cargo hatch came open," Aya said, tapping
at a small flashing light on the console, punching
another button. "I can't get it to close."

"I'll check it out," Eri said- dusting herself off, and at Risa and Aya's unhappy expression, she smiled. "Aya, you just keep us in the air, and Risa,
you have the best vision out of all of us- keep a look out and try to keep
contacting the others okay? I promise not to jump."

Eri turned toward the hold, and as soon as Aya looked
away, and Risa started re-transmitting, Eri casually grabbed the rifle hanging off the back of the copilot's chair, the one Niita had.

She still had the semi, but the laser sight on the rifle meant pinpoint
accuracy—and since she didn't want to shoot the plane
full of holes, the '.22' as the label read, was a better choice.

There had been a
monster or two on the island, and maybe they'd ended up
with a stowaway, but she didn't want Aya or Risa to worry, or
get involved. They all needed Aya at the controls, and Risa on the lookout.

Whatever it is, I'll have to take care of it, she thought
grimly, reaching for the door handle. Really, she was
probably overreacting to some minor malfunction, a
loose roof panel and a broken hinge. She opened the
door—
—and leaped inside, slamming it behind her before
Aya and Risa could hear the noise, so much for minor—

The entire rear of the hold was gone, the hatch torn
away, clouds and sky whipping past at incredible speed.
Confused, Eri took a single step forward—and saw
what the problem was.

Mr. Sweat, she thought wildly, the monstrous
thing they'd met not too long ago, the relentless pursuer in the
long, dark coat—but the hulking creature straddling the
hydraulic track was slightly different.

Risa had nicknamed it- and it was fitting, it was humanoid,
giant-sized and hairless, its flesh
dark, an almost metallic dark gray—but it was also
taller and more muscular, built like an eight-foot-tall
bodybuilder, its shoulders impossibly broad, its abdomen
rippled with muscle. It was sexless, a rounded
hump at its groin, and the hands weren't human hands anymore,
were far more lethal. Its left fist was a metal-spiked
mace bigger than her entire head, its right hand a hybrid
of flesh and curving knives, two of them at least a foot
long.

And it's not wearing the coat anymore, she thought randomly, as
the monster turned its cataract-white eyes to look at her
before throwing its head back and roaring, an explosive
howl of blood lust and fury.
"DDDDDIiieeEEE—"

Terrified but determined, Eri raised her suddenly
pathetic weapon as the creature started for her, and put
the red dot on its right uni-color eye. She squeezed the
trigger—
—and heard the dry click of an empty chamber, deafeningly
loud even over the raging winds that spun past
the damaged plane.

[KonaKaga]

Why are there no bullets?!
Risa and Aya better come and save Eri if she gets into trouble.
Eri could always chuck the gun at it.
Or she could just go and get Risa and Aya...
I don't know why, but I found myself laughing when Eri was laughing at the lame joke Risa made. It was hilarious how Risa and Aya started giving her weird looks.

Risa tried again, in a louder voice this time- but no avail- and Eri felt the same woe she’d felt 99% of her time on the island.

That sucks

"Prolly too far away. No worries. I'll bring us over the shoreline and-"

Is this just the way she says probably or is it a typo?

The BM went so well with the chapter although I ended up just listening to it
I await for your update!
(hehe that rhymed)

[Senor Frog]

Sudé tan difícilmente. La música lo hace aún más tenso. ¡FUNCIONAMIENTO DE LAS MUCHACHAS DEL FUNCIONAMIENTO!

[JFC]

There'd been another puzzle after the katana had opened the wall, having to do with numbers and a blocked passage, but they'd ignored it completely—
with both of them pushing, the passage wasn't blocked for long.

Something tells me that they shouldn't have ignored the puzzle.

They stood in the foyer, unlit but for a few strategically placed candles.

The fact that there are still a few candles here that are lit means that someone else was here not to long ago.

"Maybe we should—" Eri started—and froze, listening.
Aya held out her arm in front of Eri, forcing her to stop. "Someone’s coming-"

See what I mean?

The sound of footsteps- running footsteps, behind them- filtered into Eri's ears, and they both turn to face the incoming unknown, guns raised. It sounded irate, the precision- sloppy- each step rapid and harsh as it closes in-

" Don't shoot! " A female voice was followed by a surprisingly happy, upbeat laugh which Eri immediately recognized as-

Risa? Eri thought, and and before she could complete her thought-

"Well look who it is-" Aya whispered, dropping her guard as Risa came into view, running towards them.
"Saves us the trouble huh turtle?"

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Eri's jaw literally dropped to the floor- thoughts rummaged across her mind, making her numb, unable to speak, paralyzed by shock, not able to convince herself that the girl running towards them, the loving, caring girl, and most importantly non zombie, is Risa.

"Most importantly non zombie" =

So true.

"We need to meet up with the others," Risa says, regaining her breath and posture, reaching for a dark boxy object- a walkie talkie, clipped against her belt. "Come on, I can contact em with thi-"

"That's gonna have to wait," Aya takes an abrupt step forward, suddenly glaring at something above- the stairs."and I'd hate to break up the little reunion, but we've got company-"

Zombies? Niita?

She begins to fire, short bursts from the weapon echoing in the room as Eri turned to follow Aya's gaze- something- no someone on the 3rd floor- the balcony- just in time to see Niita taking cover behind the left corner wall, her posture as if she'd just thrown something-

"Grenade!!" Aya screams, and Risa, already following the trail of the flying explosive with her eyes, tackles Eri, knocking them both away as Aya leaps in the other direction, and just as they all hit mid-air, the thing explodes just feet away, throwing them like lifeless ragdolls in a dryer.

Yeah, Eri and Aya are going to have to bring Risa up to speed regarding Niita.  Yossi and the others should also be made aware of her, so that on the off chance they run into her, they won't be duped by her lies.

Eri crashes into a nearby pillar, smashing her hip against the hardened marble- she winced as the sharp pain engulfs her lower torso- a deafening ring in her ears blocks out all sound, the sheer bass of her heartbeat the only vague audible sound she recognized.

Oh crap, injury!

Eri noticed a thin trail of blood streaming across Risa's face- coming from her forehead, a gash on her forehead  and suddenly Eri felt a surge, a surge of emotion, a surge of adrenaline, the sight of her friend
bleeding triggered something in her that she couldn't control and-

You wouldn't like Eri when she's mad...

"Nngrh!!!"
Eri scowls angrily as immediately pushes herself up, the momentum drafting aside Risa's tugging hands- Eri's body tense and eyebrows stern- ignoring the sharp internal pains stabbing her- and she ran, dashing towards the stairs, looking up at the spot where she'd seen Niita.

Oooooooooooooooh if Niita didn't notice this...ERI SMAAAAAAAASH!!!

...

...

-and suddenly appears Niita, rising from the corner, smiling- Niita's eyes hidden from the aiming stance of her sniper rifle pointed at Eri- the incoming bullets from Aya slamming against Niita's torso, forcing Niita into a twisted, macabre back and forth movement, but not doing anything to faze her- bulletproof vest- and Eri tries to stop herself, but she was going to fast, too quick to halt-
she'll shoot me before I can even do anything

Ocrap she was lying in wait!

"Eri- DIVE!" Risa screamed, somewhere close behind, and Eri didn't think twice- she dove, throwing her weight and momentum against towards the only place she could- the drywall, knocking herself through the plaster and just as she landed there was another explosion- the volume of it shook the room she was in, the narrow blast throwing Eri away- plaster from the decorated ceiling once again coming down on Eri.

Risa was behind her? She toss one of her grenades at Niita's direction??? 

There was no pain- other than the ringing tone brought back to her ears- and this time, Eri just wanted to sleep-
she didn't have a choice, her eyelids weighed a ton and her sight began to turn black.

Oh please say she doesn't have a concussion from the blast.

AND WHAT ABOUT RISA? IS SHE OKAY???

The dolls watched Risa in silence, staring after her with lifeless eyes, keeping their vigil and their peace as they probably had for many years.

RISA'S OKAY! 

"... There's no body," Julia said, stepping through the new hole in the wall, tossing the assailants sniper rifle against the ground-, and in spite of Risa's shame, she couldn't stop watching Eri with worried eyes, as Eri gracefully breathed in and out, each breath faint and fragile. "Niita must've survived that blast- which I'm not entirely sure how anyone that close could eve-"

How the hell!?!? 

"Listen, I'd hate to be a stickler, but we really have work to do." Risa was aghast, getting up and stepping towards Jula. "Are you crazy?! Julia- I am NOT leaving Eri here."

She never said anything about leaving her. But, ummmm...yeah, is Aya gonna tell Risa that she's not really "Julia"?

"You worry too much," Julia said. "I never implied anything about leaving. But- unless you want to stay on this island, I suggest we do what turtle and I came here to do- find those proof keys."

Risa's eyes widened, her face confused. She turned toward the Julia, slender arms crossing against her chest, waiting for an explanation. "Proof keys?"

Heh, yeah.  She definitely needs to be brought up to speed.

*AYA EXPLAINS TO RISA*

Risa uncrossed her arms once Julia finished explaining. "Well if Eri agreed to do this, than..." she paused.
"...than I'm all for it too. Mind if I tag along?"

Julia scoffed. "You kidding? Ms. Kamei there would kill me if we left you- I'm still not entirely sure if I should run from Niita or from her."

Awwwwwwwwww.

"My name is Aya," Julia said standing up. "Long story. Turtle can explain it to you better than I- when she wakes up I mean."

Okay, guess Risa's now up to speed on pretty much everything.

Aya nods toward the narrow ladder at the head of the bed. It led up to an open square in the ceiling. "I'm going to look up there, you check around here."

Risa acknowledges in return, and as Aya disappeared through the opening in the ceiling, she wish Eri good luck and started to open drawers and rifle through them.

"You wouldn't believe what's up here," Aya called down, just as Risa discovered a drawer full of silky lingerie, panties and bras and a bunch of other stuff she couldn't begin to guess at.

Ummmm...oooooooooooookay. 

"Nothing yet, but... hey, there's another ladder!" Aya shouted.

Hmmm...careful Aya. It could just as easily lead to another trap as it could to what they're looking for.

Ick. Risa dropped the card, making a face. Was it just her, or had Niita created a seriously unnatural relationship with her sister?

Okay, that's just.....ewwwwwwwwwwwwww. 

Yeah, but if you think about it more, it'll engrave onto your mind like a buck naked ... Tsunku. Double ick. Again, Risa decided she'd rather not know—

* JFC resists the urge to post the "Tsunku flower" picture. 

"Risa! Risa, I think I found them! I'm coming down!"

WOOO! 

"Yeah! There was this little merry-go-round up there, and an attic room above that—
oh, and you gotta check out this black widow key—

Merry-go-round? 
Man, this just gets weirder and weirder. At least it looks like they've got the keys.

An alarm suddenly started blaring, echoing through the giant house, loud and insistent. Aya jumped off the bed, holding three proof keys and a metal object in her hand. They locked gazes, exchanging a look of confused fear, and Risa realized she could hear the alarm outside, too, with the hollow, metallic sound of an announcement being made over a cheap sound system. It sounded like it was being broadcast over the entire city.

The entire city? Niita would have had had to have access to the PA system from the house (assuming that this is her doing). If it isn't her, then just what is it? Zombies get to some critical part of the base?

Before either of them could say a word, a calm voice began speaking through the bleating sirens, cool and female, the voice of a recorded loop.

"The self-destruct system has been activated. All personnel must evacuate immediately. Deactivating, and releasing all locks. The self destruct..."

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW CRAP! 

Question is, what set it off? The removal of the keys? Niita? Something/someone else?

They had to get to that plane.

And they need to do it FAST, considering that they don't know how much time they have until it blows. It's not going to be easy though. The announcement that all locks have been released means that they will now have to worry about the many zombies that they were once safe from because they were behind a locked door.

Let's just hope that Yossi and the others will be near the location of the plane, or be at a location easily accessible to the plane.

CRASH!

Two of the windows imploded, a driving rain of glass spraying over the receptionist's body, shards of it slicing at their exposed skin. In the same instant, a giant black mass was hurled inside, bigger than a man, as big as—

"Ohmygod- it's found me- RUN!!" Risa screamed grabbing Eri's forearm, forcing her along.

"What the f*** is that?!" Aya thought and screamed at the same time.

"Monster- horrible- Mr. Sweat" Risa replied, much in a panic, and Aya and Eri didn't think twice about questioning her- from the tone of her voice, it seems like Risa had met this thing before..

If only Aya knew.
 


LULZ, Mr. Sweat.

Aya suddenly realized they were sitting ducks- they were in motion sure, but none of that mattered if they had no idea where 'here' was.

Aya sped up to meet Risa side by side. "Any idea where we're going?! We're dead meat if we keep running like this!" Before Risa could could open her mouth to reply-

Eri hastily dashed in front of them, taking the lead. "Follow me!" she shouted, glancing back as they ran. "this way!!"

Well, Eri has presumably spent the most time in the mansion out of all of them. Hopefully she's gotten an idea of the layout of the place.

"Gogogofaster—" Risa blurted, showcasing a little panic.

Just a little? Considering it's Risa, that's a bit of a surprise. 

Aya leaped over a fallen chair, grazing her shin against a splintered high point.
"Argh- godda***t!! Just what did you do to piss this thing off?!"

Better to ask that later, once they don't have to worry about it catching up to them.

Eri was already shouting. "Door coming up-!"

“Turtle- clear a path!”Eri sped up and Risa slowed down, escorting Aya's own footsteps; they had to make room for each other to plow through the door evenly.

"It's all you Eri!!"

Eri braced herself and hit the door running, ignoring the dull blossom of pain that enveloped her bruised shoulder, twisting to the right as they pounded into another long, darkened hallway.

ERI SMAAAAAAAASH!!!

"Almost there-" Eri gasped, ignoring them and leading the trail.

"Turtle-" Aya rasped, fighting against her breaths. "-down this corridor leads back into the lobby!!"
"I know- I KNOW!"

She knows? Does Eri have a plan here? Where is it that she's leading them?

Instinctively Aya sacrificed a second of speed to leap to the side, bringing Risa and Eri along with her, kicking away from the flooded ground, dimly aware that the  two Musume's yelps were shocked and loud. Even as they landed, splashing into a huge puddle of rainy muck, the monster blew past them, barreling through the space they'd occupied an instant before.

Its momentum carried it several giant steps away, it was fast but too heavy to stop, its monstrous size giving her the time they needed.

Nice. It's big and strong, but that also means that it heavy, and lumbering, meaning that it can't exactly stop on a dime.  Hopefully they can use this lack of agility and somehow use it to their advantage.

Just as they were climbing out of the sub, the bland female voice stopped repeating itself and began a new message—and though the words weren't exactly the same, Eri had a sudden vivid memory of the plane crash, of sitting on a plane seat as her conscious self-destruct loop had announced that the end was near.

Oi, what about the others? They might not even be aware of the self-destruct being activated. Plus, they can't just leave them there at the mercy of Niita (if she's still alive), Mr Sweat, and/or the zombies. 

"The self-destruct sequence is now active. There arefive minutes until initial detonation."

"Well, that blows," Risa said, the first thing anyone had really said since the Mr. Sweat encounter.

The control board had a panel on top with three inset hexagonal spaces. No one said anything as they each grabbed a proof key and together, they pressed all three of them home.

Oh, please, please please please—

There was an audible click —and the panel's switches lit up, a deep hum coming from the body of the standing machinery. Risa smiled and laughed- a bit of relief and panic, and Eri realized she'd been holding her breath when she was suddenly able to breathe again.

"Hang on," Aya said, and swiped her hand over the panel, flipping them all over.

With a small jerk- almost making Risa lose her footing, the lift began to lower at an angle, as the plane's rounded side door opened, folding down to create a stepladder.

FRAK YEAH IT WORKED!

Aya straightened abruptly, grabbing a gear shift-looking thing to her right and nudging it forward before placing her hands on the yoke. The engine sounds got much louder, and slowly, very slowly, the plane started to move.

"You two ready yet?" she asked, a grin in her voice, and Eri and Risa nearly collapsed with relief, their knees weak with it.

"30 ... 29 ... 28 ..."

Okay, they're moving. That's good.

Let's just hope now that there aren't any more unwanted surprises.

Right before Aya started to pull back on die yoke, to lift the speeding plane up and away, Eri saw the first explosions, the sounds hitting a second later—a series of deep, thundering booms that quickly grew distant, dropping off as Aya gently raised them up.

As the cargo plane took to the air, giant billows of black smoke rose into the early dawn, casting shadows over the disintegrating city. Flames were catching everywhere, and though she didn't know the exact layout of what she was looking at, she thought she saw the Rockfort prison tower being gutted by fire, an immense orange light rising up behind what was left of the mansion. There were still structures standing, but immense pieces of them were suddenly missing, blown into rubble and dust.

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!   

“So, where are the others?" Aya asked casually, and drawn back from her wandering thoughts and an ecstatic cuddling Risa, Eri turned her head away from the side window, grinning, ready to shout in relief.

...

"Let’s contact them! They’ll be so, so, so happy to hear us! " Risa exclaimed excitedly- finally breaking away from Eri, plopping herself into the co-pilots seat, unclipping the wet 2-way radio from her belt.

Eri broke the eye contact first, looking away. They'd been free and safe for all of a minute and a half; but it wasn't over yet, the others were still on the island.

"Hitomi, this is Risa, do you read me? Over!" Risa holding the radio close to her mouth, eagerly waiting for a response.

...

Another try, and Risa stared at them both. "No response…"
She peers out the window, a little worried.

Oooooooooooooh crap, I knew it was too good to be true.
 

"Prolly too far away. No worries. I'll bring us over the shoreline and-" Aya returned her attention to the controls, looking a little tired—and there was another thump on the roof, like back in the hanger.

"What is that?" Eri asked, looking up as though she actually expected to see something through the metal. Risa stood and began examining as well.

"No idea," Aya said, frowning. "There's nothing up there, so—"
CRUUNCH!

SOMEONE OR SOMETHING'S ON THE ROOF OF THE PLANE!!! 

"The main cargo hatch came open," Aya said, tapping at a small flashing light on the console, punching another button. "I can't get it to close."

Now it's INSIDE THE PLANE!!!! 

"I'll check it out," Eri said- dusting herself off

...

Eri casually grabbed the rifle hanging off the back of the copilot's chair, the one Niita had.

She still had the semi, but the laser sight on the rifle meant pinpoint accuracy—and since she didn't want to shoot the plane full of holes, the '.22' as the label read, was a better choice.

Yeah. It wouldn't really do them any good to blow a hole in the fuselage when they still need the plane to get them home.

The entire rear of the hold was gone, the hatch torn away, clouds and sky whipping past at incredible speed. Confused, Eri took a single step forward—and saw what the problem was.

Mr. Sweat, she thought wildly, the monstrous thing they'd met not too long ago, the relentless pursuer in the long, dark coat—but the hulking creature straddling the hydraulic track was slightly different.

HOLY CARP! THERE'S ANOTHER ONE LIKE MR. SWEAT ?!?!?

Terrified but determined, Eri raised her suddenly pathetic weapon as the creature started for her, and put the red dot on its right uni-color eye. She squeezed the trigger—

—and heard the dry click of an empty chamber, deafeningly loud even over the raging winds that spun past the damaged plane.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!! 

[elgie]

Sudé tan difícilmente. La música lo hace aún más tenso. ¡FUNCIONAMIENTO DE LAS MUCHACHAS DEL FUNCIONAMIENTO!

WHAT THE HELL.

[High-King]

this is epic. resident evil meets morning musume! holy crap!!!!!!! waiting for next chapter.

[meowchi]

BGM:
[youtube=425,350]tc2Og05Sdv0[/youtube]

------------------------------------------------------------------

Eri Kamei
Seaplane, Cargo Hold
October 9, 6:15 PM



THERE WASN'T A CURSE WORD STRONG enough
to accurately express her dismay. Eri instantly
dropped the useless weapon and ran, dodging to the
right, not wanting to end up trapped in the corner, unable
to believe that she hadn't thought to check the stupid
weapon. There were six or seven crates stacked against
the wall near the cockpit door but no cover there, on either
side; the thing would have her penned in.

Go go go!

As she scurried along the right wall, the lumbering
creature slowly turning to follow, she grabbed the
semi from under her belt and flicked the safety off by
feel, afraid to look away from it. It stumped toward
her on tree trunk legs, eerily focused on her every
step.

The cargo hold wasn't all that big, maybe thirty-five
feet long and twelve wide. Too soon, she was at the rear
of the plane, icy air suddenly pulling at her, working to
suck her out into the clouds. Crouching, trying not to
think about a misstep, Eri darted across the open
space and reached the other wall, grabbing at a raised
ridge of metal with trembling fingers.

The creature was still almost twenty feet away. Eri
held onto the wall, waiting for it to draw closer before
running again. At least it was slow, there was that much,
but she had to come up with something, she couldn't
keep going around in circles.

She was watching the creature, could see it clearly ...
but what happened next was like some optical illusion. It
dropped its silvery head slightly—
—and was suddenly five feet away, the distance
closed in a fraction of a second, and it was bringing its
right arm down, parting the air with an audiblewhoosh,
knives flashing—

Eri didn't think, she moved, her stomach suddenly
in her throat, her own action a blur to herself. For a split
second she was only a body, ducking and sprinting—
and then she was on the other side of the plane, all the
way up by the stacked crates, looking back as the creature
slowly, slowly turned.

Aw, screw this! The plane would survive a few holes.
She opened fire, sent eight 9mm rounds in a tight grouping
right at the center of its chest—and all of them hit.
She saw the black-rimmed holes open up near where its
heart would be if it was human, no blood but moist, dark
tissue was exposed, forming spongy lumps around the
wounds. The creature stopped in its tracks—and started
again in about two seconds, one slow step after another,
its focus unchanged.

A stab of panic hit her,gotta get out of here it's going
to kill me, get Risa- Aya, another gun maybe —
No, she couldn't, and it wouldn't help, it would only
make things worse.

From what Risa implied, Mr. Sweat had been chasing her for a
single purpose, to kill anything in it's sight; Eri suspected
that this creature was after her specifically, and if she
left the hold, the creature would just tear through the
hatch, killing her, Risa and Aya. At least this way, Risa and Aya might
have a chance. And 9mm was the heaviest firepower on
board—if it could take eight rounds in the chest, another
gun wasn't going to make a difference.

Try for a head shot, like the one-armed monster.
She could try, but she had the feeling that something
that didn't bleed probably wouldn't go blind, either.

Its eyes were strange, perhaps they weren't even used for
sight... and there was also the fact that they were on a
moving plane, one that shook and wavered; without a
scope, how was she supposed to target, let alone hit?

All that passed through her mind in about a second
and then she was moving again, edging toward the back
of the plane once more—afraid to run, afraid to stand
still, wondering how long she had before it ran at her
again and what she would do then—
—and it lowered its head like it had done before, and
again, Eri's body reacted, but an idea was forming,
too.

She pushed away from the wall and ran toward it,
angling her path,if this doesn't work I'm dead —
—and she felt the chill of its strange flesh as it rocketed
past her, was so close that she could smell its rotten
meat smell—and then they were on opposite ends of the
open space and it was slowly, mechanically turning
around. It had worked, but barely; if it had been an inch
closer, if she'd been a half step slower, it would already
be over.

Guns didn't work, she couldn't leave, so the creature
had to go,but how? The air stream at the hold's open
end was strong, but if she could duck past it, no way it
would nab the weighty monstrosity ... she had to knock
it off-balance, maybe bait it to the opening and trip it up
somehow, she wasn't strong enough to push it...

Think, Eri! It was starting toward her again, one
step, two. She looked away long enough to scan the
floor near the opening, looking for something it might
stumble over, maybe the hydraulic track—

The hydraulic track.

Used to push heavy crates to the rear of the plane, to
be unloaded. In fact, two of the empty crates were sitting
on the metal platform at the start of the track, just a
few steps from the door to the cockpit. The controls
were set into the outer wall, right in front of the door.

Too slow, there's no way.
Except it was slow because
it carried a heavy load; if there was only an empty container
or two on the platform, how fast would it go then?
She had to get to the controls, had to see—

There was a blur of movement, and then the spiked
mace was coining around, ripping toward the side of her
head. Eri jumped forward, instinctively sidestepped,
but not quite fast enough. The spikes didn't get her but
its powerful forearm did, bashing painfully into her ear,
knocking her off her feet.

Instantly, the creature crouched and brought its right
arm down, but she was already in motion, rolling the second
she hit the floor. The hand blades hit the deck and
sparks flew, the creature howling in rage as Eri sprang
to her feet, trying not to notice her throbbing ear or the
tiny black dots that swarmed at the edges of her vision.

She ran for the hydraulic controls instead, as the creature
rose to its feet, its movements mechanical again, as emotionless
as it had been furious only seconds before.

A few running steps and she was looking down at a
simple control panel, power switch, a dial for entering
approximate weight, buttons for back and forth, a tiny
readout screen, an emergency shutoff. Eri hit the
power switch, twisting the weight dial to the maximum
limit, just under three tons.

She shot a look at the creature, still at a safe distance,
and saw that it was only a step or two from being in the
direct path of the platform. Her hand hovered over the
blue switch that would move it forward, that should
send it bulleting down the hold at an incredible speed.
With only a few pounds of empty container where three
tons was expected, it would mow the creature down like
a blade of grass.

Almost... almost.. . now!

When the creature was standing almost directly on
the track, Eri punched the button—and nothing happened,
nothing at all.

S***! She fumbled for the power switch again, maybe
she hadn't turned it on—and she saw what was on the
little readout screen, and groaned aloud. The simple instructions
read, "Charging for load—wait for tone."

Good God, how long willthatbe?

The creature was still twenty feet away, walking almost
directly along the track. She might not get a better
shot at it, because another blow could very well mean
her death—but if she stayed where she was and the creature
got to her before the platform was charged, she'd be
trapped between the wall and the storage crates.

It would bludgeon her into pulp against the cockpit door.

Better to run for it-
Better to stay put.

Eri hesitated a touch too long, and the creature was
in motion again. It swept toward her like a natural disaster
and it was too late, not even time to turn around and
flee into the cockpit—
—ping!

—and it brought its spiked left hand down just as
Eri slammed the switch, her eyes squeezed closed,
sure that the world was about to disappear in a blizzard
of pain—
—as the creature shot away from her, roaring, the
empty crates lifting it off its feet, powering it away. Before
she could begin to accept that the plan was working,
the creature used one of its incredible bursts of
speed and got hi front of the barreling container, just
enough to get some leverage, to push against it—

—but Eri didn't wait to see which force was
greater. She opened fire again, two, three bullets hitting
it in the head, bouncing harmlessly off its armored
skull—but distracting it, too. The creature struggled another
half second and then it and the two crates were
gone, plunging into the dusky sky.

Eri stared out at the passing stream of atmosphere
for a time, knowing she should feel limp with relief—
that she'd killed the monster, that she'd survived another
Rockfort disaster, that they were finally,finally
safe ... but she was simply wrung out, any possibility
for strong emotion having flown out the back along with
Mr. Sweat.

"Please, let it be over," she said softly, and then
turned and opened the door back into the cockpit.

As she hopped the two steps up to the pilot area,
Risa glanced back her, frowning. "What happened? Is
everything okay?"

Eri nodded, flopping down in the seat next to Aya,
absolutely beat. "Yeah. Score one more for the good guys.
Oh, the rear cargo hatch is gone."

"Are you kidding?" Aya asked.
"Nope," Eri said, and yawned widely, suddenly
overwhelmed with fatigue. "Hey, I'm going to rest my
eyes for a minute. If I fall asleep, wake me up in five,
okay?"

"Sure," Risa said, tending to her.

Aya frowned, as dumbfounded ever. "The hatch isgone"?

Eri didn't answer her, the dark already rushing up
to claim her, her body melting into the seat...
... and then Risa was shaking her, repeating her
name over and over again.

"Eri! Eri!"
"Yeah," Eri mumbled, sure she hadn't slept as she
cracked her eyes open, wondering why Risa would
want to torture her like this—until she saw her expression,
and a bolt of alarm jolted her awake.

"What, what is it?" Eri asked, sitting up straight.
Risa looked really worried. "Like a minute ago, Aya said we
changed direction and then the controls suddenly locked
down," she said.

"I don't know what it is," Aya continued, looking at the controls. " there's no radio
but everything else is still working fine—except I can't
steer, or alter altitude or speed. It's like it's stuck on
autopilot."

Risa nods. "No go on the others too... maybe-"

Before Risa could finish her sentence, there was a crackling
static sound from a small video monitor mounted close to
the ceiling of the cockpit, one Eri hadn't noticed before.
Flickering distortion lines spread out across the
screen, but the picture, when it came in, was clear enough.

Niita!
She was also flying, it seemed, belted into the front
seat of a two-man fighter jet, or something similar. She
still had smears of makeup on her face, her eyes rimmed
in black, and when she spoke, it was in a cat-like tone.

"My apologies," she purred, "but I can't let you escape
now. It seems you've eluded another of my playthings—
naughty, naughty."
"Incest-loving freak," Risa snapped, but Niita either
didn't hear her or didn't care.

"Enjoy the ride," Niita said, giggling, and with a
final buzz of static, the screen went blank.

"Oh COME ON!" Aya screamed angrily, pounding at the controls.

Eri stared at Risa, who stared back helplessly, and
then they both looked out over the sea of clouds, watching
silently as the first shafts of moonlight broke through.

[KonaKaga]

More!

[JFC]

No lulz for my "eri smash" bits? 

THERE WASN'T A CURSE WORD STRONG enough to accurately express her dismay. Eri instantly dropped the useless weapon and ran, dodging to the right, not wanting to end up trapped in the corner, unable to believe that she hadn't thought to check the stupid weapon.

Major moment right there.

The cargo hold wasn't all that big, maybe thirty-five feet long and twelve wide.

In other words, space was limited, which definitely was not to Eri's advantage as it restricted how much/far she could move.

Too soon, she was at the rear of the plane, icy air suddenly pulling at her, working to suck her out into the clouds.

I wonder...could she? O_o

She was watching the creature, could see it clearly ... but what happened next was like some optical illusion. It dropped its silvery head slightly—

—and was suddenly five feet away, the distance closed in a fraction of a second, and it was bringing its right arm down, parting the air with an audiblewhoosh, knives flashing—

HOLY CRAP DUCK!!!

Eri didn't think, she moved, her stomach suddenly in her throat, her own action a blur to herself. For a split second she was only a body, ducking and sprinting—
and then she was on the other side of the plane, all the way up by the stacked crates, looking back as the creature slowly, slowly turned.

*whew* 

Aw, screw this! The plane would survive a few holes.

If she's lucky, all the bullets would hit the creature and would thus not hit the fuselage at all.

Eri suspected that this creature was after her specifically, and if she left the hold, the creature would just tear through the hatch, killing her, Risa and Aya.

Wonder if that suspicion is going to play out? Just who did this creature used to be?

Guns didn't work, she couldn't leave, so the creature had to go,but how?The air stream at the hold's open end was strong, but if she could duck past it, no way it would nab the weighty monstrosity ... she had to knock it off-balance, maybe bait it to the opening and trip it up somehow, she wasn't strong enough to push it...

Oh boy, this is risky, to say the least.  Eri has to draw the creature close enough to the gaping hole it left, yet ensure that she herself doesn't get sucked out as well.

A few running steps and she was looking down at a simple control panel, power switch, a dial for entering approximate weight, buttons for back and forth, a tiny readout screen, an emergency shutoff. Eri hit the power switch, twisting the weight dial to the maximum limit, just under three tons.

She shot a look at the creature, still at a safe distance, and saw that it was only a step or two from being in the direct path of the platform. Her hand hovered over the blue switch that would move it forward, that should send it bulleting down the hold at an incredible speed. With only a few pounds of empty container where three tons was expected, it would mow the creature down like a blade of grass.

* JFC inches toward the screen in rapt attention.

Almost... almost.. . now!

When the creature was standing almost directly on the track, Eri punched the button—and nothing happened, nothing at all.

EEEEEEHHHHH???  What happened, is it a safety feature that disables it from working if the plane is in flight?

S***! She fumbled for the power switch again, maybe she hadn't turned it on—and she saw what was on the little readout screen, and groaned aloud. The simple instructions read, "Charging for load—wait for tone."

Good God, how long willthatbe?

Makes sense. She did, after all, set it to move a load of just under 3 tonnes. Machines can't exactly have that much power in the blink of an eye.

Hopefully it charges quickly, because with that super-speed move the creature pulled earlier, it could suddenly be on top of Eri before she knows it.

—ping!

*CREATURE GOES BYE-BYE*

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
 

Let's just hope that the creature doesn't survive the impact of wherever it was that it landed (if it was the ocean, let's hope it drowned).

Aya frowned, as dumbfounded ever. "The hatch isgone"?

Aya =

Aya said we changed direction and then the controls suddenly locked down," she said.

"I don't know what it is," Aya continued, looking at the controls. " there's no radio but everything else is still working fine—except I can't steer, or alter altitude or speed. It's like it's stuck on autopilot."

Oh crap. Either the plane has a pre-programmed route that is being flown by it's autopilot, or something/someone has gotten remote control over it.

*NIITA REAPPERS*

AWWWWWWW FRAK! 

WTF, is she in an actual jet, or some type of flight sim setup that's giving her remote control over the plane?

[niigaki_risa]

No lulz for my "eri smash" bits?

I did, but I didn't post lol. 

I'm wondering how Yossie and her gang is doing with Reina 

[meowchi]

Ai Takahashi
Rockfort Shore, Medical Compound
October 9, 7:07 PM



Ai glanced between her watch and the door several times. She didn’t think it had been 15 minutes, but it had to be close.
Reina and Sayumi weren’t back yet.

She started to feel angst about the small tremor she'd felt, but reconsidered it to be the product of strong thunder booms- a loud side effect to the storm that just ended outside.

It'd been a few hours since Risa's transmission. Since then, Ai felt restless, emotionally drained- the hours that passed felt like days- and despite keeping busy by searching the office for evidence, she couldn't get over the gut feeling knotting  in her stomach.
Hitomi and Koharu were busy looking over at the computer, data sprawling across the lit screen- hoping to find any reliable info, while Ai resumed her search in the mostly empty file cabinets.

"Wait, there- type in 'blue series'," Hitomi prodded.

Before Koharu could respond, Reina and Sayumi walked back into the room, both of them bolstering their weapons. Sayumi held a sheet of torn paper in one hand.
“Locked up tight,” Reina said. “Halfa dozen offices, no windows at all and only one other external door, north end. Oh- Sayumin nicked a grenade off a dead body too- she calls it 'a good luck charm.'”

"Yeeew-" Koharu gazed from her seat, sterning an exaggerated winced face. "That's gross~!"
"And totally tacky-" Reina chuckled, amused at the pink flush, gathering on Sayumi's cheeks.

Sayumi ignored them. “There were file cabinets in most of the rooms, but they were empty—except I found this in one of the drawers, stuck in a crack. It must have ripped off when the place was being cleaned out.” She handed the piece of paper to Hitomi. She scanned a few lines, her dark gaze taking on a sudden intensity.

She turned back to Sayumi.
“This is all there was?”

Sayumi nodded. “Yeah. But it’s enough, don’t you think?”

Hitomi held up the torn sheet and started to read it out loud.
“ ‘The teams continue to work independently, but have shown a marked improvement since the
modification of aural synapses.
“ ‘In Scenario Two, when more than one Trisquad is present, the second team (B) will no longer engage when the first (A) concludes (when target ceases to move or make sound).
“ ‘If the target continues to provide stimuli and A has discontinued the attack (lack of
ammunition/disabhng injury to all units), B will engage. If within range, additional patrols will be drawn to the attack and will engage in succession.

“ ‘At this time, we have not successfully managed to expand sensory ability to trigger desired behavior; the visual stimuli of Scenarios Pour and Seven continue to be unpro-ductive, although we’ll be infecting a new group of units tomorrow and expect correlating results by the end of the week. It is our recommendation that we continue to further develop aural capabilities before considering heat-detection
implantation—‘”

“That’s where it’s torn off,” Hitomi said, looking up.

Sayumi nodded. “It explains a lot, though. Why the team at the back door of the boathouse didn’t do anything; the team out front was still firing. It wasn’t until you and Koharu took them out that the second group moved in.”

"What's a 'Tri-squad'?" Reina asked, peeking at the paper.
Sayumi was the first to respond. "Probably their technical term for 'Deltas', erm- zombies with guns, I mean..."

Ai frowned, not liking the implications of the report for more than just the obvious; Niita’s continued experimentation on humans. From what Ai’d learned in school, a general virus took seven or eight days to fully amplify in a host, the host then falling to pieces within a month-
So what’s this about infecting a new group and getting data in a week? Or for that matter, implantation and sensory modification with the hosts they already have? There shouldn’t be time for all that, the “units” should be disintegrating, way beyond learning new behavior. . . .

She bit her lip nervously, suddenly wondering what the researchers at Rockfort might have done with the virus. If they’d found a way to speed up the infective, perhaps tampered with the virion’s fusion membrane, made it more cohesive ...
... or somehow multiplied the indusionary, allow-ing it to replicate exponentially... we could be looking at a strain that works in hours, not days.

It was a nasty thought, and one that she didn’t want to consider
until she had more information to go on.

Besides, it wouldn’t make a difference in their current situation;
the 'Trisquads' were just as deadly either way.

“The sign on the north door says we’re in block C, whatever that means,” Reina said, moving to the computer- leaning against Koharu's chair. “We should check out the map-”

Koharu sighed. “Hold on- take a look. I asked for information on the blue series, and it started to give us a report on these I.Q. tests, coded by color—then this. I can’t get anything else.”

Reina peered at the screen, mumbling, “. .. man who makes it doesn’t need it, buys it, doesn’t want it, uses it, doesn’t know it. . .”
Sayumi, who had been rereading the Trisquad material, looked up with sudden sharp interest. “Wait, we've seen that before. It was a trick question wasn't it?"
Hitomi peered, looking annoyed. "It's 'answer'."

They all gathered around as Koharu quickly typed in answer. As soon as she hit “enter,” the riddle disappeared, replaced by:

BLUE SERIES ACTIVATED_

Then followed:

TESTS FOUR (BLOCK A), SEVEN (BLOCK D), AND NINE (BLOCK B)/ BLUE TO ACCESS DATA (BLOCK E).

“Blue to—Matsuura’s message,” Sayumi said quickly. “That’s it—the message
received related to the blue series, then said, ‘enter answer for key.’ The answer was ‘answer’—“

“—and the test numbers are the key,” Hitomi said. “There are three more lines in Matsuura's note, then ‘blue to access.’ The lines must be the answers to the tests—the letters and numbers reverse, time rainbow, and don’t count. If I'm right, it’s all about something we’re supposed to find.”

"Hey- that reminds me- does anyone remember what Reina and I found?" Koharu said, surprisingly upbeat. "At the boathouse-?"
"A dead body nailed to the door," Sayumi asked and cringed at the same time. "Yes- great find Kussun-"

"You're referring to Hirokane's note." Hitomi interrupted, stepping towards a nearby desk to sit on.

"Yup," Koharu continued, "It said something about him hiding something-" she paused. "Something called... 'Testudo'?"
"I remember that!" Sayumi chimed in, suddenly as upbeat as Koharu. "Niita's name was mentioned too- and come to think of it- that's where we saw part of Matsuura's note-"

"I think we should we find whatever 'that' is," Koharu added, already coming to conclusion. "Maybe Hirokane knew he was... y'know, in danger, so he hid it- hoping someone would find it right? I mean, why else would he write about it?"

Reina scoffed. "Are you crazy!? What if this is all a trap? I mean- you guys did just say he was dead- nailed to a freakin' door I might add- not to mention we don't even know what 'testudo' even is!" She crossed her arms, waiting for a response.

Sayumi seemed to agree. "Reina's right. It could be some kind of ploy by that Niita person..."

"But why would he go out of his way to write, 'I hid it for you'?..." Koharu asked softly, feeling overwhelmed.
No one said anything and Ai felt it was finally time to speak up. "Obviously this- this testudo is important- and if anything, it's our best lead in terms of evidence, which is what we're looking for-"

Reina sighed. "True, but Mister Door Guy could be as bad as Miss Crazy Doctor. It's a little fishy he left a note."
"M-maybe he didn't write it," Sayumi said quickly, stammering, explanations rummaging through her head."I'm reallllllllly starting to think Matsuura did."

"I was just about to say that," Hitomi brushed away her bangs. "-I'm assuming Matsuura took this testudo, Niita threw a fit, releasing the Trisquads, which infected the whole island- with no way out, Matsuura hid the damn thing and left behind clues- for others to find it."

"Others like Hirokane... but he didn't get very far." Koharu shuddered, remembering images.

"This is our best lead so far." Hitomi finished. "Anyone up for it?"

Everyone seemed to incline, except Reina, who still looked unconvinced. "You guys are insane- ...but than again, so is this entire island..." Reina paused. "Aw hell, I'll drink the punch- let's find this thing!"

Hitomi smiled. "It's a go then. First things first, we need to secure this compound-"

Ai felt a rush of excitement as Hitomi grabbed a pen off the desk and turned over the scrap of the Trisquad report. The information they had finally made sense—Dr. Matsuura’s message actually meant something.

We can do this, we’ve got something solid now—

Hitomi drew five boxes in two lines, the same as on the map they'd found earlier, marking the southernmost box with the letter C. After a pause, she tentatively labeled the others, starting at the top left with A and going right to left, marking the test numbers next to each letter.

“Assuming that this is right side up,” she said, “and that
we need to complete the tests in order, we’ll be moving in a stagger, a zig-zag between the buildings.”

“And assuming the Trisquads don’t have a problem with that,” Reina said softly.
Ai felt her excitement dwindle, could see the same mixed emotions in the suddenly somber
expressions they all wore, staring down at the boxes. She’d known that they were going to have to leave eventually, but had somehow managed to avoid thinking about it, putting it off until it was in front of them. It was in front of them now. And the Trisquads would be waiting.