BrokenPromise
Redacted
Lemons
The Raven Calls
BayRat
vietmyke
High Moon
TaintedMushroom
Sky Blue
After an eternity, the demonic train had finally ceased spinning. Noah slowly stood up, breathing deeply to keep her stomach under control. She braced herself on her cross to further steady herself, and looked to Raphael. Sick as she might’ve looked, and as much as she wanted this to be over… With what’s already happened, it’d be pretty silly to not see this through to the end.
Ahead of them, Noah saw another esper. She had blonde hair and dressed like someone Noah would’ve expected to see in some kind of cyberpunk flavored film. Her whole body tensed when she saw the weaponry of the esper, they wielded guns. Again. Two of them, even. Noah knew that there was no way she could deal with her with what little mana she had left, not with how much she had to work to take out that other gun wielding esper. But strangely, Noah couldn’t spot the skull faced esper anywhere. Had he failed to make the jump?
Raphael began to speak, but before he could even finish his sentence, the esper across from them unleashed a blinding light. Noah flinched and threw an arm up to shield her eyes, bracing for an attack… but none came. Not for her, at least.
The light dissipated as soon as it came, and an explosion rang out. Noah saw a go flying past her, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened when she properly looked… But it was far too late for her to do anything to help.
“Raphael!” She shouted in horror, only able to watch helplessly as his body sailed off the train. For a moment longer, she watched in pure shock, before remembering where she was. She gripped her cross tightly as she prayed for him, she turned in both fury and panic towards the blonde haired esper, knowing that she’d have no choice but to fight… only to see nothing. The other esper was gone. The only things that were still on the train, as far as Noah could tell, was herself and one of Raphael’s wings.
Noah was shaken, but she knew she had to keep going. She didn’t know if she even had that capability to destroy Crazy Train on her own, honestly, she probably didn’t, but she had to try. Putting aside the fact that she was on a job to stop it, she knew that monsters like this were incredible threats to humanity. Even if she couldn’t kill it, she could at least try to injure it. That way, whoever was forced to fight it next at least had a better chance at saving their homes from the demon. Noah didn’t want to think about how much damage the two hurricanes raging above Pax had already caused.
Thus, with a goal in mind, Noah ran as fast as she could manage. Behemoths had weak spots, she knew, and if the demon had assumed the form of a train, then Noah could only see its weak spot existing in its frontmost compartment. It’d have to be the engine. Still, it was going to be a bit of a run no matter what.
And, to make things worse, some few seconds after Noah had begun moving, she heard someone shout over the wind. Still running, Noah whipped her head to the side, only to be greeted by another esper. This time, one riding a dragon. Wielding what Noah could only assume was a rocket launcher. That was aimed directly at her.
Unlike the time before with the sniper, the adrenaline bursting through Noah’s body wasn’t able to stop a startled, scared yelp from escaping her. Noah’s body was coated in a gold white glow, and four crosses orbited around her body. A potent shield melody, one that Noah could only pray would be enough to prevent her outright death.
All the while, Crazy Train ascended toward the clouds. If Noah could just stay on long enough for the train to reach the clouds…
Boom! Trixy’s rocket scored a direct hit on Noah’s shoulder. She had to reposition her feet, but she was no worse for wear. She had absorbed the entire attack. The relief she felt couldn’t be understated, but she knew she couldn’t afford to take another rocket like that. Her mana was just too low, she had to end this before she lost too much more.
"Shielded huh? We’ll have to try this…" Trixy plopped herself down and tapped the back of Boteg’s neck. The dragon looked back at its passenger before soaring forwards. Despite the size of the creature, it didn’t seem like Boteg was too keen on getting close. He flew directly over the behemoth, albeit higher than he had to.
Taking advantage of the downtime Trixy had given her, Noah held her left hand, which was now glowing, behind her back. Her right gripped her cross tight and began to prepare a strike. She kept her eyes on the sky, shaking all the while.
Trixy jumped off the back of the dragon with her rocket launcher held overhead.
Noah had been hoping to hit both her and that dragon, but her jumping off so suddenly had thrown Noah for a loop. She could hardly afford to wait, though, and it was too late to alter the components of the melody… but not the targets. Noah’s hand flew out from behind her, firing off an orb of light at Trixy. At the orb's pace, it looked like it would strike low on Trixy's falling body.
As it neared Trixy, the orb of light appeared to split in half. It transformed into two spears of light that shot upwards to both Trixy’s head and her weapon. With any luck, the esper would mistake them as both headed for her head, and try to shield herself. This would all be a lot easier if her opponent wasn’t able to see her strikes coming.
Noah herself gripped her cross tight and breathed deep. She’d taken two quick steps back, moving herself a bit out of range of the incoming overhead, and intent on leveraging the reach of her cross alongside the distraction her melody would hopefully cause for Trixy. Once the esper got close enough, Noah could thrust her cross forwards and take an arm or hand, out of the fight.
But when the orb detonated and attempted to skewer Trixy, her body broke apart as if it was made of clay and rock.
Wide eyed, Noah recoiled out of shock. ”What-?!” She started, before the remains of what she prayed was a clone scattered everywhere, and she was forced to shield her eyes from the resulting debris. The blood and viscera that should have spilled out was replaced with dust and mud. Her form only continued to break down as its fragments rolled off either side of the train.
The remnants of the clone gone, Noah frantically swiveled around, searching for the whereabouts of the opposing esper. That had, in all likelihood, been nothing more than a small distraction to buy time, and Noah hadn’t even thought twice about it! She needed to spot that dragon again, and she needed to do it soon.
Off in the distance, Boteg was flying a good distance off. But not so far off that Noah couldn’t make out the rider. It looked like Trixy was still there, as if she had never jumped off the dragon. Had she not jumped off, or was this the work of her magic? It didn’t matter. She leveled the giant cylinder on her shoulder with Noah and fired. The back of the cylinder flashed smoke, and a stone cannonball flew out the other end. This was not the same projectile that Trixy had fired earlier, which had most certainly been a rocket.
The clouds were starting to look a lot closer, and the world was getting smaller. If she could hold on just a bit longer…
Once more, Marrie found herself holding onto one of Crazy Train’s spikes, though from the opposite direction this time. She’d had just enough time with her flight to get to the behemoth’s side, but she had to pull herself up to get on its back. She took a deep breath and looked around to take stock of the situation. Just in time to see some sort of large projectile coming towards someone else who was there.
”Church!?” she managed to shout. As the words left her mouth, she realized that distracting the girl would not be great for her. ”Look out!”
Fortunately, Noah had been doing nothing but looking out for the entire night. She’d been mid-cast by the time Marrie had shouted, having spotted her opponent as she’d begun to fire. Her body was once again shielded by that white gold glow, and those crosses again orbitied her. If it was enough to stop a rocket, it would surely stop a cannonball.
But Noah was certainly not shielded from the surprise of another esper showing up, one of the very few she’d even met, as a matter of fact. Noah’s head had whipped to face the girl, in utter bafflement as to how Marrie had even managed to get on the train. “Marrie?! How did you even-?!” Noah cut herself off as she remembered where she was, and her focus spun back onto her opponent. She braced herself for impact and prayed that Marrie hadn’t taken a job for an opposing side.
If fate could feel such things, it would likely find amusement in Noah’s concern. ”I can fly!” Marrie took stock of the angle of the incoming projectile and started to move towards Walking Church while avoiding the path it should take, and likely paths from it bouncing off of her shield. ”How did- Nevermind, no time! This thing is climbing, if we don’t get off it soon, we’ll suffocate!”
As she continued her approach, Marrie took a look around. She didn’t see anyone else left on Crazy Train, but… ”Is anyone else up here!?” She was trying her best to keep the panic out of her voice; if there were others still there, that’d make getting them all safely off of the train’s back more complicated.
No one would answer Marrie but the stone cannonball headed for Noah. It had smashed into its target and blew into a hundred tiny pebbles. But unlike the rocket, the cannonball had bypassed the shield and sunk into Noah’s flesh. Streams of blood flew out of her shoulder as her body soared through the air.
Perhaps if Noah had more experience, she might have considered the perfectly smooth stone projectile could have been a melody instead of a physical projectile. Had it been another rocket, Noah would have been soaring through the clouds by now. But the stone’s violent explosion not only wounded Noah, but she was thrown off the train. The overcast sky fell away from her as she plummeted. In the end, the final thing Marrie would hear was a pained yelp.
If there was a silver lining, it was that Noah’s superior resistance to magic had prevented any significant harm from coming to her. While the attack had ripped through her garment and peeled back her flesh, her arm was still connected to her body.
But no one avenges their friends quite like the Mavericks. Trixy yelled at Boteg to chase their prey as they descended, but all the falling church could hear was the sound of the air whipping past her ears.
The pain had taken some moments to set in, and was continuing to set in as Noah fell further and further. Every part of her pierced with a stone was burning and stabbing at her body. Had she the ability or control in the moment, she would have gone stock still, trying to prevent any movement making things worse. Instead, her arm was forced to flap uselessly in the wind, magnifying it all so much more horribly.
Noah hadn’t even realized what had happened, at first. She had not been confident, she hadn’t been confident the entire night, but she had been sure that the shield would’ve been enough. But it hadn’t been. And she was cast from the skies above.
She had reached too high, Noah distantly reflected. Too high too soon. Green as she was, how did she ever expect to succeed with a task as momentous as this on her own? Without the assistance of the other two, with how little mana she had left, what could she even have done? What had even happened, for that matter? Where was the skull faced esper? Why had Raphael been dealt with so easily?
Question after question after question. None of them would assist Noah with her new predicament. Falling straight down, she could see the buildings below closing in. Biting her lip to keep a lid on the pain, Noah’s undamaged arm gripped her cross tightly. For one final time, Noah’s body was covered in a white golden glow. The orbiting crosses centered themselves above and around her head.
The city streets approached rapidly. Noah shut her eyes tight and prayed.
Marrie watched in horror as Walking Church was knocked clear of Crazy Train’s back. She didn’t even have time to run towards her before she was falling, too fast and too far to catch. She did the only thing she could do and ran towards the side Noah had fallen off, watching and hoping that she could manage a shield. But from the distance to the ground, she couldn’t tell.
With tears starting to sting her eyes, she took another hard look around Crazy Train’s back as she stood up. After a few moments, she was finally satisfied that there was nobody else trying to hang onto it, and began to slide down the back of the monster towards the earth. As she reached the bottom, she lined herself up with the center of Crazy's back, and waited for its movement to also align with the golden dragon below, then jumped off towards it.
"Boteg! Gonna need a safety net!"
The sudden call from above caused the dragon to look over his shoulder. Frenzied as Trixy was, a glance over her shoulder revealed what had gotten the dragon’s attention. She cursed under her breath.
"No point losing both of them…" As Boteg spun in the air, Trixy fired another rocket at the falling nun. Between Boteg’s erratic movement and Noah’s rapid descent, the rocket missed its target completely. The dragon rider grunted before looking ahead. Trixy stashed her rocket launcher behind herself and spread her arms. Marrie fell squarely into her arms. She said, as the impact rolled catcher and faller down the dragon’s back.
The tip of Boteg’s tail curled around and stopped the two from rolling further. "Thou art reckless, Mist scare!"
With Crazy Train departing through the clouds, and Peace Train moving towards the horizon, the storms began to settle. The turbulent winds let up, and the clouds started to change color. It would be a bit before it stopped raining, but already it looked like it was going to be a sunny day.
"I’m one for two today!" Trixy looked over Boteg’s head. "How about you take us down?"
"If thou wish it."
But even if Boteg could descend as fast as he could, he wasn’t going to beat Noah to the ground. On impact, the asphalt road detonated, sending blacktop and gravel soaring through the air. Noah had landed with her arms stretched out to the sides and a perfect impression of a cross was made in the road. Regardless of how hard she fell, the fall itself hadn’t harmed her at all. She only had a moment to process her surroundings before a familiar face appeared, and extended its hand.
”The holy roller is safe, at least. The demon yet lives, but by no fault of yours. Perhaps he had other plans for it.” After pulling Noah to her feet, Raphael pointed down a street. ”The Mavericks are still about. We should leave for the time being.” The dragon was about to touch down on a building, but it looked like Trixy was already jumping off to pursue on foot.
Noah’s eyes followed Raphael’s gesture, and spotting that rocket wielding esper again, she couldn’t help but agree. “Y-yeah, there’s… not much else I can do.” She had so little mana left that she could barely feel it. Like a tiny drop in a gallon of water. There was no way she could use it for anything, and then there was the matter of her arm… The pain was still piercing, and she did her best to ignore it, but there was no way she was gonna be able to fight with it. Someone else could, maybe, but not Noah. This was just something she had no experience with.
”Today, you did enough.”
With circumstances like this, against an esper like that… it was pretty clear that the best thing to do was to run away. Noah brought her light to as low a level as possible, and made to follow after Raphael. In a city like this, it shouldn’t be terribly hard to lose the esper, with the headstart they had.
As Boteg began to descend, and the adrenaline with him, she let out a barely audible murmur. ”Can’t help it. Peace Train was too fast, with the angle that Crazy was taking, I missed my shot at landing on it.” She climbed up his back from her position and patted him gently on the head. ”Thank you. I owe you one.”
"Tis praise most splendid, but thou doth not need bless this flying gossamer!"
Truthfully, she didn’t know why Trixy seemed to want Walking Church dead, and she wanted to prevent another meetup between the two, but with how out of mana and strength she was she didn’t think she could stop one. Still, as she sat back down, she spoke up to her. ”You too. Thanks for the catch. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to pay you back.”
The blue haired esper looked up at the clearing sky. Just as she registered that things might be okay, her eyelids closed against her will. It wasn’t until Boteg landed that she was jolted back to reality.
Trixy hopped off Boteg as soon as she was able, and swung her rocketlauncher around. Just as Noah had predicted, the low visibility and recent rain would make her very hard to track down at this juncture. With a groan, she fell on one knee and completely deflated. "She died keeping Crazy Train alive. Why do all of my…" She looked back up at Marrie. "Tetrad wasn’t lying about you. Heh! You uh, you were pretty good up there. I wish I could have done more." She rubbed the back of her head. "Hey uh, if you’re free we, eh, ah, never mind." With the Maverick biker rally peeling down the street, Trixy jumped off the building to join them.
Boteg looked a bit pensive, but eventually called to his sole rider. "Doth thou need to go someplace?"