Ch.169Act 2: Ch.10 – Long Live the King (21)

“Don’t talk crazy!”

Catherine Scully shouted. She held up her ID badge high.

“I’m a Federal Security Agent! If anyone so much as touches this woman, you’ll be summarily executed under security law!”

“Hey. Chatterbox.”

Agent Scully had likely never heard such a term in her life. Aurora tapped Scully’s thin coat with her hand.

“Give me this. I don’t want to throw away my clothes, so I’ll wear yours instead. It’s expensive, so treat it well. Hand wash it.”

“Chatter…chatterbox?”

“Take it off.”

Aurora removed her suit jacket, and Scully took off her coat. The two women exchanged clothes. Scully pointed at Aurora’s gloves. The white gloves were stained with darkening blood.

“What about those?”

“So greedy, our little chatterbox. Sorry, but these are mine. Unless you’d trade that necklace for them?”

Scully clutched her medallion. Aurora smiled as if she’d expected that. With everyone watching, she put down her gun. Then she snatched the jacket from Scully.

“I told you to treat it well. Follow me. I’ll show you how to fold it.”

Aurora turned sharply. She placed the clothes on top of a closed box. There were faint letters and warning signs on the side of the box, similar to what I’d seen in the Innsmouth underground caves.

Military – Explosive Caution Box.

Scully, who had been acting like she didn’t know where to look, breathed a little heavily. She stood beside Aurora as if genuinely interested. Standing there pretending to know nothing, she said,

“Give it here. Let me try.”

She pressed down on Aurora’s hand and pulled it toward herself. The lid moved slightly. Enough for someone with quick hands to hide an explosive. Aurora swiftly took out a grenade and slipped it into her left sleeve.

“Hand wash. Remember that.”

Aurora turned around. She approaches me.

“I asked you to marry me, didn’t I? You really never listen.”

“Let’s do it.”

Aurora looked at me with surprised eyes. Tears welled up, but she tried to hold back her smile. I pressed my lips together.

“Which hand do you want the ring on?”

Aurora’s lips trembled.

“Left hand.”

“I didn’t prepare anything.”

“I did. Just lend me your hand… I’d prefer your right hand. Is that possible?”

It is possible. I’ve put the reloaded revolver in my right pocket. Suddenly, a reflection of light made me squint. It came from above the theater. Strange. The sun is in a completely different direction.

“Are you crying?”

Aurora fell into my arms. She grabbed my head, pulled me close, and kissed me. Words I want to say flash through my mind. But as always, Aurora is the one who decides what I should say.

“Those words. What you said to that nun. Say it to me too… so only I can hear.”

I embrace Aurora. My voice was utterly calm.

“I love you.”

“…Sorry, but that’s really uncool. You know that, right?”

Aurora pushed me away. She smiles shyly as she greets me.

“I still love you, though.”

As if she’d said all she needed to say, Aurora walked toward Annette Cole. Birds mock, speakers crackle. People remain silent.

“Wait.”

Crayfield, with a dumbfounded expression, stopped Aurora. Aurora seemed rather displeased.

“What?”

“It wasn’t you who shot your brother. It was my assistant.”

“What?”

“I’m certain. That day, not a single bullet was fired from the gun you held. If you don’t remember, fine. ‘The Avenger,’ ‘Anything that can bleed can be killed’ – those were my assistant’s words. Right?”

Aurora blinked. A spasm crossed her lips.

“That’s, that’s impossible.”

“It’s the truth.”

“That’s not what I mean! How, how do you know that? You definitely weren’t there then…”

“My point is,” Crayfield cut her off.

“If you’ve been tormented by the thought that you killed your family with your own hands, you don’t need to think that anymore. If you’ve been afraid you committed a sin while loudly proclaiming you’d create a family, you don’t need to worry about that anymore.”

“What’s the point of saying this now…”

Aurora’s face suddenly flushed. Her eyes filled with shock.

“You, could it be?”

“Both you and I.”

Crayfield gave a hollow laugh. He lightly touched his right eyebrow and then removed his hand. Aurora, lowering her eyes, nodded.

“It’s cold.”

With her hands inside her coat, she stood in front of Annette Cole.

I slowly gripped the revolver in my right pocket. I saw the words floating above her head.

[ Aurora ]

[ Sacrifice of the Covenant ]

I wanted to close my eyes. I wanted to erase those words somehow. Annette Cole’s greedy two faces, the mechanical arms on her back, her skeletal arms caressed Aurora’s face.

“Sacrifice…”

“Happy?”

Aurora smiled. The organization members twitched their arms, but they restrained themselves from further reaction as Aurora had firmly instructed.

The Senator’s mechanical arm rose up. At its peak, I pulled out the revolver and fired.

Crayfield quickly fired at the mockingbird that lunged at him.

Aurora’s right fist flew toward the Senator’s mechanical face.

Too easily, she was caught by the mechanical arm and left arm.

The Senator opened her mouth wide and laughed triumphantly.

“Such a shallow trick…!”

Aurora pulled her left hand out of her pocket. The blood-soaked glove, a safety pin on the ring finger of her white left hand glints. There was a click, like the sound of a stapler. The sound of a grenade being triggered.

“This is for Savio!”

She thrust her left fist into the human mouth. There was a loud snapping sound. Before the Senator could even scream with a “wooooo,”

– – – – – – – !

Crayfield and I ran simultaneously. We dragged Aurora’s body. I held Aurora’s left arm high. Crayfield took off his coat and wrapped it around the wounded area. Aurora wailed. Even while crying, she shouted at me.

“G-go! Kill those bastards! What are you doing, I said go aaaaagh! Kill them!”

Angry mockingbirds lunged at us. Gunshots rang out from all directions. Organization members and federal agents shot wildly at the creatures that recklessly attacked. Deep Ones jumped from all directions. An enraged hand, as tall as a 10-story building, randomly swept the ground.

Click.

<Awakening 10/12 / Destruction 11/12>

Screeeeeech.

The sound of bending rebar. The human side of Annette Cole’s body fell off in chunks of meat, but the mechanical side did not.

“Insolent sacrificial bitch…”

More mechanical arms sprouted from Cole’s body. Six arms, two legs. Like a mechanical octopus. An octopus that could slice flesh with just a scratch.

I fired my pistol wildly, but pistol bullets couldn’t penetrate that machine. The Senator raised her mechanical arms high.

“The sacrifices have increased to three!”

A cool breeze blew.

Thud. Thud.

Two of the Senator’s mechanical arms fell to the floor, cleanly severed.

“What is this…”

There was a swishing sound. Sparks flew from various parts of Annette Cole’s mechanical body with a crackling sound. The confused Senator looked down at her body.

“Wires?”

Crack!

The Senator’s body was yanked upward. Like a trophy fish, the Senator struggled in mid-air.

“My mission was to observe and report.”

A terse voice. An easily distinguishable British accent. A knife-like mechanical sound that irritated just by listening.

Clarisse Holmes lightly jumped down from the corner of the building’s rooftop.

She made almost no sound. Her steel body and gray hair remained unchanged. The Steel Lady walked toward us. She seemed to clasp her hands together, then twisted her left wrist with her right hand. Her left wrist detached cleanly.

“Seeing the young lady’s hand soiled, I simply cannot bear it. Stupid fools, move aside!”

Clarisse roughly tore away the cloth covering the wound. Fire sparked in Aurora’s eyes. A satisfied, eerie smile appeared on the mechanical person’s face.

“Yes. Those eyes… I like them.”

Clarisse fixed Aurora’s left arm between her armpits. She forcibly inserted her detached left hand into Aurora’s left forearm.

“Aaaaargh!”

“Don’t be dramatic! You can endure it! You even detonated a bomb in your hand!”

“I’ll kill you!”

Aurora’s right hand strangled Holmes’ neck. Clarisse Holmes burst into laughter.

“Good, good! I’m satisfied, continue!”

Holmes’ right hand turned bright red. It was like heated iron itself.

“You fucking… aaaaargh!”

Before Aurora could say anything, the heated hand gripped Aurora’s implant area. A bestial scream erupted from Aurora’s mouth. Her eyes rolled back, and her body shook as if it would break.

“Pretty girl. I quite like you. Except for one thing. You’re too reckless. Typically American. But without precision, you’re no better than a butcher. Surgery must be precise. Remember that. A piece of advice for progress.”

“Kuk… kuuuugh…”

Aurora gasped for breath. Yet she didn’t release the strength in her right arm. Clarisse looked down somewhat surprisingly, but soon stood up with a cold expression.

“You two idiots. You should be able to protect the young lady, right? After about five minutes, that young lady will have to thank me for the rest of her life. So…”

A steel sword emerged from Clarisse’s left wrist. Woom – woom – woomwoomwoom! The blade part rotated like that of a chainsaw.

“For about five minutes, I’ll set aside my mission. Prepare your thanks. You there. American… no. American-made tin can. Since you’re not human.”

Annette Cole struggled. Clarisse poked at Cole as if amused.

“Ha! Moriarty’s design. An incompetent fellow who only self-replicates without thinking of improvement. A frustrating man who doesn’t consider his lacking skills, just keeps doing the same thing hoping someone will recognize him someday. He’s stupid and diligent. The most useless kind! Just like you right now!”

“Touch me and there will be diplomatic consequences!”

Cole’s voice rose. Clarisse smirked.

“A British spy touching an American Senator, what a thiiiiiiaaaaaaaarrrrggghhh!”

Clarisse didn’t wait. She thrust the rotating steel sword into the babbling mouth. With a single strike, Annette Cole’s body shook violently. Screws came loose one by one, and the body convulsed as if it would break apart.

“I heard American Senators were human. There’s no human here, just a tin can claiming to be a Senator. Well. Were you satisfied with having eight limbs? Americans are always so greedy!”

Clarisse’s left hand was pulled out. What had been Annette Cole now rolled around as scrap metal worse than garbage. The gray lady shook her left arm vigorously to remove impurities.

The actors, the mechanized actors, looked at the lady with fearful eyes. But their mouths were smiling.

“Smiles stretched to your ears! Pretty. But utterly vulgar! All you can do is imitate the Empire. And with such poor taste that you idolize someone like Moriarty who only plagiarizes himself!”

Clarisse Holmes extended the sword on her left hand. With clanking sounds, the boots covering her two legs automatically came off. What was revealed instead of legs were blade-legs that were flexible yet resilient, thick blades. In her right hand, wires thinner than fishing line but as persistent as judgment swayed. There was a sharp sound of winding a clockwork spring.

“I’ll teach you colonial pigs the etiquette of the British Royal Family!”

A steel flash invaded the stage.