Three Square Meals Ch. 060

She landed the gunship, then turned to face Irillith as she rose from the Pilot's chair. "I'm going to rescue John. You stay here to guard the Raptor, and kill anyone who isn't us," she ordered, her face a bleak mask, and the white light shining from her eyes burning brighter than ever.

Irillith was still dazed from being forcibly dumped out of the cyber-realm, so she nodded, too weary to try and object. As Alyssa marched out of the cockpit, the Maliri girl rose from her chair, and slumped into the Pilot's seat. She wrapped her hand around the flightstick, and then rubbed her eyes before staring out into the hangar to maintain a watchful vigil.

***

Shinatobe had felt the series of tremors and vibrations through the Amaterasu's hull, ignoring the first ones when they had dropped out of hyper-warp, but springing to her feet when she recognised the tell-tale feel of weapon hits striking the ship. The ship's surgeon hadn't even had a chance to apply a wound sealant to the ragged gashes across her shoulder, and he blinked at her in shock when she leapt off the treatment table.

"Apply a trauma kit," she murmured in her unemotional voice.

Doctor Endoso nodded his head, his topknot bobbing as he did so. He crouched down beside a medical storage locker, and quickly pulled out the desired kit. After carefully unfolding it, he picked up an anti-bacterial spray that he applied liberally to the scorched and torn skin, before pressing the trauma kit into place.

Pain flooded her senses, and as Shinatobe hissed in reaction, she quickly darted a glance at her HUD and deactivated her pain receptors. Now she simply felt a strange tugging and prodding as he securely attached the trauma kit, which would prevent the wounds from becoming infected.

As soon as he was done, she turned and stalked out of the Medical Centre without a word, leaving the bewildered doctor to stare after her in surprise.

***

Alyssa stomped down the landing ramp from the Raptor, then strode across the hangar. White ethereal swirls were coiling around her arms now, looking like slow motion tornados as they twisted and danced around her limbs.

She could feel that John was near, and she approached a set of blast doors that had been slammed down to seal off the hangar from the rest of the ship. Raising her hand up in a claw, she snarled with anger and tugged with her mind, ripping the massive titanium door from its frame. The edges bent and twisted as she tore it free, and the huge hangar echoed with the hideous grating sound.

There was a squad of soldiers in the corridor beyond, and they opened fire on her with assault rifles the moment she came into view. Her Paragon armour deflected the rounds with a curious whumping sound, and she ignored the hail of bullets that filled the corridor. Narrowing her eyes, she ripped the jagged titanium door in half, then sent the two pieces spinning away from her with a dismissive flick of her wrist. The enormous, foot-thick sheets of metal sailed down the corridor like a giant's frisbee, and smashed the soldiers out of the way, or cut through them where they stood. When the door sections hit the far wall with a deafening clang, a long, bloody smear and scattered limbs were all that was left of the soldiers.

She stalked down the passage, stepping heedlessly over mangled corpses in her single-minded obsession to be reunited with her man.

***

John watched the armless cyborg stagger to his feet, his shattered face looked incredulous as he stared at the wall he'd just been smashed through. He turned to run, and John called out to him, "Hey! Wait a minute."

Amatsu Mikaboshi stopped mid-stride, and slowly turned to look John's way.

"I'll be hunting you now," John promised him, his voice brutally cold and remorseless.

The cyborg fled, and as John listened to the man's feet echoing off into the distance, he focused his attention on freeing his legs from the restraints. With his arms unbound, he just had to tug each set of metal chains out of the wall, and after a couple of minutes he was done, completely free once more.

He stepped clear of the broken shards of metal, and after stretching his aching muscles, he padded cautiously from the interrogation room.

*John! Are you alright?!* Alyssa thought to him, her voice flooded with relief to hear his inner voice once more. There was a strange reverberation when she spoke, almost like an echo that followed every word.

John poked his head out through the door, then glanced both ways, before ducking back when he heard movement heading his way from further down the corridor. *Yeah, I'm fine. Just took a few cuts from an assassin in a swordfight, but nothing too serious,* he replied immediately. He sent her a telepathic grin as he added, *You don't know how good it is to hear your voice, honey. I was so worried...*

Alyssa's near-hysterical laughter caught him by surprise, as she went on to reply, *I know exactly what you mean.* She paused for a moment, reluctant to tell him everything else that had happened, so she continued, *But we need to get the hell out of here!*

A group of soldiers paused outside the gaping hole in the interrogation room wall, speaking in hushed, frightened voices. After some furtive conversation, one of them approached the rent in the metal wall, and leaned in to take a quick look inside. John grabbed the man's rifle with his left hand, then slammed his right fist into the soldier's head with a mighty hook, crushing his skull like an eggshell.

The limp body collapsed in a heap, and John stepped into the breach with the rifle in his hands. The fallen man's comrades were staring at the broken body in horror, so he raised his assault rifle, and sprayed the rest of the squad with bullets at point blank range. They keeled over as they were perforated by ten-millimetre caseless rounds, the wall behind them now covered with riotous sprays of blood. He ejected the spent magazine from the rifle, and picked up another from one of the slain soldiers, slotting it into the MallerArms-G270 he was now carrying.

*Where are you?* he asked, taking another look down the corridor, but seeing no other signs of life.

*Heading your way. Stay put if you're safe, I'll be there in a minute,* she replied, her voice reverberating through his mind.

***

Mikaboshi fled down the corridor, desperate to get away from the first man in nearly a century who had actually made him feel afraid. He was unsteady as he ran, the loss of his left arm upsetting his centre of balance, and slowing him down. Glancing over his shoulder, his heart pounding, the Master Assassin felt greatly relieved to see that John Blake wasn't hot on his heels, attempting to chase him down.

Reaching a set of lifts, he dived into one just as a small group of soldiers stepped out, and then repeatedly tapped the button for Deck Twelve. The soldiers were shocked to see him running around without an arm, but they were only pawns, and he cared nothing for their opinion. The elevator door finally closed, and dropped down the handful of levels to the lowest one on the battlecruiser, which housed the hangar bays.

The elevator let out a quiet chime and the doors slid open, filling the lift with the disturbing sound of gunfire and men screaming. Mikaboshi activated the camera in his index finger, and eased it out into the corridor so that he could see what was happening without exposing himself to danger. He looked left first, and he watched the cam-footage in shock as a soldier went sailing through the air across an intersection fifty metres away. Whoever had just hurled the dead man across the crossroads had taken the trouble to snap him in half first. Backwards.

All the screams of terror were coming from the left side of the corridor, so after checking the right was clear, he slipped out, and then sprinted down the passageway. He took the first passage to the left he could find, running in the opposite direction to the force of destruction rampaging through his ship. Mikaboshi burst into the starboard hangar bay, and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Shinatobe's shuttle parked on one of the marked landing zones.

He felt a momentary pang of regret at abandoning the Amaterasu and Shinatobe, but his one unbreakable rule was never to expose himself to unnecessary danger. It was now quite apparent that every second spent aboard the compromised battlecruiser was violating that rule.

***

John waited impatiently in the interrogation room, hearing chaotic sounds approaching. Another group of soldiers ran down the corridor outside his hiding spot, but they didn't pause to investigate the rip in the wall, being more concerned with fleeing for their lives. The sounds of running suddenly stopped abruptly, followed by terrified screams and sickening crunching noises. He clutched his assault rifle, and waited nervously in the room.

*It's me!* Alyssa called out to him, *I'm coming in.*

He sagged with relief, and she opened the door and strolled inside, looking from side to side. When she saw him, he could see the tension drain from her, and she rushed into his arms.

*Oh God, I'm so glad you're safe!* she gasped, hugging him fiercely.

He held her in his arms, and said in a soothing voice, *Everything's going to be alright now.*

She looked up at him, and he could see the grief etched in her anguished face, but that was forgotten about the instant he saw the radiant white light pouring out from her eyes.

*Your eyes!* he remarked, blinking in astonishment. *Are you OK?!*

Looking away, she nodded, and replied firmly in her echoing voice, *I'm fine. Let's get out of here.*

Realising that being in the middle of a hostile ship full of enemies wasn't the best place for twenty questions, he replied, *Alright, you lead us out. I'll cover your back.* He frowned when he saw she wasn't carrying a Punisher or Justice rifle, and he asked with alarm, *Did you lose your weapon?!*

She slowly shook her head, raising her arms to show him the psychic energy cascading down her arms. *Killing them like this felt more personal,* she replied, her voice grim.

John was shocked at her tone, but he gestured to the door to proceed, this being neither the time or place for explanations. Alyssa was fearless as she strode out into the corridor, and she glanced both ways, before freezing when she looked to his left. John looked down that stretch of corridor, and grimaced at the sight of a half-dozen horrifically broken corpses that had painted the corridor red with blood.

It wasn't the bloodbath that had made Alyssa freeze though, and John felt a rush of panic when he spotted the black-clad ninja stalking down the corridor towards them, sword at the ready. "That's her!" he blurted out. "The assassin that knocked me out and captured me."

He could see Alyssa bristle with fury, the glare from her eyes intensifying, as she squared off against the deadly assassin. He heard the odd hum from the sallow-faced woman, and she charged towards them, moving in a blur, she was running so fast.

Alyssa simply held out her left arm towards the sprinting woman, then raised her hand, lifting her from the floor. The assassin struggled violently, thrashing in that invisible grip, and wriggling frantically to escape. Alyssa began to slowly close the fingers of her left hand, constricting her grip, and drastically limiting the amount the assassin could writhe about.

John glanced at her, and was stunned at the look of incandescent rage twisting Alyssa's features. She lifted her right hand, and mimed a stinging slap, which was echoed a second later by an actual slap as her force hand belted the assassin across the face. Alyssa didn't hesitate, and backhanded her with another telekinetic slap. Back and forth she went, pounding the cyborg into unconsciousness.

John saw the black-garbed woman fall limp in the ghostly grip of Alyssa's telekinetic fist, and as the slaps continued, he realised that Alyssa had every intention of beating the woman to death. He held out his hand, placing it on her shoulder, and said softly, "Let her live. She might have information on the man behind all this."

Alyssa shot him a furious glance, her right hand frozen in the air, waiting to deliver another mighty blow as she snapped, "You don't know what she did! She deserves far worse than this!"

"Tell me later, but we'll take her prisoner for now," he said soothingly.

The blonde girl sagged, her rage spent, and she nodded wearily. They turned and began to walk back to the hangar bay with Alyssa leading the way, and Shinatobe's limp and battered body floating along behind them.

***

Irillith's violet eyes darted around nervously, searching for anyone else attempting to run into the hangar. There were a number of bodies piled up around each of the doorways, with big chunks blasted out of them by the Pulse Lasers. The steaming corpses were an excellent deterrent, and she hadn't seen any signs of movement for the last couple of minutes.

*Incoming friendlies,* Alyssa called out to the Maliri girl. *Hold fire to your left, we'll be right there.*

*Are you and John okay?* Irillith asked with concern. She was relieved to hear Alyssa's voice had returned to normal, and wasn't followed by that disturbing echo.

Alyssa sounded tired as she replied, *Yeah we're fine. Leaving cover now.*

Irillith glanced to her left, and saw, Alyssa, and John jog over to the Raptor. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw a black-clad figure floating along behind them. The trio boarded the Raptor, and the moment they were aboard, Irillith lifted off the deck and closed the loading ramp. The gunship floated there peacefully while Alyssa, John and their mystery guest floated up in the grav-tube to join her.

She rose from her chair, and rushed over to join them, flinging an arm around them both as she gasped, "I'm so glad you're back!"

Alyssa patted her on the shoulder and gave her a sad smile, then slipped out of the hug and walked over to the pilot's chair. Figuring that the women on the Invictus would want to know as soon as possible, she broadcast to them, *We're safe, girls. John's with us and we're heading back to the ship.*

*Thank God for that!* Dana exclaimed. She paused and asked hopefully, *Did you fuck up that evil bitch who wrecked my ship?"

*Mostly,* Alyssa replied. *We took her prisoner.*

*Did you now...* Dana said, her voice dripping with menace.

Rachel's voice filled her mind next as she said, *Calara's sedated at the moment. I dressed her forearm, and she's resting comfortably.*

*Thank you,* Alyssa replied, her voice full of gratitude.

*You're very welcome,* Rachel said sadly. *She's out of any immediate danger.*

John and Irillith sat down on chairs at the back of the cockpit, and Alyssa dumped the assassin on the cabin floor. She glanced at the Sector Map by habit as she rotated the Raptor and prepared to fly out of the battlecruiser's hangar bay. It therefore came as quite a surprise when she saw the Invictus hurtling across space towards their current location.

*I thought an explosion destroyed the Tachyon Drive,* she thought to Dana. *How did you jump into hyper-warp?*

Dana replied immediately, saying, *That asshole only took out the power couplings to the Drive system. I guess they didn't want to risk triggering a Drive detonation, so they just tore up the power connections instead. Faye assisted with the maintenance bots, and it didn't take long to replace all the damaged power couplings.*

*Shields up when you arrive, the battlecruiser's still a threat,* Alyssa cautioned her friend as she powered up the engines, and blasted out of the hangar. As soon as she had cleared the wrecked hangar doors, she started making evasive manoeuvres as she put more distance between the Raptor and the Amaterasu. She sounded relieved as she added, *Well done, Sparks. That's one less thing to worry about.*

*Have you told John yet?* Dana said in a subdued voice.

*No,* Alyssa replied, her voice heavy with grief.

The Raptor soared away from the Amaterasu, with Gatling Laser bolts sailing around them harmlessly. It didn't take long to get clear of the battlecruiser's fire arcs, and as they started to pull well clear of danger, the Invictus jumped in. A flashing light on the pilot's console signified that they were being hailed, and Alyssa smiled as she pressed the button to answer the call.

Dana's face appeared on the viewscreen, and her eyes darted about, checking to make sure John, Alyssa, and Irillith were all okay. She breathed a big sigh of relief to see they were, and said, "Goddamn it's good to see you all safe and sound."

John rose from his chair, and smiled back at her, saying, "You're a sight for sore eyes too, Sparks."

She grinned at him, but her eyes flicked offscreen to the Tactical Map, and when her expression darkened, John knew what she was looking at.

"Can I waste it?" she asked him, with a fierce longing in her voice. "I really need some payback right now."

John figured she was pissed off about the assassin damaging the Invictus, so he nodded and replied, "Sure, but don't hang about, we need to be on our way." He was surprised to see that Dana was alone on the Bridge, so he asked, "Where's everyone else? How come Jade and Calara aren't flying the ship and manning Tactical?"

Dana looked forlorn, and a dark shadow fell over her face as she glanced at Alyssa.

"I need to tell you something," Alyssa said, turning in her chair to face him, her face a mask of grief.

***

John listened aghast as she filled him in on everything that had happened on the Invictus. He was horrified to hear of Calara's terrible injury, and he stared at her in shock as she spoke in a soft voice, informing him about what had happened to Jade. He didn't react at first, and just sat there, stunned into inactivity, staring vacantly out the cockpit canopy.

In the distance he could see Dana bring the Invictus closer to the battlecruiser Amaterasu, and then lay into the shieldless ship with a relentless barrage of Beam Laser fire. What Dana lacked in accuracy, she more than made up for with vengeful enthusiasm, and she closed the distance to medium range so she could open up with the Pulse Cannons too. It took her less than a minute to reduce the mighty battlecruiser to a glowing field of debris, leaving nothing recognisable of the once huge vessel.

"I want to see her," John said, his jaw clenching as he tried to hold in his emotions.

***

The Invictus was on its way once more, with a dejected Faye back on watch. The rest of the crew were up in Medical holding a vigil for their fallen friend. They had stuffed the assassin into a cryostasis pod, and Calara was resting peacefully in one of the hospital beds, her ravaged forearm swathed in bandages. John and the rest of the girls had gathered around the operating table, with Jade's lifeless body still and silent before them. She wasn't the Jade Tiger any more, and she hadn't changed into her familiar Nymph shape either. Jade had reverted into something else entirely.

"When did this happen?" John asked Rachel quietly, his voice catching at the end. He hadn't been able to take his eyes off the fallen Nymph, and he kept waiting for her to suddenly sit up, then beam a sparkling smile at him. The last time his heart had ached this badly was when he'd lost his grandparents, and the sense of loss was overwhelming.

Rachel was standing on the other side of the table to him, and she looked up from Jade's corpse and replied, "When I removed the sword from her body." She let out a mournful sigh, and added, "She began to shimmer, like she used to when she was shapeshifting, and she changed into this form."

Jade was smaller now, a little over five feet tall, although it was hard to tell with her lying prone on her side. Far more remarkable than the change in height was the cat-like tail she'd grown, as well as the pointed set of ears high on her head, and the light covering of dark green fur over her body.