Steampunk CTs

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“GET BACK HERE, YOU COWARD!”

“YEAH, COWARD!”

I, Rono Ecluse, am running away from two beautiful women with every fiber of my being. I always wanted girls to be chasing after me. Ever since I was child this was a dream of mine. Something to check off of the bucket list. But I meant more so in the romantic sense, you know? With them saying stuff like “Ohhhh Rono! Get back here, you handsome devil! We wanna give you more kisses!”

But what I’m dealing with now…

“How long are you going to run, CT?!”

“Yeah, how long?!”

These women don’t want to kill me with love. They just want to kill me…

How did it even get to this point?! I was on top of the world not even half an hour ago!

===

When Derris and I entered Acuposland, I took in its beautiful atmosphere with a smile on my face. The streets were truly made to make you feel like you were in the streets of the northern continent. They had houses that had sliding doors and frames made of wood. The roofs were made of stone tiles that slanted right off of the buildings.

As soon as we got here, two beautiful women approached us. They both had similar appearances, so I assumed they were twins. Same eyes, same plump lips, same curvaceous bodies…

“Hey boys! This is my sister and I’s first time going to a New Dawn Festival! Can you help us have a good time?” One of the twins had black hair that was tied in a side ponytail that fell down to her shoulder. She was wearing this indigo dress with a slit at the bottom that crept all the way up to her thigh. As she asked her question, she leaned forward and I swear to God she was doing this on purpose! Her dress was so revealing and I could almost see her…HER—

“We’re gonna pass on this one, ladies.” Derris said.

“We?!” My head snapped to him.

“Yeah. We. We haven’t even checked the perimeter. There might be terrorists around—”

I grabbed him by the scruff of his collar and violently shook him back and forth.

“Listen, you bastard! We literally have free tickets to have fun and do whatever we want tonight and you wanna blow it away actually doing your job?! Be my guest! I’m gonna hang out with these hot women!”

I haven’t been this confrontational since the Holy Power Force debacle back in zone two. There’s no way I’m backing down from this! This is what Counter-terrorism is all about! Protecting the peace and getting the girls! Not in that order, of course.

“I’m gonna need you to listen to me!” He grabbed me by my collar with more force and started lifting me off the ground. “I need to hurry up and kill some terrorists! So you better hope some start popping up. Because I’m killing something tonight and if I don’t see any it might be you!”

“Woah, woah there! How about this!” The girl with black hair tried to diffuse the situation as quickly as it started. “We can just hang out with your friend here while you do the important stuff! That way, you can take all of the glory if someone pops up!”

After pausing for a brief moment, Derris let go of me and began to walk off.

“Whatever. If you see anything, make sure to use your earpiece.”

He seemed pretty pissed off but… he let me go? I would’ve never expected that from these ladies.

“So…uh…names?” I turned around and asked. Time to get this ball rolling!

“I’m Twilight! She’s Dawn.” The girl introduced herself and her sister and pulled me in close to hold onto my arm. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! This is happening! Taramos, my faith in you has been restored!

The three of us ran off on a spree of getting food from random stalls, going on rides, and chatting about whatever came across our minds. Apparently, they’re from zone three. They’ve been homeless for all of their lives until they came across someone who decided to take them in. I may have to thank this man and ask for their blessing…twice over…polygamy is a pretty hard thing to just drop on someone’s lap like that. I don’t know how I would feel if some guy came to my place and told me he was taking not one, but both of my daughters.

We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

After we went on all of the rides in Acuposland, we took a break at a bench under a tree. As we did, Dawn began to reach for my stemata.

“What does this do?”

“No, no, no! I can’t have you grabbing this. I beat up the bad guys with it!”

“Wooooow! Can we take a look?” Twilight tried grabbing it as well, but I took it away from her. This time, more aggressively.

“NO!” I rose from my seat and yanked it out of her clutches.

They were both taken aback by my reaction. I should apologize. It’s just…ever since I've gotten my stemata, it really feels like I'm a real CT. As the months flew by, although the training was hell, I've been having fun for the first time in…forever!

"I'm sorry about that. This staff is very important to me…I can tell you what it does though! I can have it stretch out! It could probably go on for, like, a really long time!" To break the awkward air I created, I started to swing the staff around and as I did, Twilight snorted and began to laugh. It was a cute kind of laugh full of innocence and purity.

"You're amazing for that. I'm glad you found something you're passionate about." Both her and her sister gave me toothy smiles.

Twilight put both of her hands behind her and Dawn was right behind her. What, is it time for a group hug? I'm more than ready!

As they ran towards me, it was as if the world was in slow motion and hundreds of flowers bloomed around us. Signifying the beginning of it. The beginning of what, you may ask? The beginning of my lifelong three way relationship—

“Calling all units! We need assistance here at the park entrance! A terrorist attack is underway!”

Huh? Was that Ori? That sounded like Ori. And I could've sworn she was just warning me about a terrorist attack. But there's no way. Terrorists don't attack on New Dawn. It's pretty much a taboo for them.

That's when I saw it. As Twilight swung her arms out to embrace me, I saw a huge hunting knife in her left hand that she was swinging my way.

Damn. I wasn't imagining things. We're under attack.

I swiped the dagger away with my staff and then pointed my stemata at the floor. When I did, it began to glow and shoot into the floor and launched me about 20 feet away from the two. As soon as it stopped extending, it retracted back to me until it was its original size. I freefalled until I hit the ground and when I did, I began sprinting away as fast as possible.

“Can I get some help pleaaaaaaaaaase?! I’m getting attacked by two people!”

The twins didn't let up their chase though. They simply sprinted towards me as fast as they could. Damn, they’re fast! They’re slowly but surely gaining ground!

“Get Derris to help you! We have partners for a reason! Find him and handle the issue together!” Ori coldly responded.

“Ooooooooooookay.” I was choking back my tears. How could she be so cruel?! She wants me to hold off not one, but two terrorists until I find Derris? What is wrong with her head?!

As I thought about how messed up it was that my group was gonna be known as “The CTs so unlucky, they fought terrorists on New Dawn’s Eve,” I ran down the streets of Acuposland looking for Derris.

===

I’m still disappointed that those two were just lying about liking me! Damn it all! I’ll never fall for another woman again!

Who am I kidding…I’ll probably throw myself at the next girl that shows me attention…

As I continued to run, I noticed the forest area that lead to Triana land. Over there, more people started to pool out and run in my direction in a massive panic. The pure emotion of fear was in the steps of these civilians. It was in everyone except for one person that was walking toward the forest: Derris!

“YOOOOOOOOO! DERRISSSSSSS!" I waved my arms while I sprinted towards him and quickly caught his attention. When he laid his eyes on me, his eyes darted behind me at the two assassins pining for my life. Once he had a complete understanding of the situation, he began to raise his right hand, reaching closer and closer to his sword.

Until he stopped and flipped me off.

"DUDE! WHAT THE HELL?!"

Before I could say screw it and go to him anyway, he disappeared into the crowd that kept rushing towards me. What. The. Hell do I do now?!

Derris

Ha! Just what the perv deserves! Now onto more pressing matters… the boss! I told that perv that I was killing something tonight, but why go for the small fry when I can go for the big catch?

The reason why I'm running through the transitioning forest and bolting towards Triana land of all places is simple, really: when Ori made that call to everyone, Jack was one of if not the first person to respond. He said something along the lines of “I will be handling the one with the scepter. I know where he plans to go.”

So the plan moving forward is as follows: step one, find Jack. Step two, force him to tell me where the leader is going. Step three, go kill the bastard!

After I do something like that, surely father will…

No, Derris. Don't put the cart in front of the horse. Just focus on taking out the scepter bastard.

And to do that, I need to find Jack!

I used my stemata to draw out the greatblade on my back and lower it onto the ground. Once I stepped onto it, I used the crown to control where the sword was going and how fast. It didn’t take long for me to catch flight with my blade. This stemata is good for some things, at least. It’s a crown paired with a greatsword. With the crown on my head, I can command wherever the blade goes. If I’m too far from the blade, it’ll

But it’s not the one that I want.

As I soared past the trees and into the sky, I looked below at everything that was going on. It seemed that people were finding the shelters across the amusement park easily enough—My God! Anna wasn’t joking! That is one giant undead gorilla! And Gollie’s fighting it!

But enough about that, I think I see Jack!

In the multi-colored, vibrant streets of In there, he’s ignoring everything and everyone around him and is running straight for the forest transitioning from Trianaland and Holia land. What could possibly be there that the leader of this group would want? I descended right in front of him to get my answers. When the distance wasn’t lethal for me, I jumped off my sword, had it plunge right in front of him, and landed in front of it immediately after when the cloud of smoke began to clear up.

“Don’t worry about everything, Jack. I’ll take care of the big bad. All you gotta do is tell me where he’s going and go help the civilians.”

“I’m only going to say this once, Derris: Get out of my way.” Jack put his hand on his mask, ready to use that stemata of his. I didn’t think he’d go this far. Fine then. Let’s dance!

That stemata of his is an Internal stemata that replaced his jaw with a jaw of metal. The very moment I saw him like that, I knew the stemata that he chose. It was the “Man-eating flame.” That stemata allows him to breathe fire. It acts like any normal fire when on inanimate objects, but when any living thing comes in contact with it, it burns it until nothing but ash remains. It’s an instant kill shot if it touches any living thing. My only chance of winning is to close the distance and land a kill shot of my own. I obviously won’t kill him. I’ll just do enough to put him out of the fight for a bit. This one exchange will decide whether I live or die!

I grabbed my blade and began rushing Jack, staying close to the right side of the street while doing so. Jack tried to anticipate where I was going to go, ripped his mask off, and spat out fireballs in those areas. However, I dodged them with nimble flips and backdashes. Ever since that loss I suffered by Arno’s hand, I’ve been training my speed. He’ll never be able to catch me. When he realizes that, he’ll let his flames run wild with a roar.

“RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He roared as breathed a wall of fire directly my way.

“DON’T UNDERESTIMATE MEEEEE!” I let out my battle cry.

This attack will cover the entire street. It’ll surely consume me, but I’ve seen you fight, Jack. When we failed that mock battle, Natalia told you your weakness right in front of me. She said that you’re too much of stemata fanatic! You rely too much on the power of stematas. So let me remind you about the capabilities of humanity…

As the raging fires advanced in my direction, threatening to burn me to a crisp at the slightest touch, I slammed my foot onto the concrete to prepare a dash forward. As I did, I grabbed the tarp from a stall next to me and threw it over me, using it as a shield. The more space you try to cover with that stemata, the weaker the flames are! All other attributes apply, but if you really wanted to kill me, you should’ve started off with that wide attack. It almost makes me think you wanted to be stopped. Like you were scared to fight this leader. I could never comprehend something like that. If you set out to do something, don’t waver for a second. Arno would probably pin you down and try to get you to come to your senses.

But I’m not Arno.

I dashed behind Jack and prepared to swing my greatsword. This is it. The deciding moment that’ll end this fight—

Slish

I immediately noticed a net made out of compression bandages come from the souvenir shop to the direct left of us. It’s just big enough to catch both of us. I hate to do it, but I’ll have to spend some energy slashing through this incoming net. Afterwards, I’ll have bet my life on the chance that Jack doesn’t attack me. I’m protecting the both of us, after all.

I cleaved the net in two and as I did, I noticed Jack preparing to attack me with his stemata.

“RAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He breathed his fire right behind me and as I looked, I noticed an apparition behind me burning to a crisp.

Thank goodness. In that split decision, we decided to cover each other instead of fight. Not that I was worried or anything. Anyone that would attack a Foxtrot while their back is turned will surely earn a spot in hell.

“Don’t look at me like that. I was just returning the favor.” Jack faced down the street while I faced the souvenir shop.

“Delightfully Devilish Indeed! I would’ve never guessed that my not so well-kept compatriot and I would find the CTs meant to defend these lands…at odds with each other! Our stroke of luck is picture perfect! Wouldn’t you agree, Meto?”

The man down the street wore a black suit with a vintage tailcoat jacket. To top it all off he had a tophat. This guy must think he’s high society. And that means a lot coming from me.

“Kill…them…all…kill…them…all…”

A horrid figure walked out of the store. He was bandaged poorly from head to toe. The parts that weren’t damaged. The parts that were visible were burnt to a crisp. I’m assuming one of the man’s eyes was taken in whatever fire he was consumed by because he had his left eye bandaged as well. These bandages of his didn’t even seem fresh. There were patches of blood spread through different spots on his body and the bandages were ripped and torn at different parts as well. His only other defining feature was the red fringes of his hair sprouting out of the seams of the bandages on top of his head.

“Well, you were sadly never a man of conversation. We’ll press onward regardless!” He flicked the brim of his tophat to reveal his eyes. “Wennot Rosaria at your service!”

Although I found some terrorists, I still want the big boss. The top rung of the ladder that is this terrorist group. I guess I don’t really have a choice now though. It’s no matter. Jack and I will take care of these two and we can resume our fight.

“I…” Jack stepped forward towards the glorified butler. “Am Jack Rosaria. I’m requesting to see my brother Daniel Rosaria immediately.”

Everyone’s eyes widened. I myself was completely taken aback by this information. He’s the brother of the leader of the terrorist group?! That would explain how he had an idea of where the leader was heading. And it would also explain why he was so desperate to get to him in the first place.

“Master Jack. I didn’t even notice you! You’ve dyed your hair. And your lower face.”

“I’ve done it all for the sake of my meeting with my patient brother.” Jack quickly switched gears to one of nervousness, to confidence. Or maybe it was another front? I couldn’t tell anymore. “He’s going there to wait for me, isn’t he?”

“Yes, young master! Within the back of that forest, you’ll find the hall of the Rosarian council. If Master Daniel isn’t there yet, simply wait. I assure you he’ll be there.” Wennot pointed to the transitioning forest right past us.

“Goodbye, Wennot. Goodbye Meto.” Jack began walking away, but I pulled at the back of his collar.

“Hell no! I’m not accepting this! If anyone’s meeting that brother of yours, it’s going to be my blade—”

Before I could press Jack any further on the subject though, the mummy used his multiple bandages to latch onto my greatsword. Once he had a grip on it, he tried pulling it from me which made me reflexively use both of my hands to keep my greatsword from being stolen. As soon as I let go of Jack, he continued to walk away from me.

“Get…away…FROM MASTER!” the mummified bastard yelled.

To think that my situation would end up like this…after leaving the old man to fight two terrorists, I myself would face the same situation not long after…

“Heh…heheheheh!”

The irony is almost funny, in a way.

“Ahhhhhhhhhahahahahahah!”

I laughed until my sides began to hurt.

“You think two terrorists will be enough to hold me back?! I’m a Foxtrot! Don’t worry, my colleague! I’ll be there to knock some sense into you in no time. Only then will I accept your forgiveness, you fool!”

I yelled out to the man that pressed ever forward and disappeared into the dark of that forest to face his past. The brother of a terrorist. My colleague. One of my friends. Jack Rosaria.