Three Square Meals Ch. 084

Dana fired a burst into the first one she'd hit, finishing him off with a headshot, while doing her best to ignore the terrified synthetic screams that filled the junction. Rachel did likewise to the upper torso section of her cyborg, executing him cleanly. Alyssa tossed aside the cube of crimson-stained metal that had once been two angry cyborgs and surveyed the damage.

"Irillith's been hurt," she said to Rachel, walking over to the wounded Maliri girl. She examined the black sword sticking out of Irillith's arm and added, "Want me to take that out?"

Rachel jogged over to join them, placing her free hand on Irillith's arm and checking her aura. Species: Maliri, severe injury to left bicep, tendons severed, muscle lacerations. The brunette nodded and replied, "Yes please. That's a nasty wound, I'll heal her immediately afterwards."

Alyssa placed her hand on Irillith's shoulder and said sympathetically. "Are you ready? This might hurt."

Irillith nodded bravely, then gasped as the blonde flooded her senses with pleasure. She wobbled on her feet as she let out a low groan, briefly aware of a tugging sensation in her arm. Tashana holstered one of her pistols and helped support her sister, holding her steady.

As soon as the blade was tugged clear, Rachel acted. She was swathed in a soft grey aura, which she simply shared with Irillith. The severed blue flesh closed, sealing together as the nerves and tendons were re-knitted by the brunette's psychic gift. She smiled with satisfaction when her work was done, peering into the rent in Irillith's armour and only seeing flawless skin beneath.

"How does that feel?" she asked the swooning Maliri girl.

"Amazing..." Irillith replied with a happy sigh.

Alyssa was about to speak, when she heard John's urgent telepathic request. She glanced at the girls and ordered decisively, *Hold position in this corridor. Tashana, cover the right while Irillith recovers. Dana, the left, and Rachel, watch our back.*

The girls reacted instantly, moving in one fluid team to crouch in defensive positions around her, weapons trained down the corridors to either side and behind them. Alyssa summoned her will, swirls of psychic energy streaming down her arms to gather around her clenched fists. While that aura was gathering in brightness, she peeled off her spirit form and leapt away from her body.

In the Astral Plane, living creatures shone with their own inner radiance, something that the lifeless world surrounding them did not possess. Cybernetic organisms possessed that spark of life too, even though it was now encased in a cold, hard, metal shell. Racing through the fortress as an astral projection, she was able to scour the base in the blink of an eye, tearing from one room to the next and hunting out the living.

Alyssa didn't need to get a snapshot of their minds as she had in the Underworld, separating the innocent from the guilty - there were no innocents here. This was a nest of vicious killers, each and every cyborg a trained assassin responsible for multiple murders. She simply tagged them all as she swept by, preparing them for the psychic wave she was about to unleash. The last living soul she found was hurrying down subterranean passageways, deep in the bowels of Yomi-no-kuni. Her ethereal fingers flexed with fury when she saw him, wishing she was close enough to exact a terrible vengeance upon Mikaboshi for his audacity in stealing away her lover. Instead, she tagged him as she had the others, then soared back to her body, letting the astral cord draw her home.

Her eyes blazed with an incandescent radiance as she crouched and touched her fists to the stone floor, sending out the sweeping pulse that would locate all their foes. Rippling waves of light surged outwards, briefly illuminating the corridor in both directions before disappearing off into the murky distance.

She rose to her feet, her fists still swathed in a roiling miasma of eldritch energy. *You can switch to normal vision now, girls,* she said to her cohort of beautiful women. *Let's move out.*

***

Mikaboshi smiled to himself, wishing that he'd been able to see the look on John Blake's face when he found Calara lying slain on the operating table. It wasn't the elaborate revenge that he had hoped for, but it would be a start. The Lion had plenty of other Lionesses and Mikaboshi could always abduct more of them. Yes, he could torment John Blake for years, stretching out his revenge for the indignities the man had heaped upon him.

The thought of having to start again wiped the smug grin from his face and he snarled in bitter frustration to see his life's work being brought low in such a manner. Still, he had access to the vast fortune he'd acquired over nearly a century of misdeeds, enough to let him rebuild five times over. More importantly, he had at least another several decades left in the nurturing life-support of his cybernetic body. He would start again, activating one of the numerous contingency plans he had prepared for just this sort of eventuality. Yes, it was hugely inconvenient, but within a year, he'd be back with another horde of loyal killers at his command. He'd make better preparations next time, construct a harder-to-find base, be more rigorous in-

A pulse of light swept past him, disrupting his scheming, six white lines rippling over his body as it rolled down the corridor. Mikaboshi acted in an instant, activating his nanoweave suit, enabling his alacrity enhancements and crouching low, wary for danger.

His enhanced audio picked up some kind of faint whistling noise, like wind howling through a distant mountain ravine. There'd been explosions earlier, so perhaps a hole had been torn in the side of the base far above his head and the mountain wind was blustering through. It was the only explanation he could think of.

Lowering his gaze, he shrugged and prepared to move on, deactivating his speed enhancement to avoid burning out the actuators. He left his nanoweave suit engaged though, the light-bending rays concealing him from sight...

A bright red glow caught his eye and he glanced down at his right hand, abruptly doing a double-take as he stared at it in shock. His fingers were limned in a blazing scarlet aura, which he mistook for flames at first, frantically patting his hand down in an attempt to extinguish them. That proved completely ineffective and it was at that moment that he realised his other hand was swathed in the same crimson shroud.

The ethereal lights surrounding his body seemed completely unaffected by the nanoweave suit, and he felt a shiver of fear as he realised how vulnerable he was in this state. He couldn't help glancing at the timer in his HUD.

"4:32"

Chastising himself for being ridiculous, he reminded himself that he didn't believe that impertinent woman's soothsaying for one moment. Mikaboshi hurried along the corridor, his fear making him move just that little bit quicker despite his bold claims to the contrary. He just had to reach the emergency hangar and the cloaked shuttle there, then this nightmarish day would be over with.

***

John watched as the broad pulse of psychic energy swept through the repair bay ahead of him, Alyssa's response appearing only a couple of seconds after his call for assistance. Half a dozen figures blazed to life, the ambushers previously concealing themselves by skulking in the shadows amongst the racks of hanging cybernetic body parts.

Raising his left hand, John channelled a surge of energy into a wall of telekinetic force, hurling the five-metre-wide wave at the hiding assassins. There was a huge booming crash as the glowing blue wall swept all before it, knocking golden-brown limbs aside and blasting the ninjas backwards. He charged after them as they cartwheeled through the air, reaching them as they slammed into the wall amongst a tangle of spare limbs. His long blade rose and fell, hacking them apart before they could react, the assassins still lying stunned by the thunderous impact with the wall.

As he sprinted from the room, John grimaced at the unnecessary delay, deeply worried as he was about Calara. Having to clear the room of ambushers had taken nearly ten seconds.

***

The doctor had left the operating room shortly after Mikaboshi had fled, leaving Calara still lashed to the table. She glanced around herself, looking for anything she could use to escape from captivity, but everything was well out of reach of her fingers. Taken prisoner after an evening out at a nightclub, she was still wearing the short backless dress that she'd chosen -- intended for dancing, not stowing away handy items she could utilise to escape. Unfortunately, her options were rather limited.

*Are you alright?* Alyssa's concerned voice asked, filling her mind.

Calara sent her a reassuring telepathic smile. *Mikaboshi took off like a frightened rabbit. I think his surgeon got bored, because he also left a few minutes ago,* she replied, resting her head back on the metal operating table.

*John's rushing to you now and the rest of us are following,* Alyssa replied, her sense of relief warring with her towering rage. *We just found our way down to the level two above yours, but we'll be with you soon.*

Calara smiled, eager to see John again. *Okay, I'll try not to wander off and get lost.*

Alyssa's laughter echoed through the Latina's mind and she was pleased to feel her girlfriend's mood lighten somewhat over their empathic bond. Such pleasant thoughts were rudely interrupted by the sound of the cell door being thrown open, someone padding into the operating room.

There was a moment's pause until she was suddenly aware of the man standing to her right, his face looming above her. "We meet again, Calara Fernandez," he said, a dark glint to his brown, almond-shaped eyes.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea who you are," she replied with an apologetic smile.

"My name is Raijin and I shall be the one that ends your life," he declared, brandishing a sinister black ninjato.

*Stall him, get him away from you!* Alyssa cried out in alarm.

Giving the Latina a twisted smile, he added, "You killed my friend and I wanted you to know his name before I-"

Calara loudly cleared her throat, interrupting him mid-sentence. "I'd love to hear all about him, but could you do me one favour? Consider it my last request?"

Eyes narrowed in suspicion, Raijin asked, "Are you begging for mercy? It is pointless; there will be none."

Shaking her head, Calara tilted her head up a bit so that she could glance at the door. "Can you just stay exactly where you are for five seconds? You'll see why in a moment."

Raijin's eyes widened in alarm, and he rushed across the room to hug the wall to the right side the doorframe. Drawing his second ninjato, he was poised and ready, fully prepared to ambush anyone coming through the door.

Just as Calara predicted he would react.

High above them on the second level of Mikaboshi's complex, Alyssa's face contorted with rage. She spun in place, her feet lifting off the ground as she was bathed in a tumultuous swirl of eldritch power.

*Avert your eyes,* she cautioned the girls, her words of warning echoing with the eerie reverberation of a second voice.

A low hum filled the air, growing louder by the second as a vast seething ball of energy appeared before her outstretched fists. Powered by her fear for her lover and hate for the monsters who had taken her, the orb blazed like a supernova, throbbing in time to her heartbeat.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Alyssa screamed, unleashing the twisting vortex of pure destructive force.

A huge beam of energy blasted outwards, scything through floor after floor, disintegrating everything it touched. In the operating room, the radiant beam blazed through the wall in a coruscating lance of eldritch power. Raijin's upper body was hit mid-torso by that beam, instantly consuming him in the brilliant flash of light. When the beam winked out a few seconds later, there were a few glowing motes still hanging in the air as Raijin's legs toppled over, everything above his waist completely obliterated.

*I'm okay!* Calara told her lover a second later, her ears ringing from the keening blast that had annihilated the man threatening her.

Alyssa dropped to the ground and sagged to her knees, panting with the exertion. While the Maliri twins watched for attackers, Dana and Rachel rushed to her side.

"Are you alright?!" Rachel asked in alarm, touching Alyssa's arm and reading her aura.

"Got to protect you girls, keep you safe..." Alyssa murmured between laboured breaths.

Dana patted her friend on the shoulder and gazed wide-eyed down the broad tunnel that had just been cored through the fortress. She grinned and said cheerfully, "Now we don't have to bother finding the stairs!"

***

Sakura sprinted at full speed down the corridor, winding through the catacomb of tunnels as she made her way to Mikaboshi's sanctuary. She'd let her metal-infused hurricane peter out, having not run into any more ninjas as she rushed through the citadel. When she bounded into his inner sanctum, she found it empty, the dozens of monitors in there casting a pale glow over the vacant gothic throne.

She'd expected that, knowing that Mikaboshi would be capitalising on the chaos of their assault to safely escape. Without pausing, she rushed across the room to the partially open doorway at the back of his throne room. Charging through the portal, she continued down the long tunnel behind it, following the curve downwards as it descended into the depths of the mountain.

Alyssa had found Mikaboshi only minutes earlier, so Sakura knew exactly where he was. Accelerated by her psychic speed, she rapidly closed the gap on her former enslaver, determined to prevent his escape. There were no branches off this tunnel, as it was an emergency escape that spiralled all the way down to the base of the mountain.

When the tunnel finally levelled off, Sakura could see lights further up the passageway, dim illumination coming from the room up ahead. When she reached the end, she saw that the tunnel opened out onto a metal gantry, which overlooked a large hangar. In that hangar was a black shuttle and scurrying towards that vessel was her target.

"Mikaboshi!" she screamed in challenge. "Face me!"

The black-clad assassin whirled around, shocked by the sudden shout from an interloper in his secret escape tunnel. His first instinct was to activate his nanoweave-mesh suit and run for the shuttle, but dancing red lights still flickered around him, making such an escape impossible.

He couldn't see the woman clearly from down there, but if she wished to die that much, he would dispose of her then make his escape. Drawing both of his black ninjato, he tilted up his chin and snarled, "If you wish to be slain, I am more than happy to oblige! Make it quick as I have pressing business elsewhere."

Sakura leaped over the handrail surrounding the gantry, her eyes glowing as the wind whipped around her, making her long black hair swirl over her shoulders. She descended gracefully, invisible zephyrs of air cushioning her descent as she sailed down to the deck.

"Shinatobe!" he gasped in wonder, gazing at the vision of perfection held aloft by the winds, the elements obeying her every command.

Sakura's eyes narrowed in fury and twirling her twin ninjato in her hands, she hissed, "Now you die, Mikaboshi!"

"No, wait!" Mikaboshi blurted out, dancing back a couple of steps and sheathing his swords, before raising his hands defensively. He performed a sweeping bow and continued in a reverent tone, "I pledged my life in service to you, Shinatobe! I tried to recreate your image in tribute, but the girl's flesh was too weak to mirror your glorious majesty!"

"That was me, you fucking lunatic!" Sakura screamed in rage. "You took everything from me! My parents, my whole life! Just so you could play your sick games!"

Mikaboshi gaped at her in shock. The girl's face... it did look familiar... so achingly beautiful. She WAS the one he'd chosen out of hundreds-of-thousands! The girl he'd picked to become his avatar of Shinatobe.

He smiled as he waved his hand dismissively. "What's in the past is done and best forgotten. Accept my apology and we can work together!"

"You say you're sorry and you think that's the end of it?!" Sakura balked, staring at him in utter disbelief. Her face twisted in outrage as she snarled, "Do you have any idea the debt of pain I owe you?!"

Mikaboshi met her furious gaze and said with an eager grin, "Just think about it! With you and me united in purpose-"

"The only thing we'll be uniting is my sword with your black heart," Sakura snarled defiantly, advancing a step.

"But we could be as gods!" Mikaboshi pleaded, desperate for her to understand. "There's nothing we couldn't achieve with you standing at my side!"

Sakura drew herself up and looked at Mikaboshi with utter contempt. "You pretend to be a god, with your metal coffin for a body and by copying the name of a long-forgotten deity. You have no idea who John Blake is, do you?"

"John Blake?" Mikaboshi sneered in annoyance. "What does that fool have to do with anything?!"

"He's as close to a god as this galaxy has seen in ten thousand years," Sakura whispered, advancing slowly. "He healed my body, undoing everything you'd inflicted on me, then gave me gifts beyond your wildest dreams..." Her blades frosted over as she sheathed them in ice, a splintering crack echoing around the hangar.

Mikaboshi stumbled backwards, his eyes fixed on those glacial blades, tiny ice crystals drifting down from that bitter cold in an icy flurry. He glanced at Shinatobe's face and saw the unvarnished hate in her answering glare, that look more chilling than the frozen ninjato she wielded. There was no mercy in those enchanting almond eyes, no matter their breathtaking beauty.

With a wordless cry of bitter frustration and rage, he yanked his swords free. To think that he was this close to claiming his beloved Shinatobe after all these years, only to find she'd been stolen from him, usurped by John Blake. This was worse than any torment he could have ever imagined! His heart ached with a profound sense of loss, knowing that even should he escape, his life would be a empty facade, never able to recreate a creature as perfect as the one now intent on killing him.

Still, if he couldn't have her, then neither would John Blake!

Mikaboshi activated his alacrity enhancements, moving in a blur. He leapt forward, slashing out towards the beautiful girl with both blades. While this Shinatobe might have command of the air and the ice, that was still no match for raw spe-

Two ringing blows echoed out across the room as Sakura met his blows with her own blades, her glistening white ninjato moving as quick as the wind itself.

Mikaboshi stared at her in shock as the two sets of swords clashed, the girl possessing freakish strength, more than a match for his own hydraulically-enhanced frame. Sakura's eyes sparkled in the light and she shoved at his blades, forcing him back a step. Moving on the assault, her swords started chopping and stabbing in a whistling hail of blows.

He had never seen anyone move so fast! She was moving at a speed that rivalled his own and his cybernetic body had been augmented with state-of-the-art upgrades, making him quicker and stronger than any of his lackeys. He staggered backwards, his arms whipping back and forth as he struggled to fend her off.

Although Sakura was sorely tempted to summon another tornado and smash Mikaboshi into a million metal pieces, that felt impersonal somehow. She wanted to beat him at swordsmanship and really grind his face in his defeat, besting him at something he prided himself on. Putting into practice everything she'd learned over the long weeks spent in intensive training with John, she showed Mikaboshi the limitations of the skill chips he used to hone his technique.