It's Turbin' Time (Library of Ruina Modded/Arknights)

2.3 - Infinite Waters

This creature... you don't think fighting it is even worth it, right now. If it actually is as slow as it seems to be, then you can just... avoid it entirely.

Huh.

Well, it's not typically that easy.

"This thing..." you say. "It's slow enough that we can just leave. I'll provide cover. Adrien- stay alert, keep your sword steady. Capone, keep the perimeter up and pinpoint any approaching threats."

Your sword shines as you point it towards the seamonster.

Now that it's up and close to you, you can get a precise look... and it can get a precise look at you. That seems to be what it's attempting to do: its eyes are now... shining, and... opening. Like some sort of profane flower, they reveal themselves to be some kind of bulbous organ, filled with more eyes. No, not eyes. Tiny little eyestalks, slowly opening up to get the look of all looks at your soul.

Fuck that.

Time slows down to a halt. You can take all the time you need to analyze it. But it's sure as all hell not analyzing you. Not if you can help it. Hmmm. Could Abel come up to give you some help, here? It seems as if this creature... is some kind of scouting specialist.

The eyestalks, when not in use, seem to remain stores inside these "eyeball" organs. The creature's eyestalks are still trying to free themselves from the bulbs. You have some time.

"Ah. Pardon me for not being of assistance. Let me take a brief look at this creature." chimes in your ally inside your head. "What a fascinating biology it has. One would think a multi-eyed creature would have more similarity with Big Bird, but this reminds me... of that... thing. The Burrowing Heaven."

He's doing it again. You don't have any of the references for anything he says. You aren't an L-Corp veteran.

"My apologies. The Burrowing Heaven was a multi-eyed creature whose many eyes focused in a singular direction without the need to blink. In this case, the camera in its cell. Through mechanisms that remain unknown, it possessed an instinctual ability to know if the manager of the facility was watching back or busy with something else. If it was the latter, the Burrowing Heaven would immediately escape and go into a killing spree. You saw some of its residue back in the facility- the flesh trees."

Yes- these things with corpse parts hanging over them. But if its eyes all focus in a single direction...

Now that you concentrate, the eyestalks that are unveiled seem to be trying to focus in a singular direction. But even if they cover most of the eyestalk, their pupils are very small, individually. If it wanted clarity of vision or the capacity to find enemies over a great distance... it would not have them. Small pupils mean a very small amount of light, and as such...

It's not a scouting specialist. It's a analysis specialist. It wants multiple perspectives. It's not meant to see the target over a bridge- it's meant to drag itself over a dying man and learn everything it can from its corpse... no, no. It's both.

One of its eye-bulbs has yet to open itself up, but it still clearly reacts to stimuli even when it hadn't opened any. When it revealed itself earlier, its eyes clearly reacted to your movement.

"Yes! The eyeball bulbs are functional eyes on their own. It has two modes. What environmental pressure would drive a creature to evolve like this? It is... bizarre. And as such, it is intriguing. If we can figure out my materialization in the timespan of this week... I would enjoy attempting a dissection of this creature. It would yield interesting findings.

Does Abel have anything to say about the huge, gaping wound where a very big eye was obviously supposed to be? Because that sounds important, just a hunch.

"Sarcasm is unbefitting of you, Sieghart. It was most definitely a halberd wound. I have seen those before. The victim- in this case, being the creature in front of us- had its face pierced, and the attacker used force to scoop out the eyeball. As I have not seen it anywhere around this cave... have you? If you have not, we can assume that it was either utterly destroyed or taken. But why would it be taken? How interesting. Did your friend want to dissect it, as well? Do either of them possess a medical specialization? Did you see its pieces? Its bulbous nature should leave obvious remains- the eyestalks scattered across the crushed eyeball should be a glaring sight."

You... didn't see any remains of a crushed eyeball here. Nor did you see the bulb in the ground. Interesting indeed- while every member of your Office has training in first aid, enough to patch themselves up if there is a need, you typically leave the healing to the people who know what they are doing. Or just take shots of K-Corp medicaments. That works too.

Linette could do some medical work even without stolen skills. The Hephaestus nanomachines are likely one of the best products K-Corp ever made. They're incredibly versatile.

But Wympe isn't a doctor, or a scientist. Arabella could utilize her Bloodfiend expertise to reanimate it, but you know her enough to know she would not bother reanimating it, unless she had some really desperate need at the moment. But she is not very good at that. Her abilities are based around enhancing herself through blood, while weakening and damaging her opponents, and she believes the reanimation stuff every other Bloodfiend is obsessed with to be a massive waste of time and blood.

It's not like you can make much use out of that thing. How would she even communicate the eyeball's findings? She doesn't get a hivemind link to her creations, that's not how it works. Not to mention that, even if she glued the eyeball to some grotesque zombie flesh colossus, the thing would be ludicrously unstable. Combining inhuman parts with human parts doesn't work very well.

Well, it works on Sweepers and some of these people that count as humans, according to the Head. So unless these monsters were people at some point, the eyeball being taken seems kind of unlikely. It probably just got lost in transit. Maybe its crushed pieces are in one of these piles;

"Fair enough. But there is something I have realized."

And what would that be?

"If it possesses so many eyes, I believe... it would be vulnerable to an attack based around a sensory overload. And you happen to be quite adept in the usage of light, no?"

As time returns to its proper course, you smile. The second Capone turns his back on the monster, and Adrien hits the road, muttering some curse in a language you don't know...

"Disable your senses. All of them." you say, as low as you can make it. You know that Capone will hear- you don't want him to get caught in the blast. By the minute sound of wriggling flesh around you, he did hear everything. Excellent.

You point your hand towards the seamonster, and light forms in your fingers. You don't even bother making anything form in them, just push a hundred times your normal output into their tips. They shine for a fraction of a second, and your little improvised flashbang goes off. If you escaped without distracting it, it's very possible it would unveil its offensive capabilities and exploit your period of vulnerability.

Just as the monster finishes unveiling its analysis suite, and points nearly every single eyeball it has directly at you. Poor little thing, is what you'd think, if you did not have over two decades of experience in killing monsters. You have seen dozens of Fixers hesitate for a single second, empathizing with the pain of their quarry. What happens to them afterwards? They die.

The ugly as sin noise it makes as it almost recoils out of its shell is music to your ears. As the creature's eyestalks wriggle miserably in the air, you turn on your feet and make for the cave's exit- still holding Wympe's arm. Not a single inch of movement can be wasted.

Just as you finish dashing out of the cave alongside your allies, you turn back, sword ready.

The creature did not follow.

Good.

Well, now what? You don't have much idea of where to go. You suppose you need to get Wympe's arm into cold storage, but what do you do next? Just wander through the city, asking if someone saw Arabella and Wympe? And that's if there's even anyone left alive.

Wait- her arm.

You take a closer look at it. The wound... it was ripped off. Not sliced or blasted away- there is no sign of damage around the arm itself but some bruises around the shoulder area. Someone grabbed ahold of her arm, tore it off with a single movement- as there is no separation. If someone took more than a single yank to tear it off, some of the arm should have been itself torn, but it's pretty much intact.

Prodigious strength was used to remove it.

Not the seamonster at the cave, then?

You're not too worried. If one looks closer into the arm, one can see a few black dots inside the flesh. Were you to pull them, you would reveal these black dots to be cables- a special bio-implant. You should know, you have that one too.

It's a creation of Locust Workshop. Not only do these little cables serve as a base to several other augmented muscle fibers overlaid in her arm, they also automatically connect themselves to flesh, and can begin the work of linking a foreign material to the user's nervous system with minimal danger while preventing rejection from their body. This means that, essentially, an augmented Fixer can essentially just get their arm sliced off, grab it and prop it back up again.

Or they can get their arm destroyed, kill the enemy and, after the combat, use their arm as a makeshift replacement. It's inelegant and very awkward to work around, but it works. So you just have to find Wympe, hand her the arm and everything will be fine. She'll just pop it back in.

So there's no real issue in doing what you are about to do.

"Capone."

"Hm?"

You hand him the arm. He looks baffled.

"Can you find its owner?"

He stares at you for a while, and nods. A tendril grabs hold of the arm, and he looks at the ground.

"This... yes, I can recognize the trail. We can follow it."

He begins walking away in the direction of the greater city, looking directly at the ground all the while. Well, might as well follow him. Sword in hand- you don't know if that thing will come out of the cave in camouflage. Better stay wary.

...Capone seems extremely concentrated on this.

"The girl was bleeding." he says.

"Eh?" asks the knight next to him.

"I've gotten a pretty good idea of what's been happenin' here." he points towards a patch of sand. "Blood. The smell of the girl's blood. If ya want to know what happened... it's not pretty."

You look at his eyes. Of course you want to know what happened. Even if she's dead, you want to know. It's not the first time you've faced the death of your comrades.

"Tch. They're being hunted. There's a third smell here. I didn't notice it before. It feels just a little bit different then the rest of those sea monsters, but it's still like it. Wympe, Arabella, and this new guy huntin' them both. The new guy walks really fast. His trail is all over the place. These two keep leaving blood."

He makes a vague gesture towards the ground, hinting at a "trail."

"The Wympe girl lost her arm. I can smell her trail. The vampire girl left just a few drops there and there... maybe these are places she got hit by the hunter." he grits his teeth. "But they keep goin'. The hunter isn't harmed anywhere. No blood, just a regular trail."

You continue on your path. This time, towards the city.

You remain silent through the entire walk. You begin to reconstruct the pathway that they took, in the eye of your mind. Wympe and Arabella were camping inside that cave, for around a week or so. You try to remember the vision you had. There was also a Bishop- Quintus. They were fleeing from Bishop Quintus and his army of sea creatures.

"...the trail ends here." says Capone.

Uh.

Oh well. You suppose you'll have to keep going. Maybe look around the city. You let out a long, tired sigh. You're worried. This worry is eating you from the inside out. Thanks to you- thanks to your own failings, Wympe and Arabella were left to die here. Hunted by some nightmarish creature from the depths of the sea.

You look upward, at the vast remains of the city of Sal Viento.

They said that Iberia- the country you're in- abandoned this city, like so many others. One, it was filled with people, and bustling with commerce and opportunity. When tragedy stuck, and the golden age of Iberia ended, it was left to rot.

...so, this world is not that different from the City. It is much like it.

Sal Viento brings you memories.

Memories that most people do not like to dwell on. You don't have much issue with them, though. It's just a little bit of melancholy. In the end of things, Sal Viento reminds you of the Nest of District 12, left abandoned twice. First, by the Smoke War. Then, by the White Nights and Dark Days.

You're reminded of Nicole- who lifted herself up from the remains of L-Corp, back when she was just a child. Roughly a decade ago. She was one of the many Feathers of the Nest who were left to rot when the Smoke-spewing Wing fell. You've been in the decaying, stained ruins of that Nest. During, and after the war.

Ah. You suppose Abel had something to do with it, didn't he? L-Corp lifted itself from the Smoke War.

He does not answer.

...you're not one to judge.

"...I was, yes. Sal Viento brings back the same memories as it brings you. A rotting city, abandoned by those who swore to safeguard it."

What was his role in the Smoke War?

"I orchestrated it."

...ah.

"Me, Dias and Benjamin planned everything. It was... necessary. I had to see this through. For the sake of this project. For her." he says.

Dias? Hah. You suppose it's just like her. She did gain quite a lot from the Smoke War. The previous L-Corp had some... disagreements with her, didn't it? How... ugly. You don't want to speak to him anymore. Not now. You have to... concentrate on what you need to do right now.

"Very well. This old man shall cease his ramblings."

...you take another look at the city of Sal Viento.

These curved metal formations- likely supports for some sort of dome- remind you of the ribcage of some vast creature. It has a blocky, standardized appearance, now corroded by saltwater and the passing of time. A mobile city. An entire city, composed of enormous vehicles that more through the earth to avoid Catastrophes.

You walk towards the ruins. Mayve there's something to be found here.

---

You were not told what you were supposed to do. You were paid to kill L-Corp's agents- and nothing else.

And now, twelve of them lie dead beneath your feet. Their bodies are unrecognizable. Fried with lighting, burned, carved apart... the list of wounds goes on. Twelve Wing agents, caught offguard and scrambling to flee, versus a Grade 1 and a Color.

It wasn't even a fight. This was a massacre.

Beats coughs.

"Fucking hell. The smoke only gets worse..."

It does. It's a truly noxious sensation. It crams its way through your throat and your nostrils. You've bought a gas mask for the express purpose of keeping this blasted smell out.

The damn think started to stink worse then the smoke itself in less then a day. Useless things.

He taps your shoulder.

"Hey, you think we can meet up with Nikolai if we get the job done fast enough? I've been thinkin' about asking her out."

You look at your friend. His long black hair is slick with sweat and dirt. His typically spotless brown overcoat is covered in grime.

"You might have to get some new clothes if you want to ask her out. You look like shit. And you'll have to get a damn bath." you answer. "Everyone will, actually. We're all in terrible state. At least the smoke will stop making the whole damn city smell like shit."

He shrugs.

"Hey, me and her already get our weapons from the same place. Might as well ask her where she buys her clothes, too. They look slick as all hell. I might end up copying her style."

You shrug back, and turn towards the abandoned ghost town that was L-Corp's Nest.

"Ignoring your intentions of wooing someone way out of your league-" you say, as Beats gasps in indignation "-we'll have to continue. The main force of the Zwei Association is right up ahead, on... Cris-Kane Street. They've set up a defensive perimeter. We'll have to talk with the Director of Section 2 if we want to get through the blockade the agents set up on the Eastern Powerplant."

Beats nods. You two walk through the decayed buildings. You cover your nose- to stop the smell of smoke... and the smell of corpses.

The agents of L-Corp weren't here to fight.

They were here to bury the bodies.

They had set up a mass grave, and were in the process of identifying the corpses of the Feathers. Then, you and Beats struck.

You sigh.

This is going to be a long day.

---

You've walked through the streets- to reach the core of Sal Viento proper.

...these houses are not empty, as you had thought before.

There are people in this city.

If they can even be called people.

"Hello? You there?" says Adrian, shaking his hand over the face of a citizen. The utterly vacant eyes do not change. They are slender- in the precipice of starvation. Malnourished. "Hey, fucker, wake up? Wake up! Skurwielu, wake up!"

He turns towards you.

"I'm going to kick him in the fucking nuts. Any issues with that?"

...no, not really. You don't really care. It's not going to work anyway. They're pratically braindead.

"Might do it with one of them who's isolated, though. The others could get angry if you hit someone in broad daylight. But it's not going to work, anyway. This guy has been here for a long time. Probably gets out to eat, then comes back."

He grunts. Capone looks at you in bafflement.

"Ugh, fair enough. How the fuck does someone even get like this?"

"Look at the clothing. Barely rags. This city's been abandoned, and all they had to eat are those... things from the sea. I don't think you can farm or raise animals here, not with them. Probably messed up their heads."

Every single minute you stand here is a minute that makes you feel more guilty for losing against the Arbiter and getting everyone in this mess.

"Fucking hell. Do we just beat them up until they answer?" says the knight.

You're starting to think picking him up might have been a mistake.

"They even don't speak your language, moron. Do you even speak Iberian?" says Capone.

You have an implant hooked to your brain that allows you to comprehend different languages, but it takes roughly 10 minutes of continuous listening to get going, so you asked Mostima to hold a conversation in the language for you. It's probably enough to get around, but talking to a native would be better. Capone could probably figure out telepathy if he got his Psychoment completed- because apparently it's incomplete? You don't exactly get how these things work.

Anyway, you know enough to ask questions.

"Have you seen any outsiders?" you ask the man in front of you. He does not answer.

He just keeps breathing. Freaky as all hell.

You hear something. Footsteps.

There's someone behind one of the alleys, hiding from you. You hear their breathing. They're shuffling against the building.

You tap your foot on the floor.

"Good afternoon." you say.

The person hiding against the wall abruptly stops moving in fright. Slowly, they come out of their hideout.

It's a kid.

A teenager, to be most accurate. A girl dressed in a black dress. She's carrying a small purse, hanging on her shoulder, and dragging some sort of bag behind her. She looks... in terrible condition. There are clear signs of malnourishment in her body. She's thin as a stick, and her clothes are ragged.

"Please don't hurt me." she says, very clearly afraid of you. She heard you talking. Way to go, Grade 7.

Well, what now? You better say something, before something all of you will regret comes out of that guy's mouth.

It occurs to you that your friend is quite literally holding a torn-off human arm in his hands.

Fuck.

[ ] Write-in.

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