Omake: Jack Slash Helps Against His Will, Shuts Up, Then Dies (rlrl15435)
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Omake: Jack Slash Helps Against His Will, Shuts Up, Then Dies:
Amy stared over Crystal's shoulder at her phone, utterly horrified. The past half hour had been a confusing twist of horrible reveals and shocks as the Celestial Forge broadcasted their fight with the Slaughterhouse 9, and even though most of the 9 were dead, it wasn't quite sinking in.
The Siberian - apparently Dr. Manton for some reason - didn't even scratch Apeiron's armor before popping like a bubble after Survey fired at a random car. The new girl was instantly disintegrated by Fleet, while the Matrix formed itself into a high-tech decontaminant chamber around Bonesaw, occasionally pulsing with heat to kill biotinkered viruses released from her corpse.
For a short while Burnscar had kept ahead of Proto Amina, but only the slightest touch from the newly humanoid girl allowed her to teleport to where Burnscar was going even before she started to appear and finish it, leaving a burned and drained corpse behind. Mannequin had been disabled by Apeiron with only a touch and a pulse of his new healing effect, and Amy couldn't even tell if he was dead from where he was splayed out on the ground. Garment - who was apparently part of the Celestial Forge - had slowly picked Shatterbird's glass out of the air and added it to her dress until Shatterbird was tied up and defenseless.
The so-called 'Murder Rat' had been separated into the horrifyingly familiar Mouse Protector and another cape she only vaguely remembered seeing before. Bonesaw's other creations would randomly fail, gushing blood and collapsing for no reason. Crawler was being used like a hacky sack by an unusually serious Kataklyzen, and Crawler's mutations didn't seem to be reducing the pain he was in based on his bellowing. Even with the current insanity going on right outside the Bay, the thing her eyes kept being drawn to was Apeiron.
While she had time to get used to Apeiron's looks after a binge with her cousins after getting out of confinement, he had somehow capped even that. With his looks, his posture, and the furious scowl on his face as he stared down Jack Slash, it was the sight of a lifetime and nobody wanted to miss it. Even if all those factors weren't something that interested her, the in-depth description and subsequent disablement of Jack's apparent Stranger/Master power that had just occurred was enough to keep anyone's attention.
Running ideas to kill someone with her power was something she'd never thought she would do before all this insanity, but it really drove home how insidious the effect was, and Apeiron wasn't even done speaking. She quickly refocused before she could miss any more.
"You see, Jack? It wasn't even you. Your successes, your goals, your so-called advanced intellect, none of it was you. You didn't even realize you had it, that your achievements weren't earned, but handed to you because nobody could succeed in stopping you. Your legacy is fake, and it ends here. All of it ends here. I'm going to visit every place you've ever been to, every city you've damaged, and fix. I'm going to heal all the injuries the 9 inflicted, repair the buildings you broke and the towns you've ruined. I'm going to release a non-tinkertech drug that cures addiction so that anyone who turned to substance abuse because of you can be cured. I'm going to pop the Grey Boy bubbles, treat the victims, and get them therapy." Apeiron leaned forward slightly, scowl intensifying. "Everything you've ever done, wiped away, nothing to remember you by, eventually forgotten about in history. And you won't even be there to watch."
Amy watched as Jack rallied himself, looking visibly rattled. And who wouldn't be, in the face of such a declaration from a man whose seriousness almost had a physical presence, who was known for never breaking his word. The high-quality tinkertech footage allowed her to see the individual drops of sweat on his face, and the darting of his eyes as he desperately tried to find a path of escape. With his power useless against Apeiron, he must have decided that his words were his final weapon.
"Ah, what a great hero you must be. The champion of the downtrodden, and defender of the weak. Pathetic, hypocritical." Jack pulled a sneer that would have been impressive if it wasn't facing a truly legendary scowl. "The power you swing around, it terrifies you. A boy who destroys with every swing. How many died from your actions? Which hundreds of people will never return home? How many have YOU killed?"
"Fourteen."
"What?!"
"I've got a thinker power for it. Fourteen people died quicker than they would because of me. I've made my peace, your words can't hurt me. What they are is annoying. In fact, just to spite you, I'm going to release four cures to cancer to the world."
For the first time in her life, Amy felt like she could relate to Jack Slash. The gaping mouth, the disbelieving eyes. The things a cure for cancer could do, and the people it could help. It was all she wished for when she first met the bandana'd tinker in the hospital, and here he was, doing it. Of course, Jack didn't share her excitement and was obviously gearing up for another taunt.
"I-"
"Six cures."
"You-"
"Ten cures."
A long pause, where the only sound was Crawler's screams as he was burned alive by white flame.
"They'll-"
"Cures for HIV."
"Stop-"
"Alzheimers."
"WHY-"
"Osteoporosis. Sickle cell Anemia. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. I can do this all day. Every time you speak, I'll release a new cure. Your words can do nothing but help now. Each word will save thousands, and millions have already been saved. " Apeiron's smile grew impossibly sharp. "Maybe it'll help, in whatever horrendous afterlife awaits you." Amy was pretty sure that nobody had ever seen Jack Slash that angry before, but she was also very sure nobody had ever seen him that silent.
Apeiron shifted. "Nothing to say, Jack?" After a beat of silence, he moved. "Goodbye, Jack Slash." As quickly as Apeiron normally assembled technology, pulled out a beautiful gun and shot. Jack Slash, notorious leader of the Slaughterhouse 9, collapsed, dead. Apeiron let the gun fade into pixelated light, staring at the corpse, then intoned "And not with a bang, but with a whimper." The stream cut out, and Amy was left reeling with the fact that the Slaughterhouse 9 was gone, desperately trying to make sense of the situation until she was broken out of her thoughts by Crystal's absentminded murmur.
"That was hot."