[04] Mass Result! *ME2 spoiler alert*

[Kill Town]

Mass Result

Description: Your team has infiltrated the Collector Hive and is faced with a giant human reaper. (If you haven’t played the game, you’re basically moving through a giant organic-looking ship and facing something that resembles a giant machine from Terminator. If you haven’t seen that, then to hell with you. =P) The goal is to destroy this monstrosity before it’s too late. Your third teammate, Zaeed, is seemingly only capable of smoking and cursing, so your sub-objective is to protect him.

Note: If you guys haven’t played/beaten Mass Effect 2 and/or you’re confused, feel free to ask for direction. And I have no idea what’s with Juno and Bioware events. Oh well.

Participants: Juno, Belle

EDIT: I just realized that this event is a massive spoiler. I'm really sorry if this spoiled it for anyone. I'm not changing it, though.

[Belle Hibiki]

The ground underneath trembled, as if it were charged with a high-grade electrical current. There was a faint, far off sound, rising and falling in a steady, pulsing rhythm, that almost sounded as if something were breathing out in the darkness. Far above and to the sides, walls slipped past, fleshy and indistinct, shrouded in shadows, their gleaming surfaces only briefly illuminated by the glow the hexagonal platform Belle stood on gave off as it sank deeper into the ... wherever she was.

But the first thing Belle noticed, before anything else, was the smell. When she was younger, Belle had occasionally come across the carcasses of slaughtered animals, and the stench around her reminded her of them - of sun-baked flesh left to rot. Of decay. And yet, somehow alive as well, filled with a musky scent that was hard to define and laced with the tang of terrified sweat.

She wasn't alone. Two others were with her: Juno, the weirdo she had run into at the carnival, and someone else that she didn't know, a green-skinned, fish-like man with large black eyes, a long overcoat over an exotic suit of armor, and a cigarette dangling from his human-looking lips.

Belle and Juno were dressed strangely, too, and in a way that was far too form fitting for Belle's comfort. Plates of an exotic, plastic-like compound had been grafted onto a thick, lycra-like body sheathe. The plates seemed as if they had been made to conform to their bodies, and Belle's made it very difficult to deny the changes that had been forced onto her body.

"Belle," Juno called over the passing rush of wind. He waited for her attention, then gestured in the direction of the walls.

Belle looked. On closer inspection, she saw the massive series of tubes that lined the sides. There were dozens, maybe even hundreds, in too many sizes to categorize. They almost looked like - and here Belle wrinkled her nose - veins. They stretched out ahead of them, leading deeper into the tunnel. "All of them seem to be leading somewhere," Belle mused aloud. "I wonder what they're doing?"

"I can answer that for you, Hibiki," someone spoke into Belle's ear.

Belle jumped and spun around, but there was nobody there. "Who-?" she started to say, then noticed the weight on one of her ears. Another comm?

"I am EDI," the voice continued, definitely coming from the device snugged around Belle's ear. It sounded feminine, but was just as clearly synthetic. "I can monitor your progress on the mission and give you information."

"Handy," Belle muttered, reaching up to play her hand along the comm device. It was bulkier than the one Wess had used in the previous round, but she would take it. She lowered her hand. "Alright." She gestured towards the tubes. "What can you tell us about them? The tubes."

"The tubes are feeding into some kind of super-structure. It is emitting both organic and non-organic signatures."

The tunnel began to widen as EDI spoke. A ring of lights marked the terminus of the passage just before it opened up into a significantly larger chamber. The decking under Belle's feet seemed to thrum more powerfully the nearer and nearer they got.

"Hibiki, if my calculations are correct," EDI continued as their platform reached the end of the tunnel, "the super-structure ... is a Reaper."

"What's a Reap-?" Belle started to ask, but the question was answered immediately as she looked up. Light spilled into the chamber from another tunnel far above, sending out a wan, diffuse white light that silhouetted the enormous form that hung before them, suspended by a network of fat tubes similar to the ones they had already seen. These tubes, however, ended in syringe-like appendages with clear sides. A filthy orange ooze swirled within each.

"Is... Is it ...?" Juno started to say, then shook his head and took a step back.

Belle could understand the hesitation. Though it was only half-complete, the skeletal construct looked disturbingly human. It had a skull, shoulders, ribcage, arms, and the beginnings of what looked liked a spine that dangled down from the rest.

"Your goal is to destroy it ... by any means necessary," EDI said.

"Great," Belle said sarcastically. "Sounds fun. Who built this thing, anyway?"

"The Collectors."

"The who?"

"The Collectors," EDI repeated with infinite mechanical patience. "The Collectors were created by the Reapers to be workers. Reapers are sentient machines, composed of both organic and inorganic matter. What you are seeing is likely the Reaper method of reproduction."

"'Reproduction'?" Belle echoed.

"Affirmative. By my scans, the Reaper is only 20% complete. In human terms, it is in the fetal stage."

"What's that mean?"

"'Fetal.' Derived from fetus, the young of a viviparous mammal that has not left the womb." EDI paused. "A baby not yet born, if it makes it easier, Hibiki."

"Bullshit," Belle snapped, feeling her skin crawl. "Babies come from the stork. Not a womb."

"Commander Hibiki, given your gender, I would hope that you would be aware of the functions of your own body."

"I'm not a girl!" Belle bellowed, her voice echoing off the walls and making both Juno and her other companion jump. "Wait a second," she said suddenly. "You want us to kill a baby?!"

"A Reaper is not a 'baby' in the traditional sense. Where many species' young begin life at an early stage of development, a Reaper, even partially constructed, could be assumed to possess a fully developed intellect and base of knowledge. The Reapers are designed to be killing machines, Commander Hibiki; I would not advise showing mercy."

Belle bit her lip, brows furrowed. The others were looking at her expectantly. "I ... I guess it's not real, anyway," Belle admitted, though she wasn't sure if she really meant what she was saying. "How do we destroy it?"

"My analysis of the super-structure has revealed several weak points. A direct attack on the feeding lines leaning into the Reaper should be enough to dislodge it from its housing and bring it down."

"So we go up and hit it?" Belle asked, frowning.

"I would advise the use of your mass-accelerator weapons."

Belle looked around, then belatedly noticed the slight extra weight on her back. She reached behind and her fingers brushed cool metal. She pulled, and the object came loose from its magnetic holster with a brief snap, then expanded in her hand with an electric whir. There was a grip, a shoulder-stock, and a rather obvious barreled at the other end.

A gun.

"I really don't like these things," Belle grumbled. She took a moment to figure out how best to hold the weapon, then propped it against the inside of her right shoulder. Aiming up at one of the ooze-filled cylinders, she bit her lip, narrowed her eye, and prepared to fire. Her finger tightened on the trigger... But she didn't pull.

"What the fuck is wrong?" the fishman Zaeed demanded. "Shoot the damn thing."

Belle shook her head to clear it, but EDI's words refused to be thrown out. Fetal. Fetus. Baby. She gritted her teeth. It's not real, she told herself sternly. Just shoot! Shoot it!

Belle squinted at her target and lined up her shot again. But before she could fire, a loud rattling filled the room. Her finger eased on the trigger and she blinked as a section of the connecting tubes seemed to extend, several sheets of metal moving in concert to cover the exposed syringes.

"We've got company," Juno informed her.

From within the darkness of a branching tunnel, another hexagonal platform had floated into view. Lazily floating across the distance between them, the esoteric transportation abruptly spun and meshed one of its flat edges perfectly against a matching edge on their own platform. They seemed to lock together, and from beyond a stunted series of roughly chest-high walls, three creatures emerged.

Belle took a reflexive half step back. She wanted to call them people, but it was difficult to get past how they looked: tall, gangly humanoids, insectoid in appearance with a dark, puss-yellow hue. Their widely-domed heads swept back to a point, and would almost look like a backwards guitar-pick from above. They had four eyes, two on each side of their 'faces' and snugged just below the dome, which glowed a bright, featureless yellow.

They also had weapons, and were beginning to train them in Belle's direction when Juno grabbed her wrist and yanked her down. Half a second later the top of their cover sputtered and screeched as a dozen mass-accelerated grains of sand sheared thin section of metal off the top. "Goddamn it," Belle muttered as she pressed her back up against the cover and risked a peek over the top. "What the crap are those things?!"

"The Collectors," EDI spoke before Juno could. "You must defeat them to make the feeder tubes vulnerable again."

"Defeat em'." Belle ducked her head as a pellet whizzed over the barrier. It was so close that she could feel the heat as it burned the air. "Okay."

Without bothering to wait for further advice, Belle shoved the barrel of her rifle over the top of the wall, pointed vaguely in the direction of the fire, and squeezed the trigger. Her gun jumped under her hand, and despite its light weight, it was almost torn from her one-handed grip. There was a sharp scream of pain...

The world around her suddenly seemed to dull and slow down. Sounds, once clear, became indistinct, as if she were hearing them from under five feet of water, and her body went from responsive to sluggish in the blink of an eye. There was a ringing in her ears, low but sharp, and then:

"You will know pain, Belle."

It was unlike anything Belle had ever heard; less like a single voice than a chorus, each tone deep, gutteral, and laced with the promise of nightmares and brimstone. It seemed to come from all around her, then faded, and the world came back into focus.

Someone was tapping her on the arm. Belle looked up to find Juno looking at her, his face filled with concern. "I'm fine," she lied, pushing herself straight and peeking over the top of their cover. How long, she wondered, had she been out?

Apparently not too long. One of the aliens was lying on its back on the other platform, twitching violently as it disintegrated into a hail of polygons. Another was making its way from cover to cover, nearing them, and the third ...

Belle frowned. Well, the third was just standing in the open, as if daring someone to shoot. Its arms at its sides, its face tilted up to the ceiling. It shuddered violently, and was abruptly ripped off the ground by an invisible hand.

The ringing in her ears was starting again. She leveled her gun and fired at the hovering bug/alien/thing, but her rounds pinged harmlessly off a shell of energy. Belle had a vague memory of Kaden wielding a similar technique, though much more primitive. Strange, though, that he couldn't remember precisely when she had seen it. For some reason, she had the impression that she had been very angry at the time...

The floating Collector's eyes shined briefly brighter. Then, in a cacophonous explosion, its body erupted with light. Cracks ripped themselves open in its flesh, luminescence pouring out, glowing like magma. The air around the creature shivered as it slowly lowered to the ground. Its feet took its weight, and it did not fall down.

Its eyes turned on Belle, and the ringing in her ears doubled. She clapped her hand over the one that was exposed, but the sound seemed to be coming from inside. "Agh...!"

"This hurts you..."

The ringing grew louder. Belle's eyes watered. She felt as if her head were about to burst, her breath short in her throat, eyes rolling back in their sockets...

A shot rang out across the battlefield. The glowing Collector's head snapped to the side and it stumbled.

The ringing stopped. Belle looked up, confused, and saw the smoking end of Zaeed's long-barreled rifle extending from over a piece of nearby cover. "Keep fighting," the fish-man ordered. "Don't let him have a chance to use his biotics. Whatever you do, don't give in!"

[Juno]

No matter how much Belle and Juno tried, the Collectors just kept coming.

Their supplies were endless. As Zaeed's ki rifle blasted the hammerhead off of the flaming alien, two more hovered in from the darkness to take its place. "Keep fighting," the fish-man urged the two half-saiyans, "Don't let him have a chance to use his biotics. Whatever you do, don't give in!" His words fell on deaf ears in regards to Juno; with a horde so endless, with power so great, how could anyone hope for victory?

The flaming Collector's head snapped violently from its neck as Zaeed's shot made its impact, flying through the air like a ragdoll before finally landing limply on the metallic flooring and rolling across it before being halted by a low wall of organic matter. It burst into flames upon contact, disappearing in a shower of bright yellow embers.

Juno watched in awe as the burning Collector's body also disintegrated into nothing more than miniscule sparks, floating away from the conglomeration of hexagonal platforms. His admiration of the spectacle was cut off by his Foresight, however, which prompted him to quickly turn on his heel to face the Collector that had charged him. He brought up his rifle and fired several shots, which pelted into the alien's body, knocking him back to the cold, steely floor of the arena.

"Assuming direct control."

Juno looked up, seeing another Collector ripped off the ground just like the first. It hovered briefly in mid-air before some unknown force telekinetically crucified it before their eyes.

Slowly, the air around him began to grow thick with heat as what little life energy remained in the organic matter this ship was constructed of began to float toward the flying creature, slowly encircling it before lighting aflame and blanketing it in a dazzling show of orange light. As it floated in the air, the flaming energy of its controller began to seep into its pores, and the light that signified the possession was complete slowly began to rise from its feet to the top of its oddly-shaped head. With a shrill screech, it let forth a burst of red-hot energy and was alive once more, slowly planted back onto the platform, its bright white eyes staring straight at Juno.

"I am the Harbinger of your destruction," it projected telepathically in a low, raspy voice. The words rung throughout the Collector Hive, and the Harbinger stalked forward, aiming a uniquely-crafted rifle at the black-haired half-saiyan. A consistent beam of pure pink energy fired from the end of the disfigured weapon, speeding toward Juno. The half-saiyan dove to the metallic floor of the platform, sliding along it as the energy beam sailed over him. Breathing heavily, the ex-fortuneteller looked at his adversary, whose throaty laugh echoed throughout the cavern.

"My attacks will tear you apart."

"What the hell is this thing?" Juno called, and Zaeed's voice was quick to answer.

"It's the damn Collector General," the fish-man yelled over the sound of his machine gun drilling another Collector with bullets, "He possesses the little guys and they become monsters called Harbingers. Don't let your guard down when he's close by, or else!"

Or else what? Juno thought, but he didn't argue with Zaeed's breakdown of the molten creature, mostly because he didn't have much time before the glowing Collector was upon him. Scrambling to his feet, he leapt behind cover as the Harbinger took slow, calculated steps, edging nearer to him with each passing second. Once more, it paused in its march, raising its rifle and aiming for the half-Saiyan. This time, however, there was no battle cry. There was no telepathic taunt. This was an execution.

"You think you're the only one who can possess your lackeys?" Juno called from below the creature's vision, and confident in his abilities, he stepped out from behind his low shield, and grasped onto the forehead of a nearby Collector. He focused all his ki into defeating the alien for control of its mind. Much to his surprise, there was no effect, and the Collector stared quizzically at him; the brief pause was long enough for the Harbinger to get Juno in his sights once again. Its eerie voice did not miss a chance for commentary.

"You will feel this."

The Harbinger fired off a ray of magenta energy, and the hybrid acted as quickly as he could manage, pulling the stunned Collector in front of him to take the brunt of the blast. The flaming alien's beam ripped through the hammerheaded organic, grazing the half-saiyan's abdomen, eliciting a hoarse cry of pain from the seer.

Juno's rifle fell from his hands as he clutched the burning pain on his right side. The shot had ripped through his thin, form-fitting armor. His blood boiled from the laser's heat, slowly seeping through the breaks in the outer layers of his skin. He bit his lip, staggering backwards and falling behind cover as the sound of the Harbinger's meancing steps began to once again fill the void around the fighters.

He lay against the short wall of organic matter, groaning in pain as the wound began to throb. The blood flow was finally redirected, and as he closed his eyes and the pain numbed his mind, he felt the heat radiating off of the Harbinger's body getting closer. A hand touched his, and his eyes popped open to see Belle kneeling next to him. She lifted his hand from the scar and cringed at the sight.

"He got you good," she said, and Juno nodded. "You think you can still fight?"

"Oh, I can take him," Juno assured his partner, and Belle smiled in satisfaction. "Let's go, Belle." She nodded with a fleeting smile as their saiyan pride overtook them both slightly. When at first you seem outmatched, they knew, get up and try again.

The redhead was the first to stand, shakily aiming the rifle at the Collector General's puppet and squeezing hard on the trigger, not caring one way or another whether the shots she fired actually hit their target. Juno rose to his feet, stretching out his arm and flattening his palm as slowly, a soccerball-sized orb of violet ki materialized. A huge beam of purple light shot forth, and Juno's Pop hit the Harbinger squarely in his chest.

The creature's glow brightened as he flew back, the blast ripping him to shreds. Faintly, the Collector General's voice could be heard in the far reaches of the cavern.

"Releasing control."

With the second incarnation of the Harbinger wiped out, Belle and Juno finally got a second to breathe. "We make a good team," Belle remarked.

"Yeah," Juno nodded hesitantly. He'd forgotten during the battle how odd Belle was, but now that they had a moment to pause and catch their breath, he suddenly remembered the distinct weird vibe he'd gotten from her when they had met just a little while ago. Zaeed stood from his cover, walking over to the two half-saiyans.

"Hurry up and fire on the Reaper," he ordered, gesturing toward the huge metallic skeleton that hung limply before them. "Knowing these damn Collectors, it won't be long before those assholes send another friggin' horde at us, you know what I mean?" The aqueous man crossed his arms as he took a drag from his cigarette.

Juno and Belle focused their attention on the gargantuan invention. It was massive, taking up more than a small fraction of the cavern, and was hanging from the ceiling by similarly thick silver cords. The young redhead lifted her rifle and focused her scopes on one of the large rounded tubes of orange liquid, which the black-haired hybrid supposed was fueling the construction of the Human-Reaper. After a moment, Juno lifted his hand up, as well, concentrating his ki into his fingers and forming another Pop just in front of his open palm.

The raven-haired hybrid's chest heaved as he sucked in a deep breath, letting the ki orb in front of his hand brighten the room for a second. Belle stared through the scope at the macro-syringes that supplied the reaper with life, and steadied her aim - or tried to, at least. She seemed to be having a bit of trouble.

"Dammit," the redheaded girl mumbled, "I hate these friggin' things."

"Let me do it, then," Juno told her, "One concentrated shot of ki will take it down much quicker than an energy rifle will."

"I... guess you're right," Belle sighed, kind of disappointed that she wouldn't be getting to blast this thing simply because she didn't have quite the same affinity for ki that some of the others did. "Well, hurry up and do it."

"I clearly said concentrated ki blast, Belle," the black-haired hybrid reminded the impatient redhead, "It's going to take a minute for me to make sure I've got something that can take it out in one shot."

"So much for quick, then," the girl scoffed, stomping over to where Zaeed stood watching Juno's display. The hybrid closed his eyes and focused harder than before on channeling the energy into the Pop that hovered loosely in front of him, and felt the ki orb growing, slowly expanding until it was the size of a small yoga ball. When he felt the blast reach its peak, he brought up the other hand, supporting the sphere with both outstretched arms, and pushed forward with all of the control he could muster. A huge, expansive beam of purple light exploded outwards into the cavern, flying at epic speeds toward the cylinder above.

With a very resounding boom, the Pop slammed mightily into one of the Reaper's life support systems, shattering it and sending shards of glass flying in a spectacular vision of the little power that Juno had regained throughout Kill Town. He flashed a toothy grin to Belle and Zaeed; the fishman offered a thumbs-up, and Belle just rolled her eyes. Juno chuckled. Women, he thought absentmindedly.

"Uh," a nasally voice said, and the trio looked up to the sky, "I... uh... apologize for the interruption." Belle and Juno shot each other a knowing glance; the voice was that of Gamer, the mastermind who held them captive. Zaeed, meanwhile, stared cluelessly upward, amazed. "I think that I've sort of... mixed up my files here... uh, lemme see if I can fix this, guys..."

The wait was terribly long. Whoever this Gamer kid was, he was obviously quite inept with making sure his games were polished before sending them to the players, and to be terribly honest, Juno didn't think that was a very good quality. The way he'd always done it, it was best to be efficient, and not mess things up. Get things done right the first time, or don't get them done at all. That was a credo of sorts he lived by, and Gamer seemed to be blissfully ignorant on the subject.

"One second," the nerdy teenager said. "Ah, yes. Here we are."

Suddenly, Zaeed's feet left the ground. He struggled like a true hero as he was lifted up in the air, screaming expletives at the telekinetic force that held him trapped as he was lifted up into the air in a fashion similar to that of a Collector that was soon to be possessed by the Collector General; his arms were even pulled into a crucifix-like position. However, he was not met with a splash of molten energy - rather, he found himself enraptured by a great white light, soon becoming little more than a silhouette. Slowly, however, the silhouette was altered; as opposed to an amphibian fishman who wore a trench coat and carried a deceptively accurate rifle, another man stood before them.

Cigarette cocked sideways in his mouth, hand on the hilt of his pistol, the human man slowly drifted to the floor. His hair was greyed and his face chiseled, and his eyes looked over the two rookies with an utter contempt that the old Zaeed had never before shown. One eye seemed to be permanently squinted, while the other was opened almost abnormally wide. His tan battle armor was covered with dust. "So," the new Zaeed spoke gruffly, "Where's this damn Collector horde at?"

A puff of smoke flew from the end of his cigarette, and Juno and Belle looked at one another in confusion. "Well, that will be all, ladies and gentlemen," Gamer said, and Belle's eyes narrowed, but Juno placed a hand on her shoulder to signal that this was not the time to incite Gamer's anger.

"So... I guess we shoot the Reaper again?" Belle offered, and Juno nodded, turning back to the huge, hulking metallic skeleton and stretching his arm out in front of him. Slowly but surely, another globe of violet ki began to form in his hand. Belle looked around cautiously; she wanted to make sure nothing would interrupt them, so that hopefully they could be out of there quickly.

There was a loud creaking, and Juno faltered.

"What the hell?" the black-haired halfling muttered as his eyes focused on the Reaper's left arm, which had been hanging limply at its side since being shot by Juno's last Pop. There was a low rumbling from inside the Reaper, and slowly, as if the destruction of part of its life force had activated something inside it, it began to move.

"Huh?" the ginger girl whispered, walking up next to the hybrid boy and gazing musingly at the Human-Reaper. The disconnected left arm gradually lifted from the abyss where it hung and slammed into one of the platforms that had transported the Collectors over, and Belle, Juno, and Zaeed were knocked off their feet. The hexagon that had taken the brunt of the Reaper's blow slowly was knocked off balance, losing its antigravity force and disconnecting from the surface that the trio sat on. As quickly as it had come, it slipped from sight, falling into the abyss, the focus of their attention no more. The three men - or two guys and a girl, however you looked at it - let their eyes slowly rise to the Reaper's, which glowed a furious red.

And with a loud, mechanized roar, the battle began again.

[Belle Hibiki]

Even from a young age, Belle had known that she was different.

It wasn't the fact that she lived in the woods, that she could snap trunks in half, or that she was so much stronger than her friends. No, what really told her how she was different from others was that trouble always had a way of finding her.

And not just any kind of trouble: strange trouble. Weirdnesses that stretched the boundaries of the human imagination were, for her, almost everyday events. Belle had met dragons that could make a man's wildest wishes come true, fought primeval nature spirits left over from the creation of the world, and battled extraterrestrial computers bent on world domination. Over time Belle had grown accustomed to these events, and in most cases even welcomed the challenges that they presented. Some people had chalked up her attitude to her bloodline - half saiyan, half human.

But she knew better.

Her experiences had given her a kind of intuition, a sort of sixth sense for the extraordinary. So when the mechanical monstrosity loomed over the platform and opened its mouth, Belle knew without thinking that the creature had no intention of speaking to them.

"Get down!" she shouted, grabbing Juno by the arm and throwing him to the ground. She dove to the plating, and a half second later the beast's mouth was wreathed in pinkish-red flame. A burst of raw energy roiled outward from the mechanical gullet in a scorching sweep, tracing from one end of the platform to the next.

Belle waited behind the low wall until the sound of the blast had dissipated into the distance, then paused for another handfull of seconds before risking a peek over the edge.

The machine was waiting for her. Another blast of charged fire lanced out, and Belle had just enough time to pull her head back into cover before the energy raced through where her head had just been. Close calls were another thing that she was used to; she doubted that many could claim to have dodged fatal shots to the cranium as much as she had.

She looked up from the ground and met Juno's eyes. "How are we going to stop that thing?" she demanded over the roar of the Reaper's blaster fire. Another burst rang out, and this time slapped just short of their cover, sending a hail of super-heated shards into the air. Belle winced as they fell and one brushed her cheek. "Any ideas?"

Juno frowned, his eyes going distant. "It sounds like it pauses after every shot for a few seconds," he said. "Maybe we could fire then?"

"The last time I tried that, I almost got my face torched off," Belle pointed out.

"You got a better plan?"

Belle considered. "Not right now," she admitted. She hefted the rifle in her hands, which still felt distinctly odd. What she really wanted to do was run over there and start wailing on the thing, but she somehow doubted that Gamer would allow her to fall back to her usual standby. He seemed to delight in putting people out of their element, and the creature's armor would likely be too thick for her to damage. "Ready?" she asked, waiting for Juno's nod before perking her attention towards the sound of the raging Reaper. Its current blast faltered, waned, and abruptly cut out. "Go!"

Belle pushed up, aimed at the massive form overhead, and pulled the trigger. Juno's fire joined her's a moment later, and the loud report of Zaeed's rifle was the deep, rhythic beat of a drum to their rapid-fire duet.

Their rounds spattered ineffectually against the metal. The Reaper seemed more annoyed than anything, as if their efforts were no more significant than the nibbling of a couple of ants. Juno's rifle tracked to the side, sweeping its line of fire across the machine's face, and then abruptly it blanched back, letting out a synthesized howl of rage as the mass-accelerated rounds crashed agaisnt its glowing eyes.

"That did something!" Zaeed shouted. Then added: "Oh shit."

All three dived back into cover as the machine retaliated with another furious blast of energy, rocking the entire platform like a skiff in heavy seas and threatening to send it toppling towards the ground. Belle reached out and grabbed a nearby protuberance in the wall and held tight. "It looks like its eyes are its sensitive spot."

"Maybe it's chest, too. I saw another glowing spot there," Juno said, then hissed as the Reaper fired again. The metal of the wall heated, then rapidly cooled. "It's going to chew through this if it keeps doing that, though."

Belle went quiet, frowning. If the beam was energy ... And it was the same kind she usually used ... "I guess we'll just have to take it out before that happens, won't we?" She swept her eyes over the top of the chest-high wall that seemed to have been included in the platform's design just for this situation. Maybe it had. "I'm going to draw its fire. You go over with that dude - " she motioned towards Zaeed " - and start firing when it goes after me."

Juno's eyes widened. "But that's - ..."

'Crazy,' he probably meant to say. "It's just going to keep shooting until we're fried crispy, and we need an opening. I can give you that. Besides," she looked down at her weapon, "I suck with guns." She dropped the rifle to the ground and settled into a more comfortable crouch. "Don't worry. I've got this."

I hope.

Juno hesitated, then nodded and started to make his way back towards Zaeed, stopping every so often as the Reaper continued to pound the area with concussive blasts. It seemed to have given up going for direct hits and had decided to settle for pulverizing their cover to rubble instead. The male half-saiyan waited for a break in the fire, took a deep breath, and threw himself over the gap separating his cover from their partner's.

He made it with just a few inches to spare. Another pink-red burst sizzled by his feet close enough to scorch the soles of his boots. Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, Juno skittering across the remaining distance to Zaeed, then looked back at Belle.

Belle nodded and peeked around the wall. It was a gamble, she knew, but it seemed like the best option available. She honestly had no clue, however, whether or not it would actually work. "Oh well," she muttered, "I was getting tired of this body anyway."

She took a deep breath and let it out, willing the tension to go along with it, clearing her mind, just as Master Akiha had taught her. Her thoughts were taken back to those long days on the stone, meditating for hours on end under pouring rain, and then again in the emptiness of the room at the top of the Lookout - that featureless void that stretched on for an eternity. She closed her eyes, took another breath, and ran out from safety.

"Hey asshole!" she screamed, lifting her hands and waving them in the Reaper's direction. "Hey, is that your face, or did a bulldozer take a shit!?"

The Reaper roared in fury. "Oooo, yeah, that's scary," Belle continued. She put her finger under one eye and pulled down while sticking out her tongue, then blew a loud raspberry in the machine's direction. "PBPBPBPBPBPB!"

The blast came quicker than before. There was only the briefest swirling of energy around the Reaper's maw before the shot lanced out. Belle dived for the floor and dodged, her breasts smacking the plating first and throbbing. "Oooo," she sprang back up after a moment's recovery. "Mister Cripple is pissed off! Everyone run! He might spit at you! Say, how about we have a foot-race? Oh wait - YOU CAN'T!"

That did it. Smashing its enormous fists against the platform, the Reaper almost lost its hold completely, fingers snapping open and scrambling for a hold. It secured itself, then leveled its unblinking stare at the pink-haired girl below it. She had successfully gotten its undivided attention - and fury.

Its mouth opened. WIthin, Belle could see that the creature didn't have a throat at all. The gap only extended a couple of meters back before terminating into a smaller aperture. Belle could see metal moving within, and had the sudden impression of a furnace as it churned with fresh waves of brightly colored energy. The heat began to build, wafting against Belle's face as the aperture heated to a molten glow, then disappeared completely as the power reached its apex. Ribbons of energy seemed to appear out of thin air, swirling into the swelling mass.

"I'm tired of playing this your way," Belle said, as if to herself, then shouted: "Bring it on!"

The Reaper's shoulders hunched as it braced itself, tgeb jerked forward and fired. Belle brought her hands up as the burning torrent raced towards her, teeth gritted as she focused with all her might on the memory of that Hellish room, that feeling of complete and total emptiness. She grabbed it in her mind, concentrated, and mentally pushed it outward, through her fingers.

The blast hit her with so much force that she slid several feet back, only stopping when her legs smacked against another low wall behind her. She yelped, then forced down the painful sensation in her calves as the beam continued to shove against her with all the determination and stubborn inertia of an out of control locomotive. She trembled, every muscle straining, then began to bend back, like a reed of bamboo caught in hurricane winds.

Raw power was rushing through her, flooding her veins like hot lava. The feeling was beyond description, and for a moment Belle thought that, despite her focus, she might pass out on the spot. And it kept coming - wave after wave pulsing into her. It was as if she had grabbed a bolt of lightning.

The sound of the tumultuous energy filled her ears. The energy... and nothing else. "What the Hell are you assholes doing!?!" she screamed, risking a glance to the side. "Shoot it, now!"

Her two companions abruptly snapped out of their shock, apparently having been distracted by the display, and began to fire again. Belle winced as the Reaper responded to the assault by pushing more energy into the beam. The fire swelled larger, and for a moment almost overtook Belle completely. She redoubled her efforts, but the blast still pushed her back another few inches.

The sensation had rapidly shifted from pleasing to uncomfortable, and Belle could feel her body starting to tense with the effort of trying to absorb it all. She was like a balloon being filled beyond capacity, stretching at the seams. Her body visibly swelled with the force of it, and large veins throbbed beneath the skin-tight suit.

Her vision started to blur. The warmth turned to fire, and she could feel her control fraying at the edges, the beam ballooning out before her...

And then the energy suddenly stopped. Belle tried to blink away the hazy afterimage, as if she had been staring into the sun for too long, and saw the Reaper reeling back, smoke pouring from one smoldering eye socket.

Juno shoved another round into the grenade launcher that Zaeed had handed him, lined up his shot, and pulled the trigger.

The Reaper reeled again as the explosion smacked against its left shoulder. Screaming in synthesized anger, it pulled back, seemed to slip... And then was gone.

Belle trembled. A few more seconds of that, and she probably would have gotten her wish to have her body taken away. She lifted her hands and stared at the reddened flesh, then flexed her fingers a few times.

"Are you alright?" Juno asked, panting as he jogged over. "How did you do that?"

"A little trick I learned. I was saving it for someone else, but..." She trailed off. Kaden had been the intended audience for the unveiling of that particular technique. Unfortunately - or perhaps not so unfortunately - things had not quite played out in the way Belle had seen in her visions. "Nice shot."

"Thanks." Juno beamed.

Belle nodded. "Now I'll handle it."

Juno's smile faltered. "What?"

Belle smirked. "What, you thought it was over? Of course it's not done. That thing's still got a lot of fight left in it. Don't worry, though." She took a slow breath, feeling the rushing tingle of power as it seemed to ooze from every pore in her body. "It's time to give Gamer a little taste of what he's up against - Hibiki style."

The words were barely out of her mouth when the hexagonal platform shuddered. Metal fingers the size of telephone poles slapped across the close edge of the platform, crunching into the decking. The Reaper gave a shout of triumph, and hauled itself over the lip.

The switch was clever. Now on the opposite side of the platform from where it had been, there was no cover between it and its prey. Juno was scrambling to leap over over the nearest wall as the Reaper started to open its mouth again...

Then crunched shut as Belle's fist slammed into the tip of its jaw with the force of a bomb. The Reaper's 'teeth' clanged together, ringing like bells as its face suddenly pointed towards the ceiling. Belle flipped back, pressing her energy out from her body to stop herself from falling, and sailed up, flying through the air and positioning herself just in front of the machine's immobile expression.

"Hi," she quipped, then crashed down in a burst of pinkish-red ki, moving so fast she she blurred out of vision as she drove her knee into the center of the Reaper's forehead. The metal armor buckled and dented inward, ripples of concussive force whipping out from the impact point and across the platform.

The Reaper's fingers slipped. It lost its grip, and it started to fall. "Bye," Belle grinned, then blinked as the massive form began to swing. Belatedly she realized how it had managed to switch positions so easily: its spine was wrapped around a long, column-like protrusion that extended from the bottom of the platform like the neck of a nail.

"Oh Hell no you don't," Belle snarled, rocketing after the penduluming Reaper in a burst of speed. Belle had fought many fighters from all around the globe, and there had been no one yet who could match her in a contest of pure physical prowess. She caught up to the machine in the blink of an eye, extended her foot, and rammed it into the creature's side with a sound like clapping thunder.

The Reaper screamed. The power of the blow added to its uncontrolled momentum and it misswung, crunching painfully against the underside of the platform with a sound reminiscent if a train wreck. The machine reached out and managed to get a grip on the lip of the platform before it could start falling again.

"I don't like hitting kids," Belle said, and the machine looked around to find the half-saiyan hovering right beside its ear. "But you need a spanking!"

Belle's fist clanged against the machine's temple. The Reaper howled in anger, jerking to the side as another dent blossomed on its previously smooth surface. Letting out a mechanical growl, it released the platform with one hand, still dangling by the other, and bodily swiped at Belle.

She swooped back just enough to dodge, smirking as the displaced air whipped through her hair. "What's the matter?" she taunted. "How's that depth perception, Cyclops?" She started to laugh, but stopped as the Reaper's hand abruptly changed direction, heading back towards her at full speed.

The movement was so quick and unexpected that Belle didn't have time to react. The backside of the Reaper's hand crashed against Belle's front. Air wheezed out of her in a whistle and she doubled over, trying to suck air into her lungs like a gasping fish. The machine's tail uncoiled from the central spire and snapped like a whip towards her, coiling around in an instant.

"Agh-!" Belle managed to get out, sucking in a greedy breath of air just before the metal coils clamped down like a vice, squeezing her. The Reaper eased its hold after a moment, tension filling the long prehensile spine, then snapped again, releasing her in the same motion.

Belle was suddenly spinning like a dust-devil through the air, her world a mass of twisting, swirling dark colors. She barely managed to get her bearings before she crashed into - and then through - the chamber wall with a deafening CHOOM, crying out in pain as rubble crashed down around her. A tangled mass of tubes and plates filled her vision, and then things went dark, and she saw nothing at all.

Damn, she thought, her head still spinning and her stomach feeling like it was going to start ejecting tenants, that was careless.

Maybe she was getting a little too used to the weirdness that was her life. She shook her head and felt around in the darkness.

She estimated that the weight on top of her was probably only a few tons - not easy, but definitely not impossible. At least the bottom of the pile seemed to be a single, large plate. Summoning her renewed strength, Belle made sure she had caught her breath, then pressed her hands against the cool steel and pushed. The load shifted one inch, then two, and then four, swinging ponderously out and up. Belle sat upright as pipes and smaller rocks rained off the sides of the plating. She paused, shifted twice, and then bodily heaved the plate to the side.

Belle stood up and cast her gaze towards the platform far overhead. The Reaper was back at it, perched on the edge and blasting. She had to get back up, and fast; Juno and Zaeed probably wouldn't be able to hold the thing off for too long by themselves.

She crouched and gathered her power, preparing to take to the air once again, but then stopped. Her vision blurred, and the world seemed to slow to a crawl. The attacks of the Reaper sounded like the deep, throbbing boom a drum somewhere very far away. She staggered on her feet, and then she heard it: the ringing.

The Harbinger was there, standing before her, its skin a mass of glowing, molten cracks, as if its very body had been ripped to pieces by the forces contained within it.

"I know you feel this," the voice shivered into her ears from all around her.

"I don't know what you're doing to me or how," Belle hissed, fighting past the sudden feeling of nausea. "But this ends.

"Now."

[Juno]

The Collector Hive grew eerily silent after Belle and the Reaper disappeared into the abyss below the hexagonal battlefields. Juno knelt behind the low walls of cover, his chest heaving up and down as he continued to breathe deeply. His muscles contracted, becoming tenser by the second; his taut fingers tightened their hold on the rifle he held, having taken it up again at the appearance of the Reaper. Now, however, the monster he faced and the ally who had stood at his side were nowhere to be seen.

Juno was well aware that only one of them would return.

Zaeed sat lazily just feet away from him; he had propped his weapon up against the organic wall, and was in the process of attempting to hastily light another cigarette. The hybrid scowled - what the hell was the thinking? “Hey,” Juno hissed, and the mercenary’s attention was captured, “What the hell? Belle could be dead, and you’re taking a smoke break?”

“Red’s gonna be just fine, kid,” Zaeed whispered, blowing a small smoke-ring as a period to the sentence. “Don’t look so damned stressed, you’re gonna get everyone all worked up.”

“Listen here, you son of a bitch,” Juno spat, rising to his feet and taking a couple of bold steps toward the grey-haired mercenary. “Who the hell are you to tell me what to do? You’re not even real.” The older man’s face darkened, stung - if only slightly - by the hybrid’s last statement. It was true, though. Zaeed Massani was no more than a figment of Gamer’s distraught imagination; if there was anyone Juno wasn’t going to get ‘all worked up’ about, it was the hired gun.

The seer’s eyes gazed over the edge of the platform, his sight cut off by the perpetual darkness that filled the chasm. Belle was somewhere down there, but in a way, Zaeed was right; all they could do was wait. It wouldn’t do the redhead any service to get themselves killed, too. No - right now, they had to deal with the threat at hand.

The Reaper was still alive. It had to be; the hybrid had been led to believe that the giant metallic skeleton was their main target, so he assumed that until it had been taken care of, they would be trapped here, in his event. The only plausible reason he could think of as to why he still stood on these hexagonal platforms in the middle of the Collector Hive, then, was that they had not defeated their enemy. What did that say about Belle’s fate? Juno tried not to think on the subject, but the few thoughts that did cross his mind did not bode well.

The metal battlefield quaked beneath his feet. His head craned around toward the disturbance, and he raised his rifle cautiously. His eyes darted from one end of the arena to the other, and his ears perked up, listening for any sign of the Reaper’s return.

His eyes glazed over, and he saw the gargantuan monster before him, firing a beam of pinkish-red energy from his mouth. He leapt to the side, and as his Foresight deactivated, he found himself well ahead of the blast. The Reaper’s hands slammed into the platforms as it pulled itself up, and shot the beam of red ki from its jaw. Juno took a deep breath - this was it. The last stand.

“Come on, Juno,” he coached himself, kneeling behind a low wall of cover as another blast of energy burst from the gaping maw of the Reaper and slammed into the barrier, “You can do this. You know you can do this.”

A distinct, gutteral feeling fell upon him as he realized what had become of the fiery redhead. If the Reaper stood here before him, then that could only mean one thing - Belle was dead. It was simple deductive reasoning; if the hybrid girl’s attacks had not defeated the monster that now stood before him, then the only logical conclusion was that the monster had, indeed, overcome her. For whatever reason, Juno felt the slightest tinge of sadness strike him as the reality of Belle’s fate set in.

The menacing creature lifted its metallic hand, and balled it into a fist, slamming it down - hard - on the conglomeration of hexagons. The platforms shook, and one disconnected yet again, plummeting into the abyss, landing with a distinct thud that echoed throughout the cavern.

He closed his eyes, letting the darkness settle in. In the void, he saw Belle, standing there, her red hair flowing down her back. He saw her pale face, smiling fleetingly at him before turning away and stepping out of sight, into nothingness. He sighed, attempting to concentrate on many things at once. He concentrated on breathing steadily; inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. He concentrated on holding his gun steady, not taking his mind off of the weapon until it was completely still in his hands; it wasn’t trembling with the fear he knew he felt. He concentrated on letting his ki flow through him, slipping in and out of his veins, through his arteries. He pushed energy into his fingers; he pushed energy into his toes. He let the bright inner power that he knew he had bubbling up inside of him travel through his body, lodging itself in every nook and cranny it could find.

“Don’t worry, Belle,” he muttered, so silent that nothing else could hear him, “I’m going to beat this thing. For you.” And suddenly, that seemed to calm everything. The world seemed to slow down, and he slowly loosened his fingers on the rifle, letting it fall to the copper floor, and he pushed himself off the ground, leaping onto the top of the low wall of organic matter and holding out both of his hands. As quickly as he could, he conjured a Pop in his hand, and as the Reaper fired its pink-red hued energy, Juno released his violet ki blast.

The beams of ki flew toward one another at lightning speed, crashing into one another with an impressive force. The blasts collided, red mixing with purple, and stayed constant for a moment. Juno held his attack strong, not about to let the Reaper best him in a bout of energy against energy. Come on, he told himself, You’re just as good as Kaden at this. Don’t let this thing beat you. He wouldn’t.

His pep talk seemed to work, at least for a moment, as he continued to hold back the Reaper’s ki blast; his offensive power was short, however, and so the priori incantatem was held even, equidistant from the two combatants. Juno grunted, and pushed all of the might he felt inside him into the blast, and slowly but surely, his violet ki beam started to overtake the Reaper’s. The black-haired half-saiyan smiled; maybe this wouldn’t be a losing battle after all. He forced all of his energy into the attack, knowing that if this failed, then there was nothing else he could do.

I’m going to avenge you, Belle, if I have to kill myself to do it.

He exerted himself further, hyper-extending his arms until they were as far separated from his shoulder joints as they could be. He pushed the ki through the muscles in his forearms and into the palm of his hand, allowing the explosion of plum-colored energy to grow larger and larger with each passing second. He swallowed nervously, watching as the Reaper slowly tightened its grip on the platforms, eventually squeezing so hard that it created cracks in the surface of the arena.

Zaeed watched the battle of wills from afar, rifle cradled in his arms. He glanced from Juno to the Reaper, and back again, and slowly felt the same pride that the black-haired half-saiyan was motivated by.

Juno closed his eyes and made one final thrust of energy, shooting forth all the strength he could spare—but it was unnecessary. The pinging of Zaeed’s rifle firing soon entered the seer’s ears, and the half-saiyan’s eyes opened to see the same energy shots that had left the mercenary’s weapon pelting the remaining red eye of the creature. It squealed in pain, not only devoid of its second eye but also finding itself vulnerable to Juno’s blast. The hybrid launched the Pop forward, and it crashed into the monster’s skull, sending his neck craning backwards, continuing to expand until at last it snapped.

The creature’s neck had broken in two, and now the gigantic head fell backwards, plummeting into the dark caverns below, landing loudly at the foot of the cavern. Juno collapsed to his knees.

Zaeed rushed over, placing a hand on the hybrid’s back as he fell further, holding himself aloft using the palms of his hands. Eventually, however, even those slipped from him, and the mercenary was forced to catch Juno, lying him on the ground to rest for a moment. “You okay, kid?” the older man asked in a raspy tone, but Juno could barely blink, let alone speak. His eyes flitted over to the headless body of the Reaper.

It was falling rapidly, collapsing into the chasm now that its head was missing; the red light on its chest still shined brightly, though. This wasn’t over. Not yet. They had won the battle, but they hadn’t won the war. Knowing this, and knowing that at least for a moment, while the Reaper recalibrated itself, he had time to rest, he shut his eyes, and slowly slipped away into unconsciousness.

He didn’t know where he was. Everything was black, except for silhouettes that seemed vaguely recognizable. He looked about at the different figures that surrounded him, not sure whether to frown or to smile as he gazed upon each one individually.

The first was a blonde man, complete with crimson jacket. He stood tall and proud, his eyes looking at Juno. In his hand he held a small cerulean orb of ki, and he nodded to the half-saiyan encouragingly. The hybrid wasn’t sure whether or not the real Kaden would’ve gone out of his way to motivate him, but this figment of his imagination sure seemed to think that was within the courier’s realm of thought, and that was good enough for the seer.

The second was also blonde. Her hair cascaded down her back, covering up part of the royal blue, form-fitting dress she wore. She looked over her shoulder at the ex-fortuneteller and offered him a smile, and then held out her hand. He reached out to touch the priestess’s fingers, just a small brush of his skin against hers, but with each inch he moved closer, she seemed to float farther away. Something was trying to taunt him, and as Sophia moved farther and farther from his vision, he felt a furious anger boiling up inside.

The third figure, standing in between Sophia and Kaden’s silhouettes, was the most recent addition to Juno’s acquaintance. Red hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing a form-fitting suit was Belle Hibiki. The ginger girl knelt down and whispered something inaudible to him—he sure hoped it was something encouraging—before smiling and beginning to float backwards toward a bright white light that had steadily grown before his eyes.

The three silhouettes met at the light and coalesced into a giant splotch of white energy hovering on the horizon, and as that glow merged with the other, they slowly grew into a menacing silhouette, one that the hybrid had been met with far too recently. His dream turned into a nightmare, he fought with himself to escape as slowly a skeletal hand began to approach him, its mechanized fingers opening up as it attempted to drag him into the depths of darkness.

If there was one thing that you could say about the black-haired hybrid, it was that his will to live was outstanding. Even when faced with death’s door itself, he fought with all his might against the forces that would have him gone forever. He wasn’t about to just lose this game, just like that. Not when he was so close to finding that teenager and beating the snot out of him.

He let out a vicious scream as he sat up abruptly.

“Whoa, Juno,” Zaeed muttered, attempting to calm him down, “What’s wrong?” The older soldier’s concern did not come unfounded; the hybrid was shivering, trembling from fear, or from the cold of this dank, damp cavern. Something had unnerved him, the mercenary knew, and from what he’d seen of Juno, not much could do that. Juno remained silent, but Zaeed pressed on, not content with no explanations. “Come on, Juno, what’s wrong?”

“Sophia,” he muttered, “Everything’s… everything’s falling apart, Zaeed.” The silver-haired man placed a hand against his forehead, but once again, he felt perfectly healthy, no fever whatsoever.

“No, man,” the mercenary assured him, “We won.”

“No, Zaeed,” Juno said knowingly, “We haven’t won yet. Belle—the Reaper—they’re not dead yet.” At this, the hybrid struggled to rise to his feet, and slowly leaned against the low organic wall for support as he braced himself for the Reaper’s final onslaught. “We can’t let the Reaper win, Zaeed. One of us—Belle or me—has to get out of here alive. That Reaper has to be stopped.”

The mercenary nodded, and the two men looked down towards the abyss as a low, muffled roar signaled the creature’s final charge had begun.

A mechanical clanking sounded throughout the cavern as the headless Reaper clambered back to the platform, no longer about to shoot a pinkish-red energy beam from its mouth but still having the menacing physical weapons its creators had endowed it with. Juno looked up at it triumphantly, his eyes focused solely on one goal: destroying the Reaper. If he was going to die in this fight, this beast would die with him.

“I’m not going down without a fight, you bastard!” Juno shouted, breaking free from Zaeed’s grasp and leaping at the Reaper’s chest. The skeleton clawed at the half-saiyan but he moved as quickly as possible to evade, barely escaping the fist of the blind monster. He vaulted towards the creature, grasping onto the ledge that sat just below the Reaper’s ‘heart.’ He breathed heavily, and climbed up onto the ledge. “Take this, you son of a bitch!” he yelled, charging up one final Pop.

Suddenly, however, he felt himself being yanked telekinetically off of the Reaper, sliding back onto the hexagonal platform. His face slammed into the copper arena and he slowly looked up, seeing the magma-encased form of the Harbinger standing before him.

An army of Collectors was approaching from whence Juno and Belle had arrived, slowly but surely buzzing in, their wings flapping in an even more insect-like manner than before.

Juno looked from the Harbinger to the horde of insectoid aliens to the Reaper. This seemed to be a losing battle, for all intents and purposes, but there was nothing inside of him that said he couldn’t try with all the power he had left in his scrawny frame to win. He wouldn’t give up—perhaps it was his Saiyan blood finally showing after his talk with Orion, or perhaps Kaden’s good guy persona was rubbing off on him a bit. Perhaps it was his commitment to get back to the carnival, to survive and live to fight Gamer another day. Perhaps it was his hope that he would get to see Sophia at least one more time. Perhaps it was the promise he’d made to Xenia.

“I’m going to win this game,” he had said to her inside the tower, “For both of you.”

You can do it, Juno.

Against all odds, he knew that he could win this. Even if he didn’t make it out of here alive, he could try his best and know that he had done that much—and hey, Sophia hadn’t said anything too bad about death while he was in her company, so he hoped that the lack of bad testimony was, indeed, confirmation that being dead wasn’t quite that bad after all. But why all this morbid talk of death? Who said he was going to die? He was going to win, dammit.

“Alright, guys,” he scoffed mockingly, transitioning back into his old, confident self, no matter how scared he might’ve been on the inside, “Come here, I’ve got a nice ass beating I’d like to show you.”

Juno’s attention focused on the Collectors, Zaeed glanced at the Reaper with a growing anxiety. “Uh, hey, Juno?” the mercenary asked nervously, “What the hell are we going to do about this big ol’ son of a bitch over here?” Juno chuckled—Zaeed had always been vulgar, even when Gamer had trapped him in the body of the fish-man guy thing.

“I thought that you could handle him, Zaeed,” Juno chuckled, picturing all the color drooping out of the silver-haired man’s face. The hybrid looked around at the group of about six or seven Collectors, led by the glowing possessed puppet of the Collector General—the self-proclaimed ‘harbinger of his destruction.’ “So, what do you boys say? You ready to get your asses kicked by a cripple?” The Harbinger, not to be outdone, once again left off the prefight bandying and bickering with the last words.

“I will show you true power.”

[Belle Hibiki]

"Your desire is irrelevant. Your assertions are misguided. We are your genetic destiny." The Harbinger stepped closer as it 'spoke,' many eyes glowing. "Your petty human fears will be wiped away."

"Fears?" Belle scoffed. "I'm not afraid of anything."

The ringing surged louder. "Stop that," Belle growled, putting her hands over her ears. "Stop that, or I'm going to - "

She didn't finish. The Harbinger had stopped moving. Its form blurred even worse than before until it was completely obscured, as if there were a piece of very dirty glass between them. Even like this, however, Belle could tell that the Harbinger's form was ... shifting. Changing. A mass of indistinct shapes and blurs piled and slid across one another, then stopped.

Slowly, the shape began to take form. The image focused, and when it did, Belle's mouth fell open.

The woman before her was fairly tall, standing at roughly six feet in height, her back straight and shoulders thrust back. Her onyx-black hair had been pulled back into a bun secured by twin hair needles, the latter's glossy surfaces painted with elegantly drawn Chinese dragons. She at first appeared young, but one look at her black eyes betrayed the weight of many years. Although she wore a thick kimono over it, Belle could tell that her body would be thoroughly muscled, worked to a hardened perfection - a deadly weapon. Waves of confidence and raw power washed out from her like warmth from a noonday sun.

It had been ten years since Belle had seen her mother; a decade of growing, fighting, and learning... And yet, even as Belle grew, she remained the same, as indifferent to the passage of time as she had been to Belle herself. "Your fears," Belle's mother breathed, "are weak."

The woman's form flickered. A moment later Belle doubled over, gagging as pain exploded through her body, the image of her mother's fist slammed deep into her gut. Grabbing Belle by the throat, the woman bodily shoved the crimson-haired girl back against the pile of mixed rubble, then pulled her clear off her feet, grinding Belle against the uneven, chitinous plating. She squeezed.

Belle gasped, hands flying up to the katchin-hard grip on her neck and yanking at it.

"All of this time, and this is all you have to show for it?" The woman sneered. "My 'son'?"

This was crazy; impossible. How could she be here?!

Belle pulled her legs up, braced the bottoms of her feet against the wall, and pushed out, thrusting her hips forward. Raising one leg, she jammed her foot against her mother's collar, tensed, and gave a heavy shove. The fingers around her neck momentarily tightened, nails biting like claws into her skin, before coming free with a loud hiss from their owner.

Belle dropped to the ground. landing roughly on her ass. She grimaced, but looking up, she realized that the pain would have to wait. Tucking her arms and legs in, she rolled to the side just as the woman's foot slammed through the rubble with a deafening crunch of cracking steel and crumbling stone.

Rolling to a safe distance, Belle slapped her hands against the ground, using the force of the impact to launch herself into the air. She span twice before twisting, landed on her feet, and then wobbled as the still unfamiliar balance of her new body threatened to send her back over. "Mom?! What the Hell are you doing here?!" she demanded, rubbing her throat, her voice hoarse. "Don't tell me you've been working with this Gamer guy."

"Is that how you fight now?" the other countered, assuming a familiar martial arts stance, the same Master Akiha was fond of using when she wanted to beat Belle senseless. "With words?"

She came again, but this time Belle was ready. As her mother went for a straight strike to the neck, Belle leapt into the air, tumbling head over heels. She flipped once as she soared over her mother's head, then swung out her foot to catch the woman at the back of her shoulders. Belle was hoping to knock her over, not hurt her, but her mother had other plans.

Lowering her body and moving her head to the side, the woman let Belle's foot cut empty air an inch from her ear. Before Belle could fully register the miss, her mother's hands snapped up and clamped around her ankle.

Belle had just enough time to say "Shit!" before her leg was lifted above her mother's head and the woman's muscles tensed. The twitch of her opponent's fingers was the only warning Belle got before she was violently swung into the ground. The motion was less like a shoulder throw and more like an axe man cutting wood, and Belle's face hit the chamber wall first, splitting it open.

Something in Belle's face snapped, and a moment later warm, sticky wetness clogged her nose. Blood, she realized, as the copper taste poured down to her lips.

The hands on her ankle tensed and yanked her off the ground, swinging her over the woman's shoulder as she prepared another chop. Blood flowed upward into Belle's nose and she gagged, hanging upside down, dangling across the woman's back like a limp rag doll. Her head was spinning and ringing worse than ever, but she forced it to the back of her mind. Reaching out as her mother's hands clenched once more, she grabbed the woman's ankles and held tight.

Her mother tugged, then stopped as her movement was brought up short. "What - ?"

Belle's free leg hooked over the surprised saiyan's shoulder and to the side, snugging around her neck. She quickly switched her hands from the woman's ankles to the ground and tensed her body, pulling herself into an upside-down curl and yanking her mother off her feet in one smooth motion, pulling her back and over onto her head.

That had been the plan, anyway. Reacting faster than Belle would have guessed, her mother let go of Belle's ankle and threw up her arms to stop herself. Her palms slapped the ground, her body curled over, and she landed easily in a crouch, then rushed forward to slam her foot between Belle's legs before the hybrid could finish the motion.

Belle rolled forward, narrowly avoiding a toe to the groin by a measure of centimeters. She somersaulted to her feet, swayed, and turned around.

Her mother was standing there, proud, tall, eyes burning with an inner fire. It was exactly the same look Akiha used to give him - the look of supreme confidence. "You haven't improved at all," the woman said. "A total waste of time. I should have told them to let you die when you were born instead of letting those disgusting humans save you. Idiot."

Belle froze. There was something about what the woman had just said just now that seemed strange. "What did you say?" she asked slowly, her voice muffled by the ebbing flow of blood as she touched her nose. It smarted, but it didn't feel like it was broken.

"I said you're a waste. A wretch." She sneered, and again, Belle was reminded of Akiha. "A total idiot."

And then Belle realized what was wrong. "I can't believe I fell for this shit," she muttered softly, feeling her cheeks coloring as the reality of what was happening hit her.

The woman launched forward, one fist cocked back to swing. She brought her arm forward, aiming for Belle's reddened face, her fist whistling like a comet through the air.

Belle's hand snapped up to catch the blow, her fingers closing around the knuckles with a heavy grunt. Hauling back her own fist, Belle threw a hook it at the onyx-haired saiyan's jaw only to be stopped by her hand as it grabbed Belle's wrist. "Now I get why this has been feeling all wrong. You're way too weak," Belle snarled.

"What did you say to me," the woman hissed, "you little brat!?"

"You look like my mom, and you talk like my master," Belle said, grunting as she fought back the saiyan's fist. "But you're nowhere even close!" Her back foot trembled against the ground, then sank through it. "You want me - ngh! - to show you how strong I really am?!"

Almost before the words were out of Belle's mouth, the chamber started to shake. The tremors started slowly at first, barely a whisper in the ground, but grew with each second the two remained locked together. The broken shards of the wall danced and skittered across the ground. The light that had once poured into the chamber from high above had dimmed, and Belle's skin glowed as if suffused with a ghostly radiance all its own. The light overtook her, and she let out a scream. The ground opened up beneath them, the power unleashed gouging a crater into the cavern floor. Ripples of unbridled force rhythmically pounded the walls and shook the linked platforms that floating in the sky above.

The light from Belle swelled to blinding, illuminating the shocked expression of her 'mother' an instant before obscuring everything completely.

And then the quakes stopped, and just like that, the light began to fade.

Belle stood where she had been before, holding her opponent's fist in one hand, her other frozen in mid-strike. Her face was stern, her golden brows knotted with anger and golden locks waving in the air around her small-featured face. Where her mother had once been stood the Harbinger, its permanently wide eyes still somehow managing to reflect its shock.

"I don't like people digging around inside my head," Belle snarled.

The Harbinger stared.

Releasing the avatar's fist, Belle drew her own back. "Collect this."

She swung.

The punch was basic - no flash, no flare - but the power behind it was anything but. The Harbinger flew through the open air, spinning like a tumbleweed in a dryer, and crunched into the wall before falling in a broken heap amongst the rubble.

Belle turned and started to walk away. "Next time you copy someone," Belle called over her shoulder. "Try someone I don't really, really hate."

In a flash of golden power, Belle catapulted into the air and raced like a rocket towards the platforms.

[Kill Town]

Winner: Belle

Juno will wake up in the prison.

This was closer than you seem to think, Juno.

The ending will be up soon.