Episode: 5.15

--- Ember ---

She nearly panicked with the way Aiden leapt out of his seat and grabbed the hooked cane she’d yet to see him without before swinging it through the air in their direction.

She did panic when instead of hitting air, Aiden ended up hitting the raised forearm of a robed man that definitely hadn’t been there a moment before.

“Didn’t I tell you fuckers to leave us alone!” Aiden practically growled, to the hooded man who wasn’t even struggling to hold Aiden back.

“InTeREstINg…” A voice made of static whispered from all around.

“Spill enough void-blood, and not even the black briar can hide from your eyes.” Aiden explained, and for a second she could’ve sworn his eyes flashed the same hellfire red they had when he was threatening the Cheshire Cult.

“A hEReTic TheN…” The robed figure’s stance shifted, and Aiden immediately jumped back as the figure threw out his arm, releasing a burst of wind pressure that shook all of the bottle on the bar.

“Come on.” Amelia whispered to her, tugging her arm to get her out of the bar booth as the robed figure began slowly walking towards Aiden.

As Amelia started dragging her up the stairs and away from the fight, she turned back to the floor below, and watched Aiden roll into a crouch with a pipe in one hand and a gun his other as he eyed the empty room.

(Where’d he get those?) Aiden definitely didn’t have a gun a moment ago, (and where did his cane go?)

(No wait…)

She paused as something more important occurred to her, as her eyes darted around the bar below.

(Where’s the robed guy?!)

“Ember.” Amelia shook her shoulder gently to drag her attention from the floor below. “Let Aiden handle this, we need to keep moving.”

Once they were on the second floor, where a wall of three doors lined one side and a railing overlooked the bar below, Amelia dragged her towards the second door from the stairwell, before pushing her through the door.

As she stumbled into the room she managed to give a quick look around the surprisingly spacious bedroom, taking note of the queen-sized bed against one wall and the futon couch next to it. On the opposite side of the bed was a set of wooden dressers set below a TV next to a pair of doors, and across from the door they’d entered from was a curtained window with the late afternoon sun streaming in.

“Pet!” Amelia called the moment they were through the door and locked it behind them.

The pink and brunette-haired woman she’d seen Aiden talking to earlier stuck her head out of one of the doors with a questioning look.

“An Infiltrator/Bruiser broke in, Aiden ‘s dealing with them downstairs.” Amelia explained as she made her way to the futon and pulled out a long box from underneath.

For a moment she could’ve sworn Pet’s eyes glowed blue, as she stepped out of the doorway and started making her way towards the room door.

“Stay.” Amelia ordered before the other woman could take three steps.

Pet turned and glared at the M.A.D. as her eyes really did glow blue for a moment.

(What the hell?)

“Aiden has it covered, and your neural processor is still shot from that thing with that Scrapper last week.” Amelia explained not even bothering to turn around as she popped open the long box and pulled out a cane similar to the one Aiden always carried around.

Amelia grabbed the handle and the cane shaft before twisting and separating the two.

(So that’s where Aiden got the gun… Wait, he’s been carrying a gun this entire time?!)

Completely unaware of her internal panic, Amelia tossed the pipe to Pet and kept the gun for herself, to the pink and brown-haired woman’s visible frustration.

Amelia rolled her eyes. “Don’t give me that look. I’m better with a gun than you, and you’re physically stronger than me.”

Pet made several gestures that Ember couldn’t decipher, but apparently Amelia could.

“No, ‘hand guns’ are not the same thing as ‘handguns’.” Amelia argued with the mute as she made her way to the room’s window.

(What’s that supposed to mean?)

Ember winced as the sound of breaking glass filtered through the door to the room.

“Do you, um, do you see anything?” She asked trying to distract herself from the fight going on below.

Amelia shook her head as she peeked through the curtains. “A few people but no one of- Away from the window!”

Pet grabbed Ember by the shoulder and pulled her back, before wrapping around her as the sound of breaking glass filled the room.

As Pet loosened her grip, Ember managed to catch sight of a figure wearing an increasingly familiar robe that was currently crouched in the middle of a pile of broken glass.

As she stared at the masculine figure it slowly raised its head revealing a solid black mask with a white skull painted on.

Amelia immediately shot him in the head.

She couldn’t help but jump as the sound of a gunshot echoed throughout the room, before turning panicking eyes on the (killer) in front of her as she pushed Pet away. “Y-You shot him!”

Amelia glanced back at her and visibly grimace. “Yeah, sorry you had to see that kid but-” The older woman’s head immediately snapped to the man she just killed. “Oh, now that’s interesting.”

She did not like the older woman’s wide grin, and she was most definitely not reassured as Pet stepped between them, motioning for Ember to take a step back as she kept an eye on Amelia.

(That can’t be good…)

“Didn’t think the Cheshire would share one of his death hacks, that’s got to be costly on the sanity.” Amelia commented as she idly put her gun under the dead man’s chin.

(Death hack?)

“Huh, an M.A.D.?” The (no longer dead) man asked. “You know Wonderlanders amp your sparking, right?”

Amelia shot the figure again in response, though this time despite jumping again Ember noticed the startling lack of blood.

“Guess the recruitment speech is off the table then?” The skull masked cultist shoved Amelia, sending her crashing against the wall on the opposite side of the room.

“Oh well.” The cultist picked himself off the floor before cracking his neck once to each side. Pet moved between her and the cultist as he turned his gaze on her. “Wasn’t here for her anyway.”

(Th-they’re after me?) She realized in confusion.

“Ha, you think that little thing is going to do anything to me?” The cultist laughed, as he slowly made his way towards them with a shake a of his head. “Look, let’s make this easy, we just want to have a talk with the girl. Nothing... too bad, is going to happen to her.”

Instead of answering Pet shifted her stance and gripped the pipe with both hands.

“Oh, that’s interesting…” The cultist commented giving Pet a once over. “Wasn’t expecting to see a Cyberpunk here.”

(A Cyberpunk?)

It was then that she noticed the faintly glowing lines of blue on Pet’s arms and peeking through the sides of her shirt.

“And if she’s an M.A.D… that means she’s also your Stitcher.” The skull masked cultist nodded as if something suddenly made sense. “No wonder the Flame-bound can walk off so much damage, he’s got a patch-worker on call.”

(W-what?) She didn’t understand half of what the cultist was talking about, and yet all of it seemed important at the same time.

Whatever he was talking about however, Pet had apparently decided she’d heard enough as she rushed forward faster than anyone Ember had ever seen, a slight neon-blue trail following behind her various markings.

“Whoa there.” The cultist laughed ducking away from Pet’s various cane strikes. “Come on, where’s all of that fancy cyber-tech?”

Pet seemed to growl before rushing in once more and swinging the cane in a one-handed strike, only this time when the cultist dodged, she punched forward with her free hand as the sound of scraping metal filled the room.

“There it is…” The cultist chuckled looking down where a blade had impaled him through the chest. “A blade built into the forearm… classic.”

Pet twisted her arm, locking the blade in the cultist’s chest before pulling the arm holding the cane back.

“Oh, well that’s going to leave a mark.” The cultist admitted easily, not even bothering to try and break free of Pet’s hold.

And as the loud crack of metal on bone tore through the air, Ember couldn’t help but flinch, as Pet bashed the man’s skull hard enough to send him halfway off the blade impaling him.

Without even noticing her reaction, Pet tore the blade protruding from her forearm free of the cultist before dragging him towards the broken window and throwing him out like a bag of garbage.

A groaning sound tore her attention away from Pet, and towards Amelia as she began to pick herself off of the floor.

“Shit… that hurt…” Amelia groaned, rubbing at her head.

“Are, are you alright?” She asked walking up to the injured woman.

“Yeah… Madness effects just do… weird things to M.A.D.s…” Amelia explained as she sat up.

“Madness?”

“The… thing that Wonderlanders use to do their… thing.” Amelia explained rolling a hand through the air. “It’s also what sends M.A.D.s to the ‘mad place’ when they spark out.”

“Oh…” She wasn’t sure she knew what to make of that.

“Yeah… it’s-” Amelia paused as she caught sight of Pet walking towards them with her blade still sticking out of her forearm while the rest of her arm seemed to hang limply at her side all of her previously glowing lights now turned off.

(That doesn’t look good…)

“Damn it, Pet!” Amelia cursed, forcing herself to stand before looking over Pet’s arm. “You know you’re not supposed to use your cyber-tech until we replace your processor!”

“W-what’s wrong?” She asked more than a little worried given how the M.A.D. was more concerned with whatever was happening with Pet than the undying Deviant they’d just thrown out.

“Her processor is shot; Aiden should’ve gotten a replacement when you two went to the market.” Amelia explained as she pulled a number of tools from her pockets and began to fiddle with Pet’s arm. “But until I get the chance to replace it, her mental triggers for turning her tech on and off are all scrambled. We’re just lucky all she did was get her blade stuck, rather than stopping her own heart!”

“That…” She swallowed down her apprehensions. “That sounds really bad…”

“It is.” Amelia agreed bluntly. And while Amelia was clearly upset by whatever she’d done, Pet was completely unphased by the other woman’s concerns, even going so far as to have a slight grin as she watched the M.A.D. work.

After a moment of Amelia working on Pet’s arm the blade finally retracted into her forearm, leaving her to flex her hand and wrist.

“Now this time, can you please not do something so reckless!” Amelia growled staring into the nonchalant Cyberpunk’s eyes.

Pet smirked, before tilting Amelia’s chin up and giving her a quick peck on the lips.

Regardless of what was actually happening, Ember decided now was a good time to look away from the now realized couple. As she looked away from the couple, she took note of the broken window, and was half tempted to see if the cultist had decided to stay down.

As she crept towards the window, making sure to ignore whatever Amelia was saying to Pet, she managed to catch sight of the skull masked cultist walking away from the bar with a phone to his ear.

“Uh, Ember… can you please get away from the windows?” Amelia called with just a touch of concern. “At least until we talk to Aiden.”

“Yeah… It, uh, looks like that guy is leaving anyways…” She was halfway turned, when she noticed two black vans pull up on the street. (Huh?)

A number of men in similar robes to the cultist began to pour out of the vans as the skull masked cultist made his way past them.

“Oh shit! There’s more of them!” She shouted as the cultists began drawing guns from their robes.

She had just enough time to watch the skull masked cultist turn to her and wave, before the rest of the cult opened fire.